Speaker 1: This life was all I ever wanted. I'm not leaving,
Speaker 1: not yet. I was hoping you say that you gotta
Speaker 1: hit the streets, make some money, maybe like us, let's destroyed,
Speaker 1: Maybe like Captain by call up get showtime free at
Speaker 1: showtime dot com. Man, welcome back to a special edition. Man,
Speaker 1: I never I never interrupt your introduction, but let me
Speaker 1: do it. You got it. You gotta Jack my guy
Speaker 1: a mentor to me. Somebody I'll look up to. Somebody's
Speaker 1: been giving me the game and the fam Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer been motivating me on this media side. Somebody I
Speaker 1: look up to, my brother, the o G big homie,
Speaker 1: Uncle Shannon Sharp Man Man thanks for having me on
Speaker 1: and has a boisterized like Jack. We just had a
Speaker 1: little we just had a little pre shooting discussion. So
Speaker 1: he asked for some low like people see everything on
Speaker 1: the internet. Asked me for some hand us some jerks.
Speaker 1: He said, Mat, you got this bullshit? I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean it fit's my complexion that he needs something a
Speaker 1: little stronger from people. What you used I did? I
Speaker 1: did use that jerking like water. And then he had
Speaker 1: to me some criscos find somewhere in the middle. But Man,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. Man. We appreciate who's he is.
Speaker 1: It is. It is Shannon Sharp, the Fox Sports analyst. Here,
Speaker 1: uncle here. It all depends. I just hope at the
Speaker 1: end of the day with this air is at some
Speaker 1: point time because I know it's gonna air, I still help,
Speaker 1: but listen to keep Let's get into it. So we
Speaker 1: were talking to before. I mean, you were a Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer obviously Superstar before Superstars win the fish Bowl.
Speaker 1: So now you're a lot of people don't know how
Speaker 1: great of a football player. They know you for what
Speaker 1: you're doing on undispute it to talk about that a
Speaker 1: little bit. It is because I meet people a lot
Speaker 1: of time, and people who walk up to me and
Speaker 1: ask me, how do I know so much about football?
Speaker 1: And I just like, you know, I studied the game
Speaker 1: a lot. I don't. I don't, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: tell them that I actually playoffs, Like I studied the
Speaker 1: game a lot. You know, I watched football, and you
Speaker 1: know I've been around it for a long time. But
Speaker 1: it is, I mean, most of the people don't know
Speaker 1: me because I've been retired sixteen years now, and so
Speaker 1: people don't sixteen years a long time, considering that everything
Speaker 1: now got people are watching it on their on their phone,
Speaker 1: they get all their information from different But for me,
Speaker 1: I don't really know how I would have handled it
Speaker 1: because everything under microscope. You look at guys Lebron and
Speaker 1: k D or you look at Brady and everything is critique.
Speaker 1: We have all these debate shows where we talked about
Speaker 1: every move, every drible, every possession is critique. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I could have handled because I you know,
Speaker 1: I like my privacy. I've never been a guy that
Speaker 1: liked to be out in the public side. Um I
Speaker 1: only went to one party in college. Um, I didn't
Speaker 1: hang out really. I went out maybe once every other
Speaker 1: month when I wasn't and then when when I was played.
Speaker 1: So I kind of like, you know, being to myself
Speaker 1: and I don't want cameras in my face all the
Speaker 1: time and knowing everything that you say now and what
Speaker 1: I tell guys now when you leave your home sometimes
Speaker 1: being your home, you gotta automatically believe that you're being filmed,
Speaker 1: you're being recorded, and so you must be on your
Speaker 1: behavior at all times. How do you think that would
Speaker 1: have changed? Though, like you said, it wasn't only in
Speaker 1: your profession on the field, but it was in your
Speaker 1: personal life, to day to day grocery store trips, whatever.
Speaker 1: But how how do you think that would have affected you,
Speaker 1: especially seeing you wanted to be so private. Man, it's
Speaker 1: been tough because I told a lot of people know
Speaker 1: I didn't want to sign up. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why I never lived in the city where
Speaker 1: I played, because I wanted some privacy. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be Shannon Sharp all the time. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go to the grocery store and ask anything about
Speaker 1: what the Bronco is gonna be like this season, or
Speaker 1: winning the Super Bowl. I just wanted to go and
Speaker 1: sometimes could go because I moved to Atlanta and some people,
Speaker 1: if you were really die hard fan, they knew who
Speaker 1: I was early on. But as we started to win,
Speaker 1: more started going to Super Bowls. I was on TV.
Speaker 1: I became a better player, people started to recognize me.
Speaker 1: But the way I explained myself to people, guys, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm a normal guy with an extraordinary job, and people
Speaker 1: that know me, that see me behind off the camera,
Speaker 1: they see how, like, dude, you're really normal and I am, um,
Speaker 1: and I like it like that but to have a
Speaker 1: camera and everything to get fatigued and analyzed. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if we had cameras like when growing
Speaker 1: up in high school? Because tweets that guy said five
Speaker 1: ten years ago, it's coming back to bite them in
Speaker 1: the book. So now you just you learned from others mistakes.
Speaker 1: And they say, you know why a wise man learned
Speaker 1: from other mistakes who learned from its own? So you
Speaker 1: see what has gotten people into trouble and then you
Speaker 1: try to stay clear that Yeah, you know, I like that.
Speaker 1: What was did you see yourself talking about football post career?
Speaker 1: Like when did you start getting into the endless space?
Speaker 1: Because we know you was always a talker. I was
Speaker 1: the Look if we didn't play good, I say we
Speaker 1: didn't play good, we were terrible. I was bad the
Speaker 1: office and live was bad. Receiving what bad. Defense was bad.
Speaker 1: But that they did they did. People don't want to hear. Look,
Speaker 1: they don't want to hear that normal coach. Now, I
Speaker 1: understand you gotta sometimes you gotta be politically correct, but
Speaker 1: it's at some point in time you got to tell
Speaker 1: the truth. Today, we just weren't good, Shannon just worn't good.
Speaker 1: You know I didn't. I couldn't hold onto the ball.
Speaker 1: I missed these blocks at the point of attack. Just
Speaker 1: be honest and and people appreciate that now. I think
Speaker 1: that's what kind of made me a very good leader,
Speaker 1: because I think for leadership also, you have to know
Speaker 1: each guy. You know, basketball, You've got twelve guys in
Speaker 1: the locker room. Every guy's different. They come from different backgrounds,
Speaker 1: and so different things will motivate them, Different things will
Speaker 1: tick guys off. Some guys you can confront. Some guys
Speaker 1: you confront, they're gonna bust you in the mouth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some guys you gotta pat them on the back. Some
Speaker 1: guys you gotta be funny Joe Willer and so for me,
Speaker 1: And that's kind of how it was in the locker room.
Speaker 1: But I think the media kind of like, you know
Speaker 1: what that guy's gonna give us, coaches, still, let's go
Speaker 1: as she was gonna tell us. And I would, I would,
Speaker 1: I would be as honest as I possibly could. And
Speaker 1: you know a couple of times about like you can't
Speaker 1: be like, well, they watched the game, they with us
Speaker 1: all that week, suthing so did ever caused problems in
Speaker 1: the locker room with your teammates. Just you're so fun
Speaker 1: coming in your honesty, it really cause a problem. But
Speaker 1: they know I was on it. But I would tell
Speaker 1: the guy, but you tell you steal it. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: would tell them to their face. Yeah, you have yourself
Speaker 1: for kind of but you leave by example, so it's
Speaker 1: easy to do that. It is. And the guys saw
Speaker 1: how hard I work. But for me, when I played
Speaker 1: those fourteen years, nothing else mattered. Football was the most
Speaker 1: important thing other than breathing. Football is most important. Not family,
Speaker 1: not kids, not brother, not mom, not sister. And I
Speaker 1: make no apologies for what I was able to accomplish
Speaker 1: in my fourteen years. Nah. And then he looked. During
Speaker 1: my Hall of Fame speech, I told my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: because I would get the kids would come a couple
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks during the summer, and I
Speaker 1: promised I'd take them to the amusement park and you know,
Speaker 1: six Flags. And I had every intentions of doing that.
Speaker 1: But after running for two hours on the track, after
Speaker 1: lifting for another two hours, I was exhausted. And and
Speaker 1: I know at the time they didn't understand. All they
Speaker 1: know is that Daddy had just told me another lie.
Speaker 1: He said he was gonna take it, and I didn't.
Speaker 1: But as they got older, hopefully they understood it. This
Speaker 1: is how you go to college. This is why you
Speaker 1: got the car. That was all that. There are sacrifices
Speaker 1: you have to make. And I tell people, the greater
Speaker 1: the player, the more selfish that he is. So if
Speaker 1: you think, oh, man, he ain't, no, no, not, Oh
Speaker 1: he's a team guy, Okay, he might be. He's a
Speaker 1: team guy. But there are things you have to miss.
Speaker 1: You have to miss some recitals, you have to miss
Speaker 1: some Black football games. You got practice, you got meeting.
Speaker 1: You gotta work on your craft, and that requires you
Speaker 1: to be selfish. And a lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker 1: But I don't make any apologies for what I was
Speaker 1: able to accomplish because my whole focus with my brother
Speaker 1: and I was growing up. We grew up in a
Speaker 1: thousand score foot send a block home cement floored. The
Speaker 1: floors was just like what we have in this here,
Speaker 1: no paneling, and I could look up at night and
Speaker 1: I can look through the tin roof and I could
Speaker 1: see the stars. And my whole purpose was my brother
Speaker 1: and I was to get my grandmother out of that environment.
Speaker 1: That was the only thing that battered to me. It
Speaker 1: wasn't about you know, Shan, if you make a lot
Speaker 1: of money, you'll be famous. I didn't care anything about fame,
Speaker 1: and I don't really care to this day. I don't
Speaker 1: care about money. I love what money gives me access to.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about money, Not the money itself,
Speaker 1: the tangible product that money. I love what it allows
Speaker 1: me to do, it what it was allowed able to
Speaker 1: allow me to do for my family. So because for
Speaker 1: my grandmother to go to bed for sixty six years
Speaker 1: and have it rain and not get wet, that was
Speaker 1: my whole focus. That drove me, That drove my brother,
Speaker 1: and so all the things that we talked about. Man,
Speaker 1: we gotta get Granny out of here. We gotta do
Speaker 1: this all the time that I'm in college, and you know,
Speaker 1: she was sending had my sister to wrap it up
Speaker 1: five bucks in newspaper and send it to me. In
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. I left my grandmother's house in eighty six
Speaker 1: UM and I had two bags, two grocery bags, Pigli
Speaker 1: wiggly bags, um from my luggage. I didn't have a suitcase,
Speaker 1: had two bags with all my belonging, and I was
Speaker 1: going to Savanna State, and and and uh nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: I was a sophomore. And I remember because we had
Speaker 1: community phones, I didn't have a phone in my room.
Speaker 1: And I remember walking down in the hall. It was
Speaker 1: all quiet. I said, you know what, I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: my grandmother. Nobody here, so I get on the phone.
Speaker 1: Call collect operator comes on the phone. Yes, I said,
Speaker 1: I like the place. A collect call to Mary Porter
Speaker 1: from Shannon Sharp. Operator comes on. Uh, this is a
Speaker 1: collect call to Mary Porter from Shannon Shark. Will you accept?
Speaker 1: My grandmother said no, she said I can't pay the
Speaker 1: fifty dollar phone. But I got right now and hung
Speaker 1: the phone up. I remember walking down the hall and
Speaker 1: tears started to roll up in my eyes. Roommates in
Speaker 1: the room, so I can't let him see me cry.
Speaker 1: And I'm just let go let on the bed, and
Speaker 1: I'm looking up at the scene and I'm just staring now.
Speaker 1: Remind you, my grandmother got on the at seven months old.
Speaker 1: My grandmother got on the train, come get me from Chicago.
Speaker 1: Two months old. Three months excuse me, my dad came
Speaker 1: and got me back. At seven months Grandma came and
Speaker 1: got me back at two. So was that his mom
Speaker 1: or my mom my mom's mom. So from from the
Speaker 1: two years on, my grandmother was everything. I slept with
Speaker 1: the very bed with my grandmother until I was fifteen.
Speaker 1: I didn't get out of my grandmother's bad until my
Speaker 1: brothers left and went to college. So I had slept
Speaker 1: with my grandmother. So I know it broke her heart
Speaker 1: to tell me no, because when my brother went to school,
Speaker 1: my my sister's eight years older than me. My sister's dating.
Speaker 1: It's just me and her. It's just her and I
Speaker 1: and my nephew at the time, my sister's son. And
Speaker 1: so we play a game, all my other friends going out.
Speaker 1: I'm going home to take care of Granted, we play
Speaker 1: a basketball game, my friends going out on Saturday Friday night.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take care of granny. So I know
Speaker 1: what that did to her to tell me no. I
Speaker 1: can't accept this call because I got a fifty dollar
Speaker 1: phone bill I can't pay right now. So I'm laying
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking. The only thing that I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving. I'm I'm going to NFL. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: it us. That was the only thing that mattered, and
Speaker 1: when I got to the league, the only thing that
Speaker 1: mattered was football, not women. And it was like, look,
Speaker 1: can you be number two? Can you help me be
Speaker 1: a number two? Everybody says they can handle being numbered too,
Speaker 1: until you actually you are number two. It sounds good. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, Shannon Sharp is interested to me and he's
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, we're gonna date. Okay, but just
Speaker 1: so you know, practice studying tape, working out the way
Speaker 1: I eat. Yes, yes, and he couldn't handle it. Okay,
Speaker 1: no harm, no file, I'm not mad at you, but
Speaker 1: please don't be mad at me for the way I
Speaker 1: am upfront and honest. Talk to us about your grandmother.
Speaker 1: Seemed like she was everything. And I saw a quote
Speaker 1: that kind of summarized and you learned everything good and
Speaker 1: bad for me, either your grandmother or your brother. Talk
Speaker 1: to us about that, man, my grandmother. Man, Look, my
Speaker 1: grandmother had nine kids, so she raised her nine and
Speaker 1: raised my mom's three. And I can assure you she
Speaker 1: loved my mom three more than she loved her own kids.
Speaker 1: So I remember when my grandfather died in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: my mom um, I wanted to take my brother my
Speaker 1: sister was. My sister was seventeen, so my sister was
Speaker 1: able to make her own decisions. She wanted to take
Speaker 1: my brother not back, and my grand said no. She said,
Speaker 1: I've raised them this far. I got it now for me.
Speaker 1: I remember, it's funny how I'm playing this back in
Speaker 1: my mind. My grandfather died. I was eight years old.
Speaker 1: I can tell you everything he's ever said to me,
Speaker 1: berbad him. My grandmother lived four. I was forty three
Speaker 1: years old when my grandmother passed. I can tell you
Speaker 1: almost everything Burbad and what she's ever told me in
Speaker 1: my forty three years of existence. I can tell you
Speaker 1: every time she was happy, every time she was mad,
Speaker 1: everything my grandfather tould tell my brother. Now he says, boys,
Speaker 1: I don't care. He and you know, oh, in the South,
Speaker 1: they call you boy. They didn't never call you by
Speaker 1: your name. Say boy, I don't care what you've become.
Speaker 1: Just never have to look at me and your grandma
Speaker 1: say I'm sorry. So for me, I never wanted to
Speaker 1: have I wonder where Shannon Hills, I wonder where Sterling Ills.
Speaker 1: That was our mind said, never do anything to cause
Speaker 1: my grandmother pain because he was going through enough pain
Speaker 1: living to an environment that she lived in, raised in
Speaker 1: us how she raised us um And so for me, man,
Speaker 1: we spent I spent many a night thinking, because when
Speaker 1: you like, when you win, you in the environment that
Speaker 1: you're in, you're like. I never thought, is anybody else
Speaker 1: living like this? I just thought it was natural that
Speaker 1: I drank well water. I thought that was natural. I
Speaker 1: thought it was natural that that I had to go
Speaker 1: outside to go to the bathroom. Until I was twenty,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that everybody else had a shower, everybody
Speaker 1: else had out there like because everybody I knew that
Speaker 1: was the same thing. I never spent the night at
Speaker 1: someone else's house until I was probably until I was
Speaker 1: grown out on my own. I never had anybody come
Speaker 1: stare at my house other than family. Never spend never
Speaker 1: spent the night because they couldn't afford to take another person. Novel.
Speaker 1: The thing was that we didn't have we didn't have
Speaker 1: a bathroom. And so for me, you know, I ragged
Speaker 1: everybody just like I racked. But now can you imagine
Speaker 1: if that would have got out that I didn't have
Speaker 1: getting on plement I had, I had never made it
Speaker 1: here because I'd have been fighting every day you got
Speaker 1: no bathroom, take that with you. And so to watch
Speaker 1: her and how she worked every single day going to
Speaker 1: work from seven or three. She worked at the nursing home.
Speaker 1: My grandmother worked at the very nursing home. She's the
Speaker 1: last couple of years she lived at the very nursing home.
Speaker 1: That provided a lot of the income that we had
Speaker 1: growing up. And one of the women, the ladies that
Speaker 1: she was taking care of, she ended up being a
Speaker 1: roommate man. She taught my brother now, she taught us
Speaker 1: hard work. She taught us discipline. You know. We had
Speaker 1: a saying down south and said, you work from Kank
Speaker 1: to kan. When you left to go to work, you
Speaker 1: can't see the sun ain't up, and when you got
Speaker 1: home the sun was already going down. You can't see.
Speaker 1: But working those twelve hours a day, I mean I
Speaker 1: got a W two from nineteen seventy seven. I was
Speaker 1: working from the time I was like five or six
Speaker 1: years old, working twelve hours a day. I remember working
Speaker 1: we work. I made five bucks a day, made two
Speaker 1: fifty for working a half a day on on on Saturday,
Speaker 1: for twelve hours. I'm six seven years old. I don't
Speaker 1: know very many six seven years old right now that
Speaker 1: their parents would even think about letting them go out
Speaker 1: there and work in the field and do manual labor.
Speaker 1: But from cropping the backup, picking up peak cans, clipping
Speaker 1: to onions tomatoes, I did it all bill Hey, and
Speaker 1: people look at me like, so that's where this body
Speaker 1: came from. But it hardened me. I tell people all time,
Speaker 1: the easiest job I ever had was playing professional football.
Speaker 1: They're gonna hold on. First of all, you're gonna give
Speaker 1: me a scholarship to go play a sport, and then
Speaker 1: you tell me I can make millions of dollars. Try
Speaker 1: working on the field for five dollars the day and
Speaker 1: didn't tell me if you like that. So she taught
Speaker 1: us hard work. I mean, my grandmother loved the fish. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the worst weapons I got in my life
Speaker 1: is that we were going fishing. All my cousins were
Speaker 1: coming over, that they were over, and so me I
Speaker 1: went went the ditch, found his great spot. So I
Speaker 1: was digging baits base. We called nightcrawlers jump whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call him. Yeah, they call works. We got
Speaker 1: we got some name from we gotta jumping jacks. Jumping jack.
Speaker 1: He looked up jack. So I'm one of the worst
Speaker 1: weapons I got in my life. So I um milk
Speaker 1: jug had cut the top of it off, and um man,
Speaker 1: it was loaded. My grandmother got home from work and
Speaker 1: my grandfather loads us up in the truck, all me,
Speaker 1: my brother, my cousins, and we go fishing. We're going fishing.
Speaker 1: And she said, Shannon, let me get them baits left.
Speaker 1: Not my ain't I don't know. I was the only
Speaker 1: one that really they were bull driving crab. I said, no.
Speaker 1: I told my grandma noe told I could have been
Speaker 1: no more to bout seven, babe. Look my my grandfather. Really,
Speaker 1: my grandfather was disciplined. But if you really wanted to
Speaker 1: tell your brot up let my grandma say, Bernie them
Speaker 1: boys man stacks, I said, And my grandma said, Barney
Speaker 1: that boys said, he ain't gonna give me them baits. Lord,
Speaker 1: have mercy? Was it? What was it? The belt? Extensive
Speaker 1: card man? You know they hit you with whatever switch
Speaker 1: my grandfather was having him. My grandfather wasn't that tall,
Speaker 1: but he was like my grandfather was probably like five
Speaker 1: maybe five a five nine, but he like sixty solid wide.
Speaker 1: Back I needed a cell phone back then, so I
Speaker 1: could have called them folks. Was it was very different.
Speaker 1: But after that, after that point that was that was
Speaker 1: that you know, they didn't you know, people like maybe
Speaker 1: you could look at it like that, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I don't ever think I got a whipping that I
Speaker 1: didn't deserve. Some of the stuff, A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: I blamed on my brother, you know, and he would
Speaker 1: get whip because he was the oldest. So he's supposed
Speaker 1: to know better, he's supposed to keep me from doing it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, you know, if I break
Speaker 1: this glass three years he's three years older now. And
Speaker 1: then my brother, we got a very unique relationship because
Speaker 1: it's really not like brother brother. He's more like my father,
Speaker 1: and so he I really never looked at him like
Speaker 1: my brother to this day, still still to this day,
Speaker 1: is that we don't have like a typical brother brother relationship.
Speaker 1: It's more like father son. And so anything any decision
Speaker 1: that I've ever needed to make, I've always talked to him.
Speaker 1: Um he was in school, he would come back and
Speaker 1: see because the decision at first, Um, I was property
Speaker 1: eight the first year property hit nineteen six, UM, and
Speaker 1: so I was gonna go to the military. I was
Speaker 1: going down the next day to go take the tests
Speaker 1: for the airports airports. I was going to the military.
Speaker 1: My brother left school at the University of South Carolina
Speaker 1: and he came home. He said, Uh, the Savanna State
Speaker 1: still have that scholarship. I said, yeah. Coach Davis told me. Um,
Speaker 1: he said, if I ever you know, if I ever
Speaker 1: want to come to Savantal State, he says, go. He says, uh,
Speaker 1: go to Savantal State for one year. And if you
Speaker 1: don't like it, Um, you could always say, hey, I
Speaker 1: went in college. Wasn't from me, He says, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not asking you to go, I'm telling you to go.
Speaker 1: So that was really the first time that my brother
Speaker 1: that at this junk, I'm seventeen year of age. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's twenty. That was really the first time that he
Speaker 1: had raised his voice at me since we got like
Speaker 1: you know, and uh so I could tell, but it
Speaker 1: was it was hurting him because he knew how much
Speaker 1: talent I had, and he's like, he about go squandered
Speaker 1: this talent going to the military. Um, and somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: miss out on the great opportunity. And it was the
Speaker 1: great and so every decision that I've made since there
Speaker 1: is that I've always run it by him to this
Speaker 1: to this day. You know I'm serious about you. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not if you meet my mom. You need to
Speaker 1: meet my brother. You need to meet my sister. Now,
Speaker 1: my sister, I I might be closer than my brother.
Speaker 1: I I talked to my sister every day. I've talked
Speaker 1: to my sister every day on the phone since nine
Speaker 1: every day. If I don't call her, if I don't call,
Speaker 1: if I don't call about three o'clock, she'll call me
Speaker 1: if everything okay. Just hadn't hear from me all day.
Speaker 1: I was just you know, making sure everything's okay. Little
Speaker 1: sister and big sister. I'm the youngest, she's the oldest,
Speaker 1: she'll be. She she's eight years older than me, five
Speaker 1: years old than my brother. My brothers three years older
Speaker 1: than me. So we're close. We're we're very very close. Um.
Speaker 1: It wasn't always like that, because you know, I was
Speaker 1: annoying my sister's age. You know, you want to date
Speaker 1: and I want to know everything and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: Because I would tell that was that was my that
Speaker 1: was my leverage because see my grandfather knew I would
Speaker 1: tell so he always wanted to push me to go
Speaker 1: along with him because, yeah, I would tell if they
Speaker 1: did something they weren't supposed to be doing. So my
Speaker 1: aunts learned early on we could bribe Shanna get him.
Speaker 1: My sister didn't learn that, so when she wouldn't give
Speaker 1: me what I want, I would tell to tell my grandmother.
Speaker 1: Livy came and chick, that's oute of school today. We
Speaker 1: used the stage bro, so she got the whole day.
Speaker 1: So I would tell I would I would listening to
Speaker 1: the door. I hear my aunts because at the time
Speaker 1: it was like ten of us in a thousand square
Speaker 1: foot so I had, you know, for my four aunts,
Speaker 1: my sister, my brother, not my grand my brother, myself,
Speaker 1: my grandparents. So I'll beat to the door to listen
Speaker 1: to be talking about boys. Mm hm oh, somebody gonna
Speaker 1: try to sneak out, Okay, so I go. Nobody, put
Speaker 1: your hand down. Let me tell you if y'all don't
Speaker 1: like us, now you talk about real. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: my grandfather don't bulled joy. He wasn't all about that. Um.
Speaker 1: I was about five and we're on the front porch
Speaker 1: and my grandfather cause the front portraits like right here,
Speaker 1: and my grandfather bed and the bedrooms right there, and
Speaker 1: his brother thump me. Now, my grand there there are
Speaker 1: certain things you don't know about that. There are certain
Speaker 1: things my grandfather didn't like. My grandfather didn't like for
Speaker 1: you to thump somebody on the head and said that
Speaker 1: you make them thick head and they wouldn't learn. So
Speaker 1: he kept yeah, that's my grand They believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: old people believe that he throwed me again. And I oh, stop,
Speaker 1: I said, stop, Uncle Oliver. He thought me again. I
Speaker 1: heard my grandfather get about the bed. My grandfather came
Speaker 1: out there and looked tan as I. He said, if
Speaker 1: you thought that, boy, at one more time, I'll blow
Speaker 1: your brains out. My grandfather my uncle got in the
Speaker 1: car and never came back. When my grandfather died, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't even go into church. Wow, my grandfather was a
Speaker 1: matter of fact. He didn't play. He didn't all that
Speaker 1: joke in and Kiki kid. He wasn't about that. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where like you know, where you're
Speaker 1: staying with me? You know, I wonder I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: shadow like me. I wonder you know you you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, if you don't know. I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: I don't fool with you. Like when I first met
Speaker 1: stats Well and him talking not so much on came
Speaker 1: off camera. I can rock with him, I said, because
Speaker 1: he really like me. Ain't all about that Kiki kid
Speaker 1: all about that? Then for the camera to being bro,
Speaker 1: if I don't mess with you, I don't mess with you.
Speaker 1: I won't put on a great show for the camera.
Speaker 1: But wants the camera click on his phone, Yeah, on
Speaker 1: my phone. If I with you, I'm gonna carry on
Speaker 1: the conversation. I'm gonna be in a agent. But if
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. So that's that's kind of how
Speaker 1: we grew That's kind of how we grew up. Is
Speaker 1: that just be honest with someone. Um. And then my grandmother,
Speaker 1: like I said, raising to do what she did, to
Speaker 1: take raise her nine and then take my mom's three
Speaker 1: and to get us out. And because the greatest compliment
Speaker 1: that my grandmother it wasn't that she had two boys,
Speaker 1: two grand boys that played in the NFL. The greatest
Speaker 1: compliment my grandmother got received is that Mary, you did
Speaker 1: an unbelievable job with those boys. That was her greatest
Speaker 1: That was her crowning achievement, not getting to the NFL,
Speaker 1: but the way how amiable work. Yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, No,
Speaker 1: ma'am sure, Mary, I saw them boys and it's still yes, ma'am. No, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Here were you know? And it's funny is that when
Speaker 1: when people, when old, people get things in their head,
Speaker 1: they can't let it go. My brother and I we're
Speaker 1: in the NFL and we're at the height, we're making millions.
Speaker 1: We were getting my grandmother money and she would still
Speaker 1: having us used to go buy stuff on credit. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I'm like, granted, why, but that's how she was conditioned.
Speaker 1: She never had enough money to go to pay for
Speaker 1: everything in full, so she got used to even that. Granted,
Speaker 1: you got a thousand dollars and you put fifty dollars
Speaker 1: on credit. Why, But that's what she knew. That's all
Speaker 1: she knew. And so for me to go home and
Speaker 1: I'll be leading, you know, I would like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I would always tell her couple after I got old enough,
Speaker 1: I would get a hotel room. She's like, because I
Speaker 1: stayed to my groom even I was in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I had kids, I had a ferrari had a Mercedes,
Speaker 1: I had everything. Part I was remember laying there, I was,
Speaker 1: I was live in the bed one night, I was
Speaker 1: just laying them like, man, I got kids, I got
Speaker 1: a Ferrari, I got a Mercedes. And I was staying
Speaker 1: in the room and I ground my house. I don't
Speaker 1: make no sense. Your mass up out of here and
Speaker 1: go get me a house. I called me and said, man,
Speaker 1: look here, I'm moving to Atlanta. I said, you need
Speaker 1: to have a real estate agent to meet me up there.
Speaker 1: Uh so I can find me a place. But just
Speaker 1: to go home. I mean. I would remember I would
Speaker 1: come home and she'd be laying in the room. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell I'll tell live, don't tell grand I'm coming home,
Speaker 1: because if something came up, she would get really worried
Speaker 1: if I wasn't able to make us. I don't tell
Speaker 1: Grant I'm coming and I come in, old man, she
Speaker 1: would get It was just such a great it was.
Speaker 1: It was. It was. It was a wonderful relationship because
Speaker 1: iould just go back and I laying the room and
Speaker 1: laying the bed with her, like get your big old
Speaker 1: self out of my bed, you gonna break my bed down.
Speaker 1: And I pretear like, yeah, I'm gonna break it down,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna buy a new one. But we just
Speaker 1: had an unbelievable relationship. And I tell people this. When
Speaker 1: she died, a part of me died too, because I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I was, I'm never I was never the same
Speaker 1: after that. You know, it's funny to say that because
Speaker 1: I was grandmother baby too, and I didn't know we
Speaker 1: had so much in comment. So my grandmother had nine
Speaker 1: kids and she took my mama three, me and my
Speaker 1: two sisters and raised That's the same way. And my
Speaker 1: only goal and only on the two houses I've ever
Speaker 1: built was from one from my grandmother and one from
Speaker 1: my mama. So I noticed feeling feeling. There's nothing like
Speaker 1: people like, do you feel you know a lot? I've
Speaker 1: got na Do you feel your mom, you know, neglected
Speaker 1: you and you said the best things you ever did.
Speaker 1: You gotta make a decision. You're living on the South
Speaker 1: Show of Chicago with two boys. Do you think they
Speaker 1: have a better chance being with your grandparents and rule
Speaker 1: South Georgia or with you having to work every day
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have to be home alone. What do
Speaker 1: you think? You gotta make a decision something. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: best decision does not involve you, and it takes a
Speaker 1: real it takes a real person to understand that that
Speaker 1: was the best. The best decision that my mom possibly
Speaker 1: could have made was to send us to rule South Georgia.
Speaker 1: She knew he was gonna get you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be eating no steak or anything like that. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be eating a lot of you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: possum and a lot of rad coup. But that's over.
Speaker 1: That's a cool suit. Yeah, you have to make that thing.
Speaker 1: You have to get you know something. You get your baker,
Speaker 1: you know, and cut him up. Get you some Bill Pepper,
Speaker 1: some onions. You know. You make that thing. Not the
Speaker 1: right put him in the oven. About the hoy would
Speaker 1: half two hours? She supposed to make it fall off
Speaker 1: the bone right now? Tastes like she got one of
Speaker 1: the freezer. Right now. It's game. It's like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's game. But you grow up and you don't you know,
Speaker 1: you eat that, You eat uh turtle and you eat
Speaker 1: turtle legs. I mean, yeah, roll kill man. If we
Speaker 1: hear a raccoon or squirrel or a rabbit or something home,
Speaker 1: Oh you think you're gonna die in the ditching. The
Speaker 1: clean him up. My grandma ain't a boy. Y'all need
Speaker 1: to go out there and get a messal squirrel. You
Speaker 1: know that's what they talked. It wasn't a mess. Oh,
Speaker 1: we called him mess of fish today. Boy, you know,
Speaker 1: y'all need to go out that. My brother go get
Speaker 1: that get that gun. And you know, if you're from
Speaker 1: the South, you hand a gun. It was never it
Speaker 1: was nothing. You know. It never dawned on me that
Speaker 1: you weren't spoke to leave a loaded gun around until
Speaker 1: I got grown in like you know, that was a
Speaker 1: no note. Every gun in my grandfather's house was loaded.
Speaker 1: It never man, do you imagine if you grab that gun.
Speaker 1: I wish you would. I wish It never dawned on
Speaker 1: me that guns weren't supposed to be loaded around kids.
Speaker 1: All the guns were loaded, and we knew what every
Speaker 1: last one of them was, but it never donned on
Speaker 1: us to go touch it. It never done. When my
Speaker 1: grandfather passed away, my brother would go hunting and shoot raccoon, shoes, squirrels. Man,
Speaker 1: that was some of the best eat my grandma father
Speaker 1: things up mother frown man, that was some good old band.
Speaker 1: That was some good old speaking of speaking of your brother,
Speaker 1: though I know I know how much you mean to you,
Speaker 1: Like what did what did you feel in the pressure,
Speaker 1: Like your brother was one of the best to ever
Speaker 1: do it. Did you feel any pressure in his shoes?
Speaker 1: I welcomed it. Every every everybody. Everybody can't handle that.
Speaker 1: Now now I have a son. He wanted no parts
Speaker 1: of that. He didn't want to comparison because he tried
Speaker 1: to play football and your dad with a call that
Speaker 1: or you're not he don't want he didn't want that. See,
Speaker 1: I didn't live in my brother's shadow. I embraced it
Speaker 1: because I thought, like you said, he was like a father.
Speaker 1: It never dined on me because he was three years
Speaker 1: older than but I could not run him, or I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't beat him in basketball one on one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was there. But I also knew, Okay, I'm playing
Speaker 1: against somebody much older than me. The kids my age
Speaker 1: and a couple of years older, they stood no chance.
Speaker 1: There's no chance of beating me at anything. And so
Speaker 1: for me, like I tell people, I didn't live in him,
Speaker 1: my brother's shadow. I embraced it, and so everything he
Speaker 1: was the target because okay, you did that, Okay I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do I'm gonna do more. You did this, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do better. And that was the whole thing. Even
Speaker 1: when I got to the NFL. Now, he was a
Speaker 1: much better player football, And I tell and people don't
Speaker 1: believe this. Football was my worst sport in high school.
Speaker 1: I was a much better in basketball and track, been football.
Speaker 1: But I only played football because my brother played so
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be like him. I had. I
Speaker 1: was like that stack here we go. I was the
Speaker 1: other way. I was better at football than basketball and
Speaker 1: basketball for launch and said, he was nice and nice,
Speaker 1: Duncan you know what was your compare your games? Compare
Speaker 1: your high school game to someone in the NBA right now, No,
Speaker 1: don't don't do that. I was doing. Yeah I was.
Speaker 1: You know, look, I'm from a class A school, a
Speaker 1: small school, um, and so you didn't have positions back then.
Speaker 1: Whatever you I could jump the highs, so I jumped him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, six ft tall, six one hey country strong.
Speaker 1: I was. I was always always still goddamnit, I've always
Speaker 1: I've always had had this body. Now I feeled it out,
Speaker 1: but I've always was lean, and was chiseled and man,
Speaker 1: so I'll get that. Get them board. A thirty one
Speaker 1: nine team was nothing. Twenty seven twenty seven games stack
Speaker 1: was nothing. We need to see the archives for telling
Speaker 1: about the drunk contest dunk. Before I tell you this,
Speaker 1: you know who beat me out? Was it my senior
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's No, no, no, no, I think it's my
Speaker 1: senior might have been my junior year for beat me
Speaker 1: out for player of the Area, player of the year.
Speaker 1: You never guess who beat me out? Yeah, he looked
Speaker 1: up and got it. He looked him and got you nic.
Speaker 1: It was nice. But we're on the team together. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: who's the late score? No, he was. I went on
Speaker 1: his team. He went to He went to a big
Speaker 1: but the mare fact that I went to a class say,
Speaker 1: and he went to quality which was the biggest classification
Speaker 1: at the time, and were on the same thing. Yeah, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'd have been more like Oak with a better all
Speaker 1: around game. Bruce people up. He wouldn't get see I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let that thing fly. I ever thirty my senior year.
Speaker 1: Before the three point there was no three puarterback then
Speaker 1: feedted two in three quarters like and nothing that before
Speaker 1: the three they handled three when I played those stacks,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. I got third in the hard way.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine. But then you know, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to I wanted to be big, big,
Speaker 1: you know, start like that basketball and my brothers all
Speaker 1: the time. When I got to college, I started lifting,
Speaker 1: started getting three good meals. You know they feed good
Speaker 1: at college. I started lifting, running track, and I know
Speaker 1: once I got to college, all at the football, just
Speaker 1: all I did with football and do my school work.
Speaker 1: Because see when I got to Savanto State, I was
Speaker 1: prop forty eight, So I was in all me your classes,
Speaker 1: all remedial classes. And there are a lot of other
Speaker 1: guys that as Avantle State that like the spaceship football players,
Speaker 1: but they didn't want to go to class because they
Speaker 1: were embarrassed. Embarrassed because get some of the finest girls
Speaker 1: that the school was running. But I had had Dr
Speaker 1: Jorge mc lamore. She was my reading teacher. I was
Speaker 1: reading in class one day. Next day I read. She
Speaker 1: gave us some assignment. I turned in first, and turning
Speaker 1: in she came to me. She always called me to
Speaker 1: this day. She called me Mr Sharp. She said, Mr sharp,
Speaker 1: I don't want to see you here. The next quarter,
Speaker 1: she said, you got no business in this class. She said,
Speaker 1: you're way too smart to be in this class. Man,
Speaker 1: I got a bottom thing. I got all the remedial
Speaker 1: classes because I was in all of them, got all
Speaker 1: out of all of them in two quarters, and started
Speaker 1: and graduated in four and a half years. Look, I'm
Speaker 1: getting up bout it. I was in the front of
Speaker 1: the class, answered all the questions. I was doing my
Speaker 1: girlfriend home work while y'are bumping. I did her work. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: real quick. Though, before we leave the situation with your brother,
Speaker 1: what was your thoughts seeing him his trajectory to me,
Speaker 1: I'm a football head, so he was on the way
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame. There's no question to sustain
Speaker 1: a career ending neck injury. What was the thoughts on that,
Speaker 1: saying that's your big bro, your hero, your dad in
Speaker 1: some sorts. Man. That broke me. Man, I remember getting
Speaker 1: the call and I was talking to him. He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I saw the week before they played the Falcons
Speaker 1: and he had you know, he had a little he
Speaker 1: had a little injury and he seemed like he would
Speaker 1: like struggling to get up. But he ends up getting
Speaker 1: up and walks off the field. He didn't come back
Speaker 1: in the game. But I figured everything was gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: You had a stinger. And then the next week he played,
Speaker 1: he played Tampa. He has seven for like a buck
Speaker 1: thirty buck forty two touchdown. Yeah, and so I remember saying,
Speaker 1: you know, and he barely he barely mean the I
Speaker 1: grazed him with his forearm across the front of his helmet,
Speaker 1: and he said he couldn't get over. He said he
Speaker 1: was trying to get up, but he couldn't. He said,
Speaker 1: he tried to roll himself over and he couldn't. And
Speaker 1: I'm like that little hit, he said. But they sent
Speaker 1: me to the doctor for some tests. Man. He called me.
Speaker 1: That was I was talking to him that Sunday night.
Speaker 1: He called me that Tuesday night. He said, man, I'm
Speaker 1: never playing again. I said what he said, No, he said,
Speaker 1: the doctor told me said I got very lucky. He said,
Speaker 1: another hit, I could probably be paralyzed. Man, I cried, Man,
Speaker 1: you thought somebody died. Because everything that he was I
Speaker 1: wanted to be. What did he get? Seven eight years
Speaker 1: and seven He got seven years and years seven years
Speaker 1: to one case season when that was unheard. He was
Speaker 1: three time first team All Pro, led the league and
Speaker 1: receive and had the Triple Crown. He was a monster
Speaker 1: and man that and not hurt me. Man, that hurt
Speaker 1: me so bad. That's still because I always think whatever
Speaker 1: right would have been one of the greatest because he he,
Speaker 1: he and Jerry were right there were they were nicking
Speaker 1: neck and it just it was tough. It was tough.
Speaker 1: I still think about what and I still to this
Speaker 1: day I would. I would greg gladly giving him my career,
Speaker 1: say no, now, hey God, hey giving me healthy, Nick,
Speaker 1: let me take this. Man. It's just because because every
Speaker 1: everything that I was able to accomplish, there's no way
Speaker 1: I'm accomplishing this without him. Everything the way the way
Speaker 1: he pushed me. He could I could hear his voice.
Speaker 1: We're playing in a basketball game to Jim crowded. I
Speaker 1: can hear his boys do it like this, Hey, Doc,
Speaker 1: stop playing with him, take it. I can just hear
Speaker 1: his boys. We track, we go to the state track meet,
Speaker 1: and I can just hear and says, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: what we need to do. He said, get your warm up,
Speaker 1: get good and warm because I didn't jump a whole
Speaker 1: lot I jump one time. He was over me one time.
Speaker 1: See I go and put it out there like for
Speaker 1: their feet and I'm done. Yeah, I gotta say, but
Speaker 1: I gotta run later, so I ain't got to put
Speaker 1: all them jumps on my legs. So it was just
Speaker 1: mat that hurt man. I still because, like I said,
Speaker 1: knowing how hard he worked. See, the difference was I
Speaker 1: wasn't always the hard worker that I became back. I
Speaker 1: was just naturally God gave me more, God giving ability
Speaker 1: to him. So you showed me something, okay, anything, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got it out. But he was working hard. He didn't.
Speaker 1: He worked hard in school. He didn't didn't win in school,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, later for school, I'm here to play sports.
Speaker 1: It's cool. And I thought, you know, I thought football,
Speaker 1: basketball and track. Okay, their school. He was the opposite.
Speaker 1: He did good on his S A T s. He
Speaker 1: got aids and bees. You know, I like, hey, they
Speaker 1: passed people with season d's too, so hey, that mean
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna take no home. I took one book
Speaker 1: home in four years of high school, and that's because
Speaker 1: the teacher told me he was gonna check my locker,
Speaker 1: and I read yeah, but man, man, but for when
Speaker 1: when that happened, like I said, it was like, that's
Speaker 1: still probably one of them. That's still one of the
Speaker 1: two or three saddest days of my career when he
Speaker 1: told me, say it's over for me. But so he's like,
Speaker 1: he told me, it's on you now. And so we
Speaker 1: get to the Super Bowl and nineties seven and we're
Speaker 1: doing an interview with NBC and we're sitting down talking.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I'm gonna give him the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl ring and he looks at me. He liked, he
Speaker 1: had no no, he had no idea that I was
Speaker 1: gonna do that when we win the game, and he's
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's thinking, that's the most prized possession. That's
Speaker 1: what you played for. That's why you lift all those
Speaker 1: weights and all the dedication and all the reciters and
Speaker 1: all the things that you missed, you miss for that
Speaker 1: moment because that's the culmination, that's crescendo of your particular sport.
Speaker 1: Super Bowl in football and you sport. You know, the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, you win that ring. But for me, that's
Speaker 1: not possible without him. And so the only way I
Speaker 1: could say, brother, thank you for everything that you've done.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being in my corner, and thank you
Speaker 1: for doing everything, for being the man because when Papa died,
Speaker 1: there was no dominant male figure in the house and
Speaker 1: you took that role and you made sure your baby
Speaker 1: brother had everything. Thank you. That was like for me,
Speaker 1: the journey was what I what I because I got
Speaker 1: to live that. I got the bus ride, I got
Speaker 1: the plane rides and go into the stadium and being
Speaker 1: in the arena. That's what it was for me. That's
Speaker 1: what it's always been. That's why I don't win. That's
Speaker 1: why I don't win the ring for me, the ring,
Speaker 1: it symbolizes something different for everybody, but for me, I
Speaker 1: wanted him to have that ring because it would mean
Speaker 1: more to him than it ever would for me. So
Speaker 1: to give him that ring and see the joy on
Speaker 1: his face that he got that, because I believe there's
Speaker 1: no question in my mind he would have gotten it
Speaker 1: had he continued to play. But man, I wouldn't. But
Speaker 1: all that, I think it took all that for the
Speaker 1: way how we were brought up and my brother going
Speaker 1: through that to get me here, to get to meet
Speaker 1: to where I got to to where I am today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you got two more chips after that, I did,
Speaker 1: I did, and and all you know, people, which was
Speaker 1: the more special? Look, they're all special for different reasons.
Speaker 1: Everybody you gotta I don't care. If you've got ten kids,
Speaker 1: you got a favorite, Yeah, you got a favorite. And
Speaker 1: they spanled to know that, but they know I ain't
Speaker 1: say it, but I gotta favor my grand mother. Like yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes I just I just find myself thinking, man, what
Speaker 1: could have been? How how good? How good could you
Speaker 1: have been? Thousand? Catch up with a foregone conclusion because
Speaker 1: he had five sixty five and seven years, he was
Speaker 1: twenty nine, forced to retire twenty nine called eighteen touchdowns
Speaker 1: is last year over a thousand yards ninety four catches
Speaker 1: and never played another down. Both of y'all still ended up. Well,
Speaker 1: we're trying to get him in because man, he's a
Speaker 1: Hall of famer. Ain't no trying. He's a Hall of famers.
Speaker 1: But it's great. And then you know he watched He's like, okay, bro,
Speaker 1: I watched the show today. Man, you you put in
Speaker 1: that work so I can tell you did your homeworkers?
Speaker 1: That that that the proud that's that's the pop stamping.
Speaker 1: That's him man, I mean, like I said, that's the
Speaker 1: type of relationship. Like I said that, we've never had
Speaker 1: a brother. Now we fought what I was like early on,
Speaker 1: we fought. I ain't looked at him like that. I
Speaker 1: fight the breaks off. We didn't fight the brother. You
Speaker 1: got to, Yeah, you got to. You make me mad.
Speaker 1: I'm picking up whatever I can find. My ain't home.
Speaker 1: So it's me and you tell and getting in the
Speaker 1: middle of if you do beat me too bad, I'm telling.
Speaker 1: I'm telling it always come back to that. I would
Speaker 1: tell that. Uh. I remember we were playing played with
Speaker 1: acts and I ended up setting a field on fire.
Speaker 1: So he telled me to go home and tell Papa.
Speaker 1: Somebody said the field on fire. I run home. Now,
Speaker 1: mind you if dry it's gone the fire. But I'm
Speaker 1: running fast. I could run through the I'm coming through
Speaker 1: coming somebody said. Somebody said the field on fire. He said, ain't. Ain't.
Speaker 1: Nobody'd been nothing it but you two fellas somebody one
Speaker 1: of you ain't. But you too, feelas spaky did it
Speaker 1: under I told to me like man, I was like,
Speaker 1: what you want to be? Do you wanted to kill it?
Speaker 1: I didn't, even though I did do it. You want
Speaker 1: me to say that, though I couldn't do that, so
Speaker 1: but that but that was that. That was I mean, man,
Speaker 1: our relationship, man, it's just like and I think the
Speaker 1: thing is that when he left, I was I was
Speaker 1: gonna be a sophomore in high school. That was the
Speaker 1: first time that he was gonna be away and he
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be around. So who's gonna watch it with
Speaker 1: my little brother? Who's gonna who's gonna watch him now?
Speaker 1: Because I'm not around. But but at that time, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: I didn't get it out. Yeah, I've earned my stripes
Speaker 1: out for me and people like man, you said little,
Speaker 1: I said, I've never ever started a fight. I don't
Speaker 1: go for bad. I don't bother anybody. I don't bother nobody,
Speaker 1: I said. I don't even know if I'm tough, I said,
Speaker 1: but don't make me find out hot to fight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said that, That's all. That's all I'm saying. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't bother nobody. I don't get that. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked barbershop but all that. But everybody's gonna keep
Speaker 1: their hands to this sale and we're gonna disagree. We're
Speaker 1: gonna agree to disagree, but there's gonna be no push.
Speaker 1: It ain't gonna be no shilling, it ain't gonna be
Speaker 1: none of that. Like y'all, but y'all different. I watch y'all,
Speaker 1: some of them guys like Stacks, And I was talking
Speaker 1: about this today, Matt when uh tray Young put the
Speaker 1: ball through Trevor reads a leg and trip. We did
Speaker 1: the same thing. But I'm saying, what if he did
Speaker 1: if you put and he put your push you into
Speaker 1: yet like that? It was a fight off top off,
Speaker 1: top off top What I said, Oh dude, I don't care.
Speaker 1: Like the one thing, let me tell you what our value.
Speaker 1: I value this over trust, lord is respecting. Ain't buy
Speaker 1: that because if I respect you, I can trust you
Speaker 1: and you'll be loyal to me. But see, if you
Speaker 1: don't respect me, you're gonna feel you can do it.
Speaker 1: And never got kids, got kids kids like that, that's
Speaker 1: not for perpetuity. Now he's gonna have kids and they're
Speaker 1: gonna say, Daddy, you didn't like that. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: was trying to explain us, like, look, Trade was six
Speaker 1: ft tall. Now, he'd been small basically his whole life.
Speaker 1: So he's trying to he had to find a way
Speaker 1: to navigate and get the ball to the basket. So
Speaker 1: he did that, you're gonna shive him. Look, if you
Speaker 1: play a sport, you're gonna get embarrassed. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care. If you're the best office of linement,
Speaker 1: somebody gonna runn move on you and get the quarterback.
Speaker 1: If you're in the wide, receive what. Trust me, I
Speaker 1: don't got cracked the unt of the chin. It was
Speaker 1: sprawled out. If you play hoop, you don't got dump.
Speaker 1: Don't you got crossed over? You don't have something happened
Speaker 1: trip over the three point line and falling stands, And
Speaker 1: I got like, ain't nobody I say trait? See from that,
Speaker 1: I get both get I get it, but I get
Speaker 1: both sides. I'm not mad at Trade for trying it.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at Tred for doing that, because there's
Speaker 1: some people I'm not I'm not having that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I'm not mad at him, like
Speaker 1: he said, being little, being crafty. I love the fact
Speaker 1: that he pushed the limits and could do stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So it's whatever. But like I said, it's different if
Speaker 1: after some people that's a fight off top and no question.
Speaker 1: As soon as he did that, the ball up. So,
Speaker 1: seventh round pick out of Savannah to a Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: three times super Bowl champ. Talk to me about l Way, McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: Rail David's talk me about those Super Bowl winning Bronco teams.
Speaker 1: I remember going to when I got drafted, going to
Speaker 1: the Broncos. I remember I was like, man, I was
Speaker 1: thinking myself, said, man, John, they'll wait my quarterback. First thing,
Speaker 1: my sister said, Shannon, don't go out there bull driving
Speaker 1: with no John Elway. You don't know that man like that.
Speaker 1: What I do, that's just that's here. And for some reason, guys,
Speaker 1: he took a liking to me. Maybe maybe because you know,
Speaker 1: I joke and I kept the locker room. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a seventh round draft pick. They gave me the
Speaker 1: number one, So basically, I'm just a camp body. That's
Speaker 1: what that's That's what I'm supposed to be. And I
Speaker 1: just remember my brother saying, look, just know what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do when you get your opportunity. He said, Now,
Speaker 1: john always gonna be looking for you because he knows
Speaker 1: big bro. Yeah, he was like, Johnny, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: looking for just be ready. So I'm trying to cramp,
Speaker 1: and so they got me learned that I'm fulloed to
Speaker 1: learn Z I'm supposed to learn to slot. I gotta
Speaker 1: learn all these positions, and I'm struggling. And I remember
Speaker 1: asking a guy. I said, at what I got on
Speaker 1: this play? Right here? He said, run this, I run it.
Speaker 1: It's the wrong route. Now, yes, yes, here, And I'm
Speaker 1: fighting for the same job. So if I he could
Speaker 1: get me out of the way. But I swore to myself,
Speaker 1: I said, I would never ever do that to somebody.
Speaker 1: I said, if I'm secure in who I am and
Speaker 1: what I am, I don't need to be little for
Speaker 1: me to shine. And so I've always went out of
Speaker 1: my way. But when I got to Denver, I was
Speaker 1: seventh round draft pick. I was a tight end, and
Speaker 1: it just so happens every tight end on the roster
Speaker 1: got hurt. Now I'm the biggest receiver, so I go in.
Speaker 1: I'm like one. So by the time they moved me
Speaker 1: to the tight end halfway through the season, I'm two
Speaker 1: oh five, So I don't playing tight end at two
Speaker 1: oh five. Man, they ragged all of me. They're throwing
Speaker 1: me all around in practice and so I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: I remember all this, how they throwing me around. So
Speaker 1: guess what happened after the run blocking, real pass catching drills. Oh,
Speaker 1: now let's see who wants to go, because everybody did.
Speaker 1: Nobody wanted to go and give class k ors and
Speaker 1: Mobili because they were great run blockers. So now I'm looking.
Speaker 1: I said, all you guys that was counting, didn't want
Speaker 1: to go against c k and Orson. Y'all need to
Speaker 1: see me at the land whom killing Wade Phillip to
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator. So they started practicing me. So what
Speaker 1: I would be I would be the tight end from
Speaker 1: the opposing team, so Scott Scott team. So I'm not
Speaker 1: tight end. I'm cooking. You throw the ball, throw the
Speaker 1: ball up in the world. I'm putting the football. All
Speaker 1: of spacking the ball, I'll do with everything. Wade Phillips
Speaker 1: blows the whistle. He's a dan. Put his asser in
Speaker 1: the game, and let's see if they can cover him,
Speaker 1: because we can't damn put in the game. And as
Speaker 1: they say, the rest is as far along was that.
Speaker 1: This was my this was my rookie year. This is
Speaker 1: my rookie Wait tell us wait till us come on
Speaker 1: the first team? Are comments sense? Because I say, you
Speaker 1: got the comment sense and that's what and that's and
Speaker 1: that's what, and that's what happened. That's kind of how
Speaker 1: my career started off. And then I just started building
Speaker 1: this this relationship with John. Every tough you know, every
Speaker 1: tough catch that needed to be made to make it
Speaker 1: in practice, because you you can't get that trust in
Speaker 1: the game if he doesn't trust you in practice. So
Speaker 1: and then I started sitting next to him during the meeting.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, well, okay, how you want me to
Speaker 1: how you want me to run this rout? I said
Speaker 1: this saying, go you know twelve, the four team, he says,
Speaker 1: and he would tell me, He's like, okay, let's try twelve,
Speaker 1: knowing that come game time you're gonna be a teen.
Speaker 1: So don't shorten the practice because they'd be shorten that
Speaker 1: much in practice, you're just gonna be I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be ready to throw. And so that was the hardest
Speaker 1: thing is that learning how to control the speed a
Speaker 1: tight end because they moved me from wide receiver, so
Speaker 1: I'm faster than all the tight ends. And so I
Speaker 1: was wondering I'm winning in practice, but he's not throwing
Speaker 1: me the ball. And he says, it doesn't do you
Speaker 1: any good to win if I'm not ready to throw
Speaker 1: you the ball, because now by the time I'm ready
Speaker 1: to throw you the ball, the guy you you covered again.
Speaker 1: So now you have to understand. So he's talking to me,
Speaker 1: he's talking through it, what he's seeing, what he wants
Speaker 1: me to do, how he wants me to run certain routes,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know if I can go to
Speaker 1: any of the cause he's very patient with me. So
Speaker 1: they put me in the game. They moved they moved
Speaker 1: me to a tight end, so they put me the guy.
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing, So I'm struggling trying to learn
Speaker 1: why receiver plays. So they put me in the game.
Speaker 1: They put me in motion the entire game in Denver.
Speaker 1: As I run by ailway, he would turn around and
Speaker 1: timber what I got. So I go by in motion.
Speaker 1: He telled me out round, go back to the huddle,
Speaker 1: so he called to play. Put me in motion again,
Speaker 1: run a corner block the end. So he did that
Speaker 1: for an entire game. I don't know how many guys
Speaker 1: would have had the kind of patient because not only
Speaker 1: he's telling me what I need to do, he also
Speaker 1: got to go through the reads. He got to worry
Speaker 1: about a defense they're running where he's gonna go with
Speaker 1: the football. But he took enough time and said, so
Speaker 1: you know what, So that just got okay. Now I
Speaker 1: need to get on top of this. And so I
Speaker 1: got more. I started watching more and more take. I
Speaker 1: wanted to know as much as information as he did,
Speaker 1: and so it just got where were just like it
Speaker 1: was like second nature. So he had a large part
Speaker 1: to do with my success because he was very, very
Speaker 1: patient with me. I had coaches. Dan drafted me, Dan Reives,
Speaker 1: he drafted me um in the seventh round. But he said, look,
Speaker 1: his brother is an all pro. It's got I mean,
Speaker 1: gotta be something. We're gonna find something. We got a
Speaker 1: lot of something. So I was on all the special teams,
Speaker 1: you know, which was at the time wide receivers didn't
Speaker 1: play a whole lot. I was gonna ki man, head,
Speaker 1: bustle man. It's that. Look here he was laying people.
Speaker 1: I was. I was going on the punt. It's over.
Speaker 1: They couldn't do anything with me. I let they put
Speaker 1: they put the double out there to put him head up.
Speaker 1: I break through that incredible hole, getting the horses, get
Speaker 1: him get But you know it's different now, you don't
Speaker 1: really try to for me, I was looking, I was
Speaker 1: looking at that, I was looking at that kills. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's different. And that's why it's that's why it's so
Speaker 1: hard to evaluate guys, because back when I played, they
Speaker 1: were trying to put there, trying to twist you. You
Speaker 1: run that seven route like guys, I've never seen to
Speaker 1: run a one step slant Robert. But you know why
Speaker 1: because they're not worried about that kind of punishment that
Speaker 1: there was doling out back then. What you're running one
Speaker 1: step slam right, it was over. It was over. But now,
Speaker 1: so that's why it's so hard for us to evaluate.
Speaker 1: When they said, well what about this guy? What about
Speaker 1: that guy? The rules have been changed so much. The
Speaker 1: way they attacked the quarterback, the way that our defensers receiver, like,
Speaker 1: what is the defenseless receiver he got on him? And
Speaker 1: show the pass he not defens Yes, you on the
Speaker 1: football field, you should expect to get hit. But and
Speaker 1: then and then you know ed came later to real
Speaker 1: came later. And then We started Mike Shanahan with my
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator when I first got there. He leaves comes
Speaker 1: back as the head coach, and then Mike was tough.
Speaker 1: The expectations that he placed dog and that's what I
Speaker 1: That's what I like. He expects you to make every play,
Speaker 1: no excuses. He came in, you catch a pass finished
Speaker 1: forty yards, So he was way down the field, so
Speaker 1: we had to catch I might catch a five yard
Speaker 1: route taken, but I had to run forty yards because
Speaker 1: that's what Jerry Rice did and so that's what that was.
Speaker 1: Came from San Francisco, so that was our mentality, is
Speaker 1: that get home. We were always trying to hit our
Speaker 1: head on the gold post. And he brought the mentality
Speaker 1: of how we practice, how we met, Uh, the expectations,
Speaker 1: have fun. But the thing was I just remember he's
Speaker 1: always saying, okay, eighty four, get him going, because that
Speaker 1: was you know in in training camp, we're gonna hit it,
Speaker 1: hey coaches, uh profits according to Gary Kubiak, in my
Speaker 1: position coach, he's an eighty four. We need you to
Speaker 1: strike up the band to day. So now I'm talking
Speaker 1: eight fo get somebody today. Somebody gonna get it. Got today.
Speaker 1: They don't want to see eighty for y'all don't want this.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't want the kind of problems. And man, we
Speaker 1: it would get it would get going because and that
Speaker 1: that's that's that's what it was about. I mean, I
Speaker 1: got you. Guys have been on teams. All teams aren't equal.
Speaker 1: You're closer on some teams than others. We did things together.
Speaker 1: We go to the movies, we went out to eat,
Speaker 1: we go bowling, we you know, we played cars, We
Speaker 1: rolled dip. That's officially actually how club started. Club Sha
Speaker 1: started back in nineteen in Greely, Colorado. It was my
Speaker 1: teammates room. They had to play station. They had all.
Speaker 1: It wasn't my room because I'll be wanting to go
Speaker 1: to bed. Yeah, So like how you name a club
Speaker 1: and it's not even your room. Guy to be playing
Speaker 1: play station playing all these games. We're rolling dice, we're
Speaker 1: playing cards, beer, all that. And so John would come up,
Speaker 1: guys would come up, and we'll be all time of
Speaker 1: the night. So the coach coming from bed check you
Speaker 1: look and see, okay, so we're staying up. We got
Speaker 1: privtice the next morning, but we're staying up one two
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we've we've in the dorm. We're in the dorm
Speaker 1: doing training camp. But they know I will be ready.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be ready to Hey, I'm gonna be ready
Speaker 1: to glow. And then club there you go that rolling
Speaker 1: die al right? Bad? We had it. We had a
Speaker 1: crunk up in there. So that's the club started. That's
Speaker 1: what club started back at nineties. I named it, how
Speaker 1: how are you gonna give a dame somebody else room?
Speaker 1: I think because y'all don't know where to go to
Speaker 1: bed and I'm not I'm not going to have y'all
Speaker 1: in my room to the three o'clock in the bowling
Speaker 1: so I could come go and come as I please.
Speaker 1: And I've been at my homeboard was talking about it here,
Speaker 1: one of the assistant coaches at the charges, and we
Speaker 1: were talking about He's like, you know what, man, I
Speaker 1: was just thinking about that clubche It wasn't even your room.
Speaker 1: I said, I know that was down. It was going down.
Speaker 1: It was great. But like I said, guy, you guys
Speaker 1: have been on team where you're really really close, and
Speaker 1: we were really really close. Everything we did, we bowled.
Speaker 1: You know, like I said, we go go bowling together.
Speaker 1: We went to the movies together. We did almost everything together.
Speaker 1: The training camp, you know, John, like I said, John
Speaker 1: would come up. Guys would come up and they might
Speaker 1: not even roll. Were just just show the show the face.
Speaker 1: And you don't understand how important chemistry is. Those are
Speaker 1: normally championship quality teams. At least you have the ability
Speaker 1: to win a championship those kind of teams. You know,
Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough to play on the team that one.
Speaker 1: I was on the team that I thought we had
Speaker 1: the talent, but we just didn't. We didn't vibe like
Speaker 1: our chemistry wasn't like that. So I tell people all
Speaker 1: the time, it's more people, Oh, chemistry, that's a class
Speaker 1: that you're taking high school in college. Nor it's not
Speaker 1: not no no, no, no, no, you can't. You guys
Speaker 1: gotta believe, sincerely believe that that guy has my best
Speaker 1: interest and he got to know that I have his
Speaker 1: best interest and the common goal. Like and I tell
Speaker 1: you know, when I talked to young guy, I said, look,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do, I got no problem with that.
Speaker 1: If you want to be go to the pro bowler,
Speaker 1: you want to be all this. So you want to
Speaker 1: be m v P, be that, but not a the
Speaker 1: expense of the team. Yeah not because if you want
Speaker 1: to be that, I know you're gonna put the time in.
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna put the effort in. You're gonna
Speaker 1: put the training in, You'll put the studying in it.
Speaker 1: But not at the expense of the team. Team is
Speaker 1: there and there they have been locked. And that's mainly
Speaker 1: what I butted head with guys. What I know all
Speaker 1: they cared all that, Yeah, all they cared about with staff.
Speaker 1: They cared nothing about the team. That That rubbed me
Speaker 1: the wrong way. I don't I don't want no part.
Speaker 1: I don't know. We didn't we wouldn't have any So
Speaker 1: y'all need to see y'all had no enforces. So y'all
Speaker 1: need somebody on that block, like to like your boy
Speaker 1: your bad. He could have helped us out. Hey, he tried.
Speaker 1: He tried to post me up. Tell them what happened?
Speaker 1: You try to post me up? So this happened. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a basketball involved. What was off set? And I
Speaker 1: told him I can handle him, and I told him
Speaker 1: I could post him up. And I tried to back
Speaker 1: him down here. I couldn't move him right there. But
Speaker 1: I don't have a basketball. I tried to back up.
Speaker 1: That is what I have on dress. You dress, you
Speaker 1: go the way, but I just figured it out. I
Speaker 1: gotta go around. I imagine that for him. Tell me
Speaker 1: what it was like. So after you you and John
Speaker 1: get your chemistry, tell me it was like playing with
Speaker 1: the one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. And
Speaker 1: he had a cannon too. It was great. It was
Speaker 1: unbelievable because, like like I said, he was a guy.
Speaker 1: John was all about respect. You see some of these
Speaker 1: guys where they don't get the ball, they throwing water
Speaker 1: coolers and they're stomping. Don't do him like, don't don't
Speaker 1: show him up. He would never show you up. You
Speaker 1: run the wrong route, you timp a pass and he
Speaker 1: gets him accepted. He's never gonna show you up. If
Speaker 1: if you did something that he didn't agree with, he's
Speaker 1: gonna talk to you on the sideline, or you're gonna
Speaker 1: wait till the next day and he will talk to
Speaker 1: you behind. That's what I spect. Don't don't show me
Speaker 1: up because don't don't let that fool you. Don't think
Speaker 1: because now you more high profile to me, I eat
Speaker 1: your ass up out here, because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the one thing Mary Port and Mary Port
Speaker 1: and Barney Porter talk me. When you go somewhere, you're
Speaker 1: a man. When you leave there, you be a man.
Speaker 1: So don't talk to me sideways. He gave me that respect,
Speaker 1: and I mean he didn't have to do that because
Speaker 1: he had. He was John Elways. He was already in
Speaker 1: the m v P. He was already a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: You know, he gonna even though he hadn't won, So
Speaker 1: he had already built up his credentials. He showed a
Speaker 1: young kid respect and so for me, okay, whatever you need.
Speaker 1: Like I said, there are a lot of great quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And I went to the Pro Bowl with with with
Speaker 1: Marino Play, Warren Moon, Joe Montana, my last Pro Bowl,
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady with my quarterbacks. I didn't
Speaker 1: look here. I would learned it for a vacation. I
Speaker 1: didn't tell about it. I looked at the pro guy
Speaker 1: looking at it and trying to win the car win
Speaker 1: m VP vacation. I did everything I need to do
Speaker 1: to get over here, and I ain't trying to win
Speaker 1: the m v P over here. Na na, but man,
Speaker 1: he man, look here of the superstars that I had,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I didn't play with him, give me
Speaker 1: sever because the way he treated me. I love the
Speaker 1: fact that he didn't show, you know, show up. He
Speaker 1: yelling at the screaming on the sideline. I ain't all
Speaker 1: about that yelling and screaming at all about that. All
Speaker 1: my coaches I've always told him. I said, you could
Speaker 1: correct me in front of anybody, but you can't curse me.
Speaker 1: I say, Mary Porter, who gave me everything but life,
Speaker 1: never cursed me. So now if you want, you will
Speaker 1: see me at the food called me a mo fol
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna have to deal with me, so
Speaker 1: I might have to leave. So I never had a
Speaker 1: confrontation with a coach. I never really had no confrontation
Speaker 1: with a player. Really, I think I got you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't really no fight. He was it was cold
Speaker 1: one day, uh and I remember this, like, yeah it
Speaker 1: was and we were doing walk through and it was cold.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was bummed up up and this guy
Speaker 1: named he told the story. So I go ahead and
Speaker 1: tell it to Reggie Rivers and he I threw him
Speaker 1: the ball, you know, I you know called the pass
Speaker 1: that I threw in the ball and he threw the
Speaker 1: ball back and hit me in the face with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we have no heaven a walk through, and so
Speaker 1: he you know, I threw you know, I threw in
Speaker 1: the ball and he showed the ball hit me back
Speaker 1: in my face. You started, I threw him the ball.
Speaker 1: I'm like here here bro after like you don't know.
Speaker 1: But he was just scout. You're just on scout team.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like the defense. He was just he
Speaker 1: was an offensive player too, but just so we would
Speaker 1: walk through like offense, and so we have level offensive players.
Speaker 1: We have the rest of the offensive players playing the defense.
Speaker 1: So you know, you know what I mean, I threw
Speaker 1: him the ball. All he could even say just dropping
Speaker 1: let it into the ground, but don't throw it back
Speaker 1: and let me hit it hit me in the face.
Speaker 1: So I just I just walked up. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that was it. So and that that was that
Speaker 1: was That was the only time I've never even come close,
Speaker 1: uh to getting into it with somebody in the NFL. Now,
Speaker 1: that was the only time. Only got one fight in
Speaker 1: college um with a defensive lineman. You know, we joaning
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Guy, you go to a
Speaker 1: black college. It's all about joaning. It's all about if
Speaker 1: you come in late, you come into cafeteria late, whatever
Speaker 1: you got on, we're gonna make fun of. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: light you up. And so you know I'm lighting him
Speaker 1: up now, remind you all the up. You know, senior
Speaker 1: the juniors there. But he's a freshman like me. But
Speaker 1: he's a d lamber. So I locked him up. You
Speaker 1: got the table crying, everybody laughing. So guess what he
Speaker 1: gonna do. He gonna come and try to take it
Speaker 1: out on me. So you know, uh, I think I
Speaker 1: had like a sandwich or something, and so I had
Speaker 1: some mayonnaise in the bowl. Dude took the mannaid out
Speaker 1: the bowl and just put it on and threw it
Speaker 1: on me. Wa wah wah. Walk. That wasn't just one
Speaker 1: you gave my whole boy, I gave a piece extra crism.
Speaker 1: He say, I don't I don't even remember how having
Speaker 1: but I just remember the next that coach, they goddamn shop,
Speaker 1: what you're doing that cold to dude through Man, that's
Speaker 1: on me for no. Everybody was laughing. You must have
Speaker 1: been frying him though, you had to be fried. I
Speaker 1: love I love him. I loved I loved it because
Speaker 1: you know, when they're getting mad, they pick out the
Speaker 1: one person that didn't say nothing like what you're laughing
Speaker 1: because I was a freshman like he was, but I
Speaker 1: was you know, I was a wine receiver. He was
Speaker 1: a defensive labman. So all the other people laughing was
Speaker 1: bigger than you. Yeah, but I got it quick. See,
Speaker 1: that's what you gotta do the moment you first, because
Speaker 1: like I said, now, if if I fired all these
Speaker 1: couple of these things and you still standing, yeah something
Speaker 1: right right? Yeah yeah, but I don't know to take
Speaker 1: the thing these first three damn. So that was it.
Speaker 1: But for the moment when I get long, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm joking Stacks No. When he first came on, I'm
Speaker 1: Joe was a good time man. You come on the show.
Speaker 1: You know how we are. We were laughing, were joking,
Speaker 1: we carried on, and that's kind of how my persona was.
Speaker 1: My personality was in the locker room, laugh, joke, have
Speaker 1: a good time. Hey, it wasn't It wasn't no jokes me.
Speaker 1: I was chasing that ring. No when you no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm about no. No, no, no, no, I'm I'm trying
Speaker 1: to win. No no, no, but bulld driving not on
Speaker 1: my watching right there. The type like stretching. When we
Speaker 1: go out to practice and we're stretching, that's the last
Speaker 1: time before that. We don't get all the joke in
Speaker 1: aside because once Mike blow that whistle, lock in, that's it,
Speaker 1: that's it. I'm a. I'm all about A. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to put that work in. And I had I had
Speaker 1: great teammates because as I'm practicing, I'm like, I'm asking
Speaker 1: the guys, uh, Dedrick Dodge, I'm asking Ronnie brad for
Speaker 1: the man, Tony Beelan, Okay, you cover this rock? Am
Speaker 1: I tipping my rocks? Because I need feedback because if
Speaker 1: I'm tipping something, I'm giving something of I need to know.
Speaker 1: Let me know what's going on. Hipping me and showing
Speaker 1: the deefend of your round. I'm sure I'm leaning into
Speaker 1: a rite or I'm doing something. I never never forget
Speaker 1: Dedrick Dodge, who one of one of my best teammates.
Speaker 1: He probably one of the guys that helped me the most.
Speaker 1: He said, I noticed something. I said, what you're talking
Speaker 1: about He said, when you get ready to break out,
Speaker 1: you start getting up on your toes, get inside it.
Speaker 1: He says, don't do that. He says, because every time
Speaker 1: you do that, I'm gonna dry that route. So that
Speaker 1: told me, okay, I gotta yeah what that means? D
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Come up with the press it
Speaker 1: through it? I need he gonna drive aroute. And so
Speaker 1: you you start, you know, because I need Like I said,
Speaker 1: I need feedback. Now remind you it's eaven for it
Speaker 1: got to cover you in practice because he sees you
Speaker 1: every day. He knows all your moves. He knows and
Speaker 1: he when he starts hearing things if John Audible's he
Speaker 1: knows what that is. So but a guy that only
Speaker 1: sees you once a week and just watching you on tape,
Speaker 1: he is not gonna be able to get all those subtleties.
Speaker 1: So I just need to make sure I'm not tipping
Speaker 1: it enough that he can see it come game time.
Speaker 1: Now he's seen this route year after year after year
Speaker 1: after year. What is man? It gets difficult to be
Speaker 1: the guy when you're going against him every day in practice,
Speaker 1: year after year after year. But come game time, it
Speaker 1: was it was a piece of cake. I see, I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like you were something like you said,
Speaker 1: you started that receiver once you came in, moved into
Speaker 1: tight end. But I kind of think you reigned in
Speaker 1: the era of athletic tight end. They could have played receiver,
Speaker 1: but you were tied end. So guys like Tony Gonzalez,
Speaker 1: Gates today, Kelsey Kittle, you were them and played like
Speaker 1: that before it was real Titanus just blocker. Yeah that's it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Um when I first when I got to the league,
Speaker 1: you wanted to tight into the extension of your offensive lines.
Speaker 1: Those guys were like six five six, six to eighty five,
Speaker 1: almost three hunders because everybody wanted to run the football.
Speaker 1: They're like, if you ring you, if you gotta run
Speaker 1: game and the defense, you can win the championship. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, they throw me out there and like,
Speaker 1: I'm a mismatch because if you walk your you walk
Speaker 1: your safety. I'm a bulliant. You walk your linebacker, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna run around here. So now, okay, how do we
Speaker 1: do that? So I started in the AFC West, and
Speaker 1: guess what happened. They go draft Tony Gonzalez, they go
Speaker 1: draft Freddy Jones at the charges. Don't go get Ricky Dudley.
Speaker 1: Not everybody is starting. Okay, they won't, they won't, but
Speaker 1: but see what they didn't understand. I was small. Who
Speaker 1: Leo Jones is bigger than I am right now he's
Speaker 1: playing wide receiver than when I played it tight end.
Speaker 1: But well, I locked out on the stacks that I
Speaker 1: put his five hunting on them stack that we're going
Speaker 1: to where I get the right Hey, I get you
Speaker 1: right here, just driving. So so you're you're blocking, had
Speaker 1: a lot to do what you're making them. No, No,
Speaker 1: that's all I was trying to say that the thing
Speaker 1: when you're blocking, just the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: I was more of an asset in the passing game
Speaker 1: than I was a liability in the run game. You see,
Speaker 1: you let everybody's look at trade trade trade trade. You
Speaker 1: don't don't playing the defend, but he's licking you up
Speaker 1: and getting your thirty on offense. So that's a great
Speaker 1: trade of James Harden. James Harden ain't sitting in the
Speaker 1: chair in front of anybody, but when you like, you
Speaker 1: up for forty and so that was my thing. I
Speaker 1: blocked well enough. I mean, somebody got two dollar yard
Speaker 1: running behind me g D, M v P D looking
Speaker 1: at them files Yard Russias, I blocked for and now
Speaker 1: they weren't playing with team. Now I'm not saying I'm
Speaker 1: I'm George Kettle, I'm drunk. You did what you did.
Speaker 1: But I got to weight. So two Super Bowls and
Speaker 1: and uh, Denver and you go to Baltimore with want
Speaker 1: to arguably one of the greatest defenses. They say you
Speaker 1: were there, but talk to me about being able to
Speaker 1: go over there and play, play with Ray Lewis, play
Speaker 1: with that team and win. Man. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: leave Denver Um, but but it was a decision. You
Speaker 1: went from Hollywood to company. I didn't want to leave,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of like a situation where I just
Speaker 1: didn't think I was getting the respect that I deserved.
Speaker 1: Your teen um and here I am seven. I had
Speaker 1: gone to seven Pro Bowls. I was First Team All
Speaker 1: Pro four times, two Super Bowls, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I guess because John was no longer there, they didn't
Speaker 1: think I could play. But they had started to use
Speaker 1: me differently. Ed has started well a. Rod Smith had
Speaker 1: started to become the number one receiver, so they started
Speaker 1: throwing him a little more. I can still do the
Speaker 1: same things, but I just wouldn't get in the same opportunities.
Speaker 1: And so it was like Baltimore. When Baltimore came, I
Speaker 1: was like, all themore what they were eight and eight
Speaker 1: a year before. I mean, I knew a little bit
Speaker 1: about Baltimore of the Rabys because we had played him
Speaker 1: in nineties six. Never in my wildest imagination that I
Speaker 1: ever think I was gonna get out of Depper, you know,
Speaker 1: I was always thought like, but then you know, you
Speaker 1: see Joe Montana didn't finish his career, and you know,
Speaker 1: so I'm like all these guys started. Bruce Smith was
Speaker 1: was all of a sudden gonna be was going to
Speaker 1: Washington and then talking to Ozzie on the phone. Um
Speaker 1: I saw as a matter of fact, that was the
Speaker 1: nine nine nine. I saw Ray in Atlanta. He said, Man,
Speaker 1: if we get you, we can win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: He said, because we got it on defense, we got
Speaker 1: it on lock. We just need a veteran guy man
Speaker 1: to get them guys ready. Man. So I go to
Speaker 1: Baltimore and I'm we're practicing against him. Now I know
Speaker 1: what good defense is. And I'm remember going the back
Speaker 1: room and I'm like, they don't realize how good they are.
Speaker 1: They yeah, I say, this might not be nobody's ever
Speaker 1: seen anything like this. They could fly, they were I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was tough for us to get
Speaker 1: a couple of yards here and there. And then you
Speaker 1: watch it. You're standing on the sideline and you're watching it,
Speaker 1: and you watch the physicality and you watch the relentlessness
Speaker 1: in which they attack people. I don't think very many
Speaker 1: of those guys could play today because it was just
Speaker 1: they were knocking people out. They were knocking the quarterback out.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna receivers out, they were not going running back.
Speaker 1: They're putting everybody out of the game. And then everything
Speaker 1: just started to click. Now we weren't that good offensively.
Speaker 1: It was your quarterback. We started with Tony Bankers, and
Speaker 1: then they moved Triff came in there, and then basically
Speaker 1: the way we started playing, we felt if we could
Speaker 1: get seven on you, we get Temple, we get ten points,
Speaker 1: and we didn't turn the ball over, you could be
Speaker 1: you couldn't beat us. So now we're playing for we're
Speaker 1: playing for one play. Hence that that's what they called
Speaker 1: me Big Place Shade because I was the guy who's
Speaker 1: gonna get the big play. We get that one place,
Speaker 1: we get that early, and we didn't turn the ball over.
Speaker 1: It's over you, it's curtains. So once we gotta leave,
Speaker 1: we got to the playoffs, and once we gotta lead,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, we're going to the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: We're going to the super Bowl. And it once we
Speaker 1: got to the super Bowl, I'm like, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the jazz, I'm looking at the warm up. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be looking. I said, they'll be looking to get ten points. Literally,
Speaker 1: I know they was only get seven and they got
Speaker 1: that on the kick off. But that defense, no, that
Speaker 1: was that was a special unit. And when you know,
Speaker 1: you look back at it and you're like, compare defenses.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to do. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if they've been a better defense than the eighty five
Speaker 1: Bears in the two thousand Ravens. Now, I'm Vias because
Speaker 1: I happen to be there. But when you give up
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty five points in sixteen games, and
Speaker 1: you don't let you to give up, you go sixteen
Speaker 1: games and all the teams combined don't rush for a
Speaker 1: thousand yards that's impressive. That that that's that's impressive. And
Speaker 1: so it was. It was. It was different because Brian
Speaker 1: Billy didn't care. We didn't have curfew. I we went
Speaker 1: to super Bow to matter. We could sue, but we
Speaker 1: didn't have curfew. He had one simple rule. Brian Billy
Speaker 1: had our head coach. He had one rule. He said, guys,
Speaker 1: I want you to ride the bus to and from practice.
Speaker 1: That was his only rule. And then we get guys
Speaker 1: that the young guys to my man, my mom, here,
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna ride back. I said, here you
Speaker 1: a I think cold just gave was one rule. We
Speaker 1: don't have curfew. Now you boy the here and you're
Speaker 1: gonna mess that up. I wish you might. It's always
Speaker 1: it's always somebody that you can do right. They want
Speaker 1: to do role for no reason, no reason, it's not now.
Speaker 1: So we we got that. That was. That was a
Speaker 1: great time. I got to meet some great friends, ray
Speaker 1: Rod Wilson, guys that I'm friends with to this day.
Speaker 1: It was a great opportunity. Um no it and there
Speaker 1: when I was no. No. Eight, Yeah, way younger than me.
Speaker 1: Ed came in maybe my I think my last year
Speaker 1: I think everybody came in my last year. Yeah, I played.
Speaker 1: I played against him, against him because you went back
Speaker 1: and you you retired in Denver, went back to Denver.
Speaker 1: Tell me how important that was to you. Well, we
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl. I leave the team in receiving
Speaker 1: and they drafted tighten in the first round. So what
Speaker 1: they're telling me? So so me. Now my thing is
Speaker 1: to get him ready to play. See people look at like,
Speaker 1: what it's not my job. Actually it is my job
Speaker 1: because what if something happened to me during the season
Speaker 1: and he's not ready to play. Now my job is
Speaker 1: getting ready to play. Beyond how you practice, how you study,
Speaker 1: take what's expected of you. That's my job to prepare him,
Speaker 1: to get him ready to go back. Going back to
Speaker 1: Denver Um, talking to Mr b who is the owner
Speaker 1: at the time. Um, he's like, I should never let
Speaker 1: you go. Said, I'm sorry for that, but you're coming back.
Speaker 1: You're coming back home. I want you to finish in
Speaker 1: the Broncho uniform. And then I talked to Mike. Uh
Speaker 1: because Mike and I my first goal around, we weren't
Speaker 1: that close. Because I don't think he he thought that.
Speaker 1: He just looked at me and just catching, but there
Speaker 1: were so many other things that once I left, he
Speaker 1: started to see that the locker room, how guys, how practice,
Speaker 1: how he held guys accountable. Then you start to see
Speaker 1: sometimes you don't realize the value things until it's gone.
Speaker 1: So having a conversation for him and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the right thing to do, you know. I went
Speaker 1: to Seattle, but that was too far. My kids were young.
Speaker 1: Then I was like, nah, they don't even be getting
Speaker 1: on the plane coming thirteen hours. Uh. I meant six
Speaker 1: hours to come see me flying from Atlanta to Seattle,
Speaker 1: visited the Raiders, but it just didn't It didn't feel right.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel right. It was it was meant for
Speaker 1: me to start my career in Denver, have a brief interruption,
Speaker 1: and finish my career in Denver. And that was the
Speaker 1: best thing that ever happened, because the fans embraced me
Speaker 1: coming back. They always love me because they saw how
Speaker 1: hard I worked, and it meant something to me. Winning
Speaker 1: meant something to me. Losing hurt me um, and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to make sure I didn't. I got the
Speaker 1: taste of losing out of my mouth as quick as possible,
Speaker 1: but I think they appreciated the hard work that I
Speaker 1: put into it. That's what's up so coming before you
Speaker 1: came from you know, thousand square foot, sent a block place,
Speaker 1: bunch of whole bunch of whole bunch of kids too,
Speaker 1: a successful career, three Superpols, and being inducted in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame in two thousand eleven. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Did you ever see? That? Was ever a dream? No? Um,
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, I mean it was so far Um,
Speaker 1: that's the NFL heaven. Yeah, that's where the grates go
Speaker 1: to rest and to be thinking of twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: men that will be either coach, played or been in
Speaker 1: front office in the NFL. I was two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty seven member member in the prop By Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Skinny kid from Glennville, thirty undred people to traffic lights,
Speaker 1: graduating class of sixty in high school. To go here,
Speaker 1: it seemed like a dream. But if people knew how
Speaker 1: hard I worked, and I spoke about it, I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, in my senior year, you get a senior book.
Speaker 1: Every girl side my book, Janna, when you go to
Speaker 1: the NFL, don't forget me, Channa. When your famous, don't
Speaker 1: forgive me every single one of them because I told
Speaker 1: him I'm playing the NFL. I'm going. They couldn't believe
Speaker 1: because nobody had ever gone really done anything. They could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, you ain't going to NFL. They're playing on TV.
Speaker 1: They make thousands thousands. Ye that's me. That's gonna be me.
Speaker 1: And I just everything that I did was preparing me
Speaker 1: for that. Not a Hall of fame now the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to the NFL. I wrote down
Speaker 1: in my memory in my book, I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go to the NFL. I'm gonna go to Pro Bowl,
Speaker 1: I'm going to Super Bowl. I ain't put a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame in there because I in my mondy wouldn't
Speaker 1: even let me something you might would even let your dream,
Speaker 1: won't even let your fathom, but all the other stuff,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I still I still pinch myself to think, damn,
Speaker 1: I'm one of the best to ever do this, Like wow,
Speaker 1: you don't really it doesn't really dawn on you like
Speaker 1: when you do. When you do it when you can,
Speaker 1: you're not doing anything. Man, I'm going to the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. I'm going to all of fame. You just
Speaker 1: want to be the best you possibly can. You want
Speaker 1: to just do everything you possibly can to help your
Speaker 1: team win. That's all I want to do. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be about I was always about the team and
Speaker 1: to see where I came from, working in those fields
Speaker 1: in South Georgia. Uh, Savannah Stay seventh round draft pick.
Speaker 1: That this it doesn't even seem it doesn't even seem real,
Speaker 1: It doesn't even seem like it's possible. But it happened.
Speaker 1: I made it happen. I was very fortunate. I had
Speaker 1: a mom that made a decision that the best thing
Speaker 1: for my brother, my brother's sister, myself was to go
Speaker 1: stare at my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother and grandfather
Speaker 1: taken us in teaching us to discipline being because their
Speaker 1: expectations you work, you know, my my ground. The first
Speaker 1: time the guy came by, Joe Tatum came came by
Speaker 1: the day before and told us he wanted he wanted
Speaker 1: uh to work for it. My grandfather come back in
Speaker 1: the house. He said, I want everything big enough to stop,
Speaker 1: sir up to hit that truck to Marrow because you know,
Speaker 1: back then we roll in the back of the truck everything.
Speaker 1: So I'm five six years old. I get in the
Speaker 1: back of the truck going to work too. And that's
Speaker 1: why I tell people that either this job I ever
Speaker 1: had was playing in the NFL. He said playing, it's
Speaker 1: playing he was working. Yes, yes, that's working. People don't
Speaker 1: know what it's like. The bell Hey living them big
Speaker 1: old bad see stack. See if you had that SE's
Speaker 1: da got your right. You couple that and I hey
Speaker 1: you pek. Yeah we hate fig when eight there. But
Speaker 1: you know what all that background because everybody goes through
Speaker 1: some adversity. It's hard. You tell me a person that
Speaker 1: has not gone through anything, and I tell you person
Speaker 1: that hadn't conference anything. So no matter who there, you
Speaker 1: look at Lebron situation, he's you know, he comes from
Speaker 1: a singing you know, single mom um, teenage mom, moving around.
Speaker 1: He came through something most of us over had to
Speaker 1: overcome adversity. So we're used to playing basketball. Ain't't coming
Speaker 1: over adversity, especially when you grow up like we grew up.
Speaker 1: That's overcoming adversity. So to be to play a professional sport, yes,
Speaker 1: obviously you have to be talented, but you had to
Speaker 1: have to go through something to get to that point.
Speaker 1: And the more you go through the more hardened, determined
Speaker 1: dog it dedicated, you become to your craft, and then
Speaker 1: the sky's the limit, the sky's delimit. You just gotta
Speaker 1: put the work in and say what's important to me.
Speaker 1: And what was important to me was making sure my
Speaker 1: grandmother never had to work another day in the life,
Speaker 1: making sure my kids because I knew there's no way
Speaker 1: my kids could live one hour where you came from
Speaker 1: the end of day that I had let alone a minute.
Speaker 1: So that was my you know, to try to get
Speaker 1: them to go to college, take care of them in college,
Speaker 1: and give them a head start because you know, I
Speaker 1: started from the ground floor. At least I can put
Speaker 1: them on the second floor so they could could start
Speaker 1: them the cause they can start them their own. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, as a as a real true football fan,
Speaker 1: I'm glad the week because we don't hear too much
Speaker 1: about you on this on this side of you reflecting
Speaker 1: you in this line and as a true football fan,
Speaker 1: and really appreciate everything you accomplished, not only in your
Speaker 1: career as a player, but now what you're doing in
Speaker 1: journalism and analysm and you're one of the few people
Speaker 1: that have a very respected, real voice. You know, so
Speaker 1: talk to me what it's what it's like working with
Speaker 1: uh Skip on your show. It is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest shows. UH talk to us about that. Skip is unbelievable. Legend,
Speaker 1: shout up, Skip, Skip is unbelievable. Skip is dripping drip.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to explain it because people see
Speaker 1: his brash, they see you no, they see his his
Speaker 1: tough exterior, and he just like, but man, he is.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I met Skip and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at him, I'm like, damn me small and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at him and he's talking. We in production and
Speaker 1: he's saying some of the things and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: heard him say those things on TV. He really believed that.
Speaker 1: He really believed that Braun ain't that good. When Skip
Speaker 1: left ESPN to come here, he wanted me to work
Speaker 1: with him. But Fox and I f it's one they
Speaker 1: wanted another journalist guy because they said, Okay, yes, Shannon
Speaker 1: can talk about football, but can you talk about other sports?
Speaker 1: Because before me, all the guys that did this daily,
Speaker 1: if you look at all the other shows that all
Speaker 1: journalists background, They've covered baseball, they covered football, they covered basketball,
Speaker 1: Olympics and so forth and so on. So I was
Speaker 1: the first athlete to do a daily debate talk show
Speaker 1: that talked about other other things other than the sports
Speaker 1: that they played. And it was like, well skilled, we
Speaker 1: really thank Skips says, no, I want him. Well, Skip,
Speaker 1: let's let's see the Skip says no. Skip says, I
Speaker 1: don't want to interview with anybody. I don't want to
Speaker 1: do anything. I want him. That's the guy. I've done
Speaker 1: my whole work on him. I know what everybody said
Speaker 1: about him, hard work, He'll put the work in it.
Speaker 1: So Skip went the bat for me. Let's just say,
Speaker 1: everybody wouldn't have done with Skip done everybody because a
Speaker 1: lot of people and they said, well, you know, we
Speaker 1: really want you to like, okay what I tried, but
Speaker 1: you know they, you know, they wanted to go in
Speaker 1: a different direction. So this is what we did. Yeah, yeah, Skips,
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly it. Skip says, no, I want him. And
Speaker 1: so my job now is to make Skip right, to
Speaker 1: put the time in, to put the effort in, to
Speaker 1: put the work into study to know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So for me, man, I do I'm here because of skill.
Speaker 1: I never wanted to live in l A. I like
Speaker 1: it now. But I never wanted to live in l A.
Speaker 1: Never thought. I mean like, I never thought a million
Speaker 1: years I was spending anything more than a day in
Speaker 1: l A. Come visit, you know, not even gone. I
Speaker 1: live in l A. It's not my home, man. And
Speaker 1: being on the show and being able to meet guys
Speaker 1: like yourself, uh, athletes and other athletes and entertainers. Man,
Speaker 1: it's great that the best job. Look, people don't understand
Speaker 1: how fun that is, how it because I look at
Speaker 1: it like when we talk we come on the show,
Speaker 1: I met the barbershop, Kurch worry. Yeah, that's where we are.
Speaker 1: And that's what I tell me if I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: I met the barbershop, and the conversation that we have
Speaker 1: that we're discussing is that, And that's what people. That's
Speaker 1: what people. That's why people watch these shows because they're
Speaker 1: having the same discussion that we're having. Exactly, Man, y'all
Speaker 1: is better than Lebron and Lebron vicks. Stop are you lying? Man? Game? Exactly,
Speaker 1: So we're having those same discussions, but we just don't
Speaker 1: lie television to see you guys, how you guys talk
Speaker 1: about your sport and how things are and then have
Speaker 1: a football player coming in and talk about it, or
Speaker 1: baseball player or actors, and things still about respect, still
Speaker 1: about working met your craft and that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: And then this now, I just work at it. Now
Speaker 1: I'm not obsessed like I was was because when I
Speaker 1: came out, when I first got here and I got
Speaker 1: the job, I would do the show and then I
Speaker 1: would go home and rewatch the show in this entirety.
Speaker 1: And I was just doing that over and over and
Speaker 1: then over and over. I was rewatching it, like, rewatched
Speaker 1: the show like four hours. And my agent said, Yana,
Speaker 1: you're gonna burn out. You can't do that. He said,
Speaker 1: you gotta do something. I mean, I mean I wouldn't
Speaker 1: go in anywhere. I mean the first year I was here,
Speaker 1: I put two thousand miles in my car, I went
Speaker 1: to work, I went to work out, and I came up.
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. That was it. All the things
Speaker 1: was just focused, like focus, this focus, just focused, just focused.
Speaker 1: It's like, Yanny, you can't do that, say you burn yourself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, you gotta. He said, you gotta pace yourself.
Speaker 1: He said, if you want to do this, he said,
Speaker 1: at this pace, you last a couple of years, and
Speaker 1: so I started to pull back out of like, okay,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of work. To be good at anything,
Speaker 1: you gotta work at it. I just sit here and
Speaker 1: imagine battle off with you and skip against Stephen then
Speaker 1: Max Kellerman, how do you think that would go? And
Speaker 1: they don't stand a chance. You think you gotta you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm putting you know, I'm putting you
Speaker 1: with Stephen A then right? You don't two on to debate.
Speaker 1: That should be like an All Star debate game or
Speaker 1: something like that. They just go off topics that we
Speaker 1: could make this happen. I'm under the smokes and we'll
Speaker 1: do it. I'm all for that. But I always tell
Speaker 1: people about our relationship. I respect you and how I
Speaker 1: ask you questions, um about about the business and advice
Speaker 1: you give me. People always ask about our relationship. I say,
Speaker 1: like a big brother, you know, he all he always
Speaker 1: give me the right advice, even when he sees something
Speaker 1: that I've done on said on Instagram when I he
Speaker 1: might not say noting that day, but when you see me,
Speaker 1: you're addressing and tell what doing. I remember one time
Speaker 1: in the story, Um, it was something that happened recently
Speaker 1: about Kobe, and I was about to address it, but
Speaker 1: it was it wasn't It wasn't a fine line where
Speaker 1: I was second guesting myself and out of all the
Speaker 1: people I know, I d M him and I asked
Speaker 1: him how should I respond? And he gave me the
Speaker 1: best advice. You know what I'm saying. I responded the
Speaker 1: way So I just you know, this is just a question.
Speaker 1: I mean, people want to know our relationship, but it's
Speaker 1: just me telling them, you know, little little situations that
Speaker 1: I said work and how we became so close. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that, you know, I was you You watch people
Speaker 1: and you watch Lebron, and Lebron like, oh he too, buddy, buddy.
Speaker 1: The thing is we got to get out of that,
Speaker 1: out of our community because we look at the old
Speaker 1: that's a side of weakness. Well, such a arch wouldn't
Speaker 1: have done that. Well that probably explains whether or not
Speaker 1: more people like him because he didn't give the information
Speaker 1: that he could have. What good his information if you're
Speaker 1: not willing to share. That's what Kobe said. He wanted
Speaker 1: to enhanced people. And that's the thing. I look at Lebron.
Speaker 1: Here is a guy that Okay, if you're not talking
Speaker 1: next to the nose, you don't want to know that
Speaker 1: bad business. You don't want to know how this man
Speaker 1: built the brand from a single mother and akron and
Speaker 1: he's one of the most popular athletes, one of the
Speaker 1: most popular people in all the world. You wouldn't want
Speaker 1: that information. Oh no, that that's a sign of weakness.
Speaker 1: No eat, each one, teach one, pass that information on.
Speaker 1: What good is all that information? If you're hoarding it?
Speaker 1: Look my thing the way I look at it. There's
Speaker 1: enough food I want everybody, And if you can't eat
Speaker 1: right now, you can eat off my plate. Our communities, man,
Speaker 1: we gotta get away from that because I'm talking about
Speaker 1: us and that black community. We quick to say, Man,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't why that. We got to get out of
Speaker 1: that craft syndrome. Well, it was like this westead of
Speaker 1: guy when they come and ask me, so, okay, I
Speaker 1: explained to him. I talked to him. I said, okay, now,
Speaker 1: you can't not say anything because a lot of time
Speaker 1: guys want to get in this profession where they don't
Speaker 1: want to talk while they're playing. Well, you gotta give
Speaker 1: people a glimpse. You gotta give people a little insight
Speaker 1: into what they could possibly be getting. That's why some
Speaker 1: guys do better on television than others, because all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, like that's but people knew what they were getting.
Speaker 1: For me, there's like if he's anything like some of
Speaker 1: the snippets and sound bait me calling the National Guard
Speaker 1: or me doing things on the sideline that gave them
Speaker 1: a glimpse into kind of like how I was and
Speaker 1: who I am. And I think the thing is that
Speaker 1: one of the things that really helped is win the
Speaker 1: cap situation kind of feeling that lap because as soon
Speaker 1: as we went on the air, that was it. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like a situation that's going
Speaker 1: on right now. You couldn't straddle the fence on it.
Speaker 1: You get you your a. It's kind of like what's
Speaker 1: going on right now? You either with this government or
Speaker 1: you ain't. No, Well, you know there's something that's simple
Speaker 1: as that for the very first time, there's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of subjects that forced you to pick a side.
Speaker 1: It's like when you're growing up, you're back, Okay, who
Speaker 1: you with? Okay, I'm with the skins, I with the
Speaker 1: shirt outside of you on it can't it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: to me. Nah, pick a side. So and that feeling.
Speaker 1: And I think when when people have heard me articulate
Speaker 1: my thoughts on that situation and give a little background
Speaker 1: in the context, I think people like, Okay, I'll tune
Speaker 1: and I listen a little more, and they because I
Speaker 1: kind of try and approach it. Yes, I'm a as
Speaker 1: an athlete, But how about some of this common sense?
Speaker 1: How about just come on. Now, you're on your job
Speaker 1: and somebody does that to you, You're okay with it? Nah,
Speaker 1: well he should take a pay cut. Okay, they come
Speaker 1: to you on your job and to say what they
Speaker 1: need an extra fifteen thousand for caring an hr? You cool?
Speaker 1: They're cutting you're paying Nah? Hell no, okay, why you
Speaker 1: on him? Is easy for you to tell someone else
Speaker 1: to take a pay cut? Kind of ain't your money?
Speaker 1: But there't nobody else want to give up? Why they
Speaker 1: give up money so somebody else can make money? But
Speaker 1: you're gonna take money for me. So when you start,
Speaker 1: if you put things and people where people could, Like
Speaker 1: I said, you gotta put it on your scale, I say,
Speaker 1: it's easy. Yeah. If you're making a hundred thousand and
Speaker 1: someone's telling you you can make fifteen million, but you
Speaker 1: gotta give a million back make fourteen Yeah, you do that,
Speaker 1: but you gotta do it in your terms. You're making
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand. Somebody said, you gotta give up fifteen thousand,
Speaker 1: or you gotta give up ten thousands. So somebody so
Speaker 1: we can hire somebody else, but I gotta do with me.
Speaker 1: You're hiring somebody else is taking food out of my table.
Speaker 1: So I think that's the biggest thing. Is I just
Speaker 1: try to use logic. I try to put things in
Speaker 1: as simply terms as I possibly can to help people
Speaker 1: understand why I say what I said. Why I said it. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't take no shots in anybody because I know
Speaker 1: how hard it was to be an athlete. I would
Speaker 1: love and respect everybody. It's never gonna be going back
Speaker 1: and forth because you gotta take a shot at me. Bro,
Speaker 1: if you took a fis to what I said, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that wasn't my attention. I'm just doing my job because
Speaker 1: I think you know you at a professional athlete. I
Speaker 1: know what you're going through. Maybe not to the scale,
Speaker 1: but I understand what it's like to be a professional athlete.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna get looked bro. A lot of
Speaker 1: you guys, I'm going to be their dad, don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think at this point I'm saying I think people
Speaker 1: passed taking stuff that you and Stephen they say, because
Speaker 1: we kind of look at your the leaders of our
Speaker 1: culture with this. So if anybody taking it that way
Speaker 1: at this point and they're just being hated at this point,
Speaker 1: but now you know, but and the thing else for me,
Speaker 1: and they're like, well you hate we gotta get out
Speaker 1: of this notion if stax. If I say I like
Speaker 1: apples and oranges, you can't say, oh, you hate bananas,
Speaker 1: and great you gotte I said, why why I just
Speaker 1: can't I like apples and orangins I didn't say anything
Speaker 1: about it. That don't mean I just like I didn't
Speaker 1: do that with COVID. Yes, there there's enough eating this
Speaker 1: And just because I choose one of the other doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I like it. Okay. If I say, if I
Speaker 1: say Lebron was better than KOBD, that doesn't mean I
Speaker 1: disliked Kobe. But but people don't really know I used
Speaker 1: to cape for Kobe harder than what I cape for Lebron.
Speaker 1: Didn't know that. Finally, admitting it. You finally admitting it
Speaker 1: on the show what that you used to go harder
Speaker 1: for Kobe? Thank you, Thank you people that people that
Speaker 1: nobody knew that my friend was telling the guy that
Speaker 1: cuts my hair. He said, here's the funny thing, and
Speaker 1: nobody who's gonna ever believe this? He wasn't harder for
Speaker 1: Kobe than he ever did for Lebron. Kobe with my guy, Kobe,
Speaker 1: Kobe was my man. You couldn't tell me nothing. So
Speaker 1: I had so this I was. I had Kobe. Kobe
Speaker 1: was my guy. He liked Lebron, so I said, okay, Kobe,
Speaker 1: So we got Kobe. I got Kobe, you got Lebron.
Speaker 1: We can never change players. You gotta stay with Kobe.
Speaker 1: I gotta stay with Cobe, but you gotta stay with Lebron.
Speaker 1: He from d C. He know about this kid named
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, so he wont KD. I'll say, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, I make you a deal. Let me get
Speaker 1: get me getting James. Okay, with Katie came when Katie
Speaker 1: came to the NBA, I got Lebron. He took k D.
Speaker 1: So now I got Kobe and I got Lebron. So
Speaker 1: y'all see y'all doing y'all own little bab shop trade,
Speaker 1: and that's how it happened. But but but that's the
Speaker 1: thing is I think that's the hardest thing for me
Speaker 1: is to try to get the people to understand because
Speaker 1: I talked positive about someone else doesn't mean I gotta
Speaker 1: talk negative about somebody because you understand that you don't
Speaker 1: have to ship on nobody else to make yourself look good.
Speaker 1: It's too many people these days feel like they got
Speaker 1: to be little somebody to make themselves. And that's one
Speaker 1: thing we take a point on our show speaking to
Speaker 1: everybody in here. We know how to get people on
Speaker 1: our show disagree with them, but don't disrespects. Well. My thing,
Speaker 1: I think we both transitioned, all three of us transitioned,
Speaker 1: and we so we know the players side, and now
Speaker 1: we know the analyst side as well. And I think
Speaker 1: one thing I really take offense to, and I took
Speaker 1: offense to Nick Wright, who works for Fox, was if
Speaker 1: you've never really been in these trenches and done what
Speaker 1: we've done, Like there's a whey for you not to
Speaker 1: necessarily agree or like the style or play or whatever,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to be disrespectful because keep it real,
Speaker 1: you're doing this because you weren't good enough to do that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you wanted to be an athlete
Speaker 1: and you you came and you settled for journalism. So
Speaker 1: to me, I think it really bothers me when analysts
Speaker 1: that or journalists that have never been in the trenches,
Speaker 1: can't you gum and dribble at the same time, like
Speaker 1: disrespect players like you said earlier, because you know how
Speaker 1: hard it is to be in no shoes when you
Speaker 1: know what gets somebody upset? And look, you cover the game.
Speaker 1: You look, if you cover the game long enough, you
Speaker 1: should have an idea what you're talking about. I get
Speaker 1: upset when I see analyst say things that actually played
Speaker 1: the game. I said, if it was that easy, why
Speaker 1: didn't you do it while you played exactly exactly? Like
Speaker 1: why don't wait a minute, you're saying that's easy, Well,
Speaker 1: you had an opportunity to do it. Why didn't you
Speaker 1: do it? So? And look, everybody has a job to do,
Speaker 1: and my thing is, I'm not trying to disrespect anybody.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make a point. And yet sometimes
Speaker 1: I get upset when when guys do certain things are like, Bro,
Speaker 1: why do you put yourself in the home while it's
Speaker 1: coming from from your place stuff? Because you've been there
Speaker 1: and you know what the roadblocks should be avoiding it exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I see the guys, I don't see
Speaker 1: a whole lot of guys because I don't go know
Speaker 1: what sta. But if I want to see you guys,
Speaker 1: I would dat the guys blow. I ain't got no
Speaker 1: beet with him. Man, you don't like I said. I
Speaker 1: love k D, but Kate you should be above or
Speaker 1: burn account. That's what I told him. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't like that you burn, I said, motherfucking text
Speaker 1: them straight from your phone. Yeah, if you got something
Speaker 1: to say safe, I ain't hide behind nothing there. Like, Man,
Speaker 1: I can't believe you said that. I said, Well, I
Speaker 1: can't believe you say what you said to me. So
Speaker 1: you just say whatever. Yeah, don't he don't let them sue.
Speaker 1: You know, right you're talking to me. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: let you talk to me. Crazy But you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, But after, for the most part is the guys.
Speaker 1: When I see the guys and having been on this show,
Speaker 1: the respect that they showed me, Man, that makes me
Speaker 1: feel so good. I'm like everybody now, they don't nobody
Speaker 1: call me my name. Everybody called me una. I mean
Speaker 1: in d Wade, I'm like bad because you're speaking for
Speaker 1: us to Yeah, you know, you're speaking for us to
Speaker 1: do when you're open up doors. And that's what we
Speaker 1: continue to try to do is just letting people know.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's other ways you can touch the game
Speaker 1: and the game be a part of the game. And
Speaker 1: for your transition to be, like you said, you're one
Speaker 1: of the only maybe that that covers all sports and
Speaker 1: you were a professional football player, so that takes a
Speaker 1: lot of hard work and dedication. So we appreciate that.
Speaker 1: We love that. But I wanted to also talk kind
Speaker 1: of a two part question here, the thought on Tony
Speaker 1: Romo's transition to being shipped the highest paid but then
Speaker 1: also a two part question how NFL players are reacting
Speaker 1: to him making that kind of money and some NFL
Speaker 1: players don't make that kind of Yeah, they're looking at
Speaker 1: the guy, the guy that talks about the game is
Speaker 1: making more money than the guys that actually played the game.
Speaker 1: But it's about it's not what your worth, it's what
Speaker 1: you negotiate to Romo clearly he got him. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: the way it works. So if you keep taking, if
Speaker 1: somebody like, well, here, just take that. If all somebody
Speaker 1: do is give you this water and their solda and
Speaker 1: you just keep taking the water, whether the solda is
Speaker 1: never an option, what if you just keep if you're
Speaker 1: not willing to fight. Tony Romo was willing to risk
Speaker 1: leaving CBS, and they understood that, so they had to
Speaker 1: pay it. What is value? You're not willing to risk
Speaker 1: game checks? So the owners, No, you're not willing to
Speaker 1: risk game checks. So they said, we're here, take this
Speaker 1: and I the core player. Look, there's a one percent.
Speaker 1: Everybody is not gonna be in that one percent. Guys,
Speaker 1: they're guys that's never gonna make thirty million. So this
Speaker 1: seems to be a lot of money for guys that say,
Speaker 1: the core guys making six hundred maybe six hundred two
Speaker 1: million dollars, So extra hundred thousand dollars of a lot
Speaker 1: of money. But okay, for that extra game, what else
Speaker 1: are you getting? How much long are those medical benefits
Speaker 1: gonna be because five years if the average NFL careers
Speaker 1: three years, So let's just say you're done with football
Speaker 1: by the time you good as medical insurance is your
Speaker 1: thirty one and is done. Everybody is not gonna be
Speaker 1: like a Shannon Sharp and get a job in television,
Speaker 1: or be Michael straighthand or be Tony Romo. So what
Speaker 1: about those guys? So I don't think you gotta be willing.
Speaker 1: You gotta be willing to risk something in order to
Speaker 1: gain something. And so right now the guys are not
Speaker 1: willing to risk checks to miss and so I don't Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't understand what the rush is because here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Owners don't want to negotiate contract with players. What are
Speaker 1: your left on the contract? But they want to do
Speaker 1: this deal a year before it's up exactly. But look,
Speaker 1: it's not easy when you got a lot of overhead.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of responsibility because you know, if
Speaker 1: you got kids in private school, you know you gotta
Speaker 1: pay for your house. You've got mama house. You know.
Speaker 1: The thing is about the ownership is that they're lending. Uh.
Speaker 1: People will give them a break, says okay, knowing that
Speaker 1: it's gonna resume, but the NFL cut checks for them
Speaker 1: in March. You don't get your money until you play,
Speaker 1: so they will put somebody else on the field and
Speaker 1: people will watch it. So that's what happened in eighty
Speaker 1: seven when they struck. They put what they call scals,
Speaker 1: and people watched and guess what happened. Some of the
Speaker 1: biggest stars you wouldn't believe across the picket line and
Speaker 1: went back out there. So if a guy that's a superstar,
Speaker 1: superstar going across the picket line and go play, what
Speaker 1: chance to do a guy another game that's barely that
Speaker 1: he might get he might get cut with that good?
Speaker 1: Is he that good? Though? I like him? I think
Speaker 1: you know, I've never heard Tony wrong or do a
Speaker 1: game because I don't watch the game with sound because see,
Speaker 1: they will influence what you might say exactly. See for me,
Speaker 1: I know the hell I'm looking for. I did play
Speaker 1: the game, so I'm looking as Tony has talked. What
Speaker 1: Tony might be talking about. See, I don't watch the
Speaker 1: game looking for touchdowns of this or that. I'm looking, okay,
Speaker 1: formational offense, defense, Why he scored, how he scored, not
Speaker 1: that he's fans don't care about that he scool. I'm
Speaker 1: an Oh, they're playing they playing Cup of five, which
Speaker 1: is too man, too deep, safety man underneath it. We
Speaker 1: call it a cup of five. So I'm looking at
Speaker 1: it's gonna be open and yes, yeah, so that's what
Speaker 1: I'm looking at. And so for me, it's opening in
Speaker 1: the middle. You got you playing, Yeah, it's twenty too member,
Speaker 1: they're playing already inside. They don't want you to get
Speaker 1: they don't want to get beat inside. They want they
Speaker 1: don't want to get beat inside because the safeties are splitting.
Speaker 1: So most time, more times than not, they're gonna jump
Speaker 1: hard inside because the one thing you don't never want
Speaker 1: to gotta do is cross your face because that's the
Speaker 1: eas of throwing football. It's right there, make it hard
Speaker 1: for it. And so I'm looking at that. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: stop letting the guy cross your face. But that's why
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it. So I'm kind of analyzing the
Speaker 1: game like Tony Um and so in my way, So
Speaker 1: I don't listen no side, even basketball games. You guessed
Speaker 1: in calling games. No, no, no, that's too much. That's
Speaker 1: too much. Yeah. I might be a cheer for goal
Speaker 1: you didn't catch that. You didn't catch that pass because
Speaker 1: you was out there doing something too something, but that
Speaker 1: that that's yeah, I mean, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But that makes it better, that makes it. Come on,
Speaker 1: you got open the door. I've never begrugged anybody for
Speaker 1: getting their money, for getting their money. Can't do what
Speaker 1: I'm kind of what I'm procket watching. Can't do it,
Speaker 1: won't do it. But you know some guys man, he
Speaker 1: ain't worth that ain't coming out of my pocket. Yeah
Speaker 1: let me see. Oh yeah, my money stealing that They
Speaker 1: got nothing to do with me. We're just stacks that stacks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they ain't no minute. Yeah, I know you. You walk
Speaker 1: around a bunch of money, you stand on, but they
Speaker 1: ain't fall drug dealing day. It ain't fay. You walk
Speaker 1: around a bunch of money back into day yesterday. That
Speaker 1: I mean back in then when I played in my height,
Speaker 1: that was you. Yeah, I keep I used to walk
Speaker 1: around if if you called me with listing five grand
Speaker 1: on my in my pocket, called the cops. Somebody just
Speaker 1: robbing around the car. Now them days, you can't do it.
Speaker 1: No spending it too much. But I kept a station
Speaker 1: just screaming my name, like I gotta spend it. I
Speaker 1: don't be having no money, all credit cards for me,
Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't shoes is my thing and
Speaker 1: bags too. Oh yeah, I get you know, I keep
Speaker 1: a little up here. You got all the dope bags.
Speaker 1: But that's but that's what And I tell people there's
Speaker 1: like say I saved to a certain extent. I do,
Speaker 1: I said, but I want my my, my money and
Speaker 1: my last breath to run out. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I said, what about being joy? Why I gotta leave
Speaker 1: everything for everybody else to join? Yes, but people don't
Speaker 1: realize we get a lot of ship free to what
Speaker 1: do you get? Who? Who? You? Who? Cook? He does not?
Speaker 1: The ship you got. Jack does a begging section. That's
Speaker 1: where we're getting all this ship for frest. But all right,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I don't have to beg him today because
Speaker 1: I asked him for the jersey supposed to get from
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson jersey. I wouldn't say he had pulled the
Speaker 1: Baltimore raby, but I got to get my jersey. You're
Speaker 1: gonna get the jersey bag? I don't know. I might
Speaker 1: have to call who can I call Ghostbusters that I
Speaker 1: get it? I get the jersey. I got pooled you Baltimore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did play Speaking of Labar Jackson coming from an era
Speaker 1: where there was Doug Williams war Moon Randall cutting him.
Speaker 1: A few other mixed then, but those are only real
Speaker 1: prominent ones. I hope I'm not missing anybody too. And
Speaker 1: emergence at the black quarterback today it's unbelievable because you
Speaker 1: look at the m v P guys. You look at
Speaker 1: Lamar one, you look at Patrick Mahomes, you look at
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson because you know you're trying out to throw
Speaker 1: that in that But you waited till I said his name.
Speaker 1: You know how you'd be hating on that man. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had to say his name for you. He was
Speaker 1: like he liked the field best brother quarterbacks that pod no,
Speaker 1: but don't. But but what you see what's happening. Defensives
Speaker 1: are getting faster, the field has spread more uhas, So
Speaker 1: now you need guys that can get out of harm
Speaker 1: the way, get outside and make plays in the pocket.
Speaker 1: Not saying the statue quarterback, but it's it's getting away
Speaker 1: from them. And the NFL is a copycat league. They
Speaker 1: see the success Lamar, they see the success from Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes and Deshaun Watson and Russell eat Cam with m
Speaker 1: v P a few years ago. So now they's like, well,
Speaker 1: hold on. Instead of getting these guys and try to
Speaker 1: make him conform to what we think is normal, how
Speaker 1: about we get these athletic guys that can throw the
Speaker 1: football and put them in systems that conduce it for
Speaker 1: what they do. John Harbor, they drafted Lamar Jackson instead
Speaker 1: of trying to make him a pocket passer. Let's put
Speaker 1: him in a system where he can flourish. Okay, they
Speaker 1: have the best record, he wins the m v P.
Speaker 1: He's only gonna get better. So I think the thing
Speaker 1: was for the longest time, people don't really coaches, really
Speaker 1: don't want to coach. They want to be lazy. See,
Speaker 1: to get a guy with have that kind of bility,
Speaker 1: you gotta coach. You gotta put an implemental system in
Speaker 1: and you gotta coach it up. They just want to
Speaker 1: just plug the guy. Look, everybody can't be Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: Everybody can't be a tarm Braider, Paid Manning. Do some coaching.
Speaker 1: And what we're seeing now, man, it's great. I love
Speaker 1: seeing that. I just because there are a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that was before these guys that could have done this,
Speaker 1: but they didn't get the opportunities. You know, Warren Moon
Speaker 1: had to go to Canada for five years. He went
Speaker 1: five years of his life where he could have been
Speaker 1: down here playing in the NFL. But now guys are,
Speaker 1: they're showing that they deserve an opportunity, and guys are
Speaker 1: cashing in those opportunities. And you see these guys the limits.
Speaker 1: We see all these guys were in the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: with excepting that, but that has been in the playoffs
Speaker 1: two or four years. He's been in the league and
Speaker 1: he's only going to get better. So with that said,
Speaker 1: do you think we'll see an emergence of black executives,
Speaker 1: black head coaches, black more behind the scenes. Well, that's
Speaker 1: what you need. You need, you need, you need black
Speaker 1: guys that's in position of hiring, so they'll hire others that. Look,
Speaker 1: it's funny that we got seven, you know, black players
Speaker 1: in the league and we only got a handful of
Speaker 1: black coaches. But you know, most times and not when
Speaker 1: you interview somebody, you interview somebody that looks like you,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you, thinks like you, and it takes
Speaker 1: it takes something special to branch outside of that. What
Speaker 1: you're comfortable with, what's what seems to be normal. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and hopefully we start to see that that's
Speaker 1: what we need. We need guys and manage and management roles.
Speaker 1: That's gonna take our opportunity and give guys a fair shape.
Speaker 1: And when a guy doesn't win the super Bowl in
Speaker 1: his first year, don't canny because you know, because when
Speaker 1: they get black, guys get caned, babe, they don't resurface
Speaker 1: like it ain't it ain't the normal. Just can they
Speaker 1: go get the trash trash, take it to the field smash.
Speaker 1: You can't take those chances too many bad, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, particularly white coach can have four or five
Speaker 1: losing seasons and still find a job of black if
Speaker 1: he gets somewhere. Black coach has one of two bast
Speaker 1: seasons and you might need you either a lifetime assistant
Speaker 1: or find a new job type situation. So it's unfortunate
Speaker 1: Barry quick Hitters starts going towards the playoffs. Battle of
Speaker 1: l A. You already know what but I know, But
Speaker 1: but sometimes you say you talk with common sense him.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all noticed. Y'all know y'all didn't
Speaker 1: noticed later, but they ain't know of my business only
Speaker 1: But y'all brought it up, so we're gonna talk about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all want to happen. Now he brought the forty piece.
Speaker 1: Now he's starting. Now he still can get downhill easily,
Speaker 1: still can post easily. And now he didn't added forty
Speaker 1: four to resume. That's incredible. I think to me, it's
Speaker 1: hard to say that Janice and leaps and bounds ahead
Speaker 1: of Lebron from the stand, I think Kendrick Purgris might
Speaker 1: have said something like this because we always devalue Lebron's
Speaker 1: greatness in the East because it was the East. The
Speaker 1: East is something they say, East is weaker than the West.
Speaker 1: But if you take Lebron, take a look at the
Speaker 1: team last year when he was hurting, what they did.
Speaker 1: Obviously getting a D is a huge help, but they
Speaker 1: went from dogshit the first place in the West, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you gotta you know this
Speaker 1: is how you know le Bron to go the guy
Speaker 1: that he traded in New Orleans and the guy he
Speaker 1: traded me for. That's what everybody say. So I'm a coach.
Speaker 1: The guy that Lebron went to went to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: b Alonzo Josh Hard and now they got Zion. Lebron
Speaker 1: went back their minus a D and beat them. That's
Speaker 1: how you know you're good. Lo Cleveland, How Cleveland? How
Speaker 1: Cleveland looking at with Lebron. Lebron had maybe less and
Speaker 1: took that to the finals, and the lake is good
Speaker 1: this year. I got a lot to do with a D.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. I'm not doing a D special, but don't.
Speaker 1: Don't you try to do you can't do that. That's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not supposed to be playing like this
Speaker 1: in year seventeen. He's not. You're not supposed to be
Speaker 1: leading it m v P, leading the league and assist
Speaker 1: the year seventeen johns opt him led the league and
Speaker 1: his last year with year twelve, john Stock could played
Speaker 1: nineteen years. He wasn't six. Yeah, jump and winning and
Speaker 1: winning and giving fold to Biddy. He's gonna be dropping
Speaker 1: on thirty four point triple doubles, getting forty pieces and
Speaker 1: he's still elevating you. Yeah, but all this now too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. I said at the very beginning of season,
Speaker 1: if he's in a position to where a D is
Speaker 1: sort of like Jack said, a D is kind of
Speaker 1: the focal point that this part of the season in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. He's gonna be at his best. You know,
Speaker 1: I think he did a good job of riding the
Speaker 1: team and kind of understanding showing flashes here and there
Speaker 1: during the season and obviously what he can do. But
Speaker 1: to me, he just managed the game so much better
Speaker 1: this year. He made sure everyone else got involved. He
Speaker 1: made sure a d knows, my fucker, we're gonna come
Speaker 1: to you and April and may so get ready now
Speaker 1: in December, you know what I mean? So he to me,
Speaker 1: his management of the whole season has been brilliant. Talk
Speaker 1: to me where you think real quick before we get
Speaker 1: back off the track, Mike, Kobe, Lebron, where they at?
Speaker 1: For you? I'm about to go. You know, God, James
Speaker 1: he's one because for me is that you look at
Speaker 1: the totality you see everybody. It's like it's almost I
Speaker 1: even hate talking about, you know, Kobe and Lebron because
Speaker 1: anytime you talk about Code Lebron, Georgie Sex and on
Speaker 1: the finals, Cobe got more championships that they always got,
Speaker 1: always got something to say. But somebody, I mean eight
Speaker 1: straight finals, eight straight and the best player I mean
Speaker 1: he looked I mean that last year and and uh
Speaker 1: in Cleveland. Come on, man, they had no business, they
Speaker 1: had no business being in the finals except for that
Speaker 1: man greatness. And and look when you look at when
Speaker 1: you look at teams that he's lost to, those Warriors,
Speaker 1: teams of all the championship teams that might be wanted,
Speaker 1: the top five best, and Lebron Lebron lost to the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Really everybody else did too. So so we expected Lebron
Speaker 1: to beat Lebron and Jr. And that and Rodney Hood
Speaker 1: and Geordan Clarkson and George Hill. We expected him to
Speaker 1: be Katie Steph Clay Draymond really and Steve Kerry. And
Speaker 1: when he lost, he lost to San Antonio. So what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do with Tim? So Tim Duncan, There's no question.
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan is the greatest part Forard ever breathe. And
Speaker 1: so he asked Tony Parker he had Manoa. I was
Speaker 1: just coming onto the scene and he had Pop. So
Speaker 1: he losed that, And like, so what team that Jordan
Speaker 1: never played? That was that good question? I think Troy
Speaker 1: teams were good. They were the Warriors good. Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'll tell your team that was good, Big three Celtics.
Speaker 1: This is when they prying remember them when they were
Speaker 1: a Warrior's good? There's level the good they was champions?
Speaker 1: Were the Warriors good? Okay? Which one, Katie? I would
Speaker 1: have known that? How many Hall of famers on that team?
Speaker 1: Who that Pistons team? The same amount of as as
Speaker 1: as the Warriors. Look, I'm just ask a questioning, chu
Speaker 1: you who's your Who's are you talking about about? Dan
Speaker 1: was talking about Jordans. Are you talk about Lebron? But
Speaker 1: I hear but here the Jordan play nobody like like them? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: the detruit come on that Dad for Hall of Famers?
Speaker 1: So which which one of those Hall of Fames? Look
Speaker 1: there looked as a guy in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: There's level the Hall of Fame. There's there's like in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. No, I had better numbers than
Speaker 1: him as far as points. But here's keep a real stack.
Speaker 1: There's like Jim Brown, Joe Montana Hall of Fame. You
Speaker 1: know that there's there's rooms to it. You know you
Speaker 1: go to the todj MA Hall, they're rooms in the
Speaker 1: todj MA Hall. Everything everything is housed in one room.
Speaker 1: So there's levels of this. The KD Katy, you talking
Speaker 1: about the top ten player. What it's all said done,
Speaker 1: he might be creeping down to five. Stephen Curry, Steph Curry, No, no,
Speaker 1: you know who's gonna be leaves going here? Man, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get it. I don't. I don't think you see
Speaker 1: how many consecutive seasons he's had, like Katie, the points
Speaker 1: has been putting up. Yeah, but how many points Katie have?
Speaker 1: Twenty thousand? He got that about now we'll look it up.
Speaker 1: But think about what God, that go about to be
Speaker 1: a faulty. So I need another four years at points
Speaker 1: or something three forty thousand. So the man's gonna be
Speaker 1: top ten, he's gonna be number one point, top five
Speaker 1: and the top ten and reaps come on. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's that's where I think people misunderstood that we're
Speaker 1: talking about the past. First player, Yes, asked for dude,
Speaker 1: that's in the top ten and assist, but still moving up,
Speaker 1: moving that for a second pass first, I want to
Speaker 1: pass you the ball first. But then I still got
Speaker 1: more points and still it's still having your twenty. Because
Speaker 1: I watched him the other night against the Pelican and
Speaker 1: he goes off in the first half. He has nineteen
Speaker 1: but now he comes out in the third quarter, he
Speaker 1: makes a conscious effort. He's like, you know what I need.
Speaker 1: I need you guys. I'm gonna need these guys in
Speaker 1: the thirty managers and games. And then in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarters says, okay, now you got me here, let me
Speaker 1: bring let me brains home. I need to see goat plate.
Speaker 1: When that time you're seeing the play NBA finals one year, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we went at the Cleveland. You would ye, I did.
Speaker 1: I need to get there, but I'm a poor sport. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he you know, I you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be around because I go and they lose it
Speaker 1: and somebody knows me and they're gonna start. When oh,
Speaker 1: that time, I got like five of them. I got five,
Speaker 1: I got the whole leader for him. Imight dressing the
Speaker 1: whole uniform. I might got the mask to the go mask.
Speaker 1: I'll be at a parade. I'mouna be at a parade
Speaker 1: in Junie. You gotta get on the bus. Then you
Speaker 1: know you already know they're gonnain the title thirty six
Speaker 1: all time right now twenty two thousand points almost twenty
Speaker 1: three thousands. This is like what your thirteen No, not
Speaker 1: that many other things. Yeah, no, Russ twelve thirteen is
Speaker 1: he up in there? Yeah? I Lebron, he gotta be
Speaker 1: your thirteen. It could be seen. Look at the goat
Speaker 1: now you know now you know what that is. That's
Speaker 1: so that sport that's like twelfth is behind goat right now,
Speaker 1: Katie put up some points now in a hurry. I mean,
Speaker 1: but I like Katie is because I think him coming
Speaker 1: off this injury, his his game has never been based
Speaker 1: off athleticism. Yeah, I mean you take Lebron's athleticism away,
Speaker 1: that's a lot, but you can't take it away. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's in your seventeen doing he's doing. But the reason
Speaker 1: why I think Katie has a great run and a
Speaker 1: great chances because it's never really been based off athleticism
Speaker 1: for him is jump first. He gonna still be the
Speaker 1: elevating get it off. He shoots that bay so tall man,
Speaker 1: that ain't nobody blocking that incredible. I mean that's unfair.
Speaker 1: That's what's him. For him to be that tall and
Speaker 1: to be able to shoot, his ability to shoot the
Speaker 1: ball like that, that's unfair. It's a yeah, what kind
Speaker 1: of means you listen to me and to Timmy what
Speaker 1: kind of music listed first? Then get me a top
Speaker 1: five artists. I'm old school, bro. See, like guys like
Speaker 1: listening to stuff to get them going. I couldn't not
Speaker 1: pass out, but I tried to listen. I tried about gospel.
Speaker 1: I'm like old school, not al Green, but you know,
Speaker 1: like Barry White. I listen to Max Well, Shod day
Speaker 1: R and b Thu. Yeah, I'm saying you kind of
Speaker 1: neo soulis then yeah, yeah, because I tried to be
Speaker 1: like when I played, I tried to listen to stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, Tupac and get me gonna pass stop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get too am because I've never had a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. Can you imagine me on comfee? I never did.
Speaker 1: I like, Okay, so I get too pumped up. So
Speaker 1: I need something to like just keep me going. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I mean, I know all these artists. I know
Speaker 1: the Baby and Little Baby, and I know yeah the
Speaker 1: Weason my guy. Yeah that's that's my guy. But I
Speaker 1: gotta slow it down too much for your heart? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm too I get to to to wrapped up. Yeah already. Gee.
Speaker 1: Top five sneakers. I know you're a big sneaker. That's
Speaker 1: what you want when a lot of your money goes
Speaker 1: a lot of money goes sneakers. You're a Jordan one guy,
Speaker 1: for sure. It's hard to go wrong with the Jordan one.
Speaker 1: It's hard to go wrong. Um, I got the Frags
Speaker 1: on today. I like that. I like the Duck series.
Speaker 1: Anything that they do with the Ducks, that's what that's.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants that shoe. Um. I like the Lebron m
Speaker 1: v P pack. I like the Lebron South Beaches. I
Speaker 1: like the Jordan's Jordan to the original, so you know
Speaker 1: he's sneaker of the name. Yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: I like the three. You know, most people love it
Speaker 1: if you speak your head. Most people love the Jordan one.
Speaker 1: I like the three. I like threes and fours. I
Speaker 1: like the three. I like the three. Yeah, yeah, like
Speaker 1: the threes, like the fours. It's hard to go wrong
Speaker 1: with Jordan's. Um and I wear a lot of Jordan's.
Speaker 1: But I got I got Kovid as a matter of fact, Um,
Speaker 1: I got a pair of Kobe when he was wearing
Speaker 1: the Harachis. I got the sign from it when he
Speaker 1: was in Denver played. So you got classic runners too.
Speaker 1: You got some classic Runners like that I like. I
Speaker 1: just like shoes, and it's a it's a bad habit
Speaker 1: to have, it really is. It's very expensive. But everybody
Speaker 1: got their thing though. Look I ain't got I don't
Speaker 1: have a boat. And right now you know I ain't
Speaker 1: putting nobody else kids through college, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean by So right now you know I got a
Speaker 1: little playing, a little bit, a little extra. Boddy got
Speaker 1: a little extra. Yeah, So that's my face right now
Speaker 1: to you know, probably if I find somebody's settled down with,
Speaker 1: you know, probably sneak a game. But right now you
Speaker 1: know what I'm looking for. You know I hadn't found it, yea,
Speaker 1: but I'm looking looking. Speaking of that, who's I mean?
Speaker 1: Single man? You know what I mean? Out here in
Speaker 1: l A well dressed kicks kick me. Ain't kicks do
Speaker 1: what they do? Who just celebrity crush? I didn't match.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to rept you, but ask him. I
Speaker 1: didn't show them so many deals. People hitting me about him.
Speaker 1: This is what I tell women that I go out
Speaker 1: on a date with. I said, this junction in my life.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm looking for someone to partner with, not sponsor.
Speaker 1: I gotta bring something to the table. So that's where
Speaker 1: I am in my life. I understand. Look, you ain't.
Speaker 1: I'm saying you don't need to make two hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: but just something contribute. Buy me a gilt, but not
Speaker 1: with my money. Yeah, you know what I'm sayin you
Speaker 1: don't do no buy me a pair of sneakers, don't
Speaker 1: mind me. Don't buy cologne. I don't work alone, so
Speaker 1: because I haven't worn cologne and probably thirty five years,
Speaker 1: I don't work alone. But buy me something with your money.
Speaker 1: If it's nothing but a Lululemon shirt, I'm cool with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but don't you how you gonna use my
Speaker 1: money to bout me? Give and say I got you something, baby,
Speaker 1: know you picked out something. You didn't get me anything.
Speaker 1: You picked it out. But you know that's that's the
Speaker 1: hardest thing. I was in the relationship when I first
Speaker 1: got out here and that ended, and so it was
Speaker 1: it was tough and so um putting yourself back out
Speaker 1: there on the market because I was out. I was
Speaker 1: out of the market for ten years. And it's different now,
Speaker 1: you know, it's you know, I feel like you know
Speaker 1: what's acceptable? You know, to talk? How do you talk?
Speaker 1: How do you approach somebody, So I get I get
Speaker 1: a little nervous because you know, if you say something
Speaker 1: that you know, maybe it was that too aggressive or
Speaker 1: I'm not aggressive enough, and so I it's just hard.
Speaker 1: So you know, you just gotta it's tough, man, It's tough.
Speaker 1: Anybody ain't nobody to choose to me. Did So back
Speaker 1: to the question who who do you have a celebrity?
Speaker 1: Do you have a crush out there? Celebrity crush man?
Speaker 1: Everybody in my celebrity crush. Obviously one would be old
Speaker 1: Nico You know that we cause we don't say the cold,
Speaker 1: we say Nicole the Cold. I like Reginea Hall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I got a girlfriend, I'm out of the market,
Speaker 1: but I still like, okay, these are probably like the
Speaker 1: only ones. And just to see it, man, I mean
Speaker 1: it comes and goes. I mean sometimes I mean you're
Speaker 1: being this mood where you like, you know and thick,
Speaker 1: and then the manute you like five too and petite,
Speaker 1: So it just you know, yeah, I just I just
Speaker 1: want to look. I just want to find somebody and
Speaker 1: be able to come home to and say and when
Speaker 1: I come home, baby, I'm home. And when she when
Speaker 1: she comes home bababy, I'm home and I get a kid.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm looking making. The other bester's yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I'm looking. I'm looking for somebody to grow with. Jack
Speaker 1: has found that ye ain't married yet, but I'm definitely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're married yet. You just ain't made it up. You
Speaker 1: just ain't you're married? Well you hey, you live with
Speaker 1: somebody alone, you literally get mad. All right, facts man,
Speaker 1: We want to thank you man for your time today.
Speaker 1: Coming on really busy man. That's a wrap. All the smoke,
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, shinning sharp Uncle Sha Shay. You can
Speaker 1: catch this on Showtime Basketball, YouTube or all platforms, streaming podcasts.
Speaker 1: All the boys and we're gonna do something fo to something.
Speaker 1: Yeah we are. This life is all I ever wanted.
Speaker 1: I'm not leaving, not yet. I was hoping. It's gotta
Speaker 1: hit the streets. Make funny people like us. Let's destroy
Speaker 1: people like him. Buckle up, get Showtime free at showtime
Speaker 1: dot com m