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: 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: am about it, then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all. There's sometimes like we play sometimes you just
Speaker 1: got Peggy bowl up? What's going on? How was your
Speaker 1: weekend entertaining? What'd you get into? Uh? Did some yard work?
Speaker 1: Actually I didn't do new yard work. I pushed it off.
Speaker 1: Now I was supposed to. I'm gonna end up doing
Speaker 1: something this weekend, trying to end up. Buddy was in town.
Speaker 1: Uh toy Smith shout out the toy. Yeah, so he was.
Speaker 1: He was up in town and UH called me Friday
Speaker 1: night and was asking me was I in town? He
Speaker 1: was coming down. They were doing uh you're doing this
Speaker 1: uh under armour all American, like this skills challenge where
Speaker 1: they had high school kids. They were running forties vertical job.
Speaker 1: It was it was pretty it was pretty big time.
Speaker 1: It sounds dope, it was, but it was also one
Speaker 1: of those things where I I never experienced this in
Speaker 1: high school, but I believe it can warp your perception
Speaker 1: of things, and I just really saw some things that
Speaker 1: were as a parent, I saw some things in myself
Speaker 1: and I was like, that's my wife was talking about.
Speaker 1: We would say, you didn't experience what you mean, like
Speaker 1: stuff like this, like the kind of just gamboree type
Speaker 1: type thing. It was. It was big talk. You know.
Speaker 1: They had some kids our ranked seventy five in the nation,
Speaker 1: thirtieth in the nation, in the nation, it was all around.
Speaker 1: I know I'm a little bit younger than you, but
Speaker 1: I feel like even when I was in high school,
Speaker 1: that stuff was really just starting to kick off. Like
Speaker 1: the seven on seven tournaments like that stuff. Well, this
Speaker 1: we didn't start doing that till my senior year in
Speaker 1: high school. Was we did seven on seven tournaments in
Speaker 1: high school just to kind of get yourself familiar with
Speaker 1: the possibility of competition and that that goes on no
Speaker 1: matter what stole on your offense all that, but this
Speaker 1: wasn't it wasn't a thing. This was like esp or rank. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so they had some players, I believe, according to
Speaker 1: what they say, are highly ranked. That you know, you'll see,
Speaker 1: as some people told me, you will see some of
Speaker 1: these some of these young men playing on Sunday already
Speaker 1: know that. They already know that. Yeah. And and some
Speaker 1: of these young men were conducting and carry themselves as
Speaker 1: if they were already playing on something. What you mean
Speaker 1: by that? It was just a lot. It was a
Speaker 1: lot in regard. So and maybe I'm just old school,
Speaker 1: and I probably am, but I am old school in
Speaker 1: them in in a matter of fact of like, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of this generation is all about
Speaker 1: about that life right that yolo. And so I was
Speaker 1: I was asked to if I see something corrected. So
Speaker 1: I'm working with the wide receivers and we're going over
Speaker 1: some over some how to swim or how to get
Speaker 1: off the jam right or the press coverage or quick jam.
Speaker 1: And so I was just surprised at how many navels
Speaker 1: I saw out on the field. You mean, like the
Speaker 1: high tuck the in Jerseys, No, I call it what
Speaker 1: it is. I saw a lot of No, I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of crop tops, That's what I saw. And
Speaker 1: I and to be honest, I'm just telling you what
Speaker 1: I saw. I have. I've seen it a little bit.
Speaker 1: You always got a guy or two, but it was
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them. It was a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of crop tops and navels and and ear rings with
Speaker 1: hoops and and and and crosses and so they were
Speaker 1: they were swagged out. Yeah, here's the problem. I guess
Speaker 1: the standard of swag is lowered because when I started
Speaker 1: coaching some of these kids. No one of these kids
Speaker 1: and I don't know his name and our name, didn't
Speaker 1: ask it because it was just it was so many kids.
Speaker 1: But I was like, hey, you know, let's swim. You
Speaker 1: shouldn't do swimming moves. Right, One kid swam and that's
Speaker 1: when you know, like you swimming and he hit the
Speaker 1: bag as if he was someone under five six? Who
Speaker 1: are you? And so I said this statement, and this
Speaker 1: summarizes everything I mean about the crop tops in their rings.
Speaker 1: I wear air rings always half but on the football field,
Speaker 1: also about my business. So one of these young man,
Speaker 1: I said, hey, man, if you're gonna swim, you gotta
Speaker 1: swim and swinging that arm violently, right, I said, you
Speaker 1: gotta it's a fist fighting the phone book. You're trying
Speaker 1: to get off the line. Fist fighting the phone that's
Speaker 1: what I love using fist fighting the phone book, not haymakers.
Speaker 1: Fist fight just you know, punch out, rocking, sock 'em bops, right,
Speaker 1: kid tells me, And it just makes sense connected the dots.
Speaker 1: See you ever been in a fight? He goes, No,
Speaker 1: not really. All you needed to hear. If you got
Speaker 1: that crop top and never rings, you had better been
Speaker 1: in the fight. And why is that imports of you, Steve?
Speaker 1: That's hard to say, No, it's not. We're talking about
Speaker 1: a hand to hand. It's a violent sport. But you
Speaker 1: look in the part, you're looking like you're ready to
Speaker 1: get after someone you ain't. Why does that bother you
Speaker 1: people who look the part? Because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people who looked apart, and they get so much credit
Speaker 1: for looking apart, and then you get them out there
Speaker 1: and they want no parts of the game, and then
Speaker 1: then you get a false narrative of that's how they are.
Speaker 1: That that's you know, as they say, And I was
Speaker 1: with the receiver, So you know what they call it?
Speaker 1: Diva's right, don't look the part of it, the diva part.
Speaker 1: I go out there and ball but I just I
Speaker 1: found it me personally, I found it extremely disappointing that
Speaker 1: so focused on how I understand look good, play good.
Speaker 1: But then also when I tried to give them criticism, coaching,
Speaker 1: correction and correction and critiquing, man, the crop tops got
Speaker 1: in a bunch. But what do what do you think change?
Speaker 1: What do you what do you think changed generates? Because
Speaker 1: it's it definitely wouldn't like that from your stand point?
Speaker 1: What do you think? So? I believe it's changes. Our
Speaker 1: young men are listening to music, emulating the music, and
Speaker 1: behaving in the manner in which they see off a
Speaker 1: twenty second Instagram posts. They're mimicking things and don't realize
Speaker 1: what they're mimicking to some degree isn't very masculine. And
Speaker 1: I don't know how this is gonna come across, but
Speaker 1: I just felt it was extremely I feel like I
Speaker 1: was at a fashion show instead of a football display,
Speaker 1: and not everybody. There's some there's some beast out there,
Speaker 1: but then there's some. There was some beasts who looked beast,
Speaker 1: but they really weren't there for the right intentions. That
Speaker 1: also why that's important why I found that as a dad.
Speaker 1: That's also setting them up for failure and not really
Speaker 1: giving them a realistic understanding of what they're embarking on.
Speaker 1: They're not embarking on the popularity contest. They're definitely not
Speaker 1: embarking on a fashion contest. It's football, It's about skills,
Speaker 1: and it's actually about producing. Because there were some times
Speaker 1: where I gave some coaching and some kids received the coaching,
Speaker 1: and there are some kids who looked at me as if,
Speaker 1: what do I know? It's different? Man. That's why I asked,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't what do you what do you think it is?
Speaker 1: Because I agree, I think it's I think it's images.
Speaker 1: I think it's social media, I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's overall media. But then I was curious to know,
Speaker 1: do you think it's any of from parenting to coaching
Speaker 1: to what all of the above? Where it's really what
Speaker 1: I tend to think because you can just tell it's
Speaker 1: a it's a difference between and they don't sports youth
Speaker 1: sports today versus youth sports back in the day, where
Speaker 1: again I know I'm a little bit younger, but generally
Speaker 1: when we came up, man, it's it's just different. It's
Speaker 1: completely different. What's tough too, is they don't like to
Speaker 1: be critique, right, I don't like to be coached. I
Speaker 1: mean we used to welcome that. The only way you
Speaker 1: got I didn't necessary. I wasn't all ears on dog custom,
Speaker 1: but like you can't even hey, put your foot up?
Speaker 1: What why you know? Put your opposite? And it's not
Speaker 1: why it is? Hey, why tell me? Because I really
Speaker 1: want to know. It's like, well, what's the big deal?
Speaker 1: So what people questioning you when you gave them correct
Speaker 1: they weren't necessarily question I just I got the I'm
Speaker 1: a dad because I would have been different if it is.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not that I got the look. I
Speaker 1: got the like yes, but it's still like, you gotta
Speaker 1: a future Hall of Famer. I know they're making a
Speaker 1: comfort whatever, but you gotta you have a guy who's
Speaker 1: been there, done that. And I think whether it is
Speaker 1: whether it's your status as an NFL player or just
Speaker 1: someone but here who has played before. Here's the part
Speaker 1: that threw them off too. I knew I was going
Speaker 1: to a football camp, so I also want to dress
Speaker 1: comfortably in case I had to get out there. But
Speaker 1: I also I got look sideways a little bit because
Speaker 1: I didn't look like a guy who played sixteen years.
Speaker 1: You know what I look like. I um, some short sweatpants,
Speaker 1: a T shirt. I had, you know, my nine year
Speaker 1: old free watch. You know I didn't look like the
Speaker 1: NFL superstar. Yes, you know I got my you know,
Speaker 1: my necklace. I've been warning for years that I wear
Speaker 1: it in my shirt. But it wasn't extravagant. And so
Speaker 1: if you a little bit like Steve like, yeah, oh
Speaker 1: I thought you were Oh I just kind of got that.
Speaker 1: He thought she showed up looking like a lane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I showed I showed up. She showed up with knowledge
Speaker 1: and they and sometimes I don't want to hear who
Speaker 1: actually I showed up in that fist fighting phone booth
Speaker 1: of time. Hey, you never know. Sometimes you just gotta
Speaker 1: pull up, pull up, because you can't fistfighting skinny jeans.
Speaker 1: You can't get your ass swooping them skinny jeans. But
Speaker 1: not here, not this guy. Don't let me pull my
Speaker 1: flip up brim down. That's when that's when you mean business. Actually,
Speaker 1: when I flip it around. As we know who we
Speaker 1: got coming on the Cut to It podcast. We've got
Speaker 1: Antoine Buffet, a veteran NFL safety He played with four
Speaker 1: teams during his tenure with the NFL. He's a three
Speaker 1: time Pro Bowler and he's a member of the Black
Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame, as he attended Howard University.
Speaker 1: Antoine Buffet on the Cut to It podcast, it's always
Speaker 1: a pleasure to have someone in studio. So hey, right
Speaker 1: off the bat, we're gonna get into get our stuff.
Speaker 1: Favorite color and why red um? And I would just say,
Speaker 1: you know, um, that bull you know that bulls he's red.
Speaker 1: You know you? You would sacking, like you said, I'm
Speaker 1: a defensive guy anyway. So that's how we That's how mindset.
Speaker 1: And that was a cool last explanation. He's always been
Speaker 1: one of those cool guys just playing against I never
Speaker 1: really got the opportunity to see how cool he was.
Speaker 1: That cool factor didn't come through. Then what are you
Speaker 1: trying to hit? You cool guy trying to knock my
Speaker 1: appreciate that. We'll get into that. I gotta moving on.
Speaker 1: Moving on, Hey, hobbies, you have picked up um and
Speaker 1: retirement now man um sustainable hobbies not. Don't give me.
Speaker 1: I didn't it until we right now. It's peloton, Okay,
Speaker 1: you got to bike or the tradmill the bike right
Speaker 1: now it's pelotone. I don't know how long that's going. Um,
Speaker 1: that's gonna stick, but right now that's what it is. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For how much I played for my pelotone. Oh it's
Speaker 1: sticking exactly. We just got ours like two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it so far. But it's
Speaker 1: a bike though. So I tapped into a six thirty group.
Speaker 1: You did alive six thirty group. It was some other guys,
Speaker 1: some retired guys, and we was getting on six thirty
Speaker 1: out of fall back on that door like that, getting
Speaker 1: up at six o'clock, being with time, like, nah, that
Speaker 1: goes against the whole point, the whole point, you know,
Speaker 1: but that when your metabolism works throughout the Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I just can't for how much riding you
Speaker 1: guys are doing, like and being a peloton treadmill, you
Speaker 1: having a I do get jealous sometimes when seeing y'all, Like, man,
Speaker 1: I get an hour, I'm over there ecstatic about my
Speaker 1: little my little fold five miles. I mean, how are
Speaker 1: you sitting on that peloton for that long time? Sometimes
Speaker 1: you're not sitting pause, Um, I gotta get the butt pack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: definitely pause definitely because we hate but now that sitting
Speaker 1: there for forty five mental hour that that's a that's
Speaker 1: a beast. That's a beast. But the treadmill, I'm just
Speaker 1: not I've never been a treadmill runner. I haven't either,
Speaker 1: but I started. I like it. The trail man hurts
Speaker 1: in what regards. I don't like running running, running on
Speaker 1: that treadmill. With me running, I gotta I gotta have
Speaker 1: an endpoint. Yeah, I gotta see where I'm going. You know.
Speaker 1: What I mean with the treadmill was just but it's
Speaker 1: it's the same, just like Ryan, what's crazy is I
Speaker 1: did so I did the peloton at an Indy and
Speaker 1: when I was thinking about getting one the bike, and
Speaker 1: I did the class and the class didn't do anything
Speaker 1: for you. I was kind of like, this is it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but then I did the peloton. But what I like
Speaker 1: about the treadmill is HASH has the wood way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: give me so peloton, your ad can go here. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a good product though, Definitely, it's a good product.
Speaker 1: I like. I like I can work out by myself,
Speaker 1: push myself. But yet I do not feel connected. I
Speaker 1: just don't feel like I'm by myself. I don't have
Speaker 1: to be connected with anybody. If you're up at six
Speaker 1: am or seven pm, it's not this awkward like Okay, no,
Speaker 1: that's dope because I did the Um you know, I
Speaker 1: got the app, so I do. Uh. Also, I'll run
Speaker 1: outside and I'll do the audio peltine and have somebody
Speaker 1: in your ear talking like yo, this's what we're doing
Speaker 1: is push it. Yeah I like that. So I like
Speaker 1: that too. Yeah. Yeah. What's the best way to social distance?
Speaker 1: Six ft apart? Or um? Loan? So wants some money?
Speaker 1: Oh loan somebody some money, no question. You want to
Speaker 1: get them, no question. They may not come back. You
Speaker 1: ain't gonna worry about saying no question, no question. And
Speaker 1: city your point, man, it's conversation app all the time.
Speaker 1: Like give me that same energy that you get you
Speaker 1: when you was asking for them more. Yeah. M that's
Speaker 1: a backstage Joe on that one. We thought you jump
Speaker 1: right on that all right. Um. You know, so my
Speaker 1: daughter works a Chick fil A and she was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: there's this guy that drives a nice car and I
Speaker 1: can't remember where I know him from. And then she said,
Speaker 1: you looked at her like, I know you, but I
Speaker 1: don't know where I know you from. And so she
Speaker 1: finally someone there said, oh, that's that's Antoine that. So
Speaker 1: she was talking to me and I said, tell him,
Speaker 1: I said with something. So she said and she said,
Speaker 1: now it's that less awkwardness of like yeah, and so
Speaker 1: it was pretty funny. So um, So with that being said,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite item on Chick fil a? Because word
Speaker 1: on the chicken streets that crested chicken? What annointed meal?
Speaker 1: What you're getting, man, I'm right now, you're going up,
Speaker 1: So I definitely right now, I'm I'm with spicy chicken
Speaker 1: strips right now. What's the side fries? Okay? Drink drink
Speaker 1: sprite Okay. I thought you might have switched it up.
Speaker 1: Got a little on a palm or some of us
Speaker 1: called the tiger woods. No, no, no, I'm sticking. I've
Speaker 1: never heard the tiger never never heard of it. Start
Speaker 1: instead of it being on a palmer, you know, just
Speaker 1: more of a more recent golf of the pen on
Speaker 1: where you go. Some people call it a tiger the
Speaker 1: first time and I've heard that. What did you hear
Speaker 1: it from? I had that Soulfu restaurant so I thought
Speaker 1: it was just half and half the same thing. It's
Speaker 1: the same drink, it different golfer. I never heard same drink,
Speaker 1: different golfer. I don't know about that. Oh no, I
Speaker 1: just so I just made it up. That's how all
Speaker 1: the palmer became on a palmer. It was made up.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying I don't know if that made up.
Speaker 1: Just gonna stick you hear you hear this without anybody stopped,
Speaker 1: like like like the needle went off the record like that.
Speaker 1: Mass I looked like right, and you said you start
Speaker 1: to take You started taking this like damn. I love
Speaker 1: how you. I love how you explain to us who
Speaker 1: tiger Woods was right, like y'all looking like tiger Woods,
Speaker 1: like he had a golfer like when you said tiger
Speaker 1: Woods and you said, yeah, he's more current. First thing
Speaker 1: he said was that ain't with his legs. Said you
Speaker 1: ain't playing golf right now, so you you try to.
Speaker 1: That's one of those that ain't gonna stick. Nah, al right,
Speaker 1: well stuck somewhere. It ain't with this group. If we
Speaker 1: go out to eat and we said, you give me
Speaker 1: a tager Woods. It depends on where you at the
Speaker 1: still gonna look at you. Here's what they're gonna say.
Speaker 1: Which what are you referring to? That's what I said.
Speaker 1: Depends on where you go. Yeah, all right, translation, No one,
Speaker 1: it's going down this road. We have to take a
Speaker 1: break and the morning a thing. We gotta pay some bills.
Speaker 1: You got checks. I love cut to It and I
Speaker 1: love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever 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. So, Antoine,
Speaker 1: where are you from in the place you call your hometown?
Speaker 1: Born in Savannah, Georgia, But um hometown is Newport News, Virginia.
Speaker 1: Grew up there so dad was in the military, moved
Speaker 1: around a little bit, but Newport News was home. So
Speaker 1: growing up in Newport News Virginia. You know, how did that,
Speaker 1: How did that shape your perspective on the world. Man,
Speaker 1: it was again being a military child. Um, when you
Speaker 1: say military child, what a jury? What's the age range? Um?
Speaker 1: My dad was in the military until I was probably fourteen. Okay,
Speaker 1: So so you were so long enough to it actually
Speaker 1: shaped you because you know, so you hear somebody I'm from,
Speaker 1: I'm here, I was in the military, you know, and
Speaker 1: then he was like he got out when I was
Speaker 1: four yea, yeah, yeah, so old enough to so old
Speaker 1: enough you experienced a lot of different places. So that's
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. So Pops born in Savannah. From Savannah,
Speaker 1: we moved to Germany. From Germany, we moved to Virginia
Speaker 1: at four years old. So Mom and Pops they made
Speaker 1: a decision that you know, instead of jumping from city
Speaker 1: to city, state to state, family will stay put. Dad
Speaker 1: would do the traveler. So again with that just understanding,
Speaker 1: you know, for one, Dad, you know he gotta do
Speaker 1: what he gotta do to protect, to take care of
Speaker 1: fam So from there he had his chores back to
Speaker 1: Germany to Egypt, um, you know, Saudi Arabia. So again
Speaker 1: me being the youngest of two brother off at school.
Speaker 1: It's just me and mom. Duke's at the house. So
Speaker 1: now it's like at a young age, I'm technically the
Speaker 1: man of the house, you know what I mean. So um.
Speaker 1: But but being in the um, living on the base,
Speaker 1: you see white, you see black, she Asian, you see
Speaker 1: all type of life you know, um, and then really
Speaker 1: everybody has something in common. It's military life. And then
Speaker 1: you know, going to school other kids. Uh, mom and dad,
Speaker 1: um gone. So we had that in common. But then
Speaker 1: living moving off base, able to see more so off
Speaker 1: the um, urban life, urban lifestyle. Um. You know, middle school, um,
Speaker 1: not black, high school not black. Now were starting the
Speaker 1: I'm starting to experience what you know, life in the
Speaker 1: urban neighborhood is all about, you know, friends going down
Speaker 1: different different paths. So for me, Man just opened my
Speaker 1: eyes of just moving not even ten miles down the road.
Speaker 1: It's a huge difference, you know what I mean. Just
Speaker 1: life's throwing off on the base. My family were in
Speaker 1: the middlitary rry, but no one necessarily lived on base, right.
Speaker 1: I had uncle served as a storm he was Navy,
Speaker 1: but family didn't live on base, you know, especially in
Speaker 1: the Navy. They were gone so much. Um, living on
Speaker 1: living on a ship family is not living on the base.
Speaker 1: They just didn't. As I got older and then I
Speaker 1: was doing I started doing football camps, and I started
Speaker 1: to get the pleasure of going on all these different bases,
Speaker 1: and I really saw some things that advantages of kids
Speaker 1: going all these different countries and experiencing that. But I
Speaker 1: also saw the disadvantages the same way you could be sheltered,
Speaker 1: the same way that we talked about sheltered of someone
Speaker 1: living in a bubble of of of affluence, where there's
Speaker 1: someone that's living in a military bubble that they only
Speaker 1: interact with kids that a military and so that's all
Speaker 1: you know, and it's a good thing and could be
Speaker 1: a bad thing because in that bad thing, they also
Speaker 1: lack resources, right even though they're serving our government. The
Speaker 1: government only gives you so much. You only you know,
Speaker 1: every every family deals with it differently. There's all the
Speaker 1: you know, all the stuff that goes on in that.
Speaker 1: And man, I really learned a lot and really saw
Speaker 1: a lot that um to the point I did that
Speaker 1: for about seven or eight years, and what the cool
Speaker 1: part was is I was able to serve maybe at
Speaker 1: this military base and then maybe five six years in
Speaker 1: a kid that was at one military base that the
Speaker 1: other one. It was cool, but it was also you
Speaker 1: could see I think I met him in the States
Speaker 1: and then next time I saw him six seven years
Speaker 1: later it was at Camp Humphreys and so Korea. Now,
Speaker 1: for me, it was cool to experience so Korea, but
Speaker 1: for a black kid coming from one area to So Korean,
Speaker 1: like his ability to identifying is only on the military
Speaker 1: because you go off the military different different, whole different
Speaker 1: one exactly. And then like you said, like a military base,
Speaker 1: that's just that's a world all in it. So it's
Speaker 1: a whole community, whole community. So when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: it was a little different where we did have to
Speaker 1: go off the base to go to school. But now
Speaker 1: it's like you got your elementary school. You got to
Speaker 1: brag has multiple schools. I mean it's literally for Brad
Speaker 1: has I believe to high schools or three high school
Speaker 1: football teams? Yeah, yeah, movie theater. So like you really
Speaker 1: didn't have to leave fast food, commissary. Yeah, everything that
Speaker 1: you need. So again, like you said, like just being
Speaker 1: able to really identify, like you know, like what's what's
Speaker 1: what it is off this base. But it was I opened, man,
Speaker 1: But I appreciate it. Why why was it eye opening? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So for me again with my you know, my dad
Speaker 1: being gone traveling, my brother he's off in school, so
Speaker 1: me and my mom. But then just you know, being
Speaker 1: able to go to a um A youth center, right,
Speaker 1: going to the youth center, and it's your the people
Speaker 1: that you see every day. Right, So you're playing ball,
Speaker 1: you on um A youth football team or youth baseball team.
Speaker 1: But again, everybody's dealing with the same situations, right, Like
Speaker 1: we both either one of our parents in the military,
Speaker 1: were all dealing with the same instance. So but you
Speaker 1: can move off that base. Now you're dealing with some
Speaker 1: real stuff, some real stuff, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you know, single, single parent, household, on food stamps.
Speaker 1: Now it's life is coming at you're a little different way.
Speaker 1: Now you're a young teenager. It's like, okay, it's a
Speaker 1: different And then again, like I said, it was just
Speaker 1: tim out down the road we were on and not
Speaker 1: saying that when you stay on this military base, like
Speaker 1: everything is peaches and cream, it's not that you still
Speaker 1: got people like that struggling that struggling and living life
Speaker 1: because you're in the military, Like you're not getting no,
Speaker 1: no big money, you know what I'm saying, unless you
Speaker 1: got high you have you high ranking, so you're still struggling.
Speaker 1: But then it's just different dynamics when you when you
Speaker 1: get off that base man, when you see like, you know,
Speaker 1: real life, real life struggle. So playing other sports, just
Speaker 1: growing up, you know, did you play any other sports? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So growing up started off it was football, baseball, basketball, everything,
Speaker 1: Big three, Big three and then um them them curve balls,
Speaker 1: and the fast pitch started coming a little too fast
Speaker 1: for me, so that baseball went to the wayside and
Speaker 1: it was just a basketball and football up all through
Speaker 1: high school. What position in basketball? Run the show, run
Speaker 1: the show, point guard? I don't know, yeah, right, Like
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I asked the question. But in your area, man,
Speaker 1: there's so many, so many lettens have come out of there.
Speaker 1: You got all Noverson and you got your your I
Speaker 1: mean in football, your Michael Vicks, Ronald Curry, you know
Speaker 1: who who was able to do both? I mean, were
Speaker 1: you did you interact with any of any of those
Speaker 1: guys where there was they were older than me? So
Speaker 1: m a he was playing with my older when my
Speaker 1: oldest brother was playing. But obviously yeah, very very you know,
Speaker 1: seeing those guys being able to make it um through
Speaker 1: similar situations and circumstances, it was like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a possibility. Um. So you know seeing um, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike vick Ron Curry and those guys. Man, it was
Speaker 1: just um again, like it was just like a dream
Speaker 1: come true just to even see them make it. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: they made that, we made you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I know I can't So that was that was dope.
Speaker 1: Now was adult? How would you categorize Newport News as
Speaker 1: far as um with everything going on in the world
Speaker 1: today as an adult? You know you live here currently
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, but just how how would you really summarize
Speaker 1: unfiltered what Newport News is as a you know, as
Speaker 1: a man with with with children, with being a father,
Speaker 1: being a husband. You know, for me and I and
Speaker 1: I say all the time, like that's what Newport News is,
Speaker 1: what groomed me and made me a person I am today,
Speaker 1: just the way I look at things, the best of
Speaker 1: both worlds, you know what I mean. So it's the best.
Speaker 1: What's the best you say, the best of both worlds,
Speaker 1: the best of what the world world. For me, the
Speaker 1: best of both worlds is that, um, I'm able to
Speaker 1: see the struggle, but I'm also able to see somebody
Speaker 1: that's doing well off for himself. Right. So now it's
Speaker 1: like as a man, it's like, you know, not necessary
Speaker 1: you can pick and choose because some situations it's like
Speaker 1: you you walk into a bad situation, right, but you know,
Speaker 1: some luck, some work, some grinding, you can get to
Speaker 1: that to where you want to get right. But then
Speaker 1: I also see the struggle right where you you never
Speaker 1: take for granted. You know you're waking up them too.
Speaker 1: You know, your two ft hitting that floor in the morning.
Speaker 1: You never take for granted. Um. As a father, having
Speaker 1: guys I went to school with having to to bury
Speaker 1: their their sons, that's something that I don't appreciate. And
Speaker 1: I don't like the fact of of Newport News at
Speaker 1: the moment in time, just the climate of you know, um,
Speaker 1: do you're killing each other? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So that's that's a tough pill to swallow. Um. But
Speaker 1: then again, you know, you go back and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is home. One of the cool things you know,
Speaker 1: just reading your story, you know, going from military, you know,
Speaker 1: not getting recruited coming out of high school, when did
Speaker 1: you first remember this underdog mentality in which really made
Speaker 1: you become a walk on? Um at how man? I
Speaker 1: think that under dog mentality has always been there. Um,
Speaker 1: I think I embraced it. I embraced it probably like
Speaker 1: my junior senior year in high school. Why why why
Speaker 1: are you able to pinpoint that time? Because it feels
Speaker 1: though you know, you had you know, youth league sports
Speaker 1: where it's like, okay, you know everybody got kind of
Speaker 1: got that dog. But my junior year, specifically on the
Speaker 1: football field, I felas though, um that was small. You
Speaker 1: know I was. I was five ten a buck sixty
Speaker 1: five seventy. I think that's a great height paddle playing
Speaker 1: middle linebackery for some other folks, I don't care what
Speaker 1: position five playing linebacker again, I take that is it
Speaker 1: shoes on or off? But probably you round up on
Speaker 1: that ross and hospital. I was probably about a good
Speaker 1: five nine. I still take that. That's a good night
Speaker 1: still where you got that. Yeah, but that's a good height.
Speaker 1: But um, I think it was around this time where
Speaker 1: I felt as though I was I was holding my
Speaker 1: own and you weren't getting a look. I wasn't getting that. No,
Speaker 1: not even the looks, but just the respect. So what's
Speaker 1: what's what's respect to you? Um, I'm setting you up,
Speaker 1: but go ahead, now, that's all go up. But it's
Speaker 1: a good conversation, not setting you up like something bad.
Speaker 1: Setting you up is as good because you gave me
Speaker 1: a look. I'll say this when I say setting up
Speaker 1: podcast now sooner be forty two year old. Uh, Steve Smithie,
Speaker 1: it's not the football. I'm setting you up as great
Speaker 1: to know who you are because I'm going against you.
Speaker 1: I never worry to concern myself of the physicality going
Speaker 1: against you. For me, it was always keeping my eyes
Speaker 1: on where is the antoine because I know when I
Speaker 1: need that big play, I can't beat the corner. But
Speaker 1: his ass is gonna be over the top somewhere that's
Speaker 1: gonna stop me from getting that play that I know
Speaker 1: I can get. Being a competitor, right, So we were competitors, right.
Speaker 1: So if you out there competing and you know you're
Speaker 1: competing at the top level, at some point and and
Speaker 1: maybe and maybe not to even justify, but at some
Speaker 1: point you want to hear somebody say, Okay, he's a
Speaker 1: dog and you can know it in your heart, you
Speaker 1: can know it in your mind, but I think every
Speaker 1: competitor wants to hear the validation of it. Mhm. I
Speaker 1: think so, you know, um, And at that point I
Speaker 1: felt as though I was bawling, like you know when
Speaker 1: when it comes to a lineback. I don't think you
Speaker 1: could have down a battle. Yeah, I mean even though
Speaker 1: I was smaller stature, um, And at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just it was just that. And then just
Speaker 1: go to my senior Yeah, all Star game, not originally
Speaker 1: picked on the All Star Game, but then eventually um
Speaker 1: getting picked and you know, doing my thing. And then
Speaker 1: from there it was you know, not being recruited, um,
Speaker 1: damn yell walk on the Howard University. So all of that.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just one of them things. But
Speaker 1: then at that time, that's when I just embraced it.
Speaker 1: So what do you think it was compounded by? It
Speaker 1: sounds like what you were saying wasn't compounded by being
Speaker 1: overlooked almost yeah, I mean, of course, or being overlooked
Speaker 1: um again not getting those offers. But then again, you know,
Speaker 1: we all have our story and that was just that
Speaker 1: was meant for me. That was meant for me. So
Speaker 1: what ultimately led you to to Howard? Why why did
Speaker 1: you select Howard University? Because it was a walk on
Speaker 1: so it wasn't necessarily like uh and I'm assuming it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily like like a preferred or or like yeah
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. So UM, because they didn't they didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: go oh man, That's why. That's why I just knew
Speaker 1: this story was for me. UM, I was getting recruited
Speaker 1: UM a boy Norfolk State, another hbc U in Virginia.
Speaker 1: UM and at the time, the defensive coordinator was recruiting
Speaker 1: me and him and my head football coach at in
Speaker 1: my high school, they had a previous stint at Howard
Speaker 1: University doing the same coaching staff. So at Howard the
Speaker 1: head coaching job became available. UM coach Ray Petty, he
Speaker 1: was a coach that was recruiting me at Norfolk State,
Speaker 1: got the head coaching job. He came to my high
Speaker 1: school and got my head coach. And I asked him
Speaker 1: when he beat up offensive coordinator Howard. This was my
Speaker 1: senior year. UM. He was recruiting at Norfolk State and UM,
Speaker 1: my head coach said, look, this guy can play ball,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. He was already recruited me at North State.
Speaker 1: So he said, look, um, I don't have any money. Um.
Speaker 1: He was kind of late in the process. He was like,
Speaker 1: but if you come do what you need to do
Speaker 1: in class, you want to feel um that second year,
Speaker 1: we can we can give you some money. So went
Speaker 1: on my visit and it was wrapped. After that, you know,
Speaker 1: got on campus. It was like March. Um, the weather
Speaker 1: was good in d C. And I walked on the
Speaker 1: yard in the ratio was like seventeen and one. When
Speaker 1: you let me educate our lessens when you say when
Speaker 1: you walked on the when you walked on the yard
Speaker 1: and the ratio, what do you what do you? What
Speaker 1: do you? Uh? Female to male? Okay, So your ability
Speaker 1: to strike out was lessened in favor because I knew
Speaker 1: what you meant if you just but even your college kid,
Speaker 1: I'm seventeen seventeen, you're still growing. I stopped. So you're
Speaker 1: still growing. Yeah, you're linebacker, Yeah, switching the safety seven. Hey,
Speaker 1: the first one. So the first one you go up to,
Speaker 1: you know, seventeen and one, the first one, he said, linebacker, boy,
Speaker 1: you too, So so with that, with that, and then
Speaker 1: just the weekend and then just giving the history, the strong,
Speaker 1: rich history of how university man. And you know, it
Speaker 1: was no that Sunday I called my mom and my
Speaker 1: dad when I look, we don't have to you know,
Speaker 1: we got to get it from somewhere this first year. UM,
Speaker 1: but it was it was like I said this, it
Speaker 1: was made for me. It was supposed to work out
Speaker 1: the way he did. What was your experience at an
Speaker 1: hbc U And then why do you continue to be
Speaker 1: such an advocate for HBCU and what is HBCU? I know,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know until nineteen years ago when I
Speaker 1: came from California via Utah to North Carolina historically black
Speaker 1: colleges and university h b c U s and then
Speaker 1: primarily on what side of the country East coast, South Southeast.
Speaker 1: Best four years of my life, best four years of
Speaker 1: my life. And then you know, when I'm talking to
Speaker 1: young men and women that's thinking about the h b
Speaker 1: c U, UM, I tell them it was one time
Speaker 1: in my life as a young black man, I was
Speaker 1: a majority. You know what I'm saying, growing up you're
Speaker 1: the minority. But nine times out attending the room that
Speaker 1: you walk in, you're gonna be the minority, right, so
Speaker 1: you know they're gonna look at you a little different
Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be. But this one time
Speaker 1: in my life. For four years, I walked on campus,
Speaker 1: I walked in every classroom and I was the majority,
Speaker 1: and I was looking at so a lot of times
Speaker 1: you grow up depending on you know, the errors you
Speaker 1: grow up. And it's like, you know, if you can't
Speaker 1: run the throwball, you ain't got a wicked jump shot
Speaker 1: or something like that, Like it's not gonna be too
Speaker 1: many things you're gonna be successful in. But then you're
Speaker 1: walking into these rooms and you got expiring doctors, architects,
Speaker 1: Dennis Like that was real. That was real. And then
Speaker 1: coming from where I was coming from, I'm like wow,
Speaker 1: like you know, I I probably I've probably grown up
Speaker 1: property and like a black dinnist. And then you know,
Speaker 1: watching the COLLEGEE Show, you know you've seen you know,
Speaker 1: a black doctor, but you know, walking campus and then
Speaker 1: you got Frederick Douglass, you got Alain Locked, you got
Speaker 1: Charles Drew on these buildings like these are black powerful
Speaker 1: you know black men and women that has like strong, um,
Speaker 1: they're no longer a figment. They're not that's not of
Speaker 1: your imagination, or they're no longer just ay a project
Speaker 1: in February, a black and white picture you know, of
Speaker 1: of a man in the Afro. Yeah. Right now they're
Speaker 1: on top of buildings and they actually mean something versus
Speaker 1: like man I wonder. Yeah, so you know factuary black history. Hey, look,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this book report find you know, find
Speaker 1: you somebody you discover. But now black history extends more
Speaker 1: than one mind exactly. So now you know you're walking
Speaker 1: on this campus each and every day and you've got
Speaker 1: people feeding that stuff into your into your soul. I
Speaker 1: think it's about that time. Just take a little breatherd
Speaker 1: do it. Do it. Let's get down to do it. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to
Speaker 1: our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. When you're playing against
Speaker 1: guys you really get I don't know, I think false
Speaker 1: sense of who they are. Right, you have a podcast
Speaker 1: you played, and your podcast was with a teammate of mine. UM,
Speaker 1: and so I heard some I heard a conversation you
Speaker 1: guys had and it was unique, but also it was
Speaker 1: also originally I was kind of like what and then
Speaker 1: also just looking back at myself because actually, UM, A
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, a gentleman asked me, asked me
Speaker 1: a question. He was like, man, I just want to
Speaker 1: ask you something. And he shot the question and I
Speaker 1: and I and I always say you want the love
Speaker 1: of truth. He was like, man, I want the truth.
Speaker 1: And he was like, well, okay, since you offered it,
Speaker 1: tell me the lives. Like because he said, you know
Speaker 1: what made you different or unique? I said the lives
Speaker 1: or you know. Um, I don't remember. I just said
Speaker 1: something stupid or something. He was like, all right, we
Speaker 1: got down alway. He said the truth, and the truth
Speaker 1: was I didn't want to create I didn't I did
Speaker 1: not want to create friendships when I played. I was
Speaker 1: not interested in being your friend. I wasn't interested in
Speaker 1: what you what you felt about me. Teammate or opponent
Speaker 1: mainly opponent teammate depending on the day, but mainly opponent.
Speaker 1: And sitting back, I look at it. I kind of
Speaker 1: chuckle because the way I played that opponent a lot
Speaker 1: of times that rubbed opponents the wrong way. But what's
Speaker 1: the funniest part is if we're opponent, Paul's am I
Speaker 1: supposed to rub you? Right? You're supposed to be best
Speaker 1: friends and I And that's and that's always, and that's
Speaker 1: why I can I like this conversation where we're going
Speaker 1: is when I asked you about hearing respect, you said
Speaker 1: you you would love to hear your opponent give your respect.
Speaker 1: You know what I love. I didn't want to hear
Speaker 1: you respect me. I wanted to know that your body
Speaker 1: told me you respect him. I respect that too, because
Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, a guy can respect you,
Speaker 1: but he gonna he gonna do and say whatever, try
Speaker 1: to negate that of what he truly feels. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, just just at a spike out of
Speaker 1: hate or whatever the case may be. So I can
Speaker 1: definitely respect that too. And I agree with you, and
Speaker 1: I agree with you because, um, you probably don't have
Speaker 1: to say it. But like you said, when we step in,
Speaker 1: saw those white lines, like you knew forty one was warm.
Speaker 1: Absolutely what I'm saying and you knew like that. I
Speaker 1: remember I remember playing against you with Torri when Toys
Speaker 1: with y'all, and this was I had came back after
Speaker 1: my back. You was in Baltimore and it was like
Speaker 1: we had to end up and and um, I was
Speaker 1: playing well, but we just gave up too many places.
Speaker 1: And I remember, and I remember we looked at I
Speaker 1: and uh, it was like a hell. Mary was trying
Speaker 1: to get in those an end zone and we both
Speaker 1: jumped and he didn't want to let me get out
Speaker 1: and want to let him get it. And he said,
Speaker 1: I remember you said something to me, but I heard
Speaker 1: the respect, but it was also like you know, hey,
Speaker 1: you know because he had played against me so much
Speaker 1: that a lot of guys don't realize. For me, respect
Speaker 1: is we're gonna play and we're gonna hit each other,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be clean. If I I only hear
Speaker 1: people clean, If I hit you dirty, what your's random,
Speaker 1: then that means I had no respect for you. But
Speaker 1: how I earned respect was if I saw dB and
Speaker 1: it was on the sideline, I ain't stepping out of bounds.
Speaker 1: That's a story. This is the story I had visit
Speaker 1: You're Steve Smith. Story. This story I had because I
Speaker 1: mean I think I got a lot of questions about
Speaker 1: you know, who's the toughest receiver that you played? Like
Speaker 1: you know, um and obviously you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody knows, like, like you said, the way you played
Speaker 1: the game right, So that was like, did you have it?
Speaker 1: Did you ever have any run ins with him? I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think we we both respected each other
Speaker 1: and we both played the game the way the game
Speaker 1: was supposed to be playing. It was hard, you hit,
Speaker 1: it was it was nothing dirty but whatever. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: I have heard him talk disrespectful to some of my
Speaker 1: teammates really, so so it was it was it was
Speaker 1: this is great because we both are at that age
Speaker 1: We're dumb playing. We ain't gonna go you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: go get no clie. Somebody tell me go get my clicks. I'thing,
Speaker 1: Like for what, I need to use my ladder to
Speaker 1: get up on my bookcase to get those clicks, right,
Speaker 1: And so they say, disrespectful, bro, what am I supposed
Speaker 1: to do? We are hit, didn't need each other took
Speaker 1: our head with the story, So it was who was
Speaker 1: playing it? Indie, Um, I'm trying to think who who
Speaker 1: the dB was? See that could tell you a lot too.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you a lot. I'm trying to think who
Speaker 1: the dB was. I'm not gonna say his name, but
Speaker 1: but it was one of them stories. You would run
Speaker 1: on the sideline and he eased up, the defender eased
Speaker 1: up and you and he's he's up. You're still in
Speaker 1: play because you ain't catching. That's a few guys that
Speaker 1: have called me out of eased up on. Mark Bringer
Speaker 1: called me one time with the with the Panthers la
Speaker 1: Fan was blocking and heat. I thought he was gonna
Speaker 1: get me, didn't man? Mark hit me so hard. So
Speaker 1: that sideline is tricky. On the sideline, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the week before you could have had a receiver on
Speaker 1: the sideline and running and stepped out of bound. Don't
Speaker 1: do that. You know he stepped out of bound, but
Speaker 1: it could be at one time where you ease up
Speaker 1: what you know you're not supposed to do inside the
Speaker 1: lines and he hit him and the corner what's that?
Speaker 1: You know? Like it was got a got about his
Speaker 1: pass right. So I remember you getting up and was
Speaker 1: like you know, ass boy, like you know, just like
Speaker 1: talking bad to him. So I'm you know, obviously I'm running.
Speaker 1: I'm running to the ball, right, So I'm running to
Speaker 1: the ball. So the defender gets up and just start
Speaker 1: running away. I'm like, don't you don't you wait? So Smithy,
Speaker 1: he sed Smithy, No, Smithy, Okay, you fed him, but
Speaker 1: you thought he was going out of bound. I was
Speaker 1: going out of he know. That's what I'm saying. That
Speaker 1: the defender, that's his problem, right right, So Smithie thought
Speaker 1: of him. He failed. Smithy called a little last boy.
Speaker 1: And then he off and he runs off. And while
Speaker 1: I don't like pitching this though, like I'm the ball
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing it, and I see my man get
Speaker 1: up and run off, and Smitty like talking to him bad.
Speaker 1: So I grabbed him, like, yo, don't you ever don't
Speaker 1: you ever run away? Wanted somebody talking bad like that.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Smitty, I'm like, look, man, you ain't
Speaker 1: gonna talk to my young boy like that? Why not?
Speaker 1: You can't I talk to your young boys. You can't.
Speaker 1: But for me, you gotta have it bad. You gotta
Speaker 1: have his bad all time. I'm liking this because the
Speaker 1: best stepped in. But ultimately, but I'm let stepping in
Speaker 1: why why are you stepping in my guy? That's my guy,
Speaker 1: that's your guy, the guy that just got the guy
Speaker 1: that scampered away. But hold on, I'm not here. Hey
Speaker 1: he scampered. But from that right there, I'm like, bro,
Speaker 1: like we we can't have that. Yeah, no, we can't
Speaker 1: have that. And so but look I respected it, respected
Speaker 1: the little as you just had to have you got
Speaker 1: to have in But what did I say exactly? It was?
Speaker 1: It was to the tune like like you little ass boy,
Speaker 1: you better you know, I mean something like you better
Speaker 1: come you know something than that. You know, could probably
Speaker 1: a little stuff something room some some something by weight room,
Speaker 1: but it was it was. It was the fact that
Speaker 1: because for me, it's like you hear a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff like why the game is gone, a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff where you your laugh, some of us funny, some
Speaker 1: of us funny, like you know. So again that was
Speaker 1: one of the stories where after the game we got
Speaker 1: a dub and you know, you sit in the locker
Speaker 1: room and you watching the film and you see that
Speaker 1: you see the play, and I'm like, Paul's that And
Speaker 1: you know I tell the young boy like man, don't
Speaker 1: let I don't ever let this happen again like it,
Speaker 1: but it's a lesson learned, like don't ease up on
Speaker 1: the sideline, like you know when a grown man talk.
Speaker 1: We all grown man out here, and you don't let
Speaker 1: them grown man talk to you like that. But then
Speaker 1: in my mind, it's like sounds like something I would
Speaker 1: have did. He had to have it, That's what I
Speaker 1: wanted because there are so many stories out there that's
Speaker 1: kind of like Steves that Steves that you know, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. But at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: played hard every play, but I also put a target
Speaker 1: on my back. I couldn't have You couldn't have. Yes,
Speaker 1: I couldn't jog. I couldn't jog through Like he come
Speaker 1: down before they want to come down and he he
Speaker 1: lines up and he becomes the linebacker. Bro. They reidentify
Speaker 1: that Mike and they slide to the right. That means
Speaker 1: that now that that dime or or nickel or safety
Speaker 1: now is run support and I'm in a tight split.
Speaker 1: That's my guy, and we won't lock eyes. You know.
Speaker 1: He looked at me and I ain't gonna look away.
Speaker 1: I ain't looking away, like I hope you don't see
Speaker 1: y'all looking at him like, I see you, you see me?
Speaker 1: How are we gonna do this? I'm not gonna go
Speaker 1: low because one I respect him. Two that's illegal right in.
Speaker 1: Three I don't want to if the shoes on another
Speaker 1: foot and he has an opportunity to hit me low.
Speaker 1: And now I'm over here playing hot potato, hot feet.
Speaker 1: All right, Well we've been moving this ball down the field.
Speaker 1: We're about to wrap up this conversation or last segment
Speaker 1: is the deep three last three questions, Smithy, go ahead
Speaker 1: and give him the first one. How do you want
Speaker 1: to impact the world? Man um? Funny you say that
Speaker 1: playing this game? You know you played it a long time.
Speaker 1: And if if I step up, if I leave this
Speaker 1: world and they say, you know A B was a
Speaker 1: great football player, then I failed, you know, so, um
Speaker 1: my foundation, but the family foundation, man just impact. If
Speaker 1: I can impact one life, UM, I think I've I've
Speaker 1: done a good job, you know, but obviously being able
Speaker 1: to impact as many lives as as we can with
Speaker 1: the platform, man um. No, young men and young women
Speaker 1: just try to push them to be the best person
Speaker 1: that they can be and get them getting them out
Speaker 1: of their comfort zone. Well, I can tell you you've
Speaker 1: already done that then, because I've seen some of the
Speaker 1: stuff your foundation has done. You're doing those campus tours,
Speaker 1: You're you're allowing kids to see, uh, campuses that they
Speaker 1: may or may not have been able to see. So
Speaker 1: just being able it's not a daydream anymore. So even
Speaker 1: just giving that opportunity, UM is gonna pay dividends. So Man,
Speaker 1: if that's it, then then mission accomplished. But I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna keep pushing through to So how
Speaker 1: would you describe the person you've become? Man, that's a
Speaker 1: great question. We do that here. Yeah, great questions. How
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna take credit for my question? Sorry,
Speaker 1: I become more the biggest thing, like more understanding, right,
Speaker 1: I know, Um, I think marriage does that. I think
Speaker 1: living does that. Um, having kids, having kids definitely does that.
Speaker 1: But I was so black and white for a long time.
Speaker 1: But obviously now it's like, you know, I mean, my
Speaker 1: kids asked me questions. Now I'm just like I don't like,
Speaker 1: you know, it really have had me thinking. So I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing for me, like I'm more understanding student,
Speaker 1: I'm learning, I'm learning about myself, you know, I'm still learning,
Speaker 1: you know about you know, just just just life my family.
Speaker 1: So I would say, um, just a student and just
Speaker 1: you know, more understanding. I don't say that the biggest
Speaker 1: two things right now that I kind of see myself. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So being from Newport News, being one of many young
Speaker 1: men coming from from out there, if you can get
Speaker 1: a billboard, hmm, what would you put on that billboard
Speaker 1: to say to anybody in Newport News? Dream big? Because
Speaker 1: I think again you've got so many again young young
Speaker 1: men and young women. They feelers that they feel as
Speaker 1: though that's all it is is Newport News what they
Speaker 1: see every day. Um, and they limit themselves so much. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't dream. It's like they're living their day to
Speaker 1: day life like you know, I'm I'm fourteen and I'm
Speaker 1: the man of my house, like I gotta go to work, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta do whatever I can do to bring money
Speaker 1: into the household. They're not giving that opportunity to really dream.
Speaker 1: So I think that's what my my billboard would be
Speaker 1: would be, you know, dream big. And it's been on
Speaker 1: in the privilege I have you on man, I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: appreciate your Yeah, that was good man. I'm not as
Speaker 1: scary as they say. I respect you. I respect you,
Speaker 1: always respected you may always always um always knew you know,
Speaker 1: we've had enough guys on here, defensive guys, I every defense,
Speaker 1: every defender I went against, whether they believe it or not.
Speaker 1: I always respect you. Now the level of respect, it's
Speaker 1: gonna vary throughout the game, but always new and always
Speaker 1: going against you. Um. I never ever wanted to see
Speaker 1: a situation where either one of us got hurt, especially
Speaker 1: with it being in my hands right and but always knew, um,
Speaker 1: you know dB wherever it was, you know I could
Speaker 1: do that words for the one that you know one, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta gotta pay attention to him because here creep
Speaker 1: up and get a pick, and then I got chase him, damn.
Speaker 1: And then I'm mad I got chasing. You can't paid
Speaker 1: for that part, now, you know. And then and then
Speaker 1: people looking at this opportunity, can they can hit me
Speaker 1: over so you know I'm over there over there, focus right,
Speaker 1: Brian ergla could caught me like that one time, called
Speaker 1: you slipping man through it. They threw a pick and
Speaker 1: I was running, I was locked in and I had
Speaker 1: the arm boom, I said Damn, He's like, I got
Speaker 1: you so, but she was one of those guys. Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. It's it's it's mutual man, mutual respect. Man.
Speaker 1: Like I said, going against you, Man, I just you
Speaker 1: knew how to gotta be a one that day. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And you know, you know how
Speaker 1: it is in the league. Every week it's there. Every
Speaker 1: team gonna have that one. Yeah, but but you know,
Speaker 1: just just being able, you know, to go up against
Speaker 1: you just know you had that dog in you. Man.
Speaker 1: Always respect your game, man, regardless what everybody else to
Speaker 1: be saying. Man, I get it, I get it. You
Speaker 1: are a unique person. You are well worth it, you
Speaker 1: are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Singor I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That
Speaker 1: Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from My Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Singor co host Gerard Little John talent booking manager
Speaker 1: Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show
Speaker 1: from Balto Creative Media. Cut To It is produced by
Speaker 1: Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek,
Speaker 1: Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all