November 1, 2023 • 57 mins
On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former offensive tackle, and renaissance man Ephraim Salaam joins Peanut and Roman. Ephraim takes you on his journey from his days as a hoop star at San Diego St. University, to 13-year NFL veteran, to Hollywood writer and producer. He’s currently a staff writer on the hit Peacock show “Bel-Air” and Ephraim shares how his unusual path to that job started with something his wife gifted him. He also talks about how the topsy-turvy life in the NFL was great preparation for the unpredictable world of being a Hollywood writer. And Ephraim takes us inside his experience competing on the Amazing Race.
2:13 - Ephraim on his basketball career at San Diego St University
4:45 - Ephraim on how Draft status can outweigh performance in the NFL
7:50 - Ephraim on being a writer on the show Bel-Air and the importance of positive Black role models
15:14 - Ephraim on how his wife helped him get into how he got into writing
19:43 - Ephraim on how his NFL career prepared him for dealing with Hollywood rejection
27:37 - Ephraim gives career advice on the importance of adding value
32:14 - Ephraim on creating opportunities for Black people in Hollywood
34:48 - Ephraim on how he skipped two grades in elementary school
37:30 - Ephraim on his experience on the Amazing Race
42:00 - Ephriam on his wife’s career as a background dancer for Beyonce, Rihanna, and Usher
47:36 - Ephraim gives his personal Mount Rushmore
NOTE: Time codes are approximate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, damn y'all keep adding words and let us to
this damn the second Ax. This is E from Salam.
This is the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm Peanut Tooman and this is the NFL Player Second
Act Podcast. And with me is always my trusted sidekick,
Deacon Reverend Hopper.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What's up baby?
Speaker 4 (00:40):
What's up? Dog?
Speaker 5 (00:41):
I don't know if you're gonna keep going there? No,
I just kept a two piece. Okay, well, thank you
for keeping it just as a two piece today. I
don't want the three piece.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So I do like the way that sure compliments your
hair though the gray and the white around the beard.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
It is complimenting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well you you're coordinating. You're coordinating.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Some people wake up and have to work this, Peanut.
Other of us we just show up like this, So
thank you. I appreciate all the compliments. Thanks to all
of our listeners and watchers as well, and want to
tell everybody else to continue to hit follow, give us
a review, hit light, give us five stars anywhere you
pick up your podcast where it's Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio podcast.
Thank you as always, and Peanut, who is our guest today.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Hey, we got a special guest for y'all today. He
was a seventh round draft pick in the nineteen ninety
eight draft out of San Diego State. Thirteen year NFL veteran,
he played left and right tackle. Played in Super Bowl
thirty three with the Atlanta Falcons. He is a Chicago
native from my town. Now he's a big man in
(01:42):
Hollywood as a writer, producer, and he's a radio host.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ephraim Salaam.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Like, gentlemen like that. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you guys
having me here.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Man, this is gonna be fun. You a big clown
like us, and that's oh my god. Let's just get right.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Just your intro, I was like, oh yeah, I'm in
the right place.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, like this is I love this.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
We just a bunch of big clowns, big kids, and
we just have fun. And yeah, man like lit's like,
how you mean, what's what's what's going on?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm good man, I can't complain, you know, raising these kids.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I got two boys twelve.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And and eight, oh yeah, and twelve and nine now
just had a birthday and I'm their coach for coaching
in basketball.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Because you played basketball.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I did play basket You played basketball in.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
College at State.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Yeah, I'm I assure you, like, what was your best
game in basketball? Because we're gonna talk about football, but
what's your best game in basketball in college?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We went up to Colorado. We were playing Colorado State
and the Rams.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I got in.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And we were down, and they had like this big
seven foot kid. He was just killing us, and so
coach like, hey, going there and be phiscal. So I
went in and I scored a ten points in a
row on okay, okay, and brought us back in the game.
So I'm hype. They called time out. I come to
the sideline. This is a real story. I come to
(03:09):
the sideline and I'm.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Like, we got everybody the team and dapping us up.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Coach is like, hey, good job, take a break, right,
take a break, get you back in there. You know
I didn't. This is in the first half. I didn't
play another minute in that basket y'all winner.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Who lose?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
We lost a rus So what what I What did
the coach tell you after the game, Oh, we wanted
to work on some things whatever. But what I realized
much later is here I am I'd already been a
three year starter in football, I'm a left tackle, I'm
two hundred and ninety pounds, and I was outperforming his
(03:53):
basketball got basketball scholarship athletes. So as a coach, how
do you explain that? Like, how do you You can't,
It's nothing you can do. He messed up. So if
anybody comes in and it's like, well, I mean, who
are you recruiting? What's happening here? You got a guy
who comes off the football field, he's forty pounds heavy
(04:16):
than anybody on the team, and he's outperforming. So I
was like, at the time, I was mad, I'm like,
what's going on?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
A coach? What hey?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I got were working on something? We got you, and
it just it made me feel like I didn't know
what it was. So I was like, damn, did I
do something wrong? And it clicked later, Oh, okay, that's
how you save your job. You save your job by
not letting someone from another sport come in and dominate
the people.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You have on Scott.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I think that's so important and it's just another great example,
and we see it all the time, whether it's the NFL,
college whatever, is that when the people upstairs they have
they need job security too.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So when they draft certain guys.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
They're going to play, Like I don't care what anybody says,
Like they're gonna they can follow in their face for
two straight years.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
If they're first rounded. We say they gonna play, they
gonna play.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's funny that you brought that up, because I was
just telling this story out here. My twelfth year in
the league. I go to Detroit, right leave Houston, go
to Detroit and Jim Schwartz, head coach, just got there.
It was after the oh to sixteen U season with
with with with the Lions, and they called me to
(05:32):
bring me over. It's like, hey, we we got to
get this offensive line going right. We know you're a
left tackle. We drafted a kid and the first they
drafted a kid in the first round last year at
right tackle. Either you can push them or you can
push them out the way. And I said absolutely, let's
make it happen. Go through training camp. Clearly the better option,
(05:54):
Like everybody saw it. Everybody knew Scott Lindham was the
offensive coordinator and we too, you know, opening week and
got and offensive line coach Jim Swartz. They come and
they sit down and they talk to me and they say, hey,
thank you for all the work you've done, you've compete,
you've raised the level of the off all of these
(06:16):
wonderful things, but we can't start you. I said, what,
they won't allow us not to play this kid that
they drafted last year in the first round trash And
I said what? And I was like, who is they
with they? That is you, the head coach, You the
offensive coordinator? Who is they that whole season we go
(06:43):
to Green Bay and warm ups, the kid goes the
wrong way, hits the tight end, hurts the tight end,
showing right. This is coach is going crazy. He from
your in this. We're in the middle of season. I
haven't played a down field goal. I'm I'm running in
there off on field goal. You're in you're starting. I
buckle up whole off line. Yeah, let's were ready to go.
Let's go do it. We received the kickoff, I'm getting
(07:06):
ready to run out on the field and I just
feel a hand on my shoulder.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Oh my god, the hand this is? I feel the hand.
I can't make this up.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I couldn't make it up.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And these are words that football players know. They this, we.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
All know what that is.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That again, my offensive line coach was like, as I turned,
I see the kid running, buckling his chin strap going
out into the field. So what's going on? We got
a call from upstairs asking why he wasn't going into
the game and to put him in the game. So
I just took my helmet off, right, But that's what
(07:47):
the league had changed.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, man.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I know you're you're you're one of the writers on
the show bail Air.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Ye shout out, that's the show he was saying, the
Nasonal show right.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
On that show, man, it's really good. Well we got
picked up for a third season. How influence you was
Will Smith on this too? I mean he has input.
I mean he's an EP on the project, but they
really allow us in that writer's room to really build
out the show. I was extremely excited about it. I
got a great opportunity to come in and pitch a
(08:21):
lot of things for me as brothers up here African
American men. I didn't want to do a trophy show.
I didn't want to do a show, even though it
was based on an original ip, The Fresh Prince of
bel Air, which is a comedy. Morgan Cooper, the creator,
created this beautiful sizzle that he dropped on YouTube about
(08:43):
a dramatic look at the fresh Prince of bel Air,
and we wanted to speak to some of the issues.
But the biggest thing for me is I wanted to
show what black excellence in black fatherhood looked like.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
That was huge though Uncle Phil was like a great figure,
Like people don't understand that my father, he was for
a lot of people that didn't have father exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So I wanted to continue that.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's a great example.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I didn't want to do a show about this kid
will Smith coming from Philadelphia to bel Air and teaching
the banks how to be black again, right, because under
those guides, the more influential you become, the more success.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
You have, the less black you become.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And that's an insult to everybody sitting at this table
and everybody out there listening and watching this, who's who's
striving for greatness and have bettered their situation. You can't
tell me I'm less black because I played in the
NFL for thirteen years and I've had a successful career
outside of the NFL.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I'm still me.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm still but the world sees me as African American, right,
So I wanted it to be of you know, when
you take a kid and you put them in a
situation you think is better for him, the traumas that
go with that.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Right, Let's talk about the real issues.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
They didn't get it to They tapped on it a
little bit in the original, but in hours we get
to really live in these issues. What about these black
kids growing up in these affluent communities going to these
private schools? Right, That in itself is steep with all
types of trauma and pitfalls. So I really wanted to
(10:25):
talk and address things that you know, I got school
age kids.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
We live in Studio City, Right, It's not like here
I grew up actually, when I came from scott when
we came out here, I.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Grew up in Inglewood, right, or on the other side
of the Inglewoods. Right over here. It's right over sixty
if and West Boulevard. My apartment.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Whenever I come over here, I drive by my apartment
building still there, right. And so I wanted to be
a part of something that showed us in a light
that I could be proud of that my kids can
sit down and watch and be like, oh, okay, what
what are blacks dads? What are black moms? What is
the Black Nuclear family unit. Yeah, we have problems. We
(11:05):
have problems, but success is available for everybody. And how
do you live in your success? And then teaching a
kid like Will that sports is not your only option, right,
so many of us in our communities thinking, oh, I
gotta you better be the best football player.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I got the besketball player in.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The world, in the world to change our outcome. But
if you put that same energy as you put into
sports and training into anything else, you'll be successful. So
you know, that's to me, that's what the show it
(11:48):
really means. And I really you know, the creators and
the writers, the showrunners, Carla and all of all of
them are on the same page and worked really hard,
you know, Rashid Newsome and TJ. Brady, Morgan Cooper, They've
all done a tremendous job.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
That's what's up.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
So, I mean, Chris Rock said it best in his
stand up He was like, you know, I live in
this neighborhood, huge houses. Like He's like, dude, I'm the
best comic in the world, in the world, Like I'm here,
and my neighbor's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Right, that's the reality.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
That is That is very much so the reality and
you just say it so well, and uh, you're a
deep thinker. I can we already know that about you,
and we'll dive into that a little bit more. Just
your whole upbringing by the time you went to college
at sixteen.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
It's just crazy. But do you got something that works already?
Do you have some.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Going right back at right? Season three? We're good, right
back into it.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
The one thing they know about me in the room
and I'm one of the only writers that is still
there from season one.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I was a part of this project.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I heard about the project in twenty twenty and I've
been We've had a few showrunners and I've been the
only constant throughout the life of the of the project
right now, So I anytime I pitch. So just for
those who don't understand what the writer's room is, so
say it's us three and you know, four other people
(13:18):
were sitting around the shotrunner. It's like, Hey, this is
what the story is this season. We want to you know,
do this, Like this big story this season was Will's
playing AAU basketball in season two. Well, I pitched that
because nobody in the room had ever played AAU basketball
and they didn't even the network execs didn't even know
(13:39):
what AAU basketball was My next question, but they were like, well,
he's playing on the basketball team in high school, so
we don't.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
That's not as current kurrent is the AU model.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
But once you explain that to him, like, oh, okay,
we get so if we if we sit here and
I pitched that, and I'll pitch it all the way through,
and they'll go, okay, all right, well let's put that
on a board, right, you write the pitch out, get
notes on it.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Can we do it? Can? When they say yes, then
you just build on that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So now we need an AAU coach and a character.
It's just the nemesis for season the two. How is
Will going to respond? And my biggest thing was, I said,
the breach of trust between Uncle Phil and Will at
the end of the season one.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
We have to repair that, but we have to add
some obstacles.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So the Doc character who's ran the AAU team, Uncle Phil,
started noticing Will listening to him, right, he's changing. So
Uncle Phil feels like he's losing, right, his ability to
guide Will in a way that he's not benefiting from
(14:50):
just for Will. So you have this one character here,
and Uncle Phil here and Will in the middle, and
then throughout the whole season you have this pool back
and forth. Now that's good confidence. That's how you pitch
a story, and that's how it sticks because people can
understand that. So now we have a nemesis right now,
we have a safe place for Will, and he's in
the middle. He's getting pulled back and forth back, and
(15:12):
then you just you know, add stories around that.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So where were you at when you did this whole
this writer thing, Like, I know your wife, she got you.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Some some classes. Okay, so you know what I'm saying.
I had an idea for a movie in my head.
I've been talking about this for years, a romantic comedy
called The List, and I would always talk to her
about it and she was like, she was.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Like, Hey, why don't you just write it? And that's all.
I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I don't know what to write, Like, just open up
a book and start. I was like, I just go
that way, baby. So for my birthday she got me
like an introduction to screenplay course. It was a five
week course. We met one on Mondays for like four
hours in a in a loft in the Arts district.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
It was like six of us who signed up for
the course, some dude and some guys lost person.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
He had sold some shows, he was a writer and
this and that, and he just took us through character,
the whys, the wants, and then the technical aspect of writing.
And so I said, oh okay. So when I came
out of there, I met a good friend. I was
actually producing a movie.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Do you still even contact with that teacher today?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
No? I don't.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That was like, that was like six years ago, I think.
And I was prior to writing, I was a producer.
I produced film and we were producing a movie called
The Intruder and Vancouver with Dennis Kuaid, Michael Ealy and
making Making Good. So we were on set producing that
(16:58):
and one of our social producers, her name is Victoria.
I was telling her about the list and she was
a writer. She was like, oh we should. I said, look,
when we get off of this movie, when we get home,
we're gonna write this movie together.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
And she was like okay.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
She really helped me understand how to number one use
Final Draft, which is the software you need to be
a writer. Okay, it's difficult to learn it first, but
once you get it. It's all self explanatory. You can
just plug and play. And so we wrote the list together,
and the premise of the list is the married couple,
(17:33):
we've been married six seven years. The spark is gone.
So they get introduced to this fantasy of the list, right,
which is, if you're married, you get five people on
your list that you can have like a free be
with if you've ever met him once in a million chances, right,
So they're like super a list celebrities that you'll never
(17:56):
run into. So in reality, the list is, yeah, it's
just it's just make belief. Yeah, But what it did
was them talking about it sparks something in their relationship,
and then the wife meets somebody on her list and
things happen. She wakes up at the person's place, no
(18:18):
clothes on, in bed, she had got drunk.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
She doesn't remember what happened.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So the comedy of coming to terms with that, telling
your part, telling her husband, and then her feeling like,
the only way I can make this right is if
I help you sleep with somebody on the list, right.
So you have a couple now navigating the rest of
the movie, and her trying to have him hook up
(18:45):
with an A list celet and he says, look, it's easy.
You're beautiful, right, you can go up to a man
and be like, hey, you're on my list, and that's easy.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
If I go up to an A list.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Celebrit I'm going to jail, no doubt, I'm gonna get slapped,
which we do have. He does get slapped a couple
of times going to jail. But it was a romantic comedy. Uh,
it was fun. It was like, that was the first
thing I ever wrote, and it just opened up a
door for me. Yeah, it just took just being creative
took on a whole new meaning. So everything I see
(19:17):
now I can put in TV or or movie for him,
Like I could create a movie or TV show from this,
just being in and and the environment. I'm always looking,
I'm always creating, I'm always in the ideas you turned off.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, well I love that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Hopefully we get you plenty of contact content, plenty of
content plenty by the time we get you up out
of here.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
They tuned in, we'll be right back after a quick break.
As you're going around Hollywood. This is the one thing.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
And we had to ask another guest a couple of
days ago about the same type of feeling. It's like,
how do you handle rejection? Like you've been so successful
in your whole life. I mean you did get pulled
back a couple of times from going into game obviously.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Oh yeah, it's been putting the league long enough. You
deal with the projection.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
But going around Hollywood pitching these scripts, you know, trying
to pitch these ideas, these movies, how do you like
cause you get told how many know how many more
times than you ever do?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Get told it's not even close. You can't even quantify it.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Yeah, it's like this is just part of the game, right,
And so how do you handle that, and how do
you relate that to maybe maybe your past life in football,
and how it's kind of prepared you for that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So as a seventh round draft pick.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
You already felt a little rejected.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Thirty two teams said no over and over and over again.
And so sitting there in ninety eight watching that draft
and teams it called, hey, get you in the third round.
Hey you ready?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You got to call it the third round?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Hey man, wow, remember theft the draft is only two
days back then? Yeah, my first three rounds. Yeah, on Saturday,
fourth and seven, on Sunday. Yeah, So I'm like, yo, hey, y'all, hey,
everybody coming up. It's coming up, and it doesn't happen.
So you go to sleep and you wake up, you
(21:07):
turn it back on. Now you're sitting there, you get
some calls, Hey, fifth round, looking, take lineman, are you ready?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
It's coming now? It's half the people not more. By
the time the seventh round came up, the house was empty.
I turned the TV off, me and my brother. I'm like,
i gotta go to the movies, man, I gotta just
go get away. So as we were driving to the
movie theater in San Diego, get a call from Art
Shell tells me, hey, we're gonna draft you. I said,
(21:37):
what round is it? He said, you're not watching. I said, no,
this is seventh round. It's one hundred and ninty ninth
pick I said.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
He said he can't make this.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He said, you can hear me breathing and just I'm
just like and he says, all you okay. I said,
I'm pissed off. He said good, he said, because what
I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna give you
an opportunity to come in here in training camp and
prove to us in every other team that passed on
you why they made a mistake. And from that moment
(22:10):
I hung up that phone, I was like, okay, it's
on me.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Right, So after the no, the one little opportunity and
you know, all the seven ground draft picks don't make
the team now, right, So when you get.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Out there almost like undrafted, it's almost like you're under.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
You just there you're trying to fill out camp by Yeah,
sometimes you'd rather.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Go where you want to go a better situation.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
The draft was going off.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
When I got drafted, right when when when they're they're
talking about the picks that they came up, then you
see the little blip down there.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
You know, they don't even they don't even about that.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I don't have any footage of me getting drafted, right,
I don't know what the tape is.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
I don't even know have my name on the screen
or anything.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I say that to say get in the training camp
and have them just an opportunity. It opened up something
inside of me that I use in the real world
now to be able to go into that situation and
fight and claw, and by the end of the training
camp in the last preseason game, Marshield came to me
(23:13):
and said, hey, Ephraim, he's going to start. You'll play
the second quarter, he'll play the third, you'll play the fourth.
Whoever plays the best starting next opening day in Carolina.
So I put my I stood on the sideline with
my helmet and my mouth piece in the whole first quarter,
ready to go in. Now, the guy I was competing
(23:35):
with had been in the league five years. He was
a high dollar free agent that they had brought over
from Buffalo to play right tackle. He looked at it
as like a slight it was even competition, Like how
you gonna have me competing with a seventh round draft pick. Well,
I'm glad he took that approach because he didn't take
it serious that one out there. I mean, I was
(23:56):
talking about trying to kill somebody and the priests, so
you know, right, anybody I'm.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
About it's your super Bowl. I'm telling everything my whole life. Yeah, uh,
that's that's your super Bowl. That was your moment.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Me being able to get that starting job, my senior
I mean, my uh, my rookie year and going all
the way and starting in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Youngest player ever start right, It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
It was like you, of course, that's something you don't
even think about that, that's not you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That was just make the team.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I didn't know any of it.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I just I just wanted to be part of the team,
like this is my dream in the NFL. And so
when you translate that to that was the hardest thing
I'd ever done in my life. Okay, it's the hardest
thing I've ever done work wise. Yeah, nothing outside of that,
it is gonna be harder. But I take that approach.
You tell me, no, it's good, thank you. I'm gonna
(24:49):
go over here. All you need is one yes.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It's not for everybody. It's that Okay, I got you,
Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
You go over here. I don't know we good? Go
over here? Know we good?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
When you're going around on this hamster wheel of no's
when you step off, you don't know. When you stepping off,
you don't know if that next one is gonna be
a yes. Right, So if you want it, you keep
I've had I had bad days in that rookie year
in training camp. I was like, oh, they're gonna cut me.
I'm getting cut. That's when I used to walk around,
(25:24):
knock on your door. Come, bring your playbook of coach.
You want to see you in the playbook? Right I
bring your playbook. Bring your playbook right now? Bring path Yeah,
bring it right now. We had this big ass binder.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
It's like, so I still got money.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So I'm I'm always under the mindset of I've already
done something that's almost impossible to do. Yeah, if you guys,
I don't know if you realize this, but less than
zero point one percent of the world's population can.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Be professional athletes.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Less than zero point one percent of seven and a
half billion people can do what we've done.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Pretty small. You already won.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Why did you let a no stop you? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So when you get into your second career, keep that
same energy, keep the same energy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Why stop? Why quit? Now? You didn't quit? Then? True?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And I know somebody told you no. What I know
somebody told you know it.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
First of all, they I'm an athlete, So you guys
know they don't want you ever out of that box.
No type cast. You can't you stay anything other than
talk about football, look at football, answer questions about football.
But in reality, you think a doctor all he does
is talk about surgery or a dentist talking about teeth
(26:37):
whitening or no, you we live. But because we're so
exceptional as something, then people think, oh, okay, they only know
about that. But you look at any sportscaster or any
analysts who never played. How do they get a chance
to do that and we don't. I love talking about basketball.
I know basketball, That's my first love. I tell people
(26:59):
I just pay football to play the bill, pay the bills,
but I love basketball. We could sit and we can
go back and forth of basketball. But when I came
out of when I retired, I was hey, we want
you to come do this football show and I was like, uh,
not really your jam I like to talk all sports
and they were like, yeah, but you're First of all,
(27:22):
it was an offensive lineman. So there wasn't any offensive
linemen on television talking about anything football or anything. And
so the person that they had to see my personality
and it's the same thing. Add value. I tell this
to young writers. I told it to young players. I
(27:43):
don't care how you got here. Once you hear you
gotta add value. If you don't add value, they will
replace you. The reason I'm still on bel Air add
value because I add value. Were all them? Remember they
make the decisions when this was my goal. Whenever they
(28:08):
get in the room and talk about who's coming back,
I want every single person, the network, studio and the
executives to all say Ephraim individually because if they say
your name, then it's resonating with what you do. Every
pitchure writer has they know I got extended on my
(28:31):
first season of bel Air from twenty to twenty four
weeks because I pitched something. The show's been out, so
now I got to talk about it. The Louse Smith character,
which is Will Smith's father in the finale, they didn't
know where his father had been for twelve years, so
they were like, hey, we don't want this. We don't
(28:51):
want them violent, we don't want a dead be dad,
we don't want an alcoholic. So everybody was pitching in
the room or what and I said. I was thinking.
I was like, damn, where can.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You be.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
For twelve years? And time stands still? And I said
what if he was in prison? And everybody laughed and
I said, no, listen, I said, my father worked in
the prison system for twenty five years. When I turned eighteen,
he took myself and my brother to work with him
the folksome prison. Hey man, let me tell you this,
(29:25):
it's a whole other world. Everything outside of those walls
doesn't exist. So if we wanted to put the low
character somewhere where his son didn't know where it was
he was and he didn't have any access to his son,
then he's in prison now. Whether he's guilty or not,
we can discuss that. And you know, but that's where
(29:46):
he was. And I pitched. I said, Will was five.
His mom takes Will to see his dad for the
first time in prison. When they get there, he had
gotten into a fight or something, so he couldn't have visitors.
On the way back, she decided, no, not doing this.
I'm not going to expose this to my son. I
don't want him to think that this is an option.
(30:07):
So she kept him out of it, became a secret
of what happened, so on and so forth. They built
it around that pitch. Shoe runner Rashidnus called me the
next day and said, hey, man, where did that pitch
come from? I said, I was just thinking, man, and
I was just going through my I was explaining it.
And he said, well, let me tell you this.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
They love it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
They love it, the studio, the network, everybody loves it.
And we told him you pitched it, and he said,
a writer's career can be established two or three of
those pitches, and you just got your first one. It
was awesome and with that we're going to extend you.
That's value. You want to talk about value, Yeah, I
was in the writer's room where people who've been doing
(30:48):
it ten, twelve, fifteen years, twenty years. When you step
in the door as a seventh round draft pick and start,
you've added value no matter how long the veteran guys
have been there. It's the same muscle. Yeah, you got
to use that to accomplish that. This is harder than
anything in the world. But because you did that, you
(31:10):
take that same energy, same focus, same sense of value,
and you add it to any other thing and I
promise to God you will be successful. You can't help.
But because nobody works like we did, you know, that's
that's so cool and it's very important.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's you know, the more and more these podcasts we do,
and the more and more we sit here and we
talk to veteran guys that have been through the ropes
that are really established in their second act. We're talking
to coach Leslie Fraser and he was talking about the
same thing you just said.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
It's like, man, make it two league.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Like that same energy that got you there, said that mindset,
you just got to put it in something else and
you're going to be successful. He's like, people don't understand,
like that is so hard to do, and you just
get used to doing it and all of a sudden
you come out of it and you don't know what
to do. You got to take that same energy and
effort and focus it into other avenues. I think that's huge.
(32:06):
One avenue. I think that you've done a good job
as well. It's like, and I want to hear about
this because we're talking about bel air and you know,
all the type casting and all the other stuff.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Do you try to make sure it maintained.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
We're like, you know what, as I continue to rise up,
I got to reach back and pull others that look
like me, that come from maybe walks of life like me,
and try and bring them along to and get them
in the room so they have that same opportunity.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Absolutely, I've always.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Been under the the ideals of if you're going to
be the first person through the door. If you're gonna
bust open the glass ceiling. Yeah, it doesn't close behind you,
but we're trained to think that it does because we
were raised in this country to think it could only
(32:55):
be one of us.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
They're not gonna let us all up.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So if I get up there, I got to stay
up here? Are somebody going to replace me?
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
As time goes by and things become more accessible for
African Americans, that notion is hopefully dying down good, But
we're the ones that have to dispel it. Yeah, right,
because here I am. I'm not a trained writer. I
(33:27):
didn't go to school for this. I wasn't an assistant
than a writer's assistant and then a showrunners assistant and like,
I didn't come into the to it like that, but
it didn't matter to me. Right, I came in, I
added value. I stuck and now I'm trying to pull everybody.
(33:48):
Everybody got a story. So if you we were over
to he was like, yo, look, man, I had this idea.
Let's talk about it. Let's talk about let's put it together, right,
let's package it if it hit you want to do
something a show here and individually let's package it. We're
going together. We're going together. When I came and spoke
here on second Chris spoke to a bunch of players
(34:12):
who were, you know, want to know about transition and
all of that, I gave them out my number. I say, hey, man,
everything you do, everything you have, you already, you're already
the superhero. You're the superhero.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
You made it.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So hit me up whatever you need from me to
help you navigate the next step. And if you want
to be in entertainment, then let me know. You guys
have phenomenal stories, phenomenal ideas because you able to look
at the world through a different lens than the rest
of the population. So I'm always my hands are out
and I'm pulling people up because we deserve that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So what lens did you look at for you to
skip two grades?
Speaker 4 (34:52):
So that's my mom, man. She My mother was an educator.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
She got her PhD in education from UCLA, And so
before we even went to school with my sister's brothers,
we all knew how to read and write.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
So you in kindergarten, you know how to read and write.
They're like, what was it? Yeah? Special, They're like, what.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is happening right now. It was a B and which
is like a B C D like we're going through it.
We can read. And when I was in the first grade,
I was disruptive. No, well, it's probably because you were bored.
It was so easy. So they were like, well, his
(35:29):
work is great, but he's you know, I'm some six.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
I don't. I don't know. I'm just me, you know,
and so normal.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I tested and so I went from first to third
and then from third to fifth. And there's a the
gift in the curse there. Scholastically, it helped me moving forward. Physically,
it was taking a lunch of money. No, but I
(36:00):
was I was always a big kid. But when I
look at my senior year in high school, and I
was six five, one hundred and eighty five pounds, And
then I look at what I was at eighteen, junior
in college, right, a red shirt sophomore in college, and
I'm like, damn if I was this my senior year
(36:23):
in high school. My basketball coach, Jim Smirker, Jim, this
is for you, was furious at my parents, furious because
my senior year I averaged twenty four points twelve rebounds,
and he was so mad that he didn't have me
for two more years because your parents, because we I
(36:46):
skipped two grades?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Why would to do that? This is crazy? We can
win state if I had just one more year.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
So it was.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
It was.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
A situation where physically I had to catch up.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah, and the classroom's fine. Physically. I was young.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It took me a long time to get into my
to my body. But once it hit it, it hit
took off. Running that summer between fifteen sixteen years.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Old, it was over. Brother, it was over, good, good,
good luck. You know. So it's my mom did that?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna get some fun courses
real quick.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I want to ask you what was tough for writing
a screenplay or competing in the Amazing Race, which we
gotta do.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh, y'all would be great. Y'all want to do it?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
I literally I think when they record, I think I'll
be working.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
But it's all right.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Everything I got pitched to you, you say no, I
won't say no. Every day everything apps to him. I
would be challenged to an MMA fight. He don't want
to do it. Hey, let's do amazing the race. He
don't want to do it. I don't have the jaw
line to take punches. Come home, man, just tell it.
It was difficult getting a limited Well I got to
do that. Hold on, let me tell you the you
(38:04):
still you guys still hold the record in that.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yes, oh yeah, you're the only team to be.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
They changed how the show's done because of that. No
team will ever be in that situation ever. Again.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
That was awful. I mean, you and Chester, so they're crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
But the behind behind the scenes of that is initially
it was gonna be my wife and I so we
love the show. Watched it from the beginning, loved it.
Somebody approached casting director approached her and her friends at
a club, was like, hey, would you want reality TV?
And she was like, you want to be on Survivor?
(38:45):
She was like, never, But my husband and I loved
the amazing race. Oh okay, what's your husband doing. He's
in the NFL. You guys got to be on. You
gotta be on right. I couldn't do it while we
were playing because I didn't have a month to just
go beat just to be gone. You need one. You
had four weeks where you just off the grid, no phone,
(39:05):
no anything, And so I never had that opportunity. So
a couple of years after I retired, Hey are you
doing your wife? Still interested in doing Amazing Race. Absolutely
did the PaperWorks and then the video, did all these things,
and then I get a call from the casting director
and she was like, hey, so we just had a
(39:28):
former NFL player and his wife on one of the
previous seasons, So is there anyone else you want to
do it with? And I was like, yeah, no, I'm
not not doing that, So now thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Boom. I didn't want to tell my wife that, So
she was going, what's going on with the Amazing Race?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And I was like, I don't know, maybe we didn't
make it. And she was like, oh, okay, Well a
couple of weeks ago by she calls back, Hey, e
from I really we really want you to be on.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
You just need another partner.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Hey, look, I'm not going to do that till my
wife all right, it's not we're not going to do that.
My publicist, Denise wife sends her a tape or a
copy of Chester n I Super Bowl commercial right the
O Bowl when we were playing for the Texans together,
and Lanne called me the next week and say Hey,
you gotta do it with Chester. I was like, how
(40:18):
you know Chester? She was like, I saw the commercial.
This is perfect the extect. They love it, They want.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
You, so you know. I have a conversation with my wife.
She was upset, of course, and I was like, well
then I don't want to do it because it is
supposed to be our thing.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
She was like, you gotta do it. It's our favorite show.
So I called Chester and asked. He didn't even know
what it was. I said, Chester, you want to be
an amazing race? He said, is at the show that
comes on after The Good Wife. That's what he said.
Never watched an episode, so he wasn't as vested in
it as I was. So having a partner who's not
locked in.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
With you, I think that's where me and you would struggle.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
At because I would be like like that's him.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Now, that's him.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Now you would go crazy like you would be like broh,
come on.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
He was like, no, I'm good, hold on.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
But what will happen is your competitiveness kick in? Yeah,
so you see somebody run by you and be like,
oh no, not today.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
So you you have a task, you have to do
a roadblock or something like that and you see somebody
doing it fast, You're like, oh no, no. So during that time,
that's when it kicks in because that's that athlete, that's
that button, that switch. Yeah, you hit that switch. It's like,
oh you think you about to run path. Oh no,
you're not about to do that. But getting him going
every time, Chessa was like, man, we can go home
right now. I'm like, hey, no, man, no, let's not
(41:37):
go home right now. Let's just listen.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
You know, you know me, got too much money, got
too much money. It don't hit it, don't hit.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Right all day.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
He's like, man, You'm like, man, I'm not no, no,
I'm not doing that now.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Let's just go home.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
I probably it's not like pick the peanut, picked somebody else.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
I'm telling you right now, right next one. Who is
a better dancer? You or your wife?
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Not even close.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
I know your wife. She was a backup dancer.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
She was a professional dancer for twelve years. Started on
tours with Usher, Ricky Martin, Beyonce Destiny's Child. Rihanna toured
the world seven eight times. One of the best dancers
in the world.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Yeah, I love the story about how you first started
pursuing her. First of all, you met her, she was
about to smoke a cigarette. She said, yes, I'm gonna
do it, and then you know, she's traveling the world
and you're like, you know, and she was like, you
know what, when we're not together, you can do your thing,
ru and you and you, and it's just like, well that,
I mean, you're not supposed to see just that.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
For one of our moves on me.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
And then you were like, I mean the moment she
was going, I was like, what's she doing? But and
you're calling all the time listen, and you's just like,
I can't I can't be without a dog.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
I think something. I think I love her.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So we have been dating right a couple of months.
She was on tour in Europe. I'm playing for the
Broncos at the time. Yeah, so I would have to
catch her when she got off stage. This was pre
cell phones all over the world, right. I had to
go get to Motorola and get my cell phone unlocked
to even call international, and she didn't have an international
(43:16):
cell phone, so I had to catch her at the
hotel from when they were off stage or before they
went into the venue. So we had times that I
had to catch her, and I remember she came back,
she had a break, she came out and she was like,
this is hard, right, So look, I'm not gonna tell
(43:37):
you what you can do. How about this, how about
when we're together, we're together, when we're not, when we're
gone and I'm gone and you're doing your thing, you
do you and I'll do me. And I said, what
what what does.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Do you mean?
Speaker 1 (43:54):
She was like, you know, just I don't want to
be like I'm you know, I'm holding you back or
I'm just I was like, I was confused. I'm like,
I really like you. Look I like you too, but
I know I'm over in Europe and I'm going for
a month or two at a time.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
Just do you.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
And I was like, she said, or we'll be together
with the travel without you know, whatever that is, we'll
lock in right now and be together, or we'll still
have a relationship when we get back together. Until I
was like, oh, do you know what the first thing
that popped into my mind? What was that her being
(44:32):
in They were all over the world. I'm talking about
South Africa, Paris, Italy, everywhere. Some of the biggest tours
on the planet Earth. The only The first thing that
popped into my mind was me calling her at the
hotel after a show and in Paris.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
And it'd be like half episodes, right, yes, bro.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I was like, I'm like hey, She's like hey, I'm like,
what's going on. We're just having an after party and
all of that. And then I just hear some French
dude back there, mademoiselle as I said, people, we'll be here,
and she's like, look, I'm gonna call you later, okay,
by bye, pool, and I'm just I'm just sitting at home,
like so, I swear to God, that's that mark, that
(45:18):
that's the first thing.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And control.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
She's this whole parties out of control.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And I was just like, nope, I want to be
with you together. She said, give you one more chance.
I said no, I'm man, I'm locked in.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
I'm like, click, we together, were together, We.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Together, We be I swear to God, twenty years ago,
twenty years ago, I'm like, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Cool French dude. I tell you, I can't kill people
with that.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Six thousand miles away, no chance, no check.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Five eleven, built like, oh my god, I'm like hell no,
Hell to the noll nope, I said, I'm good. I wait,
I don't nobody else. That made you grow up quick.
It made me mature real fast. Instead of doing what
most guys would be like, oh, yeah, okay cool.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
I was like, no, not this one.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
I loved that she was a keeper. I would say
this a little bit of advice. Maybe the more ladies
and people should try that.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Hey, man, look here, if put the carrot out there.
If he don't take the carrot, he ain't the one. Yeah,
put the carrot out there.
Speaker 4 (46:37):
She dangled that thing in front of my face twice.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
And I was like, no, I'm good, I'm we cool.
I want you. I just want you. That's it. We
had that type of connection now, but we enjoyed being
around each other at the distance was crazy, but I
was like, man, I think.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
This is the one. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
I was right, and I thank God every day that
I was mature enough to know that stuff up.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
That's most definitely I still messed up.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
I had been in the league six years, so you
know me, I was just like, wow, it open. I'm
just like, yeah, there chilling. And I always thank god
that I had the maturity, yeah, to recognize what I
had and to not mess it up.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Yeah, because early on I was.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Trying trying to mess it.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
Man, I'm like I had to go to thera. I'm like,
but you got to.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
It's so good this podcast, Like I was just messing up. Man.
Oh my god. All right, So, uh, Mount Rushmore? Who's
on your Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 2 (47:39):
You get four picks, four people that have had some
type of influence, inspiration something in your life. Wife, coach, player,
a writer, the actor, actress, producer, EP, an executive, me, Roman, somebody.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
You up there, I'll put Artshelle up there. Loved that.
I like that.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Love that pick.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Arts Shell to me having him as a coach coming
into the league, can I can he?
Speaker 4 (48:11):
No, I'm gonna give him their own dude, so art Shill. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
But before Artshell, Ed White, Yeah. Ed White was my
offensive line coach in college. Played fifteen sixteen years in
the league. All Madden played for the Chargers, the Vikings.
I'm just like the epitome of an offensive line. I
was a defensive end. I went to college as a
defensive end and outside linebacker, and when I played scout team,
(48:41):
I red shirted. Three offensive linemen got hurt, so they
took myself, Kyle Turley and another player and moved as
a scout team O line from the defensive line.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Rom oh wow.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
And so I'm out there literally at one, two hundred
and six pounds snapping the ball, blocking Leroy Glover, every
day practice, playing tackle, guard, center, everything but holding my
own because I was a competitor. Great feet, great hands
from basketball. And that next year coaches got fired and
ed and new group came in. I went back to
(49:12):
defense and he saw some practice table. He said, damn kid,
it's two hundred pounds out here moving it offensive line.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
See he want to start next year? I said, yep,
it be my left tackle. That changed my life. That
was awesome, changed changed my life.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I started my first game in college at two hundred
and forty pounds at left tackle against Reagan Upshaw.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
Y'all remember him right? He stout a cow. He was
number one d N in the.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Nation, didn't He played for the Raiders.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
That was my first college game.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Crushed him.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
Wow his ass out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
My dad after that game was like, you might have
a future this, but that's what That's what opened that door.
So Ed White, first Art Chill, two great offensive linemen
saw something in me that maybe I didn't even see
at the time, gave me an opportunity to live the
dream and to continue the dream. So I definitely put
(50:09):
those two up there. I know this is gonna sound corny,
but I'll put my wife up there.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
It's not corn.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Because she changed my life. Like it's all it was
all funny game, my story is great and all of that.
But she helped me mature faster than I probably would
have because she was serious about it. She was like, hey,
I'm if we're gonna be together, we're not gonna play
no games right And through me not wanting to mess
(50:42):
that up, I learned how to be a better me,
a better man, was turned into a better father. And
without her, you don't get to eat from you. You
get now so and I and I'm blessed because I
get to every day I get to be around that
I get to be She's one thousand percent supportive the
(51:06):
second half of my career when I couldn't walk, couldn't hope,
Like every step of the way, every step of the
way she sacrificed her career did.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
She love to do for us?
Speaker 1 (51:20):
It was hard to be in a relationship you and
Budapest and I'm a training camp and she came to
me and it was like, look, I want to work
on us.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
I'm stop dancing.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
And I wish that never would happen because she was
so great at it, you know, and that's a piece
of her she'll never be able to get back. But
she gave that up for us, so she's definitely up there.
Chris Collins, he's a one of the most dynamic and
prolific writers in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
He was our neighbor. He was a good friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Our kids were in the same class together, and he
gave me my opportunity start writing on a television show.
He got me in the guild, the Writers Guild. It
got me insurance because you know, at a certain point
we're gonna have to find insurance. Oh yeah, all right,
so when you're coming out of pocket, you're like.
Speaker 4 (52:15):
How much it costs? What for the for everybody? And
so he was like, look, don't worry about that, because
I was telling him the story and he was just like,
I got you. Don't worry. I want you to be
a part of the show.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
It was a show called The Continental, based on the
hotel and the John Wick in the John Wick movies,
and I was like, but I'm not an assassin. He's like,
nobody in the writer's room is an assassin. I mean so,
he said, but the thing that I like about you
that nobody I don't care. He had kids from Harvard, Yale,
(52:46):
that Princeton. They all went to writing schools and graduated
in the arts. He said, the thing that they don't
have that you have is you've seen the world through
a lens nobody can see.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
I need that in the writer's room.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I need you to be able to talk to and
about things that no one has ever been able to experience.
And he gave me an opportunity to be in there
and be a part of that, and that to me
was everything because it allowed me to be.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
Where I am now.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
But it also taught me how to become a writer,
how to become a professional, how to add value and
continue to add value. Subsequently, enough, he brought me to
bel Air. He was a showrunner at the beginning of it,
and he brought me over to bell Air. Hey, I
know you're working on another project. I got something for you,
so Chris will always be up there. I got one more.
(53:44):
I mean, yeah, you can add five. I mean, yeah,
this is it only it's only it's only, it's only four.
Speaker 4 (53:51):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I'm you know, I'm gonna add one more. That's my
brother Dion. Yeah, he's my best friend. We grew up together.
I've known since he was eleven. I lived with him
in high school. We have a company together called Hitting
Empire Film Group, the largest minority film company we have.
(54:16):
And his he got me into sports. I didn't play
any sports until high school. Okay, basketball for but I
didn't play anything until ninth grade.
Speaker 5 (54:25):
And you guys, you guys did the one show with
Mike Epps, Right, yeah, they'll meet the Blacks.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
Yep, Meet the Blacks. That was it. That was your
That was your guys.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
Meet the Blacks. Intruder fatal.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
I mean, we've done seventeen eighteen movies and he's always
been like, we can do it.
Speaker 4 (54:45):
We got we want more.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Right, So, growing up with the best friend who didn't smoke,
who didn't drink, who didn't do anything, he wanted to
go to the NBA.
Speaker 4 (54:52):
So all we did was play basketball all day. But
us laying there staring at the ceiling at eleven, twelve,
thirteen years old.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
So dreaming and wishing about all the things we wanted
to do. It all came to fruition.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
He went overseas for five years, played professional basketball, came back,
started a film company, all of those things that we
you know, I mean, I'm known for thirty six years.
Speaker 1 (55:17):
Right and without that. You know, those five people have
helped mold who I am. And that's important to give
him his due because you know, he's one of the
most dynamic directors on the planet Earth, tremendous insight in
(55:38):
this business and what it takes. He didn't have the
NFL in terms of opening doors, so he had to
open those doors himself, and he opened them wide enough
for us all to come in right start producing movies
and stuff like that years and years ago. And he
(55:59):
allowed me to step in to that space and learn
and continue to grow in that space while I was
doing other things, so that that would be my five
mount rush.
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
That's hey, you thank you so much, hot Seat. Yeah,
b I appreciate you pouring into us.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Dog.
Speaker 5 (56:15):
Hopefully we gave you some content today, blessed that you
can take back with you. I know we're going to
take some stuff back with you. I wrote down a
couple of things. Uh, I'm going to watch the list. Uh,
I need to get my wife the final draft document or.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
App good think I'm telling you the software everything.
Speaker 5 (56:31):
Definitely and uh and if you want to start writing, everybody,
you must understand the whys and the ones. Yep, that's
their basis of it all. So there it is. We
actually learned some stuff today. Ephral Man appreciated dog. Thanks
a blessing, Yes sir, yes sir. And like I always
tell everybody, man, we're out of here. Remember for all
those that are watching and our listeners to tell a friend,
(56:51):
to tell a friend, to tell a friend, we are
going to.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
I'm sorry I hit you like that. I'm excited. I
apologize about that. That did feel little physical all right,
but anyways.
Speaker 5 (57:01):
Anyway, you pick up your podcast at with us Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (57:05):
iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 5 (57:07):
Please give us a five star rating, hit the follow button,
give us a review, tell us how you feel in
ask questions. My man Thomas will all answer them for
you because we do not, So thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
We're out of here. Em salam. Thanks Doc for a blessing.
Speaker 4 (57:21):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (57:22):
We out
Well, damn y'all keep adding words and let us to
this damn the second Ax. This is E from Salam.
This is the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm Peanut Tooman and this is the NFL Player Second
Act Podcast. And with me is always my trusted sidekick,
Deacon Reverend Hopper.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What's up baby?
Speaker 4 (00:40):
What's up? Dog?
Speaker 5 (00:41):
I don't know if you're gonna keep going there? No,
I just kept a two piece. Okay, well, thank you
for keeping it just as a two piece today. I
don't want the three piece.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So I do like the way that sure compliments your
hair though the gray and the white around the beard.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
It is complimenting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well you you're coordinating. You're coordinating.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
Some people wake up and have to work this, Peanut.
Other of us we just show up like this, So
thank you. I appreciate all the compliments. Thanks to all
of our listeners and watchers as well, and want to
tell everybody else to continue to hit follow, give us
a review, hit light, give us five stars anywhere you
pick up your podcast where it's Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio podcast.
Thank you as always, and Peanut, who is our guest today.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Hey, we got a special guest for y'all today. He
was a seventh round draft pick in the nineteen ninety
eight draft out of San Diego State. Thirteen year NFL veteran,
he played left and right tackle. Played in Super Bowl
thirty three with the Atlanta Falcons. He is a Chicago
native from my town. Now he's a big man in
(01:42):
Hollywood as a writer, producer, and he's a radio host.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ephraim Salaam.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Like, gentlemen like that. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you guys
having me here.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Man, this is gonna be fun. You a big clown
like us, and that's oh my god. Let's just get right.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Just your intro, I was like, oh yeah, I'm in
the right place.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, like this is I love this.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
We just a bunch of big clowns, big kids, and
we just have fun. And yeah, man like lit's like,
how you mean, what's what's what's going on?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm good man, I can't complain, you know, raising these kids.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I got two boys twelve.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And and eight, oh yeah, and twelve and nine now
just had a birthday and I'm their coach for coaching
in basketball.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Because you played basketball.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I did play basket You played basketball in.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
College at State.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Yeah, I'm I assure you, like, what was your best
game in basketball? Because we're gonna talk about football, but
what's your best game in basketball in college?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We went up to Colorado. We were playing Colorado State
and the Rams.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I got in.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And we were down, and they had like this big
seven foot kid. He was just killing us, and so
coach like, hey, going there and be phiscal. So I
went in and I scored a ten points in a
row on okay, okay, and brought us back in the game.
So I'm hype. They called time out. I come to
the sideline. This is a real story. I come to
(03:09):
the sideline and I'm.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Like, we got everybody the team and dapping us up.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Coach is like, hey, good job, take a break, right,
take a break, get you back in there. You know
I didn't. This is in the first half. I didn't
play another minute in that basket y'all winner.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Who lose?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
We lost a rus So what what I What did
the coach tell you after the game, Oh, we wanted
to work on some things whatever. But what I realized
much later is here I am I'd already been a
three year starter in football, I'm a left tackle, I'm
two hundred and ninety pounds, and I was outperforming his
(03:53):
basketball got basketball scholarship athletes. So as a coach, how
do you explain that? Like, how do you You can't,
It's nothing you can do. He messed up. So if
anybody comes in and it's like, well, I mean, who
are you recruiting? What's happening here? You got a guy
who comes off the football field, he's forty pounds heavy
(04:16):
than anybody on the team, and he's outperforming. So I
was like, at the time, I was mad, I'm like,
what's going on?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
A coach? What hey?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I got were working on something? We got you, and
it just it made me feel like I didn't know
what it was. So I was like, damn, did I
do something wrong? And it clicked later, Oh, okay, that's
how you save your job. You save your job by
not letting someone from another sport come in and dominate
the people.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You have on Scott.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I think that's so important and it's just another great example,
and we see it all the time, whether it's the NFL,
college whatever, is that when the people upstairs they have
they need job security too.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So when they draft certain guys.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
They're going to play, Like I don't care what anybody says,
Like they're gonna they can follow in their face for
two straight years.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
If they're first rounded. We say they gonna play, they
gonna play.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's funny that you brought that up, because I was
just telling this story out here. My twelfth year in
the league. I go to Detroit, right leave Houston, go
to Detroit and Jim Schwartz, head coach, just got there.
It was after the oh to sixteen U season with
with with with the Lions, and they called me to
(05:32):
bring me over. It's like, hey, we we got to
get this offensive line going right. We know you're a
left tackle. We drafted a kid and the first they
drafted a kid in the first round last year at
right tackle. Either you can push them or you can
push them out the way. And I said absolutely, let's
make it happen. Go through training camp. Clearly the better option,
(05:54):
Like everybody saw it. Everybody knew Scott Lindham was the
offensive coordinator and we too, you know, opening week and
got and offensive line coach Jim Swartz. They come and
they sit down and they talk to me and they say, hey,
thank you for all the work you've done, you've compete,
you've raised the level of the off all of these
(06:16):
wonderful things, but we can't start you. I said, what,
they won't allow us not to play this kid that
they drafted last year in the first round trash And
I said what? And I was like, who is they
with they? That is you, the head coach, You the
offensive coordinator? Who is they that whole season we go
(06:43):
to Green Bay and warm ups, the kid goes the
wrong way, hits the tight end, hurts the tight end,
showing right. This is coach is going crazy. He from
your in this. We're in the middle of season. I
haven't played a down field goal. I'm I'm running in
there off on field goal. You're in you're starting. I
buckle up whole off line. Yeah, let's were ready to go.
Let's go do it. We received the kickoff, I'm getting
(07:06):
ready to run out on the field and I just
feel a hand on my shoulder.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Oh my god, the hand this is? I feel the hand.
I can't make this up.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I couldn't make it up.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And these are words that football players know. They this, we.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
All know what that is.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That again, my offensive line coach was like, as I turned,
I see the kid running, buckling his chin strap going
out into the field. So what's going on? We got
a call from upstairs asking why he wasn't going into
the game and to put him in the game. So
I just took my helmet off, right, But that's what
(07:47):
the league had changed.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, man.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I know you're you're you're one of the writers on
the show bail Air.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Ye shout out, that's the show he was saying, the
Nasonal show right.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
On that show, man, it's really good. Well we got
picked up for a third season. How influence you was
Will Smith on this too? I mean he has input.
I mean he's an EP on the project, but they
really allow us in that writer's room to really build
out the show. I was extremely excited about it. I
got a great opportunity to come in and pitch a
(08:21):
lot of things for me as brothers up here African
American men. I didn't want to do a trophy show.
I didn't want to do a show, even though it
was based on an original ip, The Fresh Prince of
bel Air, which is a comedy. Morgan Cooper, the creator,
created this beautiful sizzle that he dropped on YouTube about
(08:43):
a dramatic look at the fresh Prince of bel Air,
and we wanted to speak to some of the issues.
But the biggest thing for me is I wanted to
show what black excellence in black fatherhood looked like.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
That was huge though Uncle Phil was like a great figure,
Like people don't understand that my father, he was for
a lot of people that didn't have father exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So I wanted to continue that.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's a great example.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I didn't want to do a show about this kid
will Smith coming from Philadelphia to bel Air and teaching
the banks how to be black again, right, because under
those guides, the more influential you become, the more success.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
You have, the less black you become.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And that's an insult to everybody sitting at this table
and everybody out there listening and watching this, who's who's
striving for greatness and have bettered their situation. You can't
tell me I'm less black because I played in the
NFL for thirteen years and I've had a successful career
outside of the NFL.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I'm still me.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm still but the world sees me as African American, right,
So I wanted it to be of you know, when
you take a kid and you put them in a
situation you think is better for him, the traumas that
go with that.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Right, Let's talk about the real issues.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
They didn't get it to They tapped on it a
little bit in the original, but in hours we get
to really live in these issues. What about these black
kids growing up in these affluent communities going to these
private schools? Right, That in itself is steep with all
types of trauma and pitfalls. So I really wanted to
(10:25):
talk and address things that you know, I got school
age kids.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
We live in Studio City, Right, It's not like here
I grew up actually, when I came from scott when
we came out here, I.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Grew up in Inglewood, right, or on the other side
of the Inglewoods. Right over here. It's right over sixty
if and West Boulevard. My apartment.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Whenever I come over here, I drive by my apartment
building still there, right. And so I wanted to be
a part of something that showed us in a light
that I could be proud of that my kids can
sit down and watch and be like, oh, okay, what
what are blacks dads? What are black moms? What is
the Black Nuclear family unit. Yeah, we have problems. We
(11:05):
have problems, but success is available for everybody. And how
do you live in your success? And then teaching a
kid like Will that sports is not your only option, right,
so many of us in our communities thinking, oh, I
gotta you better be the best football player.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I got the besketball player in.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The world, in the world to change our outcome. But
if you put that same energy as you put into
sports and training into anything else, you'll be successful. So
you know, that's to me, that's what the show it
(11:48):
really means. And I really you know, the creators and
the writers, the showrunners, Carla and all of all of
them are on the same page and worked really hard,
you know, Rashid Newsome and TJ. Brady, Morgan Cooper, They've
all done a tremendous job.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
That's what's up.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
So, I mean, Chris Rock said it best in his
stand up He was like, you know, I live in
this neighborhood, huge houses. Like He's like, dude, I'm the
best comic in the world, in the world, Like I'm here,
and my neighbor's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Right, that's the reality.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
That is That is very much so the reality and
you just say it so well, and uh, you're a
deep thinker. I can we already know that about you,
and we'll dive into that a little bit more. Just
your whole upbringing by the time you went to college
at sixteen.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
It's just crazy. But do you got something that works already?
Do you have some.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Going right back at right? Season three? We're good, right
back into it.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
The one thing they know about me in the room
and I'm one of the only writers that is still
there from season one.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I was a part of this project.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I heard about the project in twenty twenty and I've
been We've had a few showrunners and I've been the
only constant throughout the life of the of the project
right now, So I anytime I pitch. So just for
those who don't understand what the writer's room is, so
say it's us three and you know, four other people
(13:18):
were sitting around the shotrunner. It's like, Hey, this is
what the story is this season. We want to you know,
do this, Like this big story this season was Will's
playing AAU basketball in season two. Well, I pitched that
because nobody in the room had ever played AAU basketball
and they didn't even the network execs didn't even know
(13:39):
what AAU basketball was My next question, but they were like, well,
he's playing on the basketball team in high school, so
we don't.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
That's not as current kurrent is the AU model.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
But once you explain that to him, like, oh, okay,
we get so if we if we sit here and
I pitched that, and I'll pitch it all the way through,
and they'll go, okay, all right, well let's put that
on a board, right, you write the pitch out, get
notes on it.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Can we do it? Can? When they say yes, then
you just build on that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So now we need an AAU coach and a character.
It's just the nemesis for season the two. How is
Will going to respond? And my biggest thing was, I said,
the breach of trust between Uncle Phil and Will at
the end of the season one.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
We have to repair that, but we have to add
some obstacles.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So the Doc character who's ran the AAU team, Uncle Phil,
started noticing Will listening to him, right, he's changing. So
Uncle Phil feels like he's losing, right, his ability to
guide Will in a way that he's not benefiting from
(14:50):
just for Will. So you have this one character here,
and Uncle Phil here and Will in the middle, and
then throughout the whole season you have this pool back
and forth. Now that's good confidence. That's how you pitch
a story, and that's how it sticks because people can
understand that. So now we have a nemesis right now,
we have a safe place for Will, and he's in
the middle. He's getting pulled back and forth back, and
(15:12):
then you just you know, add stories around that.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So where were you at when you did this whole
this writer thing, Like, I know your wife, she got you.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Some some classes. Okay, so you know what I'm saying.
I had an idea for a movie in my head.
I've been talking about this for years, a romantic comedy
called The List, and I would always talk to her
about it and she was like, she was.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Like, Hey, why don't you just write it? And that's all.
I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I don't know what to write, Like, just open up
a book and start. I was like, I just go
that way, baby. So for my birthday she got me
like an introduction to screenplay course. It was a five
week course. We met one on Mondays for like four
hours in a in a loft in the Arts district.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
It was like six of us who signed up for
the course, some dude and some guys lost person.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
He had sold some shows, he was a writer and
this and that, and he just took us through character,
the whys, the wants, and then the technical aspect of writing.
And so I said, oh okay. So when I came
out of there, I met a good friend. I was
actually producing a movie.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Do you still even contact with that teacher today?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
No? I don't.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That was like, that was like six years ago, I think.
And I was prior to writing, I was a producer.
I produced film and we were producing a movie called
The Intruder and Vancouver with Dennis Kuaid, Michael Ealy and
making Making Good. So we were on set producing that
(16:58):
and one of our social producers, her name is Victoria.
I was telling her about the list and she was
a writer. She was like, oh we should. I said, look,
when we get off of this movie, when we get home,
we're gonna write this movie together.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
And she was like okay.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
She really helped me understand how to number one use
Final Draft, which is the software you need to be
a writer. Okay, it's difficult to learn it first, but
once you get it. It's all self explanatory. You can
just plug and play. And so we wrote the list together,
and the premise of the list is the married couple,
(17:33):
we've been married six seven years. The spark is gone.
So they get introduced to this fantasy of the list, right,
which is, if you're married, you get five people on
your list that you can have like a free be
with if you've ever met him once in a million chances, right,
So they're like super a list celebrities that you'll never
(17:56):
run into. So in reality, the list is, yeah, it's
just it's just make belief. Yeah, But what it did
was them talking about it sparks something in their relationship,
and then the wife meets somebody on her list and
things happen. She wakes up at the person's place, no
(18:18):
clothes on, in bed, she had got drunk.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
She doesn't remember what happened.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So the comedy of coming to terms with that, telling
your part, telling her husband, and then her feeling like,
the only way I can make this right is if
I help you sleep with somebody on the list, right.
So you have a couple now navigating the rest of
the movie, and her trying to have him hook up
(18:45):
with an A list celet and he says, look, it's easy.
You're beautiful, right, you can go up to a man
and be like, hey, you're on my list, and that's easy.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
If I go up to an A list.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Celebrit I'm going to jail, no doubt, I'm gonna get slapped,
which we do have. He does get slapped a couple
of times going to jail. But it was a romantic comedy. Uh,
it was fun. It was like, that was the first
thing I ever wrote, and it just opened up a
door for me. Yeah, it just took just being creative
took on a whole new meaning. So everything I see
(19:17):
now I can put in TV or or movie for him,
Like I could create a movie or TV show from this,
just being in and and the environment. I'm always looking,
I'm always creating, I'm always in the ideas you turned off.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, well I love that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Hopefully we get you plenty of contact content, plenty of
content plenty by the time we get you up out
of here.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
They tuned in, we'll be right back after a quick break.
As you're going around Hollywood. This is the one thing.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
And we had to ask another guest a couple of
days ago about the same type of feeling. It's like,
how do you handle rejection? Like you've been so successful
in your whole life. I mean you did get pulled
back a couple of times from going into game obviously.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Oh yeah, it's been putting the league long enough. You
deal with the projection.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
But going around Hollywood pitching these scripts, you know, trying
to pitch these ideas, these movies, how do you like
cause you get told how many know how many more
times than you ever do?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Get told it's not even close. You can't even quantify it.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Yeah, it's like this is just part of the game, right,
And so how do you handle that, and how do
you relate that to maybe maybe your past life in football,
and how it's kind of prepared you for that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
So as a seventh round draft pick.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
You already felt a little rejected.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Thirty two teams said no over and over and over again.
And so sitting there in ninety eight watching that draft
and teams it called, hey, get you in the third round.
Hey you ready?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You got to call it the third round?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Hey man, wow, remember theft the draft is only two
days back then? Yeah, my first three rounds. Yeah, on Saturday,
fourth and seven, on Sunday. Yeah, So I'm like, yo, hey, y'all, hey,
everybody coming up. It's coming up, and it doesn't happen.
So you go to sleep and you wake up, you
(21:07):
turn it back on. Now you're sitting there, you get
some calls, Hey, fifth round, looking, take lineman, are you ready?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
It's coming now? It's half the people not more. By
the time the seventh round came up, the house was empty.
I turned the TV off, me and my brother. I'm like,
i gotta go to the movies, man, I gotta just
go get away. So as we were driving to the
movie theater in San Diego, get a call from Art
Shell tells me, hey, we're gonna draft you. I said,
(21:37):
what round is it? He said, you're not watching. I said, no,
this is seventh round. It's one hundred and ninty ninth
pick I said.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
He said he can't make this.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He said, you can hear me breathing and just I'm
just like and he says, all you okay. I said,
I'm pissed off. He said good, he said, because what
I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna give you
an opportunity to come in here in training camp and
prove to us in every other team that passed on
you why they made a mistake. And from that moment
(22:10):
I hung up that phone, I was like, okay, it's
on me.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Right, So after the no, the one little opportunity and
you know, all the seven ground draft picks don't make
the team now, right, So when you get.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Out there almost like undrafted, it's almost like you're under.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
You just there you're trying to fill out camp by Yeah,
sometimes you'd rather.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Go where you want to go a better situation.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
The draft was going off.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
When I got drafted, right when when when they're they're
talking about the picks that they came up, then you
see the little blip down there.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
You know, they don't even they don't even about that.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I don't have any footage of me getting drafted, right,
I don't know what the tape is.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
I don't even know have my name on the screen
or anything.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I say that to say get in the training camp
and have them just an opportunity. It opened up something
inside of me that I use in the real world
now to be able to go into that situation and
fight and claw, and by the end of the training
camp in the last preseason game, Marshield came to me
(23:13):
and said, hey, Ephraim, he's going to start. You'll play
the second quarter, he'll play the third, you'll play the fourth.
Whoever plays the best starting next opening day in Carolina.
So I put my I stood on the sideline with
my helmet and my mouth piece in the whole first quarter,
ready to go in. Now, the guy I was competing
(23:35):
with had been in the league five years. He was
a high dollar free agent that they had brought over
from Buffalo to play right tackle. He looked at it
as like a slight it was even competition, Like how
you gonna have me competing with a seventh round draft pick. Well,
I'm glad he took that approach because he didn't take
it serious that one out there. I mean, I was
(23:56):
talking about trying to kill somebody and the priests, so
you know, right, anybody I'm.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
About it's your super Bowl. I'm telling everything my whole life. Yeah, uh,
that's that's your super Bowl. That was your moment.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Me being able to get that starting job, my senior
I mean, my uh, my rookie year and going all
the way and starting in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Youngest player ever start right, It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
It was like you, of course, that's something you don't
even think about that, that's not you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That was just make the team.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I didn't know any of it.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I just I just wanted to be part of the team,
like this is my dream in the NFL. And so
when you translate that to that was the hardest thing
I'd ever done in my life. Okay, it's the hardest
thing I've ever done work wise. Yeah, nothing outside of that,
it is gonna be harder. But I take that approach.
You tell me, no, it's good, thank you. I'm gonna
(24:49):
go over here. All you need is one yes.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It's not for everybody. It's that Okay, I got you,
Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
You go over here. I don't know we good? Go
over here? Know we good?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
When you're going around on this hamster wheel of no's
when you step off, you don't know. When you stepping off,
you don't know if that next one is gonna be
a yes. Right, So if you want it, you keep
I've had I had bad days in that rookie year
in training camp. I was like, oh, they're gonna cut me.
I'm getting cut. That's when I used to walk around,
(25:24):
knock on your door. Come, bring your playbook of coach.
You want to see you in the playbook? Right I
bring your playbook. Bring your playbook right now? Bring path Yeah,
bring it right now. We had this big ass binder.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
It's like, so I still got money.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So I'm I'm always under the mindset of I've already
done something that's almost impossible to do. Yeah, if you guys,
I don't know if you realize this, but less than
zero point one percent of the world's population can.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Be professional athletes.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Less than zero point one percent of seven and a
half billion people can do what we've done.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Pretty small. You already won.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Why did you let a no stop you? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So when you get into your second career, keep that
same energy, keep the same energy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Why stop? Why quit? Now? You didn't quit? Then? True?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And I know somebody told you no. What I know
somebody told you know it.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
First of all, they I'm an athlete, So you guys
know they don't want you ever out of that box.
No type cast. You can't you stay anything other than
talk about football, look at football, answer questions about football.
But in reality, you think a doctor all he does
is talk about surgery or a dentist talking about teeth
(26:37):
whitening or no, you we live. But because we're so
exceptional as something, then people think, oh, okay, they only know
about that. But you look at any sportscaster or any
analysts who never played. How do they get a chance
to do that and we don't. I love talking about basketball.
I know basketball, That's my first love. I tell people
(26:59):
I just pay football to play the bill, pay the bills,
but I love basketball. We could sit and we can
go back and forth of basketball. But when I came
out of when I retired, I was hey, we want
you to come do this football show and I was like, uh,
not really your jam I like to talk all sports
and they were like, yeah, but you're First of all,
(27:22):
it was an offensive lineman. So there wasn't any offensive
linemen on television talking about anything football or anything. And
so the person that they had to see my personality
and it's the same thing. Add value. I tell this
to young writers. I told it to young players. I
(27:43):
don't care how you got here. Once you hear you
gotta add value. If you don't add value, they will
replace you. The reason I'm still on bel Air add
value because I add value. Were all them? Remember they
make the decisions when this was my goal. Whenever they
(28:08):
get in the room and talk about who's coming back,
I want every single person, the network, studio and the
executives to all say Ephraim individually because if they say
your name, then it's resonating with what you do. Every
pitchure writer has they know I got extended on my
(28:31):
first season of bel Air from twenty to twenty four
weeks because I pitched something. The show's been out, so
now I got to talk about it. The Louse Smith character,
which is Will Smith's father in the finale, they didn't
know where his father had been for twelve years, so
they were like, hey, we don't want this. We don't
(28:51):
want them violent, we don't want a dead be dad,
we don't want an alcoholic. So everybody was pitching in
the room or what and I said. I was thinking.
I was like, damn, where can.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You be.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
For twelve years? And time stands still? And I said
what if he was in prison? And everybody laughed and
I said, no, listen, I said, my father worked in
the prison system for twenty five years. When I turned eighteen,
he took myself and my brother to work with him
the folksome prison. Hey man, let me tell you this,
(29:25):
it's a whole other world. Everything outside of those walls
doesn't exist. So if we wanted to put the low
character somewhere where his son didn't know where it was
he was and he didn't have any access to his son,
then he's in prison now. Whether he's guilty or not,
we can discuss that. And you know, but that's where
(29:46):
he was. And I pitched. I said, Will was five.
His mom takes Will to see his dad for the
first time in prison. When they get there, he had
gotten into a fight or something, so he couldn't have visitors.
On the way back, she decided, no, not doing this.
I'm not going to expose this to my son. I
don't want him to think that this is an option.
(30:07):
So she kept him out of it, became a secret
of what happened, so on and so forth. They built
it around that pitch. Shoe runner Rashidnus called me the
next day and said, hey, man, where did that pitch
come from? I said, I was just thinking, man, and
I was just going through my I was explaining it.
And he said, well, let me tell you this.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
They love it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
They love it, the studio, the network, everybody loves it.
And we told him you pitched it, and he said,
a writer's career can be established two or three of
those pitches, and you just got your first one. It
was awesome and with that we're going to extend you.
That's value. You want to talk about value, Yeah, I
was in the writer's room where people who've been doing
(30:48):
it ten, twelve, fifteen years, twenty years. When you step
in the door as a seventh round draft pick and start,
you've added value no matter how long the veteran guys
have been there. It's the same muscle. Yeah, you got
to use that to accomplish that. This is harder than
anything in the world. But because you did that, you
(31:10):
take that same energy, same focus, same sense of value,
and you add it to any other thing and I
promise to God you will be successful. You can't help.
But because nobody works like we did, you know, that's
that's so cool and it's very important.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's you know, the more and more these podcasts we do,
and the more and more we sit here and we
talk to veteran guys that have been through the ropes
that are really established in their second act. We're talking
to coach Leslie Fraser and he was talking about the
same thing you just said.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
It's like, man, make it two league.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Like that same energy that got you there, said that mindset,
you just got to put it in something else and
you're going to be successful. He's like, people don't understand,
like that is so hard to do, and you just
get used to doing it and all of a sudden
you come out of it and you don't know what
to do. You got to take that same energy and
effort and focus it into other avenues. I think that's huge.
(32:06):
One avenue. I think that you've done a good job
as well. It's like, and I want to hear about
this because we're talking about bel air and you know,
all the type casting and all the other stuff.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Do you try to make sure it maintained.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
We're like, you know what, as I continue to rise up,
I got to reach back and pull others that look
like me, that come from maybe walks of life like me,
and try and bring them along to and get them
in the room so they have that same opportunity.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Absolutely, I've always.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Been under the the ideals of if you're going to
be the first person through the door. If you're gonna
bust open the glass ceiling. Yeah, it doesn't close behind you,
but we're trained to think that it does because we
were raised in this country to think it could only
(32:55):
be one of us.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
They're not gonna let us all up.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So if I get up there, I got to stay
up here? Are somebody going to replace me?
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
As time goes by and things become more accessible for
African Americans, that notion is hopefully dying down good, But
we're the ones that have to dispel it. Yeah, right,
because here I am. I'm not a trained writer. I
(33:27):
didn't go to school for this. I wasn't an assistant
than a writer's assistant and then a showrunners assistant and like,
I didn't come into the to it like that, but
it didn't matter to me. Right, I came in, I
added value. I stuck and now I'm trying to pull everybody.
(33:48):
Everybody got a story. So if you we were over
to he was like, yo, look, man, I had this idea.
Let's talk about it. Let's talk about let's put it together, right,
let's package it if it hit you want to do
something a show here and individually let's package it. We're
going together. We're going together. When I came and spoke
here on second Chris spoke to a bunch of players
(34:12):
who were, you know, want to know about transition and
all of that, I gave them out my number. I say, hey, man,
everything you do, everything you have, you already, you're already
the superhero. You're the superhero.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
You made it.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So hit me up whatever you need from me to
help you navigate the next step. And if you want
to be in entertainment, then let me know. You guys
have phenomenal stories, phenomenal ideas because you able to look
at the world through a different lens than the rest
of the population. So I'm always my hands are out
and I'm pulling people up because we deserve that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So what lens did you look at for you to
skip two grades?
Speaker 4 (34:52):
So that's my mom, man. She My mother was an educator.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
She got her PhD in education from UCLA, And so
before we even went to school with my sister's brothers,
we all knew how to read and write.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
So you in kindergarten, you know how to read and write.
They're like, what was it? Yeah? Special, They're like, what.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is happening right now. It was a B and which
is like a B C D like we're going through it.
We can read. And when I was in the first grade,
I was disruptive. No, well, it's probably because you were bored.
It was so easy. So they were like, well, his
(35:29):
work is great, but he's you know, I'm some six.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
I don't. I don't know. I'm just me, you know,
and so normal.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I tested and so I went from first to third
and then from third to fifth. And there's a the
gift in the curse there. Scholastically, it helped me moving forward. Physically,
it was taking a lunch of money. No, but I
(36:00):
was I was always a big kid. But when I
look at my senior year in high school, and I
was six five, one hundred and eighty five pounds, And
then I look at what I was at eighteen, junior
in college, right, a red shirt sophomore in college, and
I'm like, damn if I was this my senior year
(36:23):
in high school. My basketball coach, Jim Smirker, Jim, this
is for you, was furious at my parents, furious because
my senior year I averaged twenty four points twelve rebounds,
and he was so mad that he didn't have me
for two more years because your parents, because we I
(36:46):
skipped two grades?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Why would to do that? This is crazy? We can
win state if I had just one more year.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
So it was.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
It was.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
A situation where physically I had to catch up.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah, and the classroom's fine. Physically. I was young.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It took me a long time to get into my
to my body. But once it hit it, it hit
took off. Running that summer between fifteen sixteen years.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Old, it was over. Brother, it was over, good, good,
good luck. You know. So it's my mom did that?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna get some fun courses
real quick.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I want to ask you what was tough for writing
a screenplay or competing in the Amazing Race, which we
gotta do.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh, y'all would be great. Y'all want to do it?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
I literally I think when they record, I think I'll
be working.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
But it's all right.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Everything I got pitched to you, you say no, I
won't say no. Every day everything apps to him. I
would be challenged to an MMA fight. He don't want
to do it. Hey, let's do amazing the race. He
don't want to do it. I don't have the jaw
line to take punches. Come home, man, just tell it.
It was difficult getting a limited Well I got to
do that. Hold on, let me tell you the you
(38:04):
still you guys still hold the record in that.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yes, oh yeah, you're the only team to be.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
They changed how the show's done because of that. No
team will ever be in that situation ever. Again.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
That was awful. I mean, you and Chester, so they're crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
But the behind behind the scenes of that is initially
it was gonna be my wife and I so we
love the show. Watched it from the beginning, loved it.
Somebody approached casting director approached her and her friends at
a club, was like, hey, would you want reality TV?
And she was like, you want to be on Survivor?
(38:45):
She was like, never, But my husband and I loved
the amazing race. Oh okay, what's your husband doing. He's
in the NFL. You guys got to be on. You
gotta be on right. I couldn't do it while we
were playing because I didn't have a month to just
go beat just to be gone. You need one. You
had four weeks where you just off the grid, no phone,
(39:05):
no anything, And so I never had that opportunity. So
a couple of years after I retired, Hey are you
doing your wife? Still interested in doing Amazing Race. Absolutely
did the PaperWorks and then the video, did all these things,
and then I get a call from the casting director
and she was like, hey, so we just had a
(39:28):
former NFL player and his wife on one of the
previous seasons, So is there anyone else you want to
do it with? And I was like, yeah, no, I'm
not not doing that, So now thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Boom. I didn't want to tell my wife that, So
she was going, what's going on with the Amazing Race?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And I was like, I don't know, maybe we didn't
make it. And she was like, oh, okay, Well a
couple of weeks ago by she calls back, Hey, e
from I really we really want you to be on.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
You just need another partner.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Hey, look, I'm not going to do that till my
wife all right, it's not we're not going to do that.
My publicist, Denise wife sends her a tape or a
copy of Chester n I Super Bowl commercial right the
O Bowl when we were playing for the Texans together,
and Lanne called me the next week and say Hey,
you gotta do it with Chester. I was like, how
(40:18):
you know Chester? She was like, I saw the commercial.
This is perfect the extect. They love it, They want.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
You, so you know. I have a conversation with my wife.
She was upset, of course, and I was like, well
then I don't want to do it because it is
supposed to be our thing.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
She was like, you gotta do it. It's our favorite show.
So I called Chester and asked. He didn't even know
what it was. I said, Chester, you want to be
an amazing race? He said, is at the show that
comes on after The Good Wife. That's what he said.
Never watched an episode, so he wasn't as vested in
it as I was. So having a partner who's not
locked in.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
With you, I think that's where me and you would struggle.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
At because I would be like like that's him.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Now, that's him.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Now you would go crazy like you would be like broh,
come on.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
He was like, no, I'm good, hold on.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
But what will happen is your competitiveness kick in? Yeah,
so you see somebody run by you and be like,
oh no, not today.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
So you you have a task, you have to do
a roadblock or something like that and you see somebody
doing it fast, You're like, oh no, no. So during that time,
that's when it kicks in because that's that athlete, that's
that button, that switch. Yeah, you hit that switch. It's like,
oh you think you about to run path. Oh no,
you're not about to do that. But getting him going
every time, Chessa was like, man, we can go home
right now. I'm like, hey, no, man, no, let's not
(41:37):
go home right now. Let's just listen.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
You know, you know me, got too much money, got
too much money. It don't hit it, don't hit.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Right all day.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
He's like, man, You'm like, man, I'm not no, no,
I'm not doing that now.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Let's just go home.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
I probably it's not like pick the peanut, picked somebody else.
Speaker 5 (41:58):
I'm telling you right now, right next one. Who is
a better dancer? You or your wife?
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Not even close.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
I know your wife. She was a backup dancer.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
She was a professional dancer for twelve years. Started on
tours with Usher, Ricky Martin, Beyonce Destiny's Child. Rihanna toured
the world seven eight times. One of the best dancers
in the world.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Yeah, I love the story about how you first started
pursuing her. First of all, you met her, she was
about to smoke a cigarette. She said, yes, I'm gonna
do it, and then you know, she's traveling the world
and you're like, you know, and she was like, you
know what, when we're not together, you can do your thing,
ru and you and you, and it's just like, well that,
I mean, you're not supposed to see just that.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
For one of our moves on me.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
And then you were like, I mean the moment she
was going, I was like, what's she doing? But and
you're calling all the time listen, and you's just like,
I can't I can't be without a dog.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
I think something. I think I love her.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So we have been dating right a couple of months.
She was on tour in Europe. I'm playing for the
Broncos at the time. Yeah, so I would have to
catch her when she got off stage. This was pre
cell phones all over the world, right. I had to
go get to Motorola and get my cell phone unlocked
to even call international, and she didn't have an international
(43:16):
cell phone, so I had to catch her at the
hotel from when they were off stage or before they
went into the venue. So we had times that I
had to catch her, and I remember she came back,
she had a break, she came out and she was like,
this is hard, right, So look, I'm not gonna tell
(43:37):
you what you can do. How about this, how about
when we're together, we're together, when we're not, when we're
gone and I'm gone and you're doing your thing, you
do you and I'll do me. And I said, what
what what does.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Do you mean?
Speaker 1 (43:54):
She was like, you know, just I don't want to
be like I'm you know, I'm holding you back or
I'm just I was like, I was confused. I'm like,
I really like you. Look I like you too, but
I know I'm over in Europe and I'm going for
a month or two at a time.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
Just do you.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
And I was like, she said, or we'll be together
with the travel without you know, whatever that is, we'll
lock in right now and be together, or we'll still
have a relationship when we get back together. Until I
was like, oh, do you know what the first thing
that popped into my mind? What was that her being
(44:32):
in They were all over the world. I'm talking about
South Africa, Paris, Italy, everywhere. Some of the biggest tours
on the planet Earth. The only The first thing that
popped into my mind was me calling her at the
hotel after a show and in Paris.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
And it'd be like half episodes, right, yes, bro.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
I was like, I'm like hey, She's like hey, I'm like,
what's going on. We're just having an after party and
all of that. And then I just hear some French
dude back there, mademoiselle as I said, people, we'll be here,
and she's like, look, I'm gonna call you later, okay,
by bye, pool, and I'm just I'm just sitting at home,
like so, I swear to God, that's that mark, that
(45:18):
that's the first thing.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And control.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
She's this whole parties out of control.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And I was just like, nope, I want to be
with you together. She said, give you one more chance.
I said no, I'm man, I'm locked in.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
I'm like, click, we together, were together, We.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Together, We be I swear to God, twenty years ago,
twenty years ago, I'm like, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Cool French dude. I tell you, I can't kill people
with that.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Six thousand miles away, no chance, no check.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Five eleven, built like, oh my god, I'm like hell no,
Hell to the noll nope, I said, I'm good. I wait,
I don't nobody else. That made you grow up quick.
It made me mature real fast. Instead of doing what
most guys would be like, oh, yeah, okay cool.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
I was like, no, not this one.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
I loved that she was a keeper. I would say
this a little bit of advice. Maybe the more ladies
and people should try that.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Hey, man, look here, if put the carrot out there.
If he don't take the carrot, he ain't the one. Yeah,
put the carrot out there.
Speaker 4 (46:37):
She dangled that thing in front of my face twice.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
And I was like, no, I'm good, I'm we cool.
I want you. I just want you. That's it. We
had that type of connection now, but we enjoyed being
around each other at the distance was crazy, but I
was like, man, I think.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
This is the one. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
I was right, and I thank God every day that
I was mature enough to know that stuff up.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
That's most definitely I still messed up.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
I had been in the league six years, so you
know me, I was just like, wow, it open. I'm
just like, yeah, there chilling. And I always thank god
that I had the maturity, yeah, to recognize what I
had and to not mess it up.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Yeah, because early on I was.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Trying trying to mess it.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
Man, I'm like I had to go to thera. I'm like,
but you got to.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
It's so good this podcast, Like I was just messing up. Man.
Oh my god. All right, So, uh, Mount Rushmore? Who's
on your Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 2 (47:39):
You get four picks, four people that have had some
type of influence, inspiration something in your life. Wife, coach, player,
a writer, the actor, actress, producer, EP, an executive, me, Roman, somebody.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
You up there, I'll put Artshelle up there. Loved that.
I like that.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Love that pick.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Arts Shell to me having him as a coach coming
into the league, can I can he?
Speaker 4 (48:11):
No, I'm gonna give him their own dude, so art Shill. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
But before Artshell, Ed White, Yeah. Ed White was my
offensive line coach in college. Played fifteen sixteen years in
the league. All Madden played for the Chargers, the Vikings.
I'm just like the epitome of an offensive line. I
was a defensive end. I went to college as a
defensive end and outside linebacker, and when I played scout team,
(48:41):
I red shirted. Three offensive linemen got hurt, so they
took myself, Kyle Turley and another player and moved as
a scout team O line from the defensive line.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Rom oh wow.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
And so I'm out there literally at one, two hundred
and six pounds snapping the ball, blocking Leroy Glover, every
day practice, playing tackle, guard, center, everything but holding my
own because I was a competitor. Great feet, great hands
from basketball. And that next year coaches got fired and
ed and new group came in. I went back to
(49:12):
defense and he saw some practice table. He said, damn kid,
it's two hundred pounds out here moving it offensive line.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
See he want to start next year? I said, yep,
it be my left tackle. That changed my life. That
was awesome, changed changed my life.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I started my first game in college at two hundred
and forty pounds at left tackle against Reagan Upshaw.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
Y'all remember him right? He stout a cow. He was
number one d N in the.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Nation, didn't He played for the Raiders.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
That was my first college game.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Crushed him.
Speaker 4 (49:45):
Wow his ass out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
My dad after that game was like, you might have
a future this, but that's what That's what opened that door.
So Ed White, first Art Chill, two great offensive linemen
saw something in me that maybe I didn't even see
at the time, gave me an opportunity to live the
dream and to continue the dream. So I definitely put
(50:09):
those two up there. I know this is gonna sound corny,
but I'll put my wife up there.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
It's not corn.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Because she changed my life. Like it's all it was
all funny game, my story is great and all of that.
But she helped me mature faster than I probably would
have because she was serious about it. She was like, hey,
I'm if we're gonna be together, we're not gonna play
no games right And through me not wanting to mess
(50:42):
that up, I learned how to be a better me,
a better man, was turned into a better father. And
without her, you don't get to eat from you. You
get now so and I and I'm blessed because I
get to every day I get to be around that
I get to be She's one thousand percent supportive the
(51:06):
second half of my career when I couldn't walk, couldn't hope,
Like every step of the way, every step of the
way she sacrificed her career did.
Speaker 4 (51:17):
She love to do for us?
Speaker 1 (51:20):
It was hard to be in a relationship you and
Budapest and I'm a training camp and she came to
me and it was like, look, I want to work
on us.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
I'm stop dancing.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
And I wish that never would happen because she was
so great at it, you know, and that's a piece
of her she'll never be able to get back. But
she gave that up for us, so she's definitely up there.
Chris Collins, he's a one of the most dynamic and
prolific writers in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
He was our neighbor. He was a good friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Our kids were in the same class together, and he
gave me my opportunity start writing on a television show.
He got me in the guild, the Writers Guild. It
got me insurance because you know, at a certain point
we're gonna have to find insurance. Oh yeah, all right,
so when you're coming out of pocket, you're like.
Speaker 4 (52:15):
How much it costs? What for the for everybody? And
so he was like, look, don't worry about that, because
I was telling him the story and he was just like,
I got you. Don't worry. I want you to be
a part of the show.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
It was a show called The Continental, based on the
hotel and the John Wick in the John Wick movies,
and I was like, but I'm not an assassin. He's like,
nobody in the writer's room is an assassin. I mean so,
he said, but the thing that I like about you
that nobody I don't care. He had kids from Harvard, Yale,
(52:46):
that Princeton. They all went to writing schools and graduated
in the arts. He said, the thing that they don't
have that you have is you've seen the world through
a lens nobody can see.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
I need that in the writer's room.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I need you to be able to talk to and
about things that no one has ever been able to experience.
And he gave me an opportunity to be in there
and be a part of that, and that to me
was everything because it allowed me to be.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
Where I am now.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
But it also taught me how to become a writer,
how to become a professional, how to add value and
continue to add value. Subsequently, enough, he brought me to
bel Air. He was a showrunner at the beginning of it,
and he brought me over to bell Air. Hey, I
know you're working on another project. I got something for you,
so Chris will always be up there. I got one more.
(53:44):
I mean, yeah, you can add five. I mean, yeah,
this is it only it's only it's only, it's only four.
Speaker 4 (53:51):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
I'm you know, I'm gonna add one more. That's my
brother Dion. Yeah, he's my best friend. We grew up together.
I've known since he was eleven. I lived with him
in high school. We have a company together called Hitting
Empire Film Group, the largest minority film company we have.
(54:16):
And his he got me into sports. I didn't play
any sports until high school. Okay, basketball for but I
didn't play anything until ninth grade.
Speaker 5 (54:25):
And you guys, you guys did the one show with
Mike Epps, Right, yeah, they'll meet the Blacks.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
Yep, Meet the Blacks. That was it. That was your
That was your guys.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
Meet the Blacks. Intruder fatal.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
I mean, we've done seventeen eighteen movies and he's always
been like, we can do it.
Speaker 4 (54:45):
We got we want more.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Right, So, growing up with the best friend who didn't smoke,
who didn't drink, who didn't do anything, he wanted to
go to the NBA.
Speaker 4 (54:52):
So all we did was play basketball all day. But
us laying there staring at the ceiling at eleven, twelve,
thirteen years old.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
So dreaming and wishing about all the things we wanted
to do. It all came to fruition.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
He went overseas for five years, played professional basketball, came back,
started a film company, all of those things that we
you know, I mean, I'm known for thirty six years.
Speaker 1 (55:17):
Right and without that. You know, those five people have
helped mold who I am. And that's important to give
him his due because you know, he's one of the
most dynamic directors on the planet Earth, tremendous insight in
(55:38):
this business and what it takes. He didn't have the
NFL in terms of opening doors, so he had to
open those doors himself, and he opened them wide enough
for us all to come in right start producing movies
and stuff like that years and years ago. And he
(55:59):
allowed me to step in to that space and learn
and continue to grow in that space while I was
doing other things, so that that would be my five
mount rush.
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
That's hey, you thank you so much, hot Seat. Yeah,
b I appreciate you pouring into us.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Dog.
Speaker 5 (56:15):
Hopefully we gave you some content today, blessed that you
can take back with you. I know we're going to
take some stuff back with you. I wrote down a
couple of things. Uh, I'm going to watch the list. Uh,
I need to get my wife the final draft document or.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
App good think I'm telling you the software everything.
Speaker 5 (56:31):
Definitely and uh and if you want to start writing, everybody,
you must understand the whys and the ones. Yep, that's
their basis of it all. So there it is. We
actually learned some stuff today. Ephral Man appreciated dog. Thanks
a blessing, Yes sir, yes sir. And like I always
tell everybody, man, we're out of here. Remember for all
those that are watching and our listeners to tell a friend,
(56:51):
to tell a friend, to tell a friend, we are
going to.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
I'm sorry I hit you like that. I'm excited. I
apologize about that. That did feel little physical all right,
but anyways.
Speaker 5 (57:01):
Anyway, you pick up your podcast at with us Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (57:05):
iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 5 (57:07):
Please give us a five star rating, hit the follow button,
give us a review, tell us how you feel in
ask questions. My man Thomas will all answer them for
you because we do not, So thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
We're out of here. Em salam. Thanks Doc for a blessing.
Speaker 4 (57:21):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 3 (57:22):
We out
Hosts And Creators
Charles “Peanut” Tillman
Roman Harper
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