Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: American football season is just around the corner, and once
Speaker 3: again it's coinciding with some disturbing news.
Speaker 4: There is startling new research out tonight about football and
Speaker 4: head trauma.
Speaker 2: The largest study of its kind, The American Medical Association
Speaker 2: studied the brains of two hundred and two deceased football
Speaker 2: players from all levels who had shown signs of CTE
Speaker 2: when they were alive. Eighty seven percent had the disease,
Speaker 2: and among former NFL players, all but one had the disease.
Speaker 3: All but one. For more analysis, we turned to our
Speaker 3: senior sports analyst. Why would junior everybody? I'm flabbergasted by this.
Speaker 3: How should football fans react to this new study?
Speaker 1: They should ignore it? The study was inconclusive. It's no
Speaker 1: need to get all bothered about it.
Speaker 3: But Roy, But Roy, But one of the NFL brains
Speaker 3: in the study at CTE.
Speaker 1: Exactly one of the brains didn't have it. There's no consensus.
Speaker 1: I mean, Trevor, what information do we really have on concussions?
Speaker 1: We got science and some movie where Will Smith tries
Speaker 1: to sound African. Didn't truth. You can't believe everything you
Speaker 1: see Will Smith do on TV. So now you also
Speaker 1: think you can hop in a taxi and go from
Speaker 1: West Philly to bel Air.
Speaker 5: No, you can't do it.
Speaker 1: Ain't no way a black guy getting the cab across
Speaker 1: the country. I can't get a cab to Brooklyn. Life
Speaker 1: isn't a Will Smith movie, Trevor Roy.
Speaker 3: It sounds like you just don't want to admit that
Speaker 3: football is dangerous, bro.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you the facts, all right. I'm a
Speaker 1: neutral observer. I don't even really be watching football for real.
Speaker 3: Oh really, then, what was this celebrity fantasy football marathon?
Speaker 5: Roy Wood Junior is here, Ladies and gentlemen, the Actors Union. Yeah,
Speaker 5: who are you thinking?
Speaker 1: I know y'all think I'm gonna take this pick solely
Speaker 1: because of this jacket that I'm wearing.
Speaker 5: But it's not.
Speaker 1: I have statistics to back up this selection. Running back
Speaker 1: jail Giant Matt Ryan, Mark Crooper, the third most famous
Speaker 1: Cooper behind Anderson and Bradley. So you just you can
Speaker 1: you're gonna pull the tapes out on the brother, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play tapes on Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean when you're saying you didn't like football, and
Speaker 3: I have the footage of you doing a celebrity fantasy draft.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, fine, look you got me talking about
Speaker 1: some football, but I didn't enjoy it.
Speaker 5: Really.
Speaker 1: Oh then what was this? We have a gift for Roy? Oh? Dar?
Speaker 5: We do no, no, no, we want to take care of
Speaker 5: We want to take care of our people.
Speaker 3: We know that you're a big Rice Krispy guy.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 6: Do you have any regrets about having participated in this thing?
Speaker 1: No? No, this is fine, man, I'm at the Daily Show.
Speaker 5: All the time.
Speaker 1: This is the release. I just relax and eat all
Speaker 1: this ESPN AFTERIA.
Speaker 5: For a release.
Speaker 3: You need a release from working here. I'm sorry, Roy
Speaker 3: is working here not fun for you.
Speaker 1: This right now is pretty tense, dude.
Speaker 3: You threw us under the bus. You make it sound
Speaker 3: like we're not even feeding you.
Speaker 1: Not write Christy treats. Okay, I admit it.
Speaker 5: I love football.
Speaker 1: Trav, and I know it's dangerous, but I just don't
Speaker 1: want to accept the truth. Football is part of life
Speaker 1: for a lot of kids. Man. Football is a ticket
Speaker 1: out of the hood. What are these kids supposed to
Speaker 1: play now?
Speaker 5: I don't know, Like why not?
Speaker 3: Basketball?
Speaker 1: Basketball is fine, but not if you husky? What the husky,
Speaker 1: dude is gonna play how many basketball players you've seen
Speaker 1: out to build like a bag of potatoes.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, fine, it's not realistic to just get
Speaker 3: rid of American football, but the NFL should at least
Speaker 3: take better care of its players. Like NFL players only
Speaker 3: get health insurance for fun five years after their career ends.
Speaker 3: Why con't the league guarantee its players lifetime healthcare?
Speaker 1: Look, man, where's the NFL supposed to get that kind
Speaker 1: of money? They only made fourteen billion dollars last year.
Speaker 1: We've got to think of realistic solutions, like fixing the helmets.
Speaker 5: Oh you mean like make the helmets stronger?
Speaker 1: No, I mean, like, why are they giving players these
Speaker 1: helmets at all? Trevor, You got you give somebody a helmet,
Speaker 1: their immediate response is always going to be, hell, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I can smash my head in or something. Helmets promote
Speaker 1: reckless behavior. You put a piece of plastic on your head,
Speaker 1: you think you would tank. If NFL players are gonna
Speaker 1: wear something on their head, it should be a reminder
Speaker 1: not to do that stuff. That's why I made this
Speaker 1: new helmet. I got this brand new helmet for these players.
Speaker 1: See that, it says says fragile right there, like like
Speaker 1: like when you get a delivery of you know, Humble figurines.
Speaker 3: Why are you getting deliveries of Humble figurines?
Speaker 1: They're collectibles, Trevor. And if this helmet doesn't work, I
Speaker 1: got another helmet idea, this one right here. See, you
Speaker 1: don't cover up.
Speaker 5: The brain, you put it on the outside.
Speaker 1: Player's gonna be running down the field with the helmet
Speaker 1: and like, oh, then't touch my brain. Whoa, Oh, get
Speaker 1: off my brains out here. That's my brain out there,
Speaker 1: you know what.
Speaker 3: Right, I can't decide if that's the most brilliant idea
Speaker 3: or the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's brilliant. Man, you want to write Christy.
Speaker 5: Get the hell out of here. Roy would jun never
Speaker 5: want would be right back.
Speaker 3: Let me get on my show. When you think of
Speaker 3: the NFL, you're supposed to think of athletes doing exciting
Speaker 3: things like making amazing catches or throwing incredible pauses and
Speaker 3: running up the middle into a big pile of people
Speaker 3: for some crazy reason. What are you doing?
Speaker 5: Go around them, you idiot.
Speaker 3: That's what I would have done. But in recent years,
Speaker 3: the actual football part of the NFL has been overshadowed
Speaker 3: by off the field scandals, from the Redskins controversy to
Speaker 3: the black balling of Colin Kaepernick to the league telling
Speaker 3: players that dark spots on their MRIs was just their
Speaker 3: brains getting a sun tan. And this week brought a
Speaker 3: whole new scandal for the NFL when former Miami Dolphins
Speaker 3: coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit accusing the league of
Speaker 3: racial discrimination against black coaches. Flores claims that teams are
Speaker 3: interviewing black coaches with no intention of actually hiring them.
Speaker 3: He says he had an interview with the Broncos where
Speaker 3: the executives showed up an hour late and clearly hungover,
Speaker 3: and he had an interview with the Giants that he
Speaker 3: knew was bullshit because the team had already decided to
Speaker 3: hire a different white coach, and the way he found
Speaker 3: out that they had already hired somebody is pretty wild for.
Speaker 6: Us, as he found out from Patriots coach Bill Belichick
Speaker 6: that the Giants had hired a head coach three days
Speaker 6: before he was scheduled to have an interview with the team.
Speaker 7: The complaint states on January twenty fourth, Belichick wrote sounds
Speaker 7: like you have landed. Congrats. Flora's responded saying did you
Speaker 7: hear something I didn't hear? Belichick texted back Giants. Flora's
Speaker 7: later texts Belichick to ask if he's texting the right
Speaker 7: coach before Belichick this is up that he has the
Speaker 7: wrong man. Sorry, I expleted this up. I double checked,
Speaker 7: and I misread the text. I think they're naming Dable.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry about.
Speaker 1: That, b B.
Speaker 3: This is so embarrassing. Why do old people sign their
Speaker 3: texts like? Do they do that for everything?
Speaker 8: I'm so horny right now, yours truly, Henry. I want
Speaker 8: you to go to town on my ass affectionately, yours, Linda.
Speaker 8: Squirt emoji, squirt emoji best wishes, Henry.
Speaker 3: No, but for real, this was a screw up by
Speaker 3: Benichick and he's a coach, so he can't even blame
Speaker 3: CTE because this is how Flores found out that he
Speaker 3: already lost the job that he was about to interview for.
Speaker 3: About you and you may be wondering, why would an
Speaker 3: NFL team grant an interview to a black coach if
Speaker 3: they have no intention of hiring them. Well, for a
Speaker 3: long time, blackhead coaches in the NFL were just not
Speaker 3: a thing right. In fact, between nineteen twenty six and
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty nine, there were zero black coaches, nada. Yeah,
Speaker 3: during that sixty year period, it was easier to find
Speaker 3: a black person in space than coaching in the NFL.
Speaker 3: And finally, in two thousand and two, Johnny Cochrane, yes,
Speaker 3: the OJ guy. I guess he was rarely into football.
Speaker 3: He threatened to sue the league if it didn't get
Speaker 3: its act together, and so the NFL created something called
Speaker 3: the Rooney Rule, which said that at any time that
Speaker 3: there's an opening for a new coach, at least one
Speaker 3: minority candidate has to be interviewed for the job. Which
Speaker 3: is cool, but now Brian Flores is saying that these
Speaker 3: interviews he's getting they aren't real. These teams are just
Speaker 3: going through the motions to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Think
Speaker 3: of it this way. It's almost like when your mom
Speaker 3: emails you that her friend from church, her son, is
Speaker 3: moving to your city and she wants you to be
Speaker 3: friends with him, and then yeah, you go get a
Speaker 3: beer with him just to make your mom happy.
Speaker 5: But you know for a fact you're never gonna hire.
Speaker 3: Him as your friend. And Honestly, if you're gonna make
Speaker 3: someone come to a bullshit interview, the least you can
Speaker 3: do is let them know ahead of time. Let them
Speaker 3: know this is a bullshit interview, because that way they
Speaker 3: can have some fun with it. You know, think how
Speaker 3: dope would be to get to an interview knowing you're
Speaker 3: not going to get the job. Then you can give
Speaker 3: bullshit interviews. So what would you say is your biggest weakness.
Speaker 3: I'm definitely afraid of footballs, and I also don't know
Speaker 3: what a footballs is.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 3: Look, we don't know for certain why Brian Flores didn't
Speaker 3: get these jobs, but it's clear that the Rooney Rule,
Speaker 3: despite its good intentions, has done nothing to solve the
Speaker 3: NFL's black coaching problem.
Speaker 6: The facts are clear that black coaches are not awarded
Speaker 6: the same opportunities as their white counterparts. Black coaches take
Speaker 6: longer to get hired, they get fired faster.
Speaker 5: A study found the coaches of color averaged shorter tenures
Speaker 5: than white coaches, and we're less likely to land another
Speaker 5: head coaching job after being fired.
Speaker 9: It was an academic study that came out across three
Speaker 9: decades over one thousand coaches, finding that black coaches were
Speaker 9: one hundred and fourteen percent less likely to be promoted
Speaker 9: to coordinated positions.
Speaker 10: Despite the success of coaches such as Tomlin and Tony Dungee,
Speaker 10: who both won Super Bowls. When it comes to head coaches,
Speaker 10: the league is nearly as white now as it was
Speaker 10: in eighteen eighty nine.
Speaker 11: In two thousand and three, when the Rooney Rule was institated,
Speaker 11: there were three African American coaches in the National Football League.
Speaker 11: We are nineteen years removed from the institution and implementation
Speaker 11: of the Rooney Rule, and.
Speaker 5: There is now one head coach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Out of thirty two teams in the NFL,
Speaker 3: there's still only one black head coach, which is fewer
Speaker 3: than the number of black coaches when the Rooney Rule started.
Speaker 3: So the Rooney rule is basically as useless as the
Speaker 3: five second rule. Yeah, bitch, you dropped your food on
Speaker 3: the floor. If you put in your mouth, that's just nasty. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's not like bacteria slow to figure it out.
Speaker 5: Is that food?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 5: That's food.
Speaker 3: And it turns out not only a black coaches still
Speaker 3: not getting off opportunities, but when they do get the job,
Speaker 3: they have a much shorter leash than white coaches. Yeah,
Speaker 3: even if they win, there's still a good chance that
Speaker 3: they're gonna get fired. Now, is the NFL doing this
Speaker 3: on purpose to black coaches? Nobody knows. I mean maybe,
Speaker 3: or maybe it's an unconscious bias. And that's what makes
Speaker 3: racism so hard to prove these days, because back in
Speaker 3: the day, when someone's being racist to you, you knew, right,
Speaker 3: because there'd be upfront. They'd just be like, oh, you
Speaker 3: you want the hand coaching job? Ha ha, you'll run
Speaker 3: funny negro I don't even know Negroes is smart.
Speaker 5: Enough to Mike jokes. Did you know that stave? But
Speaker 5: that's why proving.
Speaker 3: Racism for black people in twenty twenty two can be
Speaker 3: so frustrating, Right, Sometimes it feels like, you know, you're
Speaker 3: the only person in a horror movie who actually knows
Speaker 3: what's going on. You gotta believe me, man, there's a
Speaker 3: serial killer in this camp. Don't be ridiculous.
Speaker 8: All these sexy teens are probably stabbing themselves to death.
Speaker 3: Come on. But no matter why it's happening, it's clear
Speaker 3: that black coaches aren't getting the same opportunities in the
Speaker 3: NFL as their white counterparts, which is pretty demoralizing situation
Speaker 3: for black coaches to be.
Speaker 12: In NFL owners have stuck to an old game plan
Speaker 12: when it comes to hiring head coaches, and that in
Speaker 12: turn has sent morale among black coaches plummeting to a
Speaker 12: new law. It's now so bad. Football agent Brian Levy
Speaker 12: convened the Zoom meeting for many of the black coaches
Speaker 12: he represents to talk about the Rooney rule, part workshop,
Speaker 12: part therapy session.
Speaker 13: You see guys that are not as qualified that jump
Speaker 13: ahead of you. Guys that you have trained and that
Speaker 13: were under you for years that jump. And now, so
Speaker 13: what is the criteria? You know, the resume doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 5: He's not getting interviewed because he's the qualified coach. He's
Speaker 5: getting interviewed because they have to hit that quota. You
Speaker 5: see the black man.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, he's the Rooney That's why he's interviewed.
Speaker 9: He's the Roney man.
Speaker 3: You see the shit. The situation is so bad for
Speaker 3: black coaches that they are voluntarily having Zoom meetings. Do
Speaker 3: you know how truly unfair something has to be for football,
Speaker 3: which is to talk about their feelings. Think about it.
Speaker 3: Even when they win the Super Bowl, they'll be up
Speaker 3: on the podium that night, like you play well today,
Speaker 3: then give the boys twenty minutes off tomorrow and then
Speaker 3: it's back to the weight room. This is the most
Speaker 3: exciting day of my life. Well for more on this issue,
Speaker 3: let's go now to our senior tailgates and correspondence, Roywood Jr. Roy,
Speaker 3: I believe you're out at Miami Dolphins Stadium right now,
Speaker 3: and this story is truly a bombshell story.
Speaker 1: It is shocking, Trevor, shocking. I can't believe that racism
Speaker 1: still exists in the NFL. I mean, they had in
Speaker 1: racism on their helmets. Are you're telling me that didn't
Speaker 1: do anything?
Speaker 3: You know, Roy, I'm as shocked as you are. But
Speaker 3: let me ask you, what do you think of the
Speaker 3: Rooney rule? Because this lawsuit seems to prove that it
Speaker 3: hasn't worked.
Speaker 1: The problem with the Rooney rule is that it underestimates
Speaker 1: racial bias. The Rooney rule says, you don't like black people,
Speaker 1: we'll hang out with one and see what happens. But
Speaker 1: nothing happened. So now it's even worse, and you're still
Speaker 1: hiring the white coach and wasting the black man's.
Speaker 3: Time, right right, So then I just to mention.
Speaker 1: That this rule messes with the black man's self esteem.
Speaker 1: He's going on all these interviews and doesn't get the job.
Speaker 1: He's obviously gonna wonder, well, is it me? You're getting
Speaker 1: little self esteem? That shit starts affecting your whole life.
Speaker 1: You start having problems with intimacy. Your girl asks what's wrong,
Speaker 1: but you're too manly to admit that. When you get older,
Speaker 1: things don't work. It's good. You know what I'm talking about, Trevor.
Speaker 1: You know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been through
Speaker 1: this shit. You start growing apart. She leaves you. Next
Speaker 1: thing you know, she's dating the white coach because he
Speaker 1: got a good job. Meanwhile, you're at home by yourself
Speaker 1: watching pawn. You're not even jerking off while you're watching
Speaker 1: the porn. You're just watching it and eating cheese.
Speaker 3: I think that win's a bit off track, but I
Speaker 3: get what you're saying, Roy You think the Rooney rule
Speaker 3: should be abolished.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't say that. We just gotta replace the
Speaker 1: Rooney rule with the roy Wood Junior rule.
Speaker 3: The Roywood Junior rule, I'm sorry, what is that.
Speaker 1: Oh dog? It's simple. If a team is gonna hire
Speaker 1: a white guy, but they have to interview a black guy.
Speaker 1: Then they should just have to fly me out.
Speaker 3: But then doesn't that waste your time?
Speaker 13: Man?
Speaker 1: I ain't got nothing going on except for this stupid
Speaker 1: ass job. And I get to have a fun weekend,
Speaker 1: get to fly first class, get the chill in the
Speaker 1: hotel with a mini bar, hang it out in fun cities,
Speaker 1: drunk in New Orleans, back tattoos in Miami. I might
Speaker 1: have a good ass time.
Speaker 3: Dog. Well, Roy, I'm looking here and it says that
Speaker 3: one of the first available jobs is gonna be in Minnesota,
Speaker 3: So you want to fly there?
Speaker 1: You want to send a black man to Minnesota in February?
Speaker 1: What part of in racism do you not understand, Trevor.
Speaker 1: My skin wasn't made for them type of temperatures. Let
Speaker 1: the white coaches have Minnesota. They can have that.
Speaker 3: So Roy, you're just gonna give up on Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Trevor, there is a reason that you never saw any
Speaker 1: black Vikings. You've seen a black Viking. Name one black Viking. Yeah.
Speaker 14: My guest to life is a former from the NFL
Speaker 14: player and the president of the NFL Players Association. He
Speaker 14: is a now writer and a commentator, Please welcome Dominique Foxworths.
Speaker 14: Happy Happy Black History Months.
Speaker 4: Oh, happy Black History Month through too. I appreciate all
Speaker 4: the white people celebrating. They don't know who I am,
Speaker 4: but for me anyway, they both think we're in.
Speaker 14: You know what's interesting It is Black History Month and
Speaker 14: the first day Tom Brady now this retirement.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and on the day or that, we're
Speaker 4: leading up to the Super Bowl. First two black quarterbacks
Speaker 4: in the Super Bowl ever.
Speaker 5: And we also had we also had.
Speaker 4: Over the weekend what I believe to be the blackest
Speaker 4: moment playoff history. I don't know if you saw Patrick
Speaker 4: Mahomes Daddy on the sideline, Patrick Levn Mahomes Daddy on
Speaker 4: the sidide.
Speaker 5: I loved it.
Speaker 4: It sounded so much like my black uncles.
Speaker 5: When you say his name, then you know it's gonna
Speaker 5: be Oh. Yeah it was.
Speaker 4: It was the familiar den of a black Oh. It
Speaker 4: sounded like a like a love of baseball cap that high,
Speaker 4: the jewelry I'm smoking on that jump.
Speaker 5: Just like ball.
Speaker 14: But it is it's historic. Two black quarterbacks started for
Speaker 14: the first time. And then what does that mean to you?
Speaker 14: A former player?
Speaker 5: Meaning you?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think it represents I hate the word progress,
Speaker 4: but it does kind of represent some progress. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's lots of other things in the NFL and in
Speaker 4: the world, frankly, that we need to work towards. But
Speaker 4: one thing that we've had to finally accept is black
Speaker 4: quarterbacks are perfect leaders, perfect quarterbacks, and.
Speaker 14: The problem was that they didn't think they had the intelligence.
Speaker 4: It's one about the intelligence and also in the leadership,
Speaker 4: and it's also about y'all.
Speaker 5: Like frankly, it's about what the.
Speaker 4: What the quarterback represents on a football team. It's something
Speaker 4: that white people in America in general were never comfortable
Speaker 4: with seeing a black person represent that. So it's been
Speaker 4: it's been great to see not only have so many
Speaker 4: successful black quarterbacks, and we saw even some quarterbacks that
Speaker 4: are black that are.
Speaker 5: Good, which is showing progress.
Speaker 4: Too, because we could be just as shit you, I mean,
Speaker 4: that is that is progress. But the most like exciting
Speaker 4: thing about it is the future of the league. The
Speaker 4: best quarterback that I think any of us have ever
Speaker 4: seen is Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 14: I think I've never seen anybody be able to do
Speaker 14: the things he does. Now, you gotta, of course, you
Speaker 14: got to be great over a long period of time
Speaker 14: because there are people who started out the way I
Speaker 14: thought what Cam Newton was doing was remarkable then and
Speaker 14: then and then you see what happens. It's interesting because
Speaker 14: we talk about football and there's there's a market difference
Speaker 14: between the way players in the NFL are treated and
Speaker 14: the way players in the NBA are treating. And I
Speaker 14: think primarily it is the ownership. I think that the
Speaker 14: ownership in the NFL has a decidedly different view of
Speaker 14: their commodity than the NBA does. Like you would never
Speaker 14: see an NFL an NBA owner talk to a major
Speaker 14: star like NFL. If somebody talk to Lebron James like
Speaker 14: they talk to some of these stars, it will be over.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, Lebron James has a disproportionate amount of power.
Speaker 4: But like singling out the NFL, and trust me, I'm
Speaker 4: not going to be up here defending the NFL, But
Speaker 4: the NFL exists in our society and frankly, NFL is
Speaker 4: no different than any.
Speaker 5: Other absolutely workplace.
Speaker 4: And so like the hierarchy that exists in the NFL
Speaker 4: is like it's going to be blacker at the bottom
Speaker 4: and or minorities at the bottom, and you go up
Speaker 4: higher and higher and there's less risk. There's less danger,
Speaker 4: there's less injury, there's less pain, but there's more money,
Speaker 4: there's more success, there's more protection. And that's like, that's
Speaker 4: truly NFL and frankly, that's true in the NBA, that's
Speaker 4: true everywhere.
Speaker 5: Everywhere that y'all work is true. It's true in this building. Sorry,
Speaker 5: they may not have Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, not today, not today.
Speaker 14: You know, it's interesting because we watched When I watched
Speaker 14: what happened to Hamlin on the field, I was personally
Speaker 14: like like, I'm I watched football very long time, and
Speaker 14: I'm sure you've seen a lot of injuries. I don't
Speaker 14: know that I've ever seen anything like that. And the
Speaker 14: way that the players reacted, it was, it was it
Speaker 14: was hurtful. I mean, obviously you were sad that somebody
Speaker 14: was suffering. They were, but it was such a beautiful
Speaker 14: human moment because the NFL got to be human. Like
Speaker 14: the coach was like, we ain't playing this game, and
Speaker 14: I'm like, yes, you are exactly. So you got to
Speaker 14: see men that just were empathic and and just men
Speaker 14: who were crying and praying and not because they wanted
Speaker 14: a little loss because they were praying for for somebody
Speaker 14: who was in it.
Speaker 5: I played for I played a long time.
Speaker 4: I was in a game where a player got paralyzed
Speaker 4: on the field and he was taking off. We waited
Speaker 4: five minutes, warmed up, and played again. I played in
Speaker 4: a preseason game where a player died in the locker
Speaker 4: room afterwards. Like, I've been around some ugly parts of football,
Speaker 4: but to your point, I've never seen anything.
Speaker 14: What do you think was different about that that particular play?
Speaker 5: Is his heart stopped on the field.
Speaker 14: I mean, but we've seen people pass out. We've seen
Speaker 14: people have but it was something different about that. That
Speaker 14: may because I didn't think it was all that bad
Speaker 14: at first. I passed out during COVID so, but there
Speaker 14: was the way because I think that people are used
Speaker 14: to certain types of injuries or seeing certain types of things.
Speaker 14: But that scared everybody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the reaction from the players really like scared all
Speaker 4: of us. And I think this all goes back to
Speaker 4: the original conversation that we were having about like American
Speaker 4: culture and the hierarchy that exists. Is you show up
Speaker 4: at those games as a player, and you know that
Speaker 4: there is no limit to the risk that you're.
Speaker 5: Taking, right, what would you do with them? Well, you
Speaker 5: do it because you grow up.
Speaker 4: So when you were a kid and you want to
Speaker 4: play football, you decide before your like of clear mind.
Speaker 4: Then you show a propensity for it. If people just
Speaker 4: keep pushing along, keep pushing along. And nothing's wrong with that.
Speaker 4: And frankly, when I came up, we were unaware of
Speaker 4: the ct stuff that came out while I was in
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 5: To change your mind, I like to think it would,
Speaker 5: but I doubt that it would.
Speaker 4: And to be honest with you, I don't begrudge any
Speaker 4: of the players now for participating in a game knowing
Speaker 4: the risk that it takes. The thing that frustrates me
Speaker 4: is there is a cap on the amount of money
Speaker 4: they can make, on the amount of healthcare they can receive.
Speaker 4: The league negotiates for a cap on that, but on
Speaker 4: the other side, the owners, the coaches, the general maner, that's.
Speaker 14: The players really, because if NFL players didn't play, that
Speaker 14: shit would be rugby, right, Yeah, And I think the
Speaker 14: goal is to make you pretend like you don't have
Speaker 14: a choice, of believe you don't have a choice. You
Speaker 14: go through some of the finest institutions of hire learning.
Speaker 14: On the face of there, you went to Harvard, You're
Speaker 14: a very bright man.
Speaker 5: But to make you believe that you're beholden to a.
Speaker 14: Thing because of your mind is the biggest game in town.
Speaker 4: So I agree and I understand. So to be clear,
Speaker 4: I went to Harvard Business School. I'm aa turp.
Speaker 5: Through and through. But the first he's down playing Harvard.
Speaker 14: Yeah, man, I know somebody went to the New school.
Speaker 5: I would say.
Speaker 4: Quality callback Harvard is no news school. I would say
Speaker 4: that I get your point. And I'm sorry to sound
Speaker 4: like a broken record, but like we all exist in
Speaker 4: the society, and I think the players as.
Speaker 5: A whole, solidarity is power.
Speaker 4: If they stop playing, you can get what you want,
Speaker 4: and all of us can get the things that we
Speaker 4: want if we band together. But the challenging thing about
Speaker 4: negotiating with the owners, it's the same thing that we
Speaker 4: all face, is trying to change the system that's in
Speaker 4: trench the people who are already in power in that situation.
Speaker 4: So if you are to strike, if you're a player,
Speaker 4: to if you're a group of players, to get what
Speaker 4: you want, that's essentially a war of attrition. The commanders
Speaker 4: the Washington football team, this report is going to sell
Speaker 4: for eight billion dollars. How do players win a war
Speaker 4: of attrition against them? And then you compound that by
Speaker 4: the fact that.
Speaker 5: We get pressure from everywhere.
Speaker 4: No one comes down so rarely. I think it's changing
Speaker 4: some now, but so rarely do fans come down on
Speaker 4: the owners when there's an issue.
Speaker 5: Not at all.
Speaker 14: They mad at the players because that's the face that
Speaker 14: they or they can't even see the face because they
Speaker 14: have a helmet on. I think you guys have a
Speaker 14: tremendous amount of pressure on you externally because if you're
Speaker 14: an athlete, people aspire to be and there's amount of
Speaker 14: external pressure that society from a civic perspective, from a
Speaker 14: cultural perspective, from activism perspective. So and it's really important
Speaker 14: because the only time generally they see black people were running, jumping,
Speaker 14: singing and dancing.
Speaker 5: It really is.
Speaker 14: It's the only time we have everybody's rapt attention. And
Speaker 14: so how do you balance the fact that you are
Speaker 14: a professional, you have commitments, you have to you're obligated to,
Speaker 14: but you still have a commitment to making things better
Speaker 14: for a community.
Speaker 5: It's so it's unfair, but that's life.
Speaker 4: It's unfair that that responsibility falls on black players because
Speaker 4: it doesn't fall on black on white players, Like no
Speaker 4: one has this expectation of white players to do the
Speaker 4: same thing, but as black players, they all know that
Speaker 4: that expectation falls on them. But I think Howard Bryant
Speaker 4: wrote a great book called The Heritage about the history
Speaker 4: of activism and athletes, and it's changed. The position of
Speaker 4: the players and activism has changed, and I think that
Speaker 4: that's incumbent on us as spectators and people who care
Speaker 4: about it to understand that athletes aren't activists anymore.
Speaker 5: As much as they.
Speaker 4: Are like flashlights, right, they are not entrenched in the
Speaker 4: fight and the way that say Kareem Abdul Jabbar was,
Speaker 4: which is fine. So when they get an opportunity and
Speaker 4: they say, look over at Tyree Nichols, then it's our
Speaker 4: job to jump in because we can't expect them to
Speaker 4: commit themselves to being the best in the world and
Speaker 4: then also commit themselves to be on top of the
Speaker 4: latest reading in the latest.
Speaker 5: Like it's self preservation.
Speaker 14: Virtually every skill set that got you on that field,
Speaker 14: will get you makes you a hero on Sunday, will
Speaker 14: make you a target on Monday. If you big, you fast,
Speaker 14: you strong, and you black on Sunday, that's an attribute
Speaker 14: on the streets of the of this country. It is
Speaker 14: a detriment. So it is self preservation. There's one there's
Speaker 14: only one standard.
Speaker 5: I have.
Speaker 14: Do what you can to the best of your ability.
Speaker 14: Do what you can for as long as you can,
Speaker 14: for all that you can. And I think that one
Speaker 14: thing I will say about you, even if I got
Speaker 14: a chance to meet you, I.
Speaker 5: Love how area dice you are.
Speaker 14: I love how nuanced you are because most things aren't
Speaker 14: just black and white and and and I love how
Speaker 14: you don't just depend on your physicality. You have never
Speaker 14: just depended on that. But I hate it how you play.
Speaker 14: You said, I went to horma term now nobody would
Speaker 14: ever put it Maryland any resume.
Speaker 5: I would. But it ain't no new school.
Speaker 14: You see that there's a pretty broad continued experience with
Speaker 14: the way the NFL was then it is now. Are
Speaker 14: you more hardened or more disappointed by the direction that's going.
Speaker 5: I think that's a tough question. I think I am.
Speaker 5: I think that it's not about.
Speaker 4: The NFL, and I'm guilty of this is as much
Speaker 4: as anybody else as we think of the NFL as
Speaker 4: a single entity, which like, yeah, it's an institution, but
Speaker 4: the NFL is made up of a bunch of different things.
Speaker 4: And the most important entity in the NFL is the players.
Speaker 4: And so that gives me optimism because I've never been
Speaker 4: more impressed, more excited, more invigorated by not only the talent,
Speaker 4: but the perspective and the engagement of these players. We
Speaker 4: talked about Patrick Mahomes and how he's the best quarterback
Speaker 4: in football right now and on a trajectory to be
Speaker 4: one of the best of all time. He spoke out
Speaker 4: he was one of the first faces in that video
Speaker 4: about Colin Kaepernick.
Speaker 5: And I know that Colin Kaepernick's.
Speaker 4: Not back in the league, but the idea that a
Speaker 4: black quarterback who can obviously avoid this conversation if he
Speaker 4: wants to, like they, that opportunity is presented to him
Speaker 4: time and time again, and he does not. And that's
Speaker 4: an example to everyone else and players like Lamar Jackson
Speaker 4: who are willing to be outspoken in fight for players right,
Speaker 4: like all of these players in the league, and it's
Speaker 4: not just the black players, it's the white players also,
Speaker 4: Like the league is in so much better place because
Speaker 4: of the players, And if only the players like really
Speaker 4: understood that there is just.
Speaker 14: An interest in making sure you don't realize everything you have.
Speaker 14: You have because somebody look like you sacrifice.
Speaker 1: That's why you have it.
Speaker 5: You want to lead the union. I don't even pay my.
Speaker 14: Dude, what would the you're you're older, now, you have
Speaker 14: a family, you've been married, You've lived in various places,
Speaker 14: You've seen in the world. What would the adult you
Speaker 14: tell the rookie, the wide eyed, the wide eyed for
Speaker 14: the wide eyed kid that were walking through what would
Speaker 14: you tell.
Speaker 5: You have as much fun as you can. Oh, no,
Speaker 5: that's a different conversation. That's that's when the cameras going.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 4: I think the most important thing is to get as
Speaker 4: many different experiences as possible. And we are so focused
Speaker 4: and we're celebrating. I did a bunch of ESPN stuff
Speaker 4: today celebrating tom Brady's career, and his career deserves to
Speaker 4: be celebrated. It was great, And part of the reason
Speaker 4: why it was so great was because it appeared to
Speaker 4: me that nothing else was more important than football to him.
Speaker 4: And that's fine. If you could be tom Brady. Not
Speaker 4: everybody can be tom Brady and I know that having
Speaker 4: all these other experiences, the tough thing about being a
Speaker 4: player in professional sports is your skills aren't applicable anywhere else.
Speaker 4: So if you don't hit that home run. And this
Speaker 4: goes back to like the challenge for being a player
Speaker 4: versus in the ownership class. If you are a player
Speaker 4: and you play three to four years, then the league
Speaker 4: minimum goes up and you're out of the league, and
Speaker 4: your experience, I mean sets you up to be a
Speaker 4: bouncer like what you are in a tough situation. So like,
Speaker 4: one of the things that I did, and I would
Speaker 4: encourage all the players to do, is get involved in
Speaker 4: the union as much as possible. That like that helped
Speaker 4: open my mind to how many other opportunities there were
Speaker 4: out there in the world. Get involved in community things obviously,
Speaker 4: and also like when you have time. One of the
Speaker 4: things that we negotiated was for longer off season. Sure,
Speaker 4: use that off season to go do something. It'll make
Speaker 4: you a better football player, it will make you a
Speaker 4: better person, make you better husband as fuck.
Speaker 14: I just I dig talking to you, but I'll say this.
Speaker 14: I want you to understand this. I truly wants you
Speaker 14: to understand this, and Most of the men who are
Speaker 14: on that football field go to the finest institutions of
Speaker 14: higher learning in the world. It is not their physical attributes,
Speaker 14: it is their minds. And when you understand that your
Speaker 14: mind is the most valuable police a real estate on
Speaker 14: the face of the earth, they can't beat you.
Speaker 5: They can't.
Speaker 14: It is not your Your body will fail you wait
Speaker 14: before your mind? Does you know you you're here not
Speaker 14: because your physical You may think that because you hurt
Speaker 14: yourself you're here, but your mind was ready. And these
Speaker 14: maybe I'm just you know, I got the GDS for
Speaker 14: who am I to say? But if you go to college,
Speaker 14: drop by a class every once in you know what
Speaker 14: I'm saying.
Speaker 5: You ain't got to be the new school.
Speaker 14: Dominique Fox work you want to go? You vocast Dominique
Speaker 14: Fox for the show?
Speaker 5: Okavin that shorty right? We'll be.
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Speaker 5: Watch The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten.
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