Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Happy Black History Month, Oh,
Speaker 1: Happy Black History Month through two. I appreciate all the
Speaker 1: white people celebrating. They don't know who I am, but
Speaker 1: for me anyway, they both were in. You know what's
Speaker 1: interesting it is Black His Month and the first day
Speaker 1: time Brady, Yeah, I mean, and on the day or
Speaker 1: that we're leading up to the Super Bowl, first two
Speaker 1: black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl of ever, and we
Speaker 1: also had we also had um over the weekend what
Speaker 1: I believe to be the blackest moment in playoff history.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw Patrick Mahomes daddy on
Speaker 1: the sideline, Patrick Lavon my home's daddy on the side.
Speaker 1: I loved it. It sounded so much like my black uncle's.
Speaker 1: And when you say it was middle name, then you
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be Oh yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: the familiar den of a black It sounds like a
Speaker 1: like a leather baseball cap and the black kind of
Speaker 1: come over high to jewelry. I'm moping on that job.
Speaker 1: But right so, just like but it is, it's historic
Speaker 1: to black quarterbacks started for the first time. And then
Speaker 1: what does that mean you a former player? Which you
Speaker 1: mean you know. I mean, I think it represents I
Speaker 1: hate the word progress, but it does kind of represent
Speaker 1: some progress. I mean, there's lots of other things in
Speaker 1: the NFL and in the world, frankly, that we need
Speaker 1: to work towards. But one thing that we've had to
Speaker 1: finally accept is black quarterbacks are perfect leaders, perfect quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and problem was that they didn't think they had the intelligence.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's one about the intelligence and also
Speaker 1: in the leadership, and it's also about y'all. Like frankly,
Speaker 1: it's about what the what the quarterback represents on the
Speaker 1: football team is something that uh, white people in America
Speaker 1: in general were never comfortable with seeing a black person
Speaker 1: represent that. So it's been it's been great to see
Speaker 1: not only have so many successful black quarterbacks, and we
Speaker 1: saw even some quarterbacks that are black that aren't good,
Speaker 1: which is assuring progress too, because we could be just
Speaker 1: a ship that is press But the most like exciting
Speaker 1: thing about it is the future of the league. The
Speaker 1: best quarterback that I think any of us have ever
Speaker 1: seen is Patrick my Homes. I think I've never seen
Speaker 1: anybody the ever to do the things he does. Now
Speaker 1: you gotta, of course, you gotta be great over a
Speaker 1: long period of time because the people who started out
Speaker 1: the way I thought what Cam Newton was doing was remarkable,
Speaker 1: and then and then and then you see what happens.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because we talk about football and there's there's
Speaker 1: a market difference between the way players in the NFL
Speaker 1: are treated and the way players in the India treating
Speaker 1: And I think primarily is it is the ownership. Um,
Speaker 1: I think that the the ownership in the NFL has
Speaker 1: a decided any different view of their commodity than the
Speaker 1: NBA does. Like you would never see an NFL NBA
Speaker 1: owner talk to a major star like like NFL. If
Speaker 1: if somebody talked to Lebron James like they talked to
Speaker 1: some of these stars, it will be over. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean Lebron James has a disproportionate amount of power. But
Speaker 1: like singling out the NFL, and trust me, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be up here defending the NFL, But the NFL
Speaker 1: exists in our society and frankly, NFL is no different
Speaker 1: than any other workplace. And so like the hierarchy that
Speaker 1: exists in the NFL, it's like it's gonna be blacker
Speaker 1: at the bottom and or minorities at the bottom, and
Speaker 1: you get up higher and higher and there's less risk.
Speaker 1: There's less danger, there's less injury, there's less pain, but
Speaker 1: there's more money, there's more success, there's more protection. And
Speaker 1: that's like, that's true in the NFL, and frankly that's
Speaker 1: true in the NBA, that's true everywhere that y'all work
Speaker 1: is true. It's true in this building. Sorry, and they
Speaker 1: may not have yeah, yeah, okay, not not today. You know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because we we watched. When I watched what
Speaker 1: happened to hambling on the field, Um, I was personally
Speaker 1: like because I watched football very long time, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've seen a lot of injuries. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've ever seen anything like that, and um, the
Speaker 1: way that the players reacted, um, it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was hurtful. I mean, obviously you were sad that
Speaker 1: somebody was suffering there. It was such a beautiful human
Speaker 1: moment because the NFL got to be human like the cultures,
Speaker 1: like when you're playing this game and it's like, yes
Speaker 1: you are. So you got to see men that just
Speaker 1: were empathic and and just men who were crying and
Speaker 1: praying and not because they want a little lost because
Speaker 1: they were praying for for somebody who wasn't there. I
Speaker 1: played for a long I played a long time. I
Speaker 1: was in a game where a player got paralyzed on
Speaker 1: the field and he was taken off. We waited five minutes,
Speaker 1: warmed up, and played again. I played in the preseason
Speaker 1: game where a player died in the locker room afterwards. Like,
Speaker 1: I've been around some ugly parts of football, but to
Speaker 1: your point, I've never seen anything. What do you think
Speaker 1: was different about that that particular play his heart stopped
Speaker 1: on the field. I mean, but we've seen people pass out,
Speaker 1: We've seen people have but it was something different about
Speaker 1: that that because I didn't think it was all that
Speaker 1: bad at first. I passed out doing COVID so, but
Speaker 1: there was the way because I think that people are
Speaker 1: used to certain types of injuries or seeing certain types
Speaker 1: of things. But that's scared everybody. Yeah, the reaction from
Speaker 1: the players really like scared all of us. And I
Speaker 1: think this all goes back to the original conversation that
Speaker 1: we were having about like American culture and the hierarchy
Speaker 1: that exist. Is you show up at those games as
Speaker 1: a player and you know that there is no limit
Speaker 1: to the risk that you're taking. What did you do
Speaker 1: with them? Well, you do it because you grow up.
Speaker 1: So when you were a kid and you want to
Speaker 1: play football, you decide before your like of clear mind,
Speaker 1: and then you show a propensity for it, and people
Speaker 1: just keep pushing along, keep pushing along. And nothing's wrong
Speaker 1: with that. And frankly, when I came up, we were
Speaker 1: unaware of the ct Stuff that came out while I
Speaker 1: was in would change your mind? I like to think
Speaker 1: it would, but I doubt that it would. And to
Speaker 1: be honest with you, I don't begrudge any of the
Speaker 1: players now for participating in the game knowing the risk
Speaker 1: that it takes. The thing that frustrates me is there
Speaker 1: is a cap on the amount of money they can make,
Speaker 1: on the amount of uh like healthcare they can receive.
Speaker 1: The league negotiates for a cap on that, but on
Speaker 1: the other side, the owners, the coaches, the general manner,
Speaker 1: the players really because there's a say if if if
Speaker 1: NFL players didn't play, that ship would be Rugby, right yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think the goal is to make you pretend
Speaker 1: like you don't have a choice. I believe you don't
Speaker 1: have a choice. You go through some of the finest
Speaker 1: institutions of higher learning. On the face of there, you
Speaker 1: went to Harvard, You're a very bright man. But to
Speaker 1: make you believe that you'll be holding to a thing
Speaker 1: because of your mind is the biggest game in town.
Speaker 1: So I agree and I understand. So to be clear,
Speaker 1: I went to Harvard Business School. I'm a Turk through
Speaker 1: and through first of all. But the first teams plays
Speaker 1: downplaying Harvard. Yeah, man, I know somebody went to the
Speaker 1: new school. I would say for me to call back,
Speaker 1: Harvard has known. I would say that I get your point.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry to sound like a broken record, but
Speaker 1: like we all exist in the society, and I think
Speaker 1: the players as a whole, its solidarity is power. If
Speaker 1: they stop, you can get what you want, and all
Speaker 1: of us can get the things that we want if
Speaker 1: we band together. But the challenging thing about negotiating with
Speaker 1: the owners, it's the same thing that we all faces
Speaker 1: trying to change the system that's in trench the people
Speaker 1: who are already in power in that situation. So if
Speaker 1: you are to strike, if you're a player too, if
Speaker 1: you're a group of players, to get what you want,
Speaker 1: that's essentially a war of attrition the commanders. The Washington
Speaker 1: Football team reporter is gonna sell for eight billion dollars.
Speaker 1: How do players win a war of attrition against them?
Speaker 1: And then you compound that by the fact that we
Speaker 1: get pressure from everywhere. No one comes down so rarely.
Speaker 1: I think it's changing something now, But so rarely do
Speaker 1: fans come down on the owners when there's an issue.
Speaker 1: Not at all. They're mad at the players because that's
Speaker 1: the face that they can't see, the face of the
Speaker 1: helmet on. UM. I think you guys have a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount pressure on you externally because um, if you're an athlete, um,
Speaker 1: people aspire to be and and there's amount of external
Speaker 1: pressure that society from a civic perspective, from a cultural perspective, um,
Speaker 1: from activism perspective. So and and it's it's it's really
Speaker 1: important because the only time generally they see black people
Speaker 1: were running, jumping, singing, the dancing. It really is, it's
Speaker 1: the only time we have everybody's wrapped attention. And so
Speaker 1: how do you balance the fact that you are a professional,
Speaker 1: you have commitments you have to uh, you know, obligated to,
Speaker 1: but you still have a commitment to making things better
Speaker 1: for a community. It's so it's unfair, but that's life.
Speaker 1: It's unfair that that responsibility falls on black players because
Speaker 1: it doesn't fall on black on white playsure like, no
Speaker 1: one has this expectation of white players to do the
Speaker 1: same thing, but as black players, they all know that
Speaker 1: that expectation falls on them. But I think Howard Bryant
Speaker 1: wrote a great book called The Heritage about the history
Speaker 1: of activism and athletes, and it's changed. The position of
Speaker 1: the players um and and activism has changed. And I
Speaker 1: think that that's incumbent on us as spectators and people
Speaker 1: who care about it to understand that athletes aren't activists anymore.
Speaker 1: As much as they are like flashlights there, they are
Speaker 1: not entrenched in the fight and the way that say,
Speaker 1: Kareem Abdul, what your bar was, which is fine. So
Speaker 1: when they get an opportunity and they say, look over
Speaker 1: at Tyree Nichols, then it's our job to jump in
Speaker 1: because we can't expect them to commit themselves to being
Speaker 1: the best in the world and then also commit themselves
Speaker 1: to be on top of the latest reading, in the
Speaker 1: latest life, self preservation, virtually every skill set that got
Speaker 1: you in that field will get you, makes you a
Speaker 1: hero on Sunday, will make you a target on Monday.
Speaker 1: If you big, you fast, you strong, and you black
Speaker 1: on Sunday, that's an attribute on the streets of the
Speaker 1: of of of this country. It is a detriment. So
Speaker 1: it is self preservation. There's one there's only one standard
Speaker 1: I have. Do what you can to the best of
Speaker 1: your ability. Do what you can for as long as
Speaker 1: you can, for all that you can. And I think
Speaker 1: that one thing I would say about you, even if
Speaker 1: I got a chance to meet you, I love how
Speaker 1: area that you are. I love how nuanced you are
Speaker 1: because most things aren't just black and white there and
Speaker 1: and and I love how you don't just depend on
Speaker 1: your physicality. You have never just depended on that. But
Speaker 1: I hate how you play. You said, I want to
Speaker 1: I'm a term now. Nobody would ever put me on
Speaker 1: any resold. But it ain't no news tool. You've seen that.
Speaker 1: There's a pretty broad continued experience of when the when
Speaker 1: the NFL was then it is now. Are you more
Speaker 1: hardened or more disappointed by the direction it's going? Um,
Speaker 1: I think that's a tough question. I think I am
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here, I think that it's not about
Speaker 1: the NFL, and I'm guilty of this as much as
Speaker 1: anybody else, as we think of the NFL as a
Speaker 1: single entity, which like, yeah, it's an institution, but the
Speaker 1: NFL is made up of a bunch of different things,
Speaker 1: and the most important entity in the NFL is the players.
Speaker 1: And so that like gives me optimism because I've never
Speaker 1: been more impressed, more excited, more invigorated by not only
Speaker 1: the talent, but the perspective and the engagement of these players.
Speaker 1: We talked about Patrick Mahomes and how he's the best
Speaker 1: quarterback in football right now and on the trajectory to
Speaker 1: be one of the best of all time. He spoke
Speaker 1: out he was one of the first faces in that
Speaker 1: video about Colin Kaepernick. And I know that Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: is not back in the league, but the idea that
Speaker 1: a black quarterback who can obviously avoid this conversation if
Speaker 1: he wants to, like they, that opportunity is presented to
Speaker 1: him time and time again, and he does not. And
Speaker 1: that's an example to everyone else and players like Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson who are willing to be outspoken and fight for
Speaker 1: players right like all of these players in the league.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the black players, it's the white
Speaker 1: players also, Like, the league is in so much better
Speaker 1: place because of the players. And if only the players
Speaker 1: like really understood that they're interest in making sure you
Speaker 1: don't realize everything you have that because somebody look like
Speaker 1: you sacrifice that's why he has Um, you want to
Speaker 1: leave the Union. I don't even pay my due. Um.
Speaker 1: What would the you you're you're older, now, you have
Speaker 1: a family, you've been married, You've lived in various places,
Speaker 1: You've seen in the world. What would the adult you
Speaker 1: tell the rookie, the wide eye, the wide eyed, the
Speaker 1: white kid that we walk into. What would you tell
Speaker 1: you have as much fun as you can. Oh, no,
Speaker 1: that's a different conversation. That's funny. No, I think the
Speaker 1: most important thing is to get as many different experiences
Speaker 1: as possible. And we are so focused and we're celebrating
Speaker 1: did a bunch of ESPN stuff today celebrating Tom Brady's career,
Speaker 1: and his career deserves to be celebrated. So it was great.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason why it was so great was
Speaker 1: because it appeared to me that nothing else was more
Speaker 1: important than football to him. And that's fine. If you
Speaker 1: could be Tom Brady, not everybody can be Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: And I know that having all these other experiences. The
Speaker 1: tough thing about being a player in professional sports is
Speaker 1: your skills aren't applicable anywhere else. So if you don't
Speaker 1: hit that home run, and it just goes back to
Speaker 1: like the challenge for being a player versus in the
Speaker 1: ownership class. If you are a player and you play
Speaker 1: three or four years, then the league minimum goes up
Speaker 1: and you're out of the league, and your experience, I
Speaker 1: mean set you up to be a bouncer, like when
Speaker 1: you are in a tough situation. So like, one of
Speaker 1: the things that I did, and I would encourage all
Speaker 1: the players today is get involved in the Union as
Speaker 1: much as possible. They're like that helped open my mind
Speaker 1: to how many other opportunities there were out there in
Speaker 1: the world. Get involved in community things obviously, and also
Speaker 1: like when you have time. One of the things that
Speaker 1: we negotiated was for longer off season. Sure, use that
Speaker 1: off season to go do something else. It will make
Speaker 1: you a better football player and will make you a
Speaker 1: better person, to make you better husband and father. I
Speaker 1: just I did talking to you, but I'll say this.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand you. I truly wanted to
Speaker 1: understand this, and I most of the men who on
Speaker 1: that football field go through the finest institutions of how
Speaker 1: I learned in the world. It is not their physical attributes,
Speaker 1: it is their minds. And when you understand that your
Speaker 1: mind is the most you put pot piece arena stayed
Speaker 1: on the face of the earth. They can't beat you.
Speaker 1: They can't. It is not your body. Your body will
Speaker 1: fail you. Wait before your mind? Does you know you
Speaker 1: You're here not because your you. You may think that
Speaker 1: because you hurt yourself you're here, but your mind was
Speaker 1: ready and these maybe I'm just you know, I got
Speaker 1: the g D. So who am I to say? But
Speaker 1: if you go to college rocked by a class every
Speaker 1: once in the more, you know what I'm saying, it
Speaker 1: ain't gotta be the new school. But Dominique Fox Flugda
Speaker 1: and Dominique box Flub The show explore more shows from
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