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 a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: Let's getting down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You heard them
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all.
Speaker 1: You know what, You're acting real funny with that black
Speaker 1: T shirt. It's like your bulletproof vest. Good afternoon, Good morning,
Speaker 1: wherever you are listening to the cut to a podcast.
Speaker 1: I am Steve Smith Senior, Little John backstage, Joe say hello,
Speaker 1: hello everybody. Alright, So got a little banger going on,
Speaker 1: opening up and a couple of weeks ago last week.
Speaker 1: Whichever way you, whichever way you are listening, because you
Speaker 1: can download this podcast anytime anywhere. Uh, this may be
Speaker 1: a new episode for you, or this may be an
Speaker 1: old episode for some other folks. So had the unique
Speaker 1: opportunity um to go to Montana and did some skin
Speaker 1: and yes, uh you know black man U brother on
Speaker 1: the slopes. Oh yes I was, and I enjoy skin
Speaker 1: because it's a place where I can be myself. I
Speaker 1: am all bumbled up. Nobody knows what color I am.
Speaker 1: I had. You know nothing of my appearance other than
Speaker 1: if I wear some flamboyant pants. I'm just a scared.
Speaker 1: I saw several flamboyant people out there, which was we're
Speaker 1: on the ski slopes and you're in like a onesie
Speaker 1: that like your Olympic, Like you're in the Olympics, like
Speaker 1: you win to win the game. But I saw the
Speaker 1: dou fall. So look, your outfit didn't match a game.
Speaker 1: It wasn't good for his aero dynamics. Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: looked good, but he didn't play good. So but one
Speaker 1: of the things that was really cool is I normally,
Speaker 1: because of my job with NFL Network, I normally travel
Speaker 1: round trip. I probably take about twenty to thirty flights
Speaker 1: a year. Since COVID has happened, this is my second
Speaker 1: flight in ten months, and it was really interesting because
Speaker 1: it was for the first time in ten months, I
Speaker 1: felt somewhat back to normal. I got up, I had
Speaker 1: a desk, a nation, had to go through security, I
Speaker 1: had something that was prior ten months ago. It was
Speaker 1: just everyday occurrence. I get on airplane on Wednesday, go
Speaker 1: Thursday night football. Depend on what time I'll leave. Friday,
Speaker 1: I may have another I go home back to Charlotte.
Speaker 1: I go somewhere else, uh to another game. But that
Speaker 1: was my normal routine. COVID stopped my normal routine. So
Speaker 1: I thought it was really cool that I experienced something normal.
Speaker 1: So my question to you, Gerard, is since COVID is hit,
Speaker 1: what have you been able to do that actually makes
Speaker 1: you feel like things are getting back to normal for you?
Speaker 1: That's I've been waiting, and Joe, think of yours to
Speaker 1: player because you up next. I mean, that question is
Speaker 1: tough because right there, there is no more normal. So
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the bare bowls normal. I had told Joe.
Speaker 1: I had said, man, it's good just to be out
Speaker 1: going through security. The only thing was normal. What's normal
Speaker 1: for you may not be normal for someone may not
Speaker 1: be someone normal for someone else. Do ask him what's
Speaker 1: normal for him. I'm just trying to, But but I'm
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying there is that What my point
Speaker 1: is that there is no more normal right so normal
Speaker 1: for me is going home playing with my kids. But
Speaker 1: I was doing that prior to COVID. I got a
Speaker 1: chance to do that more right, so that that bring
Speaker 1: that resents me. But in terms that everything you're saying
Speaker 1: is you have not had that normal button maybe pushed
Speaker 1: for you yet. No, because there is no more normal
Speaker 1: right like this, Well that's right. I I totally disagree
Speaker 1: with that statement. Is no more normal? We can agree
Speaker 1: to disagree. Here's why this virus has altered some things,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, it has not altered who
Speaker 1: we are and and so and I'm saying normal, don't
Speaker 1: mean that it was refreshing to me to actually get
Speaker 1: to do something that was kind of back to what
Speaker 1: I was used to. And I'm not talking about the traveling.
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about just getting up finally with a
Speaker 1: destination that is not grocery store, bathroom, Uh, taking the
Speaker 1: kids school or dropping them off for you know, something
Speaker 1: like that. I'm just talking about, like, hey, the world
Speaker 1: has started to turn a little bit. And that's what
Speaker 1: I mean by normal. And so I think to some
Speaker 1: degree you haven't hit that button yet. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, Like we're we're just different opinion, right, But
Speaker 1: because I'll see that it's it's it's not really normal.
Speaker 1: Right now and it's not. But I got I gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta go, you got a chance to break. I
Speaker 1: gotta slice. I got a slice of the normal pie
Speaker 1: that I'm being honest. Ten months ago, I didn't appreciate it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't going through security tess a whatever you know,
Speaker 1: Uh well I have t s a because I don't
Speaker 1: feel like stripping down, have to halfway uh you know,
Speaker 1: down to to whatever, right and they checking your cords
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. Like I I dropped my son
Speaker 1: off at school, I ran, I drove up to the
Speaker 1: airport and I was like, huh wow. I was looking
Speaker 1: at things as if it was my first time here.
Speaker 1: It was. I was like, wow a gate. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: really the first time Steve's ever been excited going through security,
Speaker 1: like he was pumped up about He's like, I'm going
Speaker 1: through security right now. It was that maybe that'll hit
Speaker 1: me like whenever you go back to a football game
Speaker 1: or a basketball game or something to where that's not
Speaker 1: part of normal life, right, So maybe that'll hit then,
Speaker 1: But for right now, like, no, I guess I really
Speaker 1: haven't had what you're talking about. I probably have happy
Speaker 1: slice of normal. So here's my challenge to you, friend, brother,
Speaker 1: try to find something in the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: you and that you and me and somebody where you
Speaker 1: just get a little slice of normal. Maybe it's, you know,
Speaker 1: with all the protocols going bowling, or just something normal, like, bro,
Speaker 1: I've gotten so much. I want to say so much,
Speaker 1: but it probably is. We've gotten so much takeout food,
Speaker 1: but just to sit in a restaurant, right, I guess
Speaker 1: like man, I forgot about that. Okay, I'll give you one.
Speaker 1: When we uh, we all three of us had a
Speaker 1: chance to kick back and watch the National Championship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that was probably the piece of normal because you know,
Speaker 1: you can't really gather amongst large groups, right, so for
Speaker 1: us to be able to last year, but that was
Speaker 1: what was what was last year normal, but that was
Speaker 1: normal this year we watched it in office. So going
Speaker 1: back to that question, you know, my normal right now
Speaker 1: it is this podcast because we've been doing it through COVID.
Speaker 1: So my current normal is I work on guests all
Speaker 1: week long and then you know, we formulate questions and
Speaker 1: moving forward and then we come in here on Tuesdays.
Speaker 1: But getting back to the normalcy, you know, backstage Joe's
Speaker 1: nine to five gig because you know, Steve Smith don't
Speaker 1: be paying a whole bunch of money to do this podcast,
Speaker 1: so I gotta get another gig. So just going on.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like minimum being raised. We got a
Speaker 1: new man in the White House and it's going up.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. He's giving you a look like
Speaker 1: he wants you to move along. Okay, rewind Okay, so
Speaker 1: Steve pays well, but just in case I want to
Speaker 1: do something extra backstage, Joe's nine to five is like
Speaker 1: getting back to seeing my customers in my in my
Speaker 1: normal company. Um so, you know, talking to them and
Speaker 1: actually scheduling visits to jump on a plane to go
Speaker 1: see somebody, because that is exciting because you know, I remember, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to work today. I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this. But now it's like whoa, Like
Speaker 1: I'm excited to get out there and you're gonnaly do
Speaker 1: so much on Zoom, you know, jumping on a plane
Speaker 1: and going that face to face. You know, from a
Speaker 1: sales perspective, nothing beats getting there and sitting down with
Speaker 1: your customer or your client or your friend and being
Speaker 1: able to have that conversation so well, Um, who we
Speaker 1: got coming up on the Cut to It Podcast. We've
Speaker 1: got Jerome the Bus Bettist induct into the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame and he won a super Bowl with the Steelers,
Speaker 1: drafted by the Rams. One of the all time best
Speaker 1: running backs in the NFL history. Jerome Bettist on the
Speaker 1: Cut to It Podcast, Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Guys,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you even more. Our first segment, it's called
Speaker 1: get iced Up. So, just like anything else, you gotta
Speaker 1: get warmed up, you gotta get ready. But it's gott
Speaker 1: we do a play on words, and so just like
Speaker 1: Smithy's famous saying ice up, son, we gotta get your
Speaker 1: iced up. So it's a series of ice breakers. There
Speaker 1: may or may not be follow ups. You don't know
Speaker 1: what's coming, neither do I. So Smithie go ahead and
Speaker 1: give him the first one. What's your favorite comfort food?
Speaker 1: Favorite company? Potential chips? Probably okay with flavor? Um, I'm
Speaker 1: a Ruffles guy, Ruffles, sour cream barbar your favorite favor?
Speaker 1: First chat a guy, I can tell you got that
Speaker 1: you got that tower three? Actually, I'm a salt and pepper.
Speaker 1: I bet you Okay? Moving on moving on all right
Speaker 1: with I said, we're taking shots off the gate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is my guy. Oh, this is my guy.
Speaker 1: So we were pretty deep. Uh the you know, obviously
Speaker 1: with everything going on, travel has not been up the
Speaker 1: standard in which people are used to. So where's the
Speaker 1: last place you traveled? Pre COVID, pre COVID our last
Speaker 1: year pre code pre covid. We went to I'm kind
Speaker 1: of think where we go. Um, yeah, you know you
Speaker 1: should open book test bro, It's it's no man, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to your's your life. But ship, you know, we
Speaker 1: went to um you I know I need I need that. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean you ain't pol like it was, you know
Speaker 1: hershey Parker's house. I mean, goodness, gracious it was damn man,
Speaker 1: I can't remember. So there's there's so he was in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, just yea, I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: going I'm going with the Caribbean. So you got CT
Speaker 1: and then you got co F Camember terrible. This is
Speaker 1: a legend. This is it's a leger. But he still
Speaker 1: can't remember the last time. I can't remember, right, he
Speaker 1: still came. Look he got three sports illustrated magazines on
Speaker 1: the back. But he don't know. In the last place
Speaker 1: he took a vacation, he tried to get that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me to find out right now, I'm get to the
Speaker 1: bottom of this. Is gonna bother him until he finds it. Day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm on a zoom car. But I got a question
Speaker 1: for you. We go vacation, vacation with the neighbors right
Speaker 1: before COVID. I'm talking about daughter. She's worse. You don't
Speaker 1: want to embarrass himself to his wife? This is amazing.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't call my wife. I don't want
Speaker 1: to lose that. I want to preach she she can't
Speaker 1: even remember. That's how bad it was. He alright, you
Speaker 1: need another lifeline. I know, right, I need to call
Speaker 1: somebody else. I'm believing. There we go Turks and cakes. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was gonna pull the audiero Turks and cake coast Man,
Speaker 1: it was all right. I mean, you don't remember that one.
Speaker 1: I didn't even remember that. That just helps my narrative
Speaker 1: of why I don't like the cribbian. Why oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you call the dinner's five hours. Don't we have a
Speaker 1: group beyond tim no worried? Everything is a little slower everything.
Speaker 1: When I'm on vacation. For dinner, I got a lot
Speaker 1: of worries my stomach. So, Jerome, what's your most important meal? Breakfast,
Speaker 1: lunch or dinner? Well, you know what, it's to two
Speaker 1: different deals here. My my favorite meal is breakfast. My
Speaker 1: most important meal. Uh, it's probably lunch. Why lunch, because
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't get I don't get I don't eat
Speaker 1: breakfast because I'm moving. And then sometimes dinner is you know,
Speaker 1: you can have a big dinner sometimes, like when it's lunch,
Speaker 1: is really that one that that's a staple for Me's
Speaker 1: like if I don't have a good lunch, then I'm
Speaker 1: having a bad day. It's it's kind of one of
Speaker 1: those things. So I think lunch is the most important,
Speaker 1: but it's not the favorite. Give me a Hall of fame,
Speaker 1: Jerome bettest breakfast probably pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, a
Speaker 1: little uh crispy bacon, uh and some hash brown That
Speaker 1: would be it. I'm winning. That's all you need, man.
Speaker 1: Sometimes pancakes like flapjacks or no, y'all, just yeah, just
Speaker 1: just the you know, the buttermilk pancakes. That's all I need.
Speaker 1: Silver dollars. Boom, We're good, regular dago. That's all you need.
Speaker 1: That's it. Keep itself stupid. You gonna kiss kiss breakfast, alright,
Speaker 1: And I don't know how you gonna take this, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna ahead and do it. Uh, bust your greyhound
Speaker 1: bus tripping? Man, Come on, man, you know that. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: But you know you're old enough. So what was your
Speaker 1: first greyhound trip though? Because because you from you from
Speaker 1: Detroit and from and I know y'all wouldn't hop on
Speaker 1: the airplane, not in the de no plane. I don't
Speaker 1: know what airplane was. Man. Um my first, my first
Speaker 1: grandhound trip. We went to Toronto. Um, and that was
Speaker 1: in in middle school. I was in middle school, so
Speaker 1: I was that was the first time, uh, jumping on,
Speaker 1: jumping on the greyhound going up there. And it was
Speaker 1: actually for school. It was a school school trip that
Speaker 1: they took us all up there, uh in middle school
Speaker 1: and it was it was yeah, I'll never forget it
Speaker 1: because I saw the the spaghetti factory for the first time.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I so we ate at the
Speaker 1: spaghetti factory and so I always remember that trip because
Speaker 1: I ate at the spaghetti factory and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is good. I remember that. It might have actually
Speaker 1: it might have been a bowling trip too, because as
Speaker 1: a kid I was I was a big bowler, and
Speaker 1: so we went all over the country bowling at that age.
Speaker 1: I know, I went to can the City, I went
Speaker 1: to all over the state of Michigan. I went to
Speaker 1: um outside of Chicago, all those places bowling. At twelve
Speaker 1: years old, I was one of the top twelve year
Speaker 1: old kids in the country. So we were going all
Speaker 1: over the place bowling and everybody so did it, like
Speaker 1: a parent have to Yeah, yeah, parents, the parents, our parents,
Speaker 1: one of my parents would come usually on on every trip,
Speaker 1: and it was usually on the weekend, so we would leave,
Speaker 1: we would leave Friday after school and we would get
Speaker 1: back Sunday night. So it was never really that long.
Speaker 1: So it was always you know, and and it was
Speaker 1: kind of like a tournament season at a certain time
Speaker 1: of the year that we would all we would do
Speaker 1: this after we would go through our leagues and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and then you do the state
Speaker 1: the state tournaments, and then you do all go all
Speaker 1: over the country for the for the big ones. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get let's get right into it. Man, that's that's
Speaker 1: it's cool. You know your favorite sports team growing up
Speaker 1: that is Cowboys. Right. Well, well here's why though, I'm
Speaker 1: explain you right because it kind of leads back to
Speaker 1: my my last story. I bowled, right, so we bowed
Speaker 1: on the weekend. So I've never watched um college football
Speaker 1: and I didn't watch pro football. The only times I
Speaker 1: watched football was on Thanksgiving and the only two games
Speaker 1: to the teams that played with Dallas in the line
Speaker 1: right from Detroit. But we lost every every day Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: So I was always wonder why I was born with
Speaker 1: the team that was because I'm like, man, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna cheer for this loser every everything given. So I
Speaker 1: was cheer for the Cowboys. And so my brother, who
Speaker 1: was the order mean he started he became a die
Speaker 1: hard Stealer fan, and I hated the Stealers. So in
Speaker 1: a bit of irony, I get to the to the
Speaker 1: Steelers and it was the team that I it the most,
Speaker 1: and the one player I hated the most of all
Speaker 1: was Franco Harris, and he became one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1: And it was just kind of like when I when
Speaker 1: I got a chance and said I don't have dinner
Speaker 1: with him the first time. I said, Franco on one
Speaker 1: to truth, Man, I hated you when the Hittri come
Speaker 1: from because they used to beat the Cowboys and he
Speaker 1: was always the guy. He was the man. He would
Speaker 1: he I mean, it never failed. He would, you know,
Speaker 1: break our hearts. Man. And so I hated Franco um
Speaker 1: and so I told him, I said, Man, I never
Speaker 1: liked you when I was a kid. Man And I said,
Speaker 1: I love you now, man, but I just couldn't stand you.
Speaker 1: So he laughed, He laughed about it. We had a
Speaker 1: great talk about it, but it was it was one
Speaker 1: of those I was a Dallas Cowboys fan. New House
Speaker 1: man Man. Man. Well, so obviously based off our conversation, Um,
Speaker 1: your other sports and I'm not really sure if I
Speaker 1: can really call him the sport? What is bowling? So
Speaker 1: you have you don't know if you can call it
Speaker 1: a sport? Stop that, man, that's wrong. Man. They bowl
Speaker 1: all over the world. Man, that's terrible, terrible. You don't
Speaker 1: know if it's a sport. No, I got you. I
Speaker 1: just don't that nicking the sport. Yeah, they call it
Speaker 1: that a sport. So you're gonna just you're gonna you
Speaker 1: just count bowling. That's you really think I played back Manton,
Speaker 1: of course not. That's the banging on bowling. I wasn't
Speaker 1: banging on bullet I just don't know. Okay, Well, we
Speaker 1: have the you know what, man almost because drink beer
Speaker 1: and you can have a pop belly. You don't have
Speaker 1: to look like an We have to take a break
Speaker 1: and the morning thing. We gotta pay some bills. You
Speaker 1: got checks. I love cut to It, and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe, and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where
Speaker 1: where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about Twitter? At? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for,
Speaker 1: a brother, cut to a Podcast dot com. I think
Speaker 1: we know where you're from, but we like to ask
Speaker 1: where are you from in the place you call your hometown.
Speaker 1: I am from Detroit, Michigan. The d that's that's home,
Speaker 1: always has been, always will be. That's home for me.
Speaker 1: And how had it growing up in Detroit, Michigan. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean it was challenging. What are you challenging? That's
Speaker 1: what I would say. What do you mean? How is
Speaker 1: the challenging? Particularly for you? It was challenging for me
Speaker 1: because of the environment that we were in. I mean
Speaker 1: we were you know, it was there was the late eighties, um,
Speaker 1: and so drugs was rampant. Crime was was rampant still is.
Speaker 1: I mean if you go back in the inner city
Speaker 1: trade right now is still uh a difficult place to
Speaker 1: grow up. But but I will say that that, you know,
Speaker 1: it really helped me develop as a person. Uh. I
Speaker 1: grew thick skin really quick. I found out that, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't have a lot of money. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of love in the house. But I realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, once I left, I realized as we were poor.
Speaker 1: When I was there, I thought we were we were
Speaker 1: we were all right because you know, the houses next
Speaker 1: to us, everybody kind of had the same things. And
Speaker 1: you didn't realize that the house that we grew up
Speaker 1: to grew up at my either had a mortgage on it,
Speaker 1: and and when I signed, I bought the house and
Speaker 1: and realized that the house costs six dollars and my
Speaker 1: dad at thirty year mortgage, and it's like what, Um,
Speaker 1: But then you realized that we didn't we didn't have
Speaker 1: a whole lot, and so it was it was tough,
Speaker 1: but it was I wouldn't have have wanted it any
Speaker 1: other way. We had a very close fan family. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's how we grew up and and that kind
Speaker 1: of made me the person I was that I became
Speaker 1: in terms of physical, tough uh, tough minded it came
Speaker 1: from growing up in Detroit. What everything you experienced, how
Speaker 1: did it shape your view on how you see the
Speaker 1: world today? And before you answer, I want to kind
Speaker 1: of not necessarily talk about the accolades, but you know,
Speaker 1: you go back and think about Detroit. How has it
Speaker 1: shaped your life? How you see it today? Going through everything?
Speaker 1: Because going through what you've been through, there were times
Speaker 1: where you either responded, you withdrew or you rose up
Speaker 1: based on your Detroit DNA. What has shaped your molded you,
Speaker 1: that's carved you into the which I believe is a
Speaker 1: strong man. A prominent example someone that I've looked up to,
Speaker 1: and I really want to know, Like, I'm honored that
Speaker 1: you came on our podcast, but I can I care
Speaker 1: about your NFL career. But I'm really intrigued and almost
Speaker 1: like this is a this is storybook time of the drone.
Speaker 1: Better is the man. So that's what I want to
Speaker 1: know about you? Is Detroit shaped you? And how you
Speaker 1: see today? After a long, well traveled, decorated NFL and
Speaker 1: also decorated black Man, I'm gonna go back to my
Speaker 1: football beginning because not a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: some people know I didn't play football until high school
Speaker 1: because I was bold, and so I made a decision
Speaker 1: in eighth grade that I was going to pursue uh
Speaker 1: football because I wanted to get a scholarship. The only
Speaker 1: reason I played football was to get myself a chance
Speaker 1: to get a scholarship. So, um, I was a pretty
Speaker 1: smart kid brought out. I was National Honor Society all that.
Speaker 1: But I had an older brother, older sister, and I
Speaker 1: knew if it if school was anything like me getting
Speaker 1: my school closed, I was gonna be last and I
Speaker 1: was gonna get left out right because I didn't get
Speaker 1: a lot of school closed because my older brother the sister,
Speaker 1: they got the first DIBs. So I said to myself,
Speaker 1: I need to give myself the best chance to get
Speaker 1: to college. So I said, well, you know, maybe you
Speaker 1: know my my uncle who was a high school football coach,
Speaker 1: I thought I could play football. He said, man, you
Speaker 1: I think you can play. He had watch week in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood play one day. He thought I can play.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, I said, okay, let me
Speaker 1: try to play football so I can try to get
Speaker 1: a scholarship. At this time, I'm I'm going into my
Speaker 1: freshman year. I'm about five ten, about five five nine,
Speaker 1: five ten, I'm about two hundred and twenty five, maybe
Speaker 1: right in to fifteen. Yeah, right now, already, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was a big already you know on the on the
Speaker 1: health scale, that's you. You obese. No no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: I was. I was rock hard. I did. It was different.
Speaker 1: You weren't quite the shuttle bus no no, no no,
Speaker 1: he had no no no no. The bus then showed up,
Speaker 1: yet show up. I was an SUV at the point
Speaker 1: that I was, I was on twenty two to where
Speaker 1: they cleaned, where they cleaned. I was right. Kenny pay
Speaker 1: pay but we got a few of your gators and
Speaker 1: all that. You know that. Um, So I made a
Speaker 1: decision that I was going to I was gonna play football.
Speaker 1: So I went to this high school on the other
Speaker 1: side of town to play my freshman year. And this
Speaker 1: was supposed to be a football powerhouse and all this,
Speaker 1: and so I'm my uncle saying, you want to go
Speaker 1: to the best, you know, So I went over to school.
Speaker 1: And going to going to the school, I had to
Speaker 1: live with my eye and uncle, and so I would
Speaker 1: during the week live with them and I would come
Speaker 1: home on the weekends. Well, in doing that, I knew
Speaker 1: that I was I was putting a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, in these difficult situations. My uncle live with them.
Speaker 1: You know, they already had to two girls, they had
Speaker 1: a family, you know. So I'm I'm kind of like
Speaker 1: coming in on everybody's deal. My my mother and father
Speaker 1: tried to fact figure out how they can get me
Speaker 1: over here, how they can pick me up, all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So I decided to go there, and
Speaker 1: they backed me and going and I'll never forget. We
Speaker 1: had a rain day, so we had to go in
Speaker 1: the gym, and we went in the gym and we
Speaker 1: had just we were just doing cowstenics and and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget we had to get on the ground and
Speaker 1: we were doing the six inches or six inches right
Speaker 1: on this dud stuff, right, and we had to just
Speaker 1: do it. Remember it must have been five minutes straight, right.
Speaker 1: So and he they wanted to see who was gonna
Speaker 1: who's gonna break right, who's gonna put there, who's gonna
Speaker 1: put it down? And I kept thinking to myself, I
Speaker 1: can't quit because I can't let everybody down, right, And
Speaker 1: this was in my head. If I quit, I'm letting
Speaker 1: everybody down. My uncle, my mom and dad, everybody sacrifices
Speaker 1: for me to be in this moment. I can't quit.
Speaker 1: And so that kind of you know steam road. And
Speaker 1: then as I kept going, kept playing. After that year,
Speaker 1: I left that school, went back to my neighborhood school,
Speaker 1: and my sophomore year I played tight in and those
Speaker 1: are my sophomore year, um, and you know, was was
Speaker 1: just playing the game. Then I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the game. Um. Probably my junior year I played linebacker
Speaker 1: and fulled back and then things started to really uh,
Speaker 1: you know, get get kind of bananas. But in that
Speaker 1: process I was always uh grinding, because I told myself,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got to give myself the best chance,
Speaker 1: So I gotta be the best I can be to
Speaker 1: give myself the best chance. And when then once I
Speaker 1: got in position to get scholarships, then it was okay,
Speaker 1: well where am I gonna go? Right? And then Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: I told you I didn't watch I didn't watch college football,
Speaker 1: so I didn't know Notre Dame. I don't know what
Speaker 1: Notre Dame was, right, I'm like, I'm like Notre Dame
Speaker 1: and it's in Europe. Where am I? I'm not going
Speaker 1: on Notre Dame? What is that? I didn't know? Right?
Speaker 1: All I knew was University of Michigan because they you know,
Speaker 1: you would hear about the Michigan State because for that time.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know, you know, USC, Clemson. I didn't
Speaker 1: know all these schools. So everybody started recruiting me after
Speaker 1: after my kind of my junior year, I started to
Speaker 1: get all this information and learn all this thing. So
Speaker 1: I was a newbie. And then when I did, I
Speaker 1: decided on Notre Dame because the the academics and the athletics, right,
Speaker 1: So for me, it wasn't I didn't think I could
Speaker 1: go in the NFL. I had no I did no
Speaker 1: dreams like you know, as a kid, I didn't dream
Speaker 1: of paying any NFL. I just want to get a scholarship.
Speaker 1: And then after my sophomore year, they said, well you
Speaker 1: can go to the NFL, and like, really, I'm so.
Speaker 1: I stayed another year and then Coach Hopes told me
Speaker 1: it was time for me to leave. I went. I
Speaker 1: met with him after my junior year and I was
Speaker 1: scared as ever. I went met with him with my
Speaker 1: mom and dad and he told me said, son, you've
Speaker 1: done all you can do here Notre Dame. It's time
Speaker 1: for you. Wow. And I was thinking he was gonna
Speaker 1: tell me to stay and I was gonna be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm staying. He told me it was time for me
Speaker 1: to go. So at that point everything kind of changed
Speaker 1: for me. So but but but the one thing when
Speaker 1: I got to Notre Dame, to go back to my
Speaker 1: my upbringing. When I got to Notre Dame, it was
Speaker 1: that same situation like when my freshman year in high school,
Speaker 1: I got to her name and I said myself, I
Speaker 1: get to the school. Now you gotta understand, Detroit is
Speaker 1: about black. In my high school, we only had we
Speaker 1: had maybe two um kids that weren't black, and they
Speaker 1: were Asian. We didn't have any white kids in our school,
Speaker 1: and we had four thousand kids in school, all black, right,
Speaker 1: And so the only only white people that I had
Speaker 1: communicated with was teachers and people at the grocery store
Speaker 1: stuff like. So I didn't know how to interact. I
Speaker 1: don't know how I would do and all this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. So I go to her name, and I
Speaker 1: was so nervous that I was gonna do something wrong
Speaker 1: because I was still rough around the edges and from Detroit,
Speaker 1: you know, you stood out, and and I was nervous
Speaker 1: that I was gonna get kicked out because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna beat somebody up and say say something stupid.
Speaker 1: And so I was always kind of on my toes
Speaker 1: because I always told myself, I can't go back. There's
Speaker 1: nothing to go back to. And I as always tell
Speaker 1: myself when there was that, when there was ever a
Speaker 1: situation I said, I would always say to myself, I
Speaker 1: can't go back. I can't go back. So I would
Speaker 1: think a court were act accordingly because I knew I
Speaker 1: wasn't like some of the other kids at at that
Speaker 1: school where you know their parents were done well, I
Speaker 1: couldn't go back. So I knew that this had to
Speaker 1: be this had to work, because there was no way
Speaker 1: I could go back with my tail between my legs,
Speaker 1: uh to Detroit. So that kind of kept my mindset
Speaker 1: one way, right, stay out of trouble, Stay out of trouble,
Speaker 1: Stay out of trouble. And so now I get to
Speaker 1: the NFL and I kind of took that that mindset
Speaker 1: with me, right, I'm not gonna fail. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to fail. I can't go back. I'm not doing anything stupid,
Speaker 1: and so that kind of became my moral compass as
Speaker 1: to how I went about the way um I did
Speaker 1: my business, but also how how I lived my life
Speaker 1: off the field, and so I was it was always
Speaker 1: that fear of failure, of letting my my mom and
Speaker 1: dad down, letting letting all the people with sacrifice up
Speaker 1: into this moment to get me here, letting them down.
Speaker 1: So it was always that fear of that, and then
Speaker 1: once I got on the field, then it was the
Speaker 1: love of the game that propelled me going forward from there.
Speaker 1: But it was always a struggle for me because I
Speaker 1: never wanted to let mom and dad down, and they
Speaker 1: were my biggest supporters. My mom and dad went to
Speaker 1: every game I ever played in the NFL, home and away.
Speaker 1: They went to just about every game in college. I
Speaker 1: think they may have missed one or two games in college.
Speaker 1: And my mom went to every high school I mean,
Speaker 1: so they were there physically with me through this and
Speaker 1: through the entire ride. So I was always conscious of
Speaker 1: not letting them down. And my dad told me when
Speaker 1: I was going off to college, I'll never forget if
Speaker 1: we're in the parking lot. And I said this at
Speaker 1: my Hall of Fame Sea he told me, he said
Speaker 1: he would just let me out to go to go
Speaker 1: to go, And they just brought me down from home
Speaker 1: and I was coming in as a freshman. They unpacked
Speaker 1: my my stuff and and we were in the parking
Speaker 1: lot and needs to just talk about I don't have anything.
Speaker 1: I don't have much to give you, he said, but
Speaker 1: I got a good name. And he said, don't screw
Speaker 1: it up, right, And so I always remember that because
Speaker 1: I was always thinking that in my hand. So when
Speaker 1: he said that, it just it was like a knife
Speaker 1: that just went right into my hearts that said, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let dad down, I'm not gonna let
Speaker 1: my mom down. I'm gonna do whatever it takes for
Speaker 1: me to be successful. And so that was that was
Speaker 1: what propelled me on, and that was always my fuel
Speaker 1: when I was, you know, you know, feeling like I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it or I wasn't I wasn't
Speaker 1: up to it. I always thought to myself, I can't
Speaker 1: feel I mean, we we we laughed about Detroit, and
Speaker 1: we shared, we shared some giggles there. But what went
Speaker 1: on on your side of town, in your neighborhood, because
Speaker 1: we know, you know, you weren't born with a silver
Speaker 1: spoon in your mouth. So what were those things that
Speaker 1: you didn't want to go back to? Well, we had
Speaker 1: a crack house next to us. I mean at one point,
Speaker 1: you know, it got raided a couple of times. I mean,
Speaker 1: we it was it was, it was real, you know,
Speaker 1: I was I was in that world for a minute
Speaker 1: and had to had to make some tough choices and
Speaker 1: and the kind of you know, I was going down
Speaker 1: the wrong path and and starting to kind of get
Speaker 1: with the bad some some bad guys. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: that they were so much bad It's just that what
Speaker 1: they were doing, um, wasn't what I needed to be doing,
Speaker 1: and so I had to kind of, you know, look
Speaker 1: at myself and to find out what I wanted to do, right,
Speaker 1: And so when I look back and look at Detroit,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it wasn't it was. The environment
Speaker 1: obviously was difficult and tough. But you know, every kid
Speaker 1: had to make a choice in that neighborhood in terms of, uh,
Speaker 1: what direction they wanted to go. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: kids don't have to make choices, right, they just grow
Speaker 1: up the way they grow up. And you go where
Speaker 1: I was that you had to make a conscious choice.
Speaker 1: Am I going to go that way? Am I going
Speaker 1: to go that way? Am I gonna go this way?
Speaker 1: It was conscious choices that you had to make because
Speaker 1: there was repercussions to the decisions that you made. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like, um, the fairytale world that my kids grow
Speaker 1: up in and that they don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: this or that. No, it was it was clear. There
Speaker 1: was a clear and present danger you know that you
Speaker 1: had to kind of manage, and so you had to
Speaker 1: to figure out where where it is you wanted to
Speaker 1: be on that spectrum. Around age fourteen, you're facing an
Speaker 1: uphill battle. In that uphill battle was a health issue.
Speaker 1: Not to date you, but fourteen years old, around six
Speaker 1: and you were diagnosed with asthma. Now, asthma back in
Speaker 1: the eighties were like a death sentence. They didn't really
Speaker 1: know how. I mean, I had a cousin that died
Speaker 1: from my asthma attack. You would get people get asthma
Speaker 1: attacks and asthma tacks. I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: accurate saving, but I would say asthma tax in the
Speaker 1: black community was like equivalent to a gunshot wound. Two.
Speaker 1: I got diagnosed with with asthma when I was two
Speaker 1: years old, and my mom did not find out I
Speaker 1: had asthma until I was at the hospital and turning blue. Oh,
Speaker 1: So to your point, it was almost like the death sentence.
Speaker 1: And also because when you were black, and let's be honest,
Speaker 1: living in the hood where you had roaches that that
Speaker 1: manifested a lot of germs. It was very common, it
Speaker 1: was very prevalent. So this happened a lot. To your point, Steve,
Speaker 1: expect in the eighties. Yeah, how did you work through that?
Speaker 1: Because asthma to day, I mean you could you know
Speaker 1: they give you a hailers. You know they have nebulizers treatment,
Speaker 1: but back in the day, I mean asthma, the closest
Speaker 1: you got it wasn't no nebulizer. You got literally a
Speaker 1: pump and pray for where they had the nebulized with
Speaker 1: the expensive Yeah, exactly where I was that they didn't
Speaker 1: have nebulized, never nebulized until I got to college. It's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not wearing existing. How difficult was it for you
Speaker 1: health wise to be such a athletic bowler, right, and
Speaker 1: and you know, and but I'm not I'm not saying that,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying it because if you had severe enough
Speaker 1: asthma was bowling hell jumping Jackson, you can break out
Speaker 1: and have an attack, an attack right at times nothing
Speaker 1: you can do. So so for me, it wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: when I was bowling, I was, I was fine. It
Speaker 1: was always an air conditioned environment. So it was always
Speaker 1: a perfect environment that I was in when I was bowling.
Speaker 1: What I realized was humidity. Uh. And he was a
Speaker 1: factor for me in terms of ast me. But because
Speaker 1: I was in such perfect conditions, I never had to
Speaker 1: deal with it well. Once I went out for football
Speaker 1: my my freshman year, I was fourteen. That's when I
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with asked me I fell out. We used
Speaker 1: to have to run quarters at the beginning of practice
Speaker 1: and I actually had to run the quarters, was running
Speaker 1: on and got dizzy, light headed, and actually boom was
Speaker 1: out with that with out. Then they rushed me to
Speaker 1: the spell trying to figure out what was wrong, and
Speaker 1: they realized that I was asthmatic at that point. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I started playing football until I found
Speaker 1: out I was asthmatic. And then at that point, my
Speaker 1: mom um was asthmatic right, and so she was very
Speaker 1: conscious and understood it and everything. And I think that
Speaker 1: was the one blessing that I had, was that she
Speaker 1: was familiar with asthma. So she didn't, you know, say hey,
Speaker 1: that's it, You're done, that's the end of it. She said, listen,
Speaker 1: we can we can do this if you want to
Speaker 1: still do this, but we gotta do this a different way.
Speaker 1: We got to manage it. So at back in the
Speaker 1: day they had this, they had peels for Theodore peels
Speaker 1: or whatever they need to call them, Theodore foreign or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. Did you have to take up one
Speaker 1: pill every day? And then you had the inhaler. Right. Now,
Speaker 1: that inhaler was very rare because nobody had one. But
Speaker 1: you write not like the trainers because in the right
Speaker 1: we didn't have trainers, right, we didn't have my cad coach.
Speaker 1: He taped us up and he did it all my
Speaker 1: head and we didn't have like a trainer or age
Speaker 1: or anybody. It was just the coaches and my head coach. Right,
Speaker 1: So nobody knew about it that they didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about asthma. So my mom she was because she knew
Speaker 1: about it. She knew the dangers and the wrists involved,
Speaker 1: but she never told me about it. She was like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: if you want to do it, I want you to go.
Speaker 1: You go for it. Um. And so what she would do.
Speaker 1: As a funny story, Um, we had a big game.
Speaker 1: My high school was about ten or fifteen blocks from
Speaker 1: from my house, so it was really about five minute
Speaker 1: drive from the house. So every day my mom would
Speaker 1: watch practice. Because she was so nervous about me and
Speaker 1: the asthma, she wanted to keep an eye on me.
Speaker 1: She wanted literally have her eyes on me. She would
Speaker 1: always park on the out of the road where the
Speaker 1: track was at the back of the school and she
Speaker 1: could watch practice. Well, we were getting ready for a
Speaker 1: big game and one of the coaches said, I think
Speaker 1: we gotta spy. There's spying on us trying to get
Speaker 1: our game playing right. And then and then coaches like,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. He's like that car. I
Speaker 1: see that car all week, right, and I'm like, it's
Speaker 1: my mom's car. And I'm like, oh man, I was like, coach, no,
Speaker 1: I don't know that's not I don't think that's a spine.
Speaker 1: He was like, no, no, I said, I think that's
Speaker 1: my mother. And that was like, why is your mother
Speaker 1: here every day? Right? I'm like, well, I'm as mad
Speaker 1: egg and that, and they were like, oh, we know that.
Speaker 1: But long story short, my mom used to come to press.
Speaker 1: He said, we'll just make sure to tell her to
Speaker 1: come inside and parking inside and so you know, she
Speaker 1: can come in, no problem. But she just didn't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, make a noise or anything. But as it
Speaker 1: turns out, it was very serious. But my mom was
Speaker 1: conscious of it, and so she kept me on top
Speaker 1: of it. And once I understood what it was, then
Speaker 1: I informed my coaches and I explained everyone that there
Speaker 1: was gonna be some times that I was gonna be
Speaker 1: short winded some things like that, and I would need
Speaker 1: a little extra time or a playoff here there. And
Speaker 1: so my coach understood it because I literally passed out,
Speaker 1: so he understood how significant it was. So whenever I
Speaker 1: needed to take a break or or take a couple
Speaker 1: of plays off, that he understood it. So it was
Speaker 1: never really a big problem. Then when I got to
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, it became a little bit of an issue
Speaker 1: early on because the coaches thought I was trying to
Speaker 1: get out of certain things when I really wasn't, you know.
Speaker 1: And and you know some of the conditioning drills, they
Speaker 1: think the area is trying to get out of these drills.
Speaker 1: That really wasn't as much as you know. So yeah,
Speaker 1: coach Hope much at either he was like he was
Speaker 1: on us like and so they always all that that
Speaker 1: that I was up to something because I may need
Speaker 1: a blow here or there. But they gave it to
Speaker 1: me reluctantly. But it was it was always an issue
Speaker 1: early on. Hey we gotta take a quick break. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. Good do it, good, do it. Let's
Speaker 1: getting down to do it. Good? Hey, Gerard, why did
Speaker 1: you get that T shirt? Oh yes, I got it
Speaker 1: from cut to a podcast dot com where we have
Speaker 1: exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or
Speaker 1: four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you
Speaker 1: a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: Let's talk ball and talking about a little bit of football.
Speaker 1: So obviously you were recruited and you want to notre dame.
Speaker 1: What were some of the other schools or just break
Speaker 1: down how the whole recruiting process went for you because
Speaker 1: you stated you didn't watch college football, you really watch
Speaker 1: professional football. You had no desire to play in the
Speaker 1: NFL like some some of these other people that us
Speaker 1: on the podcast right now, I didn't you know who
Speaker 1: grew up idolizing and wanting to play football. So you
Speaker 1: go through the process. So take us through that process
Speaker 1: for for the recruiting owt of for you. So for
Speaker 1: me coming to high school, it was a unique situation.
Speaker 1: In my high school. We had four thousand kids in
Speaker 1: the high school. We had about twenty and twenty four
Speaker 1: kids on the football team. We nobody would we couldn't
Speaker 1: get any kids to play, so we literally had to
Speaker 1: play both ways. Everybody had to play both ways, and
Speaker 1: if you were really good, you played both ways without
Speaker 1: a question. So I was an All American linebacker, uh
Speaker 1: and the All American fullback. And so in terms of
Speaker 1: being recruited, I was a number two linebacker in the
Speaker 1: country coming out and the number one fullback in the country.
Speaker 1: And I was actually a better linebacker than I was
Speaker 1: um fullback at the time, but John was I was short.
Speaker 1: I was only five by the time my senior year,
Speaker 1: I was five eleven, two forty to thirty eight, and
Speaker 1: I ran a four eight at the Michigan camp. So
Speaker 1: everybody wanted me to play linebacker, right, Uh, Michigan, Michigan,
Speaker 1: everybody Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, UH Schools, Alabama, Clemson,
Speaker 1: all I wanted me to play linebacker. Now Miami, Notre Dame, Colorado, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: USC they wanted me to play fullback. And the reason,
Speaker 1: the only reason I wanted to play fullback was my
Speaker 1: high school coach. He coached Pepper Johnson, who was a
Speaker 1: linebacker played for the New York Giants. So so then
Speaker 1: we went to my high school and Pepper was like
Speaker 1: six two six three, and he said, Jerome I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you this, He says, I know you got you
Speaker 1: know you want to play linebacker. I think you're too
Speaker 1: short to play linebacker in the NFL. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: Like I think you're gonna be the best, a better fullback,
Speaker 1: right And I'm like okay. He's like, you'll be a
Speaker 1: prototypical fullback. You know you can catch the ball. You
Speaker 1: could you know, you're really fast, you could run. He says,
Speaker 1: You'll be a dynamic fullback. The problem was, at that time,
Speaker 1: nobody in the country was running the fullback. Everybody it
Speaker 1: was either tailback. You like Michigan USC everybody was running
Speaker 1: the tailback. Nobody had, uh you know two and your
Speaker 1: thirty five pound running back that they were running. Everybody
Speaker 1: was running, you know, a natural tailback. So I was
Speaker 1: nervous because I felt that if wherever I went, I
Speaker 1: was gonna be moved to linebacker because it really, you know,
Speaker 1: I put a guy that's talented at a position you're
Speaker 1: on't gonna give the ball to two times or ten
Speaker 1: times a year, so you won't do it. So lou Hopes, though,
Speaker 1: came in and he showed me his offense. His offense
Speaker 1: was really was designed around the fullback, so the fullback
Speaker 1: whenever they went through our receivers, the fullback became no
Speaker 1: single back and ran plays we the screen. All the
Speaker 1: screen play passes went to the fullback. UM. There was
Speaker 1: running plays designed for the fullback because he kind of
Speaker 1: had a semi option. So it was like a marriage
Speaker 1: made in heaven for me to go to Neurre Dame
Speaker 1: because that system fit me the best. So as it
Speaker 1: as it turns out, it came down between Michigan, Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: and USC. I visited. Those are the three schools I visited.
Speaker 1: I canceled on Tennessee, and I canceled on Colorado. UM,
Speaker 1: and I went out to USC and a funny story
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about that that that trip. But but
Speaker 1: I went out there and they had they had a
Speaker 1: guy named Lered Hope who was a fullback who had
Speaker 1: just got drafted in the second round. And at Michigan
Speaker 1: they had a fullback, UM that I just got drafted
Speaker 1: in the first round into the first round. So they
Speaker 1: were trying to show me. Hey, then Leary Horde was
Speaker 1: running back at Michigan. They said, hey, we're gonna play
Speaker 1: you right, and we play Leeary Horde. Long story short,
Speaker 1: I just knew in my heart the right place for
Speaker 1: me to go was to note the name. And as
Speaker 1: it turns out, they were they were correct, and coach
Speaker 1: Hose promise that if I did come to nther name,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't recruit another fullback for another year and a half.
Speaker 1: And he kept he kept. Well, listen, let me let
Speaker 1: me tell you. Let me tell you my first experience
Speaker 1: with USC when I was when I was being recruited.
Speaker 1: So I went out to visit USC. So I get
Speaker 1: out there and I'm you know, you gotta remember at
Speaker 1: this point, I'm five eleven, two forty thirty five. I
Speaker 1: mean I am, I'm put together. I'm pretty solid, right
Speaker 1: in terms of a high school football player. So I
Speaker 1: get to I get to the visit and it's, um,
Speaker 1: it's right in it's I think it's maybe December. So
Speaker 1: we get out there and they have a party, right,
Speaker 1: So they take me to this party and I see
Speaker 1: I see this, um this grand Cherokee. Right, it's a
Speaker 1: red I'll never get a red Grand Cherokee with the
Speaker 1: gold inky rams. And I'm like, oh, I like lose this.
Speaker 1: That that was back in the back and so it
Speaker 1: was a guy on the back that had the hood,
Speaker 1: had to had the hatch back up, and I swear
Speaker 1: he looked like like loose. He just he was like
Speaker 1: ripped up. I was like, you can see every muscle
Speaker 1: on this. I was like, who is that? That was?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you like this, he was a specimen.
Speaker 1: He had a tank top on. Man, I saw every
Speaker 1: muscle that guy had and I was like what position
Speaker 1: he was? I was like who because I didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch him, so I didn't like know who
Speaker 1: he was. And the dude was like, that's you stay out.
Speaker 1: He just got drafted here, you're going to the league.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I never get. I was super
Speaker 1: confident everything, and I was like, that's what the linebackers
Speaker 1: look like. I was like all the trouble looking like
Speaker 1: in college. Oh, because I was like, man, this is
Speaker 1: Mama had to rethink this. I gotta get and so
Speaker 1: I left there. I never forget. I'll never get seeing him, man.
Speaker 1: That was it was. It was. It was life changing
Speaker 1: because you know, I now I'm like, man, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: about to be in college, right. So it was a
Speaker 1: whole different, old, whole different world for me. But now
Speaker 1: fast forward, I get to know the dame, and our
Speaker 1: first game against USC is at USC and the game
Speaker 1: is so big that and and the rivalry is so important.
Speaker 1: Coach Holts, he made all of the freshmen take a
Speaker 1: test on the history of this rivalry. And if we
Speaker 1: didn't pass it, we couldn't go. It was that significant.
Speaker 1: We had to know how it started. The whole deal
Speaker 1: means something, It meant, it meant something. So we knew
Speaker 1: as freshmen that this game, this is the only we
Speaker 1: gotta take a test that you kid me and and
Speaker 1: so this was the only game that we had to know.
Speaker 1: We went back to nineteen you know, it's they did
Speaker 1: not doing the six they played the first game new
Speaker 1: Rockney and his it's his wife that really made it happen.
Speaker 1: You know, just all this stuff that we're learning about
Speaker 1: this game. And so if you you can imagine you're
Speaker 1: learning this stuff about it, you know it's important because
Speaker 1: they didn't. I didn't learn nothing from playing Michigan. I
Speaker 1: didn't have to learn nothing playing Stanford, but playing USC
Speaker 1: we had to know. And so it really established for
Speaker 1: us what it meant to play USC. Now my whole
Speaker 1: time there. We never lost to him, and we had
Speaker 1: like an eight year run where we want eight years
Speaker 1: in a row, and we had some talented teams, but
Speaker 1: it didn't diminish the fact that we were going to
Speaker 1: play USC or USC was coming to playoffs. That was
Speaker 1: a huge game and it meant so much to everybody.
Speaker 1: And and like you said, when we got to l
Speaker 1: a Um, it was it was a big deal because
Speaker 1: at our hotels. I mean it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: we were rock stars. I mean it was. It was
Speaker 1: an amazing turnout. Always uh at USC or when USC
Speaker 1: came to playoffs, it was always a huge game, all right,
Speaker 1: So last one and then we know you how to
Speaker 1: go obviously me playing and being a Baltimore Raven and
Speaker 1: you being a Pittsburgh Steeler man take us through that rivalry.
Speaker 1: That rivalry. You can watch it on you can watch it.
Speaker 1: And when I first got to Baltimore, they asked me
Speaker 1: to talk to you know, talk to I think the
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is at and talked talked to the to the
Speaker 1: newspaper and tell me what it is. And then once
Speaker 1: I experienced it, man, it's nothing like it, you know,
Speaker 1: just I mean, you you go look back, how Hines
Speaker 1: knocked out Ed Reid right, just all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: You describe the Baltimore Raven and Pittsburg blood Bath rivalry
Speaker 1: as they call it the a f C Black and
Speaker 1: Blue Division. That one was that was the game because
Speaker 1: it years I'll started because early on I had a
Speaker 1: unique perspective in that, you know, we we were beating
Speaker 1: up on them before when Ray got there. So the
Speaker 1: Ray was a rookie, uh you know, all the way
Speaker 1: through I got a chance to see his progression, right,
Speaker 1: and early on we were we beat him no problem.
Speaker 1: And then they they they made a big jump, right,
Speaker 1: and then they became good. And so what happened was
Speaker 1: they got really good, really quick. Defensively, they they found
Speaker 1: that Marvin Lewis I think was the defensive coordinator. He
Speaker 1: kind of got them going and boomed all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they ready to go. And so year in and
Speaker 1: year out, they they built the team to beat us
Speaker 1: because at the time we were, we were the big
Speaker 1: dog in the division. It was US. It was US
Speaker 1: Tennessee Jacksonville, Okay, and so Baltimore was was below man
Speaker 1: on the Totlem Poe and so it was between US
Speaker 1: and Tennessee. Really who were the the the top dogs,
Speaker 1: and so they were coming and once they arrived, they
Speaker 1: put everybody on notice. Right, It's like no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: we were for real. And so when we started to
Speaker 1: play them, it became like it was already tough because
Speaker 1: they were the Cleveland you know, Browns, and then they
Speaker 1: came over, so there was always still that disdain because
Speaker 1: they were the Cleveland Browns and we that was our
Speaker 1: biggest ride. We hated the Browns. So when they moved,
Speaker 1: it's still we you know, the hatred moved with them, right,
Speaker 1: So so that's kind of how it. It was already
Speaker 1: there that dislike and then when they got good, then
Speaker 1: it was like, oh okay. Then they had the swag.
Speaker 1: They came with the swag, right, and that was that
Speaker 1: was Ray and Ed bringing that that Florida uh you
Speaker 1: m swag right, And then they started talking ship and
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, little the little little up for I
Speaker 1: want to talk to yet okay, And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, then they started pounding us. We were like whoa.
Speaker 1: And then then that's when it hit another level in
Speaker 1: terms of when they could beat us consistently, and then
Speaker 1: we could beat them, uh, consistently. Uh. And and each
Speaker 1: game you didn't know who was gonna win, right Uh.
Speaker 1: And so for instance, the year the year they won
Speaker 1: their first Super Bowl, we were the last team to
Speaker 1: beat them, you know what I'm saying. And it was
Speaker 1: like nobody else could beat them. We know how to
Speaker 1: beat them because you know, we they they were built
Speaker 1: to beat us, and we were built to beat them.
Speaker 1: And so every year going forward it was always a
Speaker 1: I mean a drag out, a blood bath. It was
Speaker 1: a war. We knew you playing Baltimore. All right, let's
Speaker 1: put the big paths on. Let's get ready. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be physical. It's gonna be sixty minutes. And it don't
Speaker 1: matter who. If somebody is tending tending old or four
Speaker 1: and eight, it don't matter, right, you don't get the
Speaker 1: best shot and and and they don't get your best shot.
Speaker 1: And it has not changed a bit since that day, um,
Speaker 1: when when they stood up and said no more, no more, guys. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they start punching back. And it's been it's been
Speaker 1: Haymakers ever since. Man. Well, we appreciate your time. Man,
Speaker 1: it's an honor to talk to you. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously in the the fraternity of football. Man, you're that guy.
Speaker 1: It's an honor to speak to you. Come on the
Speaker 1: on the podcast. Man, it's just it's great to to
Speaker 1: to to shoot the breeze with you. Man. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you this, and I never got
Speaker 1: a chance to tell you. Man. I've always watched you
Speaker 1: because I've always loved your energy. But I love how
Speaker 1: you played because you you played as a big guy,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like for us at
Speaker 1: the running back position, we had the bravado, right because
Speaker 1: we played in the era where every team had a
Speaker 1: feature back. Right. If you didn't have a featureback, you
Speaker 1: weren't you. Weren't you, You were shipped. So so every
Speaker 1: team had a stud at the running back position, and
Speaker 1: there was an attitude that we exuded, right, So that
Speaker 1: kind of went away. But when I saw you play,
Speaker 1: I just thought. I always thought to myself, Man, you
Speaker 1: would have made a hell of a tailback in that
Speaker 1: era because you could talk ship with the best of me,
Speaker 1: and you wasn't afraid to take a shot, and you
Speaker 1: was willing to give a shot, right, And I think
Speaker 1: that was the difference, um, And that's why it was
Speaker 1: so rare. It was refreshing because I had a teammate
Speaker 1: like a hindes Ward who who had that mentality. And
Speaker 1: then the see you take that mentality of hinds had
Speaker 1: and you took it just a step forward because because
Speaker 1: you you would talk ship with it where hin he
Speaker 1: would laugh here talking a little bit, but he was
Speaker 1: you know, he would pound you. He started laughing right
Speaker 1: where you would pound him, and you let him know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was me. I'll be right back and so and
Speaker 1: I was because like what I used to always say
Speaker 1: is I mean, I see y'all in twenty four seconds,
Speaker 1: I'll be right back at y'all. Right, And that was
Speaker 1: my mindset. I'll be talking like that. And so when
Speaker 1: I used to hear you talk and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this guy he do it exactly what I would have
Speaker 1: there when we was pounding them. You mean, just let
Speaker 1: them know it's me. I've talked endlessly about. The man
Speaker 1: who influenced me the most in my football is my grandpa,
Speaker 1: my grandpa Frank and and my grandpa always told me, boy,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna play, don't be out there push footing
Speaker 1: the round the right way, play the right way. This
Speaker 1: is how you play when a big hit happen. He said,
Speaker 1: if you want to play, Steven, this is what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do. And so I always watched that. Now,
Speaker 1: when you fast forward into my career and I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to become at Baltimore Raven, I'm now sitting
Speaker 1: in the office of Ozzy Newsom, who I'm just like,
Speaker 1: Wowz Newsom, Hey, this is pretty cool. And then in
Speaker 1: the recruiting process they tell me why they want me
Speaker 1: to come here, and you know who they mentioned, who
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers, because he said, we need a player
Speaker 1: like you other than a qual We've never had a
Speaker 1: offensive player that has that defensive mentality that plays offense
Speaker 1: other than the qualm. So we need a guy like
Speaker 1: that that can play. We need a guy at a
Speaker 1: gones big stage when we play Pittsburgh Steelers and tell
Speaker 1: them and tell them in the newspaper, we're gonna smack
Speaker 1: you in the mouth, but we need you to show
Speaker 1: up and do it on the field. Right. I looked
Speaker 1: around like they got to be playing, not me. You
Speaker 1: want me to do that? You want me? I'm authorized
Speaker 1: I started off. Bro. How football was introduced to me
Speaker 1: was in the way of you gotta hit people. You
Speaker 1: either hit or you get hit in the way that
Speaker 1: Jerome described the Baltimore and Pittsburgh rivalry. Yes, I love
Speaker 1: Baltimore as my football home, my second home, because I
Speaker 1: just love that mentality, that same mentality, the grimy mentality
Speaker 1: of growing up, of you earn your keep, you keep
Speaker 1: yourself in that city, of how you play. That city
Speaker 1: embraces you on how you play, not on what you give.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person, You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: You are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Singer, Gerard Little John, and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Singer. That
Speaker 1: Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Baltol 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 Balta
Speaker 1: Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek,
Speaker 1: production manager Sarah Pollock, Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you. Now it's all Ris