Speaker 1: First of all, costing me about eight hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars. That's gonna cost you. I'm backhander because
Speaker 1: he was behind me that I was not new all
Speaker 1: my life and running all my life. Sacrifice hustle back price.
Speaker 1: One slice got the browner dice to swath all my life.
Speaker 1: I've been grinding all my life, all my life and
Speaker 1: running all my life. Sacrifice, hustle back to prices. One
Speaker 1: a slice got the brother dice to swatty all my life.
Speaker 1: I've been grinding all my life. Hello, welcome to another
Speaker 1: edition of Club Shashay. I am your whole Shannon Sharp.
Speaker 1: I'm also the propriud of Club sha Shake. And the
Speaker 1: guy that's stopping by for conversation on the drink is
Speaker 1: a sixteen year NFL bet, a five time pro bowler,
Speaker 1: a three time All Pro Comeback Player of the Year
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, and an NFL Triple Crown
Speaker 1: runner led the league and catches touchdowns and yards. Steve
Speaker 1: Smith c smitty, ain't little Steve Smith spitty spitty? How
Speaker 1: you doing run? I'm good? Now you're doing better than good? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What's the day like the Steve Smith? Now wake up
Speaker 1: at depends. I'm I'm a morning person. Okay, so I
Speaker 1: can you play in the NFL? You gotta be on
Speaker 1: a morning person. Yea, that's not true. I know some
Speaker 1: guys that were morning person. How they make it? Make it?
Speaker 1: I get up, you know six seven o'clock. I watched
Speaker 1: a little TV. Okay, Uh catch you catch you rerunning
Speaker 1: and seeing catching up, also deciding and have an internal dialogue. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna run outside. We're gonna get on the peloton
Speaker 1: treadmill to bike. Then there take take my dog for
Speaker 1: a walk feeder, may work out with my oldest or
Speaker 1: well one of my one of my kids. Uh see
Speaker 1: what's going on? Uh? Got a foundation and some businesses
Speaker 1: in Charlotte go down, got in my office downtown, uptown
Speaker 1: and Charlotte. So do some of that stuff and and
Speaker 1: let the day uh take me high. It'school. As an
Speaker 1: NFL analyst, obviously you have you talk about the games
Speaker 1: every week. How much film do you actually watch? How
Speaker 1: much game do you actually watch? I watch a lot
Speaker 1: of game. I watch a lot of film. I take
Speaker 1: a lot of notes. I allow I try to allow
Speaker 1: the game to talk to me too. I create my
Speaker 1: opinion about someone or something or about that team based
Speaker 1: on the game each week and collectively, and I may
Speaker 1: see something earmarket and then come back to it, especially
Speaker 1: if I have a game. I'm watching a team this
Speaker 1: week against another prominent team, but also maybe have to
Speaker 1: watch these two different teams or someone else again, so
Speaker 1: I'll check to see have they improved, have they dropped.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'll do a little bit of everything,
Speaker 1: but mainly letting the game talk. Obviously, you watch the game,
Speaker 1: but you probably have a little a preference towards watching
Speaker 1: the receivers because that's the position that you played. If
Speaker 1: I would to say, it's maybe give me your top
Speaker 1: five receivers. And if I said, you got a draft,
Speaker 1: you can only get one. Who you're taking? Give me
Speaker 1: a top five? If you get a draft you could
Speaker 1: take one. Well, this is probably an answer that you're
Speaker 1: not gonna expect. Okay, who's my quarterback? First of all,
Speaker 1: I'll give you you could have. Okay, who you want
Speaker 1: to be your quarterback? Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: Who do you want to be the quarterback? Somebody that
Speaker 1: can has a fast processing system. Okay, So I'll give
Speaker 1: you any of the I'll say, you can have Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: or you want Brady, you want Rodgers, or you want Mahomes. Well,
Speaker 1: I played in Carolina, so I'll take all of it. No,
Speaker 1: no offense to Jake. I love Jake. Okay, okay, so
Speaker 1: you got one of those top quarterbacks. Now give me
Speaker 1: your top five receivers, top five receivers currently right now.
Speaker 1: I gotta you know I'm biased. I gotta go with
Speaker 1: a guy whose cups always full. Cooper Cup, Cooper Cup.
Speaker 1: Give me DeAndre Hopkins, hop me o b J. Still, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised. I'm surprised, not because I don't I know
Speaker 1: what he represents, but the injuries and its injured again
Speaker 1: that you still believe that he's the top guy. It's
Speaker 1: just my listen, Yo, Liz, I'm just saying. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that. Jo lis Hey, I just say it. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I picked OBJ, but he's gonna, we're gonna you're making
Speaker 1: me change. Nobody names me. I'm light skinned. I'm playing
Speaker 1: a big guy. Okay, Okay, man, that's uh. I'll take
Speaker 1: any of those boards in Tampa Bay. You can't go
Speaker 1: wrong with either one of 'em. Right, you want Evan's
Speaker 1: Godwin give me god one just because he ever is
Speaker 1: a tall guy, he gets too much credits. Okay, you
Speaker 1: know I got, I got a rep for the small people. Okay.
Speaker 1: And then I mean it's that if you leave O
Speaker 1: b J. That's four okay, four DeVante Adams Okay. I
Speaker 1: was I was wondering how how long before you got Davante.
Speaker 1: But the guy that I'm surprised by that you didn't pick,
Speaker 1: it's kind of your side. It's Tyreek. Hmm. I like Tyreek.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you some choices, and you tell me
Speaker 1: who's the best wide receiver under the age of twenty five.
Speaker 1: You got Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, Ceedee Lamb A. J. Brown,
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle, DK Metcalf, DJ Moore, Jerry Judy, give me
Speaker 1: the best and give me your top give me give
Speaker 1: me your top four wide receivers twenty five. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know about DK, just because you don't know the
Speaker 1: quarterback situation out there, all right. And then at the
Speaker 1: same time, when they go to uh when even when
Speaker 1: Russell Whistle was there, when they needed a big play,
Speaker 1: who they go to Tyler Locke. Then if they go
Speaker 1: to someone else, to the other if they go to
Speaker 1: the wishing well and it's not you, and guess what,
Speaker 1: You're not the guy. Sorry, I'm just being honest. So
Speaker 1: I think he's I mean, he walks through the door
Speaker 1: physically gifted. But uh, the short guys who they go
Speaker 1: to when they need a big play? Uh, dk Is
Speaker 1: is robbing Tyler's batman. Okay, Justin Jefferson outstanding. Uh, he
Speaker 1: gets he's he has a cheek hold a little bit
Speaker 1: because he has Adam feeling out there trying to tell
Speaker 1: him everything. You have the athleticism. He's also a great
Speaker 1: kid as well a sponge. He also was a Kubiak's
Speaker 1: Clint Kobyak slash Gary Koubiak's offense. In that offense, there's
Speaker 1: one receiver that will alwaysy the second receiver. You can
Speaker 1: eat two, but you just gotta you just gotta know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Ye who else? I mean I can
Speaker 1: break off this Jamar Chase and love him. Uh. He
Speaker 1: has a stellar quarterback. His offensive offensive minded coach understands
Speaker 1: getting him the ball. Uh. They understand that he'll be
Speaker 1: a guy that plays for a long time. Has speed
Speaker 1: but also has the ability to run exceptional robs at
Speaker 1: such a young game. You likee Lamb, I like ceedee Lamb.
Speaker 1: I'm not really keen on hearing Jerry Jones put that
Speaker 1: pressure and say he's a better version of Amari Cooper
Speaker 1: because Amary Cooper was a Mary Cooper. You knew who
Speaker 1: Mary Cooper was, where you paid him. You can't get
Speaker 1: mad at Mary Cooper because he's the same person that
Speaker 1: showed up. He's a quiet kid. He's gonna he's gonna
Speaker 1: bring us lunch pail, but he's not really gonna get dirty.
Speaker 1: That's never been him and it's and it's nothing against him,
Speaker 1: right right. That's why at the time Oakland traded him
Speaker 1: because he just was not the lunch rod. Gotta have
Speaker 1: football his life or deathinitely, Yeah, and it is. You
Speaker 1: can't be disappointed. That's your fault for not doing your
Speaker 1: due diligence. A. J. Brown. He's a physical specimen. I
Speaker 1: think his last receiver group really stunted his growth in Tennessee. Uh,
Speaker 1: the whole room. I think there was some some exam
Speaker 1: amples that should have been better examples than weren't. H
Speaker 1: He he is a dynamic receiver and I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna play well in Philly. Also think he just needs
Speaker 1: to come out and say, look, he left for more money.
Speaker 1: End of the day. Ain't no wrong with that. You
Speaker 1: got Dj Moore? I loved I love what he's playing.
Speaker 1: Not really, I'm not really sure how it's gonna work
Speaker 1: out over at all, but I like DJ Moore and
Speaker 1: he's also he's he's a kind of like uh like Coop.
Speaker 1: He's not really a right rock guy. And he'll play,
Speaker 1: he'll show up, he'll do us football his life or
Speaker 1: death for him, but he's just not a right rock guy.
Speaker 1: Y'all might get Baker maybe, I know. I hear that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta just if that's my squad, whether you like
Speaker 1: it or you gotta ride with him, even if you
Speaker 1: gotta close, y'ut I do. I've been killing Baker man,
Speaker 1: I've been killing But here's why. Though quarterbacks get too
Speaker 1: much glory for the win and they get to blame
Speaker 1: everybody else for the lost. Yeah, you know, I listen,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just as a wide receiver. I just
Speaker 1: go to bath for the wide receivers. Right, that wide receiver,
Speaker 1: that wide receiver could be dead wrong, he could be
Speaker 1: They can have him on camera sneaking into the house late.
Speaker 1: They can have his key card in his hotel room,
Speaker 1: saying that he was not there, curfew. I'ma say, Nona,
Speaker 1: he was there. It wasn't him. You know, you stick together.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask you a question because this is the
Speaker 1: problem that I wrote into. Okay, when I talk about players,
Speaker 1: if you were a good player, not obviously you're coming
Speaker 1: up for the Hall of fame. Not being in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame and have it won people take what
Speaker 1: I say. Yeah, so let's let's let's let's let's stay.
Speaker 1: I know what you're getting at now. Some of the
Speaker 1: young guys have said things about me, saying that I'm
Speaker 1: throwing shap right. Right, let's let's break down shade. You know,
Speaker 1: shade is generally when the sun hits a well established tree, Okay,
Speaker 1: and that tree must be established by having deep roots. Right,
Speaker 1: So as you you see what I'm getting, a baby
Speaker 1: tree must be shaded by an oak tree, right, something
Speaker 1: that has a substantial, good deep roots. Right. Davante Adams
Speaker 1: can't throw shade on him because he's a deep root
Speaker 1: of tree. Right. Some of these young boys need to
Speaker 1: understand their baby trees, right. They still anchored in by
Speaker 1: rope because with bad so they can start to grow sideways, okay,
Speaker 1: or it can dwarf. They're growing, right, So these young
Speaker 1: the young guys, I understand, but it's not shade. It's
Speaker 1: really understanding. We've seen and grind it out and understand
Speaker 1: how to play ball. And we also know the game
Speaker 1: has changed. Its changing a good way, right, right. Anytime
Speaker 1: guys are getting paid, that's a good thing advancement. But
Speaker 1: we have to do our jobs. And sometimes guys believe
Speaker 1: that we have a personal VanDette or or I had
Speaker 1: a conversation with a guy that I asked him that
Speaker 1: I won't say, is what do you have that I
Speaker 1: don't What if you experience that I have not experienced.
Speaker 1: You got a girl or a wife, I have one,
Speaker 1: beautiful You have children. I have children, actually I have
Speaker 1: I've grown trump some of my children with their I
Speaker 1: just combined still can't rent a car in New York
Speaker 1: and the state of New York. Some of the teams
Speaker 1: at their own I don't want to be on your team.
Speaker 1: Team is very good. I don't want to be in
Speaker 1: your market, right, And so I understand to a certain degree,
Speaker 1: But then there's a part of where some of them
Speaker 1: are a little bit sensitive. Yeah right, now, all you hate? Yeah, bro,
Speaker 1: why am I hating? I'm all I'm saying. I'm critiquing
Speaker 1: what I've seen you do in the game time and
Speaker 1: time again. And also, like Utui Hill what he said lately,
Speaker 1: I find it interesting because one, he's applied a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on to but also when I look at
Speaker 1: his highlights, Trekio is a fancy, he's cheetah. He runs
Speaker 1: faster than anyone I've known, that wide receiver. However, when
Speaker 1: I look at his highlights, and I'm not speaking out
Speaker 1: of hate, I'm speaking out of my own insecurities and understanding.
Speaker 1: When I haven't gotten the ball for a long time,
Speaker 1: You know how I catch the ball without my hands
Speaker 1: by the kitchen. Yes, yeah, he's not. He's not a
Speaker 1: This is not and this is not a knock. But
Speaker 1: he's not a natural catcher of the ball. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: he's not a peer. Yeah, hand it's catcher now, and
Speaker 1: you don't have to be when you have that amount
Speaker 1: of speed. Yeah, you may getting a lot of ball
Speaker 1: in your body because you gonna be so wide open.
Speaker 1: But when that speed leaves and you don't have the
Speaker 1: but when it speed leads, he's still gonna be top two,
Speaker 1: top three receivers in leagues, I hope. So, I just
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of guys who want their athleticism
Speaker 1: starts to leave them. Their numbers declined dramatically. Well, I
Speaker 1: think what even rude to Wiggan for I don't think he,
Speaker 1: when you play with a greade, went from the top.
Speaker 1: He went from the fifth house to them. But he
Speaker 1: doesn't understand Smitty. You know a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: don't understand that. They don't understand how valuable the quarterback is.
Speaker 1: They think, oh, I can put up these numbers. Well,
Speaker 1: the only guy that I've seen put up numbers regardless
Speaker 1: who the quarterback is, is is the Hope. That's the only guy.
Speaker 1: All these other guys you had Brady, you had Rogers,
Speaker 1: you Matt Home, Now you got Herbert, you got Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow and things of that nature. De hop can can
Speaker 1: honestly say, brug y'all see what we're throwing to me
Speaker 1: in Houston before I got this shown. But it's also
Speaker 1: a good system as well. So you gotta have a
Speaker 1: good system as well. You can't you can't have you
Speaker 1: can't have negative everything and still prevailed. That just doesn't
Speaker 1: happen when you look at the money that these guys
Speaker 1: wide receivers are getting. I love it. I tell my
Speaker 1: mom why you couldn't wait five years? You couldn't wait
Speaker 1: ten years? I mean, I mean twenty five, yet you
Speaker 1: twenty four? Yeah right, you couldn't wait until you thirty.
Speaker 1: I think it's fantastic. You know. I don't have a
Speaker 1: problem with it, you know. I think it's it advances
Speaker 1: the game. If you're not advancing, then you're digressing. So
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's good. Lamar Jackson, he's
Speaker 1: working as he's He and his mom are their own
Speaker 1: representatives in this situation. You see what Deshaun Watson got
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty fully guaranteed. Deshaun has never been
Speaker 1: a league's MVP. Lamar has been the league's MVP. He's
Speaker 1: been a league MVP nasally, What do you think is
Speaker 1: going to What is Lamar thinking? What are the Ravens thinking.
Speaker 1: I think the Ravens want to resign him. I think
Speaker 1: Lamar wants to be resigned as well. I believe that
Speaker 1: there's a disconnect somewhere somehow. My only complaint is if
Speaker 1: you are going to pay that amount of money, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Baltimore needs to have a better
Speaker 1: or offense that that's a little bit more creative, that
Speaker 1: pushes the ball outside of the hashes. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I used to think it was great Roman, I
Speaker 1: thought it was this. I just think I believe to
Speaker 1: be competitive against their Justin Herbert, against their Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: Joe Joe Burrow. I guess we gotta throw two it
Speaker 1: in there because they have all of those thoroughbrands out
Speaker 1: there in Miami. And obviously last Thursday last year and
Speaker 1: Thursday night, the Baltimore Ravens did not farewell against the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins last year. So I just believed to to
Speaker 1: pay a guy, you know, a quarter of a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: You gotta be able to process, You gotta be able
Speaker 1: to put the ball where it needs to be. You
Speaker 1: gotta This is a throwing league, right. I'm a receiver,
Speaker 1: so I always speak from this perspective. I don't like playing.
Speaker 1: I don't like watching offenses or being on offense that
Speaker 1: looks like the Wayne Tea. I'm just I'm just not four.
Speaker 1: But with Lamar outstandings. He's when you offer a critique,
Speaker 1: and the critique that I've offered the Lamar is that
Speaker 1: Adams don't think he throws the ball consistently accurately enough.
Speaker 1: I'm not. That's not it's not saying that he can't
Speaker 1: throw the ball. I didn't say he can throw the ball.
Speaker 1: I just their offense is different. But you want to
Speaker 1: put him in the offense like Rogers. I mean, don't
Speaker 1: you have to put him an offin that's fits his
Speaker 1: skill set? I don't know. I think his skill set.
Speaker 1: I think his skill set is he's a quarterback. If
Speaker 1: he's not a quarterback, then put him out a different position. No,
Speaker 1: he's a quarterback, but all quarterbacks in my career illegal,
Speaker 1: you're a man, but all man that are at six
Speaker 1: two six five eight. But that's correct. So what so what? What?
Speaker 1: What do we get yet? I'm getting that? What? Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the idea. You're the offensive coordinator? You got Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: tell me what you're gonna do. I'm gonna feed my
Speaker 1: wide receivers. I said, you're gonna feed the wide receiver. Yes,
Speaker 1: Bakerman can play yeah, oh yeah, I think you play
Speaker 1: porche I can tell you right now, Porchet is a
Speaker 1: dynamic wide receiver. He's working on this game. I've seen him.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that because of the draft picks, didn't
Speaker 1: play a lot last year, was a healthy scratch. I've
Speaker 1: seen him make some catches and practice and training camp.
Speaker 1: I believe he's they're most well rounded wide receiver on
Speaker 1: the squad. Okay, but he relies here with On Andrews. Andrews, isn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can never go wrong with a number
Speaker 1: eighty nine. So it's been having played sixteen years in
Speaker 1: the league. Obviously we have a family because you came
Speaker 1: in with a different, very different situation. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: you even was married or close to being married. So
Speaker 1: that's that's very unique. So you had already established, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier routes. I got a family, had a kid. Also, right,
Speaker 1: you're old, so you came in already. I got a wife,
Speaker 1: I got a kid, I got responsibilities. So you're looking
Speaker 1: at things a lot differently than a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys that's coming into the league twenty twenty one years
Speaker 1: of age that does not have the foundation that you had.
Speaker 1: What if someone were to ask you that went into
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two draft, Steve, how were you able
Speaker 1: to stay so grounded? What made you so certain that
Speaker 1: in college she's the right woman, She's the one that
Speaker 1: I want to build this with. But that's interesting because
Speaker 1: if you ask my wife, she wouldn't say that I
Speaker 1: gave her that that comfort, that comfort of that I
Speaker 1: wanted to build a future with my wife. There are
Speaker 1: some mistakes and some things that that you know, I
Speaker 1: just talk about it with my boys that you gotta
Speaker 1: be prepared and be ready to step up and do
Speaker 1: the things that you need to that that that's a
Speaker 1: that of family needs UH have to be Emotionally there,
Speaker 1: I struggle with some of the things I experienced growing
Speaker 1: up here in La I just I struggle internally with understanding,
Speaker 1: really is what does a man bring to the table.
Speaker 1: It's not sex, it's not money, but what things are emotionally?
Speaker 1: Can you you provide? And at forty three years old
Speaker 1: now I'm finally connecting the dots to see that it's
Speaker 1: not provided. Basically, I provided financially and a roof over
Speaker 1: my family's head, but emotionally they were bankrupt, and so
Speaker 1: understanding figuring that out and understanding what each one of
Speaker 1: my family members, my wife, what she needs from me?
Speaker 1: How how can I show up for her every day?
Speaker 1: How can I show up for my daughter? How can
Speaker 1: I lower my daughter and make and set that standard
Speaker 1: for my daughter that she's not looking Not that she is,
Speaker 1: but she's not looking for the boyfriend to be there
Speaker 1: because her dad I was there, just what the dad was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So just trying to, you know, figure it out myself
Speaker 1: and no longer blind leading the blind, more of leading
Speaker 1: from the front, and that's sometimes also leading from the back. Right,
Speaker 1: also asking my wife, hey, what do you think about
Speaker 1: this instead of saying, oh, this is my house and
Speaker 1: I know made money, I do this. Yeah, when you
Speaker 1: the sacrifices, obviously to be a great player, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of sacrifices that must be made. You got
Speaker 1: film study, you gotta go early, you got to stay late.
Speaker 1: You're gonna miss some recitals, You're gonna miss some soccer practice.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you job? How do you find?
Speaker 1: I really need to be there, but I really need
Speaker 1: to be I need to be a top dog. And
Speaker 1: in order for me to be the top dog, baby,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to go to pta by yourself tonight. Well,
Speaker 1: there are sometimes if any other job, you know it,
Speaker 1: if I wasn't a football player and I was a banker,
Speaker 1: you know those there are bank hours, right, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find that, trying to find that balance. There were
Speaker 1: times where I couldn't make events, but then there were
Speaker 1: times an offseason that we did stuff. But being there
Speaker 1: physically and then mentally being somewhere else that you can
Speaker 1: get you can get caught really going hey, hey, hey hello,
Speaker 1: you know, staring off and like even we talked with
Speaker 1: physically there, but that's necessarily mentally. Yeah, there were times
Speaker 1: where during the season my wife would say, on I
Speaker 1: can tell his game time because by Friday, you know,
Speaker 1: families tiptoeing around, you know, walking on eggshell. So just
Speaker 1: trying to balance it. And I think for a lot
Speaker 1: of my career, if I'm being honest, just extremely transparent
Speaker 1: an honans, I really I struggle with some things. I
Speaker 1: really I had performance anxiety. Right, I did not really
Speaker 1: know myself and I'm just learning myself now for the
Speaker 1: lot probably about the last year, really understanding you know,
Speaker 1: when you're having a bad day, like actually the deeper
Speaker 1: why I am I'm grumpy today. Why am I irritated today?
Speaker 1: It's not that that I am irritated, it's the purpose
Speaker 1: on the why, the deeper meaning and realizing some of
Speaker 1: that is just not being able to figure it out
Speaker 1: and know myself and why and how and processing things.
Speaker 1: So it's it's been, it's been unique. I think early
Speaker 1: on you were really misunderstood because people have thought you
Speaker 1: had angry issues. You got into a few scuffles early
Speaker 1: in your career. Was it because like you looked at
Speaker 1: it like I know, everybody's like, I'm a grown man,
Speaker 1: but you were really a grown man. And since I
Speaker 1: got a wife, I got a kid, so I see
Speaker 1: things differently. All this joking the Kiki kid you'd been
Speaker 1: doing with the hallboy. See, I know you, see, I
Speaker 1: know you like that. You keep you keep you into it.
Speaker 1: You will keep killing into a two piece. And I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about I'm not talking about KFC. So on
Speaker 1: the situation, and people don't remember there's a situation. I
Speaker 1: think it was a receiver and you had dropped it.
Speaker 1: When you dropped the pass, I'll go through, go go
Speaker 1: through this this first of all, costing me about eight
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six thousand dollars. That's what it costs me.
Speaker 1: It's takes me a while. The first I ever kind
Speaker 1: of mentioned yeah, And so what happened. There was a
Speaker 1: guy we came in our rookie year together. It was
Speaker 1: a fast guy. He played an arena league, and it
Speaker 1: was just competition. And for me, competition. I didn't have
Speaker 1: healthy habits and competition. So when you say if we competition,
Speaker 1: we folds right, You know, we ain't. We both Carolina,
Speaker 1: but we're in the same team because you're trying to
Speaker 1: get my job right. And so we were playing and
Speaker 1: Musa and Muhammad's running the film, and so we were
Speaker 1: we were used to grade ourselves and Dan Han's offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: so we're grading ourselves and the guy says, he's sitting
Speaker 1: right behind me, be sitting in our chairs in our
Speaker 1: receiver room, and we as add a few run in
Speaker 1: earlier that year. So it was basically he didn't like me.
Speaker 1: I didn't like him. It was it was a known fact.
Speaker 1: So normally in a situation like that, you kind of
Speaker 1: boid each other your teammates. But I'm really fooled with you.
Speaker 1: You don't follow me, son, I'm gonna let you if
Speaker 1: I don't like you. Yeah, so but you but you aboid.
Speaker 1: If I don't like you, I'm gonna let you know
Speaker 1: I have a disdain for you. So he he and
Speaker 1: you should avoid each other to keep conflict down. So
Speaker 1: I grew up in conflict, but he ain't growing. He
Speaker 1: was from Florida too, So I didn't like that either.
Speaker 1: He'll being from Florida, y'all two different coasts exactly. I
Speaker 1: grew up in a tupac, you know, Biggie right, he's
Speaker 1: cos West coast, right, Okay, finished finished story, and so
Speaker 1: we so we're in a meeting, real mood, and he
Speaker 1: says it was a pass that I think I called
Speaker 1: it and dropped a fumble. He goes run that back.
Speaker 1: So what does Moose do back? He ran it back,
Speaker 1: and so he says, man, I don'tbody care about what
Speaker 1: she said. And it just it hit me the wrong way.
Speaker 1: I was already embarrassed. I didn't play well. Right, that
Speaker 1: was about me. It wasn't about him, right, if I'm
Speaker 1: being honest, straight up. And so when he did that,
Speaker 1: and I'm not justified, I'm not trying to make it
Speaker 1: a joke, but I responded in a very immature way
Speaker 1: and also responding in a way I was grew up.
Speaker 1: If you don't like somebody, you just and you don't
Speaker 1: have you don't really have respect for somebody. So a
Speaker 1: backhand him because he was behind me, and so on
Speaker 1: our back end him hit him in a face and
Speaker 1: we turned around and he charged me that I was
Speaker 1: a buy news and so it was so we had
Speaker 1: a fight. I mean it, he swung and we've gotten
Speaker 1: a fight. And then I was in and then obviously
Speaker 1: you got spending with two games. I got spending two
Speaker 1: games and then uh he uh he had to get surgery,
Speaker 1: and uh he pressed charges and I you know, I
Speaker 1: turned myself in and I was charged and I had
Speaker 1: to do a defer prosecution. I think it was two
Speaker 1: or three years of probation. Good see kasling management. I
Speaker 1: was already I was already had started counseling. After that,
Speaker 1: you you knew what you had to you that you
Speaker 1: needed to d Yeah, but I I didn't know I
Speaker 1: had issues because for me, that's how I grew up.
Speaker 1: That was the norm, right, right, I grew up when
Speaker 1: you had a problem, you found you you fixed it
Speaker 1: with your fists. Right. So that's what I was. That
Speaker 1: was the standard. People say, oh, that's not everybody. Everybody
Speaker 1: doesn't live the same way. Everybody's not raised the same way.
Speaker 1: And so that's how I was raised, and it was,
Speaker 1: it was. It was an awful example to be for
Speaker 1: my children and put stress on my wife. And then
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, about four or five years later,
Speaker 1: me and the dB got into it Ken Lucas and
Speaker 1: and I was pressed on that. I was pressed on
Speaker 1: that because I had found out some my wife was
Speaker 1: having some health issues scares my mom was the night
Speaker 1: before she was in a bad place where she was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with type two diabetes financially where she was, and
Speaker 1: I had that call in training camp, and so we
Speaker 1: had altercation, and I just when did you realize I
Speaker 1: I can't fight about everything. I need to have a
Speaker 1: better way of dealing with this. That's the thing, man is.
Speaker 1: It was one of the things that I struggle with
Speaker 1: now is like I was on a flight coming here
Speaker 1: and I had do some real estate stuff and I
Speaker 1: gotta I'm selling some property, and the and the buyer
Speaker 1: it's like trying to make me jump through all these
Speaker 1: hoops as if I'm getting their property and they're buying
Speaker 1: my property, right and and so I I looked at
Speaker 1: the before I sent the email, I was asking myself,
Speaker 1: what is the objection? Do I want to sell this property? Yes?
Speaker 1: Do I want to sell it for the profit? Absolutely? Yes?
Speaker 1: Do I want to deal with all of this in
Speaker 1: the They just signed a contract two days ago, right,
Speaker 1: so I want to deal with this throughout this whole process.
Speaker 1: And my answer is no. So I told them all
Speaker 1: my email to my realtor that I lead that if
Speaker 1: they disagree or don't like it, present any documentations that
Speaker 1: hand over that feel that they feel that enhances their
Speaker 1: point of view, right, And I said, if they don't,
Speaker 1: then I will only proceed and take the following steps
Speaker 1: forward from the contract that they signed. If they didn't
Speaker 1: like the contract, then I think they should move forward
Speaker 1: termination whatever they should. And either way, I wish, I
Speaker 1: wish you were best for God bless you. That's it.
Speaker 1: But while I'm sitting there going right, and I'm going
Speaker 1: in myself, but I have that moment I go, but
Speaker 1: this is the new Steed. This is it's not even
Speaker 1: new Sman, it's just really just ten years ago, fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago. I even know. I know what I was
Speaker 1: going to say, because I said that is I wouldn't
Speaker 1: like that out in my mind, I'm going that is
Speaker 1: not their appropriate response. But that's how I felt. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you signed the paperwork right, this is the listing price.
Speaker 1: Right now, you're coming back a day and a half
Speaker 1: later or two days later after you agree to the
Speaker 1: listing problems. I had a listed here, you came here,
Speaker 1: I said here, you said okay, Now today it's a problem, right,
Speaker 1: and so I and so for me, I just like
Speaker 1: my podcast, I cut two and I cut out all
Speaker 1: the nonsense and go straight to the source. Free agency. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Let let before we get the freeze, let's talk about
Speaker 1: your situation in Carolina. You go to Carolina, you have
Speaker 1: a meeting to success your rookie year. You go to
Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl as a returner, your dynamic, you work
Speaker 1: your way. You turn yourself into a damn a great receiver.
Speaker 1: I believe the bit boy you because you played with
Speaker 1: two years? What moves you played three? How many years
Speaker 1: you play with moves? Two? No, three years? Move three
Speaker 1: or four years? Okay? And then what you gott going
Speaker 1: came back? That's big, bro. You turn yourself into a
Speaker 1: dynamic sleep because at the beginning, you know, come in
Speaker 1: and get your cup and catches here and there, but
Speaker 1: you will a punt returner, kick returner. You turn yourself
Speaker 1: into a great receiver. And so you're you're going back
Speaker 1: and you're like, damn. Do you look back and says,
Speaker 1: I wish I could have done this different. I should
Speaker 1: have done that different. I mean, my only regret is
Speaker 1: handling on myself differently, you know, towards my teammates. Your
Speaker 1: teammates feel you opponent too. Just you gotta do it
Speaker 1: with everybody's bidding. I mean, some guys are looking forward
Speaker 1: to and you're looking to give it to it. What
Speaker 1: you mean, they were looking for it, absolutely, they found
Speaker 1: it when they were looking. But they found it in you.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you got you gotta trying people. I'd
Speaker 1: mess your question. Did you ever go into the game
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, I don't really like him
Speaker 1: if you say anything anything in the slightness. No, So
Speaker 1: that's the that's an interesting part. So I actually had
Speaker 1: a sports psychologist. I had a colleges and then I
Speaker 1: had a sports eye College. Sports eye College was a
Speaker 1: golf guy actually, right, so he really started to teach
Speaker 1: me how to make lifetime goal, short term goals, daily goals.
Speaker 1: Right just to look at like look at look at
Speaker 1: sports without the emotion. Okay, right, it's very emotional game.
Speaker 1: It is. And he was good on that, right, he
Speaker 1: was really good on that. Some other stuff he was
Speaker 1: giving it. I just it wasn't applicable at that time.
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it right. There were some things that he just
Speaker 1: emotionally I was not able to do right. And and
Speaker 1: so I would go in the game and a lot
Speaker 1: of times when you see me, I would be talking,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't be talking to the player I was
Speaker 1: going against. If I caught a ball and I spent it,
Speaker 1: and I would say, they think this, this coordinator thinks
Speaker 1: he can cover me. Today, I was talking to myself
Speaker 1: right now, I said it out loud, and then turn
Speaker 1: they think you're talking to But it was not about them.
Speaker 1: A lot of times that I played, I really played
Speaker 1: because I was trying to get I was trying to
Speaker 1: get out of back home. I was trying not to
Speaker 1: come back to one hundred and twenty six. And if
Speaker 1: long right, I knew we struck we struggled. It was tough.
Speaker 1: My mom she worked their butt off, my dad worked
Speaker 1: their butt off. They taught me about hard work, but
Speaker 1: also knew that growing up in the inter city there
Speaker 1: were things that we experienced. Growing up poor, you don't
Speaker 1: get the same opportunities, right, But being a person that's poor,
Speaker 1: all right, I don't want to say black, just black,
Speaker 1: but being a personal poor you have to do more
Speaker 1: and yet you don't have the same opportunities. You gotta
Speaker 1: present yourself in a better light just to maybe get
Speaker 1: an interview, to not get the job. So for me,
Speaker 1: I was I put all my eggs in football right right,
Speaker 1: and it was it was tough. I had to go
Speaker 1: to community college, right, Santa Monica Junior College. Otoko, Chad Johnson.
Speaker 1: What was your teammate? Was he like this in college?
Speaker 1: Was he like he is like what we saw at Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: what we see now? Was he like that then? Yeah?
Speaker 1: He was always entertaining. Yes, So did you guys like, nah,
Speaker 1: hey throw me the ball, not throw me the ball?
Speaker 1: Did you guys? Nah? It was Demetrius Posy. He was
Speaker 1: he went to Venice High School. He was a better receiver.
Speaker 1: There's a guy, Anthony Chiefis went to Fairfax. He played
Speaker 1: with Isaza King. He was he was a better receiver.
Speaker 1: He towards Kneed. There was a guy, uh you know this,
Speaker 1: this is where it's fun. As you know. There was
Speaker 1: a guy named Jean Sikes, but we all called him Skeeter, right, right.
Speaker 1: There were so many players that I felt at that
Speaker 1: time in a college that I was just the young guy.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to I was just find my way.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to figure things out. So I
Speaker 1: actually got the University of Utah because they were watching Demetrius,
Speaker 1: and Demetrius was going there, and I went to Utah
Speaker 1: really just to follow my big brother, right, And he
Speaker 1: never made it. He ended up falling asleep from driving
Speaker 1: from Diego back up to here for spring break and
Speaker 1: fell asleep with the wall and die Wow. But that
Speaker 1: was the reason that I went to Utah is to
Speaker 1: play with Demetrius. And so that's how it happened. A
Speaker 1: lot of my life, of the prosperity that I've had,
Speaker 1: it's really been by accident. Right, Do you believe tough
Speaker 1: times make tough men. I was reading the story and
Speaker 1: it was going ig and the guy was explaining he says,
Speaker 1: my grandfather walked ten miles. He said. My dad drove
Speaker 1: a Viewer. I drive a Cadillac, my son driving Mercedes.
Speaker 1: He says, in fifty years, we're gonna be right back
Speaker 1: where we came from. He said, tough times make tough men,
Speaker 1: Easy times make weak me. I just think it's a
Speaker 1: it's the perspective I was reading. I read something I
Speaker 1: remind myself. I used to remind myself it is decreased
Speaker 1: more and more just because of the confidence that I
Speaker 1: haven't internally that for a long time. I read this
Speaker 1: and it said that you're special, no one is like you,
Speaker 1: You're unique. Did you always believe that, No, you're loved.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that? Nope, you're competent, You're lovable. And
Speaker 1: it took me a long time, probably the last three years,
Speaker 1: that I've really started to really believe that. But it
Speaker 1: took me this time, the pandemic and all that stuff
Speaker 1: to really sit down and really examine what's the problem.
Speaker 1: And the problem for me is, you know, I was
Speaker 1: I was emotionally just numb. Did did were your parents
Speaker 1: I love you, Steve? Did they hug you? Did they
Speaker 1: tell you how much they love you? Did they did.
Speaker 1: You gotta sit down there isn't the best they could.
Speaker 1: There are times when I walk down the hallway after
Speaker 1: my wife is reading my you know, my boys, my
Speaker 1: youngest a book and not going there, and I kiss him.
Speaker 1: The father's walking down the hallway, but the son is
Speaker 1: a little broken, right. You missed that you want you
Speaker 1: You try to give your kids everything that you didn't
Speaker 1: get emotionally, physically, psychologically, obviously monetarily, but now yeah, more
Speaker 1: just understanding the emotional flail love a godpay love, Understanding
Speaker 1: that development at such a young age builds so much
Speaker 1: in them and knowing that and my again, my parents
Speaker 1: didn't model it because they didn't know, right, And so
Speaker 1: it's taking me this most. You're heading food of your betterment.
Speaker 1: I love you, Ruth over your head. Yes, that was
Speaker 1: the love the belly was that was that was and
Speaker 1: not because they didn't he just you know, just trying
Speaker 1: to make it. I think when you played that I
Speaker 1: covered your career. I was in the league. I shortly
Speaker 1: after you got to the league. I retired, but I
Speaker 1: remember covering your league. If you're covering you in the league,
Speaker 1: and I said, he plays angry, he like give me
Speaker 1: the ball, I'm gonna run over you. I'm gonna run
Speaker 1: through you. If I gotta run around, y'all will. But
Speaker 1: you know what, I really prefer to run through you
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to show you something that come third
Speaker 1: point quarter, you ain't gonna want to see me? Did
Speaker 1: you play angry with that intentional? Growing up on one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six, at nine o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: my grandpa used to tell me, if you want to
Speaker 1: play this game, these are men you need to play life.
Speaker 1: Don Baby was very familiar around the lock. Jack Tatum
Speaker 1: was very familiar with people. Eric Turner, Steve Atwater Right,
Speaker 1: Greg News. I mean there are so many Greg Townsend,
Speaker 1: how we long Man, how town Man town was so
Speaker 1: dirty man. But my point is I watched old school football.
Speaker 1: He was old and so watching old school football that's
Speaker 1: how I was raised. And I know I'm not killing
Speaker 1: it in the hype department, So I had to because
Speaker 1: you know, on high school to old say they say
Speaker 1: there's always someone better under my breath, I always say,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get a chance. So for me, I
Speaker 1: played the game in the way that I watched the
Speaker 1: error of the game. Then obviously watching wide receivers, but
Speaker 1: I watched the game and played the game. We used
Speaker 1: to play sideline pop in the street. So the best
Speaker 1: way to play the game, I felt at that time
Speaker 1: it's checking man's heart when you could check a man's heart.
Speaker 1: The first play, Ricky protod me the first he and
Speaker 1: I came back together. You're my roommate in the mold game.
Speaker 1: The first play sets up the last play. So my
Speaker 1: first route sets up that next that that player needed
Speaker 1: in a third or fourth quarter, right for that big
Speaker 1: right right, So I take it a step further. Growing
Speaker 1: up in the hood, you know who, you know who
Speaker 1: is susie que up in the group. You know who's soft,
Speaker 1: So you're gonna if you already know that, So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna establish I know that the gig is up.
Speaker 1: I know who you are, I know how you roll.
Speaker 1: I watch your nuts film, I know your little tricks.
Speaker 1: So when we line up and we play, it ain't
Speaker 1: no magic a trick, it ain't no it's no little
Speaker 1: smoking marriage. First play, you wanted to be a run
Speaker 1: so you can go hit somebody in the mouth, or
Speaker 1: you wanted to be a pass. I'm gonna hit you either.
Speaker 1: Way I'm gonna hit you either. So if if you
Speaker 1: were to describe Steve Smith, why the wide receiver? What what?
Speaker 1: What are your route runner? What are your technician? What
Speaker 1: do you you know? Your speed? Your your jail what? What? What? What? What? What? What?
Speaker 1: In campuses Steve Smith receiver? I mean, I just enjoyed
Speaker 1: playing a game. I enjoyed the physical the physicalness of
Speaker 1: the game. Also enjoyed the checkers and the chest. There
Speaker 1: were some corners that was chess. That was some corners
Speaker 1: most big seeds. Like. I like the physicality of the game.
Speaker 1: I like the bump. You're not the tallest, you're not
Speaker 1: the biggest, and the first thing you say. I like
Speaker 1: the physicality of the game because you already you there's
Speaker 1: no guessing. I'm an overthinker. I don't like surprises, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not a guesser. So I like all the cars
Speaker 1: on the table. So we're gonna go out here, we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna bump these gums, we're gonna chit chat,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk, we're gonna play, we're gonna follow We're
Speaker 1: gonna follow up. So you look like, okay, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: two corners, two safeties clause. It's a lot got are
Speaker 1: you thinking, like, but he don't leave them back, then
Speaker 1: I need to get him. If I get him, everybody
Speaker 1: else gonna follow into place. I mean, if I line up,
Speaker 1: I look at I look at the linebacker first to
Speaker 1: kind of tell me what the coverage is. See what
Speaker 1: he's doing. You don't watch the triangle. Then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look at the safety. And then by the time the
Speaker 1: safety if it's a if it's not a top tier corner, right,
Speaker 1: then that that corner is already gonna be playing in
Speaker 1: the zone. Right, So I'm already anticipating in the zone.
Speaker 1: And basically the triangle is gonna tell me what type
Speaker 1: of zone? Right? Is it three bells? It two cats?
Speaker 1: Jesus two finals? Is it six? Right? So I'm telling
Speaker 1: the corner six quarter quarters. Yeah, I'm order them one
Speaker 1: size covered two. On the other side, I'm telling the
Speaker 1: corner come on out. You know you already know what
Speaker 1: you know you got him stopping tearing to let him.
Speaker 1: So for me, it was it was always just anticipating,
Speaker 1: understanding what's going on, right, and and and because I
Speaker 1: was a hot head, people would assume that I was
Speaker 1: very stupid, and so I kind of played in that narrative, right,
Speaker 1: and that that wasn't that was immature on my on
Speaker 1: my part, right. And so it's really you know, now
Speaker 1: doing television and some of that stuff sometimes yelling and
Speaker 1: and cursing and all that stuff like that. When I
Speaker 1: when I was doing that, I was just being lazy,
Speaker 1: right right. My My my father in law, my wife's
Speaker 1: father always says, man, when you cursed and when you
Speaker 1: when you when you kind of are ignorant, it shows
Speaker 1: your laziness. And I remember him saying that one time,
Speaker 1: and it didn't. And then one time I found myself
Speaker 1: yelling and cussing about something and I was like, and
Speaker 1: so now we're doing television and some of the the stuff
Speaker 1: that I do now it's like you know, and it's
Speaker 1: been good because some people are taking back they go
Speaker 1: and I've got a number of backhanded compliments. Right, Oh,
Speaker 1: you're a lot smarter than what I thought that. Yeah, thanks,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, But how are you able to stay?
Speaker 1: I mean, you played on the you was right there
Speaker 1: on the edge. Sometimes you would look over the edge.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you would hop. How are you able to still
Speaker 1: go get one bitch to get two? Hundred playing like
Speaker 1: that because you play, you will you will pissed off
Speaker 1: and you all pissed off. Yeah, well here's why. So
Speaker 1: I was having lunch probably about it's probably about seven
Speaker 1: months ago. Right, He's probably not gonna like this. But
Speaker 1: Mark Richardson, okay, uh, Jerry big, Jerry Richardson used to
Speaker 1: be a president. We're all having dinners a few buddies.
Speaker 1: In my head. It came up from Charleston, so we
Speaker 1: haven't and he has said, Yo, smitty man. I remember
Speaker 1: when we drafted year as a punt returner. I said, see,
Speaker 1: that's your problem. He goes what he says, all see
Speaker 1: there you go with that chip again. I said, no,
Speaker 1: it's not a chip. Think about it. I was told
Speaker 1: I was too small. But if you go on my
Speaker 1: draft cars, the New York Jets drafted another wide receiver
Speaker 1: who was the same height as me, but you went
Speaker 1: to the University of Miami. His name was Saintana Moss, right,
Speaker 1: so high at Saintana Moss the same height as me.
Speaker 1: But he's not too small. And I'm not mad at
Speaker 1: Santana right. The scouts were lazy. They just didn't want
Speaker 1: to say that, dude. We didn't respect the University of Utah, right,
Speaker 1: because in college, if you go back and look, I
Speaker 1: think my junior and Seniorye combined, I averaged twenty one
Speaker 1: point two yards a catch. I wasn't I wasn't a rest.
Speaker 1: I wasn't a dB who liked to play receiver. I
Speaker 1: played receiver who happened to be able to catch punts
Speaker 1: because my dad was a semi He was a semi
Speaker 1: pro punter. He used to punt down at Willowbrook Park
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, and just like any other kid,
Speaker 1: I used to follow my pop around, and so by
Speaker 1: the time I was probably about eight or nine, I
Speaker 1: can catch puns. Because I was just hanging out with
Speaker 1: my pop. I was trying to catch and at that
Speaker 1: time my dad was punning. I thought he was punting
Speaker 1: the ball to the clouds and back, and I was
Speaker 1: just trying to catch her. I was trying to learn
Speaker 1: how to catch him. And then he got mad at me, like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be back there, catch the ball, boy,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, I'm really trying. I'm trying, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's how it actually happened, at me catching
Speaker 1: punts just following my pop right, right, and and so
Speaker 1: I was. I was a receiver. But how they they Okay,
Speaker 1: he said, we drafted you as a punt returner. But
Speaker 1: that's not how you saw yourself. You saw yourself as
Speaker 1: a receiver that could catch punts. I wasn't a starting
Speaker 1: receiver in college. And then you draft me as a
Speaker 1: return and you had six or seven other receivers in
Speaker 1: the room, and you were not. I was not allowed.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even given the opportunity but to service the
Speaker 1: defense during the season yea as a scout team. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't that I had this chip you were. I
Speaker 1: was not okay with being limited. I was not comfortable
Speaker 1: with being put in a box until sitting down and
Speaker 1: be quiet the whole check your brain at the door,
Speaker 1: and you know, just getting on. Nah. I was already
Speaker 1: on house money, right. I wasn't supposed to be here.
Speaker 1: I broke my neck in college. See for a verst fracture.
Speaker 1: So I broke my neck right, grew up in inner city.
Speaker 1: I wasn't supposed to be here, right, So my my
Speaker 1: thought was always they fire me at some point. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna lose my job one of these days. So I
Speaker 1: have two choices. When I lose my job, I can
Speaker 1: sit at home and wish I would have said and
Speaker 1: did these things, or I can sit back like I
Speaker 1: do now, go yeah, I probably shouldn't have said that,
Speaker 1: however I did in my way. Right. Should I have
Speaker 1: changed and approach some things differently, Absolutely, But if I
Speaker 1: can go back and change it, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'll be sitting right. Because all of that is what
Speaker 1: made you who you were, And it's also made me
Speaker 1: evaluate in process and look at what I am today
Speaker 1: and how can I change? How can I be better?
Speaker 1: How can how can I be emotionally accountable to my wife,
Speaker 1: to my kids, to my friends. Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: It's because of how you evaluate yourself. You have a
Speaker 1: more open mindness of evaluating yourself. It allows you to
Speaker 1: critique and analyze other players in a more fundamental way.
Speaker 1: I try to be. I'm a perfectionist anyway. So I
Speaker 1: mean I I came and hear my own voice every
Speaker 1: show I do and every podcast I do. I never
Speaker 1: really listened to it because I can't hear my own
Speaker 1: voice because I can already know the words. Because when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, I had a stuttern problem. Right,
Speaker 1: So I already know the words and some of the
Speaker 1: things I didn't say correctly, and so I just and
Speaker 1: that's where the anxiety comes because I know I messed up.
Speaker 1: But see that I read it to that same problem
Speaker 1: when I first got onto the air at CBS, and
Speaker 1: it sent me to all these speech these people that
Speaker 1: speak grammatically correct, yeah, phonetically correct. And I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: there and I'm like, at the time, risk your soul.
Speaker 1: And I had hours and hours of tape of Ed Bradley,
Speaker 1: how correct he spoke and how he you know, dead
Speaker 1: thing James Brown, And then one day I'm sitting I'm like,
Speaker 1: if you listen to James Brown, we both j work
Speaker 1: like you can. You can look at JB and you go, man,
Speaker 1: everything about me is wrong j Everything. I mean, he
Speaker 1: wanted like hyphen everything, and then he gonna spell it
Speaker 1: out in his mind. He's like, if it or I like, JB,
Speaker 1: just say the word. But he but as a host,
Speaker 1: say I'm over there when he does at him over there,
Speaker 1: going I'm over so you would I both know JB.
Speaker 1: But then smythe I look at it, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: hold on, wait a minute, that's not what they hired.
Speaker 1: They didn't hire me to be grammatically and phonetically correct.
Speaker 1: They hired me to give an opinion. And a part
Speaker 1: of me, a part of what unique about me is
Speaker 1: my colloquialism. I'm from Rules, South Georgia, so I talk
Speaker 1: like I'm from Rules. My brother he lost it somewhere
Speaker 1: down down the line. He lost I don't know where
Speaker 1: the hell it win, but but he lost his. It's
Speaker 1: stuck with me. But that's what. And then I saw
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley, and I saw how well he was receiving.
Speaker 1: I stopped and saying, ain't going to these classes no more.
Speaker 1: I quit. I dropped out of school, and I hadn't
Speaker 1: looked back. And I found an employer that says, be you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't need you to be anybody else. Be you.
Speaker 1: And so you found someone My employee says, be you.
Speaker 1: But dollar back, because there's a few times I'll be
Speaker 1: on TV. You can't say that one. No, shouldn't say
Speaker 1: that one. But the thing is that I liked about you.
Speaker 1: But you you honest with it. I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: like a lot of times guys will say something about
Speaker 1: a person. Said person will come on the set and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you're like, nah, I said
Speaker 1: that you didn't play bad? You did? You did that set?
Speaker 1: But if I if I'm incorrect too, Yeah, you're a Problicate.
Speaker 1: I have to face to face. Yeah. I don't have
Speaker 1: rob with that. Right. The reason I don't have a
Speaker 1: problem with this is because if you're man enough to
Speaker 1: say it, yes, and I stand by that, And you know,
Speaker 1: that's just kind of how I am. And I try
Speaker 1: to own. I try to own all my mistakes. Right,
Speaker 1: who reminds Steve Smith receiver player today? John? None of them?
Speaker 1: You know why? Because I look at you, you were
Speaker 1: like a big t owner. I mean you were a
Speaker 1: smaller version. Well here's why I say, no one, Why
Speaker 1: when you're going to Hall of Fame, you go in
Speaker 1: with your own name, your own jersey, your own team. Yes,
Speaker 1: our parents didn't name us the same. You want your
Speaker 1: name to be in there, right, I idolize Jerry Rice,
Speaker 1: your brother Sterling Shark, But I didn't. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be the next Sterling Sharp because that's not my name,
Speaker 1: that's not the person I am. There were things that
Speaker 1: Sterling did that I tried to emulate. I just couldn't do.
Speaker 1: There are things that Jerry did I just couldn't do,
Speaker 1: or I tried, or maybe I you know, I pleasurize
Speaker 1: I stole a little bit. I saw something. But I
Speaker 1: love the players that are today, that they are who
Speaker 1: they are. But because you're on the NFL networking, you
Speaker 1: guys do do the d don't. I don't like when
Speaker 1: they do that because he you know what, he reminds
Speaker 1: me of Steve. Here's why, well I still have. When
Speaker 1: I told my achilles, my agent, it was my aging
Speaker 1: my whole duration of my career, of my football career
Speaker 1: to really help me get past it because I had
Speaker 1: a double rupture of my achilles and to off the
Speaker 1: bone and in the middle right, he goes, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: send you your draft right up coming out of draft.
Speaker 1: And I at it, and it charged me up because
Speaker 1: when I look at my draft stuff that came out,
Speaker 1: I was a fifth to seventh round draft. Bit. So
Speaker 1: now that I'm a finished product, I'm the next. Y'all
Speaker 1: know the next. But when I was here, y'all didn't.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't admire me and say that I was a
Speaker 1: pretty darn good player. So now that I'm done. Now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm the guy. Nah man, don't
Speaker 1: don't do that. Do you you feel you didn't get depreciation? Oh?
Speaker 1: I mean because when on social media, I get told
Speaker 1: all the time I was nothing but a slot receiver.
Speaker 1: I wish I knew that because I didn't playing a
Speaker 1: slot as much as I could have. Right, you, outside
Speaker 1: the numbers. I was outside of the numbers, stationary stand.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even a Z. I was an AX. I
Speaker 1: wasn't even allowed to go in motion, you know. So
Speaker 1: I I just like allowing the players who they are
Speaker 1: to be themselves. Let those guys be the standard. Don't
Speaker 1: don't say I'm oh, he's the next d Smith. Let
Speaker 1: him be sky more right and be Tarikio. There's things
Speaker 1: about Tarikio I can never do. Let Cheeta be cheating,
Speaker 1: Let him own his name. Don't thrust me onto that
Speaker 1: because heck, I'm just getting familiar on my own. You
Speaker 1: you played the blast year of your career with Carolina.
Speaker 1: It did not end the way you wanted it to end.
Speaker 1: Why did you wanted to leave Carolina? Yeah? Why because
Speaker 1: it was time. I was always I'm a very curious person.
Speaker 1: I was always interested in wondering was what is it
Speaker 1: like to be somewhere else, to be somewhere else? And
Speaker 1: so I you know you got comfortable in Carolina. No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't coverables getting we was losing. No, I wasn't comfortable. No,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, you had you knew the system, you knew,
Speaker 1: you know everybody, you knew the cold, you knew everybody,
Speaker 1: you knew. Eight. I was ready to go. I had asked.
Speaker 1: I had asked, well, you had just got Cam. I
Speaker 1: know I had asked for a release. You had just
Speaker 1: got Cam. That was the best quarterback that you was going.
Speaker 1: You are correct. He was the best quarterback I ever
Speaker 1: played with. And you wanted to leave that because it
Speaker 1: was our record that was the issue. I was my clock,
Speaker 1: my my my championship clock was was going on right.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to go to it. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to go to a different place. So I had before
Speaker 1: I was released that year, I had talked to general
Speaker 1: manager of Jacksonville Jaguar. He was a forty nine ERSH coach.
Speaker 1: He was the forty nine I talked to Trent Balcon
Speaker 1: about a release about me going there, but I didn't
Speaker 1: want to play. I didn't want to play for the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers, and so I I my agent had
Speaker 1: worked out another deal. I actually had under armour working
Speaker 1: on a new color scheme because I had we had
Speaker 1: backdoor to deal. But the Panthers at that time and
Speaker 1: talked to another team, and so they gave me permission
Speaker 1: to talk with the forty nine ers and I decided
Speaker 1: to stay. So I already had knew I was leaving,
Speaker 1: but again people thought I was unable to keep my
Speaker 1: mouth closed. I had conjured up facilitated and started to
Speaker 1: play out a whole different team throughout that season, and
Speaker 1: then I knew I was gonna get released. I kept
Speaker 1: it to myself and just kind of waited. You go
Speaker 1: to the Ravens, Yeah, and unless you played with the Ravens,
Speaker 1: you just didn't know. It was fun. It was great,
Speaker 1: It was fun playing with It was fun playing with
Speaker 1: the organization. Obviously I got to got to learn meet
Speaker 1: Eric the Costa, the new general manager, but UH got
Speaker 1: to meet the Hall of Famer Asik Newsom. The year
Speaker 1: that we were at the Pro Bowl together my rookie year.
Speaker 1: John Hardball was the specialty. It was a It was
Speaker 1: a lot I enjoyed it playing sports as a kid.
Speaker 1: Obviously going to the NFL, so clearly you played football.
Speaker 1: What are those sports did you play as a kid,
Speaker 1: and what was your favorite sport? I played baseball. I
Speaker 1: was a pitcher, first baseman, shortstop, catcher. I played basketball,
Speaker 1: played Low Tennessee. That was it. That was But you
Speaker 1: always knew you wasn't to be an NFL player. Yes,
Speaker 1: going to you so going to from Santa Monica Junior College,
Speaker 1: going to Utah, to the Carolina Panthers, to the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 1: You said, there are very few things that you would change,
Speaker 1: would change. You would just like to be more in
Speaker 1: touch with yourself. Know who Steve Smith was then it's
Speaker 1: compared to now. That's the only thing. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I met some great people. Still uh, still supporting the
Speaker 1: University of Utah. Love my school. I'm always always there,
Speaker 1: go to the game, you know, go to game or two.
Speaker 1: I'm always sneaking in Utah. Man, I'm looking at your draft.
Speaker 1: Michael Vick, Ladanian Thomason, Richard Seymour Hall of Fame said,
Speaker 1: tell him off. You mentioned Hutchins in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Steve Hutchinson, Duce mccuster, Regi Waye, Todd Heat, Drew Brees
Speaker 1: is gonna be in the Hall of Fame. Man, you help.
Speaker 1: It's some bowler's dog and up and it was just
Speaker 1: little on me. Quincy Quincy Morrigan, Yad, we had Dan Morrigan,
Speaker 1: Chris Jenkins. I'm gonna get you out of here on this.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. You lose the Tom Brady in the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl at the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, and you go to
Speaker 1: Baltimore and you have them down in the playoff game
Speaker 1: with a chance to go. Richard Melvin, So I do
Speaker 1: Rashard Melvin? I do the pre Panthers preseason game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he was the Panthers. He's a corner last year. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: that was a tough That was a tough game to broadcast.
Speaker 1: When I'm looking at that dude, right, so I try
Speaker 1: to that's when the uh Edelman throws the double pass.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Rashard mel Dude, Rashande Melvin has been I
Speaker 1: think he's been in a nine nine or ten years.
Speaker 1: Eight years, he's been on like eleven teams. It's never
Speaker 1: a good sigh. Are you prad Tom Brady still played? Nah?
Speaker 1: Tom Brady can process better than the best of them.
Speaker 1: It's good. How did I mean? Were you played quarterbacks?
Speaker 1: And kickers can play faver They don't take that plenty, No,
Speaker 1: especially with a good offense line. Tell us about the podcast.
Speaker 1: Podcast is cut to it. I cut through the nonsense.
Speaker 1: But also too, I want to know the people inside,
Speaker 1: men and women, inside their jerseys. I interview chefs, you
Speaker 1: name it, just trying to talk about uh stuff, and
Speaker 1: then who they are outside of the profession. Yeah, outside
Speaker 1: of profession, who who made them? Like? What what have
Speaker 1: they been through? We've We've had some we had some
Speaker 1: good guests and and I'm I'm very inquisitive too, so
Speaker 1: I'll ask like random questions. Appreciate it. Steve Smith, Lady Joan,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior. Yes, I was one, and it ain't
Speaker 1: a lot of It ain't a lot of people. I
Speaker 1: let slide. You want to know the story. Why my
Speaker 1: one of my best friends, he's Allen Beck the third.
Speaker 1: His daddy filled out some paperwork with his name, so
Speaker 1: from their own I haven't built up my credit way.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not letting my boy open up a
Speaker 1: credit card my name. So his birth certificate says senior
Speaker 1: and my I d a junior and my DC Senior. No,
Speaker 1: he's gonna say he's seen you know now I'm not
Speaker 1: on my IDC. Appreciate you, Bru, Appreciate you. Thanks you
Speaker 1: for talking by the club, all the club behind the
Speaker 1: you just doing to Google. I watch out. I looked
Speaker 1: at yea all my life and running all my life.
Speaker 1: Sacrifice hustle bad price, want a slice? Got the broller
Speaker 1: Dice to swap all my life. I've been grinding all
Speaker 1: my life, all my life and running all my life
Speaker 1: sacrifice hustle, bad price, want a slice? Got the brother
Speaker 1: of Dice to swap all my life. I've been running
Speaker 1: all my life