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 Little John, And this is
Speaker 1: cut to it. Good do it? Good do what they're
Speaker 1: getting down to? Do it? Good do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard am
Speaker 1: about it? Then we're about to let you know. It's
Speaker 1: all man, we got a great episode. We got one.
Speaker 1: We have one of the premier, premier route runners, right,
Speaker 1: he can run some routes. He was in Jacksonville. Uh,
Speaker 1: took a nice, pretty good contract, great leadership. In Chicago,
Speaker 1: things didn't go well, as you know if you're a
Speaker 1: Chicago fan. You saw very quickly. Uh. They went from
Speaker 1: sugar to blue cheese really fast. And we're talking about
Speaker 1: Allen Robinson and we've got him for a less hopball
Speaker 1: episode that I know for sure, really excited about being
Speaker 1: able to dig into. You mentioned his tenue with the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: more recently his tenue with the Chicago Bears. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a good one. Man. Did you think I was
Speaker 1: a little bit hard on him? Na? You never really wow.
Speaker 1: But I did have to hold his feet to the
Speaker 1: fire on some of these things because I know personally
Speaker 1: when you make some professional mistakes how much they can
Speaker 1: stick with you. And I love how he owned his
Speaker 1: professional mistakes. It's the name of his podcast. Right to It.
Speaker 1: We're gonna cut to it. We're getting the right information.
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, we're gonna cut to it and
Speaker 1: get straight into this anything. How are you doing? Brother?
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cut to It Podcast. I am your
Speaker 1: resident Mr nort All, Steve Smith Singer, and then I
Speaker 1: got backstage Joe and then my accomplished co host and
Speaker 1: one of my best friends, Gerard Little John. Let's talk
Speaker 1: ball man. I'm really I'm intrigued to talk ball um.
Speaker 1: But I'm also uh, I'm also excited because I can
Speaker 1: remember when you were with a long when you're with
Speaker 1: an organization and you transition, right you with the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: man that was that was your squad, bro. You were
Speaker 1: you were putting up big numbers. You know you uh,
Speaker 1: you guys were doing well. You took a team that
Speaker 1: was doing well. They faltered and then they got two.
Speaker 1: They got you, and all of a sudden things changed
Speaker 1: and you gave them hope. I knew you crushed their
Speaker 1: dreams and you chase that bag? How dare you you
Speaker 1: go to Chicago? So I mean, we're gonna why did you?
Speaker 1: Why did you sign with the Chicago Bears? Coming out
Speaker 1: of coming out of free agency? So coming out of
Speaker 1: free agency, Um, for me, personally, I feel like I
Speaker 1: got a lot of I thought I had great force
Speaker 1: life into my career and kind of you know, the
Speaker 1: direction that I wanted to go and things like that.
Speaker 1: And seeing who the Bears were bringing in at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, to to coach at the quarterback position, and
Speaker 1: kind of the culture and the team and style of
Speaker 1: play that they were trying to build. I personally saw
Speaker 1: that I was a perfect scheme fit for that, you know,
Speaker 1: and being able to be moved around, being able to
Speaker 1: run different routes, you know. Um, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: just be a person who was just running uh go
Speaker 1: balls and stops. You don't want to just do that,
Speaker 1: huh Nah. I wanted to play in the slide a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know. I wanted to get into some
Speaker 1: one by three formations and be number three, the number two,
Speaker 1: you know, playing the outside a little bit. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to to showcase and and and
Speaker 1: put my entire skill set to the test. So what
Speaker 1: what was what was your thought? And free agency? Are
Speaker 1: you coming out? You're going into free agency? You got
Speaker 1: We don't. I'm not concerned about it, and we don't
Speaker 1: want to mention all the other teams. But you have
Speaker 1: some teams and you picked Chicago. But why did you
Speaker 1: believe a scheme was important? One? I believe that I
Speaker 1: could fit into many different schemes, but to be specific,
Speaker 1: from the concepts and from different things that was being ran.
Speaker 1: Also with the with with the culture that her other
Speaker 1: players even from Kansas City that was being brought in,
Speaker 1: I thought that that would be that would be perfect
Speaker 1: for me to kind of because at that time I
Speaker 1: was coming out for injury as well, so it was
Speaker 1: it was me kind of like reiterating who I was
Speaker 1: as a player was big and I wanted to and
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that, you know, I had
Speaker 1: the perfect situation for me to be able to do that,
Speaker 1: you know, for me to kind of be able to
Speaker 1: not reintroduce myself. But when you sit out for a
Speaker 1: whole season because of the injury, you know, people tend
Speaker 1: to forget, you know, and there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: things that kind of you know, go olden people's head.
Speaker 1: And for me, I wanted to get into a situation
Speaker 1: where I could show it exactly who I was. And
Speaker 1: again I could put my skill set and I could
Speaker 1: put who I was as a player on display. So
Speaker 1: scheme culture. What else was it about the organization that
Speaker 1: drew you in to take that trip? Also, Chicago is
Speaker 1: close to home. Um, that was another fact that I had.
Speaker 1: I had played. I had played far away from home,
Speaker 1: not far, but recently far away from home for a
Speaker 1: good little while. I think prior to me being in Chicago,
Speaker 1: the closest I had played from the driving standpoint was
Speaker 1: about seven and a half hours and I was in
Speaker 1: college at Penn State, you know. And even even over
Speaker 1: the past years for me, this is the most that
Speaker 1: my family has been able to come and see me
Speaker 1: places high school. So how important has that been now
Speaker 1: that you've lived that? Extremely important? Um, extremely important, Um,
Speaker 1: especially not to not to fast forward, but especially you
Speaker 1: know this past year, you know, being able to you know,
Speaker 1: have my family and being able for them to you know,
Speaker 1: be be close to me, you know, and being able
Speaker 1: to come to games and things like that. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a great feeling. You know. Again, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's one thing where you kind of just playing and
Speaker 1: kind of you know, experiencing and trying to embrace everything,
Speaker 1: you know, by yourself. When you have you know, when
Speaker 1: I had my parents and my sister you know, and
Speaker 1: some of my friends come into games and things like that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just a different feeling. Man. It's just
Speaker 1: it asked a lot more because again, I mean for
Speaker 1: me personally, you know, my career and how I look
Speaker 1: at my career, I've never looked at it as far
Speaker 1: as you know, just me, you know, like like like
Speaker 1: every time I put on my jersey, every time I
Speaker 1: think about my family, I think about the people who
Speaker 1: have been watching me and who've been coming to the
Speaker 1: games and in the stand since I was seven years old,
Speaker 1: you know, and being able to being able to have that,
Speaker 1: be able to have them there, you know a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, from my entire time in Chicago, you know,
Speaker 1: meant a lot to me, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: that we all as a as a family and everything
Speaker 1: like that truly embraced that, and and and it was
Speaker 1: it's been a great experience. I like it. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: impressed on the y take us through. Did you take
Speaker 1: any other visits then Chicago? Or you just fell in
Speaker 1: love with Chicago like you was a cheap day, cheap date.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I didn't take no business. That boy got
Speaker 1: that They told you how much money there is gonna pay?
Speaker 1: You say, you know it's close to home. It's a
Speaker 1: pretty good bag. I'm looking at his backdrop like, you
Speaker 1: know what, Shoot, this ain't too bad. I can see
Speaker 1: myself here, kick my feet up. I can see myself here.
Speaker 1: He took his hat off his he he's like, let
Speaker 1: me see if the wind blows him my hair. Right,
Speaker 1: just when I went to Baltimore, I did. I just
Speaker 1: took my I just see if the wind blowing my scout.
Speaker 1: I had lost all my hair by then, so I
Speaker 1: ain't think of my business business. Um why my first
Speaker 1: time experiencing for it? Well, I didn't know this, but
Speaker 1: I mean free agency had it just was going so
Speaker 1: fast you start depending not how you expect, like just
Speaker 1: kind of sit back and she'll like, you know, let
Speaker 1: me like yeah, I'm like, let me see what's over
Speaker 1: is now? It's going fast like much fat much faster
Speaker 1: than I expected for that being my first time in
Speaker 1: free agency. Did you get anti A nervous little bit?
Speaker 1: A little bittle bit for sure, A little bit and
Speaker 1: more so for me um, more so because again me
Speaker 1: coming off my injury going into free agency personally, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody you know tells you, you know, the things you
Speaker 1: have people around you, you know, we have a lot
Speaker 1: of knowledge of the situation. But you know, deep down
Speaker 1: you know you obviously are hoping for the best situation
Speaker 1: and best scenario. But I tell everybody when you when
Speaker 1: you're sitting up there in a in a knee brace,
Speaker 1: and as the season is progressing about the end, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have no idea what's gonna be there. You know,
Speaker 1: you have no idea the situation and circumstances, no idea.
Speaker 1: So for me, Um, I definite it was a little
Speaker 1: empty when it kind of came down to it. But
Speaker 1: you know, as as it as it progressed, you know,
Speaker 1: um Um definitely definitely calmed down a little bit. So
Speaker 1: you you were sitting in a knee brace, You're sitting
Speaker 1: around m M psychologically what we're what was going on
Speaker 1: internally for you as you sustained the major injury to
Speaker 1: some degree. There's there's probably some question of what I
Speaker 1: returned back to me. Then you gotta inswer free agency.
Speaker 1: Then you gotta enter free agency. What was going on inside?
Speaker 1: Give us the real don't give it. Don't don't don't
Speaker 1: give us the agent. Uh you know. I'm just You're
Speaker 1: gonna get the best version of Alan Robinson after this
Speaker 1: injury that you possibly can. Like, I want to know
Speaker 1: how you did your interviews. No, you just I just
Speaker 1: hear the guys. I see I hear some of the
Speaker 1: guys now and they that's what they're saying. I'm going
Speaker 1: that that ain't the real answer when you're sitting there
Speaker 1: in a knee brace with you know, eighteen six months
Speaker 1: into the injury, and you get up in the early
Speaker 1: morning because you got a pee and you take a
Speaker 1: step and something goes your negos. Boy, you ain't ready yet.
Speaker 1: I said this the day because I got injured. The
Speaker 1: third play of the season. I had one catch for
Speaker 1: I think eighteen yards and it was my contract year
Speaker 1: and I was in the locker room and I specifically
Speaker 1: room this. I'm sitting at my locker and mind you,
Speaker 1: the game is still going on, and I looked up
Speaker 1: and I SAILF. I said, I'm gonna get myself five
Speaker 1: minutes to grief. And after that five minutes, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm putting that past everything From this point forward, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be getting myself back to who
Speaker 1: and what I need to be, because I knew I
Speaker 1: couldn't let myself go this go to the left, you know,
Speaker 1: and also I didn't want and I and I specifically
Speaker 1: remember this as well, right after my mom called on me, um,
Speaker 1: and then my mom asked me like, how are you?
Speaker 1: And I can hear the pain in her voice, you know,
Speaker 1: and when she heard me say like I'm good, like
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm gonna be good. I could tell that
Speaker 1: that like took any kind of anxiety or anything off
Speaker 1: of her as well, which is something like I said before, Man,
Speaker 1: my family is very very close to me, you know,
Speaker 1: And and even in those times, if you kind of
Speaker 1: got to be the strength of everybody you know around you,
Speaker 1: because again people people are living the same thing like
Speaker 1: through you, you know, from my mom, my dad, my sister.
Speaker 1: So for me, it was I couldn't let myself be
Speaker 1: down for the people around me to just see me down,
Speaker 1: you know, because that wasn't gonna do nothing for me.
Speaker 1: So when that so in that I put that past. Man.
Speaker 1: From then on, it was just kind of getting to work,
Speaker 1: you know. And even as you're kind of progressing that,
Speaker 1: you know, you still don't know exactly what and how
Speaker 1: you'll be when that time comes. And I've been watching
Speaker 1: games and seeing dudes make cuts. You know, I'm still
Speaker 1: mind you like I'm fresh off of crutches, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, damn, that's that's a hell of a cutting. Then,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, You have that in your heads,
Speaker 1: and it's like but once you kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: start to get back on the field and you still progress.
Speaker 1: You know sometimes when injuries like that, you know, the
Speaker 1: small winds are the ones that you gotta take, you know,
Speaker 1: until you back. Yeah, when you talk about injuries, you know,
Speaker 1: it's so hard because each individual guy, the significance of
Speaker 1: his injury is is it's worse or or easier better
Speaker 1: than the next. Right, And here you say you gave
Speaker 1: yourself five minutes, man. I mean I remember if I
Speaker 1: would have said, man, I give myself five man, when
Speaker 1: I tore my Achilles in Baltimore, bro I woke up
Speaker 1: the next day like it must have been a dream,
Speaker 1: and I took that step and I in the floor
Speaker 1: felt like flat with arch in it. No, that wasn't
Speaker 1: a dream, that that thing't really happened, right, And so
Speaker 1: I had a whole like that. I toured, I felt it,
Speaker 1: I went to sleep, woke up, I was like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it was real, and so for me it started all
Speaker 1: over again. And then when I was rehabbing, I had
Speaker 1: those you know, I had those guy moments where Lord,
Speaker 1: I need your help because I don't think I'm strong
Speaker 1: enough to do this right. That's just me, right, I
Speaker 1: I had accomplished so many things and I played well enough,
Speaker 1: but I had that doubt in my head and I struggled.
Speaker 1: I worked as hard as I could, and that still
Speaker 1: was not gonna fix my achilles. And that was new
Speaker 1: to me. That was a different that was a that's
Speaker 1: a different place. I've never been in that place. So
Speaker 1: it's y I'll say this honestly, and again not the
Speaker 1: fast forward too much, but it's you, it's your story.
Speaker 1: I actually I probably would say this year tough room
Speaker 1: than that year. Why that year I felt like once I,
Speaker 1: once I got hurt, it was about me kind of
Speaker 1: controlling everything that I could control. It was I said,
Speaker 1: you were in the driver's seat, and it was just
Speaker 1: more so like you know, like I said before, once
Speaker 1: I got hurt, it said, okay, like well this is
Speaker 1: what I could do when these is kind of steps.
Speaker 1: So it's like not that I don't have a choice,
Speaker 1: but it's like this is this is where I'm at,
Speaker 1: this is word's going as opposed to this year, I
Speaker 1: felt it was so much out of my control. And
Speaker 1: for me as a person, anybody who knows me knows
Speaker 1: anything that bothers me the most, frustrates me the most,
Speaker 1: causes me to be most angry or anything is things
Speaker 1: that I cannot control. Oh that's life. If I can't
Speaker 1: control it. If I can control it, I'm good. If
Speaker 1: I drop a ball, I'm good. I can control that.
Speaker 1: I could, I can make another play, I can improve fear,
Speaker 1: I can do this, I can do that. But now
Speaker 1: once you start factoring in things that's out of my control,
Speaker 1: now you really start missing you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Now it's now it's frustration. So how is that? How's
Speaker 1: that working out for you? Right now. Then if if
Speaker 1: you are good with control, but you are struggling with
Speaker 1: not control things, because I mean, I know you're you're
Speaker 1: a fantastic football player, but I mean outside of that,
Speaker 1: there's pretty much nothing else, Like there's a let's say,
Speaker 1: if if the list is a thousand, there's probably twenty things.
Speaker 1: I'll give you eighty. Hell, I give you a hundred
Speaker 1: things you can control. Then there's about what about some things?
Speaker 1: You got the illusion of control? Yes? So how are
Speaker 1: you You know you don't have control over everything? Like
Speaker 1: that's life? Are you? Are you a parent yet? Yes? Oh?
Speaker 1: How many kids you guys? Okay? How how old is
Speaker 1: your boy? Girl? Three? Three? He's three, she's just Oh
Speaker 1: she's a girl. Brother. Let me tell you something. Buckle up.
Speaker 1: If you she's controlling you, yeah, she not. Not Again,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking in terms of more so specifically football. I
Speaker 1: understand what you're conceptually, I understand what you're attempting to
Speaker 1: talk about, but I'm telling you we're talking about life.
Speaker 1: Who you are beyond the football player. You can control
Speaker 1: the route you're gonna run after they tell you what
Speaker 1: route you're running. Isn't that fair to say? All right?
Speaker 1: So you you're trying to control after you get on
Speaker 1: the bus, right, and so that's so, would you say
Speaker 1: that type of that thought process soured the relationship with
Speaker 1: you being in Chicago, because here's what I and before
Speaker 1: you answer, I'll let you steal on that. It was
Speaker 1: a report after losing the playoff game that you didn't
Speaker 1: speak to your head coach from January until July. How
Speaker 1: is that possible and why do you why did you
Speaker 1: believe that that was appropriate? Now this old g talking
Speaker 1: to you, this ain't. I know you feel like it's
Speaker 1: okay to do that, but I'm telling you as a
Speaker 1: people that are listening to this, and people that see
Speaker 1: football players, bro, they don't care about your feelings. You're
Speaker 1: getting paid a king's ransom. With the bag you've received
Speaker 1: and the bags that I received. We both have lived
Speaker 1: a thousand lifestyles of kings. And you've got people that
Speaker 1: are paying from Flint, Michigan, to Los Angeles to Charlotte
Speaker 1: that are to go to one game in a whole year,
Speaker 1: they may have to save up six months of their
Speaker 1: salaries or six months off the hourly wage SALD payments
Speaker 1: of jobs. How many burgers they've had to flip, how
Speaker 1: many investments they've had to do, how many cars they've
Speaker 1: had to park, whatever it is that they had to do.
Speaker 1: And you over here ain't talking to your supervisor, a
Speaker 1: person that God has put in your life as as
Speaker 1: someone that you're supposed to report to. You ain't talked
Speaker 1: to him for six, seven, eight months. Why now, if
Speaker 1: I could correct you a little bit, I wasn't there.
Speaker 1: I would sleep actually that I didn't talk to him.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk, I like I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: we didn't talk. Because from the time the season ended
Speaker 1: on the plane after the Saints game, right the following
Speaker 1: or four day hours of some form of exit meetings
Speaker 1: for us because of COVID that was supposed to be
Speaker 1: scheduled with the with the head coach and management or
Speaker 1: however they were coordinating that with that via zoom. Talk
Speaker 1: to the receiver, coach, talk to equipment, everybody else. A
Speaker 1: few days go by, no zoom link, we go by zoom.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you hold on now, let me
Speaker 1: see hold up your right here go like this. He's oh,
Speaker 1: they work, I know you know the text, So you
Speaker 1: couldn't You couldn't text them now honestly, No, you couldn't
Speaker 1: text nahel like you couldn't know why didn't you? No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't not feel like I couldn't. It's just at
Speaker 1: that Okay, we're having exit meetings where you normally talk
Speaker 1: about yeah, just just just to put hold on before
Speaker 1: you answer, just to put my cell on. Frustrate man,
Speaker 1: I didn't do no damn max and meet. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: for what I need to excu met for. I know
Speaker 1: I'll be back next year. Y'all get your ship together.
Speaker 1: So I'm just telling you what I did. So I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not coming from a how dare you I'm
Speaker 1: coming from I never did exit meeting. I didn't need
Speaker 1: to do on the exit meet y'all know what y'all
Speaker 1: need to do. Agent A not run his route, y'all
Speaker 1: give me some guys that I can play with, and
Speaker 1: y'all blocking. Hey, we're good. So I didn't need no
Speaker 1: excit meeting. I didn't even clean out my lockers. Hell,
Speaker 1: I'll need to clean up my locker. I'll be here
Speaker 1: next week. So so so I'm saying all that to
Speaker 1: to to tell you, one man, you're help. You don't
Speaker 1: have the reputation I have. You have a stellar reputation.
Speaker 1: Your reputation is you're even killed due that. You're a
Speaker 1: hard worker like me, you're a grinder. But the difference
Speaker 1: that I don't have that the luxury you have is
Speaker 1: you don't have a reputation of being a distraction. I do,
Speaker 1: and I'm willing to own it. But when you don't
Speaker 1: talk to your coach, when you don't when you don't
Speaker 1: take the initial step and your daddy, your leader, when
Speaker 1: you don't take that initial step, you can't expect other
Speaker 1: men who may be lacking in something to take that
Speaker 1: step in which is made for you to be responsible,
Speaker 1: to take that step. Because that wide receiver's room, who's
Speaker 1: the leader in that wide receiver's room? Okay, because I
Speaker 1: want to call Mike and ask him now because I
Speaker 1: know what he's gonna tell me, right you, So why
Speaker 1: did you not take that step to show them? Yeah
Speaker 1: you're upset, Yeah you're disappointed, but also also, squad, let's
Speaker 1: get on the same page so we could be better,
Speaker 1: so this doesn't happen next year. And at that point
Speaker 1: it was, I mean, I was, I was a opinion
Speaker 1: and free agent. At that point, I didn't know which
Speaker 1: direction they were wanting to go in either way or not.
Speaker 1: So for me, I'm waiting for the exit meetings. So okay,
Speaker 1: so we could talk about this thing. What's what's you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like, like what do y'all see
Speaker 1: or thinking the foreseeable future? Just to give me an idea.
Speaker 1: So for me, if it's supposed to be a zoom
Speaker 1: link sent out to me, cool, all right, I'm waiting
Speaker 1: for that zoom link. So now we can chop it
Speaker 1: up and see, you know, see what's up even from
Speaker 1: even from a football side, from how do we improve
Speaker 1: on next year? And I'm we go by no zoom
Speaker 1: link two weeks, no zoom January? Now weary and no
Speaker 1: did you show me? Ask you this? Then let me
Speaker 1: reverse it. You and a lot of you ain't for
Speaker 1: a lot of folks to call. You're gonna let them
Speaker 1: know that you got this lot of ticket. You're gonnat Okay.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure. I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure. And the reason I'm saying that is I
Speaker 1: got to go back to your character. This is out
Speaker 1: of character for you. Why I see you snicker? I
Speaker 1: see you snicker because what is your character. Well, I
Speaker 1: I thought, we don't trial, so I was. I was.
Speaker 1: I was testifying for him because every time I'm trying
Speaker 1: to pick under rocks and and talk to people and
Speaker 1: they have nothing but great things to say about them,
Speaker 1: but they also say this behavior was so out of
Speaker 1: character that they're trying to figure out why and how.
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm trying to figure out why how,
Speaker 1: Because you got when you leave or stay there, got
Speaker 1: you got fans that are gonna say, man, I love
Speaker 1: what he did on the field, and I love how
Speaker 1: I interacted with him in a community, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ride with him whichever way. But you gotta clarify and
Speaker 1: figure out and and and decode the anat I was
Speaker 1: for this. That's this time that didn't get the zoom link.
Speaker 1: Because you are a leader, I'm saying it. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Matt Naggy was the right leader for this team,
Speaker 1: but if you have the right leadership in the locker
Speaker 1: room like you are a part of, you can always
Speaker 1: overcome the best schemes or the improvement needed in coaching.
Speaker 1: And I agree, and to move forward at that point
Speaker 1: in time and kind of how the season win and
Speaker 1: the conversations that were had. You know, I didn't know
Speaker 1: if they wanted me to continue to lead. Mhm. So
Speaker 1: for me, I wasn't gonna call him and ask him
Speaker 1: to y'all do y'all want me to do? Y'all want
Speaker 1: hey like like like, what's up? What's y'all planning? To
Speaker 1: y'all need to leave? Because to me, it seemed as
Speaker 1: if their message was clear mm hmm. You know I mean,
Speaker 1: because again, it wasn't like you know, it wasn't like
Speaker 1: I said I was gonna call this person and didn't.
Speaker 1: To me, I didn't know if they wanted me to
Speaker 1: lead or not once we get her, once the time progresses.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't get I don't I never get
Speaker 1: that zoom like me and me and coach never chop
Speaker 1: it up. Mind you. And as a person who this
Speaker 1: is my everything prior to this point, this is my
Speaker 1: guy from why why why was he a guy? What
Speaker 1: it from day one? What did he tell you and I?
Speaker 1: And this isn't I would say. And before you say it,
Speaker 1: take a deep breath. I want you to say. I
Speaker 1: want you to explain to the fans football relationships because
Speaker 1: I don't want you to talk about him and attack
Speaker 1: his character who he is as a man. I want
Speaker 1: you to talk about his character and your character as
Speaker 1: a man, because that sometimes a lot of fans are
Speaker 1: understand not all, Not every coach conducts himself was as
Speaker 1: a professional man, just like not every football player conducts
Speaker 1: themselves as a professional man. There are times I conducted
Speaker 1: myself as a immature little punk in my football career
Speaker 1: there and then there's other times where I was a hotheaded,
Speaker 1: mature but immature businessman. And for me and him, since
Speaker 1: they want our coach to player relationship and communication have
Speaker 1: been great since since since the time I stepped footing
Speaker 1: that do it greater powerful world. And when I say great,
Speaker 1: I mean as far as concepts that we running, concepts
Speaker 1: that you know we kind of that he may have
Speaker 1: saw me run in Jacksonville. Are certain things as far
Speaker 1: as how could we make this thing get better? And
Speaker 1: how can we be better? You know constantly, you know,
Speaker 1: that was that was the focus. Okay, what are you
Speaker 1: seeing here? What are you seeing there? Or you know,
Speaker 1: certain plays you know, even if we're in a little
Speaker 1: as a as a as an offense or as a team,
Speaker 1: you know, we're still talking. You know, how you feeling
Speaker 1: about this, how you feeling about the sort of communication
Speaker 1: had always been there. So so what your tap Let
Speaker 1: me summarize it. So what you're telling me is you
Speaker 1: were part of the process and and then it seemed
Speaker 1: possibly you would be transitioning out of there. You are
Speaker 1: unaware of where you stood, and so now you felt
Speaker 1: that you were no longer part of the process. Yes,
Speaker 1: so when the think and as my time as my
Speaker 1: contract is ending, because again after that season, um, I
Speaker 1: had played on my contract, so as that's ending, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I'm a free agent with the cap you know,
Speaker 1: going down how it did last year, I had no
Speaker 1: idea at all what the circumstances of it was going
Speaker 1: to be. Know once we get you know, past the time, Okay,
Speaker 1: is it possible it's a franchise tag? Possible in things
Speaker 1: like this is so many different things based on the
Speaker 1: cap and things like that. To where as it wasn't
Speaker 1: like it was any kind of you know, conclusion that
Speaker 1: was gonna be foresaw, you know, it just was okay,
Speaker 1: Like again, I'm not I haven't communicated or haven't heard
Speaker 1: from this person. You know, nobody's you know, my agent
Speaker 1: hasn't heard anything. So up until an hour before the
Speaker 1: franchise tag deadline, I thought I was gonna be a
Speaker 1: free action. And with that being, if I'm a freient
Speaker 1: and that is the case, then okay, that's cool. It's
Speaker 1: no hard feelings, does no anything. But it's not you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't feel as if I should call and say hey,
Speaker 1: like like like, where's the contract? You know what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. It's like cool if y'all want me to
Speaker 1: be a free agent, y'all want me to be a
Speaker 1: free agent, like there's nothing else I could do about that,
Speaker 1: Like I can't. I can't make y'all not make me
Speaker 1: a free agent. You know, you you you got a
Speaker 1: little antie frustrated with the process because you are no
Speaker 1: longer part of process, which meant ultimately he was out
Speaker 1: of he was out of his comfort zone because of
Speaker 1: the you weren't in control of it anymore. A little
Speaker 1: bit frustrated. Yes, I also think that I'm a type
Speaker 1: person where if if the next chapter was gonna be
Speaker 1: me being a free agent, I was good with it.
Speaker 1: And when I said I was good with that, I
Speaker 1: you know, at this time last year, cool if if
Speaker 1: if if my contract isn't gonna be extended or if
Speaker 1: we aren't working through any of that. I don't have
Speaker 1: any gripe. I don't have any hard feelings. I don't
Speaker 1: have I also don't think if I'm about to be
Speaker 1: a free agent and it's nothing for me to communicate
Speaker 1: to it's like I mean to me, it was, you know,
Speaker 1: they were speaking through actions or whatever the case may be,
Speaker 1: with the lack of communication anything, because again, this is
Speaker 1: a league where even when I left Jacksonville, before I left,
Speaker 1: I talked to at that time it was Tom Coffling,
Speaker 1: the GM and coach Maron. We had a great conversation.
Speaker 1: Ultimately I didn't sign back um for whatever reason. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't that, you know, it was just Okay, we
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. We don't hear nothing, haven't
Speaker 1: heard nothing anything. And then once that point hit, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well I guess I guess the writings on the wall. Well.
Speaker 1: The other part is you also gotta you are at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. You had one of the best communicators, whether
Speaker 1: you liked his message and or not, with Tom Coughlin, right,
Speaker 1: and I said, best communication where you knew what he stood.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with how he said it, but at
Speaker 1: least you knew where you still like you weren't walking
Speaker 1: in You weren't walking in the office going I think
Speaker 1: he likes me. You had the benefit of communication. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you too much communication, almost a little bit like you're
Speaker 1: walking there you go, man, I wonder how you staying?
Speaker 1: You walk out there go. I know, I'm out this,
Speaker 1: I'm out this booch what in the end, And that
Speaker 1: was the last. That was the only kind of experience
Speaker 1: that I had with my contract ending and about to
Speaker 1: be dependent Stace. 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 you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions, Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a
Speaker 1: Podcast dot Com. You didn't have a lot of history
Speaker 1: but the past history with Acteville and Tom Coughlan was this,
Speaker 1: and so now you come to a new organization and
Speaker 1: it's slightly different, right, and your temperament and what expectations
Speaker 1: and how things were in the beginning and everything changed,
Speaker 1: and so you you tried to maneuver through it the
Speaker 1: best you could. Wasn't the best, wasn't the worst. Definitely
Speaker 1: have seen worst car crashes. Right, So now you're in
Speaker 1: you're going through the season. I believe you had got
Speaker 1: you you got COVID right, um, y'all draft some linemen
Speaker 1: that can't play, you get you get a quarterback that's
Speaker 1: a dynamic and man, you you out there, you're not
Speaker 1: catching any passes? How do how do we go from
Speaker 1: coming off a two back to back? How wow? Shorts
Speaker 1: to that boy? You went from a locomotive a G
Speaker 1: five to a truck. Yeah. Yeah, And you know that
Speaker 1: was a lot of frustration that you know was going
Speaker 1: on through the course of the season because I had
Speaker 1: saw how I was used and how they were deploying
Speaker 1: me to defenses and years prior. Hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: dumb that down for some of us, right, simplify that,
Speaker 1: what do you mean you the years before you were
Speaker 1: being used as what the number one to go to
Speaker 1: or decoy? Yes, yes, okay. Concepts that were that we're
Speaker 1: running you know, um where I have been maybe at
Speaker 1: number two in this concept based on this defensitive like
Speaker 1: that like again I'm not I'm not running it, you know,
Speaker 1: or it may be an example like I went. One
Speaker 1: of our main one of our heavier concepts was deep cross.
Speaker 1: You know, I go through seventeen games and I don't
Speaker 1: run a deep cross the entire season. So okay, so
Speaker 1: how do you handle that? Don't don't tell me about what.
Speaker 1: They don't tell me about what. Yeah, they didn't let you.
Speaker 1: They didn't allow you to run anymore deep crosses. And
Speaker 1: the reason why they don't allow you run anymore deep
Speaker 1: crosses because they had some other receivers that they wanted
Speaker 1: to get the ball too. Because of limitations of things.
Speaker 1: How they changed. Right, if you run that deep cross,
Speaker 1: then the young fresh lad guy that they want to showcase, right,
Speaker 1: and I call that artificially making that guy the playmaker. Right,
Speaker 1: They put him in position to make him run the
Speaker 1: route that they know as the first read, and long behold,
Speaker 1: he is the first read they throw it to him,
Speaker 1: how are you handling now seen they sleep, your career
Speaker 1: change in front of you on the field. It was
Speaker 1: it was extremely frusture, and it was something to where
Speaker 1: as you know, for me, I never I didn't want
Speaker 1: to devalue the character and the person and player who
Speaker 1: I've you know, worked and built myself to be that
Speaker 1: I am, you know by my frustration, you know. And
Speaker 1: I also didn't want to be a distraction and take
Speaker 1: away from what the ultimate tasks and gold is at hand,
Speaker 1: which is to you know, win games, to have a
Speaker 1: top five offense, and to do these things. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, when it's like when I obviously see
Speaker 1: my role changing and I'm not being use how I
Speaker 1: happen prior, and you know, we're also as we're going
Speaker 1: through the course of the season where a bottom three offense,
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to it's hard to just accept that.
Speaker 1: That was the hardest thing was just to be content
Speaker 1: with what was going on and how it was happening,
Speaker 1: and to just sit there and just you know, be
Speaker 1: content with you know, so let me ask you, you
Speaker 1: had COVID now I should wrestle reports that ah, you
Speaker 1: lost weight. The reason where you are I'm asking you
Speaker 1: weren't utilized and you weren't featured anymore because you had
Speaker 1: COVID or because you believe things were changing for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: because I believe things were things were changing, and it
Speaker 1: and it happens, though it does happen for for whatever
Speaker 1: reason you want. Right. One thing about football people don't
Speaker 1: really realize, right, there's a few positions that age doesn't factor.
Speaker 1: Actually age factors in in kind of the concept of wine.
Speaker 1: As you get older in the National Football leagu the
Speaker 1: only two positions that allow you to get older, and
Speaker 1: they don't unless something drastic happens. They don't really look
Speaker 1: at you like you. The plague is quarterback. As you
Speaker 1: get older, quarterback, you get more money. You look you're
Speaker 1: actually um valued more as you will become an older quarterback,
Speaker 1: especially ones that actually can read defenses right and who
Speaker 1: can retain information and and be able to construct and
Speaker 1: deconstructing offense. I can tell you to contained offense from
Speaker 1: the back of their hands. And kickers, that's it. Running backs,
Speaker 1: you get older, you hit thirty, may get out of here.
Speaker 1: Wire receivers tight ends, I get out of here. The
Speaker 1: market changes. All that market changing in the NFL. The
Speaker 1: younger you are, the more money you make. Every year
Speaker 1: you get older, They're going, man, we gotta get him
Speaker 1: out of here. He because the old adages you're either
Speaker 1: getting better or you're getting worse. But they need to
Speaker 1: throw that other one in there is what one year
Speaker 1: older means one year closer to retirement from from their perspective, fishing.
Speaker 1: So as things are changing, how do you believe from
Speaker 1: your standpoint, let's let's play Devil's advocate. Do you believe
Speaker 1: the way you operated and allowed your frustration to get
Speaker 1: the best of you. Do you believe you could have
Speaker 1: handled it better sitting in front of me today? Communication wise? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so? Um explain explain the communication wise because
Speaker 1: what I don't want you to do is make it
Speaker 1: all you know. I think I think in the society
Speaker 1: we are right now, athletes don't want to take ownership.
Speaker 1: I know the hell I didn't when I was playing.
Speaker 1: It was always somebody else's fault. Right again, I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just exposing myself. Right, what could you have done
Speaker 1: to improve? Because you are not going to not be
Speaker 1: on the team next year, But people are gonna ask
Speaker 1: what happens when Alan Robinson is not getting his past
Speaker 1: is can he handle the mental adjustments of football? Because
Speaker 1: he showed us or we heard in Chicago little adversity
Speaker 1: he from Michigan, but I don't know if he really
Speaker 1: fall tough. Yeah. And for me, like I said, based
Speaker 1: on the communication maybe offseason wives or something like that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that could have been better. I think once
Speaker 1: we got to the season, with all this frustration and
Speaker 1: stuff that was going on, the only way that I
Speaker 1: know is this year I practiced harder. I tried to
Speaker 1: I tried to perfect more of my crab just based
Speaker 1: on the simple factor the opportunities if they were going
Speaker 1: to be limited, the ones that I was gonna get,
Speaker 1: I tried to make sure that I was ready to
Speaker 1: be able to take full advantage of those opportunities with
Speaker 1: the ones that were being dealt. Obviously, you know, you
Speaker 1: get a game like Cincinnati game where I have a drop,
Speaker 1: you know, but that's that's not even you know, for me,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's ball, you know what I'm saying. Players
Speaker 1: like that, Yeah, yeah, you can always take some place back.
Speaker 1: And for me as a player, I'm always trying to
Speaker 1: critique myself on how I could be better. So if
Speaker 1: that was even this year, even on certain routes, if
Speaker 1: you'll come back to the huddle in practice or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, whether if it's Andy or Nick or whoever's
Speaker 1: in in or not in and watching, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: trying to communicate them, Yo, what are you seeing? What
Speaker 1: do you think I could do better here? Which I
Speaker 1: could do better here? Rather that's you know, cut, you
Speaker 1: just split a little bit on this, on this, on
Speaker 1: this boot to the right, so that maybe you could
Speaker 1: get you know, in the quarterback vision a little bit better.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can you know, things like that. I tried
Speaker 1: to make sure that I would communicate to those guys
Speaker 1: and you know, um and really kind of leaned on
Speaker 1: my teammates some of that to just kind of say
Speaker 1: like yo, like like what you think? What do you
Speaker 1: think about this round? You know, even even some of
Speaker 1: the other guys in the room you know where I'm
Speaker 1: we're watching film or some of you know, what you
Speaker 1: think here? What you think here? Acting the quarterbacks? What
Speaker 1: you think here? What you think here? Because I just
Speaker 1: wanted to maximize the opportunities that I was gonna have,
Speaker 1: no matter how frustrating it may have been. You mentioned
Speaker 1: before um, the next chapter. How are you approaching the
Speaker 1: next chapter in your life? Now? I can say, man,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it from a standpoint that years
Speaker 1: like this for me make it special because you remember
Speaker 1: why you play the game. And I'm sitting here in January,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and I'm looking forward to it. Man,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't. I can't wait to you know,
Speaker 1: get to work and and start to you know, build
Speaker 1: for next year, you know, and because again for me,
Speaker 1: it's like you said before, man, coming off of two
Speaker 1: thousand yard seasons, coming off of two hundred catches. You know,
Speaker 1: I was looking to continue to a sin you know,
Speaker 1: from from a number's perspective obviously, but as a player
Speaker 1: as well, and for me, you know, based on whatever
Speaker 1: the circumstances is or was, you know, That's what I
Speaker 1: have to sit with throughout this entire offseason, which again
Speaker 1: I'm not. Am I frustrated with it? Yeah? Am I
Speaker 1: mad at it? No? And the reason why I'm not
Speaker 1: mad at it is because that that fire, you know,
Speaker 1: it's lit. You know. Every time I go to work out,
Speaker 1: every time I'm getting some pt, you know, I got
Speaker 1: a goal and mission in mind. Well, listen, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking that time to kind of break it down.
Speaker 1: Un let's talk ball, because I think it's extremely important
Speaker 1: for not just our fans, your fans, but people are
Speaker 1: here the knowledge and also the emotional side of playing football. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm the worst case studying on the man kind
Speaker 1: is well. I think it's probably some worst people that
Speaker 1: we're not gonna mention the names that it's nobody right.
Speaker 1: But I understand your frustration. But I also think you
Speaker 1: you have a You have an opportunity that some men
Speaker 1: don't get. You got an opportunity to rewrite it now. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you did or what you said, or how you
Speaker 1: behaved may turn a few people off, but when they
Speaker 1: get you in the building and they see how genuine
Speaker 1: you are, how remorseful you are, how you also are
Speaker 1: driven in performance based and sometimes when we're so driven
Speaker 1: from sports performance based, it's sometimes frustrates us and it
Speaker 1: puts a lot of pressure and makes us do things
Speaker 1: at that moment that at times can be out of character.
Speaker 1: But if it happens long, if it happens enough times,
Speaker 1: it becomes who we are. And just like anything else,
Speaker 1: you know, when you grow up in Detroit, you grew
Speaker 1: up in Lexington, grew up in Vegas, you grew up
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. If you're around something and operate a
Speaker 1: certain way for so long, it becomes who you are,
Speaker 1: good or bad. Right, but you are for tough because
Speaker 1: God knew you're gonna be handled handed, these short falls,
Speaker 1: these circumstances, these obstacles, getting injured. Having probably one of
Speaker 1: the strongest minded and stubborn and general managers presidents known
Speaker 1: to the National Football League with Tom Coughlin, And then
Speaker 1: you go to the Chicago story book franchise and it
Speaker 1: becomes frustrating, not because you can't play it, because you
Speaker 1: guys have some beasts. You've got some Pro Bowlers, some
Speaker 1: all decade players on your team, and y'all go from
Speaker 1: You'll go from uh sugar two blue cheese, right like that.
Speaker 1: And so now, man, you've got a chance that some
Speaker 1: people will give their left arm for is to rewrite
Speaker 1: it and make it right. And I hope you get
Speaker 1: that opportunity, and I believe you will, because, like I said,
Speaker 1: you built for tough man. You're from one of the
Speaker 1: toughest cities out there, right, and you got that opportunity.
Speaker 1: So I expect that you will take ass and take names.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, man, and I'm I'm I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to man like like you know this this off season
Speaker 1: already for me. You know I has been such a
Speaker 1: I got said for it. Man. I'm every day brother,
Speaker 1: this physical therapy, stuff, training, I'm locked in man. Man,
Speaker 1: love connecting with you. Man. I look forward to see
Speaker 1: where you go. You may end up staying in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you may not, but man, look forward to it. Um.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, man, you do. You are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it. You are competent and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You heard about it, then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all