August 23, 2022 • 47 mins
In part one of this two-part episode, Marcus Spears cuts to his memories playing football for the league and now, his experience working from the sidelines. Listen in to hear him and Smitty talk ball and share their thoughts on the young bucks trying to join the conversation.
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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.
Let's get 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
about it, then we're about to let you. Now it's
all that's welcome your good friend. He thinks he got
(00:43):
a little swag on him from bad and Rouge. Louisiana
went to uh Louisiana State University also known as l
s U and a former defensive end Baltimore Raven and
what it really loves to claim that star Dallas Cowboy.
(01:04):
Welcome to the cut to a podcast. Marcus spears, what's
some fella listens what and I'm impressed by yo Louisiana accent.
That was that was? That was dope. Hey, when you
run through it, when you run through a team twice
a year every year for thirteen years, you gotta pick
up something. It was it was no limit ish. Yeah,
we're doing this today? Is I gonna do it today?
(01:26):
And it was facts. Was there was there a cap?
I ain't got nothing to do with that. I ain't
never played for the same. Okay, we'll put your mc
hammerglasses back on. How about that it's got a glare.
I don't I don't have to put ant on my glass. Year. Listen,
we were about to start off. We like to start
(01:48):
off with some little ice breakers. Now I have to
tell you your team sent uh, some dough some some dudes,
and don't what they said. So here's what they said.
They sent no political questions. So who did you vote for? Um?
The insurrection? Are you against it? A ford? Uh? They
(02:12):
listen to see sense of things that. I'm like, I'm
not gonna ask him that. Who did you vote for?
Were you on so secure? Were you? Were you on
us section eight? As a kid? I mean it was
just it was mad at me all the time, because
you know, I don't give a damn Steve. Her job
is to protect me. My job is to do something.
So she has to do um to justify justify that check.
(02:35):
That's what you're saying. Huh. But I wasn't gonna ask
who you vote for? I know better than that. Hey man, Listen,
I don't give us. Bro let me not y'all gonna
give me texts about thirty seconds. Here's the Here are
the things that we don't we don't want to ask.
Like there's one that we were gonna ask that we
(02:58):
can't even ask even because I'm scared they're not gonna
add it out. They had to do with somebody. No,
I can't Okay, people would not like me to ask
you that. All right, all right, all right, all right,
all right, I knew this was yes, I knew this
(03:18):
was coming. I know you didn't I didn't know. Yeah,
I'm not gonna ask you. First of all, there's so
many I would love to do a podcast were like
ten or fifteen active or retire guys and just ask
questions that we know darn well we can't answer, but
just to ask, like why, just why you why? Not
(03:46):
even not even an answer, I don't even even answer,
just the question of why, just to get the reaction.
Why did you think that was appropriate? Yeah? Like we
at what point did you think that was appropriate? See?
That's the thing. That's the things man Like people get
piste off because I'll be saying what I mean, bro,
(04:09):
and I really don't think about repercussions. I'm right there
with you, and it is what it is sometimes, bro
Like something I realized that I worked for a company
I understand to that six years in and I just
realized that, yeah, you represent it's a while too. It's
a metal while, to be honest with you. But but
but also, man, I've become more censored in my age
(04:30):
because of my kids and my wife. Like that's why
I have I've become a little bit more sensitive to
things that I say, let's let's jump right into and
instead of you know, we usually do icebreakers, but that
that ice the one of the icebreakers was funny because
we're not gonna we don't really care what your political
views are because, let's be honest, a color of our skin.
(04:52):
People don't really care what we think anyway, as long
as we pair our taxes and catch and jump and
tackle and and and do the things that is supposed
to do on the field. And if we don't do
it on the field, they're gonna they're gonna call us, uh,
the hard art anyway and keep it moving. So so
let's experience. But it is true. Let me let me
(05:12):
ask you, what have you learned as an analyst that
you wished you knew as a player that could benefit
your benefit you as a player today, as a player today,
Like if you can, if you know what you know now,
you get to go back in time to benefit you
(05:33):
because I I have some things and I'll let you
go first. That I'm realizing that it's some whoppers. Boy,
I'm talking about whoppers, some like mythical stories that I'm
just I'll just be I'm just be fuddled, honestly, demand
(05:58):
the truth from people in authority position. Um, don't be
fearful of losing a job or rub that folks the
wrong way. The truth that r that's some pause, Okay,
don't rub people the wrong way. Pause. Um, it's some
(06:21):
folks in trouble. Don't worry about that. Get the truth.
I know, I know, I gotta realize that. I I'll
tell you. I'm I'm still feeling my way through where
I'm at right now because I know you can't feel
you Listen, I'm gonna hang this damn phone, don't get
(06:42):
oh see, look at you now, you've been asthley. You're
mad at me for your words anything, I'm gonna get
mad at you. You know me way better than that. No,
man like, honestly, that's it. That's it, bro. I used
to try to um just facilitate the easier versation. Sometimes
they need to be hard, sometimes they need to be difficult.
(07:05):
Sometimes they pause, sometimes they need to be Um. You
you gotta, you gotta just you gotta get to the
to the bottom of it instead of saying, you know what,
this person writes my check. But you gotta have the
conversations and you can't. You can't subject yourself to you
can get fired anyway. They're gonna. I've I've always jeez
(07:28):
heard me say this, You're gonna get fired. The question
is when you're sitting alone after you're fired, you have
the question of and the answer, and your body of
work is the answer because I've heard guys say it,
(07:49):
you're gonna get fired. So you can't either get fired
doing it jee way, or you can get fired and
then wish you would have said something or done some things,
a non regrettable way of living, but not yoloing right,
not not not risking everything. Yeah, but but there's the
(08:16):
question is right and not trying to question individuals men
or women. Do you really know your authentic self? Because
I know my authentic self. However, I would go back
and maybe tweak how I articulated my authentic self, maybe
(08:43):
taking maybe taken away, maybe taking away a few cuss
words here and there. And if you backhands shining, I
think as long as you can look at it in
and will you slap somebody though that that's more than hindsight.
That's just a little bit of regret. I'm just being
honest out a back hand if you brother time, but
I wish everybody didn't go to the to the to
(09:03):
the lengths that you win. I understand, I understand, but
you know what I'm saying, like, but you acknowledge it.
That's that's so, that's the that's yes. But I mean
it wasn't technically unsolicitedy they asked I gave, so I
thought it was Christmas. You know sometimes it's Christmas. Shall
receive that cup back canneth over, man, I feel you, bro.
(09:30):
I just think a lot of times, man, where we
at and honestly like, for as much as I like
speak out about stuff, also be trying to meet people
where they are, like that's that's a big part of
it because you realize, like as a man sitting here
with a fifteen and thirteen, and the nine year old
obviously wouldn't do the same things I did when I
(09:51):
was twenty four. Hop yeah, right, hope not because you
do got something I trying to steal a um, but
but yeah, man, I just think I think if anything,
and and to your points to me, I like what
you said not regrettable because that's where you were at
that time, But you also need to be mature enough
(10:11):
and smart enough to have a different perspective years later
and say, you know what, I should have did that
different or if I would have been where I am now,
I would have handled that differently. The one thing I
tell people, man, I'm not going to compromise on truth
to me, like, you're not gonna get me in the
room and get me to say something about Smitty and
then go in another room and have a different story.
(10:33):
If you're my guy, you my guy in the White House,
you my guy in your house, you're my guy, and
I'm around some people you don't like you know what
I'm saying. So I think that's you know, for me,
that's probably to get back to the question you asked,
I would probably just have really more conversations that that
aired on the side of edgy and hoping that the
(10:57):
person that I'm talking to realize where I'm coming from,
as opposed to getting emotional about it and saying, well,
I can't deal with this, dude. Yeah, yeah, the emotional
the emotional part of us as athletes becomes lazy. And
I believe that's where the confrontation comes. And that's where
I have to I have to use my own internal
(11:18):
measuring stick of myself to say, am I being emotionally
lazy and allowing someone to kind of get under my skin?
And then I go I go in on them, and
then I make it personal, and and and and then
you happen to do it on television, and then it
becomes it becomes you're racist or you have and I
(11:39):
and I and I find it interested in us doing television.
The Young Cats calls lazy the Young Cats talking about shade.
First of all, Young Punk, you gotta understand that the
oak tree we are playing, you know, double digit years
in the league, that has to have some good deep roots.
(12:00):
You used talking about we're throwing shade. You forget, well,
this oak tree is allowing you to be under this shade.
We're watching film to knowing and and build our opinion
about your game. Now, I tried not to do with
some of the other guys, and I experienced, well, you
can't depend on the thirty seven year old. Well, if
that thirty seven year old is really really good, that's
(12:22):
h that that's the that's the young boy's fault. Yes,
it's production and his fault. That guy gave him something
a thirty seven that he didn't give some of these
twenty seven year olds. Right, However, right, I look at
the A. J. Brown thing right now, he keeps constantly
going against the Tennessee Titan fans and just come out
(12:45):
saying Tyreek Hill, Cheetah, come out. It ain't no way.
I don't know to h I'm gonna just be honest.
There's nothing about two A currently right now that I've
that has brought me to to the conclusion to go
watch how accurate, inaccurate, how good? How bad? Two is?
(13:06):
Two is? Two is like that. They're not a sponsor,
so I can said to us, like Arby's right, you
don't really know if Arby's has a, I don't have
a has a. Good men you're bad because I just
don't look at Arby's as a destination for me. Yeah,
that's not the way you stop them go but them
(13:27):
curly fries, fire as hell facts, now some good sandwiches. Really,
I just ye, you just we ain't going there first too,
they're not on there. And so two is coach McDaniels
looking forward to what he's gonna do, interested to see Cheetah.
(13:51):
Is Mike Kasecki gonna continue to dominate because he didn't
look dominant coming out in his rookie year under a
uh them gaze. However a lot of people did I understand.
I know, but I just got to show him that
my my, my football accurate. But too is not this
(14:13):
player that I'm going And I wonder if he's accurate
or not. You know how, you know how when you
was you know how, you was in school and used
to get your report card and you were scared because
it's aid n A and then you had all the
other grades. You thought the NA meant fl You thought
it meant that because we was dumb, We was young, numb,
(14:33):
and we was like, if the teacher don't give us
a grade, we must be failing. Um, that's tour to me,
Like I'm not gonna get it. Excited about man Tyrek
the practice with tour for six minutes, like to draw
these conclusions and put it out there in the public forum.
I hope his mentality is big enup my teammate and
trying to build some confidence. He's trying to build some confidence.
(14:56):
He's also trying to build up a podcast. He's also
trying to do this. He's trying to do. But one
of the things that I heard that was extremely interesting
to me, and I've been holding this too, is people
are talking about his Hall of Fame legacy because of
how early, how much success he had and now that
(15:18):
the I would say, the sour taste of leaving a
good team for more money, but then all of a
sudden coming out and then finding out which I already
knew that the Chiefs actually offered him more money. However
they the the way it was structured was a little
(15:39):
bit different for a guy who's in his late twenties.
And I'll just say this constructively. I like Cheetah. I
think he's a fantastic football player. However, when I look
at his game, he doesn't have the pH D and
route running. Yeah, he runs a lot of uh, he
(16:03):
runs a lot of crayon routes, be fast. What do
I mean by that? It shot threw that up there
hoping you dunk it. I love you when you could
dunk g um. I'm not That's what I'm here. What
I mean by creon routes says they, you know, a
real route runner can connect the dotss angle science, you know,
science mathematics, being able to run the post corner and
(16:27):
and stop on a dime and get you change. Cheetah
stop on Cheeta will stop on several domes, but it
may not be a change and maybe a dollar just
because he and he doesn't catch the ball when you
talk about Hall of Fame, he doesn't catch the ball
in the in the way of a receiver that's on
his way to the Hall of Fame like a life
(16:47):
fish geral. He has amazing runs, he does not have
amazing catches. Well, let me tell you this, bro, you
can speak to that. As far as Hall of Fame,
the way my NFL career countless set up, I ain't
really I don't really know about all that. No, I
just I just mean this is if I want to
hear somebody critique it is you. I just I'm not.
(17:08):
I'm not on him. I'm not. He's a hell of
a player, but to move on for a couple of millions,
millions of dollars when you're at a place where playing
in Kansas City actually long term you can make more
money because I don't see Miami planning deep into January February.
(17:35):
Good point, right, he is on South Beach though, Yeah,
that's not that's not that's not like, get rid of that.
It's cold as hell and can't see that. Listen, man,
but you know, you know it's not cold. You know
it's not. It's always a good temperature. And now on
who you are, you might have a checking in the
(17:57):
savings and days it might. It just kind of depends.
Now I'll tell I'll tell him. I want them to
cash and then deposit. Mind. I don't don't put no
hole on my money. It's mine. I love cut to
It and I love it even more when you download
us and subscribe and you can follow us on social
(18:19):
media too, Smithy 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 Singer, what about online?
And you can follow us at cut to It Podcast?
Dot com where you can buy merch and you can
subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
(18:41):
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 Like, I understand what you're saying,
Smithy about Tyrek. Um, I think too, man. Like the
one thing about when you went let's say, when you
went to the raven right, because he was a free agent. Though,
(19:03):
that's what I'm saying. You went to the Ravens, but
but you balled. Yeah, Like that's really what it boiled
down to. Tarik will be fine, probably getting in the
Hall of Fame if he go do his thing. What
you don't want the conversation to become just thinking everything
around you was the reason you was like you were.
That's and that's what I'm trying to say a little bit, right.
(19:25):
I don't think everything around him, However, I think I
do believe he grew because of everything around him. He
was successful, successful because of everything around it. Because when
you have bad quarterback play, bad bad quarterback play, it's
like a bad circuit breaker. You can have you can
(19:47):
have the top of the line RENEI tankless water heater,
the best of the best air condition. But if you
got a circuit breaker that's built in the nineteen eighties,
this this new technology is pop pop. It's just not
gonna work. It's gonna work just for a little bit.
(20:08):
And then so does it get too hot like it
is right now? Right now you got the house fan going,
but it's pointing outside the window because you're trying to
get the hot air out, or you got the house
fan with the bowl of water underneath. That's say they're
supposed to who being polled before. But here's the problem
(20:29):
I have. It never worked. It was still hot air
like it's sticking to the plastic. Stop moving, and then
your grandma still make you sleep with that hot that's
comforted on her bid. Grandma weighed it weighed like forty pounds.
(20:51):
Was the regular house, grandma? Why they was never hot
or they had they had great they had great conditions.
Here's what the elements. Here's what I learned as an adult.
Here's what I learned as adult. They was hot. They
just they were not going to turn down. Pride was
not gonna let you. You're not gonna see me sweat
and why and why is that? First? I want to say,
(21:12):
get wins. Why is she not? Why was she not
gonna do it? You ain't about to drive up mom?
That was late man, Exactly. It was so many things
on the list. I my wife grew up with a grandparents, bro,
and I was I was in She from Detroit, and
(21:33):
I was in Detroit, man at a football camp. And
that was the first opportunity that I had to meet
her grandmother and grandfather. And we she lived, you know,
grew up a rough area whatever. So we went to
the house Smithy. I walked in. It was a hundred
and fifty degree and I told I told, I told
my wife at the time, girlfriend, I said, I can't
(21:53):
stay here alone. I was like, I can't stay here alone.
I was like, we either got to go sit on
the porch, and I can't. When it's cooler outside, you
would rather sit under the shade tree, light up a
black mouth. And I'm sitting at the dining table talking
to her grand I am like, bro, like I'm playing
(22:13):
in Miami at one pm on Sunday in August and
I'm looking They're looking at me like something wrong, Like
something wrong with you? Something wrong with me grandmother probably
like she's gonna marry this horrible sweat glands. I was
(22:35):
almost broke up with him. I'll tell you, I'll tell
you a bad I'll tell you a quick bad story
and then we'll get into it. Um. Well, the first
time I took my parents, my uh my kids to
my grand grandma and grandpa house. Right, And this was
like two thousand and thirteen, like right after the Super
(22:57):
Bowl show. You know, we're living were living high the
hog right. Bailey, my daughter, she's uh what I was.
Bailey baby was like two or three. Peyton was seven
or eight, right, I'm but I remember. And we went
over there and had to use uh, I had to
use the bathroom. And my wife we had been married
(23:19):
like to two years, two or three years, four years,
and she had been over there, but it was all
in passing. It was never like at a long period
of time to where she had to use the bathroom. Oh. Man,
one of the kids had to use the bathroom. And
they went to the bathroom. My wife came back said, uh,
I flushed the doll. I said, oh, let me come
(23:42):
show you. No, No, this is when we you where
you wash your hands or there was a leaky falls
and underneath had the bucket and had to rinse it
and uh oh. I looked at me and she was
I was like, yeah, so to me. About three months later,
we're in the car and Peyton, who's brilliant, my oldest,
(24:07):
he's super duper smart, Um says Daddy, this looks like
grandma's house. I said, what do you mean. He says,
look like but we're watching TV. We're watching national geographics,
We're watching something that's shows like kind of a third
third World country shanties. He goes, yeah, grandma, your grandma's
(24:31):
house looked like shanty. I looked at him and I said, yep,
that's how Daddy left. I said, if you don't go
to school, that's how you're gonna. But it was just
the connecting of the dots, right, the idea. They had
no idea. Remember the TV and you got you gotta
you gotta change the channel on the floor model TV
(24:52):
with the plyers because you lost the cap off the
and we didn't have that. We didn't Our TV wasn't
that big. We had a smaller TV on the on
top of the floor. Oh yeah, that's when you upgrade.
That was then for as much as for as much
as like being poor. Like when you get older, you
you look into it. Man, I had fun. You had
so much fun when we were broken. Yeah, Rich ain't
(25:14):
all that fun all the time. I disagree, and I
ain't that. I ain't smith. You know, I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna ever tell anybody like I love I
love the conveniences. Yeah, I agree, right, but but I
do disagree. Rich different riches compared to being poor. Oh yeah, well,
I mean in context, I'm talking about full contact. I'm
(25:36):
talking about full contact and like I had to watch
my clothes. It's just a lot of little things. I
saw my I saw my family every day. We was tight.
Like now I gotta fly people in and they expect
me to like. So that's that's kind of stuff I'm
talking about. You. I don't want to be far enough though.
See me for being California living North Carolina. That was serious.
(26:00):
They don't want to get on that. All right. Let's
get into it, man, we we talked ball. Let's get
into it. Man. Where are you from the place you
call your hometown from? Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Man South bed
Rouge grew up born and raised UM raised in a
single parent I was hold with my mom, but my
dad was very involved, not the not the old conventional dad.
(26:21):
They wasn't nowhere around. My pops played a big role
in my life, especially when it kind of sports man.
He kind of you know, he was that he was
that authority figured but also like the teacher. UM. And
my mom was the nurturer obviously, and and I lived
with her all the way up until eighth grade. Ninth grade,
I moved with my dad. My mom felt like you
(26:43):
need a male presents day and day out in your life.
Moved with him. Went to high school. UM had went
to Southern University Lab School, so I grew up on
the hbc U campus. UM so that I was almost
like in a Richmond program in high school. Well, well,
now it was so liaboratory schools is high schools that
a lot of the teachers that graduate from that particular college,
(27:06):
they'll come and do their teaching like to get in
and then I mean you got veteran teachers as well.
But but it's it's a part of the university system
of Southern University. And UM it was a great experience. Uh.
Predominantly like nine point nine percent black. We had one
white dude that na't Christopher Osencoff, who was exchange to
(27:27):
that became our kicker, and he was phenomenal. I think
it kicked like on the year from I think from Russia.
I think it was from Russia. Um culture shot coach. Hey,
I'm gonna tell you what else black women look like that?
(27:50):
But he found out. He found out quick like you know,
he went from Cappuccino. Then it's funny. It's funny man
because because we keep it touch me and Chris Keven
touch over Facebook. Um. But anyway, yeah, he went back,
Um married, I think he got one or two kids. Um,
(28:10):
but we keep it in passing. Man. Huh did he
marry sister? I don't think so, but I'm sure if
he would have stayed here, you just you probably well.
But now, man, Um, it was a great experience road
because I got both sides. And then when I went
to college, obviously L s U being predominantly white and
(28:34):
a funny story man, like growing up in bad Ruge,
where I was from, I didn't I never have been
on l s U campus and it was literally ten
fifteen minutes away from where I grew up. But that
was such a far like I thought that you could
even go there, um because I not understanding the concept
of football and recruiting and all of that stuff. But
(28:55):
man at Ruge was good to me. Man Um, I
learned a lot growing up in the South. You know,
you experienced the unfortunately ugly face the racism at times,
but for the most part, man I had a great
time um and and and to just learned a lot
of lessons on how to like navigate through through different situations.
(29:15):
Grew up in a like a family that you know,
cousins and uncles and in and out of prison. Some
did very well, uh, taking care of their family. So
I saw, I saw it all. But ultimately, bro like
growing up in Baton Rouge, you get you get this
idea that you want to become a big fish in
that little pond, and you like, all right, let me
(29:36):
let me it's two things you usually do. You usually
go work at the chemical playing the next on and
you worked there for the next thirty five for the
years you retire, and then that generation and cycle continues.
A lot of really good athletes come out of Louisiana.
So football is always something that's you know, big and
getting getting us opportunities to go outside of the city.
So for me, that's what I saw um and I
(30:00):
I wanted to I wanted to play ball. I grew
up doing it. My sister is actually my sports hero.
She was a hooper, one of the top female basketball
players in the country. So she motivated me a lot
to play basket sports. What what what position did you
play in basketball as a young fella? Because you're, as
(30:22):
we call you, big boneded Now I've been bon I
know the three. I was young, I was young, I
was young Barkley. Oh, okay, slew foot in Barkley or
good foot in Barkley. I just don't don't get on
the acting right now. No, I've heard you. The reason
(30:44):
I asked this question is because when I go back
at my memory, brank of the truth. I was a
terrible basketball player, right aggressive you found too much. Actually,
I grew up in that showtime. So I storing a
hundred mile hour passage. I'm trying to damn take something
(31:05):
over that r I'm over there, no look right in
the face. So I was the just messing up. I'm
just trying to I'm trying to the combination of love.
John Stockton, but idolize Magic Johnson. But the Clippers was
my team and they sucked, So I was confused. I
(31:26):
was confused. My whole basketball ideology was as backwards as
you would say. I just didn't have man Annoy Benjamin
Danny Manny Showtime and John Stockton just confused. Hit the wrong.
You wouldn't even looking at the right place. You wouldn't
(31:47):
even looking at the right trying to hook I try
to get No, don't, don't slight me. I was about problem.
I was about five five and had a gross spurt
to five nine. I was it. I got there. You
probably should have been looking at John Sto. That's what
(32:09):
I was right. Even got we posted on social media
my muggy bowl had a muggall. You ain't had on malone.
That was a problem. I really don't like the blame.
You ain't hand on malone, not alone. You don't went
to the league. Listen, even if I had him alone,
the way I was past the ball, Hell, he wasn't
gonna catch it anyway I was. I was out there throwing.
He said, I was out there throwing my homes. Yeah,
(32:33):
you didn't go to You didn't go to football coach.
The basketball coach said, you ain't make it. No you
get you didn't get some of that aggressive this out
of you football. It worked out a little bit. Cut away, cut,
let's getting down to do. Hey Gerard, why did you
(32:54):
get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
I got it from Cut to a podcast dot com
where we have a school usive 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. Hey Marcus, With all
those things that you mentioned before of growing up in
the South, and you know, all the things that you learned,
(33:14):
what was difficult, and then the things that you love.
Of all those things, what are you most proud of
growing up in the South? Um? My family, man, like
I think you know, as the narratives pissed me off
a lot because, like I said about my mom and
dad divorced but very active. Um, all my all my
(33:37):
knowledge and wisdom comes from my grandmother and my uncle's
even the ones that that didn't do the right thing
all the time looking out community. Um, you know me
and I just I'm so proud of of like my
parents experienced racism, they experienced m being marginalized and all that,
(33:58):
but they never gave me that out. Like they never
gave me that out like don't don't don't go into
light thinking that you're starting from behind. Um, don't don't
have this anger or it's vendetta against people until you
get to know their character, no matter if they're white
or black. And um, I think that's what I'm most
proud of, bro, because when I when I actually got
(34:19):
into the real world as a young adult, I wasn't
naive to the things that that that go on, but
also was like, man, I'm gonna give every person grace
until they showed me who they are. And I live
by that, like even til the day. I live by like,
I'm not gonna I'm not prejudging anybody based on anything,
(34:39):
but as soon as you show me who you are,
I'm either fade away or we can rock or we
just acquaintances and we run into each other once in
a while. So I think the perspective that they gave me, man,
just just not being and looked still explained to me
difficulties and stuff that I was gonna have to face.
I had to when the police pull you all we're
(35:00):
talk I had the white people stare at you when
you in department stores. Um, you know, always be visible
all of that. Like I was conscious of that. Um.
Unfortunately I gotta teach my son that. But but ultimately,
my parents never gave me an out. My grandmother, grandfather
never gave me an out. Um, my uncle's you know,
(35:21):
even the ones that I talked to from prison, even
the ones that we're doing well, never like, look, man, like,
whatever you wanna get accomplished in this life, even though
being black may make it a little bit more difficult
or a lot more difficult, if you get after it,
you can get it done. Um. And that's why, man,
I that's why, honestly, like what I'm doing now, I
(35:42):
refused to be different than than the person that I've
been before I've been on TV, and I think that's
what I'm proud of. Bro. Every everybody that I talked to,
all of my boys, all of my friends, UM, they
talk about authenticity because they know me. They like, oh,
you'd be saying the same thing when we're in the
liberal room clicking out. And I just want to keep
(36:03):
that man. And I'm a rid it roder pause, I'm
a ride away. What is something that you enjoy the
most doing television right now? Um? Probably the dialogue between players,
(36:25):
man um, even when it's not like even when you're
going after each other, different opinions, like it's important, it's
you know, fans sometimes don't really understand the different when
people have various opinions. They think that it's a it's
(36:45):
it's it's staged, or that you guys are have a
personal thing. It's the personal things on television is based
off what is said privately and then it's switched up publicly.
But that's what get that side or you know, you
kind of look at your your teammate in a different light, right,
(37:08):
I feel you on that man, because you're not name
calling or or name dropping anybody. But it's there's so
many production meetings, there's so many emails that go go
on that people are asking us, what do you want
to talk about? How did what's your perspective? What's your
point of view? And then you'll say, I'll give me.
You know, at some point, I'm gonna have the Miami
(37:30):
game and someone's gonna ask me, right, well, what do
you think? What what was your performance to its performance.
What did you think if he comes out of there
and just throws for ten for twelve five yards. I'm no,
I don't have an opinion because that's not that's not
that's not opinion worth. Like if you're telling me you're
(37:52):
gonna take the first overall pick and he you limit
his throws and he barely gets past a hun and
you have all this firepower and these thorough breads out
on the team. Offensively, defensively, you got offensive gurru and
(38:12):
you're out here having pedestrian like passes. Yeah, I have
no opinion. Yeah it's mean, I think too. Man like you,
you bring up a good point, bro, an opinion, that's
not bigging up or or praising the guy. Ain't hating.
I hate that so much now, man like, bro, listen,
(38:34):
I get dudes like you know, first of all, you
gain respect the players. It's different from me and you like.
The reality is when you walk in facilities and teams,
everybody know who you are, They know your body and
work for me. I gotta like, I gotta my my
honesty is gonna continue to have dudes respect me, right
because you you look up, you look up stat lions
(38:57):
or you say why this guy talking about a dude
a bad and he only got ten sacks in his career.
And you know all of that stuff, bro, Like I
didn't put it in way more than ten thousand hours
of football film notes looking at it, and you also
understand Like for you and and and and me and
(39:19):
guys in media, bro, I think it's important not only
for us to respect these young cats and what they're doing,
because we know how difficult it is, even though it
may not be as much as as difficult as it
was when we was playing. We get acknowledged that. But
it don't need to be You don't need to be
here not all great, right, Like, That's the only thing
I struggle with is I'm very particular, and I will
(39:41):
tell anybody I'm working with, don't say he's great. No,
third fourth year in the league, he can't be great.
So how do both for this question? For both of you?
Markets with your knowledge you know, playing on defensive, lind
Steve with your knowledge playing receiver, and your overall like
like you said, your overall knowledge of football, putting in
(40:04):
more than ten thousand that was worth of work. How
do you how do you balance when you are honest
about a guy with bearing the line of and not
that you care, but the flat being oh that type
like you literally just broke down tyreck Hills game. Whether
it is his route running or whether it is the
way that he catches the ball some woman here, I'm
not saying this Tyreko someone. He may when we run this,
(40:27):
he may reply. But here, but here's why though. When
I look at his HIGHLIGHTSNSE it's on ESPNFL network, he's
catching the ball with his chest right, he's hopping and
and and the reason I know he's doing that. And
sometimes I feel like you're uncomfortable catching ball in your hands,
because I've done it. There's times I've caught the ball
in my chest because I've been uncomfortable. I've been unsure.
(40:49):
I haven't got a lot of passes, and I know, okay,
this is my We've had ten plays. Is the first
or second pass thrown to me? If I trick this off,
I may not get a pass again. So I gotta
make sure. Or I've been sitting around, I'm so cold,
I ain't really got I ain't got that yet, right,
So whether that so, whether that criticism is constructive non
(41:10):
constructive for me? What do I do is one of
the things I try to do is I'll drop a
little nuggets in front of the wife and depending on
how her face looks, let's me know that's a little
bit too harsh, right, She'll be like right, And so
I'll try to do that. Or I'll say something to
my boys, what you think, dad, you being a hater?
(41:31):
Because my boys are old enough as millennials they consumed
it like, all Dad, you're a hater, right, And so
I would do that. The other part that I do is,
and I'm not afraid, man, I've called Willie mac Willie McGuinness, Hey, man,
what's the TV start? Explain this to me? Right? So
(41:54):
I've tried to. I am a wide receiver. But what
I do not like my producer choosed to do, and
they've gave me the autonomy not to is I've learned
and I have information that helps me understand what the
defenses are doing, what the linebackers are will Dog Blitz
of Mike Blitz, uh, you know, Ricky, oh my hall, Lucy,
(42:19):
all the different lingos that have changed that I'm on
top of it. Pause to understand that I can understand.
So when I'm talking and watching the game, letting the
game talk to me and let me create my opinion
(42:42):
to where I know what's going on. But I also
and I used the word humble, now, I humble myself
because you're not in humbling myself. Meaning if I call
someone that has played the defensive position that I don't,
and I have to one, I have to give them
(43:03):
the respect to say, hey, I don't know everything, so
can you teach me. I've called Joe Thomas a few
times and what's what's a what's the wrong arm? Like
when the defensive end ord tackle wrongs on when they
do this t e stuff and they're wrong garm? What
does that mean? Actually? Like they got two arms? What
(43:24):
do you mean they used the wrong arm? Well, he's like, oh,
when you take on the block away, when you take
on the block inside versus when you're supposed to keep
the integrity of of the run stop of the outside,
and so understanding that him and they're giving me that
information and then me utilizing it and they're not taking
and but also taking this opportunity now to say, hey,
(43:46):
I've called other coworkers and they schooled me and helped
me because I know I personally cannot sit on television
without the ten thousand square foot view from another defensive player,
because I want to be so well rounded when I
talk on television that I'm not talking out of my
(44:09):
out of my butt, but I'm talking the same way,
out of the knowledge of the game, because I'm the
air Quotes Register resident expert, and so I don't want
to be the resident wide receiver expert like Dan on
what you guys, He's always talking about quarterbacks and I've
called myself. I looked up there in stats, right, and
(44:31):
I'm one. But the other thing, even though Dan was
not a bona fide stellar quarterback, he does also know
how a quarterback should look, what the how the eyes
of the quarterback should look, how is body should look.
So I even watch other networks, not to steal, but
(44:54):
to gain some knowledge to look at and go how
can I apply this? How is this applicable to advancing
my knowledge of the game as an analyst versus me
just saying that player can't play or he ain't no
good right right, we can acknowledge like when somebody play bad,
(45:15):
but we what we what we should stay away from,
in my opinion, is making that they overall arching um
dukie career or like you play pro football. The dudes
across the line of scrimmage are really really good. Not
there are some guys who are Yeah, I mean, but
you're gonna have bad outings because let's let's let's come
(45:38):
on now, let's be on there. There are some guys
who have been with the same coach or the specially
coach because they trust them, because they got their back,
that aren't the best of the best. There are some
guys who are we know what we know, dudes slide through.
But I'm just talking about overall in the National Football
League or the NBA. The dude that never played gonna
(46:01):
get your thirty at the Rex stup, you know what
I'm say, And he got crossed over by a few
of those dudes in the rec center. So it's for me,
it's context, man. I think what Smith just said. It
is important man being being able to humble yourself. Um,
my uncle Phield used to tell me literally, I got
an uncle nay Field, Philip Spears, and my grandfather's brother.
(46:23):
You just tell me all the time, the smartest man
in the world know what they don't know, like and
you can't be you can't be um so immature and
not to not acknowledge that you are a unique person.
You are well worth it, you are competent, and most
(46:46):
of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith singor I'm 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, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
(47:10):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard
Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
(47:32):
Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and
Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator
Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals
by Anthony Hamilton.
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.
Let's get 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
about it, then we're about to let you. Now it's
all that's welcome your good friend. He thinks he got
(00:43):
a little swag on him from bad and Rouge. Louisiana
went to uh Louisiana State University also known as l
s U and a former defensive end Baltimore Raven and
what it really loves to claim that star Dallas Cowboy.
(01:04):
Welcome to the cut to a podcast. Marcus spears, what's
some fella listens what and I'm impressed by yo Louisiana accent.
That was that was? That was dope. Hey, when you
run through it, when you run through a team twice
a year every year for thirteen years, you gotta pick
up something. It was it was no limit ish. Yeah,
we're doing this today? Is I gonna do it today?
(01:26):
And it was facts. Was there was there a cap?
I ain't got nothing to do with that. I ain't
never played for the same. Okay, we'll put your mc
hammerglasses back on. How about that it's got a glare.
I don't I don't have to put ant on my glass. Year. Listen,
we were about to start off. We like to start
(01:48):
off with some little ice breakers. Now I have to
tell you your team sent uh, some dough some some dudes,
and don't what they said. So here's what they said.
They sent no political questions. So who did you vote for? Um?
The insurrection? Are you against it? A ford? Uh? They
(02:12):
listen to see sense of things that. I'm like, I'm
not gonna ask him that. Who did you vote for?
Were you on so secure? Were you? Were you on
us section eight? As a kid? I mean it was
just it was mad at me all the time, because
you know, I don't give a damn Steve. Her job
is to protect me. My job is to do something.
So she has to do um to justify justify that check.
(02:35):
That's what you're saying. Huh. But I wasn't gonna ask
who you vote for? I know better than that. Hey man, Listen,
I don't give us. Bro let me not y'all gonna
give me texts about thirty seconds. Here's the Here are
the things that we don't we don't want to ask.
Like there's one that we were gonna ask that we
(02:58):
can't even ask even because I'm scared they're not gonna
add it out. They had to do with somebody. No,
I can't Okay, people would not like me to ask
you that. All right, all right, all right, all right,
all right, I knew this was yes, I knew this
(03:18):
was coming. I know you didn't I didn't know. Yeah,
I'm not gonna ask you. First of all, there's so
many I would love to do a podcast were like
ten or fifteen active or retire guys and just ask
questions that we know darn well we can't answer, but
just to ask, like why, just why you why? Not
(03:46):
even not even an answer, I don't even even answer,
just the question of why, just to get the reaction.
Why did you think that was appropriate? Yeah? Like we
at what point did you think that was appropriate? See?
That's the thing. That's the things man Like people get
piste off because I'll be saying what I mean, bro,
(04:09):
and I really don't think about repercussions. I'm right there
with you, and it is what it is sometimes, bro
Like something I realized that I worked for a company
I understand to that six years in and I just
realized that, yeah, you represent it's a while too. It's
a metal while, to be honest with you. But but
but also, man, I've become more censored in my age
(04:30):
because of my kids and my wife. Like that's why
I have I've become a little bit more sensitive to
things that I say, let's let's jump right into and
instead of you know, we usually do icebreakers, but that
that ice the one of the icebreakers was funny because
we're not gonna we don't really care what your political
views are because, let's be honest, a color of our skin.
(04:52):
People don't really care what we think anyway, as long
as we pair our taxes and catch and jump and
tackle and and and do the things that is supposed
to do on the field. And if we don't do
it on the field, they're gonna they're gonna call us, uh,
the hard art anyway and keep it moving. So so
let's experience. But it is true. Let me let me
(05:12):
ask you, what have you learned as an analyst that
you wished you knew as a player that could benefit
your benefit you as a player today, as a player today,
Like if you can, if you know what you know now,
you get to go back in time to benefit you
(05:33):
because I I have some things and I'll let you
go first. That I'm realizing that it's some whoppers. Boy,
I'm talking about whoppers, some like mythical stories that I'm
just I'll just be I'm just be fuddled, honestly, demand
(05:58):
the truth from people in authority position. Um, don't be
fearful of losing a job or rub that folks the
wrong way. The truth that r that's some pause, Okay,
don't rub people the wrong way. Pause. Um, it's some
(06:21):
folks in trouble. Don't worry about that. Get the truth.
I know, I know, I gotta realize that. I I'll
tell you. I'm I'm still feeling my way through where
I'm at right now because I know you can't feel
you Listen, I'm gonna hang this damn phone, don't get
(06:42):
oh see, look at you now, you've been asthley. You're
mad at me for your words anything, I'm gonna get
mad at you. You know me way better than that. No,
man like, honestly, that's it. That's it, bro. I used
to try to um just facilitate the easier versation. Sometimes
they need to be hard, sometimes they need to be difficult.
(07:05):
Sometimes they pause, sometimes they need to be Um. You
you gotta, you gotta just you gotta get to the
to the bottom of it instead of saying, you know what,
this person writes my check. But you gotta have the
conversations and you can't. You can't subject yourself to you
can get fired anyway. They're gonna. I've I've always jeez
(07:28):
heard me say this, You're gonna get fired. The question
is when you're sitting alone after you're fired, you have
the question of and the answer, and your body of
work is the answer because I've heard guys say it,
(07:49):
you're gonna get fired. So you can't either get fired
doing it jee way, or you can get fired and
then wish you would have said something or done some things,
a non regrettable way of living, but not yoloing right,
not not not risking everything. Yeah, but but there's the
(08:16):
question is right and not trying to question individuals men
or women. Do you really know your authentic self? Because
I know my authentic self. However, I would go back
and maybe tweak how I articulated my authentic self, maybe
(08:43):
taking maybe taken away, maybe taking away a few cuss
words here and there. And if you backhands shining, I
think as long as you can look at it in
and will you slap somebody though that that's more than hindsight.
That's just a little bit of regret. I'm just being
honest out a back hand if you brother time, but
I wish everybody didn't go to the to the to
(09:03):
the lengths that you win. I understand, I understand, but
you know what I'm saying, like, but you acknowledge it.
That's that's so, that's the that's yes. But I mean
it wasn't technically unsolicitedy they asked I gave, so I
thought it was Christmas. You know sometimes it's Christmas. Shall
receive that cup back canneth over, man, I feel you, bro.
(09:30):
I just think a lot of times, man, where we
at and honestly like, for as much as I like
speak out about stuff, also be trying to meet people
where they are, like that's that's a big part of
it because you realize, like as a man sitting here
with a fifteen and thirteen, and the nine year old
obviously wouldn't do the same things I did when I
(09:51):
was twenty four. Hop yeah, right, hope not because you
do got something I trying to steal a um, but
but yeah, man, I just think I think if anything,
and and to your points to me, I like what
you said not regrettable because that's where you were at
that time, But you also need to be mature enough
(10:11):
and smart enough to have a different perspective years later
and say, you know what, I should have did that
different or if I would have been where I am now,
I would have handled that differently. The one thing I
tell people, man, I'm not going to compromise on truth
to me, like, you're not gonna get me in the
room and get me to say something about Smitty and
then go in another room and have a different story.
(10:33):
If you're my guy, you my guy in the White House,
you my guy in your house, you're my guy, and
I'm around some people you don't like you know what
I'm saying. So I think that's you know, for me,
that's probably to get back to the question you asked,
I would probably just have really more conversations that that
aired on the side of edgy and hoping that the
(10:57):
person that I'm talking to realize where I'm coming from,
as opposed to getting emotional about it and saying, well,
I can't deal with this, dude. Yeah, yeah, the emotional
the emotional part of us as athletes becomes lazy. And
I believe that's where the confrontation comes. And that's where
I have to I have to use my own internal
(11:18):
measuring stick of myself to say, am I being emotionally
lazy and allowing someone to kind of get under my skin?
And then I go I go in on them, and
then I make it personal, and and and and then
you happen to do it on television, and then it
becomes it becomes you're racist or you have and I
(11:39):
and I and I find it interested in us doing television.
The Young Cats calls lazy the Young Cats talking about shade.
First of all, Young Punk, you gotta understand that the
oak tree we are playing, you know, double digit years
in the league, that has to have some good deep roots.
(12:00):
You used talking about we're throwing shade. You forget, well,
this oak tree is allowing you to be under this shade.
We're watching film to knowing and and build our opinion
about your game. Now, I tried not to do with
some of the other guys, and I experienced, well, you
can't depend on the thirty seven year old. Well, if
that thirty seven year old is really really good, that's
(12:22):
h that that's the that's the young boy's fault. Yes,
it's production and his fault. That guy gave him something
a thirty seven that he didn't give some of these
twenty seven year olds. Right, However, right, I look at
the A. J. Brown thing right now, he keeps constantly
going against the Tennessee Titan fans and just come out
(12:45):
saying Tyreek Hill, Cheetah, come out. It ain't no way.
I don't know to h I'm gonna just be honest.
There's nothing about two A currently right now that I've
that has brought me to to the conclusion to go
watch how accurate, inaccurate, how good? How bad? Two is?
(13:06):
Two is? Two is like that. They're not a sponsor,
so I can said to us, like Arby's right, you
don't really know if Arby's has a, I don't have
a has a. Good men you're bad because I just
don't look at Arby's as a destination for me. Yeah,
that's not the way you stop them go but them
(13:27):
curly fries, fire as hell facts, now some good sandwiches. Really,
I just ye, you just we ain't going there first too,
they're not on there. And so two is coach McDaniels
looking forward to what he's gonna do, interested to see Cheetah.
(13:51):
Is Mike Kasecki gonna continue to dominate because he didn't
look dominant coming out in his rookie year under a
uh them gaze. However a lot of people did I understand.
I know, but I just got to show him that
my my, my football accurate. But too is not this
(14:13):
player that I'm going And I wonder if he's accurate
or not. You know how, you know how when you
was you know how, you was in school and used
to get your report card and you were scared because
it's aid n A and then you had all the
other grades. You thought the NA meant fl You thought
it meant that because we was dumb, We was young, numb,
(14:33):
and we was like, if the teacher don't give us
a grade, we must be failing. Um, that's tour to me,
Like I'm not gonna get it. Excited about man Tyrek
the practice with tour for six minutes, like to draw
these conclusions and put it out there in the public forum.
I hope his mentality is big enup my teammate and
trying to build some confidence. He's trying to build some confidence.
(14:56):
He's also trying to build up a podcast. He's also
trying to do this. He's trying to do. But one
of the things that I heard that was extremely interesting
to me, and I've been holding this too, is people
are talking about his Hall of Fame legacy because of
how early, how much success he had and now that
(15:18):
the I would say, the sour taste of leaving a
good team for more money, but then all of a
sudden coming out and then finding out which I already
knew that the Chiefs actually offered him more money. However
they the the way it was structured was a little
(15:39):
bit different for a guy who's in his late twenties.
And I'll just say this constructively. I like Cheetah. I
think he's a fantastic football player. However, when I look
at his game, he doesn't have the pH D and
route running. Yeah, he runs a lot of uh, he
(16:03):
runs a lot of crayon routes, be fast. What do
I mean by that? It shot threw that up there
hoping you dunk it. I love you when you could
dunk g um. I'm not That's what I'm here. What
I mean by creon routes says they, you know, a
real route runner can connect the dotss angle science, you know,
science mathematics, being able to run the post corner and
(16:27):
and stop on a dime and get you change. Cheetah
stop on Cheeta will stop on several domes, but it
may not be a change and maybe a dollar just
because he and he doesn't catch the ball when you
talk about Hall of Fame, he doesn't catch the ball
in the in the way of a receiver that's on
his way to the Hall of Fame like a life
(16:47):
fish geral. He has amazing runs, he does not have
amazing catches. Well, let me tell you this, bro, you
can speak to that. As far as Hall of Fame,
the way my NFL career countless set up, I ain't
really I don't really know about all that. No, I
just I just mean this is if I want to
hear somebody critique it is you. I just I'm not.
(17:08):
I'm not on him. I'm not. He's a hell of
a player, but to move on for a couple of millions,
millions of dollars when you're at a place where playing
in Kansas City actually long term you can make more
money because I don't see Miami planning deep into January February.
(17:35):
Good point, right, he is on South Beach though, Yeah,
that's not that's not that's not like, get rid of that.
It's cold as hell and can't see that. Listen, man,
but you know, you know it's not cold. You know
it's not. It's always a good temperature. And now on
who you are, you might have a checking in the
(17:57):
savings and days it might. It just kind of depends.
Now I'll tell I'll tell him. I want them to
cash and then deposit. Mind. I don't don't put no
hole on my money. It's mine. I love cut to
It and I love it even more when you download
us and subscribe and you can follow us on social
(18:19):
media too, Smithy 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 Singer, what about online?
And you can follow us at cut to It Podcast?
Dot com where you can buy merch and you can
subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
(18:41):
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 Like, I understand what you're saying,
Smithy about Tyrek. Um, I think too, man. Like the
one thing about when you went let's say, when you
went to the raven right, because he was a free agent. Though,
(19:03):
that's what I'm saying. You went to the Ravens, but
but you balled. Yeah, Like that's really what it boiled
down to. Tarik will be fine, probably getting in the
Hall of Fame if he go do his thing. What
you don't want the conversation to become just thinking everything
around you was the reason you was like you were.
That's and that's what I'm trying to say a little bit, right.
(19:25):
I don't think everything around him, However, I think I
do believe he grew because of everything around him. He
was successful, successful because of everything around it. Because when
you have bad quarterback play, bad bad quarterback play, it's
like a bad circuit breaker. You can have you can
(19:47):
have the top of the line RENEI tankless water heater,
the best of the best air condition. But if you
got a circuit breaker that's built in the nineteen eighties,
this this new technology is pop pop. It's just not
gonna work. It's gonna work just for a little bit.
(20:08):
And then so does it get too hot like it
is right now? Right now you got the house fan going,
but it's pointing outside the window because you're trying to
get the hot air out, or you got the house
fan with the bowl of water underneath. That's say they're
supposed to who being polled before. But here's the problem
(20:29):
I have. It never worked. It was still hot air
like it's sticking to the plastic. Stop moving, and then
your grandma still make you sleep with that hot that's
comforted on her bid. Grandma weighed it weighed like forty pounds.
(20:51):
Was the regular house, grandma? Why they was never hot
or they had they had great they had great conditions.
Here's what the elements. Here's what I learned as an adult.
Here's what I learned as adult. They was hot. They
just they were not going to turn down. Pride was
not gonna let you. You're not gonna see me sweat
and why and why is that? First? I want to say,
(21:12):
get wins. Why is she not? Why was she not
gonna do it? You ain't about to drive up mom?
That was late man, Exactly. It was so many things
on the list. I my wife grew up with a grandparents, bro,
and I was I was in She from Detroit, and
(21:33):
I was in Detroit, man at a football camp. And
that was the first opportunity that I had to meet
her grandmother and grandfather. And we she lived, you know,
grew up a rough area whatever. So we went to
the house Smithy. I walked in. It was a hundred
and fifty degree and I told I told, I told
my wife at the time, girlfriend, I said, I can't
(21:53):
stay here alone. I was like, I can't stay here alone.
I was like, we either got to go sit on
the porch, and I can't. When it's cooler outside, you
would rather sit under the shade tree, light up a
black mouth. And I'm sitting at the dining table talking
to her grand I am like, bro, like I'm playing
(22:13):
in Miami at one pm on Sunday in August and
I'm looking They're looking at me like something wrong, Like
something wrong with you? Something wrong with me grandmother probably
like she's gonna marry this horrible sweat glands. I was
(22:35):
almost broke up with him. I'll tell you, I'll tell
you a bad I'll tell you a quick bad story
and then we'll get into it. Um. Well, the first
time I took my parents, my uh my kids to
my grand grandma and grandpa house. Right, And this was
like two thousand and thirteen, like right after the Super
(22:57):
Bowl show. You know, we're living were living high the
hog right. Bailey, my daughter, she's uh what I was.
Bailey baby was like two or three. Peyton was seven
or eight, right, I'm but I remember. And we went
over there and had to use uh, I had to
use the bathroom. And my wife we had been married
(23:19):
like to two years, two or three years, four years,
and she had been over there, but it was all
in passing. It was never like at a long period
of time to where she had to use the bathroom. Oh. Man,
one of the kids had to use the bathroom. And
they went to the bathroom. My wife came back said, uh,
I flushed the doll. I said, oh, let me come
(23:42):
show you. No, No, this is when we you where
you wash your hands or there was a leaky falls
and underneath had the bucket and had to rinse it
and uh oh. I looked at me and she was
I was like, yeah, so to me. About three months later,
we're in the car and Peyton, who's brilliant, my oldest,
(24:07):
he's super duper smart, Um says Daddy, this looks like
grandma's house. I said, what do you mean. He says,
look like but we're watching TV. We're watching national geographics,
We're watching something that's shows like kind of a third
third World country shanties. He goes, yeah, grandma, your grandma's
(24:31):
house looked like shanty. I looked at him and I said, yep,
that's how Daddy left. I said, if you don't go
to school, that's how you're gonna. But it was just
the connecting of the dots, right, the idea. They had
no idea. Remember the TV and you got you gotta
you gotta change the channel on the floor model TV
(24:52):
with the plyers because you lost the cap off the
and we didn't have that. We didn't Our TV wasn't
that big. We had a smaller TV on the on
top of the floor. Oh yeah, that's when you upgrade.
That was then for as much as for as much
as like being poor. Like when you get older, you
you look into it. Man, I had fun. You had
so much fun when we were broken. Yeah, Rich ain't
(25:14):
all that fun all the time. I disagree, and I
ain't that. I ain't smith. You know, I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna ever tell anybody like I love I
love the conveniences. Yeah, I agree, right, but but I
do disagree. Rich different riches compared to being poor. Oh yeah, well,
I mean in context, I'm talking about full contact. I'm
(25:36):
talking about full contact and like I had to watch
my clothes. It's just a lot of little things. I
saw my I saw my family every day. We was tight.
Like now I gotta fly people in and they expect
me to like. So that's that's kind of stuff I'm
talking about. You. I don't want to be far enough though.
See me for being California living North Carolina. That was serious.
(26:00):
They don't want to get on that. All right. Let's
get into it, man, we we talked ball. Let's get
into it. Man. Where are you from the place you
call your hometown from? Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Man South bed
Rouge grew up born and raised UM raised in a
single parent I was hold with my mom, but my
dad was very involved, not the not the old conventional dad.
(26:21):
They wasn't nowhere around. My pops played a big role
in my life, especially when it kind of sports man.
He kind of you know, he was that he was
that authority figured but also like the teacher. UM. And
my mom was the nurturer obviously, and and I lived
with her all the way up until eighth grade. Ninth grade,
I moved with my dad. My mom felt like you
(26:43):
need a male presents day and day out in your life.
Moved with him. Went to high school. UM had went
to Southern University Lab School, so I grew up on
the hbc U campus. UM so that I was almost
like in a Richmond program in high school. Well, well,
now it was so liaboratory schools is high schools that
a lot of the teachers that graduate from that particular college,
(27:06):
they'll come and do their teaching like to get in
and then I mean you got veteran teachers as well.
But but it's it's a part of the university system
of Southern University. And UM it was a great experience. Uh.
Predominantly like nine point nine percent black. We had one
white dude that na't Christopher Osencoff, who was exchange to
(27:27):
that became our kicker, and he was phenomenal. I think
it kicked like on the year from I think from Russia.
I think it was from Russia. Um culture shot coach. Hey,
I'm gonna tell you what else black women look like that?
(27:50):
But he found out. He found out quick like you know,
he went from Cappuccino. Then it's funny. It's funny man
because because we keep it touch me and Chris Keven
touch over Facebook. Um. But anyway, yeah, he went back,
Um married, I think he got one or two kids. Um,
(28:10):
but we keep it in passing. Man. Huh did he
marry sister? I don't think so, but I'm sure if
he would have stayed here, you just you probably well.
But now, man, Um, it was a great experience road
because I got both sides. And then when I went
to college, obviously L s U being predominantly white and
(28:34):
a funny story man, like growing up in bad Ruge,
where I was from, I didn't I never have been
on l s U campus and it was literally ten
fifteen minutes away from where I grew up. But that
was such a far like I thought that you could
even go there, um because I not understanding the concept
of football and recruiting and all of that stuff. But
(28:55):
man at Ruge was good to me. Man Um, I
learned a lot growing up in the South. You know,
you experienced the unfortunately ugly face the racism at times,
but for the most part, man I had a great
time um and and and to just learned a lot
of lessons on how to like navigate through through different situations.
(29:15):
Grew up in a like a family that you know,
cousins and uncles and in and out of prison. Some
did very well, uh, taking care of their family. So
I saw, I saw it all. But ultimately, bro like
growing up in Baton Rouge, you get you get this
idea that you want to become a big fish in
that little pond, and you like, all right, let me
(29:36):
let me it's two things you usually do. You usually
go work at the chemical playing the next on and
you worked there for the next thirty five for the
years you retire, and then that generation and cycle continues.
A lot of really good athletes come out of Louisiana.
So football is always something that's you know, big and
getting getting us opportunities to go outside of the city.
So for me, that's what I saw um and I
(30:00):
I wanted to I wanted to play ball. I grew
up doing it. My sister is actually my sports hero.
She was a hooper, one of the top female basketball
players in the country. So she motivated me a lot
to play basket sports. What what what position did you
play in basketball as a young fella? Because you're, as
(30:22):
we call you, big boneded Now I've been bon I
know the three. I was young, I was young, I
was young Barkley. Oh, okay, slew foot in Barkley or
good foot in Barkley. I just don't don't get on
the acting right now. No, I've heard you. The reason
(30:44):
I asked this question is because when I go back
at my memory, brank of the truth. I was a
terrible basketball player, right aggressive you found too much. Actually,
I grew up in that showtime. So I storing a
hundred mile hour passage. I'm trying to damn take something
(31:05):
over that r I'm over there, no look right in
the face. So I was the just messing up. I'm
just trying to I'm trying to the combination of love.
John Stockton, but idolize Magic Johnson. But the Clippers was
my team and they sucked, So I was confused. I
(31:26):
was confused. My whole basketball ideology was as backwards as
you would say. I just didn't have man Annoy Benjamin
Danny Manny Showtime and John Stockton just confused. Hit the wrong.
You wouldn't even looking at the right place. You wouldn't
(31:47):
even looking at the right trying to hook I try
to get No, don't, don't slight me. I was about problem.
I was about five five and had a gross spurt
to five nine. I was it. I got there. You
probably should have been looking at John Sto. That's what
(32:09):
I was right. Even got we posted on social media
my muggy bowl had a muggall. You ain't had on malone.
That was a problem. I really don't like the blame.
You ain't hand on malone, not alone. You don't went
to the league. Listen, even if I had him alone,
the way I was past the ball, Hell, he wasn't
gonna catch it anyway I was. I was out there throwing.
He said, I was out there throwing my homes. Yeah,
(32:33):
you didn't go to You didn't go to football coach.
The basketball coach said, you ain't make it. No you
get you didn't get some of that aggressive this out
of you football. It worked out a little bit. Cut away, cut,
let's getting down to do. Hey Gerard, why did you
(32:54):
get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes,
I got it from Cut to a podcast dot com
where we have a school usive 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. Hey Marcus, With all
those things that you mentioned before of growing up in
the South, and you know, all the things that you learned,
(33:14):
what was difficult, and then the things that you love.
Of all those things, what are you most proud of
growing up in the South? Um? My family, man, like
I think you know, as the narratives pissed me off
a lot because, like I said about my mom and
dad divorced but very active. Um, all my all my
(33:37):
knowledge and wisdom comes from my grandmother and my uncle's
even the ones that that didn't do the right thing
all the time looking out community. Um, you know me
and I just I'm so proud of of like my
parents experienced racism, they experienced m being marginalized and all that,
(33:58):
but they never gave me that out. Like they never
gave me that out like don't don't don't go into
light thinking that you're starting from behind. Um, don't don't
have this anger or it's vendetta against people until you
get to know their character, no matter if they're white
or black. And um, I think that's what I'm most
proud of, bro, because when I when I actually got
(34:19):
into the real world as a young adult, I wasn't
naive to the things that that that go on, but
also was like, man, I'm gonna give every person grace
until they showed me who they are. And I live
by that, like even til the day. I live by like,
I'm not gonna I'm not prejudging anybody based on anything,
(34:39):
but as soon as you show me who you are,
I'm either fade away or we can rock or we
just acquaintances and we run into each other once in
a while. So I think the perspective that they gave me, man,
just just not being and looked still explained to me
difficulties and stuff that I was gonna have to face.
I had to when the police pull you all we're
(35:00):
talk I had the white people stare at you when
you in department stores. Um, you know, always be visible
all of that. Like I was conscious of that. Um.
Unfortunately I gotta teach my son that. But but ultimately,
my parents never gave me an out. My grandmother, grandfather
never gave me an out. Um, my uncle's you know,
(35:21):
even the ones that I talked to from prison, even
the ones that we're doing well, never like, look, man, like,
whatever you wanna get accomplished in this life, even though
being black may make it a little bit more difficult
or a lot more difficult, if you get after it,
you can get it done. Um. And that's why, man,
I that's why, honestly, like what I'm doing now, I
(35:42):
refused to be different than than the person that I've
been before I've been on TV, and I think that's
what I'm proud of. Bro. Every everybody that I talked to,
all of my boys, all of my friends, UM, they
talk about authenticity because they know me. They like, oh,
you'd be saying the same thing when we're in the
liberal room clicking out. And I just want to keep
(36:03):
that man. And I'm a rid it roder pause, I'm
a ride away. What is something that you enjoy the
most doing television right now? Um? Probably the dialogue between players,
(36:25):
man um, even when it's not like even when you're
going after each other, different opinions, like it's important, it's
you know, fans sometimes don't really understand the different when
people have various opinions. They think that it's a it's
(36:45):
it's it's staged, or that you guys are have a
personal thing. It's the personal things on television is based
off what is said privately and then it's switched up publicly.
But that's what get that side or you know, you
kind of look at your your teammate in a different light, right,
(37:08):
I feel you on that man, because you're not name
calling or or name dropping anybody. But it's there's so
many production meetings, there's so many emails that go go
on that people are asking us, what do you want
to talk about? How did what's your perspective? What's your
point of view? And then you'll say, I'll give me.
You know, at some point, I'm gonna have the Miami
(37:30):
game and someone's gonna ask me, right, well, what do
you think? What what was your performance to its performance.
What did you think if he comes out of there
and just throws for ten for twelve five yards. I'm no,
I don't have an opinion because that's not that's not
that's not opinion worth. Like if you're telling me you're
(37:52):
gonna take the first overall pick and he you limit
his throws and he barely gets past a hun and
you have all this firepower and these thorough breads out
on the team. Offensively, defensively, you got offensive gurru and
(38:12):
you're out here having pedestrian like passes. Yeah, I have
no opinion. Yeah it's mean, I think too. Man like you,
you bring up a good point, bro, an opinion, that's
not bigging up or or praising the guy. Ain't hating.
I hate that so much now, man like, bro, listen,
(38:34):
I get dudes like you know, first of all, you
gain respect the players. It's different from me and you like.
The reality is when you walk in facilities and teams,
everybody know who you are, They know your body and
work for me. I gotta like, I gotta my my
honesty is gonna continue to have dudes respect me, right
because you you look up, you look up stat lions
(38:57):
or you say why this guy talking about a dude
a bad and he only got ten sacks in his career.
And you know all of that stuff, bro, Like I
didn't put it in way more than ten thousand hours
of football film notes looking at it, and you also
understand Like for you and and and and me and
(39:19):
guys in media, bro, I think it's important not only
for us to respect these young cats and what they're doing,
because we know how difficult it is, even though it
may not be as much as as difficult as it
was when we was playing. We get acknowledged that. But
it don't need to be You don't need to be
here not all great, right, Like, That's the only thing
I struggle with is I'm very particular, and I will
(39:41):
tell anybody I'm working with, don't say he's great. No,
third fourth year in the league, he can't be great.
So how do both for this question? For both of you?
Markets with your knowledge you know, playing on defensive, lind
Steve with your knowledge playing receiver, and your overall like
like you said, your overall knowledge of football, putting in
(40:04):
more than ten thousand that was worth of work. How
do you how do you balance when you are honest
about a guy with bearing the line of and not
that you care, but the flat being oh that type
like you literally just broke down tyreck Hills game. Whether
it is his route running or whether it is the
way that he catches the ball some woman here, I'm
not saying this Tyreko someone. He may when we run this,
(40:27):
he may reply. But here, but here's why though. When
I look at his HIGHLIGHTSNSE it's on ESPNFL network, he's
catching the ball with his chest right, he's hopping and
and and the reason I know he's doing that. And
sometimes I feel like you're uncomfortable catching ball in your hands,
because I've done it. There's times I've caught the ball
in my chest because I've been uncomfortable. I've been unsure.
(40:49):
I haven't got a lot of passes, and I know, okay,
this is my We've had ten plays. Is the first
or second pass thrown to me? If I trick this off,
I may not get a pass again. So I gotta
make sure. Or I've been sitting around, I'm so cold,
I ain't really got I ain't got that yet, right,
So whether that so, whether that criticism is constructive non
(41:10):
constructive for me? What do I do is one of
the things I try to do is I'll drop a
little nuggets in front of the wife and depending on
how her face looks, let's me know that's a little
bit too harsh, right, She'll be like right, And so
I'll try to do that. Or I'll say something to
my boys, what you think, dad, you being a hater?
(41:31):
Because my boys are old enough as millennials they consumed
it like, all Dad, you're a hater, right, And so
I would do that. The other part that I do is,
and I'm not afraid, man, I've called Willie mac Willie McGuinness, Hey, man,
what's the TV start? Explain this to me? Right? So
(41:54):
I've tried to. I am a wide receiver. But what
I do not like my producer choosed to do, and
they've gave me the autonomy not to is I've learned
and I have information that helps me understand what the
defenses are doing, what the linebackers are will Dog Blitz
of Mike Blitz, uh, you know, Ricky, oh my hall, Lucy,
(42:19):
all the different lingos that have changed that I'm on
top of it. Pause to understand that I can understand.
So when I'm talking and watching the game, letting the
game talk to me and let me create my opinion
(42:42):
to where I know what's going on. But I also
and I used the word humble, now, I humble myself
because you're not in humbling myself. Meaning if I call
someone that has played the defensive position that I don't,
and I have to one, I have to give them
(43:03):
the respect to say, hey, I don't know everything, so
can you teach me. I've called Joe Thomas a few
times and what's what's a what's the wrong arm? Like
when the defensive end ord tackle wrongs on when they
do this t e stuff and they're wrong garm? What
does that mean? Actually? Like they got two arms? What
(43:24):
do you mean they used the wrong arm? Well, he's like, oh,
when you take on the block away, when you take
on the block inside versus when you're supposed to keep
the integrity of of the run stop of the outside,
and so understanding that him and they're giving me that
information and then me utilizing it and they're not taking
and but also taking this opportunity now to say, hey,
(43:46):
I've called other coworkers and they schooled me and helped
me because I know I personally cannot sit on television
without the ten thousand square foot view from another defensive player,
because I want to be so well rounded when I
talk on television that I'm not talking out of my
(44:09):
out of my butt, but I'm talking the same way,
out of the knowledge of the game, because I'm the
air Quotes Register resident expert, and so I don't want
to be the resident wide receiver expert like Dan on
what you guys, He's always talking about quarterbacks and I've
called myself. I looked up there in stats, right, and
(44:31):
I'm one. But the other thing, even though Dan was
not a bona fide stellar quarterback, he does also know
how a quarterback should look, what the how the eyes
of the quarterback should look, how is body should look.
So I even watch other networks, not to steal, but
(44:54):
to gain some knowledge to look at and go how
can I apply this? How is this applicable to advancing
my knowledge of the game as an analyst versus me
just saying that player can't play or he ain't no
good right right, we can acknowledge like when somebody play bad,
(45:15):
but we what we what we should stay away from,
in my opinion, is making that they overall arching um
dukie career or like you play pro football. The dudes
across the line of scrimmage are really really good. Not
there are some guys who are Yeah, I mean, but
you're gonna have bad outings because let's let's let's come
(45:38):
on now, let's be on there. There are some guys
who have been with the same coach or the specially
coach because they trust them, because they got their back,
that aren't the best of the best. There are some
guys who are we know what we know, dudes slide through.
But I'm just talking about overall in the National Football
League or the NBA. The dude that never played gonna
(46:01):
get your thirty at the Rex stup, you know what
I'm say, And he got crossed over by a few
of those dudes in the rec center. So it's for me,
it's context, man. I think what Smith just said. It
is important man being being able to humble yourself. Um,
my uncle Phield used to tell me literally, I got
an uncle nay Field, Philip Spears, and my grandfather's brother.
(46:23):
You just tell me all the time, the smartest man
in the world know what they don't know, like and
you can't be you can't be um so immature and
not to not acknowledge that you are a unique person.
You are well worth it, you are competent, and most
(46:46):
of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith singor I'm 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, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
(47:10):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard
Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
(47:32):
Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and
Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator
Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals
by Anthony Hamilton.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com