Speaker 1: Peace of the planet. I go by the name of Charlomagne,
Speaker 1: the God, Uncle, Charlotte, Lenard, whatever you want to call
Speaker 1: me and listen to me. I'm here to gift you
Speaker 1: with a brand new podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: I hate with the holidays. Here the Breakfast Club is
Speaker 1: gonna take a little break. But don't worry. We got
Speaker 1: you all right. Just sit back, cool out, and entertain
Speaker 1: yourself with this new podcast from my Carolina Bredren, Stephen
Speaker 1: Smith Senior and Jerald Little John. Cut to It Podcast
Speaker 1: is here to bring you interviews from your favorite athletes, entertainers,
Speaker 1: and more. They ask the questions that we all want
Speaker 1: to know but nobody ever asked. Make sure you listen
Speaker 1: to cut to It podcast on the Black Effect or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. This is cut to It
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith, singer at production of The Black Effect
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. I'm Steve Smith Senior and John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to It. Good ahead, let's get down good.
Speaker 1: We asked the questions you always want to know, but
Speaker 1: no one ever asked. Let's cut to it. You ain't
Speaker 1: heard about it, then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all okay. Alright, me and my wife foolishly decided
Speaker 1: we're gonna play tennis over the weekend in the just
Speaker 1: it was hot. It's been sticky. I mean we're in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. We're in Charlotte for those of y'all who
Speaker 1: don't know. So it gets humidity. It is painstaking. The
Speaker 1: I mean it's been it's been hot in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I mean it's been ninety degrees in October November. Right,
Speaker 1: We've we've had a Thanksgiving where it's been like eighty
Speaker 1: four degrees, which is and then it feels like ninety
Speaker 1: seven with all the humidity. Yeah, so it's it's different.
Speaker 1: So we decided we're gonna play tennis. Right and so
Speaker 1: where we played tennants, they also have some uh it's
Speaker 1: a pool right there. So there was a guy, he's
Speaker 1: about sixty years old, and again he was by the pool,
Speaker 1: so he had he was walking from the pool pastor
Speaker 1: tennis courts to his car to go in to to leave,
Speaker 1: and he had on he didn't have on a shirt. Okay,
Speaker 1: so he was again suns out, guns out, but he
Speaker 1: was sixty years old, so he had it. He had
Speaker 1: it for sixty year old man or maybe he could
Speaker 1: have been older. He was pretty fit, and he wanted everybody.
Speaker 1: He wanted everybody to know, Look, I'm old, but I'm
Speaker 1: still handling the business. So I look over and one
Speaker 1: just you know, I was always taught respect your elder,
Speaker 1: so I look over. When I said, hey, suns out,
Speaker 1: guns out? He said yeah. I say hey, but um,
Speaker 1: you got those guns registered. He looked at me and said, nah,
Speaker 1: I shot these in a while, bro. He had this
Speaker 1: clip bloated waiting for you to ask. He wanted to.
Speaker 1: That's why he didn't have a shirt on, because he
Speaker 1: was waiting for some money. Yeah, I ain't shot these.
Speaker 1: I know what he's saying. I haven't discharged these in years.
Speaker 1: And what I loved about that's one when I was acknowledging, Hey,
Speaker 1: I see you working, old, I see you, I see
Speaker 1: you working young man. It was really cool because when
Speaker 1: I get sixty or seventy years old, man, I still
Speaker 1: kind of want a four pack at least, right. The
Speaker 1: other two is still in the cooler, still in the cooler, right,
Speaker 1: because obviously when you're sixty and seventy you ain't working
Speaker 1: out like he used to. But just just to have
Speaker 1: a a two patter man, that's progress because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of thirty year old so walking around with kegs.
Speaker 1: They ain't got No did he run up on you
Speaker 1: like he wanted to try you or he just ran
Speaker 1: He wasn't like that, No, he was. He was strolling
Speaker 1: by his flip flops in the shorts and his shirt.
Speaker 1: I was fully dressed in ninety degree weather playing tennis,
Speaker 1: and people like, really, still you play tennis? Actually I'm
Speaker 1: a three to five in tennis. That means there's five old.
Speaker 1: I mean four or five four old three five three
Speaker 1: h two five two O two old is you're terrible?
Speaker 1: Um three to five is you could play a little
Speaker 1: bit run around. I love the exercise. I'm actually a
Speaker 1: huge tennis junkie. Love love tennis. Grew up watching Andre
Speaker 1: Agassi and um, you know on here on cut tool
Speaker 1: we also eventually have some tennis guys too, brothers talking tennis,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, you know, obviously Arthur
Speaker 1: ashe but there's a lot of different guys here in
Speaker 1: North Carolina and um, Andy Murray, UM really good friends.
Speaker 1: He grew up in Greensboro, John Eisner. Um, obviously you
Speaker 1: got the serenas. That's down the street from the house
Speaker 1: in La Girls. I remember I had to unique opportunity
Speaker 1: to visit um James Blake when he was playing. His
Speaker 1: mom actually well was his trainer and and really kind
Speaker 1: of kept him in focus. I was pretty good. So
Speaker 1: I love tennis. An intense dude. That's that's crazy, man,
Speaker 1: an intense dude like you savage on the field swinging
Speaker 1: tennis club while you saying like, no, I'm saying I'm
Speaker 1: not like you. I'm not judging at all. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying I find it interesting that you know, if you
Speaker 1: can to you to keep back felling, you're gonna hit
Speaker 1: the water cool over there. That's cool. I played a
Speaker 1: little DV in my life, but I'm just saying I do. Seriously,
Speaker 1: I find it interesting that that you play tennis. I's
Speaker 1: school because I think the for one, I mean, you
Speaker 1: are a football player, your intense dude, and tennis is
Speaker 1: such a quote unquote country club sport that um, I
Speaker 1: really find it interesting and honestly, I find it cool
Speaker 1: even for me like my daughter who six your niece Mia, Um,
Speaker 1: she loves swimming and she loves playing golf, two things
Speaker 1: that I never threw up around where I'm from. So honestly,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is I find it cool that you
Speaker 1: can invest yourself in the sport that otherwise, you know,
Speaker 1: places that we're from, you don't typically play. So I honestly,
Speaker 1: I find it really cool that you know, in your
Speaker 1: later stages in life, you can find something like that
Speaker 1: that really keeps you fit, keeps you focused, and keeps
Speaker 1: you really you know, keeps you around some sort of competitiveness. Man,
Speaker 1: let me tell you, in tennis, you want to get ran,
Speaker 1: play some old folks. They get you the business, give
Speaker 1: you the business because in tennis, tennis is a mind game, right,
Speaker 1: and it's ball placement, and a lot of the older
Speaker 1: people don't have that movement like they used to, but
Speaker 1: they but they playing from a mental standard and so
Speaker 1: they So I played the older guy and got my
Speaker 1: butt wok and he ran me, ran me off the
Speaker 1: court because ball placement. I'm over there, I'm running from
Speaker 1: side to side, baseline, the baseline. That dude was out yeah,
Speaker 1: out there running for no reason. He was out there
Speaker 1: like he just cross throwing darts. But I love tennis
Speaker 1: because it's it's a great It is a great sport
Speaker 1: in which requires mental for to two strategy. But you
Speaker 1: could also hit the snot out of the ball and
Speaker 1: then they can return it same velocity even more, or
Speaker 1: they can set you up. So it's a lot of
Speaker 1: mental aspect of it. It's a lot of I was,
Speaker 1: but that old man taught me something. I'll running. I'll
Speaker 1: run them into the ground right now. But you know
Speaker 1: that ain't gonna happen. But I really love tennis, and
Speaker 1: so me and my wife play tennis together. My boys,
Speaker 1: I am doocey Um. We call m Doocy Goosey Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Junior. I have brainwashed him Um into being a
Speaker 1: tennis player. He's gonna be tennis. He's gonna become a
Speaker 1: tennis player. And then I will be able to live
Speaker 1: in Italy for a year or two because he'll be
Speaker 1: he'll be training out there, and so we're gonna be
Speaker 1: recording from Italy. I like, I don't I don't really
Speaker 1: care where we record from, but I'm getting the Italy
Speaker 1: at so far to just be there for a year
Speaker 1: and let him train um in Italy, and then I
Speaker 1: can blow up by eating a whole bunch of pizza.
Speaker 1: There you go, There you go, there you go. So gee,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. And who's our guest for today?
Speaker 1: Because I don't know who it is. We we talked
Speaker 1: about some guys and then now I got like a
Speaker 1: surprise guest that you're supposed to be telling me, and
Speaker 1: so now I'm just going off to I am literally
Speaker 1: I have no questions in front of me because you
Speaker 1: guys didn't tell me. So if this show seems a
Speaker 1: little bit erratic today, that's only because they surprised me
Speaker 1: with a guest and I don't know who it is,
Speaker 1: but I think it's gonna be an awesome guest. All right,
Speaker 1: coming up, we got a very special surprise guest, an icon,
Speaker 1: a legend, Michael Vick. He went to Virginia Tech University.
Speaker 1: The four time pro bowler, he was the NFL Comeback
Speaker 1: Player of the Year in twenty ten, and he's the
Speaker 1: NFL's all time leader in rushing yards by a quarterback
Speaker 1: over six thousand yards. Michael Vick, thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: to the Cut to a podcast. Brother, Thanks for having me, man,
Speaker 1: it's just a pleasure to be on. Pleasure to this
Speaker 1: segment we were about to go into is called get
Speaker 1: Iced Up with Smitty's basically our ice breakers be prepared
Speaker 1: for anything. Smitty. I'll let you take a favorite childhood cereal,
Speaker 1: Captain Crunch Crunch. It was flavorful, especially when they started
Speaker 1: throwing the flavors up in man got better years when
Speaker 1: that's a hood favorite right there, that's a favorite, right berries?
Speaker 1: Yea berries and they hit the blueberries and the red
Speaker 1: berries game. It was popular. The summer activity you love
Speaker 1: to do, swimming at the Boys and Girls Club. But
Speaker 1: that was my thing, you know what I mean, that
Speaker 1: was my thing that swim, swim, swim, and it made
Speaker 1: me strong, It made me better, um you know, as
Speaker 1: a as a as a football player, and you know
Speaker 1: growing up where I grew up because I was stronger
Speaker 1: than everybody. Nobody liked to swim but me, and it
Speaker 1: was a passing growing up. So swimming at the Boys
Speaker 1: and Girls Club, now, I know you had a ton
Speaker 1: of fast twitch. However, now you retire, so how you
Speaker 1: ain't your shoes? You got shoelaces or veil crow? I
Speaker 1: I got shoelaces to dispect the icon. Let's see, I
Speaker 1: can't get caught in the bell crow. If you ask
Speaker 1: me this ten years from now, then you might get
Speaker 1: a different answer. We can't have big fifty. Yeah, I ain't. Oh,
Speaker 1: let me trap up real quick. All right, Well, we
Speaker 1: we really appreciate you coming on. And the purpose, uh
Speaker 1: of the of our podcast really is to get the insight,
Speaker 1: um and understand the the man, the woman as well
Speaker 1: inside the jersey. We want you to start off before
Speaker 1: we really get into really who Michael VICKI is just
Speaker 1: set a stage like where'd you grow up? How'd you
Speaker 1: grow up? Right? And and and and really how and
Speaker 1: where you grew up? How did that shape your life?
Speaker 1: Good and bad and and and so paint that picture
Speaker 1: for us. We all know, you know, the good and
Speaker 1: the bad. Yeah, but it but it all started from
Speaker 1: somewhere and where where is that place? It started in News,
Speaker 1: Virginia um, a place I can sit at home for
Speaker 1: eighteen years until I left Virginia tech um. You know,
Speaker 1: I moved around to a couple of different neighborhoods from
Speaker 1: the age of uh, you know, six until I was
Speaker 1: about ten years old. So I had always had different
Speaker 1: crews of friends, which which was cool. And until I
Speaker 1: moved into my last neighborhood, Bridey Circle where I grew up.
Speaker 1: Where I grew up, you know, from the age of
Speaker 1: ten to like eighteen and met all my friends who
Speaker 1: uh you know I got to know and still friends
Speaker 1: with guys to this day. But had dreams with and
Speaker 1: you know, thought about what life would be like with,
Speaker 1: you know, as as a young man growing into an
Speaker 1: older man. You know, we went through everything together. You know,
Speaker 1: we went through you know, the preteen years and the
Speaker 1: teen years and you know, to playing football and liking girls,
Speaker 1: and you know, everybody had their own set of goals
Speaker 1: and dreams, and you know, it was so you know,
Speaker 1: it was a tough situation to grow up in because
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know, you don't have a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, until you goes around somebody who has a lot.
Speaker 1: And one of my cousins, his mom and dad was
Speaker 1: in the household and they both had good jobs. And
Speaker 1: you know, I've seen the different side of life, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I want that life, you know,
Speaker 1: even though I don't have what he have. You know,
Speaker 1: if I can experience that and learn from that experience,
Speaker 1: you know, it helps shape and mold me to you know,
Speaker 1: me thinking like, look, I want more than what we have.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I started playing you know football,
Speaker 1: like the age of seven, and it was like the
Speaker 1: coolest game ever. You know, then start out as a quarterback.
Speaker 1: You know, I was running back at first. That's a
Speaker 1: different story. But you know, the dreams started right there,
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, they get paid for this.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm pretty good at this. You know, I
Speaker 1: think this is something that I want to do. And
Speaker 1: you know, fast forward to you know, from the age
Speaker 1: of ten to eighteen, it was like, man, you got
Speaker 1: to do so much in order to get a scholarship
Speaker 1: to go to you know, college, and to play in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. So I looked at the journey
Speaker 1: I had to travel and I was like, man, this
Speaker 1: is tough. But as a ten year old kid, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm prepared for that journey. So, you know,
Speaker 1: growing up in that environment prepared me for that journey.
Speaker 1: I think my friends and the guys I grew up with,
Speaker 1: the guys that really grew up with, um, they helped
Speaker 1: me with that journey. And then you know, it was
Speaker 1: high school, college and then but when you say guys
Speaker 1: I really grew up with, I say that, Steve, because
Speaker 1: I really feel like, um, you know, my my two
Speaker 1: best best friends, my two besties, A guy named Jamal
Speaker 1: Wilson and Kevin Stanley was the guys that when I
Speaker 1: when we touched eighteen, we all went out separate ways.
Speaker 1: They both went in the military and I went on
Speaker 1: to college. And then it was the guys that I met,
Speaker 1: you know, over time, and you know, Kevin wasn't playing
Speaker 1: football and Jamal wasn't playing football. I got closer with
Speaker 1: my teammates. Some of those guys good dudes. Some of
Speaker 1: them was bad dudes, but they all they became my friends.
Speaker 1: And I hung out with him and you know, he
Speaker 1: kind of made decisions and choices together, you know, good
Speaker 1: and bad, and uh, you know, it was what it was.
Speaker 1: But those two guys that I just name were, you know,
Speaker 1: my guys, and to this day, like they still like
Speaker 1: my beasties. The ones that are gonna tell me, like, na,
Speaker 1: you're making a bonehead decision or you know, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: do that. They're not afraid to tell me no, you know,
Speaker 1: and that that that's been the biggest tale to the
Speaker 1: sign of why you know those guys are they always
Speaker 1: been my besties. Man, They're always really bid, you know,
Speaker 1: So you know, I learned my lesson with friends along
Speaker 1: the way. You know, how to determine if your friend
Speaker 1: is really a friend. You know, Mike, I played against you, Um,
Speaker 1: long time, good and bad, and we were out we
Speaker 1: were in the same draft class and um, and you
Speaker 1: know we're both doing analysts work now. Um, you're doing
Speaker 1: a fantastic job on Fox, you know, and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: trying to keep up with you on NFL network. Amazing,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Now, I'm gonna take this time to as
Speaker 1: something the elephant in the room, because I think it's
Speaker 1: one journalistic integrity that I'm learning of talking about it.
Speaker 1: But just steer me in the direction if I say
Speaker 1: something that's if I misspeak. But basically, um, around two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, you know, the FBI and some of
Speaker 1: that stuff is starting investigation about some of the outside
Speaker 1: activity that was going on outside of your employment with
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons, and you were basically convicted or or
Speaker 1: I believe plead got a plea deal with them on
Speaker 1: dog fighting and all of that stuff. And so August
Speaker 1: twenty seven, two thousand and seventh, you were sentenced and
Speaker 1: had to serve an eighteen months prison term and also
Speaker 1: had to do two months of house to arrest you
Speaker 1: also had to pay back money to the Land of Falcons.
Speaker 1: I believe a whole bunch of money. Um. None of
Speaker 1: us got under our under our mattresses. No, but you also, Mike,
Speaker 1: Mike Vick is the original highlight reel. Um, myself and
Speaker 1: many other people feared when you had the ball in
Speaker 1: your hands when we were standing on the other sideline,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, if that they let this dude get
Speaker 1: loose again, we in trump. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: when you went to prison then, Michael Duane vic walk
Speaker 1: in that prison or was it Michael Victor highlight Reel. Oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's an amazing question, because Michael Victor Highlight Reel walked
Speaker 1: into that and into that prison and walked in there
Speaker 1: and feeling like, damn, this shouldn't this shouldn't be me.
Speaker 1: I had too much money for this. I shouldn't you know,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be in this situation. You know, at first
Speaker 1: couple of hours, I was in there every time they
Speaker 1: came to check on me to make sure that I
Speaker 1: was good, and I wasn't, and they permitting suicide that
Speaker 1: you know, I thought somebody was coming out and locked
Speaker 1: that door to let me out, you know, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: because I felt like I didn't deserve to be there.
Speaker 1: And then over time, you know, as the knights went
Speaker 1: on and the days went was longer, and the days hurt,
Speaker 1: they hurt. You know, you're thinking about, you know, the
Speaker 1: outside world. You think about family and watching football and
Speaker 1: watching you guys you know, you know, like men of
Speaker 1: integrity out there doing but they supposed to be doing,
Speaker 1: because that's what everybody dreampt of doing their entire lives,
Speaker 1: unless they just fell into it. You know, very very
Speaker 1: blessed to be out there on the field in that situation.
Speaker 1: And I'm you know, one of the you know, Markey
Speaker 1: players of the league, and I'm sitting in the prison
Speaker 1: seeing I'm like, damn, this shit beat me. But that's
Speaker 1: time went on, I realized like, yeah, this was gonna
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be me. It needed to be me,
Speaker 1: because I started thinking about, you know, all the people
Speaker 1: I did, hurt, all the animals I hurt, all of
Speaker 1: you know things that I did, and the decisions I
Speaker 1: made that could have been better. And I'm like, you
Speaker 1: didn't make the all the right decisions. You know, nobody's perfect,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, you probably made more bad
Speaker 1: decisions than you did good. And that's the reason you
Speaker 1: were in this place right now. So you know I
Speaker 1: looked at that, you know, understood it. You know I
Speaker 1: accepted it, and I was like, you know, when I
Speaker 1: leave out of here, I'm gonna come out of here
Speaker 1: a different person. I'm gonna come out of here a
Speaker 1: man and integrity. I'm gonna respect my family and respect
Speaker 1: you know the game. I'm gonna respect the people who
Speaker 1: try to help me in every fast that my life
Speaker 1: and want the best for me. And I'm not going
Speaker 1: to ignore that. I'm gonna grow up. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be so reserved and I'm not gonna be so you know, introvertive.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to open up. You know, all those
Speaker 1: things is on my mind. And I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: I did it, but I needed that time so get
Speaker 1: to that point in my life. So the highlight, Michael
Speaker 1: Victor highlight real walkan in prison, Michael, the man came
Speaker 1: out and I'm very appreciative of that in my life.
Speaker 1: So what did you discover about about yourself? Really being
Speaker 1: put in that position twenty three hours a day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, just losing control, you know,
Speaker 1: it was probably the biggest thing. And like I have
Speaker 1: no control of, you know, when I'm gonna eat, I
Speaker 1: have no control of when I got to go to
Speaker 1: sleep or you know, I'm pretty much on somebody else's time,
Speaker 1: you know, um but a lot of idle time. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn, like, you know, I got to find
Speaker 1: a way to to make this, you know, somewhat, you know,
Speaker 1: a success story, like man, I got it in me.
Speaker 1: I know I could do it. I know the decisions
Speaker 1: that was made that was wrong. Damn, I should have
Speaker 1: just did it right. You know. All I started thinking
Speaker 1: about was a second chance, another opportunity. If I get
Speaker 1: a chance to do it all again. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it this way, And I know I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be perfect, but at least I know I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be around those same people, you know, the same influences.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm growing up a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to show people more than anything that when I
Speaker 1: got out, I was more mature. You know. It started
Speaker 1: with Roger Goodeale than he was the last person I
Speaker 1: was looking to his face and lied to, you know
Speaker 1: about being involved. So I was able to start with
Speaker 1: him break the ice tell the truth. I was wrong.
Speaker 1: He said, look, I'm not here to talk about the past,
Speaker 1: me to talk about the future. And right then and
Speaker 1: then when I heard that, I was just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's it. That's it. It's all about the future. And
Speaker 1: Roger Goodell told me that and our initial conversation and
Speaker 1: that changed my life. That made me look at the
Speaker 1: world different. It made me know that the vision that
Speaker 1: I had could come true. Like all the other visions
Speaker 1: I had, what vision, I don't know. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of like a lot of stuff in my mind.
Speaker 1: I was you know, we spent a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: We spent a lot of time like all my all
Speaker 1: the staff, all the people as working with us. We
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time just kind of looking at
Speaker 1: all this stuff about about you. And I watch a
Speaker 1: lot of things myself, and the one thing I kept
Speaker 1: focusing on it was like, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: this to you to come on here and to rehab
Speaker 1: something um that's happened. However, I don't want people to
Speaker 1: feel like that we're glancing over or were or we're
Speaker 1: giving you Yeah yeah, it's all under control, baby. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but also like I also put myself in your
Speaker 1: position is I've done some stupid stuff in my life.
Speaker 1: And you know when you do some stupid stuff, you
Speaker 1: sitting there right, and I say stupid because if I'm
Speaker 1: being one hunter many like playing against you. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I know the stories about you. I know, I know
Speaker 1: get we're gonna get into them stories. I know, but
Speaker 1: I'm saying I'm still real deal. I'm saying all this,
Speaker 1: all this stuff about you, like I watch you and
Speaker 1: one that all way down, you know, being so close
Speaker 1: here in Charlotte, in Charlotte, trying to mimic the growth
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, like we we got the information like we
Speaker 1: were it was like it was happening here, and bro
Speaker 1: like sitting here and just putting myself in that position,
Speaker 1: I'm going all the stupid stuff I've done in my life.
Speaker 1: You know how many times I've gotten in trouble And
Speaker 1: then you wake up and you you wake up with
Speaker 1: your eyes open and you just kind of that one
Speaker 1: eye and you go, I hope it's I hope it's
Speaker 1: not real. Yeah, and then you realize, damn, we're still here.
Speaker 1: Like I just I really like I really want you
Speaker 1: to kind of like just take us through that personal
Speaker 1: journey of sitting in there because a lot of times
Speaker 1: there's so many people like I read some of the comments,
Speaker 1: people like the YouTube stuff that every time you go
Speaker 1: on there, people are like, he's not he's not remorseful
Speaker 1: demands for eighteen months in jail. It don't even if
Speaker 1: he's not remorseful, he's sitting in his in his dirty
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, And I just I personally don't cannot
Speaker 1: sit there, even visiting men in prison, myself sitting there
Speaker 1: going they may not the first week or two weeks
Speaker 1: of the first month, but this brother has seventeen other
Speaker 1: months to go. Ain't nobody getting them out? He's not
Speaker 1: getting a free plane of hurt. I cannot explain the
Speaker 1: hurt from that stuff. Like, man, So this is how
Speaker 1: much it hurt. It hurt me that it became normal
Speaker 1: being in it. It hurt me that it became normal
Speaker 1: on a Friday night walking in track looking out at
Speaker 1: the rest of the world, cause going by people going
Speaker 1: by and saying, damn, it's life that really exists. I
Speaker 1: then I don't have freedom, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just felt like from the start when I found
Speaker 1: out that I was first going to prison, I just
Speaker 1: kept looking at myself in the mirror like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: going to prison. You're going to prison. I know what
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like, or trying to imagine and you know,
Speaker 1: like you just trying to wake up from it, like yo,
Speaker 1: is this really real? And then next thing you're still
Speaker 1: living in I'm like, damn, like this is this is
Speaker 1: really happening, you know, and you know, just so it's
Speaker 1: just so sad, bro like just so um not have
Speaker 1: control after having control of my entire life and leading away.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm driving it. I'm driving the train. I'm
Speaker 1: starring the train everywhere and every direction I wanted to go,
Speaker 1: and then I just I stared it off the track. Boom,
Speaker 1: and now we just crashed. You over there, you're banning,
Speaker 1: and it's just like damn, like you know, you got
Speaker 1: to pick up the pieces, man, I really pick up
Speaker 1: the pieces and get myself together and like lost everything,
Speaker 1: lost off, lost everybody, putting, my wife, everything with my wife,
Speaker 1: you still standing there, standing tall in the end, you know,
Speaker 1: And even when I was telling her when I came back,
Speaker 1: like some I'm on a bench right now, I'm the
Speaker 1: third quarterback, but I just need a shot. She believed
Speaker 1: in me, you know, but she believed in me as
Speaker 1: a man, and I was going to change, you know,
Speaker 1: and actually know another thing that like that transformation too,
Speaker 1: Like she's just been a big inspiration in my life.
Speaker 1: Is just helping the change and look at the world differently,
Speaker 1: understand things and know that she can be just as
Speaker 1: you know, reliable and you know, assertive and her friendships
Speaker 1: you know, as a man as somebody else that I
Speaker 1: felt like I needed comfort in. Like I kind of
Speaker 1: put that you know, on this on her now and
Speaker 1: we put it on each other and you know, made
Speaker 1: a stronger maybe stronger to this day. Did you think
Speaker 1: did you think she'll leave you? Did you think she'll
Speaker 1: stay you? Oh? Going through that? Um yeah, Steve, because um,
Speaker 1: you know I was real fouling my day. Man. I
Speaker 1: was like yo, man, you know, no respect, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: I had no idea of what it was like to
Speaker 1: maintain a real relationship and you know, to love somebody
Speaker 1: who truly loved you. You know, I was caught up
Speaker 1: in that whole spotlight, my thick life, you know, the
Speaker 1: money to fame, you know, I was caught up and
Speaker 1: all that, you know, and it took for God, that
Speaker 1: like put me in a vulnerable situation where like she
Speaker 1: wrote me down while I was like, yo, no, I
Speaker 1: I changed it all. I'll give it all up, you know,
Speaker 1: just to have you. You know, So I you know,
Speaker 1: I thought because of that, because I went through that
Speaker 1: with her prior that when I left, it's like you
Speaker 1: made another bonehead decision. You deal with that to yourself. No,
Speaker 1: she's there. She's right there when I came home, every
Speaker 1: step of the way, every phone call. Damn, that's true loyalty,
Speaker 1: you know. That's why I learned loyalty like it can
Speaker 1: come from the coming a lot of different ways and
Speaker 1: a lot of different people. I respect that. So you
Speaker 1: you basically twenty almost almost thirty years old, and you're
Speaker 1: just figuring out what real loyal to is, especially coming
Speaker 1: from the hood, from the hood where we we think
Speaker 1: we know a loyalty is just because of you know,
Speaker 1: when you're in the bottom or you got is your word? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: also talked to just naturally, we talked to this trust too, right,
Speaker 1: So that's that's already ingrained too. So when you have
Speaker 1: an experience like mine had and you have these people
Speaker 1: that fail you, it gets stripped away. But man, thank
Speaker 1: thank god, your wife was able to stay with you
Speaker 1: through that entire stretch. And it was and it sounds
Speaker 1: almost as if she was a motivating factor when he
Speaker 1: was behind the wall. Yeah, she was the strength. She
Speaker 1: was the strength I need to that first two weeks
Speaker 1: and I cried every day, like, see you on the plone, Stoom,
Speaker 1: be all right, stoom, be all right, you can get
Speaker 1: you got you, you could do this. I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I don't. You know. You you out there living, breathing
Speaker 1: and as you supposed to be, and I'm right here
Speaker 1: dealing with this crap, you know, and I'm blaming everybody.
Speaker 1: Now I'm pointing finger and this person. And now I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm upset, you know, I'm mad. You know that
Speaker 1: that that that kid to keep unlocking that door. Ain't
Speaker 1: let me out, you know. So I'm like, yeah, I'm stuck.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in the box right now, you know.
Speaker 1: But she was just always encouraging me and you know,
Speaker 1: making me laughing. You know, we talked for hours. I
Speaker 1: ran that bill up crazy and then I had like
Speaker 1: an eight thousand dollars bill. When I left, I was
Speaker 1: only there for like I was on with the initial prison.
Speaker 1: I went to just as a holding facility when they
Speaker 1: was just holding me. Um. I stayed there for about
Speaker 1: maybe like forty five days. So yeah, I left for
Speaker 1: like an eight thousand dollars phone bill because all and
Speaker 1: and the way the phone was set up was that
Speaker 1: you could just call back right after talking fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: and you got a call back. You can call back
Speaker 1: and talk. I was just keep on the phone all day,
Speaker 1: all day, and that's you know, that was that bridge
Speaker 1: the gap and helped me get through that little part
Speaker 1: and to uh they took me to leven Worth. So
Speaker 1: and I was really leaving when I went to eleven Worth, man,
Speaker 1: I was. I was at a prison camp. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't like behind no serious wall, even though when I
Speaker 1: first pulled up, they pulled me up in front of
Speaker 1: the leaven Worth Prison, the real prison, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh god, they they got me this time, you know,
Speaker 1: and the guy was like, you know, e's up. You
Speaker 1: know you ain't going over there, You're going over here,
Speaker 1: and you know, but you know, it still was you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was a facility where it was like
Speaker 1: you couldn't leave it, you know, you couldn't you couldn't
Speaker 1: leave it. And uh so, man, it was just uh
Speaker 1: you know, being in Kansas and being away from my family,
Speaker 1: losing that connection, you know, that was tough. Man. And
Speaker 1: then I had I had three young kids too. I
Speaker 1: had my oldest son and then my two daughters and
Speaker 1: my youngest daughter who was twelve nine. Name is London.
Speaker 1: She was just born in a month old when I myself,
Speaker 1: and so that was a part of it, her to
Speaker 1: a big part of her. Would you would have made
Speaker 1: it if your wife wasn't there to talk to you
Speaker 1: every day? No, Honestly, that's another good question because that's
Speaker 1: something that I never been asked or I had a
Speaker 1: conversation with people where it came out. I'm gonna know,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have made it if my
Speaker 1: wife would have left me, because basically I would have
Speaker 1: had nobody and I was not gonna just let any
Speaker 1: random person come and sit and talk to me about
Speaker 1: compunching nothing. Um. I felt like the only person that
Speaker 1: I could talk to at the time was her. I
Speaker 1: thank god she listened because she used to come visit
Speaker 1: and we'll spend three days in the visiting room. You
Speaker 1: only get twenty four hours in a month total. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll spend eight hours a day, three days in a
Speaker 1: row and just burn it off and sit there and
Speaker 1: just talk and we will argue and fight and laugh
Speaker 1: and joke and crying and kiss each other. And you know,
Speaker 1: I need I needed that strength when I knew she
Speaker 1: was coming to visit. You know, the weakness she made
Speaker 1: the time to go by faster. I say that, and uh,
Speaker 1: And there was nothing physical. It was all mental and
Speaker 1: emotional and I respected that part. It was really cool experience, man,
Speaker 1: and just dealing with that now. You know, like we're
Speaker 1: like inseparable. We have to take a break and morning
Speaker 1: a thing. 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?
Speaker 1: At cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Singer, what about online? And you can follow us
Speaker 1: at cut to It podcast dot com where you can
Speaker 1: buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. I got all my questions answered. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm here for. A brother, cut to a podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. I'll talk to you, bro, and played against
Speaker 1: you prior to you get going incarceration, and I've listened
Speaker 1: to you speak and talked to you outside of after incarceration. Bro.
Speaker 1: If you're the winning incarceration about three years into your career, Bro,
Speaker 1: you still be playing right now. Wow. I know just
Speaker 1: the way he sees the game, the way the way
Speaker 1: he speaks, the way he carries himself. Like I met
Speaker 1: Vic and the whole we've met each other. We were
Speaker 1: drafted the same class we took. It's funny I knew
Speaker 1: I was. I knew that I felt like I was
Speaker 1: respected coming out of draft class because they put you
Speaker 1: in categories in the combine and then the combine I was.
Speaker 1: It was funny me, Vic and Quincy while all at
Speaker 1: that long table and there was our rotation for our
Speaker 1: drug test, and we also took the wonder Lick in there.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, taking a wonder lick
Speaker 1: with some dudes that know they're gonna make it, but
Speaker 1: also some dudes who didn't really pay attention to school
Speaker 1: as well, we were all looking at the look tests like,
Speaker 1: I hope you got the answers because oh I got
Speaker 1: it right, and so I was class and I believe
Speaker 1: one of the best draft class because you got Drew
Speaker 1: Brees and that drafts Michael Vick, that Tana Moss, Reggie
Speaker 1: Wayne the day time. I mean, just Michael Vick's It's unbelievable,
Speaker 1: even down to the other guys in that draft class, right,
Speaker 1: Damn Morgan, Right, there's so many guys man. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember watching you broadness, like seeing you to day,
Speaker 1: hearing you today, like it's just just remarkable that what
Speaker 1: you went through for most people would hurt them. You
Speaker 1: grow you grow up just like me. We grew up
Speaker 1: in in in what society would call us at risk youth,
Speaker 1: being an at risk youth, you grew up not relying
Speaker 1: on anybody, not depending on and not trusting anybody. However,
Speaker 1: in the midst of all your trouble and all your
Speaker 1: you know, using your word, the findness that with the
Speaker 1: way you conducted yourself in your relationship with your with
Speaker 1: your better half, right, it sounds like that you actually
Speaker 1: learned how to really connect and have a transparent and
Speaker 1: real relational relationship with your your wife at the first time,
Speaker 1: non physical and almost a true courtship. Yep. I learned
Speaker 1: to communicate with her. I learned to talk to her.
Speaker 1: I learned to get feelings out of her that that
Speaker 1: I needed, you know, that I needed it and she
Speaker 1: needed and um, you know, I really wish I had
Speaker 1: my dad in my life, you know, growing up, like,
Speaker 1: because I felt like he would have taught me a
Speaker 1: lot of things in terms of relationships. You know, he
Speaker 1: was there, but I didn't see you know, you learned
Speaker 1: by example, So I didn't see him being affects me.
Speaker 1: I just didn't see him talking to my mom and
Speaker 1: sitting her down or you know, argument and having you know,
Speaker 1: maybe a serious argument, but then you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it all boils over and then they back to you know,
Speaker 1: the back to the normal that normalselves. I didn't see that.
Speaker 1: I seen it in the different lands. It was a
Speaker 1: little rougher, you know, it was more you know, it
Speaker 1: was you know, it was only abusive side, don't keep
Speaker 1: it real, you know. So I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I had no real concept of what you know, relationship
Speaker 1: was supposed to be. Like, so I think you know
Speaker 1: this in that the time period. She kind of helped
Speaker 1: me to, you know, learn like what a relationship was
Speaker 1: supposed to look like in the best part about it,
Speaker 1: like you just said it was it was non physical
Speaker 1: and then that So I think that helped, you know,
Speaker 1: help the both of us in a sense. I know
Speaker 1: every situation is different. So what was the reinstatement process
Speaker 1: for you? Like, because we hear like reinstatement, you hear,
Speaker 1: you know, you hear guys are frustrated with my reinstatement.
Speaker 1: What's the deal? You know, as if as if the
Speaker 1: NFL or the institution suspending them because they didn't like
Speaker 1: their outfit that day, right, you know, I want to know,
Speaker 1: really what is the what is the process? Like give
Speaker 1: us detail of you know, not to get anybody in trouble,
Speaker 1: just kind of paint the paint the picture, because I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been suspended and I had to do the evaluation process.
Speaker 1: You know, I punched you guys, so I had to go.
Speaker 1: They flew me. Actually I think they drove me, Jake
Speaker 1: Drewman flow. I don't know which time though. Anyway, they
Speaker 1: drew one time they drove the other time we flew
Speaker 1: and I had to do evaluation with a counselor. And
Speaker 1: that evaluation stunk because I was fresh off that I
Speaker 1: don't care about yeah, right, I felt justified in my actions,
Speaker 1: and so I had the evaluation. It was literally a
Speaker 1: ten hour process, right and so, and it basically came
Speaker 1: back and I was like I was sitting in the
Speaker 1: whole evaluation body language. I was slouched down, hat to
Speaker 1: the side, like, look, I'm just gonna do my time
Speaker 1: going through the motions, you know, but your your step
Speaker 1: was a lot more tedious. It required a lot more
Speaker 1: energy and a lot more meetings because everybody does that.
Speaker 1: You gotta slap on the wrist and you just moved
Speaker 1: on with your life. What we know is not true
Speaker 1: because most most of the places you've been on really
Speaker 1: don't want to want to really know what you intail.
Speaker 1: They want to know why did you do that? What
Speaker 1: were you thinking? But we want to know the process. Man.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know why that shirt look good
Speaker 1: on Mike Vic, you know, I want to know what
Speaker 1: goes what goes through through the whole process. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to look like a handsome, my skin brother like myself,
Speaker 1: No doubt, I gotta give you that. I gotta give
Speaker 1: you that, bro. Let me tell it. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you man. It was. It was. It was rigorous. It
Speaker 1: was tough process because, first of all, when when I
Speaker 1: was on pre track, right before I went to turn
Speaker 1: myself in to go to go to prison, my wife
Speaker 1: and one of my friends told me, like, you know,
Speaker 1: don't you know, don't don't smoke. I'm like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: stressed out and I need to. I need to smoke,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, I need to smoke marijuana. I need to.
Speaker 1: This is what I need to do. They like, no,
Speaker 1: don't do it, like you know, I'm not gonna get tested. Boom,
Speaker 1: I get tested. Now I'm in the drug program with
Speaker 1: the League. It strength is up, my probation like everything
Speaker 1: just like got snapped down on me. And so my
Speaker 1: process was tougher because I was in the in the
Speaker 1: drug program and now I'm getting all these questions of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, why did I, you know, smoke marijuana before
Speaker 1: I before I even went into prison, and knowing that
Speaker 1: I was suspended from the League, So I put myself
Speaker 1: in a vulnerable situation. So my process really started. It
Speaker 1: started with Roger Um being Roger Met and you know,
Speaker 1: I told you he was like, look, we're not here
Speaker 1: to talk about the past. You here to talk about
Speaker 1: the future. And then we had we had conversations and
Speaker 1: he was like, well, you know, I'm gonna send you
Speaker 1: over to another group to meet where. And it was
Speaker 1: like a group of like ten people in the room
Speaker 1: with myself and they they grilled me. They asked me
Speaker 1: questions from A to Z about my friends, about family,
Speaker 1: you know, about money, about the dog fighting, the truthfulness
Speaker 1: and a lot of things that had to come out,
Speaker 1: you know that that you know, it was the one
Speaker 1: sided with the media. Um. But and I hadn't had
Speaker 1: a chance to sit down and talk with everybody. So
Speaker 1: I my evaluation process was what type of help did
Speaker 1: you really need? And it was you know, I think
Speaker 1: that figured out, like, Yo, you're really not you know,
Speaker 1: a psychopathic person. You really are not crazy. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: you know what happened to you. You know, you could
Speaker 1: have made better judgment, it could have made better decisions
Speaker 1: that we think you acknowledge that it and we see
Speaker 1: your your empathy behind what you're saying you're gonna do,
Speaker 1: and you know, we feel like you really care, you know.
Speaker 1: So that was a that was funny like a two
Speaker 1: month process. Um. And and also it was a plan
Speaker 1: and not have me, you know, start as a you know,
Speaker 1: be a starter when I came back to the league.
Speaker 1: I couldn't see it that way, but I think just
Speaker 1: behind it was, you know, we don't know what type
Speaker 1: of reception you're really gonna get, you know, so it
Speaker 1: was a lot of like we're ready to risk it
Speaker 1: off for you. Um. We we love your respect you
Speaker 1: as as a man and as a football player, and
Speaker 1: we don't give you a shot and see how I go.
Speaker 1: And that's all I wanted. So you know, it was
Speaker 1: designed for me not to be a start. I think
Speaker 1: I landed in Philly. It was a blessing. I landed
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. And yeah, so so that was it. So
Speaker 1: it all happened within like, uh maybe like a six
Speaker 1: month time space because Tony Dungee came to visit me
Speaker 1: in prison. He helped start the process, um and then
Speaker 1: help you know to just see me talk to me. UM.
Speaker 1: A couple of representatives from Atlanta Falcons came out to Blank,
Speaker 1: came out, um spoke to Andy Reid on one occasion. UM.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I was just kind of like going
Speaker 1: through you know, just that normal you know what it
Speaker 1: takes to get reinstated process and I've never been through
Speaker 1: it before, but you know, just what I did before
Speaker 1: made it harder and then uh I thank god Roger
Speaker 1: made it easy. At the end, I was I became
Speaker 1: a free agent. Uh you know at plus I think
Speaker 1: of thirteen years and man, when I was going for
Speaker 1: heading up the free agency bro it was like and um,
Speaker 1: ten teams interested in me. Yeah. When I finally hit
Speaker 1: free a se and the Panthers release me, man, it
Speaker 1: went to like foll teams. Yeah yeah, and I was
Speaker 1: really it was really different to be a free agent
Speaker 1: for myself, it was a it was an outpum. I
Speaker 1: was older, so you know, I didn't have as many teams.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what the you know, what was the free
Speaker 1: agency process for you? And then how did you come
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that Philly was the team? Well, Philly
Speaker 1: was the only choice, like and it was like, they
Speaker 1: didn't make me go to Philly, but they it was
Speaker 1: like set up to you know, go learn from Donavan.
Speaker 1: My agent thought it was Joe Seguer. At the time,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a great idea to go sit
Speaker 1: behind Donovan. They already head Kevin Cordon can kind of
Speaker 1: work yourself back into shape. But I'm like, yo, nah,
Speaker 1: it's Buffalo needs a quarterback. I think they head that
Speaker 1: was at the time. And then uh, I think Cousin
Speaker 1: Palmer just part of ways with Cincinnati or they needed
Speaker 1: to back up. He was there for like his last
Speaker 1: season and they needed it. But I was just looking
Speaker 1: at those situations like those are possible opportunities for me
Speaker 1: to come back and start and get myself back in
Speaker 1: shape and come back and show the league. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm back and I'm ready. And you know what I
Speaker 1: realized my first practice in Philadelphia. Before I talked about
Speaker 1: how I got signed there, I won't ready. My legs
Speaker 1: the shot. My body wasn't in shape. You know, they
Speaker 1: took the weights when I was in when I was
Speaker 1: in prison, so I couldn't work out. So you know,
Speaker 1: when I went through that process, it was like Philadelphia
Speaker 1: wants you, and then get it work for Andy Reid.
Speaker 1: You know, you get the book behind Donovan. You don't
Speaker 1: have to start. You can just take a year and
Speaker 1: get yourself together. And then it started to make sense
Speaker 1: to me when it was being explained to me, especially
Speaker 1: by my agent, and you know, he's like, you just
Speaker 1: don't want to go up and go out there and
Speaker 1: then look like you know nothing. And then you know
Speaker 1: you're getting booed by the fans and they protesting, and
Speaker 1: you know, you turn the city upside down just like that,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of work yourself back into it. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was the right way to go about
Speaker 1: it as I thought about it. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, I wanted to be sure about my decision
Speaker 1: making in that process, and you know, didn't want to
Speaker 1: disrespect Andy Read at all. I thought he was a
Speaker 1: great coach from a far any way, working with Donovan,
Speaker 1: and I felt like it was a year that I
Speaker 1: can just go learn play there for a year or
Speaker 1: be there, learn as much as I can do my job,
Speaker 1: and then hopefully go somewhere the next year. In free agency,
Speaker 1: you lost so much control, yeah, you know, in your carceration,
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of opportunity and now you you you back trying
Speaker 1: to control everything, trying to remove God from his plan.
Speaker 1: And and and as this song goes, uh, instead of
Speaker 1: taking a wheel, you instead of letting the Lord take
Speaker 1: the wheel. You want to take the wheel back. I
Speaker 1: wanted the will I wanted I wanted the ball in
Speaker 1: my hands, you know. And think about it, it it had
Speaker 1: they had nothing to do with football, Like my I
Speaker 1: wasn't playing bad football, you know before I left. Oh,
Speaker 1: I know, I remember, you wasn't playing bad ball at all.
Speaker 1: I'm playing bad ball at all. So I'm like, I
Speaker 1: gotta get back and back. What was it? It was
Speaker 1: no football to prove, now that I think about it,
Speaker 1: it was no football to prove. And it's it's the
Speaker 1: shame that it. It took this conversation, you know, eleven
Speaker 1: twelve years later to realize the football wasn't the issue.
Speaker 1: You know, It was the issue of you know, what
Speaker 1: I was returning from and how people felt about it realistically,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and that's that's what it was,
Speaker 1: you know. That was that was the fight. And now
Speaker 1: I see how you know, um, you know, it was
Speaker 1: navigated to to to make it a storybook in it,
Speaker 1: so job well done to Andy and Roger and Asian Joel,
Speaker 1: you know, and and all those guys you know who
Speaker 1: played a major part in it. You know, Um, Tony Dungee,
Speaker 1: you know, it was all static. And you know, when
Speaker 1: my guys get together even get some good good result
Speaker 1: is usually so thank God for that. Hey, Mike, you
Speaker 1: you were going to get into the free agency story
Speaker 1: with with get going to the Eagles, but talk a
Speaker 1: little bit, or would you tell us the relationship you
Speaker 1: have with Donovan McNabb. I know you talked about how
Speaker 1: he had an influence with you and and you know
Speaker 1: all that stuff, but you were getting recruited by Syracuse.
Speaker 1: He was already there. Yeah, yeah, Donovan was my idol. Man.
Speaker 1: Donovan made me believe that I could I could play
Speaker 1: college football, um and play my style of football. Like
Speaker 1: when I was saying my senior year, I think he
Speaker 1: was in his junior year. And you know I watched
Speaker 1: him my freshman sophomore year, like its freshman sophomore year, Syracuston.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, man, this dude is a baller. Like
Speaker 1: he looked like me when I'm in the backyard with
Speaker 1: my boys, Like he looked like me, or I looked
Speaker 1: like him. And I'm like, man, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: watching close to see if he go to the NFL
Speaker 1: and see if the league draft him because they don't
Speaker 1: take quarterbacks like that, and I think he I know
Speaker 1: he can be good if he if you know, if
Speaker 1: the team believed, or if he got a shot. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at him from a talent perspective. So
Speaker 1: he was like my idol. And then my senior year,
Speaker 1: I took a visit to Syracuse and spend some time
Speaker 1: with him down there, and he came persuade me to
Speaker 1: come to Syracuse because I just didn't want to follow
Speaker 1: somebody else's legacy. I wanted to create my own. But
Speaker 1: I still you know, when I went to Tech, I
Speaker 1: admired him from Afar. I've seen it. He got drafted.
Speaker 1: He gave me hope, and I'm like, man, this dude
Speaker 1: the man. You know. So the first three or four
Speaker 1: years he in the NFC championship games multiple times, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's that's style worked. So he just
Speaker 1: I just continued to stay a fan of his. And
Speaker 1: you know, once I played two years of college law
Speaker 1: and got to the league, Donald was one of the
Speaker 1: first people I called to help me make a decision
Speaker 1: on if I was ready to come to the NFL,
Speaker 1: and he told me to look mad if he feel
Speaker 1: like it's nothing else to prove then then then you
Speaker 1: got to make that jump. So he just influenced and that,
Speaker 1: and then you know, I always was a fan of his,
Speaker 1: and even when we had to play against each other
Speaker 1: and go ahead the head, it was like fun, you know,
Speaker 1: and that you know the times, you know, he's the
Speaker 1: reason I didn't go to the super Bowl, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years, you know, so you know, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't let he wouldn't let little bro get one off.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't let me get the win. But it was cool.
Speaker 1: And when I went to Philly, it was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm anna stepping in the locker room with you know,
Speaker 1: not only a friend, but really somebody that I idolized
Speaker 1: growing up. So I get to watch him work and
Speaker 1: see why he went to NFC championship games and played
Speaker 1: in the super Bowl, and maybe the next time around
Speaker 1: for me, I can take a little bit of that
Speaker 1: with me. So I relationship, uh was was real, real,
Speaker 1: real unique, and uh you know, Don was a great dude. Man.
Speaker 1: He had kept me laughing every day and I just
Speaker 1: some days I just don't believe I was in the
Speaker 1: locker room with him. It was that real. I think
Speaker 1: it's about that time. Just take a little breather, get down,
Speaker 1: Hey your art? Why did you get that T shirt?
Speaker 1: You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I got it from
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt,
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, after
Speaker 1: everything's going on, you get picked up by Philly. Did
Speaker 1: you have to have precautionary things put in place? Uh?
Speaker 1: If so, were you know where you Was it voluntary
Speaker 1: on your part or was it wasn't required? I was
Speaker 1: on probation. Yeah, I had a curfew. I had a curfew.
Speaker 1: I was a grown man with a kirkfew. You know,
Speaker 1: I had to be in the house. But like ten
Speaker 1: bullcraft happened one day one day and then you know,
Speaker 1: well not me but people around me. And then that
Speaker 1: kirkfew winded when like strive o'clock and I couldn't leave
Speaker 1: Philadelphia one time. Stories untold, but you know, um, you know,
Speaker 1: just just still was kind of like you know, straddling
Speaker 1: defense a little bit. Now. I was doing what I
Speaker 1: needed to do, but still like some of the wrong
Speaker 1: people was just showing up at inconvenient times and little
Speaker 1: things just happening. That was just I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it. Nothing note out of my control. It's
Speaker 1: just like it was like, well, what are you doing
Speaker 1: around this person? Now I wasn't around him. He came
Speaker 1: around me, you know. So a couple of those little
Speaker 1: issues which led to, you know, a lot of restrictions
Speaker 1: when and I was on probas Soon you know, I
Speaker 1: saw obviously sending a probation officer and the council like
Speaker 1: two to three times in a week like it was.
Speaker 1: It was it was mind bogging, like they you know,
Speaker 1: I had a councilor that came every weekend. I couldn't
Speaker 1: dodge him because that was mandated by the NFL, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but he helped me out. That man was there for me,
Speaker 1: like that season I started twenty ten like he was.
Speaker 1: He became my best friend, still one of my great
Speaker 1: friends to this day. Man. And um, you know, I
Speaker 1: got so much respect for him. Man, I got some
Speaker 1: respectful and we still talk about the world and what's
Speaker 1: going on in social justice. Now. You know, he's he's
Speaker 1: he's a white man, you know, he's and he's like
Speaker 1: sixty sixty eight years old, but his perspective on life
Speaker 1: is amazing, and you know, I almost kind of look
Speaker 1: at him as as a father's figure. So that was
Speaker 1: one great thing that came out of that hole situation.
Speaker 1: It was a lot more. But you know, I met
Speaker 1: a guy who, um, I could say to this day
Speaker 1: care about Mike vick Mann. You know, I don't care
Speaker 1: about football week. Our conversations extended so far outside of
Speaker 1: football that you know, it became real personal and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, so yeah, you know, not a restrictions band.
Speaker 1: But I've worked my way through it. I navigated Well,
Speaker 1: you just heard part one of Michael vick Steve. When
Speaker 1: the VIC story broke and all this came out and
Speaker 1: became public, what was the reaction from you and players
Speaker 1: around the league? No, you didn't believe it, No, no way,
Speaker 1: like nah, he couldn't been doing this. And as as
Speaker 1: things kind of kept unraveling, you start to see that
Speaker 1: that was there was a true rabbit hole that they
Speaker 1: were in all the different stories, and it was it
Speaker 1: was unraveling at a rate that was so rapid it
Speaker 1: was hard to really process is it, is it true
Speaker 1: or not? And but here's one thing we all know.
Speaker 1: I don't care where you grew up. I don't care
Speaker 1: what you're in or not into. When the FBI come
Speaker 1: knocking on the door, and I'd ask, they ain't doing
Speaker 1: a wellness checking right they already having. It's really is
Speaker 1: how big of all, how deeper of a hole are
Speaker 1: you gonna dig yourself in? It shocked all of us,
Speaker 1: and it shocked is. Even more is the time that
Speaker 1: he received and what he had to do and what
Speaker 1: he went through. It was really a real and he
Speaker 1: lived here in Charlotte. We were getting a lot of
Speaker 1: information because it ain't none but three hours away. So
Speaker 1: as they say, the streets were talking. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of stories out there that good battering different. I
Speaker 1: don't really don't. I didn't really listen to them because hell,
Speaker 1: the same stories you could say about a ton of
Speaker 1: different people. Right, Being a football player it's no different,
Speaker 1: or being an athlete, celebrities, entertainers, no different than anybody
Speaker 1: else's life. The only the only difference is you get
Speaker 1: to see our lives on fold in front of a camera.
Speaker 1: The question is if we followed you around with a
Speaker 1: camera twenty five hours a day, what will we find?
Speaker 1: And people forget that you know so so before you
Speaker 1: get your before you get your threes smooth stones, you know,
Speaker 1: get them skeletons at your So that was really cool.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy it, but also no, there's two parts,
Speaker 1: Part two coming up. Yes, and there's even it's even
Speaker 1: more so I love it. Cut to It with Steve
Speaker 1: Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut
Speaker 1: to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect, and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singor co host Gerard
Speaker 1: little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, social media
Speaker 1: manager Peyton Smith. From Balto Creative Media. Cut to It
Speaker 1: is produced by Brian Baltachevitch and Meredith Carter, with production
Speaker 1: assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production manager Sarah Pollock, Theme music
Speaker 1: by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You
Speaker 1: had them out and then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all m