Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to It. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: Let's get down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you now it's all.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cut to It Podcast. We got two
Speaker 1: time national championship winner from the University of Alabama nickname
Speaker 1: Smithy Slash Slim Reaper wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles
Speaker 1: and also um just a that you know, uh define
Speaker 1: the odds and welcome to the Cut to A podcast.
Speaker 1: DeVante Smith. Welcome man, Welcome man, Thanks Phili, thanks for
Speaker 1: carting out sometime. I know you you got h It's
Speaker 1: off season, so let me be honest. You ain't got
Speaker 1: really much going on anyway, you know, y'all we all
Speaker 1: act like we're busy. Y'all boys sitting in that sitting
Speaker 1: at the office, can't wait to get out. Soon as
Speaker 1: you get out, you ain't got nothing to do? Is
Speaker 1: that not true? Yeah? So, but I appreciate you carving
Speaker 1: out some time obviously. Um, you know Steve Smith, senior
Speaker 1: uh co host er, our little John. Then we got
Speaker 1: our guy backstage, Joe, who's probably been contacted you're communicating
Speaker 1: with you. Um. We got Briant Balta Chevis, Uh, that's
Speaker 1: our tech. And then Taylor and then our producer Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: who she likes to be kind of like what we're
Speaker 1: talking about football, nameless, faceless. She doesn't like to be seen,
Speaker 1: but her her work is uh is heard. So um,
Speaker 1: we're getting right to it. We got this little ice
Speaker 1: Breakers all about you. H they're random. Um, do they
Speaker 1: have any rhyme reason? No, that's the best part about it.
Speaker 1: So here we go. Who's the last person you had
Speaker 1: a deep conversation with? Uh, my mentor? This mentor has
Speaker 1: her name? Who's your mentors? And sands? Okay from from Louisiana.
Speaker 1: Had you come across him? Yeah? And this impact? Um,
Speaker 1: him and my family go way back on his POSTI
Speaker 1: my grandfather were best friends. He was cut in my
Speaker 1: hand when I was since I was a little boy,
Speaker 1: so kind. I always grow up around him. Okay, you
Speaker 1: got you got that? That good Louisiana faith right now
Speaker 1: going booyah as a as a fellow holder. God, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you to not thing like. I can tell you
Speaker 1: where that I can tell you got a sail a
Speaker 1: fan or not? Right now? That ain't that? Ain't a
Speaker 1: kid like? That's a sil fan as a siling fan
Speaker 1: with a like kid? Am I line though I know
Speaker 1: my housing? Hey? All right, um, I'll just message. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm bald, so I don't care. I don't get haircuts.
Speaker 1: I do I uh, I go on a drawer and
Speaker 1: the extent of me is what kind of oil? Am
Speaker 1: I using? Lavender senate? And I'm a Gillette I gotta
Speaker 1: I go to Costco and get all of the Gillette.
Speaker 1: Give me a thirty six pack. Man, You couldn't hear
Speaker 1: all year? Yeah no, during television season. It's about twice
Speaker 1: a week all season. Um, I try to see if
Speaker 1: I let that thing grow and then the top back
Speaker 1: a little bit, huh, top back, man, I gotta land
Speaker 1: the strip, private plane. Let's move on. Listen. If you
Speaker 1: can't laugh at yourself, you show the health can't laugh
Speaker 1: at other people? Right, look at hes gonna be thinking
Speaker 1: about this and now he's gonna be like this, Steve,
Speaker 1: don't mean I know what exactly what I said. Look, hey,
Speaker 1: all right, who's your favorite sports team growing up? The
Speaker 1: Saints and the Celtics. Okay, Saints like good Celtics. What's
Speaker 1: up with that? Yeah? How do you get that one? Um?
Speaker 1: I'm a big Rondo fan. Okay, I mean Rondo was legit,
Speaker 1: he did not. You give you a whole bunch of exists.
Speaker 1: That's all you get, man? You drop that's a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that because you got two points. That tells me something.
Speaker 1: I don't know who. So what's some What are some
Speaker 1: bad habits that you have? Bad habits? Uh, I'd probably
Speaker 1: say me just being non a lot. Oh okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm overthinker, man, I overthink everything. I'll overthink driving to
Speaker 1: the store. You just go to the stove. So all right, Um,
Speaker 1: how are you doing today? How's life good? All right? Um?
Speaker 1: I've been always I've always want to ask you know,
Speaker 1: some of the young guys. We usually have some old
Speaker 1: heads on here, but um, you went to University of Alabama?
Speaker 1: How was going to How was going to college in
Speaker 1: the middle of a pandemic? Because you had what two
Speaker 1: years or a year two years or a year and
Speaker 1: in the pandemic are going to school a year, a
Speaker 1: year of going to school in the pandemic, and then
Speaker 1: a year obviously two years of not going I mean
Speaker 1: of not having a pandemic. How was it for you
Speaker 1: personally to go to school in the middle of a
Speaker 1: pandemic based off what you're used to things being? Uh? Man,
Speaker 1: it was it was tough just because some the fact
Speaker 1: that if you called COVID, you wasn't gonna be able
Speaker 1: to play. So it was like, I wanted to go
Speaker 1: to school, but then again, I'm not trying to be
Speaker 1: around everybody and not trying to do all that, so
Speaker 1: it was kind of tough. And then it was like
Speaker 1: I came back from my senior year and during the
Speaker 1: spring it was like, okay, we're not having those springs.
Speaker 1: So it was like, man, it came back, we might
Speaker 1: not even have a season at this time, so it's like,
Speaker 1: did I make the right decision? So, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was it was tough just kind of just staying focused,
Speaker 1: like still going out working out every day and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and not knowing if you're even gonna have
Speaker 1: a season. What about just going to class or um,
Speaker 1: just a normal things that you were used to doing
Speaker 1: as a college student years old. You have to you,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, you waited all that time to be
Speaker 1: able to do the legal things that you are wanting
Speaker 1: to do, to go to college, drink at the bars
Speaker 1: and just be a young man. Um being honest, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't go out a lot. I don't drink. So
Speaker 1: it was like that part of it was easy for me.
Speaker 1: It was like, I sit in the house all day anyway.
Speaker 1: If I'm not working out nine times team, I'm just
Speaker 1: in a career playing the game. So that was that
Speaker 1: wasn't really the hard part for me. All Right, thanks,
Speaker 1: you just just poo pooed all on that. We shall
Speaker 1: move on. So where are you from? In a place
Speaker 1: you call your hometown Amy Louise album? Small town right
Speaker 1: outside of ben Rouge? Okay? How far is that from
Speaker 1: New Orleans? Okay? Do you know where? Uh? Zach and
Speaker 1: maya louisianas Zachary Zachary, yeah, Zachary, Yeah, where is that?
Speaker 1: How far is that from you? That's that's like right
Speaker 1: outside bamar Rouge too. So about saying this to get
Speaker 1: the band rouge just a different way minutes. All right,
Speaker 1: there's a guy. There's a guy from there named Doug Williams.
Speaker 1: You ever heard him? Yeah, what do you play? Great quarterback?
Speaker 1: All right, that was a great guess because you guessed
Speaker 1: too and alight you looked away like I think quarterback.
Speaker 1: What college did he go to? Yeah, I'll remember. I
Speaker 1: want to say it was all who was in Louis Adam. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not helping you, Grandma. Good job to set I
Speaker 1: like that. See here he is smarter than he looks.
Speaker 1: What was life for you before you came became the
Speaker 1: guy catching all those touchdown passes, before you became the
Speaker 1: slim reaper, the guy that everybody talked about that he
Speaker 1: lacked muscle mass, right, because you, to some degree busted
Speaker 1: on the scene. However, you didn't because you were in college.
Speaker 1: You went back for your senior year. You were there
Speaker 1: for a number of months, days, seconds, hours that it
Speaker 1: wasn't just you busting on the scene and you came
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. Oh, I mean it was it was smooth.
Speaker 1: I stayed in the neighborhoods where like everybody knew everybody,
Speaker 1: so like you can go from house to house and
Speaker 1: you you'd be cool it's like you go to the
Speaker 1: Knicks house and it's just like it's your house because
Speaker 1: the people called street went to school with your people,
Speaker 1: with your mom and your pops and stuff like this.
Speaker 1: So like you was always like I had somebody that
Speaker 1: was looking after you no matter what. So like it
Speaker 1: was always like you were never really doing that you
Speaker 1: were supposed to because somebody was always there to see
Speaker 1: what you're doing. And if you're not doing what's right,
Speaker 1: they're gonna let you know. Until you got a lot
Speaker 1: of bubb whoopings. Yeah, and you're getting community. But you
Speaker 1: know about the community. But here's the only thing about community,
Speaker 1: but it didn't save you from the butt whooping wants that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the other ones with the appetizer is the main course
Speaker 1: is waiting on you when you get home. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about straight sting. All right, you're definitely about to get Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the bad part about it. I love how
Speaker 1: you described it to to where like every hood isn't
Speaker 1: the ghetto, where every hood is not bank bang shoot
Speaker 1: them up, Like everything everything isn't um one side or
Speaker 1: the one course like there is. Every place is different.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you explain that to where it's not
Speaker 1: the same trivial thing or the same story that everything
Speaker 1: thinks everything is the same because you say it's the hood.
Speaker 1: And I also this, like because there's a narrative that
Speaker 1: every every black athlete is a thug or they or
Speaker 1: they experienced harsh times. I mean there's some squares that
Speaker 1: played that have played in the league, and then there's
Speaker 1: some dudes that's worse than me on like one or
Speaker 1: or they could have but harsh still has range. Right,
Speaker 1: So just one person's horse isn't the other person's horse,
Speaker 1: but it was harsh to them. So it's just everybody's
Speaker 1: story isn't And some people's perspective of poores it VARs.
Speaker 1: And you were like, pop, I know you just don't.
Speaker 1: Your family didn't manage money, right, you ain't poor, right,
Speaker 1: I can show you some pope. So it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: how so maybe I can get a better answer. I
Speaker 1: say better just because I want to give the perspective.
Speaker 1: How did COVID impact your community when it was going on? Um,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it really impacted bad because like it's
Speaker 1: it's so smaller. What you gotta you gotta make it happen,
Speaker 1: like it's not much around them. So like the stuff
Speaker 1: that they had, like it's still going because like if
Speaker 1: we shut down, then there's nothing here, Like everything was
Speaker 1: still going to things like that. It was just everybody
Speaker 1: just had to be smarter with the stuff that they
Speaker 1: were doing. Where's your love for for sports? Grow? Um?
Speaker 1: I grew up right next to a park. Okay, any
Speaker 1: time I heard that basketball on that councrete, I was there.
Speaker 1: It was the old heads of people my age. I
Speaker 1: was always there from all. I mean, my Popsy hooped
Speaker 1: to high school, so I used to go out there
Speaker 1: and hoop against him, you know what I mean. Just
Speaker 1: that toughness in me and stuff came from that. Just
Speaker 1: no matter who it was, old heads out there, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get out there. And then I always had a
Speaker 1: good basketball, so nobody else played unless I got at
Speaker 1: least one game. Man, it was running the cool it
Speaker 1: so were you run the court? You can shoot? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do a little something. No, I ain't able
Speaker 1: to ask kids. You shoots? He telling you? He telling
Speaker 1: you he can was it was position. It was a
Speaker 1: smart oplayer. They want through the foll Okay. I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot of kids hang out with O. G's Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think that they would. You agree and disagree
Speaker 1: with DA. How many people now are hanging out with
Speaker 1: like really being able to bring down that game, really
Speaker 1: being able to soak up, you know, the knowledge from them.
Speaker 1: You can't talk to you. I mean I got a
Speaker 1: I got a younger brother. I tell him all the time, man,
Speaker 1: Like when I was younger. Man, you wouldn't David to
Speaker 1: be out there with us. Man, we was real deal
Speaker 1: at the park one o'clock, son demon like your grandma
Speaker 1: telling you don't go outter this son out. They're not
Speaker 1: outside no more. Man, They're not doing all that over
Speaker 1: there sharing water. Don't put your lips on it, and
Speaker 1: you better be back by when what's what is the street? Street? Like?
Speaker 1: You don't let me come out as to prove your
Speaker 1: curfew for black not let me come out yelling Steven
Speaker 1: because you know what it's about to come, because you
Speaker 1: heard that, because yeah, it's about to go. You've ben
Speaker 1: to wrap up that last game. Why do you why
Speaker 1: do you believe you, young buck? What is one of
Speaker 1: the toughest things to hang out with? O. G s
Speaker 1: as a young boy? Oh? I mean you gotta kind
Speaker 1: of like you know your place, Like, yeah, you want
Speaker 1: to go out there and be all tough and stuff,
Speaker 1: but you gotta know when you gotta tone it down.
Speaker 1: Because like my O G s, it was like they
Speaker 1: knew me, they knew my people and all that, so
Speaker 1: they had it right with it. Like if stuff was wrong,
Speaker 1: like I'm doing wrong, like they're gonna let me know.
Speaker 1: So I had to kind of know my place and
Speaker 1: things like that. So do you think that helped you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure it taught. It taught me respect. You're taking
Speaker 1: to respect, just to respect your others at all times
Speaker 1: and things like that. I mean out there being competitive
Speaker 1: and stuff sometimes. So talking outside your nick you better understand.
Speaker 1: Yeah we are hoping, but you better respect me. At
Speaker 1: the same time, don't cross that line and you're gonna
Speaker 1: get told when you crossed it. When you're about to
Speaker 1: cross when you get that look, yeah that looks. You
Speaker 1: mentioned your your grandmother, you mentioned your father. What was
Speaker 1: your and all the O G s? What was your
Speaker 1: family dynamic growing up in Louisiana? Everybody was close. I
Speaker 1: mean everybody stayed around each other. So like any time
Speaker 1: something's going on, everybody at my house are my grandma house?
Speaker 1: Like every time something's going on. And then I mean
Speaker 1: everybody stayed right on one street, so you don't have
Speaker 1: to go far. You gotta take no call, you should
Speaker 1: walk down the road. That's where about it. So everybody
Speaker 1: was close. M real athletic family. Everybody played sports, so
Speaker 1: I mean we'll be out there playing volleyball, tennis, softball, everything, basketball,
Speaker 1: Like we always had some sports going on. So when'd
Speaker 1: you fall in love with football? Um? I really say
Speaker 1: probably just high school because I mean majority of my
Speaker 1: family played basketball. My pops didn't play football, so it
Speaker 1: was just kind of like I always grew up basketball, basketball, basketball,
Speaker 1: and then high school probably when I really fell in
Speaker 1: love with I got my first offer and then um
Speaker 1: my mentor, like he made me realize it's not doing
Speaker 1: what you want to do, but doing what's best for you.
Speaker 1: And I mean I started to realize football what was
Speaker 1: best for me. How did you take that it's not
Speaker 1: doing what you want to do, is doing with the
Speaker 1: best the best for you. Yeah. It was tough, man,
Speaker 1: because like I said, I always love basketball. Man, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to give it up, but it was like
Speaker 1: being realistic. You six foot man, you're not gonna go
Speaker 1: out here no one and really getting nothing. Then wasn't
Speaker 1: nobody helping with basketball in my area? Was all football,
Speaker 1: big football down, So it was like people gonna help
Speaker 1: you get to where you want to be with football
Speaker 1: and not basketball. It was tough though. Mhmm. A statement
Speaker 1: that I read that you said, Um, if it ain't fan,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be there. Expound on that. Um,
Speaker 1: just like like I said, I'm I'm I'm real nonchalant.
Speaker 1: I'm not really a people personally. I don't talk a lot.
Speaker 1: So it was just like if it wasn't really my family,
Speaker 1: that I really don't want to be around it because
Speaker 1: like why am I here? And even sometimes like once
Speaker 1: I went to college and I come back home, my
Speaker 1: family let me know, like you're coming home, but you
Speaker 1: ain't like you ain't talking to us and ain't just
Speaker 1: because I'm not thinking about y'alls. Just that like I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm just in my sheld. It's just how I am.
Speaker 1: I don't like getting out like that. I don't like
Speaker 1: being around a lot of people. As I got older,
Speaker 1: I kind of like I started this ising myself just
Speaker 1: from being in big crowds. It's just how I am.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like because of playing ball it burns,
Speaker 1: it takes the energy away from you. Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: That was one thing just coming home. Everybody always want
Speaker 1: to talk about football. It's like I've been doing that
Speaker 1: for them. I don't want to talk about that right now.
Speaker 1: Like if y'all gonna talk about I'm not coming you know,
Speaker 1: but do you understand why? Yeah, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 1: I mean just being in my small family, it was
Speaker 1: just like you're the one You're the one person that
Speaker 1: taking it ran with. So it's just like everybody just
Speaker 1: happened from me. Yeah, And they also want to know
Speaker 1: what it's like, what, what's what's the experience of because
Speaker 1: you go from here's what the dynamic? You go from
Speaker 1: smitty to little Smitty to celebrity to nephew or whoever
Speaker 1: it is, grandson, So this is balanced. They're looking at
Speaker 1: you as little DeVante too celebrity. So it's that it's
Speaker 1: that roller coaster. So different days, you know, different strokes,
Speaker 1: different different for different folks, different days because they remember
Speaker 1: you were walking around and uh, I remember I was
Speaker 1: changing that boy diving, right, I remember telling that boy
Speaker 1: to uh. I taught him how to tie his shoe right,
Speaker 1: and then in that boy out there buying our shoes right,
Speaker 1: So that it's that balance right that you're that you're experiencing.
Speaker 1: So I would I would try to encourage you, man,
Speaker 1: try to embrace it, right, Try to embrace it, because
Speaker 1: you gotta think about it. Three years old, you're gonna turn,
Speaker 1: You're gonna go to sleep. Wake up, bro, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be you're gonna be ten years in the league, thirty
Speaker 1: three on your way out to some degree right to
Speaker 1: to where um right, I you know, I used to
Speaker 1: you know, every house I had, we had a guest
Speaker 1: room and I was done playing you no guests coming,
Speaker 1: which I kind of liked a little bit, right, you know,
Speaker 1: but it changed. So I would say, cultivate those relationships.
Speaker 1: See which ones are authentic, right, Give him a little
Speaker 1: grace because you're experiencing something that they've never done. Your
Speaker 1: rookie deal. What you're getting paid as a rookie and
Speaker 1: you you're getting you're getting three, four or five may
Speaker 1: be ten people of your family members salary and one check.
Speaker 1: That's a little different. That's something for some of us. Man,
Speaker 1: we've never seen that. So you know, just try to
Speaker 1: keep that perspective. It's it's tough, and I know it's hard,
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's just kind of that's where
Speaker 1: you are. I love cut to It, and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe, and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media too, Smithie where
Speaker 1: where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I call all my questions answered. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm here for, a brother, cut to a podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: You're very cautious around people. Why what happened? What's going on?
Speaker 1: Why are you so cautious? You look like you look
Speaker 1: like you sign out everybody. He reads the room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's how my popsy is. That's how the possible mom.
Speaker 1: That's just how everybody is. I think I just kind
Speaker 1: of picked on picked up on it from them, just
Speaker 1: like om it was. She was always like a parent.
Speaker 1: That was like, that's why i didn't pay a baasketball.
Speaker 1: If I can't be there, you know, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want you there. I don't trust nobody with you
Speaker 1: but me, So like I just I think that's just
Speaker 1: what I picked up on from Well. I can't even
Speaker 1: imagine that conversation with Nick Saban and your folks. How
Speaker 1: was that conversation? Um, I mean it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was smooth, honestly, just because you know, with his
Speaker 1: with his status, him being who he was, and it
Speaker 1: was just like him being on the platform, all the
Speaker 1: stuff that he's done, the awareness he's raised on different
Speaker 1: situations and things like and how strict he was, because
Speaker 1: my mom was real strict. So she was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can see you being a place like this. I
Speaker 1: know he's just gonna be out here letting you do anything.
Speaker 1: To other places. It's like we're going visits. They're trying
Speaker 1: to get me to go out the part of my mom,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like going out and I tell her,
Speaker 1: like they're trying to get me to go out here.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go, and she like, okay, I
Speaker 1: know I want him to be there. They're trying to
Speaker 1: get him to do something he don't want to do.
Speaker 1: So was that trust what sold you on Alabama or
Speaker 1: was there anything else about the Alabama culture that made
Speaker 1: you fall in love and say, yes, that's where I'm going. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it was Coach Burns. He was he was my recruiter.
Speaker 1: He was from He's from New Orleans, so like I
Speaker 1: kind of know him. He just always kept real with you,
Speaker 1: like anything anything that went down. He told me when
Speaker 1: he told me that to receive the coach was gonna
Speaker 1: leave right before I signed. Things like that. He was
Speaker 1: the only one that called me and told me. And
Speaker 1: I just feel like if I went there, I know
Speaker 1: he gonna be there. And I'm always like, you can
Speaker 1: always have my back, don't matter what. He always kept
Speaker 1: really I win. So how are you handling how are
Speaker 1: you going to handle the National Football League? Because that
Speaker 1: is the coaching wise. This profession is not always about transparency.
Speaker 1: It's about it's the business, right in the business of
Speaker 1: football is that they're not gonna take like you know,
Speaker 1: when you drive up to a drive through, they know
Speaker 1: they don't have fries, but they're not gonna tell you
Speaker 1: till you put that putting in that order. They ain't
Speaker 1: gonna put on the side. No fries this week. Right,
Speaker 1: They're not gonna put that in the league. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna say, hey, we're gonna draft you, but we know
Speaker 1: we're gonna be awful. Right, So how are you gonna
Speaker 1: handle the professional football with transparency? And trust is not
Speaker 1: always front and center? You know, they have to the
Speaker 1: the the organization has to trust and make sure that
Speaker 1: they know that you can hold secrets to um. I
Speaker 1: mean you just I feel like I look at it
Speaker 1: like you just control with you control. I mean I'm
Speaker 1: doing I'm gonna do my partner. I mean hopefully anything
Speaker 1: else missing it come along. And I mean that's well,
Speaker 1: you sit there and you do what you do. You
Speaker 1: see the guys that you want to be, that you
Speaker 1: want to conversate with, and you see the guys that
Speaker 1: you want to dis is yourself from. You see, that's
Speaker 1: gotta do. So are you when you sit in the
Speaker 1: locker room, are you just kind of you're taking mental
Speaker 1: notes of uh Nope, yes, heck no. Yeah. When I
Speaker 1: when I first got there at home, I had to
Speaker 1: kind of figure it out. I mean, now it's just cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, I know we're here for work, so
Speaker 1: it's like I have my conversations. I keep the conversation
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to be and down't going to fart
Speaker 1: the next mm hmm. Yeah, that's want. That's that's kind
Speaker 1: of I did a little bit too. That's exhausting, has
Speaker 1: to be sometimes, So yeah, trying to figure out who's
Speaker 1: who's telling the truth, who's selling your a bag full
Speaker 1: of good? So what were some of those biggest aha
Speaker 1: moments you had last year? Then? I wouldn't really say
Speaker 1: it was nothing too crazy for real good. I mean
Speaker 1: when you started off him for him, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, when they started off like, yeah, I'm just
Speaker 1: saying over him personally, that's what I'm saying, you gotta
Speaker 1: have some good. In the beginning, it was tough to
Speaker 1: watch him. Yeah, So it was kind of like that's
Speaker 1: how it was for me though, because it's like I've
Speaker 1: been winning out my life literally to middle school, high school, college,
Speaker 1: and I get here, I'm like, man, we're twent five,
Speaker 1: Like man, what's up? Like something gotta change. I Mean
Speaker 1: it was frustrating then, like because it's like we're losing,
Speaker 1: but we're losing by small stuff, Like you're losing games
Speaker 1: you should be winning. Yeah, So it was just like,
Speaker 1: what can I do? But they can just help us
Speaker 1: a little bit to get what we're going And I
Speaker 1: mean it was rough. I had like three weeks open
Speaker 1: and played. I didn't drop the first played three weeks straight.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, man, what's up with me? What I
Speaker 1: got going on? And it was just me thinking too
Speaker 1: much and being out there. It would you like, man,
Speaker 1: just go back and just being you like, yeah, they coaches,
Speaker 1: they're doing this and that, but man, you gotta do
Speaker 1: what you're comfortable with. Everybody wants you to do stuff
Speaker 1: this way and that way. Man, you gotta do what
Speaker 1: you're comfortable with. Let's go back to the COMBA. You
Speaker 1: didn't get Wade, you didn't left. However, they were glowing
Speaker 1: reviews about you all through the season leading up to
Speaker 1: and beyond the Heisman Trophy and then and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the draft comes and now of a
Speaker 1: sudden they didn't notice that you were skinny, right, some
Speaker 1: dominant whole National championship games, all of a sudden, there's something.
Speaker 1: I mean, he didn't had no caps before he got
Speaker 1: to the National championship. Enough. I mean I got to
Speaker 1: the point I got to the point I really care
Speaker 1: no more. It was just like, okay, y'all say this
Speaker 1: and that. Whatever receiver y'all thinking about taking. Just name
Speaker 1: something that he can do that I can't do. I mean,
Speaker 1: like airbounce up here, like oh yeah, but we need
Speaker 1: you to block here. And now I'm like, you can
Speaker 1: put on the tape. I'm out there blocking whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, blocking ain't got nothing to do with
Speaker 1: your side most of that. If you want to do
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people that didn't. It just
Speaker 1: ain't gonna get a name absolutely. But there are some linebackers,
Speaker 1: Yeah there's some. But there's a guy on your team,
Speaker 1: Fletcher Cox. I know your little asses can't block him. Yea.
Speaker 1: At this point the point, it's like, okay, I'm playing smart,
Speaker 1: not for the well you see flesh. It is nice, dude,
Speaker 1: but he will run your ass off. Yeah, bring up.
Speaker 1: You can put yourself in the predictive. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: a financial to say, like I ain't a math of attention,
Speaker 1: but I'm running these numbers, my checking the savings. You're
Speaker 1: gonna eliminate all of that exactly. So you you decided,
Speaker 1: you know how take us through that process. So how
Speaker 1: did you you know? I I understand you didn't concern yourself,
Speaker 1: but you had to because it was so blatantly out
Speaker 1: there every single time. So how did what did you
Speaker 1: go through with just with your team to figure out
Speaker 1: what was the best way to go through? Um? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I just straight up told him what I weighing or not?
Speaker 1: They're gonna say the same thing. I don't weigh in.
Speaker 1: Oh he too small? I win? Oh he too small?
Speaker 1: They're gonna say the same thing. So I'm just not
Speaker 1: gonna do it. Regards So what did you weigh heading
Speaker 1: up to the draft? I was one seventy two? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What you weigh in right now? Want seventy? I'll be
Speaker 1: up and down prost Yeah. So are you? Are you
Speaker 1: learning the left and all that stuff and not saying
Speaker 1: learning the left like you don't know how the left?
Speaker 1: But learning left? That that doesn't take away your take
Speaker 1: away the swave of your hips and elusiveness and and
Speaker 1: being able to run jump stop but also gain some
Speaker 1: power and strength at the same time. How how is
Speaker 1: that working out for you? Um? It's good. I mean
Speaker 1: I know myself. I know when something gets good, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you know, hey, man doing it? Man, which
Speaker 1: is what number is that? Hey? Man? You get about
Speaker 1: really you get about man, Hey, we used to have
Speaker 1: an exercise that's just the big, that's just the big.
Speaker 1: Because you ain't even really clarified. I'm trying to let
Speaker 1: him just flow because I already know what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: Lay they used to have to do back in the day.
Speaker 1: But we used to have to do strength and conditioning
Speaker 1: like they do the forty vertical bitch and they put
Speaker 1: on their Brian used only getting five times dog. I said, Man,
Speaker 1: you'd be looking I get it off. He'd be real
Speaker 1: because he tied people like, no, you know I can't
Speaker 1: you know I can't lift it. That was literally gonna
Speaker 1: be my next question of you talked about things that
Speaker 1: are draining like you've kind of mentioned it though, but
Speaker 1: how draining is that? Because everyone keeps saying, man, you're
Speaker 1: too small, you're too small, or what Kenny lift? What
Speaker 1: Kenny lift? Like that? That does just have to be draining.
Speaker 1: They completely get on your nerves. When you know you can.
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is produce, and all you do
Speaker 1: is produced even when you produce that listen, you know
Speaker 1: how many people have told me, I'm oh, these whole,
Speaker 1: the whole. Anytime I talk about anybody, I'm a hater.
Speaker 1: Uh Um. I was nothing but a slot receiver. I
Speaker 1: didn't play in the slot, but I wish I did
Speaker 1: right it would have helped my career. I'd probably play
Speaker 1: twenty two years if I played in the slot I
Speaker 1: was at. I was at dinner with uh a few buddies,
Speaker 1: and one of those buddies happened to be uh. The
Speaker 1: team president used to be a team president of the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers. His name is Mark Richardson. His dad name
Speaker 1: is uh Mr Richard. You know there's a couple of
Speaker 1: billion dollars used on the team. And Mark says at dinner,
Speaker 1: a smitty not too bad for a returner. I looked
Speaker 1: at him, I said a returner. He said, yeah, we
Speaker 1: drive to use a return I said, know the hell,
Speaker 1: you're dead. He's gonna see there goes that chip. It's
Speaker 1: not a chip. You drafted me as a returner. But
Speaker 1: when you're drafting me and you're scouting me, I played
Speaker 1: wide receiver who happened to play punt return and kick off,
Speaker 1: it's not a chip, it's a you put me in
Speaker 1: a box, and I refused to live in that box.
Speaker 1: And then you're telling me because I don't want to
Speaker 1: live in that box, that I have a chip or
Speaker 1: that i'm I'm rebelling against authority. But the whole purpose
Speaker 1: of life is to is to get the most out
Speaker 1: of what you can get. Right when you get the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Nobody goes, yeah, I'm gonna geting if you don't go
Speaker 1: to a job and say I want to make the
Speaker 1: same amount of money for the next thirty years. Person personally, yes,
Speaker 1: And I think it just fits in that we want
Speaker 1: to put people in boxes and but yet we want
Speaker 1: to call them renegades or to have chips on that
Speaker 1: shoulder if we don't accept they're marginalizing us or limiting
Speaker 1: us because we refuse to be limited. Yeah, like I
Speaker 1: think that that that is the whole premise about hopes
Speaker 1: and dreams, isn't it day dreaming? If not, you should
Speaker 1: been you should have stayed You're asked in Louisiana, right,
Speaker 1: you should have never went outside of that and I
Speaker 1: wanted to be anything more just you should have stayed
Speaker 1: election to how dare you get a college degree? How
Speaker 1: dare you want to raise a family. We want to
Speaker 1: limit people, justify our limitations, and then get mad at
Speaker 1: the people who don't want to, who don't want to
Speaker 1: live with your limitations on their life. Yeah, whether he
Speaker 1: would have lifted or not lifted, he would have heard
Speaker 1: the same chatter, right, And it's just gotta be someone says.
Speaker 1: And someone may even listen to this right now and
Speaker 1: be like, oh man, he's saying. You know, if it's
Speaker 1: two hundred, get off the rack. Man, this brother had
Speaker 1: sixty four catches. Yeah, sixty four catching in the league
Speaker 1: and sixty four catching in the league. I don't care.
Speaker 1: Here's what I asked the strength coach. When am I
Speaker 1: ever gonna be laying on my back kneed the bench
Speaker 1: two hundred pounds? First of all, I'm laying on my
Speaker 1: back bench or two other pounds. That's what problem. Think
Speaker 1: about it? When do I need to use this particular
Speaker 1: that range emotion, that range emotion. Well, I'm on, I
Speaker 1: ain't got pancakes. Let me get this TV off. That's
Speaker 1: the only time that's gonna be moment other than that
Speaker 1: you swipe and jump and running. I mean, it also
Speaker 1: doesn't I mean, it measures your strength, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: make measure your capabilities. This cat who can bench three fifteen,
Speaker 1: they's still getting rain. Let me tell you in some
Speaker 1: dudes I played against that could bench three hundred fifty
Speaker 1: pounds jaw wet tissue paper. I'm just to sleep. Sleep.
Speaker 1: You know he knows it too. Yeah, or walk up
Speaker 1: to him. They're being there and walk up to him
Speaker 1: and practice me like, bro, don't Yeah, I know you
Speaker 1: heard this before. Joe has not and I know you
Speaker 1: heard you. You know you used to have friends over
Speaker 1: your mom and said, don't let you free, just get
Speaker 1: your ask what right? I look at it. Don't let
Speaker 1: that weight room get your asked? What today? That that
Speaker 1: wight room get your burned? You know what? So some
Speaker 1: cool moments that you've experienced in the league thus far,
Speaker 1: I say, man, every day just being out there against
Speaker 1: slay him. Man, the energy he brings and it's always
Speaker 1: since day when I got up in the young boy,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go at it to day. I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean I liked it, like, yeah, we're gonna go back
Speaker 1: and forth, and I mean that that's probably the best
Speaker 1: thing that could happen to me having him and I
Speaker 1: look at that's my o g on the team. Anytime
Speaker 1: I got a question about a dB always go to him.
Speaker 1: He gonna watch the film let me know he thinks.
Speaker 1: And I say, that's probably the biggest highlight of my
Speaker 1: of my rookie career, rookie season, just that just being
Speaker 1: able to talk to him and him just always just
Speaker 1: being there, no matter if I got a question or not.
Speaker 1: We have say on here Slay. I was in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: he was in Detroit and he has um. We got
Speaker 1: a little going at each other. I was I was
Speaker 1: still injured coming back from injury. He had asked for jersey.
Speaker 1: It was like, want to do a church jersey exchange
Speaker 1: And I thought it was a trick that he trying
Speaker 1: to soften me up giving my church and no dB,
Speaker 1: but Slave is just an authentic dude. Yeah, what's what's
Speaker 1: some of the what are some of the things you're
Speaker 1: learning about dbs um going up against Slavery Week, because
Speaker 1: you know he's it's a big place, sleigh, right, He's
Speaker 1: he's a he's a he's a country boy too, just
Speaker 1: like you. What are you learning from him that you
Speaker 1: can that you can take on as your career continues
Speaker 1: to go and then eventually his career was subside because
Speaker 1: you know he's just a little bit older than you. Um,
Speaker 1: the list stuff that I do that could give giveaway
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do with dB. Like he told me
Speaker 1: last week when I changed my speed, he know often
Speaker 1: to run a stock right or something like that. So
Speaker 1: it was just always just the little tales that I
Speaker 1: had that I don't realize easy well you know what
Speaker 1: rufin right, and just ways that I can always use
Speaker 1: that against the d being things like that. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: probably cause you're coach telling you to run all the time.
Speaker 1: You've always been told you run faster. Huh yeah, slow
Speaker 1: people always telling fast people were run faster. So what
Speaker 1: are you starting to implement to your regiment now going
Speaker 1: into this upcoming season? Um? I mean, man, just really
Speaker 1: catching a lot more things like that. That's that's the
Speaker 1: main thing, because I mean that's that's what you're here for.
Speaker 1: Get open to catch the ball. So just as many
Speaker 1: catches as I can. I know right now, every every
Speaker 1: day I'm guaranteed at least five sixty tennis balls. And
Speaker 1: that's if I understand. I don't understand the tennis balls
Speaker 1: helped me on Now it's more of a making sure
Speaker 1: you look looking in all the way coordinated stuff like that,
Speaker 1: because you know you teen sometimes you thank God and
Speaker 1: you were looking at all the year with this ball.
Speaker 1: You gotta make sure you look at all ways into had. Okay,
Speaker 1: what has it been like for you to play in
Speaker 1: the NFC East, Uh, Because everybody look at us like
Speaker 1: we the we're the weakest division that it is. See.
Speaker 1: See I'm talking from an old head. The NFC East
Speaker 1: used to be the division. The NFC East and the
Speaker 1: NYFCY West would would be the division. The winner out
Speaker 1: of those two games, the winner out of first of
Speaker 1: all the NFC East and NFC West would be going
Speaker 1: to the nc Championship and and based on that generally
Speaker 1: would win the Super Bowl. So I'm not talking in
Speaker 1: that regards. I'm talking in the regards of you play
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, tough matchup. Uh. Their fans travel stories franchise,
Speaker 1: they travel. You're playing the New York Giants, story franchise
Speaker 1: that they travel. The Commanders they've been horrible, not great
Speaker 1: in in the recent years, but they travel as well.
Speaker 1: And you got Philly. Philly is the most rudest fans
Speaker 1: out there, but they keep it one hundred and they travel.
Speaker 1: So you're playing in the NFC East that there's always
Speaker 1: high expectations. Whether you guys live up to them, it ain't.
Speaker 1: It's not for me to say. But you still have
Speaker 1: high expectations now with a j. Brown higher expectations to
Speaker 1: Slim Reaper, high expectations. Jalen hurts high expectations, like now
Speaker 1: it's you guys are back to y'all can play football?
Speaker 1: Can you can your link? Will you finish this? Will
Speaker 1: you start the season the way you finished the season
Speaker 1: last year? So I I didn't mean it in a
Speaker 1: y'all playing the weakest. I mean is man weak, good,
Speaker 1: bad or and different? There's an expectation, brother, And are
Speaker 1: you ready for Oh yeah, most definitely. I mean that's
Speaker 1: that's the whole thing. Like we've made all these moves,
Speaker 1: like we like we know it's time, like we we
Speaker 1: got it, gotta put the pieces together and things like that,
Speaker 1: continue to get the chemistry, but like we know it's though,
Speaker 1: we know, we know you got a chance. M Um,
Speaker 1: Steve brought up a good one just now. How have
Speaker 1: you with your demeanor and that you've talked about, how
Speaker 1: have you been able to embrace that Eagles fan base
Speaker 1: that to his point, they keep it a hundred, They
Speaker 1: keep it being have you been able to embrace that
Speaker 1: fan base from your demeanor with me being me, I'm
Speaker 1: hard on myself, so whatever somebody else got to say
Speaker 1: about me, it don't really bother me. It just let
Speaker 1: me know, like, Okay, sometimes some of the stuff they
Speaker 1: see they say, I'm like, okay, that's bullshit. But sometimes
Speaker 1: there's not funny. I don't really but when I really
Speaker 1: think about it, when I when I reread it, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I love it. Man, that's great. Tell us how you really, friend, bro.
Speaker 1: Philly fans will kill y'all. Yeah. Man, they keep it real.
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't rather be. I would want to be
Speaker 1: nowhere else I will do. Let's get down to it. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why didn't you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You gotta be real careful with this question.
Speaker 1: You from Louisiana. Yeah, what you think about those Philly
Speaker 1: cheese steaks. Man, they just you know how like they nasty.
Speaker 1: Just tell you how they nash. Look, I'm with you,
Speaker 1: but it's not the fact that they nash, is the
Speaker 1: fact that they hype it up like you can't get
Speaker 1: it nowhere. Like it's difference when like Louisiana, like, man,
Speaker 1: you're not fingna come up here and get no gumbling.
Speaker 1: Don't get a cheese sea from anywhere. So we used
Speaker 1: to go when we played Philly. I hated. I hated
Speaker 1: playing Philly for a number of reasons. One if it's
Speaker 1: if it's like November, the separate, it's gonna be cold
Speaker 1: in the other part after the game, the Philly they
Speaker 1: I don't won't know greasy, nasty, soggy cheese with salvage
Speaker 1: controversial food take. But Philly cheese steaks are mad at best.
Speaker 1: That's really gonna get Philly fans mad about the cheese steaks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm just i'nna be honest everything every time
Speaker 1: I want to Philly admit it best at best. Oh
Speaker 1: do you know? Do you know after the game they
Speaker 1: haven't seen nothing about album, so not a bread soggy
Speaker 1: and it ain't a good tip for TI with a
Speaker 1: sticker holding it together steam. Yeah, it's like getting French
Speaker 1: fries that's been in the bag for ten hours. At
Speaker 1: least you can pop them in the air fries. Nothing
Speaker 1: you can do with that, with that cheese state nothing.
Speaker 1: How has your life really changed moving to Philly? I
Speaker 1: mean it's different. It's way differently from the South. Man,
Speaker 1: people up your route. You know, in the South, you
Speaker 1: you talked to have manners and spect the others and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Yere, man, they ain't they worried about
Speaker 1: all that. Man, you know, I'm a I'm at walmart. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm a woman coming down out. I got the way.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I'm I'm sorry. I mean you wait.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, you can't be here. You too nice.
Speaker 1: I'm like yeah. So I was listening to him. I
Speaker 1: was listening to something the other day and someone was
Speaker 1: explaining Southern hospitality and it was like, man, I just
Speaker 1: the passive aggressiveness of Southern hospital I'm like, no, they're
Speaker 1: legit people in the South that want to hold the
Speaker 1: door before you, that wanted to excuse me, that want
Speaker 1: to hey, if they say hey, well I want to
Speaker 1: hang out let's do lunch. They really want to hang
Speaker 1: out so much. It's not the it's not the industries stuff,
Speaker 1: but for the people, who is they mess up? The
Speaker 1: people really have Southern hospitality. To probably DeVante's point of no,
Speaker 1: he really open the door, opened up the door, or
Speaker 1: excuse me, ma'am, or any of those things. It's legit.
Speaker 1: He really trying to he he really has a nice desposition.
Speaker 1: I've opened the door up, been in New York, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously a few times and open up the door and
Speaker 1: clutching their purse. No. But but I'm just saying, because
Speaker 1: they think you're setting them up. They think it's a
Speaker 1: it's a real reason that you are. No, ma'am. Don't
Speaker 1: call me ma'am. Yeah right, it's like, well, you don't
Speaker 1: want me to call you what? It's not passive aggressive, No,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not even close. So Philly's Philly's training
Speaker 1: facilities in New Jersey. So obviously living in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: it's a little different right from the South. And so
Speaker 1: how are you how are you fitting in? It has
Speaker 1: to be different for you. Yeah, man, I mean the
Speaker 1: big the big get staying was just like everything just
Speaker 1: being Yeah, it's a big city, but everything is compact,
Speaker 1: like it's always traffic and stuff like that. You know,
Speaker 1: back in the South where I'm from a small town,
Speaker 1: you ain't got worried about no traffic. Man, I can
Speaker 1: get up ten minutes before I do anything. Be right down.
Speaker 1: You've been late a few times, No, I ain't know.
Speaker 1: I'm always up early early person always. What's some of
Speaker 1: the old South things that you do in the big city. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, guys look at and go all that boy,
Speaker 1: he's from the South. You'd be frying fish on the balcony,
Speaker 1: don't you. I know, I can't trofore it once bailing
Speaker 1: in the backyard, Listen, man, I know, I know a
Speaker 1: country boy, bull what you're bailing in the backyard? Just
Speaker 1: crawlfish and turkey necks something like that. Just tell him
Speaker 1: why you gotta board the turn the turkey next though,
Speaker 1: because they were here laughing and Kiki in Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wasn't kicking. I was laughing, I said, laughing and Kiki,
Speaker 1: they don't know, Kiki, I was laughing out cried. Man.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of people that said that they try.
Speaker 1: They were like, okay, this really well is it? Listen? Brother,
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna get me eating turkey next. Like I
Speaker 1: know how you eat turkey next. I shall pass. No, no, not,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying the same thing. I'm forty three. I
Speaker 1: my folks back home, they eat southern. I They're just no, no,
Speaker 1: because you also gotta have a turkey next to season
Speaker 1: the greens. Yeah, for sure, it's it's duality. Whatever. Just
Speaker 1: dismiss our. No, no, because I know the method in
Speaker 1: which you have to eat the turkey next. So I
Speaker 1: prefer no. That's why there are some times where I
Speaker 1: sit there and I'm grilling, I can reminisce and go back.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I missed this. There's other times like no,
Speaker 1: I'm not like Christmas. Uh, you got turkey the Marie
Speaker 1: Coundars limring pie. Yeah, and then you got somebody that
Speaker 1: decides that they want to break chicklings. It don't miss
Speaker 1: for thanksgivin. It just don't at my Nostrils're not you're
Speaker 1: not cooking out chills at my house. You ain't bringing
Speaker 1: them to my house. Even if you cook them, ask
Speaker 1: somebody else. They ain't coming in my house at all.
Speaker 1: So going to the going to the corner store, he
Speaker 1: was growing up the candid store with the pig feet
Speaker 1: and uh in the bold eggs, Yeah you had those? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: look at it. He didn't chomp. Don't know, there was delicious.
Speaker 1: Huh look at them. But what's the difference between that
Speaker 1: and chiless? Nothing? Because they are all of them disgusting. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I ain't see it. What about Uh I've never had
Speaker 1: it because I'm not a pork fan, but pork butt No,
Speaker 1: I mean that just that that could just be chopped barbecue.
Speaker 1: But I'm just talking like here in Charlotte, they have
Speaker 1: like the smoker and they have it. I ain't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: chances are if you've had like anything like chopped pork. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's just when it comes when you buy it
Speaker 1: off the off the dude Here in the South. When
Speaker 1: I got here, you know, like on the weekends in
Speaker 1: the summer, they have a dude, yeah the truck. And
Speaker 1: the first time I saw, I was like, I was
Speaker 1: just stopped buying. So I was like, Uh, it's just different.
Speaker 1: So is mom bringing food? Is mom cooking stuff? Come
Speaker 1: when she come in town or has she moved up
Speaker 1: with you? What's what's that gonna cook? What's what's your
Speaker 1: go to men with mama's in town. Gotta be dumbo.
Speaker 1: What come sizas chick shrout? Yea? So how is the
Speaker 1: seafood and and and getting all that stuff out there?
Speaker 1: Getting good seafood? Really? Nah, I ain't even intested out
Speaker 1: to see if it's good. You living there for a
Speaker 1: long time, you better start. I'm gonna cooking myself. I
Speaker 1: do myself. You can cook, Yeah, tell me something. What's
Speaker 1: what's some of the what's your goal too? Okay? What else? Breakfast?
Speaker 1: What about breakfast? What's your what's your skill on breakfast?
Speaker 1: I'm I don't really too much eat breakfast, but if
Speaker 1: I do, I'm a big oatmeal guy. People you just
Speaker 1: pulled like me. That's my go to open because hey,
Speaker 1: when you when you barely got anything, you gotta have
Speaker 1: something that a stick till a nutrition is not a
Speaker 1: place when you pour. It's breakfast, oatmeal, lunch, anything in
Speaker 1: between is Nathan so old man, you're like cream wheat too.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, yep see that's the pole appetite and it
Speaker 1: don't change still forty three years old. Not my goal
Speaker 1: to oatmeal. I gotta have my office. I got it. Grits.
Speaker 1: You anything that is gonna last longer than that because
Speaker 1: the bread the eggs. Man, if you had that by seven,
Speaker 1: bro by, not thirty, you're still hungry. It is not there.
Speaker 1: So what does what does success looked like for you
Speaker 1: in NFL? Living up to the goals that I that
Speaker 1: I said for myself every season. Um, I mean, of
Speaker 1: course I want to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: gotta get that for show. I mean, just whatever my
Speaker 1: goals is for each season, just checking on boxes off
Speaker 1: and just every year just checking that off. From where
Speaker 1: you stand, what does success look like as of right now?
Speaker 1: I got a lot to work one Like last y'all,
Speaker 1: I left a lot after last year. I left too
Speaker 1: much out the last year. Um, I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: get a rat that was supposed to be easy easy.
Speaker 1: I left it out there easy. Uh. I mean I
Speaker 1: had I wanted more touchdowns, But yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: I left a lot out there, a lot out there
Speaker 1: that if I would have made them place, I probably
Speaker 1: got what I want. It's the NFL a little bit
Speaker 1: harder than what you thought it would be. It's harder
Speaker 1: scoring for some reason, it's harder scoring in the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. What it is just scoring. It's real
Speaker 1: hard in the NFL, and they keep everything in front
Speaker 1: of you. It's it's so much. It's in college, just checkers.
Speaker 1: In the NFL's chess. Yeah right, you know from the
Speaker 1: twenties and twenties, it seems like it's checkers, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, defense coordinator switching things up, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, now you're playing you're playing chessing
Speaker 1: or you're playing Sorry or Monopoly, and you you're not
Speaker 1: visiting jail. You're stuck in jail trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: You you can't get out of you can't get on
Speaker 1: land on the free parking, keep landing on Broadway or
Speaker 1: park place. You just can never figure it out. And
Speaker 1: that that that's the intangibles. That's what makes the NFL
Speaker 1: such an intriguing uh sport, such a a high low profession,
Speaker 1: and with some men figure it out and some men
Speaker 1: never figure it out. Yeah, you know, what's what's some
Speaker 1: of the things that you learned the hard way thus
Speaker 1: far that you were unprepared for. It wasn't really nothing
Speaker 1: did that I came across that just called me on it,
Speaker 1: like I wasn't ready for because I mean, you got
Speaker 1: more time to do stuff that you need to do,
Speaker 1: So like I ain't gotta worry about going to class,
Speaker 1: so that could be me watching more family and stuff
Speaker 1: like this. So it kind of like it kind of
Speaker 1: was easier because I got more time in my hands
Speaker 1: to do the things I need to do. I got
Speaker 1: more time in my hands to take care of my
Speaker 1: body and stuff like that. Yeah, well, what's the question
Speaker 1: that you hate getting asked? Um, it's Jalen Hurt's gonna
Speaker 1: be the quarterback that that we wanted to beat. I mean, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean his first year starting, we get to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: things like that. I mean, like, yeah, stuff ain't always
Speaker 1: go right, but I mean that's the part that's part
Speaker 1: of the game. Man. You don't have your little ups
Speaker 1: and downs and stuff like that. But I mean, him
Speaker 1: being a guy he is, he knows when he's doing
Speaker 1: something wrong, and he knows what he gotta work on.
Speaker 1: So that's why I can appreciate a whole lot more
Speaker 1: because you have some guys that just they just don't
Speaker 1: get what they're doing and they just they don't want
Speaker 1: to live up to the like Okay, they know they're wrong,
Speaker 1: but they don't want to hear like I know I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: but man, I ain't trying to hit it, but like
Speaker 1: him just being real with itself, like and me being
Speaker 1: able if I know he was wrong or something like that,
Speaker 1: ain't that ain't what they said, Like that wasn't right,
Speaker 1: Like hes gonna live like, yeah, I sucked it up
Speaker 1: like that type of guy he is, And I mean
Speaker 1: I can live with that. Somebody's always gonna know what
Speaker 1: they did wrong and not scared to see if they admit, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I sunked that up. And when they're wrong, they know
Speaker 1: what they gotta do to make it right. Do you
Speaker 1: think that's an advantage to have the relationship that you
Speaker 1: probably had with him prior to this? Do you think
Speaker 1: that's been an advantage that excuse me, y'all being able
Speaker 1: to have that chemistry and you have that rapport with him.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely, because I mean if I had somebody
Speaker 1: I've never been with, I probably wouldn't have been as
Speaker 1: comfortable just like talking to them, you know some some
Speaker 1: of that stuff. Like I said, I don't talk to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, so it's gonna be like I
Speaker 1: don't really know you like that. So like, I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna I can tell you something. You know, some people,
Speaker 1: you can't tell people some things and they take it
Speaker 1: the right way, like they think that you're hating on
Speaker 1: him or something like that. But with him, I can
Speaker 1: go to him, tell him, tell him something. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be like, right, that's unique. I'm gonna tell you right now,
Speaker 1: that's unique. That's that, that's something that you need to
Speaker 1: prepare yourself. That may not be the case all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. So that leads me to really ask you,
Speaker 1: why is Alabama so different? What makes Alabama different? Man?
Speaker 1: Because Alabama is it is like the NFL. You ain't
Speaker 1: doing what you do? Yeah I will you ain't. You
Speaker 1: ain't making a plague supposed to make you. Ain't on
Speaker 1: time for stuff to be on time. The next man
Speaker 1: right there waiting for you to slip up. How did
Speaker 1: the fans and community treat you at Alabama? Oh, it's
Speaker 1: all love. I mean, like like he said, Alabama football
Speaker 1: is Alabama, So I mean like they love him. Man.
Speaker 1: They all into it. They just always they into it.
Speaker 1: They're gonna always speaking no matter what. They're not like
Speaker 1: feeling way if you you're playing bad, they're gonna let
Speaker 1: you know, like they're gonna always show love, don't matter what.
Speaker 1: Was it ever overwhelming? I'm sorry, go ahead now that
Speaker 1: was it? No, I was just gonna say it. Was
Speaker 1: it ever overwhelming with your disposition just kind of how
Speaker 1: you are being, being kind of introverted? Was it ever
Speaker 1: over women? All the all the love they show? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely still still to this day. That's just high. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not one of the guys that like
Speaker 1: like people just sitting there praising me all the time, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know I did this and I don't need to
Speaker 1: hear all that, just like I don't like autographs and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It's cool, but at a certain point
Speaker 1: it's like all right, man, like I ain't got time
Speaker 1: for all the well man, you you've shown us a
Speaker 1: lot of your personality. Um, and you definitely opened up
Speaker 1: throughout this interview. What's one thing people don't know about you?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like I really know everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody knows I don't really talk as much.
Speaker 1: I mean the more I talk, the more I talked
Speaker 1: to you, the more that means I really focus. Like that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you got don't hear you. I feel like we
Speaker 1: asked you for yourself scary number. At first she was like, hey, right,
Speaker 1: like my hen look, I appersually just love watch your play.
Speaker 1: I loved h I love your Alabama. Just excited to
Speaker 1: see how your career develops. You know you gotta go
Speaker 1: with a J. Brown. That's that's a real one. Um.
Speaker 1: But then you also you know you're trying to carve
Speaker 1: your own way. Um, you know you got to number
Speaker 1: one wide receivers that school going to uh competitively, uh
Speaker 1: demand the ball. And so it'll be fun to see
Speaker 1: uh the one to punch right and and and have
Speaker 1: fun with it. Man. Um, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be quick. You know you're gonna you're gonna go
Speaker 1: to sleep, wake up and be ten years in the
Speaker 1: league and and it'll be damn there over. So enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And I bemiss to tell you save all that money, brother,
Speaker 1: save it all right, brother, appreciate, appreciate you. Man all right.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person. You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith, Singior, I'm Gerald little John and this has
Speaker 1: cut to it, cut to It with Steve Smith, singior
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a product of Cut to It LLC,
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