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 ger a little John and
Speaker 1: this is cut to It. Good do It, Good do It.
Speaker 1: They'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: about it, then we're about to let you know. It's
Speaker 1: all coming up. On the cut to It podcast. We've
Speaker 1: got Colleen Wolf, a host for NFL Network who works
Speaker 1: Thursday Night Football, a number of NFL Network shows, A
Speaker 1: native of Philly, and just all around friend of the podcast.
Speaker 1: Colleen Wolf, wonna cut to the podcast. What did you
Speaker 1: daydream about when you're in high schoo Well, when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, I was a figure skater, so
Speaker 1: I got it out of I knew I could get it.
Speaker 1: That was it like to talk about? I was more
Speaker 1: of No. Yeah, I started skating when I was like
Speaker 1: six years old, and I loved it and I got
Speaker 1: really good at it, and so I was I skated
Speaker 1: before school. Like I would get up at four am
Speaker 1: and go to the rink and turn the lights on.
Speaker 1: And like it was great because if you were the
Speaker 1: first one at the rink, then you could choose the music.
Speaker 1: And that meant like TLC was on, can you imagine
Speaker 1: this little skinny little girl. I skate into T Speial
Speaker 1: Special and four Mr Philly and like, mind you, I
Speaker 1: like cut all my hair off too, so it's like
Speaker 1: short pixie cut. And my coaches were like, you are
Speaker 1: way too much of a tomboy. So they sent me
Speaker 1: to ballet classes because they were like, you need to
Speaker 1: learn how to be graceful. But they were like, you
Speaker 1: have the athleticism, you can lend these jumps like you
Speaker 1: have all like the power, because I was like all
Speaker 1: I was all legs when I was skating, like I
Speaker 1: was all I want to do was skate faster than everybody,
Speaker 1: jump high or spin better, just like I mean, I
Speaker 1: was fueled by anybody else that was on the ice.
Speaker 1: I was gonna outscape them. And then my coaches were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: all that's great, but you're like presentation sucks. So they
Speaker 1: were like, here's a bunch of dresses, and of course,
Speaker 1: like that triggered me because I was like, why don't
Speaker 1: have to wear dresses? And they sent me to a
Speaker 1: ballet teacher. Um, and I had to take about all
Speaker 1: these like serious ballet classes for years, and you know
Speaker 1: it ended up. I guess I got more graceful, who knows.
Speaker 1: But when I was in high school, that's all, that's
Speaker 1: all I thought about. Like I would skate before school,
Speaker 1: after school competitions, Like I didn't take gym class because
Speaker 1: I got credits for going ice skating. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: I was really in it. Did you enjoy any other sports?
Speaker 1: I ran track for a little bit, um my freshman
Speaker 1: year of high school, but then it was it was
Speaker 1: kind of in conflict with skating, and my parents were
Speaker 1: spending a lot of money. I had a choreographer at
Speaker 1: one point. Like it was so I mean, it's ridiculous
Speaker 1: when you look back on it. But like the price
Speaker 1: of skates, you have to get them custom made, you
Speaker 1: have to buy the boot and the blades separately. You
Speaker 1: have to take them to special places to get sharpened.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a lot. And my parents would
Speaker 1: take me at four o'clock in the morning and sit
Speaker 1: at the rink in the freezing cold and just watch
Speaker 1: me skate around. So all right, let's let's get over
Speaker 1: that part. Less week. That's too much. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I was very intense. Anything that I do, I just
Speaker 1: lock in. Let's let's talk about your TV career because
Speaker 1: a lot of people like I get the opportunity to work.
Speaker 1: I wouna say. I don't know if everyone knows that
Speaker 1: you guys are co workers on any Yeah. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we're This is Colleen Wolf. She's the host NFL Networks
Speaker 1: Rising Star. She can host anything she and she loves sports.
Speaker 1: She knows about sports. But you didn't always have the
Speaker 1: confidence that you appear that you have the confidence now
Speaker 1: and see I use that keyword appear. She does a
Speaker 1: lot of eternal dialogue that we're gonna get into later.
Speaker 1: But um, how did you get your shot? Didn't broadcasting?
Speaker 1: And when I say broadcasting, I'm not talking about TV,
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about in the business and the business
Speaker 1: of broadcasting. Well, this was like something that I had
Speaker 1: no idea I even wanted to do. This was not like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I want to grow up and be
Speaker 1: on TV like that was not really uh the thing
Speaker 1: like I was going to go to art school. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go to art I was gonna say, what what
Speaker 1: was it? Then? Yeah, I was like, so I was
Speaker 1: into figure skating and art. I was really cool, and
Speaker 1: she wears contacts, so I'm pretty sure she had no
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just saying she She says she was
Speaker 1: really cool art and ice skating, so I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: she and she's super smart, so I'm just going out there.
Speaker 1: She made she makes being intelligent cool. Well, thank you,
Speaker 1: like listen nerds around the world. So I loved art
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, I applied to all art schools.
Speaker 1: I was going to go to school for either illustration,
Speaker 1: graphic design or art education, and then, like last minute,
Speaker 1: I decided to go to Drexel in Philly, and I
Speaker 1: hadn't applied to their art school directly, so they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: you can't. You can't take any art classes this year.
Speaker 1: Just do something, you know as, take all of your
Speaker 1: electives this year, reapply, and then you can start your
Speaker 1: art program next year. So they were like, just take
Speaker 1: something like communications. So I was like okay, great, and
Speaker 1: I was like this is really easy and kind of fun.
Speaker 1: At Drexel, you have to you go to school for
Speaker 1: six months and then you work for six months, and
Speaker 1: you do that three times. So you get to have
Speaker 1: three internships, like three co ops. And so when it
Speaker 1: came time for me to do my first one, because
Speaker 1: I stuck with communications, I was like, this is pretty great.
Speaker 1: I'll just do some art stuff on the side. So
Speaker 1: it came time to do my first uh co op
Speaker 1: and through Drexel, all they really offered were really lame
Speaker 1: ones like you know, working in pharmaceutical eight like marketing
Speaker 1: spots and maybe you can get a job at like
Speaker 1: QBC or you know, home shopping network. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I don't really want to do that. But
Speaker 1: my dad, um it doesn't really follow sports, has never
Speaker 1: really been a big sports fan, but he was friends
Speaker 1: with one of the women that was on a sports
Speaker 1: talk radio show and Philly radio on the in the morning,
Speaker 1: and so I got an internship. They're just randomly and
Speaker 1: it was like, I don't that sounds like a fun
Speaker 1: thing to do when you're in college, work at a
Speaker 1: radio station. So I went and I walked in and
Speaker 1: my first day I saw these four people that were
Speaker 1: on the morning show and their chemistry that they had together.
Speaker 1: They were having so much fun. They were talking about sports.
Speaker 1: They were like ripping on each other and it was
Speaker 1: such a great atmosphere here, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: is exactly what I want to do. How do I
Speaker 1: do this? What? What do I what? Is of course
Speaker 1: exactly we're getting. Yeah, how it started, How it's going
Speaker 1: exactly Like you had a meme and you didn't even
Speaker 1: know it. So it sounds like you fell in love
Speaker 1: with maybe the atmosphere, but you you largely it sounds
Speaker 1: like you didn't have the most interest in team sports.
Speaker 1: It was you fell in love with that atmosphere being
Speaker 1: at that sports station. I loved the atmosphere and I
Speaker 1: was competitive, but I hadn't like unlocked that yet in
Speaker 1: terms of like other team sports, Like I played softball
Speaker 1: growing up, and like I said, I tried to run
Speaker 1: track for a little bit, but that's not like a
Speaker 1: team sport. And it wasn't until when I was in
Speaker 1: high school and the Sixers were in the playoffs with
Speaker 1: Iverson and like Kim Bay Matombo and Eric Snow and
Speaker 1: randomly I I stumbled upon one of the games and
Speaker 1: I was like I started watching the game and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, this is say oh what
Speaker 1: is that big No no exactly, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, wait a second, and I started listening
Speaker 1: to the announcers and it was like in the middle
Speaker 1: of the series and I'm watching and I had no
Speaker 1: idea what was going on, but I I was so
Speaker 1: intrigued by it. And in a bubble in Philly. My
Speaker 1: family was not into sports like we did that. It
Speaker 1: was not a house where there was football on on
Speaker 1: Sundays like it just that wasn't how I grew up,
Speaker 1: which is wild now that I think about it. I
Speaker 1: every time I got like, you know, on Thanksgiving or
Speaker 1: like yeah, on Thanksgiving, I'll go home and I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know where, why is it the TV on? There
Speaker 1: are games happening. What are we doing here? Like everybody
Speaker 1: get it together? So so when I started watching, you know,
Speaker 1: more games and getting into more sports and what's I
Speaker 1: started working at the radio station, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I gotta I gotta really like figure this out.
Speaker 1: So I this is like super embarrassing. UM. I went
Speaker 1: out and I got Basketball for Dummies, Football for Dummies,
Speaker 1: for Hockey three Dummies, and I read all four books
Speaker 1: and it took notes, and I every single day would
Speaker 1: read the sports section on like Philly dot Com, which
Speaker 1: was like the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia inquir and
Speaker 1: I just like, little by little, I started I would
Speaker 1: watch the games, and I started and listen to sports
Speaker 1: talk radio station all the time. Once again, I just
Speaker 1: like locked in and became obsessed with trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out and obsessed with kind of like winning almost
Speaker 1: at it. And it's like, how do I become the
Speaker 1: best at this? And and I just it was it
Speaker 1: was ridiculous. Like then I was in college and I
Speaker 1: was doing this uh internship where I was waking up
Speaker 1: at four o'clock in the morning to go and do
Speaker 1: the morning show. And you know, thinking back on it now,
Speaker 1: it's like it was almost like it replaced figure skating
Speaker 1: for me. It was something I needed and I latched
Speaker 1: onto it just like I did skating, and I just
Speaker 1: I made it every part of my life. And then
Speaker 1: I just from there as I as I started to
Speaker 1: understand it more and more and talk to more people
Speaker 1: about it and ask questions and learn and listen, I
Speaker 1: started to finally kind of break in and I got
Speaker 1: a lot of jobs behind the scenes, and then that
Speaker 1: sort of led to the stuff on camera. What were
Speaker 1: some of your duties in the beginning that you had
Speaker 1: to do. Oh my god, like you know you're you're
Speaker 1: getting coffee for people. I remember so Hugh Douglas was
Speaker 1: on the show a couple of days a week, and
Speaker 1: he was like in the building where the studio was.
Speaker 1: There was in the garage like a car wash on
Speaker 1: one of the levels, and he was like, hey can
Speaker 1: you take these, like during one of the breaks, Hey
Speaker 1: can you take the down to the guys for my car?
Speaker 1: And I was like, sure, no problem, and like I thought,
Speaker 1: he met like driving his car down and it was
Speaker 1: a Bentley and I don't even know if he knows
Speaker 1: the story. And I got in it and I was
Speaker 1: freaking out, like it didn't occur to me that I
Speaker 1: could just like drop the keys off to the guys
Speaker 1: down there and they would like drive it down. And
Speaker 1: I get in and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: how do I work this machine? What is this? And
Speaker 1: it was so and I remember it turns in the
Speaker 1: in the parking garage to like get down to the
Speaker 1: next level, and I was sweating so much. And then
Speaker 1: and I remember the steering wheel just being so heavy,
Speaker 1: like it was so hard to turn because like I
Speaker 1: just I always had total piece of crap cars growing up.
Speaker 1: I got back like five minutes later, and everybody was like,
Speaker 1: where the hell have you been. In the beginning, when
Speaker 1: I first watched on in that morning show, they would
Speaker 1: have me go out and do ridiculous bits and then
Speaker 1: call into the station with it. So one of the
Speaker 1: ones I remember the most is uh, when Teo was
Speaker 1: having his contract dispute when he was in Philadelphia, they
Speaker 1: had me go to this city corner um. It was
Speaker 1: a fifth and Market, so it's like a busy intersection
Speaker 1: in Philly. And this was when Teo was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't have enough money to feed my family,
Speaker 1: and so they had me set up this giant They
Speaker 1: brought down this big, giant plastic kind of container, and
Speaker 1: I set up a collection for Teo. And I had
Speaker 1: a like salvation army bell. I wore sandwich board, I
Speaker 1: had like a megaphone, and I basically people were coming
Speaker 1: by all morning long. They were throwing their lunches in,
Speaker 1: they were throwing like pens in for him to sign
Speaker 1: a new contract. Somebody threw some type of like lubricant
Speaker 1: in there for him. There was a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting things that ended up popping up in the collection
Speaker 1: for t O. I've been an intern before, but I
Speaker 1: never ever had to do know something like that. That is,
Speaker 1: I think that's worse than the UM. I always using
Speaker 1: this as an example. It's probably bad, but that's my
Speaker 1: podcast with care Um so around UM tax season. Liberty
Speaker 1: liberty people. Yeah, when they got the stature liberty guy
Speaker 1: who generally looks the same complexion as me. Sometimes right,
Speaker 1: this varies on where the liberty tax places. It varies varies,
Speaker 1: and always when we drive by, look at my kids,
Speaker 1: I say, you don't pay attention to school. That's what
Speaker 1: your ass is gonna be doing. Ride there? Now when
Speaker 1: you getting paid? Was this for college credits? So for
Speaker 1: me it was no, my god, none of these stuff.
Speaker 1: I had none of the inter That's that's all unpaid,
Speaker 1: all unpaid work picker is the liberty task guy gets
Speaker 1: paid like when you are unpaid. Because I worked for
Speaker 1: the Charlotte Hornets, I was an unpaid intern. So they
Speaker 1: have you do all that crap. You got go get
Speaker 1: coffee for somebody, you gotta contact, you gotta go run
Speaker 1: stats to the coach of staff. But what she's having
Speaker 1: to do like having to get embarrassed. Listen, I mean,
Speaker 1: but it's worth telling. You didn't even know that he
Speaker 1: used to work for the Hornets and his job for
Speaker 1: a little bit. He would give at halftime the status
Speaker 1: not to Bernie Bickerstaff, not to Bickerstaff's son j B.
Speaker 1: Not to j B's Bickerstaff Brown. He got to give
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's the statue sheet. So his life wasn't that.
Speaker 1: I don't say I had nothing like you did, right,
Speaker 1: but she was. She was basically dressed up like a
Speaker 1: Salvation Army kid. Yeah. If they had me do the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous stuff, and I was like whatever, I don't care, Like,
Speaker 1: if it's gonna if we're gonna get a laugh out
Speaker 1: of it, let's go. Let's do it. But it obviously
Speaker 1: in it puts something in you and the grains something
Speaker 1: need to where you're like, you know what, I want
Speaker 1: more of this? Yeah? It it became addictive, and I
Speaker 1: think it's because that adrenaline that you get when you're
Speaker 1: on the air, when you're doing a show, Like for
Speaker 1: me at that point was a you know, college kid.
Speaker 1: I was calling into the radio station but they were
Speaker 1: on you know, I was on the station that you know,
Speaker 1: my friends were listening to and just being in that moment,
Speaker 1: the rush that you get. It's such a high, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what I loved so much about it
Speaker 1: was the high from it, and it was like it
Speaker 1: was something that you know once you're once you're done
Speaker 1: the show, it kind of sticks around too. So it's
Speaker 1: just like a really euphoric feeling. And I love it.
Speaker 1: We have to take a break in the morning thing.
Speaker 1: We gotta pay some bills. You get, chicks. I love
Speaker 1: cut to It and I I love it even more
Speaker 1: when you download us and subscribe and you can follow
Speaker 1: us on social media too, Smithie where where at? That's
Speaker 1: at cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At
Speaker 1: cut to It Facebook, cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online? And you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,
Speaker 1: cut to It Podcast dot Com. Coming up on the
Speaker 1: cut to It Podcast, We've got ja. Billis an n
Speaker 1: C double a analyst for ESPN, former player and assistant
Speaker 1: coach for Duke University and the author of the book Toughness.
Speaker 1: J Billis on the Cut to It podcasts grawing up
Speaker 1: in Rolling Hills near Sat Pedro. What how did it
Speaker 1: is shape your perspective on how you see the world today? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I think I grew up in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a bubble honestly, where you know I went to.
Speaker 1: If it weren't for basketball, I think my my view
Speaker 1: of things would be would be colored differently. Um. Basketball
Speaker 1: took me into so many areas of southern California. I
Speaker 1: used to play I used to go play pick up
Speaker 1: at Carson High School and Narbonne and all these different places. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, so I got to know a lot
Speaker 1: of people that I wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise.
Speaker 1: And and so it was it was great for me.
Speaker 1: And it was a sort of a world, you know,
Speaker 1: world worldly experience, I thought. And then and then it
Speaker 1: it obviously took me all over the world. But um,
Speaker 1: I think when you when you grow up like the
Speaker 1: place I grew up, as as the peninsula jets out
Speaker 1: from from the coast a little bit. So the truth was,
Speaker 1: nobody went to my area unless they had a reason
Speaker 1: to be there. It wasn't like a pass through area,
Speaker 1: so you could get a little bit sheltered. And basketball
Speaker 1: took that took me out of there because I played
Speaker 1: every weekend from fourth grade through high school. Every weekend
Speaker 1: I played out of town somewhere and during the week
Speaker 1: at night, you want to go get a game, and
Speaker 1: so you'd go play pick up wherever there was a
Speaker 1: good pickup game. I mean I was at Venice Beach
Speaker 1: playing outside or um. You know I mentioned, we'd go
Speaker 1: to Carson High School all these different places and play
Speaker 1: and uh and so I made a lot of friends
Speaker 1: doing that that have been friends to this day. Uh.
Speaker 1: So that that was what sort of opened my eyes
Speaker 1: to the way the world was, more so than anything
Speaker 1: else about the area I grew up in. So who
Speaker 1: introduced you to basketball before you became this top fifty
Speaker 1: recruit averaging twenty four and fourteen? My mother wanted me
Speaker 1: out of the house, so she had when I was
Speaker 1: in third grade. She had read something in the local
Speaker 1: paper about basketball tryouts for the local, you know, little
Speaker 1: bitty league, and so she took me up there and
Speaker 1: kind of pushed me out of the car and I
Speaker 1: tried out for the league, and I thought, okay, well,
Speaker 1: the way it works is, you know, get to fourth grade,
Speaker 1: you get picked on a team, and you play for
Speaker 1: the Little Lakers or whatever, the Little Celtics, and you
Speaker 1: play your high school or you play at the local
Speaker 1: high school every Saturday. And I wound up making something
Speaker 1: called the Conference team, which was basically a travel team.
Speaker 1: So we played uh forty fifty games a year, and
Speaker 1: we traveled for all of them. So we would play
Speaker 1: all over southern California, and we'd pile into the coach's
Speaker 1: car and and one of the parents they drive us
Speaker 1: to games, and we played sometimes on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Speaker 1: We play in three different tournaments. And it got to
Speaker 1: the point where we would start a game with our
Speaker 1: full team, and in the second half, like at the
Speaker 1: end of the third quarter, um, half the team would
Speaker 1: go with one of the dads and go start the
Speaker 1: next game. And then when the guys finished, they hop
Speaker 1: in the next car and go meet them and finish
Speaker 1: the game. But we played sometimes, I'd play nine games
Speaker 1: in a weekend, and um I played. You know, we
Speaker 1: we all were teams, you know, all our teammates, we
Speaker 1: wound up playing in high school together. So we played
Speaker 1: hundreds of you know, a couple of hundred games together
Speaker 1: before we ever got to high school. And so we
Speaker 1: knew each other really well and hung out and every weekend,
Speaker 1: and and that was really fun. I learned a lot
Speaker 1: about about things just from doing that. And it was
Speaker 1: all just because you know, I I my mom wanted
Speaker 1: me out and uh and I from the first time
Speaker 1: I dribbled a ball, I fell in love with it.
Speaker 1: And I played baseball too, but I didn't love baseball
Speaker 1: like I love basketball. And that's sort of where it
Speaker 1: came from. And and and that was like that was
Speaker 1: all my parents needed to keep me in line. Was
Speaker 1: if I ever did anything that got out of line,
Speaker 1: they were like, all right, you're not playing, and I was.
Speaker 1: I would do anything to two keep playing. So I
Speaker 1: actually did what I was supposed to do, just because
Speaker 1: I wanted to keep playing ball. Well, you said you
Speaker 1: lived in a bubble, so is it safe to say
Speaker 1: your perspective on all the different cultures that you experienced
Speaker 1: it going into the different areas of southern California really
Speaker 1: helped you um to where you know, I mean, I
Speaker 1: find it interesting and I know you, but yet find
Speaker 1: it interesting knowing your playlist of rap music. Did that
Speaker 1: have to that? Did that start with the integrating of
Speaker 1: cultures and just hanging around, yeah, to just hanging around
Speaker 1: different different kinds of people. Yeah, I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was more. I think that sort of
Speaker 1: the rap music thing was more, um, you know, things
Speaker 1: that were popular at the time that that caught our
Speaker 1: fancy more than more than anything. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a big difference in appreciating black culture and understanding
Speaker 1: Black America and what you know, what Black Americans have
Speaker 1: gone through and are going through now. And I think that's,
Speaker 1: in my view, that's the biggest disconnect in the in
Speaker 1: the conversation we're trying to have now where people sort
Speaker 1: of understand that, no, it's it is not systemic. Racism
Speaker 1: does exist. It doesn't mean that everybody is racist, but
Speaker 1: there are racist policies that we still live with and
Speaker 1: and and that shape our society. And when you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Steve, if you'll you'll remember this you
Speaker 1: were younger, but or you are younger. But when I
Speaker 1: was a senior in college, um, I was a classmate
Speaker 1: of Lynn Bias, that played in Maryland. So when Lynn
Speaker 1: Bias died um, I think it was two days after that,
Speaker 1: a famous football player named Don Rodgers died exactly the
Speaker 1: same way. And I played against uh Don Rogers brother,
Speaker 1: Reggie Dgers, played basketball against him. He wand up going
Speaker 1: to the University of Washington, played the NFL too. He's
Speaker 1: a great just great athlete. So when Bias and Rogers
Speaker 1: both died of of cocaine overdoses, that's when that's when
Speaker 1: Congress came up with all of these federal sentencing guidelines.
Speaker 1: And what what what people probably don't realize today is
Speaker 1: is so much of our prison population is made up
Speaker 1: of low level drug offenders and they're they're predominantly African American.
Speaker 1: And that goes back to sort of that that book
Speaker 1: The Color of Law, like that's those are Those are
Speaker 1: issues of law. Those are not issues of people deciding
Speaker 1: to live in an area in self selecting. That's not
Speaker 1: what that is. And I think have having people understand
Speaker 1: that that's a that's a hell of a lot different.
Speaker 1: Understanding that is a hell of a lot different than understanding,
Speaker 1: you know, and have an appreciation for what Jalen Rose
Speaker 1: likes to call people who love black culture, you know,
Speaker 1: so so a pre shading hip hop and rap music.
Speaker 1: That's that's nothing. Um. That's a lot different than understanding
Speaker 1: the um the system we live in and how it
Speaker 1: is it is slanted toward h white America and slanted
Speaker 1: against minority America. And it's not it's not just African Americans,
Speaker 1: but it's predominantly and and it's a our, our unwillingness
Speaker 1: to have that conversation. I think is um is the
Speaker 1: biggest hurdle we have to get over ibl as a society,
Speaker 1: that we have to honestly have the conversation, rather than
Speaker 1: when there's an issue of police brutality, somebody asking the
Speaker 1: question of well, how many how many white people were
Speaker 1: killed by cotton. No, that's not the question, That's just
Speaker 1: not it. And and uh, we're we're having, I think
Speaker 1: we're having as a society a hard time of of
Speaker 1: addressing that honestly. And until we do, we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: going in circles on this. I really believe the kudos
Speaker 1: to U J for UM acknowledging that and and and
Speaker 1: lead us towards the conversation because that's the biggest part.
Speaker 1: Well and that's the when you say root cause, Like I,
Speaker 1: I always try to look at when when you're thinking
Speaker 1: about the end result and and why are we getting
Speaker 1: this result, you have to go to the origins and
Speaker 1: so what are the origins of these laws? What are
Speaker 1: the origins of of these issues? And until we understand
Speaker 1: the origins of things, we're not going to understand why
Speaker 1: we're getting the end result. And so when there was
Speaker 1: recently some changes in the criminal justice system, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you applaud the changes. One of the questions I had was, well,
Speaker 1: why aren't we letting out the low level drug offenders
Speaker 1: that that were subject to these um unjust laws in
Speaker 1: the first place, Like, haven't they served more than their time?
Speaker 1: And and let's remedy those past wrongs in addition to uh, yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: we're going to decriminalize it going forward. Let's acknowledge that
Speaker 1: we made mistakes back in the eighties that have perpetuated
Speaker 1: to the day to this day, and let's right those
Speaker 1: wrongs too. And uh and for some reason, we we
Speaker 1: have an unwillingness to do that. And you know, look,
Speaker 1: we have an industrial prison complex. Now that you know privatization,
Speaker 1: there's so many issues that go with it. But until
Speaker 1: we're willing to look at the origins of things that
Speaker 1: acknowledge all of the systemic issues, then then we're we're
Speaker 1: going to continue to be arguing over you know, some
Speaker 1: of these end results things. And and uh and I
Speaker 1: get honestly, you know, you're you're having tough conversations with
Speaker 1: your friends over the last several years. And uh, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm hopeful that you know, rather than
Speaker 1: people feeling defensive about it, like I don't feel like
Speaker 1: just um for myself, I don't feel like I need
Speaker 1: to feel guilty about things, but I need to feel
Speaker 1: responsible about the world we're living in. And so so
Speaker 1: accepting the responsibility for the way the way things are
Speaker 1: is the only way we're gonna we're gonna take steps
Speaker 1: towards making positive change in the future. So so I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think anybody is asking White America
Speaker 1: to feel guilty, but they're asking for a responsibility to
Speaker 1: be accepted and to be understood so that we can
Speaker 1: we can change. And uh, and I don't see where
Speaker 1: that there's anything wrong with that. I love this conversation
Speaker 1: and and I want to take a step further and
Speaker 1: really just talk about some of the things that you've done.
Speaker 1: You you are outstanding endalysts, UH broadcaster for ESPN and
Speaker 1: and just basketball. And obviously your knowledge of basketball exceeds my,
Speaker 1: uh miniature knowledge of basketball, which is I am a
Speaker 1: true fan. I am, but I'm a fan of basketball
Speaker 1: in a way. I'm not gonna comment. I don't think
Speaker 1: about can this guy play or not play. I just watched,
Speaker 1: I just enjoyed. I'm not gonna tweet all this guy
Speaker 1: can't shoot. I know the guy can't shoot. Looks like
Speaker 1: he's sitting on the couch. Right. But Ja, you've been
Speaker 1: extremely outspoken. And I am alumni and very heavily involved
Speaker 1: in my in my college, University of Utah, and I've
Speaker 1: seen the way the game of collegian sports has changed.
Speaker 1: But I've also seen the good and the bad. I mean, you,
Speaker 1: these kids are coming out where it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: school they go to. Now they can go Division one,
Speaker 1: they go Division one, double A division to every school
Speaker 1: to some degree has a sponsorship by a by a
Speaker 1: shoe company. Right, And I mean I've seen something and
Speaker 1: even some of the gear I get like this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: They backpack, socks, shoes, jocks under here's t shirts, beanies,
Speaker 1: scarfs like now the mask that we have to wear.
Speaker 1: It even has the logo of the school. We both
Speaker 1: are a little bit long into tooth on sports, but
Speaker 1: we both have been around it enough to see the
Speaker 1: metamorphosis of of collegian sports. Where do you believe it,
Speaker 1: obviously in basketball, where do you believe collegiate sports is heading?
Speaker 1: Good and bad? Now? I know journalistically I that was
Speaker 1: a that was a no no. I asked you two questions,
Speaker 1: double barrel. But what do you think it is right now? Jay? Well,
Speaker 1: the way I viewed Stephen and I got involved in
Speaker 1: this stuff on the policy side when I was in college.
Speaker 1: I was a member of the n C Double a's
Speaker 1: Long Range Planning Committee when I was a player at Duke,
Speaker 1: So I spent two and a half years on that committee,
Speaker 1: and the n C Double A probably regrets having me
Speaker 1: on because I learned how policy was made and while
Speaker 1: at the time I had some pretty strong opinions in
Speaker 1: committee rooms, when the meeting was over, I didn't go
Speaker 1: out and voice my disagreement publicly because I didn't think
Speaker 1: that was appropriate. And and also you knew what got rewarded.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't going to step out of line. But
Speaker 1: now that in my job. My job is to you know,
Speaker 1: not only analyze a game, but it's analyzed the game
Speaker 1: and the policies that surround it and the drive it.
Speaker 1: And so my view is college sports is no different
Speaker 1: than professional sports, except the only difference is that the
Speaker 1: players are enrolled in school. That is the only difference.
Speaker 1: It is sold the same way, it is marketed the
Speaker 1: same way, um, the players. To your point about apparel
Speaker 1: contracts with the school, the players are unpaid billboards for
Speaker 1: sneaker companies. And now when you were in the NFL,
Speaker 1: you were a paid billboard, so you know, the the
Speaker 1: NFL has an apparel deal. Uh. For for a time,
Speaker 1: you were probably with Reebok and Nike all these other
Speaker 1: things for for the uniforms and the gear. Uh say
Speaker 1: with the before you were with the Raves of Panthers. Um. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know you were wearing Panthers gear and maybe it
Speaker 1: was a Rebok logo on it and all that with
Speaker 1: the Panthers at the time, I think it was in
Speaker 1: between Rebok and Nike, So Nike, Rebok had it first, Nike,
Speaker 1: but then my peril deal. I was with Reboke for
Speaker 1: two my own personal deal. I was with Rebok for
Speaker 1: ten a half years and then I switched to So
Speaker 1: you right, so you wore your you had a shoe deal,
Speaker 1: so you could wear what you wanted on your feet. Correct,
Speaker 1: But when you were in NFL um in your team activities,
Speaker 1: you wore your team issued gear that had the Rebok
Speaker 1: logo or the Nike logo, whatever it was at the time.
Speaker 1: So by virtue of the fact that you were you
Speaker 1: were a paid employee of the Panthers, you know, you
Speaker 1: were a paid billboard for the NFL gear, and then
Speaker 1: you had your own deal for your shoe and then
Speaker 1: on your off time you were wearing Rebok or under armor,
Speaker 1: whatever it was at the time, and paid by directly
Speaker 1: by the company. So the players now, people sometimes look
Speaker 1: to your point earlier about the amount of gear they get.
Speaker 1: Some people will look at, well, look at what the
Speaker 1: players get, and so they get more more gear than
Speaker 1: we got when we played. Well, I look at it
Speaker 1: as what they're allowed like, It's not like the university says, well,
Speaker 1: here is a here's a gift certificate to Dick Sporting Goods.
Speaker 1: Go get whatever you want. They don't say that. They
Speaker 1: issue them this gear and they have to wear it.
Speaker 1: They're not allowed to wear anything else because because the
Speaker 1: school is contracted to wear that. And in fact, when
Speaker 1: I was playing, you were playned in college. If we
Speaker 1: had covered up the logo on our on our shoes
Speaker 1: for a game, if they call that spatting. If we
Speaker 1: had taken tape and covered up the logo, the university
Speaker 1: was required to give back money to the shoe company.
Speaker 1: We we were unpaid billboards. And my thing is like
Speaker 1: the the contracts for media rights, deals for television, UH,
Speaker 1: ancillary rights, internet whatever, um, all those are exactly the same.
Speaker 1: NFL college football, NBA college They're exactly the same, exactly.
Speaker 1: The only difference is in what the players are allowed.
Speaker 1: And and so every once in a while when I say,
Speaker 1: hey players, college players are exploited. Uh, people go, oh,
Speaker 1: I wish somebody would exploit me like that, And I said, no,
Speaker 1: that's not that, you're not taking that the right way.
Speaker 1: They're exploited in that somebody is using them to make
Speaker 1: money while at the same time limiting what they can make.
Speaker 1: That is the textbook definition of exploitation. Doesn't mean they're mistreated,
Speaker 1: it means they're exploited. Those are two different things. And
Speaker 1: my thing is if they're old enough to sell for
Speaker 1: billions of dollars, they're old enough to share in the revenue.
Speaker 1: And in the NFL players NBA players, they have a union,
Speaker 1: they negotiate with the league, and they're paid. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: they get a percentage of basketball related revenue whatever that is. Uh.
Speaker 1: And people go, well, the NBA has a salary cap.
Speaker 1: It's a lot different to say the players get a
Speaker 1: scholarship only and boy, the end of you know, the
Speaker 1: NBA players are limited to of basketball related revenue. That
Speaker 1: that's a that's a pretty big difference in in treatment.
Speaker 1: So my thing is when people say, well, we don't
Speaker 1: want the college football to be a minor league for
Speaker 1: the NFL, you don't have to worry about that. It
Speaker 1: is not a minor league. Minor leagues don't make billions
Speaker 1: of dollars and have multibillion dollar television deals. College football
Speaker 1: and college basketball are major league sports, their major league.
Speaker 1: They stand on their own. Now what the players do afterwards.
Speaker 1: Nobody says that college football and college basketball are minor
Speaker 1: league systems for coaches. So when a coach when when
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll jumps from USC to the Seahawks, nobody said, well,
Speaker 1: college football shouldn't be a minor league for coaches. You know,
Speaker 1: they don't say that, um, because it's major league and
Speaker 1: and it should be major league for the players and
Speaker 1: they should be allowed to share in it because every
Speaker 1: other student. Uh. There there's no restriction on what a
Speaker 1: normal student can earn or accept, like athletic scholarships aren't
Speaker 1: the only scholarships that are provided. Regular students are on
Speaker 1: scholarship too, and nobody tells them, well, you've got a
Speaker 1: scholarship there short, therefore you're limited to only that. Only
Speaker 1: an athlete has told that, And I think that's wrong.
Speaker 1: I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather. Good,
Speaker 1: do it good. It's getting down to do good. Hey
Speaker 1: youre aret. Why did you get that T shirt? 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 oh four shot. But yeah, you can go
Speaker 1: on buy you a T shirt. Subscribed to us whereever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. Coming up on the Cut to
Speaker 1: a Podcast, we got Mike Garifolo. He's got over twenty
Speaker 1: years experience covering the NFL, works for the NFL Network
Speaker 1: and a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mike Garifolo on the
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast, where are you from and replace
Speaker 1: you call your hometown? Uh, well, I'm from phil I
Speaker 1: mean I used to walk to the Vet Veteran Stadium. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Phillies games were dollar general admission, so you could
Speaker 1: go to a game for a dollar in the middle
Speaker 1: of the Yeah, and those were the cheapest seats and
Speaker 1: you'd sneak your way down obviously. Um. And then they
Speaker 1: went to the World Series and uh, the price went
Speaker 1: up to five dollars, which is a increase or iso.
Speaker 1: I never get that right, but regardless, it was an increase.
Speaker 1: That was a lot for a fourteen year old. So so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's my neighborhood. I wouldn't change a thing about
Speaker 1: where and how I grew up. I loved growing up
Speaker 1: in the city. Uh, in the neighborhood that was tightly knit.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of things on the on the
Speaker 1: streets and then the on the playground. Um that you
Speaker 1: don't learn in school, that you have to learn life
Speaker 1: lessons and I wouldn't love her change a thing. Tell
Speaker 1: us like, what what did you learn in the streets? Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: when I say it that way, you start to think
Speaker 1: like you know, the streets, the streets. I knew what
Speaker 1: I knew what you meant. But I just I just
Speaker 1: took what you said row with it. I figured that
Speaker 1: cut you off at the past before we went. I
Speaker 1: knew you wasn't slanging dope, bro Chill. I just meant
Speaker 1: you said you learned stuff in the streets on the playground,
Speaker 1: Mike young jeezy, dear Pholo. Hey, what's what's your name?
Speaker 1: My name is Mike, but they call me Mike. Mike.
Speaker 1: You got my cash. I'm not talking about that. I'm
Speaker 1: just talking about really, you know, it's sometimes people will
Speaker 1: say the streets and you know, as you know now,
Speaker 1: as parents, right, you can't have your kids hanging out
Speaker 1: with all kids because you know, so kids will pick
Speaker 1: up cursing, will pick up bad habits from other kids
Speaker 1: other places. So that's what I'm That's what I meant
Speaker 1: more as a parent perspective, not like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike gringfolds of fugged like none of that. Well, and
Speaker 1: this is something that I My daughters just turned three,
Speaker 1: so we're not there yet by any stretch. Um, But
Speaker 1: this is something that I wrestled with because I learned
Speaker 1: a lot. The most that I learned in life was
Speaker 1: by doing dumb stuff, um and making mistakes. And so
Speaker 1: you know, I want to sit there and kind of
Speaker 1: tell my my daughter along the way to not make it,
Speaker 1: but I think you have to in life. Um, Oh
Speaker 1: they're gonna make it. We were in break earlier today
Speaker 1: and my son Peyton is um. One of the one
Speaker 1: of the UH staff was asking, Um, Sarah was asking
Speaker 1: how is how is Steve as a dad? And he
Speaker 1: was like sarcass, He was like, oh, he was great,
Speaker 1: you know, but we're just talking about how parenting and
Speaker 1: my style and all that stuff. And he made some mistakes.
Speaker 1: But it's really cool now seeing him three. Kind of
Speaker 1: life is starting to evolve for him. But you gotta
Speaker 1: kind of allow them. Yeah, but it's tough as a parent,
Speaker 1: Like you don't want them to like I like scared
Speaker 1: for him to fall on his face, right, and I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm scared to admit, like I worried, Like I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, even just him dating people I'm like, I
Speaker 1: gotta right, choose the right one, get a prenup, don't
Speaker 1: bring you know, just my mind just goes down the
Speaker 1: rabbit trail to the point of like if he brings
Speaker 1: a girl, if he ever brings a girl back over
Speaker 1: to the house. I'm literally like, I'm like, what's she do?
Speaker 1: Parents do? What she lived? Well? You know, you know,
Speaker 1: what's her favorite color? All that stuff that I sabotage
Speaker 1: in my mind, like I ain't gonna like her. You're
Speaker 1: already going into the my preconceived notion is she ain't
Speaker 1: good enough? Look at you, Dad, I'm so I'm so territorial, like,
Speaker 1: you know, like to the point it's like I told look,
Speaker 1: if it ain't serious, don't bring the answer to the house,
Speaker 1: just straight up, you know, don't ask to come on
Speaker 1: a vacation. Hey can if they last name am Smith,
Speaker 1: don't ask me. I don't care. So I get it.
Speaker 1: Bro and your little girls three, I only got one.
Speaker 1: If we had if we had, if me and Age
Speaker 1: had another child and it was a daughter, run me over.
Speaker 1: Your daughter is a different man. And I'm right there
Speaker 1: with you, right there. We got We're a month away
Speaker 1: from number two. We got to coming. Yeah, so Mike,
Speaker 1: tell us about your family dynamic. My family dynamic. Uh.
Speaker 1: We were a family of five, older sister and a
Speaker 1: younger brother, all with extremely different interests, but we were
Speaker 1: we were still tight. I was really the only sports fan.
Speaker 1: My mother and I were the only sports fans. Now
Speaker 1: that's not true. My sister a little bit, but mostly
Speaker 1: my mother and me uh into sports in the family. Um,
Speaker 1: my brother and father not so much. Which was weird, right,
Speaker 1: Like you're supposed to learn sports from your dad and
Speaker 1: all that stuff and all those stereotypes. No, it's not
Speaker 1: not how it was in our family at all. And
Speaker 1: my brother was three years younger than me, my sister
Speaker 1: two years older. Uh. We had a My parents has
Speaker 1: celebrated their forty six wedding anniversary yesterday. Congratulation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have a tight family. Where where is your family's
Speaker 1: place of origin? Uh? Well, nationality, which I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the words the nationality or is it heritage? Is Italian? Uh.
Speaker 1: My great grandparents were born in Italy. My grandparents were
Speaker 1: born here. Uh, and we've been both sides of the
Speaker 1: family been h Philly all the way. I don't know
Speaker 1: why they settled here or there. Excuse me, I'm up
Speaker 1: in North Jersey. Now. See that's the that's the fun
Speaker 1: part of it all is my sister moved when she
Speaker 1: got married, moved five doors away from my parents. My
Speaker 1: brother when he got married, moved across the playground. I
Speaker 1: moved to North Jersey. You'd think I moved to you know, Russia,
Speaker 1: the way that they reacted. I mean, I'm only an
Speaker 1: hour and a half away. Relaxed, We're not that far
Speaker 1: We're not that far away. Um, but uh yeah, we're
Speaker 1: still We're still very technic. Founder We're used to having
Speaker 1: you know, we'll have sports folks, but we want every aspect,
Speaker 1: every dynamic of sports. We've had Colleen on here and
Speaker 1: now we have you, and and I love having you
Speaker 1: on here because it's a different perspective. Right. You love
Speaker 1: sports so much that you got involved into it. So
Speaker 1: take us down that road of how your career began.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew my athletic ability was not going
Speaker 1: to take me to places where they actually pay me
Speaker 1: money to play sports. So I think I made that
Speaker 1: determination earlier that I knew. I pretty much knew exactly
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. Um, whether it was how
Speaker 1: did you know exactly what you want to do? Because
Speaker 1: I would watch the broadcast and and see what the
Speaker 1: reporters or announcers or analysts would bring to the table
Speaker 1: and say, yeah, I like that, that's cool. I always
Speaker 1: love kind of putting on a show. I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I kind of like the notion of what went into it,
Speaker 1: and you know how these guys brought their information and
Speaker 1: and um let it out on national TV. UM. So
Speaker 1: I kind of didn't know that I like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I uh, you know, I appreciated it from afar UM.
Speaker 1: And then I got to college and my father uh
Speaker 1: said to me, well, why don't you check because everybody's
Speaker 1: doing internship. So I'm gonna do an internship here, an
Speaker 1: internship here, and into that's okay. There was one for uh.
Speaker 1: They called them producers, but basically they were board were
Speaker 1: board ops and engineers who ran the board and answered
Speaker 1: the phones for w I p UH radio in Philly.
Speaker 1: We would answer the calls and get the calls. Were
Speaker 1: basically run the whole show, UM, and I answered the
Speaker 1: the ad. They called me back. I had an interview.
Speaker 1: I was a junior, was my second I was going
Speaker 1: to my second semester of my junior year what college
Speaker 1: at LaSalle University? And I just want, I just want,
Speaker 1: I just I need you to do. I had to
Speaker 1: refresh your memory on television. You just sir, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I got. You're letting your fans not here the important part.
Speaker 1: I have fans, Yes, you have all three? After this,
Speaker 1: there we go. That's what That's why I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: Um the mess up thing said. We mess with each
Speaker 1: other all the time. You know what Garl follow does
Speaker 1: really well? Victim, Uh, that's why he kicked too. He plays.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're yelling at me. I get more fans
Speaker 1: every time you man. People take it so serious. You'll
Speaker 1: get I'll get a tweet. Man. How you let Steve
Speaker 1: Spend do that to you? I don't know, man, that
Speaker 1: was that was pretty bad. Why why do you follow me?
Speaker 1: People take that so serious? You'll have like with anything,
Speaker 1: like whether it's you and Steve or whether it's Steve
Speaker 1: when you on with any of the girls on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: like that's always the poet responses they don't like each other,
Speaker 1: like yeah, which is good and bad. Like you want
Speaker 1: you want people to be into it, but you don't
Speaker 1: want people to be too serious and recognize the joke
Speaker 1: for a joke, but we just mess with like he
Speaker 1: literally will say, hey, i'mna saying this, and I'll be
Speaker 1: we're being good. I'm like, I'm like, I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: that was dumb. He's like, now some of it has
Speaker 1: been authentic. BS Like we got an argument on TV.
Speaker 1: That's so we're in the green room. Uh um, good
Speaker 1: morning football weekend. On a Sunday, Ryan Tannehill doesn't play
Speaker 1: well and he literally says, Integreen, this is now. Um,
Speaker 1: you usually got in after me, so well, just like
Speaker 1: five forty five. Now I've eaten my my, my, my breakfast,
Speaker 1: my waffles with my my sirul he comes in and
Speaker 1: he's like, oh my gosh, can you believe how this poor?
Speaker 1: Why does he have a British accent? I don't know.
Speaker 1: And he's like and he says and he goes, my goes,
Speaker 1: they look like a high school team. Flipped my lid.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what he's like high school team. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all the damn practice they have. And then I was like, see,
Speaker 1: that's what's the matter with your reporters had had the
Speaker 1: index finger. You went in the media anymore. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I just took my my piece out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: Like he's like, what what you know what what? I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's bs. He's like, no, it's now you see how
Speaker 1: they play and said, yeah, I've seen some high school games,
Speaker 1: said I mentioned some Friday night games. They don't look
Speaker 1: that good. He's like no, no, And what does he do?
Speaker 1: He doubles down. We're gonna air and said it and
Speaker 1: I said the same thing and said I was. They
Speaker 1: said it was alive, was hot, and he thought the
Speaker 1: second time I was gonna be less animated. I was hot.
Speaker 1: He thought you got it out in the ground. I
Speaker 1: was hotter because I was like, Oh, you're gonna try
Speaker 1: meal TV too. Oh, it's just like some of the
Speaker 1: stories we have. But listen, don't don't think that I
Speaker 1: you say it like I expected that, Oh I get
Speaker 1: you in front of the cameras, and I wasn't. I
Speaker 1: wasn't saying it like it was a gotcha. I just
Speaker 1: meant as a former player, and then as a as
Speaker 1: an analyst, I mean, as an insider, we have these
Speaker 1: conversations good and bad that goes from his journalistic point
Speaker 1: of view. I'm part of that journalistic point of view,
Speaker 1: but also as a former player's point of view, and
Speaker 1: we kind of battle between the journalists information and how
Speaker 1: he takes it and read and dissects it, and then
Speaker 1: how that comes across as a former player, in which
Speaker 1: why reporters and players sometimes have this friction right right,
Speaker 1: because reports like I have to tell I have to
Speaker 1: explain it, like I'm talking to my eight year old
Speaker 1: grandmother and the players like, first of all, your eighty
Speaker 1: old grandmother isn't watching the gamehic. Yeah. So it's it's
Speaker 1: always this dynamic that we go through. It's it's pretty
Speaker 1: interesting though. Well, so just to be clear, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna spend a ton of time. We'll go back and
Speaker 1: forth and all these things. Uh, but what I was
Speaker 1: saying was not even towards the players, by the way
Speaker 1: I was saying their offense. They weren't stretching the ball
Speaker 1: down the field. They were I don't even remember what
Speaker 1: team it was, but it was like there were no
Speaker 1: passes over ten or fifteen yards. And I said that
Speaker 1: was like a high school offense. And we still got
Speaker 1: into it and I was like, well, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that they look like high school players. And they're not
Speaker 1: playing hard. What I'm saying is you can't play that way.
Speaker 1: And the hitting character we were, we were into it
Speaker 1: by that, but I wasn't. I wasn't the only one though, wasn't.
Speaker 1: I believe Mike robbed man back up? Yup? No, but
Speaker 1: it was. Mike is different, and I'm learning not Mike
Speaker 1: is different, but I'm learning in TV the perspective of
Speaker 1: a beat writer or the perspective of an insider, and
Speaker 1: they're all about information and players were all about process.
Speaker 1: And when those two are on television, they don't operate
Speaker 1: the same way. They're literally it's like a different perspective.
Speaker 1: I don't mean the soundness in the mean way. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's the man or the female. I'm
Speaker 1: the man of female. It's literally Mars and Venus, husband
Speaker 1: and wife. It's just we don't see it the same.
Speaker 1: We literally see it totally opposite. Right, he sees us,
Speaker 1: he sees us all that cup is half full. I
Speaker 1: see is No, I'm still thirsty. Right, it's so different.
Speaker 1: Let me tell a Tannehill story, because that's that's another
Speaker 1: illustration of what you don't do. And Steve Will, you know,
Speaker 1: Steve called you out for it on National TV. So
Speaker 1: I'm at the Dolphins training camp practice in middle of July.
Speaker 1: It's like ninety degrees in human as all hell sons
Speaker 1: beaten down on me. I'm off camera while they're practicing
Speaker 1: it two in the afternoon for some reason, like it's
Speaker 1: I could do a morning practice or late afternoon where
Speaker 1: it's nice and cool, and Steve's somewhere else. I was
Speaker 1: actually in Canton. It was how does fish grease? Okay,
Speaker 1: I say, you know, I'm talking about Tannehill, and I'm
Speaker 1: referring to the year before when Gaye had to back
Speaker 1: it down with this, with how much he fed Tannehill,
Speaker 1: how much he's allowing him to do with the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. And I'm saying, you know what, what what
Speaker 1: gays did was was stripping all the way down, and
Speaker 1: now he wants to rebuild it because you gotta remember,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that's used to the way Peyton
Speaker 1: Mann did things. And I'm telling you and ste get
Speaker 1: Steve's yelling get him on camera. I want to see
Speaker 1: his face. Meanwhile, this sweat is just pouring down my face.
Speaker 1: I was enjoying the fact that I was off camera,
Speaker 1: I'm dying, and now I come on camera, she fits
Speaker 1: in and looking horrendous, probably making it look even worse
Speaker 1: that like, oh, Steve's calling him out and now he's
Speaker 1: melting on camera when really I was just hot because
Speaker 1: of the heat. And he's like, don't you ever put
Speaker 1: Ryan Dannehill Ryan Tannehill's name in the same sentence with
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning? And I said, no, I wasn't competing. I
Speaker 1: don't care, you don't How could you make And I'm
Speaker 1: heard about that for months and years. I think I'm
Speaker 1: still hearing about it. Yeah, how to work out for
Speaker 1: Adam Gazon Ryan Tannehill? Hello, is this thing? Hello? I
Speaker 1: didn't again, I don't know how many times I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you. I'm not telling you he was going to
Speaker 1: play like Peyton Manning. I am telling you that Gates
Speaker 1: was used to a certain thing. It's listen. If anything,
Speaker 1: I was highlighting bad coaching right that he was expecting
Speaker 1: a certain level of Peyton Manning from a guy who
Speaker 1: wasn't Peyton Manning. Hey, Hey, is Adam Gates are really
Speaker 1: a good coach right now? Because he ain't, Maybe we,
Speaker 1: maybe the Jets, among others, should have seen the writing
Speaker 1: on the wall. How about that. That's a whole different
Speaker 1: conversation right now. You are a unique person, you are
Speaker 1: well worth it, you are competent, and most of all,
Speaker 1: your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Gerald Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It, LLC, Baltol Creative Media, The Black Effect
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
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Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard Little John,
Speaker 1: talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all