Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Morning, everybody, It's the j n V. Charlamagne, the gud
Speaker 2: We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
Speaker 2: in the building from Queens Steven A.
Speaker 1: Smith. Ladies and gentlemen, Let's go. How you feeling.
Speaker 3: I'm good man, how y'all doing Man's Black and Holly
Speaker 3: favorite the Cowboys and three and one Man you know.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it, purchases tickets say that's the only thing, you know.
Speaker 1: I got love for Charlamagne, But my god, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I don't understand it. Man, Dallas Cowboys like
Speaker 1: a virus. Man. I mean, you just can't get rid
Speaker 1: of him. I mean, everywhere you go you see Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys fence. I do not understand it. But you know
Speaker 1: they got a damn good team this year for their
Speaker 1: defense as elite their office. But it's still gonna come
Speaker 1: down to deck. You know.
Speaker 3: You know that, right, you know that. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: gonna be that moment. And I just want to get
Speaker 3: because I want to look out for you, because y'all important,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And I don't want you
Speaker 3: to just get into a state of depression. You know,
Speaker 3: your yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, your enthusiasm just elevates, and
Speaker 3: then that moment arrives and Dak's gotta come through and
Speaker 3: it ain't.
Speaker 4: I agree with everything you say about Dak Prescott.
Speaker 3: I think your assessment at Dak Prescott on first take
Speaker 3: is absolutely spot.
Speaker 1: I've never said he's a scrub. I never said he
Speaker 1: can't play. What I said is that it's about moments,
Speaker 1: and every time there's a big moment, he has not
Speaker 1: shown up. It's just that simple, and so he's got
Speaker 1: to do it. You know, think about this, man, I mean,
Speaker 1: you got a cat like Brock Purty, mister irrelevant, last
Speaker 1: pick in the draft, and all this other stuff. He's
Speaker 1: considered a better quarterback than Dak Prescott and Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: he was just in the Super Bowl. He's considered a
Speaker 1: better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Jared Golf, he's been bawling
Speaker 1: for the Detroit Lions. He's considered a better quarterback than
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott. And so when you I was at the
Speaker 1: Aero Spence Terrence Crawford fight, you know, by the way,
Speaker 1: an annihilation. I did not expect I picked Crawford to
Speaker 1: win that fight, but I ain't know it was gonna
Speaker 1: be like that, but I gotta tell you, I'm at
Speaker 1: the fight and a whole bunch of Dallas cowboy fans.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to Dallas Cowboys. They're there and supremely confident
Speaker 1: in their defense. And then when you asked him about
Speaker 1: the quarterback and we believe in him, Steve, y'all know
Speaker 1: the difference. Y'all know the difference.
Speaker 3: You know, you know you know that that let that
Speaker 3: little extra hesitation to stutter in there like.
Speaker 1: Damn Yeah, They're like, we know what we gonna do.
Speaker 1: We hope he's gonna do it well.
Speaker 3: I hope the defense in the running game can over
Speaker 3: compensate for the flaws that that has.
Speaker 1: Well. Listen, zekiell Leeller is not there anymore. Tony Polla's
Speaker 1: that dude. He can ball, But can he be that
Speaker 1: bell cow that can carry the ball as much as
Speaker 1: they like him too, I don't know that to be
Speaker 1: the case. Ceedee, Lampkin ball brand, the Cooks can ball.
Speaker 1: We got that gallop and ball. Dalton Schultzer's gone now
Speaker 1: as your tight end. That was his security blanket. You
Speaker 1: don't have that now. And so what they're trying to do.
Speaker 1: And this is where the setup comes. This is where
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you out here. See what happens is
Speaker 1: is that they in the past was just trying to
Speaker 1: put up points, averaging more than twenty five game twenty
Speaker 1: nine game, rather killing more than office coordinated at the time.
Speaker 1: He's now the Chargers. Okay, we're gonna put up points.
Speaker 1: What they decided to do now is run the ball,
Speaker 1: take the ball out of his hands, be a bit
Speaker 1: more conservative, you know, spell for the defense, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Against the better teams, it's gonna still come
Speaker 1: down to him. And now he'll be throwing the ball less.
Speaker 1: So as a result, it's gonna be a bit foreign
Speaker 1: into him because the defense is gonna put you in
Speaker 1: a position where you got a comfortable lead most times,
Speaker 1: and you ain't under that pressure. And then when the
Speaker 1: pressure mounts, what you're gonna do.
Speaker 4: I can't wait till we beat the forty nine of
Speaker 4: this weekend.
Speaker 3: So that's not gonna happen. That's not gonna happen. I
Speaker 3: predicted you're gonna lose. I'm predicting that's gonna throw two interceptions. Dang,
Speaker 3: I gotta bet with Shannon, and you're gonna throw two interceptions, damn.
Speaker 4: So who's your Super Bowl picking? While you're at the.
Speaker 3: Cowboys, I think, well, first, ain't gonna be. Ain't gonna
Speaker 3: get the Cowboys. Ain't gonna be.
Speaker 1: He keep trying, he keep trying. I had the Eagles
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season. I still believe in them,
Speaker 1: but I just think that San Francisco. The more I
Speaker 1: look at San Francisco, Remember it was in the NFC
Speaker 1: Championship game. They didn't have a quarterback. It's never happened
Speaker 1: in NFL his if all four quarterbacks got hurt, and
Speaker 1: so because they didn't have a quarterback, they literally got
Speaker 1: to a point after brock Perty went down in the
Speaker 1: back and went down, Christian McCaffrey had to line up
Speaker 1: behind center. They didn't have a quarterback. So it was
Speaker 1: a four gone conclusion that the Eagles gonna win that game.
Speaker 1: They were going to the super Bowl once that happened. Well,
Speaker 1: this year they motivated, and you got a yuk and
Speaker 1: you got de Bow, and you got Kittles, and this boy,
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey could be the league MVP. Right now. The
Speaker 1: brother is bawling and party is leading everybody in QBR
Speaker 1: and the defense is top three. And so when you
Speaker 1: look at it right now, I would have to say,
Speaker 1: in all honesty, San Francisco is the favorite. And then
Speaker 1: when you look at the AFC, it's up for grabs.
Speaker 1: Two weeks ago, I was like, yo, man, I ain't
Speaker 1: seeing an offense like this in Miami since the days
Speaker 1: of Dan Dan Fouts. With Charlie joining Kellen Winslow Senior,
Speaker 1: Chuck Munsey and these brothers, I'm like, this is something special.
Speaker 1: And then they go to Buffalo and get bum rushed,
Speaker 1: beat the hell down, and I'm like, well, damn, there
Speaker 1: goes dadd And then you got Kansas City. Patrick Mahone
Speaker 1: is still that dude. Kelsey is still that dude. But
Speaker 1: their receivers can't get open. But they got Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: Now I know that that helps. That helps, that damn
Speaker 1: sure helps, but not on the football field's popularity. But
Speaker 1: now in the football now is that affecting the game now?
Speaker 1: Because you know, we watched the game this past weekend
Speaker 1: and it must have shown Tailor Swift nineteen times. I know,
Speaker 1: but but listen, listen, it's it's overkilled. There's no doubt
Speaker 1: you even hear Kelsey speaking out against it.
Speaker 3: But let's be real about first of all, his fault.
Speaker 3: We didn't know his interest in Kelsey and tell the
Speaker 3: Swift until he told us.
Speaker 1: Well nobody mind. You know we we thought he was
Speaker 1: with the extra cry out like we didn't know. Okay,
Speaker 1: but Taylor Swift, I mean, that's six billion dollars in
Speaker 1: the latest concert, you know, concert tour. Damn it. I
Speaker 1: went to the concert you went to Tailor sw con Man.
Speaker 1: My daughter's made me take him.
Speaker 4: Man, you know what I'm saying, The greatest show you
Speaker 4: saw on your life. Now.
Speaker 1: I said it was a great show I had ever
Speaker 1: been to. Now, I'm a Beyonce fan all day, every day.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of them compare the Heart, but
Speaker 1: I've never been to her concert. I went to Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift concert, yo, Man, at sofar Stay in La. She
Speaker 1: brought the house down, and I mean, these little girls
Speaker 1: I've never seen. I haven't seen anything like this since
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. I mean there was a in between songs.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is in between songs. They
Speaker 1: gave her a nine minute standing ovation non stop. They
Speaker 1: was screaming. They wouldn't let us sing the next song.
Speaker 1: These little teenage girls, and I mean every one of
Speaker 1: them knew every line of every song. They were singing
Speaker 1: it with her. They were crying and screaming. I saw
Speaker 1: people in the audience fainting. I saw mamas and poppers.
Speaker 3: Like jamming and the kids are like, this is embarrassing
Speaker 3: that you are enjoying this morning me.
Speaker 1: I mean I saw it all. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it. I was like, and I'm not
Speaker 1: into her music or anything like that, but she put
Speaker 1: on a hell of a show. Bro three and a
Speaker 1: half hours, no intermission. Wow, three and a half hours,
Speaker 1: no intermission, two thousand dollars a pop. And it was
Speaker 1: worth it, really and it was worth it.
Speaker 4: I don't want to talk to know Steven Nate Smith,
Speaker 4: I no damn tailor that.
Speaker 2: I'm just I gotta ask about Damian lilland what was
Speaker 2: your thought with him going to the box?
Speaker 1: I love it. That's my brother. Got a lot of
Speaker 1: love for him. He's a superstar in this league. I
Speaker 1: think if it were not for Steph Curry, we'd be
Speaker 1: talking about him as the best in the game at
Speaker 1: that position. Having said all of that, I think that
Speaker 1: it act. It elevated Milwaukee, no doubt about it, because
Speaker 1: Joannis ain't had no weapon like that. I think what
Speaker 1: you gotta look at what Damian Lillard is him being
Speaker 1: on that squad. Jannis was their option. You gave the
Speaker 1: ball up to Janni's. He's the Greek freak. He coming
Speaker 1: at you, pushing you downhill. How you gonna stop this locomotive? Well,
Speaker 1: how you stopped the come playoff time? As you suffocate
Speaker 1: the pink, you dare him to shoot a perimeter shot.
Speaker 1: If he gets to the hole, he gonna get his
Speaker 1: thirty You know that he's gonna get his thirteen rebounds.
Speaker 1: But when it really really counts, is he gonna make
Speaker 1: those rethrows? You don't know that. So it's limitations and
Speaker 1: you got confidence. Now you've done brought in a closer.
Speaker 1: You've done brought in a brother that has sent people
Speaker 1: home and waved goodbye to them while doing it. The
Speaker 1: Paul Georgie's, the James Hardens, the Dwight Howard's, the Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrooks of the world. Ask them Damien Littler had sent
Speaker 1: them home and waved goodbye to them while doing it.
Speaker 1: This is what he does and so it's elite. But
Speaker 1: what I said to everybody at the time is let's
Speaker 1: not rule out Boston. And this was before they got Jollity.
Speaker 1: I said, Yo, that's a big ure. I don't like
Speaker 1: the fact that they lost Marcus Smart. I really don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, that brother something special, and I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna help Memphis immensely. But make no mistake, you get
Speaker 1: a seven foot three dude and Chris STAPs forward zingers
Speaker 1: who can block shots, who can hit the three, who
Speaker 1: just finished averaging twenty three twenty four game. He ain't
Speaker 1: no number one option. He's not the ideal second option.
Speaker 1: But in Boston, well that's Taston Tatum and Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: and so you talking about a third option there. And
Speaker 1: so that made them formidable to begin with. But then
Speaker 1: when you turn around and you take that piece, and
Speaker 1: then you add Drew Holliday to that, I don't like
Speaker 1: the fact that they lost Malcolm Brock. Then I don't
Speaker 1: like the fact that Marcus Martin's going. But if you
Speaker 1: got Drew Holliday and Derek White as your back court,
Speaker 1: and you have Brown and Tatum and Arford as your
Speaker 1: front court, and on top of it, or all porzingis okay,
Speaker 1: and you got Derek White coming off the bench because
Speaker 1: you got Jalen at the two, and you're gonna use
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum at the three. I'm looking at them and
Speaker 1: I'm saying, it's Sam crue Fellers that took Milwaukee a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago when they were down three two,
Speaker 1: when Jason Tatum rolled up then there for a game
Speaker 1: six and dropped forty six. You understand, this is just
Speaker 1: as Jason Tatum were talking about here. This is Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: We told you he had a bad game seven last
Speaker 1: year once Tatum got hurt the first offensive play and
Speaker 1: he was supposed to be able to carry the team.
Speaker 1: He couldn't do it. But this is the same Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown that outplayed Jason Tatum in the NBA Finals lost
Speaker 1: to Golden State. Brother been averaging. You average twenty six
Speaker 1: a game last year, You average twenty four to twenty
Speaker 1: three and twenty six over the last three years. Brother
Speaker 1: can ball, And so I'm looking at it from that perspective,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at the size that they have at
Speaker 1: every position, even though they don't have a seven foot
Speaker 1: of like Greek and Brook Lopez. You can't use Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez but so much against them because he got to
Speaker 1: come out to the perimeter and got some of these brothers,
Speaker 1: because how Horford can shoot, and now Porzinkis can shoot,
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown can shoot as well,
Speaker 1: and Drew Holliday is one of the best catching three
Speaker 1: shooters in the game. So you look at it from
Speaker 1: that perspective and the fact that they can play defense
Speaker 1: on an elite level. I can't sit up there and
Speaker 1: say Milwaukee got them. So that's I think for me,
Speaker 1: it is Boston. It's Boston ahead of Milwaukee. I kind
Speaker 1: of hope I'm wrong, not because I have any desire
Speaker 1: to go to Milwaukee, but it's because I'm rooting for
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard Warriors. Hurt Well. Listen, I told Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and them, I wasn't happy about it. I wasn't excited
Speaker 1: about it because I'm like, unless you're telling me that
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson is going to, you know, be morek from
Speaker 1: Mork and Mindy back in the day. He gonna get
Speaker 1: younger as he gets older, you know, like, can he
Speaker 1: go at the three for you? Because to me, when
Speaker 1: I think about Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. That's the
Speaker 1: backcourt with a CP three fit into that. I looked
Speaker 1: at him as a reserve coming off the bench, being
Speaker 1: that point guard that's gonna run the show with Kaminga
Speaker 1: and Moody and that second unit and upgrading them. All Right,
Speaker 1: it's CP three gonna accept that? Is he gonna embrace
Speaker 1: that because listen, Graymond didn't like them, but now they're
Speaker 1: trying to work things out because their teammates and all
Speaker 1: of that other stuff. And that's cool. But they undersized
Speaker 1: and they got a system and they're customer. Play it
Speaker 1: that way. Chris Paul slows the pace down, control space.
Speaker 1: That's fine, that's not how they roll. And so if
Speaker 1: you're gonna do that, how effective is that gonna work
Speaker 1: out for you? I believe in Steph Curry, the greatest
Speaker 1: shoot of God ever created. I believe in that Splash
Speaker 1: Brothers is that backcourt. I believe in their pedigree, they experience,
Speaker 1: their championships, pedigree and stuff like that. So they'll be
Speaker 1: in the mix. But I can't give them the edge
Speaker 1: over the Lakers who took them out in the postseason.
Speaker 1: I can't give them the Lake the edge over to
Speaker 1: the reigning defended champion Denver Nuggets. I can't give them
Speaker 1: the edge over Phoenix with KD, Devin Booker, who's now
Speaker 1: gonna be at your point, and Bradley Beal all right,
Speaker 1: and that's the three of them. What about Memphis? Remember
Speaker 1: Memphis last year it wasn't just John Moran in his troubles,
Speaker 1: it was also Steven Adams and Brandon Clark that were hurt.
Speaker 1: Well they back, Well, what you're gonna do with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't ignore Memphis, and you can't ignore
Speaker 1: the Clippers because if Kawhi London and Paul Georgia healthy,
Speaker 1: one could easily argue they could have won the championship
Speaker 1: three years ago when Phoenix was in the finals against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Because if Kawhi is healthy and Paul George is healthy,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Phoenix beats the Clippers. And so
Speaker 1: you got to look at all of those teams before
Speaker 1: you make that kind of decision. And that's where I'm
Speaker 1: at with it.
Speaker 3: I got one more question about sports than I want
Speaker 3: to talk strictly about even a Since you brought up
Speaker 3: the Clippers, who do you think will play more games
Speaker 3: next year?
Speaker 4: Ben Simmons or Kawhi Leonnon Kawhilennon.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've lost complete faith in Ben Simmons.
Speaker 2: Dam.
Speaker 1: The only thing I'm mad about is I didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to tell him to his face. And the
Speaker 1: reason why is that we were at the spot last year, man,
Speaker 1: and you know, you know I got a lot of
Speaker 1: I got. I had a lot of respect for him.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to disrespect him as a
Speaker 1: man or human being. But it's like, my god, bro,
Speaker 1: I get the I get the mental aspects obviously. You
Speaker 1: know you and I have talked about that a lot
Speaker 1: of times, with all the great work you've done in
Speaker 1: that regard, But you take the money, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Somehow, in some way, no matter what troubles
Speaker 1: you're going through, the check is in the account and
Speaker 1: you cashing it. Somehow you're on the bench looking like
Speaker 1: a male model, you know what I'm saying, while the
Speaker 1: rest of your team out there playing it. You know,
Speaker 1: you're just looking at it, and it's like, yo, bro,
Speaker 1: your boys need you. You understand that if you and
Speaker 1: Philly and you balling with embiid the way Tyrese Maxie
Speaker 1: is elevated. You realize what y'all could have been, right.
Speaker 1: You understand that if you're in Brooklyn and with Katie
Speaker 1: and Kyrie at the time and you could ball, you
Speaker 1: understand what what what you could have accomplished. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at scenarios over the last two years is where
Speaker 1: he could have helped two teams to a championship. Because
Speaker 1: that's how legit Ben Simmons is. And I know that
Speaker 1: he's had the injuries. I'm not trying to question that,
Speaker 1: but the point is other people are gonna question it
Speaker 1: because you couldn't bring yourself to play basketball. It literally
Speaker 1: was tantamount to you like standing on the front lines
Speaker 1: in Ukraine against Russia. It don't make no damn sense
Speaker 1: to me. And so I look at it from that perspective.
Speaker 1: And then now you talk about you ready, you ready,
Speaker 1: you ready.
Speaker 3: And he's one of those guys that I would tell
Speaker 3: you this, his talent is big time. If I could
Speaker 3: get away with it as a team, I wouldn't give
Speaker 3: him a damn done until he plays. You got to
Speaker 3: show up to work man, and to me, he hasn't
Speaker 3: done that, and that's my disappointment with him.
Speaker 1: I got sports questions.
Speaker 2: What was your thoughts on Colin Kaepernick writing the Jets
Speaker 2: and saying that he wanted to be work on the
Speaker 2: practice team to get the squad.
Speaker 4: Where they needed to be.
Speaker 1: We always butted heads on this, y'all. It it meant
Speaker 1: nothing to me. I knew it was gonna be much
Speaker 1: ado about nothing in twenty nineteen, and I remember when
Speaker 1: you came up first taking me, talked about it later.
Speaker 1: You know, listen, Colin Kaepernick's team, I'm gonna say it again,
Speaker 1: reached out. They wanted help. They wanted a try out
Speaker 1: with one team. I had sources inside the league office
Speaker 1: and connected to the league office from the outside, Rock
Speaker 1: Nation and those boys. Yo, they gonna give him a workout.
Speaker 1: At least twenty four teams gonna show up. It ended
Speaker 1: up being twenty six the quote I received, and I
Speaker 1: said it on the head at the time. This brother
Speaker 1: would have to throw it into the stands to not
Speaker 1: have a job in two weeks. All he got to
Speaker 1: do is show up. So I'm looking at a team
Speaker 1: of people that came to me along with others, asking
Speaker 1: for assistance to get him a tryout. The league didn't
Speaker 1: want to give. The league had to give him to
Speaker 1: try it. I'm sorry, because individual teams didn't want to,
Speaker 1: y'all because they were fearful that if they gave him
Speaker 1: a tryout and he didn't work out, he would be
Speaker 1: ready to sue them because he had already sued. The
Speaker 1: league reached the settlement, et cetera, et cetera, and all
Speaker 1: the whole you know, the racial strife that existed and
Speaker 1: he had articulated and highlighted wasn't just about police battalion
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. He was also talking about the
Speaker 1: NFL to some degree. The teams were scared. So the
Speaker 1: NFL stepped in and they said, for the first time
Speaker 1: in history, were gonna conduct this workout. Then it was
Speaker 1: an issue with the wavering. The waiver was different than
Speaker 1: what other teams had to I call a league officer
Speaker 1: called general Console. They was like, this, you damn right,
Speaker 1: is different. We never conducted a workout as league. We
Speaker 1: don't do individual workouts. That's a team's job.
Speaker 3: Since this is the first time we've ever done it,
Speaker 3: and we just reached the settlement with the guy for
Speaker 3: millions of dollars, we of course are gonna do a.
Speaker 1: Different kind of waiver. Okay. Having said all of that.
Speaker 1: Here's what I said publicly on the first take, and
Speaker 1: go back and look at the tapes. I said, the
Speaker 1: world is watching. You want to play Baul, You show
Speaker 1: up to the workout, because now we know where it's
Speaker 1: gonna be. We know when it's gonna be. We gonna
Speaker 1: get the tape, we gonna see what happened, and we
Speaker 1: know what. Sorry, as quarterbacks exist in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna be off for you if you go out
Speaker 1: there and do it. Go out there and do it
Speaker 1: and trust the rest of us. You had the breakfast club,
Speaker 1: you had first take, you had get up, you had
Speaker 1: everybody everywhere Black America was like, Yo, you're gonna treat
Speaker 1: this brother right, show up and work. If he show up,
Speaker 1: show give him a fair shot. And in my eyes,
Speaker 1: he didn't trust us enough to look out to see
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the tsunami of folks that talk sports
Speaker 1: and beyond. You didn't trust us to use your greatness
Speaker 1: as an athlete and say we see what you got
Speaker 1: up in there and bring the tsunami down upon the
Speaker 1: NFL and make sure now that you gave him this tryout,
Speaker 1: that ultimately you give him a job you passed, You
Speaker 1: did some work out of the high school football field
Speaker 1: an hour and twenty minutes away, giving them two hours notice.
Speaker 1: Nah nah, I said it. From that day, I said
Speaker 1: it's over. They just found the perfect excuse. They ain't
Speaker 1: never gonna look at him again. Just this past year,
Speaker 1: you know, fourteen quarter black quarterbacks started in the NFL
Speaker 1: opening week, and seven of the top eleven paid players
Speaker 1: in the NFL at the quarterback position are black. I
Speaker 1: only bring up that numbers because that's what the owner's
Speaker 1: gonna say. They're gonna be like, look, man, we good,
Speaker 1: we got were getting our money. We got black folks
Speaker 1: in here excelling and getting paid. He had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to do that. He passed, And it's that simple. I
Speaker 1: said it that day. It's over. I ain't been wrong yet.
Speaker 3: You know, people don't often look at what we do
Speaker 3: in the terms of athletes what I do. So when
Speaker 3: I say, when I see you get a player of
Speaker 3: Shannon Sharp's caliber, yes on your team, how do you
Speaker 3: adjust your game?
Speaker 1: Well, Listen, first of all, it's about respect and humility.
Speaker 1: And here's what I mean by that. I ain't no
Speaker 1: three times super Bowl champion, ain't no future. I ain't
Speaker 1: no Hall of Famer, not the greatest tight end in
Speaker 1: NFL history. I want to arguably the greatest tight end
Speaker 1: of history. He had those credentials coming to the table,
Speaker 1: and so for me, I don't got nothing to do
Speaker 1: with this, though I understand that. But he has done
Speaker 1: a good job, and he has been in the business
Speaker 1: for years, and so looking at the job that he did,
Speaker 1: knowing the roster of cats that I had, Marcus Spears,
Speaker 1: Ryan Clark and all these other folks, I certainly wasn't
Speaker 1: interested in getting rid of them. But I knew that
Speaker 1: he was a talent that would add He would be
Speaker 1: an additive to me. He wouldn't be a liability. But
Speaker 1: more importantly than that, man, I was where he was
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. We talked about this when it
Speaker 1: was me my book or various other interviews, both for
Speaker 1: y'all have done with me. Man, I know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be out in that streets and be unemployed
Speaker 1: and for them to be writing your epitaph and all
Speaker 1: of that other stuff. And I was like, there wasn't somebody,
Speaker 1: There wasn't a brother in Stephen Ay's position to help me.
Speaker 1: But I'm in that position, and so I called them
Speaker 1: up and I said, Yo, what you want to do
Speaker 1: And he's like, Yo, man, you know if you know,
Speaker 1: if you have me, I said, he said, I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want you Hell yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: He's working in a non compete, he said, what I
Speaker 3: thought he was gonna be in a non competer?
Speaker 1: Well, well, listen, when they let you go, they let
Speaker 1: you go. I mean like, if you leave, that's when
Speaker 1: a non compete kicks in.
Speaker 3: But when they let you go, and that's why I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm sitting there when people arguing they talk
Speaker 3: about listen, I'm not trying to tell their business that's
Speaker 3: their shop.
Speaker 1: I got my shop. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's like, yo, y'all, he's here. What the hell do
Speaker 1: you think happened? You know what I'm saying? Because if
Speaker 1: he left of his own volition, he would not have
Speaker 1: been able to be at the competition. So it's just
Speaker 1: just just pay attention to the logic of it all.
Speaker 1: He was available because they let him go, and so
Speaker 1: they let him go to him. To me, that was
Speaker 1: their loss is my gain, and I'm gonna always gods
Speaker 1: know what my approach is. I know what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about as a reporter and pundit that covered the sport.
Speaker 1: I didn't do what you do, so yeah, look at me.
Speaker 1: Is described as walking into the locker room telling you
Speaker 1: what I saw, what I think I saw, nudging you,
Speaker 1: even antagonizing you from tom to time, trying to make
Speaker 1: sure you understand.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get to the bottom of the situation.
Speaker 3: Just like when y'all interview folks, y'all do the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's your job as that expert to say, nah, it
Speaker 1: ain't what happened. Here's what happened, right, And I know
Speaker 1: at that moment in terms of doing television, when it's
Speaker 1: time to debate and when it's time to step the
Speaker 1: hell back in mere forth. And that's what all of them.
Speaker 1: Ryan Clark is sensational, knows his football, Shannon Shannon's sharp,
Speaker 1: knows his damn football. Y'all. I'm just telling you right now,
Speaker 1: Dan Olowski, all of these cats know it. I'm arguing
Speaker 1: with mad Dog Russo that's different. We're both describes, we're
Speaker 1: both pundits. We've been doing that for our careers. But
Speaker 1: when you are sitting across from players, you got to
Speaker 1: have that respect where they know that you know who
Speaker 1: they are compared to you in terms of their athletic
Speaker 1: knowledge about what's actually happened on that field or core
Speaker 1: to play in the locker room. When you see me
Speaker 1: butting heads with an athlete, it's because I'm saying, you
Speaker 1: ain't giving it to me. There's more than this. Tell
Speaker 1: me what it is. You see what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: And so when you're trying to give an answer, and
Speaker 3: not only that, I'm going to your contemporaries. So if
Speaker 3: you play for the Knicks, and you play for the
Speaker 3: Knicks and somebody else plays for the Knicks, if I'm
Speaker 3: debating you, it's not because I think I know something
Speaker 3: you don't. It's because somebody else told me who knows
Speaker 3: what you know? And I happen to believe you holding
Speaker 3: out on me because I've heard otherwise.
Speaker 1: And that's where you go at it. But what you
Speaker 1: don't do is talk to them like you know what
Speaker 1: they don't as players, No, you don't.
Speaker 3: But they got to be able to communicate that that's right.
Speaker 3: He can't do it, that's right, Ryan can do it.
Speaker 1: That's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 4: Everybody can't get on that. Mic I whant to communicate.
Speaker 1: That's correct you, but you have to be compassionate enough
Speaker 1: to know the difference. Like some cats, they just don't
Speaker 1: have the ability to articulate. And so when you know that,
Speaker 1: it's like how cruel you're gonna be. It's like I'm
Speaker 1: talking to somebody and every other word out of your
Speaker 1: mouth that you know what I'm saying, Well, no, I
Speaker 1: don't know you because you ain't say shit, so I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're saying. But my point is you
Speaker 1: got to have some level of compassion where you know,
Speaker 1: all right, I can peel this out of them, but
Speaker 1: this person don't have that ability to articulate it. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna sit up there and just bring it down
Speaker 1: on them asking how much flag did you did you get?
Speaker 2: Because you know, when you're arguing or going back and
Speaker 2: forth with the player, a football player, I'm sure they're
Speaker 2: thinking you never played the sport.
Speaker 1: Nah, you didn't, You didn't have to get in Denver,
Speaker 1: we're not as well, you don't. But they don't do
Speaker 1: that anymore. And that's where my reputation has helped me immensely,
Speaker 1: because anybody that walked through the doors and you tell
Speaker 1: me this is what you want to do. All you
Speaker 1: got to do is ask for my help, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give it to you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to do this, here's how you
Speaker 1: do it. And I'll tell them that and a lot
Speaker 1: of times I'll let them know. Listen, I'm gonna come
Speaker 1: at you. We're not orchestrating anything. I'm not letting you
Speaker 1: know what all my opinions are. But from a generic perspective,
Speaker 1: I'm letting you know if I see something, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: attack you. I'm gonna get right at you because but
Speaker 1: the reason I'm doing it is for you to pull
Speaker 1: out your level of expertise. So if you watch Kad's
Speaker 1: debating with me, all of a sudden, they'll up the
Speaker 1: ante as a segment progresses because I zero in on
Speaker 1: them and they get up because they know he's coming
Speaker 1: for me now, because that's my way of saying to them,
Speaker 1: you're holding out. You ain't give me what you got,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get this now, either that.
Speaker 3: Or I'm right. Which one you willing to admit? Stephen,
Speaker 3: there you right? Or Stephen there you wrong?
Speaker 1: And if you say, Stephen a I'm wrong you got
Speaker 1: to tell me why. And so when you have to
Speaker 1: tell me why, that's what makes it debate. Holl gotcha,
Speaker 1: And that's what it's about. Now.
Speaker 3: Some weeks ago something you said what you said several times,
Speaker 3: you wrote about it in your book. You talked about,
Speaker 3: you know, your experience with Max Kelluman working on the show.
Speaker 3: And I saw a reaction from Marcella's wife and he said,
Speaker 3: you got rid of Max Kellerman because Max wasn't dumb
Speaker 3: and white.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let me say this. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: I'm going to address that last part. The first part.
Speaker 1: I'm not addressing it anymore. And here's the reason why
Speaker 1: some people want to do anything for clicks. Y'all don't
Speaker 1: have to do that. I don't have to do that established,
Speaker 1: but others have to do that. And so when you
Speaker 1: see this, the tsunami of comments and all of this
Speaker 1: other stuff. Even my boss has called me. It was like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: it's in your book. Enough's enough, And I'm like, they're right.
Speaker 1: I had nothing to say about it anymore. The ratings
Speaker 1: speak for itself, The decisions that were made speak for itself.
Speaker 1: It is what it is. Business is business, period. In
Speaker 1: terms of what Marcellus Wiley said now that I will
Speaker 1: direct I will address directly, and I only have one
Speaker 1: thing to say. He and I work together. Got a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for him, I know the man he
Speaker 1: was talking about as his best friend. I get all
Speaker 1: of that, no problem. Here's my only issue. For a
Speaker 1: black man to sit up there and say another black
Speaker 1: man it's scared of somebody's intellect. Come on, bro, that's
Speaker 1: just the line you crossing. And I have nothing more
Speaker 1: to say other than that that's sad that he would
Speaker 1: go that route. I guess that he's gonna get attention
Speaker 1: because obviously everybody who watches the Breakfast Club every chance
Speaker 1: we get it, he don't see talk about it. I'm
Speaker 1: certainly not gonna argue with him. I've always had a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for him. Me and Marcella's while they
Speaker 1: have never had one issue. And I don't care what
Speaker 1: support he has for his boy or anybody else. I
Speaker 1: get that. I support my boys too, but I would
Speaker 1: never in a million years say that one black man
Speaker 1: is scared of the intellect of a white man. I
Speaker 1: would never ever ever do that. And for him to
Speaker 1: do something like that, that's on him. Y'all. Have known
Speaker 1: me for years. The business has known me for years.
Speaker 1: I've been on national television with the number one debate
Speaker 1: show on television for the last twelve straight years in County.
Speaker 1: I've been winning. But more importantly, I've been in a
Speaker 1: bubble in a public eye on national television every day.
Speaker 1: We've had disagreements, you know, saying the whole bit. Y'all
Speaker 1: have never questioned my intelligence. No, And so for me
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, I get it, I understand it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of brilliant brothers out there. Max is
Speaker 1: one of them. Genius, absolutely true, and a good brother,
Speaker 1: too good, due rather and I get that. But to me,
Speaker 1: forget all that, I wish him nothing but the best.
Speaker 1: I ain't rooting against anybody for I'm even rooting for mysellers.
Speaker 1: I don't want him to fail. But if I ever
Speaker 1: sam again one on one, it would be like a
Speaker 1: black man going in a public platform and saying another
Speaker 1: black man is scared another white guys. No. No, get not
Speaker 1: as smart because most people are not as smart as
Speaker 1: some other people, I guess, but that don't mean we're
Speaker 1: devoid of how intellect and intelligence. But to say that,
Speaker 1: I fear the intelligence of any man, any man. I've
Speaker 1: debated doctor Michael Erick Dice. I've debated Cornell West. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I've been on the phone with President Obama.
Speaker 1: I've debated political pundance. And I'm not even a political officionado.
Speaker 1: We're talking sports, y'all. This This ain't science class. This
Speaker 1: ain't you know this? This, I mean, this ain't geometry
Speaker 1: or trigonometry or something. This ain't you know we We
Speaker 1: ain't in law school trying to pass the ball. This
Speaker 1: is sports. Scared of the intelligence, the intellect and intelligence
Speaker 1: of a white man. Okay, we'll piss you off more.
Speaker 3: Marcella's comments or Torella Owen's comments when he was on
Speaker 3: first day back in the day Max was black than you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, but that that that was just ignorant. You know,
Speaker 1: Like listen, you and I have talked about that. We
Speaker 1: all have talked about it. Black folks, our community. You know,
Speaker 1: there ain't nothing in this world that I love more
Speaker 1: than black people. Ain't nothing I'd rather be other than black.
Speaker 1: But that don't mean that we don't have our issues
Speaker 1: as a community. And a lot of times when you
Speaker 1: see when you think differently, when you think independently. Our
Speaker 1: own gets at you because they want us. You know,
Speaker 1: one minute, we want to be independent in a Maverick style.
Speaker 1: In another minute we want to walk around and like
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be one monolithic group, all aligned in
Speaker 1: terms of our thinking. I don't subscribe to that. Nobody
Speaker 1: thinks for me. I think for me, and I make
Speaker 1: my own decisions. But when Marcella said what he said,
Speaker 1: it was a disappointm you know, because you hurting us
Speaker 1: when you say that, not me, You hurting us because
Speaker 1: dare I say, I think I've accomplished enough where you know,
Speaker 1: my level of intelligence is respected, So what about those
Speaker 1: that may not have accomplished what I've had, or haven't
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to really really expose the level of
Speaker 1: intellect they possess. Well, what are you gonna say about them?
Speaker 1: Not him specifically, but a country that's looking at a
Speaker 1: black man saying that about another black man. So that's fine,
Speaker 1: But the t O thing was just that was what
Speaker 1: pissed me off because the lawyers, his lawyers contacted ESPN
Speaker 1: to sue me. Now he wants to say that wasn't
Speaker 1: you know, that wasn't him, That was his lawyers. I'm like,
Speaker 1: they worked for you for what That's what he said,
Speaker 1: because he tried to say I said something off the
Speaker 1: record that I didn't say, So I don't you know,
Speaker 1: but I've never I've never listened doing what I do.
Speaker 1: I would never violate the trust because you don't have
Speaker 1: any credibility. You do that. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things you have to do is know how to keep secrets.
Speaker 1: You can't open your mouth publicly when you gave your
Speaker 1: word that you know, something's told to you in confidence.
Speaker 3: So when you threatened to expose something about him when
Speaker 3: you retweeted him, that's what it was.
Speaker 1: No what I was saying, and no, that wasn't what
Speaker 1: it was. What I was What I was trying to
Speaker 1: say to him is that I wasn't even trying to
Speaker 1: threaten to expose anything. I'm trying to say, we all
Speaker 1: know all the troubles you've been through. We can talk
Speaker 1: about it, but you know that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1: But that's all I was saying. And then when he
Speaker 1: when he he, you know, he called me and talk
Speaker 1: about I didn't tweet. I retweeted, Well, that's tweeting. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't. I don't know what to say,
Speaker 1: you know so, But I was only pissed off about that,
Speaker 1: and you know, but that's over and done. What we
Speaker 1: spoke on it. We had our words and that's that,
Speaker 1: and you know, we move on. But that pissed me
Speaker 1: off more. The Marcello's thing to answer your question made
Speaker 1: me sad. Steve got to go. I got one last question, man.
Speaker 1: This is as a father. Yeah, Charlemagne has four kids.
Speaker 1: I have six. I have two, you have two? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Where do you find a time? Right?
Speaker 2: Because I think I work a lot, right, I'm traveling everywhere,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, sports never ends, right, and you're always
Speaker 2: doing sports. When do you find time for your family.
Speaker 1: And your kids? Well, first of all, it's never enough time.
Speaker 1: My daughters would be the first to tell you that
Speaker 1: they are not happy with me sometimes because even when
Speaker 1: I'm with them a bit distracted because there's some sports
Speaker 1: event going on and there's something percolating or whatever. I
Speaker 1: treat them like the queens that they are. I do
Speaker 1: the best that I can. But the one thing I
Speaker 1: am unapologetic about, for better or worse, is that I
Speaker 1: grew up poor. I grew up starving and I watched
Speaker 1: my mother's slave as I stayed in in my book,
Speaker 1: because you know, my father didn't handle his business. And
Speaker 1: that's why the title of my book, straight Shooter, is
Speaker 1: dedicated to my mother, because my mother was always a
Speaker 1: straight shooter, and I was always of the mindset provide
Speaker 1: and protect. Do everything that you can to elevate the
Speaker 1: quality of life of your children. Make sure they know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. And why so my daughters know when
Speaker 1: I'm on television, they know where I'm on television from
Speaker 1: I called. You know, I'm with them every day. I
Speaker 1: call them several times a day. They know what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: where I'm doing it from, they know where to find me,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Because I read with children especially, it's important
Speaker 1: that they know. They may not like it, but when
Speaker 1: they able to turn on the TV or click on
Speaker 1: the radio and they hear you or they see you,
Speaker 1: daddy's working, Daddy's working. And so when that's the case,
Speaker 1: and then they reap the benefits of your labor. They
Speaker 1: may not like it sometimes, but they also know that
Speaker 1: everything they have is because of you, and so that
Speaker 1: goes a long way.
Speaker 3: And then outside of that, you find the time and
Speaker 3: it ain't about finding, It's about making it.
Speaker 1: You know. The bottom line is I don't have time
Speaker 1: because I am busy. I make time. I mean, I
Speaker 1: could be having to work. I get off at twelve
Speaker 1: noon and I might have to work at three. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll go see them in Hill too, and then I
Speaker 1: leave and I come back, and then I get off
Speaker 1: at seven. I go see him at eight, And I mean,
Speaker 1: I've I've flown. I've had to take a flight from
Speaker 1: LA to Dallas, and I flew on the Red Eye
Speaker 1: of New York just to take them to school, and
Speaker 1: it flew right out to Dallas. Something like that. It's
Speaker 1: little stuff like that that's big things to them when
Speaker 1: it really really counts, because they know that you're sacrificing
Speaker 1: for them, and when they know that they appreciated it.
Speaker 1: More importantly, it's something that they'll hold others accountable to
Speaker 1: down the line. They'll be like this, how my dad
Speaker 1: treated me? How you gonna treat me? Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: That Stephen A.
Speaker 3: Smith and s Grat Shooter has been recently reprinted with
Speaker 3: a new afterward.
Speaker 4: Any other changes to the combrats on New York Times.
Speaker 1: Bestsellers Man, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Man. Oh, and they told me to tell you Erica
Speaker 3: Ford has the best pitch.
Speaker 4: Now in Queens because.
Speaker 1: That's a choke job. Bro, We're not gonna listen.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 4: Embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I was embarrassing, and that's shame. It's a shame. It
Speaker 1: was shame. Shame. In New York, I was in front
Speaker 1: of the Yankee dugout and sixty feet six inches, I'm
Speaker 1: throwing strikes, throwing strike, about thirty pictures throwing strikes. And
Speaker 1: then he says, time to go to the mound. And
Speaker 1: I walked up there and the mounds ten inches off
Speaker 1: and I turned around and I saw a home player.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, what have I done? What have I done? Right?
Speaker 1: And then my dumb ass I had on Christian Louverton
Speaker 1: sneakers like the red bottom. So I stepped. You try
Speaker 1: to be fly, Try to be fly.
Speaker 3: So I stepped on the dirt and instantly I'm slipping.
Speaker 3: But this before the pitch, I'm slipping. So now I
Speaker 3: got to make a business decision. I'm about to bust
Speaker 3: my ass on national TELEVI I can't do that.
Speaker 1: I said. The priority is to stay upright, no matter
Speaker 1: what I said. I work on the picture later. The
Speaker 1: priority is to stay upright. I should have wore cleats
Speaker 1: and I was wearing the Geda jersey. Gedda caught me afterward.
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing. He said, look man, here's our excuse.
Speaker 1: You were playing crickets. And he said, you know you
Speaker 1: got to come back out there next year and make
Speaker 1: up for it. I said, I will, okay. Well, Steven
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that
Speaker 1: ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club