ATS REWIND: Michael Strahan | ALL THE SMOKE

The new NFL Season is only six, short days away! In that spirit, we look back on an amazing conversation with Hall of Fame defensive end and media personality Michael Strahan.

The former Giant opens up about his legendary career, including winning the 2007 Super Bowl in New York. He also discusses other moments from his singular story and talks about his current success in the media world. 

NEW ATS EPISODES RETURN on SEPTEMBER 5th!

Originally aired September 1st, 2022:

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hm mm hmmm, mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to all the smoke. We in New York.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
And wow it's been a minute. We have half a minute.
Oh it's your turn. You got the sweaty palms this time.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
No, that was you. I was just gonna that was
definitely you had. That was you.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Shake Mike's hand, them are moist, right, I was regular right.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
I ain't gonna lie to you if I needed to
seal an envelope for both of y'all, just shake y'all
hand and do like that, and I seal.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
The envelope both of y'all. Little moist man New York
got y'all. It wasn't moist. You know, he sweating. I'll
be nervous when we have yet. You blame that shit
on me.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You've bamed my hands wet to shake his motherfucker anyway. Man,
Today we like to welcome to the show super Bowl champ,
co host of Good Morning America, and a Fox Sports analyst,
the one and only man Michael Strahan. Thank you for
being here. I appreciate it, MANE really I just wanted
before we get going, man, I just want to commend you.
I think you've really been an inspiration for a lot

(01:25):
of us the way you've been able to have a
successful career but then switching to the media space to
be very successful in sports within crossover in main street media,
and that's very hard to do and you've done that
very gracefully. And you know when people ask, like, oh,
who do you look up to in this space? Man,
You're the one, I say, so what? That kind of
freaks me out.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Do I Aint gonna lie to you because I've talked
to you before about this and Jack, I saw you
at the boxing man, like a week or so ago,
and you know, you kind of just start doing your thing.
You don't even think about who's watching or whatever. And
especially when you're a football player that you guys are
playing basketball and I'll watch you guy both fourteen years
in the NBA, both championships and I'm watching that.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
So to have you tube.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Say that to me kind of makes me feel like,
what the hell is going on? Like this don't seem right,
But I appreciate it, man, and what you guys are doing.
I'm in the transition that you've made and you know,
it's not easy. It takes a lot of hard work,
and y'all are putting in the work and now you
got this show amongst the other things that you're doing.
And it's a testament to just where you're willing to

(02:24):
work and your personality in the fact that people want
to listen to you because you got something to say.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
First and foremost absolutely so appreciate how she's off season.
Right now? What are your day?

Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
What are your days like? These days?

Speaker 5 (02:39):
You know, a well a gma. Every morning I'm talking
at five five listen to Bill Wetherson listening to Bill
Withers's Lovely Day. You got to convince yourself when it
ain't a lovely day sometimes to get up.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
So I'm up at five every day.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
I got to read my notes, take a shower, get
in the car, and get to the studio. And now
once I get in the student I'm running. So it's
not like I get there to give me a couple
of coffee, close the door, let me get my thoughts together.
It's literally you hit the I hit the door like
hair makeup, change, change my outfit. And by six point
forty one, I'm sitting in front of a chair telling

(03:15):
Chicago what's coming up.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
And then I go.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
Downstairs and right when I walk in the door, though
I have to do like coming up on GMA to
day we got blah blah blah blah blah, we do
all those voiceovers and then seven and nine. It's just NonStop,
man constantly changing. It's so different from sports. It's so
different from doing entertainment. When I did that, when I
feel doing I took over for Regis and did the
show with Kelly. It's the most difficult thing I've ever done.

(03:40):
But also at the same time, it's fulfilling because I'm
learning stuff every day.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
I'm more attached to what's going on in the world.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
And it's not just like one lane of doing one thing,
and it's a challenge and I'm like doing a compete.
Don't think you can do it. We're not supposed to
be able to do certain things. So for me, what
motivates me is to be able to do things that
kind of show people that as an athlete, as a
black man, as a young black man, as a fut like,

(04:11):
I can do other things outside of hit somebody who's
carrying football, right, and y'all can do more than just drimming.
You know, it's shooting dump right. We're bigger than that
we're more than that.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
How do you keep the balance, because, like you said,
there is no really all seasons. So sometimes you have GMA,
then you got the NFL, you got a family, you
got this, you got that. How do you immerge the
balance right? How do you find that balance?

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Compartmentalized?

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Man?

Speaker 5 (04:33):
It is it goes to me. Everything backs up to sports.
When I go to practice and I knew and we
go to the sideline and I don't have to be
in the game. I'm chilling. We can't have a conversation.
The nego defense. I said, hold on hold to you.
I go grab my helmet. I run out there, lock in,
do my thing, come back, put the helmet down, and
pick up the conversation.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
So that's pretty much what I do now.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
It's like I think about one thing, and when I'm there,
I'm present, man, and I do it because I don't
You never know who's watching whose list, and then you're
never that commitment for you. It may be one of
the many things that I do, but maybe it's one
of only one thing that somebody else does. They need
me there, so I want to give them everything I got.
And so the second I leave that though half the time.

(05:14):
If you asked me what happened on GMA, who did
you talk to today?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
I'd be like, that's a good question.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
December eleventh, twenty twenty one, you became the tallest man
to go to space Blue Origin with Jeff Bay on
Jeff Bezo's experiment. What was that like?

Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yeah, wait here, it is the tallest man that go
to space. That ain't hard, the little ass astronaut. Now
they make it where we could fit, but before you
couldn't fit anyway.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
It was.

Speaker 5 (05:47):
It was the most amazing thing I've ever done because
there were reasons for like just not even the trip itself,
things that happened before I went made it incredible because
it makes you evaluate yourself, your life, your family, your friends,
where you stand in the lives of people, where what

(06:09):
they mean to you, where they stand in your life,
what's important? Because you almost getting your eulogy before you.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Even right do it?

Speaker 5 (06:16):
Because people, your boys are like yo, man, your boys
you always you know, y'all, y'all always up, You're busting
each other's you know, balls for lack of without a word.
Then your boys are like yo, man, I'm like, hey man.
Hopefully everything. I love you, man, and you're just like, damn,
where had come from. Then you realize the severity of it,
and you have your will. But then when you got

(06:37):
to redo it and make sure everything is tight. Not
because you're thinking in thirty years, forty years, fifty years. No,
because you're thinking in three, four, five, six, seven days
it might kick in. And you're looking at your kids
and you're like, I ain't ready to leave my kids,
you know, I my mom still living, my brothers and sisters.
I'm like, I'm not ready to go to leave this planet,

(07:01):
and they're not ready for you. And you realize that
the ecosystem that you have around you, the people that
love about you care. But then when you go up
and you're looking back at the planet, damn, that's crazy
to say, yeah, back at the part the arc of
the planet, the different layers of atmosphere.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
You start out like down here is light. I mean,
you're chilling. You're looking up and it's getting darker as
you're going.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
And next thing you know, I'm up in darkness and
I'm looking down at the light instead of the light,
looking up at darkness, and you're floating, you're weightless. You
push yourself around with two fingers and you're just moving
effortlessly throughout this cap It was the most amazing thing
I've ever ever done.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
Man.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
And I'm not a space right like, I'm not a
risk person. I'm trying to live like god breathing. No, no,
you can breathe. You don't need nothing.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
This is an air. It's like a silk chamber.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
The only thing I was like, Okay, if we get
up there, what if that thing just starts floating off
and we ain't coming back, and then you just got
to sit up there until you starve to death or.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Whatever it may be. But it was.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
It was.

Speaker 5 (08:08):
Made me the happiest I've been man, because it really
you land and just smile on your face.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
You can't wipe it off.

Speaker 5 (08:18):
And you know, that's what we can say that Very
few people can say that you're going up and there's
like three g where you're sitting on that capsule and
you can get off up until two and a half
minutes before you know take off. You can say time out,
or you can go I don't want to fly time out.
They'll come on try and say yo yo, Matt, you're
sure you don't want to do this. They try to
talk you into it, but if you go out, I

(08:38):
don't want to fly today, they just gonna come yank
you off. And I was waiting for somebody to possibly
save us.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
All join up. Somebody doesn't.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Man, how long does it take to get up?

Speaker 5 (08:52):
The whole thing is less than twelve minutes up and down? Really, yeah,
but you think about it. If no, no, it's fat.
It's like a day now and our time of twelve minutes.
But you're so in tune, like every sense you have
is on alert, creak, and every movement you're just so intense.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
It seems like hours really, And.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Then when you're sitting there and you're watching that clock
and you know at two thirty before countdown, I can
get off, but once again two twenty nine, and you're like, oh,
the computer kick in now I can't stop. Then you
just have to convince yourself like, yo, this is like
a disney Land ride.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Disney World. Just gonna go with it and hope for the.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Best twelve minute running clock like they got it worked out.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Man, that's crazy.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
But then when you hear like ten nine, it's like
you're in a movie.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
And then when it lifts off and the thing is rumbling.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
You see the smoke and the inside that capsule turns
red from the fire and the flames from the engine,
and that thing just starts shaking and takes off. And
then they're like, you know Blue Origin, you know New Shepherd,
You cleared the towe and you just ste everybody on
the literally everybody would being unprompted, just screening.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yah.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
I mean other people were in there with you, five.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Other people man. And then once you're going up.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
They designed the ship that is starting to like a
slow spiral that way. I don't have to look out
the window over there to see what's going on. You
just look at your window the whole see everything world.
Forty thousand feet up, one hundred thousand feet up, two
hundred thousand feet up, three hundred thousand feet up, face
getting pushed back. It was sick. I got it in jack,

(10:31):
y'all gotta do it. Y'all could be the tallest, because.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
I'm short in this room, right, it'll be crazy twelve
minutes for me. I might fast out.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Would you do it?

Speaker 5 (10:44):
It feels free? Probably that's hard. I ain't gonna lie
it free is a good point. It was the second
we landed. I see Bezos Jeff, and I'm like, yo,
I want to do it again. He goes, next time,
you got to pay us.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Right, Texas boy, talking about the upbringing it in Houston.
Your dad was an Army vet and the box of
Army major in the boxer. I was growing up in Texas.
It was great. I mean, you know you you know, Texas.
Texas is Texas hot and hot.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
And so hot humid.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
Went to Texas Southern so HBCU right there in the
middle of Houston, which I think a lot of people
don't realize. They think I went to some big program,
But you know, I went to the place that fit
me the best. Right war right, no heart a third
War man, and but it was. It was great because
had I gone to a bigger school, because I came
back from Germany, because my dad wasn't the military, I

(11:46):
think I would have been swallowed up by just everything
I got, the magnitude of everything. But TSU was perfect,
and it was great being in Texas. It taught me
so much to help me when I came here to play,
Like I came to New York and I was a
little green around the edge of a lot of things.
But one thing, you, I was never gonna get tired

(12:07):
because my ass was used to running in that Texas heat.
You weren't going to outwork me, you know. And and
and it was just I came here with an attitude
that I had no choice, like I had no I
had to win here all or nothing I had. Yeah,
it was all or nothing for me. I didn't have
a backup plan. I didn't have a thing where I
can go home and do this and do that. And no, no, no,

(12:28):
I ain't going back home. My whole gold in life
has always been I move back in with my parents.
That's it. Something that simple makes me go out and hustle. Real, Yeah,
I'm a grown man living with my parents.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Not at all.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
I don't want to ask permission. I'm forty years old
to do something. Fifty years old, Mama, you know I'll
be like, don't wait.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Up, leader, chain off the door.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Yeah, I'll turn along on when I get old.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
I ain't doing that. Man, when did football kick in?
You just start playing see lady? Senior year, senior year
and ended up being I was man my senior year
high school.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
My dad was like, yeah, I'm a senior to Houston
gonna stay with your uncle, you're gonna play football, You're
gonna get a scholarship. Okay, but he made it sound simple.
He made it sound like it was supposed to happen.
So when I came back, okay, that's my mission. And
I didn't know what I was doing, but I did
it well enough to get one scholarship, and that was

(13:30):
the mission. Mister of the car, He's like, schools free,
that's where you're going.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
So that was the first time you put on paths everything.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
I was seven and eight years old, and then after
that I didn't do anything.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
I was just growing up.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
And so for me, it was, you know, learning and
put the pads on again, buckle up the helmet, put
the pants, the pass in my pants and all that stuff.
And I just figured it out. I watched a lot
of TV. I just watched football on TV. I watched
the pros on TV. I saw all the big college
players where everybody was talking about what they were doing.

(14:02):
And I didn't know what quarterback sack was important. When
I was in high school, I played defensive end.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
I didn't know. I was just like, okay, where we
got the ball, that's a good.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yeah, that's it, and yeah, so football from I didn't
grow up playing football.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
I grew up watching football.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
And I think the simplicity of which my dad said it, like.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
Oh you're going to do this. I was like, Okay, cool,
did it? That's simple.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
You followed it in your uncle's footsteps. You briefly touched
on that you went to an HBCU, But can you
elaborate on what that experience was, Like.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Uncle Art, Uncle Art, Uncle Ray, Uncle Ray, shout out
to my uncle Ray down in Houston. It was HBCU.
It's unique, it's special, man. And I was just talking
to somebody about this the other day. They was like, yeah,
I went to Howard or something so that. But even

(14:54):
at TSU, all the guys from University of Houston, you
try to come over and hang out on our yall yep,
not like no, no, no, no, it don't.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Work that way. Y'all. They want the Frenches.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yeah, y'all got to go back and y'all got to
stay away from Frenchies.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Y'all got back over there.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
Because people don't realize it was TSU, Yates High School,
Frenchies and then the University of Houston. We will throw
a rock, but all right, all right there, all all
like on top of each other. But the HBCUs experience
was was was different and special because I felt like
it was intimate, you know what I'm saying. We were

(15:27):
all in there together, we all looking at it like basically,
we all sound alike. We all here just trying to
hustle and do what we gotta do. And I'm still
great friends with Corey Johnson, Chris Daggs, all my guys
from back then in college, and we've all gone on
and done our different things in life. But yeah, man,
the HBCU experience to you know, from the classes, to

(15:48):
being on the yard, to being on the football team,
to you know, the parties to the dorms and all
those things were were you.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Know, it looked like you got your like you're over
here smiling, got his mind right. It's like it was
a good.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
Good man all that and the projects.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
George Floyd was from his two blocks away from everything
he talking about, which is yeah, it was crazy two
blocks away. I remember all those schools.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
I remember Devin the dude rapping about all the schools
y'all was just mentioning right there. I was used to
listening to Devin the dude he was talking about all
them schools right there. Explain the straight hand rule. I
mean you were often double teamed.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Oh man, that was.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
Yeah in the game, man, just getting beat up. It's
funny you go out there in the game. People don't
realize how intricate it's like basketball. People watching I can
do that. They just throwing the ball around the guy
that gets opening. It's plays, you running, you moving, it's technique,
is all these different things, especially if you want to laugh,
if you want to be great at it. So for
me that three hand rules, like that being double team, man,

(16:50):
like they just beat the hell out of me. Beat
the hell out of it as a compliment though, But
you know what, at first, old jacket was hard because
when you're getting double teen, it's frustrated. Guy that just
you know, pause by the way.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
I saw that. When you're just trying to maneuver.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
It's hard enough to beat one one block, but then
when you're beating that guy, another guy's is once hitting
you down low, one taking it, you know, hitting you
up high, and it's like.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Frustrated.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
I mean, you got two guys three hundred pounds, biggest
fun and they're trying to take you out, and so
it At first he pitches you off, but then you
have to look at it as a compliment and go
It means I'm good, you know what I'm saying. And
then you try to you find a way around it.
So whenever you're able to beat two guys that make
a play, to be more satisfied to beat one.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
And once you get used to it, it is. It's
actually kind of fun. Man.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
It's kind of like a science project and figuring out
a math project and how to figure out the solution.
And I'll never forget Justin Tuck, my teammate here in
New York, and they caught me, old man, end of
my career.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
Old man, I'm gonna kick your old ass out the league.
That's what.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
Kick you old ass all the time, kick you out
the league. I said, let me tell you, man, you'll
be my backup. As long as I can team play
cloths out, deside to play. You'll be my backup. And
then I said, heavy is the crown. You don't realize
how tough it is, because you can be one of
the eleven. I could have been a starter for a
few more years if I wanted, but to be the
one of the eleven to one it every week, you

(18:33):
got to show up. I can't have an off game,
I can't have an off practice, I can't have nothing.
Everybody's looking at me for leadership and guidance and then
in the game for consistency. So I retired and he
calls me three weeks into the season, Hell you do
this because he started getting those double team And I

(18:53):
even saw Aaron Aaron Donald probably the greatest defensive lineman
in the history of the NFL.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
I saw last year.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
He was even talking about damn double team, getting frustrated
by it. But it's a compliment right to how great
you are. You got to take it that way. So
like straight hand rules, Hey, I was happy, I'll take Yeah,
try to try to try to try to beat it
out of me.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Ain't gonna be ain't gonna quit right. How much was
what was? How much is you weigh? What was your heaviest?

Speaker 3 (19:18):
When you played my heavy you said you was going
to get a three hundred pound guy.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
When I first got in the league, I came in
at two fifty something. But then they did they like
they told me gain weight. But back then they don't
tell you like the proper way. So I was I
was just fast food pizza. Yeah, I was like two eighty.
I felt like an in Gorge tick. I couldn't move,

(19:42):
but I was heavier. I couldn't move, couldn't perform. So
then I started losing weight. So I got into like
two seventy two, which four years I was in the
two seventies. Then I went down to the two sixties.
As you got older, yeah, as I got older, I
started gradually losing weight. And then my last three years
in the league, I was every Friday we weigh in

(20:03):
and every pound rovers like three hundred bucks. So my
last three years I got down like two forty seven
to two fifty two really Friday. Yeah, well part of it.
Everybody's like, oh, you lost weight, you want to play.
I'm like, no, I got divorced. That's stress.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
That stressed.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, man, that stress because me the weight hair,
but it has hair too, and hair and grays. But
it ended up being good because it needs to lose weight.
It prolonged my career. I feel like a totally different
player to the last three years in my career than
I did the first twelve because I could run all day.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
My knees didn't hurt, my back stopped hurting. It was amazing. Yep.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
I did the South of s maybe two thirty five
when I came in the league and finished at like
two ten. Really, yeah, got that. It's like you said,
it's just the older you get. I feel like the
lighter I had to be. I was still as strong,
it was just had to be lighter.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
And that was the thing.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
I was still as strong, but I but it actually
made the game easier because now I knew if I
needed to get over there, I can make it because
I'm lying up quicker and faster, and I know I
need to get there quicker than I ever knew twenty
ten years ago, because I didn't know what I was
looking for to determine where I need to be.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
So I was always a step ahead and that helped. Man.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
And then when you're playing with OC you and you are,
you're playing with Justin Tuck, Fred Robbins, all these young cats,
and they after calling you old man, it's like, oh, no,
I ain't gonna run me up out of here.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
I got to show y'all how it's done. So your toes.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Drafted fortieth overall nineteen ninety three, what do you remember
most about about the draft anywhere?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Question? They asked you doing the process, man, They asked
you some of the stuff you had to take.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
The giants had this like one hundred and fifty question
survey just to be a drafted guy and the training can.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:50):
I think what they wanted to do then is that
the combine. I think they wanted to test you to
see because question ninety five is just like question three.
I guess they want to see if they're gonna wear
you out, how long your attention span could be. And
there would be stuff like if you were in traffic
and there was a line with six cars and a
line with no cars, would you want to be car

(22:12):
number seven? Would you be the first and want to
be first in line? And I'm like, that's stupid. I
want to be first in line. That shows leadership. Like
I'm like, what the hell doing one hundred fift I'm
not a follower. But if you didn't do it then,
speaking of prime, I think they asked Dean to do it.
Deonna said, what pick of y'all?

Speaker 4 (22:29):
They go five? I ain't gonna be righty so.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
But yeah, but that had to do all that stuff.
But you know, coming from t s U at that time,
I had to do what I had to do. I
had to do everything. And I'll never forget filling out
stuff like that. You've had you they come to campus,
they run you through all these drills more so than
they probably did with anybody else. And then it always
I'll never forget. I'm sitting with this scout, Tommy Hart,

(23:03):
he was a scout for the forty nine ers. And
there's another guy, my boy had a chance to get you, Yeah,
Todd Kelly. Todd Kelly, University of Tennessee, my guy, we
could come out same year. We're working out together. We
had singer ball together, all these things. We're sitting there
with this scout Tommy Hart from Tommy Hart from the
forty nine ers. He looks at us, he's sitting there,
goes Michael. You know, you'll know, I don't think you

(23:24):
ever be able to be like Ty. I don't think
you'll be able to close the quarterback and get sacks
in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
Like like Todd would.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
I'm sitting right next to my boy Todd, like, well, damn,
you know, just shit my bucket, you know what I'm saying,
Like what are you doing? And to this day I
have not forgotten that comment. I have not forgotten the
list of defensive linemen who were drafted in front of
me or even considered to be in that same group

(23:51):
as you know, like I can tell you man from
Carl Simpson to Coleman Rudolph to Eric Curry, John Cope, Flynn,
Dan Williams, Dan Footman.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Who else was there? None?

Speaker 5 (24:09):
None of these people what their thing was. He's from
A he's from t s U. Yeah, competition, he can't.
We don't think he can keep up. He ain't this,
he ain't that. But one thing I found, you can't
teach You can't teach heart, you can't teach that zion.
Those are things that maybe you gotta trust your gut

(24:29):
to figure out if somebody is a fit. But I
was second round, fortieth pick overall, Thank God for the Giants,
even though Jimmy Johnson told me he's gonna pick me
for the Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
You know, I flew out the Dallas, but I wish
he would have was.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
I flew out to Dallas actually before the draft, and
I met with Jimmy, Jerry, I met Troy Aikman, Michael
Michael Irvin, who's my guy?

Speaker 4 (24:58):
I love that dude.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
And I remember Michael doing step ups with dumbbells, and
this was Michael Irvan with the star. I go in
the weight room and just wide eyed, and he's like, yo,
big fellow. Remember they only love you because of this.
Don't think if you don't do this, they're gonna love
you like that. His cat is working, working, and Jimmy
is like, yeah, you know, Jimmy and Jerry, Yeah, we

(25:20):
want to do a draft day deal. So we're gonna
pick in the first round. We want to get a
deal done that day. We won't want any any you know, holdouts.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
I'm like, pick me.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
He ain't gonna worry about that. You know, I'm a
broke kid from TSU. I'll come right up the road
to Dallas. Give me a contract. I'm goody sent the
scout to my house on draft Day.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I put the icing on top too, and didn't pick.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
You got a briefcase. I'm like, my my contracts. In
that briefcase. I'm sitting there with the family. He sitting
on the couch with is drinking, I drink, eating our food.
He gets a call. They trade their pick the giants
picked me and now working with Jimmy all these years,
I'm like, yo, you told me you're gonna pay me. Man,
it was I know, I didn't know you're gonna be good,

(26:03):
so h you know, I like value, so I was
hoping maybe I can get you in the second round.
But now I talked to him, He's like, well, maybe
the third, fourth, maybe fifth, sixth. I'm like, you think
I'm Tom Brady's sixth round.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Come on, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Rookie year had a live versity six, only played six games.
How was that dealing with that?

Speaker 1 (26:24):
So?

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Yeah, cause you in New York. First of all, for me,
New York was like I thought Houston was fast. Oh yeah, No,
I thought Houston was twenty four seconds, right and what?
And then I come here and I'm like, at first,
I'll never live in the city. I never drive in
this city. I stayed at the Marriott Marquee in Times Square.

(26:46):
I never left the room the first times here until
they came and picked me up and took me where
I needed to go. Because I would look out the
window at two or three in the morning, people would
be walking the street like ants. I said, I'm gonna
get mugged rob. Something's gonna happen if I go out
on the street by myself. So I would be walking
around looking like that because you know, say tourists don't
look up you show your tourists may be looking for you.

(27:07):
I was like naive about everything, man, And then to
come here and be on the team with LT and
Phil Sims and all those guys, and to watch guys
that I love growing up play and not be able
to be a part of it because of injury. I
mean it sucked because you considered the bust in a
lot of ways and this city is impatient.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
You don't have time to you know, yeah they don't care.
They don't care. So for me, that was that was
that was tough, you know.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Being here and being hurt, and then other than that
playing a sick games, not really getting a feel.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
For for how to be a pro.

Speaker 5 (27:46):
So yeah, that that that those those years I kind
of washed out of my mind at that rookie year.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Man, that was two questions, First, how was LT?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
And then when did you feel like how many years
did it take you to feel like you had your footing?
So first, how was LT?

Speaker 4 (28:00):
LT was a great teammate, crazy.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
Which when he showed up at practice, when he showed up,
which he don't like when I say that, but it's true.
And you know what else, this cat would go one
hundred miles per hour when he's in there in practice,
in his reps, and sometimes he takes scout team reps
one hundred miles per hour game speed, game speed. And
that's one thing I learned him in practice was game speed.

(28:26):
It wasn't going through the motions. And then in the meetings,
I didn't learn nothing from him there because this cat
would come in, get a towel, roll it up, and
lay on the floor and go to sleep entire meeting.
And then the coaches would you know, wake him up,
turn on the light at the end, like not at
the end of the meeting.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
They knew better not to wake him up. Durian Yes,
And then.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Would go, hey, you know, lt we put in this
blitz and that blitz is that okay with you?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Like?

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Why the hell you asking him? We all and he'll
wait for.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
The last two hours. This cat's sleeping. You got to
ask if it's okay. And if it's not, I guarantee
you they would have changed them. But he had earned
that man. He had earned the respect of these coaches
and and and other of us of us as players.
But he was a great to give your shirt off
his back, intimidating Like I, he's intimidating. And it took

(29:17):
me into hell recently to not be intimidated. When I
celt and hen I got into a big old argument,
not an argument, but a nice fun conversation. Like a
year or so ago at a golf tournament. He was like,
you know, I'm I should I'm the career i should
be the career leader in sacks for the Giants.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
And he's going on and I said, well, you know
you're not. That's I am. Well, if I didn't miss
all them games, I didn't tell you to do the
drugs man on you, right, But yeah, that's my guy.
I love dude. Man.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
So how did you like rough rookie year? When did
you feel like you kind of got your footage?

Speaker 4 (29:59):
Four years?

Speaker 5 (30:00):
I had a great coach. Earl Leggett was my first
d line coach. Coach how he longed the Raiders and
incredible coach. If I didn't have him, I probably would
lasted the total four years because he taught us technique.
He and John Fox, who went on to become you know,
John Fox, and Mike Nolan was the coordinator. They taught
me how to watch film, how to study, like not

(30:20):
watching film as a spectator, I'm watching film as a player,
trying to get better and understanding what I'm watching. So
that really helped an Earl technique wise, no one could
match it. How he taught us how to take on
you know, these two three hundred and fifty pound guys
want to crush you. How do you turn into the
technique so that you kind of negator when you're getting doubled,

(30:41):
and all these different things like just to pass rust,
how to rush with power, how to rush with finess.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
He was just amazing. So Earl where the coach you
glad you had not a coach you glad you have
because he was so hard home and he was a beast.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
So once he we had him for three or four years,
and then once Earl went to d Washington. After that,
I don't know, it's freeing. It's like you were able
to have his technique, but you were able to not
think about doing it. It just came naturally because with
him you had to worry about it all the time.
Because you get in a meeting and man, this cat
would he would he would talk dirty to you, talk

(31:18):
bad to you. If you're out there getting handled, like
don't get hit, don't get pushed, don't get knocked down,
and not defend yourself, because he would tell you I'm
too old to get out and defend myself. Son, You
got to defend your own yourself. You got to defend yourself.
I'm too old for this ship. Or if you're in
the training camp and you're out there getting beat up
in training camp, he would literally come in and be like, hey, man,

(31:41):
I got to go on these meeting and send it
from everybody in the D line room. I got to
go on these meeting with the other coach and and
fight for you. I got to go out there and
fight for you. But look at this ship you put
on fence. You just sending me up there with my
dick in my hand, and you just say, hey, you
literally sitting there good.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Yeah, I love. I needed to be coached like that.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
I didn't need to coach with soft on me and
tell me everything's okay, because it's not.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
He was perfect.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
But then once he went to Washington, we were able
to take what he taught us and kind of be
free with it, and it just came naturally, all the moves, anticipation,
and from then on it was like boop.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
So his found got the limit.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Dominant dominant, dominus, particularly against the run ninety seven to
two O five two thousand and five Defensive Player of
the Year in two thousand and one.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
What does that mean to you? Everything? I never thought
about doing nothing like that. Man.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
I was just playing like I love the play, I
love the competition. I loved the fight. And it's kind
of funny because I look at myself now and I'm
just like chilling, and I think people look at me
and they go, oh, you know, people don't even realize
I played football that nine goting.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
TV and all that.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
But to me, it's interesting because the other side is
always there and people don't really get a chance now
to see it, and there's no need for anybody to
see it. But I would walk into a locker room
and feel like, you know, a normal small guy.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
But the second I put on the pads, it was
like superhuman.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
My mind just switched to where I had no regard
for anybody, even not on my team. I used to
put on you know that that see Murder and Snoop.
That was the last song, exactly the last song I
put on before I went out to play, because that
was my mindset.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
If you're not on my team, I don't care about you.
I don't care what happens to you.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
And so for me, being Defensive Player of the Year
was first of all having great teammates and secondly, just
not limiting myself. I went from a guy who was like, oh,
I get a sack, and I'm like that pressure is off.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
I got that sack, man, I can you know, got it?

Speaker 5 (33:56):
Hopefully maybe I get another one into like why why
I stop at one right? What's limiting me? Let's get another,
another another and try to help this team win. So
that was that was when that award was special, more
special probably for my family than it was me, because
at the end of the day, my parents and all
of them got a lot more joy I think out

(34:17):
of all these things, and I got a joy out
of making sure that they were proud and so yeah
that that stuff like that, that's mom and dad stuff.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
You know. The whole career pretty much is because they
encouraged me to do it.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Let's big broke several sacklecuers are on the way. What
one was most important to you?

Speaker 5 (34:34):
Breaking the LT's sack record with the Giants one that
pisses him off was was the most important because he's
my favorite player, my favorite player, period, offense, defense, whatever.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
Nobody was like LT.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
So to get a year to play with him and
to just sit there and be across from him doing
walk throughs every day, and I can tell when he
was in a good mood because he be practicing his
golf swing, and I can tell he was in a
bad movie because he'd just be staring at you and
I'm like, I do I'm just sitting here doing my job. Man,
I want to smoke.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 5 (35:10):
So so breaking his record and having him there for
you know, the career record and single season record which
I broke against the Eagles in two thousand and one,
was was special. And as as far as like the
sack of record for the league, I never thought about that.
I really cared about that, But the LT stuff I

(35:31):
didn't realize I cared about until I actually did it,
because it's hard to follow up a legend like that.
And I'll never be the player LT was. No one
ever will all the next LT. There never been another LT.
Got some great players out there will be great and
maybe they'll be their own guy. There'll never be another LT,
but at least to have the city have somebody they
could be proud of followed up somebody like that.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
I'm good with that.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Sitting back now, being removed for several years. What jumps
out to you the most about your career as a whole.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
You gotta be damn crazy to play football. I watched
god get hit now and I'm like, what the hell that?
That amazed me that I last at fifteen years doing
it and didn't really have any major injuries. I tore
my peck and I had Liz frank at both of
my feet, but nothing like devastating, big comeback type of situation.

(36:19):
So the thing that amazed me most about my career, honestly,
it just lasting through several generations of it. You got
to play basketball long enough to where you I know,
I feel like I lasted through three different generation different eras. Yeah, era,
I had the the LT era, and it was like
that was a special era that was that was if

(36:42):
there was cell phones, we all you know, it wouldn't
be here. It wouldn't be here, like because the stuff
you just witnessed just you were in the room. You know,
it's like we're having a party. You got to be there.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
Man, the toy it's like, whoa, I've never seen this
at Texas Southern.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
This is I didn't see this a Texas Southern. Jack said,
where's the room in west room over there?

Speaker 5 (37:05):
But but like that era, and then I had my
era with me and Jesse Armstead, Dallas Carter, Me and
Armstead and see Horn and all THEO and Keith Hamilton
those guys, and then I had the Eli Tuck O Sierra.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
I stuck around probably.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
Into two era, like an era that I would probably
shouldn't have been in, And that was what I I
look back on and I'm just I'm just happy I
was able to do all that, man, because the relationship
that I've been able to form with all those guys,
it's still to this day.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
Every day. D Line were in a group text every
day all day.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
And it's not one of these text where like yeah yeah,
talking talking ship to each other.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
It's literally.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Family, family and what's important and mental health. Then if
somebody needs help. Fred Robbins his house burned down man
our defensive tackle, and so guys like, what can we
do send him that? Make sure he's straight, you know,
And and so it's more about the brotherhood and protecting
each other and being there for it.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Justice was supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Obviously a whole shipload of sacks. Any quarterback in particular,
you just loved second.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
All of them ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 5 (38:17):
Donald McNabb I sacked more than anybody, more than anybody.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
He was one of the more elusive quarterbacks about.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
What made you gave not only lucive, even big, big
old dude was not easy to to take him down.
So I think McNabb any quarterback for the Cowboys, anybody,
I'm sorry Jack, anybody.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Any quarterback for the Cowboys.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Hardest hit ever put on anybody period, quarterback anybody was
gus for Rock with the Redskins rot. Yeah, I tried
to push his spine through out of his chest.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I hit him in the back so hard.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
You see me coming, And yeah, Jake to snake, Plumber
is probably the toughest guy to sack, really, you know,
any time you can get a sack on yeah, on
the snake for either man slippery slippery, And then you literally,
I'm right here, just next thing, you know, you on

(39:15):
the ground, because he would do something bender's knees in
and do something like.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
What the hell he got It's a break dance move.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
And Michael Vick was another one I wanted to ask
you about Mike Vick. Vic Vic claims I hit him
harder than he's ever been hit by anybody, And to
this day at Fox and he's hanging out with me
when he's there on Thunday that Fox, he still talks
about it.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
I ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
I did try to break Mike back to Yeah, it's.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
Not he Hey, you supposed to have in the back
of your head. You got back.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
My job is to hit you and hit you as
hard as I can. Plus I don't want to hurt anybody.
But if Vic got to go out in peace, I
see you don't want to let you by the bus
when we on the bus going home because I don't
want to have to chase you around on my job. Easy, yeah,
make our job either. But Quarterback like Michael, like Donovan,

(40:05):
like Plumber, all those guys were the toughest guys because
they were elusive, and then you had guys like fora
you had Brady. You know Tom how you not love sacking?
Tom Brady could, but he just not elusive like that.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Anyone. I'll take anywhere, man. All of that part I missed.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
So with LTBO MJ linebackers absolutely, lt would be the
m jail of the league league period.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, not even not even close.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
And I do.

Speaker 5 (40:32):
I will say, kid, you got down in Dallas linebacker Parsons.
He's special. Yeah, he's special, but it's his thing.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
Now.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
What he's doing is special, is different like Lawrence. I
don't know what that dude was was, how where he
was built, what factory he came out of. But I
think Michael Parsons is about as close as we've seen
to being dominant at that position.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
But he's got to do it consistently, right right. He
got it this one year.

Speaker 5 (41:02):
Don't you got to give it to me every year
like twelve like LT did twelve. You gotta give it
to me for twelve.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Yes? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
On time after the two thousand and sixth season, you
debated retirement after missing training camp in the preseason.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Lied, Oh you did?

Speaker 5 (41:16):
That was just the story. Camp you said, want to go,
I want to go to camp. Yeah, they want to
go care I knew I was coming back. I didn't
want to go.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
So you came back and it was a special year.
Talked to us about that season.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
It was it was special because I didn't care. I
didn't care.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
I didn't care about sacks, I didn't care about accolades,
I didn't care about winning. I literally came back and said,
I got one year. After fourteen years of always worrying
about winning, making sure guys are ready, you know, all
this crazy stuff, all that pressure, I just want to
come back and have fun for one year. Because football

(41:51):
was not in this city, was not always fun.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
It was tough.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
So I came back and said, hey, whatever happens, happens,
played with the three months play.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
We're gonna enjoy ourselves. We're gonna have fun.

Speaker 5 (42:03):
And at the end it ended up being the most
magical run and beating the Patriots, who were undefeated in
the Super Bowl. You know, I never you couldn't even
written the script any better than that. I expect that.
So it was great to come back play with these guys,
have fun with these guys, laugh with these guys. Coughlin
would always yell at the D line, like y'all need
to and practice. Y'all need to tone down. We were like, no,

(42:25):
if you don't like it, those are too bad. Because
we knew we were leading the team anyway. Our d
line was strong. We knew like without us we got
good players and good but you need a good, strong
front up front, you know. But seven eight guys we
had who could play, and so we had fun every
single day. And that's what I remember the most. That's
what I enjoyed the most. And training camp I didn't.

(42:48):
I just didn't want to do it. I did fourteen
year of the camp a month a year. I spent
over a year of my life in some dorm bed
up in Albany, New York. Yeah, I'm fake retired, I
see a little bit.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
Yeah, I did have to pay a fine when I
came back though. As as a linebacker, how good was
Randy Moss?

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Randy was?

Speaker 4 (43:09):
Randy was one of a kind. He was what is
the what is those praying mantis and.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Long land thing?

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Just read it out, grab his stuff.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
But Randy made the best defensive backs look pedestrial average average.
He made the fastest defensive backs slow. And then on
the big catchers, well, most guys gonna make sure put
two hands. He reads up that one hand casually, like
he was the backyard with his kids telling his son,
throw me the ball.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
He catches it over over his other kid. He made.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
He made everything that should have been tough look easy.
And and and Randy is like I did a great dude.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Man.

Speaker 5 (43:53):
I love Randy rather Randy, and so playing against Randy
and watching Randy was was definitely a treat. And we
we played against him, we were they were. He was
in Minnesota in the playoff game to go to the
Super Bowl back in two thousand and.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
I was him and could Pepper Chris two thousand and.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
One, Yeah, Dante Colepepper, Randy, Chris Carter, Robert Smith that
running back. I mean them cats were loaded and they
were whipping everybody, and we ended up beating them forty
one to nothing. Smacked it, but we got They were
out of the game before the game even started. And
I kind of knew we had a shot because Randy
was arguing with security and all that before the game,

(44:34):
tried for little Wayne and then to get on the field.
So like we're just you know, they ain't paying attention
to us, and next thing you know, we're at forty
one nothing and heading to the Super Bowl, which we
got stumped.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
But Randy wasn't undefeated Patriston, Yeah, this is one. Yeah
that was raven.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
When they had like twelve ray Lewis is on the field,
that was time like how can Rady make every tackle?

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Man?

Speaker 4 (44:59):
He made the tagle behind the lone. Now you're making
the dollar. I mean ray Lewis is out here. But yeah,
that that that that was good to be in the
Super Bowl, Yeah, but not good to get you up with.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
So going back to that eight season, obviously the Pats
were undefeated at the time. Huge catch by Tyree. What
were you thinking when you saw that that catch off
the helmet?

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Get up and spike it or throw it? Run the
next year because I don't know if he caught it. Yeah,
he was all over all over Harrison's all over his back.
And the thing is Tyree is not a not a
He was the wide receiver we put in the game
to block. You put him in the games like oh
they're gonna run the ball. He wasn't a guy we're

(45:42):
gonna run all these patterns with. But it goes to
show with extraordinary situations, people show up. He caught a
touchdown earlier in the game. He caught that ball off
his helmet. He couldn't catch a damn ball on Friday
in practice. I swear to you every ball he dropped
to the point Yello beat him up, ball, beat him up,
every ball. I'm not one ball he caught and dropped

(46:06):
every ball off his pass, off his head.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
Everything was embarrassing, and the coach told us, like, leave
a kid. He throwing the catch. He's a wide receiver.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
Then he gets in the game and makes one of
the greatest catches of the pressure I've ever seen. And
the second he caught that ball, I realized we won
the game. We hadn't even thrown the touchdown, the practico
yet or whatever. I'm like, you can't have something that
good happened, And not everybody. Eli getting out of a sack.
Eli so clumsy man that cat trips trying to walk

(46:36):
around the house. He gonna get out of a sack
and then throw it up in the middle of the field.
So I realized after that catching, after Eli getting out
of that, this game is mister thoughts on.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Brady obviously, in his longevity from you've seen him from
the beginning to still doing it crazy.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
If i'd been twenty some years, mentally I would be done.
But apparently he's still got a chip on his shoulder
from being picked in the sixth round. But it's amazing too,
you know, to have a I have a business with
him now, Religion of sports business, a production business, and
he's as committed to that and as focused on that
as about being the best in the content, being top

(47:18):
notch and everything have to be the highest quality as
he is on the football field. So being that close
to him, I see why he is who he is.
I see what motivates him. Now could I play that long?

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Now?

Speaker 5 (47:32):
After fifteen we won that Super Bowl, I was like,
I'm good. I don't I don't need no more.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
I'm good. Yeah, what's next?

Speaker 5 (47:39):
But when you're on the field with somebody like that,
and then the Super Bowl and we were hitting him
so much and so fast, like it felt like they're
not even trying, And then you start to realize we're
just overwhelming them. And when you see him at first
he gets hit, then he gets up and gets hit again,

(48:00):
gets up, then once he starts getting up and looking
at the lineman. Once all down and starts cursing out
the guys. You're like, oh, now we got him, got
him now, it's just legit. But the hell of a competitor.
And who told me after we beat them in that
Super Bowl not long ago? He said I would have
I would give up a few rings for that one.

(48:20):
Undefeated seven eighteen damneen nineteen games of bro like crazy crazy,
And I don't see anybody doing that ever again.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Like they did. That's when you put Brady and Moss
together us. What hell?

Speaker 5 (48:37):
Even though we went took the leader, he threw that
bomb down the mass. We're still holding our breaths because
Randy damn near caught it. He got safeties, we have
a head start on in corners, started running. He's still
running past them. So yeah, that I did not Once
that game was over, I'm like, we didn't need to
play at another second to the clock. And if you
we had to play them two more time, five more time,

(49:00):
ten more times, that one probably.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Only one we want to win. That's the only one
that matter though, Yeah, the only one that mattered. One
highlight in your career that would go viral. Now, damn.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Man got him thinking, there's a lot of a lot
of highlights. That's why.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
Probably no, you know what highlight I'm thinking about it,
probably not even on you know, in a game.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
Probably fighting somebody at practice.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
That happened a lot that we don't. I mean sometimes
in basketball. But y'all really be scrapping it.

Speaker 5 (49:36):
Yeah, yeah, you be scrapping man over simple stuff too,
something as trivial as we don't. We lock up on
a play and the play is over and I'm like,
let you go, and then you're give me that little extra,
you know, little extra.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Don't do that.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
That's like dismissing. Don't dismiss because I ain't gonna tell you.
I'm not gonna take boy, you dismissed. I'm just gonna
go grab you, and we're gonna do it, like in
the locker room fights that we had. I had a
fight with a lineman, Scott Gregg, over he somebody else
did something to him, but he's still mad about it.
So and he just happened to block me on a place,
so he's trying to take it out on me, and

(50:15):
I'm already ready for it because i know he's.

Speaker 4 (50:16):
Mad all the other stuff.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
So we start scrapping, grab each other's face, masks, and
his helmet comes off open seas and he still got mine.
So you got that, you got control. He's like trying
to twist my head. You're gonna have a choice. Got
a swing back. Yeah, And then I jumped down there
and just and then people come grab you. And then
I look up and Jesse Armstairs fighting Howard Cross across

(50:41):
the way. So afterwards, I'm like, why are you fighting out?
I ain't like him, man, I didn't like him. I
just he just went over there and picked a fight.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
You started fighting.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Yeah, he picked a fight, but you know, you do
that and you get in the locker room and Scott
Grad looks at me.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
He got me good on that one, and then you
move on. You don't hold on to it.

Speaker 5 (51:01):
But those are like things that I think back that
are more viral plays on the field, of course, sacking
Brady in the Super Bowl, sacking far for the sack record,
a few few nice plays that I made that that
that I might look back and go, damn, that's pretty good.
So for me, it's kind of hard to even think back,

(51:23):
like I sometimes we get out and play football myself,
and so to think back and see some of the
stuff that I did when I see a film film
of it, I'll go, damn it.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Was ballid or nice?

Speaker 3 (51:36):
It was bid twenty fourteen Hall of Fame inductee. You
got your number ninety two retired by the Giants. Does
you reflect back area talk to me about how you
feel about it as a whole.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
I feel great because I feel like I did it
the right way. I never cheated, yep. I never took
a shortcut. But the work in never required to ask
for anybody, my teammates, my coaches, nobody to put in
any more work than I put in ever, and year fifteen,
I practiced every play I was supposed to practice. I
read down the field to chase the ball when they

(52:06):
threw it down there. I did everything from year one
to year fifteen. And that's what makes me more most
proud when I reflect on it, and that it all
paid off at the end by winning the Super Bowl
and Barkley. The first time I met Charles and I
didn't know Charles. I mean, I'm in a golf tournament
and he looked at me and goes, Michael straight hand.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
I go, hey, what's up?

Speaker 4 (52:28):
Y nine? To men? You know you on my shit list?
I'm like shuit. I like, How'm on your shit list?
I don't even know you. I just met you.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
He goes you no, no, no, no, like you like
someone who had a great career but they won shit.
He said, but now you're off my list, And I
was like, thank god, because I'm well your shit list,
having a great career, but never like experiencing experiencing that
like the whole reason you play in the first place.

(52:56):
The win the championship and they had a confetti fall
and you get to enjoy it instead of like the
first time it fell and they swept us off the
field with the confetti while Baltimore enjoyed it. And so yeah, man,
I just want to just do it everything the right way,
treating people the right way, and and kind of define
the odds. That's what I'm most proud about.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Great career. When did you know you wanted to move
to television? When I found out I could make money? Man?

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Who us?

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Yeah definitely sounded like us.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Hey, but he's making big money.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
Hey man, I'm telling you though, but it's like incremental.
One thing I realized like when I started, and I
never thought like TV is going to be my life.
I would do stuff here in New York because it
was fun. I could have to do something, let me
do it. And one executive who ran a network called
me and asked me to go to breakfast. And I'm like, wow,

(53:55):
this cat want to go to breakfast with me? Man,
we not friends like that. But he asked me at breakfast,
how much long do you want to play football? I'm sorry,
it's a weird question, I said, I don't know. It's
because he saw potential, you know, which I didn't even
see myself at the time. And then before and I
started doing the best damn sports show period and that
was like a breeding ground for athletes to learn how

(54:16):
to have conversations and ask questions and just kind of
do your thing. And then Fox signed me to a
deal to do that for my last few seasons of
my career, and then before my last season, they actually
signed me to do the deal that Fox NFL Sunday
is that I do now. But I wasn't ready to retire,
so they said, whenever you're ready, we'll take it out

(54:37):
the drawer, kind of what they did with Brady It
just take.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
It out of that drawer.

Speaker 5 (54:41):
Get that, buddy, get that through sixty seventy five fire.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
But trust me, if I got that, I'll retired after
two years. But I didn't get anything near that.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
But I did have a deal, which gave me some
comfort in knowing that I had something else that I
can do.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
And once I started, it's addicted.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
Once you start doing this and you get more comfortable
with the reps, then it kind of becomes like as
enjoyable as playing sports. And I did from Fox, and
then I did the best damn that now I did
pros versus Joe's Jay Blazer.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Brought that back.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
He and I did that show, and I just start
doing little stuff that a lot of people didn't see
will probably never see. But for me, it gave me
experience and that I add on to everything else that
I do. Like I did a show called Brothers. I'm
Fox acting sitcom twelve episodes, didn't do nothing, but for me,
it taught me to several things. One acting, I like it,

(55:44):
but I don't love it enough to go to auditions
all the time and take the rejection. And two that
I could actually could be decent if I really wanted
to be at it. But I use all that when
I had to do other stuff on like GMN if
I have to act a certain way live and Kelly
having to do skits. All these things kind of melt
together in your experience. I take something out of it.

(56:07):
If someone sees it as a successful failure, I'm still
learning something, which is all I care about. And so
the TV stuff now, I've learned to create opportunities, which
is important. Like you guys created this show. Now, with
the way the world is, you can create you have
an idea, you could make it happen. You don't need
a twenty other people, thirty forty fifty people to make

(56:27):
it happen. And I think that there's a lot of
freedom in that and that I enjoy too. So I've
just done the game shows, hosting one hundred thousand dollars Pyramid.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
That was our next question, break that down because I
heard that was one of your favorite shows going out talking.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
I loved it as a kid. But who thinks you
gonna co hosting that game show?

Speaker 5 (56:45):
I mean that Dick Clark, that's like Royalty of TV
who hosted the show. And Sony reached out and wanted
me to host the show, and my partner Constance and
I were like, well, we're not interested just in hosting
the show. We want to you know, produce and no, no, no, no,
that's what we want to do. I want to be
your partners in it. And so that was immediate yes
when they came back with that response. And it's been

(57:07):
fun because I mean, it's a classic show, a timeless show,
a family show, like everybody can watch it, and it's engaging.
And when I'm hosting the show, I'm actually I know
the categories, but I don't know the words. That's the
celebrity and the contestant have to figure out until they
pop up on the screen. So I'm playing it with
everybody at home. So it always keeps me interested in engaged.

(57:28):
And I never thought that I would do anything like that.
And I had just learned everything on the fly. I
didn't know anything about daytime television.

Speaker 4 (57:38):
I had to learn on the fly. I didn't know
anything about.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
News.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
I had to learn it. Throw you in a sinkle swim.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
I ain't know anything about game show go back, like sports,
watch hate see what other people do that. The way
you do it is not like pyramid is. It's special
because it's not a game where I need to be
the star. The game is the star to be the conduit,
keep it going, keep everything on the in track, make
sure you know people are comfortable in what they're doing

(58:06):
and and so. Yeah, man, experience and just not being
afraid to fail.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Right can be shut out. Constance. I heard a nothing
but good things about her. I need to meet her.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Yeah, she's a boss man, meet her.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
I need to definitely meet her. I need to meet her.
Oh man, it's been great. We appreciate your time. So
we got quick hitters right now. So first thing to
come to mind, let us know one album you can
listen to with no skips.

Speaker 5 (58:32):
Damn man, when you cause it's ain't no quick hitter.
I gotta see you know this is about something, right,
basketball player stuff. We got hitting the head for a living.
These cats didn't get hit ahead for their brain works quick.
My brain don't work that quick. I don't know my excuse.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
I'm still.

Speaker 5 (58:54):
You know what I could if I wanted to go
back to by days of having to drive the prower,
go with mob deep.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Yeah deep back in the day on top of shook ones,
shook on was he ain't the crooks son, I'm with you,
I'm with you, I'm with you. Do you still talk
to your socks.

Speaker 5 (59:09):
Yes, yes, and whoever somebody hurt me because now you
get buy a sock. They got left and right on them,
or Ellen and r or left somebody stole my idea.
I was ahead of my time. Jack was so when
the last time I spoke to him the other day,
have left it right? What was the conversation?

Speaker 4 (59:25):
Like, what do you feel? Do you feel right on
this foot? Like I look at the sock?

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Is serious?

Speaker 2 (59:31):
Have you took them off and put them on the I.

Speaker 5 (59:34):
Taken off my sock and I put it on the
or I've grabbed two left socks and I'm like, I
gotta go right because i just feel like if they
ain't on the right foot and they're telling me they're gonna,
I'm gonna be on balance all that we'll be right.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Biopicky of life, Who would play you?

Speaker 5 (59:51):
Oh man, damn? Who could play me? Who would be
willing to get a prosthetic gap?

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Before I got hit by that car? I could have
played because I.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Had one too. I was one where I hit by car.
So I got my ship fixed. Yeah, blame knocked all.
You could have fixed a bit of gap back in there.
It was just too my ship was gone. Oh my
ship was gone. Yeah, all of them?

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
How were you?

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
I was playing for the Pacers then you gotta hit
my car depending my team and a gun shootout.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Yeah, all them scars on my lips now from that day. Yeah,
I'm still at the time. He could played me here
my doppel ganger, right.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Actor too. Yeah, I got some stuff coming up. Cool.
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
I don't know why we're saying and why he this
is the Texas boy, but since the question is and
while we're going to taking Texas, Okay cool? Top five
Texas athletes of all time?

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Earl Campbell, thank you? How is he? All right? Yeah? Yeah,
you gotta beat up a different.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
Type of football man back then, and they literally ran
him until they couldn't run him in. I would, so
you know it's yeah, I would go Earl Campbell. Now
before Texas. You mean, who played in Texas or have
to be from from Texas? You gotta be it man, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
Thank you that I gotta be a course.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
You got to put yourself on there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
Where's Ricky Williams.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
From San Diego? San Diego either get out of here?
Who else is from Texas? I'm trying to Jesse I
throw my boy just of course.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
So I'm a number one player coming out of high
school Dallas Carter, who is a great they gotta be
Shaq graduated high school in Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
Yeah, but Shaq wasn't from Texas. Oh, it's a whole
bunch of baseball player playing Kershaw and Matthew Stafford's funniest
thing that happened to you recently? My daughter start rebelling.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Oh how does she?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
He said, funny like motherfucker, God damn it. How did she?

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
It's funny now because IM laughing with y'all, right, right
right right?

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
Not funny?

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Then?

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
Well, you got twins and they're seventeen and they yeah,
boy got a boyfriend.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
It's pretty funny round there. I got five girls.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yes, I got twin boys, but they're only thirteen. And
it's less stressed for me because I just got a
game how to be man, not how to your part.

Speaker 5 (01:02:31):
Well, yeah, my you teacher your boys how to be men.
I'm trying to keep mind away from them right away. Yeah,
you got five. Hats off to you, brother, You got long.
I got three girls and one boy. At least I
got one one to give me a little relief. But
but yeah, man, the funny thing that happened to me recently. Oh,
I was in LA with my Fox guys. We were
shooting the promo on the beach of Santa Monica and

(01:02:54):
a guy I thought we were at the skate park
because they were filming us just watching kids skate and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Skate park in Santa Monica.

Speaker 5 (01:03:00):
And as we're walking out of the skate park, you know,
I'm walking with the guys, and right before we turn
away from the skate park, the kid goes Michael, and
I'm like, hey, what's up.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
It's like, oh good, and I'm like, hey, you know,
kid knows me.

Speaker 5 (01:03:13):
They all looked at me, like, well that me say
nothing to us, and I'm like, well, you know, we
a little different, right right. Well, we're walking two minutes later,
the kid rolls up and say, hey, man, I want
you to know I was adopted by a white family too.
So that movie about your life, I really appreciate it
because that really helped me. He thought I was Michael.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
Jefferson, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Your mom.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:03:47):
He trust me at the garden, sitting on floor seats,
feeling good about myself years ago, and somebody, hey, what's up.
Think I'm Riddick Bow. I think I'm like Tyson.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
I'm like, come on, man, we're all black. That's about it.
That's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
So what's your what's your favorite item in the collection
by Michael straight Hand shameless plug and where can we
get it?

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Shameless plug?

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
I like it all. Go to j C.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
Penny or you can go to men's wearhouse, okay, men's
wear house, j C Penny, more storage or online.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
All right, shameless plug over.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
J C Penny's. Got my T shirt Stafford T shirts.
I go be going there for some of that shirt.
You know what.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
I got to say.

Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
We do T shirts year. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. Man,
our underwear or incredible. Send us something we'll wear. I
will show off the show T shirts too, shirts, you
know whatever. Whatever we do everything we do everything suits
to ath.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Leisure, T shirt, clean up shirts, underwear. We got a
whole line.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
I love it. Five dinner guests that are alive.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
Five dinner gets Denzel who was always the interesting conversation.
I think Denzel Muhammad, Ali, my my dad. Who else
would I throw in that conversation to keep it interesting?

Speaker 4 (01:05:06):
Man?

Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
I would love to have like kind of lea the
right or something and last but not least. Damn, how
could I leave y'all out? Maybe y'all too, but y'all
come at the package. Yeah, he's the second guest man.
We appreciate it's been racing too. Yeah, that would be,
but that would but that would be I mean imagine, man,

(01:05:29):
that would be a great conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Man, here's the trick question. All right, if you could
have any guests on this show, who would it be?
But you have to help us get him on the
show or her on the show. Trick bag, that's that
you like that, I'm gonna steal that. I gotta steal
that doing any guests on this.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
Show, and I would have to help you get there.
And you know everybody everybody had Brady on the show.
Have not.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
I just went and watched him play the quarterbacks golf.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Yeah Brady?

Speaker 5 (01:06:03):
Yeah, Tom Brady? Man, why your business partner to get Tom?
When you get Aaron Rodgers like with I like, I like,
we're gonna start with Tom though, Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
It is that one quick question we forgot to ask.
We could put this back in so on the NBA side,
we got Chuck Charles, Kenny, Shack, you guys have Terry, Jimmy,
uh Me and you Howie. What is that like? I mean,
it looks like you guys are just having fun the
whole time up there.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
We all love Chuck and Kenny and Shaq, even though
I can't understand half the stuff Shack saying.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
I love Shack mane. It is fantastic.

Speaker 5 (01:06:43):
And then with us and Kurt and Jimmy, Howie, Terry
and Jay, we we love that show because it reminded
so much of ourselves. We just have fun and what
we say on it, we don't know what the other's
going to say, just like they don't. It's just like
our job is to basically hang out with each other
and talk about football. Was you were gonna do it
your boys anyway, because we get paid to do it.

(01:07:05):
And it's more fun when the show was over, when
we're sitting in the green room avocado room and were
watching the games together because you have all these different
perspectives and then you got guys who are funny and
guys who know what they're talking about when it comes
to the game, but then guys who just the incredible personality.
So we look at ourselves at the NFL version of

(01:07:27):
that show. And that's a compliment to them, because those
guys the show is unmatched.

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
And to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
You guys, I mean, football is my first sport, so
I love watching you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
Man, all right, answer this then, could you have played
in the NFL? He could have.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
I don't like to disrespect people because I know how
hard it is to make it. But I was nice
in football. I ran a four to three nine, leave
the nation touchdowns, could really catch, can really run?

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
You've been a ran in mind.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
I played football, Yeah, I was. I was the number
one receiver in the country my senior year Leason Nations.
I just thought longevity when I went to UCLA and
the basketball program is coming off the national championship, and
I just thought longevity would be I would have made
more of a splash impact in football. But I don't
think at six eight it wasn't really out there.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
You were smart, Yeah, because you know you always get
those guarantee contracts too.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
Yeah, that's what we always go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
I don't understand how you guys didn't like you guys
are literally risking your life every day, but it's not guarantee.

Speaker 5 (01:08:20):
Well, the argument is always that you're too many guys
and if guys get hurt, how to substand how do
you maintain a league when you're paying so many contract
for guys who wouldn't even be available and who would
be out of the league.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
For so long.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
NBA is doing that ship motherfucker's not playing this.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Yeah, still get paid in some way, some way, it
can get done.

Speaker 5 (01:08:42):
And yeah, but you're out there, man, and you literally
when you become a VET and you make it after
the first, second, third game, then you're you're you're guaranteed.
Once you make that final roster, you guarantee that season.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
That's it. That's crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:08:54):
And so every every year you're out there trying to
earn it. And that's that's the challenge. Like it's there
is no glide. There is no oh year ten, eleven, twelve,
I got a glide through now. And that's why when
you do contract, you try to get a big of
a signing bones as you can, because that at least
will make them, you know, a little less, you know,

(01:09:15):
thinking about cutting you because you got.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
So much of their money. You're popping.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
In the NFL, they got more teams with billion dollar
evaluations in NBA teams.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
A lot more.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Yeah, we can't let you leave Inada here man, some
all the smoke gear merch.

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
Definitely definitely want to see your rocket.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
We all, you know, we swaggy okay, And I know
you got some fresh kicks to go with the cause
you got some fresh ones on today.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
You know, Jesus, just the every day through a round.

Speaker 5 (01:09:42):
But I got yeah, I got more shoes, and I
ain't gonna be somebody unwrapped the Christmas gift and they
like they're trying to save the paper.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
We don't do that. Open. We got enough wrapping for
your sir.

Speaker 5 (01:09:52):
All the smoke merch, all right, what I'm talking about America,
y'all get y'all some of that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
The honor for us to have to see you Mann,
thank you by the time. We know you're really busy.

Speaker 4 (01:10:04):
But my brother is your poem.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
I told you, I told.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
We just gave it up. I want to say thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
We'll see y'all next week.

Speaker 4 (01:10:17):
All the smoke