February 2, 2021 • 57 mins
Cut To It with the rookie and the vet. Find out the moment that caused Steve’s career to become one of the greatest in NFL history, and the ways Panthers linebacker Jeremy Chinn hopes to do the same.
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Episode Transcript
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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 a little John and this
is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
That's getting down to do it, Good do it. We
asked the questions you always want to know, but no
(00:22):
one 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 this story has never been told. Let's go
what's on your mind? What's on your mentor? So, what's
(00:44):
all my mentor is? We usually don't we usually don't.
We usually do evergreen, But this is gonna be stapled
with we're gonna marry this with a panther, So we're
gonna go with a Carolina panther. Insider Moose and Smitty,
(01:06):
Uh conversation. So a conversation when you and Mousie mohammed, Yeah,
pull it. You're pulling this out the archives in the crates.
This is actually I'll say this start off. Moose is
like my big brother. We were super competitive, uber uber competitive.
But there were times where I got on moose nerves
(01:29):
and Moose got on my nerves as as what happens
when in brotherhoods. So my rookie wasn't my rookie year,
my second year, one of my years. Uh. Actually Moose
didn't know it, but Moose kind of made me who
I was, who who I am today and high Win
is UM coach Richard Williamson was. He was always tough
(01:53):
on me, always tough and um one day in his
wife Norma, Uh, I loved them, love her she you know,
speak to her. I never can say anything negative towards Richard.
He always pushed me to places that I didn't want
to go, and that's the sign of a great coach.
(02:17):
But on this day, Richard was the offensive coordinator. Mike
McCoy was the wide receiver's coach. Mike McCoy was the
head coach of the same seven UM offense coordinator for
Denver Broncos when UH coach As McDaniels became head coach,
and then he became head coach of San Diego Chargers
and now he's just at the house chilling. So one day, um,
(02:42):
so this was my rookie here one day, running the
wrong routes, old West Coast offense. I came from a
number system out of college and Richard Williamson grabbed me
and kind of like talked down to me. He was
a coach, but he talked down to me and told
me how he felt about me that day. That day
(03:04):
he didn't feel really good about me, and he kind
of grabbed me and it rubbed me the wrong way.
And when he grabbed me, you know, uh, I want
to say I blanked out, but I was getting close
to grabbing him, and Mike kind of like stepped in
between us, and you know, and Richard was cussing and
(03:27):
I said a few choice worst as well. Um, I know,
big surprise and um, but Moose did something that just
kind of got to me. And Moose said, man, you
from Cali. You're supposed to be one of them Cali dudes.
You like that old man do that to you, And
Moose just poured it on. So my mom is one
(03:48):
of thirteen, and I have an uncle named Tim who's
maybe six or eight years older than me, but he's
like my big brother. Um. He actually he got kicked
out of the house from my grandfather, um, my grandpa Alfred.
He actually when I was in when I was young,
he actually lived. He was my roommate, no, and when
(04:10):
he was going to high school and so he's like
ten years older than me. So I was like a
first or second grade and I'm rooming with a dude
that's a senior in high school. Super odd, right, But
you know that's just how it is a close family.
And why is uncle Tim coming into the picture? Well,
(04:32):
Moose hit me with that, and I just hit it
didn't sit well with me, and I took my time
coming home and I remember parking in the driveway and
I called him. I had texted him and I called him, Well,
I actually chirped him because and so he called me.
He's like, what's up? And I told him what happened,
(04:55):
and I told him how Moose and kind of like,
you know how he played this played up the situation
in a in a on the field in the locker room,
and I just remember crying and I was really emotional
about it. And my uncle said, well, you know, Steven, um,
(05:18):
this isn't Steven. I know, first of all, why are
you crying like this? And I explained it to him
and he was like, well, you still haven't told me
why you're crying like this, because that's not to Steven.
I know, this is not the callie, it's not the
it's not the family member, the kid that I know.
(05:39):
And his response really challenged me. He was he was
not empathetic sympathetic one bit. But what was really cool
is I remember he said, so, what are you gonna
do about it? I was like, what you mean? He said,
what the funk are you gonna do about it? And
I remember I was like, you know what, all right?
(06:01):
He said, no, I want you to tell me. And
I said, well, He's like, the best thing you can
do to get back at Moose is what I don't like.
You know, you're all emotional. I don't know what was asked.
You know, he's He's like, no, what can you do?
From that day forward, moose challenge they ignited me to
(06:25):
the point of and again I say this, really I
have a great relationship with Moose. But what Moose doesn't
understand is Moose created me because when I got off,
when I got off the phone, the things that I
said to my uncle is which I lived every day,
which is my goal was to remove Moose off every
(06:49):
category in the wire receiver's record books. For the Carolina Panthers.
My goal was to when they say Carolina Panthers wire
receiver Moosie Mohammed's name is not to be mentioned. And
from that day forward, whatever Moose did, my goal was
to do it better. If he caught one pass one
(07:10):
one hand, I want to catch twen. If he called
two first downs, I want to catch twenty. If he
finished with twenty yards of yak, I want to catch
with forty. Every single day from that day forward, my
goal was to remove Moose from the record books. And
there's only gonna be one name my every single day
(07:36):
for four or five years, it didn't matter. Smiled at him,
I loved him still. It's still a colleague, right, But
my goal was to remove him from the record books.
And the crazy part is because at that moment he
challenged me and didn't know it, and he invented me
(08:00):
and every day after that. Because when I first came out,
I was seven in college, so I wanted eighty seven
and I asked him. He was like, go see some Well,
I mean I didn't know any better, but you know, also,
all you can do is tell me no. So I
was like, all right, cool, And so what's crazy is
(08:21):
you know? No, nobody really knows that the one person
that really knows it. And he told me he never
he said, never tell him that story. Mr Risa told
me Moose did not. Don't ever tell Moose that he
created you. So he didn't even know that. Now he
doesn't even know that. He probably here because you know
they're they're probably running. But the fact of the matter is,
(08:44):
that's the reason why it went so hard. That's why
I never really got along with anybody. My goal was
seeking destroy, remove, eradicate. That's what happened. I was saying,
that's what you did. That's what I did. Not respect Moose.
Love Moose, but from a competitive from a competitive standpoint,
(09:05):
competitive standpoint, you didn't have a chance. And it's crazy,
and a lot of people don't know that. Well, I
don't have a follow up to that, you nailed it. No,
what am I supposed to say to that? The crazy
part now, and here's that he's gonna like, fuck no,
(09:25):
I mean, but you gotta respect it. You gotta respect it.
So yeah, but it was cool because my uncle tell me.
He challenged me, he said, what are you gonna do?
But both dudes did yeah, right, yeah, but he he
challenged me. I guess my uncle challenged me because I
knew the relationship, right, Me and Moose plays golf and
with all that stuff. At some point probably here here,
(09:47):
that's it. He'll be like, So if I wouldn't have
did you're telling me? Yeah, thanks Moose, appreciate it. Appreciate
your Moose. Thank you. Akona Madonna. So, hey, who is going?
Actually we got Jeremy Chen. That's where we have. It's
a Panther podcast today, will cut to it coming upon
(10:10):
the cut to a podcast. We've got Jeremy Chin, a
second round pick for the Carolina Panthers, the only defensive
player to have scored touchdowns on consecutive plays. He's a
two time NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month Award winner
and a star in the making. Jeremy Chen on the
Cut to It podcast, Yeah for sure, thanks telling me on. Alright,
(10:35):
So our first segment is called get Iced Up. It's
our version of Icebreakers. You play for the Panthers. You're
familiar with ice up son and all that stuff, but
this is our version of icebreakers. So their random questions
might be a follow up, might not be. These are
all selected at random. So Smithie, go ahead and get first.
Get iced up question. Alright, buckle up, buttercup, there we go.
(10:55):
So you must lose a body part? Which one? Which
body part are you gonna lose that you feel you
can lose and comfortably operate through the world after this
A body part, probably arm or something arm. Maybe it
got to be limb. I don't care. I'm not doing
(11:19):
I'm trying to figure out. You still going to be
able to make your money on one leg? Look what
I said, arm, not leg? On, you said, I said,
I said, yeah, we record this, Yeah, we we can go.
We can go into the hood too. Now he said
leg he said, I'm keeping my legs. I'll stay on.
(11:43):
If I had to choose, I mean between between, yeah,
you can. You can take the arm, all right, I'm
a husband. But if I had to choose, I'm a
husband and the father. So I'm gonna take the easy
right out. Just take one of my ears. I'm good,
just the ear chest finger anythink about my answer now
(12:16):
I'm stunking one on. Yeah, but here's here's the problem,
Jeremy defensive players. Yeah, I think quick, you just just
re react. He reacted. Now he's walking around right. Uh.
Favorite rookie moment. This past season. My favorite rookie moment
(12:40):
would probably be my first dug in l A. Yeah,
what about that? Was? It is my first win? Like
we lost to States and then went out to l A,
my first time out in l A, my first time
out west period. Um, and just getting a win on
the road and the plane ride back on memorable. Got
(13:02):
you your favorite breakfast food? Uh? Specifically? Okay, what's in
your I got onions, mushrooms, Uh, spinach, sausage, they can sometimes. Okay,
(13:23):
there's a lot of stuff in that. It did that
sounds like that I was eating that every morning. Really, Okay,
let's just jump right into it. You know, um, growing up?
What what sports? What different sports did you play? We're
gonna play basketball, football, and soccer? Track m Okay, what
(13:46):
position did you play in soccer? I don't know. I
was I was young. I was at the running around,
so I don't know. I was just cluster to the right,
cluster to the left. Everybody, let me let me run around?
All right? Now, the streets say that you can you
can hoop, and that you got some pretty memorable dunks
(14:08):
that you got. Don't care, Yeah, I don't. I don't
know if I still got him all, but yeah, I
got a few. Okay, I can't get up. Look he
chees it. We know some people with the horn it man.
So if you gotta, you know, stretch some rolls, we'll
make some phone calls. Look, I can do that. That's okay,
that's perfectly fine. We can do that. Who's your favorite
(14:29):
team growing up? The Patients? Jermaine O'Neil, Reggie Miller, Danny Granger, Um,
Jamal Tensley, m all those guys. M his his his
little Hamsters running Danny Granger. Yeah, Stephen Jackson was on
those teams, even Jackson, Yeah, run out of test. Where
(14:51):
are you from and the place you call your hometown.
I'm from Fisher's, Indiana, and I called claud Fisher, Indiana
my hometown. The wearest Fishers you know. Related to say,
the combine in Indiapolis's. Indianapolis is about ten minutes ten
(15:13):
minutes from from from Indianapolis, probably about from from the stadium,
fifteen and twenty from the stadium. Yeah, so you just
kind of on the outskirts. Yeah, yeah, okay, the small
little suburb then. Yeah, so growing up in Indiana, how
did it influence you today? Growing up in Indiana, especially
(15:37):
playing football, Like, not a lot of people from Indiana
make it out playing football. Well, this is a really
big basketball state, So playing football here in Indiana, you
kind of gotta make it the hard way. You know,
there's not a lot of five star recruits you hear
about coming from Indiana. When you say make it the
hard way, what do you mean make it the hard way?
Because everybody this version of hard way is is different. Yeah,
(16:00):
I would say, m you already just counted out, like
you from Florida. Um, you know this school is here
in the state of any of that just go to Florida.
The recruit like, they don't even look at Indiana. So
I mean that's just yeah, it's just already like all right,
they're just looking past this already. I heard a lot
of good stories rast some research on you on your
relationship with your folks and how impactful they were throughout
(16:23):
your life. Um, you know, kind of walk us through that.
You know, we hear sometimes we hear, oh my, my
folks were uh influential. Um, And I think sometimes that's
the answer that a lot of times we don't get
the we don't get the opportunity to follow up on
to heal, to hear the details of how they impact,
(16:48):
how they influenced you. So walk us through, you know,
love on your folks, man, tell us what what did
they instill in you? Um, that impact you? Uh you
know to be Jeremy. I don't know you personally. All
I know is what I've seen on a football field
and what I mean on tape. Uh, you know, preparing
(17:10):
last year for the combine and seeing what kind of
player you are. Um, those instincts, Uh, that smile, that
infectious smile, that that um active football player you are.
I know you. You know you can't take all the
credit um. Um. So obviously you know you've been coached
(17:31):
by some obviously some coaches, but there's two coaches that
that that held your hand and raised you up way
before the other sports coaches got got there, got their part. Yeah.
So I mean a lot of that go out to
my mom. Really. She she basically raised um, me and
(17:51):
my settlings, my my younger sister and my older brother
by herself, you know for the most part. Um. And
they were days like she she would work like late,
just come home and still make sure that we had
something to eat before she go to sleep. Um. You know,
she just never complained. I know there was some days
she was tired, she didn't feel like going to work,
(18:13):
or didn't feel like you know, making sure you know,
we had something to eat, feel like cooking or whatever
it was. But um, you know, I never saw her
complain one time. So that's something I try to take
from her, and she kind of stood that into me. Um,
you know, even even through you know, when times get hard,
like it's gonna be right of days, I feel like,
right now this is a a bright of time for her,
especially just seeing me in the position that that I'm
(18:35):
in now. So, um, you know, life definitely goes full circles.
So you know, I'm blessed to be an ex position
and look back and be able to give her the
credit that she deserves. So we we learned of one
story about your mom to where she actually dropped you
off at practice once and you want crutches. I don't
know that story for us, and sounds like your mom's
(18:58):
toughness on you. Yeah, um yeah. I think I was
maybe in the fifth grade of something, and we had
we had practice like Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think we
played on Saturdays or something. Um, so I got hurt
whatever like Tuesday. Yeah, um, I I don't remember what
(19:20):
was going on, but I was like, man, like I'm hurting,
I don't feel like practicing or something like that or whatever.
But we played. We played on Saturday, and you know,
in fifth grade, we we played at the at the
high school stadium. So like when you're in fifth grade,
that's like a big deal. That's like playing in the
super Bowl, you know, as a fifth grade So, um,
So I come to practice the next practice on crutches
(19:42):
and my mom goes up to my coach and he's like, uh,
She's like, yeah, Jeremy, Um, he doesn't really he doesn't
really need these crutches. I think he just needs, you know,
basically like a kick in the butt whatever. Um he's feeling,
he's feeling some type of way. I don't know, but
you know, end of the story. S long story short,
I ended up, you know, coming off the crutches. I
(20:03):
didn't need him. You know. I was being a drama
for me. Same day, same day, next day around that
I could I couldn't do the same day. I had
to lingrate off of you. I had the milk it Uh, well,
I better the day but now that's basically you know
what that was. He you said you weren't necessarily hurt.
(20:24):
So where did you get the crutches from? That's actually
a great question. Yeah, we we had because it sounds
like your mom didn't take you to the doctor. No,
I think we did go to the doctor. I think
I think we did go to the doctor because we
didn't just have crutches laying around the house, so we
had to go to get them from somewhere. So I
(20:46):
don't got the food details of the story. I was
a while ago. Um No, but yeah, so I'm off
the crutches, but she always instilled that toughness in me.
We have to take a break and the morning thing
we got paid from bad mm hm, you got checks.
I love cut to It and I love it even
(21:08):
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 where you can
(21:31):
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 weren't
heavily recruited, um because of it, like you said, Indiana,
but also too, you aren't very you aren't necessarily tall.
(21:55):
You're five seven. Now what's cool is? Uh? You know
I'm not I'm not killing him in the height department
myself and with covid hit, my son Boston was like
five four five, size nine nine, a half shoe covid hit.
We've been in quarantine shutdown. August comes. Um, we were
(22:20):
actually moving and we had a lot of our clothing storage.
We come back in August. My main gets his closed
out of storage. He's wearing a size twelve and a
half shoe and he's like five nine. He's putting on
like an old pair of sweats and they're flooding. You
had the same thing. Okay, So my sophomore year high school, UM,
(22:45):
I was five seven, like Max pushing it. He gave
me five seven, like I'm cheesing, Like I'm all right,
I'm five seven. Um, and then I was probably on
what were you playing? At that What position were you
playing at that point? I was a corner. I was
a corner at that point. Yeah. Were you tackling at
(23:06):
that corner? Oh? Yeah, okay, so I'm sorry. It ain't
that changed. I seen my tape. Yeah, and now I
go cut it on. But um, I like that. I
like but five shot one through. If I gets ready
over there, go low and go low. Uh five steps
(23:29):
twenty five. You gotta know what you're working with and
you just come on. You gotta know what you're working with.
So m my junior year, come around, my junior year,
I was about um, like five nine to five ten.
But I was growing so fast my junior year in
high school. That ended up missing half my junior year
because like hamstring problems. Um. I was just growing so fast,
(23:52):
like my body couldn't keep up. Um, Like my muscles
couldn't keep up in my bones and stuff like that.
So I had some hamstring problems my junior year. UM,
and that really messed up on my recruiting, just because
you know, that's a big recruiting year. Junior year. Come around.
My senior year, I was about six ft now probably
(24:12):
and then I really I mean I've been growing all
the way through college for the most part. But my
senior high school that's when I hit six ft. Wow,
she's five seven six, right, I wonder, I wonder, what's
that like? Man? That was problems on the Star over
(24:36):
not for real, not for real. Hey, you know, take
us through, Take us through the take us through your
your college process. You know you you you have this
gross fur um. You're not getting heavily recruited. You know
you desire to play football, obviously. Yeah, you wanted to
(24:57):
play football. You just wanted to run around and play
some kind of sport. And you you fell in love
with basketball football. What was that? What? What What was that
recruiting process like for you? And and and and how
did you come up with the decision, um, to go
to go to college? Yeah? Man, the recruiting process was
(25:17):
so frustrating. It was so frustrating. Um one, just because
I didn't I didn't get any any attention, any offers
until I had I had four games after my senior year.
That's when I got my first offer. M Yeah, So
like I got people I'm playing against every every week. Um,
you know, teammates everything college is coming in recruiting. My
(25:40):
teammates like offering my teammates and I'm just like and
then offering people I'm playing against, like we're going ahead
to the head and you know, I still got no love. UM.
And then I say camp. It was. It was a
summer camp before my senior year, and I met the
decordinary at the time at Southern Illinois. UM. So we started.
(26:00):
We stayed in contact throughout the whole year. UM. Like
I said, it's about four games left. And then he
ended up offering me a scholarship. So I was like, man, like,
this is all I needed. So, I mean as soon
as I got that offer, like I was ready to commit.
I was like this, this is all I needed. Like
I just needed the shot. Um, and they gave that
to me. So UM, long story short, s U staff
(26:22):
at that time got fired. UM, so I was like damgn, like,
this is my scholarship. And then uh, luckily University of
North Dakota they offered me UM. So I took a
visit there, I committed to them. UM. And then coach hell,
he's a head coach now I Studyn Illinois told me
he got the job and that they're gonna keep recruiting me,
gonna keep my offering all that. So I went from
(26:45):
North Dakota. UM, I took a visit to Southern. I
committed to Southern on an official visit, so that Sunday
after the visit, I called with Dakota and be committed
from them. And then I've been with Southern Illinois ever since.
And you know, the best destation I've ever made. I
know this one of your favorite players. So I made
sure I point this out. You're not you were a
(27:09):
one star. You're a zero star recruit. Correct, Correct, every
was a one star recruit. Unless you know that those
stars don't mean anything. Nothing, nothing, so nothing. There's four
or five stars that in the league, and there's zero
stars that are potentially up for defensive rookie the year.
(27:31):
I don't know, you know, maybe no, ya, you know, yeah,
you know, it's it's cool. I'll take this time. Just
tell you, man, I you know, I watched a lot
of football. Despite what people may think, despite what may
some of your teammates may think, I watched a kind
of football. Man. I'm very impressed with your game. Thank you,
(27:53):
very impressed. I love your versatility, um, I love the
way you attack the ball, you talk, you played old
school way, which is you try to not in a
targeting way, but you try to play football the right way,
which is when a receiver or or running back catches
the ball, you try to dislodge the ball from the individual.
(28:15):
And that's a lost art. I noticed when you tackle,
you hit what you see, which is you're protecting your spine,
you're protecting yourself, You're also protecting the individual you're hitting.
That's a lost start. You don't really see that a
lot a lot of players have gotten injured because they
have their head down. You're always going through your your target,
(28:36):
the defender or the target. Man, So keep keep doing that. Man.
Make sure because your star hearing, Carolina, you're gonna get
some opportunities to do some football camps. And I'm telling
you because of your platform that you probably think is
not very high right now, but Son, it's very high.
Make sure you emphasize the fundamentals of hitting, because you
(29:01):
have it's becoming a lost art. But the men who
have learned how to continue to do that art. Man,
you've got a great opportunity. You get the lead people
in the right way. Yeah, I appreciate that as a
measuring How important is versatility of positions in today's NFL.
(29:22):
From your perspective, I think it's huge, especially now playing
so many packages to many you know, whether it be Nickel,
don Uh dollar or just based instead of just setting
so many guys in just having been able to move
around the field, it makes a huge difference, and I
think it makes a life from the coach is a
lot easier, UM, and really just guys all around you
(29:44):
a lot easier so they don't have to you know,
thinking about UM, you know, different personnels and things like that,
you can just keep the same personnel and play a
lot of different defenses. As as an analyst would how
do you value versatility? Well, I think that's an interest.
I love his answer, but I can deep his answer
because one of your one of your nemesis um and
(30:05):
and he's also a fantastic office amount of coach. He
utilizes uh, the versatility of you with so I go
with Sean Payton and utilizing you being able to play
so many different positions sometimes will get you a mismatch
on the maybe a tight end a bigger tight end,
or maybe get you on a fullback where a guy
(30:26):
like him who can cover a fullback, but they're just
taking you out of game plan because they don't really
want you to cover Camerica out of back field. So
they're line out the fullback and so he has to
step out of that box to line up against the fullback,
and then they put on a time backer out on Camara.
Now Camara, I'll plays a linebacker because they got one
of guys covering the fullback who he knows the fullback
(30:49):
is not gonna So sometimes depending on that versatility can't
play against you when you have and there's not Now
every coach is Sean Sean Payton McVeigh. Some of that
stuff that you know, it's it's less creative coaches who
understand personnel substitution or not allowing personnel substance. Um. So
(31:11):
that's all the thing that I would say. Sometimes a
versatility can you know, when you're a Swiss army knife
like him, they could use a lot utilize his knowledge
and it's athleticism against them and also squash the knowledge
of the defense coordinator as well. M So you know,
not everybody you know, that's not gonna be happening against
(31:34):
the Atlanta Falcons. But it's more susceptible to coach like
Sean Payton because they play him twice a year and
coaches always doing personnel. He has a whole personnel package
type of situation where he tries to get the defense
and advantageous situation. But you agree, disagree problems with a man.
(31:56):
When they told when you first learned you were going
play linebacker, what was your real reaction? Like in your head,
are you sitting like you're sitting the trading camp and
they and you see chin on the depth chart, You're
gonna I'm chilling linebacker? Yeah? Um, yeah. It was a
(32:23):
little bit like that at first. But that the reason,
the reason, the reason I didn't I didn't, you know,
freak out. It was like, man, why am I playing
line by anything like that. It's because coach Now, he
talked to me over the summertime about just packages that
we're gonna put in where I was gonna be like
the deep safety and just moving around things like that.
So I was like, all right, he still sees that
(32:43):
I can that can do that stuff. So as long
as he doesn't see me just locked up as a linebacker, uh,
just you know, I'll be fine with it. So, you know,
I was, you know, at the end of the day,
I was happy just to be on the field. Really,
let's talk ball and it's just football, right, giving giving
the cut to of fans of Carolina Panthers fans and
football fans um an opportunity to really just talk ball.
(33:05):
And you know, your perspective, not necessarily your i Q,
but your perspective of how you see football tak offensive
guys ball differently the defensive guys. Would you agree, Yeah,
I would agree with that. What is one of the
things that as a defensive guy who plays all over
the field like yourself, Yeah, what is one of the
(33:26):
things that just irks you about the offensive player, mainly
wide receivers. That's a good question. I warm you up
and let you know. You know what I hate about dbs.
You got a laundry list, but it's like Sander's Christmas list.
(33:47):
It's like every kid in the man. I hate seeing
the dB dude like the no cats. When the ball
is over there, like he did something, You think, what
did he do if he didn't do nothing to d
line the something? And look, sometimes you just gotta celebrate
catching a break, man. You celebrate catching the break if
(34:12):
it's if it's an incomplete class and he didn't have
an opportunity to even continue. I got it. I would
not do the I'm a de bunkeet. What about when
the quarterback overthrows it the D line. He just quarterback
just didn't plant his feet right overthrows it. You get excited,
(34:32):
can't take that, the dB is beaten, and then you
still do the no fly. Now what he caught a break.
He caught a break break, So you give that with
a pass German, you can celebrate that. Look, you caught
a break. Man. You just down that. He go down
(34:53):
that stair. That's push. Appreciate, answer, participate, he said, trophy.
All right, So your turn did tell me something about
I can say, He's like that was receivers. Receivers, but
I don't even I don't even really get into it.
(35:14):
I receivers, like I'll see. I mean one thing that's annoying,
Like you celebrate the first down and they get catching
it's the first down. They do the whole like okay,
like yeah, that's like okay, that's the job, Like no
need to but I mean, yeah, nothing nothing really that
really irritates me. I guess when a receiver is feeling
tough or whatever, like they'll try to try to come
block you after the play when the ball you know,
(35:36):
has broke to the second level whatever. But that's just
some annoying stuff like get I'm okay, say what are
you doing? Well, he has he has to block, or
he would get a yeah he has the block. But
I mean, like the play, the play is coming. Yeah,
something just something not not not even the opposite end,
but like the running backs going down. Um, it happened
(35:56):
a couple of games like rossiters to come and try
to like just hits you late, like see him and
like and it's like what are you doing? Like I'm
right here, Like we're both right here, Like you don't
need to do that right now. But it's not it's
not something. It's not something that like they're really trying
to block. They just trying to be petty, you know
what I mean, Like they just signed yeah, I know
what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, Hey, well go on the
(36:19):
other side. I don't move. I ain't. That's that's the one.
I take it. They used to the duck. Hey, that's
a loafing want because right bro, it's a switch to
the left side of the field and were on the
right side, chill out. I'm not moving right. I'm not
even gonna like that. I'm not gonna sell it. But
(36:44):
here's what I gets you in trouble. Go pursue that
ball and I gotta go chase you. Oh you don't
have a day next to the big payback. Alright, one
show off? Okay, uh, I know that that's me. I'm
the one pursuing this. You don't get mad at Yeah,
(37:06):
that's not good there. You're gonna get mad because when
I catch the first down on yeah, I'm the ball
spending the ball, so I know spending the ball. I
guess I'm petty with everything. You petty. I would have
never ever guess that a day of my life. You know,
we talking ball. So you've been in the league. You
(37:28):
you know, your rookie or going into your year next year,
you had to have some you know, you're you're a
hell of a player, but you had to have some
moments in the game where you're like bro, I just
didn't know it was like this, yeah, um I said.
The second time we played Tampa Bay, we were at
(37:49):
home and um I was guarding ground and I was
like all right, man, like it's man, you're old like
he's not fastering me, you're not cooking at me anything
that you don't jump higher to me. Um, but he
end up catching his ball and like I'm trying to
knock it out. Uh, Like I'm trying to knock it
all the way to the ground. I didn't even wrap
(38:09):
a brenthing like I'm too bags trying to get the
ball out. Uh. He ended up catching the ball and
like Kevin running and I was like, man, like, I
can't just rely on my athletic ability, Like technique is everything.
So that's when I realized, like, yeah, technique is, so
what's gonna you know, carry me through this? So that
was that was probably when when people ask me, that's
probably my welcome to the NFL moment, not just because um,
(38:30):
like I actually I actually learned that, like, all right,
technique is is what's gonna keep it going? Because that's
I mean, that's the only answer. So let's let's let's
can we can we can we walk through that with
you and not like knowing you, but also making fun
in a good way I did as a young player.
You here, you're a hell of a player. So I'm
(38:51):
not gonna dispute that and you and you just kind
of like, bro, he just scratched, like just opened up
the back of chips. Yeah right, And but the chips
unlike the chips we purchased, it's a little bit of chip,
a whole bunch of air. It's in his chip is
a whole bunch of chip and very little air. But
(39:12):
I think it's funny is you're a young player. The
first thing he says, and he's referring to Grunk, is oh,
he's an older player. He can't run anymore. Uh, he's
old man. And the old man took you to the warship,
didn't he? Yeah, he got like he still got on
(39:32):
my shoulder. Why did you think because he's because he's
an older player, they are, he still can't run. I
know you watch film, But what led you to believe that? Yeah,
I'm not picking on your anything like that, but to
some degree, because you you're a young player, you you
you obviously was like, ain't the grunk I'm used to say, right,
(39:56):
And it wasn't anything like the discredit grunk. It was right. Yeah,
it was like, Okay, I trust my athletic ability over
grounds athletic ability without taking into account that he's been
playing for what I don't know how many years. Um,
his technique and everything like that. My leverage is more
important than how high I could jump or how fast
(40:18):
I can run and things like that. So that's something
that was I learned that firsthand, like in the flesh
that place. So I think that was my biggest moment.
Welcome to the NFL moment. I think it's about that time.
Just so I'll take a little breather. Good do away,
God's get down to do away. Hey Gerard, why did
(40:39):
you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go
on buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever
you listen to podcasts. Yeah, because you don't know the
NFL outside of COVID protocol. Take us through what how
(41:06):
you experience and the protocol you went through each and
every day. Um, because the fans don't know. They just
think some people just think you should show up, right
they you know even before Yeah, you just like the
house playing video games, you playing Matten right, and you
know you mean you mean like through during the season. Yeah,
(41:26):
during the season. Yeah, yeah, so what you want to
I don't want to get your trouble or any of that,
but I think given a perspective that yeah, what was
behind the scenes without necessarily getting in trouble, because I
think I know there is a lot of things that
fans don't know that you guys have to experience, whether
(41:48):
it's testing, contact traiting, um, you know, the quarantining, all
of that stuff that it's not it's not on television. Yeah,
this year was crazy. Like I said, I don't know
the regular experience, but just playing football like is this
year has been unbelievable, Like so much testing. I think
(42:11):
we tested over a hundred eighty times or something like
that throughout the year. So just doing that every single day, um,
coming in, picking up our traces, going through screening there
every single day, peeing up our traces. Um. We had
to have our traces everywhere we went. And I mean
you probably know how the tracers work if you're around
(42:31):
I mean, if you're around somebody for too long, like
within six ft, like your tracer blink red and stay.
Um say that you guys are all sitting at the
table so you guys have all your traces on. You guys,
traces would be blinking red right now. Now if one
of you comes up sick or something and all you
guys out to quarantine because you guys have all been
together in your tracer tells you like you've been around
that person. Uh so, I mean, yeah, it's pretty cool,
(42:54):
but I mean it's crazy. And then, um, you know meetings,
we're all like meeting in like this we areas or
like the dining areas of the stadium, just so we
can all be spread out. Um, and then like things
throughout the season, like it even even ramped up protocols
even ramped up even more, like we have to wear
a mask out on the football field for like between
(43:14):
wen take our helmets off, we got to put a
mask on. We were like plastic coverings over our face.
Mask Like it was. I mean it was crazy. You know,
everybody got drafted and I had to do the draft
um and I saw um. I did it from my
office at my house here in Charlotte. You Indiana, I
(43:35):
believe getting when you got drafted. Man, I this may
sound like a dumb question, but I'm wanting to say it,
Like you didn't know which team was gonna draft you,
and they didn't know which team going to draft you.
So where'd you get your hat from? Like, did they
say you up? You didn't have an had or anything. No,
(43:57):
lead ain't to me nothing, now thank Yeah, well we
saw all the guys like they had they had the
box and so leade. I guess they picked. They picked
fifty or some guys. They sent in the box set
of hats, uh posters to put up in their house
for the draft and everything. So after you got drafted,
(44:17):
did the Panthers didn't you? Yeah? They sent me. They
sent me some gear, They sent me my jersey, a
couple of hats. Yeah, it's cool. So what what all
do you know about the Panthers prior to getting drafted
to the team. I knew it. I knew a few
guys on the roster. I didn't know him personally. Um,
but Shoq Burns Christian Um obviously the Super Bowl team
(44:39):
uh Luke. Obviously I know he retired and everything. But
um obviously know who you are Steve Smith. But I mean,
I mean as far as that, like I didn't, I
didn't really know who the coach was at the time.
I know coach after coach I t I met, I
met coach rule and stopped at the Singer Bowl, So
I knew I knew of him. But before then, like
I didn't really know much about the Pants. Yeah, me neither.
(45:02):
I had no idea what Carolina will Being on the
west coast, well, yeah, I ain't been. I hadn't, I
mean other than college. Well, we took the greyhound bust
of Vegas from l a UM, I took a plane
of Vegas, and then I took a plane of Utah
and then all of you know, when I went to college,
I had not been beyond other than the Senior Bowl.
(45:25):
I've never been beyond what Montgomery. I didn't. I didn't
never know what North Carolina was was. Wow, I didn't. No,
I had no idea, didn't even think I was gonna
get picked by me. Had zero people on the team,
(45:47):
nothing about the Panthers at at all. Zero. I knew.
I knew about moose in um because they would say
moves plan. But other than that, what have you discovered
about yourself? A year into real adulthood. I spent a
lot of money on food. I don't know how. My
(46:08):
mom said me so long. So you know that you
know what that tells me that this is what it
tells me. He gonna giggle. He may not confirm it.
That tells me when you're leaving a facility, you had
a ton of gay rays and waters in your backpack
every day. Look, yes, I'm taking all that stuff stealing
(46:30):
from you. Know you're still You're still work, You're still
to work. Supply. I'm gonna try and go to the story.
So at what part of throughout this whole season, through
the walk to the draft process, through the whole season,
when are you calling up on the knowledge of your uncle,
legendary Steve at Water. Um. I talked to him probably
(46:54):
a week maybe a couple of days before the Denver game.
I talked to him because I think that was that
was two weeks after the Minnesota game. UM. So we
caught up after that game, and he just gave me
some pointers as far as some of the things he
did throughout the season just to keep him going, um
and just so he wasn't losing the step. Some of
(47:17):
the workouts that he was doing, like upper body workouts,
like getting the extra upper body workout throughout the year.
And so I incorporated that stuff, and I think it
really helped me towards the end of the season. What
was the what was the transition like going from college
and college? It was obviously it was different. Yeah, so
described the difference between college and because we all know
(47:39):
it's different, Yeah, but not everybody can do a good
job of explaining. Yeah. I think I think the biggest
difference is it's a difference at every at every part
of it, from from old line to skill position to
all that stuff. But I think, I mean the main
difference is the quarterbacks. Like, if there's anything that's different,
it's the quarterback tient, um, because they can they can
(48:02):
speed the game up so much more and they make
they make throws and and make decisions that you know,
usually don't see college quarterbacks making, especially coming from FCS
where I played. So the biggest difference was me just
it was playing against these quarterbacks. So, so, which quarterback
gave you it's old crap moment when you walked on
the field. Um. Yeah, I don't know if there's one
(48:25):
that that could just point out and be like, oh,
like he was the one, But I think it's all
just in general. Um, And that's something that I had to,
you know, hurry up and get accustomed to back in
camp and adjustments that I had to make um. And yeah,
so I think even just watching film like I watched
with Al he was my coach um, and just like that,
(48:47):
just the arm, talent, the decisions, like everything that they're doing.
It's like, yeah, you just don't see this in college
where jemmy last segment, it's called the Deep three. There
are three questions that take us beyond who you are
as a players, going beyond your jersey, and so it
just takes it to a deeper level. It's man to
go ahead and give them. When you were younger, what
did you say yes to? You know that you're willing
(49:07):
to give anything for. But now you've you know, you're
in NFL. You're a young man that when you go backwards,
you go, I wouldn't do that again. Oh that's a
tough question. Because you're a professional. Everything you do, Everything
you do impacts, whether it's your mind, your body, your
(49:29):
your profession. You know, you don't know what the residual
or you know, you don't know what the layer. The
first thing that I learned that I would say no
to and I go backwards, I came from Utah, California, Utah,
and man, my first off season barbecue and and and
just all the great restaurants here in Charlotte you put
(49:50):
on them two o five coming into I would say, um,
one thing I would say yes to that then, Like
living here in Indiana, like when we like are downtime,
like we just hoop, like we'll go we'll go to
l a fitness or like somewhere some part over here
and we're like we were just hoop like all off season,
(50:12):
Like that would just be that will we do? Like
me and my friends would just go hoop. So I say,
right now, I would just say no to that just because, um,
like there's so much I want. I know how they hoop,
and I know how just how they play. So I
would say no to that just because now looking back,
like I got I got more to lose and just
be out here playing basketball and and you know getting
hurt doing that. All right, What does success means to
(50:36):
you professionally and personally? Professionally? Um winning? So like that's
it ultimate sign of just being successful. You know, having
your health as well, UM health winning, health wealth winning,
(50:56):
Like that's that's success as I see it help. Well,
I feel like that's that covers everything you can't argue
with that wealth and winning it translates off side off
the field as well. Yeah, I get you rich right there?
Play about seventeen a year, look like, well I take
(51:22):
a little that. Yeah, I know you're young. I know
you're young and your profession, Um, but what motivates you today?
You know, you guys are done playing football? You know
you get them. I saw you tweet. You know you
you you wished or hope you were playing in January February.
(51:44):
You know, besides the Super Bowls, the Hall of Fame,
all that stuff, you know, the core of it, what
you know, what really motivates you beyond just having some
success or a lot of success on the football field.
I love the place, I said, like, I love to
play it. Like if you see me like just out
there that practice, like my teammates like sack and look
(52:04):
at me like why are you smiling? Why are you
so happy? Because I'm having fun? Like I love this.
I genuinely love to pay the game. Steve. What's the
biggest thing you learned between your rookie season and your
second year? Um? Yeah, see that's that's pretty good. You
(52:31):
are learning so much and you you're trying to figure out, um,
you know, what is the opponent? What is me? What's
the scheme? Um? My rookie year to my second year
was a transition transitional year because we have coach c
for who was fired and we had a new coaching staff.
(52:55):
So I was playing pretty much no wide receiver, primarily
special teams. Then I got an opportunity to coach Fox
to play still special teams but also contribute. So a
little bit is uh baptism by fire, you know, not
getting the opportunity to really um. You know, my rookie
(53:15):
year didn't play much. Was she played a lot of
scout team UM. And then that scout team I was
going against guys where I was like, man, if this
guy can play, and I'm not getting an opportunity. So
it's it's hodgepod. Just just a ton of stuff, ton
of ton of emotions, ton of uh self evaluation, self doubt.
(53:36):
And then you got a new coaching staff, so you
gotta start all over and try to impress them and
try to figure out the offense. So I think for
a young guy to get a new coach coming out
of his rookie year trying to figure things out and
then start over, and that's a lot. It's a lot,
and you're supposed to be a professional as well. So
(53:57):
I don't know, it's just I think it's puss. You're
already drinking from fires just being in the NFL. The
you have a big transition, and I think it's it's
tough no matter what year you're in, but I think
it's tougher now because of the way fans, the way
the evaluation process is now, is they expect even more
success out of the first three rounds compared to what
(54:21):
it used to be. I think it's even um a
higher level of expectations. Right, So so now as a
as a former player, as a VET forty plus, what
would you go back until young Steve? Now, I don't know.
I wouldn't tell I wouldn't tell me anything just because mh.
There are things that had to do with maybe different
(54:43):
coaching styles, learning and not learning, trying to figure out.
So I think it's it would be cool to go
back and watch myself. I think I would cringe, but
then also would laugh because I had a head coach
who was it was his first time being the head coach,
so he was figuring it out too. So you got
(55:05):
the blind leading the blind and we're trying to figure
it out. Team is not very good. What were those
cringe worthy moments? Oh? One time I think Coach Fox
kicked us, kicked us out of practice, like the whole team,
because we were pissed poor. They were fighting, they were frustrated.
But the day before he started practice all over, like
we were our into practice. He started all over from
(55:26):
the top like stretch, like we had to restart, We're
gonna run this whole thing. So you know, that's what
I mean by crisis. I'm like, oh, we're tired, you know.
And we're in sparm berg, South Carolina and the heat
of July August. The heat is so thick you could
see it waving over the grass and the concrete. It's
(55:47):
hot and you can you stay focused? No? You know
the they say, what fatigue makes it? What a coward
out of you makes you lose focus? Never really been
in heat like that. I was in Utah dry heat.
I wasn't in humidity, so you know, it was a lot.
It was definitely a lot. And I don't think you
(56:08):
can you can't prepare there's no test that lets you know,
um how good or how bad you will be. It's
just you know. It's baptism by by fire of of
of actually being on the field and seeing what you have.
You are a unique person, You are well worth it,
You are competent and most of all, your lovable. I'm
(56:33):
Steve Smith Singor I'm Gerald Little John and this is
cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
BAAL Tool Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
(56:55):
Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve
Smith SINGR, Co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking
manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John
Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced
(57:16):
by Brian Balta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance
by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by
Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't
heard am 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 a little John and this
is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
That's getting down to do it, Good do it. We
asked the questions you always want to know, but no
(00:22):
one 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 this story has never been told. Let's go
what's on your mind? What's on your mentor? So, what's
(00:44):
all my mentor is? We usually don't we usually don't.
We usually do evergreen, But this is gonna be stapled
with we're gonna marry this with a panther, So we're
gonna go with a Carolina panther. Insider Moose and Smitty,
(01:06):
Uh conversation. So a conversation when you and Mousie mohammed, Yeah,
pull it. You're pulling this out the archives in the crates.
This is actually I'll say this start off. Moose is
like my big brother. We were super competitive, uber uber competitive.
But there were times where I got on moose nerves
(01:29):
and Moose got on my nerves as as what happens
when in brotherhoods. So my rookie wasn't my rookie year,
my second year, one of my years. Uh. Actually Moose
didn't know it, but Moose kind of made me who
I was, who who I am today and high Win
is UM coach Richard Williamson was. He was always tough
(01:53):
on me, always tough and um one day in his
wife Norma, Uh, I loved them, love her she you know,
speak to her. I never can say anything negative towards Richard.
He always pushed me to places that I didn't want
to go, and that's the sign of a great coach.
(02:17):
But on this day, Richard was the offensive coordinator. Mike
McCoy was the wide receiver's coach. Mike McCoy was the
head coach of the same seven UM offense coordinator for
Denver Broncos when UH coach As McDaniels became head coach,
and then he became head coach of San Diego Chargers
and now he's just at the house chilling. So one day, um,
(02:42):
so this was my rookie here one day, running the
wrong routes, old West Coast offense. I came from a
number system out of college and Richard Williamson grabbed me
and kind of like talked down to me. He was
a coach, but he talked down to me and told
me how he felt about me that day. That day
(03:04):
he didn't feel really good about me, and he kind
of grabbed me and it rubbed me the wrong way.
And when he grabbed me, you know, uh, I want
to say I blanked out, but I was getting close
to grabbing him, and Mike kind of like stepped in
between us, and you know, and Richard was cussing and
(03:27):
I said a few choice worst as well. Um, I know,
big surprise and um, but Moose did something that just
kind of got to me. And Moose said, man, you
from Cali. You're supposed to be one of them Cali dudes.
You like that old man do that to you, And
Moose just poured it on. So my mom is one
(03:48):
of thirteen, and I have an uncle named Tim who's
maybe six or eight years older than me, but he's
like my big brother. Um. He actually he got kicked
out of the house from my grandfather, um, my grandpa Alfred.
He actually when I was in when I was young,
he actually lived. He was my roommate, no, and when
(04:10):
he was going to high school and so he's like
ten years older than me. So I was like a
first or second grade and I'm rooming with a dude
that's a senior in high school. Super odd, right, But
you know that's just how it is a close family.
And why is uncle Tim coming into the picture? Well,
(04:32):
Moose hit me with that, and I just hit it
didn't sit well with me, and I took my time
coming home and I remember parking in the driveway and
I called him. I had texted him and I called him, Well,
I actually chirped him because and so he called me.
He's like, what's up? And I told him what happened,
(04:55):
and I told him how Moose and kind of like,
you know how he played this played up the situation
in a in a on the field in the locker room,
and I just remember crying and I was really emotional
about it. And my uncle said, well, you know, Steven, um,
(05:18):
this isn't Steven. I know, first of all, why are
you crying like this? And I explained it to him
and he was like, well, you still haven't told me
why you're crying like this, because that's not to Steven.
I know, this is not the callie, it's not the
it's not the family member, the kid that I know.
(05:39):
And his response really challenged me. He was he was
not empathetic sympathetic one bit. But what was really cool
is I remember he said, so, what are you gonna
do about it? I was like, what you mean? He said,
what the funk are you gonna do about it? And
I remember I was like, you know what, all right?
(06:01):
He said, no, I want you to tell me. And
I said, well, He's like, the best thing you can
do to get back at Moose is what I don't like.
You know, you're all emotional. I don't know what was asked.
You know, he's He's like, no, what can you do?
From that day forward, moose challenge they ignited me to
(06:25):
the point of and again I say this, really I
have a great relationship with Moose. But what Moose doesn't
understand is Moose created me because when I got off,
when I got off the phone, the things that I
said to my uncle is which I lived every day,
which is my goal was to remove Moose off every
(06:49):
category in the wire receiver's record books. For the Carolina Panthers.
My goal was to when they say Carolina Panthers wire
receiver Moosie Mohammed's name is not to be mentioned. And
from that day forward, whatever Moose did, my goal was
to do it better. If he caught one pass one
(07:10):
one hand, I want to catch twen. If he called
two first downs, I want to catch twenty. If he
finished with twenty yards of yak, I want to catch
with forty. Every single day from that day forward, my
goal was to remove Moose from the record books. And
there's only gonna be one name my every single day
(07:36):
for four or five years, it didn't matter. Smiled at him,
I loved him still. It's still a colleague, right, But
my goal was to remove him from the record books.
And the crazy part is because at that moment he
challenged me and didn't know it, and he invented me
(08:00):
and every day after that. Because when I first came out,
I was seven in college, so I wanted eighty seven
and I asked him. He was like, go see some Well,
I mean I didn't know any better, but you know, also,
all you can do is tell me no. So I
was like, all right, cool, And so what's crazy is
(08:21):
you know? No, nobody really knows that the one person
that really knows it. And he told me he never
he said, never tell him that story. Mr Risa told
me Moose did not. Don't ever tell Moose that he
created you. So he didn't even know that. Now he
doesn't even know that. He probably here because you know
they're they're probably running. But the fact of the matter is,
(08:44):
that's the reason why it went so hard. That's why
I never really got along with anybody. My goal was
seeking destroy, remove, eradicate. That's what happened. I was saying,
that's what you did. That's what I did. Not respect Moose.
Love Moose, but from a competitive from a competitive standpoint,
(09:05):
competitive standpoint, you didn't have a chance. And it's crazy,
and a lot of people don't know that. Well, I
don't have a follow up to that, you nailed it. No,
what am I supposed to say to that? The crazy
part now, and here's that he's gonna like, fuck no,
(09:25):
I mean, but you gotta respect it. You gotta respect it.
So yeah, but it was cool because my uncle tell me.
He challenged me, he said, what are you gonna do?
But both dudes did yeah, right, yeah, but he he
challenged me. I guess my uncle challenged me because I
knew the relationship, right, Me and Moose plays golf and
with all that stuff. At some point probably here here,
(09:47):
that's it. He'll be like, So if I wouldn't have
did you're telling me? Yeah, thanks Moose, appreciate it. Appreciate
your Moose. Thank you. Akona Madonna. So, hey, who is going?
Actually we got Jeremy Chen. That's where we have. It's
a Panther podcast today, will cut to it coming upon
(10:10):
the cut to a podcast. We've got Jeremy Chin, a
second round pick for the Carolina Panthers, the only defensive
player to have scored touchdowns on consecutive plays. He's a
two time NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month Award winner
and a star in the making. Jeremy Chen on the
Cut to It podcast, Yeah for sure, thanks telling me on. Alright,
(10:35):
So our first segment is called get Iced Up. It's
our version of Icebreakers. You play for the Panthers. You're
familiar with ice up son and all that stuff, but
this is our version of icebreakers. So their random questions
might be a follow up, might not be. These are
all selected at random. So Smithie, go ahead and get first.
Get iced up question. Alright, buckle up, buttercup, there we go.
(10:55):
So you must lose a body part? Which one? Which
body part are you gonna lose that you feel you
can lose and comfortably operate through the world after this
A body part, probably arm or something arm. Maybe it
got to be limb. I don't care. I'm not doing
(11:19):
I'm trying to figure out. You still going to be
able to make your money on one leg? Look what
I said, arm, not leg? On, you said, I said,
I said, yeah, we record this, Yeah, we we can go.
We can go into the hood too. Now he said
leg he said, I'm keeping my legs. I'll stay on.
(11:43):
If I had to choose, I mean between between, yeah,
you can. You can take the arm, all right, I'm
a husband. But if I had to choose, I'm a
husband and the father. So I'm gonna take the easy
right out. Just take one of my ears. I'm good,
just the ear chest finger anythink about my answer now
(12:16):
I'm stunking one on. Yeah, but here's here's the problem,
Jeremy defensive players. Yeah, I think quick, you just just
re react. He reacted. Now he's walking around right. Uh.
Favorite rookie moment. This past season. My favorite rookie moment
(12:40):
would probably be my first dug in l A. Yeah,
what about that? Was? It is my first win? Like
we lost to States and then went out to l A,
my first time out in l A, my first time
out west period. Um, and just getting a win on
the road and the plane ride back on memorable. Got
(13:02):
you your favorite breakfast food? Uh? Specifically? Okay, what's in
your I got onions, mushrooms, Uh, spinach, sausage, they can sometimes. Okay,
(13:23):
there's a lot of stuff in that. It did that
sounds like that I was eating that every morning. Really, Okay,
let's just jump right into it. You know, um, growing up?
What what sports? What different sports did you play? We're
gonna play basketball, football, and soccer? Track m Okay, what
(13:46):
position did you play in soccer? I don't know. I
was I was young. I was at the running around,
so I don't know. I was just cluster to the right,
cluster to the left. Everybody, let me let me run around?
All right? Now, the streets say that you can you
can hoop, and that you got some pretty memorable dunks
(14:08):
that you got. Don't care, Yeah, I don't. I don't
know if I still got him all, but yeah, I
got a few. Okay, I can't get up. Look he
chees it. We know some people with the horn it man.
So if you gotta, you know, stretch some rolls, we'll
make some phone calls. Look, I can do that. That's okay,
that's perfectly fine. We can do that. Who's your favorite
(14:29):
team growing up? The Patients? Jermaine O'Neil, Reggie Miller, Danny Granger, Um,
Jamal Tensley, m all those guys. M his his his
little Hamsters running Danny Granger. Yeah, Stephen Jackson was on
those teams, even Jackson, Yeah, run out of test. Where
(14:51):
are you from and the place you call your hometown.
I'm from Fisher's, Indiana, and I called claud Fisher, Indiana
my hometown. The wearest Fishers you know. Related to say,
the combine in Indiapolis's. Indianapolis is about ten minutes ten
(15:13):
minutes from from from Indianapolis, probably about from from the stadium,
fifteen and twenty from the stadium. Yeah, so you just
kind of on the outskirts. Yeah, yeah, okay, the small
little suburb then. Yeah, so growing up in Indiana, how
did it influence you today? Growing up in Indiana, especially
(15:37):
playing football, Like, not a lot of people from Indiana
make it out playing football. Well, this is a really
big basketball state, So playing football here in Indiana, you
kind of gotta make it the hard way. You know,
there's not a lot of five star recruits you hear
about coming from Indiana. When you say make it the
hard way, what do you mean make it the hard way?
Because everybody this version of hard way is is different. Yeah,
(16:00):
I would say, m you already just counted out, like
you from Florida. Um, you know this school is here
in the state of any of that just go to Florida.
The recruit like, they don't even look at Indiana. So
I mean that's just yeah, it's just already like all right,
they're just looking past this already. I heard a lot
of good stories rast some research on you on your
relationship with your folks and how impactful they were throughout
(16:23):
your life. Um, you know, kind of walk us through that.
You know, we hear sometimes we hear, oh my, my
folks were uh influential. Um, And I think sometimes that's
the answer that a lot of times we don't get
the we don't get the opportunity to follow up on
to heal, to hear the details of how they impact,
(16:48):
how they influenced you. So walk us through, you know,
love on your folks, man, tell us what what did
they instill in you? Um, that impact you? Uh you
know to be Jeremy. I don't know you personally. All
I know is what I've seen on a football field
and what I mean on tape. Uh, you know, preparing
(17:10):
last year for the combine and seeing what kind of
player you are. Um, those instincts, Uh, that smile, that
infectious smile, that that um active football player you are.
I know you. You know you can't take all the
credit um. Um. So obviously you know you've been coached
(17:31):
by some obviously some coaches, but there's two coaches that
that that held your hand and raised you up way
before the other sports coaches got got there, got their part. Yeah.
So I mean a lot of that go out to
my mom. Really. She she basically raised um, me and
(17:51):
my settlings, my my younger sister and my older brother
by herself, you know for the most part. Um. And
they were days like she she would work like late,
just come home and still make sure that we had
something to eat before she go to sleep. Um. You know,
she just never complained. I know there was some days
she was tired, she didn't feel like going to work,
(18:13):
or didn't feel like you know, making sure you know,
we had something to eat, feel like cooking or whatever
it was. But um, you know, I never saw her
complain one time. So that's something I try to take
from her, and she kind of stood that into me. Um,
you know, even even through you know, when times get hard,
like it's gonna be right of days, I feel like,
right now this is a a bright of time for her,
especially just seeing me in the position that that I'm
(18:35):
in now. So, um, you know, life definitely goes full circles.
So you know, I'm blessed to be an ex position
and look back and be able to give her the
credit that she deserves. So we we learned of one
story about your mom to where she actually dropped you
off at practice once and you want crutches. I don't
know that story for us, and sounds like your mom's
(18:58):
toughness on you. Yeah, um yeah. I think I was
maybe in the fifth grade of something, and we had
we had practice like Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think we
played on Saturdays or something. Um, so I got hurt
whatever like Tuesday. Yeah, um, I I don't remember what
(19:20):
was going on, but I was like, man, like I'm hurting,
I don't feel like practicing or something like that or whatever.
But we played. We played on Saturday, and you know,
in fifth grade, we we played at the at the
high school stadium. So like when you're in fifth grade,
that's like a big deal. That's like playing in the
super Bowl, you know, as a fifth grade So, um,
So I come to practice the next practice on crutches
(19:42):
and my mom goes up to my coach and he's like, uh,
She's like, yeah, Jeremy, Um, he doesn't really he doesn't
really need these crutches. I think he just needs, you know,
basically like a kick in the butt whatever. Um he's feeling,
he's feeling some type of way. I don't know, but
you know, end of the story. S long story short,
I ended up, you know, coming off the crutches. I
(20:03):
didn't need him. You know. I was being a drama
for me. Same day, same day, next day around that
I could I couldn't do the same day. I had
to lingrate off of you. I had the milk it Uh, well,
I better the day but now that's basically you know
what that was. He you said you weren't necessarily hurt.
(20:24):
So where did you get the crutches from? That's actually
a great question. Yeah, we we had because it sounds
like your mom didn't take you to the doctor. No,
I think we did go to the doctor. I think
I think we did go to the doctor because we
didn't just have crutches laying around the house, so we
had to go to get them from somewhere. So I
(20:46):
don't got the food details of the story. I was
a while ago. Um No, but yeah, so I'm off
the crutches, but she always instilled that toughness in me.
We have to take a break and the morning thing
we got paid from bad mm hm, you got checks.
I love cut to It and I love it even
(21:08):
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 where you can
(21:31):
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 weren't
heavily recruited, um because of it, like you said, Indiana,
but also too, you aren't very you aren't necessarily tall.
(21:55):
You're five seven. Now what's cool is? Uh? You know
I'm not I'm not killing him in the height department
myself and with covid hit, my son Boston was like
five four five, size nine nine, a half shoe covid hit.
We've been in quarantine shutdown. August comes. Um, we were
(22:20):
actually moving and we had a lot of our clothing storage.
We come back in August. My main gets his closed
out of storage. He's wearing a size twelve and a
half shoe and he's like five nine. He's putting on
like an old pair of sweats and they're flooding. You
had the same thing. Okay, So my sophomore year high school, UM,
(22:45):
I was five seven, like Max pushing it. He gave
me five seven, like I'm cheesing, Like I'm all right,
I'm five seven. Um, and then I was probably on
what were you playing? At that What position were you
playing at that point? I was a corner. I was
a corner at that point. Yeah. Were you tackling at
(23:06):
that corner? Oh? Yeah, okay, so I'm sorry. It ain't
that changed. I seen my tape. Yeah, and now I
go cut it on. But um, I like that. I
like but five shot one through. If I gets ready
over there, go low and go low. Uh five steps
(23:29):
twenty five. You gotta know what you're working with and
you just come on. You gotta know what you're working with.
So m my junior year, come around, my junior year,
I was about um, like five nine to five ten.
But I was growing so fast my junior year in
high school. That ended up missing half my junior year
because like hamstring problems. Um. I was just growing so fast,
(23:52):
like my body couldn't keep up. Um, Like my muscles
couldn't keep up in my bones and stuff like that.
So I had some hamstring problems my junior year. UM,
and that really messed up on my recruiting, just because
you know, that's a big recruiting year. Junior year. Come around.
My senior year, I was about six ft now probably
(24:12):
and then I really I mean I've been growing all
the way through college for the most part. But my
senior high school that's when I hit six ft. Wow,
she's five seven six, right, I wonder, I wonder, what's
that like? Man? That was problems on the Star over
(24:36):
not for real, not for real. Hey, you know, take
us through, Take us through the take us through your
your college process. You know you you you have this
gross fur um. You're not getting heavily recruited. You know
you desire to play football, obviously. Yeah, you wanted to
(24:57):
play football. You just wanted to run around and play
some kind of sport. And you you fell in love
with basketball football. What was that? What? What What was that
recruiting process like for you? And and and and how
did you come up with the decision, um, to go
to go to college? Yeah? Man, the recruiting process was
(25:17):
so frustrating. It was so frustrating. Um one, just because
I didn't I didn't get any any attention, any offers
until I had I had four games after my senior year.
That's when I got my first offer. M Yeah, So
like I got people I'm playing against every every week. Um,
you know, teammates everything college is coming in recruiting. My
(25:40):
teammates like offering my teammates and I'm just like and
then offering people I'm playing against, like we're going ahead
to the head and you know, I still got no love. UM.
And then I say camp. It was. It was a
summer camp before my senior year, and I met the
decordinary at the time at Southern Illinois. UM. So we started.
(26:00):
We stayed in contact throughout the whole year. UM. Like
I said, it's about four games left. And then he
ended up offering me a scholarship. So I was like, man, like,
this is all I needed. So, I mean as soon
as I got that offer, like I was ready to commit.
I was like this, this is all I needed. Like
I just needed the shot. Um, and they gave that
to me. So UM, long story short, s U staff
(26:22):
at that time got fired. UM, so I was like damgn, like,
this is my scholarship. And then uh, luckily University of
North Dakota they offered me UM. So I took a
visit there, I committed to them. UM. And then coach hell,
he's a head coach now I Studyn Illinois told me
he got the job and that they're gonna keep recruiting me,
gonna keep my offering all that. So I went from
(26:45):
North Dakota. UM, I took a visit to Southern. I
committed to Southern on an official visit, so that Sunday
after the visit, I called with Dakota and be committed
from them. And then I've been with Southern Illinois ever since.
And you know, the best destation I've ever made. I
know this one of your favorite players. So I made
sure I point this out. You're not you were a
(27:09):
one star. You're a zero star recruit. Correct, Correct, every
was a one star recruit. Unless you know that those
stars don't mean anything. Nothing, nothing, so nothing. There's four
or five stars that in the league, and there's zero
stars that are potentially up for defensive rookie the year.
(27:31):
I don't know, you know, maybe no, ya, you know, yeah,
you know, it's it's cool. I'll take this time. Just
tell you, man, I you know, I watched a lot
of football. Despite what people may think, despite what may
some of your teammates may think, I watched a kind
of football. Man. I'm very impressed with your game. Thank you,
(27:53):
very impressed. I love your versatility, um, I love the
way you attack the ball, you talk, you played old
school way, which is you try to not in a
targeting way, but you try to play football the right way,
which is when a receiver or or running back catches
the ball, you try to dislodge the ball from the individual.
(28:15):
And that's a lost art. I noticed when you tackle,
you hit what you see, which is you're protecting your spine,
you're protecting yourself, You're also protecting the individual you're hitting.
That's a lost start. You don't really see that a
lot a lot of players have gotten injured because they
have their head down. You're always going through your your target,
(28:36):
the defender or the target. Man, So keep keep doing that. Man.
Make sure because your star hearing, Carolina, you're gonna get
some opportunities to do some football camps. And I'm telling
you because of your platform that you probably think is
not very high right now, but Son, it's very high.
Make sure you emphasize the fundamentals of hitting, because you
(29:01):
have it's becoming a lost art. But the men who
have learned how to continue to do that art. Man,
you've got a great opportunity. You get the lead people
in the right way. Yeah, I appreciate that as a
measuring How important is versatility of positions in today's NFL.
(29:22):
From your perspective, I think it's huge, especially now playing
so many packages to many you know, whether it be Nickel,
don Uh dollar or just based instead of just setting
so many guys in just having been able to move
around the field, it makes a huge difference, and I
think it makes a life from the coach is a
lot easier, UM, and really just guys all around you
(29:44):
a lot easier so they don't have to you know,
thinking about UM, you know, different personnels and things like that,
you can just keep the same personnel and play a
lot of different defenses. As as an analyst would how
do you value versatility? Well, I think that's an interest.
I love his answer, but I can deep his answer
because one of your one of your nemesis um and
(30:05):
and he's also a fantastic office amount of coach. He
utilizes uh, the versatility of you with so I go
with Sean Payton and utilizing you being able to play
so many different positions sometimes will get you a mismatch
on the maybe a tight end a bigger tight end,
or maybe get you on a fullback where a guy
(30:26):
like him who can cover a fullback, but they're just
taking you out of game plan because they don't really
want you to cover Camerica out of back field. So
they're line out the fullback and so he has to
step out of that box to line up against the fullback,
and then they put on a time backer out on Camara.
Now Camara, I'll plays a linebacker because they got one
of guys covering the fullback who he knows the fullback
(30:49):
is not gonna So sometimes depending on that versatility can't
play against you when you have and there's not Now
every coach is Sean Sean Payton McVeigh. Some of that
stuff that you know, it's it's less creative coaches who
understand personnel substitution or not allowing personnel substance. Um. So
(31:11):
that's all the thing that I would say. Sometimes a
versatility can you know, when you're a Swiss army knife
like him, they could use a lot utilize his knowledge
and it's athleticism against them and also squash the knowledge
of the defense coordinator as well. M So you know,
not everybody you know, that's not gonna be happening against
(31:34):
the Atlanta Falcons. But it's more susceptible to coach like
Sean Payton because they play him twice a year and
coaches always doing personnel. He has a whole personnel package
type of situation where he tries to get the defense
and advantageous situation. But you agree, disagree problems with a man.
(31:56):
When they told when you first learned you were going
play linebacker, what was your real reaction? Like in your head,
are you sitting like you're sitting the trading camp and
they and you see chin on the depth chart, You're
gonna I'm chilling linebacker? Yeah? Um, yeah. It was a
(32:23):
little bit like that at first. But that the reason,
the reason, the reason I didn't I didn't, you know,
freak out. It was like, man, why am I playing
line by anything like that. It's because coach Now, he
talked to me over the summertime about just packages that
we're gonna put in where I was gonna be like
the deep safety and just moving around things like that.
So I was like, all right, he still sees that
(32:43):
I can that can do that stuff. So as long
as he doesn't see me just locked up as a linebacker, uh,
just you know, I'll be fine with it. So, you know,
I was, you know, at the end of the day,
I was happy just to be on the field. Really,
let's talk ball and it's just football, right, giving giving
the cut to of fans of Carolina Panthers fans and
football fans um an opportunity to really just talk ball.
(33:05):
And you know, your perspective, not necessarily your i Q,
but your perspective of how you see football tak offensive
guys ball differently the defensive guys. Would you agree, Yeah,
I would agree with that. What is one of the
things that as a defensive guy who plays all over
the field like yourself, Yeah, what is one of the
(33:26):
things that just irks you about the offensive player, mainly
wide receivers. That's a good question. I warm you up
and let you know. You know what I hate about dbs.
You got a laundry list, but it's like Sander's Christmas list.
(33:47):
It's like every kid in the man. I hate seeing
the dB dude like the no cats. When the ball
is over there, like he did something, You think, what
did he do if he didn't do nothing to d
line the something? And look, sometimes you just gotta celebrate
catching a break, man. You celebrate catching the break if
(34:12):
it's if it's an incomplete class and he didn't have
an opportunity to even continue. I got it. I would
not do the I'm a de bunkeet. What about when
the quarterback overthrows it the D line. He just quarterback
just didn't plant his feet right overthrows it. You get excited,
(34:32):
can't take that, the dB is beaten, and then you
still do the no fly. Now what he caught a break.
He caught a break break, So you give that with
a pass German, you can celebrate that. Look, you caught
a break. Man. You just down that. He go down
(34:53):
that stair. That's push. Appreciate, answer, participate, he said, trophy.
All right, So your turn did tell me something about
I can say, He's like that was receivers. Receivers, but
I don't even I don't even really get into it.
(35:14):
I receivers, like I'll see. I mean one thing that's annoying,
Like you celebrate the first down and they get catching
it's the first down. They do the whole like okay,
like yeah, that's like okay, that's the job, Like no
need to but I mean, yeah, nothing nothing really that
really irritates me. I guess when a receiver is feeling
tough or whatever, like they'll try to try to come
block you after the play when the ball you know,
(35:36):
has broke to the second level whatever. But that's just
some annoying stuff like get I'm okay, say what are
you doing? Well, he has he has to block, or
he would get a yeah he has the block. But
I mean, like the play, the play is coming. Yeah,
something just something not not not even the opposite end,
but like the running backs going down. Um, it happened
(35:56):
a couple of games like rossiters to come and try
to like just hits you late, like see him and
like and it's like what are you doing? Like I'm
right here, Like we're both right here, Like you don't
need to do that right now. But it's not it's
not something. It's not something that like they're really trying
to block. They just trying to be petty, you know
what I mean, Like they just signed yeah, I know
what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, Hey, well go on the
(36:19):
other side. I don't move. I ain't. That's that's the one.
I take it. They used to the duck. Hey, that's
a loafing want because right bro, it's a switch to
the left side of the field and were on the
right side, chill out. I'm not moving right. I'm not
even gonna like that. I'm not gonna sell it. But
(36:44):
here's what I gets you in trouble. Go pursue that
ball and I gotta go chase you. Oh you don't
have a day next to the big payback. Alright, one
show off? Okay, uh, I know that that's me. I'm
the one pursuing this. You don't get mad at Yeah,
(37:06):
that's not good there. You're gonna get mad because when
I catch the first down on yeah, I'm the ball
spending the ball, so I know spending the ball. I
guess I'm petty with everything. You petty. I would have
never ever guess that a day of my life. You know,
we talking ball. So you've been in the league. You
(37:28):
you know, your rookie or going into your year next year,
you had to have some you know, you're you're a
hell of a player, but you had to have some
moments in the game where you're like bro, I just
didn't know it was like this, yeah, um I said.
The second time we played Tampa Bay, we were at
(37:49):
home and um I was guarding ground and I was
like all right, man, like it's man, you're old like
he's not fastering me, you're not cooking at me anything
that you don't jump higher to me. Um, but he
end up catching his ball and like I'm trying to
knock it out. Uh, Like I'm trying to knock it
all the way to the ground. I didn't even wrap
(38:09):
a brenthing like I'm too bags trying to get the
ball out. Uh. He ended up catching the ball and
like Kevin running and I was like, man, like, I
can't just rely on my athletic ability, Like technique is everything.
So that's when I realized, like, yeah, technique is, so
what's gonna you know, carry me through this? So that
was that was probably when when people ask me, that's
probably my welcome to the NFL moment, not just because um,
(38:30):
like I actually I actually learned that, like, all right,
technique is is what's gonna keep it going? Because that's
I mean, that's the only answer. So let's let's let's
can we can we can we walk through that with
you and not like knowing you, but also making fun
in a good way I did as a young player.
You here, you're a hell of a player. So I'm
(38:51):
not gonna dispute that and you and you just kind
of like, bro, he just scratched, like just opened up
the back of chips. Yeah right, And but the chips
unlike the chips we purchased, it's a little bit of chip,
a whole bunch of air. It's in his chip is
a whole bunch of chip and very little air. But
(39:12):
I think it's funny is you're a young player. The
first thing he says, and he's referring to Grunk, is oh,
he's an older player. He can't run anymore. Uh, he's
old man. And the old man took you to the warship,
didn't he? Yeah, he got like he still got on
(39:32):
my shoulder. Why did you think because he's because he's
an older player, they are, he still can't run. I
know you watch film, But what led you to believe that? Yeah,
I'm not picking on your anything like that, but to
some degree, because you you're a young player, you you
you obviously was like, ain't the grunk I'm used to say, right,
(39:56):
And it wasn't anything like the discredit grunk. It was right. Yeah,
it was like, Okay, I trust my athletic ability over
grounds athletic ability without taking into account that he's been
playing for what I don't know how many years. Um,
his technique and everything like that. My leverage is more
important than how high I could jump or how fast
(40:18):
I can run and things like that. So that's something
that was I learned that firsthand, like in the flesh
that place. So I think that was my biggest moment.
Welcome to the NFL moment. I think it's about that time.
Just so I'll take a little breather. Good do away,
God's get down to do away. Hey Gerard, why did
(40:39):
you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go
on buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever
you listen to podcasts. Yeah, because you don't know the
NFL outside of COVID protocol. Take us through what how
(41:06):
you experience and the protocol you went through each and
every day. Um, because the fans don't know. They just
think some people just think you should show up, right
they you know even before Yeah, you just like the
house playing video games, you playing Matten right, and you
know you mean you mean like through during the season. Yeah,
(41:26):
during the season. Yeah, yeah, so what you want to
I don't want to get your trouble or any of that,
but I think given a perspective that yeah, what was
behind the scenes without necessarily getting in trouble, because I
think I know there is a lot of things that
fans don't know that you guys have to experience, whether
(41:48):
it's testing, contact traiting, um, you know, the quarantining, all
of that stuff that it's not it's not on television. Yeah,
this year was crazy. Like I said, I don't know
the regular experience, but just playing football like is this
year has been unbelievable, Like so much testing. I think
(42:11):
we tested over a hundred eighty times or something like
that throughout the year. So just doing that every single day, um,
coming in, picking up our traces, going through screening there
every single day, peeing up our traces. Um. We had
to have our traces everywhere we went. And I mean
you probably know how the tracers work if you're around
(42:31):
I mean, if you're around somebody for too long, like
within six ft, like your tracer blink red and stay.
Um say that you guys are all sitting at the
table so you guys have all your traces on. You guys,
traces would be blinking red right now. Now if one
of you comes up sick or something and all you
guys out to quarantine because you guys have all been
together in your tracer tells you like you've been around
that person. Uh so, I mean, yeah, it's pretty cool,
(42:54):
but I mean it's crazy. And then, um, you know meetings,
we're all like meeting in like this we areas or
like the dining areas of the stadium, just so we
can all be spread out. Um, and then like things
throughout the season, like it even even ramped up protocols
even ramped up even more, like we have to wear
a mask out on the football field for like between
(43:14):
wen take our helmets off, we got to put a
mask on. We were like plastic coverings over our face.
Mask Like it was. I mean it was crazy. You know,
everybody got drafted and I had to do the draft
um and I saw um. I did it from my
office at my house here in Charlotte. You Indiana, I
(43:35):
believe getting when you got drafted. Man, I this may
sound like a dumb question, but I'm wanting to say it,
Like you didn't know which team was gonna draft you,
and they didn't know which team going to draft you.
So where'd you get your hat from? Like, did they
say you up? You didn't have an had or anything. No,
(43:57):
lead ain't to me nothing, now thank Yeah, well we
saw all the guys like they had they had the
box and so leade. I guess they picked. They picked
fifty or some guys. They sent in the box set
of hats, uh posters to put up in their house
for the draft and everything. So after you got drafted,
(44:17):
did the Panthers didn't you? Yeah? They sent me. They
sent me some gear, They sent me my jersey, a
couple of hats. Yeah, it's cool. So what what all
do you know about the Panthers prior to getting drafted
to the team. I knew it. I knew a few
guys on the roster. I didn't know him personally. Um,
but Shoq Burns Christian Um obviously the Super Bowl team
(44:39):
uh Luke. Obviously I know he retired and everything. But
um obviously know who you are Steve Smith. But I mean,
I mean as far as that, like I didn't, I
didn't really know who the coach was at the time.
I know coach after coach I t I met, I
met coach rule and stopped at the Singer Bowl, So
I knew I knew of him. But before then, like
I didn't really know much about the Pants. Yeah, me neither.
(45:02):
I had no idea what Carolina will Being on the
west coast, well, yeah, I ain't been. I hadn't, I
mean other than college. Well, we took the greyhound bust
of Vegas from l a UM, I took a plane
of Vegas, and then I took a plane of Utah
and then all of you know, when I went to college,
I had not been beyond other than the Senior Bowl.
(45:25):
I've never been beyond what Montgomery. I didn't. I didn't
never know what North Carolina was was. Wow, I didn't. No,
I had no idea, didn't even think I was gonna
get picked by me. Had zero people on the team,
(45:47):
nothing about the Panthers at at all. Zero. I knew.
I knew about moose in um because they would say
moves plan. But other than that, what have you discovered
about yourself? A year into real adulthood. I spent a
lot of money on food. I don't know how. My
(46:08):
mom said me so long. So you know that you
know what that tells me that this is what it
tells me. He gonna giggle. He may not confirm it.
That tells me when you're leaving a facility, you had
a ton of gay rays and waters in your backpack
every day. Look, yes, I'm taking all that stuff stealing
(46:30):
from you. Know you're still You're still work, You're still
to work. Supply. I'm gonna try and go to the story.
So at what part of throughout this whole season, through
the walk to the draft process, through the whole season,
when are you calling up on the knowledge of your uncle,
legendary Steve at Water. Um. I talked to him probably
(46:54):
a week maybe a couple of days before the Denver game.
I talked to him because I think that was that
was two weeks after the Minnesota game. UM. So we
caught up after that game, and he just gave me
some pointers as far as some of the things he
did throughout the season just to keep him going, um
and just so he wasn't losing the step. Some of
(47:17):
the workouts that he was doing, like upper body workouts,
like getting the extra upper body workout throughout the year.
And so I incorporated that stuff, and I think it
really helped me towards the end of the season. What
was the what was the transition like going from college
and college? It was obviously it was different. Yeah, so
described the difference between college and because we all know
(47:39):
it's different, Yeah, but not everybody can do a good
job of explaining. Yeah. I think I think the biggest
difference is it's a difference at every at every part
of it, from from old line to skill position to
all that stuff. But I think, I mean the main
difference is the quarterbacks. Like, if there's anything that's different,
it's the quarterback tient, um, because they can they can
(48:02):
speed the game up so much more and they make
they make throws and and make decisions that you know,
usually don't see college quarterbacks making, especially coming from FCS
where I played. So the biggest difference was me just
it was playing against these quarterbacks. So, so, which quarterback
gave you it's old crap moment when you walked on
the field. Um. Yeah, I don't know if there's one
(48:25):
that that could just point out and be like, oh,
like he was the one, But I think it's all
just in general. Um, And that's something that I had to,
you know, hurry up and get accustomed to back in
camp and adjustments that I had to make um. And yeah,
so I think even just watching film like I watched
with Al he was my coach um, and just like that,
(48:47):
just the arm, talent, the decisions, like everything that they're doing.
It's like, yeah, you just don't see this in college
where jemmy last segment, it's called the Deep three. There
are three questions that take us beyond who you are
as a players, going beyond your jersey, and so it
just takes it to a deeper level. It's man to
go ahead and give them. When you were younger, what
did you say yes to? You know that you're willing
(49:07):
to give anything for. But now you've you know, you're
in NFL. You're a young man that when you go backwards,
you go, I wouldn't do that again. Oh that's a
tough question. Because you're a professional. Everything you do, Everything
you do impacts, whether it's your mind, your body, your
(49:29):
your profession. You know, you don't know what the residual
or you know, you don't know what the layer. The
first thing that I learned that I would say no
to and I go backwards, I came from Utah, California, Utah,
and man, my first off season barbecue and and and
just all the great restaurants here in Charlotte you put
(49:50):
on them two o five coming into I would say, um,
one thing I would say yes to that then, Like
living here in Indiana, like when we like are downtime,
like we just hoop, like we'll go we'll go to
l a fitness or like somewhere some part over here
and we're like we were just hoop like all off season,
(50:12):
Like that would just be that will we do? Like
me and my friends would just go hoop. So I say,
right now, I would just say no to that just because, um,
like there's so much I want. I know how they hoop,
and I know how just how they play. So I
would say no to that just because now looking back,
like I got I got more to lose and just
be out here playing basketball and and you know getting
hurt doing that. All right, What does success means to
(50:36):
you professionally and personally? Professionally? Um winning? So like that's
it ultimate sign of just being successful. You know, having
your health as well, UM health winning, health wealth winning,
(50:56):
Like that's that's success as I see it help. Well,
I feel like that's that covers everything you can't argue
with that wealth and winning it translates off side off
the field as well. Yeah, I get you rich right there?
Play about seventeen a year, look like, well I take
(51:22):
a little that. Yeah, I know you're young. I know
you're young and your profession, Um, but what motivates you today?
You know, you guys are done playing football? You know
you get them. I saw you tweet. You know you
you you wished or hope you were playing in January February.
(51:44):
You know, besides the Super Bowls, the Hall of Fame,
all that stuff, you know, the core of it, what
you know, what really motivates you beyond just having some
success or a lot of success on the football field.
I love the place, I said, like, I love to
play it. Like if you see me like just out
there that practice, like my teammates like sack and look
(52:04):
at me like why are you smiling? Why are you
so happy? Because I'm having fun? Like I love this.
I genuinely love to pay the game. Steve. What's the
biggest thing you learned between your rookie season and your
second year? Um? Yeah, see that's that's pretty good. You
(52:31):
are learning so much and you you're trying to figure out, um,
you know, what is the opponent? What is me? What's
the scheme? Um? My rookie year to my second year
was a transition transitional year because we have coach c
for who was fired and we had a new coaching staff.
(52:55):
So I was playing pretty much no wide receiver, primarily
special teams. Then I got an opportunity to coach Fox
to play still special teams but also contribute. So a
little bit is uh baptism by fire, you know, not
getting the opportunity to really um. You know, my rookie
(53:15):
year didn't play much. Was she played a lot of
scout team UM. And then that scout team I was
going against guys where I was like, man, if this
guy can play, and I'm not getting an opportunity. So
it's it's hodgepod. Just just a ton of stuff, ton
of ton of emotions, ton of uh self evaluation, self doubt.
(53:36):
And then you got a new coaching staff, so you
gotta start all over and try to impress them and
try to figure out the offense. So I think for
a young guy to get a new coach coming out
of his rookie year trying to figure things out and
then start over, and that's a lot. It's a lot,
and you're supposed to be a professional as well. So
(53:57):
I don't know, it's just I think it's puss. You're
already drinking from fires just being in the NFL. The
you have a big transition, and I think it's it's
tough no matter what year you're in, but I think
it's tougher now because of the way fans, the way
the evaluation process is now, is they expect even more
success out of the first three rounds compared to what
(54:21):
it used to be. I think it's even um a
higher level of expectations. Right, So so now as a
as a former player, as a VET forty plus, what
would you go back until young Steve? Now, I don't know.
I wouldn't tell I wouldn't tell me anything just because mh.
There are things that had to do with maybe different
(54:43):
coaching styles, learning and not learning, trying to figure out.
So I think it's it would be cool to go
back and watch myself. I think I would cringe, but
then also would laugh because I had a head coach
who was it was his first time being the head coach,
so he was figuring it out too. So you got
(55:05):
the blind leading the blind and we're trying to figure
it out. Team is not very good. What were those
cringe worthy moments? Oh? One time I think Coach Fox
kicked us, kicked us out of practice, like the whole team,
because we were pissed poor. They were fighting, they were frustrated.
But the day before he started practice all over, like
we were our into practice. He started all over from
(55:26):
the top like stretch, like we had to restart, We're
gonna run this whole thing. So you know, that's what
I mean by crisis. I'm like, oh, we're tired, you know.
And we're in sparm berg, South Carolina and the heat
of July August. The heat is so thick you could
see it waving over the grass and the concrete. It's
(55:47):
hot and you can you stay focused? No? You know
the they say, what fatigue makes it? What a coward
out of you makes you lose focus? Never really been
in heat like that. I was in Utah dry heat.
I wasn't in humidity, so you know, it was a lot.
It was definitely a lot. And I don't think you
(56:08):
can you can't prepare there's no test that lets you know,
um how good or how bad you will be. It's
just you know. It's baptism by by fire of of
of actually being on the field and seeing what you have.
You are a unique person, You are well worth it,
You are competent and most of all, your lovable. I'm
(56:33):
Steve Smith Singor I'm Gerald Little John and this is
cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
BAAL Tool Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
(56:55):
Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve
Smith SINGR, Co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking
manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John
Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced
(57:16):
by Brian Balta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance
by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by
Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't
heard am about it, then We're about to let you
know it's all
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