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 John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. They's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: Let's cut to it. You ain't heard am about it?
Speaker 1: Then we're about to let you know. It's all. Hey,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Cut to a fans. We have a
Speaker 1: special podcast. Just wanted to take the opportunity. Uh. Chris
Speaker 1: Widman uh is on here. Uh. Then also backstage, Joe,
Speaker 1: you know you got g still in the building as usual.
Speaker 1: And then we've got a special guest, uh my daughter Bailey,
Speaker 1: uh snitching and telling all the stories of of of
Speaker 1: her being uh my my my only daughter. Um, but
Speaker 1: take an opportunity to talk to Chris using the UFC
Speaker 1: and also just his perspective on the You got the
Speaker 1: NFL combine coming up, um, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things about the combine is good. There's some question marks, um,
Speaker 1: just like anything else. If you're saying, hey, question mark,
Speaker 1: what do you mean a question mark? Just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how much of the combine is really usable tangible.
Speaker 1: We'll see. So I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and I also enjoy this little conversation with my daughter
Speaker 1: as well. So this is gonna be fun. Jee, How
Speaker 1: you doing? Man? We have a guest in the house.
Speaker 1: Let me introduce her. Me me, me, me, me me,
Speaker 1: Harry Aint Harry, Harry A here you here? I got
Speaker 1: my daughter A K. Bailey Jordan's a K b j
Speaker 1: a K Bay Hope it's are you doing bad? What's
Speaker 1: going on? Nothing like you come on and snitch on? Pops.
Speaker 1: I don't know what there's a sitch about? You are good?
Speaker 1: All right? How is it being my child? It really
Speaker 1: depends on the day, do too? Um? Some days are great.
Speaker 1: Some days well it's different now since I don't live
Speaker 1: at home, but what I did live at home, I
Speaker 1: feel like it would be a little tiptoe and sometimes
Speaker 1: but oh for all I mean, it's good tiptoe, go
Speaker 1: go in the detail on this tiptoe. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: very open on this because this is it's a great
Speaker 1: it's a unique. I think sometimes one perspective, but it's
Speaker 1: a because from a father I'm a dad. Yeah, she's
Speaker 1: a child. The serial thing is a really good example.
Speaker 1: So we live in this house and we had a
Speaker 1: like a home theater. And how old was I like
Speaker 1: eight or nine? Maybe? Or was I younger? Probably? Probably? Okay,
Speaker 1: So it was it was probably like a Sunday. I
Speaker 1: think my mom was out of town. I don't know
Speaker 1: where she was, but we were getting ready to watch
Speaker 1: Miss Doubt Fire and I was like, and I was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: can I go get some cereal? But give the backstory
Speaker 1: on why you had to ask to bring food in.
Speaker 1: So she's a spiller. Now, yeah, I spilled. And and
Speaker 1: when I bring stuff in places that aren't the kitchen,
Speaker 1: I don't bring them back down. So like he would
Speaker 1: come up my room when I was in high school
Speaker 1: and be like cups downstairs? Okay, I would have like
Speaker 1: five cups on my nights. Stay, don't make me pop you.
Speaker 1: How many cups did we find in your vehicle? Of
Speaker 1: from like we have? You know, it's being a sports guy.
Speaker 1: You know, you get free stuff all the time. You
Speaker 1: get bottles, right, you get a water bottle for under arm,
Speaker 1: a water bottle from Rebok, a water bottle from here.
Speaker 1: Everybody wanna throw a water water bottle for the foundation. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: but before you say this, let me preface. I am
Speaker 1: not a hoarder. No, you're not a hoarder. No one
Speaker 1: accused me. I just want to say, because there were
Speaker 1: seventeen water bottles in my car, bro I'm not a hoarder.
Speaker 1: But it just water bottles in her car. Some of
Speaker 1: them still had liquidin them. Yeah, because I'll like bring
Speaker 1: one to school, leaving in my car and then the
Speaker 1: next day get a new one and then I just
Speaker 1: never brought any in. Okay, she'll continue with this. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it's like, Dad, can I bring some cereal while
Speaker 1: we watched a movie? And He's like, oh, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: So before that you gotta understand, you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: snack guy. I'm a snack kind of sewer. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: I like some snaps, especially when you're watching the movie.
Speaker 1: And this we had this theater room was over one
Speaker 1: of the garages, so it was to two car garage,
Speaker 1: so it was there was a big theater room, right
Speaker 1: mistaken in building a house. But it was a theater
Speaker 1: room with steps motorized. Yeah, and I had to walk
Speaker 1: up the stairs to get back there. So like, imagine,
Speaker 1: don't even try. Don't believe victim. Now, I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that she said what I'm saying. I see where you're
Speaker 1: coming from. Like, okay, cool. So she goes downstairs, comes
Speaker 1: upstairs with the cereal. So I bring a bowl of
Speaker 1: cereal up there. I'm walking in about to go get comfortable.
Speaker 1: He stops me before I go down the stairs to
Speaker 1: gain my seat. He goes, I said something about cereal.
Speaker 1: I say nothing about no milk, Like, how are you
Speaker 1: gonna eat Syria without milk? I'm with him on that thought.
Speaker 1: With the kids with the milk, they're not how to
Speaker 1: go anywhere with the milk in the cereal. If they
Speaker 1: just have the cereal, we can talk. But if they
Speaker 1: have the milk in the ball with the cereal, there're
Speaker 1: staying on the on that kitchen table. Chris says, the
Speaker 1: milk goes the milk. First of all, if you if
Speaker 1: you have a problem with keeping your containers in areas
Speaker 1: for a long period of time and it has milk
Speaker 1: in it, that's gonna that's gonna stink, that's gonna be nasty.
Speaker 1: So you can't have you know, old milk containers. You know,
Speaker 1: hanging out of your room for too long. It's all right,
Speaker 1: I'm not judging you. I've done No, I'm not judging you.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just I'm with him. I'm on the
Speaker 1: side right now. As a child, I've been there. But
Speaker 1: as a father, you know what's the worst thing, finding
Speaker 1: fruit and milk or anything that has milk inside of it.
Speaker 1: Discovering that in a secret place or in a car
Speaker 1: that has been sitting heat in the heat, not for
Speaker 1: some hours, some days or weeks. It is it since
Speaker 1: a rage in you as a father, that when that
Speaker 1: child is not there, you are saying things that you
Speaker 1: should be ashamed of yourself of saying milk in my car.
Speaker 1: I don't drink milk, first of all, that's nasty. And
Speaker 1: my kids, the smallest, I'll always find some stuff like
Speaker 1: milk shakes. Milk shakes they leave in the back of
Speaker 1: my car, and the little cup holders I'd never look at,
Speaker 1: and so they'll be it'll be like on the door
Speaker 1: side door, within the little cup holders, and I'll find
Speaker 1: it like days litter. How uh twelve just turned twelve,
Speaker 1: nine and six? Yeah, back to the garage one time.
Speaker 1: That's another good story. He got very mad at me.
Speaker 1: I can imagine she broke the garage. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's a problem. I don't know anyone that's gonna be
Speaker 1: congratula after that. Would you ask her why did she
Speaker 1: back into the garage? I think you just actually there's
Speaker 1: actually I wouldn't say it's valid. But so, you know,
Speaker 1: my little brother he's seven at the time, he was
Speaker 1: probably like four or five, and he had a scooter
Speaker 1: he left in the garage in my spot and I
Speaker 1: had to, you know, like do this little thing where
Speaker 1: I would around it. So I was diagonal in the
Speaker 1: garage a little bit. I was late going to work.
Speaker 1: I was behind going to work, and I went to
Speaker 1: back up forgetting I was I toward that thing up
Speaker 1: like it was bad. I wouldn't side. I was like,
Speaker 1: he was like, what comes outside? Why would you do?
Speaker 1: I was like that, and I'm still late for work,
Speaker 1: so I'm like trying to rush him being mad Spike work,
Speaker 1: and of course, of course the friendship six minutes at
Speaker 1: that point. Yeah, and the garage gets fixed the next
Speaker 1: day and I'm riding around with the dint in my
Speaker 1: car for the next like it's a couple of months
Speaker 1: there was a couple and then finally I was like
Speaker 1: I had enough money to be like Dad, like, if
Speaker 1: I have have the money, will you go the other
Speaker 1: have to get my car fixed. He was like yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fine because he was like if you come with
Speaker 1: me with what, you're gonna hold up to your end
Speaker 1: of the bargain, like I'll help you out. And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, that makes sense. But I was my
Speaker 1: friends even be like I don't know it's your car
Speaker 1: anymore because you don't have that d it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, well you know what we need to have
Speaker 1: you on here more. I learned from the best great voice.
Speaker 1: I don't think you all right, Well, good job beach. Alright,
Speaker 1: what do you What do you think about the combine
Speaker 1: from from a uh, you know, your football fanatic, your
Speaker 1: football guy played high school ball, but um what do
Speaker 1: you see the combine? And don't show me I played
Speaker 1: flying football in the mirrors in college. Don't show you know.
Speaker 1: Let's apologize like five picks. Hold y'all didn't have me.
Speaker 1: That's my point. We had a real flag football. That's
Speaker 1: my point. We have a football. Did you have girls
Speaker 1: on the team? No, that was all guys. I don't
Speaker 1: respect if you don't have girls on that why because
Speaker 1: comingo brother, it's all yeah talking about together. What do
Speaker 1: you what do you? What do you? What do you
Speaker 1: think about just the process of the of the combine.
Speaker 1: I mean it's uh in totality when you think about
Speaker 1: the whole draft. In this whole process relatively new, you
Speaker 1: get a chance to see how fast some one is
Speaker 1: in in some relation, how strong they are, um, how
Speaker 1: high they can jump. So all these intangibles that are
Speaker 1: that are measured measurable tangibles. Okay, there's so much that
Speaker 1: goes into playing football, basketball, whatever sport that are immeasurable
Speaker 1: that you don't get a chance to see. So in
Speaker 1: in that standpoint, I think it's cool to where all right,
Speaker 1: we can see how many times he rapped you and
Speaker 1: see how high you your vertical is, and and those
Speaker 1: are cool. I'm always of the mindset like even and
Speaker 1: this maybe tails into conversation like alignment running forty yard dash?
Speaker 1: What is that telling me about him? Right? Like he
Speaker 1: how many linemen do we see making a forty yard birst?
Speaker 1: Hopefully not a lot because something we're wrong every single
Speaker 1: time something. So that's kind of where I'm at or
Speaker 1: you know, shuttle drill. Right, that's very I would rather
Speaker 1: see what alignment does in that because that's more so
Speaker 1: their movement. So I'm more intrigued to hear your perspective
Speaker 1: of of the combine, what its usefulness is. It's up
Speaker 1: and down? Yeah, I haven't. I think it's up and
Speaker 1: down just because of I think sometimes they put too
Speaker 1: much emphasis absolutely on the combine and they give a
Speaker 1: false narrative to people. Right, I don't think the combine
Speaker 1: helps It helps some people, and it fills in the
Speaker 1: gaps of what scouts may not know. Right, you gotta
Speaker 1: think about it. All these colleges, it is physically impossible
Speaker 1: covid no covid um scouts, even college scouts are also
Speaker 1: scouting professional teams too for possible free agents. So it's
Speaker 1: it's a constant scouting department measurables that are constantly moving. Right,
Speaker 1: what do you if if you have scouting in UFC,
Speaker 1: what do you think it would be and how and
Speaker 1: how those numbers equate to a successful UFC fighter. So
Speaker 1: I don't think you'd be able to have a combine
Speaker 1: the way the NFL. I just I just taught using
Speaker 1: a combine concept for for UFC fighters, you would have
Speaker 1: you would have to look at the like they're how
Speaker 1: good they are in competition when it comes to if
Speaker 1: you can look at each art individually, so you look
Speaker 1: at Brazilian jiu jitsu, then you look at boxing. What
Speaker 1: what did jujitsu for UFC look like gonna combine? What
Speaker 1: would you need measurables in that too? I think you
Speaker 1: would need another guy to be competing with to see
Speaker 1: where someone's at. Like so when they did the tryouts
Speaker 1: for the Ultimate Fighter show back in the day, and
Speaker 1: I think they still do it, they would have you
Speaker 1: and another guy do some prison in jiu jitsu. Then
Speaker 1: they would have you so they'd watch how good you
Speaker 1: are with the submission in the ground game, and then
Speaker 1: they would have put you on the pads and they'd
Speaker 1: have some you know, kickboxing coach hole pass you. So
Speaker 1: they kind of get a good idea. What hands are
Speaker 1: that same thing for linement or d linement? You know,
Speaker 1: swim moves against it, hitting the guy to get around
Speaker 1: to sack the quarterback. But do they measure that in
Speaker 1: the combine the man they measure everything. What do they
Speaker 1: do they measure like speed or they measure hands size,
Speaker 1: they measure, they measure you know, they do e K
Speaker 1: g s. They do physical measurements of heart health, you
Speaker 1: know wellness. Um. Then they measure hand size, they measure
Speaker 1: a wingspan. Um, they measure uh five size calf kneecap. Um. Wait,
Speaker 1: they have you take your shirt off and you're just
Speaker 1: in shorts and they take a picture of your front
Speaker 1: and backwards. Um. Then there's a right up on various
Speaker 1: scouts that have seen you throughout the year. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of statements that contradict themselves. Doesn't get in and
Speaker 1: out of breaks. But then one guy says has a
Speaker 1: has has a fifth gear on. The guy says he's
Speaker 1: missing a third gear. Um, I'm not, you know, a mathematician,
Speaker 1: but you gotta get to get the five. You gotta
Speaker 1: go through three. Right. But then you got your you
Speaker 1: got your broad jumps, you got you got your broad jump.
Speaker 1: Bench press. I didn't bench press. Um, so you could
Speaker 1: just say I'm not doing this one. I just I
Speaker 1: just didn't do it. Like, first of all, when are
Speaker 1: you on your back pushing up somebody unless you're getting smashed? Right?
Speaker 1: Are you getting mushed? I mean the bench pressed by
Speaker 1: the design of the of the actual exercise is supposed
Speaker 1: to as you're how strong you are from a core perspective.
Speaker 1: But to your point, which I agree with, it doesn't
Speaker 1: show like there are people who can rep out and
Speaker 1: didn't play, you know, and then there are guys like
Speaker 1: I remember Tyron Matthew when he did the bench, but
Speaker 1: he did like six times. It's a great safety pretty
Speaker 1: so what does it measure at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying I'm against it again, it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a barometer of how strong you are, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't tell the whole story. What's more important though, Like,
Speaker 1: so you've got a guy who's a star college athletes,
Speaker 1: star college kid, and he looks like he has all
Speaker 1: this potential, but then he goes into the combine and
Speaker 1: he's mediocre. Whether it's athletic or academic. Right, some people
Speaker 1: are very smart, but they didn't have a great or
Speaker 1: some people don't handle pressure, you know, some people don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you take a two, three or four year career when
Speaker 1: you have accolades and you have game film and everything
Speaker 1: going through it, and you condense it down into a
Speaker 1: one or two day process, you know, I go back
Speaker 1: to when you ran the forty. I know you were
Speaker 1: a little bit slower than you know you could have
Speaker 1: four four I was four four one, And you know
Speaker 1: you are faster than that. You've ran faster than that
Speaker 1: I've ran. I've ran faster than that at the team
Speaker 1: facility four three one. That's the fastest I've ever run, right,
Speaker 1: but realistically, right, and let's use this if we look
Speaker 1: at the combine, right, and we look at just pure numbers.
Speaker 1: John Ross from Universital of Washington came out. He ran
Speaker 1: the closest to the second fastest time ever. So fast, yes, right,
Speaker 1: so fast that the Bengals moved up and picked him up.
Speaker 1: Think about it, when are you gonna ever run that fast?
Speaker 1: How many times in the game are you running up?
Speaker 1: Are you running the nine? Actually? For him zbro I,
Speaker 1: he didn't play lasting speed like how often are you
Speaker 1: just running straight? Dator? Actually it's a great indicator. DK
Speaker 1: metcalf is a great example of a guy who he
Speaker 1: looks like a Greek guy. He's unbelievable so much that
Speaker 1: he tested off the charts, bench pressed so much wearing
Speaker 1: crop tops great athletes. He wears a shirt the dude
Speaker 1: if I look like him. Remarkable, remarkable. I'm not joking. However,
Speaker 1: they had this young man at the count at the
Speaker 1: draft because of his measurables, he was a guaranteed first rounder.
Speaker 1: The way they was talking, he invented the wide receiver position.
Speaker 1: In my life, this brother gonna make He's running twenty
Speaker 1: two miles per hour and track down the guy. But
Speaker 1: yet he didn't get drafted ahead of a J. Brown,
Speaker 1: who's a pro bowler, some of these other guys, and
Speaker 1: I'm not putting them down, but I'm just also saying
Speaker 1: that DK Metcalf because of his measurables at the combine,
Speaker 1: he became this superstar that actually before he even played.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's not a superstar, but I'm also
Speaker 1: saying that he did not. He did not invent the
Speaker 1: wide receiver position. They're still they're still routes to this day.
Speaker 1: This young man can't run. When the Seattle Seahawks and
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson need to play, do you think they go
Speaker 1: to DK metcal They go to Tyler Locke because that
Speaker 1: man has a PhD and route running either. There's no
Speaker 1: route he cannot run. Now, if you're talking about a
Speaker 1: push off slant, a muscle slant push off, or a
Speaker 1: muscle hitch and a go route and a deep post.
Speaker 1: DK is my guy. But if you want a technician,
Speaker 1: a surgeon, you need somebody to do some work, better
Speaker 1: go to Tyler Lockins. And Tyler did not have the
Speaker 1: measurable that DK has because I think at some point
Speaker 1: there's only scientifically, there's only so many tests you can take.
Speaker 1: There's so many gray areas you can fill in. You
Speaker 1: have to be able to know the game inside out
Speaker 1: and from the head and shoulders, because at some point,
Speaker 1: your athletic SAYSM will leave you. So if you're working
Speaker 1: in the front office, you take off the analyst hat
Speaker 1: and you were working, you're working in that realm, what
Speaker 1: would you draw out of scouting come By? Now, Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I go backwards and I look about
Speaker 1: three or four years ago. There was a guy, little
Speaker 1: Caucasian dude, first name Cooper, last name come I was
Speaker 1: considered an idiot because I said how good he was.
Speaker 1: People said, Steve's an idiot. What does he know? There
Speaker 1: hasn't been I guess fifth fift in ten or twelve
Speaker 1: years ago. There hasn't been a triple Crown winner since
Speaker 1: since two thousand in sixteen, there hasn't been a triple
Speaker 1: Crown winner and then yet now Cooper Cup It's triple
Speaker 1: Crown winner. Do just a square out of Eastern Washington
Speaker 1: who almost gave a football? Thanks for listening to my
Speaker 1: dad and talked a lot. He loves to talk. Just
Speaker 1: give him a minute and he'll be right back. I
Speaker 1: love cut to It, and I love it even more
Speaker 1: when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow
Speaker 1: us on social media too, Smithie, where where at? That's at?
Speaker 1: Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut
Speaker 1: to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith sing
Speaker 1: your what about online? And you can follow us at
Speaker 1: cut to It podcast dot com where you can by
Speaker 1: merch and you can subscribe to this wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts. I got all my answers questions, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for,
Speaker 1: a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. How do
Speaker 1: you scout out your opponent? Chris? What do you look at?
Speaker 1: What attributes do you look at outside of what a
Speaker 1: normal fan like? Oh man, he's big, he's he's muscular.
Speaker 1: Oh he'sh man. You know, he's his colifilower ears are
Speaker 1: a little it's a little bit more colifiled than the
Speaker 1: next guy. Man. A lot, a lot comes down to
Speaker 1: each each situation. So you see how he is in
Speaker 1: the clinch, which is like an overrun the position, and
Speaker 1: you see the different types of movies he's done in
Speaker 1: his fice before, and you kind of get an idea
Speaker 1: of what he's good at, what he's comfortable with, what
Speaker 1: he's confident in. And then it's either you realize that
Speaker 1: you he might be better than than you there or
Speaker 1: you're better than him there, and then you kind of
Speaker 1: adjust based on that. That kind of goes for all
Speaker 1: the different skill sets. Uh. You watch how how they
Speaker 1: react to pressure. You how how that cardio holds up
Speaker 1: under pressure. Um, if you've seen them break before, you
Speaker 1: know they have a breaking point. Um. Yeah. So those
Speaker 1: are pretty much the you know, making a long story short,
Speaker 1: that's pretty much it. So when you see the combine,
Speaker 1: how do you apply what you're watching to say that
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a good player based on what
Speaker 1: you're saying, do you have a combine? Do you need one?
Speaker 1: Or is it better just to see these guys play
Speaker 1: out in college, which is unfair for the people who
Speaker 1: aren't on the big stage. Right. So, but see that's
Speaker 1: the that's the part of it connects the dots. It
Speaker 1: should compliment what you already Yes, but but but I
Speaker 1: think sometimes it short changes people. How so, well, think
Speaker 1: about this. I look at the combine now and I
Speaker 1: watched the playoffs. Did you see anything about Deebo Samuel's
Speaker 1: prior to the combine, prior to last year? This year,
Speaker 1: like they're playing Deebo Sammy is all the next superstar.
Speaker 1: They were playing Deebo Samuel was like seven months ago. No,
Speaker 1: but watching him play what a young man named Deebo.
Speaker 1: First of all, right, there's that ball and then there's Debo.
Speaker 1: The combine helps some of these young guys who are
Speaker 1: not looked at. But then the guys who actually are
Speaker 1: looked at, they don't really perform in a combine because
Speaker 1: they don't want to risk yeah, dropping down two pegs
Speaker 1: right in two pegs, man, he may be between the first,
Speaker 1: the first and the third. He doesn't test well like uh,
Speaker 1: like a great example, man, third round pick. I think
Speaker 1: he end up be in the third round. Or Orlando
Speaker 1: Brown Jr. So him. I was, I was. I was
Speaker 1: hard on him because he was not He was out
Speaker 1: of shape, wasn't prepared. But man in Baltimore and in
Speaker 1: Kansas City man he covered Lamar and Patrick Mahomes backside.
Speaker 1: But if you look at his testing, he was out
Speaker 1: of shape, he wasn't prepared, and the combine actually didn't
Speaker 1: help it. It hurt him because it showed some of
Speaker 1: the things that the Scouter report said about him. Family, business, privileged,
Speaker 1: but just didn't work hard in his first year he didn't,
Speaker 1: but he worked his way. They got him on a
Speaker 1: strict diet routine. My man's balling now so much. I
Speaker 1: came forward. I saw him Thursday night UM in Baltimore
Speaker 1: after the game, walked over and I said, hey, I
Speaker 1: was down on you. I want to tell you I
Speaker 1: was wrong, and I appreciate you proving me wrong. But
Speaker 1: I watched him and I seen I saw it like
Speaker 1: man six ft seven three pounds. I just didn't have
Speaker 1: the same work ethic that he has today. What's the
Speaker 1: percentage of UH like physical to mental and technical in
Speaker 1: the NFL? You think like it because it depends on
Speaker 1: the position. I mean, you can you could get guys
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to mention the name, but you
Speaker 1: can get a wide receiver or a a quarterback who athleticism, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about a guy who played for a
Speaker 1: very popular team. My man had three routes brow a hitch,
Speaker 1: a slant in the back, shoulder fade, jump ball, and
Speaker 1: when he started to lose his athleticism, his numbers dramatically changed,
Speaker 1: to the point of that very popular American team let
Speaker 1: him go and he hasn't played well ever since. You
Speaker 1: go to say that a quarterback in that same division
Speaker 1: at wore green Jersey. When his attributes started to go,
Speaker 1: he looked. So you think it's more just age though.
Speaker 1: So like these guys, you know, you have the combine,
Speaker 1: you got the scouts, they have this combine. They get
Speaker 1: these numbers. So you think those numbers, which is basically
Speaker 1: your physical right, that number only is gonna last for
Speaker 1: a short that it has to develop into more technical
Speaker 1: I think it does only last a short term because
Speaker 1: it also has to do with their lifestyle. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a guy party, is a guy taking care of
Speaker 1: his body. You know, I hate to say, now what
Speaker 1: kind of surface is he playing on? You know? The
Speaker 1: grind of the season. What kind of organization is he in?
Speaker 1: Is he is a past happy organization? How much trade
Speaker 1: is on the tires? Right? All of that plays into it, right,
Speaker 1: guy like um uh? Roddy White played with the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: Man talked to Roddy Man the last couple of years
Speaker 1: of his career. He could play, but he has so
Speaker 1: much wear and tear on his knee blew up so
Speaker 1: he couldn't move on to continue to keep playing, even
Speaker 1: though inside he could, but that knee was holding him back.
Speaker 1: You know, kind of you using the knee cap is
Speaker 1: kind of necessary to run routes. Right, I was rest.
Speaker 1: I played on grass most of the time, so I
Speaker 1: didn't have that wear and tear. But then when I
Speaker 1: went to Baltimore when we had or if I played
Speaker 1: on turf, are you talking about body hurting? Is that
Speaker 1: big of a difference between turf and grass? You know
Speaker 1: it would be like you wrestle on then octagon. How
Speaker 1: much is it wrestling you know with your kids on grass?
Speaker 1: Think about it? Or on concrete or on a path?
Speaker 1: Is that much of a difference? And now you add
Speaker 1: running jumping, so it makes you faster, makes you be
Speaker 1: able to quick be quicker. But as far as injuries
Speaker 1: and everything like that tonight, So think about this, if
Speaker 1: I stop running, stop on dime on grass? What gives
Speaker 1: if the grass? If if if I dig too hard,
Speaker 1: what comes up dirt and grass? When you do that
Speaker 1: on turf? What gives joints competite? Gonna say? So what
Speaker 1: are they doing? Do you do you feel like the
Speaker 1: NFL should have only grass? I think it's the problem
Speaker 1: is every city is different, every city sometimes temperate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to really monitor it. It's hard to
Speaker 1: really you know, it's hard to go grow. It's hard
Speaker 1: to grow natural grass in Minnesota where no Minnesota where
Speaker 1: is negative ten? That's like the hot you know, or
Speaker 1: or the high on the day. I can't wait till
Speaker 1: it gets negative ten. Yeah, you're you're looking for right,
Speaker 1: I mean far Ago some of those places man negative
Speaker 1: negative thirty. So you mentioned Infantis on film when you
Speaker 1: was referring to Cooper cup But what if anything would
Speaker 1: you change about Scott and Combine and maybe help draft
Speaker 1: process overall outside of just paying attention, Like, if is
Speaker 1: there anything else that you would that you would change
Speaker 1: A tweak? Well, I think that I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't understand that come bond is not a
Speaker 1: place that actually helps you. It's more of a place
Speaker 1: that it hurts you. They connect the dots and they
Speaker 1: fill in the blanks. They you know, for some people
Speaker 1: who are unprepared for it, they walk in there thinking
Speaker 1: like oh man, I'm about to and man, you come
Speaker 1: in there, they're poking project. They question you to ask
Speaker 1: you know what you do about this? What about that?
Speaker 1: What about this? And it's not a place it isn't necessary, yes,
Speaker 1: but it's not a place where you know you're going
Speaker 1: through that process and you walk out of the room
Speaker 1: going they're sometimes man, some guys walk out of the
Speaker 1: room going that team, that team just tore me apart.
Speaker 1: That team made me feel. You know, most job or
Speaker 1: interviews you think you're possibly having a job man. And
Speaker 1: sometimes in these situations you come in there going, man,
Speaker 1: I think I bombed that one. Because they they're connecting
Speaker 1: the dots, like man, you go through the draft process
Speaker 1: or the combined process, man, ask you for your socialcurity. Know,
Speaker 1: they do a credit check on you. Hey, they're looking
Speaker 1: for weaknesses when they're looking for strengths. Yea, to break
Speaker 1: you down, Yes, that's crazy. Yeah, I never dore of
Speaker 1: it that way, Which is these guys going to combine that.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're so excited to show that, but
Speaker 1: at the end of they have to remember they're actually
Speaker 1: they had to fish around for your most you know,
Speaker 1: your biggest weakness is that you might not even know
Speaker 1: about yourself. Well, I think there's more people. I agree
Speaker 1: with you. I think there's more people hurt by it
Speaker 1: than helped by it. Um And one thing we've been talking,
Speaker 1: you know, minutes is one thing we haven't even brought up,
Speaker 1: and that's from the league side. The money. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got to think about it. You go back to
Speaker 1: when you were playing. It wasn't on ABC, ESPN, Main
Speaker 1: you know, eight pm on a Saturday night where people
Speaker 1: are trying to watch it. Now it's become an event.
Speaker 1: People are going there. It's always an indie. I mean,
Speaker 1: how much money is assigned to that to become an
Speaker 1: event from all the spot from all the sponsors. So
Speaker 1: but then even rewind before that, what do you see
Speaker 1: with a lot of the main guys when they go
Speaker 1: into their bowl games if it's not for national champions yet, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting out I'm getting ready for the combine. So
Speaker 1: you've had also had guys get injured that that that's
Speaker 1: really I struggle with that because I can understand and see.
Speaker 1: But then it's also another opportunity to go against top
Speaker 1: flight UM competition in which you get to prove and
Speaker 1: maybe show he can't play. Right, Because when I was
Speaker 1: invited to the Shrine Game back in the day, and
Speaker 1: the only reason I was invited to a strong game
Speaker 1: because there's a guy from Kansas name Quincy Morrigan deid
Speaker 1: Kansas State that decided he doesn't want to go. So
Speaker 1: they called me up and say, hey, you want to come,
Speaker 1: Gil Brent, you want to come? I said, heck yeah.
Speaker 1: I was already going to the Hula Bow because I
Speaker 1: didn't get invited to the UH Senior Bowl. So I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll go. So I went out there, man, and and
Speaker 1: I'm running routes and we do one on walls, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I'm a kid, you go, And
Speaker 1: I knew my coach Fred was like, do not run
Speaker 1: a god route. Run other routes. And I'm also going
Speaker 1: against guys like from at the time was a big
Speaker 1: twelve Texas, right, I'm going against guys like that and
Speaker 1: then do all they want to do is come up
Speaker 1: and jam you. Man. I get out there and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm one seventies six, like after Thanksgiving round, and man,
Speaker 1: they come up some dude, this dude jam this snot
Speaker 1: out of me like pile. And I'm playing against in college,
Speaker 1: I was playing against Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State, San
Speaker 1: Diego State, not not not well known, you know, big
Speaker 1: time athletes, and I was not prepared because I was
Speaker 1: used to going against guys who can play a scheme,
Speaker 1: not you know, be handy. So he jammed the snot
Speaker 1: out of he couldn't get off the jam. So I
Speaker 1: rolled back up. Let's go again. Though this I'm on
Speaker 1: a job interview, so we rolled back up. I mean
Speaker 1: I didn't get off the line. I'm like five steps
Speaker 1: and I'm back. Let's go again. So I showed the
Speaker 1: scouts one I ain't I ain't scared, and I go
Speaker 1: against it and I go and of course I ain
Speaker 1: gonna give him no. I'm not gonna gi him no
Speaker 1: goat route because Fred is telling me, you gotta show
Speaker 1: you can run routes. They already question you because Utah
Speaker 1: is not considered a big school. We were we were.
Speaker 1: We were the whack that just moved up to the
Speaker 1: mountain west Bang. I give him that two step rocking
Speaker 1: and go, and I showed that I had the ability.
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna back down, but the ability to adapt, right,
Speaker 1: And I showed that. But without that game and practice,
Speaker 1: I was able to show that what the combine can't do.
Speaker 1: The combine can't test your will, your willingness to to
Speaker 1: to be backed up into a corner. How how do
Speaker 1: are you a fight a flight type of person? There
Speaker 1: is no machine, there is no you can write a test.
Speaker 1: They even have tests. Man, they got like the the
Speaker 1: giants had a test at the time, three fifty questions,
Speaker 1: three questions. Are you a feline alley cat? Right? Do
Speaker 1: you consider yourself a coyote or dog? All these crazy questions.
Speaker 1: I said, first of all, I ain't trying to go
Speaker 1: to giants. I did about questions and I walked out,
Speaker 1: bro I was done. Were they doing like the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff like this, We're giving you options on route running,
Speaker 1: like what would you do in this situation? Of course
Speaker 1: not that would make sense because but now some teams
Speaker 1: have adapted military testing to know your fortitude right to
Speaker 1: know how he had, how's this person handles up, So
Speaker 1: it's it's become very good. But then now you have
Speaker 1: kids who are going to I amg all these difference
Speaker 1: where now they are training and mentally and physically prepped
Speaker 1: for this because it's a business. And so guys can
Speaker 1: test well right and with all these big firms and
Speaker 1: then go out there and the Cooper Cups though like
Speaker 1: nobody had Cooper Cup on their radar. If they did,
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Rams wouldn't have waited to the third round.
Speaker 1: Someone else who picked in front of them would have
Speaker 1: picked him. So I sounded like a Cooper Cup. And
Speaker 1: who who are the winners? Because we've also we've almost
Speaker 1: had two parallels as the the guys who are holly ranked,
Speaker 1: it may not be in their best interest to go
Speaker 1: to the combine. But then you have someone who sounds
Speaker 1: like if you're kind of on the bubble and then
Speaker 1: you don't do well, that can hurt you. So who
Speaker 1: are the who are the winners? From a team side
Speaker 1: and from a player's side, I think that the winners
Speaker 1: are the teams who actually have a system in which
Speaker 1: they're able to figure out and decipher testing and the
Speaker 1: eye tests right to be able to go Okay, this
Speaker 1: kid may not test well because of the circumstances, but
Speaker 1: we have enough film to see him, have seen him
Speaker 1: play well enough that he shown us that he can
Speaker 1: play on the big stage. Mhm, right. Or one of
Speaker 1: the glaring things that I think people don't like to
Speaker 1: talk about this, how is that young man gonna handle
Speaker 1: getting all this money? See, there's no test for ignorance,
Speaker 1: there's no test for stupidity, there's no test for uh,
Speaker 1: instant fame. Right, I mean, uh, what's the kid that
Speaker 1: was with the Vegas Raiders? Right? It's a good kid.
Speaker 1: It's a kid who when his best friends died from
Speaker 1: a um drunk driver, he made one bad choice that
Speaker 1: costs a lot of people of ramification. Costs a woman
Speaker 1: and her dog and some families members their life. But
Speaker 1: let's go backwards. There's no test to say, hey, how
Speaker 1: is this kid gonna screw up once in a lifetime opportunity?
Speaker 1: It goes back to what we saw. They didn't measure
Speaker 1: their intangibles. It can't, but we put so many we
Speaker 1: we put so much stock into it. How do you
Speaker 1: it sounds like that we've got the winners. That the
Speaker 1: biggest losers of this whole thing is kids that are
Speaker 1: athletic and very good football players. They're but they're on
Speaker 1: smaller schools. They're not in the limelight. But they also
Speaker 1: don't test well in the combine. Those guys well, you
Speaker 1: also could test poorly because the the scout or the
Speaker 1: coach that's running the drill isn't very good either. Right.
Speaker 1: I've seen some coaches, especially while receivers, they make them
Speaker 1: break down and running a route completely and then restart.
Speaker 1: That kid is not going to be fluid, and first
Speaker 1: all who runs full speed stops, slops, decelerates completely and
Speaker 1: then it starts back up. That's not efficient. That's not
Speaker 1: a good route anyway, but that's what happens. What I
Speaker 1: benefit from going to the combine, which I go every year,
Speaker 1: is talking to the teams understanding what is their purpose there?
Speaker 1: Why what do they considered a good player? Right, and
Speaker 1: also connected dots to some of these coaches know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. So of these coaches have no idea. Man,
Speaker 1: there's a coach I'm not gonna name name. He was
Speaker 1: on He introduced himself as a guy that coached someone
Speaker 1: I knew very good player, and he gets accolades as
Speaker 1: coaching that player, go to another team, been there, go
Speaker 1: to another team, and then both people at the individual
Speaker 1: he named dropped to ask somebody. He goes, bro, he
Speaker 1: did not coach me. Then he goes to another team.
Speaker 1: He's out of there after a year because he goes
Speaker 1: another team and I asked somebody else about him. He goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wasn't a good coach, and he's a head coach
Speaker 1: or this. This is a position coach because when a
Speaker 1: position player, when if I, when I go to Pro Bowl,
Speaker 1: I was a five time Pro bowler, flex I got it.
Speaker 1: So all of that someone had coached me, and that
Speaker 1: coach gets in this book. He's helped Steve Smith become
Speaker 1: Pro Bowler. This year. There's probably about three or four
Speaker 1: coaches that right now, Tytober he's one of those guys.
Speaker 1: Fred Grays, one of those guys. Bobby Ingram, who's offense
Speaker 1: coordinator now with just gotta hire at the offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: for West University of Wisconsin. Um Ricky pro Man. Some
Speaker 1: outstanding coaches. Uh. One of my coaches back in Juan College,
Speaker 1: Mark Payne's good buddy in mir other than that, some
Speaker 1: Richard Williamson right, challenge me. There's some other coaches. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say they were They're not. They weren't bad,
Speaker 1: but I they didn't change you. They didn't make you
Speaker 1: net like you didn't see like they were statish quo.
Speaker 1: They didn't. They didn't help me. They didn't hurt me.
Speaker 1: The information they gave me was like, okay, cool, I
Speaker 1: take a note. That's the thing though, in the NFL.
Speaker 1: You that's the difference with fighting is you you don't
Speaker 1: hire your coaches on the team right there, and they're
Speaker 1: hired for you, so you're just they get to put
Speaker 1: you on their resume without you actually saying they should
Speaker 1: be on the resume. Yeah, that's that's different. So I
Speaker 1: got to every camp. I could choose a different coach
Speaker 1: if I want to, So there's no lying about okay
Speaker 1: I worked with him this fighter or didn't. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I get some coaches that like they were
Speaker 1: all right. I'm not gonna say he was bad, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be like, oh yeah, man, he made
Speaker 1: a huge difference in my life. My man, I dudes,
Speaker 1: I he corrected me and you know, help me. But
Speaker 1: they were talking like Ricky pro was one of those
Speaker 1: coach is right. He was assistant coach with Fred Graves.
Speaker 1: He was on there, but Ricky also played, so Ricky
Speaker 1: would tell me things as a player that when he
Speaker 1: became assistant coach, I would go to him. That was
Speaker 1: one time man me and Ricky he was a coach.
Speaker 1: Me and Ricky got in a heated argument. I said,
Speaker 1: rick I respect you too much. I'm walking away. I
Speaker 1: was like, and he was like, good, I'm glad, right,
Speaker 1: But because he wanted me to do something, I tried
Speaker 1: my best to do it, but I would just have it.
Speaker 1: I just was losing that day and it wasn't. You can't.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when you're losing, your coach can tell you just
Speaker 1: do this. You're like, yeah, I know, I'm trying, but
Speaker 1: like for you, actually, I'm trying to come in there
Speaker 1: and that left hand just keep bopping me in my mouth.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying. Usually you know what you're doing wrong.
Speaker 1: But just like you wants two pieces, well that's what
Speaker 1: I wanted to that. That's what I forgot about the ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's crazy right and in there sometimes
Speaker 1: some coaches who uh, there's some coaches man that just
Speaker 1: do the bare minimum right, and it's nothing wrong with it,
Speaker 1: but they they're in a position of authority in which
Speaker 1: they're only there because they're paid their dues. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: remade it. They were they were like uh the general
Speaker 1: manager for the Giants, Joe love them man. In my career,
Speaker 1: he used to hold up the white uh white erasier
Speaker 1: board and hold up the place and used to snatch
Speaker 1: the script from him so he couldn't know what the
Speaker 1: next play was. I I'm not saying he doesn't deserve
Speaker 1: to be the head coach, but he to general manager.
Speaker 1: But he paid his dues. Now. The other part though,
Speaker 1: is he knows what a football player and the tangibles
Speaker 1: as from what he was taught. Sometimes I can look
Speaker 1: at a football player and say he'll be okay, or
Speaker 1: he's missing something. I don't need to be trained because
Speaker 1: I also know what a good football player, what some
Speaker 1: of the things he does, especially if I watch this
Speaker 1: movement I've been able to watch. I can watch players
Speaker 1: and go, here's what he does, here was here's what
Speaker 1: he needs to work on all that stuff. But for
Speaker 1: some reason, if you're a former player, you get deemed
Speaker 1: a hater, you get dem um, jealous, and and and
Speaker 1: so people like, oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: And not everybody is, you know, not every coach or
Speaker 1: a former player has the ability to have a keen eye.
Speaker 1: But I watch enough film that kind of know, Like,
Speaker 1: can he be a good player? Possibly? Like somebody asked
Speaker 1: me one time and say, said, Juju Smith Schuster, could
Speaker 1: he have the same impact in our offense that he
Speaker 1: had his first couple of years in Pittsburgh. And my
Speaker 1: response was, yeah, he could if y'all ran that type
Speaker 1: of offense. And they were like, m good assessment. The
Speaker 1: type offense they ran did not apply to allowing Juju
Speaker 1: to be where he is. Good do it. Let's get
Speaker 1: down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get
Speaker 1: that T shirt? You mean, Oh yes, I got it
Speaker 1: from cut to a podcast dot com where we have
Speaker 1: exclusive merchandise shout out to our guys at seven or
Speaker 1: four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you
Speaker 1: a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: So what are you looking for right now as you
Speaker 1: get ready to go to the combine? What are you
Speaker 1: looking for? What's top of mind for you? Top of
Speaker 1: mind for me um as I watched their film, I
Speaker 1: go one. For quarterbacks ball control, how do they place
Speaker 1: the ball in a short area? How did they you
Speaker 1: know what kind of velocity? Then for receivers, ball play,
Speaker 1: hand placement, feet, try to watch some of the routes
Speaker 1: that they're running right understanding that part of what they're
Speaker 1: doing is their hamstring a little bit depending on the
Speaker 1: type of receiver that is running the drill and what
Speaker 1: they're emphasizing. The other part is you never know what
Speaker 1: guys how they hand up pressure, you know. I remember
Speaker 1: our first couple of years being on the big stage
Speaker 1: of Utah played Washington. I ran a deep post. I
Speaker 1: remember they threw it to me because Chris uh So,
Speaker 1: I was at the when I was at the at
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl, I went in to win on the
Speaker 1: other side of the stadium. Man, and they're just due
Speaker 1: named Christian Christians said, uh, his brother Mike, I just
Speaker 1: call hi peg leg um just because he all his
Speaker 1: back leg would always drag. And I hadn't seen these dudes.
Speaker 1: And since I went to the league twenty years and man,
Speaker 1: I remember Christian Chris Christenson, Mike's older brother, Man, I
Speaker 1: was behind him. There was Cliff Russell, Chris Christen, and
Speaker 1: then there was me, a boot bendinker, and then there
Speaker 1: was me. Man. Christian went out and I was scared.
Speaker 1: I'm man. I ain't never other than the airplane. I
Speaker 1: got to Utah. First of all, we got to Washington,
Speaker 1: and I had a headache from the altitude, from getting
Speaker 1: on the airplane, holding my breath and the anxiety. And
Speaker 1: then I got off the flight and threw up immediately
Speaker 1: right and then I remember Christian got hurt, and I
Speaker 1: ran a deep post and darniell arsenal through the past. Man,
Speaker 1: I shore on that damn pass. I was so nervous.
Speaker 1: I didn't know to dive. Then I couldn't dive because
Speaker 1: if I dive in uh, I felt like I had
Speaker 1: to fart. And then I was scared. If I farted,
Speaker 1: I was going to duke on myself. Bro. I was
Speaker 1: so scared because I just I'm a kid from l
Speaker 1: A that wanted this opportunity. But I was also from
Speaker 1: junior college and I was the guy. Now I was
Speaker 1: the number two or number three, and I was so nervous. Man,
Speaker 1: and I had practice that whole week. We played against
Speaker 1: Las Vegas John Robinson was the head coach. Then we
Speaker 1: played against Vegas. Your boys showed out. Man had like
Speaker 1: five catchers, hundred fifty yards, two touchdowns, still doing punk
Speaker 1: kickoff return, and my career started this sing after that.
Speaker 1: If Chris Christian never had got hurt, bro I probably
Speaker 1: would have never made it. Was that the hardest part
Speaker 1: of of your story, going from junior college to to
Speaker 1: D one or going from D one to NFL because
Speaker 1: you gave him a small school. Still my biggest part
Speaker 1: of my worry it's confidence. Yeah, how did you get
Speaker 1: the confidence coming from a smaller, smaller schools, like going
Speaker 1: against these big school dudes that you don't know how
Speaker 1: you really you know, able to compete with them all
Speaker 1: of that time by myself, right, I didn't work out
Speaker 1: with the team. In college. I worked for a moving
Speaker 1: company because I was on scholarship, so that in the
Speaker 1: summertimes the only time. So I worked in a moving company.
Speaker 1: That's how I lifted weights, That's how I maintained my strength.
Speaker 1: I wasn't a naturally big guy. Um, so that's what
Speaker 1: I did. Um and then I just I worked on everything.
Speaker 1: Quick story. I was so scared of being hit because
Speaker 1: when I played Pop Warner when I was We played
Speaker 1: Jesse Owens team. I was at l A share If.
Speaker 1: We played at Lock High School and I'm playing and
Speaker 1: I played d N and running back and one of
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks tried to scramble out of the pocket and
Speaker 1: tried to leap over me and I and I lunged
Speaker 1: that him. He flipped and broke his arm and they
Speaker 1: had to take me out of the game because they
Speaker 1: wanted to. You know, it's just back community. They wanted to, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna beat his blankety blank. I was scared.
Speaker 1: I was scared, right, I broke the kids arm. Wasn't intent.
Speaker 1: I would just trying to do my job. And I
Speaker 1: just remember that. So go to high school. You remember nutcrackers.
Speaker 1: You gotta do nutcrackers. Nutcrackers is uh, there's a defense.
Speaker 1: There's a tackler in a ball carrier. Oh, he's called Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: Yeah you were used later, yes, Yeah, they blow the whistle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you get up you gotta hit him. It
Speaker 1: win't called nuck, right, I know you're you're talking about scared. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all. That's always the first one in like Pop Warner.
Speaker 1: That's that's the one that that in bulling the ring,
Speaker 1: and we didn't do bulling. Ringing the ring is the
Speaker 1: one that that is all the players. Yeah, we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't do that. We were too in the middle.
Speaker 1: You have to chop your feet and you don't know
Speaker 1: who's coming. So so my my head coaching pop. My
Speaker 1: head coach at Jake Jr. Or varsity or j v
Speaker 1: was mark erri Yamo. He hasn't got my freshman year
Speaker 1: brown up. Scared, I'm wearing number eighty two, no swag,
Speaker 1: and so they blow the whistle and I get up
Speaker 1: so ginger right, ginger. And so from that point on,
Speaker 1: I remember that next year, after the season, all that stuff,
Speaker 1: I was so scared, I just would practice. I practiced
Speaker 1: as a tackler and I practiced as a as the
Speaker 1: ball carrier. That next summer, blew the whistle. My man
Speaker 1: gets up on the ball carrier. What what do you
Speaker 1: think happens? You, truck bro I got up so damn quick.
Speaker 1: The defender was still on his knees. Rand him Scott
Speaker 1: over it. I didn't because it says I practice out
Speaker 1: of fear, right, And that's just kind of how I
Speaker 1: built in and from that point on, I never till
Speaker 1: this day, even as a when I became refresional, I
Speaker 1: never trained with anybody as a group. Always trained by myself.
Speaker 1: So when they when they were doing it, how would
Speaker 1: you not participate? Go with jail? You were just bound. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but when you were up and coming, you didn't have
Speaker 1: that right or authority or power to walk away. Summer jobs,
Speaker 1: You're just you were just I'm just not gonna be
Speaker 1: here summer job. And then when once training, you know,
Speaker 1: once training camp and all that stuff come, I was ready, man,
Speaker 1: when I had a summer job, or I used to
Speaker 1: ride my bike from nine and a half Cambridge to
Speaker 1: figure out I was working at the county office. I
Speaker 1: ride my bike all the way there and back and
Speaker 1: try to beat the bus riding it and you were
Speaker 1: on it because you thought it was gonna give you
Speaker 1: a leg up one it was it was economically sound,
Speaker 1: right because yeah, and and then because after that, I
Speaker 1: had to catch the bus to go to practice. But
Speaker 1: I didn't have money and I was working, so I
Speaker 1: had to I didn't. I didn't come to any offseason
Speaker 1: training in high school, in college, and in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I only came when I was mandatory. And when I came,
Speaker 1: you better being shaped and that's where I used to
Speaker 1: train with. Yeah, that's awesome, that's good, and I just did.
Speaker 1: And so in college I trained by the moving company. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're doing these movies, you're doing the moving and you
Speaker 1: know you were confident this is making you stronger than
Speaker 1: the other. Try to move a helping with a couch
Speaker 1: like and I'm and I'm with dudes that got penned,
Speaker 1: you know, been in the pin. I've got dudes, they
Speaker 1: got that old man, the old man strength. Hey, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play ball, you better live up. He can
Speaker 1: live I think, I think, But I also think there
Speaker 1: is a part of that that is placebo effact. And
Speaker 1: I mean that I think that. I think because you
Speaker 1: think it's going it's it's making you stronger. Your leg up,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, it's making you stronger. It made me.
Speaker 1: If you didn't think it was making you strong, here's
Speaker 1: what I think, here's what here's what it did. It
Speaker 1: it made me functionally strong. I agree, right like you
Speaker 1: can do. There were guys that I played against that
Speaker 1: can bench fresh to fifty. But then they come up
Speaker 1: and try to tackle me, and I would stiff form
Speaker 1: them and mush them to the ground. It goes back
Speaker 1: to the whole conversation around the combine. Yeah, you're strong,
Speaker 1: but you may not be functionally. But I don't know
Speaker 1: how much of that is his tanacy and his will.
Speaker 1: It's both. But this is it. Is he still stronger
Speaker 1: than you? No? Is he still if there was at
Speaker 1: that point in time. He doesn't necessarily need to. I
Speaker 1: know that. But how do you measure the will? And
Speaker 1: that to nasty, here's how you measure. If me and
Speaker 1: you're going at it in football and you grab me
Speaker 1: and I grab you and I'm dump you, then you lost. Brother,
Speaker 1: there's a win in the I'm saying. I'm saying in
Speaker 1: the combine. So you have the testing because we're trying
Speaker 1: to see who's who's stronger. So we're doing the bench president.
Speaker 1: But but think about it. You're not laying on your
Speaker 1: back on the bench. No, you're running and and and
Speaker 1: as as one of my great coaches that I love,
Speaker 1: Richard Williams, said, you Caddy wampus. You you catch your
Speaker 1: pass and your right foot is here, your left foot
Speaker 1: is so many degrees to the other side, and you
Speaker 1: catch it this way, you turn around and there's a
Speaker 1: defender that comes to you. You no longer that bench
Speaker 1: press is not effective. And you got the right You
Speaker 1: got the ball in your right hand, and this defenders
Speaker 1: coming up with you, and you got your left hand.
Speaker 1: And I'm right hand dominant, but I also function with
Speaker 1: my left hand. Fred Grays had me at Z, which
Speaker 1: is right hand dominant. I used to fumble a lot,
Speaker 1: so he put me at X because when if you
Speaker 1: look at the stuff, I would run with the ball
Speaker 1: in either hand. But now I do some boxing, and
Speaker 1: guess what I am? Naturally softball? I should not be
Speaker 1: a softball. I'm actually more comfortable boxing southball. But when
Speaker 1: we're spawn, guess what I can do? Oh yeah, as
Speaker 1: soon as he starts to tie me up, I'll switch
Speaker 1: on the right, and then when he gets the right,
Speaker 1: I'll switch on the left. That's smart. That's that's high
Speaker 1: level of fighting right there. But the measurables will say,
Speaker 1: there's no way I could be softball. Yeah, no, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, So there's no way to measure it.
Speaker 1: There's no way to measure it. That's why I think
Speaker 1: some to some degree, testing can be flawed. So you
Speaker 1: can't always put everybody in this in in that box.
Speaker 1: What does signs say about us? Abnormal? Yeah? Right, man
Speaker 1: bowl abnormal? Right? Uh? Derrick Henry abnormal? You know man
Speaker 1: that should be running that speed and stopping right. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing fighting, man, Like you can't you
Speaker 1: can't really measure it. It's impossible to feel the feel
Speaker 1: when you're in there with somebody like who's really more
Speaker 1: confident in these situations? You know? Again, problem solves better
Speaker 1: who doesn't get antsie or anxiety? Right? Yeah, learning how
Speaker 1: to deal with anxiety and not getting you know, not
Speaker 1: overthinking who learns? Who learns with with with visuals audible
Speaker 1: like you were saying with when your south ball and
Speaker 1: you feel like this orthodox fight are is this box
Speaker 1: or whatever is starting to pick up on your your
Speaker 1: south ball? Right, you know, when you're crushing him in
Speaker 1: the first thirty seconds and all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: he's coming over your jab and he's clicking you. So
Speaker 1: now you're able to see that and now make that decision.
Speaker 1: All right, let me switch over to this way and
Speaker 1: go orthodox and see how he how he deals with that.
Speaker 1: And you're really just trying to figure out what is
Speaker 1: making this person more uncomfortable and then you want to
Speaker 1: stick with that and I think it probably still go
Speaker 1: and you can't, but you can't measure someone's ability to
Speaker 1: be able to change and adjust on the fly like that.
Speaker 1: But we were doing the boxing for the last month.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And he's like, you're a south paw because
Speaker 1: I was. I was struggling right hand. I was like
Speaker 1: he was. He said, what are you because I wear
Speaker 1: my watching my right hand. The reason I where my
Speaker 1: watch on my right hand. When I was a young boy,
Speaker 1: I broke my fingers and I could not move. I
Speaker 1: couldn't use my my right hand. I could not use
Speaker 1: my right hand for like two months. And you're predominantly
Speaker 1: righting on most things other than like not when you're
Speaker 1: boxing and football wise, you always left with your left
Speaker 1: leg forward or right leg forward. I'm actually X. It
Speaker 1: depends on where you're going. It depends on where I love.
Speaker 1: What do you feel you get more like if you
Speaker 1: were running the forty or dash, you're getting like right
Speaker 1: leg forward. That's a great question. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: that's the thing in boxing. He was like, why are
Speaker 1: you struggling? And then he said switch real quick and
Speaker 1: he goes your south ball but snowboard, I'm goofy, goofy
Speaker 1: foot it. What does that that mean? Legs forward or left? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm different too with that, Like I'm everything, I'm righty,
Speaker 1: but I wrestle lefty, So my left leg was always ward,
Speaker 1: which happens would be good for fighting because if you're right,
Speaker 1: your right hand stronger, your left leg wants to be
Speaker 1: in the front, which is good because with wrestling, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that hard. But that's one thing that people forget.
Speaker 1: What when a wrestler comes into fighting, they usually have
Speaker 1: their right leg forward their whole career wrestling. There in
Speaker 1: the wrestling stands, rights have their right leg forward. But
Speaker 1: when you box and you fight, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: put that the opposite. So now you have to learn
Speaker 1: how to shoot with the leg that you're not used
Speaker 1: to shooting with your entire life. So it's a lot of,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of breaking habits and stuff. I
Speaker 1: didn't have to go through that because I happened to
Speaker 1: wrestle lefty my whole life. But also I'm a ready
Speaker 1: just weird and worked out. You start, are you thinking
Speaker 1: about doing a celebrity boxing matches. First of all, you
Speaker 1: hit me, I'm gonna hit your ass back so you
Speaker 1: can put the gloves on. Bail or no bail bing back. No,
Speaker 1: I just really just switch up Cardio. I get bored
Speaker 1: with Cardio and I took like a this hiatus. I
Speaker 1: was like, nah, so I've been doing it just more
Speaker 1: of just to handle give myself, get my heart break on.
Speaker 1: It's so much better than like treadmill better say, I'd
Speaker 1: still do that though. You still so you don't mind
Speaker 1: doing that stuff, all right, that's good. Yeah, So it
Speaker 1: just it gives me something else good to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be doing that for the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: just boxing and kickboxing. Just I'm not even talking about
Speaker 1: sparring with people, but just hitting the pat I'm just
Speaker 1: doing to work with my God, I'm not necessarily like
Speaker 1: we're not just for staying in shape, keeping you know,
Speaker 1: your hands sharp. Yeah, it's it's it's good. You can
Speaker 1: do it forever. It's not like pounding on your joints.
Speaker 1: You're like getting hurt. Like, I'm not interested. You hit me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to the car and come back. I
Speaker 1: believe he's just put it out right, It's been a
Speaker 1: great episode. Al right, well, hey man, appreciate your time. Man.
Speaker 1: So you know that's that's our summarization of the combine.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. I'm Steve Smith Senior, Little John,
Speaker 1: Chris Wide backstage, Joe, thanks for listening to it. Cut
Speaker 1: to It. You are a unique person. You are well
Speaker 1: worth it, you are competent and most of all, your lovable.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Gerard Little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
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Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
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Speaker 1: Smith Senior, co host Gerard Little John, talent in booking
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