February 17, 2016 • 49 mins
Nate Burleson is joined by NFL insider Rand Getlin to discuss Nate making a potential comeback to the NFL, preparing for the NFL Draft and Earl Thomas' tweet. They also discuss Kanye West's new album and Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Grammys.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This. Dan handles something around the NFL podcast along with
Mark cecler, Chris Wesling, and Greg Rosenthal. Ain't it. On
the latest show he uh talks franchise tag primer quarterbacks
that could stay and I could go because really, guys,
quarterback is in life? Who had position question football? So true?
Check it out on NFL dot com, Slash podcast and iTunes.
(00:23):
I'm your man named Buru. Liston and you are listening
to the R and B Podcast. Let's go yeah, oh no, no, yeah,
Well I had a long day. Now I'm really trying
to go by my lady drank sun for man on
(00:46):
the town. Dad ain't going down. See now, baby, I
got some staffs for you and also real players who
can SPISSI fast for your tea chats. Game go down.
As they analyze the winners, they might show my name
out because you bad Pommy making jumping into the show
(01:09):
all season long. Smooth like it. I like it, super
smooth said, I like that. I like that. Welcome to
the R and B Podcast. No Mike Rob today, but
we're still gonna do what we do. This is the
RMB podcast, So we got the aura. I'm in here.
(01:31):
We're joined by one of the It says rising stars.
But you, my man, I'm gonna just say one of
the realists out here, Ran Ghetling, I appreciate you joining me. Man,
we kind of go back. It's weird how we connected
here at the network, but we we really vibe on
a different level. Rand Ghetling, if you want to know
(01:51):
breaking news, anything that's going in the NFL, Man, my man,
got it. My man, you're gonna get a commission. Nate come,
I might have some doe for you. So I appreciate
you joining me for having me. Bro Hunter, appreciate it,
my man. TD dropping these beats he's sent on reference
to peace, but I gotta talk about them when they
in my background. I'm digging it. Hey listen. So coming
(02:14):
up on today's show, we're gonna talk about the off
season and whatever that includes, like what do you do
as a player, getting busy talking about rand and what
you see in athletes, how you talk to them, what
they're talking about. Um, we're gonna talk about the draft. Yeah,
these young boys, what you've seen in the past, what
(02:36):
you see now, what you see going forward. Um, we're
gonna talk about the not so glamorous side of the NFL,
D'Angelo Williams. He sent us a tweet earlier, Um, and
he's talking about how he's motivated by certain things. We're
also gonna talk about, um Earl Thomas and him having
some strong words about athletes celebrating the NFL and in
(02:59):
comparison to the n b A right. So, um, that's
what's coming up on the show. And obviously it's R
and B. So we talked music. We get pop culture popping,
Like last night, I saw Drake's dad, which is crazy. Yeah, yeah,
super mustache like, so we see the mustache like that
(03:20):
since Eddie Murphy in the eighties, like and Dennis, Hey,
Dennis is in the streets like listen, I walked up
to the spot. It was Mr. Nice Guy down here
in West Hollywood and he walked into the spot with
some bad Joe. I'm like, Yo, this is crazy. So anyways,
that's aside the point, um, But we're gonna talk music though. Yeah,
(03:42):
Kendrick Lamar his performance yea Grammy's was bananas. That's gonna say.
It's a lot of good stuff to talk about on
the heels of the Grammys, especially that Kendrick performance. Kanye
obviously have some things to say. Some people have something
to say about Kanye Taylor. Swept had some feedback. Y, Yeah,
it was interesting. He definitely he did funny got everybody's attention.
Um And as always, I gotta give my public service announcement.
(04:06):
You have to subscribe and and look for us on iTunes, Stitcher.
You gotta give us support so we can give you
everything you need to check us out on YouTube. We
got clips and we're gonna give you everything that we
want to talk about and everything that you want to hear. Um.
And I'm living bro. We live in in Los Angeles, California.
(04:28):
I know you're commuting a little bit, but you're out
here enough to see what it is like. Every day
I wake up and I gotta pinch myself. Do I
still live in this place? And I live in the
belly of the Beast right in West Hollywood, so in
the shadow of the sunset strip about it. It's a
it's a it's a very activity field area. We have
a good time, man. You know, I've got a really
(04:48):
good group of friends, solid folks. You know a lot
of people talk about Los Angeles and say it's a
superficial place, and I agree with him. But one thing
you have here in Los Angeles is because there are
so many imports, what you do is you build your
base around folks from elsewhere. So we're from the Pacific Northwest.
You know what. That's like a lot of really genuine,
down to earth, salt of the Earth type people. And
(05:08):
I tend to, you know, gravitate towards good, solid people
who got a good base. And we found a really
good group of those folks in in uh in Los Angeles.
So yeah, Man, Between good friends and UH and and
good places to go and beautiful people to see, we
have a good time. Yea. So let's talk about your
background a little bit. You talked about being from the
Pacific Northwest, uh, leaving high school, going into college, what
(05:32):
did you want to do? What did you end up doing?
And why are you here? Man? Great questions. Also, uh
So I went to high school, Jefferson High School Northeast Portland,
which was the only predominantly black area and in the
city of Portland. I was talking. Everybody listening, I'm talking
to a white man right now, just so you know
what's going on. Side note, I'm at lunch yesterday and
(05:53):
they're like, you know, what's going on y'all gonna do
the R and B podcast. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed
to have at my man ran On, I guy that
works here. Young black kids like this, your Rand. Oh
he's half black. I was like, like, like, Rand, just
he's he's with the business. He's with the business. So
(06:15):
for those who are listening, I gotta be real, you know,
working with ran here for a few weeks now in
the month, I don't know what Rand is. It's a question.
I don't know. So you clarify, that's because you got
you got the salt and pepper with the ray, with
the black crazy appreciate that's the baddest suits trying to
(06:36):
keep up with you. Okay, not so so talk about
it what we need to know. Yeah, so okay, So
this is it's an interesting discussion, and it's funny because
black folks are the only ones that ever really identify it.
Everyone else to think, oh, you know, he's a white guy.
Well I am right, I passed. But I'm an eighth black,
eighth Native American, and three quarters white, is what I
always say. So Scott's Irish, Irish, Welsh, you know all
these things. But my daddy was Yeah, that's I always say,
(06:59):
because you can't you know, it's not one thing. But
my daddy was h quarter black, quarter Cherokee, and half white.
His mother was a fourth or fifth generation share propper,
was from Georgia, and my grandfather on my dad's side
was a stowaway on a potato boat from Ireland. They
met in the South, drove up around you know, so
it's in Georgia. So they basically wanted to go around
(07:20):
the eastern seaboard because they didn't want to drive through
the Deep South because at the time and racial relationships
were not allowed. So in driving up uh around the coast,
they got caught. My grandma had to wear a hat
and pretend she was a man because you couldn't have
a black woman and a white man together at that time.
And they got caught somewhere by some folks who had
a problem with it, and the actually ended up in
(07:40):
the hospital as a result of this interaction. So that
was the world that my grandma grandfather grew up in.
My father was born in forty two. He was a
jazz musician. He played with Ornet Coleman, Jackie McClean, Miles Davis,
you know, all these different people. He was heavy, he
was like an acid bop, real jazz guy, and grew
up in Harlem and uh, and then he joined the
Uh he joined the and my pops. So it'sunny. I'll
(08:01):
show you a picture. Yeah, so it's funny. I don't
you know. I don't talk about it much, but I
went to this all black high school. Uh. You would
get a lot of things all the time. You're cute
for a white boy, you're cool for a white boy,
and really, you know what, thank you. And I didn't
feel the need to say anything. But my my folks
who had known me for a lot of years would
be like, bro, Ram's not white, like he's he's mixed,
(08:22):
and you know this vernacular we would use. But it's
not something I've ever felt need, that felt the need
to publicize for the simple fact that you know, from
my perspective, I don't identify with a single race or culture. UM,
but I do very much identify with a set of
experiences that I had in the inner city. UH. Growing
up without much, growing up on food stamps, growing up
(08:44):
with violence around me, growing up with a bunch of
folks who were going through the same struggle. Those things
really resonated with me. But I also then got I
was in foster care for a while. I got adopted
by a family when I was twenty one, but I
moved in with him when I was sixteen, and they were,
uh you know, hashtag rich. They lived in a big
house six square feet. Uh. Pops drove a drop toop Mustang,
(09:07):
Moms drove Alexis. They used to have porsches. We lived
on an acre lot with a babbling creek in the background,
you know. So it was a it's a beautiful idyllic area.
And I went from an all black high school to
an all white high school. I went from a very
poor high school with terrible test scores and academics were
atrocious to one of the best in the States. So
you have this like mishmash of experiences and it really
(09:28):
shapes who you are as shapes So so now you're
one of the the leading guys in this business. We
get these email alerts every day and what we do
at the network, and I constantly see your name on
the bottom of Breaking Man. So and we've we've talked
about this in the green room off air, and your
(09:50):
hustle is real and it's not easy. So people might
see your name and say, well, oh, Ram is just
another guy getting breaking news. No, you gotta hustle for
those facts, that information. Oh yeah, how difficult is that?
I mean to me, it's it's Uh, it's one of
the most difficult tasks in the universe the way that
I see it. As you know, ultimately information comes from
(10:11):
human beings. There's that which you can gather from stats
and statistics facts, you know, analyze it differently, and I
think I do that well too. But that stuff that,
you know, arguably anybody could do with some training. What's
very difficult to do is figure out how to get
human beings who have very valuable information to share that
information with you, as opposed to the other you know,
hundred options they have. You got Adam Schefter in my Space,
(10:32):
NFL Networks, Ian Rappaport, who's fantastic at his job. Uh.
Then you've got guys like Jay Glazer, who's a legend
in the business. Uh, You've got guys like Mike Garret
full over at Fox who's also really solid, and a
number of others. So you know, why me instead of
all of them? And that's the game. Every day You've
got to come up with what is your comparative advantage?
Why are you the one that gets to break the
news on this contract for this much money? Uh? Or yes? Yeah,
(10:56):
So here's the answer. The answer is, uh, something that
you highlighted earlier. From my perspective, I'm the realest dude
in the business to me, you know what I mean,
Like I'm I have a different set of experiences. We're not.
All of us have different things we do very well. Um,
I would argue that I'm the most uh, distinctly different
person in our space. The only person who I really
(11:16):
looked to and I say I identify with kind of
how he did things was Jay Glazer because he's always
been unabashedly himself, you know, and I really appreciate and
we're a lot different, but I've got a tremendous amount
of respect for him just for the simple fact that
he did a great job at maintaining a sense of
self throughout the process. And so, you know, I fight
(11:37):
for it, man, every day, I'm up. You know this morning,
I gotta text at four forty seven, you know, I
gotta be up. I gotta answer that with ten minutes.
So you're talking about fight for it and being up
early in the morning. Uh, it kind of helps me
segue into the next topic, the combine. He's young college players,
they gotta fight for remember, training, And I was up
(11:57):
at five am in Arizona, Scott still training, right, and
like this is my only opportunity. UM, talk about what
you see from like your point of view, your bird's
eye view on these young college players about to embark
on a journey that like most of them really don't
know what they're getting into. Yeah, so talk about it
(12:19):
from that perspective. But also I'm gonna put you on
the spot and say, give me a handful of guys
right now that you know will be game changers, yeah,
going into the next NFL season. Yeah. So the first
part of it is, you know, I got into this
business really for guys like yourself, UM, and and all
the dudes out there have been chasing their dreams for years,
because the Combine is just a culmination of all of
(12:40):
the years of effort and hardworking guys put in right,
and what I knew very well, you know when I
went to the University of Oregon. I lived with football
players my whole time there, and you see what it
is like, guys are up, you know, especially the bad ones.
Some of my friends were not as well behaved as
they should have been. So cats are up at five
thirty rolling. They had to go to the field right
and go do work to make up for things that
they missed. So you know when the when the combine
(13:01):
comes up. UM. I did this series a few years
ago when I was back at UH at Yahoo Sports,
was called Dream Chasers, and I followed Kenny Stills, Tony Jefferson,
Matt mcloin, Kyle Long, uh ken Yan Barner, and Dion
Jordan's through the process from when they leave college right.
So they're big fish, small ponds usually, and then they
come to Los Angeles where they really don't matter. You're
kind of anonymous, like nobody here actually cares because this
(13:23):
is Los Angeles, who is the city of stars. Um.
And so it's a very vulnerable time for those guys
and all they have is their work, and you watch
how they all deal with it. Some of them got
caught up in the nightlife, some of them focused on,
you know, what they were supposed to do to get
ready for the combine, and there was all kinds of
uh noise, you know, around him as they prepared for
this thing. But it was a really special experience for
(13:44):
me because I embedded myself with him for ten weeks
at a gym up the street from my spot, and
I watched these guys. I was up with him at
the crack of dawn, like you said, at five o'clock,
and I'd stay with him until five o'clock in the afternoon.
They had two days every single day speed training, you know,
corn strength training. They're doing all that, and then they're
dealing with all the stuff that's going with family. Everyone
thinks they're rich now, so you've got a bunch of
people started just try and sink their closet right, and
(14:05):
it's uh, it's just an amazing part of the process.
So as they work through it, you know, I got
to follow and we did some very special stuff with
them in terms of a mini doc series. But what
was cool about is then they get to the combine
and what they've been doing is preparing for the biggest
job interview of their life. And when you go out
there and you put your hand down and you put
your arm up and you get ready to run that
forty everything is on the line for you. That's a
lot of those guys feel especially at skill positions you know,
(14:27):
wide receivers, Incs, etcetera. And man, I'm telling you it
was at the end of it, some of these guys
are dear friends of mine to this day, Um, because
you know we we lived it together together. Yeah, so
that's that. And then, um, you know, I think some
of these players that are going to be very fascinating.
Jalen Ramsey is is an absolute monster kid out of
Forlida State. It's a guy that a lot of folks
(14:49):
are trying to frame out is a safety. But if
you talk to folks around Jalen Ramsey, um, they really
believe that he can be a shut down corner. That
this is a guy at you know, probably six to
maybe a shade taller two oh five books to twenty.
You know, he's big. I mean I stood next to him,
a big guy. I'm to fifteen six one. I stood
next to him. He man, I'm like, this guy is
(15:11):
he's the real deal. Like if he was coming down
the lane, you know, I would definitely have to fall over,
Like I'm not just gonna get banged like that. So
so anyway, he's he's a big, fast athlete, but you
watch him on film and he's got incredible ability on
the field. The instincts are crazy, his body control is crazy,
and you know, he's a guy who can run. So
I think that he's gonna be guy that really turns heads.
People know he's a top pick, but I think over
(15:33):
time they'll figure out how specially is and then there's
a handful of other guys out there that, Uh, Reggie
Raglan one of the most complete linebackers we've seen come
out in quite some time. I think that he's gonna
show out. And uh, and obviously the quarterbacks. Carson Wentz
as a guy out of North Dakota State, people should
pay real close attention to him. He started off as
a I think he's like five defensive back and now
he's like a six three pound quarterback who plays like
(15:56):
a little guy though, like I see him jumping over
people and hit spin moves and so yeah, I mean
a lot, a lot of talent and and again, um,
a lot of negativity. Right, people try and tear these
guys down, and uh. One of the other things that's
been a comparative advantage of mine and reporting processes, I
really just try and be as positive as possible, Like,
these guys are fighting for their dreams and there's enough
people trying to tear them down. I try and build
them up. Yeah, these guys are all special. I can
(16:19):
dig that, man. You know you talk about, you know
the dreams that these guys have. I remember coming out
uh two thousand three. I was a junior and Nevada
at a Nevada Reno to I remember I used to
get that work in. So I thought to myself, Okay,
I spent this whole season leading the nation. I was.
(16:40):
I was the number one receiver all years, the most
catchers and one thirty eight and people were still sleep.
They were sleep I was snoozing. So I thought to myself,
all right, well, I gotta go to this All Star game.
And I went to the East West Shrine game, and
then I gotta do this combine. I gotta do everything
I need to do to remind everybody of what I know.
(17:02):
Right I am, And I did that. Now I went
to the combine. I jumped to forty two and a half. Crazy.
My fastest time was a low for force. So I'm
thinking this is it, Like I got it. There was
a handful of receivers drafted before me. And the crazy
part about this is I was so upset when the
(17:26):
draft was going on that I fell asleep because I
was thinking to myself, and it's not a knock against
anybody went before me, because as a player, I respect
all these individuals. But I'm thinking to myself, like, I
know I'm gonna have a longer career. I know that
I'm gonna come in and make a profound impact on
any team i'm with. And Mike Tyson with the Minnesota
(17:47):
Vikers he called me on my cell phone, so I
had the old school like Samsung, and I had to
wake up out of my slumber. I'm like, but and
it was just me and my family at the house.
I didn't want to have no party at it. I
wasn't about the extra stuff. So um he was like hello.
I was like, how are you doing. He's like, this
(18:08):
is Mike Tyson with the Minnesota Vikings. We're gonna select
you in the third ramp and I said, thank you.
I appreciate it. He said, you don't sound too excited.
I said, I'm sorry, sir, I was just taking a nap.
Since you're taking a nap during the NFL Draft and
I was like, yeah, it's a long story, but I'm
happy to be there, and when I show up, I'm
going to work. And that was my experience. Now, what's
(18:31):
crazy about like how I view things. You've got guys
that get drafted in the first round and they are
automatically stamped a changer. And then you got guys that
are either drafted in a ladder rounds or free agents,
and they don't have an identity right. They have to
create that right. And that's I think that's the most
(18:54):
beautiful part about the process, is that you got a
guy that has all the pressure on him in the
first second round, and then you've got these guys that
literally will run through a brick wall just to make
the team chip on the shoulders here. And what's good
about me being in the third round is that I
fell in between. So I felt somewhat privileged that I
(19:15):
was picked, but I felt somewhat disrespected, of course. And
I think that's the like ultimate blend of like the
perfect athlete, because you're glad to be here, but you know,
you still got to prove something and that's every day,
and that's every obviously you work in the job that
you do and knowing that you just you just name
some individuals in your space that are really at what
(19:36):
they do. It's the same thing, right, oh yeah, h percent.
I mean, look, if you're not competitive, if you don't
think you're the best, like I stood up here and
told you, like, oh, you know, I'm really hoping I
can be fourth best. Like that's not You're never gonna
succeed the way that you're supposed to succeed. Right, I
want to be the best, and I believe in my
at my core, I am the best. What people don't know,
I never took a journalism class. I went to law
(19:57):
school from O six o nine, I got done. I
start to the sports consultancy to help players transition to
the NFL. How do you choose an agent, how do
you choose the c p A. How do you choose
a financial advisor? How does the twenty one year old kid,
especially from the inner city have any idea? And my
thinking was, Okay, when my homeboys were out there, you know,
practicing and given their all to football ten fifteen hours
a day, I was locking myself in the room and
(20:18):
studying so that I could be the one to help
them make that transition. So I found how quick is
the schools didn't care enough to pay for the service,
and so that died real quick. And then I was like,
oh no, what do I do? And uh? And I
fell into sports reporting. Well, I was in two thousand
and eleven, basically two thousand late two thousand ten, so
I didn't start being an NFL insider until less than
two years ago. And so for me, you know, in
(20:40):
two years, I've gone from absolutely unknown commodity in this
space to a guy who's very competitive at the highest levels.
And and for me, that's an accomplishment. Like you said, right,
so I'm a third rounder right now, like I feel good,
But I bet you I have, uh, in my mind,
the longest, most illustrious career, right And and if if
I didn't feel like that, what am I here for? What?
(21:02):
You know? What I mean, it's the same thing for players. Look,
the reason you fell asleep, I'm sure it's because you're
emotionally exhausted. It's going to that process. I know I'm great,
I know I'm great. First round goes Damn, Okay, i
know I'm great. Second round goes Man fall asleep. I mean,
it's just hard to deal with it, and you talk
about being emotionally exhausted. Uh. One of the topics we
talked about earlier in the show is getting kept by teams. Right,
(21:26):
and then before we jump to that, I gotta ask
you speaking about your playing days, you had a tweet
Instagram post. I gotta ask you. That's why I have
Radio reporter the inside so we can figure this out.
So this is a post right here with the photos
of you working out, and it reads all these rumors
floating around about my guy Megatron Calvin Johnson, my favorite
player by the way, possibly retiring. I've decided to be
(21:49):
continued plot twist. So we got the reporter and the
inside and let's get that info that I'm saying came
into her. Look in the shape they get me here
looking at the say crazy, you came at me like
the TD. I thought we was on the same page.
If you want to break news, I mean Tucker, Tucker,
he's supposed to hit me. I mean, now he's gonna
hit me with the Hey, listen, I'm gonna say this, like,
(22:12):
here's the facts. So I just started getting back into
training doing cross fit, and when I left the field,
I got released by Cleveland and I had a torn hamstring.
So for me, that was like the worst way to
leave the field. I was thinking to myself, like I
(22:32):
get it, and I adapt up Ray Farmer and Mike Patton.
I was like, yo, like I get it. Thirty three
years old, I would cut me too. I got six
weeks to heal from like severely torn hamstring. Um. But
I thought to myself, like, if I get back into shape,
I can give any team a great chance of having
(22:54):
a good receiving corps. So my healthy season was the
previous year when I broke my arm, this huge scar.
I broke my arm and had forty catches. So and
I only played eight games. Right, So me knowing myself,
I could easily play sixteen games and give you eighty
(23:14):
catches because I'm a third rounder. Of course I'm cocky.
I'm a great number two. I will be anybody's number
two and be the illis out there. So I started
working out and I'm doing CrossFit, and I'm thinking to myself, like, yeah,
I can I can get back on this field. I'm
watching twos and threes come on around. You watch the
same game as me, and I watched you play the game,
(23:35):
and you watched me played again, so, um, I can.
I can kind of solidify a lot of teams receiving corps.
But as I'm sitting there, as I'm working out and
my son, little Nate is watching me, and we just
came off the heels of him playing his football game
fl football. Who little Nate is nice? I will give
(23:57):
you the insight right now. He gets busy, So I'm like, Nate, um,
I'm about to post on Instagram that I might come back,
and him thinking like me and knowing his dad. Uh,
He's like, you should do it and see what the
responses and he understands it, gets it, and so he's like, um,
(24:17):
he's like And the crazy part about it, there was
a lightweight emotional moment where he genuinely asked me, are
you coming back? Right because at the tell him my
career he was, you know, eight nine years old, and
he got it, but he didn't really grasp it. So
(24:37):
I can tell out of eleven, he just wants to
be well aware that, like my dad's on the field.
So he was asked he said that seriously, are you
coming back? And he was asking because he wanted me
to ye of course, and I was I had to
tell him like nine, Nate, I can't do it. I
love one. I love my job that I have now,
(24:58):
But I also loved the time I get to spend
with kids because when I played, I was so far
removed from the day to day, um you know, job
of being you know, an athlete, a husband, a father.
So I would exhaust everything that I had on the field,
(25:20):
and then when I come home, I was literally a zombie,
you know, whether it was pain, pills or being frustrated,
or the criticism or the winds that losses. I was
so emotionally invested in the game that I only gave
my family. That's all you had to give, That's all
I had. So um And when I had these conversations
(25:40):
with my sons, I say, so what would you rather have?
Would you rather have me on the field or would
you rather have me right now? And they both say,
I'd rather have you right now? Because when I'm home,
I'm home, I'm cooking, talking about Steph Curry with the risk,
I mean breakface, lunch and dinner, you know, and we
get to hang out and I'm hugging and kissing, and
I'm there locked in what people don't understanding ran. You know,
(26:02):
athletes are so distracted by the show. Yeah, it is
a circus and it's emotionally at all times exhausted. And
so to answer your christ TD, no, bro, I'm not coming. Yeah,
And Rand said it early. He's like, I don't know
if you're working out, if you sure, it's too type.
(26:23):
But it's a combination of both. I happen in the
way room though, I think Tug it might to hit
you with that one. I was thinking it though, was
that h you look like you could play the game,
and cats know how physically gifted you were. Not only
physically gift, there's a lot of physically gifted guys in
the league, best athletes in the world, but you also
(26:44):
poured your heart and soul into it and you played
the game with a passion that made you successful for many,
many years. So you still you're still You're still in
the free agent pool and seven speed, I gotta I
gotta officially retire. First of all, the eighty seven is
kind of lightweight, weak. They slept on, they slept the
You're good day had Yeah, I was in there. I
got busy, I got busy, but now I enjoyed my job.
(27:06):
Man and It keeps me so close to the sport
that I love. I've been playing the sports since I
was eight, right, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm
padded like it wasn't It wasn't. It was no flag
football when I was growing up. So I had pads
on when I was eight years old, And Um, I'm
gonna love this sport to the day I die. But
right now, this is everything that I got. Yeah, I
hear you t d okay a little bit. I need
(27:30):
to take this one like je Rocket right that Dynasty
era that's far rent here. Oh, there's so many subtleties
in the back of that. There's like chimes and bails
and whistles. Hey, TV's all He's all about the He's
(27:53):
all about the drop like I like it. This is
goes TD what needs us to me once he wants
to this album? Man, that new Kanye Yo and Kanye.
(28:16):
If you think about it, it was funny we were
talking about this yesterday. You think about college dropout Kanye.
Remember the first time I heard him say mayonnaise colored bands,
I pushed miracle whips and Cat's minds were blown because
like his one liners were crazy and so you start
listening breaking down everything that he was spitting. He was
so nice bro from moment one. But you listen to
College Dropout Kanye and the Life of Pablo just dropped
(28:40):
a couple of days ago. I don't know if they're
in and look, I know that there's some elements of
this album that kind of traces his whole catalog, but
at the same time, like how different is the guy
in terms of his evolution today as opposed to what
he was then? This is Kanye through the Wire Kanye right,
had the car wreck, had his mouth wired shut, spit
a fire song literally through the wire with his mouth
(29:02):
wire shut. And now you know, he's one of the
biggest artists, one of the most transformational artists in the
history of our space. And the things that he's gone through.
I mean, we talked about as a football player, which
is crazy, but think about how much more amplified it
is for a guy like that and Grant, he does
a lot of to himself. You know, Mary, Kim Kardashian,
you're gonna get some some extra attention better, but he
(29:22):
embraces it though. Yeah, I was listening to snippets of
the album this morning, and uh, he had a comment
in there he said, me and Rey j would be
friends with That was crazy. I'm rich alright, alright, so
once again a great segue into um, what we're gonna
(29:44):
talk about next. Kanye. I feel like he's one of
the most creative artists in the business because he's fearless
and the way he takes risk and Earl Thomas recently
expressed kind of his opinion on the creativity of the
NFL or lack thereof, and how kind of they restrict
(30:06):
what we do in comparison to the NBA. NBA is
it's the show. And we all saw our pieces of
what the All Star Weekend was, you know, this past weekend,
and it reminded me of the old school days, like
that dunk contest Aaron Gordon and Zach Levine. I was
(30:26):
blown away. I loved it. And then you had Steph
Curry and Clay Thompson. It was it was like all
light skinned. He was waiting, he was waiting for keep it,
wanting it from the days back in the day, like
Michael Jordan went a dunk contest and Craig Hodges winning
three point contest. It was it was heavy, dark skinned,
(30:48):
but like this past weekend was it was the Battle
on the light Skins. But I loved it. I loved it.
So I think Earl Thomas is basically saying like, there
is a part of the NFL that is a show. Yeah,
and where do you stand on that? Because I'll share
my opinion, but you know, watching it from the outside
in what now give me? I want Rand the insider,
(31:11):
but I also want Ran the fan. Yeah, and the
curring for people that don't know the exact sweet read
the NFL shore taking notes from the NBA allow us
to express our creativity without finding us to celebrate our
players while we are still living right right. See, I
know Earl's people well and uh you know have some
unique inside on the guy. And and one of the
things we're discussing yesterday, T said it like it's one
(31:34):
of the most locked in guys in the game. TD
told the story. You know, he said something about he
was here in the off season and he starts watching film.
You know, it's the off season, remember that, and he's
breaking down film. So this is a guy that like
he lives and breeds football. So for him to come
out and basically push for the NFL to allow more creativity.
It's pretty profound, actually, And he's not even a guy
that goes out there and right is over the top,
(31:56):
but he's got the pe Jordan's right, So he goes
out there and stance and the pase. He's always got,
no question. But here's the thing I think is interesting.
So I'll give you the you know, take away, the
insider tit or whatever. I just you know, as a
human being. Um, where we work, the NFL network is
h is one of the most fantastic places I could
ever hope to be. The people are incredible, The passion
(32:16):
here is incredible. Everyone works their tails off to put
out the best product every day. But we are, you know,
in many many ways inextricably tied to the NFL proper.
And the NFL proper is for all intents and purposes
of very buttoned up enterprise, and it's very conservative in
a lot of ways, which is strange UM to me
sometimes because if you look at the base of athletes,
(32:38):
those that are the most exciting, a lot of those guys,
uh come from backgrounds more similar to ours than they
do to the folks in charge, right, And so uh, yes, exactly,
those of us who have been living in this melting pot,
growing up in this melting pot. Hip hop changed everything
for us, you know everything. I was telling you this.
My daddy was one of forty two. It wasn't until
(32:59):
six before that he was a whole human being under
the law Truly Right Civil Rights Act passing sixty four.
So my daddy was in his twenties before he was
recognized as a as a whole human being under the law. Um.
So between that time I was born in eighty two,
at the end of eighty two and today, man, how
much has the world changed? And we still had a
lot of issues to work through. Obviously we are far
from perfect as a society, but I would argue, especially
(33:22):
in more metropolitan cities. Um, you know, we really embrace diversity.
We embrace diversity of experience, culture, you know, identity and
so uh you know, for me, you look at my
friendship group, it looks like a rainbow. Real talk, you know,
I got friends that are I saw you in the
Super Bowl brow for everybody listening. We was. We was
(33:44):
in San Francisco. We was at what party there at
the Glazer party that my bad son I didn't know
he was out there. I'll walk in and it Rans
in their chilling. First of all, there's a ton of
athletes in there, like superstars, and and none of the
(34:06):
athletes got like a table. But I see Ran, he
got a table with his boys and bottles. I'm like,
it's an open bar. Why do you have bottles? Literally?
While I don't know, maybe you can answer this, so okay,
convenience cool. So I'm like, yo, Ran, what's popping? Was good?
You know? Ran, y'all gotta see Ran out and about
he swagged out. He got the fresh kicks on, so
(34:27):
he's like, what's shut? Baby? I don't know, I might
have made up that swag the voice, so, but I
think our song came on and and Ran just started swag.
He was like it was good. And his whole crew
started dancing. I'm like this choreography like they're like, oh,
were in the building and they're doing like a whole routine.
And I'm like, yo, y'all over here doing with it,
(34:49):
and I'm with the wife. I'm like, y'all gotta let me,
let me get away. I can't hang with you trouble now. Man.
That was that was a good We had a good time. Yeah,
we had a good time. I like the way he
was moving in there. You know. It's uh, it's good
to like people see me. You know, when I do
this job as an inside this is this goes into
the point, right, working for the NFL, I put on
a suit and tie in a pocket square and I
(35:10):
sit up there and have to deliver the news, right,
and I'm I have the recognition necessary to understand what
my demographic is. It's broad, but I gotta be as
buttoned up as possible in delivering news. But as a
news breaker, people don't really ask you your opinion on
stuff very often, or if they do, you gotta be
careful about what you say. But that's why I think
the RMB podcast is so dope, because it allows us
(35:33):
to be us. And I watch you and Rob do it, Uh, Mike,
Rob do it, and I'm always like, damn man, I
wish I could be a part of that because that
that's where I think you get the essence of who
we are as human beings. And for those folks that
are tuning in, I've watched the feedback online. You guys
are crushing it, you know, TD all you guys, you
guys are crushing and people love this show and there's
a reason for us because it's authentic. So you know
(35:54):
when you see me out like that, that's authentic. That's
me and my people. TD know, like, I come in
here and I'm from Seattle. I live in Arizona, but like,
I love this job and I love being in l A.
So like, I enjoy this space that I'm in being
in Los Angeles. So occasionally I come in, I'll share
a story or two and I'm like, yo, I'm having
a good time t D. I was kicking it with
(36:16):
Rand and Rand looked me in my eyes. I was like, hey, yo,
you gotta kick it with me and my boys, Like
he almost checked me. I was like yo, like and
then I looked over this dude and his dude was
sitting there like this, you gotta rock with him. I
gotta rock with you. But my man j D from
the Fort when the best friend. So he played at Oregon.
(36:37):
He was a two time all packed and safety and
we came up together. You know, we met each other
and No. Two when he was a young buck. I
was a sophomore and we came up. And then my
other man j R. Duperia, he's way up the ladder
in Adida's basketball marketing. So he's James Harden's guy, Damian
Lillard's guy. He lives with Dame, Like, so you know
these are my people I met who spits fired. Damian
(36:58):
friends we gotta do. We gotta day and Nate, we
gotta we gotta get that stuff about it. Man, this
what's up. Let's make it that. I'm right. I don't
know about the freestyle if you need to because and
this is gonna sound shaky, and I don't want him
to take this wrong way. But I wrote some bars
for Damian like a year ago, because I heard he
was an athlete that raps something like any athlete that wraps.
(37:21):
I'm going out to the head like, oh, squad, I'm
coming from the like the eighties claws. So I got
bars like everybody anybody, Oh they'll be I don't care
if you if there's a clip on you online rapping.
I got bar stots. I let him know that we
get it in. Okay, Oh you're gonna suttle with this
look he waiting for the drop. Yeah, I got that
(37:49):
outcast jazzy bells background. Uh yeah, we gotta make that happen. Yeah, battle,
we gotta do something. Yea, I was so mad, Bro,
they all went to the Yeasy show at MSG. My
(38:10):
man's was right on the floor. So it's easy. My man,
doug Ee, my man Jr. You met Dougie too. Um,
but yeah, man, it's it's uh. We live a good
life like those cats are all there. Everyone. We love
it because you know, when you bring the circle in,
what you think about is what we're trying to do. Ultimately,
I think in my mind at least is raise each
other up. We want to empower each other. We want
(38:31):
to make sure that we do everything we can to
to get ahead. And so to your point with you know,
Earl Thomas, going back to that, you know, I think
the NFL could be a lot more um open minded, uh,
in terms of celebrations, in terms of creative expression, uh,
you know, simple things like, Bro, why can't uh Mario
Williams go out there with the cold face mask? Right?
Why can't cats where the visors got? Like? Right? And
(38:54):
the reality is is because it's a it's a it's
a highly tuned, well oiled enterprise that is all the
about maximizing its bottom line. And I get that, and
I'm a free enterprise guy, and so there are two things. One,
I wish they allowed for a little bit more creativity
from a personal perspective, because I think that would make
the game, um more enriching for everyone watching. And and
(39:15):
mind you, this is the best product on the planet,
like we love it. But on the other hand, UM,
you know, you really can't argue with results, and they're
destroying it from you know, a bottom line perspective. So
you know, it's it's hard to critique a momulti billion
dollar industry. Yeah, and that's what it is. So we
we gotta do some rapid fire before we get out
(39:36):
of here. We gotta talk about the super Bowl, right,
we gotta talk about Beyonce, we gotta talk about Peyton
Man want to talk about um throwing them all out.
So I want you to jump on wherever you want
to get in. Kanye, I'm not just gonna say Kaye's tweets,
but the album I've been blown away to last twelve hour, UM,
(39:57):
Kendrick at the Grammys, which was crazy, his performance was bananas,
um disrespect to that young man. And then the duct contest.
So yeah, jump in, jump in where you see fit.
So let's do Kanye and Kendrick Okay, Kanye definitely okay,
just must see real quick conversation. Okay, but you say
(40:21):
Kanye Kenrick, it's the way you phrased it. Yeah, Um,
where's Drake fitting there? So Drake is, to me, uh,
one of the coldest entertainers in our space. Obviously we've
heard the discussion about the ghost riding, etcetera. He can spit, though,
Drake definitely spits. But what I say he's an entertainer
(40:43):
is Drake is this guy that has this incredible, uh
multi skill set that he utilizes to give us that
feel good music. I mean, when you hear Drake that
come on in the club, it's right, everyone enjoyed. And
he and so I don't care who's writing his bars.
I actually really don't care now know hip hop back
in the day, like there's a big thing you see whatever.
But Drake is out there making stupid amounts of money,
(41:07):
dating the most beautiful women in the universe and you know,
living starting on everybody. And so I'm not mad at
that man. He's he's doing it his way and and
all I want is good music. Okay, So he's wonderful.
But the reason I say Kanye and Kendrick is. Um,
both of these guys are changing the world in a
different way. Okay. Drake is not like a social movement
(41:27):
kind of guy. He's an entertainer. But Kanye and Kendrick's
a reason why he teamed up with Jordan because Jordan
isn't he isn't that right, Mike Jordan, he stays away
from right. Let's make by shoes too. That's that's right,
and is the same way he stays out of that.
Even though with the Meek battle he did throw a
(41:49):
little bit out there with charged up. He's what did
he say? He said, um, you know they killed they're
killing us with arms up, and your main objective is
to harm, right, I get it. So right, he throw
subtleties outre but it's not like his main thing where
Kendrick Kendrick. Okay, so this is where it comes in. Kanye,
I have so much respect for are you saying, Kenya?
(42:14):
I'm sorry. Kendrick is by far and away the closest
thing we've had to Tupac on terms in terms of
the biggest stage since we lost Tupac. And the reason
is it because if you think about it, you know,
uh Pac did uh what was it? A rose from
the concrete. And the idea is Kendrick is that he
grew up in Compton. So in in college, my roommates
(42:35):
and my best friends were all from the city section,
So Dorsey, Crenshaw, Dominguez, like south central Los Angeles when
you get south of super good and but like good dudes. Okay.
So I watched the Noisy bomped in piece on Kendrick
last night, and I encourage everybody who's into Kendrick's music,
or just hip hop in general, or really social issues
in general to watch this noisy bombeding piece. My man
(42:57):
Greg beef Jones is one of the producers on it,
and it's for dominal noise. He's been doing some really
good stuff in that space. So basically they did. They
went to Compton, and they went back to Centenial High
School where Kendrick went to and they talked to his teachers.
And while they were there filming, there's a big old fight.
Cops show up on campus. You know, people are running
through the back alleys and jumping over fences and here
is this reality that these people live every single day
(43:19):
and Kendrick is a representative of that. Kanye is from
the South side of Chicago. He's a little bit different.
You know, he went to college and you know, college
dropot obviously was indicative of that. And then he was
this wildly talented producer. So he's making crazy beats that
we all moved to during our college years, right, And
he was an incredibly talented artistic guy. Kendrick to me,
is a I want to use. He's a poet, he's
(43:42):
a prophet, he's a he's a social movement maker. And
so when you when you look at that performance the
other night, Um, while Kanye is a creative genius, I
think Kendrick is a creative genius, but he's also a
guy who's unabashedly committed to committed to ensuring that we
don't forge get the realities of his people, right, and
(44:03):
he also wants to save his people. So it's not
about uh, you know, increasing creativity and society. And Kanye
wants to be this guy. He creates dope shoes. I
got my easies, my moon rocks. I love him. I
put him on like he's amazing his clothes. You know,
it takes a while, but you look at her like, okay,
selling you know, homeless sweaters for for a three thousand dollars.
That's crazy, and it's all transformational, but it's different. Kendrick
(44:26):
wants us all to one acknowledge that these problems exist,
two to identify what the root of those problems is.
Three to come up with solutions for those problems. And
one of the people they interviewed in this noisy bomped
in piece was his man. I think his name was
Little l or something like that. Anyway, Uh, not his
government clearly, but he uh said, look, man, I'm a blood,
(44:47):
I'm a gang member. I have been forever. I just
got out of county, and I always supported Kendrick and
he supported me. And here's Kendrick in the backyard, one
of the biggest artists, you know, arguably one of those
in the backyard in the hood still and I have
so much respect for him because, as we discussed earlier,
like I came from a similar environment. It was a
much smaller environments a snapshot of south central Los Angeles,
(45:08):
but it was the same thing. We were poor, we
were on food stamps, we had violence, people were getting shot,
you know, all of those things. And so you know,
I very much appreciate a guy who speaks for those
people and pushes with everything that he has to ensure
that he is a representative of those people, the best
elements of them, and showing everybody it could be done.
I mean, one of the one of the most influencing
(45:30):
artists in the game in my opinion. You got Kendrick
and you got Kanye, And when you look at the two,
you got Kendrick, who he talks what he wants the
world to be, so he's he's speaking futuristically, you know,
he's trying to promote change, like he said, he is
a movement maker. And then he got Kanye, who is
(45:51):
so in the moment, so right now he says exactly
what you think and the stuff that we think. And
we say, all right, I'm not dumb enough this say
that right now because I don't want to say this.
Kanye says that. So you're listening to his album and
you say, damn, like I really I get it, Like, yeah, yeah,
you and ray J probably would be friends. You are
(46:14):
a little bit. So that like that's the two. And
I think, like what we love about hip hop is
like you know, and including Draking this conversation, you have
the entertainer who was He's one of the dopest artists out.
And then you got Kendrick who was speaking that pop language,
this is what I want the world to think. And
you got Kanya who was the voice. He's like, I'm
gonna tell you what everybody's thinking and this is what
(46:35):
we are thinking and kind and Kanye got me right
now because when he when he did his whole you
gotta listen to the kids. What was that was that
MTV the Awards when he went on his rent like
and he was like, yo, I hit, I was, I'm
high and I it's like to take the edge off
like that. I mean, he's real bro like speaking. He's
(46:57):
speaking to the veins of society. That's what it is.
But a, Ran, I appreciate you joining. It's been real. Um. Yeah,
we're gonna get it in. You know what t D.
We're gonna we're gonna change. We're gonna add a new
element to this show, all right. And the new element
is um. I mean, that's not hide the fact that
we're in l A, like this is where we work,
(47:17):
that this is what we do. So Ran, I know
you're inside it right to the nfl um and I'm
asking you because you're my boy. But I'm gonna ask
you to whether we have Mike Robin Town or not,
to be my insider too. The streets of l at you.
I'm talking about, like what's popping in the streets, what's
going on, what's the hot spots. You know, it's a
(47:40):
roller coaster ride. And occasionally we'll go out, we'll cross
passed with some labs and and we'll you know, we'll
release some photos of some hot picks we have throughout
the night. I'm asking that of you want to go
to hide, I got you. You're gonna go to E
P LP. I got you running around the city. I
was in high one time. I was like, I was like, yeah,
(48:00):
couldn't get in. The next day run was like, you
should have hit me. I'd have got you in. That's crazy.
Just invite me next time, all right? So, no, for real,
this is going to be a new part of our show.
RB Inside. We gotta make it happen. Let's get Dame.
Let's get Dame on the here. Let's do that first stuff.
Let's make it all happens all season. We got room,
let's all let's make it all happen. I did meet
Kendrick over the weekend they were doing Super Bowl weeks. Yeah,
(48:21):
no photos, just giving respect, man, So do I respect
him after that? Man? He comes off Dude, Man, dude,
it's just like it's a real dude. Really, Just what's up? Man? Hey,
we'll listen. Man. That's it for the R and B podcast. Remember,
hit us up on Twitter hashtag r A n dB.
I'm at night thirteen Burlson Ram telling your Twitter find
me on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, at rand underscore, getling, Promise
(48:45):
not to do too much stuff. You can get me fired. Yeah,
trying to keep it clean, to keep it one but
sick clean. He shout out to our production team, Producer TV,
always doing this thing, dropping beats, keeping us in line
in d'angeloug Begger, I'll see you with a small you're
trying to take your jacket off. Okay, I see all right.
To our supporters and shot Infinite. He gave us the
(49:05):
dope intro track, and we we got to release the
intro track, my voice saying from Seattle, and we got
people making us. You gotta get Jake one to do
something broke. I'm a lightweight rapper. Hey, and please remember,
you gotta subscribed on iTunes. Uh itune and uh comment,
retweet through it if you're a YouTube everything, hash, shag
(49:29):
r and B has support the movement. It's a movement.
It's a movie.
This. Dan handles something around the NFL podcast along with
Mark cecler, Chris Wesling, and Greg Rosenthal. Ain't it. On
the latest show he uh talks franchise tag primer quarterbacks
that could stay and I could go because really, guys,
quarterback is in life? Who had position question football? So true?
Check it out on NFL dot com, Slash podcast and iTunes.
(00:23):
I'm your man named Buru. Liston and you are listening
to the R and B Podcast. Let's go yeah, oh no, no, yeah,
Well I had a long day. Now I'm really trying
to go by my lady drank sun for man on
(00:46):
the town. Dad ain't going down. See now, baby, I
got some staffs for you and also real players who
can SPISSI fast for your tea chats. Game go down.
As they analyze the winners, they might show my name
out because you bad Pommy making jumping into the show
(01:09):
all season long. Smooth like it. I like it, super
smooth said, I like that. I like that. Welcome to
the R and B Podcast. No Mike Rob today, but
we're still gonna do what we do. This is the
RMB podcast, So we got the aura. I'm in here.
(01:31):
We're joined by one of the It says rising stars.
But you, my man, I'm gonna just say one of
the realists out here, Ran Ghetling, I appreciate you joining me. Man,
we kind of go back. It's weird how we connected
here at the network, but we we really vibe on
a different level. Rand Ghetling, if you want to know
(01:51):
breaking news, anything that's going in the NFL, Man, my man,
got it. My man, you're gonna get a commission. Nate come,
I might have some doe for you. So I appreciate
you joining me for having me. Bro Hunter, appreciate it,
my man. TD dropping these beats he's sent on reference
to peace, but I gotta talk about them when they
in my background. I'm digging it. Hey listen. So coming
(02:14):
up on today's show, we're gonna talk about the off
season and whatever that includes, like what do you do
as a player, getting busy talking about rand and what
you see in athletes, how you talk to them, what
they're talking about. Um, we're gonna talk about the draft. Yeah,
these young boys, what you've seen in the past, what
(02:36):
you see now, what you see going forward. Um, we're
gonna talk about the not so glamorous side of the NFL,
D'Angelo Williams. He sent us a tweet earlier, Um, and
he's talking about how he's motivated by certain things. We're
also gonna talk about, um Earl Thomas and him having
some strong words about athletes celebrating the NFL and in
(02:59):
comparison to the n b A right. So, um, that's
what's coming up on the show. And obviously it's R
and B. So we talked music. We get pop culture popping,
Like last night, I saw Drake's dad, which is crazy. Yeah, yeah,
super mustache like, so we see the mustache like that
(03:20):
since Eddie Murphy in the eighties, like and Dennis, Hey,
Dennis is in the streets like listen, I walked up
to the spot. It was Mr. Nice Guy down here
in West Hollywood and he walked into the spot with
some bad Joe. I'm like, Yo, this is crazy. So anyways,
that's aside the point, um, But we're gonna talk music though. Yeah,
(03:42):
Kendrick Lamar his performance yea Grammy's was bananas. That's gonna say.
It's a lot of good stuff to talk about on
the heels of the Grammys, especially that Kendrick performance. Kanye
obviously have some things to say. Some people have something
to say about Kanye Taylor. Swept had some feedback. Y, Yeah,
it was interesting. He definitely he did funny got everybody's attention.
Um And as always, I gotta give my public service announcement.
(04:06):
You have to subscribe and and look for us on iTunes, Stitcher.
You gotta give us support so we can give you
everything you need to check us out on YouTube. We
got clips and we're gonna give you everything that we
want to talk about and everything that you want to hear. Um.
And I'm living bro. We live in in Los Angeles, California.
(04:28):
I know you're commuting a little bit, but you're out
here enough to see what it is like. Every day
I wake up and I gotta pinch myself. Do I
still live in this place? And I live in the
belly of the Beast right in West Hollywood, so in
the shadow of the sunset strip about it. It's a
it's a it's a very activity field area. We have
a good time, man. You know, I've got a really
(04:48):
good group of friends, solid folks. You know a lot
of people talk about Los Angeles and say it's a
superficial place, and I agree with him. But one thing
you have here in Los Angeles is because there are
so many imports, what you do is you build your
base around folks from elsewhere. So we're from the Pacific Northwest.
You know what. That's like a lot of really genuine,
down to earth, salt of the Earth type people. And
(05:08):
I tend to, you know, gravitate towards good, solid people
who got a good base. And we found a really
good group of those folks in in uh in Los Angeles.
So yeah, Man, Between good friends and UH and and
good places to go and beautiful people to see, we
have a good time. Yea. So let's talk about your
background a little bit. You talked about being from the
Pacific Northwest, uh, leaving high school, going into college, what
(05:32):
did you want to do? What did you end up doing?
And why are you here? Man? Great questions. Also, uh
So I went to high school, Jefferson High School Northeast Portland,
which was the only predominantly black area and in the
city of Portland. I was talking. Everybody listening, I'm talking
to a white man right now, just so you know
what's going on. Side note, I'm at lunch yesterday and
(05:53):
they're like, you know, what's going on y'all gonna do
the R and B podcast. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed
to have at my man ran On, I guy that
works here. Young black kids like this, your Rand. Oh
he's half black. I was like, like, like, Rand, just
he's he's with the business. He's with the business. So
(06:15):
for those who are listening, I gotta be real, you know,
working with ran here for a few weeks now in
the month, I don't know what Rand is. It's a question.
I don't know. So you clarify, that's because you got
you got the salt and pepper with the ray, with
the black crazy appreciate that's the baddest suits trying to
(06:36):
keep up with you. Okay, not so so talk about
it what we need to know. Yeah, so okay, So
this is it's an interesting discussion, and it's funny because
black folks are the only ones that ever really identify it.
Everyone else to think, oh, you know, he's a white guy.
Well I am right, I passed. But I'm an eighth black,
eighth Native American, and three quarters white, is what I
always say. So Scott's Irish, Irish, Welsh, you know all
these things. But my daddy was Yeah, that's I always say,
(06:59):
because you can't you know, it's not one thing. But
my daddy was h quarter black, quarter Cherokee, and half white.
His mother was a fourth or fifth generation share propper,
was from Georgia, and my grandfather on my dad's side
was a stowaway on a potato boat from Ireland. They
met in the South, drove up around you know, so
it's in Georgia. So they basically wanted to go around
(07:20):
the eastern seaboard because they didn't want to drive through
the Deep South because at the time and racial relationships
were not allowed. So in driving up uh around the coast,
they got caught. My grandma had to wear a hat
and pretend she was a man because you couldn't have
a black woman and a white man together at that time.
And they got caught somewhere by some folks who had
a problem with it, and the actually ended up in
(07:40):
the hospital as a result of this interaction. So that
was the world that my grandma grandfather grew up in.
My father was born in forty two. He was a
jazz musician. He played with Ornet Coleman, Jackie McClean, Miles Davis,
you know, all these different people. He was heavy, he
was like an acid bop, real jazz guy, and grew
up in Harlem and uh, and then he joined the
Uh he joined the and my pops. So it'sunny. I'll
(08:01):
show you a picture. Yeah, so it's funny. I don't
you know. I don't talk about it much, but I
went to this all black high school. Uh. You would
get a lot of things all the time. You're cute
for a white boy, you're cool for a white boy,
and really, you know what, thank you. And I didn't
feel the need to say anything. But my my folks
who had known me for a lot of years would
be like, bro, Ram's not white, like he's he's mixed,
(08:22):
and you know this vernacular we would use. But it's
not something I've ever felt need, that felt the need
to publicize for the simple fact that you know, from
my perspective, I don't identify with a single race or culture. UM,
but I do very much identify with a set of
experiences that I had in the inner city. UH. Growing
up without much, growing up on food stamps, growing up
(08:44):
with violence around me, growing up with a bunch of
folks who were going through the same struggle. Those things
really resonated with me. But I also then got I
was in foster care for a while. I got adopted
by a family when I was twenty one, but I
moved in with him when I was sixteen, and they were,
uh you know, hashtag rich. They lived in a big
house six square feet. Uh. Pops drove a drop toop Mustang,
(09:07):
Moms drove Alexis. They used to have porsches. We lived
on an acre lot with a babbling creek in the background,
you know. So it was a it's a beautiful idyllic area.
And I went from an all black high school to
an all white high school. I went from a very
poor high school with terrible test scores and academics were
atrocious to one of the best in the States. So
you have this like mishmash of experiences and it really
(09:28):
shapes who you are as shapes So so now you're
one of the the leading guys in this business. We
get these email alerts every day and what we do
at the network, and I constantly see your name on
the bottom of Breaking Man. So and we've we've talked
about this in the green room off air, and your
(09:50):
hustle is real and it's not easy. So people might
see your name and say, well, oh, Ram is just
another guy getting breaking news. No, you gotta hustle for
those facts, that information. Oh yeah, how difficult is that?
I mean to me, it's it's Uh, it's one of
the most difficult tasks in the universe the way that
I see it. As you know, ultimately information comes from
(10:11):
human beings. There's that which you can gather from stats
and statistics facts, you know, analyze it differently, and I
think I do that well too. But that stuff that,
you know, arguably anybody could do with some training. What's
very difficult to do is figure out how to get
human beings who have very valuable information to share that
information with you, as opposed to the other you know,
hundred options they have. You got Adam Schefter in my Space,
(10:32):
NFL Networks, Ian Rappaport, who's fantastic at his job. Uh.
Then you've got guys like Jay Glazer, who's a legend
in the business. Uh, You've got guys like Mike Garret
full over at Fox who's also really solid, and a
number of others. So you know, why me instead of
all of them? And that's the game. Every day You've
got to come up with what is your comparative advantage?
Why are you the one that gets to break the
news on this contract for this much money? Uh? Or yes? Yeah,
(10:56):
So here's the answer. The answer is, uh, something that
you highlighted earlier. From my perspective, I'm the realest dude
in the business to me, you know what I mean,
Like I'm I have a different set of experiences. We're not.
All of us have different things we do very well. Um,
I would argue that I'm the most uh, distinctly different
person in our space. The only person who I really
(11:16):
looked to and I say I identify with kind of
how he did things was Jay Glazer because he's always
been unabashedly himself, you know, and I really appreciate and
we're a lot different, but I've got a tremendous amount
of respect for him just for the simple fact that
he did a great job at maintaining a sense of
self throughout the process. And so, you know, I fight
(11:37):
for it, man, every day, I'm up. You know this morning,
I gotta text at four forty seven, you know, I
gotta be up. I gotta answer that with ten minutes.
So you're talking about fight for it and being up
early in the morning. Uh, it kind of helps me
segue into the next topic, the combine. He's young college players,
they gotta fight for remember, training, And I was up
(11:57):
at five am in Arizona, Scott still training, right, and
like this is my only opportunity. UM, talk about what
you see from like your point of view, your bird's
eye view on these young college players about to embark
on a journey that like most of them really don't
know what they're getting into. Yeah, so talk about it
(12:19):
from that perspective. But also I'm gonna put you on
the spot and say, give me a handful of guys
right now that you know will be game changers, yeah,
going into the next NFL season. Yeah. So the first
part of it is, you know, I got into this
business really for guys like yourself, UM, and and all
the dudes out there have been chasing their dreams for years,
because the Combine is just a culmination of all of
(12:40):
the years of effort and hardworking guys put in right,
and what I knew very well, you know when I
went to the University of Oregon. I lived with football
players my whole time there, and you see what it
is like, guys are up, you know, especially the bad ones.
Some of my friends were not as well behaved as
they should have been. So cats are up at five
thirty rolling. They had to go to the field right
and go do work to make up for things that
they missed. So you know when the when the combine
(13:01):
comes up. UM. I did this series a few years
ago when I was back at UH at Yahoo Sports,
was called Dream Chasers, and I followed Kenny Stills, Tony Jefferson,
Matt mcloin, Kyle Long, uh ken Yan Barner, and Dion
Jordan's through the process from when they leave college right.
So they're big fish, small ponds usually, and then they
come to Los Angeles where they really don't matter. You're
kind of anonymous, like nobody here actually cares because this
(13:23):
is Los Angeles, who is the city of stars. Um.
And so it's a very vulnerable time for those guys
and all they have is their work, and you watch
how they all deal with it. Some of them got
caught up in the nightlife, some of them focused on,
you know, what they were supposed to do to get
ready for the combine, and there was all kinds of
uh noise, you know, around him as they prepared for
this thing. But it was a really special experience for
(13:44):
me because I embedded myself with him for ten weeks
at a gym up the street from my spot, and
I watched these guys. I was up with him at
the crack of dawn, like you said, at five o'clock,
and I'd stay with him until five o'clock in the afternoon.
They had two days every single day speed training, you know,
corn strength training. They're doing all that, and then they're
dealing with all the stuff that's going with family. Everyone
thinks they're rich now, so you've got a bunch of
people started just try and sink their closet right, and
(14:05):
it's uh, it's just an amazing part of the process.
So as they work through it, you know, I got
to follow and we did some very special stuff with
them in terms of a mini doc series. But what
was cool about is then they get to the combine
and what they've been doing is preparing for the biggest
job interview of their life. And when you go out
there and you put your hand down and you put
your arm up and you get ready to run that
forty everything is on the line for you. That's a
lot of those guys feel especially at skill positions you know,
(14:27):
wide receivers, Incs, etcetera. And man, I'm telling you it
was at the end of it, some of these guys
are dear friends of mine to this day, Um, because
you know we we lived it together together. Yeah, so
that's that. And then, um, you know, I think some
of these players that are going to be very fascinating.
Jalen Ramsey is is an absolute monster kid out of
Forlida State. It's a guy that a lot of folks
(14:49):
are trying to frame out is a safety. But if
you talk to folks around Jalen Ramsey, um, they really
believe that he can be a shut down corner. That
this is a guy at you know, probably six to
maybe a shade taller two oh five books to twenty.
You know, he's big. I mean I stood next to him,
a big guy. I'm to fifteen six one. I stood
next to him. He man, I'm like, this guy is
(15:11):
he's the real deal. Like if he was coming down
the lane, you know, I would definitely have to fall over,
Like I'm not just gonna get banged like that. So
so anyway, he's he's a big, fast athlete, but you
watch him on film and he's got incredible ability on
the field. The instincts are crazy, his body control is crazy,
and you know, he's a guy who can run. So
I think that he's gonna be guy that really turns heads.
People know he's a top pick, but I think over
(15:33):
time they'll figure out how specially is and then there's
a handful of other guys out there that, Uh, Reggie
Raglan one of the most complete linebackers we've seen come
out in quite some time. I think that he's gonna
show out. And uh, and obviously the quarterbacks. Carson Wentz
as a guy out of North Dakota State, people should
pay real close attention to him. He started off as
a I think he's like five defensive back and now
he's like a six three pound quarterback who plays like
(15:56):
a little guy though, like I see him jumping over
people and hit spin moves and so yeah, I mean
a lot, a lot of talent and and again, um,
a lot of negativity. Right, people try and tear these
guys down, and uh. One of the other things that's
been a comparative advantage of mine and reporting processes, I
really just try and be as positive as possible, Like,
these guys are fighting for their dreams and there's enough
people trying to tear them down. I try and build
them up. Yeah, these guys are all special. I can
(16:19):
dig that, man. You know you talk about, you know
the dreams that these guys have. I remember coming out
uh two thousand three. I was a junior and Nevada
at a Nevada Reno to I remember I used to
get that work in. So I thought to myself, Okay,
I spent this whole season leading the nation. I was.
(16:40):
I was the number one receiver all years, the most
catchers and one thirty eight and people were still sleep.
They were sleep I was snoozing. So I thought to myself,
all right, well, I gotta go to this All Star game.
And I went to the East West Shrine game, and
then I gotta do this combine. I gotta do everything
I need to do to remind everybody of what I know.
(17:02):
Right I am, And I did that. Now I went
to the combine. I jumped to forty two and a half. Crazy.
My fastest time was a low for force. So I'm
thinking this is it, Like I got it. There was
a handful of receivers drafted before me. And the crazy
part about this is I was so upset when the
(17:26):
draft was going on that I fell asleep because I
was thinking to myself, and it's not a knock against
anybody went before me, because as a player, I respect
all these individuals. But I'm thinking to myself, like, I
know I'm gonna have a longer career. I know that
I'm gonna come in and make a profound impact on
any team i'm with. And Mike Tyson with the Minnesota
(17:47):
Vikers he called me on my cell phone, so I
had the old school like Samsung, and I had to
wake up out of my slumber. I'm like, but and
it was just me and my family at the house.
I didn't want to have no party at it. I
wasn't about the extra stuff. So um he was like hello.
I was like, how are you doing. He's like, this
(18:08):
is Mike Tyson with the Minnesota Vikings. We're gonna select
you in the third ramp and I said, thank you.
I appreciate it. He said, you don't sound too excited.
I said, I'm sorry, sir, I was just taking a nap.
Since you're taking a nap during the NFL Draft and
I was like, yeah, it's a long story, but I'm
happy to be there, and when I show up, I'm
going to work. And that was my experience. Now, what's
(18:31):
crazy about like how I view things. You've got guys
that get drafted in the first round and they are
automatically stamped a changer. And then you got guys that
are either drafted in a ladder rounds or free agents,
and they don't have an identity right. They have to
create that right. And that's I think that's the most
(18:54):
beautiful part about the process, is that you got a
guy that has all the pressure on him in the
first second round, and then you've got these guys that
literally will run through a brick wall just to make
the team chip on the shoulders here. And what's good
about me being in the third round is that I
fell in between. So I felt somewhat privileged that I
(19:15):
was picked, but I felt somewhat disrespected, of course. And
I think that's the like ultimate blend of like the
perfect athlete, because you're glad to be here, but you know,
you still got to prove something and that's every day,
and that's every obviously you work in the job that
you do and knowing that you just you just name
some individuals in your space that are really at what
(19:36):
they do. It's the same thing, right, oh yeah, h percent.
I mean, look, if you're not competitive, if you don't
think you're the best, like I stood up here and
told you, like, oh, you know, I'm really hoping I
can be fourth best. Like that's not You're never gonna
succeed the way that you're supposed to succeed. Right, I
want to be the best, and I believe in my
at my core, I am the best. What people don't know,
I never took a journalism class. I went to law
(19:57):
school from O six o nine, I got done. I
start to the sports consultancy to help players transition to
the NFL. How do you choose an agent, how do
you choose the c p A. How do you choose
a financial advisor? How does the twenty one year old kid,
especially from the inner city have any idea? And my
thinking was, Okay, when my homeboys were out there, you know,
practicing and given their all to football ten fifteen hours
a day, I was locking myself in the room and
(20:18):
studying so that I could be the one to help
them make that transition. So I found how quick is
the schools didn't care enough to pay for the service,
and so that died real quick. And then I was like,
oh no, what do I do? And uh? And I
fell into sports reporting. Well, I was in two thousand
and eleven, basically two thousand late two thousand ten, so
I didn't start being an NFL insider until less than
two years ago. And so for me, you know, in
(20:40):
two years, I've gone from absolutely unknown commodity in this
space to a guy who's very competitive at the highest levels.
And and for me, that's an accomplishment. Like you said, right,
so I'm a third rounder right now, like I feel good,
But I bet you I have, uh, in my mind,
the longest, most illustrious career, right And and if if
I didn't feel like that, what am I here for? What?
(21:02):
You know? What I mean, it's the same thing for players. Look,
the reason you fell asleep, I'm sure it's because you're
emotionally exhausted. It's going to that process. I know I'm great,
I know I'm great. First round goes Damn, Okay, i
know I'm great. Second round goes Man fall asleep. I mean,
it's just hard to deal with it, and you talk
about being emotionally exhausted. Uh. One of the topics we
talked about earlier in the show is getting kept by teams. Right,
(21:26):
and then before we jump to that, I gotta ask
you speaking about your playing days, you had a tweet
Instagram post. I gotta ask you. That's why I have
Radio reporter the inside so we can figure this out.
So this is a post right here with the photos
of you working out, and it reads all these rumors
floating around about my guy Megatron Calvin Johnson, my favorite
player by the way, possibly retiring. I've decided to be
(21:49):
continued plot twist. So we got the reporter and the
inside and let's get that info that I'm saying came
into her. Look in the shape they get me here
looking at the say crazy, you came at me like
the TD. I thought we was on the same page.
If you want to break news, I mean Tucker, Tucker,
he's supposed to hit me. I mean, now he's gonna
hit me with the Hey, listen, I'm gonna say this, like,
(22:12):
here's the facts. So I just started getting back into
training doing cross fit, and when I left the field,
I got released by Cleveland and I had a torn hamstring.
So for me, that was like the worst way to
leave the field. I was thinking to myself, like I
(22:32):
get it, and I adapt up Ray Farmer and Mike Patton.
I was like, yo, like I get it. Thirty three
years old, I would cut me too. I got six
weeks to heal from like severely torn hamstring. Um. But
I thought to myself, like, if I get back into shape,
I can give any team a great chance of having
(22:54):
a good receiving corps. So my healthy season was the
previous year when I broke my arm, this huge scar.
I broke my arm and had forty catches. So and
I only played eight games. Right, So me knowing myself,
I could easily play sixteen games and give you eighty
(23:14):
catches because I'm a third rounder. Of course I'm cocky.
I'm a great number two. I will be anybody's number
two and be the illis out there. So I started
working out and I'm doing CrossFit, and I'm thinking to myself, like, yeah,
I can I can get back on this field. I'm
watching twos and threes come on around. You watch the
same game as me, and I watched you play the game,
(23:35):
and you watched me played again, so, um, I can.
I can kind of solidify a lot of teams receiving corps.
But as I'm sitting there, as I'm working out and
my son, little Nate is watching me, and we just
came off the heels of him playing his football game
fl football. Who little Nate is nice? I will give
(23:57):
you the insight right now. He gets busy, So I'm like, Nate, um,
I'm about to post on Instagram that I might come back,
and him thinking like me and knowing his dad. Uh,
He's like, you should do it and see what the
responses and he understands it, gets it, and so he's like, um,
(24:17):
he's like And the crazy part about it, there was
a lightweight emotional moment where he genuinely asked me, are
you coming back? Right because at the tell him my
career he was, you know, eight nine years old, and
he got it, but he didn't really grasp it. So
(24:37):
I can tell out of eleven, he just wants to
be well aware that, like my dad's on the field.
So he was asked he said that seriously, are you
coming back? And he was asking because he wanted me
to ye of course, and I was I had to
tell him like nine, Nate, I can't do it. I
love one. I love my job that I have now,
(24:58):
But I also loved the time I get to spend
with kids because when I played, I was so far
removed from the day to day, um you know, job
of being you know, an athlete, a husband, a father.
So I would exhaust everything that I had on the field,
(25:20):
and then when I come home, I was literally a zombie,
you know, whether it was pain, pills or being frustrated,
or the criticism or the winds that losses. I was
so emotionally invested in the game that I only gave
my family. That's all you had to give, That's all
I had. So um And when I had these conversations
(25:40):
with my sons, I say, so what would you rather have?
Would you rather have me on the field or would
you rather have me right now? And they both say,
I'd rather have you right now? Because when I'm home,
I'm home, I'm cooking, talking about Steph Curry with the risk,
I mean breakface, lunch and dinner, you know, and we
get to hang out and I'm hugging and kissing, and
I'm there locked in what people don't understanding ran. You know,
(26:02):
athletes are so distracted by the show. Yeah, it is
a circus and it's emotionally at all times exhausted. And
so to answer your christ TD, no, bro, I'm not coming. Yeah,
And Rand said it early. He's like, I don't know
if you're working out, if you sure, it's too type.
(26:23):
But it's a combination of both. I happen in the
way room though, I think Tug it might to hit
you with that one. I was thinking it though, was
that h you look like you could play the game,
and cats know how physically gifted you were. Not only
physically gift, there's a lot of physically gifted guys in
the league, best athletes in the world, but you also
(26:44):
poured your heart and soul into it and you played
the game with a passion that made you successful for many,
many years. So you still you're still You're still in
the free agent pool and seven speed, I gotta I
gotta officially retire. First of all, the eighty seven is
kind of lightweight, weak. They slept on, they slept the
You're good day had Yeah, I was in there. I
got busy, I got busy, but now I enjoyed my job.
(27:06):
Man and It keeps me so close to the sport
that I love. I've been playing the sports since I
was eight, right, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm
padded like it wasn't It wasn't. It was no flag
football when I was growing up. So I had pads
on when I was eight years old, And Um, I'm
gonna love this sport to the day I die. But
right now, this is everything that I got. Yeah, I
hear you t d okay a little bit. I need
(27:30):
to take this one like je Rocket right that Dynasty
era that's far rent here. Oh, there's so many subtleties
in the back of that. There's like chimes and bails
and whistles. Hey, TV's all He's all about the He's
(27:53):
all about the drop like I like it. This is
goes TD what needs us to me once he wants
to this album? Man, that new Kanye Yo and Kanye.
(28:16):
If you think about it, it was funny we were
talking about this yesterday. You think about college dropout Kanye.
Remember the first time I heard him say mayonnaise colored bands,
I pushed miracle whips and Cat's minds were blown because
like his one liners were crazy and so you start
listening breaking down everything that he was spitting. He was
so nice bro from moment one. But you listen to
College Dropout Kanye and the Life of Pablo just dropped
(28:40):
a couple of days ago. I don't know if they're
in and look, I know that there's some elements of
this album that kind of traces his whole catalog, but
at the same time, like how different is the guy
in terms of his evolution today as opposed to what
he was then? This is Kanye through the Wire Kanye right,
had the car wreck, had his mouth wired shut, spit
a fire song literally through the wire with his mouth
(29:02):
wire shut. And now you know, he's one of the
biggest artists, one of the most transformational artists in the
history of our space. And the things that he's gone through.
I mean, we talked about as a football player, which
is crazy, but think about how much more amplified it
is for a guy like that and Grant, he does
a lot of to himself. You know, Mary, Kim Kardashian,
you're gonna get some some extra attention better, but he
(29:22):
embraces it though. Yeah, I was listening to snippets of
the album this morning, and uh, he had a comment
in there he said, me and Rey j would be
friends with That was crazy. I'm rich alright, alright, so
once again a great segue into um, what we're gonna
(29:44):
talk about next. Kanye. I feel like he's one of
the most creative artists in the business because he's fearless
and the way he takes risk and Earl Thomas recently
expressed kind of his opinion on the creativity of the
NFL or lack thereof, and how kind of they restrict
(30:06):
what we do in comparison to the NBA. NBA is
it's the show. And we all saw our pieces of
what the All Star Weekend was, you know, this past weekend,
and it reminded me of the old school days, like
that dunk contest Aaron Gordon and Zach Levine. I was
(30:26):
blown away. I loved it. And then you had Steph
Curry and Clay Thompson. It was it was like all
light skinned. He was waiting, he was waiting for keep it,
wanting it from the days back in the day, like
Michael Jordan went a dunk contest and Craig Hodges winning
three point contest. It was it was heavy, dark skinned,
(30:48):
but like this past weekend was it was the Battle
on the light Skins. But I loved it. I loved it.
So I think Earl Thomas is basically saying like, there
is a part of the NFL that is a show. Yeah,
and where do you stand on that? Because I'll share
my opinion, but you know, watching it from the outside
in what now give me? I want Rand the insider,
(31:11):
but I also want Ran the fan. Yeah, and the
curring for people that don't know the exact sweet read
the NFL shore taking notes from the NBA allow us
to express our creativity without finding us to celebrate our
players while we are still living right right. See, I
know Earl's people well and uh you know have some
unique inside on the guy. And and one of the
things we're discussing yesterday, T said it like it's one
(31:34):
of the most locked in guys in the game. TD
told the story. You know, he said something about he
was here in the off season and he starts watching film.
You know, it's the off season, remember that, and he's
breaking down film. So this is a guy that like
he lives and breeds football. So for him to come
out and basically push for the NFL to allow more creativity.
It's pretty profound, actually, And he's not even a guy
that goes out there and right is over the top,
(31:56):
but he's got the pe Jordan's right, So he goes
out there and stance and the pase. He's always got,
no question. But here's the thing I think is interesting.
So I'll give you the you know, take away, the
insider tit or whatever. I just you know, as a
human being. Um, where we work, the NFL network is
h is one of the most fantastic places I could
ever hope to be. The people are incredible, The passion
(32:16):
here is incredible. Everyone works their tails off to put
out the best product every day. But we are, you know,
in many many ways inextricably tied to the NFL proper.
And the NFL proper is for all intents and purposes
of very buttoned up enterprise, and it's very conservative in
a lot of ways, which is strange UM to me
sometimes because if you look at the base of athletes,
(32:38):
those that are the most exciting, a lot of those guys,
uh come from backgrounds more similar to ours than they
do to the folks in charge, right, And so uh, yes, exactly,
those of us who have been living in this melting pot,
growing up in this melting pot. Hip hop changed everything
for us, you know everything. I was telling you this.
My daddy was one of forty two. It wasn't until
(32:59):
six before that he was a whole human being under
the law Truly Right Civil Rights Act passing sixty four.
So my daddy was in his twenties before he was
recognized as a as a whole human being under the law. Um.
So between that time I was born in eighty two,
at the end of eighty two and today, man, how
much has the world changed? And we still had a
lot of issues to work through. Obviously we are far
from perfect as a society, but I would argue, especially
(33:22):
in more metropolitan cities. Um, you know, we really embrace diversity.
We embrace diversity of experience, culture, you know, identity and
so uh you know, for me, you look at my
friendship group, it looks like a rainbow. Real talk, you know,
I got friends that are I saw you in the
Super Bowl brow for everybody listening. We was. We was
(33:44):
in San Francisco. We was at what party there at
the Glazer party that my bad son I didn't know
he was out there. I'll walk in and it Rans
in their chilling. First of all, there's a ton of
athletes in there, like superstars, and and none of the
(34:06):
athletes got like a table. But I see Ran, he
got a table with his boys and bottles. I'm like,
it's an open bar. Why do you have bottles? Literally?
While I don't know, maybe you can answer this, so okay,
convenience cool. So I'm like, yo, Ran, what's popping? Was good?
You know? Ran, y'all gotta see Ran out and about
he swagged out. He got the fresh kicks on, so
(34:27):
he's like, what's shut? Baby? I don't know, I might
have made up that swag the voice, so, but I
think our song came on and and Ran just started swag.
He was like it was good. And his whole crew
started dancing. I'm like this choreography like they're like, oh,
were in the building and they're doing like a whole routine.
And I'm like, yo, y'all over here doing with it,
(34:49):
and I'm with the wife. I'm like, y'all gotta let me,
let me get away. I can't hang with you trouble now. Man.
That was that was a good We had a good time. Yeah,
we had a good time. I like the way he
was moving in there. You know. It's uh, it's good
to like people see me. You know, when I do
this job as an inside this is this goes into
the point, right, working for the NFL, I put on
a suit and tie in a pocket square and I
(35:10):
sit up there and have to deliver the news, right,
and I'm I have the recognition necessary to understand what
my demographic is. It's broad, but I gotta be as
buttoned up as possible in delivering news. But as a
news breaker, people don't really ask you your opinion on
stuff very often, or if they do, you gotta be
careful about what you say. But that's why I think
the RMB podcast is so dope, because it allows us
(35:33):
to be us. And I watch you and Rob do it, Uh, Mike,
Rob do it, and I'm always like, damn man, I
wish I could be a part of that because that
that's where I think you get the essence of who
we are as human beings. And for those folks that
are tuning in, I've watched the feedback online. You guys
are crushing it, you know, TD all you guys, you
guys are crushing and people love this show and there's
a reason for us because it's authentic. So you know
(35:54):
when you see me out like that, that's authentic. That's
me and my people. TD know, like, I come in
here and I'm from Seattle. I live in Arizona, but like,
I love this job and I love being in l A.
So like, I enjoy this space that I'm in being
in Los Angeles. So occasionally I come in, I'll share
a story or two and I'm like, yo, I'm having
a good time t D. I was kicking it with
(36:16):
Rand and Rand looked me in my eyes. I was like, hey, yo,
you gotta kick it with me and my boys, Like
he almost checked me. I was like yo, like and
then I looked over this dude and his dude was
sitting there like this, you gotta rock with him. I
gotta rock with you. But my man j D from
the Fort when the best friend. So he played at Oregon.
(36:37):
He was a two time all packed and safety and
we came up together. You know, we met each other
and No. Two when he was a young buck. I
was a sophomore and we came up. And then my
other man j R. Duperia, he's way up the ladder
in Adida's basketball marketing. So he's James Harden's guy, Damian
Lillard's guy. He lives with Dame, Like, so you know
these are my people I met who spits fired. Damian
(36:58):
friends we gotta do. We gotta day and Nate, we
gotta we gotta get that stuff about it. Man, this
what's up. Let's make it that. I'm right. I don't
know about the freestyle if you need to because and
this is gonna sound shaky, and I don't want him
to take this wrong way. But I wrote some bars
for Damian like a year ago, because I heard he
was an athlete that raps something like any athlete that wraps.
(37:21):
I'm going out to the head like, oh, squad, I'm
coming from the like the eighties claws. So I got
bars like everybody anybody, Oh they'll be I don't care
if you if there's a clip on you online rapping.
I got bar stots. I let him know that we
get it in. Okay, Oh you're gonna suttle with this
look he waiting for the drop. Yeah, I got that
(37:49):
outcast jazzy bells background. Uh yeah, we gotta make that happen. Yeah, battle,
we gotta do something. Yea, I was so mad, Bro,
they all went to the Yeasy show at MSG. My
(38:10):
man's was right on the floor. So it's easy. My man,
doug Ee, my man Jr. You met Dougie too. Um,
but yeah, man, it's it's uh. We live a good
life like those cats are all there. Everyone. We love
it because you know, when you bring the circle in,
what you think about is what we're trying to do. Ultimately,
I think in my mind at least is raise each
other up. We want to empower each other. We want
(38:31):
to make sure that we do everything we can to
to get ahead. And so to your point with you know,
Earl Thomas, going back to that, you know, I think
the NFL could be a lot more um open minded, uh,
in terms of celebrations, in terms of creative expression, uh,
you know, simple things like, Bro, why can't uh Mario
Williams go out there with the cold face mask? Right?
Why can't cats where the visors got? Like? Right? And
(38:54):
the reality is is because it's a it's a it's
a highly tuned, well oiled enterprise that is all the
about maximizing its bottom line. And I get that, and
I'm a free enterprise guy, and so there are two things. One,
I wish they allowed for a little bit more creativity
from a personal perspective, because I think that would make
the game, um more enriching for everyone watching. And and
(39:15):
mind you, this is the best product on the planet,
like we love it. But on the other hand, UM,
you know, you really can't argue with results, and they're
destroying it from you know, a bottom line perspective. So
you know, it's it's hard to critique a momulti billion
dollar industry. Yeah, and that's what it is. So we
we gotta do some rapid fire before we get out
(39:36):
of here. We gotta talk about the super Bowl, right,
we gotta talk about Beyonce, we gotta talk about Peyton
Man want to talk about um throwing them all out.
So I want you to jump on wherever you want
to get in. Kanye, I'm not just gonna say Kaye's tweets,
but the album I've been blown away to last twelve hour, UM,
(39:57):
Kendrick at the Grammys, which was crazy, his performance was bananas,
um disrespect to that young man. And then the duct contest.
So yeah, jump in, jump in where you see fit.
So let's do Kanye and Kendrick Okay, Kanye definitely okay,
just must see real quick conversation. Okay, but you say
(40:21):
Kanye Kenrick, it's the way you phrased it. Yeah, Um,
where's Drake fitting there? So Drake is, to me, uh,
one of the coldest entertainers in our space. Obviously we've
heard the discussion about the ghost riding, etcetera. He can spit, though,
Drake definitely spits. But what I say he's an entertainer
(40:43):
is Drake is this guy that has this incredible, uh
multi skill set that he utilizes to give us that
feel good music. I mean, when you hear Drake that
come on in the club, it's right, everyone enjoyed. And
he and so I don't care who's writing his bars.
I actually really don't care now know hip hop back
in the day, like there's a big thing you see whatever.
But Drake is out there making stupid amounts of money,
(41:07):
dating the most beautiful women in the universe and you know,
living starting on everybody. And so I'm not mad at
that man. He's he's doing it his way and and
all I want is good music. Okay, So he's wonderful.
But the reason I say Kanye and Kendrick is. Um,
both of these guys are changing the world in a
different way. Okay. Drake is not like a social movement
(41:27):
kind of guy. He's an entertainer. But Kanye and Kendrick's
a reason why he teamed up with Jordan because Jordan
isn't he isn't that right, Mike Jordan, he stays away
from right. Let's make by shoes too. That's that's right,
and is the same way he stays out of that.
Even though with the Meek battle he did throw a
(41:49):
little bit out there with charged up. He's what did
he say? He said, um, you know they killed they're
killing us with arms up, and your main objective is
to harm, right, I get it. So right, he throw
subtleties outre but it's not like his main thing where
Kendrick Kendrick. Okay, so this is where it comes in. Kanye,
I have so much respect for are you saying, Kenya?
(42:14):
I'm sorry. Kendrick is by far and away the closest
thing we've had to Tupac on terms in terms of
the biggest stage since we lost Tupac. And the reason
is it because if you think about it, you know,
uh Pac did uh what was it? A rose from
the concrete. And the idea is Kendrick is that he
grew up in Compton. So in in college, my roommates
(42:35):
and my best friends were all from the city section,
So Dorsey, Crenshaw, Dominguez, like south central Los Angeles when
you get south of super good and but like good dudes. Okay.
So I watched the Noisy bomped in piece on Kendrick
last night, and I encourage everybody who's into Kendrick's music,
or just hip hop in general, or really social issues
in general to watch this noisy bombeding piece. My man
(42:57):
Greg beef Jones is one of the producers on it,
and it's for dominal noise. He's been doing some really
good stuff in that space. So basically they did. They
went to Compton, and they went back to Centenial High
School where Kendrick went to and they talked to his teachers.
And while they were there filming, there's a big old fight.
Cops show up on campus. You know, people are running
through the back alleys and jumping over fences and here
is this reality that these people live every single day
(43:19):
and Kendrick is a representative of that. Kanye is from
the South side of Chicago. He's a little bit different.
You know, he went to college and you know, college
dropot obviously was indicative of that. And then he was
this wildly talented producer. So he's making crazy beats that
we all moved to during our college years, right, And
he was an incredibly talented artistic guy. Kendrick to me,
is a I want to use. He's a poet, he's
(43:42):
a prophet, he's a he's a social movement maker. And
so when you when you look at that performance the
other night, Um, while Kanye is a creative genius, I
think Kendrick is a creative genius, but he's also a
guy who's unabashedly committed to committed to ensuring that we
don't forge get the realities of his people, right, and
(44:03):
he also wants to save his people. So it's not
about uh, you know, increasing creativity and society. And Kanye
wants to be this guy. He creates dope shoes. I
got my easies, my moon rocks. I love him. I
put him on like he's amazing his clothes. You know,
it takes a while, but you look at her like, okay,
selling you know, homeless sweaters for for a three thousand dollars.
That's crazy, and it's all transformational, but it's different. Kendrick
(44:26):
wants us all to one acknowledge that these problems exist,
two to identify what the root of those problems is.
Three to come up with solutions for those problems. And
one of the people they interviewed in this noisy bomped
in piece was his man. I think his name was
Little l or something like that. Anyway, Uh, not his
government clearly, but he uh said, look, man, I'm a blood,
(44:47):
I'm a gang member. I have been forever. I just
got out of county, and I always supported Kendrick and
he supported me. And here's Kendrick in the backyard, one
of the biggest artists, you know, arguably one of those
in the backyard in the hood still and I have
so much respect for him because, as we discussed earlier,
like I came from a similar environment. It was a
much smaller environments a snapshot of south central Los Angeles,
(45:08):
but it was the same thing. We were poor, we
were on food stamps, we had violence, people were getting shot,
you know, all of those things. And so you know,
I very much appreciate a guy who speaks for those
people and pushes with everything that he has to ensure
that he is a representative of those people, the best
elements of them, and showing everybody it could be done.
I mean, one of the one of the most influencing
(45:30):
artists in the game in my opinion. You got Kendrick
and you got Kanye, And when you look at the two,
you got Kendrick, who he talks what he wants the
world to be, so he's he's speaking futuristically, you know,
he's trying to promote change, like he said, he is
a movement maker. And then he got Kanye, who is
(45:51):
so in the moment, so right now he says exactly
what you think and the stuff that we think. And
we say, all right, I'm not dumb enough this say
that right now because I don't want to say this.
Kanye says that. So you're listening to his album and
you say, damn, like I really I get it, Like, yeah, yeah,
you and ray J probably would be friends. You are
(46:14):
a little bit. So that like that's the two. And
I think, like what we love about hip hop is
like you know, and including Draking this conversation, you have
the entertainer who was He's one of the dopest artists out.
And then you got Kendrick who was speaking that pop language,
this is what I want the world to think. And
you got Kanya who was the voice. He's like, I'm
gonna tell you what everybody's thinking and this is what
(46:35):
we are thinking and kind and Kanye got me right
now because when he when he did his whole you
gotta listen to the kids. What was that was that
MTV the Awards when he went on his rent like
and he was like, yo, I hit, I was, I'm
high and I it's like to take the edge off
like that. I mean, he's real bro like speaking. He's
(46:57):
speaking to the veins of society. That's what it is.
But a, Ran, I appreciate you joining. It's been real. Um. Yeah,
we're gonna get it in. You know what t D.
We're gonna we're gonna change. We're gonna add a new
element to this show, all right. And the new element
is um. I mean, that's not hide the fact that
we're in l A, like this is where we work,
(47:17):
that this is what we do. So Ran, I know
you're inside it right to the nfl um and I'm
asking you because you're my boy. But I'm gonna ask
you to whether we have Mike Robin Town or not,
to be my insider too. The streets of l at you.
I'm talking about, like what's popping in the streets, what's
going on, what's the hot spots. You know, it's a
(47:40):
roller coaster ride. And occasionally we'll go out, we'll cross
passed with some labs and and we'll you know, we'll
release some photos of some hot picks we have throughout
the night. I'm asking that of you want to go
to hide, I got you. You're gonna go to E
P LP. I got you running around the city. I
was in high one time. I was like, I was like, yeah,
(48:00):
couldn't get in. The next day run was like, you
should have hit me. I'd have got you in. That's crazy.
Just invite me next time, all right? So, no, for real,
this is going to be a new part of our show.
RB Inside. We gotta make it happen. Let's get Dame.
Let's get Dame on the here. Let's do that first stuff.
Let's make it all happens all season. We got room,
let's all let's make it all happen. I did meet
Kendrick over the weekend they were doing Super Bowl weeks. Yeah,
(48:21):
no photos, just giving respect, man, So do I respect
him after that? Man? He comes off Dude, Man, dude,
it's just like it's a real dude. Really, Just what's up? Man? Hey,
we'll listen. Man. That's it for the R and B podcast. Remember,
hit us up on Twitter hashtag r A n dB.
I'm at night thirteen Burlson Ram telling your Twitter find
me on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, at rand underscore, getling, Promise
(48:45):
not to do too much stuff. You can get me fired. Yeah,
trying to keep it clean, to keep it one but
sick clean. He shout out to our production team, Producer TV,
always doing this thing, dropping beats, keeping us in line
in d'angeloug Begger, I'll see you with a small you're
trying to take your jacket off. Okay, I see all right.
To our supporters and shot Infinite. He gave us the
(49:05):
dope intro track, and we we got to release the
intro track, my voice saying from Seattle, and we got
people making us. You gotta get Jake one to do
something broke. I'm a lightweight rapper. Hey, and please remember,
you gotta subscribed on iTunes. Uh itune and uh comment,
retweet through it if you're a YouTube everything, hash, shag
(49:29):
r and B has support the movement. It's a movement.
It's a movie.
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