January 28, 2022 • 48 mins
After a rocky season with the Chicago Bears, WR Allen Robinson sets the record straight with Steve and G.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Steve Smith Senior and I'm Little John, And this is
cut to it. Good do it? Good do what they're
getting down to? Do it? Good do it. We asked
the questions you always want to know, but no one
(00:23):
ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard am
about it? Then we're about to let you know. It's
all man, we got a great episode. We got one.
We have one of the premier, premier route runners, right,
(00:47):
he can run some routes. He was in Jacksonville. Uh,
took a nice, pretty good contract, great leadership. In Chicago,
things didn't go well, as you know if you're a
Chicago fan. You saw very quickly. Uh. They went from
sugar to blue cheese really fast. And we're talking about
Allen Robinson and we've got him for a less hopball
(01:08):
episode that I know for sure, really excited about being
able to dig into. You mentioned his tenue with the Jaguars,
more recently his tenue with the Chicago Bears. It's gonna
be a good one. Man. Did you think I was
a little bit hard on him? Na? You never really wow.
But I did have to hold his feet to the
fire on some of these things because I know personally
(01:30):
when you make some professional mistakes how much they can
stick with you. And I love how he owned his
professional mistakes. It's the name of his podcast. Right to It.
We're gonna cut to it. We're getting the right information.
A matter of fact, we're gonna cut to it and
get straight into this anything. How are you doing? Brother?
(01:54):
Welcome to the Cut to It Podcast. I am your
resident Mr nort All, Steve Smith Singer, and then I
got backstage Joe and then my accomplished co host and
one of my best friends, Gerard Little John. Let's talk
ball man. I'm really I'm intrigued to talk ball um.
(02:18):
But I'm also uh, I'm also excited because I can
remember when you were with a long when you're with
an organization and you transition, right you with the Jaguars,
man that was that was your squad, bro. You were
you were putting up big numbers. You know you uh,
you guys were doing well. You took a team that
(02:42):
was doing well. They faltered and then they got two.
They got you, and all of a sudden things changed
and you gave them hope. I knew you crushed their
dreams and you chase that bag? How dare you you
go to Chicago? So I mean, we're gonna why did you?
(03:07):
Why did you sign with the Chicago Bears? Coming out
of coming out of free agency? So coming out of
free agency, Um, for me, personally, I feel like I
got a lot of I thought I had great force
life into my career and kind of you know, the
(03:28):
direction that I wanted to go and things like that.
And seeing who the Bears were bringing in at the time,
you know, to to coach at the quarterback position, and
kind of the culture and the team and style of
play that they were trying to build. I personally saw
that I was a perfect scheme fit for that, you know,
and being able to be moved around, being able to
(03:48):
run different routes, you know. Um, I didn't want to
just be a person who was just running uh go
balls and stops. You don't want to just do that,
huh Nah. I wanted to play in the slide a
little bit, you know. I wanted to get into some
one by three formations and be number three, the number two,
you know, playing the outside a little bit. And I
wanted to be able to to showcase and and and
(04:11):
put my entire skill set to the test. So what
what was what was your thought? And free agency? Are
you coming out? You're going into free agency? You got
We don't. I'm not concerned about it, and we don't
want to mention all the other teams. But you have
(04:32):
some teams and you picked Chicago. But why did you
believe a scheme was important? One? I believe that I
could fit into many different schemes, but to be specific,
from the concepts and from different things that was being ran.
(04:56):
Also with the with with the culture that her other
players even from Kansas City that was being brought in,
I thought that that would be that would be perfect
for me to kind of because at that time I
was coming out for injury as well, so it was
it was me kind of like reiterating who I was
as a player was big and I wanted to and
(05:17):
I wanted to make sure that, you know, I had
the perfect situation for me to be able to do that,
you know, for me to kind of be able to
not reintroduce myself. But when you sit out for a
whole season because of the injury, you know, people tend
to forget, you know, and there's a lot of different
things that kind of you know, go olden people's head.
And for me, I wanted to get into a situation
where I could show it exactly who I was. And
(05:39):
again I could put my skill set and I could
put who I was as a player on display. So
scheme culture. What else was it about the organization that
drew you in to take that trip? Also, Chicago is
close to home. Um, that was another fact that I had.
I had played. I had played far away from home,
not far, but recently far away from home for a
(06:01):
good little while. I think prior to me being in Chicago,
the closest I had played from the driving standpoint was
about seven and a half hours and I was in
college at Penn State, you know. And even even over
the past years for me, this is the most that
my family has been able to come and see me
places high school. So how important has that been now
(06:22):
that you've lived that? Extremely important? Um, extremely important, Um,
especially not to not to fast forward, but especially you
know this past year, you know, being able to you know,
have my family and being able for them to you know,
be be close to me, you know, and being able
to come to games and things like that. You know,
(06:43):
it's a great feeling. You know. Again, I mean it's
it's one thing where you kind of just playing and
kind of you know, experiencing and trying to embrace everything,
you know, by yourself. When you have you know, when
I had my parents and my sister you know, and
some of my friends come into games and things like that.
You know, it's just a different feeling. Man. It's just
(07:03):
it asked a lot more because again, I mean for
me personally, you know, my career and how I look
at my career, I've never looked at it as far
as you know, just me, you know, like like like
every time I put on my jersey, every time I
think about my family, I think about the people who
have been watching me and who've been coming to the
games and in the stand since I was seven years old,
(07:23):
you know, and being able to being able to have that,
be able to have them there, you know a lot,
you know, from my entire time in Chicago, you know,
meant a lot to me, you know, and I think
that we all as a as a family and everything
like that truly embraced that, and and and it was
it's been a great experience. I like it. I'm I'm
(07:46):
impressed on the y take us through. Did you take
any other visits then Chicago? Or you just fell in
love with Chicago like you was a cheap day, cheap date.
I'm not. I didn't take no business. That boy got
(08:06):
that They told you how much money there is gonna pay?
You say, you know it's close to home. It's a
pretty good bag. I'm looking at his backdrop like, you
know what, Shoot, this ain't too bad. I can see
myself here, kick my feet up. I can see myself here.
(08:28):
He took his hat off his he he's like, let
me see if the wind blows him my hair. Right,
just when I went to Baltimore, I did. I just
took my I just see if the wind blowing my scout.
I had lost all my hair by then, so I
ain't think of my business business. Um why my first
(08:51):
time experiencing for it? Well, I didn't know this, but
I mean free agency had it just was going so
fast you start depending not how you expect, like just
kind of sit back and she'll like, you know, let
me like yeah, I'm like, let me see what's over
is now? It's going fast like much fat much faster
(09:12):
than I expected for that being my first time in
free agency. Did you get anti A nervous little bit?
A little bittle bit for sure, A little bit and
more so for me um, more so because again me
coming off my injury going into free agency personally, I mean,
everybody you know tells you, you know, the things you
(09:34):
have people around you, you know, we have a lot
of knowledge of the situation. But you know, deep down
you know you obviously are hoping for the best situation
and best scenario. But I tell everybody when you when
you're sitting up there in a in a knee brace,
and as the season is progressing about the end, you know,
you don't have no idea what's gonna be there. You know,
(09:54):
you have no idea the situation and circumstances, no idea.
So for me, Um, I definite it was a little
empty when it kind of came down to it. But
you know, as as it as it progressed, you know,
um Um definitely definitely calmed down a little bit. So
you you were sitting in a knee brace, You're sitting
around m M psychologically what we're what was going on
(10:16):
internally for you as you sustained the major injury to
some degree. There's there's probably some question of what I
returned back to me. Then you gotta inswer free agency.
Then you gotta enter free agency. What was going on inside?
Give us the real don't give it. Don't don't don't
give us the agent. Uh you know. I'm just You're
(10:38):
gonna get the best version of Alan Robinson after this
injury that you possibly can. Like, I want to know
how you did your interviews. No, you just I just
hear the guys. I see I hear some of the
guys now and they that's what they're saying. I'm going
that that ain't the real answer when you're sitting there
in a knee brace with you know, eighteen six months
into the injury, and you get up in the early
(11:02):
morning because you got a pee and you take a
step and something goes your negos. Boy, you ain't ready yet.
I said this the day because I got injured. The
third play of the season. I had one catch for
I think eighteen yards and it was my contract year
and I was in the locker room and I specifically
(11:24):
room this. I'm sitting at my locker and mind you,
the game is still going on, and I looked up
and I SAILF. I said, I'm gonna get myself five
minutes to grief. And after that five minutes, I said,
I'm putting that past everything From this point forward, it's
gonna be it's gonna be getting myself back to who
(11:47):
and what I need to be, because I knew I
couldn't let myself go this go to the left, you know,
and also I didn't want and I and I specifically
remember this as well, right after my mom called on me, um,
and then my mom asked me like, how are you?
And I can hear the pain in her voice, you know,
(12:07):
and when she heard me say like I'm good, like
I'm good, I'm gonna be good. I could tell that
that like took any kind of anxiety or anything off
of her as well, which is something like I said before, Man,
my family is very very close to me, you know,
And and even in those times, if you kind of
got to be the strength of everybody you know around you,
(12:27):
because again people people are living the same thing like
through you, you know, from my mom, my dad, my sister.
So for me, it was I couldn't let myself be
down for the people around me to just see me down,
you know, because that wasn't gonna do nothing for me.
So when that so in that I put that past. Man.
From then on, it was just kind of getting to work,
you know. And even as you're kind of progressing that,
you know, you still don't know exactly what and how
(12:51):
you'll be when that time comes. And I've been watching
games and seeing dudes make cuts. You know, I'm still
mind you like I'm fresh off of crutches, you know,
and I'm like, damn, that's that's a hell of a cutting. Then,
you know what I'm saying, You have that in your heads,
and it's like but once you kind of, you know,
start to get back on the field and you still progress.
You know sometimes when injuries like that, you know, the
(13:11):
small winds are the ones that you gotta take, you know,
until you back. Yeah, when you talk about injuries, you know,
it's so hard because each individual guy, the significance of
his injury is is it's worse or or easier better
(13:33):
than the next. Right, And here you say you gave
yourself five minutes, man. I mean I remember if I
would have said, man, I give myself five man, when
I tore my Achilles in Baltimore, bro I woke up
the next day like it must have been a dream,
and I took that step and I in the floor
(13:54):
felt like flat with arch in it. No, that wasn't
a dream, that that thing't really happened, right, And so
I had a whole like that. I toured, I felt it,
I went to sleep, woke up, I was like, yeah, no,
it was real, and so for me it started all
(14:16):
over again. And then when I was rehabbing, I had
those you know, I had those guy moments where Lord,
I need your help because I don't think I'm strong
enough to do this right. That's just me, right, I
I had accomplished so many things and I played well enough,
but I had that doubt in my head and I struggled.
(14:40):
I worked as hard as I could, and that still
was not gonna fix my achilles. And that was new
to me. That was a different that was a that's
a different place. I've never been in that place. So
it's y I'll say this honestly, and again not the
fast forward too much, but it's you, it's your story.
(15:04):
I actually I probably would say this year tough room
than that year. Why that year I felt like once I,
once I got hurt, it was about me kind of
controlling everything that I could control. It was I said,
(15:28):
you were in the driver's seat, and it was just
more so like you know, like I said before, once
I got hurt, it said, okay, like well this is
what I could do when these is kind of steps.
So it's like not that I don't have a choice,
but it's like this is this is where I'm at,
this is word's going as opposed to this year, I
felt it was so much out of my control. And
for me as a person, anybody who knows me knows
(15:50):
anything that bothers me the most, frustrates me the most,
causes me to be most angry or anything is things
that I cannot control. Oh that's life. If I can't
control it. If I can control it, I'm good. If
I drop a ball, I'm good. I can control that.
I could, I can make another play, I can improve fear,
I can do this, I can do that. But now
(16:11):
once you start factoring in things that's out of my control,
now you really start missing you know what I'm saying.
Now it's now it's frustration. So how is that? How's
that working out for you? Right now. Then if if
you are good with control, but you are struggling with
not control things, because I mean, I know you're you're
a fantastic football player, but I mean outside of that,
(16:37):
there's pretty much nothing else, Like there's a let's say,
if if the list is a thousand, there's probably twenty things.
I'll give you eighty. Hell, I give you a hundred
things you can control. Then there's about what about some things?
You got the illusion of control? Yes? So how are
you You know you don't have control over everything? Like
(16:59):
that's life? Are you? Are you a parent yet? Yes? Oh?
How many kids you guys? Okay? How how old is
your boy? Girl? Three? Three? He's three, she's just Oh
she's a girl. Brother. Let me tell you something. Buckle up.
(17:19):
If you she's controlling you, yeah, she not. Not Again,
I'm speaking in terms of more so specifically football. I
understand what you're conceptually, I understand what you're attempting to
talk about, but I'm telling you we're talking about life.
Who you are beyond the football player. You can control
(17:41):
the route you're gonna run after they tell you what
route you're running. Isn't that fair to say? All right?
So you you're trying to control after you get on
the bus, right, and so that's so, would you say
that type of that thought process soured the relationship with
(18:03):
you being in Chicago, because here's what I and before
you answer, I'll let you steal on that. It was
a report after losing the playoff game that you didn't
speak to your head coach from January until July. How
(18:24):
is that possible and why do you why did you
believe that that was appropriate? Now this old g talking
to you, this ain't. I know you feel like it's
okay to do that, but I'm telling you as a
people that are listening to this, and people that see
football players, bro, they don't care about your feelings. You're
(18:45):
getting paid a king's ransom. With the bag you've received
and the bags that I received. We both have lived
a thousand lifestyles of kings. And you've got people that
are paying from Flint, Michigan, to Los Angeles to Charlotte
(19:05):
that are to go to one game in a whole year,
they may have to save up six months of their
salaries or six months off the hourly wage SALD payments
of jobs. How many burgers they've had to flip, how
many investments they've had to do, how many cars they've
had to park, whatever it is that they had to do.
(19:26):
And you over here ain't talking to your supervisor, a
person that God has put in your life as as
someone that you're supposed to report to. You ain't talked
to him for six, seven, eight months. Why now, if
I could correct you a little bit, I wasn't there.
(19:48):
I would sleep actually that I didn't talk to him.
We didn't talk, I like I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say,
we didn't talk. Because from the time the season ended
on the plane after the Saints game, right the following
or four day hours of some form of exit meetings
(20:08):
for us because of COVID that was supposed to be
scheduled with the with the head coach and management or
however they were coordinating that with that via zoom. Talk
to the receiver, coach, talk to equipment, everybody else. A
few days go by, no zoom link, we go by zoom.
So let me ask you hold on now, let me
(20:32):
see hold up your right here go like this. He's oh,
they work, I know you know the text, So you
couldn't You couldn't text them now honestly, No, you couldn't
text nahel like you couldn't know why didn't you? No,
(20:52):
it wasn't not feel like I couldn't. It's just at
that Okay, we're having exit meetings where you normally talk
about yeah, just just just to put hold on before
you answer, just to put my cell on. Frustrate man,
I didn't do no damn max and meet. I wouldn't
for what I need to excu met for. I know
I'll be back next year. Y'all get your ship together.
(21:14):
So I'm just telling you what I did. So I'm
not I'm not coming from a how dare you I'm
coming from I never did exit meeting. I didn't need
to do on the exit meet y'all know what y'all
need to do. Agent A not run his route, y'all
give me some guys that I can play with, and
y'all blocking. Hey, we're good. So I didn't need no
excit meeting. I didn't even clean out my lockers. Hell,
I'll need to clean up my locker. I'll be here
(21:35):
next week. So so so I'm saying all that to
to to tell you, one man, you're help. You don't
have the reputation I have. You have a stellar reputation.
Your reputation is you're even killed due that. You're a
hard worker like me, you're a grinder. But the difference
(21:57):
that I don't have that the luxury you have is
you don't have a reputation of being a distraction. I do,
and I'm willing to own it. But when you don't
talk to your coach, when you don't when you don't
take the initial step and your daddy, your leader, when
(22:18):
you don't take that initial step, you can't expect other
men who may be lacking in something to take that
step in which is made for you to be responsible,
to take that step. Because that wide receiver's room, who's
the leader in that wide receiver's room? Okay, because I
want to call Mike and ask him now because I
know what he's gonna tell me, right you, So why
(22:41):
did you not take that step to show them? Yeah
you're upset, Yeah you're disappointed, but also also, squad, let's
get on the same page so we could be better,
so this doesn't happen next year. And at that point
it was, I mean, I was, I was a opinion
(23:03):
and free agent. At that point, I didn't know which
direction they were wanting to go in either way or not.
So for me, I'm waiting for the exit meetings. So okay,
so we could talk about this thing. What's what's you
know what I'm saying, like, like what do y'all see
or thinking the foreseeable future? Just to give me an idea.
(23:23):
So for me, if it's supposed to be a zoom
link sent out to me, cool, all right, I'm waiting
for that zoom link. So now we can chop it
up and see, you know, see what's up even from
even from a football side, from how do we improve
on next year? And I'm we go by no zoom
link two weeks, no zoom January? Now weary and no
(23:49):
did you show me? Ask you this? Then let me
reverse it. You and a lot of you ain't for
a lot of folks to call. You're gonna let them
know that you got this lot of ticket. You're gonnat Okay.
I just want to make sure. I just want to
make sure. And the reason I'm saying that is I
got to go back to your character. This is out
of character for you. Why I see you snicker? I
(24:15):
see you snicker because what is your character. Well, I
I thought, we don't trial, so I was. I was.
I was testifying for him because every time I'm trying
to pick under rocks and and talk to people and
they have nothing but great things to say about them,
but they also say this behavior was so out of
character that they're trying to figure out why and how.
(24:39):
And that's why I'm trying to figure out why how,
Because you got when you leave or stay there, got
you got fans that are gonna say, man, I love
what he did on the field, and I love how
I interacted with him in a community, and I'm gonna
ride with him whichever way. But you gotta clarify and
figure out and and and decode the anat I was
(25:01):
for this. That's this time that didn't get the zoom link.
Because you are a leader, I'm saying it. I don't
know if Matt Naggy was the right leader for this team,
but if you have the right leadership in the locker
room like you are a part of, you can always
overcome the best schemes or the improvement needed in coaching.
(25:30):
And I agree, and to move forward at that point
in time and kind of how the season win and
the conversations that were had. You know, I didn't know
if they wanted me to continue to lead. Mhm. So
for me, I wasn't gonna call him and ask him
to y'all do y'all want me to do? Y'all want
(25:52):
hey like like like, what's up? What's y'all planning? To
y'all need to leave? Because to me, it seemed as
if their message was clear mm hmm. You know I mean,
because again, it wasn't like you know, it wasn't like
I said I was gonna call this person and didn't.
To me, I didn't know if they wanted me to
lead or not once we get her, once the time progresses.
(26:14):
You know, I don't get I don't I never get
that zoom like me and me and coach never chop
it up. Mind you. And as a person who this
is my everything prior to this point, this is my
guy from why why why was he a guy? What
it from day one? What did he tell you and I?
And this isn't I would say. And before you say it,
take a deep breath. I want you to say. I
(26:37):
want you to explain to the fans football relationships because
I don't want you to talk about him and attack
his character who he is as a man. I want
you to talk about his character and your character as
a man, because that sometimes a lot of fans are
understand not all, Not every coach conducts himself was as
(27:00):
a professional man, just like not every football player conducts
themselves as a professional man. There are times I conducted
myself as a immature little punk in my football career
there and then there's other times where I was a hotheaded,
mature but immature businessman. And for me and him, since
(27:27):
they want our coach to player relationship and communication have
been great since since since the time I stepped footing
that do it greater powerful world. And when I say great,
I mean as far as concepts that we running, concepts
that you know we kind of that he may have
saw me run in Jacksonville. Are certain things as far
(27:50):
as how could we make this thing get better? And
how can we be better? You know constantly, you know,
that was that was the focus. Okay, what are you
seeing here? What are you seeing there? Or you know,
certain plays you know, even if we're in a little
as a as a as an offense or as a team,
you know, we're still talking. You know, how you feeling
about this, how you feeling about the sort of communication
(28:11):
had always been there. So so what your tap Let
me summarize it. So what you're telling me is you
were part of the process and and then it seemed
possibly you would be transitioning out of there. You are
unaware of where you stood, and so now you felt
that you were no longer part of the process. Yes,
(28:36):
so when the think and as my time as my
contract is ending, because again after that season, um, I
had played on my contract, so as that's ending, you know,
obviously I'm a free agent with the cap you know,
going down how it did last year, I had no
idea at all what the circumstances of it was going
(28:59):
to be. Know once we get you know, past the time, Okay,
is it possible it's a franchise tag? Possible in things
like this is so many different things based on the
cap and things like that. To where as it wasn't
like it was any kind of you know, conclusion that
was gonna be foresaw, you know, it just was okay,
Like again, I'm not I haven't communicated or haven't heard
(29:20):
from this person. You know, nobody's you know, my agent
hasn't heard anything. So up until an hour before the
franchise tag deadline, I thought I was gonna be a
free action. And with that being, if I'm a freient
and that is the case, then okay, that's cool. It's
(29:40):
no hard feelings, does no anything. But it's not you know,
I didn't feel as if I should call and say hey,
like like like, where's the contract? You know what we're
gonna do. It's like cool if y'all want me to
be a free agent, y'all want me to be a
free agent, like there's nothing else I could do about that,
Like I can't. I can't make y'all not make me
a free agent. You know, you you you got a
(30:02):
little antie frustrated with the process because you are no
longer part of process, which meant ultimately he was out
of he was out of his comfort zone because of
the you weren't in control of it anymore. A little
bit frustrated. Yes, I also think that I'm a type
(30:24):
person where if if the next chapter was gonna be
me being a free agent, I was good with it.
And when I said I was good with that, I
you know, at this time last year, cool if if
if if my contract isn't gonna be extended or if
we aren't working through any of that. I don't have
any gripe. I don't have any hard feelings. I don't
have I also don't think if I'm about to be
(30:45):
a free agent and it's nothing for me to communicate
to it's like I mean to me, it was, you know,
they were speaking through actions or whatever the case may be,
with the lack of communication anything, because again, this is
a league where even when I left Jacksonville, before I left,
I talked to at that time it was Tom Coffling,
(31:07):
the GM and coach Maron. We had a great conversation.
Ultimately I didn't sign back um for whatever reason. But
it wasn't that, you know, it was just Okay, we
don't know what's going on. We don't hear nothing, haven't
heard nothing anything. And then once that point hit, I'm like, Okay,
well I guess I guess the writings on the wall. Well.
The other part is you also gotta you are at
(31:29):
a disadvantage. You had one of the best communicators, whether
you liked his message and or not, with Tom Coughlin, right,
and I said, best communication where you knew what he stood.
I don't agree with how he said it, but at
least you knew where you still like you weren't walking
in You weren't walking in the office going I think
he likes me. You had the benefit of communication. Yeah,
you too much communication, almost a little bit like you're
(31:52):
walking there you go, man, I wonder how you staying?
You walk out there go. I know, I'm out this,
I'm out this booch what in the end, And that
was the last. That was the only kind of experience
that I had with my contract ending and about to
be dependent Stace. I love cut to It, and I
(32:16):
love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you
can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
(32:38):
where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
answers questions, Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a
Podcast dot Com. You didn't have a lot of history
(32:58):
but the past history with Acteville and Tom Coughlan was this,
and so now you come to a new organization and
it's slightly different, right, and your temperament and what expectations
and how things were in the beginning and everything changed,
and so you you tried to maneuver through it the
(33:20):
best you could. Wasn't the best, wasn't the worst. Definitely
have seen worst car crashes. Right, So now you're in
you're going through the season. I believe you had got
you you got COVID right, um, y'all draft some linemen
that can't play, you get you get a quarterback that's
(33:43):
a dynamic and man, you you out there, you're not
catching any passes? How do how do we go from
coming off a two back to back? How wow? Shorts
to that boy? You went from a locomotive a G
(34:05):
five to a truck. Yeah. Yeah, And you know that
was a lot of frustration that you know was going
on through the course of the season because I had
saw how I was used and how they were deploying
me to defenses and years prior. Hold on, hold on,
(34:28):
dumb that down for some of us, right, simplify that,
what do you mean you the years before you were
being used as what the number one to go to
or decoy? Yes, yes, okay. Concepts that were that we're
running you know, um where I have been maybe at
(34:51):
number two in this concept based on this defensitive like
that like again I'm not I'm not running it, you know,
or it may be an example like I went. One
of our main one of our heavier concepts was deep cross.
You know, I go through seventeen games and I don't
run a deep cross the entire season. So okay, so
how do you handle that? Don't don't tell me about what.
(35:13):
They don't tell me about what. Yeah, they didn't let you.
They didn't allow you to run anymore deep crosses. And
the reason why they don't allow you run anymore deep
crosses because they had some other receivers that they wanted
to get the ball too. Because of limitations of things.
How they changed. Right, if you run that deep cross,
(35:34):
then the young fresh lad guy that they want to showcase, right,
and I call that artificially making that guy the playmaker. Right,
They put him in position to make him run the
route that they know as the first read, and long behold,
he is the first read they throw it to him,
(35:54):
how are you handling now seen they sleep, your career
change in front of you on the field. It was
it was extremely frusture, and it was something to where
as you know, for me, I never I didn't want
(36:15):
to devalue the character and the person and player who
I've you know, worked and built myself to be that
I am, you know by my frustration, you know. And
I also didn't want to be a distraction and take
away from what the ultimate tasks and gold is at hand,
(36:37):
which is to you know, win games, to have a
top five offense, and to do these things. But at
the same time, when it's like when I obviously see
my role changing and I'm not being use how I
happen prior, and you know, we're also as we're going
through the course of the season where a bottom three offense,
(36:57):
you know, it's hard to it's hard to just accept that.
That was the hardest thing was just to be content
with what was going on and how it was happening,
and to just sit there and just you know, be
content with you know, so let me ask you, you
had COVID now I should wrestle reports that ah, you
(37:17):
lost weight. The reason where you are I'm asking you
weren't utilized and you weren't featured anymore because you had
COVID or because you believe things were changing for whatever reason,
because I believe things were things were changing, and it
(37:37):
and it happens, though it does happen for for whatever
reason you want. Right. One thing about football people don't
really realize, right, there's a few positions that age doesn't factor.
Actually age factors in in kind of the concept of wine.
As you get older in the National Football leagu the
(38:00):
only two positions that allow you to get older, and
they don't unless something drastic happens. They don't really look
at you like you. The plague is quarterback. As you
get older, quarterback, you get more money. You look you're
actually um valued more as you will become an older quarterback,
(38:21):
especially ones that actually can read defenses right and who
can retain information and and be able to construct and
deconstructing offense. I can tell you to contained offense from
the back of their hands. And kickers, that's it. Running backs,
you get older, you hit thirty, may get out of here.
Wire receivers tight ends, I get out of here. The
(38:42):
market changes. All that market changing in the NFL. The
younger you are, the more money you make. Every year
you get older, They're going, man, we gotta get him
out of here. He because the old adages you're either
getting better or you're getting worse. But they need to
throw that other one in there is what one year
older means one year closer to retirement from from their perspective, fishing.
(39:08):
So as things are changing, how do you believe from
your standpoint, let's let's play Devil's advocate. Do you believe
the way you operated and allowed your frustration to get
the best of you. Do you believe you could have
handled it better sitting in front of me today? Communication wise? Yeah?
(39:31):
I think so? Um explain explain the communication wise because
what I don't want you to do is make it
all you know. I think I think in the society
we are right now, athletes don't want to take ownership.
I know the hell I didn't when I was playing.
It was always somebody else's fault. Right again, I'm just
I'm just exposing myself. Right, what could you have done
(39:59):
to improve? Because you are not going to not be
on the team next year, But people are gonna ask
what happens when Alan Robinson is not getting his past
is can he handle the mental adjustments of football? Because
he showed us or we heard in Chicago little adversity
(40:21):
he from Michigan, but I don't know if he really
fall tough. Yeah. And for me, like I said, based
on the communication maybe offseason wives or something like that, Yeah,
I think that could have been better. I think once
we got to the season, with all this frustration and
stuff that was going on, the only way that I
(40:41):
know is this year I practiced harder. I tried to
I tried to perfect more of my crab just based
on the simple factor the opportunities if they were going
to be limited, the ones that I was gonna get,
I tried to make sure that I was ready to
be able to take full advantage of those opportunities with
(41:03):
the ones that were being dealt. Obviously, you know, you
get a game like Cincinnati game where I have a drop,
you know, but that's that's not even you know, for me,
it's it's it's ball, you know what I'm saying. Players
like that, Yeah, yeah, you can always take some place back.
And for me as a player, I'm always trying to
critique myself on how I could be better. So if
that was even this year, even on certain routes, if
(41:25):
you'll come back to the huddle in practice or whatever,
you know, whether if it's Andy or Nick or whoever's
in in or not in and watching, I'm you know,
trying to communicate them, Yo, what are you seeing? What
do you think I could do better here? Which I
could do better here? Rather that's you know, cut, you
just split a little bit on this, on this, on
this boot to the right, so that maybe you could
get you know, in the quarterback vision a little bit better.
(41:46):
Maybe you can you know, things like that. I tried
to make sure that I would communicate to those guys
and you know, um and really kind of leaned on
my teammates some of that to just kind of say
like yo, like like what you think? What do you
think about this round? You know, even even some of
the other guys in the room you know where I'm
we're watching film or some of you know, what you
think here? What you think here? Acting the quarterbacks? What
you think here? What you think here? Because I just
wanted to maximize the opportunities that I was gonna have,
(42:09):
no matter how frustrating it may have been. You mentioned
before um, the next chapter. How are you approaching the
next chapter in your life? Now? I can say, man,
I'm looking forward to it from a standpoint that years
like this for me make it special because you remember
(42:31):
why you play the game. And I'm sitting here in January,
whatever it is, and I'm looking forward to it. Man,
I can't. I can't. I can't wait to you know,
get to work and and start to you know, build
for next year, you know, and because again for me,
it's like you said before, man, coming off of two
(42:53):
thousand yard seasons, coming off of two hundred catches. You know,
I was looking to continue to a sin you know,
from from a number's perspective obviously, but as a player
as well, and for me, you know, based on whatever
the circumstances is or was, you know, That's what I
have to sit with throughout this entire offseason, which again
(43:15):
I'm not. Am I frustrated with it? Yeah? Am I
mad at it? No? And the reason why I'm not
mad at it is because that that fire, you know,
it's lit. You know. Every time I go to work out,
every time I'm getting some pt, you know, I got
a goal and mission in mind. Well, listen, I appreciate
you taking that time to kind of break it down.
(43:36):
Un let's talk ball, because I think it's extremely important
for not just our fans, your fans, but people are
here the knowledge and also the emotional side of playing football. Listen,
I'm I'm the worst case studying on the man kind
is well. I think it's probably some worst people that
(43:58):
we're not gonna mention the names that it's nobody right.
But I understand your frustration. But I also think you
you have a You have an opportunity that some men
don't get. You got an opportunity to rewrite it now. Right. Yeah,
what you did or what you said, or how you
behaved may turn a few people off, but when they
(44:22):
get you in the building and they see how genuine
you are, how remorseful you are, how you also are
driven in performance based and sometimes when we're so driven
from sports performance based, it's sometimes frustrates us and it
puts a lot of pressure and makes us do things
at that moment that at times can be out of character.
(44:45):
But if it happens long, if it happens enough times,
it becomes who we are. And just like anything else,
you know, when you grow up in Detroit, you grew
up in Lexington, grew up in Vegas, you grew up
in Los Angeles. If you're around something and operate a
certain way for so long, it becomes who you are,
good or bad. Right, but you are for tough because
(45:09):
God knew you're gonna be handled handed, these short falls,
these circumstances, these obstacles, getting injured. Having probably one of
the strongest minded and stubborn and general managers presidents known
to the National Football League with Tom Coughlin, And then
(45:32):
you go to the Chicago story book franchise and it
becomes frustrating, not because you can't play it, because you
guys have some beasts. You've got some Pro Bowlers, some
all decade players on your team, and y'all go from
You'll go from uh sugar two blue cheese, right like that.
(45:54):
And so now, man, you've got a chance that some
people will give their left arm for is to rewrite
it and make it right. And I hope you get
that opportunity, and I believe you will, because, like I said,
you built for tough man. You're from one of the
toughest cities out there, right, and you got that opportunity.
So I expect that you will take ass and take names.
(46:20):
I appreciate it, man, and I'm I'm I'm looking forward
to man like like you know this this off season
already for me. You know I has been such a
I got said for it. Man. I'm every day brother,
this physical therapy, stuff, training, I'm locked in man. Man,
love connecting with you. Man. I look forward to see
where you go. You may end up staying in Chicago,
(46:43):
you may not, but man, look forward to it. Um.
I appreciate it, man, you do. You are a unique person.
You are well worth it. You are competent and most
of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard
Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
(47:09):
It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a
production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
(47:30):
to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media
team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media
Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
with production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
(47:54):
Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
You heard about it, then we're about to let you know.
It's all
This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Steve Smith Senior and I'm Little John, And this is
cut to it. Good do it? Good do what they're
getting down to? Do it? Good do it. We asked
the questions you always want to know, but no one
(00:23):
ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard am
about it? Then we're about to let you know. It's
all man, we got a great episode. We got one.
We have one of the premier, premier route runners, right,
(00:47):
he can run some routes. He was in Jacksonville. Uh,
took a nice, pretty good contract, great leadership. In Chicago,
things didn't go well, as you know if you're a
Chicago fan. You saw very quickly. Uh. They went from
sugar to blue cheese really fast. And we're talking about
Allen Robinson and we've got him for a less hopball
(01:08):
episode that I know for sure, really excited about being
able to dig into. You mentioned his tenue with the Jaguars,
more recently his tenue with the Chicago Bears. It's gonna
be a good one. Man. Did you think I was
a little bit hard on him? Na? You never really wow.
But I did have to hold his feet to the
fire on some of these things because I know personally
(01:30):
when you make some professional mistakes how much they can
stick with you. And I love how he owned his
professional mistakes. It's the name of his podcast. Right to It.
We're gonna cut to it. We're getting the right information.
A matter of fact, we're gonna cut to it and
get straight into this anything. How are you doing? Brother?
(01:54):
Welcome to the Cut to It Podcast. I am your
resident Mr nort All, Steve Smith Singer, and then I
got backstage Joe and then my accomplished co host and
one of my best friends, Gerard Little John. Let's talk
ball man. I'm really I'm intrigued to talk ball um.
(02:18):
But I'm also uh, I'm also excited because I can
remember when you were with a long when you're with
an organization and you transition, right you with the Jaguars,
man that was that was your squad, bro. You were
you were putting up big numbers. You know you uh,
you guys were doing well. You took a team that
(02:42):
was doing well. They faltered and then they got two.
They got you, and all of a sudden things changed
and you gave them hope. I knew you crushed their
dreams and you chase that bag? How dare you you
go to Chicago? So I mean, we're gonna why did you?
(03:07):
Why did you sign with the Chicago Bears? Coming out
of coming out of free agency? So coming out of
free agency, Um, for me, personally, I feel like I
got a lot of I thought I had great force
life into my career and kind of you know, the
(03:28):
direction that I wanted to go and things like that.
And seeing who the Bears were bringing in at the time,
you know, to to coach at the quarterback position, and
kind of the culture and the team and style of
play that they were trying to build. I personally saw
that I was a perfect scheme fit for that, you know,
and being able to be moved around, being able to
(03:48):
run different routes, you know. Um, I didn't want to
just be a person who was just running uh go
balls and stops. You don't want to just do that,
huh Nah. I wanted to play in the slide a
little bit, you know. I wanted to get into some
one by three formations and be number three, the number two,
you know, playing the outside a little bit. And I
wanted to be able to to showcase and and and
(04:11):
put my entire skill set to the test. So what
what was what was your thought? And free agency? Are
you coming out? You're going into free agency? You got
We don't. I'm not concerned about it, and we don't
want to mention all the other teams. But you have
(04:32):
some teams and you picked Chicago. But why did you
believe a scheme was important? One? I believe that I
could fit into many different schemes, but to be specific,
from the concepts and from different things that was being ran.
(04:56):
Also with the with with the culture that her other
players even from Kansas City that was being brought in,
I thought that that would be that would be perfect
for me to kind of because at that time I
was coming out for injury as well, so it was
it was me kind of like reiterating who I was
as a player was big and I wanted to and
(05:17):
I wanted to make sure that, you know, I had
the perfect situation for me to be able to do that,
you know, for me to kind of be able to
not reintroduce myself. But when you sit out for a
whole season because of the injury, you know, people tend
to forget, you know, and there's a lot of different
things that kind of you know, go olden people's head.
And for me, I wanted to get into a situation
where I could show it exactly who I was. And
(05:39):
again I could put my skill set and I could
put who I was as a player on display. So
scheme culture. What else was it about the organization that
drew you in to take that trip? Also, Chicago is
close to home. Um, that was another fact that I had.
I had played. I had played far away from home,
not far, but recently far away from home for a
(06:01):
good little while. I think prior to me being in Chicago,
the closest I had played from the driving standpoint was
about seven and a half hours and I was in
college at Penn State, you know. And even even over
the past years for me, this is the most that
my family has been able to come and see me
places high school. So how important has that been now
(06:22):
that you've lived that? Extremely important? Um, extremely important, Um,
especially not to not to fast forward, but especially you
know this past year, you know, being able to you know,
have my family and being able for them to you know,
be be close to me, you know, and being able
to come to games and things like that. You know,
(06:43):
it's a great feeling. You know. Again, I mean it's
it's one thing where you kind of just playing and
kind of you know, experiencing and trying to embrace everything,
you know, by yourself. When you have you know, when
I had my parents and my sister you know, and
some of my friends come into games and things like that.
You know, it's just a different feeling. Man. It's just
(07:03):
it asked a lot more because again, I mean for
me personally, you know, my career and how I look
at my career, I've never looked at it as far
as you know, just me, you know, like like like
every time I put on my jersey, every time I
think about my family, I think about the people who
have been watching me and who've been coming to the
games and in the stand since I was seven years old,
(07:23):
you know, and being able to being able to have that,
be able to have them there, you know a lot,
you know, from my entire time in Chicago, you know,
meant a lot to me, you know, and I think
that we all as a as a family and everything
like that truly embraced that, and and and it was
it's been a great experience. I like it. I'm I'm
(07:46):
impressed on the y take us through. Did you take
any other visits then Chicago? Or you just fell in
love with Chicago like you was a cheap day, cheap date.
I'm not. I didn't take no business. That boy got
(08:06):
that They told you how much money there is gonna pay?
You say, you know it's close to home. It's a
pretty good bag. I'm looking at his backdrop like, you
know what, Shoot, this ain't too bad. I can see
myself here, kick my feet up. I can see myself here.
(08:28):
He took his hat off his he he's like, let
me see if the wind blows him my hair. Right,
just when I went to Baltimore, I did. I just
took my I just see if the wind blowing my scout.
I had lost all my hair by then, so I
ain't think of my business business. Um why my first
(08:51):
time experiencing for it? Well, I didn't know this, but
I mean free agency had it just was going so
fast you start depending not how you expect, like just
kind of sit back and she'll like, you know, let
me like yeah, I'm like, let me see what's over
is now? It's going fast like much fat much faster
(09:12):
than I expected for that being my first time in
free agency. Did you get anti A nervous little bit?
A little bittle bit for sure, A little bit and
more so for me um, more so because again me
coming off my injury going into free agency personally, I mean,
everybody you know tells you, you know, the things you
(09:34):
have people around you, you know, we have a lot
of knowledge of the situation. But you know, deep down
you know you obviously are hoping for the best situation
and best scenario. But I tell everybody when you when
you're sitting up there in a in a knee brace,
and as the season is progressing about the end, you know,
you don't have no idea what's gonna be there. You know,
(09:54):
you have no idea the situation and circumstances, no idea.
So for me, Um, I definite it was a little
empty when it kind of came down to it. But
you know, as as it as it progressed, you know,
um Um definitely definitely calmed down a little bit. So
you you were sitting in a knee brace, You're sitting
around m M psychologically what we're what was going on
(10:16):
internally for you as you sustained the major injury to
some degree. There's there's probably some question of what I
returned back to me. Then you gotta inswer free agency.
Then you gotta enter free agency. What was going on inside?
Give us the real don't give it. Don't don't don't
give us the agent. Uh you know. I'm just You're
(10:38):
gonna get the best version of Alan Robinson after this
injury that you possibly can. Like, I want to know
how you did your interviews. No, you just I just
hear the guys. I see I hear some of the
guys now and they that's what they're saying. I'm going
that that ain't the real answer when you're sitting there
in a knee brace with you know, eighteen six months
into the injury, and you get up in the early
(11:02):
morning because you got a pee and you take a
step and something goes your negos. Boy, you ain't ready yet.
I said this the day because I got injured. The
third play of the season. I had one catch for
I think eighteen yards and it was my contract year
and I was in the locker room and I specifically
(11:24):
room this. I'm sitting at my locker and mind you,
the game is still going on, and I looked up
and I SAILF. I said, I'm gonna get myself five
minutes to grief. And after that five minutes, I said,
I'm putting that past everything From this point forward, it's
gonna be it's gonna be getting myself back to who
(11:47):
and what I need to be, because I knew I
couldn't let myself go this go to the left, you know,
and also I didn't want and I and I specifically
remember this as well, right after my mom called on me, um,
and then my mom asked me like, how are you?
And I can hear the pain in her voice, you know,
(12:07):
and when she heard me say like I'm good, like
I'm good, I'm gonna be good. I could tell that
that like took any kind of anxiety or anything off
of her as well, which is something like I said before, Man,
my family is very very close to me, you know,
And and even in those times, if you kind of
got to be the strength of everybody you know around you,
(12:27):
because again people people are living the same thing like
through you, you know, from my mom, my dad, my sister.
So for me, it was I couldn't let myself be
down for the people around me to just see me down,
you know, because that wasn't gonna do nothing for me.
So when that so in that I put that past. Man.
From then on, it was just kind of getting to work,
you know. And even as you're kind of progressing that,
you know, you still don't know exactly what and how
(12:51):
you'll be when that time comes. And I've been watching
games and seeing dudes make cuts. You know, I'm still
mind you like I'm fresh off of crutches, you know,
and I'm like, damn, that's that's a hell of a cutting. Then,
you know what I'm saying, You have that in your heads,
and it's like but once you kind of, you know,
start to get back on the field and you still progress.
You know sometimes when injuries like that, you know, the
(13:11):
small winds are the ones that you gotta take, you know,
until you back. Yeah, when you talk about injuries, you know,
it's so hard because each individual guy, the significance of
his injury is is it's worse or or easier better
(13:33):
than the next. Right, And here you say you gave
yourself five minutes, man. I mean I remember if I
would have said, man, I give myself five man, when
I tore my Achilles in Baltimore, bro I woke up
the next day like it must have been a dream,
and I took that step and I in the floor
(13:54):
felt like flat with arch in it. No, that wasn't
a dream, that that thing't really happened, right, And so
I had a whole like that. I toured, I felt it,
I went to sleep, woke up, I was like, yeah, no,
it was real, and so for me it started all
(14:16):
over again. And then when I was rehabbing, I had
those you know, I had those guy moments where Lord,
I need your help because I don't think I'm strong
enough to do this right. That's just me, right, I
I had accomplished so many things and I played well enough,
but I had that doubt in my head and I struggled.
(14:40):
I worked as hard as I could, and that still
was not gonna fix my achilles. And that was new
to me. That was a different that was a that's
a different place. I've never been in that place. So
it's y I'll say this honestly, and again not the
fast forward too much, but it's you, it's your story.
(15:04):
I actually I probably would say this year tough room
than that year. Why that year I felt like once I,
once I got hurt, it was about me kind of
controlling everything that I could control. It was I said,
(15:28):
you were in the driver's seat, and it was just
more so like you know, like I said before, once
I got hurt, it said, okay, like well this is
what I could do when these is kind of steps.
So it's like not that I don't have a choice,
but it's like this is this is where I'm at,
this is word's going as opposed to this year, I
felt it was so much out of my control. And
for me as a person, anybody who knows me knows
(15:50):
anything that bothers me the most, frustrates me the most,
causes me to be most angry or anything is things
that I cannot control. Oh that's life. If I can't
control it. If I can control it, I'm good. If
I drop a ball, I'm good. I can control that.
I could, I can make another play, I can improve fear,
I can do this, I can do that. But now
(16:11):
once you start factoring in things that's out of my control,
now you really start missing you know what I'm saying.
Now it's now it's frustration. So how is that? How's
that working out for you? Right now. Then if if
you are good with control, but you are struggling with
not control things, because I mean, I know you're you're
a fantastic football player, but I mean outside of that,
(16:37):
there's pretty much nothing else, Like there's a let's say,
if if the list is a thousand, there's probably twenty things.
I'll give you eighty. Hell, I give you a hundred
things you can control. Then there's about what about some things?
You got the illusion of control? Yes? So how are
you You know you don't have control over everything? Like
(16:59):
that's life? Are you? Are you a parent yet? Yes? Oh?
How many kids you guys? Okay? How how old is
your boy? Girl? Three? Three? He's three, she's just Oh
she's a girl. Brother. Let me tell you something. Buckle up.
(17:19):
If you she's controlling you, yeah, she not. Not Again,
I'm speaking in terms of more so specifically football. I
understand what you're conceptually, I understand what you're attempting to
talk about, but I'm telling you we're talking about life.
Who you are beyond the football player. You can control
(17:41):
the route you're gonna run after they tell you what
route you're running. Isn't that fair to say? All right?
So you you're trying to control after you get on
the bus, right, and so that's so, would you say
that type of that thought process soured the relationship with
(18:03):
you being in Chicago, because here's what I and before
you answer, I'll let you steal on that. It was
a report after losing the playoff game that you didn't
speak to your head coach from January until July. How
(18:24):
is that possible and why do you why did you
believe that that was appropriate? Now this old g talking
to you, this ain't. I know you feel like it's
okay to do that, but I'm telling you as a
people that are listening to this, and people that see
football players, bro, they don't care about your feelings. You're
(18:45):
getting paid a king's ransom. With the bag you've received
and the bags that I received. We both have lived
a thousand lifestyles of kings. And you've got people that
are paying from Flint, Michigan, to Los Angeles to Charlotte
(19:05):
that are to go to one game in a whole year,
they may have to save up six months of their
salaries or six months off the hourly wage SALD payments
of jobs. How many burgers they've had to flip, how
many investments they've had to do, how many cars they've
had to park, whatever it is that they had to do.
(19:26):
And you over here ain't talking to your supervisor, a
person that God has put in your life as as
someone that you're supposed to report to. You ain't talked
to him for six, seven, eight months. Why now, if
I could correct you a little bit, I wasn't there.
(19:48):
I would sleep actually that I didn't talk to him.
We didn't talk, I like I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say,
we didn't talk. Because from the time the season ended
on the plane after the Saints game, right the following
or four day hours of some form of exit meetings
(20:08):
for us because of COVID that was supposed to be
scheduled with the with the head coach and management or
however they were coordinating that with that via zoom. Talk
to the receiver, coach, talk to equipment, everybody else. A
few days go by, no zoom link, we go by zoom.
So let me ask you hold on now, let me
(20:32):
see hold up your right here go like this. He's oh,
they work, I know you know the text, So you
couldn't You couldn't text them now honestly, No, you couldn't
text nahel like you couldn't know why didn't you? No,
(20:52):
it wasn't not feel like I couldn't. It's just at
that Okay, we're having exit meetings where you normally talk
about yeah, just just just to put hold on before
you answer, just to put my cell on. Frustrate man,
I didn't do no damn max and meet. I wouldn't
for what I need to excu met for. I know
I'll be back next year. Y'all get your ship together.
(21:14):
So I'm just telling you what I did. So I'm
not I'm not coming from a how dare you I'm
coming from I never did exit meeting. I didn't need
to do on the exit meet y'all know what y'all
need to do. Agent A not run his route, y'all
give me some guys that I can play with, and
y'all blocking. Hey, we're good. So I didn't need no
excit meeting. I didn't even clean out my lockers. Hell,
I'll need to clean up my locker. I'll be here
(21:35):
next week. So so so I'm saying all that to
to to tell you, one man, you're help. You don't
have the reputation I have. You have a stellar reputation.
Your reputation is you're even killed due that. You're a
hard worker like me, you're a grinder. But the difference
(21:57):
that I don't have that the luxury you have is
you don't have a reputation of being a distraction. I do,
and I'm willing to own it. But when you don't
talk to your coach, when you don't when you don't
take the initial step and your daddy, your leader, when
(22:18):
you don't take that initial step, you can't expect other
men who may be lacking in something to take that
step in which is made for you to be responsible,
to take that step. Because that wide receiver's room, who's
the leader in that wide receiver's room? Okay, because I
want to call Mike and ask him now because I
know what he's gonna tell me, right you, So why
(22:41):
did you not take that step to show them? Yeah
you're upset, Yeah you're disappointed, but also also, squad, let's
get on the same page so we could be better,
so this doesn't happen next year. And at that point
it was, I mean, I was, I was a opinion
(23:03):
and free agent. At that point, I didn't know which
direction they were wanting to go in either way or not.
So for me, I'm waiting for the exit meetings. So okay,
so we could talk about this thing. What's what's you
know what I'm saying, like, like what do y'all see
or thinking the foreseeable future? Just to give me an idea.
(23:23):
So for me, if it's supposed to be a zoom
link sent out to me, cool, all right, I'm waiting
for that zoom link. So now we can chop it
up and see, you know, see what's up even from
even from a football side, from how do we improve
on next year? And I'm we go by no zoom
link two weeks, no zoom January? Now weary and no
(23:49):
did you show me? Ask you this? Then let me
reverse it. You and a lot of you ain't for
a lot of folks to call. You're gonna let them
know that you got this lot of ticket. You're gonnat Okay.
I just want to make sure. I just want to
make sure. And the reason I'm saying that is I
got to go back to your character. This is out
of character for you. Why I see you snicker? I
(24:15):
see you snicker because what is your character. Well, I
I thought, we don't trial, so I was. I was.
I was testifying for him because every time I'm trying
to pick under rocks and and talk to people and
they have nothing but great things to say about them,
but they also say this behavior was so out of
character that they're trying to figure out why and how.
(24:39):
And that's why I'm trying to figure out why how,
Because you got when you leave or stay there, got
you got fans that are gonna say, man, I love
what he did on the field, and I love how
I interacted with him in a community, and I'm gonna
ride with him whichever way. But you gotta clarify and
figure out and and and decode the anat I was
(25:01):
for this. That's this time that didn't get the zoom link.
Because you are a leader, I'm saying it. I don't
know if Matt Naggy was the right leader for this team,
but if you have the right leadership in the locker
room like you are a part of, you can always
overcome the best schemes or the improvement needed in coaching.
(25:30):
And I agree, and to move forward at that point
in time and kind of how the season win and
the conversations that were had. You know, I didn't know
if they wanted me to continue to lead. Mhm. So
for me, I wasn't gonna call him and ask him
to y'all do y'all want me to do? Y'all want
(25:52):
hey like like like, what's up? What's y'all planning? To
y'all need to leave? Because to me, it seemed as
if their message was clear mm hmm. You know I mean,
because again, it wasn't like you know, it wasn't like
I said I was gonna call this person and didn't.
To me, I didn't know if they wanted me to
lead or not once we get her, once the time progresses.
(26:14):
You know, I don't get I don't I never get
that zoom like me and me and coach never chop
it up. Mind you. And as a person who this
is my everything prior to this point, this is my
guy from why why why was he a guy? What
it from day one? What did he tell you and I?
And this isn't I would say. And before you say it,
take a deep breath. I want you to say. I
(26:37):
want you to explain to the fans football relationships because
I don't want you to talk about him and attack
his character who he is as a man. I want
you to talk about his character and your character as
a man, because that sometimes a lot of fans are
understand not all, Not every coach conducts himself was as
(27:00):
a professional man, just like not every football player conducts
themselves as a professional man. There are times I conducted
myself as a immature little punk in my football career
there and then there's other times where I was a hotheaded,
mature but immature businessman. And for me and him, since
(27:27):
they want our coach to player relationship and communication have
been great since since since the time I stepped footing
that do it greater powerful world. And when I say great,
I mean as far as concepts that we running, concepts
that you know we kind of that he may have
saw me run in Jacksonville. Are certain things as far
(27:50):
as how could we make this thing get better? And
how can we be better? You know constantly, you know,
that was that was the focus. Okay, what are you
seeing here? What are you seeing there? Or you know,
certain plays you know, even if we're in a little
as a as a as an offense or as a team,
you know, we're still talking. You know, how you feeling
about this, how you feeling about the sort of communication
(28:11):
had always been there. So so what your tap Let
me summarize it. So what you're telling me is you
were part of the process and and then it seemed
possibly you would be transitioning out of there. You are
unaware of where you stood, and so now you felt
that you were no longer part of the process. Yes,
(28:36):
so when the think and as my time as my
contract is ending, because again after that season, um, I
had played on my contract, so as that's ending, you know,
obviously I'm a free agent with the cap you know,
going down how it did last year, I had no
idea at all what the circumstances of it was going
(28:59):
to be. Know once we get you know, past the time, Okay,
is it possible it's a franchise tag? Possible in things
like this is so many different things based on the
cap and things like that. To where as it wasn't
like it was any kind of you know, conclusion that
was gonna be foresaw, you know, it just was okay,
Like again, I'm not I haven't communicated or haven't heard
(29:20):
from this person. You know, nobody's you know, my agent
hasn't heard anything. So up until an hour before the
franchise tag deadline, I thought I was gonna be a
free action. And with that being, if I'm a freient
and that is the case, then okay, that's cool. It's
(29:40):
no hard feelings, does no anything. But it's not you know,
I didn't feel as if I should call and say hey,
like like like, where's the contract? You know what we're
gonna do. It's like cool if y'all want me to
be a free agent, y'all want me to be a
free agent, like there's nothing else I could do about that,
Like I can't. I can't make y'all not make me
a free agent. You know, you you you got a
(30:02):
little antie frustrated with the process because you are no
longer part of process, which meant ultimately he was out
of he was out of his comfort zone because of
the you weren't in control of it anymore. A little
bit frustrated. Yes, I also think that I'm a type
(30:24):
person where if if the next chapter was gonna be
me being a free agent, I was good with it.
And when I said I was good with that, I
you know, at this time last year, cool if if
if if my contract isn't gonna be extended or if
we aren't working through any of that. I don't have
any gripe. I don't have any hard feelings. I don't
have I also don't think if I'm about to be
(30:45):
a free agent and it's nothing for me to communicate
to it's like I mean to me, it was, you know,
they were speaking through actions or whatever the case may be,
with the lack of communication anything, because again, this is
a league where even when I left Jacksonville, before I left,
I talked to at that time it was Tom Coffling,
(31:07):
the GM and coach Maron. We had a great conversation.
Ultimately I didn't sign back um for whatever reason. But
it wasn't that, you know, it was just Okay, we
don't know what's going on. We don't hear nothing, haven't
heard nothing anything. And then once that point hit, I'm like, Okay,
well I guess I guess the writings on the wall. Well.
The other part is you also gotta you are at
(31:29):
a disadvantage. You had one of the best communicators, whether
you liked his message and or not, with Tom Coughlin, right,
and I said, best communication where you knew what he stood.
I don't agree with how he said it, but at
least you knew where you still like you weren't walking
in You weren't walking in the office going I think
he likes me. You had the benefit of communication. Yeah,
you too much communication, almost a little bit like you're
(31:52):
walking there you go, man, I wonder how you staying?
You walk out there go. I know, I'm out this,
I'm out this booch what in the end, And that
was the last. That was the only kind of experience
that I had with my contract ending and about to
be dependent Stace. I love cut to It, and I
(32:16):
love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you
can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
(32:38):
where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
answers questions, Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a
Podcast dot Com. You didn't have a lot of history
(32:58):
but the past history with Acteville and Tom Coughlan was this,
and so now you come to a new organization and
it's slightly different, right, and your temperament and what expectations
and how things were in the beginning and everything changed,
and so you you tried to maneuver through it the
(33:20):
best you could. Wasn't the best, wasn't the worst. Definitely
have seen worst car crashes. Right, So now you're in
you're going through the season. I believe you had got
you you got COVID right, um, y'all draft some linemen
that can't play, you get you get a quarterback that's
(33:43):
a dynamic and man, you you out there, you're not
catching any passes? How do how do we go from
coming off a two back to back? How wow? Shorts
to that boy? You went from a locomotive a G
(34:05):
five to a truck. Yeah. Yeah, And you know that
was a lot of frustration that you know was going
on through the course of the season because I had
saw how I was used and how they were deploying
me to defenses and years prior. Hold on, hold on,
(34:28):
dumb that down for some of us, right, simplify that,
what do you mean you the years before you were
being used as what the number one to go to
or decoy? Yes, yes, okay. Concepts that were that we're
running you know, um where I have been maybe at
(34:51):
number two in this concept based on this defensitive like
that like again I'm not I'm not running it, you know,
or it may be an example like I went. One
of our main one of our heavier concepts was deep cross.
You know, I go through seventeen games and I don't
run a deep cross the entire season. So okay, so
how do you handle that? Don't don't tell me about what.
(35:13):
They don't tell me about what. Yeah, they didn't let you.
They didn't allow you to run anymore deep crosses. And
the reason why they don't allow you run anymore deep
crosses because they had some other receivers that they wanted
to get the ball too. Because of limitations of things.
How they changed. Right, if you run that deep cross,
(35:34):
then the young fresh lad guy that they want to showcase, right,
and I call that artificially making that guy the playmaker. Right,
They put him in position to make him run the
route that they know as the first read, and long behold,
he is the first read they throw it to him,
(35:54):
how are you handling now seen they sleep, your career
change in front of you on the field. It was
it was extremely frusture, and it was something to where
as you know, for me, I never I didn't want
(36:15):
to devalue the character and the person and player who
I've you know, worked and built myself to be that
I am, you know by my frustration, you know. And
I also didn't want to be a distraction and take
away from what the ultimate tasks and gold is at hand,
(36:37):
which is to you know, win games, to have a
top five offense, and to do these things. But at
the same time, when it's like when I obviously see
my role changing and I'm not being use how I
happen prior, and you know, we're also as we're going
through the course of the season where a bottom three offense,
(36:57):
you know, it's hard to it's hard to just accept that.
That was the hardest thing was just to be content
with what was going on and how it was happening,
and to just sit there and just you know, be
content with you know, so let me ask you, you
had COVID now I should wrestle reports that ah, you
(37:17):
lost weight. The reason where you are I'm asking you
weren't utilized and you weren't featured anymore because you had
COVID or because you believe things were changing for whatever reason,
because I believe things were things were changing, and it
(37:37):
and it happens, though it does happen for for whatever
reason you want. Right. One thing about football people don't
really realize, right, there's a few positions that age doesn't factor.
Actually age factors in in kind of the concept of wine.
As you get older in the National Football leagu the
(38:00):
only two positions that allow you to get older, and
they don't unless something drastic happens. They don't really look
at you like you. The plague is quarterback. As you
get older, quarterback, you get more money. You look you're
actually um valued more as you will become an older quarterback,
(38:21):
especially ones that actually can read defenses right and who
can retain information and and be able to construct and
deconstructing offense. I can tell you to contained offense from
the back of their hands. And kickers, that's it. Running backs,
you get older, you hit thirty, may get out of here.
Wire receivers tight ends, I get out of here. The
(38:42):
market changes. All that market changing in the NFL. The
younger you are, the more money you make. Every year
you get older, They're going, man, we gotta get him
out of here. He because the old adages you're either
getting better or you're getting worse. But they need to
throw that other one in there is what one year
older means one year closer to retirement from from their perspective, fishing.
(39:08):
So as things are changing, how do you believe from
your standpoint, let's let's play Devil's advocate. Do you believe
the way you operated and allowed your frustration to get
the best of you. Do you believe you could have
handled it better sitting in front of me today? Communication wise? Yeah?
(39:31):
I think so? Um explain explain the communication wise because
what I don't want you to do is make it
all you know. I think I think in the society
we are right now, athletes don't want to take ownership.
I know the hell I didn't when I was playing.
It was always somebody else's fault. Right again, I'm just
I'm just exposing myself. Right, what could you have done
(39:59):
to improve? Because you are not going to not be
on the team next year, But people are gonna ask
what happens when Alan Robinson is not getting his past
is can he handle the mental adjustments of football? Because
he showed us or we heard in Chicago little adversity
(40:21):
he from Michigan, but I don't know if he really
fall tough. Yeah. And for me, like I said, based
on the communication maybe offseason wives or something like that, Yeah,
I think that could have been better. I think once
we got to the season, with all this frustration and
stuff that was going on, the only way that I
(40:41):
know is this year I practiced harder. I tried to
I tried to perfect more of my crab just based
on the simple factor the opportunities if they were going
to be limited, the ones that I was gonna get,
I tried to make sure that I was ready to
be able to take full advantage of those opportunities with
(41:03):
the ones that were being dealt. Obviously, you know, you
get a game like Cincinnati game where I have a drop,
you know, but that's that's not even you know, for me,
it's it's it's ball, you know what I'm saying. Players
like that, Yeah, yeah, you can always take some place back.
And for me as a player, I'm always trying to
critique myself on how I could be better. So if
that was even this year, even on certain routes, if
(41:25):
you'll come back to the huddle in practice or whatever,
you know, whether if it's Andy or Nick or whoever's
in in or not in and watching, I'm you know,
trying to communicate them, Yo, what are you seeing? What
do you think I could do better here? Which I
could do better here? Rather that's you know, cut, you
just split a little bit on this, on this, on
this boot to the right, so that maybe you could
get you know, in the quarterback vision a little bit better.
(41:46):
Maybe you can you know, things like that. I tried
to make sure that I would communicate to those guys
and you know, um and really kind of leaned on
my teammates some of that to just kind of say
like yo, like like what you think? What do you
think about this round? You know, even even some of
the other guys in the room you know where I'm
we're watching film or some of you know, what you
think here? What you think here? Acting the quarterbacks? What
you think here? What you think here? Because I just
wanted to maximize the opportunities that I was gonna have,
(42:09):
no matter how frustrating it may have been. You mentioned
before um, the next chapter. How are you approaching the
next chapter in your life? Now? I can say, man,
I'm looking forward to it from a standpoint that years
like this for me make it special because you remember
(42:31):
why you play the game. And I'm sitting here in January,
whatever it is, and I'm looking forward to it. Man,
I can't. I can't. I can't wait to you know,
get to work and and start to you know, build
for next year, you know, and because again for me,
it's like you said before, man, coming off of two
(42:53):
thousand yard seasons, coming off of two hundred catches. You know,
I was looking to continue to a sin you know,
from from a number's perspective obviously, but as a player
as well, and for me, you know, based on whatever
the circumstances is or was, you know, That's what I
have to sit with throughout this entire offseason, which again
(43:15):
I'm not. Am I frustrated with it? Yeah? Am I
mad at it? No? And the reason why I'm not
mad at it is because that that fire, you know,
it's lit. You know. Every time I go to work out,
every time I'm getting some pt, you know, I got
a goal and mission in mind. Well, listen, I appreciate
you taking that time to kind of break it down.
(43:36):
Un let's talk ball, because I think it's extremely important
for not just our fans, your fans, but people are
here the knowledge and also the emotional side of playing football. Listen,
I'm I'm the worst case studying on the man kind
is well. I think it's probably some worst people that
(43:58):
we're not gonna mention the names that it's nobody right.
But I understand your frustration. But I also think you
you have a You have an opportunity that some men
don't get. You got an opportunity to rewrite it now. Right. Yeah,
what you did or what you said, or how you
behaved may turn a few people off, but when they
(44:22):
get you in the building and they see how genuine
you are, how remorseful you are, how you also are
driven in performance based and sometimes when we're so driven
from sports performance based, it's sometimes frustrates us and it
puts a lot of pressure and makes us do things
at that moment that at times can be out of character.
(44:45):
But if it happens long, if it happens enough times,
it becomes who we are. And just like anything else,
you know, when you grow up in Detroit, you grew
up in Lexington, grew up in Vegas, you grew up
in Los Angeles. If you're around something and operate a
certain way for so long, it becomes who you are,
good or bad. Right, but you are for tough because
(45:09):
God knew you're gonna be handled handed, these short falls,
these circumstances, these obstacles, getting injured. Having probably one of
the strongest minded and stubborn and general managers presidents known
to the National Football League with Tom Coughlin, And then
(45:32):
you go to the Chicago story book franchise and it
becomes frustrating, not because you can't play it, because you
guys have some beasts. You've got some Pro Bowlers, some
all decade players on your team, and y'all go from
You'll go from uh sugar two blue cheese, right like that.
(45:54):
And so now, man, you've got a chance that some
people will give their left arm for is to rewrite
it and make it right. And I hope you get
that opportunity, and I believe you will, because, like I said,
you built for tough man. You're from one of the
toughest cities out there, right, and you got that opportunity.
So I expect that you will take ass and take names.
(46:20):
I appreciate it, man, and I'm I'm I'm looking forward
to man like like you know this this off season
already for me. You know I has been such a
I got said for it. Man. I'm every day brother,
this physical therapy, stuff, training, I'm locked in man. Man,
love connecting with you. Man. I look forward to see
where you go. You may end up staying in Chicago,
(46:43):
you may not, but man, look forward to it. Um.
I appreciate it, man, you do. You are a unique person.
You are well worth it. You are competent and most
of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard
Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
(47:09):
It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a
production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
(47:30):
to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media
team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media
Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
with production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
(47:54):
Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
You heard about it, then we're about to let you know.
It's all
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.