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: That'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 ain't heard
Speaker 1: am about it? Then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all this story has never been told. Let's go
Speaker 1: what's on your mind? What's on your mentor? So, what's
Speaker 1: all my mentor is? We usually don't we usually don't.
Speaker 1: We usually do evergreen, But this is gonna be stapled
Speaker 1: with we're gonna marry this with a panther, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna go with a Carolina panther. Insider Moose and Smitty,
Speaker 1: Uh conversation. So a conversation when you and Mousie mohammed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pull it. You're pulling this out the archives in the crates.
Speaker 1: This is actually I'll say this start off. Moose is
Speaker 1: like my big brother. We were super competitive, uber uber competitive.
Speaker 1: But there were times where I got on moose nerves
Speaker 1: and Moose got on my nerves as as what happens
Speaker 1: when in brotherhoods. So my rookie wasn't my rookie year,
Speaker 1: my second year, one of my years. Uh. Actually Moose
Speaker 1: didn't know it, but Moose kind of made me who
Speaker 1: I was, who who I am today and high Win
Speaker 1: is UM coach Richard Williamson was. He was always tough
Speaker 1: on me, always tough and um one day in his
Speaker 1: wife Norma, Uh, I loved them, love her she you know,
Speaker 1: speak to her. I never can say anything negative towards Richard.
Speaker 1: He always pushed me to places that I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go, and that's the sign of a great coach.
Speaker 1: But on this day, Richard was the offensive coordinator. Mike
Speaker 1: McCoy was the wide receiver's coach. Mike McCoy was the
Speaker 1: head coach of the same seven UM offense coordinator for
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos when UH coach As McDaniels became head coach,
Speaker 1: and then he became head coach of San Diego Chargers
Speaker 1: and now he's just at the house chilling. So one day, um,
Speaker 1: so this was my rookie here one day, running the
Speaker 1: wrong routes, old West Coast offense. I came from a
Speaker 1: number system out of college and Richard Williamson grabbed me
Speaker 1: and kind of like talked down to me. He was
Speaker 1: a coach, but he talked down to me and told
Speaker 1: me how he felt about me that day. That day
Speaker 1: he didn't feel really good about me, and he kind
Speaker 1: of grabbed me and it rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 1: And when he grabbed me, you know, uh, I want
Speaker 1: to say I blanked out, but I was getting close
Speaker 1: to grabbing him, and Mike kind of like stepped in
Speaker 1: between us, and you know, and Richard was cussing and
Speaker 1: I said a few choice worst as well. Um, I know,
Speaker 1: big surprise and um, but Moose did something that just
Speaker 1: kind of got to me. And Moose said, man, you
Speaker 1: from Cali. You're supposed to be one of them Cali dudes.
Speaker 1: You like that old man do that to you, And
Speaker 1: Moose just poured it on. So my mom is one
Speaker 1: of thirteen, and I have an uncle named Tim who's
Speaker 1: maybe six or eight years older than me, but he's
Speaker 1: like my big brother. Um. He actually he got kicked
Speaker 1: out of the house from my grandfather, um, my grandpa Alfred.
Speaker 1: He actually when I was in when I was young,
Speaker 1: he actually lived. He was my roommate, no, and when
Speaker 1: he was going to high school and so he's like
Speaker 1: ten years older than me. So I was like a
Speaker 1: first or second grade and I'm rooming with a dude
Speaker 1: that's a senior in high school. Super odd, right, But
Speaker 1: you know that's just how it is a close family.
Speaker 1: And why is uncle Tim coming into the picture? Well,
Speaker 1: Moose hit me with that, and I just hit it
Speaker 1: didn't sit well with me, and I took my time
Speaker 1: coming home and I remember parking in the driveway and
Speaker 1: I called him. I had texted him and I called him, Well,
Speaker 1: I actually chirped him because and so he called me.
Speaker 1: He's like, what's up? And I told him what happened,
Speaker 1: and I told him how Moose and kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know how he played this played up the situation
Speaker 1: in a in a on the field in the locker room,
Speaker 1: and I just remember crying and I was really emotional
Speaker 1: about it. And my uncle said, well, you know, Steven, um,
Speaker 1: this isn't Steven. I know, first of all, why are
Speaker 1: you crying like this? And I explained it to him
Speaker 1: and he was like, well, you still haven't told me
Speaker 1: why you're crying like this, because that's not to Steven.
Speaker 1: I know, this is not the callie, it's not the
Speaker 1: it's not the family member, the kid that I know.
Speaker 1: And his response really challenged me. He was he was
Speaker 1: not empathetic sympathetic one bit. But what was really cool
Speaker 1: is I remember he said, so, what are you gonna
Speaker 1: do about it? I was like, what you mean? He said,
Speaker 1: what the funk are you gonna do about it? And
Speaker 1: I remember I was like, you know what, all right?
Speaker 1: He said, no, I want you to tell me. And
Speaker 1: I said, well, He's like, the best thing you can
Speaker 1: do to get back at Moose is what I don't like.
Speaker 1: You know, you're all emotional. I don't know what was asked.
Speaker 1: You know, he's He's like, no, what can you do?
Speaker 1: From that day forward, moose challenge they ignited me to
Speaker 1: the point of and again I say this, really I
Speaker 1: have a great relationship with Moose. But what Moose doesn't
Speaker 1: understand is Moose created me because when I got off,
Speaker 1: when I got off the phone, the things that I
Speaker 1: said to my uncle is which I lived every day,
Speaker 1: which is my goal was to remove Moose off every
Speaker 1: category in the wire receiver's record books. For the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: My goal was to when they say Carolina Panthers wire
Speaker 1: receiver Moosie Mohammed's name is not to be mentioned. And
Speaker 1: from that day forward, whatever Moose did, my goal was
Speaker 1: to do it better. If he caught one pass one
Speaker 1: one hand, I want to catch twen. If he called
Speaker 1: two first downs, I want to catch twenty. If he
Speaker 1: finished with twenty yards of yak, I want to catch
Speaker 1: with forty. Every single day from that day forward, my
Speaker 1: goal was to remove Moose from the record books. And
Speaker 1: there's only gonna be one name my every single day
Speaker 1: for four or five years, it didn't matter. Smiled at him,
Speaker 1: I loved him still. It's still a colleague, right, But
Speaker 1: my goal was to remove him from the record books.
Speaker 1: And the crazy part is because at that moment he
Speaker 1: challenged me and didn't know it, and he invented me
Speaker 1: and every day after that. Because when I first came out,
Speaker 1: I was seven in college, so I wanted eighty seven
Speaker 1: and I asked him. He was like, go see some Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I didn't know any better, but you know, also,
Speaker 1: all you can do is tell me no. So I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, cool, And so what's crazy is
Speaker 1: you know? No, nobody really knows that the one person
Speaker 1: that really knows it. And he told me he never
Speaker 1: he said, never tell him that story. Mr Risa told
Speaker 1: me Moose did not. Don't ever tell Moose that he
Speaker 1: created you. So he didn't even know that. Now he
Speaker 1: doesn't even know that. He probably here because you know
Speaker 1: they're they're probably running. But the fact of the matter is,
Speaker 1: that's the reason why it went so hard. That's why
Speaker 1: I never really got along with anybody. My goal was
Speaker 1: seeking destroy, remove, eradicate. That's what happened. I was saying,
Speaker 1: that's what you did. That's what I did. Not respect Moose.
Speaker 1: Love Moose, but from a competitive from a competitive standpoint,
Speaker 1: competitive standpoint, you didn't have a chance. And it's crazy,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people don't know that. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't have a follow up to that, you nailed it. No,
Speaker 1: what am I supposed to say to that? The crazy
Speaker 1: part now, and here's that he's gonna like, fuck no,
Speaker 1: I mean, but you gotta respect it. You gotta respect it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but it was cool because my uncle tell me.
Speaker 1: He challenged me, he said, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: But both dudes did yeah, right, yeah, but he he
Speaker 1: challenged me. I guess my uncle challenged me because I
Speaker 1: knew the relationship, right, Me and Moose plays golf and
Speaker 1: with all that stuff. At some point probably here here,
Speaker 1: that's it. He'll be like, So if I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: did you're telling me? Yeah, thanks Moose, appreciate it. Appreciate
Speaker 1: your Moose. Thank you. Akona Madonna. So, hey, who is going?
Speaker 1: Actually we got Jeremy Chen. That's where we have. It's
Speaker 1: a Panther podcast today, will cut to it coming upon
Speaker 1: the cut to a podcast. We've got Jeremy Chin, a
Speaker 1: second round pick for the Carolina Panthers, the only defensive
Speaker 1: player to have scored touchdowns on consecutive plays. He's a
Speaker 1: two time NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month Award winner
Speaker 1: and a star in the making. Jeremy Chen on the
Speaker 1: Cut to It podcast, Yeah for sure, thanks telling me on. Alright,
Speaker 1: So our first segment is called get Iced Up. It's
Speaker 1: our version of Icebreakers. You play for the Panthers. You're
Speaker 1: familiar with ice up son and all that stuff, but
Speaker 1: this is our version of icebreakers. So their random questions
Speaker 1: might be a follow up, might not be. These are
Speaker 1: all selected at random. So Smithie, go ahead and get first.
Speaker 1: Get iced up question. Alright, buckle up, buttercup, there we go.
Speaker 1: So you must lose a body part? Which one? Which
Speaker 1: body part are you gonna lose that you feel you
Speaker 1: can lose and comfortably operate through the world after this
Speaker 1: A body part, probably arm or something arm. Maybe it
Speaker 1: got to be limb. I don't care. I'm not doing
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out. You still going to be
Speaker 1: able to make your money on one leg? Look what
Speaker 1: I said, arm, not leg? On, you said, I said,
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, we record this, Yeah, we we can go.
Speaker 1: We can go into the hood too. Now he said
Speaker 1: leg he said, I'm keeping my legs. I'll stay on.
Speaker 1: If I had to choose, I mean between between, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can. You can take the arm, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: a husband. But if I had to choose, I'm a
Speaker 1: husband and the father. So I'm gonna take the easy
Speaker 1: right out. Just take one of my ears. I'm good,
Speaker 1: just the ear chest finger anythink about my answer now
Speaker 1: I'm stunking one on. Yeah, but here's here's the problem,
Speaker 1: Jeremy defensive players. Yeah, I think quick, you just just
Speaker 1: re react. He reacted. Now he's walking around right. Uh.
Speaker 1: Favorite rookie moment. This past season. My favorite rookie moment
Speaker 1: would probably be my first dug in l A. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about that? Was? It is my first win? Like
Speaker 1: we lost to States and then went out to l A,
Speaker 1: my first time out in l A, my first time
Speaker 1: out west period. Um, and just getting a win on
Speaker 1: the road and the plane ride back on memorable. Got
Speaker 1: you your favorite breakfast food? Uh? Specifically? Okay, what's in
Speaker 1: your I got onions, mushrooms, Uh, spinach, sausage, they can sometimes. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff in that. It did that
Speaker 1: sounds like that I was eating that every morning. Really, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just jump right into it. You know, um, growing up?
Speaker 1: What what sports? What different sports did you play? We're
Speaker 1: gonna play basketball, football, and soccer? Track m Okay, what
Speaker 1: position did you play in soccer? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was I was young. I was at the running around,
Speaker 1: so I don't know. I was just cluster to the right,
Speaker 1: cluster to the left. Everybody, let me let me run around?
Speaker 1: All right? Now, the streets say that you can you
Speaker 1: can hoop, and that you got some pretty memorable dunks
Speaker 1: that you got. Don't care, Yeah, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I still got him all, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: got a few. Okay, I can't get up. Look he
Speaker 1: chees it. We know some people with the horn it man.
Speaker 1: So if you gotta, you know, stretch some rolls, we'll
Speaker 1: make some phone calls. Look, I can do that. That's okay,
Speaker 1: that's perfectly fine. We can do that. Who's your favorite
Speaker 1: team growing up? The Patients? Jermaine O'Neil, Reggie Miller, Danny Granger, Um,
Speaker 1: Jamal Tensley, m all those guys. M his his his
Speaker 1: little Hamsters running Danny Granger. Yeah, Stephen Jackson was on
Speaker 1: those teams, even Jackson, Yeah, run out of test. Where
Speaker 1: are you from and the place you call your hometown.
Speaker 1: I'm from Fisher's, Indiana, and I called claud Fisher, Indiana
Speaker 1: my hometown. The wearest Fishers you know. Related to say,
Speaker 1: the combine in Indiapolis's. Indianapolis is about ten minutes ten
Speaker 1: minutes from from from Indianapolis, probably about from from the stadium,
Speaker 1: fifteen and twenty from the stadium. Yeah, so you just
Speaker 1: kind of on the outskirts. Yeah, yeah, okay, the small
Speaker 1: little suburb then. Yeah, so growing up in Indiana, how
Speaker 1: did it influence you today? Growing up in Indiana, especially
Speaker 1: playing football, Like, not a lot of people from Indiana
Speaker 1: make it out playing football. Well, this is a really
Speaker 1: big basketball state, So playing football here in Indiana, you
Speaker 1: kind of gotta make it the hard way. You know,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of five star recruits you hear
Speaker 1: about coming from Indiana. When you say make it the
Speaker 1: hard way, what do you mean make it the hard way?
Speaker 1: Because everybody this version of hard way is is different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say, m you already just counted out, like
Speaker 1: you from Florida. Um, you know this school is here
Speaker 1: in the state of any of that just go to Florida.
Speaker 1: The recruit like, they don't even look at Indiana. So
Speaker 1: I mean that's just yeah, it's just already like all right,
Speaker 1: they're just looking past this already. I heard a lot
Speaker 1: of good stories rast some research on you on your
Speaker 1: relationship with your folks and how impactful they were throughout
Speaker 1: your life. Um, you know, kind of walk us through that.
Speaker 1: You know, we hear sometimes we hear, oh my, my
Speaker 1: folks were uh influential. Um, And I think sometimes that's
Speaker 1: the answer that a lot of times we don't get
Speaker 1: the we don't get the opportunity to follow up on
Speaker 1: to heal, to hear the details of how they impact,
Speaker 1: how they influenced you. So walk us through, you know,
Speaker 1: love on your folks, man, tell us what what did
Speaker 1: they instill in you? Um, that impact you? Uh you
Speaker 1: know to be Jeremy. I don't know you personally. All
Speaker 1: I know is what I've seen on a football field
Speaker 1: and what I mean on tape. Uh, you know, preparing
Speaker 1: last year for the combine and seeing what kind of
Speaker 1: player you are. Um, those instincts, Uh, that smile, that
Speaker 1: infectious smile, that that um active football player you are.
Speaker 1: I know you. You know you can't take all the
Speaker 1: credit um. Um. So obviously you know you've been coached
Speaker 1: by some obviously some coaches, but there's two coaches that
Speaker 1: that that held your hand and raised you up way
Speaker 1: before the other sports coaches got got there, got their part. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I mean a lot of that go out to
Speaker 1: my mom. Really. She she basically raised um, me and
Speaker 1: my settlings, my my younger sister and my older brother
Speaker 1: by herself, you know for the most part. Um. And
Speaker 1: they were days like she she would work like late,
Speaker 1: just come home and still make sure that we had
Speaker 1: something to eat before she go to sleep. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: she just never complained. I know there was some days
Speaker 1: she was tired, she didn't feel like going to work,
Speaker 1: or didn't feel like you know, making sure you know,
Speaker 1: we had something to eat, feel like cooking or whatever
Speaker 1: it was. But um, you know, I never saw her
Speaker 1: complain one time. So that's something I try to take
Speaker 1: from her, and she kind of stood that into me. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, even even through you know, when times get hard,
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be right of days, I feel like,
Speaker 1: right now this is a a bright of time for her,
Speaker 1: especially just seeing me in the position that that I'm
Speaker 1: in now. So, um, you know, life definitely goes full circles.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm blessed to be an ex position
Speaker 1: and look back and be able to give her the
Speaker 1: credit that she deserves. So we we learned of one
Speaker 1: story about your mom to where she actually dropped you
Speaker 1: off at practice once and you want crutches. I don't
Speaker 1: know that story for us, and sounds like your mom's
Speaker 1: toughness on you. Yeah, um yeah. I think I was
Speaker 1: maybe in the fifth grade of something, and we had
Speaker 1: we had practice like Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think we
Speaker 1: played on Saturdays or something. Um, so I got hurt
Speaker 1: whatever like Tuesday. Yeah, um, I I don't remember what
Speaker 1: was going on, but I was like, man, like I'm hurting,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like practicing or something like that or whatever.
Speaker 1: But we played. We played on Saturday, and you know,
Speaker 1: in fifth grade, we we played at the at the
Speaker 1: high school stadium. So like when you're in fifth grade,
Speaker 1: that's like a big deal. That's like playing in the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, you know, as a fifth grade So, um,
Speaker 1: So I come to practice the next practice on crutches
Speaker 1: and my mom goes up to my coach and he's like, uh,
Speaker 1: She's like, yeah, Jeremy, Um, he doesn't really he doesn't
Speaker 1: really need these crutches. I think he just needs, you know,
Speaker 1: basically like a kick in the butt whatever. Um he's feeling,
Speaker 1: he's feeling some type of way. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: you know, end of the story. S long story short,
Speaker 1: I ended up, you know, coming off the crutches. I
Speaker 1: didn't need him. You know. I was being a drama
Speaker 1: for me. Same day, same day, next day around that
Speaker 1: I could I couldn't do the same day. I had
Speaker 1: to lingrate off of you. I had the milk it Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I better the day but now that's basically you know
Speaker 1: what that was. He you said you weren't necessarily hurt.
Speaker 1: So where did you get the crutches from? That's actually
Speaker 1: a great question. Yeah, we we had because it sounds
Speaker 1: like your mom didn't take you to the doctor. No,
Speaker 1: I think we did go to the doctor. I think
Speaker 1: I think we did go to the doctor because we
Speaker 1: didn't just have crutches laying around the house, so we
Speaker 1: had to go to get them from somewhere. So I
Speaker 1: don't got the food details of the story. I was
Speaker 1: a while ago. Um No, but yeah, so I'm off
Speaker 1: the crutches, but she always instilled that toughness in me.
Speaker 1: We have to take a break and the morning thing
Speaker 1: we got paid from bad mm hm, you got checks.
Speaker 1: I love cut to It and I love it even
Speaker 1: more when you download us and subscribe, and you can
Speaker 1: follow us on social media too, Smithie where where at?
Speaker 1: That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter?
Speaker 1: At cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve
Speaker 1: Smith singr? What about online? And you can follow us
Speaker 1: at cut to It podcast dot com where you can
Speaker 1: buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: 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. You weren't
Speaker 1: heavily recruited, um because of it, like you said, Indiana,
Speaker 1: but also too, you aren't very you aren't necessarily tall.
Speaker 1: You're five seven. Now what's cool is? Uh? You know
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not killing him in the height department
Speaker 1: myself and with covid hit, my son Boston was like
Speaker 1: five four five, size nine nine, a half shoe covid hit.
Speaker 1: We've been in quarantine shutdown. August comes. Um, we were
Speaker 1: actually moving and we had a lot of our clothing storage.
Speaker 1: We come back in August. My main gets his closed
Speaker 1: out of storage. He's wearing a size twelve and a
Speaker 1: half shoe and he's like five nine. He's putting on
Speaker 1: like an old pair of sweats and they're flooding. You
Speaker 1: had the same thing. Okay, So my sophomore year high school, UM,
Speaker 1: I was five seven, like Max pushing it. He gave
Speaker 1: me five seven, like I'm cheesing, Like I'm all right,
Speaker 1: I'm five seven. Um, and then I was probably on
Speaker 1: what were you playing? At that What position were you
Speaker 1: playing at that point? I was a corner. I was
Speaker 1: a corner at that point. Yeah. Were you tackling at
Speaker 1: that corner? Oh? Yeah, okay, so I'm sorry. It ain't
Speaker 1: that changed. I seen my tape. Yeah, and now I
Speaker 1: go cut it on. But um, I like that. I
Speaker 1: like but five shot one through. If I gets ready
Speaker 1: over there, go low and go low. Uh five steps
Speaker 1: twenty five. You gotta know what you're working with and
Speaker 1: you just come on. You gotta know what you're working with.
Speaker 1: So m my junior year, come around, my junior year,
Speaker 1: I was about um, like five nine to five ten.
Speaker 1: But I was growing so fast my junior year in
Speaker 1: high school. That ended up missing half my junior year
Speaker 1: because like hamstring problems. Um. I was just growing so fast,
Speaker 1: like my body couldn't keep up. Um, Like my muscles
Speaker 1: couldn't keep up in my bones and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I had some hamstring problems my junior year. UM,
Speaker 1: and that really messed up on my recruiting, just because
Speaker 1: you know, that's a big recruiting year. Junior year. Come around.
Speaker 1: My senior year, I was about six ft now probably
Speaker 1: and then I really I mean I've been growing all
Speaker 1: the way through college for the most part. But my
Speaker 1: senior high school that's when I hit six ft. Wow,
Speaker 1: she's five seven six, right, I wonder, I wonder, what's
Speaker 1: that like? Man? That was problems on the Star over
Speaker 1: not for real, not for real. Hey, you know, take
Speaker 1: us through, Take us through the take us through your
Speaker 1: your college process. You know you you you have this
Speaker 1: gross fur um. You're not getting heavily recruited. You know
Speaker 1: you desire to play football, obviously. Yeah, you wanted to
Speaker 1: play football. You just wanted to run around and play
Speaker 1: some kind of sport. And you you fell in love
Speaker 1: with basketball football. What was that? What? What What was that
Speaker 1: recruiting process like for you? And and and and how
Speaker 1: did you come up with the decision, um, to go
Speaker 1: to go to college? Yeah? Man, the recruiting process was
Speaker 1: so frustrating. It was so frustrating. Um one, just because
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't get any any attention, any offers
Speaker 1: until I had I had four games after my senior year.
Speaker 1: That's when I got my first offer. M Yeah, So
Speaker 1: like I got people I'm playing against every every week. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, teammates everything college is coming in recruiting. My
Speaker 1: teammates like offering my teammates and I'm just like and
Speaker 1: then offering people I'm playing against, like we're going ahead
Speaker 1: to the head and you know, I still got no love. UM.
Speaker 1: And then I say camp. It was. It was a
Speaker 1: summer camp before my senior year, and I met the
Speaker 1: decordinary at the time at Southern Illinois. UM. So we started.
Speaker 1: We stayed in contact throughout the whole year. UM. Like
Speaker 1: I said, it's about four games left. And then he
Speaker 1: ended up offering me a scholarship. So I was like, man, like,
Speaker 1: this is all I needed. So, I mean as soon
Speaker 1: as I got that offer, like I was ready to commit.
Speaker 1: I was like this, this is all I needed. Like
Speaker 1: I just needed the shot. Um, and they gave that
Speaker 1: to me. So UM, long story short, s U staff
Speaker 1: at that time got fired. UM, so I was like damgn, like,
Speaker 1: this is my scholarship. And then uh, luckily University of
Speaker 1: North Dakota they offered me UM. So I took a
Speaker 1: visit there, I committed to them. UM. And then coach hell,
Speaker 1: he's a head coach now I Studyn Illinois told me
Speaker 1: he got the job and that they're gonna keep recruiting me,
Speaker 1: gonna keep my offering all that. So I went from
Speaker 1: North Dakota. UM, I took a visit to Southern. I
Speaker 1: committed to Southern on an official visit, so that Sunday
Speaker 1: after the visit, I called with Dakota and be committed
Speaker 1: from them. And then I've been with Southern Illinois ever since.
Speaker 1: And you know, the best destation I've ever made. I
Speaker 1: know this one of your favorite players. So I made
Speaker 1: sure I point this out. You're not you were a
Speaker 1: one star. You're a zero star recruit. Correct, Correct, every
Speaker 1: was a one star recruit. Unless you know that those
Speaker 1: stars don't mean anything. Nothing, nothing, so nothing. There's four
Speaker 1: or five stars that in the league, and there's zero
Speaker 1: stars that are potentially up for defensive rookie the year.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, maybe no, ya, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's cool. I'll take this time. Just
Speaker 1: tell you, man, I you know, I watched a lot
Speaker 1: of football. Despite what people may think, despite what may
Speaker 1: some of your teammates may think, I watched a kind
Speaker 1: of football. Man. I'm very impressed with your game. Thank you,
Speaker 1: very impressed. I love your versatility, um, I love the
Speaker 1: way you attack the ball, you talk, you played old
Speaker 1: school way, which is you try to not in a
Speaker 1: targeting way, but you try to play football the right way,
Speaker 1: which is when a receiver or or running back catches
Speaker 1: the ball, you try to dislodge the ball from the individual.
Speaker 1: And that's a lost art. I noticed when you tackle,
Speaker 1: you hit what you see, which is you're protecting your spine,
Speaker 1: you're protecting yourself, You're also protecting the individual you're hitting.
Speaker 1: That's a lost start. You don't really see that a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of players have gotten injured because they
Speaker 1: have their head down. You're always going through your your target,
Speaker 1: the defender or the target. Man, So keep keep doing that. Man.
Speaker 1: Make sure because your star hearing, Carolina, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: some opportunities to do some football camps. And I'm telling
Speaker 1: you because of your platform that you probably think is
Speaker 1: not very high right now, but Son, it's very high.
Speaker 1: Make sure you emphasize the fundamentals of hitting, because you
Speaker 1: have it's becoming a lost art. But the men who
Speaker 1: have learned how to continue to do that art. Man,
Speaker 1: you've got a great opportunity. You get the lead people
Speaker 1: in the right way. Yeah, I appreciate that as a
Speaker 1: measuring How important is versatility of positions in today's NFL.
Speaker 1: From your perspective, I think it's huge, especially now playing
Speaker 1: so many packages to many you know, whether it be Nickel,
Speaker 1: don Uh dollar or just based instead of just setting
Speaker 1: so many guys in just having been able to move
Speaker 1: around the field, it makes a huge difference, and I
Speaker 1: think it makes a life from the coach is a
Speaker 1: lot easier, UM, and really just guys all around you
Speaker 1: a lot easier so they don't have to you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about UM, you know, different personnels and things like that,
Speaker 1: you can just keep the same personnel and play a
Speaker 1: lot of different defenses. As as an analyst would how
Speaker 1: do you value versatility? Well, I think that's an interest.
Speaker 1: I love his answer, but I can deep his answer
Speaker 1: because one of your one of your nemesis um and
Speaker 1: and he's also a fantastic office amount of coach. He
Speaker 1: utilizes uh, the versatility of you with so I go
Speaker 1: with Sean Payton and utilizing you being able to play
Speaker 1: so many different positions sometimes will get you a mismatch
Speaker 1: on the maybe a tight end a bigger tight end,
Speaker 1: or maybe get you on a fullback where a guy
Speaker 1: like him who can cover a fullback, but they're just
Speaker 1: taking you out of game plan because they don't really
Speaker 1: want you to cover Camerica out of back field. So
Speaker 1: they're line out the fullback and so he has to
Speaker 1: step out of that box to line up against the fullback,
Speaker 1: and then they put on a time backer out on Camara.
Speaker 1: Now Camara, I'll plays a linebacker because they got one
Speaker 1: of guys covering the fullback who he knows the fullback
Speaker 1: is not gonna So sometimes depending on that versatility can't
Speaker 1: play against you when you have and there's not Now
Speaker 1: every coach is Sean Sean Payton McVeigh. Some of that
Speaker 1: stuff that you know, it's it's less creative coaches who
Speaker 1: understand personnel substitution or not allowing personnel substance. Um. So
Speaker 1: that's all the thing that I would say. Sometimes a
Speaker 1: versatility can you know, when you're a Swiss army knife
Speaker 1: like him, they could use a lot utilize his knowledge
Speaker 1: and it's athleticism against them and also squash the knowledge
Speaker 1: of the defense coordinator as well. M So you know,
Speaker 1: not everybody you know, that's not gonna be happening against
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons. But it's more susceptible to coach like
Speaker 1: Sean Payton because they play him twice a year and
Speaker 1: coaches always doing personnel. He has a whole personnel package
Speaker 1: type of situation where he tries to get the defense
Speaker 1: and advantageous situation. But you agree, disagree problems with a man.
Speaker 1: When they told when you first learned you were going
Speaker 1: play linebacker, what was your real reaction? Like in your head,
Speaker 1: are you sitting like you're sitting the trading camp and
Speaker 1: they and you see chin on the depth chart, You're
Speaker 1: gonna I'm chilling linebacker? Yeah? Um, yeah. It was a
Speaker 1: little bit like that at first. But that the reason,
Speaker 1: the reason, the reason I didn't I didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: freak out. It was like, man, why am I playing
Speaker 1: line by anything like that. It's because coach Now, he
Speaker 1: talked to me over the summertime about just packages that
Speaker 1: we're gonna put in where I was gonna be like
Speaker 1: the deep safety and just moving around things like that.
Speaker 1: So I was like, all right, he still sees that
Speaker 1: I can that can do that stuff. So as long
Speaker 1: as he doesn't see me just locked up as a linebacker, uh,
Speaker 1: just you know, I'll be fine with it. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I was happy just to be on the field. Really,
Speaker 1: let's talk ball and it's just football, right, giving giving
Speaker 1: the cut to of fans of Carolina Panthers fans and
Speaker 1: football fans um an opportunity to really just talk ball.
Speaker 1: And you know, your perspective, not necessarily your i Q,
Speaker 1: but your perspective of how you see football tak offensive
Speaker 1: guys ball differently the defensive guys. Would you agree, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. What is one of the
Speaker 1: things that as a defensive guy who plays all over
Speaker 1: the field like yourself, Yeah, what is one of the
Speaker 1: things that just irks you about the offensive player, mainly
Speaker 1: wide receivers. That's a good question. I warm you up
Speaker 1: and let you know. You know what I hate about dbs.
Speaker 1: You got a laundry list, but it's like Sander's Christmas list.
Speaker 1: It's like every kid in the man. I hate seeing
Speaker 1: the dB dude like the no cats. When the ball
Speaker 1: is over there, like he did something, You think, what
Speaker 1: did he do if he didn't do nothing to d
Speaker 1: line the something? And look, sometimes you just gotta celebrate
Speaker 1: catching a break, man. You celebrate catching the break if
Speaker 1: it's if it's an incomplete class and he didn't have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to even continue. I got it. I would
Speaker 1: not do the I'm a de bunkeet. What about when
Speaker 1: the quarterback overthrows it the D line. He just quarterback
Speaker 1: just didn't plant his feet right overthrows it. You get excited,
Speaker 1: can't take that, the dB is beaten, and then you
Speaker 1: still do the no fly. Now what he caught a break.
Speaker 1: He caught a break break, So you give that with
Speaker 1: a pass German, you can celebrate that. Look, you caught
Speaker 1: a break. Man. You just down that. He go down
Speaker 1: that stair. That's push. Appreciate, answer, participate, he said, trophy.
Speaker 1: All right, So your turn did tell me something about
Speaker 1: I can say, He's like that was receivers. Receivers, but
Speaker 1: I don't even I don't even really get into it.
Speaker 1: I receivers, like I'll see. I mean one thing that's annoying,
Speaker 1: Like you celebrate the first down and they get catching
Speaker 1: it's the first down. They do the whole like okay,
Speaker 1: like yeah, that's like okay, that's the job, Like no
Speaker 1: need to but I mean, yeah, nothing nothing really that
Speaker 1: really irritates me. I guess when a receiver is feeling
Speaker 1: tough or whatever, like they'll try to try to come
Speaker 1: block you after the play when the ball you know,
Speaker 1: has broke to the second level whatever. But that's just
Speaker 1: some annoying stuff like get I'm okay, say what are
Speaker 1: you doing? Well, he has he has to block, or
Speaker 1: he would get a yeah he has the block. But
Speaker 1: I mean, like the play, the play is coming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: something just something not not not even the opposite end,
Speaker 1: but like the running backs going down. Um, it happened
Speaker 1: a couple of games like rossiters to come and try
Speaker 1: to like just hits you late, like see him and
Speaker 1: like and it's like what are you doing? Like I'm
Speaker 1: right here, Like we're both right here, Like you don't
Speaker 1: need to do that right now. But it's not it's
Speaker 1: not something. It's not something that like they're really trying
Speaker 1: to block. They just trying to be petty, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like they just signed yeah, I know
Speaker 1: what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, Hey, well go on the
Speaker 1: other side. I don't move. I ain't. That's that's the one.
Speaker 1: I take it. They used to the duck. Hey, that's
Speaker 1: a loafing want because right bro, it's a switch to
Speaker 1: the left side of the field and were on the
Speaker 1: right side, chill out. I'm not moving right. I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna like that. I'm not gonna sell it. But
Speaker 1: here's what I gets you in trouble. Go pursue that
Speaker 1: ball and I gotta go chase you. Oh you don't
Speaker 1: have a day next to the big payback. Alright, one
Speaker 1: show off? Okay, uh, I know that that's me. I'm
Speaker 1: the one pursuing this. You don't get mad at Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not good there. You're gonna get mad because when
Speaker 1: I catch the first down on yeah, I'm the ball
Speaker 1: spending the ball, so I know spending the ball. I
Speaker 1: guess I'm petty with everything. You petty. I would have
Speaker 1: never ever guess that a day of my life. You know,
Speaker 1: we talking ball. So you've been in the league. You
Speaker 1: you know, your rookie or going into your year next year,
Speaker 1: you had to have some you know, you're you're a
Speaker 1: hell of a player, but you had to have some
Speaker 1: moments in the game where you're like bro, I just
Speaker 1: didn't know it was like this, yeah, um I said.
Speaker 1: The second time we played Tampa Bay, we were at
Speaker 1: home and um I was guarding ground and I was
Speaker 1: like all right, man, like it's man, you're old like
Speaker 1: he's not fastering me, you're not cooking at me anything
Speaker 1: that you don't jump higher to me. Um, but he
Speaker 1: end up catching his ball and like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: knock it out. Uh, Like I'm trying to knock it
Speaker 1: all the way to the ground. I didn't even wrap
Speaker 1: a brenthing like I'm too bags trying to get the
Speaker 1: ball out. Uh. He ended up catching the ball and
Speaker 1: like Kevin running and I was like, man, like, I
Speaker 1: can't just rely on my athletic ability, Like technique is everything.
Speaker 1: So that's when I realized, like, yeah, technique is, so
Speaker 1: what's gonna you know, carry me through this? So that
Speaker 1: was that was probably when when people ask me, that's
Speaker 1: probably my welcome to the NFL moment, not just because um,
Speaker 1: like I actually I actually learned that, like, all right,
Speaker 1: technique is is what's gonna keep it going? Because that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the only answer. So let's let's let's
Speaker 1: can we can we can we walk through that with
Speaker 1: you and not like knowing you, but also making fun
Speaker 1: in a good way I did as a young player.
Speaker 1: You here, you're a hell of a player. So I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna dispute that and you and you just kind
Speaker 1: of like, bro, he just scratched, like just opened up
Speaker 1: the back of chips. Yeah right, And but the chips
Speaker 1: unlike the chips we purchased, it's a little bit of chip,
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of air. It's in his chip is
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of chip and very little air. But
Speaker 1: I think it's funny is you're a young player. The
Speaker 1: first thing he says, and he's referring to Grunk, is oh,
Speaker 1: he's an older player. He can't run anymore. Uh, he's
Speaker 1: old man. And the old man took you to the warship,
Speaker 1: didn't he? Yeah, he got like he still got on
Speaker 1: my shoulder. Why did you think because he's because he's
Speaker 1: an older player, they are, he still can't run. I
Speaker 1: know you watch film, But what led you to believe that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not picking on your anything like that, but to
Speaker 1: some degree, because you you're a young player, you you
Speaker 1: you obviously was like, ain't the grunk I'm used to say, right,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't anything like the discredit grunk. It was right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, I trust my athletic ability over
Speaker 1: grounds athletic ability without taking into account that he's been
Speaker 1: playing for what I don't know how many years. Um,
Speaker 1: his technique and everything like that. My leverage is more
Speaker 1: important than how high I could jump or how fast
Speaker 1: I can run and things like that. So that's something
Speaker 1: that was I learned that firsthand, like in the flesh
Speaker 1: that place. So I think that was my biggest moment.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL moment. I think it's about that time.
Speaker 1: Just so I'll take a little breather. Good do away,
Speaker 1: God's get down to do away. Hey Gerard, why did
Speaker 1: you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go
Speaker 1: on buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Yeah, because you don't know the
Speaker 1: NFL outside of COVID protocol. Take us through what how
Speaker 1: you experience and the protocol you went through each and
Speaker 1: every day. Um, because the fans don't know. They just
Speaker 1: think some people just think you should show up, right
Speaker 1: they you know even before Yeah, you just like the
Speaker 1: house playing video games, you playing Matten right, and you
Speaker 1: know you mean you mean like through during the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: during the season. Yeah, yeah, so what you want to
Speaker 1: I don't want to get your trouble or any of that,
Speaker 1: but I think given a perspective that yeah, what was
Speaker 1: behind the scenes without necessarily getting in trouble, because I
Speaker 1: think I know there is a lot of things that
Speaker 1: fans don't know that you guys have to experience, whether
Speaker 1: it's testing, contact traiting, um, you know, the quarantining, all
Speaker 1: of that stuff that it's not it's not on television. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this year was crazy. Like I said, I don't know
Speaker 1: the regular experience, but just playing football like is this
Speaker 1: year has been unbelievable, Like so much testing. I think
Speaker 1: we tested over a hundred eighty times or something like
Speaker 1: that throughout the year. So just doing that every single day, um,
Speaker 1: coming in, picking up our traces, going through screening there
Speaker 1: every single day, peeing up our traces. Um. We had
Speaker 1: to have our traces everywhere we went. And I mean
Speaker 1: you probably know how the tracers work if you're around
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're around somebody for too long, like
Speaker 1: within six ft, like your tracer blink red and stay.
Speaker 1: Um say that you guys are all sitting at the
Speaker 1: table so you guys have all your traces on. You guys,
Speaker 1: traces would be blinking red right now. Now if one
Speaker 1: of you comes up sick or something and all you
Speaker 1: guys out to quarantine because you guys have all been
Speaker 1: together in your tracer tells you like you've been around
Speaker 1: that person. Uh so, I mean, yeah, it's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's crazy. And then, um, you know meetings,
Speaker 1: we're all like meeting in like this we areas or
Speaker 1: like the dining areas of the stadium, just so we
Speaker 1: can all be spread out. Um, and then like things
Speaker 1: throughout the season, like it even even ramped up protocols
Speaker 1: even ramped up even more, like we have to wear
Speaker 1: a mask out on the football field for like between
Speaker 1: wen take our helmets off, we got to put a
Speaker 1: mask on. We were like plastic coverings over our face.
Speaker 1: Mask Like it was. I mean it was crazy. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody got drafted and I had to do the draft
Speaker 1: um and I saw um. I did it from my
Speaker 1: office at my house here in Charlotte. You Indiana, I
Speaker 1: believe getting when you got drafted. Man, I this may
Speaker 1: sound like a dumb question, but I'm wanting to say it,
Speaker 1: Like you didn't know which team was gonna draft you,
Speaker 1: and they didn't know which team going to draft you.
Speaker 1: So where'd you get your hat from? Like, did they
Speaker 1: say you up? You didn't have an had or anything. No,
Speaker 1: lead ain't to me nothing, now thank Yeah, well we
Speaker 1: saw all the guys like they had they had the
Speaker 1: box and so leade. I guess they picked. They picked
Speaker 1: fifty or some guys. They sent in the box set
Speaker 1: of hats, uh posters to put up in their house
Speaker 1: for the draft and everything. So after you got drafted,
Speaker 1: did the Panthers didn't you? Yeah? They sent me. They
Speaker 1: sent me some gear, They sent me my jersey, a
Speaker 1: couple of hats. Yeah, it's cool. So what what all
Speaker 1: do you know about the Panthers prior to getting drafted
Speaker 1: to the team. I knew it. I knew a few
Speaker 1: guys on the roster. I didn't know him personally. Um,
Speaker 1: but Shoq Burns Christian Um obviously the Super Bowl team
Speaker 1: uh Luke. Obviously I know he retired and everything. But
Speaker 1: um obviously know who you are Steve Smith. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean as far as that, like I didn't, I
Speaker 1: didn't really know who the coach was at the time.
Speaker 1: I know coach after coach I t I met, I
Speaker 1: met coach rule and stopped at the Singer Bowl, So
Speaker 1: I knew I knew of him. But before then, like
Speaker 1: I didn't really know much about the Pants. Yeah, me neither.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what Carolina will Being on the
Speaker 1: west coast, well, yeah, I ain't been. I hadn't, I
Speaker 1: mean other than college. Well, we took the greyhound bust
Speaker 1: of Vegas from l a UM, I took a plane
Speaker 1: of Vegas, and then I took a plane of Utah
Speaker 1: and then all of you know, when I went to college,
Speaker 1: I had not been beyond other than the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: I've never been beyond what Montgomery. I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: never know what North Carolina was was. Wow, I didn't. No,
Speaker 1: I had no idea, didn't even think I was gonna
Speaker 1: get picked by me. Had zero people on the team,
Speaker 1: nothing about the Panthers at at all. Zero. I knew.
Speaker 1: I knew about moose in um because they would say
Speaker 1: moves plan. But other than that, what have you discovered
Speaker 1: about yourself? A year into real adulthood. I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of money on food. I don't know how. My
Speaker 1: mom said me so long. So you know that you
Speaker 1: know what that tells me that this is what it
Speaker 1: tells me. He gonna giggle. He may not confirm it.
Speaker 1: That tells me when you're leaving a facility, you had
Speaker 1: a ton of gay rays and waters in your backpack
Speaker 1: every day. Look, yes, I'm taking all that stuff stealing
Speaker 1: from you. Know you're still You're still work, You're still
Speaker 1: to work. Supply. I'm gonna try and go to the story.
Speaker 1: So at what part of throughout this whole season, through
Speaker 1: the walk to the draft process, through the whole season,
Speaker 1: when are you calling up on the knowledge of your uncle,
Speaker 1: legendary Steve at Water. Um. I talked to him probably
Speaker 1: a week maybe a couple of days before the Denver game.
Speaker 1: I talked to him because I think that was that
Speaker 1: was two weeks after the Minnesota game. UM. So we
Speaker 1: caught up after that game, and he just gave me
Speaker 1: some pointers as far as some of the things he
Speaker 1: did throughout the season just to keep him going, um
Speaker 1: and just so he wasn't losing the step. Some of
Speaker 1: the workouts that he was doing, like upper body workouts,
Speaker 1: like getting the extra upper body workout throughout the year.
Speaker 1: And so I incorporated that stuff, and I think it
Speaker 1: really helped me towards the end of the season. What
Speaker 1: was the what was the transition like going from college
Speaker 1: and college? It was obviously it was different. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: described the difference between college and because we all know
Speaker 1: it's different, Yeah, but not everybody can do a good
Speaker 1: job of explaining. Yeah. I think I think the biggest
Speaker 1: difference is it's a difference at every at every part
Speaker 1: of it, from from old line to skill position to
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But I think, I mean the main
Speaker 1: difference is the quarterbacks. Like, if there's anything that's different,
Speaker 1: it's the quarterback tient, um, because they can they can
Speaker 1: speed the game up so much more and they make
Speaker 1: they make throws and and make decisions that you know,
Speaker 1: usually don't see college quarterbacks making, especially coming from FCS
Speaker 1: where I played. So the biggest difference was me just
Speaker 1: it was playing against these quarterbacks. So, so, which quarterback
Speaker 1: gave you it's old crap moment when you walked on
Speaker 1: the field. Um. Yeah, I don't know if there's one
Speaker 1: that that could just point out and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: like he was the one, But I think it's all
Speaker 1: just in general. Um, And that's something that I had to,
Speaker 1: you know, hurry up and get accustomed to back in
Speaker 1: camp and adjustments that I had to make um. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think even just watching film like I watched
Speaker 1: with Al he was my coach um, and just like that,
Speaker 1: just the arm, talent, the decisions, like everything that they're doing.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, you just don't see this in college
Speaker 1: where jemmy last segment, it's called the Deep three. There
Speaker 1: are three questions that take us beyond who you are
Speaker 1: as a players, going beyond your jersey, and so it
Speaker 1: just takes it to a deeper level. It's man to
Speaker 1: go ahead and give them. When you were younger, what
Speaker 1: did you say yes to? You know that you're willing
Speaker 1: to give anything for. But now you've you know, you're
Speaker 1: in NFL. You're a young man that when you go backwards,
Speaker 1: you go, I wouldn't do that again. Oh that's a
Speaker 1: tough question. Because you're a professional. Everything you do, Everything
Speaker 1: you do impacts, whether it's your mind, your body, your
Speaker 1: your profession. You know, you don't know what the residual
Speaker 1: or you know, you don't know what the layer. The
Speaker 1: first thing that I learned that I would say no
Speaker 1: to and I go backwards, I came from Utah, California, Utah,
Speaker 1: and man, my first off season barbecue and and and
Speaker 1: just all the great restaurants here in Charlotte you put
Speaker 1: on them two o five coming into I would say, um,
Speaker 1: one thing I would say yes to that then, Like
Speaker 1: living here in Indiana, like when we like are downtime,
Speaker 1: like we just hoop, like we'll go we'll go to
Speaker 1: l a fitness or like somewhere some part over here
Speaker 1: and we're like we were just hoop like all off season,
Speaker 1: Like that would just be that will we do? Like
Speaker 1: me and my friends would just go hoop. So I say,
Speaker 1: right now, I would just say no to that just because, um,
Speaker 1: like there's so much I want. I know how they hoop,
Speaker 1: and I know how just how they play. So I
Speaker 1: would say no to that just because now looking back,
Speaker 1: like I got I got more to lose and just
Speaker 1: be out here playing basketball and and you know getting
Speaker 1: hurt doing that. All right, What does success means to
Speaker 1: you professionally and personally? Professionally? Um winning? So like that's
Speaker 1: it ultimate sign of just being successful. You know, having
Speaker 1: your health as well, UM health winning, health wealth winning,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's success as I see it help. Well,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's that covers everything you can't argue
Speaker 1: with that wealth and winning it translates off side off
Speaker 1: the field as well. Yeah, I get you rich right there?
Speaker 1: Play about seventeen a year, look like, well I take
Speaker 1: a little that. Yeah, I know you're young. I know
Speaker 1: you're young and your profession, Um, but what motivates you today?
Speaker 1: You know, you guys are done playing football? You know
Speaker 1: you get them. I saw you tweet. You know you
Speaker 1: you you wished or hope you were playing in January February.
Speaker 1: You know, besides the Super Bowls, the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, you know, the core of it, what
Speaker 1: you know, what really motivates you beyond just having some
Speaker 1: success or a lot of success on the football field.
Speaker 1: I love the place, I said, like, I love to
Speaker 1: play it. Like if you see me like just out
Speaker 1: there that practice, like my teammates like sack and look
Speaker 1: at me like why are you smiling? Why are you
Speaker 1: so happy? Because I'm having fun? Like I love this.
Speaker 1: I genuinely love to pay the game. Steve. What's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing you learned between your rookie season and your
Speaker 1: second year? Um? Yeah, see that's that's pretty good. You
Speaker 1: are learning so much and you you're trying to figure out, um,
Speaker 1: you know, what is the opponent? What is me? What's
Speaker 1: the scheme? Um? My rookie year to my second year
Speaker 1: was a transition transitional year because we have coach c
Speaker 1: for who was fired and we had a new coaching staff.
Speaker 1: So I was playing pretty much no wide receiver, primarily
Speaker 1: special teams. Then I got an opportunity to coach Fox
Speaker 1: to play still special teams but also contribute. So a
Speaker 1: little bit is uh baptism by fire, you know, not
Speaker 1: getting the opportunity to really um. You know, my rookie
Speaker 1: year didn't play much. Was she played a lot of
Speaker 1: scout team UM. And then that scout team I was
Speaker 1: going against guys where I was like, man, if this
Speaker 1: guy can play, and I'm not getting an opportunity. So
Speaker 1: it's it's hodgepod. Just just a ton of stuff, ton
Speaker 1: of ton of emotions, ton of uh self evaluation, self doubt.
Speaker 1: And then you got a new coaching staff, so you
Speaker 1: gotta start all over and try to impress them and
Speaker 1: try to figure out the offense. So I think for
Speaker 1: a young guy to get a new coach coming out
Speaker 1: of his rookie year trying to figure things out and
Speaker 1: then start over, and that's a lot. It's a lot,
Speaker 1: and you're supposed to be a professional as well. So
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just I think it's puss. You're
Speaker 1: already drinking from fires just being in the NFL. The
Speaker 1: you have a big transition, and I think it's it's
Speaker 1: tough no matter what year you're in, but I think
Speaker 1: it's tougher now because of the way fans, the way
Speaker 1: the evaluation process is now, is they expect even more
Speaker 1: success out of the first three rounds compared to what
Speaker 1: it used to be. I think it's even um a
Speaker 1: higher level of expectations. Right, So so now as a
Speaker 1: as a former player, as a VET forty plus, what
Speaker 1: would you go back until young Steve? Now, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't tell I wouldn't tell me anything just because mh.
Speaker 1: There are things that had to do with maybe different
Speaker 1: coaching styles, learning and not learning, trying to figure out.
Speaker 1: So I think it's it would be cool to go
Speaker 1: back and watch myself. I think I would cringe, but
Speaker 1: then also would laugh because I had a head coach
Speaker 1: who was it was his first time being the head coach,
Speaker 1: so he was figuring it out too. So you got
Speaker 1: the blind leading the blind and we're trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Team is not very good. What were those
Speaker 1: cringe worthy moments? Oh? One time I think Coach Fox
Speaker 1: kicked us, kicked us out of practice, like the whole team,
Speaker 1: because we were pissed poor. They were fighting, they were frustrated.
Speaker 1: But the day before he started practice all over, like
Speaker 1: we were our into practice. He started all over from
Speaker 1: the top like stretch, like we had to restart, We're
Speaker 1: gonna run this whole thing. So you know, that's what
Speaker 1: I mean by crisis. I'm like, oh, we're tired, you know.
Speaker 1: And we're in sparm berg, South Carolina and the heat
Speaker 1: of July August. The heat is so thick you could
Speaker 1: see it waving over the grass and the concrete. It's
Speaker 1: hot and you can you stay focused? No? You know
Speaker 1: the they say, what fatigue makes it? What a coward
Speaker 1: out of you makes you lose focus? Never really been
Speaker 1: in heat like that. I was in Utah dry heat.
Speaker 1: I wasn't in humidity, so you know, it was a lot.
Speaker 1: It was definitely a lot. And I don't think you
Speaker 1: can you can't prepare there's no test that lets you know,
Speaker 1: um how good or how bad you will be. It's
Speaker 1: just you know. It's baptism by by fire of of
Speaker 1: of actually being on the field and seeing what you have.
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 Singor I'm Gerald Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: BAAL Tool 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 Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
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Speaker 1: Smith SINGR, Co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking
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Speaker 1: Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced
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Speaker 1: by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by
Speaker 1: Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't
Speaker 1: heard am about it, then We're about to let you
Speaker 1: know it's all