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 it, Good do it. Let's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked.
Speaker 1: Let's cut to it. You ain't heard about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all which one?
Speaker 1: Are you? Hey? Hey, Hey? What is up? Cut to it? Fam?
Speaker 1: How are you? What up? What up? What up? All right,
Speaker 1: let's get straight into it. Backstage, Joe, what's up? Man?
Speaker 1: It's going on? Fellas. Okay, we had an unbelievable weekend,
Speaker 1: didn't we. Yes, we did. We played golf this weekend
Speaker 1: to cut to an invitational. Yes, none of us made
Speaker 1: the cut. We only made it the saturday. We got
Speaker 1: that green ribbon, that participation award. All right. So we're
Speaker 1: driving back, um from from a little golf off trip
Speaker 1: and it's about a four hour drive. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: say where we were. We don't want to lose them anymore. Uh,
Speaker 1: beach folks that we are. We lost the Myrtle Beach folks.
Speaker 1: We want to keep. We don't want to keep the
Speaker 1: streets the coast. So driving back and four hour drive,
Speaker 1: so we about two hours in, it's like, hey, let's stop, stop,
Speaker 1: grab something. What's anybody wants? So you know you're on
Speaker 1: the road, and you know how these when you're on
Speaker 1: a road trip, got a few options. You got a
Speaker 1: few options, right, They all pretty much the same. So
Speaker 1: go through a drive through, go through a drive through, going,
Speaker 1: go through line, go through the line. So we order
Speaker 1: welcome to such and such. Man help you. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: driving os there, geez there, and they all rattled off
Speaker 1: one by one what they want. So I say, hey,
Speaker 1: I would like this combo? What else? What else? Joe says, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll take a sound interrupting. Then after Joe says that
Speaker 1: gerald interrupting or is the exact same thing as a
Speaker 1: comb made it easy. We should have known it was
Speaker 1: gonna go a straight because the second you gotta sell.
Speaker 1: But what else? Yeah? I would I would like what else?
Speaker 1: And also what else? What kind of sort? That's how
Speaker 1: it went. So, thank you. Here's my Here is my amount.
Speaker 1: I knew it was struggle when you pulled around four total.
Speaker 1: That was my total. Drive up. I had a girl
Speaker 1: tend the five easy easy cash transaction easy cash. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write this out because I had to rethink
Speaker 1: it when I did the transaction. Let's back in. Let's
Speaker 1: back into that maths at ten and the five okay,
Speaker 1: one on one canceled out? Four cannot go in to five?
Speaker 1: Old school. I got to yeah, I have to see.
Speaker 1: This is where we already are separating in which we're going.
Speaker 1: This is how math is introduced. It is continue with
Speaker 1: the story, all right, because I'm doing this math or
Speaker 1: the four zero came not make that that canceled out
Speaker 1: to zero nine? Bang, make that zero attend ten minus
Speaker 1: one is nine nine cents. Now I knew this. I
Speaker 1: knew this, but I'm doing it the second day. This
Speaker 1: happened yesterday, second day in case maybe I misjudged her
Speaker 1: calculating skills, because let me tell you, she used a
Speaker 1: calculator on her phone. So she comes back after I
Speaker 1: handed the money, she comes back and says, you got
Speaker 1: ninety one cents. But to be fair, first she turned
Speaker 1: her back on us once you hand her the money,
Speaker 1: and like we were just staring at it, like it
Speaker 1: was like a showdown. Because I looked at him, said,
Speaker 1: I hope she would give you my change? Why change
Speaker 1: important to me? I'm a change guy. I like to
Speaker 1: have to change, and then I take it home, put
Speaker 1: in my change, and then every six months I cash
Speaker 1: it and I put into dollars. Listen, I'm a change counter.
Speaker 1: I pick up change off the But what what was
Speaker 1: the change that she gave you? Was that she gave
Speaker 1: She gave me three cents? Three? So we just after
Speaker 1: I said, uh, can I get a change? She goes,
Speaker 1: and now we're back into this math already sidetrack Sally,
Speaker 1: stop it. She goes, you're gonna give me a ninety
Speaker 1: one cent? I said it, excuse me, I gave you?
Speaker 1: And did you actually owe me? How much change do
Speaker 1: you owe me? Then she brings out the calculator. No,
Speaker 1: she gives me three cents, And I said, because when
Speaker 1: she gave it to me, I was like, are they
Speaker 1: giving up? So? Are they giving our big coins? Does this?
Speaker 1: I know this is a podcast, but not only did
Speaker 1: she give us three cents wrong, she finger rolled it
Speaker 1: right in just Steve's hands to like with the attitude
Speaker 1: like here's your three cents. And so I called it
Speaker 1: and I was like, hold on, and so I told
Speaker 1: her not aggressively. I said, in my mind, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: all right, don't be rude, don't be rude, don't be rude.
Speaker 1: I said, uh, how much change were you supposed to
Speaker 1: give me? She goes, huh. First of all, if you
Speaker 1: hung you can hear. That's how my mama told me. Huh.
Speaker 1: I said, how much change are you supposed to get me?
Speaker 1: I gave you fifteen? How much was it? She could
Speaker 1: not do it? So then she brings out so she
Speaker 1: turns her back, but she didn't turn her back quick
Speaker 1: enough as she was busting out her iPhone with a
Speaker 1: pink case to do the calculation. And so she was like, well,
Speaker 1: how dog. She used her calculator and still got her wrong.
Speaker 1: She did not know how much change to give me,
Speaker 1: No no clue. So then she gives me. She finger
Speaker 1: rolls me to change. Luckily. Luck luckily, I'm such a
Speaker 1: profound athlete. I called all of it. It's like slight flags.
Speaker 1: So I catch it right, and then I'm like, can
Speaker 1: I get two straws please? So she gives me the
Speaker 1: straws as if like here child be gone gives me
Speaker 1: she gives me the change, we get the food. I
Speaker 1: drive you hot. He was fired up just right, So
Speaker 1: then I drive off. I get on and I no, no,
Speaker 1: Joe didn't, I said, hold on, damn it. She got me.
Speaker 1: She forgot joe sandwich. She didn't even give us the
Speaker 1: right food, broke it. So here's what I did. I
Speaker 1: took two French fries to take my supplement, and Joe
Speaker 1: ate my lunch because he didn't have a meal. I
Speaker 1: was no longer mad. He was mad. You know why
Speaker 1: I was mad? Do you know why I was mad?
Speaker 1: In likeness? Because all of that nonsense that she did.
Speaker 1: It was on her. It wasn't my fault. She couldn't count.
Speaker 1: It wasn't my fault. It was it wasn't my fault.
Speaker 1: She you need her iPhone to count up what I
Speaker 1: did on a piece of paper, and then she gets
Speaker 1: mad at me and stess me my sandwich. But guess what,
Speaker 1: my friends, I cleaned up my car when I got home,
Speaker 1: and guess what I found my receipt with the store number.
Speaker 1: Because guess who's gonna get a free meal? Guess who's
Speaker 1: gonna get it free? I am? I am. Come make
Speaker 1: sure you had an extra chicken sandwich on that for me.
Speaker 1: I'm getting the whole damn meal. I'm emailing look at you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna email such and such dot com because one,
Speaker 1: I need employees that can count or at least read
Speaker 1: the cash register. I mean he's right there, for it
Speaker 1: does all. I've worked in fast food. Now, this is
Speaker 1: this is not Steve's trying to be all high in
Speaker 1: my this. I'm I want to t integral part of
Speaker 1: your story. Yes, I worked to Taco Bell. You have
Speaker 1: you have papers, you have calculators, and you got that
Speaker 1: big old register that has all the menus. It really is.
Speaker 1: And then maybe she was color blind. Possibly that could be,
Speaker 1: but no shade to the color blind listeners. Correct whatever. Yep.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna get me a free I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: the whole meal free. Do you fire the place up? No?
Speaker 1: I just want my free mel I just want my
Speaker 1: sandwich that I paid for that she didn't get me.
Speaker 1: Who we got our guest today, Quincy a none Wa
Speaker 1: drafted out of Nebraska. He spent his five years with
Speaker 1: the New York Jets and really an all around stand
Speaker 1: up guy advocate for mental health. Quincy Anne One Quincy
Speaker 1: coming up. You're gonna take part and get iced up smarty.
Speaker 1: Go ahead with the first one. All right, here we go.
Speaker 1: So we go with an easy one. Uh. Favorite cartoon
Speaker 1: growing up? Oh? Man, favorite cartoon. There's so many Uh,
Speaker 1: I never I never saw that show. It's so many
Speaker 1: five man. I mean, look, I probably aided myself, man, um,
Speaker 1: you know, but the last one I just saw that
Speaker 1: I remembered because it was on I think my messages
Speaker 1: like Powder Family, and that brought me back. But then
Speaker 1: if I go way back, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It was like it was like a Black Family Nickelodeon
Speaker 1: was on Nickelodeon. It was something like that. Man, all right,
Speaker 1: so here's here's a good one too. Have you ever
Speaker 1: sent a text message to the wrong person? Uh? Multiple times? Man?
Speaker 1: I got anxiety just thinking about man multiple times. And
Speaker 1: the worst part is now. And whenever you do it,
Speaker 1: anytime you send a text, youre always like real cautious,
Speaker 1: like you gotta make sure, okay, that's the right sender,
Speaker 1: making sure you're not sending to the wrong person again.
Speaker 1: I've sent a text to my wife who Aim is
Speaker 1: Ace in my phone? Angie Ace two? You know him? Adam? Oh?
Speaker 1: Which is right underneath. Yeah, and there was a husband
Speaker 1: and wife. I was gonna say, I've done it in reverse.
Speaker 1: It was a husband and wife like, hey, I'm on
Speaker 1: the way home. Yeah, I got the food. And Adam
Speaker 1: goes in the text Man, that school Steve, but I
Speaker 1: don't really want to know what you and an you
Speaker 1: got played stomach sense to your feet done? Bro? I
Speaker 1: was like no, oh, but at first I was kind
Speaker 1: of hot. Yeah that wife didn't reply. I'm like that
Speaker 1: you were married. Boom. You know, I mean they need like,
Speaker 1: they need to recall, they need a recall, right, dinner
Speaker 1: back back, you know, I set it up. You know you,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course you don't know this, like, but
Speaker 1: light skin, you know how we do it. Bro. Nope,
Speaker 1: it was Adam so embarrassing. And then a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks it happened to be about a month later, me
Speaker 1: and Adam got together. We had a business thing and
Speaker 1: he brought it up. Uh so no lunch. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go, last one and then we're gonna jump
Speaker 1: right into your story. Who you are. If you can
Speaker 1: make a rule for a day and everyone had to follow,
Speaker 1: what would it be? Oh? Man, if I could make
Speaker 1: a rule for a day and everyone had to follow it.
Speaker 1: Be real on social media, man, he real on social media.
Speaker 1: Keep that same energy later on. Let's cut right into it.
Speaker 1: Let's let's hear your story. But I want to get
Speaker 1: this out of the way just immediately, because I know
Speaker 1: I'm in journalism now and i'm journalists, I'm a media guy,
Speaker 1: but I have always struggled with I'm gonna call you Quincy,
Speaker 1: but we want to know. We want you to pronunciate
Speaker 1: M and also explain your full name, your govern name,
Speaker 1: because everybody knows you as Quincy. Some people butcher it,
Speaker 1: but really, just what's the what is the meaning behind
Speaker 1: the name and all that stuff? All right? I got you,
Speaker 1: all right? So my actual government name is on the chest,
Speaker 1: Quincy and new right. So I just had my first
Speaker 1: name on the chest, okay, and it's O n O
Speaker 1: C h I E. And it's an evil named Nigerian.
Speaker 1: My parents are from Nigeria. Um and uh it means
Speaker 1: the replacement. It's like Junior, the real so the real
Speaker 1: meaning of his replacement. But it's just Blake me like Junior.
Speaker 1: My dad named me after my grandpa, so he died
Speaker 1: a year before I was born. And so they named
Speaker 1: me that. My parents were both from Nigeria. My dad came, um,
Speaker 1: maybe like eight to ten years before I was born,
Speaker 1: and my mom actually came like a month a month
Speaker 1: before I was born. So that's probably not even safe
Speaker 1: at all, right, Um, and they're both from Nigeria. UM
Speaker 1: brought me up in the culture all of that, and
Speaker 1: I was wearing it. Got c keis. I was wearing
Speaker 1: all of that when I was going up. They came
Speaker 1: over here, and I'm I'm trying to dump it down
Speaker 1: for myself. I won't that journey, Yeah, the transportation, the
Speaker 1: journey of how they got here if if you even know, um,
Speaker 1: you know how they got here, whether they come from
Speaker 1: they both of My dad flew and he came here
Speaker 1: first and went to school. And when my mom flew
Speaker 1: with me, watching was pregnant. She actually so she was
Speaker 1: so pregnant, her stomach was so big for bully is
Speaker 1: so big that he had a doctor, a doctor write
Speaker 1: a note, Um, I said that he was holding twins
Speaker 1: when actually she was just like eight months pregnant. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know whatever it takes, right, yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 1: that uh so she came and had me. UM and
Speaker 1: then she went and got her nurse and degree, and
Speaker 1: my dad he got it bigest degree and he started
Speaker 1: working at Walmart. Um and he was like a store
Speaker 1: manager for a really long time. From Walmart. He dropped
Speaker 1: Walmart and became an entrepreneur. Now he owns like two
Speaker 1: stories to like mailing stories in uh Southern can American
Speaker 1: dream right there. Honestly, they did whatever they could to
Speaker 1: get me over here, and they they've been working hard
Speaker 1: ever since. How many other siblings are you the oldest youngest? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's me and then my two younger sisters. Um
Speaker 1: one is twenty six. The other one now I think
Speaker 1: she is. That's when you know, you know, you gotta
Speaker 1: think about people got that, got that brother? You know
Speaker 1: sometimes that's the slips of mind a little bit. I
Speaker 1: think that really. And so you're growing up, you saying
Speaker 1: you're wearing Dashiki's you're from from? I can take it
Speaker 1: you're wearing who you are, your culture mm hmm exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: growing up you know in in southern Californi, where there's
Speaker 1: a ton of there's a ton of cultures there. However,
Speaker 1: there isn't a lot of brothers walking around. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm assuming pretty interesting at first because outside of your
Speaker 1: home it was normal. Yeah, but then you're inside of
Speaker 1: your home is normal. Outside of your home, you probably
Speaker 1: got some looks and and and I'm assuming yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: So so you know, we weren't wins every day, but
Speaker 1: you know, they was still still part of us. You know,
Speaker 1: we reward um done Evans and stuff like that. But overall,
Speaker 1: i'd say, you know, Especi back then, you know, you
Speaker 1: had the jokes and everything, African booty Scratcher, all those
Speaker 1: different duffs that people would tell, Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So you know you've got those jokes. That's
Speaker 1: really um for me, you know. And then on top
Speaker 1: of that, you know, people didn't really take the time
Speaker 1: to really pronounce my name correctly. That was actually part
Speaker 1: of the reason why I went up my middle name,
Speaker 1: because you know, it felt as though people try to
Speaker 1: just kind of wash away in my culture and I
Speaker 1: and I just kind of fell into that, right like
Speaker 1: by going by Quincy and then just accepting that that's
Speaker 1: my name. Um, but uh, yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely like it was an interesting, um, interesting childhood,
Speaker 1: interesting growth pattern you know, to be uh Nigerian amongst
Speaker 1: a bunch of people from different cultures, but mainly just
Speaker 1: you know black culture making culture like that's really good
Speaker 1: dominie um and where I was growing up, So I
Speaker 1: think in order to kind of assimilate, right, Um, for me,
Speaker 1: it was like, well, let me go by my Englishman
Speaker 1: name inside your house and I've got some friends who
Speaker 1: are who are Nigerian inside your house. What's the what's
Speaker 1: maybe the pressure of what's the experience of having Nigerian
Speaker 1: parents while you're in the US, what's take us on
Speaker 1: that journey? Yeah, well the biggest one is education. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a big pushon on education, trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that you know, they brought us here essentially, um,
Speaker 1: so they want us to take advantage of every every
Speaker 1: benefit that we can get being in this country. UM.
Speaker 1: So you know, growing up, we we you know, we
Speaker 1: have to get the good grades. You know, we have
Speaker 1: to make sure that if we were doing sports, that
Speaker 1: we were also still excelling in school. You know. So
Speaker 1: I think you know, any every parent is like that.
Speaker 1: But you know, if I'm just speaking on my experience
Speaker 1: on that, you know, they really pushed that we have
Speaker 1: to take a break and the morning anything. We gotta
Speaker 1: pay some bills? You got checks. I love cut to
Speaker 1: It and I love it even more when you download
Speaker 1: us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social
Speaker 1: media too, Smithie where where at? That's at? Cut to
Speaker 1: It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook?
Speaker 1: Cut to It featuring Steve Smith sent your what about online?
Speaker 1: And you can follow us at cut to It podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcast. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com. So growing up in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: how did those two worlds Nigerian in Los Angeles in
Speaker 1: the nineties, How did that shape and impact your view
Speaker 1: on the world because you had two different views and
Speaker 1: as adult you will probably you can say it was
Speaker 1: an advantage, but as a child probably saw it as
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was interesting. So
Speaker 1: actually we were maybe like forty five two or an
Speaker 1: hour Marino Valleys is where I grew up, so it's
Speaker 1: about uh maybe an hour east uh down a sixty
Speaker 1: three way. But it's it's it's essentially, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people came from lady to go living me
Speaker 1: about so it was, it was. It was definitely an interesting,
Speaker 1: you know upbringing. You know, just at least you see
Speaker 1: so many different things. Um, but I think party. What's
Speaker 1: what's funny is that, you know, my parents kind of
Speaker 1: shielded me from a lot of things. They took me
Speaker 1: in in the private school. You know, so for a
Speaker 1: good amount of my pilor, I was in a private school,
Speaker 1: you know, so there was a lot of things that
Speaker 1: I didn't see until I tried to go in the
Speaker 1: Polst school and man, my life got flipped up. So
Speaker 1: in what way do you do? Tail do? You can't
Speaker 1: just leave us there? I know, I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, private school is a different lightstyle. Man,
Speaker 1: it's it's um, there's no really way to explain it.
Speaker 1: You know. So when you go to public school, you know,
Speaker 1: you get you get a real taste, you know. I
Speaker 1: think what helped me a lot was just the fact
Speaker 1: that I was playing um kitty ball, you know, football,
Speaker 1: so I gotta I got you know, I got to
Speaker 1: see you know, different ways people, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: acting it stuff. But you know, when I got to
Speaker 1: high school, that's when I really started to see you know,
Speaker 1: uh up close to like game culture and all types
Speaker 1: of other things that I you know, you see on TV.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until I was acting the school and
Speaker 1: seeing stuff. I was like, bro, where am I at?
Speaker 1: Do you think you would shield it in a way
Speaker 1: in private school? Oh? Yeah, definitely, definitely. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: you people talked about it, but nobody was really about it.
Speaker 1: Was that shield? Do you believe was that shield enough
Speaker 1: for you at that moment? So when you got to
Speaker 1: public school you had to you had enough wherewithal to
Speaker 1: be able to separate yourself or at least be hesitant
Speaker 1: and not jump all in immediately. Yeah. I think so,
Speaker 1: you know, I think when I see other people's stories,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a difference. So I can't say that
Speaker 1: this is just the blueprint. But I think for myself
Speaker 1: it was helpful. You know, I kind of I kind
Speaker 1: of already had a lot of discipline and part of
Speaker 1: the money came mainly for my parents, but also you know,
Speaker 1: from being at school. I think that that helped me
Speaker 1: as well. I don't know if I do anything to
Speaker 1: my keys. But you know, I'm just speaking on my
Speaker 1: own experience. So you're saying you wouldn't do it for
Speaker 1: your kids, meaning you wouldn't I wouldn't put it in
Speaker 1: private school. Uh, other than the money I heard that
Speaker 1: heard that money, you know, retired retired flare to mine
Speaker 1: go to private school, you got look at that. So
Speaker 1: this is my thing. My my private school wasn't like
Speaker 1: a big private school, or I could have gone there
Speaker 1: and they went to college and play ball there, like,
Speaker 1: there was no chance of me being looked at. So
Speaker 1: everybody's private school experience is different. The woman I was
Speaker 1: at was not going to help me get to where
Speaker 1: I'm at now. So that's actually why I went to
Speaker 1: public schools because you know, everybody knew I had the talent,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't in the ginningywhere being in a school.
Speaker 1: So I say, if it's a private school that can
Speaker 1: you know you can go to and still make it, um,
Speaker 1: then I might put them in me. But the route
Speaker 1: that I took, I wouldn't see that my kids. So
Speaker 1: you're talking just from a sports related understanding. Um, the
Speaker 1: journey of trying to give your child if they pursue
Speaker 1: a professional or collegiate career. This helps them based on
Speaker 1: your your own experience exactly. Man, So you're in high school,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're at public school. Now you're in
Speaker 1: the real life. M h. When did you believe in
Speaker 1: in playing in high school that you felt I can
Speaker 1: possibly go to college and and participate in football at
Speaker 1: that level Division one. Yeah. Uh, when I first got there,
Speaker 1: it was a struggle. You know, Like I said before
Speaker 1: that the school that I was at, you know, I
Speaker 1: knew the thing that I was talented. You know, I
Speaker 1: got to a level where everybody was talented, really talented.
Speaker 1: So the first couple of years, you know, I saw
Speaker 1: the flashes, so you know, they put me out there,
Speaker 1: they saw me scored some touchdowns and knew I could play,
Speaker 1: but you know, it was it was inconsistent. You know.
Speaker 1: It was until my senior year where I put it
Speaker 1: off together and that's when I started to get the
Speaker 1: offers and uh, you know, people started to really see that,
Speaker 1: you know, I can make it to cause and that's
Speaker 1: when I really started to believe it. You're probably being
Speaker 1: looked at it you play football, not soccer. Mm hmm. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is funny. So I played soccer, um, and
Speaker 1: then really I probably wouldn't continue to play soccer. And
Speaker 1: then uh, when I was coming up, one of my
Speaker 1: good friends he uh introduced me to Madden. So I
Speaker 1: went over to a child and started playing Madden. And
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing right until I remember,
Speaker 1: I think I scored a touchdown luckily, and uh, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do next, so I asked him
Speaker 1: what it was. He had me punt the ball and
Speaker 1: say kick a field goal. I was exactly so you
Speaker 1: didn't look you didn't even know the rules of football
Speaker 1: when you're playing mad. No, I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was doing. Well, you know he didn't know because he
Speaker 1: slipped that in. This is what he was in, and
Speaker 1: I let slide. I know football. I went over to
Speaker 1: my friend's house to play, because let's play the there. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not jarring. J'all play no games in the house. Exactly.
Speaker 1: Do those games are for those American kids who are lazy?
Speaker 1: Go get a book, read a book, Am I correct? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: we we took it to the library like every week.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I got not Lewis I know more people say,
Speaker 1: oh show it was It was funny I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: they try to they try to put us to uh
Speaker 1: to do that. But in terms of the video game, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went over there and that honestly, that's been
Speaker 1: my motivation from at the beginning. Man. Every time, every
Speaker 1: time I think back about how I started from football,
Speaker 1: I just supposed remember that story and I got any
Speaker 1: pop Winner. I was playing pop Winner and from there,
Speaker 1: you know, that's where I just kind of took off.
Speaker 1: But I was playing soccer for a pretty long time. First,
Speaker 1: what position did you play? Oh? I can't even tell you, man,
Speaker 1: because I started playing football and fourth or fifth grade,
Speaker 1: so um, maybe forward. I played goalie for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I played goalie for a real for a minute. I
Speaker 1: was really all over the field. Honestly. They just kind
Speaker 1: of threw me out there and I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: go line. So they treat you like athletes exactly. Just
Speaker 1: they just go out there, out run little Johnny because
Speaker 1: you're Marino Valley, so you know you're going you know
Speaker 1: what you're going up against. Yeah, Alex, right, that's that's
Speaker 1: the Marino Valley kind of It's pretty diverse. At the
Speaker 1: time that you were growing up playing soccer, playing soccer
Speaker 1: in Marino Valley. Now maybe diverse, but that soccer because
Speaker 1: I I've experienced it here in Charlotte, Charlotte's Crazy Soccer
Speaker 1: youth soccer Academy, but it ain't a lot of brothers
Speaker 1: on the sidelines. And then the games being honest, you know,
Speaker 1: and we'd about we had we had the everybody moved
Speaker 1: from l A because you know, in the nineties that's
Speaker 1: when you know, black A Mexicans were fighting. We had
Speaker 1: what was it l A, right, so everybody's going to
Speaker 1: get out of l A. So when I was coming up,
Speaker 1: everybody was moving out of l A, was moving towards
Speaker 1: an Empire, Reno Valley, riverside, all those places. So really
Speaker 1: it was it was actually a lot of black people
Speaker 1: about coming up playing soccer, though Mexicans. It was mexic
Speaker 1: playing soccer. Na, it was soccer. That was probably the
Speaker 1: first time when they said hey, bro, we're gonna call
Speaker 1: you Q or quincy started. It actually started. It started
Speaker 1: around there. Yeah, what was the recruiting process for you specifically,
Speaker 1: because we've had a few guys on here who's talked
Speaker 1: about their collegiate recruiting process, it's been different for everyone else.
Speaker 1: We've had Malcolm Jenkins on He's talked about he got
Speaker 1: to Ohio State because his folks were visiting some family
Speaker 1: members at Ohio and signed him and his brother up
Speaker 1: Um for a football camp just to give them something
Speaker 1: to do in the summer. M hm. So I'm I'm wondering.
Speaker 1: And and from there that's how you got a scholarship
Speaker 1: to the Ohio State. Now you gotta offer to Nebraska.
Speaker 1: I was that process from from Marino Marino Valley, l A,
Speaker 1: right forty five minutes out of l A to the
Speaker 1: Midwest Nebraska. I had to be interesting. Culture shock, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was huge. Culture side, coachure side, the weather, shock, everything. Man,
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was a different light. I
Speaker 1: mean I that I was gonna do ferent plenty. She answered, you.
Speaker 1: When I first when I first heard in break, I
Speaker 1: realdn't even know where it was at, you know, so
Speaker 1: um when I got there, you know it was it
Speaker 1: was the first time I was there was for a game.
Speaker 1: So that's what really drew me in. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like you don't see that type of stuff right, Like
Speaker 1: it's it's all in. Everybody loves football. They're like literally
Speaker 1: the whole state so I think, you know, it was
Speaker 1: just it was just cool to see when I was
Speaker 1: out there that you know, it was so much love
Speaker 1: football team, so much love for the games. Sold out
Speaker 1: every game they had like a three hundred games sellout.
Speaker 1: You know, they just love ball there. What ultimately sold
Speaker 1: you on picking Nebraska wasn't that game? Yeah, no, the game.
Speaker 1: But honestly, you know, I didn't have a lot of offers.
Speaker 1: I had like three or four, UM, and so Nebraska
Speaker 1: was like one of the biggest ones. And I knew,
Speaker 1: you know, if I went to the Braska, out of
Speaker 1: all the other options I had, at least they were
Speaker 1: like a winning team. Um. You know they that year,
Speaker 1: the year before that maybe it did a big twelve championship.
Speaker 1: And actually the first year I was there made the
Speaker 1: big championship too, So I knew I would get more
Speaker 1: exposure going there. Any well, were some of those other
Speaker 1: schools if you don't mind Washington States the state was
Speaker 1: another one. UM I got recruited by, like Idaho State, UM,
Speaker 1: like small, small, smaller schools um over on the west side,
Speaker 1: West Coast, UM. And then uh, for track, I gotta
Speaker 1: looked at my Miami. I actually, what if I could
Speaker 1: I like to track a lot more? Honestly I did.
Speaker 1: I was a high jumper and we did for about
Speaker 1: one triple jump um, but I just didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't have all the tools, so it
Speaker 1: didn't work out for me as well, what do you
Speaker 1: what do you mean to have all the tools? I
Speaker 1: think if I could have had a little bit um
Speaker 1: more like in depth coaching, maybe Salman House doing it,
Speaker 1: like because I was sick tonight high jumpers, so I
Speaker 1: felt like I could get seven, you know, but my
Speaker 1: form just wasn't the best. About a month after I
Speaker 1: got to Utah University of Utah, I was ready to
Speaker 1: come home. I was homesick. The only thing that did
Speaker 1: not the only thing that really the saving grace was
Speaker 1: we were so danged poor. My mom couldn't afford uh.
Speaker 1: She was like, look, Steven, you can't. We don't have
Speaker 1: any money because my aunt, my grandmother, the people that
Speaker 1: scrounged up money to actually give me a one way
Speaker 1: ticket to Utah. So I didn't, but I wanted to leave.
Speaker 1: So with me throwing myself out there, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: Did you get homesick? Did you feel like it was
Speaker 1: a mistake going out there. Yeah, no, I definitely was homesick.
Speaker 1: Um in terms of the steak, you know, I just
Speaker 1: kind of tried to tell myself, you know, this is
Speaker 1: this is what I gotta do, you know, I think,
Speaker 1: um it was it was the the theme that was
Speaker 1: pushed for us, you know, with the education, was that
Speaker 1: I knew that this is you know, this was the
Speaker 1: step I need, whether it be for football or education
Speaker 1: order for me too, you know, come back with I
Speaker 1: wanted to come back with something in my head. You know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to come back with with some type of accomplishment, right,
Speaker 1: so you know, being there, um, I had my head
Speaker 1: focused on you know, what I needed to do, um
Speaker 1: and what I felt I wanted to do, uh and
Speaker 1: get out of it. So there was no like I
Speaker 1: want to come home. It was like, man, I gotta
Speaker 1: do this, you know, I need to get this done.
Speaker 1: In the recruiting process, what was the message your folks,
Speaker 1: your parents, we're sending you off with basically what I
Speaker 1: you know, basically what I was kind of just already thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, work hard. Um. They had
Speaker 1: of trouble m h, you know, and and do do
Speaker 1: do what these people that are now basically your caretakers
Speaker 1: basically tell you what to do, you know, because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you know, they're basically passing
Speaker 1: me off to them, you know, and that fast actually
Speaker 1: not to kind of be off too much, but that's
Speaker 1: what's kind of crazy about this whole college uh, you know,
Speaker 1: recruiting stuff. Man, they take you away from your home,
Speaker 1: you know, knowing that a lot of guys, you know
Speaker 1: they're coming from upbringing is that are way completely different,
Speaker 1: and then they don't even really take care of you
Speaker 1: as much as they should when you get out there.
Speaker 1: You know, they sell you all these dreams and you
Speaker 1: get out there and it's a completely different life. It's
Speaker 1: got to be a transition. You you're especially for you
Speaker 1: you're a deep rooted family guy, but you have one
Speaker 1: family and now you've got to transition almost to a
Speaker 1: completely new family. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's an interesting transition. But luckily, you know, I
Speaker 1: actually had one of the guys that came there. Um,
Speaker 1: I knew him in high school, so you know, we
Speaker 1: kind of we hung out a lot. You know. That
Speaker 1: was my guy. He's actually one of my grooms on
Speaker 1: our weddings, you know. So it was helpful have some
Speaker 1: men a piece from home, you know what. I was
Speaker 1: out there and one of my best friends, uh named
Speaker 1: Johnny Lundy we met on our recruiting trip to Utah,
Speaker 1: friends to this day. So you know, uh as funny
Speaker 1: as too is hearing you talk about and I heard
Speaker 1: in your voice and you were very you were dancing
Speaker 1: around it. But basically, you have these people, and there's
Speaker 1: all fasters of coaches now men and women in collegiate
Speaker 1: sports that are coming in and basically auditioning and and
Speaker 1: telling your folks. Right. Luckily, I had a great recruiter
Speaker 1: who's kind of like a father figured to me named
Speaker 1: Fred Graves wide receivers coach San Diego Utah Buffalo Bill
Speaker 1: San Diego Chargers, even for a little bit of time
Speaker 1: in Carolina Panthers, and he recruited me. And he came
Speaker 1: in and told my grandmother that he was gonna take
Speaker 1: care of me. He's gonna look out for me just
Speaker 1: like his his own son. He did that. But I'm
Speaker 1: imagining that there's a lot of other people that's not
Speaker 1: the case. That may not be the case, and they
Speaker 1: tell you man you know, we're gonna take care of
Speaker 1: you like he's one of our own. And sometimes that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. Who was the coach that recruit you? And
Speaker 1: what what kind of did they say? Because I I
Speaker 1: kind of felt a little bit in there. You were like, man,
Speaker 1: this this this game they're running. Man, you go to
Speaker 1: college and you are handing off the most valuable thing
Speaker 1: you have and these coaches are like, let me check
Speaker 1: it off the box, got quincy. Bang, we got this
Speaker 1: wide receiver. Let's go to the next guy and we'll
Speaker 1: tell him what that We'll we'll tell him whatever we
Speaker 1: need to tell him to get our guy so we
Speaker 1: can keep our contracts. You know. Uh, I'm a football
Speaker 1: story and so on ne brasket. At that time, y'all
Speaker 1: was wearing them Boo boo Adida a white receiver? Is
Speaker 1: it wharing those Adidas? Now is five? But when you
Speaker 1: was playing, they was not. Just for them to get
Speaker 1: a wide receiver is a victory and of itself. As
Speaker 1: much as they run the ball receiver split in well,
Speaker 1: it's just they switched it up. Man. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: go into a part that I love. Let's talk ball.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna talk about ball, and so I
Speaker 1: just gotta start off, man is because kind of telling
Speaker 1: tell the fans your fans fans are podcast your six
Speaker 1: round pick um two thousand fourteen right out of Nebraska
Speaker 1: right now. You know, without saying the date and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, you were released from the New York Jets
Speaker 1: and you sustained some injuries. Um, take us through right
Speaker 1: now that. Mhm. What it has the process been for
Speaker 1: you in football? That sounds like most guys I assumed,
Speaker 1: but I'll say it's outside of your wife, uh and
Speaker 1: your your family. Football really for NFL guy knows that's
Speaker 1: that's your first love. Mm hmm. Now you're losing that
Speaker 1: first love. What has that grieving process been like for you?
Speaker 1: And and walk us through that if if you don't mind,
Speaker 1: or if you if you can, because I just went
Speaker 1: through it about three or four years ago. And then
Speaker 1: we moved and I literally had to pack up stuff
Speaker 1: that I kind of stored away in my basement. So
Speaker 1: we moved and downside and I say downside me, and
Speaker 1: we went from my family and six to now we're
Speaker 1: on a family four and I got a sophomore, so
Speaker 1: we're in three years basically be me my wife and
Speaker 1: our and our our youngest Steve Smith Jr. And I
Speaker 1: was packing up and deciding what do I want to keep,
Speaker 1: what I want to get rid of. And there's a
Speaker 1: moment I started tearing up in my basement as I'm
Speaker 1: packing because I'm packing up I had my old shoulder pads,
Speaker 1: only I wore the same shoulder pass my whole career.
Speaker 1: Uh my Carolina Pathers shoulder pads. Where the shoulder pass
Speaker 1: I wanderneath my jersey in Baltimore. So when I was released,
Speaker 1: the only thing I told him is, uh, send me
Speaker 1: send my shoulder pass. And that was it. And I
Speaker 1: was packing up my stuff and I got teary eyed
Speaker 1: because I was like, man, I'll never be able to
Speaker 1: play ball again. And as I was putting it in there,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, these are my first pair of clicks
Speaker 1: that I wore, you know my classes I got out
Speaker 1: from the Pro Bowl, or these are the this is
Speaker 1: a jersey I had, or a photo of of Peyton,
Speaker 1: my oldest son, who's twenty two now gonna be twenty
Speaker 1: three and November. But there's a picture of him when
Speaker 1: he was eight or nine years old. He's standing with donovatement.
Speaker 1: Now I'm just trying to figure out, how does that
Speaker 1: process been for you so far? And it hasn't been
Speaker 1: a long time, but how's that uh coming along for you?
Speaker 1: And take a through that journey if you don't mind.
Speaker 1: The most difficult part is just been injured for you know,
Speaker 1: now going on two years. You know, I've been one
Speaker 1: of the hardest things, especially you know it being a
Speaker 1: neck injury, so you know, I have to take that
Speaker 1: much that much more serious, um, you know, And so
Speaker 1: the hardest thing for me last year I could say
Speaker 1: was you know, it being my second time being injured. Um,
Speaker 1: what was coming into the facility neck injury? So the
Speaker 1: first year I had next surgery. The first injury you
Speaker 1: know I had that was major. I had next surgery,
Speaker 1: So I missed the whole year. What was that entail
Speaker 1: that next surgery? M Uh yeah, So I had her
Speaker 1: neated disc. So what they had to do is they
Speaker 1: had to go in, take the disc out, put a
Speaker 1: bone in the metal plate, some screws, um and I
Speaker 1: had to wait nine months for it to heal up.
Speaker 1: So that was that was the prognosis. As they started
Speaker 1: to lay out the game plan of how to approach
Speaker 1: this injury. They said that, you know, I had a good,
Speaker 1: you know, a good chance to come back out play.
Speaker 1: You know, I might have small uh changing my range emotions,
Speaker 1: but overall I should be able to go play. So
Speaker 1: you know, that was encouraging that first year, you know,
Speaker 1: to go out there and know that you know, once
Speaker 1: I got this, I could still go out and play.
Speaker 1: And so then I did too. But then two outs
Speaker 1: a nineteen um, you know, I go back out and
Speaker 1: I hit somebody and find out that I got another
Speaker 1: hunde of this and this one is the one below.
Speaker 1: So that's where, you know, things started to become like
Speaker 1: dangn uh oh upper cervical. So in my next the
Speaker 1: process of being injured, you know, in the NFL, know
Speaker 1: you you you work your whole life to get here,
Speaker 1: you know, and and so for injury to be the
Speaker 1: reason why, you know, you're not able to see the field,
Speaker 1: it can be kind of you know, dis hurt me
Speaker 1: depressing in those type of ways, especially when you you know,
Speaker 1: we once a captain, a leader. You know, you almost
Speaker 1: feel as though you're letting the team down. You know,
Speaker 1: these guys look up to you, guys look to you,
Speaker 1: to go out there and perform, to make these big plays,
Speaker 1: to score touchdowns, all those things, you know, and so
Speaker 1: sometimes it can be hard to face your teammates knowing
Speaker 1: that injured the game, even though at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's really not even your fault. You know,
Speaker 1: you're you're not the one that went out there and
Speaker 1: purposely hurt yourself. You're just playing as hard as you can.
Speaker 1: You know, the chips fell fell where they fell, you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was a hard time for me. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of going through abs, like you said,
Speaker 1: the grieving process of knowing that you know, um, this
Speaker 1: this second injury, you know, could could make things a
Speaker 1: lot a lot more difficult for me. I think it's
Speaker 1: about that time. Just take a little breather. Good, let's
Speaker 1: getting down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you
Speaker 1: get that T shirt? Mean this thing? 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. Sitting in your locker. After you get
Speaker 1: this diagnosis and the symbolism of sitting in your locker
Speaker 1: being alone. What was that inner inner dialogue with you
Speaker 1: and your heart of this game that you potentially no
Speaker 1: longer can play. No, I think in the beginning it
Speaker 1: was probably a little bit of the nile, you know, like, nah,
Speaker 1: you know I can still do this, but you know,
Speaker 1: we actually sold this past year. We UM. What they
Speaker 1: told me after I got hurt for the first game
Speaker 1: was that, you know, we would um sit back, um
Speaker 1: and see how hills to top playing any football and
Speaker 1: we assessed. UM, so I wanted a whole year, you know,
Speaker 1: knowing UM that there's probably nothing I can physically do
Speaker 1: to help it get better. And the only way it
Speaker 1: will literally get better with UM basically by you know,
Speaker 1: the grace of God, right, like some miracle happening where
Speaker 1: the this shrinks and um it's no longer hearnated and
Speaker 1: I can go back on the football field. UM. So
Speaker 1: knowing that you know that that that's a little bit frustrating,
Speaker 1: almost kind of don't want to UM do anything because
Speaker 1: you know there's really nothing that can help UM. So
Speaker 1: fast forward, UM to the end of the season. We
Speaker 1: went to go get an m R. I and it
Speaker 1: showed no change. This is this is tough, you know life. Um,
Speaker 1: you know it's not my second neck injury. Um, and
Speaker 1: after a whole year, nothing has changed. I'm staying at
Speaker 1: getting any better. Um. So you know it's thankfully you
Speaker 1: know that that their doctors was still telling me there's
Speaker 1: a chance. But you know, I'm m um, I know,
Speaker 1: deep down you know that I'm happy with what I've accomplished.
Speaker 1: And you know, if if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, do what I
Speaker 1: can to get back out there if I can. How
Speaker 1: did you approach playing the NFL? Was it a job
Speaker 1: or was it a child's game? Mm hmm, so I
Speaker 1: said this, it was. It was a child game up
Speaker 1: until I saw somebody get cut. Right. So the first
Speaker 1: time I saw somebody get cut, I realized this is
Speaker 1: a job and I need to take it as a job.
Speaker 1: So every day I came to work and I told everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, anybody I met, I said I gotta go
Speaker 1: to work, they'd be like what, I'm like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is my job, man, this is no longer just this
Speaker 1: isn't just a game. This is a business. And if
Speaker 1: I don't, if I don't look at it this way,
Speaker 1: you know, I could be the next one out of here.
Speaker 1: So every day was a work, you know, every day
Speaker 1: I came to Every day I came to work, it
Speaker 1: was I was coming to go play football. M you
Speaker 1: treated like a career. What were the highs of playing ball?
Speaker 1: Sans right, going out there scoring touchdowns in front of
Speaker 1: the stands. I think that that's partly the eyes of it,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to kind of put it all
Speaker 1: together and and so the world. What's the capable of doing,
Speaker 1: you know, making those big plays, you know, hearing the audience,
Speaker 1: you know, the crowd getting loud, you know, especially when
Speaker 1: they hear the ball in their Remember one of my
Speaker 1: one of my favorite plays was against New England. Um
Speaker 1: U two thousands, seventeen sixteen. Uh scored a touchdown in
Speaker 1: the back corner um and the ball was in the
Speaker 1: air as I was running. So all you hear is
Speaker 1: just the crowd. I look up the balls in the air,
Speaker 1: I catch it, come down, the crowd gets even louder.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just it's just it's a feeling that
Speaker 1: you can't really, you know, put anywhere else. What was
Speaker 1: your professional goals when you first started Once you gotta
Speaker 1: finally got a taste of being a wide receiver in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Professional goals, I mean I had I had
Speaker 1: a lot, man, you know, and I'd say, you know,
Speaker 1: the biggest one was just being known as a professional. Honestly,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a simple one. It's a small one.
Speaker 1: But I knew, you know, there were so many things
Speaker 1: outside of my control, you know, going to the Pro Bowl, Uh,
Speaker 1: going to the Super Bowl. You know, I think those
Speaker 1: are my goals, but I knew that you know there
Speaker 1: there that's it's a team game, right, So there's gonna
Speaker 1: be so many different things that are a factive at
Speaker 1: So I knew that the biggest one I wanted no
Speaker 1: matter what was it. I came to work and people
Speaker 1: knew that I was gonna be hard workers. I was
Speaker 1: gonna come in every day and you knew that Quincy
Speaker 1: was gonna have his hard add on and he was
Speaker 1: going to be the guy that you could look to
Speaker 1: to be working the hardest on the field. At times,
Speaker 1: I felt very awkward kind of struggle with with being
Speaker 1: comfortable on my own skin. How comfortable were you in
Speaker 1: your own skin as an NFL football player. Uh, I
Speaker 1: say I was comfortable, but I say that, you know,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like, uh, there wasn't too complete
Speaker 1: self awareness there, right. I think that we get, especially
Speaker 1: now in the age of social media, when you get
Speaker 1: on social when you become a professional football player, you
Speaker 1: almost feel like you have to live up to the facade.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to be perfect better be like, uh,
Speaker 1: all these guys on social media is showing and flyting
Speaker 1: and all that sorther things. And I said, a lot
Speaker 1: of guys kind of fall into the track, you know.
Speaker 1: And so the minute that I kind of like it
Speaker 1: was brought back down, like this isn't what I need.
Speaker 1: You know, being on social media kind of helped me
Speaker 1: kind of see that, you know, all these things on
Speaker 1: social media, it's so much streak, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you you just see the people trying to live
Speaker 1: up to something, you know, or live up to the
Speaker 1: character that they feel like they have to be um.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of why I took the break,
Speaker 1: was because I didn't want to be set into that.
Speaker 1: I didn't really care to see it anymore, and you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to just live a life where I felt
Speaker 1: like I need to live up to anybody else's expectations,
Speaker 1: you know, because life is already hard enough, you know.
Speaker 1: To what led to you taking a social media break? Um,
Speaker 1: being hurt? You know, I think, Uh, I just was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't I don't care to post about
Speaker 1: football or see football. You know. Being heard kind of
Speaker 1: just like made like take a step back, you know,
Speaker 1: being hurt a second time. I mean, so, you know,
Speaker 1: but it was it was a healthy break, man, it
Speaker 1: felt good. What would older Quincy tell younger Quincy entering
Speaker 1: into his first NFL training camp? So the older Quincy
Speaker 1: is like, look, let me tell you what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: This is how always going down? Knowing everything you know
Speaker 1: right now, I would tell myself two stretch flexibility yoga
Speaker 1: in some way, do that as much as you can
Speaker 1: do so much flexibility, have be them one of the
Speaker 1: most flexible. And also really work on cardio. Those are
Speaker 1: the two things that throughout my career. Um, I wish
Speaker 1: I would have done more of just really working on
Speaker 1: my car and really working on my flexibility. That's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I felt like I'm disappointed, kind of
Speaker 1: hell like like, you're going to your first training camp, Quincy,
Speaker 1: what are you going stretch that? Listen that that would
Speaker 1: have shook so much money advice. I didn't need to listen.
Speaker 1: I didn't need to. I wasn't I wasn't spending crazy.
Speaker 1: There was certain things that I just already knew. That
Speaker 1: was one thing I wish I wouldn't do that. Brother
Speaker 1: doesn't need to stretch. Hey, I'm just you know, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm about to get married. You gotta in the advice pop. Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: some people need that though, I know, but I was like, man,
Speaker 1: manque he got some over here dropping knowledge. Stretch. He
Speaker 1: gave you that. He gave you the seeballs hit ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, So we were gonna we're gonna wrap
Speaker 1: this up. But man, we're gonna do one of our
Speaker 1: things called the Dep. Three. Uh. Dep Three is we're
Speaker 1: gonna ask you. I'm reading this, Hey, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Like Dep. Three is gonna be three introspective things that
Speaker 1: we just want to dive deep in with you. Uh, Quincy,
Speaker 1: once you knew you could make football into a career,
Speaker 1: who did you play for and what was your wife?
Speaker 1: I played for my family. I definitely play for my family,
Speaker 1: and so they were they were my wife too, you know,
Speaker 1: like being able to just help him out. You know,
Speaker 1: they did so much to be to come to this country,
Speaker 1: you know, to to sacrifice so much, you know, um,
Speaker 1: to risk so much to leave their family, you know,
Speaker 1: to to create a family here. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to be able to do what I can
Speaker 1: to kind of repay them. Well, how could you tell
Speaker 1: your wife the impact she's had on your life as
Speaker 1: a football player, you know, just in case you want
Speaker 1: to let her listen when we drunk. Honestly, man, I
Speaker 1: tell her all the time. Man's she's she's been a
Speaker 1: used pieces of of my piece right like you know,
Speaker 1: she's she's helped me be at peace, you know when
Speaker 1: things have been so stressful and you know, to come home,
Speaker 1: you know, to a wife has been so supportive. Um
Speaker 1: has been you know the most amazing part of my
Speaker 1: my my career. You know, to have somebody that you
Speaker 1: can to just be at home to de stress, you know,
Speaker 1: talk about the things that go on. You guys can
Speaker 1: just come together in a harmony. Um. You know that's
Speaker 1: that's that's a beautiful thing that you know, how most
Speaker 1: guys get to experience. What do you still want out
Speaker 1: of your professional career and how are you going to
Speaker 1: keep your mental game strong? I want a super Bowl, man,
Speaker 1: I want a super Bowl out of is. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think you know, when you when you make it past
Speaker 1: the average, you know, three years, you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think, you know, one of the big goals outside
Speaker 1: of your own individual goals, is a big one super Bowl,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think in order for me to
Speaker 1: get there, you know, mentally, you know, it's just about
Speaker 1: staying focus on that goal, you know, creating systems in
Speaker 1: order for me to reach that goal, you know. And
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I've had a lot of
Speaker 1: great mentors, you know, and and so you know, the
Speaker 1: next time I hit that field, I know that, you know,
Speaker 1: I definitely be prepared. What was your while while you
Speaker 1: were playing? And then also what's your why? Now? Probably
Speaker 1: the first eight or nine years uh my NFL career,
Speaker 1: I played for myself, and then I started to realize,
Speaker 1: um that this was gonna. I was running out esteem
Speaker 1: and it was really something that was extremely hard to
Speaker 1: keep up. And so I had some things personally happened
Speaker 1: in my life and over time will reveal them more
Speaker 1: and more um and start to realize that the selfishness
Speaker 1: and just um that inner dialogue within myself was not positive.
Speaker 1: And I started to need to refocus and really see
Speaker 1: and so I kind of took that time to really say, Okay, God,
Speaker 1: I played enough for myself. I need to start playing
Speaker 1: for you. And when I say playing for God meaning
Speaker 1: allowing him to really direct my steps and direct my
Speaker 1: steps and understanding why am I here was the purpose
Speaker 1: and so realizing that even now being done playing, and
Speaker 1: then my last couple of years I played understanding and
Speaker 1: trained with a scientific and a holistic approach of myself
Speaker 1: and how I can get the best out of myself,
Speaker 1: how I can get the best out of manipulating my
Speaker 1: mind into believing that no one like me and no
Speaker 1: one believed in me. And then I started to realize
Speaker 1: as I started kind of relying on God to direct
Speaker 1: my steps is I found myself in the middle of
Speaker 1: working out, asking God to help me get through this
Speaker 1: workout at thirty four years old, and started to realize
Speaker 1: I needed people around me to help me. I needed
Speaker 1: people in my life that would speak life into me um,
Speaker 1: not just teach me how to save a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of money, teach me how to acquire materialistic things, acquire
Speaker 1: things that will bring value, to increase my status on
Speaker 1: social media and all that stuff. But really, um, to
Speaker 1: try to live a legacy, to try to have something
Speaker 1: that my wife, my family, my my boys, and my
Speaker 1: daughter would be proud of. Um. Also that when they
Speaker 1: hear me speak, that they don't cringe of of the
Speaker 1: things that I say and how I articulate them, because
Speaker 1: a lot of times I've in the past I've cussed
Speaker 1: is really a shortcut my mind. My father in law
Speaker 1: said that he believes that people that cuss only are
Speaker 1: masking for the lack of words that they have, and
Speaker 1: it's always stood out. Now he's also a man who
Speaker 1: taught me how to tie tie. Okay, so he is
Speaker 1: my wife's father, but however I call him that as
Speaker 1: well because he has shown me some things. And so
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is, by the age of
Speaker 1: eleven or twelve, my oldest son, Payton knows how to
Speaker 1: tie tie, my son Boston knows how to tie tie,
Speaker 1: and Deuce, who's six years old, who wears dad's ties. Right,
Speaker 1: So giving them something more than money, giving them something,
Speaker 1: teaching them how to truly fish and and because we
Speaker 1: can learn how to cook, but do we know how
Speaker 1: to fish and cook? And so one of the coolest
Speaker 1: things My why is MODI son. We were texting a
Speaker 1: the other day and he's starting that he's on his own,
Speaker 1: he's starting to cook. And he said something to me
Speaker 1: that warm my heart and I know it's from the Lord,
Speaker 1: which is he said, uh, I said, I see you,
Speaker 1: and he said, I said, you know you keep this up.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna be cooking. And his text said
Speaker 1: just trying to be like you dad. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know you come over on the you know still good,
Speaker 1: so the weather still good, So come on over and
Speaker 1: I'll teach you how to, you know, work on the grill.
Speaker 1: His reply was even deeper, which was I would love
Speaker 1: him nothing more. And I didn't even reply. I just
Speaker 1: stared at it. And I've still been staring at I've
Speaker 1: been staring at the text for two days now. That's
Speaker 1: my why. You are a unique person. You are well
Speaker 1: worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard little John And this
Speaker 1: is cut to it, cut to it with Steve Smith Singer.
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer,
Speaker 1: co host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Balka
Speaker 1: Chevitch and Heared of Carter, with production assistance by Alex
Speaker 1: labrec production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by Alex Johnson,
Speaker 1: Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all