Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. Good Do, good do. Let's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it. Good do it. We asked the questions you
Speaker 1: always want to know, but no one ever asked, let's
Speaker 1: cut to it. You ain't heard about it? Then we're
Speaker 1: about to let you know. It's all class. All right,
Speaker 1: you're shot in the chair and fold of Jones, random
Speaker 1: precioal banner right now. It was Hey, what's up? Another
Speaker 1: episode of cut to It podcast? Super excited? All right,
Speaker 1: new accent? What's going on? What's on your mind? What
Speaker 1: is what's on your mental? My mental had a had
Speaker 1: a great weekend. Would you like to know what I did?
Speaker 1: What did you do? Nothing? I literally did nothing. Those
Speaker 1: are the best ones. I didn't do anything. Woke up
Speaker 1: on Monday. It was like, that's always a good thing.
Speaker 1: You wake up that. Hey, yeah, let's be real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if you if you don't wake up, do you
Speaker 1: technically complain? I don't know. I never experienced that. Just
Speaker 1: so woke up on Monday. My son Boston is U
Speaker 1: starting to drive? So he's driving us to school. So
Speaker 1: he's doing a really good job. Permit. Yeah, he gotta.
Speaker 1: He got his permit legal and he has to get
Speaker 1: so many hours. Um. I have not allowed him to
Speaker 1: drive at night. I'm not there yet. Um he drove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he drove in the rain the other day and did
Speaker 1: pretty good. Now I kind of nudged him like, hey,
Speaker 1: slow down, as I said, hey, slow down a little
Speaker 1: bit raining. That's what I said in my mind. If
Speaker 1: someone had a heart rate mind on there that day
Speaker 1: it was like three hundreds. I was scared. Scared, but
Speaker 1: and just kind of sitting around and I was thinking
Speaker 1: about something, and so I read something in a in
Speaker 1: the Bible app and it had three things right, and
Speaker 1: it was really interesting because it's called understanding your limitations.
Speaker 1: He gave us three things then. The first one was
Speaker 1: acknowledging your limitations, okay, laying down your expectations. And the
Speaker 1: final one three is picking up God's declarations and really
Speaker 1: and and the last one that says, spend at least
Speaker 1: five minutes pouring over God's promise. Imagine putting them on
Speaker 1: like clothing, asking God to show you which one he
Speaker 1: which one he wants you to focus on that day.
Speaker 1: Some days it seems like God has a lot to say,
Speaker 1: and other days it makes you feel like God is quiet.
Speaker 1: Both are normal, natural things in a in a healthy relationship.
Speaker 1: And what I thought that was interesting is I'll kind
Speaker 1: of divulge in my own I I'm a believer, I
Speaker 1: love the Lord. I struggle with my heavenly father because
Speaker 1: I struggle with my earthly father. And what do I
Speaker 1: do with that? How do I manage those expectations or
Speaker 1: manage the lack of follow up or follow through or
Speaker 1: me guarding my heart because of what has transpired, what's happened.
Speaker 1: And it's not anything to put down on my dad.
Speaker 1: It's just really more of saying that Steve Smith singing,
Speaker 1: fourty one years old, four kids, wonderful wife. UH have
Speaker 1: a great team that's worked that I get to work
Speaker 1: with on the podcast, and yet still struggle sometimes, still
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how what went and where and
Speaker 1: laying down, you know, laying down those things and just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out things. So it's it's it's been
Speaker 1: really cool and it's been really difficult. But I think
Speaker 1: sometimes just kind of putting myself out there and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm struggling the day. Yeah, you know, am I by myself? No?
Speaker 1: I think too often times we think that success is
Speaker 1: void of struggle. Is pretty much they end the twine together, right,
Speaker 1: So you can't you can't have success without struggle, and
Speaker 1: you can't struggle without some success. Right there, they're to me,
Speaker 1: they're one and the same. Too many people think they're
Speaker 1: polar opposite, and they're and and they're not. Out of
Speaker 1: those three examples, which one do you which one I
Speaker 1: guess caught your eye more or which one do you
Speaker 1: gravitate towards? Or which ones do you see or or
Speaker 1: or are more pertinent one stands on the day. I
Speaker 1: could tell you one that I always struggle with, and
Speaker 1: I could substitute picking up God's declaration, I could substitute
Speaker 1: I can remove and says and taking a compliment. I
Speaker 1: have been so ingrained and so programmed to the fighter's mentality,
Speaker 1: you know, fight or flight. I'm a fighter. I ain't flighting,
Speaker 1: but not hearing and accepting compliments. I've so much thrived
Speaker 1: on negativity and in in my back against the wall
Speaker 1: that I don't really appreciate sometimes the easy path, and
Speaker 1: it's not even an easy path. Sometimes for me it's easy, meaning, man,
Speaker 1: just take the compliment. It's like, no, they don't believe
Speaker 1: in me, so so what does that do to you.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where I have strived for.
Speaker 1: I want to have so much perfection that I think
Speaker 1: accepting excellence is a downgrade. But I've had to settle in.
Speaker 1: Don't try to be perfect, riv in the excellence. Just
Speaker 1: be okay with extra for excellence. And but for me
Speaker 1: and my my mind, I'm like, oh, I'm settling, but
Speaker 1: I'm not settling. I'm just so jacked up in the
Speaker 1: head that I think and try to be so perfect
Speaker 1: that I can't pick up God's decoration, Like I can't go, Man,
Speaker 1: God loves me today, or my family loves me today,
Speaker 1: or somebody thought this was good, and so I'm going,
Speaker 1: I'm too busy trying to fight it. I don't even
Speaker 1: stop and take the compliment. Or you also can't self
Speaker 1: late yourself. You can't say, well, even just saying I'm
Speaker 1: jacked up in the head, you're not jacked up in
Speaker 1: the head. We all have our faults and we all
Speaker 1: have things that we need to work on. So I mean,
Speaker 1: even even in that right there. You can't you can't
Speaker 1: lock yourself in kind of that that that mental prison
Speaker 1: almost sometimes I've been living in a mental prison for
Speaker 1: thirty eight thirty nine years. I have yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that I loved. I love
Speaker 1: going to Angola once a year, and Gola is a prison.
Speaker 1: I've never been around so many men who have no
Speaker 1: opportunity of freedom on the outside, but yeah, I have
Speaker 1: so much freedom mentally and in their heart. I didn't
Speaker 1: really recognize freedom until I went to Angola. And now
Speaker 1: for me going to Angola three years ago, three four
Speaker 1: years ago, for me going that prison today, that's like
Speaker 1: a vacation. It's like a resort to me, because it's
Speaker 1: just remarkable that see these men who have made mistakes,
Speaker 1: who can never get them back, but yet they're walking
Speaker 1: so much freedom. Twenty five plus years they've been serving
Speaker 1: most of them have most of them are doing life
Speaker 1: because murder or whatever whatever, they armed robbery And they
Speaker 1: walk in there and I go see them, bro, and
Speaker 1: it's like, what else, Smitha, how you doing? And I
Speaker 1: see them, man, they got a bigger smile on their
Speaker 1: face to see me. When I first got there the
Speaker 1: second year than I ever have, and now it's like
Speaker 1: it's something I look forward to with something that I need.
Speaker 1: And we didn't get a chance to go this year
Speaker 1: because in COVID. But one thing that I think is
Speaker 1: really cool, and it's a testament to you, is you
Speaker 1: got a group of guys, all all your close friends, associates,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and we lead the phones at the
Speaker 1: house and yeah we ain't this ain't this ain't something
Speaker 1: to talk about and show, Hey, look at us, you know,
Speaker 1: the checking it off on the good wheel box. We're
Speaker 1: just going. Man, it's it, bro. I look forward to it,
Speaker 1: and I tell you it is a It is like
Speaker 1: a men's retreat resort for me. You leave with more
Speaker 1: than what you went with. Is not a lot of
Speaker 1: people here quote unquote ministry trips and they think, oh
Speaker 1: we're gonna go help us people. You end up going
Speaker 1: and you learn way more about yourself than you think
Speaker 1: you did anything else. Yeah, I love it, man. So
Speaker 1: that's that's something that been on my mind. Man. And
Speaker 1: as as we continue to do these we're gonna do,
Speaker 1: I think for me, it's more one more doing these opportunities, man,
Speaker 1: checking in That's it. I was. I was just about
Speaker 1: to say that we gotta check in and we have
Speaker 1: some real funny banters like we can have we canna
Speaker 1: have jokes. We can joke about sunny d and and
Speaker 1: gators and backstage Joe turning up Jay's too tight. But
Speaker 1: I think it's also really important that we just have
Speaker 1: these real conversations because it's almost on people's minds. All
Speaker 1: these things have been compounded by the pandemic, and so
Speaker 1: you just have to take that time to just check
Speaker 1: in and and and have serious conversations about you know what, man,
Speaker 1: this helped me? Or you check me. I'll check you
Speaker 1: this beautiful thing. You're gonna check me. We both check
Speaker 1: each other. I don't know about your checking on about it. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do that. Hey, who do we have coming
Speaker 1: up next? Coming up on the Cut to It podcast,
Speaker 1: We've got Brian Mitchell, one of the best return men
Speaker 1: in NFL history. A veteran with Washington, the New York Giants,
Speaker 1: and the Philadelphia Eagles, Brian won a Super Bowl and
Speaker 1: he works currently as a TV and radio broadcaster. Brian
Speaker 1: Mitchell on the Cut to A Podcast. Hey, Brian, we
Speaker 1: appreciate you joining the Cut to A Podcast. No problem. Now. Hey,
Speaker 1: So our first segment that we have coming up is
Speaker 1: an icebreaker. It's called get iceed Up. The random questions
Speaker 1: may or may not have a follow up. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you they completely random. I don't even know what this
Speaker 1: dude has up is to leave, so Smith to go
Speaker 1: ahead and welcome Brian Mitchell to the to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Be what's going on? I like to say one those
Speaker 1: d s, one those no chests when star forgetting What's up? Man?
Speaker 1: How you doing? Alright? You ready? I'm ready baby, all right,
Speaker 1: buckle up, Buttercup, here we go. Let's go. What is
Speaker 1: your favorite hobby? Actually, my favorite hobby is playing golf.
Speaker 1: You know I would say that that was my favorite hobby.
Speaker 1: I would have to say riding bikes. Now, I've been
Speaker 1: riding bikes since April and I've gotten completely hooked on that,
Speaker 1: so golf has taken the back sleek. Okay, So so
Speaker 1: you do you got the biker shorts with the paddy Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do because it but was hurting when I was
Speaker 1: riding without the pass, so I had to go to that.
Speaker 1: And I've done over two thousand miles since April, so humble,
Speaker 1: just two thousand I'm trying to get some I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get some money on the on the bik and wave.
Speaker 1: He won't do it. I told him the same thing.
Speaker 1: I've been doing the same thing. I've been taking up
Speaker 1: biking since probably about uh, same thing. You won't do it, though,
Speaker 1: you you're on the runningway, which is cool. When you
Speaker 1: first went biking, Uh, did you have a real bike?
Speaker 1: Was the beach Cruiser? Was a BMX with I'm always well.
Speaker 1: I bought a bike in two thousand and fourteen, Lorenzo Alexander,
Speaker 1: He uh had a Yeah, Zoe had a charity bike ride.
Speaker 1: So I went out and purchased this bike and I
Speaker 1: rode it in and I didn't ride it again until
Speaker 1: this year. So when I got on it, I started
Speaker 1: riding and found out a few of my ex teammates
Speaker 1: were riding, and and we got into this little crew.
Speaker 1: And I've met a lot of people riding over in
Speaker 1: Maryland and every weekend, I definitely do it, but I
Speaker 1: do it at least four days during the week to Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. That movie. All right, So here we go.
Speaker 1: Last book you didn't finish reading, and why I was
Speaker 1: reading all that? I started reading all these motivational books
Speaker 1: and John C. Maxwell it's a book called No Beyond Talent.
Speaker 1: It's what it's called. And uh, I just didn't finish
Speaker 1: reading it, got into some other stuff and left it.
Speaker 1: But I gotta get back to it because it talks
Speaker 1: more like, you know, those people that have talent, they
Speaker 1: depend totally on that, and it tries to get you
Speaker 1: to go beyond that to where it's like you get
Speaker 1: to the league, you find out everybody has talent, but
Speaker 1: everybody doesn't work and try to work on that talent.
Speaker 1: So some people are successful, some people aren't. And that's
Speaker 1: it's a book. But I will finish it soon, I'm sure. Alright.
Speaker 1: So last one, if you can teleport anywhere tomorrow tomorrow
Speaker 1: more you hit that teleport button, where do you go?
Speaker 1: And why I'm going to Hawaii hanging out in Maui
Speaker 1: because it's just when I'm there, so Tranquild my favorite place. Okay,
Speaker 1: Yeah that was that. That wasn't too bad? That was cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the ice break. Now here comes the big test.
Speaker 1: Where are you from and the place that you call
Speaker 1: what is the place you call your hometown? My hometown
Speaker 1: is Plaqueham in Louisiana. It's a little small town outside
Speaker 1: of bad Rouge. When you were growing up there with experiences,
Speaker 1: did you uh experience? Well, I would be honest with you,
Speaker 1: this is uh the times we're dealing with now, with
Speaker 1: all this racial stuff is something that I did grow
Speaker 1: up with in my hometown. But my dad taught me
Speaker 1: how to be strong in it and overcome different things
Speaker 1: and not let things bother me, but the focus on
Speaker 1: the things I can control. Um, you know, I was
Speaker 1: a quarterback at my school. My school is predominantly white,
Speaker 1: but I was the starting quarterback. As I went to
Speaker 1: my college and did the same thing. But my dad,
Speaker 1: being a military guy, taught me about hard work, believing
Speaker 1: in yourself and making sure you take care of your
Speaker 1: education and good things to follow you, you know, and
Speaker 1: not I wasn't one that was gonna back down for
Speaker 1: many people, so you know, when you grew up with
Speaker 1: the military father, And like I told I was telling
Speaker 1: Joe's story. We're probably getting to this later on. But
Speaker 1: my dad five for eight by a hundred and seventy pounds,
Speaker 1: boxed in the military for fifteen years, so he basically
Speaker 1: transferred all of that that he had in him into me.
Speaker 1: I'm one of seven kids, and I basically was exactly
Speaker 1: like my dad. So I had enough inside my head
Speaker 1: and nothing in my heart that I wasn't gonna back down.
Speaker 1: I was gonna go out and try to fight and
Speaker 1: deal with anything I had to deal with. So how
Speaker 1: did growing up your hometown impact and shape how you
Speaker 1: see the world today. Well, it showed me that everybody
Speaker 1: is not exactly the same way, you know, because along
Speaker 1: my life, I've seen black people that I did not
Speaker 1: like being around, and seeing white people that I love
Speaker 1: be and vice versa, you know what I mean, both
Speaker 1: of those sides, and I think it comes down to
Speaker 1: the heart of a person. And it taught me that
Speaker 1: because there were people and families in that town that
Speaker 1: did things for me, that it was not the ordinary
Speaker 1: way of a lot of folks in my town. And
Speaker 1: then on the other side, you know, there were people
Speaker 1: in the neighborhoods that I always hung out in that
Speaker 1: you have to always watch everything because they were trying
Speaker 1: to take what you had. So as I began to
Speaker 1: be a young man and become an older man, become
Speaker 1: a more seasoned man, I understand that you judge people
Speaker 1: based on who they are and what they what they
Speaker 1: show you, not based off of what somebody else told
Speaker 1: you about them, not based on what you thought think
Speaker 1: about somebody else. But I don't try to sit up
Speaker 1: there and say, well this person is this because of that. No,
Speaker 1: let me see who he is to me, because I
Speaker 1: don't know the experiences that they may have had with
Speaker 1: somebody else, Because a lot of times the experience make
Speaker 1: you deal with a person in a certain way. So
Speaker 1: you know, if a guy treated, you know, somebody when
Speaker 1: I was in school in college as that man, I
Speaker 1: don't like that dude, why you don't like him? They
Speaker 1: never tell you why they don't like somebody because and
Speaker 1: so it's something that they did wrong and the other
Speaker 1: person didn't do anything wrong and the person just checked
Speaker 1: them on it. So by becoming a person who pays
Speaker 1: attention to things around, pays attention to my surroundings, it's
Speaker 1: taught me to become a better judge of character from
Speaker 1: our people. Mm hmm. Did you expect me to be
Speaker 1: asking you all this like this? Be honest? I'll be
Speaker 1: totally honest with yes, because you know, look I told
Speaker 1: you before I was a fan of yours man, and
Speaker 1: the reason I say that is because you know, people
Speaker 1: just judge it by the way that you play the game.
Speaker 1: I judge by the way they played your game. But
Speaker 1: also listen to the stuff you say after something happened,
Speaker 1: and I figured you were a smart dude. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And that's the whole thing about it.
Speaker 1: When you start digging into somebody you want to find
Speaker 1: out about him, it's not the surface. Like John Thompson
Speaker 1: who just passed away recently. A long time. You say, man,
Speaker 1: don't let people judge you by sound clips of your life.
Speaker 1: And think about that. So if you say something, if
Speaker 1: you if you say something and somebody got there on
Speaker 1: on got a little recording of it, and there's always played.
Speaker 1: People judge you based off of that clip. They don't
Speaker 1: know all the terterrible things you do. They don't know
Speaker 1: how hard you have to fight to get to where
Speaker 1: you are, you know. And I think that's the whole
Speaker 1: thing about it. When you start paying attention to people,
Speaker 1: you can figure some things out instead of just going
Speaker 1: around judging them based off of what somebody else told you.
Speaker 1: As a kid, How did you see football as a sport,
Speaker 1: as a job, as a way out as I saw
Speaker 1: it as a way out. You know, my my mom
Speaker 1: and dad. I look, I always felt rich because of
Speaker 1: the love that I see from my family. I knew
Speaker 1: that my mom and dad didn't have the money to
Speaker 1: just send me to a college. So when I started
Speaker 1: playing sports, and like I said, I'm the youngest of
Speaker 1: seven kids and I have fo older brothers. So I'm
Speaker 1: five and a half years younger than my brother that's
Speaker 1: next to me. So when I'm playing with my relative,
Speaker 1: street was one way in, one way out. All forty
Speaker 1: homes were relatives, and they had a bunch of boys
Speaker 1: on the streets. So eventually little little little Keith that
Speaker 1: they called me my name Brian Keith Mitchon, they called
Speaker 1: me Keith. I had to start playing with the people
Speaker 1: that were older than me. And when I started realizing
Speaker 1: that I was kind of good at it, and my
Speaker 1: dad started saying, man, you might be able to get
Speaker 1: a scholarship one day. So I'm thinking, get a scholarship,
Speaker 1: I can go to the college. You know, I can
Speaker 1: get out and go do the things I want to do.
Speaker 1: So I saw it as a place of having fun
Speaker 1: and being around my friends. But my ultimate goal was
Speaker 1: to get a scholarship so I can be able to
Speaker 1: go to college without my mom and dad, you know,
Speaker 1: having to worry about that. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: telling of your your age. But you're born in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, You're born in Louisiana. How has Louisiana changed
Speaker 1: since you were a kid? Uh? I don't think it's
Speaker 1: changed drastically, To be totally honest with you, I think
Speaker 1: it's very similar as a southern state that's kind of lost,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, But I think that you
Speaker 1: find that when you like what I was saying earlier,
Speaker 1: when you begin to deal with people on a personal level,
Speaker 1: you find out that it's not totally the way that
Speaker 1: people see the cover of it. You know, I have
Speaker 1: a bunch of friends there that are very prosperous, you know,
Speaker 1: both white and black, and uh, they try to change
Speaker 1: and they try to make a difference. And you know,
Speaker 1: I still love going home because the people are so
Speaker 1: much more hospitable down south than they are up north.
Speaker 1: I still love to go down. They eat the food
Speaker 1: because the food is the best that you're gonna get.
Speaker 1: If you've been to South Louisiana and North Louisiana two
Speaker 1: totally different states. You know, down south we have a
Speaker 1: little fun up north, they are a little dry up
Speaker 1: North Louisiana. Yeah, I hate to I hate to be dumb,
Speaker 1: but I go ahead. And what's the difference between the
Speaker 1: north and southe like, I've only been to so I've
Speaker 1: been to Uh, I've been Angola, so I I go
Speaker 1: there once a year. Uh huh to Angola, the prison
Speaker 1: down there, and then other than the Saints, I've never
Speaker 1: really gone even never going to pass New Orleans to
Speaker 1: ban Rouge. Like, I don't know, I don't know the difference.
Speaker 1: So what's the difference in North Louisiana South? To me?
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just thought it was Louisiana. Now when
Speaker 1: you're in South Louisiana is basically more of the you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's a combination because you can go to
Speaker 1: different little towns and areas and even New Orleans. When
Speaker 1: you're in New Orleans, you don't really think you're in
Speaker 1: in like Louisiana. You think you're like in like uh
Speaker 1: more of a Caribbean island where they have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun all the time. You get what I'm saying, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a lot more fun and festive down south. Up north,
Speaker 1: they have dry parishes, you know, like county. It's counties
Speaker 1: in every state except United step Louisiana's parishes in Louisiana
Speaker 1: more of the French. Uh the French, I guess uh.
Speaker 1: Touch that goes there. So the drive means that they
Speaker 1: don't serve alcohol. There have no such things downside out.
Speaker 1: It served everywhere, and they probably still can serve it
Speaker 1: to eighteen year olds because they changed the laws when
Speaker 1: they when they change the law from eighteen one, they
Speaker 1: said private club that eighteen you could have beer and wine.
Speaker 1: They change it back the other way. Mhm, but I've
Speaker 1: know it. It's different. It's just totally different. Yea, we
Speaker 1: call it Lord can saw to be honest with you
Speaker 1: where they came from. We have to take a break
Speaker 1: and the morning thing, we're gonna pay some bills. You
Speaker 1: got checks. I love cut to It, and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where
Speaker 1: where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online and you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcast. I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for,
Speaker 1: a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. I'm interested
Speaker 1: to hear about your about your college experience because you
Speaker 1: said you played quarterback. Also, no, you have five thousand
Speaker 1: yards passing three thousand yards Russian. But now when we
Speaker 1: look at we look at the past and current athletes.
Speaker 1: You know, every was a one star recruit. We all
Speaker 1: think that every guy that plays in the National Football
Speaker 1: League or a very successful college player, oh, he had
Speaker 1: to be a baller, right, he had to be highly recruited.
Speaker 1: And that's not always the case. It's not, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think about it like you know, Uh, my
Speaker 1: dad had a heart attack when I was in the
Speaker 1: ninth grade, had open heart surgery. So my my mindset
Speaker 1: was to go to college, be falling enough away so
Speaker 1: I can grow as the individual, be close enough to
Speaker 1: go back and check on him if I had to.
Speaker 1: So my college had offered me a chemical engineering scholarship
Speaker 1: prior to be ever recruited me as a as a
Speaker 1: football player. And my my high school coach got a
Speaker 1: job there as a receiver's coach, and he was like, look,
Speaker 1: they're gonna run the offense that you're very good at.
Speaker 1: They really want you said, why that? Why that? Why
Speaker 1: haven't they recruited me? So when they came along and
Speaker 1: recruit me, I ended up uh signing there because Nelson
Speaker 1: Stokely was a coach at Clemson when they won the
Speaker 1: national championship in one I think it was, so we
Speaker 1: were running the running shoot a single back two slice
Speaker 1: too wide out, so we ran the option and we
Speaker 1: ran a wide open offense. And that's what I did
Speaker 1: in high school. So I ended up going there because
Speaker 1: I was falling enough away from home. They showed me
Speaker 1: that love as a you know, a student prior to
Speaker 1: just being an athlete. And I still can be I
Speaker 1: can get home if I need to go there. And
Speaker 1: as my as a freshman, I end up getting a
Speaker 1: chance to start midway through the season and the rest
Speaker 1: is history. They allowed me to play, and uh, I
Speaker 1: missed some of my best friends there, and you know,
Speaker 1: but the thing of it, I was highly recruited as
Speaker 1: a quarterback. But I didn't want to go to a school.
Speaker 1: I was gonna just let me only running the football.
Speaker 1: Wanted somebody to give me a chance to throw it
Speaker 1: in running And you know I chose that school and
Speaker 1: held the league still found me. I got four teen
Speaker 1: years I left. I guess as a success. We always
Speaker 1: hear these stories about a player what he picked up
Speaker 1: playing sports or picked up playing football. Um, his junior
Speaker 1: year right, he he was on the band team. He was,
Speaker 1: he was, he was planning to claring that somebody's song,
Speaker 1: uh during pe and he slammed the basketball. They saw
Speaker 1: how athletic he was. Why don't we ever hear about quarterbacks? Well,
Speaker 1: he played, He started playing quarterback his junior year, senior
Speaker 1: in high school and having success from there. I've never really,
Speaker 1: we've never heard that story. We've heard running back who
Speaker 1: you know, never laid or was on the band. That's
Speaker 1: Mike Anderson. We've heard other people that kid, uh, Clay
Speaker 1: Chase Borne or something. He played a Notre Dame. He's
Speaker 1: from Canada. He's playing tight end slash wide receivers currently
Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So he didn't play football right
Speaker 1: or defensive end defensive ends that hadn't played, hadn't played
Speaker 1: you know, um heck, one of the best tight ends
Speaker 1: in the game back in the day, an Tonio Gates.
Speaker 1: He was a basketball Yeah right, Why can't that happened
Speaker 1: for a quarterback. I think the quarterbacks, the mindset of
Speaker 1: a quarterback, that it has to be a little different
Speaker 1: because you you're not just thinking your position, you're thinking
Speaker 1: every position. You need to know the game a little
Speaker 1: bit longer, a little bit a little better. Uh So
Speaker 1: I started, I just stopped playing. I started playing quite
Speaker 1: back in eighth grade and played it all the way
Speaker 1: through college. That I had played from what fifth seventh grade?
Speaker 1: I played other positions prior to that, and then when
Speaker 1: I got into the league, I played quarterback and other
Speaker 1: I played. I played quarterback in a few games because
Speaker 1: guys got hurt and not to fence the game. But
Speaker 1: I played every position but quarterback. But I just think
Speaker 1: that the quarterback, the guys that played at is normally
Speaker 1: many people know, when I was young, you put the
Speaker 1: best athlete at quarterback. That's what they did. You know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that you were you could pass the ball better.
Speaker 1: But in junior high, in high school, you ran the
Speaker 1: football for the most part. When they saw a guy
Speaker 1: that had a great arm, they wanted him to play quarterback,
Speaker 1: and you end up sticking to that. And I think
Speaker 1: now you see young kids and they can play quarterback,
Speaker 1: and they see how much money the quarterback is getting,
Speaker 1: you better stay at quarterback. Five million dollars. Yes, so
Speaker 1: you get groomed earlier quarters. Yeah, because like what's called
Speaker 1: I think, uh was it Colin Murray? I've been playing
Speaker 1: quarterback forever and that's all he knows. And many people
Speaker 1: didn't think a guy his statue will ever be a
Speaker 1: quarterback in the league. Hell, he's doing good at it,
Speaker 1: doing pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: let's jump down to so you transition five thousand yards
Speaker 1: passing three thousand yards rushing. You never called a pump return.
Speaker 1: You never did kick off in college? Is that correct? Okay?
Speaker 1: Coming out of college? What did they and I and
Speaker 1: I used today? What did they tell you the position
Speaker 1: you would play going through the combine and going in
Speaker 1: potentially going in the NFL draft? I was drafted. What
Speaker 1: they told me they're gonna draft me as an athlete?
Speaker 1: And uh, they had to figure out what position I
Speaker 1: can play. I told I would love that whatever position
Speaker 1: I play, I wanted to have the ball in my hand.
Speaker 1: But if I had to try and play defense, I'll
Speaker 1: do that. I was offered a contract to go to
Speaker 1: Canada and play quarterback, but my dream has never been
Speaker 1: to play in Canada. My dream was a bit in NFL.
Speaker 1: I just felt if I got an opportunity to play
Speaker 1: any position, I had a chance to make it. Because
Speaker 1: people asked me what I considered myself, I always said
Speaker 1: a football player. You know, because when I first started
Speaker 1: playing football, I played d N and linebacker. Uh the
Speaker 1: coach had me at center prior of moving me into
Speaker 1: running back in the seventh grade, and then when I
Speaker 1: got to the eight grade, they moved to quarterback. So
Speaker 1: you know, I just love having the football. When when
Speaker 1: I was throwing interception, I tried to make the tatles.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a problem hitting people. But I didn't
Speaker 1: want to play in Canada. I felt that I go
Speaker 1: to Canada, nobody going over here from me again. I
Speaker 1: stay in the league and find a way to make it.
Speaker 1: I'll still be known here in the States where the
Speaker 1: big league is, I call it the National Football League.
Speaker 1: Going back to the nineteen nine draft. You were drafted,
Speaker 1: You go to the now Washington football team. You got
Speaker 1: the first practice. Yes, where do you line up? They
Speaker 1: put me with running backs and the return men and
Speaker 1: every special team's team you can name. And I was
Speaker 1: also told by coach Gibs, learned the offense because you
Speaker 1: are emergency quarterback. Russell Grim is no longer going to
Speaker 1: be so Russ Grim, the officer of linement, was the
Speaker 1: emergency quarterback? Was Grim? Yes, he played quarterback in high
Speaker 1: school I think it was, And then when he got
Speaker 1: the college he started gaming away. They moved their officsive line,
Speaker 1: so he was the emergency quarterback on that team. So
Speaker 1: I got there, Well I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: down to rosters. They had Mark Ripkin. Then it has
Speaker 1: stand Hues Humphries, who was the third guy. Jeff ruled.
Speaker 1: How was Jeff? Uh? I felt that I had now
Speaker 1: he still gotta see Jeff No, I felt I hadn't been.
Speaker 1: I should always tell him, I said, man, if you
Speaker 1: play in the league, I damn took a play in
Speaker 1: the league. You know, because Jeff had been around for
Speaker 1: ten years, ten eleven years and had like three thousand
Speaker 1: New York passing, like, hell, I can do that. I
Speaker 1: could do that, all right, man. I was just curious.
Speaker 1: That year we played a game, the game is known
Speaker 1: as the Body Bad Game against the Eagles, and the
Speaker 1: Eagles end up hurting like eight or nine people, and
Speaker 1: of that eight or nine, I was backing up for
Speaker 1: those people. Both quarterbacks got hurt, both punt returners got hurt,
Speaker 1: so I had to play punt return and I end
Speaker 1: up I ended the game in quarterback. We had one
Speaker 1: touchdown drive in that game. Guess who was the quarterback?
Speaker 1: Jeff No. So you know, although I didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to play it for a long time, just that
Speaker 1: moment showed me, well, damn it, if you can do it,
Speaker 1: I can do it. Were your numbers? Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: I think I finished, uh four or six or something
Speaker 1: like that for fifty some yards. I had y passing
Speaker 1: three f five for some of you all passing. I
Speaker 1: went into it and I had a touchdown rush because
Speaker 1: Ricky Sanders went out abounds on a half yard line.
Speaker 1: So I just quarterback sneak that thing in the next one.
Speaker 1: So let a running play on. But in college, whenever
Speaker 1: we were there if they left the spot, you just
Speaker 1: sneak it in. And that's what I did. And that's amazing.
Speaker 1: That controversatility, it's crazy. Let's talk TV. Okay, what has
Speaker 1: been your biggest on air mistake on TV? Yeah, we're talking,
Speaker 1: we're talking TV on TV. My biggest on a mistake
Speaker 1: m hm. Basically forgetting them on camera. And and you know,
Speaker 1: when you don't care, you gotta keep that that look.
Speaker 1: I I didn't keep that look. I was basically giving
Speaker 1: a guy like, you don't know what the hell you're
Speaker 1: talking about look, And they were in my ears saying
Speaker 1: you're on camera, you're on camera, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I would have thought it would be me
Speaker 1: cursing because I know him to cann let things just fly.
Speaker 1: I've been, I've been, I've been. I've been very good
Speaker 1: at that because I know that, you know, the company
Speaker 1: gets fine, If they get fine enough, you'll be gone.
Speaker 1: So I kind of appreciate that. Smithy, you might want
Speaker 1: to back, well, if you want to, you want to
Speaker 1: get fired and stick it to a company, But yours
Speaker 1: was Yours was more or less a face. It was
Speaker 1: anything that you said, yeah, it was, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: it was a face. What what advice would you give me?
Speaker 1: Um being on TV because you're better. I would tell you,
Speaker 1: like James Brown told me, continue being who you are
Speaker 1: because the way that you are and straightforward is it's
Speaker 1: what is what people really want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: But I would say this, like, make sure you just
Speaker 1: do your research and stay on top of everything. And
Speaker 1: if you want to improve your your knowledge of the
Speaker 1: actual ins and outs of the TV industry, you know
Speaker 1: you have time, take the time to do it. But
Speaker 1: don't ever change who you are. You know, because I
Speaker 1: watched people get on camera and they become somebody else,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what the hell are you playing a
Speaker 1: character or something? You know, It's like they're talking to you.
Speaker 1: As soon as the camera come on, like they voice change,
Speaker 1: they stand straight. I'm like, what the hell is this?
Speaker 1: You know? And I just never wanted to be that
Speaker 1: person because if you hired me because of my opinions,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna get my opinions. So I have man
Speaker 1: had a lot of my contracts said that they hired
Speaker 1: me for my opinions, not theirs. Let's talk ball, okay, right,
Speaker 1: playing in the NFC East, you're in the air where uh,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of professional dislike you have to
Speaker 1: wash at the time. Washington football team, the Dallas cow Boys,
Speaker 1: the Eagles, and the Giants. What was that experience because
Speaker 1: watching it, man, you guys hated each other. It was
Speaker 1: the Black and Blue Division, we called it, because if
Speaker 1: you played in the if you play in the NFCS
Speaker 1: and you came out on top, you basically want to
Speaker 1: be somewhere around the super Bowl that year. And we
Speaker 1: all knew that. So, I know, people look at games
Speaker 1: this year and there's normally two teams in the division
Speaker 1: and robberies, but hey, we had a robbery with everybody
Speaker 1: that was in our in the division, you know. And
Speaker 1: then I played on three of the different teams. So
Speaker 1: when I go to Philly, I find out that they
Speaker 1: disliked Washington and Dallas in New York, just like we
Speaker 1: did here in Washington. And then I go to New
Speaker 1: York and it's exact same thing. But you know the
Speaker 1: thing about it, all of the teams were good. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're battling people and and they knocked you out.
Speaker 1: The playoffs are you're battling to go to like the
Speaker 1: conference championship and you lose that game, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of dislike. But when you're just horrible and you lose
Speaker 1: to a team, what what you're gonna dislike? You know?
Speaker 1: And I think as I look at you, look at
Speaker 1: the names of Reggie White's, uh, Lawrence Taylor's you know,
Speaker 1: uh all in it and Troy and and and uh
Speaker 1: Michael over in Dallas at the time, it was just
Speaker 1: so many top notch athletes and all the teams were good,
Speaker 1: and you're batting to go to the super Bowl in essence,
Speaker 1: So if you don't dislike the person who's gonna take
Speaker 1: money off of your audio pocket and take food off
Speaker 1: your table, there's something's wrong with you. And when I
Speaker 1: got to Washington, it was instant. They made sure you
Speaker 1: did not like Dallas first, and then the Giants and
Speaker 1: Eagles follow right behind, very closely, program you right out
Speaker 1: the gate. Oh yeah, and look, I came from Louisiana,
Speaker 1: se trying to wear some sleeves, you know, and Monty
Speaker 1: Coleman walked up and took some cizs and just cutting
Speaker 1: my sleeves and say, we don't do sleeves here because
Speaker 1: you look like yourself. You know, what's that being said?
Speaker 1: What do you think about the current NFL player today? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that they are given too many damn options.
Speaker 1: Let's think. I think it's just like kids today. Okay,
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, what no damn one the
Speaker 1: hunt your number, We're No. Nine one one. You got you,
Speaker 1: but what you got you? But if you learn from
Speaker 1: your mistakes today And then all of a sudden, and
Speaker 1: I got a little, I started getting older, I start saying,
Speaker 1: you gotta what you can call somebody on your daddy
Speaker 1: and you're still living, you know. Then you look at
Speaker 1: the NFL. Now, they give them too many options. You know.
Speaker 1: We we we we had two days in full gear,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I also saw a lot less
Speaker 1: injuries back then. Some days we had tree days. Okay.
Speaker 1: Now I look at these guys, they rarely practice and
Speaker 1: then they still complain. So they're given too many options.
Speaker 1: And we all know, if you've got kids, if you
Speaker 1: tell your kids this is what you're gonna do, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do that. They'll learn how to deal with it.
Speaker 1: Some kids, all right, this lot of parents out there,
Speaker 1: and they think it's uh, they think it's democracy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: some parents something. Some parents really believe in. Let me
Speaker 1: get your input. Yeah, no, no, no, I have I
Speaker 1: have a thirty one year old son, six twenty and
Speaker 1: eighteen year old daughters. I love him all of death,
Speaker 1: but they understand. You know, we're not gonna sit up
Speaker 1: in and be a tyrant to you. But with mommy
Speaker 1: and I say, goes. If you want to make like
Speaker 1: my dad used to. My dad told my oldest brother
Speaker 1: that's when I learned real quickly. My oldest brother came
Speaker 1: in the house one time talking about what he was.
Speaker 1: He cocked strong and all this my dad's He brought
Speaker 1: on cursing from my wife. He said that I just
Speaker 1: said cock. He said, yeah, cock is a you know,
Speaker 1: even though it is he said, he cursingally from my wife.
Speaker 1: So he said, well, if you think you could beat
Speaker 1: my ass, you you make the rules. So he gave
Speaker 1: my brother the boxing gloves. My brother put him on.
Speaker 1: He said, mistake, and I told your earlier my dad
Speaker 1: box in the military. He beat the hell out of
Speaker 1: my brothers. I go to college, I come back your
Speaker 1: eighteen years old and in the summer program, I am yoked.
Speaker 1: He threw me a glove. Was not the bastes on
Speaker 1: the ground, you know, But No, I'm not putting on
Speaker 1: those gloves because he also was a marks within the military,
Speaker 1: so I'm not still So he can't believe your brother
Speaker 1: trying to run up on your daddy late. My brother
Speaker 1: was the baddest dude I knew till that day. Did
Speaker 1: your daddy work it? Was it quick or was it dude? Look,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see if you did you watch the Felix
Speaker 1: Trinidad but Nord Hopkins right, Uh, it watched me. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. Don't watch that fighting. Every time
Speaker 1: Felix got ready to throw a punch, he went on
Speaker 1: the balls of his feet and but now I would
Speaker 1: jab him or hit him with something. So my dad
Speaker 1: said my brother was doing something similar. So every time
Speaker 1: my brother got ready to throw he would jab him
Speaker 1: up and then baby bang. And he told my mom
Speaker 1: and said, I had to show your son that he
Speaker 1: wasn't the badder in his badness in his house. And
Speaker 1: nobody else tried it, And we had four more bars
Speaker 1: after Blanch said, we never had another boy trying as
Speaker 1: what we say. Damn shame what he did to Blanch exactly.
Speaker 1: But I tell you I paid attention. I knew I
Speaker 1: knew what mistakes to or knew what things to do
Speaker 1: and what things not to do. And it was not
Speaker 1: to put on the gloves and box that dude. How
Speaker 1: were you able to play as long as you played
Speaker 1: because you played a lot of possessition. And first of all,
Speaker 1: let me go ahead and take this because I'm I
Speaker 1: remised if I don't say this. You were a plumber.
Speaker 1: And what do I mean by plumber is this? We
Speaker 1: don't really respect respect plumbers. We don't respect electricians till
Speaker 1: especially with a plumber to your toilet get clogged up.
Speaker 1: There you go and you need high ship where you
Speaker 1: need them. And then that's what we especially in what
Speaker 1: we're in right now, they're called the sense of workers.
Speaker 1: When we need someone we we we just can't call somebody,
Speaker 1: or we need a specialist. And you were that specialist.
Speaker 1: You did everything. You You played punt returner. You were
Speaker 1: the kick returner, but also you played multiple positions. When
Speaker 1: your team was punting to the the opposing team's punt returning,
Speaker 1: you went down and covered those kicks. You've played everything
Speaker 1: for me. Stings I I I looked at myself as
Speaker 1: a football player, I felt I could do many things.
Speaker 1: But when I trained, I trained to get ready for
Speaker 1: a football season. I don't know what some of these
Speaker 1: guys trained for today, because I still believe that. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're getting ready to play a football season and
Speaker 1: you have to put your body through hell because you're
Speaker 1: gonna go through hell during that season, and not being
Speaker 1: the biggest guy. And then they got the crazy guys
Speaker 1: coming downtown attacking me on returns. You know, I have
Speaker 1: to be able to give you a little something too,
Speaker 1: because I'm not gonna just accept it all day. So
Speaker 1: when I got to the league, I was a hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety eight pounds and my senior in college, I
Speaker 1: powered cleaned three D five, I've been five, and I
Speaker 1: squat six fifth things. I didn't feel I had to
Speaker 1: be the biggest, but if I got lower than you,
Speaker 1: I can I can get you off of your feet.
Speaker 1: So when I got to the league, I was the
Speaker 1: exact same way, and and Dan Raley, I was strang cold.
Speaker 1: He said, man, what the hell are you doing? I
Speaker 1: remember I saw Barry Sanders had done some weights very similar,
Speaker 1: So I was trying to be Barry Sanders in college.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be as strong as he was. You know,
Speaker 1: never would have the moves that he had. But I
Speaker 1: felt that if I trained my body and tortured myself
Speaker 1: in the all season, I had a chance. They have
Speaker 1: fun during the season. And I see a lot of
Speaker 1: guys who, you know, they pushed it foot a round
Speaker 1: during the off season. They try to cut corners. Then
Speaker 1: they get into the season they can't understand why they
Speaker 1: can't play. You know. I tell a lot of young
Speaker 1: people today, like I got dudes that I ride bikes with.
Speaker 1: They're like, man, I can't do this. I say, well,
Speaker 1: if you want to ride a fifty mile ride, how
Speaker 1: the hell are you gonna know you can go to
Speaker 1: it if you keep riding only twenties, So you need
Speaker 1: to go ride fifty, ride fifty five so you can
Speaker 1: know you can do it. So the things I did
Speaker 1: in practice, like Ernest Bryan was my dude. Ernest Bronner
Speaker 1: taught me, you know, how to go beyond so when
Speaker 1: the games came around, it was easy. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that they never ever pushed themselves
Speaker 1: to the limit. They never test themselves. They don't know
Speaker 1: if they can. They just think they can. How the
Speaker 1: coaches expect them to do it, but they don't know.
Speaker 1: But I tried my damage to push myself to the
Speaker 1: to the limits. And growing up with a military dad,
Speaker 1: I was pushed to the limit with my whole life.
Speaker 1: So what the what the different? What difference it was? It?
Speaker 1: Was it now that I was becoming a man myself.
Speaker 1: I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather,
Speaker 1: good good gets getting down to do ridd Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You wrote a children's book, A Champion Heart.
Speaker 1: I I'm assuming I know where it came from, just
Speaker 1: the way you're talking about your dad and and your
Speaker 1: family values. But I want to I want to really know,
Speaker 1: even in depth. I understand the really now getting this
Speaker 1: time to talk to you where it came from. But
Speaker 1: why did you believe it was needed? Though? Well, I
Speaker 1: think like little kids are looking, they look at athletes
Speaker 1: as much as they look at anybody to get some
Speaker 1: type of spark or get some guidance. And throughout my life,
Speaker 1: I was looking back into New York asked me the question,
Speaker 1: how had my upbringing impact to me? And this sense
Speaker 1: and so I just started thinking about it. And I
Speaker 1: think about when I was a young kid and people
Speaker 1: always said that kid has heart when I was playing football. Uh,
Speaker 1: then later on my dad had a heart attack. My
Speaker 1: dad passed with a heart attack, so that's the heart
Speaker 1: being touched again. And then you know, my mom and
Speaker 1: dad were give us like whatever my mom cooked, she
Speaker 1: cooked as if she was cooking for a damn football
Speaker 1: team because he and her words were if somebody stopped
Speaker 1: by the house, they may need to me, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make sure they have something to eat. And then they
Speaker 1: were charitable. So I started thinking about my life and
Speaker 1: every time all those things came up, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, having heart, being a guy who was competitive. Um,
Speaker 1: my dad died of a heart attack, and that, you know,
Speaker 1: made me want to start working with the Heart found
Speaker 1: the Heart Association to make sure nobody else have to
Speaker 1: deal with those type of things. And I find that
Speaker 1: even if I'm not thinking about it, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: do some charitable type things. So I wanted to just
Speaker 1: it was about a champion's heart and talking to kids
Speaker 1: about believing in yourself and uh, making sure you love
Speaker 1: your parents, you know, and pay attention to the things
Speaker 1: that they're trying to teach you, because as a kid,
Speaker 1: we all think we know everything and our parents are
Speaker 1: basically just trying to tell us that we've already been
Speaker 1: through what you're gonna go through, and if you learn
Speaker 1: a little bit, you wanta make the same mistakes that
Speaker 1: we made. And I just wanted to put something together
Speaker 1: about how my path went. You know, I was a
Speaker 1: guy who wasn't the biggest um, didn't go to the
Speaker 1: biggest school, wasn't told I was gonna play in the league,
Speaker 1: like you know, all the kids, all the dudes in
Speaker 1: my neighborhood, like, man, you're never playing in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Well played fourteen years and then after my last year
Speaker 1: they told me to see, you know, they let you go. Well, damn,
Speaker 1: I played fourteen years. I get no credit for that,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's just that I I just I
Speaker 1: feel that kids need to understand that you don't have
Speaker 1: to be the biggest, you don't have to be the baddest,
Speaker 1: but if you're gonna be willing to put the work
Speaker 1: in and take care of yourself, to take care of
Speaker 1: your business, you can have the success that you want
Speaker 1: to have. You know, I've watched you obviously playing with
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens um you know, here in Charlotte because
Speaker 1: as of um the cable system, we don't really have it.
Speaker 1: But in Baltimore, I would see the Red Skins, um
Speaker 1: the the the after the games and before the games,
Speaker 1: and so I noticed that about you, your ton of energy.
Speaker 1: And seeing watching the years with the Eagles and Washington
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and watching you with the different teams.
Speaker 1: I always wondered, was the TV Brian Mitchell just just
Speaker 1: as animated in person? And it hasn't. You haven't let
Speaker 1: me down, and so I just it's just one of
Speaker 1: those cool things. You know. Your belief system mm hm
Speaker 1: it was. It was founded obviously by your parents. But
Speaker 1: how did you keep that belief system always in that
Speaker 1: direction versus getting sidetracked? Right, because you know you're from Louisiana,
Speaker 1: went to a small school. Now you're in the nation's capital. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're playing on the biggest stage. How did you stay
Speaker 1: focused on that such strong belief system without getting drilled
Speaker 1: well at first of all, just says. When I was young,
Speaker 1: my dad told me lived to be even respected and
Speaker 1: I liked and that stuck with me, and then my
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters never let me get the big head.
Speaker 1: I think I was like somebody special. So when I
Speaker 1: went home, it was always about you know, after my
Speaker 1: dad passed away after my first season, it was about
Speaker 1: what my dad said, and and the thing about it.
Speaker 1: My possibly been gone since nine and some days I
Speaker 1: still think he's around. You know, I'm being honest with you.
Speaker 1: But the whole thing of it is, I I've always
Speaker 1: like my My goals in life would to make my
Speaker 1: mama happy, to make my daddy proud, and I'll stick
Speaker 1: with that. And I think by the things that they
Speaker 1: taught me, they've worked my whole life, So why would
Speaker 1: I change them just because I got to a different place.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first got up here to d C,
Speaker 1: I was exposed to different things people were offering, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't what I was about. You know, I came
Speaker 1: here to play football. I didn't come here to be
Speaker 1: everybody's friends. I didn't come here to try to be
Speaker 1: liked by the whole community. I came here to be
Speaker 1: respected when I was done, because we always tell people,
Speaker 1: you know, they say, well, man, how do you think
Speaker 1: people think about just say, not about how they think
Speaker 1: about you now is when you're done, what they're gonna
Speaker 1: say about you? Did you give everything you're supposed to give?
Speaker 1: And I think by being such a dude that was
Speaker 1: you know, like people say you were Mama's boy or
Speaker 1: Daddy's boy. Hell, I was both of them, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to make him proud and my mom my dad
Speaker 1: passed away, my mom was still around, and I told
Speaker 1: my dad, anything ever happened to you, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: here for and he said, I have no doubt I
Speaker 1: know you will. You know. So I stayed trying to
Speaker 1: be the guy that they always wanted me to be,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't perfect with it all the time, but
Speaker 1: I would say if I was gonna if I failed,
Speaker 1: it wasn't gonna be often and it wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: same thing again because I was gonna always think about
Speaker 1: the fact that make Mama happy, make dad a problem.
Speaker 1: M Wow, that's that's so amazing. I know I can
Speaker 1: probably speak for Smithie when I say I don't only
Speaker 1: hope and pray that my kids view me the same.
Speaker 1: And that's one day my daughter, she I told her, said,
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to give me any gift. Just
Speaker 1: take a piece of paper and a pen and write
Speaker 1: what I mean to you. And she told my oldest
Speaker 1: daughter was like, look that, I said, if I can,
Speaker 1: if I one day I have half of the work
Speaker 1: ethic that you have, I'm gonna be a success. That's
Speaker 1: say enough for me, you know, because say they're getting it,
Speaker 1: they see what you're doing and think for for us
Speaker 1: as parents, we just want to know that our kids
Speaker 1: understand what we're trying to do for them because my
Speaker 1: daddy told me and and half the things I know
Speaker 1: in life with my paps. So he said, Man, make
Speaker 1: sure my grandkids lives or Belding yours was. And I'm
Speaker 1: trying to teach my kids the same thing. If they
Speaker 1: can make their kids lives, Belling, there's work. That's the
Speaker 1: way you start legacies. Our last segment is called the
Speaker 1: Deep Three, and these are just three questions that we
Speaker 1: ask every athlete or celebrity whomever that comes on our
Speaker 1: show just to go and get a deeper understanding of them,
Speaker 1: So Smithy, won't you give them first? One? What are
Speaker 1: your core values as a person. As a person, I
Speaker 1: feel for me is to honor those that came before
Speaker 1: me and took the time to teach me the things
Speaker 1: that I know today, and then for me to take
Speaker 1: those things and take them as far as I possibly can.
Speaker 1: And to respect people the way I want to be respected.
Speaker 1: And I think, uh, the and and then be thankful
Speaker 1: every day for what I was given by the higher,
Speaker 1: higher person that's higher than all of us and God.
Speaker 1: You know, I was given talents and I've always told
Speaker 1: people my thank you is to take those talents as
Speaker 1: far as I can. And Uh, if I do those
Speaker 1: four things, I think I'm gonna touch this about everything
Speaker 1: I need to touch in life. Wow, you're such an
Speaker 1: o g when you when you look back and you reflect,
Speaker 1: what's the most important life lesson you would share with
Speaker 1: the future generation? Mm hmm. You're gonna everybody's gonna make mistakes,
Speaker 1: but you have to learn from your mistakes. You know,
Speaker 1: it's probably multiple things I can give. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think with a lot of times that we we
Speaker 1: turn people off because people talk to us as if
Speaker 1: they were perfect and I let people understand that you're
Speaker 1: going to make a mistake in your life. You may
Speaker 1: make multiple mistakes, but don't make them twice. Don't keep
Speaker 1: making them over and over again. Learn from it and
Speaker 1: then move on and then try to educate somebody else
Speaker 1: on it. Because I think when we are giving something,
Speaker 1: whether it's a blessing or a tidbit, don't keep it
Speaker 1: to yourself. You start sharing it with people. When you
Speaker 1: start sharing it, you have more of an impact on it.
Speaker 1: I had My last question was it's gonna be about
Speaker 1: purpose in life and all that, and I wanted when
Speaker 1: you were talking, I was thinking about some time. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I'll be scared if if Brian was
Speaker 1: my dad right, just because of how you know, just
Speaker 1: how much of perfectionists I am and want to get right.
Speaker 1: So I kind of I'm reversion it. Uh. They don't
Speaker 1: even know why. I'm kind of getting emotional before I'm
Speaker 1: asking you, but it's, Uh, if you can talk to
Speaker 1: your dad right now, what would you want to hear
Speaker 1: from him? I just I would want to hear from him.
Speaker 1: Did uh did I make you proud? You know? Did
Speaker 1: I do the things you wanted me to do? And
Speaker 1: to be be honest with your thing is just some
Speaker 1: days I wake up and I just want to ask
Speaker 1: him what should I do? You know, how should I
Speaker 1: handle certain situations? Because he always seemed to have the answers,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And hell, like I said,
Speaker 1: I got three daughters at eighteen, twenty and twenty six,
Speaker 1: and hey, that's a challenge where you're growing up with
Speaker 1: those daughters and stuff like that. And because my we
Speaker 1: had to two girls and then five boys afterwards, and
Speaker 1: I want to know when they started hitting in certain ages,
Speaker 1: you know, how did he have to deal with it?
Speaker 1: Being such a masculine, strong dude. How did you deal
Speaker 1: with the femininity of your daughters? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes I don't think I get it right, you know,
Speaker 1: And I do everything to make sure that they're happy
Speaker 1: and they know that. I just want them to be safe.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to be overbearing. But then again,
Speaker 1: I don't want to not do enough, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And if I could have that conversation with him,
Speaker 1: you know, and yeah, I just wish he could have
Speaker 1: gone through this. My dad died after my rookie season,
Speaker 1: so I started accomplishing some major things after that, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't there. You know, I wish that he could
Speaker 1: have gone on their journey with me because I think
Speaker 1: it was meant for him to be there. And people
Speaker 1: always tell you they're looking down upon you, but I
Speaker 1: wanted him to be beside me. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He probably was, but you know what I'm saying. The
Speaker 1: reason why I guess the emotionals, Uh, my grandfather impacted
Speaker 1: my life that way, like even some of my family
Speaker 1: says I'm more like my my grandfather than my dad,
Speaker 1: and so talking to you and hearing that. There are
Speaker 1: times in my life, like being forty one, there are
Speaker 1: times like I believe in God, I love God, but
Speaker 1: also there are times to where I don't want the
Speaker 1: conversation internally with God. Sometimes I want someone that I'm
Speaker 1: very like, someone that I got my values from is
Speaker 1: my Grandpa. And sometimes I want that hug. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: want that that's that particular touch that I know only
Speaker 1: he gave me that no one else can give. I
Speaker 1: love my wife, I love my boys, I love my
Speaker 1: my my my best friends, but I need my Grandpa
Speaker 1: times just listen hit me. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: I'm over here, like I'm over tearing up, bro, And
Speaker 1: I don't even know what those things that I tell
Speaker 1: people over and over again. You know, throughout our lives
Speaker 1: growing up, people always chase something old man, you know,
Speaker 1: men don't cry. No, when you cry about something that
Speaker 1: makes that that you really feel and stuffing that that's
Speaker 1: been impactful to you. That is being a man. A man,
Speaker 1: A man is not trying to hide your emotions, hide
Speaker 1: your feelings, run from the things. Know it's it's what
Speaker 1: you got to where you are because of what your
Speaker 1: grandfather gave you. He is steal some stuff in you
Speaker 1: that if you didn't have it, you probably wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the person you are to day. So that makes your emotional.
Speaker 1: And I have looked. I'll be driving down the road
Speaker 1: sometimes and all of a sudden something popping my head
Speaker 1: and boom, herecause some damn tears like say, damn, I'm
Speaker 1: getting soften, I'm getting It makes you understand, like you know,
Speaker 1: as you go through life, what's important and what's not.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not important for me to try to
Speaker 1: make somebody think I'm a certain type of way. It's
Speaker 1: important to be who I am and be the person
Speaker 1: that the people that took the time to try to
Speaker 1: make me become this person that they understand that, you
Speaker 1: know what he took, heed to it and became something.
Speaker 1: So if I'm gonna cry because I think, and I
Speaker 1: don't cry because of things that are always sad, some
Speaker 1: of the things that are happened make you make you cry.
Speaker 1: You know, I got my four kid in college. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm happy, and there I was crowding because I put
Speaker 1: some work into that. And then for they see them
Speaker 1: finally getting there and doing the thing that I've seen them.
Speaker 1: Everybody leaves the other and teaches the other something that's
Speaker 1: what I worked on, so that that makes me happen.
Speaker 1: Somethime that happeness comes in and as in the form
Speaker 1: of a damn cry for me, there are some players
Speaker 1: that is more than just you know, knowing or getting
Speaker 1: their respect. It's it brings me back. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why I kind of triggered. Is it brings me
Speaker 1: back to being on a hundred and avalon and and
Speaker 1: and sitting there watching football and and and knowing, you know,
Speaker 1: being on the West coast. Bro. You know, I wake
Speaker 1: up nine o'clock games are on and and seeing these
Speaker 1: players you know, Bow Jackson, Tim Brown, but Brian Mitchell,
Speaker 1: those quote unquote little guys that had a being impacked
Speaker 1: in the game, right and and and that's who you were.
Speaker 1: You were that guy that I kind of looked at
Speaker 1: it like, I hope I can do that. You damn
Speaker 1: sure did. You damn sure did, man. And And that's
Speaker 1: look I I I appreciate you just telling me that,
Speaker 1: because watching the way that you played is always that
Speaker 1: they made me happy, dude, because I I love seeing
Speaker 1: guys who go out there and you know, they're serious
Speaker 1: about their business, but they have fun doing their job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of guys don't have fun. You
Speaker 1: were those guys that I watched. You're those guys y'all
Speaker 1: punished people. And so I grew up with the narrative
Speaker 1: based on my grandma. My grandpa taught me was those
Speaker 1: are the people you have to play like if you
Speaker 1: want to make it, that's what you gotta play like.
Speaker 1: And and so even though I played in a different era,
Speaker 1: I played like the players that I watched. And those
Speaker 1: players that I watched there were no nonsense. They they
Speaker 1: as we say, they played for keeps it. So thank you. UM,
Speaker 1: very blessed to be able to talk to you. UM,
Speaker 1: in my mind, one of the great UM, A legacy builder, UM,
Speaker 1: a tone setter, and man, uh, we appreciate your time,
Speaker 1: dog Steve, appreciate you all. So I know we were
Speaker 1: talking during this interview Smithy on most embarrassing TV moments,
Speaker 1: and I just so happened to uh, to pull yours.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play this clip real quick and then we'll love.
Speaker 1: We'll break this bad boy down, change something up, because
Speaker 1: they haven't been the greatest a franchise, uh since obviously,
Speaker 1: Damn Dann REMI uh, Dan, I can't even speak right now. Man,
Speaker 1: it's terrible. I mean, well, I'm not laughing. I'm not
Speaker 1: laughing at you. I'm laughing. I'm laughing with you. I
Speaker 1: wasn't laughing. I was sweating so bad and I was
Speaker 1: at the house. Yeah, I was embarrassed. So I guess
Speaker 1: it's fair to say that's that's probably your most embarrassing
Speaker 1: TV moment by far right. Yeah, Dann Marino, of course
Speaker 1: you know it now. But in the moment with the
Speaker 1: lights on and being on national TV, I mean, just
Speaker 1: just get you get stuck like chunk her her on
Speaker 1: a struggle bus rank I was I was driver and
Speaker 1: in the front seat. It was terrible, man, but hey,
Speaker 1: you bounce back. When you do, you're a heck of
Speaker 1: an end. Listen. We got a chance to talk to Brian. Definitely,
Speaker 1: he gave us so many nuggets on you know, his
Speaker 1: on his outlooks, what he's been able to do in
Speaker 1: the television industry. And we were blessed to be in
Speaker 1: some good company during that interview. We were and I
Speaker 1: I don't know why, I got all emotional and got
Speaker 1: all I got tear, man, I mean, I feel you.
Speaker 1: It was definitely. Uh. I shared the same sentiment my
Speaker 1: my grandfather. It is by far the most impactful man
Speaker 1: I've ever met in my life. And some of the
Speaker 1: things he instilled to me, being a man of character,
Speaker 1: being a man of integrity, like leading with that it's
Speaker 1: something that you know, I never waiver on that, and
Speaker 1: it's just I can I can hear him. He passed
Speaker 1: away when I was thirteen, but I remember vividly conversations
Speaker 1: from when I was five six seven. I mean, just
Speaker 1: the impact him being a policeman, him being the business owner,
Speaker 1: Like there's just so many things he put in me
Speaker 1: that man, I I give my right on to hear
Speaker 1: his voice again. I can tell you right now, what's
Speaker 1: crazy is uh all this stuff he put in me.
Speaker 1: I can care less about it. I just, you know,
Speaker 1: just sometimes want that. I just want to hear. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's crazy because talking to Brian. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it triggered, but I just, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: just hearing how impactful his dad was onto him and
Speaker 1: what it was. You know what's crazy is I lost
Speaker 1: my grandfather like two weeks. It was like a week
Speaker 1: and a half into November, and I got a call
Speaker 1: that he went to the hospital and and my family
Speaker 1: is on the East West coast and I'm on the
Speaker 1: East coast, so I gotta call, like we were doing
Speaker 1: our body week, I gotta call on like Thursday. It
Speaker 1: was like Wednesday and Thursday Friday morning he was gone
Speaker 1: and he had My grandfather had cancer of the liver.
Speaker 1: He got diagnosed. Um. He went to the VA because
Speaker 1: he was a vetter. And when he got diagnosed, he
Speaker 1: said cool and he walked out of hospital and he
Speaker 1: never went again. He was on the steps and fell
Speaker 1: down the steps. She passed out because he had it
Speaker 1: had spread to his lungs and it flew it on
Speaker 1: his lungs. And when he went into the hospital, just
Speaker 1: like my grandpa, the g that he was, he said,
Speaker 1: how long am I gonna be in there? Unfortunately he
Speaker 1: passed like the next day. I'm messim, you know, but
Speaker 1: a man gets cancer diagnosed, he don't say a word.
Speaker 1: He just kept going to really he could until they
Speaker 1: couldn't go anymore. So for me, man, it's like, I
Speaker 1: hope I'm close at all. Oh man, you're definitely close.
Speaker 1: You you have arrived and nah, but yeah you're worse.
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta, you gotta receive it. You gotta
Speaker 1: receive it. And so you trust me. He's looking down,
Speaker 1: he's proud. Both our grandfathers are proud. And you gotta
Speaker 1: hold your head up and know that you are walking
Speaker 1: and everything that he put in you appreciate it. But
Speaker 1: it's still messim, you know. Cut to It with Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut
Speaker 1: to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect, and
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows From Cut to It
Speaker 1: executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John,
Speaker 1: talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media manager Payton
Speaker 1: Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced
Speaker 1: by Brian Balta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance
Speaker 1: by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by
Speaker 1: Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't
Speaker 1: heard about it, then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all