Keyshawn Johnson UNFILTERED: Fox Firing, Super Bowl Secrets & LeBron’s Last Run

Super Bowl Champion Keyshawn Johnson joins Matt Barnes on All The Smoke Unplugged to share the untold story of how he found out Fox Sports fired everyone, and what really happened behind the scenes at FS1.

The former #1 overall NFL Draft pick breaks down his Super Bowl XXXVII experience with the Buccaneers, shares hilarious stories about Jon Gruden, and reveals how Bill Parcells "saved him from working at UPS."

Plus, he gives his prediction, explains why Sam Darnold's journey vindicates what he told the Jets years ago, and goes in on the Raiders' #1 pick decision.

Keyshawn calls coaches "coyotes" over the Brandon Aiyuk $27M situation, evaluates Shedeur Sanders' rookie season, and shares his thoughts on LeBron's future with the Lakers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, someone I watched as a little kid in college
and obviously through the pros and some when I became
a friend of a handfully of years ago. Welcome back
to the show, Keith shan Johnson. Yeah for sure, I'll
wap you up. I know you're a little you beat
up right now. You old old.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm getting old, so I got a little little hand
issue going over. It'll be taking care of. Next time
I see you, I'll be fully ready to go. How's life?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
What's going on? I mean, this is the first time
you're not working on TV. I mean I've been seeing
you on TV since you stopped playing, So it's been
about twenty years since I ain't seen you on thirty years.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know what, Matt Man, It's it's been a minute.
This is the first so it's amazing. But this is
the first football season, if you go all the way
back to college, this is the first football season I
have not been on national team.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Right, whether working or talking, talking anything.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
So it's been a long it's been a long time,
but it was refreshing to be able to take off.
I guess you could call it them. Six months with
Fox FS one made the decision to counsel all the
shows for whatever reason that they felt they needed to.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
There was opportunities out there.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
People wanted me to dive right in immediately, but I'm like, good,
let me just take a break because I know the
opportunity is gonna be there, you know what I'm saying.
So I'm not really like, what's in a rush to
do anything, because it got to be the right situation.
I've been doing this media thing for a long time, man,
and at the top of my game, the best for
our unclecern the best to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Cause I don't come.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
With no for gazy bullshit like a lot of these
other dudes that be out there talking. Mind, be real,
to the point, true assessment, whether it's on the hardwood
or whether it's on the football field, whether it's on
a baseball diamond. This is what I truly see. I
understand because I played all three sports. And so I
sat back with my agent and we, you know, strategize, Okay,

(01:49):
what are we gonna do right now? So my thing was,
let's just sit tight, wait till the beginning of the year,
and then let's take our meetings and make sure we
getting a strategic partner a life partner for a long time.
I don't want to be doing the whole every two
years with a different network or different and I'm not

(02:09):
doing that no more, you know, I'm not. I'm just
not gonna do it no more. Never mind, Because if
you don't see the talent and understand what the talent
is all the way around, not just the talent talking
about football or sport, but the talent in life in general,
because it ain't just about Some people just be thinking
about the sports, but I can talk to you about
anything in the world that's going on. And if you
don't see that as the executive or the producer, then

(02:31):
you go ahead and go deal with some old suckers.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
That's the way.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
That's how man, that's how I look at it.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
What do you mind? What kind of happened over at Fox, Man?
You know what, to be honest with your dog, they
was good to me. They was just like they was
good to me.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
But I think, you know, a lot of people think
it had to falling out, had to do with the
Joy situation, and that's not true. That's not that's not
true at all. Whatever happened, I've been with my girl
Joy and the rumors and all of those sort of things.
That's not why they got rid of the shows. Because
they got rid of all the shows. They didn't just
get rid of speak, they got rid of everything. And

(03:12):
so I go back and I look at it. I
say to myself, well, they gave me a deal. So
I really wasn't, you know, in that position where it
was like, well they don't like me. No, they was
cool with me, all of them, man, whether it was
whether it was Shanks, whether it was it was with
you know, all them dudes. Was always cool, even the

(03:33):
dude Charlie Dixon that brought me in that wind up.
You know, whatever getting fired or whatever the situation happened
with him, ain't nothing to do with me. I wasn't
there when all that stuff went down. So when they
made the decision to part ways, it's so funny because
I tend to go to gatherings with the crew, like
I take all the production crews. We all get together
do all.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So the night before it's so crazy because the night
before I was going on vacation in Mexico the next
day with my family, and uh, we had this big
giant Christmas dinner. No, I'm sorry, end of the year dinner. Uh,
you know, before we go on summer break and a

(04:14):
bunch of the executives didn't show up, so you know,
you start peeping in. You like, okay, so they not
gonna take the invitation. Something main't happening. But I thought
that something happening meant like they're not gonna renew joy,
They're gonna.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Do this, do that, do this, do that.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I figured I was cool, you know, because they we
were always doing things accordingly, moving forward, right, We would
never like worried about anything.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
We were just chilling everything.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
They was ordering our suits and just our clothes. Everything
was rolling. So I was like, maybe they got some
different plans. And then the next day, I'm I'm uh
in Mexico and my phone it's.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Buzzing the worst kind of ring.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
But I'm not a social media dude, right, so I
ain't looking at social media like I'm just not. I
don't have the ship on my on my phone.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so I got a couple of call you heard
what happened?

Speaker 2 (05:12):
You heard what happened? Said? Oh, what happened? Man? Said? Man.
They just called called us all in and told us
this is our last day. And we got thirty days
and this, and I'm like, who They said, everybody, Dad,
They wiped out the whole you know, everybody in the production,
from from digital to to graphics, to wardrobe, the makeup.
I'm like, damn for real. So then I'm flying. I

(05:36):
wasn't even in Mexico. That's right. I'm flying and I'm
texting and I'm texting the dude. So then the boss
with text me. He tried to call me.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
He said, hey, ah, so before you're thinking, this is
all the behind the scenes people, yeah, wiped out.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, so he texted me.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
I'm on the plane. He texted me, and I'm like,
but I had already got the information from somebody else
that it was going down, So I'm playing dumb, you know.
I'm like, oh, yeah, cool, I moved. I land in
thirty minutes. Just hit me in thirty So I touched down.
As soon as I land, my phone ring, like on
point twelve thirty. I'm like, damn you problem, man, I
ain't got my bags yet. He's like, oh yeah, you know,

(06:12):
I wanted to get to you before it hit the media.
You know, we're gonna make a change, We're going in
a different direction. I was like already know, I said,
the people don't already told me it's cool. You ain't
got to come on, man, you know I'm not I'm
not tripping at all. But you know, at the end,
I was just like, damn, y'all. So y'all just gonna
wipe out everything. He was like, yeah, it was a decision.

(06:35):
The ratings we was good.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Even though I know the ratings was fine.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
You know, I just was playing along more I'm gonna
play the corporate game and you you playing it with me,
I'm gona play it back with you, and uh that
was kind of that was it, and I just was
like damn. So you know, once I got down, I
called my agent. I'm like, you heard what just happened?
And he's like, yeah, I heard. And then we went
into contract stuff and I was like, okay.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
We're cool, and you got to guarantee you g up.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Look we cool. I ain't even tripping, you know, let's
figure it out. And so I guess his phone started
ringing when it hit the press. But if you ever notice,
they never ever said that I was gone.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
They never said I was gone. They just said the
show's counselor. Because I was still in.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
The contract, so you know, still getting your money. I
ain't complaining you had enough. The Super Bowl, I will
go out.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Not going to the game, and I haven't been to
a Super Bowl game other than one I played there.
So I'll go out for two days Wednesday and Thursday.
I got a bunch of meetings, some dinner meetings, and
then I'm back in LA on Friday to watch the
game on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
What have you kind of been filling your time with
since not being in the mix the whole time?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know? So my buddy, I don't know if you know,
Jordan Schultz. Yeah, Jordan Sho is a friend of mine,
a friend of mine, and he has a podcast called
The Schultz Report. So what I what I've committed to
do with him is appear on his his show once
a week do a football season. So I go on

(08:06):
with him on like Tuesday for like thirty minutes, you know,
and put that in there, put that work in for him.
And that's really really all it's being. And I've been watching,
you know, obviously watching the games on TV and sports
and that's it.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Man.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Like I said to you earlier, Matt, I've been working
every weekend since college. People don't understand that because they
don't know how things work for us, right, But if
you look at it, when you go to college, you
play on Saturday, you watch film on Sunday, you work
out on Monday before you start practice on Tuesday for
the beginning of the week.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
And some people got to go to school. I don't
know how you got down, but some people on Monday,
they also got to go to school.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Oh well, yeah, I didn't put the school part of there,
but yeah, I got two degrees. But yeah, you know, yeah,
you got to go to school as part of it.
But then when you leave that football season, you get drafted.
You playing on the weekend. Then when I retired, I
went right into Sunday and Money Night Countdown.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
So my weekends was done.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
So when I left, when I left the Weekend show
with Tom Jackson and Boomer and everybody over at ESPN,
that was the first time I ever had a weekend.
Even though I was still at ESPN, I was working
only during the week. It was first time I ever
had a chance to watch a football game in the
sports boar.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
But also too from another standpoint, and just I think
that family time. Yeah, oh, a full commitment to playing
and then transitioning right into media. Like people don't understand,
especially when you have kids. Those weekends are always games,
praying something you had to miss, cat to that right
now or what's Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Myself played basketball. So I'm I'm one week over in
Orange County over here. The next day I'm over here,
I'm in the valley over there. Oh, We're going to
Arizona over here, Like we're going to Faace.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm like, yeah, everywhere aau stuff crazy. I'm in it mix.
I'm heavy. The side of the Super Bowl levi Stadium.
It's been a central controversy with the electrical substation that
sits next to the field and the Prass facility. They
lost a ton of stars this year, Bosa Warner Kittle,

(10:16):
have you heard about that? I know you're not a
social media guy, but have you heard about the conspiracies
and what has kind of been your take on just
not I named three of the guys, but I want
to say they lost like nine or ten of their
key guys to season. Any injuries.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, I guess what they're trying to say, the electrical
plant next to it is affecting their body or something
like that. Yeah, some sort of raise coming.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
You don't believe it.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm not a conspiracy dude, though, What about the other
teams that don't have electrical plant next to their.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
But I will say, being a Niner fan, we have
a lot more injuries than other teams do. Yeah you yeah,
season ending like big boy.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
But you know, as a professional athlete, maybe that comes
down to your strength, conditioning long.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
So that's my question is is there a different part
than maybe just a casual fan is not seeing to
your point, the pt the weightlifting, they took a lot
of hit too. But then now this conspiracy theory about
the electrical plan, but it could be more than that's
what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Then, sometimes dudes working too hard or don't work you enough.
See they look good, and these coaches get to hire
these dudes. They got traps and swollen. They don't know
nothing about what it really takes for you.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
As a professional athlete.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
They don't pump faked on the coaches, see because the
coaches are the ones usually hiring these dudes. The coaches
don't know anything about the nutritional side, the PTS, They
just don't.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I don't give it.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Damn what nobody say these coaches don't know nothing about
no medical and so they hire somebody based on what
somebody else tells themod They hire somebody based on the
relationship that they may have had at another spot with
this individual who was a junior sniff and then all
of a sudden he gets pushed up. You know what
I'm just saying.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
You know what's funny is I talk to one of
my homeboys that I met, who's that trains guys in
the off season, professional athletes in the off season. He said,
the reason why none of these professional trainers never go
into these pro organizations because everything is so outdated. They
don't understand how the training and the nutrition has changed
over the years, and they're sticking to the old script
and that was more of the reason for the injuries

(12:20):
we're seeing.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Then that could and that could be the case, But
what happens a lot of the times again is even
though their strength and conditioning coaches on multi million dollar
athletes at a facility that you would think was billion
dollar business, that they would have the right people in place.
Some of these dudes, man, even when I was playing please,

(12:41):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
And you doing and the pay isn't what we think
it should be either. The pay is really low too,
So it's just like you pay for what you get
for what you get what you pay for.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Some of them dudes though, they just but I don't
believe in the San Francisco forty nine is freeding to
be honest, I just can't come home and be mad
everybody falling the part? Well what about five or six
dudes fall apart? But you got fifty three sixty dudes
on the team.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, we got coaches and we used every last one too.
They hit me up and heard I used to play
in high school and see if I wanted to play
in Philly. But I was just like, nah, my shit
is a little beat up super Bowl week? Yeah, something
you participated in with the Bucks and No. Three, Correct
me if I'm wrong. That's the first year that Gruden
came from the Raiders after the Bucks, right, Yeah, walk
us through that. What is that two weeks after winning

(13:25):
your AFC championship like leading up to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
You know, you asked a good question. That was the
last time that there were not two weeks?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
It was only a week before it was No, it.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Was yeah, a week before we went straight from the
NFC Championship game from Philly directly to Tampa Bay. I
mean we locked and loaded. I feel like I got
off the plane and I rushed home to get whatever
I needed to get and loaded back up and we
took back off. So we touched down, loaded up, boom,
back off, and we was in San Diego. You know,

(14:00):
so we played that week. We didn't have the week.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
In between, you know, so you were right to work.
So so you grabbed your stuff. Excuse me, I'm a
NFC Championship You grab your stuff. You get to San Diego?
What's that? So you get there Monday or Tuesday?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
No, we got there. Yeah, we got that Monday, Monday evening.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
So what's to walk us through what that week is like?

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Man, we we didn't practice I think for the first
day or two. We had like a normal week of
practice because it was you know, we didn't need to
have a separation because we didn't have that time off.
So we went on the normal schedule. So I can
remember where we didn't practice on a Monday and Tuesday,

(14:41):
but we practiced on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and leading up
into the game, we didn't have pads on anything like that.
We were in T shirts and shorts and a lot
of media stuff. I didn't even really do nothing. Man,
I chilled the whole time.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
I obviously have a bunch of family and friends come
up from La doing the course of the week, and
we hung out at the local uh in the inside
the hotel. We just hung out.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Around there and talking and that was it. I went
out one.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Night, which was probably like Tuesday night or something like that,
maybe even Monday, Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, I went out,
had dinner, but I was basically locked up in the hotel.
I didn't do shit.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Now was that because you were vet you knew? Was
that over that team rules? No?

Speaker 3 (15:24):
That was no, no, no, you could do what you want
to do.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I just like my mind was focused with like, you know,
I don't need to call up no bra, I could
do you know what I'm saying, Like that's easy. I ain't.
That's easy work all that type of stuff. Getting there
and most of the crowd wouldn't come in until Thursday anyway,
So by Thursday you won't shut down. You on lockdown
by Thursday anyway. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, if you want

(15:46):
to get out, there was some guys that went out
and partied and stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
But I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
I'm like, I'm cool. You know, if you think about
Baron Robbins, the center.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
From the way disappeared in Mexico. He had I think
he had like some mental did he He missed the
game right like a motherfucker. How you missed this? He
went to Mexico and started a trip. I remember, I
was he went to Tijuana and never came. Yeah, I
was just getting I remember. I think that was my
senior year of college. And I remember hearing about because
I remember Jerry Rice on the other team. I was

(16:15):
always a big fan of jer Rice. I'm hearing about
the center just disappeared. I'm just like, what the fun? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (16:21):
He you know he had I think he was had
some medication type situations that he didn't take or left
back and uh yeah he.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Went he tried to get it for the low down down.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
He went down to Mexico. It was like beers and
whatever else. He just had a ball.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
How was that situation? How was Grooden? That was your
guy's first year with gruten You know, from the outside
looking in, he's he looks like a character. Yeah, so
what was that, like, you know.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
For me, I just tried to play, Matt, right, I
tried to get into the tit for tat. You know,
I ain't got time for all that. I'm grown, I've
been in this game. I didn't play for some of
the best to ever coach it. I just you know,
it was a character.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
You knew what it was, right Like, you just knew
what it was.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know, some people didn't know what it was, so
they fell for it. Me on the flip side, I'm like,
I'm just here to play ball. But I know who
you are, and I see, yeah, I see you a
mile away.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
You ain't gonna get me like you get everybody else.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
So six catches sixty nine yards when that final clock
tick in your Super Bowl, champ, what does that mean
to you? Man?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
You know I didn't even let the clock tick though, Matt. So,
growing up as a kid, you always watch a Super
Bowl and you always saw a player or two or
whoever go up in the stands and get their family.
So I think I think white Face has scored the
white Smith has scored like the final touchdown as soon
as he picked it and scored the final touchdown I

(17:52):
went straight to the stand.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
You knew it was over.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Oh, I knew it was over.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
It was like a minute something left in the game.
I went, let's start getting They trying to tell me.
They were trying to tell me I couldn't go in
the stands. This is the security was seeing. I couldn't
go on in the stands and get my friend. I
told the dude, I said, if you don't, get your
mother fucking hands off me and then my brother you know,
you know, all live right there. So they like, it's
getting ready to turn in this up. So I'm like,
come on, come on, I got my kids and stuff.

(18:16):
And it was just one of those deals. It was
so crazy because Gruten actually came over and picked up
my son and was playing, you know, a hold of
my son and stuff. It was just one of them.
It was just a moment that it's like graduating from
it like graduating from college when you come from the
inner city and you grew up a certain way in
poverty and then you get a degree from the University

(18:36):
of Southern California. That's what it's like winning the Super Bowl.
As a player that participated in the Super Bowl, it's
cool to participate the way to Jersey. But I got
minutes and I put up numbers. So it was like,
they can't never take that away. There's two things they
can't take away, or actually three. They can't take away
the number one overall pick. They can't take away graduation.

(18:58):
They can't take away Super Bowl. You know, you gotta
live with that, the hate.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
You just gotta live with it.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Live with it, think about it. You with it.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
You can do about it. You can do about it.
NFC Championship has some wide receivers showing out Pookah JSN
put on a show both over one hundred fifty yards
in the touch two of the better receivers young guys
in the league. Who are some other guys that you
look at, you know, Saint Brown, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson AJ.
Who are some of the younger Who are some other
guys in the league that you think have a chance
to really be special?

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Well, I mean you mentioned basically the top guys, right.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Uh, you know, I always throw T Higgins in there
because I like T Higgins. Uh, he don't get enough
of the notoriety that he deserves because he's obviously the
opposite the Chase, and so every all the focuses on
Jamar Chase. When you go in the second round and
another dude go in the top five, yeah, you know
they gonna get all the recognition.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
But you named him, I mean, I don't you know,
we'll he would.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
The kid at Tampa, Rebecca he said, his name Mecca
and Becca, whatever you call it. The receiver in Tampa,
Mecca Buka. He got an opportunity to chance. I'm trying
to think who else that's young. If Chris Olive could
ever get healthy and stay healthy, he got a chance.
You know, it's probably like three maybe three guys that's young.

(20:25):
They got a chance to get into that area. But
you name the.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Guys, that's pretty much the guys, the core guys.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Brady said of JSN, he's like a nice skater. His
shoulders never dip hard for any dB to really get
a read on him. He said, that's one of his
best attributes. What do you think about that assessment of him.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
He's like an ice skater.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, just the way he moves his shoulders never gets
hard to get a read on him.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
He's ridiculous. And here's how I assess wide receivers. Different
than many other people, right, Matt, because the first thing
you see is w R. So the first thing you said, oh,
he's a receiver. It's like basketball U SEPG. The first
thing you think is he's a point guard, when he
might not really be a point that may just be
the label. So with JSN, he can play all the spots.

(21:15):
Everybody can't play.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
All the spots. You know.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
You say, well what about a guy that's inside, Well
that's probably where he's gonna stay because he can't play outside.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
With the big boys, JSN and pooking.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Them can go inside, outside, play on the perimeter, block
all of those sort of things. That is important to me.
So Tom Brady's assessment as a route runner. He's wicked
as a route runner, there's no question about it. But
he does it inside, outside, all the way around. That
to me is big time. He ran a route yesterday
in the NFC Championship game. He ran a pump seven,

(21:50):
which is a corner back to the post. And that
was like one of my favorite things because when I
get inside in the slot where he was at, most
people thought I was running the corner route. They just
they just assumed because I ran I ran the seventh
round a lot. And when you put that when you
turn that head and you you look to your left
and you and that DV is going there, you put

(22:10):
that foot in the ground and come back across like
he did yesterday.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
And man, that thing was a thing.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
I was I was talking on the phone from you know,
he was all in group group conversation watching the game,
and I'm like, Man, that ship right there, that's the thing.
That's how you draw it up. I mean, he could
have he if Sam would have led him a little
further up the field into the right, he'd have walked in,
you know, but he kind of kind of he kind
of threw it more toward the more toward his left

(22:38):
side than pulling him all away to the right. But
it was beautiful, No, it was beautiful. It was a
big of beauty. It was the way they drew it up.
It worked perfectly.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
What is your thoughts on Brady in the booth man?

Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know, Tom is learning. Tom is learning. Let's just
Tom is learning. He's got you know, he's his second
year on the job. Could he get better? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Will he get better?

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Most likely? Uh, But what happens a lot of times
is you know in in in a game or sport,
or even in the workforce. Your initial reaction to somebody
is what you think about them. So early on in
his career he started off, it was really rocky. So

(23:19):
people in their mind ain't gonna never really give him
the benefit of the doubt, right, They're gonna hold onto
every little word that may not make sense. Oh, I
don't understand why Brady even said that. You know, you
you gotta let him grow in the position. You know
he's learning. Now. If you ask me this three years
from now and he's still saying the same way and
he's got off, they gotta take him off the air.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
No, it's true.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know what I'm saying. It's true. If he's just
two years from now, you cannot continue to force me
him up on me because at that point, you know
what I'm saying, I'm gonna be like, man, Brady ain't
no good, but he's but he's learning. Think about what
is fucking John Madden sound like when he first got.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
I don't we wasn't around.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, you got to give some time. Did you have
you ever called the game from the book?

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Man? I did not.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
I did a couple uh.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Like a like a couple of serious is of the
USCPN State Game, Kirk hurrs Street and Brent Musburger. But
it was moving fast. It was it was you know,
could I do it? Yeah? But I would be scared
that I would get up there and say some ship
that I have. Everybody on social media go crazy because
I you know, as a as a competitor, you know,

(24:36):
I might you know, just and I'm on national TV
in front of millions of people. Different than when I'm
hosting shows. Hosting show is different than when I'm calling
the game because when I'm calling the game and I'm
assessing something, I'm looking at it and it's hard for
me to sit down. I'm like a nervous nelly. Even
though I don't play no more, I'm I'm a stress case. Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
I go the games because I'm obviously I'm a Laker fan,
Dodger fan, you know, all of those sort of things.
And I dive deep into the game that I'm at.
So if I go to a game like let's say,
for instance, I go.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
To the the to the.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
New England Patriots game. I never played for New England
or anything, but my relationship with Mr Kraft is such
that I'm gonna be in his box and I'm gonna
be pulling for them.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
And so now I'm like, what the you know, I'm like,
So I couldn't even do that if I was on
the air, because if I'm on the air, I'm gonna
be too real.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
You know, I'm not gonna be up there. And I
know I can see.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
I know I could do it if I wanted to,
because when I'm watching the game, I'm gonna tell you
what's gonna happen before it even happened, because I know
what I'm looking at.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
The Raiders got a big decision with the number one pick.
Is it? Is it? In your opinion?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Is it Mendoza? Is it? Is it someone else?

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Okay, So now I got to put my GM hat on.
So if I'm needing a quarterback, I'm certainly looking at him. Okay, Right,
I need a face, I need an identity. But I
also got to break down the film and most people
think that he's the number one overall pick. But here's

(26:16):
what I would say to you about that. You gotta
follow me here. When the season takes place in September
to the end of the season, nobody's evaluating that quarterback
except his coaches in the scouts. The general manager peaks

(26:39):
and take a look On a Saturday riding the bus
to the game, he might look at him, he might
sit down. As the season gets to the back end,
he may start doing his research. Right, But there's a
long period of time from September to the end of
the season. The quarterback coach is fucking trying to keep
a job with the NFL team. The head coach of

(27:00):
that NFL team is trying to keep a job, right.
The offensive coordinators trying to keep a job. They're decision makers.
They're extremely important in the decision to draft somebody. Yeah,
the general manager's important and president is important, but the
coaches got to coach him up. The coach has got
to look at me and go I could work with him.
So they really haven't had a chance to lay their
eyes on him quite yet because they're in the course

(27:24):
of the season. Once the season is over and them
dudes is out of the playoffs and going on about
their business, now they finally get a chance to lay
eyes on him. But they also get a chance to
lay eyes on everybody else that may not be a
quarterback that they look at and go, not really like
that defensive end, I'm mother fucking six y five two
seventy five, you run a full three.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
I really like him. And people really have.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
A hard time of really understanding that because they've already
been poisoning in the mind to believe that he's gonna
be the number one pick because of his success that
he had and winning the national title. But the Raiders
got to hire somebody, and who they hire, it's gonna
look at it and go, man, I really might like
Malik Willis a little bit better for us, and we

(28:11):
don't have to this, this, and this, So we could
take that number one overall pick and we can move
it and we can go spend two year sixty billion
on Elik Willis rather than on Mendoza. Well, you're gonna
miss on a franchise player. Well do we know he's
a franchise player because we thought Ryan Leaf was a
franchise player, and we thought we thought Zach Wilson was

(28:33):
a franchise player. So you gotta be you gotta guard
it with caution in jumping out just because what you heard,
but you heard, you gotta break it all the way down.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
I feel like in basketball, and obviously you're a number
one pick, you can speak to this where you go
to the franchise, starting at the top has a lot
to do with how your career turned out, unless you're
just a cold motherfucker. But particularly quarterbacks to go into
systems were currently it's no coach, they had a rough
they have no O line, Like, what are your thoughts

(29:04):
to that? For number one picks that are going into
because normally the number one pick means you're going to
a bad team.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
You are going to a bad team, and everybody thinks
that Tom Brady's gonna solve their problem.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
No, tom Brady at the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
And he can make a bad decision helping select the quarterback.
So when you know that you have an opportunity to
maybe resurrect a franchise and go in there like a Mendoza,
to try to do some things, and you feel that
you could be the number one pick, you probably should,
you know, focus in on that. But the coach that's

(29:37):
getting hired has got to sign off on you regardless
he just because his ask gonna be on the line
if he picks the wrong guy. Now, Mandoza might be
the right guy. Man, he might be the right guy.
But then what if the kid out of old Miss
Chambers decides that he wants to come out not go back.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
His measurables is pretty good.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
He's a six six one and a half six two dude,
you know, over two hundred pounds. He can spin it,
he can run it, he can spit it out. But
a coach might come and say, I like him better.
Now you got those issues. I see it every year,
matt Man. Dudes think people are gonna go high, and
all of a sudden, you look up and you go,

(30:24):
whoa man, They.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
Didn't take you.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
They took this dude instead. The biggest mistakes in the NFL,
in my opinion, this quarterback. It makes some of the
biggest mistakes, good or bad. They just do they they
look up and they give up on them. Really, we
just watched the dude go to the super Bowl last night.
It's Sam Donald. I told the New York Jets. I
told them literally, trade to pick don Zach, don't don't

(30:50):
draft Zach Wilson. Bring in a new fucking coach that
know what he's doing, and not Adam Gaze. Keep Sam Donald. Okay,
I understand it. It hadn't been in the last three years.
You got a financial decision that you need to make.
Believe him, get rid of those picks, get some players,
put him around them, get him a JSSN. You know

(31:11):
he was out there working with me and you at
forty something.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
To fifty years old. Man, think about that.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
And they gave up on him, and he goes to Carolina,
has a little bit of a couple of game success,
but people got hurt, and then all of a sudden
it didn't go well. He goes he comes out to
San Francisco. He sits tight for a minute, but he
finally gets his shit together when he goes to Minnesota
because they had pieces in play. What if he'd had

(31:38):
Jefferson and Addison and all them in New York, we
wouldn't even talking about him. Say I'm doing a little
Seattle but exactly, but that didn't work out that way.
He goes to Seattle. He got ballers right, whether it's
it's Charmonnade, whether it's it's JC. And he got players
that he get the football too, and he going to

(31:58):
super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Now I'm for going to the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
I think you bring up an interesting point about development
because when you came in the game, and I know
on the basketball side, top picks used to have time
to develop, and now there's I think there's just so
much money involved that you get thrown in the fire
right away. What is your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Well, we always I got thrown the fire right away.
Most of the guys that was drafted high with me,
all of us got thrown in the fire right away.
If you have the right circumstances and the surroundings, you
going to succeed.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
That's what it's about.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
It's about the sun, the circumstances, and the surroundings. If
your circumstance and your surroundings.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Are right, you're going to an organization.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
It could be the organization, it could be the coach,
it could be the situation. Do we have veterans in
the locker room? Is it a bunch of just twenty
two year olds. It's trying to get to Miami Beach
tomorrow night? Like what do we have in our locker room?
And that's an important thing, and I think many people
forget about that, right They just think because you're a
high picked that they're going to throw you on the

(32:56):
field and it's going to.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Be successful work.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
But if you number one picking, you go into a
ship organization, it don't matter, and you might get out
and you might be good. But somebody what you're gonna
be afterthought? You know, God God blessed me because I
was able to get Bill Parcels on my second year.
My first year, I mean I still called I don't
know what it was out of seventy brocks whatever, eight

(33:20):
nine touchdowns. I mean, I still did what I needed
to do as a rookie. But when I got Bill Parcells,
he saved me. He saved me working at ups. Shit.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
But what does that mean? And how instrumental was that
for it? Because he's one of the greatest coaches of
all time. But what he for a casual fan? What
does that mean? And what did he instilling you?

Speaker 2 (33:39):
The Well, one of the first things he told me
thought matter. He said, I want you to be a
giraffe and not a gazelle. Don't try to be something
you not. Okay, So what that told me is he
understood exactly what type of player I could be. Right,
they had me doing shit that the little dudes do. Yeah,
you know, I'm supposed to be doing some other stuff.

(34:01):
They got me. You know, I'm I'm I'm a dude
that really got knocked down threes from every corner, but
you got me down on the block. You know, I'm
just saying I CA three, But you know what I'm saying,
it's just you got me doing something different. But when
he got there, he recognized and he realized. He goes,
you know, I need you to be the same guy
that you were in USC. I don't need to be

(34:23):
I don't need you to be that guy that I
just played against in New England, even though I torched him.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
You know, I get what he's saying.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
And so that saved everything for me because it was
the right situation.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Originally, the circumstances wasn't great because I had Richie Kole
type were one of fifteen as a rookie. And then
I get the big tuna, Big Tuna come in. You
know what I'm saying, Big Tuna come in.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
It's a different you could just tell us different.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Motherfucker got the air conditioned on and the whole building
freezing coats so nobody fall asleep. He took all the
computers out so people wasn't on the computers, you know.
It was just a different way of men. The dude
fired the security guard at the front desk at the
front gate that had been there with the Jets since
like the sixties. Let me get this dude out of here.

(35:11):
It put in the keypad because he felt like this
is unnecessary. I don't want this hanging around here. So
we got rid of dude, got rid of Harry.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
That was the dude.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Nay har. Harry used to just sit there at the
gate in the car and let everybody hit it out.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Judes.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
We have a girls and shitty market lot, but yeah,
but different organization with it.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Absolutely. Super Bowl prediction. Seahawks are favored, very underrated team
this year that had one of the best regular seasons ever.
Darnald versus May What are some positives you see with both?
And then some negatives you see with both?

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Well, I think both of them could get a ball
to the other team at times, right, Sam has Sam
did a good job of protecting the football. But what again,
what happens is when you are Sam, for instance, and
I got seven interceptions in three games, people act like
I'm a turnover machine. That's not really it's just three

(36:07):
games out of seventeen. It's fourteen more games. So most
of the focus is gonna be on his turnovers, right,
because he had a three game probably a three game
stretch where he just gave the ball away and people like, ah,
look at you, the same guy, like come on, man, stop.
Then you look at Drake May who's young, but he's

(36:30):
in the right situation in the right surroundings because of
Rabel and because of Josh mcdames, so they know what
to do with him to keep him out of horns away.
The difference is they gotta go up against Seattle's defense
in that front. In that front, they don't come and
pin their ears back and come and get you. Will
he be able to, you know, flourishing that we couldn't

(36:55):
really tell in the last two games.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
And here's why you couldn't tell.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
If you meet, you couldn't tell because number one Houston
has a really good defense.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
But they played the Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Steelers and Aaron Rodgers who's like a thousand years old,
so they can pin their years back and do whatever
they want to do. Then they played against a Denver
team and the snow that you know Denver team was
snowing off, so you really couldn't get a real true
assessment of what their offense would be like against a
Denver team on a neutral field, solid ground without all
the snow. So when I look at that, I say, okay,

(37:29):
so now we're on a neutral field. We get Seattle.
Seattle's defense is coming to play. You know what they have.
You got Stepan Diggs, you have Hollins, but you don't
have you know, Stefan's still good, but he ain't step
Fan a four years ago. Right That defense is gonna

(37:51):
try to take him away. Now you got to figure
out what to do with everybody else. Now they got
two weeks to figure all that out. And I think
their experience on the offensive side as a coordinator Josh
McDaniels probably will benefit him.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
But I don't think they've beaten Seattle.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
No, I'm taking Seattle, and I'll take Seattle on the
four and a half right now.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Too many unanswered questions for you, sounds like for that team.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
No, it's just Seattle.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Good.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I picked Seattle to go to Super Bowl six weeks ago,
maybe seven weeks ago, and I should have put my
money into my man. My man kept saying that the
odds was my favorite. I just you know, I just
was scared to do it.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
At the beginning of the season, they were picked to
both win eight and a half games. Yeah, Brandon Nyuk.
Take a listen to this clip from Lynch and Shanahan blockhead.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
I had a follow up on Brandon just it's a
guy that you guys made a big investment into. And
I know, Kyle you said that after his injury it
was tough to get him in here and get involved,
but it's kind of an unprecedented move for him to
four or fifth that kind of money. Have you been
able to determine why he was so upset, why he
wasn't showing up in just any background you can give
on that.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I wish I knew.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
I can't help you there, Sorry, Yeah, is there a
line of communication with him? There was that anymore? That snap?

Speaker 5 (39:16):
Well, when I'm coaching, I don't I don't hang out
in the training room at all, so I don't see
guys much that way. But I'd say it officially stopped
for me when last time I tried to get a
hold of him and cut it, and then tried a
couple more times and still cudn't, and then that matched
to everyone else that was trying to get a hold

(39:37):
of him and cut it. And eventually there's not much
of an explanation because it's really hard for us and
anyone else to understand and why. It's something I've never
seen in twenty two years of coaching, So just it's unfortunate,
and that's it's confusing because it's confusing for all of us.

(39:57):
So but it eventually becomes it is what it is,
and you try as hard as you can to fix
something that you don't understand, but it's not like we
understand it very well still, but eventually understand that it's
not going to change, and you got to move on
with your football team, which is always the most important thing.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
So he gets a four year with it. One twenty
injured early in the season, and it's just kind of
been in a sense as a formercy what should take
on that man?

Speaker 2 (40:26):
You know, Matt they took his money from him though,
oh did they? Yeah, he something happened and they avoided
out his rest of his guaranteed money. So it was
like thirty close to thirty million dollars guaranteed money. So
I don't know all the ins and outs about everything,
but you would have to think if you take it
thirty million dollars from me, fuck you, period period. I'm
not going to answer your phone call, nor am I

(40:48):
going to speak to you. They. I'm sure that the
NFLPA will try to come to some sort of resolution
with them on a grievance or something to get it
taken care of.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Yeah, so they avoided twenty seven million dollars of it guaranteed.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
This past summer. Yep, So we didn't report to rehab
last year and then this summer they avoided twenty seven
million in guaranteed money.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
That's definitely a fuck you. I might throw eggs at
your car too.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, you're taking twenty seven million dollars on my money though.
So okay, let's play the blame game, right, Well, whose
fault is it? Right?

Speaker 3 (41:20):
That's the that's the whole thing. It's the blame game.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
So, as a professional athlete, when an organization stands up
there at the press conference and puts everything on you,
you become the bad guy. But the devils are in
the details. What are the details? We don't know what
the details are. So only thing we know is what
he ain't saying, he ain't speaking, he ain't said nothing yet.

(41:44):
So it's just funny, man, when you when you look
at the situation, because I know how these coaches be.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Man, these coaches are dirty. Man, They're dirty.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
They scaleless. They like coyotes. You know, coyotes is some
scalless animals. They gonna steal your dogs, your chickens. They
gonna do everything they can, you know. And that's how
coaches can be. They can be scanless. And so they
got everybody out there thinking something really wrong with this dude.
And it may just be I'm not fucking with you,
you see what I'm saying, and I don't want to

(42:11):
be around you. So therefore the best way for me
to get away from this situation is not deal with you.
But they took the onus up on themselves based on
the rules. I'm sure to go ahead and boid out
his money, you know what I'm saying. And now his
agent and everybody got to try to uncover it and
figure it out.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
But it's just it's just funny, man.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Is he still in the contract?

Speaker 3 (42:31):
No?

Speaker 2 (42:32):
No, he probably still is under contract, but they're gonna
either cut him or trade him in that contract on
the guaranteed money side is no Moss. So whatever he
got initially is his. But that other twenty eight, twenty seven,
he won't even see that.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
He coming off a fresh knee injury, looking for a deal.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
A home. It's somebody, look, somebody, he can play football.
Somebody's gonna take you.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
He's under contract through twenty twenty eight, and then this
past summer.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
To your point, they.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Avoided all of the remaining guaranteed money, so he has
to play and hid incentives.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I as seem to make any money now, No, but
I'm not. But I'm not going to you unless I
get my money back. At the end of the day, You're.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Not gonna give me a pay for play contract.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
That's not gonna happen. So if you're trading for me, Matt,
we need to figure out how to make up this
twenty seven million. I need a new deal. It's just
the reality.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Does he have the deleverage, deleverage the credentials to go
in and say something like that to a new team,
to a new.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Team everybody, every everybody has the credentials as long as
you want me, true, So if you want me, you
see what I'm saying, now, all of a suddenly, think
if the Buffalo Bills, for instance, that probably needs another receiver,
and Brandon being a general manager, Buffalo wants to make

(43:52):
a trade for Brandon Ayuk, and let's say they give
up a fourth round pick. Brandon Ayuk and his agent
can say say, man, I need to get my money back,
and they can figure out how to get him back
to that twenty seven million to guarantee you money. They
can figure it out. It's not that difficult, Schador. Can
you grade this season?

Speaker 1 (44:07):
I'm gonna give you a little bit of seven stars,
three and four, thirteen hundred yards, seven touches, ten picks.
Browns were two and eight without him and Judy as
his receiver. One what did you make of his season?
How it started, how he took the high road, how
he played, and what is he looking at coming in
the next season.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Man, I really didn't have a problem when he finally
took over what he looked like, because I expected for
him to look like that young Yeah, I don't expect
for him. I wasn't expected for him to be looking
like Drake May because he didn't have a Drake May situation, right,
a young quarterback he didn't have that. He talked about it,
and so I expect for him to turn the ball over.
I expect for him to fumble in the snow through

(44:45):
a pit.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Expect that.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
What the hell you want him to do? You rushed
him into the lineup and you're trying to figure out
what he is and you're trying to coach you, but
he's trying to understand what the NFL is all about. Again,
talk to me in two years. If you talk to
me in two years and say, look what you think
about you doing right now, I can really truly give
you a real evaluation. The evaluation I'm giving you right

(45:08):
now is based on a three and four record as
a rookie. That was the third quarterback that was forced
into the lineup, and so he did what he could
do in a short period of time.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Did he show you any flashes of hope?

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Gotta get rid of football, though, I'm a fucker hold
on to the ball too long? God, No, I told Prime,
I ain't got no problem. I told I told his daddy.
I said, man, he gotta get rid of the ball.
You know, he gotta eat. But he's not.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Used to the NFL yet the speed of the game.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Right, So you know you say, well, that's been him
the whole way. Yeah, you could do that in college
because you got a seventeen year old kid out there
that just got off the prom playing against you. Now
you got some grown ass men with full beards with
car seats to the back that need to get a check.
So it's gonna be different. But I think he I

(46:01):
think whoever comes in and Cleveland has to give him
a real opportunity and fair chance to be the starting quarterback,
a real one, not playing games, but a real one
because he deserves.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Speaking of playing games, there was a lot of games,
and and and to our previous conversations, some of these
coaches are coyotes.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Let me start using my ship.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
That's a good one. Next season, Deshan Watson will be
fully healthy. I mean they've invested money. And what is
your thoughts on that situation with him?

Speaker 3 (46:26):
We got to see what he is, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
So in your mind to those two compete for the
starting job next.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Year, I would think if Dashaun is healthy, I would
think Dashaw would be the better quarterback if he's healthy.
But what happens to us is we get so uh
enamored apphixiated on what happened off the field, So we
can't let that go on the field, right, I mean,

(46:54):
that's just so we're not giving him an on.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Field assessment, We're giving him off the field.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
You see what I'm saying, Because think about it, if
he never ever.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Had these issues, that he had.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
The best quarterbacks in the game at one point.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
One of the better quarterbacks in the game. But hear
me out though, So if he never had these issues, right, Matt,
and he just was injured for three straight years, we
wouldn't be talking about oh well you know still, no,
we would do that. We would say when he gets healthy,
you know, he may be a different guy, that he's
going to slow down a little bit because he's missed
some time. But because we can't erase what happened off

(47:35):
the field, he ain't gonna necessarily.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Get the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Now, obviously, you and I have never been through what
he's gone through the last two or three years off
the field, But does that wear on your mental and
your your ability on the field in your opinion at all?

Speaker 2 (47:48):
You know, the only thing that I've ever dealt with
that had during the season where I had some stress,
was getting divorced.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Too, in the middle of the season. That'sul in the
middle of seat.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
But that was on my Super Bowl run, So you know,
I really you know, I hate to disrespect it, but
fuck that bitch man. I wasn't tripping on her. I
was gonna go with the Super Bowl regardless, regardless, you
know what I mean. I wasn't. You wasn't getting it
bought when I when I went into the building, it
was a different situation. But when I was at home
and I'm sitting there in my my crib on the water,

(48:21):
I'm sitting there and I'm like, damn, I can't believe
I'm getting divorced.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Shit.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
But when I go to the building, I knew I
had to separate the two so and I'm sure he
could do the same, but it's harder for him, even
though it's funny. It's hard and funny about what I
was about to tell you, but because he's going everywhere
with signs and stuff, people idiots.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
What happened with me is we played the Philadelphia Eagles
that year, and so I was getting divorced. In the
entire Philly stadium was screaming Keyshine, Where is your wife?
All I can do that, all I can do is laugh.
I couldn't even be back. I was laughing. We were
sitting on the bitch laughing our ass off because it

(49:05):
was funny, you know. But he's got to deal with
something a little bit different.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah. Absolutely. Last time we spoke, Lamar Jackson was in
the midst of an MVP run and you were one
to say that he should be the face of the league,
but the league won't make him the face of the league. Uh,
what was your take? What was your take on kind
of what's of late? Obviously hardball's out, he's been a

(49:30):
little up and down. Uh, what'sh what's your take on
on on on where Lamar stands currently.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, he's had a bumping a roll this year and
he's got to get it fixed. You just got to
get it fixed. That's just the bottom line. Put him
on the trading block and see what happens. If you
don't like him, put him on the trade block and
see what happens. If you got a problem with the
way that he's played the last couple of seasons, why

(49:57):
don't you just put him on.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
The trade block.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
See what happens.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
See who lines up at the door.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
For his services.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Probably everybody, but three or four teams.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Wasn't he available though, like two years ago a free
agency and nobody seemed to Yeah, but that was a
it was That was a weird That was one of
those collusion bullshit.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
It was a weird deal. It wasn't that we don't
want him as a player.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
It's more about don't interfere in what we're doing type stuff.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Yeah, it was a little bit different. Don't get involved
in our negotiations.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Before we get into the coaching hires and vacancies. I
really thought this year with Buffalo and Josh Allen that
this was his chance to make a run because the AFC,
the big Lamar was out, Borrow was out. What is it?
Is it? The team? I mean, obviously the blame's gonna
fall on him because he's the star quarterback.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Then he did everything. Yeah, I mean they they had
the receivers.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Is just guys, right, him and Cook really you know,
Dalt schultzon in not Doug shows, but Dalk Kinkaid and
those guys showed up to some degree. But if he
couldn't get it done this year, and I told I
told you know, I got friends as Bill fans, and
I told him, I said, you know, Sean mcnermy gonna

(51:14):
get fired if they don't get to the AFC Championship game.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
His ass gonna get fired.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
And he got fired, you know, because you could only
waste Josh Allen's career for so long and then you
have to start to build on and figure it out.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
So is it putting? Obviously it sounds like more putting
pieces around him that he could work with.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Okay, So you go back to his couple first couple
of years in the league, they didn't have anything. Brandon,
being the general manager who's now been kicked up the
president's slash general manager, went out and traded for Stefan Diggs.
All of a sudden, Josh Allen became Josh Allen. You
took Stepan Diggs away from him, and he's just like, Okay,
he's still really great MVP, but he's send that alpha

(52:01):
dog at the receiver position. All great quarterbacks got alpha
dogs and receiver every last one.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
People be like Tom Brady didn't have anything.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Oh, he had fucking Julian Edelman in the slot, and
he had Grinkowski and he had.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Hernandez, and he had and he had a year.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
He had Randy for a year. And when you look
at the system, the strength of the New England system
was the slot receiver. So he had all those dudes.
Those dudes were good for that position. You look at
any quarterback. Look at Sam Darnold, you got JSN. You
see what I'm saying. You look at Matthew Staff. He

(52:39):
got Pooka and Davante Adams. When you're making a run,
you gotta have. It's just like when you was playing basketball,
if you had a big that could go, he probably.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Was going, probably, yeah, you got shock. You probably got
a chi ranked these hires who you liked the most
to the least.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Like well, at least likely for me gott to be
Robert Sala for the Titans. All right, the best hires
the Giants and John Harball. The second best hire would
be Mike McCarthy to the Steelers. Other than that, I
don't really care about the Falcons and the Dolphins and

(53:19):
all them. They already had their mind made up. They
already had their mind made up on what they wanted
to do.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
The Falcons without hiring Matt Ryan and next thing you know,
he's blinking highre Kevin Stefanski.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
So that was already in the plans and the works.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Mike McCarthy is a really good coach who deserves the
opportunity to chance. And he's got to find a quarterback.
And I don't know if it'll be Aaron Rodgers again
or not. I don't know the Jeff Hatley due halflee dude,
other than he was a d C at at the
Green Bay Packers and apparently he did a good job
with green Bay's defense. Didn't seem that way to me,
but you know what do I know? They hired him?

(53:56):
And then Kevin Stefanski is just a reheat Michael. They
threw a microwave, pushed one and gonna reheat him up
and let him go around a couple of times and
get some money.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
So one is what one minute?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Yeah, they gonna hit him in the one minute boom
out of here as soon as it don't go right.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
It's a good he's a good offensive mind.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Basketball talk pivoting a little bit starting with the Lakers,
uh last week, and again, you're not a huge social
media guy, but I'm sure you probably heard the Genie
Buss Lebron. I read it Rich Paul stuff floating around
with Rich on the podcast. What are your thoughts on
just the outside noise of the Lakers of Lake.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Well, that's always been the case, though right outside noise
Lakers whatnot? Is it interesting because I read it, I
read it from top to bottom, the story on ESPN.
I read the whole thing in the middle of the night,
like four am in the morning. Interesting because there's there's
there's some nuance to it to the degree, you know,

(55:00):
with Jeanie and her surrounding friends that you know, the
rambuses and all those people. You know, it's a little
of that going on. As far as the Rich Paul
and Lebron situation go, I think Rich Paul and Lebron
know at this point in time it's probably the end
of the line as a Laker. So they taking the
gloves off for the most part, you know, because they

(55:22):
had they had control for six years maybe six years
or so.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
That ain't the.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Case no more. And Genie ain't really even though she's governor,
she ain't really in control like that no more.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
And the people that's now in.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Control ain't partners, aren't partners with Rich and Lebron like that.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
You know. So, yeah, I don't think we win in
no championship no time soon.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Obviously, everyone having pods and shows, et cetera. Riches every different.
Now when you hear and again, it's a conversation, and
I see both sides of it. When you hear someone
like a Rich say what he's saying about Austin reason
the Lakers should be like you said, they had some
control there. But at one point going after and targeting,
is it different coming from him or is it just

(56:07):
talk like it's talk from every other podcast is out there.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
Okay, so pull me up to speed.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
So he him and Max Kelluman have their show and
they sat down and spoke on if I'm the Lakers,
I'm targeting Triple J Jared Jackson from Memphis and I'm
giving up possibly Austin Reeves for that. And then people
went crazy with that one, I think because obviously Rich

(56:34):
being an agent, but people also know, like you and
I know how much power Rich and how much pool
Rich has had in the past in the league, and
people kind of had a problem with that by itself,
him kind of saying what we were thinking out loud.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
No, I don't have a problem with it at all.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
I mean, if he thinks that that that Jane Jack
is the guy and they should move on off for Reeves,
just opinion. This is an opinion, right. He didn't say
we're going to move on from him like we did
a d he'd say that, you know, he didn't say
that nothing.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
You're right, You're right.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
He should answer, bro, No, I'm saying, this is what
they said, right, Damn should I answer it's a d
facetiming us.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
No. But but I don't have a problem.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
With it at all.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
So you feel this is Lebron's last run with the
Lakers this year?

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Man, it certainly feels that way now. Whether or not
it's his end of the Lebron NBA era.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
That's a different story.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
But as far as the Lakers go, Like when I'm
reading an article, I.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Think the number has to come down if he's going
to stay right his his.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
But I ain't. But but but no, the number ain't
got a cop you mean for the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
For the Lakers, his number has to come down if
he wants to stay.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Yeah. But but even if it even if I played
for the minimum, the league minimum. It's my relationship fracture.
Do I feel good walking into Elsagonda, into the building?

Speaker 3 (58:01):
That's it? Ain't even the money that matter.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
I got so fucking much money, I don't. I'm Lebron James,
I got I got plenty of money. I got more
money than THEMN owners. So it's like, you know, it's
more about do I want to deal with.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
This organization and plague for the Lakers?

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Or do I want to go to Golden State or
do I want to go to somewhere else?

Speaker 1 (58:24):
You know, and let me flip that up. I need
to play devio advocate. What if what you just said
about Lebron wanting to does the organization want to deal
with him?

Speaker 2 (58:31):
I mean, it's hard not to deal with a dude
like that, though I just watched him last two nights ago.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
It's just hard. He's taking a lot of heat, but
his numbers are still numbers.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
When they taking heat, because people just that's just.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
There's twenty four to seven, Matt.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
I've never I've experienced it to some degree in my
own career, but I ain't never witnessed the amount of for.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Him and hate for him.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Stop hating all the motherfucking time. Just give him his due.
He's good.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
He's one of the best to ever do it.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
He's great, he's one.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Of the greatest to ever do it. He's like, just
accept it and leave it alone instead of always trying
to poke holes in this man's resume.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
I just saw a dude the other day talk about.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
His ability to be a nature freaking nature and the
way he looks it all. Listen to dude, like, just
put it out on the table to where everybody is like, well,
Lebron on steroids.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
I'm like, why would this dude.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Even say this just because everyone got a voice? Shouldn't
have a voice. And I'm also thinking too, I said
this a while ago, so fucking stupid. The stars of games,
the stars of our game, whether it be basketball, football,
Like you don't get the age gracefully no more because
of shit like that. There's too much media access. Everyone
is is a part of the media now.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
But I think if it was me and if I
was Lebron and you were asking me what I would
do at the end of the day, man, I'd.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Probably be done twenty three years.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
I mean, like, what more? What more? No matter how
much I love the game, what more is it that
I have to do, Like, I'm never going to convince
half the room that I'm him because the other half
gonna say no. So I'm never gonna convince half the room.
So it's like, what is the ultimate goal? What's left?

(01:00:27):
You know, my own career when I I ain't Jerry Rice,
but I wouldn't trade my career for nobody's. But it's
a whole lot of people that would trade their for mine,
both on and off the field and post career. So
when I look at that, I say, what is there
left to do? If I got championships? He's a billion dollars.
I'm the face of this. I'm the guy when I
walk away, I'm gonna be on everybody's McDonald's commercials of

(01:00:48):
that like he's but maybe he just loves the game
and I want to shoot baskets all day. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Is Luca as a Laker fan? Now? Is Luca the
guy that's gonna take this team to the name and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Absolutely absolutely, Because what we're gonna do, We're gonna go
get either Matt Bournes won't put him over there, We're
gonna go.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Get him with Jack put him over there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
You know, We're gonna get us some pieces and put
him some guys around him, and he'll be the guy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
He's only been here a season and a half. We'll
actually a full season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Now, right, because if you count so basically a full season.
So when you look at it, we always had and
I say we are speaking the third person as a Laker,
as we have always had two guys, always two dogs,
and then we got guys that contribute that are still

(01:01:39):
really good. And I think that that's what they're gonna
get to, right, they got the one guy because Lebron.
Let's assume Lebron's gone, so you got Luca. I'm not
putting Austin Reves in that category. Austin Reeves is good.
It's a surprise us, but he ain't there yet. We
can make him Robin if we want to, just for

(01:02:01):
media purposes, but no, so getting a y honest wish
for thinking that type of thing. You know, you you
go get you one of them dudes, because I don't
even think Jared Jack would be enough, to be honest
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
I don't think so, right, I don't think it's enough.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Clippers, one of the hottest teams in the league obviously
started the season off with the Kawhi plant conspiracy, but
since then, Kawhi has played over seventy percent of the
games thirty three plus minutes and having one of the
best seasons at twenty eight points fifty forty ninety four
splits in your opinion, I know you're a diehard Laker fan,
So don't give me this answer with your heart. Give

(01:02:39):
it to me with your with your with your analysis,
in your analysts mind. Clippers A Lakers are gonna make
it further this year. Lakers, Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Lakers have been more consistent in my opinion than the Clippers.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Okay, you know, Clippers just the top of my head, hot, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
You know, just off the top of my head, because
at any moment, Kawhi, you know over here with us,
do we sit down at any moment, you know, And
it ain't because he got It ain't necessarily because he
getting hurt. It's just they want to rest, tee, but
they want to you know, they try to hold onto something.
But I watched them lose the other night to somebody,

(01:03:16):
I'm like, man, toront was it Toronto? It might have
been like Toronto, So I'm like, man, please, man, it's
shit here watching the Clippers spent all this money, and
I don't like the way they did CP three.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Boy, I don't like the way they did CP three.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
That was nasty. I didn't like that either. I didn't
like the way they did Blake. They signed Blake to us,
they moved him, Yeah, they moved Yeah. I mean two
of your best players in the franchises. I definitely didn't
like those most. Before we get you out of here,
you already said you have the Seahawks. Give me a score.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
I'm gonna say Seahawks twenty four in New England seventeen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
I ain't meant at that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Sam Donald, Sam Donald VP.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Sam Donald, gotta.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Get a big quarter back, big for him.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
It's either gonna be Sam Donal or js Hen.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
It's gotta be big for him. With key Man, I
appreciate your time. They can find you weekly. On Schultz,
you're still doing stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Yeah, I'm there with Scholtz too.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
And besides that, you can't see him until he signed
this new deal. I can't see and you've seen it,
you've seen him here. But besides that, you can't see
it's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
It's coming. It's coming to you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
It's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
As they say, it's coming to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
A near you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
There you got man, I appreciate you man. Best of
luck with with your next journey in life, and thanks
for coming. That's a wrap, Key Shawn Johnson. You can
catch us on all the Smoke Productions YouTube and the
Draft Kings Network. See y'all next week.