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: That's getting down to do it, Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: them about it, then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all say what a grit? It doesn't come singular?
Speaker 1: A grid? Another episode of cut to It. Steve, what's up, bro? Hey?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? Brother man? I'm doing good. I'm
Speaker 1: doing good backstage? What's up man, man, I'm hanging in there.
Speaker 1: How about y'all? Not too bad? Always a pleasure to
Speaker 1: have you here here every week, though, it's always a
Speaker 1: pleasure making sure. I'm glad. I want to say it
Speaker 1: was one of week it is like then you suck.
Speaker 1: You always got to add value. So if I'm adding value,
Speaker 1: I'm good. There you go, there you go. But we
Speaker 1: were having a conversation the other day around uh, what
Speaker 1: was it stadiums. Yeah, so just the other day Steve
Speaker 1: and I are riding around going to get something to eat,
Speaker 1: and um, something was on ESPN and they were talking
Speaker 1: about spate stadiums and uh might have been about the
Speaker 1: Eagles the old vet where they had you know, the
Speaker 1: jail undernet, and it got me thinking. I looked over
Speaker 1: at my guy said, hey, uh, you know I was
Speaker 1: here about these things. I said, Um, what do you
Speaker 1: think about it? When you were there? Did you know
Speaker 1: when everybody got to the stadium or or the field,
Speaker 1: did you go look at it? And you know, your
Speaker 1: response was like super interesting to me. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of why I was talking with the g We just
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, like how different it is
Speaker 1: at a stadium or a dome or arena as a
Speaker 1: player versus as a media personnel. As a player, I
Speaker 1: did not get to see as much of the inside
Speaker 1: of the stadium because you went in as an opponent.
Speaker 1: You went to your locker, You went into your locker
Speaker 1: a vision of locker room, you got dressed, you did
Speaker 1: whatever in training room, blah blah blah. You come out,
Speaker 1: you go to the field, So you're not really experiencing
Speaker 1: what everyone else talks about. When you think about Limbo
Speaker 1: or Soldier Field or um School candlestick, you know all
Speaker 1: those kind of stadiums. So I've been at Lambeau a
Speaker 1: number of times as a player, but I've only been
Speaker 1: at Lambo one time as analysts. Really cool. As a player,
Speaker 1: You're fly into Appleton where Appleton Apple t o n Appleton, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Back in the two thousand and eight, two thousand seven
Speaker 1: what every year they used to piggy Wiggly. You stayed
Speaker 1: at the same hotel. It was very much not very big.
Speaker 1: Now they got a dang top golf next to the stadium.
Speaker 1: Really cool. However, also too, when you go into the stadium,
Speaker 1: it used to just being like this neighborhood. As a player,
Speaker 1: Lambeau has always been Lambeau where it's in this neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It's big old stadium, and right across street from the
Speaker 1: big old stadium you can see a family who literally
Speaker 1: are You can park on their line for right and
Speaker 1: it's just so iconic. It's just awesome. But as an
Speaker 1: analyst it's remarkable. Lambo still has the original foundation, the
Speaker 1: brick I believe that was like seven that's still in there.
Speaker 1: They just have a strip, but it's only on the
Speaker 1: side of the of the packers. You don't see it
Speaker 1: as a visitor, so I've seen certain parts to have sweets.
Speaker 1: Now they just they've added more and more to it.
Speaker 1: But it's just remarkable. Lambo feel is Lambeau is iconic,
Speaker 1: is super special. It's a it's just a place where
Speaker 1: if you're a fan and you day day dream dream
Speaker 1: that night about playing the NFL and Lambo, it will
Speaker 1: be more than what you could have ever dreamed about.
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings It's newer stadium was just being able to
Speaker 1: just just unbelievable, unbelievable. Dallas is the same way. You know, um,
Speaker 1: you know a T n T stadium, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it is a great stadium on steroids, right. I actually
Speaker 1: did a commercial in Allas Stadium before it was actually
Speaker 1: opened up, when they were still kind of doing it,
Speaker 1: and I got to see how large the vision locker
Speaker 1: rooms are. One stadium that was just trash. Yeah. Um
Speaker 1: quote uh San Diego chargers there when they were the chargers,
Speaker 1: quote calm dump. Why what made it a dump? Uh?
Speaker 1: They didn't take care of it and you know, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. And we played down there and my wife
Speaker 1: told me they were in a suite and they had
Speaker 1: a clogged toilet and one of the sweets. Yellow water
Speaker 1: was running down the windows of the sweets like stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Man, Yeah, you know that's a that's that's
Speaker 1: interesting is the world. I'll go with, Yes, me too.
Speaker 1: But you know, as you sit back as a fan
Speaker 1: or on the outside looking in, and I know you're
Speaker 1: when you're playing, you're always you know, getting ready for
Speaker 1: the game and getting hype. You don't get to see
Speaker 1: those things. Were there other stadiums? Could you like? And
Speaker 1: I go back to Lamb, but just because I think
Speaker 1: everyone who do you know when you're there? And why
Speaker 1: I say that is when you walk in and you're like, ah,
Speaker 1: this this is it and you said, like you said,
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. It's more than you can imagine. But is
Speaker 1: there a presence? There is there that vibe of old
Speaker 1: school you know, running football and just you know Lombardi.
Speaker 1: All that I think depends on the team. You know,
Speaker 1: how good the team is doing, depends on the time
Speaker 1: of year. I mean you if you're there playing in September,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel the same the way it's gonna look,
Speaker 1: uh in November December when its cold, it's just it
Speaker 1: isn't the same. Um. I remember playing when I was
Speaker 1: with the Baltimore Raiders, we were playing, uh thinking the
Speaker 1: division around, We're playing New England patre Rish and they
Speaker 1: want to want to win a super Bowl in that
Speaker 1: playoff game. Nope, none of the fans sat down and
Speaker 1: it was like fifteen degrees at night. They stood the
Speaker 1: whole time. My wife goes, I wish we could have
Speaker 1: just sat down a little bit, but she couldn't because
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be he wouldn't have been able to say
Speaker 1: so like stuff like that, Pittsburgh playing that night in
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Banana, especially if for Baltimore Raven the discuss and
Speaker 1: the hate professional hate unbelievable. There's just some places that
Speaker 1: when you go h Philly old just current Philly, Old Philly,
Speaker 1: their fans just make it make the game what it is.
Speaker 1: What would be bucket list that you have yet to
Speaker 1: expect any sport. I was supposed to go and then
Speaker 1: I broke my arm um and then good friend I
Speaker 1: was supposed to go see play tennis. You know, I
Speaker 1: broke my arm and he ended up having that world
Speaker 1: record fifteen hour match that that John isner Um. So
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to go see him play
Speaker 1: out there. Out in London. I can't which one was that.
Speaker 1: Uh he had that fifteen hour match in tennis, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't spend anything about tennis. Brothers. I've been, um,
Speaker 1: I've been Australian Open. So I enjoyed that. That was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I saw some saw some players playing on
Speaker 1: center court. Saw Serena went out there. Um, that's got
Speaker 1: a rank up there. That's got a rank up there.
Speaker 1: Or or tennis um down in New York, been there,
Speaker 1: men Peyton, saw John down there. So I was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Any anybody list for you, Joe, Um, I mean for me,
Speaker 1: just going from a golf perspective, you know, I kind
Speaker 1: of think of the same thing. Just going to the
Speaker 1: Masters would be yeah cool just to walk those hold
Speaker 1: grounds and and go and see that and another one
Speaker 1: was pretty cool and and and it's might lean more
Speaker 1: towards the event than the venue, but uh like going
Speaker 1: to when o U Texas college football game, just to
Speaker 1: how they crowd after it down there were just to
Speaker 1: sit back and watch and that would be a great experience.
Speaker 1: And that's my to college. Being local. Got in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I've been, of course to Dean Smith Center. Never had
Speaker 1: a chance to go see you and ce do. So
Speaker 1: That's what I'd love to do. That's that's my bucket list.
Speaker 1: Is you'd be surprised of the Duke facility. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: I've I've been to do once, haven't been again. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, like the Rock Washington play, I went to
Speaker 1: it very um it's tiny, super but then they have
Speaker 1: but everything is old school, even a popcorn makers old
Speaker 1: school Agnes that's serving the popcorns she bought a hundred
Speaker 1: years old. I've really groan and love and respect how
Speaker 1: much of the workers and how much detailed work it
Speaker 1: really takes to run a run a place on game day,
Speaker 1: hours and hours before um, sometimes fifteen sixteen hours before
Speaker 1: the game has started. People have busted their chops busted there,
Speaker 1: but just so that when those people walk through three
Speaker 1: two and a half, three hours before the game, it's
Speaker 1: been so much done for the players, but more for
Speaker 1: the fans and experience that you received that you never
Speaker 1: know what has happened. You don't know how dirty or
Speaker 1: how clean uh, those seats were prior to you getting there,
Speaker 1: and everyone has to Someone has to clean that seat,
Speaker 1: someone has to clean that stall, someone has to clean
Speaker 1: and refill all of those napkin holders and basketball they
Speaker 1: gotta pull up the court, got got got forbid. If
Speaker 1: it's a hockey team in the same facility, I've seen
Speaker 1: where you had to go overnight. Someone a crew works
Speaker 1: all night, take up the basketball floor, bring the ice
Speaker 1: back out. It's it's a huge operation. M I know
Speaker 1: one stadium. They should have done a better job at
Speaker 1: that squad. Comment Sandy, that's true. Man. Who we got
Speaker 1: coming up on the cut to a podcast? We've got
Speaker 1: Lorenz O'Neil, a four time pro bowler and All Pro,
Speaker 1: a member of the two thousand's NFL All Decade Team,
Speaker 1: but more importantly, just a fountain of wisdom. Lorenzo O'Neil
Speaker 1: on the Cut to a Podcast. Our first segment is
Speaker 1: called get Iced Up Smithy. Go ahead and give him
Speaker 1: the first question. Are you ready? Okay? The strangest thing
Speaker 1: You've ever eaten? And where were you? Oh strangest thing
Speaker 1: that I've ever eaten? Man? I think it was a grasshopper.
Speaker 1: I was member Buddy Joey Jordan's. We were in Lamore.
Speaker 1: I'm a country boy, you know from l you know,
Speaker 1: from the big l town Lamore. We didn't have a
Speaker 1: stop like growing up, we didn't have a McDonald's growing up,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, only had a couple of stop
Speaker 1: didn't have stoplights. So we're country kids. So you know,
Speaker 1: he pulled off the legs of the grasshopper, and we
Speaker 1: wanted to see if we could eat it. So at
Speaker 1: a grassofer. So it was still moving around and wiggling
Speaker 1: in your mouth. So a grasshopper. And then ah, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys heard of salt grass and
Speaker 1: go look up salt grass. I live out in Lamore too,
Speaker 1: and uh a lot of Native American Native American Indians
Speaker 1: and Lamore and the Indians they give salt grass and
Speaker 1: they eat salt grass really salty. But it's like post
Speaker 1: bit a cow poop. They poop on it and makes
Speaker 1: the grass. So look up salt grass pretty interesting. So
Speaker 1: those are probably the two things that I'm eating this
Speaker 1: Probably I wouldn't probably do it again. I don't need
Speaker 1: to look it up because there's there's two infractions here. Okay,
Speaker 1: first fraction is yo as a Native American. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: chalk talk. I'm chalk talk. My grandmother, my grandmother, my grandmother,
Speaker 1: her mom was full boded in the end, and she
Speaker 1: so in Oklahoma, I'm from forth Oklahoma's well, I'm not
Speaker 1: from my ancestors and stuff. And so back in the day,
Speaker 1: the Native Americans and Blacks and the slaves, they were
Speaker 1: always hooking up. So, believe it or not, um a
Speaker 1: lot of Blacks and Indians were married in together. So
Speaker 1: I got my car ex curl does not make you
Speaker 1: Native American to say that, you know, my hair is good?
Speaker 1: And then Indian I got. I got high tea boy.
Speaker 1: I run a lot of barefoot, and I knew what
Speaker 1: he's called me running foot, but I love it. And
Speaker 1: then and then the second infraction is you said, salt
Speaker 1: grass is what calminure cal poop is on and basically
Speaker 1: when it drives up, it's salty grass that had m
Speaker 1: cal feces. I think it may have been. I don't
Speaker 1: know that. That later on mayde ben so all the
Speaker 1: next time, I'm back home and we're hanging out and
Speaker 1: you say, you know, can I have a swig? Ain't
Speaker 1: get you say kiss? I said, if you say, hey,
Speaker 1: that salt grass, your salt grass mouth. After we didn't
Speaker 1: gonna be I'm gonna leave it alone because I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna mention what y'all boys been eating out there. I
Speaker 1: know y'all, I'm gonna leave it alone. Let's great. Lord, Hey,
Speaker 1: what what's the one thing you cannot leave home without? Oh?
Speaker 1: I cannot leave home without my wallet or my phone
Speaker 1: or a couple of bucks in my pocket. Okay, I
Speaker 1: have a couple of dollars, got don't have dollars, don't
Speaker 1: have sinse. Hey, that's a generational thing, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm old school and I have a money clip.
Speaker 1: You gotta add right, bro, gotta have cash now. My
Speaker 1: kids and the wife whenever they need cash to Hey, dad,
Speaker 1: you you know all your money clippers right, don't don't
Speaker 1: touch that money. You can ask me, don't touch you. So,
Speaker 1: I know that's a generational thing. A lot of the young,
Speaker 1: the young pucks, the whipper snappers, they you know, they
Speaker 1: mowe me the money. Oh boys, my son's after due
Speaker 1: already graduate engineers, still playing this fifth year senior bawling
Speaker 1: out playing pretty good. Big Feller got some feet, can dance,
Speaker 1: and he's got a chance to play on Sunday. So
Speaker 1: he got his mama's James's goods. Stop playing, boy, y'all
Speaker 1: play too much. Y'all play too much. I'm gone, I'm
Speaker 1: getting off this show. And that's called me all the time.
Speaker 1: You'll talk to this mama all the time. Oh, mama comes,
Speaker 1: stay anytime you call me. It's just for money. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, why are you calling me? Say we'll happen.
Speaker 1: Hey dad, good morning? How are you doing? Just wanting
Speaker 1: to call check in with you. I'm gonna start talking
Speaker 1: and before we get to the end, I said, how
Speaker 1: much money you need? Uh? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how I go. Y'all know how that go. If you
Speaker 1: could change your name, what would you change it? Two?
Speaker 1: I would change did I would change it to Denzel?
Speaker 1: Don't even all right? So are you many? Somehow? I
Speaker 1: think that Denzel would play him in the in the
Speaker 1: movie about his life. So no, I just say, think
Speaker 1: you You asked me if there was a movie about me,
Speaker 1: and that's the that's the answer that you write. Why
Speaker 1: am I gonna pick some bum? Why can I shoot
Speaker 1: for the stars? Okay? Why why do I want? Why
Speaker 1: do I want something dude for cheap? I ain't paying
Speaker 1: for it. I'm not having this ail. Why Why do
Speaker 1: I want my cousin Dion, who I love. I want
Speaker 1: that playing me. I want this ail. I'm waiting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hey that's black on black crime. Gee, what did I
Speaker 1: just commit? You a t or coffee person? Uh? Wow,
Speaker 1: that's a that I used to be more were with tea,
Speaker 1: But you get older. I think I switched more to coffee.
Speaker 1: But I do enjoy both of them. But to me,
Speaker 1: coffee is easier, and so I'll go with the coffee. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like I like a little cup of tea here
Speaker 1: and there. Man, some Earl gray. Yeah. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of tea when I used to do it with
Speaker 1: my bourbon. I don't drink anymore. I'm about five years here,
Speaker 1: but always some good tea and make a hot tidy
Speaker 1: with the little jack in it or a sottle Jim
Speaker 1: throw some. Now we're talking, man, now we're talking. I
Speaker 1: was just I just was trying to be rich. It
Speaker 1: just has some so you se you stick your pinky
Speaker 1: out too while you at it. I said, watch watch
Speaker 1: a shower, watch a show on Netflix. U just gonna Flix?
Speaker 1: Why are you talking about you? That's not something you
Speaker 1: just randomly don't let me have some tea like you
Speaker 1: gotta be in a mood like some house slippers own rope. No,
Speaker 1: just basketball shorts. I've heard on it. I'm still hood,
Speaker 1: so I'm not white beater on even like you were
Speaker 1: at him. They can drink your tea. Wow, turtle necking
Speaker 1: drinking tea. And here's t let me pay the picture.
Speaker 1: I'll be in some basketball shorts, tank top, some house
Speaker 1: shoes on and yes, I'm in a house. What kind
Speaker 1: they like? The old dog slippers from like Menister Society
Speaker 1: or which which they say the old they the old
Speaker 1: dog upgraded. I got the memory phone man fancy like
Speaker 1: uh like us, got the little fuzzing inside because my
Speaker 1: crystal need to stay warm. An yeah, you asked, you're
Speaker 1: trying to I like little tea sometimes. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on, let's we have digress. But it is interesting
Speaker 1: and love having you on this. My big dog man
Speaker 1: I met. I met though so many years ago, and
Speaker 1: we've kept this great bond, is great relationship. I've been
Speaker 1: on his radio show a number of times back in California,
Speaker 1: but I've never had to the privilege, uh to having
Speaker 1: obviously our show cut to it where we get I
Speaker 1: get to talk to and that's one of the things.
Speaker 1: I'm really enjoying getting to talk to what I call
Speaker 1: the older heads, that the men um and the women
Speaker 1: uh that have really instilled some things in me. And
Speaker 1: as we go down this trail, you'll hear some things.
Speaker 1: And I gotta love on him that I've stolen a
Speaker 1: few things that he have said, that he said and
Speaker 1: also instilled in me, um that I'll give credit to
Speaker 1: now he's on on UM on my poodcast. Now when
Speaker 1: I'm on TV or talking to other radio I don't
Speaker 1: give him credit, and I won't because I want people
Speaker 1: to think right. So, but well we'll get into that. So,
Speaker 1: Lorenzo O'Neil, what was your favorite team growing up any sport? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know what's crazy, it's interesting and this is not
Speaker 1: just me chain this is really true, I believe it
Speaker 1: or not. I was a San Diego Charger fan because
Speaker 1: of Chuck Munsey, Kellen wins Oh, Charlie Joinner, loved Dan
Speaker 1: fox West, Chandler James Brooks. I love that team. Eric,
Speaker 1: you know, Don Cory always to the good coach, something
Speaker 1: about watching you know, old forty six. So Chuck Munzy
Speaker 1: take it with the one one one crossbar across the face.
Speaker 1: Chuck Munsey was a beast um watching him playing Kellen
Speaker 1: winso what he was at the tight end position that
Speaker 1: offense and had Charlie joining West Chandler. Watching those guys
Speaker 1: play man was just like, oh my god. And uh.
Speaker 1: At a young age, I became a Charger fan. I
Speaker 1: had two guys lived down the street from us. They
Speaker 1: were like next door neighbors, not in next door neighbors.
Speaker 1: You gotta realized that's probably a country maw because you
Speaker 1: know he has to walk because it's in the country.
Speaker 1: What we had Land and David Joey, and they were
Speaker 1: the Stellers and Dallas Cowboys, but I was always the
Speaker 1: Chargers and they weren't that good, but they would always compete.
Speaker 1: And so just it was a charge of fan growing
Speaker 1: up basketball. You know, you love the Lakers, You love
Speaker 1: what those guys were doing. You know, watching those good
Speaker 1: rivals between them and Boston. Uh, you know, boxing love.
Speaker 1: I was a boxing Connoisseward loved Ali, caught a little
Speaker 1: bit of him. Larry Holmes was watching him, loved him,
Speaker 1: Sugar Ray, Sugar Ray, Leonard what Bernitez, All those guys
Speaker 1: in that era. Man was just those guys Herns Hagner,
Speaker 1: they got it done. But watching Sugar Raye man, he
Speaker 1: was just so sweet. So uh Ali and and Larry
Speaker 1: Holmes don't get the credit he deserves. Love to watch
Speaker 1: those guys. Uh love to watch those guys fights. So
Speaker 1: I I love sports. Just it just said something was
Speaker 1: ingreened in me. We have to take a break and
Speaker 1: the morning anything. We gotta pay some bills. You got checks.
Speaker 1: I love cut to It and I love it even
Speaker 1: more when you download us and subscribe, and you can
Speaker 1: follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at?
Speaker 1: That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At?
Speaker 1: Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online? And you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Um yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother,
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com. A guy you blocked
Speaker 1: for two gave us a great story when we asked this,
Speaker 1: um is where are you from? In a place you
Speaker 1: call your hometown. The more the l the move, the
Speaker 1: big Eltown, Lamore, California, where I'm from. So if you
Speaker 1: look at California, you guys know how long it is,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the longest states to travel to California.
Speaker 1: We're in the Central Valley, so we're dead smack in
Speaker 1: the middle. We're three hundred miles south going down to
Speaker 1: l A. We're three hundred miles north going up to
Speaker 1: the Bay San Francisco, so we're in the middle. And
Speaker 1: those so Fresno, Bakersfield, by Saia, by Saiah, bakers for
Speaker 1: all those town those little those little towns by the way,
Speaker 1: related to Tommy Smith, member the sixty four Olympics of
Speaker 1: when you know, so he's from the Moore. Steve Perry
Speaker 1: just a long there's a small town boy living in
Speaker 1: a lonely world. He's you know, you know Jane your journey,
Speaker 1: he's more to Steve Perry. So small town, but it's
Speaker 1: just a country. A lot of egg form laying around,
Speaker 1: you know. So, but we are centrally in the Central Valley.
Speaker 1: So that's why they call it the Central Valley, where
Speaker 1: the raising capital of the world. We produce over seventy
Speaker 1: five billion dollars a year in in agg and food
Speaker 1: we feed the majority of the world. Central Valley is
Speaker 1: so rich in farm land, so that's where it's at.
Speaker 1: So three d miles south, you go to l A,
Speaker 1: three hundred miles north you go to San Francisco. So
Speaker 1: we're kind of we're dead smack in the middle growing
Speaker 1: up there. How did that shape your view in the
Speaker 1: world today? Well, I think that, you know what, you
Speaker 1: were blind a little bit, but you were also it
Speaker 1: made you see things differently because you're a young man
Speaker 1: growing up in a town like that. Lots of Portuguese,
Speaker 1: a lot of majority of Portuguese, and you know, and
Speaker 1: in white and you know, blacks were kind of not
Speaker 1: necessarily a majority. A lot of blacks came from you know,
Speaker 1: the South and moved to Lamore, the Central Valley because
Speaker 1: you know, in the sixties and fifties, a lot of
Speaker 1: people left, you know, far as leading getting out of
Speaker 1: the the you know, Texas and stuff. So a lot
Speaker 1: of them came out to California. My dad and grandmother,
Speaker 1: my grandmother was named Viola and Oliver was my grandfather,
Speaker 1: and they came from Texas on the back of a truck.
Speaker 1: My dad and his six brothers and my aunt Bernese,
Speaker 1: and so it was a guy Cuneyman. They called him Cunneyman,
Speaker 1: and he would drive people and families out to California,
Speaker 1: and they took him out to the Island District and
Speaker 1: now the Island District. It was quoted like a a
Speaker 1: not a plantation, but it can a community. Yes, absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 1: We're all the blacks lived on on the land and
Speaker 1: they shared and they work worked on different forms and
Speaker 1: chopped cotton, pick cotton, and everyone says, chop cotton. You
Speaker 1: don't chop cotton. What you do is you chopped the weeds.
Speaker 1: So I grew up and we had we had fifty
Speaker 1: acres and we still have it now I'm developing that
Speaker 1: now residential. But so I had to I had to
Speaker 1: chop cotton growing up. So you chopped the weeds that
Speaker 1: are around the cotton. You gotta get a hole and
Speaker 1: you go down the roads and you just you hold
Speaker 1: the weeds from around the cotton um so for it
Speaker 1: won't won't struck before, it won't strangle the cotton for
Speaker 1: to grow. So those are some of the things. And
Speaker 1: then my grandparents, my dad, my mom, they also we
Speaker 1: had to pick cotton. So you picked the cotton. You
Speaker 1: make sure picking your the sacks that you pick, you
Speaker 1: wait them and you got paid for that. I didn't
Speaker 1: pick cotton, but you know, my my thing was I
Speaker 1: did chop, you know, the weeds from around it. But
Speaker 1: we had a cotton picker, so we didn't have to
Speaker 1: do that with my grandparents and my mom and dad
Speaker 1: had to do so those kind of things kind of
Speaker 1: they kind of molded me and kind of you asked,
Speaker 1: you know, what did it bring for me? It taught
Speaker 1: me how to work. You taught me about hard work.
Speaker 1: I still go out and cut grass. I you know,
Speaker 1: I have rental properties in Latmore. I got a hammer
Speaker 1: and nail like and sheet rock. I try to tell
Speaker 1: my kids, I said, look when dad gone. With Dad's gone,
Speaker 1: that's why I try to get you guys to come
Speaker 1: out here to work, because you need to know, well, Dad,
Speaker 1: we can hire someone. I said, yeah, but if you
Speaker 1: got a room and you gotta you know, tend by
Speaker 1: ten by ten room, you know that's four how many?
Speaker 1: You know? Where's the stud you got your two before?
Speaker 1: Is every sixteen or every twelve inches? So I can
Speaker 1: tell you even though you don't have to be going
Speaker 1: out going out and doing the work. At least I
Speaker 1: want you guys to know how many sheet, how many
Speaker 1: two before is you need to buy. So if you
Speaker 1: learn that stuff, now no one can't beat you. So
Speaker 1: those those are the certain things that really, really that
Speaker 1: I gravitated towards that kind of you know, still keep
Speaker 1: me and keeps me molded. Who I am? My grandmother,
Speaker 1: like I said, she was nineties seven when she died.
Speaker 1: And I remember my senior year. I was the League
Speaker 1: Player of the year. I was the Central Section Player
Speaker 1: of the year. I was valley player, the athlete of
Speaker 1: the year, and I was Northern California Athlete of the Year.
Speaker 1: And I was California Athlete of the Year. And Janet
Speaker 1: Evans says, Lorenzo is the King, and Janets the Queen.
Speaker 1: Janet EVTs who won the Olympics, and I beat out
Speaker 1: Michael Kim who was a tennis player, UM for Athlete
Speaker 1: of the Year, Curtis Tonaway, all the greats. And I
Speaker 1: remember sitting with my grandmother and she said, come here.
Speaker 1: What she said, sit down, and said, oh, Grandma, she's
Speaker 1: like she's gonna sit and talk to me. She had
Speaker 1: a old beat up station one and said don't worry.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna give you the station like a And
Speaker 1: I said, oh thank god. And so she said, down,
Speaker 1: you know what, Siden, She goes, you can do all
Speaker 1: those things. She tells, you know what, you're all these athletes,
Speaker 1: all these you know, accolades you're getting, and people are
Speaker 1: bragging about you. She said. But let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: She said, I came from Fort Worth, Texas. I had
Speaker 1: your I was I was picking cotton, as she said,
Speaker 1: she was a forming over twenty people that she was
Speaker 1: you know you still she was picking cotton. She was
Speaker 1: forming over twenty people, making sure they picked and did
Speaker 1: the things that they need to do. She said, I
Speaker 1: was pregnantly druncle Joe. I went into labor on winds Day.
Speaker 1: I went worked Thursday, I had your uncle. Friday, I
Speaker 1: went back to work and I said, Grandma, why don't
Speaker 1: you just take the weekend. You're already gonna be off
Speaker 1: for the weekend, and you just could have took Friday
Speaker 1: and then been off and go back Monday. She said, son,
Speaker 1: She goes, I'll tell you this, never take a vacation
Speaker 1: when the boss is around. She I said, why not?
Speaker 1: She said, they'll realize how much they don't need you.
Speaker 1: And at that time I really know as a senior
Speaker 1: in high school, but you know, all those times and
Speaker 1: she how was she even got to see me playing
Speaker 1: the pros. She lived a great life, But all that
Speaker 1: time I didn't know until you know, I've got in
Speaker 1: college and then the high the pros. She was telling me, Son,
Speaker 1: you could be as good, you could be the best.
Speaker 1: But if you take a vacation when the Boston around,
Speaker 1: they'll realized they don't need you. Someone else is gonna
Speaker 1: take your price. Someone else was just as long. Someone
Speaker 1: else wants to be that supervisor. Someone else wants to
Speaker 1: be that supervisor. Over twenty someone else wants to be
Speaker 1: that starting fullback. Someone else wants your job. So never
Speaker 1: take a vacation on the Boston around, because they will
Speaker 1: realize how much they don't need you. And those are
Speaker 1: the things that I still tell my kids. Those are
Speaker 1: things that I tell people when I go and talk
Speaker 1: to them. Those are so important for not just not
Speaker 1: just not just in sports, but just in life in general.
Speaker 1: It's funny is when hearing you say all of this
Speaker 1: with the same enthusiasm, is how you taught a lot
Speaker 1: of players while you why you were on teams with
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals with the obviously on that UM Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame career where la Damien Thomas and and and
Speaker 1: just what you did and meeting a guy named Steve
Speaker 1: Smith before he became senior at the Pro Bowl UM.
Speaker 1: Just all of that stuff that you've taught so many
Speaker 1: players that have so many high UM admirations for you, Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, my thing, Stephen, You know it, man,
Speaker 1: You're that guy that everyone in the league. They knew,
Speaker 1: whether you know, watching you play in the attitude and
Speaker 1: which you went about it, and you demanded respect and
Speaker 1: it wasn't You didn't have to talk about it. They
Speaker 1: just knew Steve was gonna be playing. I don't care.
Speaker 1: They knew that they were gonna go into the meeting.
Speaker 1: They don't care how big, how small, hall or whatever.
Speaker 1: They knew that they had the game plan for you.
Speaker 1: You can't teach that. That's something that you have inside you.
Speaker 1: That's something that's been instilled. That's just your heart. That's
Speaker 1: just your termination. No size or nothing determines who you are.
Speaker 1: That doesn't define you. Steve is a you know we're
Speaker 1: talking about me and I don't mean you. That's where
Speaker 1: we have a kinder spirit. We love each other, love
Speaker 1: each other family. But the biggest thing, man, it's like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. It can be the biggest dude in
Speaker 1: the world. Steve, you ain't backing down even if they
Speaker 1: whipped your ass. That's just not who you are. I'm
Speaker 1: being you know. You know that, bro, that's just but
Speaker 1: a lot of people we pit bulls, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't have that. They don't have that in factor.
Speaker 1: It's you gotta you gotta kill us. And that's what
Speaker 1: makes that's the difference between good and great. That's the
Speaker 1: difference that separated you. And that's the difference to separate you.
Speaker 1: That you can wait, okay you no way, not on
Speaker 1: my watch, no way. You might beat me. You might
Speaker 1: win the game, but you ain't beating Steve. That that's
Speaker 1: just how you're built. You wasn't beating you. You might
Speaker 1: win the team, your team might have lost. You might
Speaker 1: your team might have struggled. But something inside of you
Speaker 1: that you're gonna say I'm whooping your ass today, You ain't.
Speaker 1: You might you might, you guys might win, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you right now y'all don't know that I'm here.
Speaker 1: You would block, you would hit guys, you would It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what your job was. That's what made your great, bro,
Speaker 1: That's what made you great. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: sounds how do you? How do you feel hearing that
Speaker 1: from Lorenzo? It's hard to digest, to be honest, that's
Speaker 1: just it allows you. I believe. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I have such a hard time hearing compliments, especially
Speaker 1: from people I admire or respect or I really value,
Speaker 1: including you and a lot of you know people are
Speaker 1: our production team and that we work with, is because
Speaker 1: it allows me to take my guard down. And I
Speaker 1: don't like taking my guard down, because if I take
Speaker 1: my guard down, the fear of more of being emotionally
Speaker 1: hurt because of I know, you know you can physically
Speaker 1: hurt me. And okay, I you know I have a
Speaker 1: high threshold of pain. You know I've been through some
Speaker 1: things emotionally that that's hard to get through. Right you
Speaker 1: You've seen people who have dealt with things emotionally as
Speaker 1: children and who you can you can talk to someone
Speaker 1: long enough, you realize, man, their childhood screwed them up.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that, right. I think some
Speaker 1: of my childhood already wounded me, sure, and so that's
Speaker 1: why I you know, it's it. It has taken a
Speaker 1: lot of years to create a smile for me a
Speaker 1: long For a long time, it was easier to frown,
Speaker 1: you know, because if you keep yourself close guarded, like
Speaker 1: if you look like you're unapproachable, people want to approach you, exactly,
Speaker 1: And if people don't approach you, you you don't have to talk.
Speaker 1: So it just goes down the whole thing. And so
Speaker 1: you know that really that isolation, right, Um, for a
Speaker 1: long time, isolation was where I thrived, right, It's where
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable, so, you know, and steve with that.
Speaker 1: With that, you know, even though you were loved, then
Speaker 1: you find it hard to really submit or to be
Speaker 1: just okay, I'm a bear, I'm a bear who am
Speaker 1: because you're used to being on this island and people
Speaker 1: might say they can help you, they might tell you
Speaker 1: they love you and all those different things, but it's
Speaker 1: just it's it's it's a it's a place that you
Speaker 1: just like you you want to believe it, but anytime
Speaker 1: things happen, if you don't have you yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: like a mental prison. Almost, No, it's not, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not a mental prison. Was the prisoner is having
Speaker 1: a friendship with someone that it isn't really a true friendship.
Speaker 1: That's because because then what are you left with your
Speaker 1: left you're left sitting there picking up your own emotional pieces,
Speaker 1: going see and you start to digest or you start
Speaker 1: to piece together, well, they don't want to really be
Speaker 1: my friend. That you don't say they aren't my friend,
Speaker 1: or the relationship wasn't good because they are someone who's
Speaker 1: wounded or didn't know this or that it's or was
Speaker 1: it I said this that that that made them feel
Speaker 1: this way? Did did I do this? And and some
Speaker 1: of it? So you start to figure out and then
Speaker 1: you start putting putting the piece together, so you're having
Speaker 1: a conversation with yourself. We ultimately says I did something wrong,
Speaker 1: that's why it didn't work out. So if if you
Speaker 1: don't have that, then you're safe. So it's not it's
Speaker 1: not that prison that you know, you're feeling safe this.
Speaker 1: People who don't run would not get this. There's a
Speaker 1: place where it's called no man's land, where the slow
Speaker 1: runners are where they are then the fast runners or
Speaker 1: where they are. If you're stuck in the middle. So
Speaker 1: if you if you hang with the slow people, right, y'all,
Speaker 1: go at the pace that's comfortable for you, guys. But
Speaker 1: if you're if you're a slow person trying to run
Speaker 1: with a fast pace and you can't keep up your body,
Speaker 1: your mind say your mind's telling you, but your legs
Speaker 1: just say no, right, your legs acid build up, you
Speaker 1: start heading a brief and so you start to back up.
Speaker 1: You in the middle. You're in between the fast people,
Speaker 1: but you're you're not fast enough to be for the
Speaker 1: for the for the six minute mile pace, but you're
Speaker 1: faster than the fifteen minute mile pace. So you're stuck
Speaker 1: in the middle. So you have to maintain chase but
Speaker 1: keep all off the slow people. So you're you're in
Speaker 1: the middle and you're dog low, and that if you
Speaker 1: are not prepared and ready to run a marathon by yourself,
Speaker 1: come on, it's a struggle. I mean, it is a struggle.
Speaker 1: And some people and I'm not saying this and and
Speaker 1: a negative I'm just I'm just being honest. I'm throwing
Speaker 1: it out there. This is where some people commit suicide.
Speaker 1: This is where some people, uh slip the risk. This
Speaker 1: is where some people do not know how deal with
Speaker 1: some of what's going on. And there have been times
Speaker 1: pretty much a lot of my career, I would say
Speaker 1: about seven right at first, first eight or nine years man,
Speaker 1: I was okay with being no man's land. I preferred
Speaker 1: being in no man's land because you couldn't tell me
Speaker 1: I was too slow. Hell, I knew I couldn't run fast.
Speaker 1: So I was okay with being no man's land because
Speaker 1: it gave me a place there was. I was my judge, jury,
Speaker 1: and executioner. And I was happy with it because some
Speaker 1: nice I went to bead terrible day, I was okay
Speaker 1: with I'll just go to slate, wake up, try again.
Speaker 1: I trusted no one to really give me anything that
Speaker 1: was really beneficial. And that's why Michael Jackson said it
Speaker 1: best stuck in the middle. You can't yeah, yeah, y'all like,
Speaker 1: but it's just you know, and that's where it is.
Speaker 1: And and I think that no Man's Land is a
Speaker 1: really good place, but it is a very dangerous place
Speaker 1: without some some good counseling, without some some good mentor ship,
Speaker 1: without some people that really can love on you and
Speaker 1: you also can love on them back, like Zow is
Speaker 1: one of those guys you know when the super Bowl happens, Um,
Speaker 1: when some big event that requires us former players are
Speaker 1: current players should get around each other. We see each other.
Speaker 1: That's He's one of those guys where I'm okay if
Speaker 1: he's a slow runner, a fast paced running, I'm okay
Speaker 1: with sprinting with him because he just lifts you up.
Speaker 1: You see someone, it's like it's like going to an
Speaker 1: event or you're the new employee at a huge corporation
Speaker 1: and you're going to the cafeteria and you see that
Speaker 1: one person you know and you are belining to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah you I'm comfortable with them, Yes, but it's not
Speaker 1: comfortable because I feel safe. It's comfortable because of who
Speaker 1: he is or who she is, and those one Lorenzo's
Speaker 1: wanted as those guys he texts. Um you ask and
Speaker 1: they say, well, it's for Lorenzo. I've been on the
Speaker 1: show a few times and that's some days I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's West Coast Mathematics today. You know, it's like, oh Lorenzo,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that big dog absolutely, and that's what that's
Speaker 1: who he is that he like he loses the confidence
Speaker 1: of true friendship. Really like me and you're bond. You
Speaker 1: get on my nerves, I get on your nerves. But
Speaker 1: ultimately you're one of my closest friends. And I would
Speaker 1: lose if I would lose you in our friendship. It
Speaker 1: would take me a long time to get over. I could,
Speaker 1: I could buy some friends. But Bro, you ain't you.
Speaker 1: You're not one of those friends. That that's I don't
Speaker 1: have the amount of money in my bank account because
Speaker 1: of what you brain. You know, I appreciate that. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Well, man, that's that's a that's that's heavy.
Speaker 1: But even with that, Lorenzo, how how do you? How
Speaker 1: did you landed that place that Steve is describing as being,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better words, being an o G.
Speaker 1: Being the person that looks out for other people? You
Speaker 1: know what? A lot of it Like Steve, We've we've
Speaker 1: been hurt, we've been but you still love people. And
Speaker 1: for me, my dad he was just my dad, you know,
Speaker 1: as a pastor and you know you'd be passed like
Speaker 1: five years ago, and uh he was a good man.
Speaker 1: Was he perfect? No? And I think that you know,
Speaker 1: growing up sometimes you know, being a you know, some
Speaker 1: of a preacher, you stray and I'm a lie, I'm
Speaker 1: a cheat, I'm you name it, I'm not I'm that person.
Speaker 1: And and then something I thought, like like Steve talked
Speaker 1: about we you know, have I'm not saying to speaking
Speaker 1: for Steve, but I'll speak for me. Have we have
Speaker 1: I thought about that? I get a gun and put it,
Speaker 1: pull it out and say I'm gonna commit suicide? No?
Speaker 1: Have we all thought of Have we thought about it?
Speaker 1: Have we thought about relationships? All those different things? Yes?
Speaker 1: I think that if you people that say that they haven't,
Speaker 1: I think they're not. They're lying to themselves. As we
Speaker 1: we we are. We are humans, we are human beings
Speaker 1: and in those nature and those things that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: love and respect and knowing who one another is. My
Speaker 1: dad told me a couple of things, and one of
Speaker 1: them that just sticked out with me, and he said,
Speaker 1: he said, son, you know, I got out of college
Speaker 1: running while gotten pros doing my thing. And he said, son,
Speaker 1: he goes he got to slow down, and he just
Speaker 1: but he knew. But he talked me in a way,
Speaker 1: he says, son, He said, look, if you hang out
Speaker 1: with four people that make a dollar, he says son.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon they'll be five and wow, and you just
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's and it's your timing, so when
Speaker 1: you're asking. Was always good to people, Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 1: I wasn't crazier and assis when I was drunk. But
Speaker 1: far as just being a good person, I was always
Speaker 1: a good person. I've done some bad things, and we
Speaker 1: all have. And that's why for me, I had to
Speaker 1: learn how to forgive, forgive forgetting that, you know, because
Speaker 1: we can do other people, you know, low money and
Speaker 1: do things and be there. But then sometimes we do
Speaker 1: all these things because we're not willing to forgive forgive ourselves.
Speaker 1: And that's what I had recently. And that's why, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I depend more on a higher power, and
Speaker 1: you know, I get up and try to pray more.
Speaker 1: I get up and try to do things for not
Speaker 1: that I'm some Bible thumper, you know, I still understand it,
Speaker 1: because what happens is we have been taught a lot
Speaker 1: of black churches and a lot of black that hey,
Speaker 1: you gotta do this, you gotta get more money, you
Speaker 1: gotta tie it, you gotta you gotta go you know what,
Speaker 1: you gotta go do this, you gotta do this. No,
Speaker 1: and Exodus, Jesus said, he said, you know God, he said,
Speaker 1: I'm the guy who brought the children of Israel for
Speaker 1: forty I brought you out of Egypt. He says, So
Speaker 1: serve me. See so many people in churches, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what we that's why people turn from God.
Speaker 1: Act like he's a genie in a bottle, and they
Speaker 1: rubbed the bloom. All need a new car. Oh got
Speaker 1: to need a new house, or I needed this, I
Speaker 1: need that. And it's but they're not, they're not. That's
Speaker 1: not what he that's not what he came for. Kim
Speaker 1: and Shure. It's just how to live, how to treat people,
Speaker 1: how to be good to people. That's what and and
Speaker 1: and that's what. We don't want to do that because
Speaker 1: that's not our nature. Our nature is the lie to chief,
Speaker 1: to steal, to do those things, because that's what he said,
Speaker 1: don't give any man no praise. So until you asked me, so,
Speaker 1: until recently learning just to forgive and learning that, hey, look,
Speaker 1: I'm okay, you know what godtor gave me. Because because
Speaker 1: we go through we might sin, we might do those things,
Speaker 1: and we feel so we feel so disconnected because of
Speaker 1: things that we've done in our past or you know,
Speaker 1: we did something or we felt a certain way, we
Speaker 1: said some things, we did something we hated, we talked
Speaker 1: about someone, we did things that we didn't speak life,
Speaker 1: and it's like you feel so guilty, but you know what,
Speaker 1: it's okay. That's why it's only one good and that's God.
Speaker 1: We gotta stop, you know, we gotta stop always holding
Speaker 1: ourselves and looking at ourselves and judging ourselves. And because
Speaker 1: when you get to that point sometimes you're just like man,
Speaker 1: you'll go down this endless path and the spiral because
Speaker 1: of the fact you're continuing to hold yourself and it's
Speaker 1: never gonna be good enough. We'll always search for perfection.
Speaker 1: And that's why we always posed a chase after Christ
Speaker 1: to be more like what he was on this service,
Speaker 1: not like because because man, we get we get mixed up.
Speaker 1: We mess up because we're human and that's what we got.
Speaker 1: So I've just tried to learn to let God day. Look,
Speaker 1: you're in control, whether I lie, whether I still, whether
Speaker 1: I do I'm still gonna you know, I still I
Speaker 1: don't do it, don't do it intentionally. The least to
Speaker 1: know man, that God knows and he's forgiven. He knows
Speaker 1: our hard. So that's what's been the biggest thing for
Speaker 1: me when you asked what how how do I get
Speaker 1: to that place? Is I can't do it. Man's trying
Speaker 1: to trying to hold it up and trying to do
Speaker 1: all the things for you. You'll go crazy trying to
Speaker 1: take care of everyone, trying to be everything to everybody.
Speaker 1: You'll go crazy. We're not We're not capable. How do
Speaker 1: you deal with self care? Then? You know? For me?
Speaker 1: You know? For me, I have a a guy named
Speaker 1: Ron passed Ron who I talked to you. But it's
Speaker 1: not about it's not about judgment and Steve, I have lied.
Speaker 1: I lived a lie. I lived a lie for a
Speaker 1: lot part of my life. That you say, you get
Speaker 1: to a certain you supposed to be married, get to
Speaker 1: a certain age, post have kids. You posed, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is what you supposed to do. You want that trophy wife,
Speaker 1: You want to do those things, and nothing that they
Speaker 1: have done. Nothing. That's not that they're not a great person,
Speaker 1: it's not that they treat you us, not that they're
Speaker 1: all those things. But if you're a pepsi and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you you try to be a coming
Speaker 1: orange soda. It doesn't work. You'll never become an orang
Speaker 1: soda because you're a pepsi. Yeah, so sometimes we force
Speaker 1: we do things out of this is oh chief fine,
Speaker 1: or this is that oran and and and that person
Speaker 1: is nothing. They did nothing wrong, but because you went
Speaker 1: into it, because it was something that you've felt that
Speaker 1: you need to do. It's something you felt. Feeling is
Speaker 1: the emotion. It's not that necessary to the truth. And
Speaker 1: sometimes you hurt kids, You hurt generations because you hurt
Speaker 1: you write, you hurt whether you hurt because you won't
Speaker 1: tell them the truth. You won't let them know who
Speaker 1: you really are. And you did something you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you want to go camping, but you know what, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't know. It's all about Louis and it's never it's
Speaker 1: never been about that. And that's but that's who they've been.
Speaker 1: They you got married to him, Hey, I don't want
Speaker 1: to one camp. They would never do those some of
Speaker 1: the things that you or go fish or do the
Speaker 1: things that you want to do. And you did it
Speaker 1: because you felt that I needed to feel a void.
Speaker 1: And we then when you have the things that we
Speaker 1: have to disposal income we can fix the problem despite
Speaker 1: throwing money at it, and you throw it's it's a
Speaker 1: temporary solution and it's not necessarily the truth. I think
Speaker 1: it's about that time. Just take a little breathing. Good do,
Speaker 1: good do. Let's getting down to do it good Hey Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: 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? How did you balance football life, business life, husband? Father?
Speaker 1: And I think this is a pretty heavy one too,
Speaker 1: son and grandson because your mom, dad and grandma Viola,
Speaker 1: they they didn't let you. You said you straight, but
Speaker 1: they stayed on you. It sounds like, man, But I grown, man,
Speaker 1: grow man. I would go back home and go to
Speaker 1: church and my mom and still hit me in the head.
Speaker 1: I'm and they slapped me in the back of the
Speaker 1: head in the back of the church. People. Who so, man,
Speaker 1: I shoot my dad And you know, high school I
Speaker 1: was still getting whippies. So you don't. But at the
Speaker 1: same center, how well, first of all, how how how
Speaker 1: was it? How bad were you or the fact that
Speaker 1: you know, Bro, I didn't drink. I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: obviously did because you got your I didn't smoke. I didn't.
Speaker 1: No no if like my dad said, gonna pick up
Speaker 1: the yard and I didn't do it. Man, he would
Speaker 1: get on it. I mean so big Glenn, you gotta
Speaker 1: they was South big Glinn. He had big hands. He
Speaker 1: was my brother. Put it this way, is this we
Speaker 1: just happened this this? I mean this turning I was,
Speaker 1: I'm parking at the store upos that goal be be rolling.
Speaker 1: But you know what, this thing got so good to me.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't shut up. Y'all, y'all, y'all bringing
Speaker 1: it out of me today. I mean, this is what
Speaker 1: we do. What we do. I love hearing your story
Speaker 1: because a lot of times people see the player and
Speaker 1: they go, oh, you know, I'll get to it right here.
Speaker 1: I heard you say this a long time ago, man,
Speaker 1: grown man playing the kids game getting the Kings ran. Yes. Man,
Speaker 1: People see that and they go, whoa what, there's no
Speaker 1: big deal. You get paid all this money. But they're
Speaker 1: still whether you got a hundred million dollar contract or
Speaker 1: you got a two dollar contract. That individual still has
Speaker 1: a heartbeat, he or she bleeds, he or she breathes,
Speaker 1: and he or she's crossed something led up to that moment,
Speaker 1: and there's still someone and all that stuff that you
Speaker 1: see on on on Sunday afternoons, right, and it's to
Speaker 1: balance it all they'll see to be honest, man, to
Speaker 1: be honest, And I won't because because because my thing
Speaker 1: is I got to a point and that's why earlier
Speaker 1: I told you guys that I had to that I
Speaker 1: had to forgive myself. Now I didn't. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to necessarily forgive, but knowing that God knows that he forgives.
Speaker 1: So until you can accept that, you'll still lie. You'll
Speaker 1: still live behind. You'll still live behind not the truth.
Speaker 1: You'll do it because you don't want people to look
Speaker 1: at you and view a certain way, and we we
Speaker 1: we hide behind it. I failed. I felt at it miserably,
Speaker 1: whether Dad beyond me, whether counseling, all those things. I
Speaker 1: felt it a lot of it. I felt that the
Speaker 1: husband part of it, thought the father part of it,
Speaker 1: felt it that you know, sometimes the finance part. It
Speaker 1: throught it a lot of different things because I became
Speaker 1: selfish now that I still love. Obviously, if you love me,
Speaker 1: you'll keep my commandments. So we say we love our parents,
Speaker 1: we love and think about it. Have people say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm a good person. Have you ever lied? Have you
Speaker 1: ever looked at a girl and some yoga pants and
Speaker 1: said man? And if you have to look to do
Speaker 1: a second get look or third look? Don't you know
Speaker 1: you look too long? We can say all those things.
Speaker 1: So it's in a hard So I had to. You
Speaker 1: asked me, Steve the truth because of where I'm at,
Speaker 1: and I can't. I don't. I'm not gonna sit there
Speaker 1: and say I don't still at love times, but even
Speaker 1: an uncomfortable moment like this, when you ask me, I
Speaker 1: can tell you I failed. I can tell you I
Speaker 1: balanced it sometimes at at an A. I balanced from
Speaker 1: an A all the way to an F plus m
Speaker 1: hm so I and at times I go, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: more of A. I'm more of an A now, But
Speaker 1: at sometimes I still so. So I get it. But
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a day to day you play golf.
Speaker 1: You never go out and play. You can't just go
Speaker 1: shoot Bertie all day long. You all you never mastered
Speaker 1: you play football? How many how many catches have you dropped?
Speaker 1: But how many have you called? You? Still you can't
Speaker 1: master it? So but but you still but you still
Speaker 1: played at such high level and you wanted to be perfect.
Speaker 1: You kept searching for it, but you still failed. That's
Speaker 1: not that, that's just like life, man, Steph. Courage is
Speaker 1: one of the best three point game shooted wed game
Speaker 1: ever seen. But how many times have you missed the three?
Speaker 1: But yeah, and still That's why I'm doing a show
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to do, a show that that I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get away from the secular radio. And it's
Speaker 1: called God. You know, it's God, family and faith, God,
Speaker 1: family and sports because I want to talk about Tom
Speaker 1: Brady Orgaby, one of the greatest quarterbacks. But how many
Speaker 1: interceptions have you thrown? But I'm the last night, how
Speaker 1: many game wanting good drives that he had, but he
Speaker 1: still feels But look, look what family does. Family still
Speaker 1: lifts him up. Fans still lift him up. Fans still, man,
Speaker 1: you're the groat, still lift you up. But you know what,
Speaker 1: but why can't we do that for our church brothers?
Speaker 1: Why can't we do for our brothers that just stru
Speaker 1: our sisters or kids that are struggling and maybe something
Speaker 1: going on in their life and they fail, astray or
Speaker 1: do so the not that you condone it, not that you,
Speaker 1: oh you know, but you Why why? Why? Why not
Speaker 1: still show love? I'm at a point in time where
Speaker 1: now I'm trying to give. I even give more because
Speaker 1: I want people to know that they're still hope. We
Speaker 1: can get up, we can shake ourself, we can continue,
Speaker 1: we can continue to try to strive for perfection, just
Speaker 1: like in football, if you kept striving for perfection no
Speaker 1: matter what. Why can't we do that in life? Why
Speaker 1: can't we do the relationship? Why why don't we quit?
Speaker 1: Why don't say okay, I are you talking to that? Okay,
Speaker 1: I ain't doing that. Oh no, I'm done. You never
Speaker 1: did that. We never did that in sports. Again, still
Speaker 1: we think we can do that for individuals. People we love,
Speaker 1: people we care about. So, man, that's why I'm at Steve.
Speaker 1: I failed, brother, I failed during that time. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: had a great career, but I felt at so many
Speaker 1: other things. Well, friends are our Our last segment that
Speaker 1: we're having this podcast is called the Deep Three, and
Speaker 1: it's just three questions that we asked that take us
Speaker 1: behind you as a football player who goes beyond your jersey.
Speaker 1: So Smithy give him the first deep three question. I
Speaker 1: really want to know from you how has planned in
Speaker 1: the NFL improved your life, but also have has screwed
Speaker 1: up your perspective of life. I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: the how it helped my life. I think just the
Speaker 1: people and the opportunity that I received um this conversation
Speaker 1: with you guys. Being able to travel and do things
Speaker 1: that otherwise wouldn't have been able to do. Having the
Speaker 1: opportunity to play in so many different cities, to travel
Speaker 1: and do things that people dream about so far from
Speaker 1: you know, apart from the money, I just think the
Speaker 1: experience itself was just unbelievable. The people that you got
Speaker 1: to meet and from dignitaries from your name is, people
Speaker 1: that are you know, and other other specially other professions,
Speaker 1: meeting the Denzel Washington meeting Denzel come into a game,
Speaker 1: you know, meeting you know, presidents and president's wives and
Speaker 1: doing those things because of what you've done. So the
Speaker 1: opportunity that it gave me, it is unreal. I think
Speaker 1: that you know, the negative would be some of the
Speaker 1: things that's going on with our bodies now, the ct
Speaker 1: E and you know, and you know and fingers and
Speaker 1: joints and you know getting up in the morning and
Speaker 1: how the body feels for all the hits and things
Speaker 1: that you've taken. UM also a false and security because
Speaker 1: it sees so many different things and sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: trust people and you see what people are about and
Speaker 1: and uh it makes you you're guarded. So sometimes get
Speaker 1: it tainted me in some some ways to UM in
Speaker 1: that process. Lorenzo, you're a four time Pro bowler, you're
Speaker 1: an All Pro, you were a member of the two
Speaker 1: thousand's All Decade Team at fullback. But what's the greatest
Speaker 1: gift that you got from the game of football? I
Speaker 1: think I think the greatest gift that that I got
Speaker 1: from the game of football, I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's war I'm at now to be able to have respect,
Speaker 1: to be able to be in a position now to
Speaker 1: tell people your story and help more individuals because of
Speaker 1: you have, because of you have, because of your position.
Speaker 1: It's given me the ability and also the gravitas to
Speaker 1: be able to tell tell people my story but also
Speaker 1: introduce more people to a better life. Introduce more people
Speaker 1: to Christ. I think that's that's what one of the
Speaker 1: things that we have a platform and we're able to
Speaker 1: do things that people wish that they can do. How
Speaker 1: are we losing it? I can give life or I
Speaker 1: can give death. And I've given plenty of death, guys,
Speaker 1: I've given plenty of death. I've wronged a lot of people,
Speaker 1: show people the long way they've took it from people,
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, two rooms will make it right.
Speaker 1: But because of the position, and I'm when in for
Speaker 1: as women and different things that you are allowed and
Speaker 1: afforded to. So just like a given, we've given death.
Speaker 1: I think we have a huge opportunity to give life.
Speaker 1: So that's what it's given me, the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: able to speak life and help people in a place
Speaker 1: that they feel that they have no hope. What's one
Speaker 1: of the pieces of advice you give your children that
Speaker 1: you hope stays with them. Yeah, um, advice that I
Speaker 1: try to talk to my kids about it. I talked
Speaker 1: about c DC choices, decisions and consequences. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: a choice. Then you're gonna say you have a choice,
Speaker 1: canna go to school? Then you have a decision, did
Speaker 1: or did I not go to school? You have a choice,
Speaker 1: then you decide did you go to school? The consequence
Speaker 1: I went to school, graduated, did all those things. Consequence,
Speaker 1: I got a great job because I got it, went
Speaker 1: to god a degree. And that's my consequence. If I don't,
Speaker 1: where's my life? Where am I going to be? How
Speaker 1: am I gonna get by? C D C choices, discursions
Speaker 1: and consequences. You're eight years older than me, but man,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm talking to a sixty year old
Speaker 1: old g and and you basically saying, look look at
Speaker 1: your knuckle head. I've lived this life. I bumped my head.
Speaker 1: I've written on that skateboard board. There's a rock right
Speaker 1: there on eighth when you hit the left over Pooky House,
Speaker 1: there's a rock. Come on, and you're you're telling us
Speaker 1: where your mouthpiece or where your helmet because when you
Speaker 1: hit that rock, you're gonna fall off. Don't do what
Speaker 1: I did. And and just I really appreciate your vulnerability
Speaker 1: and just your transparentship. Man, it's been awesome. We've we've
Speaker 1: done quite a few of these podcasts. This is what
Speaker 1: I can honestly say, I got more out of what
Speaker 1: I want you know what I'm saying, like the unedited
Speaker 1: version of my phone, I don't because because there's so much.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I get what you're saying. But but for sure, man,
Speaker 1: even and from from Smithy's comments to to you, LaRenzo,
Speaker 1: Man like you, you gave us a lot, brothers, so
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate that, Steve. Man. We gotta do a better job, man,
Speaker 1: just connecting being being being presidents each other's lives. Man,
Speaker 1: because man, we look about think about it another eight
Speaker 1: you say, eight years old? Eight years old at eight eight,
Speaker 1: you know, at another forty forty two the year at
Speaker 1: you know, add another forty three or forty two years,
Speaker 1: how old are you gonna be? Brother? Think about where
Speaker 1: life is at. Bro. We you know, all of us
Speaker 1: got to do a better job just the people that
Speaker 1: we really want in our life. And you know that
Speaker 1: we want to grow with and help men and do
Speaker 1: those things. Man, I'm down for brother, talking about change
Speaker 1: and over this country. Man. You know the spirit of
Speaker 1: influence we can have how many multimillionaires we know and
Speaker 1: brothers or but we got to help our own communities
Speaker 1: to man, we gotta we all need to do something. Man,
Speaker 1: And you know so many people respect you me man,
Speaker 1: I just I want to do something. I tell my
Speaker 1: son Larenzos and he's all, dadd you know what the
Speaker 1: police was meant for? I know it was. It was
Speaker 1: for the for segregation. Oh it's for black I know
Speaker 1: all those things. And but what are we doing? And
Speaker 1: that's the thing, Steve, Man. We we if you got
Speaker 1: you know, we get brothers together. Man, we can change communities. Man,
Speaker 1: But it's gonna it's gonna take us brothers to do
Speaker 1: some of this stuff too. How would you use a
Speaker 1: failure like dropping a pass to motivate you to succeed
Speaker 1: in the next game or even the next play, rather
Speaker 1: than beating yourself up? Mm hmm. I would beat myself
Speaker 1: up a lot. I wouldn't necessarily use this motivation, you know.
Speaker 1: I I would look at the data and look at
Speaker 1: my film, see why, how, what, when? Where? Also go
Speaker 1: back you know, psychologically mentally and see where I was,
Speaker 1: look at the the sequence of the game, why it happened,
Speaker 1: what had transpired before that, and then also go back
Speaker 1: and look at practice. So it will be a lot
Speaker 1: of build up to it to be able to look
Speaker 1: at it completely as data and not um as emotional
Speaker 1: and saying all that, professionally, I would still just analyze
Speaker 1: myself and just be piste off and and and really
Speaker 1: just not liking um the outcome of dropping a pass.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person, You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Singior, I'm Gerard Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: BAAL Tool Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Singor, co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking
Speaker 1: manager Joe fe She, Social media team Wesley Robinson and
Speaker 1: John Show from Balto Creative Media, Cut Too It is
Speaker 1: produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance
Speaker 1: by Alex Lebrek, Production manager Sarah Pollock, Theme music by
Speaker 1: Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't
Speaker 1: heard about it, then We're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all