Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: Let's get down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you. Now it's
Speaker 1: all that's welcome your good friend. He thinks he got
Speaker 1: a little swag on him from bad and Rouge. Louisiana
Speaker 1: went to uh Louisiana State University also known as l
Speaker 1: s U and a former defensive end Baltimore Raven and
Speaker 1: what it really loves to claim that star Dallas Cowboy.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the cut to a podcast. Marcus spears, what's
Speaker 1: some fella listens what and I'm impressed by yo Louisiana accent.
Speaker 1: That was that was? That was dope. Hey, when you
Speaker 1: run through it, when you run through a team twice
Speaker 1: a year every year for thirteen years, you gotta pick
Speaker 1: up something. It was it was no limit ish. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're doing this today? Is I gonna do it today?
Speaker 1: And it was facts. Was there was there a cap?
Speaker 1: I ain't got nothing to do with that. I ain't
Speaker 1: never played for the same. Okay, we'll put your mc
Speaker 1: hammerglasses back on. How about that it's got a glare.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't have to put ant on my glass. Year. Listen,
Speaker 1: we were about to start off. We like to start
Speaker 1: off with some little ice breakers. Now I have to
Speaker 1: tell you your team sent uh, some dough some some dudes,
Speaker 1: and don't what they said. So here's what they said.
Speaker 1: They sent no political questions. So who did you vote for? Um?
Speaker 1: The insurrection? Are you against it? A ford? Uh? They
Speaker 1: listen to see sense of things that. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna ask him that. Who did you vote for?
Speaker 1: Were you on so secure? Were you? Were you on
Speaker 1: us section eight? As a kid? I mean it was
Speaker 1: just it was mad at me all the time, because
Speaker 1: you know, I don't give a damn Steve. Her job
Speaker 1: is to protect me. My job is to do something.
Speaker 1: So she has to do um to justify justify that check.
Speaker 1: That's what you're saying. Huh. But I wasn't gonna ask
Speaker 1: who you vote for? I know better than that. Hey man, Listen,
Speaker 1: I don't give us. Bro let me not y'all gonna
Speaker 1: give me texts about thirty seconds. Here's the Here are
Speaker 1: the things that we don't we don't want to ask.
Speaker 1: Like there's one that we were gonna ask that we
Speaker 1: can't even ask even because I'm scared they're not gonna
Speaker 1: add it out. They had to do with somebody. No,
Speaker 1: I can't Okay, people would not like me to ask
Speaker 1: you that. All right, all right, all right, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, I knew this was yes, I knew this
Speaker 1: was coming. I know you didn't I didn't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna ask you. First of all, there's so
Speaker 1: many I would love to do a podcast were like
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen active or retire guys and just ask
Speaker 1: questions that we know darn well we can't answer, but
Speaker 1: just to ask, like why, just why you why? Not
Speaker 1: even not even an answer, I don't even even answer,
Speaker 1: just the question of why, just to get the reaction.
Speaker 1: Why did you think that was appropriate? Yeah? Like we
Speaker 1: at what point did you think that was appropriate? See?
Speaker 1: That's the thing. That's the things man Like people get
Speaker 1: piste off because I'll be saying what I mean, bro,
Speaker 1: and I really don't think about repercussions. I'm right there
Speaker 1: with you, and it is what it is sometimes, bro
Speaker 1: Like something I realized that I worked for a company
Speaker 1: I understand to that six years in and I just
Speaker 1: realized that, yeah, you represent it's a while too. It's
Speaker 1: a metal while, to be honest with you. But but
Speaker 1: but also, man, I've become more censored in my age
Speaker 1: because of my kids and my wife. Like that's why
Speaker 1: I have I've become a little bit more sensitive to
Speaker 1: things that I say, let's let's jump right into and
Speaker 1: instead of you know, we usually do icebreakers, but that
Speaker 1: that ice the one of the icebreakers was funny because
Speaker 1: we're not gonna we don't really care what your political
Speaker 1: views are because, let's be honest, a color of our skin.
Speaker 1: People don't really care what we think anyway, as long
Speaker 1: as we pair our taxes and catch and jump and
Speaker 1: tackle and and and do the things that is supposed
Speaker 1: to do on the field. And if we don't do
Speaker 1: it on the field, they're gonna they're gonna call us, uh,
Speaker 1: the hard art anyway and keep it moving. So so
Speaker 1: let's experience. But it is true. Let me let me
Speaker 1: ask you, what have you learned as an analyst that
Speaker 1: you wished you knew as a player that could benefit
Speaker 1: your benefit you as a player today, as a player today,
Speaker 1: Like if you can, if you know what you know now,
Speaker 1: you get to go back in time to benefit you
Speaker 1: because I I have some things and I'll let you
Speaker 1: go first. That I'm realizing that it's some whoppers. Boy,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about whoppers, some like mythical stories that I'm
Speaker 1: just I'll just be I'm just be fuddled, honestly, demand
Speaker 1: the truth from people in authority position. Um, don't be
Speaker 1: fearful of losing a job or rub that folks the
Speaker 1: wrong way. The truth that r that's some pause, Okay,
Speaker 1: don't rub people the wrong way. Pause. Um, it's some
Speaker 1: folks in trouble. Don't worry about that. Get the truth.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I gotta realize that. I I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. I'm I'm still feeling my way through where
Speaker 1: I'm at right now because I know you can't feel
Speaker 1: you Listen, I'm gonna hang this damn phone, don't get
Speaker 1: oh see, look at you now, you've been asthley. You're
Speaker 1: mad at me for your words anything, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: mad at you. You know me way better than that. No,
Speaker 1: man like, honestly, that's it. That's it, bro. I used
Speaker 1: to try to um just facilitate the easier versation. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they need to be hard, sometimes they need to be difficult.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they pause, sometimes they need to be Um. You
Speaker 1: you gotta, you gotta just you gotta get to the
Speaker 1: to the bottom of it instead of saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: this person writes my check. But you gotta have the
Speaker 1: conversations and you can't. You can't subject yourself to you
Speaker 1: can get fired anyway. They're gonna. I've I've always jeez
Speaker 1: heard me say this, You're gonna get fired. The question
Speaker 1: is when you're sitting alone after you're fired, you have
Speaker 1: the question of and the answer, and your body of
Speaker 1: work is the answer because I've heard guys say it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get fired. So you can't either get fired
Speaker 1: doing it jee way, or you can get fired and
Speaker 1: then wish you would have said something or done some things,
Speaker 1: a non regrettable way of living, but not yoloing right,
Speaker 1: not not not risking everything. Yeah, but but there's the
Speaker 1: question is right and not trying to question individuals men
Speaker 1: or women. Do you really know your authentic self? Because
Speaker 1: I know my authentic self. However, I would go back
Speaker 1: and maybe tweak how I articulated my authentic self, maybe
Speaker 1: taking maybe taken away, maybe taking away a few cuss
Speaker 1: words here and there. And if you backhands shining, I
Speaker 1: think as long as you can look at it in
Speaker 1: and will you slap somebody though that that's more than hindsight.
Speaker 1: That's just a little bit of regret. I'm just being
Speaker 1: honest out a back hand if you brother time, but
Speaker 1: I wish everybody didn't go to the to the to
Speaker 1: the lengths that you win. I understand, I understand, but
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, like, but you acknowledge it.
Speaker 1: That's that's so, that's the that's yes. But I mean
Speaker 1: it wasn't technically unsolicitedy they asked I gave, so I
Speaker 1: thought it was Christmas. You know sometimes it's Christmas. Shall
Speaker 1: receive that cup back canneth over, man, I feel you, bro.
Speaker 1: I just think a lot of times, man, where we
Speaker 1: at and honestly like, for as much as I like
Speaker 1: speak out about stuff, also be trying to meet people
Speaker 1: where they are, like that's that's a big part of
Speaker 1: it because you realize, like as a man sitting here
Speaker 1: with a fifteen and thirteen, and the nine year old
Speaker 1: obviously wouldn't do the same things I did when I
Speaker 1: was twenty four. Hop yeah, right, hope not because you
Speaker 1: do got something I trying to steal a um, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, man, I just think I think if anything,
Speaker 1: and and to your points to me, I like what
Speaker 1: you said not regrettable because that's where you were at
Speaker 1: that time, But you also need to be mature enough
Speaker 1: and smart enough to have a different perspective years later
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, I should have did that
Speaker 1: different or if I would have been where I am now,
Speaker 1: I would have handled that differently. The one thing I
Speaker 1: tell people, man, I'm not going to compromise on truth
Speaker 1: to me, like, you're not gonna get me in the
Speaker 1: room and get me to say something about Smitty and
Speaker 1: then go in another room and have a different story.
Speaker 1: If you're my guy, you my guy in the White House,
Speaker 1: you my guy in your house, you're my guy, and
Speaker 1: I'm around some people you don't like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I think that's you know, for me,
Speaker 1: that's probably to get back to the question you asked,
Speaker 1: I would probably just have really more conversations that that
Speaker 1: aired on the side of edgy and hoping that the
Speaker 1: person that I'm talking to realize where I'm coming from,
Speaker 1: as opposed to getting emotional about it and saying, well,
Speaker 1: I can't deal with this, dude. Yeah, yeah, the emotional
Speaker 1: the emotional part of us as athletes becomes lazy. And
Speaker 1: I believe that's where the confrontation comes. And that's where
Speaker 1: I have to I have to use my own internal
Speaker 1: measuring stick of myself to say, am I being emotionally
Speaker 1: lazy and allowing someone to kind of get under my skin?
Speaker 1: And then I go I go in on them, and
Speaker 1: then I make it personal, and and and and then
Speaker 1: you happen to do it on television, and then it
Speaker 1: becomes it becomes you're racist or you have and I
Speaker 1: and I and I find it interested in us doing television.
Speaker 1: The Young Cats calls lazy the Young Cats talking about shade.
Speaker 1: First of all, Young Punk, you gotta understand that the
Speaker 1: oak tree we are playing, you know, double digit years
Speaker 1: in the league, that has to have some good deep roots.
Speaker 1: You used talking about we're throwing shade. You forget, well,
Speaker 1: this oak tree is allowing you to be under this shade.
Speaker 1: We're watching film to knowing and and build our opinion
Speaker 1: about your game. Now, I tried not to do with
Speaker 1: some of the other guys, and I experienced, well, you
Speaker 1: can't depend on the thirty seven year old. Well, if
Speaker 1: that thirty seven year old is really really good, that's
Speaker 1: h that that's the that's the young boy's fault. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's production and his fault. That guy gave him something
Speaker 1: a thirty seven that he didn't give some of these
Speaker 1: twenty seven year olds. Right, However, right, I look at
Speaker 1: the A. J. Brown thing right now, he keeps constantly
Speaker 1: going against the Tennessee Titan fans and just come out
Speaker 1: saying Tyreek Hill, Cheetah, come out. It ain't no way.
Speaker 1: I don't know to h I'm gonna just be honest.
Speaker 1: There's nothing about two A currently right now that I've
Speaker 1: that has brought me to to the conclusion to go
Speaker 1: watch how accurate, inaccurate, how good? How bad? Two is?
Speaker 1: Two is? Two is like that. They're not a sponsor,
Speaker 1: so I can said to us, like Arby's right, you
Speaker 1: don't really know if Arby's has a, I don't have
Speaker 1: a has a. Good men you're bad because I just
Speaker 1: don't look at Arby's as a destination for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not the way you stop them go but them
Speaker 1: curly fries, fire as hell facts, now some good sandwiches. Really,
Speaker 1: I just ye, you just we ain't going there first too,
Speaker 1: they're not on there. And so two is coach McDaniels
Speaker 1: looking forward to what he's gonna do, interested to see Cheetah.
Speaker 1: Is Mike Kasecki gonna continue to dominate because he didn't
Speaker 1: look dominant coming out in his rookie year under a
Speaker 1: uh them gaze. However a lot of people did I understand.
Speaker 1: I know, but I just got to show him that
Speaker 1: my my, my football accurate. But too is not this
Speaker 1: player that I'm going And I wonder if he's accurate
Speaker 1: or not. You know how, you know how when you
Speaker 1: was you know how, you was in school and used
Speaker 1: to get your report card and you were scared because
Speaker 1: it's aid n A and then you had all the
Speaker 1: other grades. You thought the NA meant fl You thought
Speaker 1: it meant that because we was dumb, We was young, numb,
Speaker 1: and we was like, if the teacher don't give us
Speaker 1: a grade, we must be failing. Um, that's tour to me,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna get it. Excited about man Tyrek
Speaker 1: the practice with tour for six minutes, like to draw
Speaker 1: these conclusions and put it out there in the public forum.
Speaker 1: I hope his mentality is big enup my teammate and
Speaker 1: trying to build some confidence. He's trying to build some confidence.
Speaker 1: He's also trying to build up a podcast. He's also
Speaker 1: trying to do this. He's trying to do. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that I heard that was extremely interesting
Speaker 1: to me, and I've been holding this too, is people
Speaker 1: are talking about his Hall of Fame legacy because of
Speaker 1: how early, how much success he had and now that
Speaker 1: the I would say, the sour taste of leaving a
Speaker 1: good team for more money, but then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden coming out and then finding out which I already
Speaker 1: knew that the Chiefs actually offered him more money. However
Speaker 1: they the the way it was structured was a little
Speaker 1: bit different for a guy who's in his late twenties.
Speaker 1: And I'll just say this constructively. I like Cheetah. I
Speaker 1: think he's a fantastic football player. However, when I look
Speaker 1: at his game, he doesn't have the pH D and
Speaker 1: route running. Yeah, he runs a lot of uh, he
Speaker 1: runs a lot of crayon routes, be fast. What do
Speaker 1: I mean by that? It shot threw that up there
Speaker 1: hoping you dunk it. I love you when you could
Speaker 1: dunk g um. I'm not That's what I'm here. What
Speaker 1: I mean by creon routes says they, you know, a
Speaker 1: real route runner can connect the dotss angle science, you know,
Speaker 1: science mathematics, being able to run the post corner and
Speaker 1: and stop on a dime and get you change. Cheetah
Speaker 1: stop on Cheeta will stop on several domes, but it
Speaker 1: may not be a change and maybe a dollar just
Speaker 1: because he and he doesn't catch the ball when you
Speaker 1: talk about Hall of Fame, he doesn't catch the ball
Speaker 1: in the in the way of a receiver that's on
Speaker 1: his way to the Hall of Fame like a life
Speaker 1: fish geral. He has amazing runs, he does not have
Speaker 1: amazing catches. Well, let me tell you this, bro, you
Speaker 1: can speak to that. As far as Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: the way my NFL career countless set up, I ain't
Speaker 1: really I don't really know about all that. No, I
Speaker 1: just I just mean this is if I want to
Speaker 1: hear somebody critique it is you. I just I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not on him. I'm not. He's a hell of
Speaker 1: a player, but to move on for a couple of millions,
Speaker 1: millions of dollars when you're at a place where playing
Speaker 1: in Kansas City actually long term you can make more
Speaker 1: money because I don't see Miami planning deep into January February.
Speaker 1: Good point, right, he is on South Beach though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not that's not that's not like, get rid of that.
Speaker 1: It's cold as hell and can't see that. Listen, man,
Speaker 1: but you know, you know it's not cold. You know
Speaker 1: it's not. It's always a good temperature. And now on
Speaker 1: who you are, you might have a checking in the
Speaker 1: savings and days it might. It just kind of depends.
Speaker 1: Now I'll tell I'll tell him. I want them to
Speaker 1: cash and then deposit. Mind. I don't don't put no
Speaker 1: hole on my money. It's mine. I love cut to
Speaker 1: It and I love it even more when you download
Speaker 1: us and subscribe and you can follow us on social
Speaker 1: media too, Smithy where where at? That's at? Cut to
Speaker 1: It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At cut to It? Facebook?
Speaker 1: Cut to It featuring Steve Smith Singer, what about online?
Speaker 1: And you can follow us at cut to It Podcast?
Speaker 1: Dot com where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com Like, I understand what you're saying,
Speaker 1: Smithy about Tyrek. Um, I think too, man. Like the
Speaker 1: one thing about when you went let's say, when you
Speaker 1: went to the raven right, because he was a free agent. Though,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. You went to the Ravens, but
Speaker 1: but you balled. Yeah, Like that's really what it boiled
Speaker 1: down to. Tarik will be fine, probably getting in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame if he go do his thing. What
Speaker 1: you don't want the conversation to become just thinking everything
Speaker 1: around you was the reason you was like you were.
Speaker 1: That's and that's what I'm trying to say a little bit, right.
Speaker 1: I don't think everything around him, However, I think I
Speaker 1: do believe he grew because of everything around him. He
Speaker 1: was successful, successful because of everything around it. Because when
Speaker 1: you have bad quarterback play, bad bad quarterback play, it's
Speaker 1: like a bad circuit breaker. You can have you can
Speaker 1: have the top of the line RENEI tankless water heater,
Speaker 1: the best of the best air condition. But if you
Speaker 1: got a circuit breaker that's built in the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: this this new technology is pop pop. It's just not
Speaker 1: gonna work. It's gonna work just for a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then so does it get too hot like it
Speaker 1: is right now? Right now you got the house fan going,
Speaker 1: but it's pointing outside the window because you're trying to
Speaker 1: get the hot air out, or you got the house
Speaker 1: fan with the bowl of water underneath. That's say they're
Speaker 1: supposed to who being polled before. But here's the problem
Speaker 1: I have. It never worked. It was still hot air
Speaker 1: like it's sticking to the plastic. Stop moving, and then
Speaker 1: your grandma still make you sleep with that hot that's
Speaker 1: comforted on her bid. Grandma weighed it weighed like forty pounds.
Speaker 1: Was the regular house, grandma? Why they was never hot
Speaker 1: or they had they had great they had great conditions.
Speaker 1: Here's what the elements. Here's what I learned as an adult.
Speaker 1: Here's what I learned as adult. They was hot. They
Speaker 1: just they were not going to turn down. Pride was
Speaker 1: not gonna let you. You're not gonna see me sweat
Speaker 1: and why and why is that? First? I want to say,
Speaker 1: get wins. Why is she not? Why was she not
Speaker 1: gonna do it? You ain't about to drive up mom?
Speaker 1: That was late man, Exactly. It was so many things
Speaker 1: on the list. I my wife grew up with a grandparents, bro,
Speaker 1: and I was I was in She from Detroit, and
Speaker 1: I was in Detroit, man at a football camp. And
Speaker 1: that was the first opportunity that I had to meet
Speaker 1: her grandmother and grandfather. And we she lived, you know,
Speaker 1: grew up a rough area whatever. So we went to
Speaker 1: the house Smithy. I walked in. It was a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty degree and I told I told, I told
Speaker 1: my wife at the time, girlfriend, I said, I can't
Speaker 1: stay here alone. I was like, I can't stay here alone.
Speaker 1: I was like, we either got to go sit on
Speaker 1: the porch, and I can't. When it's cooler outside, you
Speaker 1: would rather sit under the shade tree, light up a
Speaker 1: black mouth. And I'm sitting at the dining table talking
Speaker 1: to her grand I am like, bro, like I'm playing
Speaker 1: in Miami at one pm on Sunday in August and
Speaker 1: I'm looking They're looking at me like something wrong, Like
Speaker 1: something wrong with you? Something wrong with me grandmother probably
Speaker 1: like she's gonna marry this horrible sweat glands. I was
Speaker 1: almost broke up with him. I'll tell you, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you a bad I'll tell you a quick bad story
Speaker 1: and then we'll get into it. Um. Well, the first
Speaker 1: time I took my parents, my uh my kids to
Speaker 1: my grand grandma and grandpa house. Right, And this was
Speaker 1: like two thousand and thirteen, like right after the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl show. You know, we're living were living high the
Speaker 1: hog right. Bailey, my daughter, she's uh what I was.
Speaker 1: Bailey baby was like two or three. Peyton was seven
Speaker 1: or eight, right, I'm but I remember. And we went
Speaker 1: over there and had to use uh, I had to
Speaker 1: use the bathroom. And my wife we had been married
Speaker 1: like to two years, two or three years, four years,
Speaker 1: and she had been over there, but it was all
Speaker 1: in passing. It was never like at a long period
Speaker 1: of time to where she had to use the bathroom. Oh. Man,
Speaker 1: one of the kids had to use the bathroom. And
Speaker 1: they went to the bathroom. My wife came back said, uh,
Speaker 1: I flushed the doll. I said, oh, let me come
Speaker 1: show you. No, No, this is when we you where
Speaker 1: you wash your hands or there was a leaky falls
Speaker 1: and underneath had the bucket and had to rinse it
Speaker 1: and uh oh. I looked at me and she was
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, so to me. About three months later,
Speaker 1: we're in the car and Peyton, who's brilliant, my oldest,
Speaker 1: he's super duper smart, Um says Daddy, this looks like
Speaker 1: grandma's house. I said, what do you mean. He says,
Speaker 1: look like but we're watching TV. We're watching national geographics,
Speaker 1: We're watching something that's shows like kind of a third
Speaker 1: third World country shanties. He goes, yeah, grandma, your grandma's
Speaker 1: house looked like shanty. I looked at him and I said, yep,
Speaker 1: that's how Daddy left. I said, if you don't go
Speaker 1: to school, that's how you're gonna. But it was just
Speaker 1: the connecting of the dots, right, the idea. They had
Speaker 1: no idea. Remember the TV and you got you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta change the channel on the floor model TV
Speaker 1: with the plyers because you lost the cap off the
Speaker 1: and we didn't have that. We didn't Our TV wasn't
Speaker 1: that big. We had a smaller TV on the on
Speaker 1: top of the floor. Oh yeah, that's when you upgrade.
Speaker 1: That was then for as much as for as much
Speaker 1: as like being poor. Like when you get older, you
Speaker 1: you look into it. Man, I had fun. You had
Speaker 1: so much fun when we were broken. Yeah, Rich ain't
Speaker 1: all that fun all the time. I disagree, and I
Speaker 1: ain't that. I ain't smith. You know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna ever tell anybody like I love I
Speaker 1: love the conveniences. Yeah, I agree, right, but but I
Speaker 1: do disagree. Rich different riches compared to being poor. Oh yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean in context, I'm talking about full contact. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about full contact and like I had to watch
Speaker 1: my clothes. It's just a lot of little things. I
Speaker 1: saw my I saw my family every day. We was tight.
Speaker 1: Like now I gotta fly people in and they expect
Speaker 1: me to like. So that's that's kind of stuff I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. You. I don't want to be far enough though.
Speaker 1: See me for being California living North Carolina. That was serious.
Speaker 1: They don't want to get on that. All right. Let's
Speaker 1: get into it, man, we we talked ball. Let's get
Speaker 1: into it. Man. Where are you from the place you
Speaker 1: call your hometown from? Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Man South bed
Speaker 1: Rouge grew up born and raised UM raised in a
Speaker 1: single parent I was hold with my mom, but my
Speaker 1: dad was very involved, not the not the old conventional dad.
Speaker 1: They wasn't nowhere around. My pops played a big role
Speaker 1: in my life, especially when it kind of sports man.
Speaker 1: He kind of you know, he was that he was
Speaker 1: that authority figured but also like the teacher. UM. And
Speaker 1: my mom was the nurturer obviously, and and I lived
Speaker 1: with her all the way up until eighth grade. Ninth grade,
Speaker 1: I moved with my dad. My mom felt like you
Speaker 1: need a male presents day and day out in your life.
Speaker 1: Moved with him. Went to high school. UM had went
Speaker 1: to Southern University Lab School, so I grew up on
Speaker 1: the hbc U campus. UM so that I was almost
Speaker 1: like in a Richmond program in high school. Well, well,
Speaker 1: now it was so liaboratory schools is high schools that
Speaker 1: a lot of the teachers that graduate from that particular college,
Speaker 1: they'll come and do their teaching like to get in
Speaker 1: and then I mean you got veteran teachers as well.
Speaker 1: But but it's it's a part of the university system
Speaker 1: of Southern University. And UM it was a great experience. Uh.
Speaker 1: Predominantly like nine point nine percent black. We had one
Speaker 1: white dude that na't Christopher Osencoff, who was exchange to
Speaker 1: that became our kicker, and he was phenomenal. I think
Speaker 1: it kicked like on the year from I think from Russia.
Speaker 1: I think it was from Russia. Um culture shot coach. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you what else black women look like that?
Speaker 1: But he found out. He found out quick like you know,
Speaker 1: he went from Cappuccino. Then it's funny. It's funny man
Speaker 1: because because we keep it touch me and Chris Keven
Speaker 1: touch over Facebook. Um. But anyway, yeah, he went back,
Speaker 1: Um married, I think he got one or two kids. Um,
Speaker 1: but we keep it in passing. Man. Huh did he
Speaker 1: marry sister? I don't think so, but I'm sure if
Speaker 1: he would have stayed here, you just you probably well.
Speaker 1: But now, man, Um, it was a great experience road
Speaker 1: because I got both sides. And then when I went
Speaker 1: to college, obviously L s U being predominantly white and
Speaker 1: a funny story man, like growing up in bad Ruge,
Speaker 1: where I was from, I didn't I never have been
Speaker 1: on l s U campus and it was literally ten
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes away from where I grew up. But that
Speaker 1: was such a far like I thought that you could
Speaker 1: even go there, um because I not understanding the concept
Speaker 1: of football and recruiting and all of that stuff. But
Speaker 1: man at Ruge was good to me. Man Um, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot growing up in the South. You know,
Speaker 1: you experienced the unfortunately ugly face the racism at times,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, man I had a great
Speaker 1: time um and and and to just learned a lot
Speaker 1: of lessons on how to like navigate through through different situations.
Speaker 1: Grew up in a like a family that you know,
Speaker 1: cousins and uncles and in and out of prison. Some
Speaker 1: did very well, uh, taking care of their family. So
Speaker 1: I saw, I saw it all. But ultimately, bro like
Speaker 1: growing up in Baton Rouge, you get you get this
Speaker 1: idea that you want to become a big fish in
Speaker 1: that little pond, and you like, all right, let me
Speaker 1: let me it's two things you usually do. You usually
Speaker 1: go work at the chemical playing the next on and
Speaker 1: you worked there for the next thirty five for the
Speaker 1: years you retire, and then that generation and cycle continues.
Speaker 1: A lot of really good athletes come out of Louisiana.
Speaker 1: So football is always something that's you know, big and
Speaker 1: getting getting us opportunities to go outside of the city.
Speaker 1: So for me, that's what I saw um and I
Speaker 1: I wanted to I wanted to play ball. I grew
Speaker 1: up doing it. My sister is actually my sports hero.
Speaker 1: She was a hooper, one of the top female basketball
Speaker 1: players in the country. So she motivated me a lot
Speaker 1: to play basket sports. What what what position did you
Speaker 1: play in basketball as a young fella? Because you're, as
Speaker 1: we call you, big boneded Now I've been bon I
Speaker 1: know the three. I was young, I was young, I
Speaker 1: was young Barkley. Oh, okay, slew foot in Barkley or
Speaker 1: good foot in Barkley. I just don't don't get on
Speaker 1: the acting right now. No, I've heard you. The reason
Speaker 1: I asked this question is because when I go back
Speaker 1: at my memory, brank of the truth. I was a
Speaker 1: terrible basketball player, right aggressive you found too much. Actually,
Speaker 1: I grew up in that showtime. So I storing a
Speaker 1: hundred mile hour passage. I'm trying to damn take something
Speaker 1: over that r I'm over there, no look right in
Speaker 1: the face. So I was the just messing up. I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to I'm trying to the combination of love.
Speaker 1: John Stockton, but idolize Magic Johnson. But the Clippers was
Speaker 1: my team and they sucked, So I was confused. I
Speaker 1: was confused. My whole basketball ideology was as backwards as
Speaker 1: you would say. I just didn't have man Annoy Benjamin
Speaker 1: Danny Manny Showtime and John Stockton just confused. Hit the wrong.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't even looking at the right place. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: even looking at the right trying to hook I try
Speaker 1: to get No, don't, don't slight me. I was about problem.
Speaker 1: I was about five five and had a gross spurt
Speaker 1: to five nine. I was it. I got there. You
Speaker 1: probably should have been looking at John Sto. That's what
Speaker 1: I was right. Even got we posted on social media
Speaker 1: my muggy bowl had a muggall. You ain't had on malone.
Speaker 1: That was a problem. I really don't like the blame.
Speaker 1: You ain't hand on malone, not alone. You don't went
Speaker 1: to the league. Listen, even if I had him alone,
Speaker 1: the way I was past the ball, Hell, he wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna catch it anyway I was. I was out there throwing.
Speaker 1: He said, I was out there throwing my homes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you didn't go to You didn't go to football coach.
Speaker 1: The basketball coach said, you ain't make it. No you
Speaker 1: get you didn't get some of that aggressive this out
Speaker 1: of you football. It worked out a little bit. Cut away, cut,
Speaker 1: let's getting down to do. Hey Gerard, why did you
Speaker 1: get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from Cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have a school usive merchandise. Shout out to
Speaker 1: our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey Marcus, With all
Speaker 1: those things that you mentioned before of growing up in
Speaker 1: the South, and you know, all the things that you learned,
Speaker 1: what was difficult, and then the things that you love.
Speaker 1: Of all those things, what are you most proud of
Speaker 1: growing up in the South? Um? My family, man, like
Speaker 1: I think you know, as the narratives pissed me off
Speaker 1: a lot because, like I said about my mom and
Speaker 1: dad divorced but very active. Um, all my all my
Speaker 1: knowledge and wisdom comes from my grandmother and my uncle's
Speaker 1: even the ones that that didn't do the right thing
Speaker 1: all the time looking out community. Um, you know me
Speaker 1: and I just I'm so proud of of like my
Speaker 1: parents experienced racism, they experienced m being marginalized and all that,
Speaker 1: but they never gave me that out. Like they never
Speaker 1: gave me that out like don't don't don't go into
Speaker 1: light thinking that you're starting from behind. Um, don't don't
Speaker 1: have this anger or it's vendetta against people until you
Speaker 1: get to know their character, no matter if they're white
Speaker 1: or black. And um, I think that's what I'm most
Speaker 1: proud of, bro, because when I when I actually got
Speaker 1: into the real world as a young adult, I wasn't
Speaker 1: naive to the things that that that go on, but
Speaker 1: also was like, man, I'm gonna give every person grace
Speaker 1: until they showed me who they are. And I live
Speaker 1: by that, like even til the day. I live by like,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not prejudging anybody based on anything,
Speaker 1: but as soon as you show me who you are,
Speaker 1: I'm either fade away or we can rock or we
Speaker 1: just acquaintances and we run into each other once in
Speaker 1: a while. So I think the perspective that they gave me, man,
Speaker 1: just just not being and looked still explained to me
Speaker 1: difficulties and stuff that I was gonna have to face.
Speaker 1: I had to when the police pull you all we're
Speaker 1: talk I had the white people stare at you when
Speaker 1: you in department stores. Um, you know, always be visible
Speaker 1: all of that. Like I was conscious of that. Um.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I gotta teach my son that. But but ultimately,
Speaker 1: my parents never gave me an out. My grandmother, grandfather
Speaker 1: never gave me an out. Um, my uncle's you know,
Speaker 1: even the ones that I talked to from prison, even
Speaker 1: the ones that we're doing well, never like, look, man, like,
Speaker 1: whatever you wanna get accomplished in this life, even though
Speaker 1: being black may make it a little bit more difficult
Speaker 1: or a lot more difficult, if you get after it,
Speaker 1: you can get it done. Um. And that's why, man,
Speaker 1: I that's why, honestly, like what I'm doing now, I
Speaker 1: refused to be different than than the person that I've
Speaker 1: been before I've been on TV, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what I'm proud of. Bro. Every everybody that I talked to,
Speaker 1: all of my boys, all of my friends, UM, they
Speaker 1: talk about authenticity because they know me. They like, oh,
Speaker 1: you'd be saying the same thing when we're in the
Speaker 1: liberal room clicking out. And I just want to keep
Speaker 1: that man. And I'm a rid it roder pause, I'm
Speaker 1: a ride away. What is something that you enjoy the
Speaker 1: most doing television right now? Um? Probably the dialogue between players,
Speaker 1: man um, even when it's not like even when you're
Speaker 1: going after each other, different opinions, like it's important, it's
Speaker 1: you know, fans sometimes don't really understand the different when
Speaker 1: people have various opinions. They think that it's a it's
Speaker 1: it's it's staged, or that you guys are have a
Speaker 1: personal thing. It's the personal things on television is based
Speaker 1: off what is said privately and then it's switched up publicly.
Speaker 1: But that's what get that side or you know, you
Speaker 1: kind of look at your your teammate in a different light, right,
Speaker 1: I feel you on that man, because you're not name
Speaker 1: calling or or name dropping anybody. But it's there's so
Speaker 1: many production meetings, there's so many emails that go go
Speaker 1: on that people are asking us, what do you want
Speaker 1: to talk about? How did what's your perspective? What's your
Speaker 1: point of view? And then you'll say, I'll give me.
Speaker 1: You know, at some point, I'm gonna have the Miami
Speaker 1: game and someone's gonna ask me, right, well, what do
Speaker 1: you think? What what was your performance to its performance.
Speaker 1: What did you think if he comes out of there
Speaker 1: and just throws for ten for twelve five yards. I'm no,
Speaker 1: I don't have an opinion because that's not that's not
Speaker 1: that's not opinion worth. Like if you're telling me you're
Speaker 1: gonna take the first overall pick and he you limit
Speaker 1: his throws and he barely gets past a hun and
Speaker 1: you have all this firepower and these thorough breads out
Speaker 1: on the team. Offensively, defensively, you got offensive gurru and
Speaker 1: you're out here having pedestrian like passes. Yeah, I have
Speaker 1: no opinion. Yeah it's mean, I think too. Man like you,
Speaker 1: you bring up a good point, bro, an opinion, that's
Speaker 1: not bigging up or or praising the guy. Ain't hating.
Speaker 1: I hate that so much now, man like, bro, listen,
Speaker 1: I get dudes like you know, first of all, you
Speaker 1: gain respect the players. It's different from me and you like.
Speaker 1: The reality is when you walk in facilities and teams,
Speaker 1: everybody know who you are, They know your body and
Speaker 1: work for me. I gotta like, I gotta my my
Speaker 1: honesty is gonna continue to have dudes respect me, right
Speaker 1: because you you look up, you look up stat lions
Speaker 1: or you say why this guy talking about a dude
Speaker 1: a bad and he only got ten sacks in his career.
Speaker 1: And you know all of that stuff, bro, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't put it in way more than ten thousand hours
Speaker 1: of football film notes looking at it, and you also
Speaker 1: understand Like for you and and and and me and
Speaker 1: guys in media, bro, I think it's important not only
Speaker 1: for us to respect these young cats and what they're doing,
Speaker 1: because we know how difficult it is, even though it
Speaker 1: may not be as much as as difficult as it
Speaker 1: was when we was playing. We get acknowledged that. But
Speaker 1: it don't need to be You don't need to be
Speaker 1: here not all great, right, Like, That's the only thing
Speaker 1: I struggle with is I'm very particular, and I will
Speaker 1: tell anybody I'm working with, don't say he's great. No,
Speaker 1: third fourth year in the league, he can't be great.
Speaker 1: So how do both for this question? For both of you?
Speaker 1: Markets with your knowledge you know, playing on defensive, lind
Speaker 1: Steve with your knowledge playing receiver, and your overall like
Speaker 1: like you said, your overall knowledge of football, putting in
Speaker 1: more than ten thousand that was worth of work. How
Speaker 1: do you how do you balance when you are honest
Speaker 1: about a guy with bearing the line of and not
Speaker 1: that you care, but the flat being oh that type
Speaker 1: like you literally just broke down tyreck Hills game. Whether
Speaker 1: it is his route running or whether it is the
Speaker 1: way that he catches the ball some woman here, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this Tyreko someone. He may when we run this,
Speaker 1: he may reply. But here, but here's why though. When
Speaker 1: I look at his HIGHLIGHTSNSE it's on ESPNFL network, he's
Speaker 1: catching the ball with his chest right, he's hopping and
Speaker 1: and and the reason I know he's doing that. And
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like you're uncomfortable catching ball in your hands,
Speaker 1: because I've done it. There's times I've caught the ball
Speaker 1: in my chest because I've been uncomfortable. I've been unsure.
Speaker 1: I haven't got a lot of passes, and I know, okay,
Speaker 1: this is my We've had ten plays. Is the first
Speaker 1: or second pass thrown to me? If I trick this off,
Speaker 1: I may not get a pass again. So I gotta
Speaker 1: make sure. Or I've been sitting around, I'm so cold,
Speaker 1: I ain't really got I ain't got that yet, right,
Speaker 1: So whether that so, whether that criticism is constructive non
Speaker 1: constructive for me? What do I do is one of
Speaker 1: the things I try to do is I'll drop a
Speaker 1: little nuggets in front of the wife and depending on
Speaker 1: how her face looks, let's me know that's a little
Speaker 1: bit too harsh, right, She'll be like right, And so
Speaker 1: I'll try to do that. Or I'll say something to
Speaker 1: my boys, what you think, dad, you being a hater?
Speaker 1: Because my boys are old enough as millennials they consumed
Speaker 1: it like, all Dad, you're a hater, right, And so
Speaker 1: I would do that. The other part that I do is,
Speaker 1: and I'm not afraid, man, I've called Willie mac Willie McGuinness, Hey, man,
Speaker 1: what's the TV start? Explain this to me? Right? So
Speaker 1: I've tried to. I am a wide receiver. But what
Speaker 1: I do not like my producer choosed to do, and
Speaker 1: they've gave me the autonomy not to is I've learned
Speaker 1: and I have information that helps me understand what the
Speaker 1: defenses are doing, what the linebackers are will Dog Blitz
Speaker 1: of Mike Blitz, uh, you know, Ricky, oh my hall, Lucy,
Speaker 1: all the different lingos that have changed that I'm on
Speaker 1: top of it. Pause to understand that I can understand.
Speaker 1: So when I'm talking and watching the game, letting the
Speaker 1: game talk to me and let me create my opinion
Speaker 1: to where I know what's going on. But I also
Speaker 1: and I used the word humble, now, I humble myself
Speaker 1: because you're not in humbling myself. Meaning if I call
Speaker 1: someone that has played the defensive position that I don't,
Speaker 1: and I have to one, I have to give them
Speaker 1: the respect to say, hey, I don't know everything, so
Speaker 1: can you teach me. I've called Joe Thomas a few
Speaker 1: times and what's what's a what's the wrong arm? Like
Speaker 1: when the defensive end ord tackle wrongs on when they
Speaker 1: do this t e stuff and they're wrong garm? What
Speaker 1: does that mean? Actually? Like they got two arms? What
Speaker 1: do you mean they used the wrong arm? Well, he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: when you take on the block away, when you take
Speaker 1: on the block inside versus when you're supposed to keep
Speaker 1: the integrity of of the run stop of the outside,
Speaker 1: and so understanding that him and they're giving me that
Speaker 1: information and then me utilizing it and they're not taking
Speaker 1: and but also taking this opportunity now to say, hey,
Speaker 1: I've called other coworkers and they schooled me and helped
Speaker 1: me because I know I personally cannot sit on television
Speaker 1: without the ten thousand square foot view from another defensive player,
Speaker 1: because I want to be so well rounded when I
Speaker 1: talk on television that I'm not talking out of my
Speaker 1: out of my butt, but I'm talking the same way,
Speaker 1: out of the knowledge of the game, because I'm the
Speaker 1: air Quotes Register resident expert, and so I don't want
Speaker 1: to be the resident wide receiver expert like Dan on
Speaker 1: what you guys, He's always talking about quarterbacks and I've
Speaker 1: called myself. I looked up there in stats, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm one. But the other thing, even though Dan was
Speaker 1: not a bona fide stellar quarterback, he does also know
Speaker 1: how a quarterback should look, what the how the eyes
Speaker 1: of the quarterback should look, how is body should look.
Speaker 1: So I even watch other networks, not to steal, but
Speaker 1: to gain some knowledge to look at and go how
Speaker 1: can I apply this? How is this applicable to advancing
Speaker 1: my knowledge of the game as an analyst versus me
Speaker 1: just saying that player can't play or he ain't no
Speaker 1: good right right, we can acknowledge like when somebody play bad,
Speaker 1: but we what we what we should stay away from,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is making that they overall arching um
Speaker 1: dukie career or like you play pro football. The dudes
Speaker 1: across the line of scrimmage are really really good. Not
Speaker 1: there are some guys who are Yeah, I mean, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna have bad outings because let's let's let's come
Speaker 1: on now, let's be on there. There are some guys
Speaker 1: who have been with the same coach or the specially
Speaker 1: coach because they trust them, because they got their back,
Speaker 1: that aren't the best of the best. There are some
Speaker 1: guys who are we know what we know, dudes slide through.
Speaker 1: But I'm just talking about overall in the National Football
Speaker 1: League or the NBA. The dude that never played gonna
Speaker 1: get your thirty at the Rex stup, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm say, And he got crossed over by a few
Speaker 1: of those dudes in the rec center. So it's for me,
Speaker 1: it's context, man. I think what Smith just said. It
Speaker 1: is important man being being able to humble yourself. Um,
Speaker 1: my uncle Phield used to tell me literally, I got
Speaker 1: an uncle nay Field, Philip Spears, and my grandfather's brother.
Speaker 1: You just tell me all the time, the smartest man
Speaker 1: in the world know what they don't know, like and
Speaker 1: you can't be you can't be um so immature and
Speaker 1: not to not acknowledge that you are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it, you are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith singor I'm Little
Speaker 1: John and this is cut to It. Cut to It
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production
Speaker 1: of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and
Speaker 1: Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator
Speaker 1: Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals
Speaker 1: by Anthony Hamilton.