EP 1,048 - Marcellus Wiley (NFL Star/ESPN & FS1 Superstar) on Analysts Who Played or Did Not, Current Athlete Podcasts, Telling The Truth Too Early - I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Brand new being and I am Rappaport Stereo podcast is here.
Have no fear one of my favorites. Say it again,
one of my favorites. I've said it to him in
real life. I've said it to him on social media.
I've set it to him across the desk when I've
worked with him throughout the years.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, iconic name. Who oh my name? Yeah? Okay, I
I say, not me, but yeah, my name is iconic.
They an'll know we're.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Gonna break it all down.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Marcellus Wiley, the Great Marcellus Wiley. Yes, Los Angeles legend,
University of Columbia graduate, never shut up, University educated curator,
ten years in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
People forget that.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, you know, it's like people some people may not
even know, like the young folks.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, I got a gang of stories like that. I'm like, dang,
they forgot how I used to get it. I used
to use these muscles for.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, played for the Bills, the Cowboys, the Chargers, the Jaguars.
It's almost that time of the year. Daily podcast host
of More to It. Also that dude on YouTube grinding it,
banging it out every single day. Decorated career ESPN, ESPN Television,
FS one and now on the im Rappaport stereo podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Plus. Your podcast is also on iHeart Just Like.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Me, number seventy five in the programs number one in
your Hearts. And like I said before we get into
I interview you, I have always loved your takes because
for me, you have been one of the most versatile commentators.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Because number one, you played. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Number two you're a fan, okay. Number three you're smart.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Number four you have a great sense of humor. Number
five you don't take yourself that seriously. Number six you
do take things seriously.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, you caught that.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
So that's why I always enjoyed you before I met you.
I enjoyed you with Maxim Marsellis. I enjoyed you on
all the different shows at ESPN. I enjoyed you at
ESPN at FX one, I enjoy you on YouTube, I
enjoy you on IG And I'm really glad you're here.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Man. That's love man to hear a eulogy and still
be a lot I take it.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
I mean, you know, in real what I love about
what you said was the fact that it wasn't just glossy,
It wasn't just high level.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
It wasn't just Wikipedia or what you think I share here.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
You actually know me and you know my intentions, and
it comes across I assume you know.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's funny.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
I've had so many co hosts, I've been on so
many shows. I've been doing it for so long, and
it's always interesting when people come up to me. They're like, man,
I used to love you on Maximrsels or I loved
you on Sports Nation year, I loved you speakers, and
and then sometimes it clicks with me. I'm like, Damn,
maybe they just love me because all those shows were
completely different. But to your point of being versatile, and

(03:09):
I'm only versatile because of myself. I'm like, I'm not acting.
I'm not Oh the light is on, let me now
be a broadcaster, you know. I'm like, Oh, you asked
me a question, I got an answer. And it's just
that simple. Because my experiences is my expertise. I've lived
through it. I've been through it, whether it's on the field,
off the field, the streets. It's like every level of

(03:30):
what this culture kind of represents. It just seems like, damn,
I got a degree in that from experience. So I
just let people know what I'm about.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Well, I love it.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Before we get into these specific questions, you've told the
story seven billion times, Marcellus Wiley, pulp Fiction the name.
How did you find out about Did you find out
about it when you went to the movie theater?

Speaker 4 (03:53):
No, I didn't even see Pope fiction in the theater
because after this I heard it was so weird, and
I was like, I ain't gonna waste my little money.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
What was it seven to fifty back to the other I
ain't got I wasn't gonna do it.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
I actually thought you were going to bring up my
name comes from someone more iconic than that. You know that, right,
break it down, Cassius Marcellus Clay.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean I know Cassius
Marcellus Clay. Yeah, that's where I got my name from.
So I got a lot to live up to. I
got a lot of catching up to do. But that's
where my name gives me power. And knowing his family
and knowing Layla and Curtis and the whole fam I mean,
it really is inspiring just to know that that's your name.
My mom intended for her son to have that name

(04:34):
so that I could live up to that.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Kind of presence. So I was like, damn, IM a
lot of pressure.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
But Pope fiction was hilarious because it was Inglewood and
I started playing football in Inglewood and I'm Marcel's He's
Marcelus Wallace, I'm Marcel's Wiley. And it's just like when
people come up to me and they're like, yo, what's
up Marcus? And I you know, most most cats be
trying to correct somebody on their name. I don't give
it damn about your name. I don't give it damn
by my name like that. You really came up to
me and say what's up to me? Not Mark GISs Marcellus.

(05:02):
So I don't really correct cats. But then they start
getting weird Marcellus Wallace and then they go ha, like
I ain't got no bandate in the back of my head, bro,
they ain't been to me over like that with the apples,
so relax. So that's the only time I kind of
checked a cat.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
That's nope, I didn't know. I didn't know the cashius
Marcellus Clay. All right, you are no longer at the
confines of ESPN. Although, like I said, you you you
talk shit. You you were great shit talker, but you
do it in an articulate way.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
You do it where you know like you have. It's
a skill set, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Like for me sometimes like I need and it's like
it's just my it's I need a fuck, I need
a shit, you know.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
But I've never cursed on live television, not once, not once,
cost slipping, never, not once.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
And people are shy, you know when I go on
live teep, if I go on to talk show. One
time I was doing I was a guest on I
can't remember what show, but they had the lawyer come down.
They're like, you know, I'm like, come on, man, you
don't need to send the lawyers out, Like I know
where I at. But you But how is it different
for you being sort of untethered, because you know, and
you could break it down as much as you want,

(06:14):
the confines of when you're at certain networks. You can't
say this about certain NBA players, you can't say this
about certain NFL players. You know, there's break it down
being untethered and break it down with the confines of
being on a network.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, let me walk through it. So I started My
first show was actually in ninety seven. My rookie year,
I got drafted. So I had a local TV show.
It was just like follow that Dude or something. I
don't know, I forget the name of it, but it
was in Buffalo and it was like a reality show,
literally before reality shows really hit. So I was like
the first Kardashian Like. They followed me in the mall,
they followed me at the crib. They watched me in

(06:50):
my DJ studio, my rap studio because I was rapping
back then. I'm still top five hydrated. That means when
i'm lit, I'm top five in the world. It's no doubt.
So you say so, they say, oh no, no, they
so Big Tig. So you say Big Tiger asked him.
Eddie George asked him, I have been documenting, validated you're
saying so.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
They say so. They say, okay, I'm still saying something.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
I love you. So I'm I had that show.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Then I started an NFL network before they opened, so
their first day on air, NFL Network owned by the NFL.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I'm mean.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
So I've always been me light song, light, soft, camera on,
camera off, and I'm working there. I'm a correspondent, so
I'm an active player, interviewing guys during the playoffs when
we didn't.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Make the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
So I'm running up the Peyton manning to Homie, like, hey,
how you doing. Peyton an amazing game, you know the
Danny and Thomason my former teammate, and Homie Hey, and
I got amazing stories of them being surrounded by the
scrum fifty reporters, you know, all the big names, and
them just locking eyes with me, like why they come
here and giving me the serious dope uncut and I

(07:56):
was like, damn, I love this. So I wanted to
be in the media, but I was still playing ball.
One side was done, and I was thinking for six months.
I was like, I'm about to chill, golf, date, mess
with every girl, ride around in circles and my rolls.
Royce just clown around right, and no, Lie, I was
doing that, getting fat as.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Hell, got up to like three hundred and eleven pounds.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
I was just winning. I mean, I was looking like
I was living in the entourage and it was unfulfilling.
I felt hollow, and I was like, damn, I gotta
do something. And then ESPN call was like, can you
come in do some interviews? Same old, same o, but
this time. It was a job interview more so than
just regular interviews. Let me tell you what happens when
you're at NFL network. You can't talk about the league

(08:39):
with it being dope like direct, like you gotta dance
around it, you gotta gloss it up. So I wanted
to say something at the time about Paul tagliabul or
something I forgot, but they were like no, no, no. So
that was the NFL network experience. You have ninety eight
percent of this space that's latitude, but this two percent

(08:59):
over here. I wouldn't do it if I were you.
So I was like, I don't like that. Go to ESPN.
The only time they tap you is one you're talking
about their partners, like NBA or something. You're going a
little too hard. Beato found that out the hard way.
You know NFL you're going a little too hard, or
you're not showing camaraderie, like you don't feel what your

(09:20):
co host is saying, you don't feel what the guest
is saying. It's still this like tea party, like we
all got to be pleasant and have PC talk even
though we going in on each other at Bospo's a
debate though, like break that the debate is natural, but
it's intentional. So explain it's natural. So they'll go through

(09:40):
a rundown. We start the prep of the show. Who
who's gonna win Jets and Patriots? I say Jets, You
say Jets. We ain't gonna talk about that. Who's gonna win?
Giants or Falcons? I say giants, You say falcons. Oh,
keep that one alive, because naturally we disagree. They go
through that as Tom Brady great or is Tom Brady
just damn with great success? Ah? We disagree, So they'll

(10:03):
just start to a pinpoint where do we naturally disagree?
And then there's always gonna be some I'm on the
fence like, ah, Brady Belichick. I'm like, ahs, both ah,
and then you're like it's definitely Brady.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh, we're gonna do that one. So what they find
is where we are polar opposites or where we're kind
of in the middle.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
But we could go either way, and that's a debate show.
Go out there and give them that you come from
this angle, this angle. We didn't make up our opinions,
but now we know our opinions differ, and all we're
gonna do is argue that. So that's what a debate
show is at its core. It's a natural process, but
it's intentional, right, kind of like reality shows. Like reality

(10:44):
shows don't tell you what to say. They just heavily
edit and heavily produce it. Right, But you're gonna be
you and if you crazy, if you ratchet, whatever you are,
we gonna catch that.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
So I found the FS one I had the most freedom.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
At the same time, that freedom felt a little like, damn,
do they care as much because they just let us roll.
So it wasn't the check ins as much as other networks,
but there was more freedom, and I never felt that
wrist slap, like hey, don't go there unless it was
against your co hosts.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
They always want you to prop them up.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
They always want you to prop them up within the
confines of disagreeing, So they don't want you to like
disrespect them or like take it to a like where
some of the things that happened with Shannon and Skip
where it's kind of like you want you want them debating,
but you don't want it where it's like getting messy
or ugly.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, I mean, look, you don't want to get personal one, right,
two You want to talk about the act, not the actor.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
And a lot of times when you see it's ugly,
you can easily see it as they're talking about the actor, like,
you know, we're talking about Brady, Skip to my Brady,
Shannon to my Brady. Oh no, skip talking about you, Shannon.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Right then Shannon stopped himself, but he was about to say,
right the hell you done?

Speaker 3 (11:57):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
And then it was like then it gets it's ugly. Yeah,
And they don't like that at all, because.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Do you like that or do you think that's important
to keep it?

Speaker 4 (12:07):
I can take it, So I like it because if
I'm gonna give it, I could take it. But I
grew up joning on cats. You know, I grew up
like the way I show love is clowning you. A
matter of fact, if you my homie, you ain't clowning me.
I don't think you the homie because I'm not perfect.
And if you can't balance this out between oh you're amazing,
you're the man, you play ball, and you got eyeboogers,
you can't get her number, like we ain't homies like that.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
I agree.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
I think that that's where they're losing their authenticity is
because someone's now on the internet independent calling it like
it is, whereas up there you can still see the
dress up of a debate, or the dress up of
the fact that you're arguing, not the full raw. I'm

(12:49):
at the barbecue with the homie. We disagree, and we're
still gonna pound them. Were still gonna grab a drink,
but we going in in this moment.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
If you are sellous with all your experience as a player,
all your experience as a person, all your trash talking abilities,
all your experience in front of the camera, this is
I didn't know I was gonna ask the question, but
I think this is a good question for you. If
you were going to create the ideal twenty twenty three
heading into twenty twenty four sports show, Yeah, what would

(13:22):
it be? And how would it look? There's no right
or wrong answer. I'm after asking you off the coff.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
I think I'm on to what that is.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Like.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
I got tired of talking to people because when you're
on TV, you're talking to people, whether they're watching you
intimately and really listening or like most people, your kind
of background noise. You're at the sports bar or I'm
in the house, but I'm doing stuff, but you're on.
I got tired of that. So the ideal show is
you talk with people. So one segment is with you

(13:49):
co hosts, another segment is me, you co hosts, and
the people a fan experience, like somebody coming in from
their home. They're doing the same thing, like cause I
learned that looking at comments, and I love looking at comments,
good or bad comments, common Yeah, I don't care, Like
if you talk trash about me, I'm gonna grab the
learn from that, like, oh he right about that, and

(14:11):
then the rest of it. I'm like, oh, I don't
care what you think about this, and then I move on.
I like to engage with cats, no matter if it's
positive or negative. But there's wisdom in the crowd. Man,
if you read through your comments, your game gets sharper. Now,
if you scared to read through your comments, then you
just gonna be in your bubble and you're gonna keep like.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Just being your echo chamber. You're gonna keep saying the
same stuff.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
So I let the comments kind of navigate me and
be like, oh I to take a little off there
or put a little more on there. So I think
the ideals show is you're discussing not debating, and you're
bringing into people who you actually trying to serve, like
why have an audience, and then you're not really caring
about what the audience thinks or says, and acting like
the audience so dumb that whatever I say is an

(14:54):
expert opinion and you fool better take it and if
you don't believe it, you're wrong. And then every weekend
we're wrong. Just one oh said the Patriots.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
You know what I mean? Brady is amazing. He could
do no wrong. Oh do four picks? You know what
I mean? Like, it's okay.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
I think we have kind of disconnected ourselves from the
full experience, from me playing to me talking. There are
steps that are being skipped and I'd rather go back
and address them.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
One of the things that's changed so much.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
In new media media new media.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Podcast everybody's got a podcast, everybody's got a YouTube, I mean, tips, everybody's.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Is that is it that there's opinions everywhere under the sun.
Do you feel liberated in a way that you cause
you talk shit, but you like but like on Instagram,
like I feel like on social media and YouTube now
it's just the YouTube, your YouTube page like and on
your podcast, you could amp it. Do you feel like
a sense of like, uh, like you could do what

(15:57):
you want, like you could really go hard on the
NBA if something happens in the NFL you career, Do
you feel liberated in that sense with it?

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Not the full sense of liberating because I was talking
shit when I was working on those networks. In part
that was my lane, like don't ask Marcel's he gonna
tell the truth. Like I started off at ESPN and
I was on NFL Live, you know, NFL Life. You're
supposed to talk about third and goal and who's gonna
win the game.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm up there to my girls and the club and
how this dude really is.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
And they were like, you ain't gonna last long on
this show, and he said, my boss said, and that's
a good thing. So I had a personality. So they
were like, you gotta go to Sports Nation. And that's
what Sports Nation took, right, because I'm not over here
x's and those boring ey's and yous, Right, people, what's
going on in human experience, So let's talk through that.
So I used to give emotional content to sports and

(16:48):
where it intersects with life not so much.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Oh, shred. Marshawn got the ball on the fourth.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
I don't give a damn. If he completes it, then
he shouldn't have got it. They threw an interception, he
should have got it. It's simple answer. So I was
never that guy. It didn't really hit me at the core.
So for me, what's liberating about what I do now?
I will say there's one degree everybody that I work with.
When I was at work with them, I had to
protect them.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
They were my teammates, right, and I hated that even
though I loved it.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
I understand, I love the teammate, but I hated that
you sucked or disagree with you, and now I got
to still keep you up afloat or vice versa.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Don't keep me. That means drowned. I guarantee you.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
I won't drown because you can't drown yourself, right, you know,
So I'm not gonna drown dog.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
So we can go at it. And they always wanted
us to stop short of that.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Why I ain't stopping short of that now because I will
talk and I do it in my way, So I
don't take shots at anybody, but I will criticize what
they've done and when I was on air, I couldn't
do that. So I'm sitting there next to Whitlock or
Acho or Max or whoever, and we would disagree on
a topic, but we never could get to the place

(17:56):
where no, I just disagree with you, homie. You know,
we got to talk now because if you saying that
makes me think this, now address that, And those are
so many more interesting avenues than trying to hide behind
Dak Prescott when really is something else with you? You know,
you're trying to just project on Dak. Really, I know
your problem. You in play or you in't play well,

(18:17):
or you suck? Are you mad at athletes? And so
I have this whole theory that the top guys in
sports media are there in part because of a bitterness.
And it's okay, it's okayog I have not done everything
in my life either, Clane. The bitterness comes from. Look,
there's one the ultimate ego in this world is an athlete,
because we all looked up to them growing up, because

(18:40):
we all at some point, even for one second thought,
maybe I could throw this ball, maybe I could hit
this ball, maybe.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
I could do this flip.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
You know, So a eighth grader who's the man national
champion in track, you know, already getting recruited to go
to college.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
He's in middle school. He walks around like a whole
different animal than because I was that guy, and it's like, damn,
so I know my ego, and then I know what
entertainment industry ego is. It's fragile, like y'all ain't the same.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Like someone subjectively said you're the man, and all of
a sudden you're like, oh, yeah, I am versus an
athlete everybody, because Deny, you're the man, and you still
are right right, like you can't say nothing if I
get these results.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
And that's why the athlete's ego so different. Now you
talk about all those at the top of the game,
they don't have that ego. So I see it leak
out at times where they take these shots, they go
on these rants, and they go in on these cats,
and they forget that those same dudes you talking about
are better than all y'all at all things that you
have done.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Athletic one hundred percent, right, I mean I mean one
hundred percent in regards to the sports. Like you know,
we say Brian Scalabrini because he's like sort of this
guy will bust everyone's ass all day.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
And now now let me tear my quick story on
calabrin We played in a celebrity game. We down like
nine at half, and then Scalabrine's just being nice. I said, Scout,
will you please take over the second half? He scored
twenty seven the second half. Then we beat them by fifteen.
I was like, he didn't miss a shot. That's what happens.
If you've ever been to an NBA practice, None of
them miss shots in the game. Some of them don't

(20:20):
play and they misshots because it's a relative experience. But
I was like, to your point, Scalabrinie shouldn't be taking
these jokes. White mambles shouldn't be taking these joke.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
The number fiftieth guy on any one of your football
teams will probably bust your ass in basketball all simeer.
I mean, these guys are who do you like in
sports media that has played sports? And who do you
like in sports media that hasn't played? Steven A hasn't played,
Shannon played, Skip didn't play.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Who are the guys that you enjoy watching? You know?

Speaker 4 (20:50):
I mean I take a slice from all of them.
But in totality. I love Colin Coward, I love them
on air. I love them especially in that radio element
insane Dan Patrick.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
I love stephen A.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
I love but I know stephen A's I know his
beats now, so it's kind of like robbing me of
like you just know the movie now, you know what
I mean. We've seen him for so long. Yeah, and
so you know. I love his entertainment value. I love
his theatrics. He's captivating every time I'm like scrolling now
see stephen A. I swear I don't even read the
caption I'm watching it got to I know he gonna

(21:23):
give it to me, but I know what that is
as well.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
It's tough for the guys who used to play. It's simple.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
The guys who used to play have a deeper investment
and a higher interest and a deeper respect for the
game to go to those places, to be the man
I gave you the top five, I give you know,
Skip Shannon, Colin, Dan Patrick, stephen A. To be those
guys who all didn't play at the highest level. There

(21:53):
has to be a part of your game that you're
gonna go there and that you have went there, right.
It's almost like they say their relationship always be like
one percent crazy because they were like, they gotta respect you,
they got to know you a goal there, And I
don't know if that's true, but I know in sports media,
the cats who win the culture rewards those who didn't
play it. I never would go to that degree. I

(22:16):
just wouldn't, and therefore I plat told part of the
reason I left.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Because I dog, I'm in the velvet coffin.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
They are feeding me like a turkey to die slowly
and be comfortable doing it. I am never gonna get
with Steven Aggets. I'm never gonna get with none of
those names. Gonna get because I'm never gonna go there.
And that's fine. I'm comfortable with that. But then what
really got me out the door, at least mentally, was like,
wait a minute. Pat McAfee wasn't even allowed to get
on ESPN. They didn't allow him on they didn't think

(22:45):
he was good enough for he was a punter that
ain't good enough, and I was on ESPN. So I'm
in the job that he wanted and couldn't get. Now
I look up five years later, he done lap me
ninety thousand times, and I'm like wait a minute, ain't
done change. So I've had these inflection moments in my life.
Before I went to Columbia, I didn't go to the

(23:06):
football schools that were recruiting me.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
And Cass was like, are you dumb? You ain't gonna
make it to the league. Excuse me?

Speaker 4 (23:11):
And then I had the same moment when I was
leaving the NFL only ten years. I say only because
I had more in me and Cass was like, where
are you going? I was like, I'm probably broadcast. I
don't know, I'll figure it out. You don't leave the
NFL without knowing, and you don't leave the NFL to.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Just go somewhere and talk. What'd you say? I hear you?
So now I'm in that same place. You don't leave
traditional linear cable media to just go in your studio
down in your basement and do a daily show. Y'all
watch me. And That's what I'm doing, and that's what
it's about. Do you still speak to Max? Are you

(23:46):
a Max Cool? Oh?

Speaker 4 (23:47):
That's my dog, that's my brother from another I mean,
I love that dude to death.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Cause your show, Max and Marcel's was awesome, best show
ever I think, And I humbly say that.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
No, it was great, and I humbly say that, but
you know, every every single day of my life, it
feels like someone comes up to me and says that.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
So I'm just now regurgitating it was the best show.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Do you see? Have you talked?

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Would it be a possibility since he's no longer at ESPN,
since you're a free agent, you're both free agents, and
we're in a new media where you guys could do
it on your own terms. Would that be something that
would come back?

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Max? And more slace, more solace and Max? Would that
come back? Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (24:24):
It can come back, And I think I could say
absolutely it will, But when is the conversation?

Speaker 2 (24:29):
All right?

Speaker 4 (24:30):
So you know, I'm gonna say everything that if you
know where to look, you would know this. But if
you don't, you won't because I ain't gonna out my boy,
Max gotta let go. We all saw it come and
stop playing. Once him and steven A had that beef,
I was like, TikTok, talk TikTok, and steven A runs
that spot. So I'm like, all right, they gave him
this just in and you know his boxing, but that

(24:52):
was consolation and I've learned in this game right now,
when they don't intend for you to do something, when
it's just an empty check, you and tru count the times, count,
the days, count, the minutes it's over.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
So I knew that was gonna come to an end.
When it did come to an end.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
For Max, remember he's still under contract, like getting paid,
so he has a runway in front of him until
next year. At the end of the year, he has
a runway. Keith Shan got a four year runway. So
they're both gonna do things, but they just got time
and they can be patient with what they do. So
as the friend, him and I have been talking as
the friend, not the co host business partner. I'm like, dog,

(25:30):
figure your life out, figure your sports media laying out,
don't worry about me. We always soon as we left,
because he told me day one when first Take called him.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I remember we were doing the show and during during
the break, he was this, how you talk? She said.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
I'm laughing at him. I'm like, oh, this fool over
there talking real money, real business. He's like he hung up.
He's like they talking real and we start talking through
the details and I was like, purse, I love you.
This is amazing, but go get it because we were
just local radio, but we were like the fourth most
popular ESPN radio show and all the rest were national shows,

(26:03):
and we were beating national shows. We were killing it,
and I was like, Dart Peace, go get your money,
go get your shine. But we always said we got
a golden ticket in our back pocket.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
So we still do. It's just about win before we
get it going.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
I'm reading between the lines. I'm reading between the line.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I'm trying. I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Going back to what you said and what we were
just discussing. Are you Marcellus, You're smart? You probably played
basketball growing up.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Oh, I suck.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
I played one year. I was a horrible one on
the court. We won a championship.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
I suck. But you played one year.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
I'm really I wish I would have played my whole
childhood because I would have been more athletic.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Okay, well yeah, yeah, you know sports. I know you're
a big Clippers fan, right since.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
You never played basketball at a high level, you self
admittedly suck. Can you should you be respected when you're
talking about basketball or is it coming as a sports
and basketball fan? Obviously when you talk football, I might
not agree with you, but I have to take heed
very seriously because you did it. Just like if I'm

(27:22):
talking about film acting. You know, you might not agree
with me and it's something, but I've done it, and
I've done it.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
So when we when we listen, you talk about NBA,
and since.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
You're a diehard, poor, poor poor Clipper fan, you should
should that same thing apply?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Like should we listen to moreselves when he talks about
the NBA? Absolutely should?

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Why just like why should I listen to Bill Belichick
tell me about the NFL and football when he only
played at college at Wesley and it was a center,
Like you know, there are levels to this, Like I'm
not saying take my words to the same level and
degree as you would Charles Barkley, you know what I mean, Like,
calm down, I get it. There are levels to this,
but I don't dismiss anyone. But I'm the same person

(28:05):
that walks into the liquor store and the homeless guy
is standing there, and besides giving them some money, I
actually listen to.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I say hello, how are you, what's up?

Speaker 4 (28:15):
And if he says something, if he drops a jewel,
I'm taking it and running with it. But I see
a lot of people in this world will be like, oh,
the homeless man said that.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
I'm always into the message.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
I don't give a damn who the messenger is great,
So when it comes to doing TV, yes, great that
you have this as your degree and your resume and
you got this kind of letterman jacket with all the
stripes salute at the same time, what did you say?
And I'm listening to that, And if you said something
that was making me think twice or something that was

(28:46):
entertaining me or educating me, I got to give you
a prop. So I just say, it's levels to it.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Do you enjoy like players that are participating playing in
the NFL, in the NBA, the Kels, brother, Draymond, your boy, Paul, George. Now,
I mean it's literally like almost it's not just everybody's
got a podcast. Every player in the league has a podcast.
Do you enjoy it? Do you think they're they're sharing

(29:12):
too much?

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Who do you like? Who do you not like? And
what do you think of it as a whole?

Speaker 1 (29:15):
The NFL players and NBA players you know talking, you
know Draymond's doing, you know podcasts after games? Yeah, pull George.
This season we'll see because he started last year. He
was hurt. What do you think of the whole thing?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I love it. I love it why for many reasons.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
One, there's an old adage that and it happens to
a lot of athletes, like they don't have the foresight.
I know a lot of athletes now they're smart, I
don't know if they're intelligent, And there's a big difference.
They're smart because they knew that they had an athletic
gift and they ran with it, but they weren't so
intelligent to realize that that was gonna stop short.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
You can't ball. I don't give a damn who you are.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
You're not balling your whole life, right, Tom Brady still
got a whole life to live after playing forever. So
I always questioned the athletes intelligence, like damn, where's your
plan B, where's your plan C? So it went from
there to you get into where these athletes are not
thinking ahead.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Right.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
So there's an old adage that basically says, too many
athletes say hello when it's time to say goodbye. So
they start networking in their eleventh year and they start saying, oh,
let me be nice to these reporters in their thirteenth year,
you know, on the way out, you know anybody, all
of them, Yes, them too, start signing more autographs and

(30:32):
being looser and nicer, I mean, respectfully, rest in peace.
But I remember talking to Kobe about that before we passed.
Kobe did that his last year. Kobe was nice, Like
Kobe was on the sideline on the bench and hanging
shigning his shoes.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Kobe used to be locked in, like, boy, don't you
disturb me. It was a whole.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Different animal because the persona now had to shift right.
So I look at athletes that are doing this now,
saying they're ahead of the game, ahead of the curve.
I have that regret that when my boy, Matt Linsen,
I went to college with him twenty seventeen. I'm at
his crib in Newport and he's like, you need to

(31:11):
start a podcast and I was like podcast, why what?
And he's just breaking it down, and I swear I
took it with an ego. I was like, that sounds
like a demotion. That sounds like do you know what
I'm doing right now? Like I'm working at ESPN, got
offers from Fox about to be stuffed with the pseudo
getting paid what you're talking about podcasts. Like I thought
it was just some like you know, backpack rap, you

(31:32):
know what I mean. And I was like, nah b
and I didn't take him seriously. Then next year I
finally was like, I do love the DJ. I do
love the rap top five you can look at all
you want. I love being intimate with conversations and not
just programmed.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
All right, let me look into this.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
And then I start building it out slowly, and then
the pandemic hit. And this is my regret, So the
pandemic hit shut us all down that I had to
do Foxes Show from Home. Whitlock left mid you know,
right around there mid pandemic. Right after that, my agent,
super agent Nick Cohn left to go to WWE and
run that. Now he runs WWE, that's a whole different story,

(32:14):
and salute to him. And then I was like, all right,
I'm about to do this podcast. I can smell it now.
This is the next thing. And literally when I was
building out, had my studio all set up like this,
had it ready in my poolhouse Ko Caitlin style, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
I'm like, I'm ready, I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
And then I went in there as you can see
I sweat a lot, and I was like, damn, I
need a AC unit in here.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
I was like, all right, call the installer.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
He was coming over next week to install the AC
unit so that the podcast.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Studio was complete. And guess what.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
Soon as he came over, I was in the process
of finding another house. My wife and I have been
kind of soft looking looking for a long time. We
saw this house. We was like, this is our dream house.
We moving there. And then I was like, damn, all
this stuff I set up, I broke it back down,
and once again I got fat and full.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'm on Fox her and I ain't gonna do the podcast.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
So then I look up and McAfee tap me on
the shoulder, Rogan tap me on the shoulder, and countless
others out there, and those plaques right there that say
one hundred thousand and millions subscribed.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
I was like, oh snap.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
I was like, your boy Ben told you you felt it,
but you didn't act on it, right, And faith without
action is death, and that's why I'm up here dying.
And then they're offering me plateau numbers or a lesser
version or a different version or something I don't.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Want to do, and I'm like, you mothersucker.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Now now it's almost like the universe and I were
just in the conversation, like you're gonna better on yourself
now again again because you did it for Columbia, you
did it going broadcasting.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Now you're just gonna sit up here and be sixty
years old.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
Tombo dak is top five, which is a good conversation,
but shouldn't be the only one and certainly doesn't allow
me to flex all my muscles.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Speaking of flexing your muscles, you spoke particularly at FS
one it is pandemas more but pandemic. Post George Floyd,
sports media changed in a big way, you know, and
I really agree with and I reposted so many of

(34:18):
your takes on social issues. But sometimes when I read
in your comments or I'm like, I'm commenting, you know,
let's go uncle tom oh, sellout.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
This that. And the third.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Articulate the complication of keeping it real being a black
person with a voice, being a black person in media,
what it means to you when you're called that, what
it means to be a thinker, what it means to
be an independent thinker, and all those things. Because I

(34:54):
know you could talk the shittiest of the shit. And
I know where you're from know, and without even having
a conversation, I just I just know, like, Yo, this
dude's from the hood. Like, not everybody from the hood
is going or should think, speak, agree on the same things.
It makes me sick on social media when people assume

(35:17):
or imply that people should all think the same way.
It's disgusting, And people like, yo, you're white, do you
have nothing to say? But I'm like, I'm just letting
you know that if you if you think. And then
it gets into politics where it's like, you know, we're
these these sweeping things like we're gonna get the black
vote because of what like as if that's like a

(35:37):
you know, like a fucking cattle of people. So but
just like, what is your what is your sort of
mentality with everything? I just sort of thrown which isn't
even a question?

Speaker 4 (35:46):
No, and it shouldn't be a question, ladies and gentlemen.
This is the show right now. Let's talk through this.
This might be the only topic we have left. Oh man, ah,
it's so much I can say. Let's start here. I
am from the hood right now, being from the hood,
there's a couple of things you quickly understand, Right, I

(36:09):
use up a lot of my mental space navigating around bullshit.
And now the craziest thing was it was bullshit to me,
but it was real shit.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
In the world. So gangsters.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Everybody was scared or everybody had props in love for
the gangster, right, Oh man, yo he cool, or oh man,
he's scary. And I had none of that for the gangster.
Why cause I had three uncles who were gangsters. So
I'm a young kid growing up. I'm in Compton. Then
we moved to this off slaught in the south central world,
and my uncles were the man in the streets. The man,

(36:45):
I mean all them.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Curly curls, perms.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Blue rollers, coutless like every stereotypical yo. He killing the game.
They were them, but people didn't know that. I was
watching them come in the house, y'all, watching them come
out the house. So out the house, they scaring y'all.
Out the house. You bound down to them when they
came to the house. I saw my uncles crying, I
saw my uncles weak. I saw my uncles try to
rub two nickels together at times, you know, But they

(37:10):
the man. So it was just weird this contrast. So
I'm looking at this, I'm like seven eight years old.
Two of them die getting murdered, one committed suicide. So
already I'm already knowing this ain't the path. So I
was never ever enticed to be hard. As matter of fact,
I found strength and walking up to somebody hard and

(37:31):
checking them. So he looked at me, what's up a
little hommy? I was like, why you're not smiling? Oh man,
what youre talking about?

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Little who? Little homie? Is this? Better?

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Go get them? I'm like, you know you want to smile?
Why did I feel protected to do that?

Speaker 2 (37:42):
One?

Speaker 4 (37:42):
I had those uncles who were like, ain't nobody touching
little Wiley. Two, I was smart, so I had me
this whole like label in the class that he's a nerd.
But then they would tease me for being a nerd.
But then they stopped teasing me because I was the
MVP on they team. So I had them all boxed in.
Everywhere you try to come at me, don't fuck well,
because Wiley got it. And so I was like in

(38:03):
a safe space in my head even though I still
was around real shit.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
So what I learned is I'm betting on me. My
mom used to always say, you are enough. I don't
need a chorus. I just need to write my lyrics down.
And I'm a singer. Who doing background me? What's your background?
My actions? I give a damn if anybody else agree
with me.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
If I'm standing on truth, oh, I'm standing higher than
all y'all.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
So I understand that principle.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Now you fast forward to get into your conversation about
what happened and the FS one, and everything changed.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
When I went to FS one, I.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
Was saying the exact same things I was saying at ESPN.
You know what changed, my co host, you know what changed?
I worked at Fox now, not ESPN. ESPN is deemed liberal.
Fox is deemed conservative republican. And if you're a conservative
Republican and white, you are a racist. If you're conservative
Republican and you are a sellout, So do a law

(39:03):
of association. Co hosts where I'm working, the same thing
I was saying that was looked at.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
It's like, okay, go Wiley, you okay, that's an interesting
way to look at Kaepernick's interesting way to look at
the situation. Now you say the same, the same thing. Oh,
this sellout.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
So I knew that the back of the class had
grabbed the mic. That's what social media is to me.
The back of the class got the mic. And when
I was in school and I was in class, I
used to hate when the they were my homies too,
and look we kicked it. Don't act like I ain't
do dirt with them. But I was like, dog, we
in class.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Shut up.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
I don't care about your feel a suit. I don't
care about how Tiffany think you cute. Like I'm trying
to learn the capital of Kansas, like you know what
I mean, Like let me stay here.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
And then we gonna go here during nutrition lunch after school.
And cast didn't get it. And then those same casts
regret it when they see you out there actually flying
higher than they are when they could have flown as
high as you did. Right, So I wasn't caught up
in the traffic of I'm gonna sell out and.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Or oh he's really preaching.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
What I noticed was that everybody picked a side. And
I've been through that experience before, so I laughed at
like all these people who were trying to put a
label on me. When the black community, any community, should
not be labeled like, but that's that's the cons that's
the con. That's the negative of culture.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
And it's the con. It's the con, it's the kind,
it's the negative. It's but it's the con and the con. Yes,
because this is what happens.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Culture is nothing but thoughts, words and actions that we
all subscribe to.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Right, the culture.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Right, That's why you can have a white rapper. That's
why you can have a black skateboarder. It's a culture.
Like if you buying into that culture, your thoughts, words
and actions are that you're part of that culture. Now
here's the problem. These cultures are laid man, they're not nimble. Right, Look,
it's respect because cultures do a great job in certain respects.

(41:06):
Like if your culture Nigerian culture, you know what they're
not culture is be educated, get your degree and work hard.
Why do I know that because I know a lot
of Nigerians and they tell me that's what the culture is.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Right. I'm all right, and I'm seeing the results. I'm like, yeah,
I hear you.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
And the culture that I was a part of being
black was telling me something that I ain't agree with.
At times, I don't have to look at Colin Kaepernick,
I don't have to look at Black Lives Matter. Those
are my two ones that people were starting to call
me a sellout over. I ain't gotta agree with Kaepernick,
what the hell? Because he's black man, he ain't helping nobody,
and if he is good for him, get in line.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
We all trying to help in certain ways.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
But if you think I gotta agree with him, then
why just because we the same skin color?

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Weak? Black Lives Matter? I was talking about that one. Now.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
I think a lot of people came to my side
on that one, like why they might have been right?
And I tell people all the time, I'm not a hater.
I just tell the truth too early. And I told
the truth too early on CAP. Now I've had countless
people come up to me in private and be like, hey,
broh man, I was I gotta apologize to you about
your Kapernick stuff. I was cursing you out blah blah blah.

(42:13):
I got DMS from celebs A listers, and I would
never leak this because I protect the guilty. I don't
care about it. I don't need shine like that. But
I got guys I could bring down that got literal
receipts of them pro cap and then DM and me
and hitting me all day talking about keep killing this
dude because you tell them the truth. I was like, well,
first of I'm not trying to kill the dude. I'm
just trying to say, look, I'm challenging him. And then

(42:35):
I'm making his fan base critically think that's it. So
if I were in that position this Cap man, I
would have just did it different. But it wasn't for me.
I wasn't in that position, but I would have made
the NFL own the NFL. If I had that much momentum,
that much of the world's attention span, I would have
made the NFL have to bow down, you have to
instead of settled with them.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
But hey, to each his own podcast.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Yes, what is your stance? Your take?

Speaker 1 (43:15):
How would you solve running backs getting paid? Should running
running backs get paid? Is it just a business? If
you're only able to play for three years, should all
you guys in the NFL have some guaranteed money? You
did it, It's changed. There's more money now for your
position than there was. There's more money in the NFL

(43:35):
than there was when even when you played, which seems
like seventy five years ago. But but what is your
take on the specifically the running back and you know,
the running back position and guaranteed money in the NFL.
Will that ever be something that's not You don't have
to like be the star of the start to get
guaranteed money.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Man, let me just start here.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
I remember taking this class at ESPN, and this is
why when you were talking about like my basketball knowledge
versus someone who we experienced it.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
And it's funny.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
They always told us never to ask two questions because
the person responding will always take the easier of the two.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Right, So I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
But I love when I hear that because I'm guilty
of it as well, Like don't give him.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
A way out here we go. I'm a former running back.
I'm in Colombia, I'm at in university. I'm a college
football player who's playing running back.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
So I love the position. I was sick growing up.
I was sick as not good, not great, sick. I
got film to prove it, I got the recruiting. Everybody
was on my head and then I got bigger and bigger.
My mom was gigantic.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
My mom was six one two fifty and here I
am playing running back and I'm like five eleven one
fifty one sixty. And then my senior year I got
up to like six feet point eighty and literally my
freshman year, I'm still a running back. In college.

Speaker 4 (44:56):
My coach comes up to me, clown, and he's like, yo, Wiley,
when you gonna grow? I was like what he was like, Man,
I think we recruited the wrong Wiley. We should have
got your mama shit bigger than you, and my mama was.
I was a sophomore in college. My mom was bigger
than me, Mike Singletary style, right. So I love running backs. However,
they shouldn't get paid and they ain't gonna get paid
like they think they should get paid.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Let me tell you why.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
In football, there's only two paths, the one of least
resistance and most resistance.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Simple as that.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
The top yards per catch last year twenty points something, the.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Top rushing yard yards per rush.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
That's how you said six. Wait a minute, twenty and six. Okay,
that's part one. Like so on average, it still comes
down from twenty to fourteen, and the average go from
six to four.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
But before before, I before, and I know where going
and I'm not gonna argue you know you better, but
I will argue, God damn it. Can those receivers catch
those balls without the threat of the run.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Okay, now you've taken us to a different conversation. The
value conversation is it's harder to run the football, to
get first downs, to get points than it is to
pass the football. Second part of that is the rules
support the passing game. You can't touch them, defenseless receivers, etc.
Versus the running game. So not only is it easier

(46:25):
just in dynamics the physics of the game, but it's
also easier because of the rules that support it. They
want scoring, They want scoring through the passing game. Now,
here's what you're talking about. What's complimentary, who's complimenting? Who
is the passing game setting up the running game? The
running game is setting up the passing game. Here to
tell you that you can. It's almost like they said,

(46:47):
defense wins championships. Yeah, but if you don't score no points,
you ain't winning no championship.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Right.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
So then they start saying, well, you got to outscore
your opponents to win, right, And we're starting to see
that even when the Chiefs haven't had great defense, says
they own a dynasty right now. Point being, so here's
the thing I would subscribe. And I see the NFL
doing it to the passing game leading the charge, and
then you balance that out. You complement that with a

(47:16):
good running game. But it's not necessary as much as
a passing game's necessary.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Give it to you simple. Let's not overthink this.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
If I run the football like I used to do it,
in the box, they're seven to nine guys. They weigh
everything from two hundred pounds well in the box two
point thirty. The smallest linebacker maybe two twenty, all the
way to three thirty, two twenty to three thirty. Seven
to nine guys. If I'm playing receiver, I'm going against
one guy. He may weigh two hundred pounds. All I

(47:45):
gotta to do. If I'm justin jefferson Is says, said,
hire seven yards. If I am Ezekiel Elliott said, hike.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Three yards. Do that again.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
It's second to seven versus second and three. So the
point of it is, it's the analytics. It's the smarter,
not harder approach, but it's also just a path of
least resistance. Throwing the football is like, so defeating now
running the football on someone.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
You take the clock, you take the pace, you get
the yards.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
It's amazing. But let me give you this dynamic. You
run the football. If you average four yards five yards
of rush, you're killing the game. Okay, So it takes
you on a fifteen play drive seventy five yards doom.
Running the football the whole wait took nine minutes off
the clock. Oh, rest in peace, John Matten. He's somewhere smiling, right.

(48:38):
And then the other team gets the ball, said, Hi, fact,
quick pass screen touchdown eighty yards took four seconds. You
know what's defeating?

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yo? How long is it gonna take us to score?

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (48:49):
The defense is wrestling, Yeah, but the offense is out there,
ain't doing much and all it takes is one hiccup
and then this ain't hard to hiccup.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
So to me, I'm sorry. Running backs half of most resistance.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Therefore, those who construct teams have come to the understanding
that we shouldn't pay that guy. Plus you can get
an undrafted seventh round guy to similate that better than
you can a seventh rounder to simulate that quarterback and
that receiver.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
It's a different animal, is it gonna change in general
for all of the NFL players ever getting guaranteed money
besides just the cream of the crop.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
Power never concedes. So look, they deserve guaranteed contracts. I
deserve guaranteed contracts. To the contract conversation, Joey Bosa think
we had the same exact numbers when he got paid.
He got paid one hundred and twenty million. I got
paid forty. Now inflation took care at all that, right,
but the same level of production, he's better than me.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying when he got

(49:49):
paid and I got paid, we were kind of close,
and he got three x. What's gonna happen is that's
gonna continue to grow the revenue. The inflation's gonna kick.
These guys are gonna get paid fully guaranteed. You're a
sly sartially guarantee because Deshaun Watson got fully guaranteed. Kirk
Cousins has gotten it twice of magnitude. And what happens

(50:12):
is they looked at those as outliers instead of the rule.
So here's the thing that's really gonna kick in. You
look at it going forward. Why aren't they gonna get
fully guaranteed contracts. Simply they don't have enough power to
enforce that.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Sakwon Barkley was talking to all that trash in the offseason.
Good for him. I was behind him.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
And then they have a zoom meeting and then two
days later he signs the tag with the little incentives.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Why.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
I was a player rep for nine of my ten years,
and we used to always talk about a war chess
war chests, basically, what are the reserves we have in
case of litigation, in case we got to take the
NFL to task. Let's just say I don't even remember
the exact numbers, but it was like a few hundred million.
Now you're gonna take to to prove to power that

(51:02):
they need to give you full of guarantee contracts.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
That comes with force.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
That's not coming out of the good will and an
altruistic spirit all we care about them. It's coming out
of power. Power conceize only if it's beaten by more power. Right,
there are thirty two owners in the NFL. Really Green
Bay doesn't count. But whatever, Let's say.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
They all got billions billions, Uh that war chest.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
If you want to litigate it, it will be the
same thing that happened with the PGA Tour and live Golf.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Live Golf is like what y'all want to do? They
want to go to court. All y'all want to merge,
and they merge, then they or they're trying to still
point being big bank take little bank man.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
And I wish the nfl PA was older like the
Baseball Union. All it is is a time conversation kind
of parallel to a lot of our social justice race issues.
It's a time conversation, you know, if you want to generalize,
white people have been having money for four hundred years
and black people have been having it for forty you
know what I mean. And it's like it's a different relay.

(52:06):
Like dog, you getting a baton so far behind? Now,
my coach would immediately say, yeah, you got the baton behind,
but what was your split? What did you do when
you got the baton? And that's what I'm trying to
tell my people. All people, look, don't care when you
get the baton. I know you're gonna waste your efforts
and trying to erase history. You got the baton. When
you got the baton, my mama and daddy both were broke.

(52:28):
I didn't resent them. It was a little I was
a little perturbed at times, like damn food stamps, welfare
comptence auton, like y'all, y'all didn't.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Save two Nicholas. But then I was like, that was
who they were.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
That's guess what they were giving even less right, So
I'm like, all right, now, I could have bitched the
moaned forever talking about my people and this and that
and not took that baton, stayed in my lane, ran
as hard as I could, and now try to pass
it to my kids. So I just chose to run
my race and then let that be an example to

(53:01):
hopefully inspire.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
Oh, I like that. Another pivot.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Give me you don't have to go into why too deep,
but you can give me the five best running backs
you played against during your career. I mean, you could
give a little bit of why, but you know we're
gonna know the names. But you could even do the
deep cuts. Yeah, you could just when I say, the
five best running backs in no particular order.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
For all no order. I know number order number one
is Barry Sanders.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Why was it everything that we is it everything that
we see.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
In the videos?

Speaker 2 (53:36):
It's worse, It's better. It's everything.

Speaker 4 (53:39):
I literally tackle Barry Sanders on one play, a solo tackle,
no assists. It was a play were playing Detroit and Buffalo.
He ran up toward the line, then he cut, and
when he cut, he cut right into my area.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
And I'm like, oh, and I'm so scared.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
I'm Frankenstein in this tackle, like just arms out, please
don't shake me, and I tackle him.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
That's not the point.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
The point of that is I the photographer sent me
the image right after the game. We made a poster
of it and put it into my grandma's house. That's
how special this socker was. And on that same play
he slightly sprained my ankle. And I'm not lying, just
doing that. His hips were silly, silly, best running back
by far ever that I played against. I would throw

(54:22):
Fred Taylor in there. He didn't stay healthy long enough
and sometimes the market hurt him. But Fred Taylor was silly.
Adrian Peterson was silly.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
God Terrell Davis like who and Clinton portis like because
Terrell Davis, especially Clinton damn Edrian James coming and look
at see this, and people forget Marshall Falk see that
I ain't got a top five.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
These are all top tier guys, but there's one by
himself and this Berry. Rest of these guys are by
themselves on the second tier behind Barry Clinton. Portis would
lean forward every play. Our coach esed to say, look
at this shit. Every time he gets three yards, even
if he's behind the he just he kept that lean.
Terrell Davis had to lean with the knocker he hit
you in the head. Terrell Davis was coming. They all

(55:07):
were great, man, But I think that Barry just takes
the cake.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Five best quarterbacks that you played against? Oh and who's
the number one? And why?

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Why?

Speaker 2 (55:18):
And don't give me the obvious always arm Nope.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Man, come on man, this is me, uh, Dan Marino,
Steve Young, John Elway. I played again. My first sact
ever was against Steve Young. Couldn't believe it, Dan Marino,
Steve Young, John Elway, walk me, y'all. I'm gonna throw
you the wild car last Okay? Who else was silly?
Silly man? Peyton Manning. You gotta throw Brady in there

(55:42):
because it's disrespectful. But Brady wasn't great when I played
against Brady like he won those first three Super Bowls.
His coaches used to take bets on Brady missing receivers
in practice. Like literally they were like like he came
a long way and he became the goat. He's the
goat now, but I was young. His first touchdown pass
ever was against us, against me in San Diego. I'm

(56:03):
turning in the corner about three feet two feet coming
in on him, throws it his first touchdown ever.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Don't you wish you got that football? Oh?

Speaker 4 (56:10):
I would have if I would have known that was
the goat throwing that, Like, yes, sir, well you could
throw Brady in there, because he turned into being that
guy and I did play with him. But here's a
wild card. People forget young Dante Colepepper was McNab McNab
of course, McNab period Colpepper man him and Masson. They
had Chris Carter two.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
It was a lot. It was a lot to deal with.
But I would get mcnabbed that now as well.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Who is the fastest quarterback other than vic Vic by far?

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Was he like?

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Was he like a running back speed or faster?

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Like?

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Was he like who's faster? And in general, receivers or running.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Backs receivers, I would say receivers that running backs got
a little more girth.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
They're usually a little bigger. So the receiver one, you.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
Know, Chad Johnson, you can't do nothing with that, Like
you know, that's a four to three for real running backs,
just a little bigger pound the ground a little more, so,
I would say receivers.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
So, but Mike Vick was the fastest. Oh, not only
the fastest, not only his acceleration. So a lot of
times we get lost in speed, and speed is only
how fast you can run under control. So if you're
out of control, you're in trouble.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
This was why I'm teaching my son right now, who
is silly in football, silly in sports. But you know
it got a long way in front of him. I
don't talk in those turns, but I'm like, no, he
was more talent than I ever was. Wow, he's silly,
but I'm teaching him the science of life and the
science of sports. So he had this problem, and every
kid has this problem. They're fast, so all they want
to do is run sideways and run to the corner

(57:42):
and run to the edges and take off and touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
But kids get smart. They know that you fast, so
they cut you off.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
Got the angles, geometry and I told him, when you
see the fast guys, first of all, know who they are.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
And then when you see them, run at them, why
are you running at them?

Speaker 4 (57:56):
You're gonna stop their feet for just that second, and
then you make your move when you got him. Every
time they would never come to the corner and catch
you again. And literally I was slow motioning his plays
from practicing the game to show him.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
I was like, this is what happened. That's why he
got you. He's like, damn, that's why he got my flag. Yep, yep, yep.
Hedn't say damn, No I did. And I was like, yep, yep,
he got you.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
And then the next game, my son saw the fast
kid went like this, Adam, and then went like this.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
That kid fell down. I said, I told you science
of game, science of life.

Speaker 4 (58:25):
Michael Vick had that he had the comfort of being
so talented that while you doing this, he like doom doom.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Doom doom, and he's still running the four three four
to two.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
So it's a whole different animal, that acceleration and that
calm under those pressure moments.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Podcast Pivoting to your clippers. Pivoting to your Los Angeles Clippers.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Here come the joke.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Who even ty Lou I saw him say somewhere the
other day on some podcasts that my guys mainly PG
and Kawhi as if they haven't played in the NBA
fe years, need to start taking the regular season more seriously.
He said that, yeah, because you know, you could say
what you want, but at the end of the season,

(59:26):
you gotta we're gonna get this plane. We're not going
to a home court. What do you foresee with your
your clippers because you and Clipper Darrel are just is.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Clipper Daryl and I and Penny Marshall.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
I guess right, let me say this, People don't know
that these NBA players are really in a different conversation
and negotiation than advertise. Literally, their camps will go to
the organization knowing that there's eighty two games and will
walk in be like we got seventy this year, which
which twelve we missing?

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Like it's a negotiation of the twelve we're missing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Are you serious? I mean, is that just bull crapping.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Let me tell you why.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
You and most people probably won't know this because there's
no way they want that advertise to the general public
right that these players are not coming to your city
and playing or not gonna be at that home game
that you got season tickets for. But if you look
at what low management is, and even Adam Silver is like, yeah,
we gotta take a different look at low management. You

(01:00:26):
know why, because the players are tapping. They have to
tap if they're going to respect and protect the longevity
of their careers just the way.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
It is r Except for Lebron James, Well, I could criticize.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
I mean, he obviously he's a freak. Yeah, he's he's luck,
a lucky freak.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
Yeah all that, and he's a specimen and he takes
care of his body probably better than anyone ever.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
And on top of that, he's been breaking down a
little bit of late.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
But now seventy nine years old exactly, So he's old now, right,
So even Lebron will have to live in this new
reality like sooner or later it gets all of your
So why the question is to these players, they're like,
why wait for me to break down when I know
this can preserve me and I won't break down till later.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
I get it. That's one. So here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
My Clippers is funny because you know Kawhi's knee is
not right. He missed almost a year and a half
and came back and still couldn't finish the playoff runt.
And you know that Kawhi went on and healthy. It's
top five and he ain't five anymore?

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Is that person alive? Is that person? Is that person? There?

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
You go, Kawhi, You at the top of the stairs, Kawhi,
he's down Hello, Hello, he's down there still.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Paul George is as amazing as he is, is not
Kawhi when Kauwhai is on. But Paul George is more
reliable than Kawhi. But even Paul geisically yeah yeah, like
being available right, being out there right. So it's like
a weird dynamic where we got now Russell Westbrook, future
Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
What are you gonna do with him? At this point?

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
You know what they're gonna do. This is what they're
gonna do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
You ever you ever have like a remote control something
you ain't got all good batteries and you start spinning them,
start putting them in the treezer like all right, this
is our This to me, this is how we're gonna
tetris this. We're gonna use Westbrook up because he got
that energy and that boy still go home.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Yes, that's my dog.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
Love it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
That's my hommy. I respect him. Now, then let's plug
in some Paul George.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
So we're gonna spend the batteries, right, like, get Paul George,
keep going, don't get hurt, stay there all Westbrook and
Paul George. That's gonna win you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
Forty fifty plus games were good and then Kawhi, we
gotta send up our prayers, right, we gotta knock door
to door, we gotta be Jeovah witnesses.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
We gotta pray for this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
But come on, Kawhi, finish the playoffs and if he
can do that, those are our three tiers to success.
Problem is, the chances of all that happening exactly that
way slim to none.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
So we're gonna have to remix what the formula is.
Who will win the Super Bowl this year?

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
I know what, Gerly, we're not even into fantasy football drafting,
but who will be the two teams in the Super
Bowl this year? Based on everything we know today? Everybody's
healthy today, Jesus, come on, man.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
I know I think it's like Buffalo's in my head
Baltimore's in my head. You always say case, but that's boring.
So I'm gonna say. I'm trying to say who's gonna
upset the apple cart? Buffalo or Baltimore? So I will
go with God. I want to go some tells me
is Baltimore, Baltimore NFC? I would love Baltimore. Dallas, good lord,

(01:03:26):
I would have heart attacked.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
That would be a hard getting yeah, yeah, hold on,
let me get hold on. So let me all right,
let me give a case for you guy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
Dak is not good.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
No, Dak is good enough. Dak is good enough. Tony,
you know what they did speaking of you talking about
the complimentary running game, why did they have zek I
know what he did because of contract Ezekiel Elliott getting
all those touches When those were Tony Pollard's, they would
have been much better.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
Tell me why, I mean, why don't you do that?
Because you got R R O I return on investment,
justify the money. But now they realize, hey, cut our losses,
cut bait. I don't think Dallas coming out the NFC,
but that would be amazing story. NFC would be I
ain't main mean boom boom, who's in the NFC.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
Who's favorite? I mean San Francisco. Oh, party, party, whole year, party,
the whole year.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
That's interesting. I'd love to see my Chargers do it.
Chargers got squad. It's gonna be silly to watch the
Chargers ball this year.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
This. This is why I didn't do NFL Live long,
because I was sitting up there, like what I.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Mean, it's early, It is early, all right, Marcellus Wiley,
my dog.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
I love talking to you. I could keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Last question, my last question, let me last question.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I'm gonna do seven because I hate the obligatory. Your
top five mcas of all time. I'm giving you seven
because it's five is so obligatory. Your favorite mcas of
all time? And I know it's interchange.

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
You said favorite, fast, great, your favorite? Oh yes, let's
go Big Daddy, kinge Rock, Kim ice Cube, especially Jerry
Curle Andre three thousand, I'm at four. Uh favorite mcs
ever Jada Kiss five Uh two more two more favorite

(01:05:12):
Cougie Rap six favorite like God, they just always got
me Godly. This is tough because favorite is a whole
different animal. One more damn you, I mean llll Wayne
duh lill Wayne d Hilloy Ways should have been like
number one, almost no no order.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Because it's like it's too obligatory.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Let me hear seven. I go Big Daddy Kane.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
I'm gonna always I'm gonna start with my traditional Big
Daddy Kane, kress One rock Him, I'm gonna go with
Jickaman jay Z, Nasty Knives, I'm gonna go with ghost
Face Killer, and I am.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Going to go with Yeah it gets sticky.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
I mean I could go all over the game, all
over the place. Bust the rhymes always left off. Everybody's
left bust A Rinds is silly, insane, Yo, love He's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
Yes, yes, he's very When you see him.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Live, you're like, Yo, this dude has bangers. His live
show you all about.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Bowl last year sick crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
I saw that was a sitconsert nobs Wu Tang and
then I think buses showed up.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Mind blowing yo.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
Hearing Wu Tang their first album, thirty six Chambers with
like the real quality, the way that Risoning them couldn't afford.
Then like I love the dusty dark version, like the
way when we bought back in ninety three or whatever.
But when you hear it Crispy and them Shy shall
new Tang. So I'm like, yo, people were losing the
name mindstt that damn bow. I love it all right. I

(01:06:47):
gotta add to shortened E forty, No, lie E forty.
This is my line for E forty. He maybe the
best rapper from start to finish, is like the way
he started day one, all right, right now he's still
as great as he ever was. And I love E

(01:07:09):
forty all the way back, all the way back to
right now. I still bang E forty everyone else name them.
They went through their waves, you name it went through waves.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
But I mean, you know, I was just talking earlier
about NAS's last five albums. Five. Yes, I mean I
don't love them as much as but I was like
I was five of them.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
He did five albums in the last few years.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
Five because wraps a young man game, because of the
experiences like you're just not sounding the same, You're not
saying it the same, You're not got that same like
itch and hunger, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
And it's rich like from all I mean, he's not
a struggle. I was making that money that VC five records. Yeah,
he's a blessing to have that killing he loves it
enough to do it. Yeah, and those records, you know,
they're not for me the exact same.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
The sound is different.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
But but he's he's he's still he's stupid.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
Well he eating all the formula. Grab you a young
producer who we got metro Boom and hit Boy get
five albums with hit Boy. Well that's what a lot
of music. Well, come on, what is rap?

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
I hate when we get real complicated with rap. Rap
is first to beat. You could say, all these people
could be purist and be like, oh no, what do
you saying. I'm like, no, you gravitate to the beat
because the beat.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
Is the energy, right, you gotta like in the classroom knocking,
and then you can say your ABC's. I could said
my ABC's on grinding beat, and I would have went
platinum off easy like easy. So it's just like once
you hear beats.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
So Na's lost and suffered so often like j Cole
does at times because they don't grab the beats that
we want to hear.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
But then when they do, it's like magic because they
are such lyricists.

Speaker 4 (01:08:48):
So to me, Nazis was like, all right, let me
not fight the formula. Let me go get hit Boy
and let's get this thing going. Yeah, it's sick, Yeah silly.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Marcella Swiley, Iron Rap Port Stereo Podcast. You know where
to find them podcasting.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
YouTube and transudation, Project Transition Show Love Man.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
And there's more to come, I think he said without
saying that there's more to come. Possibly he didn't say it,
but it's read between lines with him and Matt

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Champion get and our rocket didn't knock yoll those guys out,
but

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EP 1,048 - Marcellus Wiley (NFL Star/ESPN & FS1 Superstar) on Analysts Who Played or Did Not, Current Athlete Podcasts, Telling The Truth Too Early

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP 1,048 - Marcellus Wiley (NFL Star/ESPN & FS1 Superstar) on Analysts Who Played or Did Not, Current Athlete Podcasts, Telling The Truth Too Early