February 7, 2022 • 42 mins
Wade Smith was a Pro Bowl left guard for the Texans, spending the 2010 through 2013 seasons in Houston. He caught up with Drew Dougherty of Texans TV and described what life is like now, which teammates he keeps in touchd with, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's always fun to talk with Wade Smith. And Wade,
you played for the Texans for a while, you were
a pro bowler, you played in the league for over
a decade. You come on Texans Extra Points, Texans three sixty. Here,
you're on the radio Sports Radio six ten, but you've
never done or Where Are They Now? Podcast? And first
things first, it's great to see it and great to
(00:21):
be with you. How are you these days? I'm doing
good man, looking forward to chopping up kind of where
I am now in life, in how it's kind of
interacts with the Texans organization and interacts with the city
of Houston. Let's talk about it, because, like I mentioned,
you're on a lot of our shows. We talked football.
When you're on with us, we never really talk about you. So, Wade,
(00:43):
your final year in Houston was twenty thirteen. You went
to Philadelphia for twenty fourteen. But what have you been
doing since football playing has been finished? A lot of stuff, Man,
I tell people all the time. Once I've retired, my life,
I really got busy. You really got hectic. Definitely. My
schedule was um there was more on my plate just
(01:03):
because I had more freedom to do what I wanted
to do, and there's a lot of things that I
what I like to do and want to do, and
so um, you know, whether it's coaching youth football here
for local team, the Siena Stallions. I've been doing that
since two thousand and I believe sixteen was the first
year we did that, started with the flag team and
now they've already graduated and seniors and going to there
(01:27):
in middle school. They'll be in high school in a
couple of years. But coaching youth football, UM mentioned it
before doing radio with Sports Radio sixteen on a consistent basis.
You know, at one point I had my own show
with Travis Johnson, another former Texans guy that is great
candidate for where are they now? You know still, you
(01:50):
know I actually be on there, you know this week
Sports Radio sixten doing that thing and talking ball with
with with the people of Houston. My foundation, Wastements Foundation,
you know, we started in two thousand and twelve. M
we've been doing that since then. It's going on. This
is the tenth year of it being in existence. And
the various programs we have throughout the city of Houston
(02:12):
the state of Texas that have to do with childhood literacy,
the education from our scholarship program that we have going
on that we've we've given out, um right, around two
hundred thousand dollars in scholarships since it's in session, a
lot of stuff. Dad being dad, you know, just um
that that's a big deal. I have four daughters, you know, husband, Um,
(02:34):
you know, my two oldest daughters are played club volleyball,
and so there's a lot of travel that goes along
with that. M definitely been really really busy since I've
retired from them. Well, yeah, I know. Every time you
come on one of our shows, which is about once
a month, once every six weeks, the question is, well,
(02:55):
where are you off to next? Because you mentioned your
daughters are such great athletes, great volleyball play, and you've
pretty much criss crossed the nation going to tournaments and whatnot,
and it's always fun to hear where your next journey is.
I want to talk about the foundation though you mentioned
do a lot of different things, but one of the
coolest things I think you do is you read to
the kids. You go out on a regular basis and
(03:17):
you bring some of your pals from from all walks
of life to read to some of these kiddos, and
you really are on the forefront of attacking illiteracy and
you're a big, big proponent of reading books and I
love it. So it's so much fun to see yeah,
reading with the pros. It's a program that started back
in two and twelve and started, you know, while I
(03:37):
was still playing for the Texans, and I had guys
like Arian Foster and Ben Taid and Matt Shop and
you know, Chris Myers, Dwayne Brown, a lot of those
names that you know, we strapped it up and played
for the Texans um and you saw on Sundays, those
guys on Tuesdays would come and come with me to
go read to kids around the city of Houston, traveled
(04:00):
with me to go read the kids in Dallas at
my elementary school where I'm from. But the program just
started from the idea. First of all, I love to
read myself, and I feel like education is the ultimate
equalizer when it comes to whatever socio economic situation that
you you might start your life in, and without the
(04:22):
literacy component, you're literally fighting with one hand two hands
tied behind your back when you're trying to have some
type of career longevity or success in whatever field you
want to do, whether that's being an athlete, being a
you know, a teacher, a police officer, TV reporter, disc jockey,
(04:45):
whatever it may be, a doctor, lawy, or whatever. Any
career you have to have that that literacy component. And
I always loved to read since I was a little kid.
Like I love reading books. I grew up in a
situation to where I didn't really have opportunities to go
travel all over the country and and go through things
like that. But I could open up a book and
(05:08):
it could take me wherever I wanted to go. I
could be an astro night, I could be, you know,
my favorite sports star. I could be a detective, I
could be you know whatever I wanted to be, open
it up and reading it and that imagination and that
creativity that that reading brings to young people. UM, I
just wanted to share my love for that and share
(05:29):
that passion for reading with kids that I'm able to
come across. And you know, with the platform that I
that I've been able to get to by being an
NFL player. When an NFL player tells a kid it's
cool to read books, it has a little bit more
weight to it than when a teacher does, and a
teacher they're there on a day to day basis, just
(05:49):
like you know my kids, Um, even though I'm the
NFL player, I'm still just dad to them, or you're
still you're a teacher at the elementary school is just
a teacher that you know, missus, missus Krabapple, that's always
there every day. And so it's different when you have,
you know, somebody that you see on TV, or somebody
that you listen to on the radio, or somebody that
that um, you know might be a firefighter or some
(06:13):
type of professional in whatever realm it may be telling you, Hey,
reading books has helped me achieve what I've been able
to achieve in life, and without that, it's going to
be very difficult for you to do so. And so
we've gone to I don't know, somewhere around eighty to
one hundred elementary schools since we started, and we've reached
(06:35):
out to and and positively affected thousands upon thousands, tens
of thousands of of of elementary school kids throughout the country,
mainly here in the state of Texas, mainly in the
city of Houston, but throughout this country, and so very
proud of that impact that we've been able to make
and just sharing that love for reading, because any any
(06:58):
kid that might be an assembly, will we're talking to
the kids, or where we're going to actual classroom and
reading to the kids. Any kids that that can have
that aha moment like well, I see somebody on that stage,
or I see somebody talk to me that looks like me,
or that has a similar experiences me in life and
they're telling me this is a good thing. Hey, maybe
there's something not should try and do. And when they
(07:20):
do it and they have success, it's just it's life changing.
And so it just really happy with with how that
program is gone. We've had to adjust due to COVID
and you know, some of our our appearances are virtual.
You know, we've had virtual reading with the pros where
I've had guys. It's been pretty cool too because I've
had guys all over the country participate. But you know,
(07:40):
I have you know, Ben Jones participated. You know, he
plays for the Tennessee Titans. He's in Nashville. Um, but
what book did he read it? I can't remember. I
can't remember whatever it was. He nailed it. Yeah, yeah,
like Ben Jones is uh, you know, Salt of the Earth,
one of my favorite people that I've come across in
(08:02):
this league and just in life period. And you know,
I just reached out to him. He was like, yeah,
of course, man, He's done those Reading with the Pros
events in person when he was still here with the Texans.
But he's still somebody that you know, he's in Nashville,
He's got people all over the country. Chris Myers did
it as well. Chris Myers is living in Philadelphia right now.
You know, he did reading with the Pros as well.
So we had guys from all over the country participating
(08:25):
reading with the Pros. So it's just because of the
pandemic and because of you know, not necessarily having as
much access into schools as we did in the past,
we've had to adjust. But it's just there's always a
silver lining with anything. Because getting Chris Myers and Ben
Jones to come down and here to Houston for reading
with the Pros is not a you know, a realist proposition,
but when you say we can do a zoom call,
(08:47):
it worked out that way. So it's been pretty cool.
That is awesome, And I want to talk a little
bit about some of your former teammates in just a moment.
But on top of all these things that you've done
post football, you've also written books. What's it like being
an author? It's pretty cool, man. Uh wrote a couple
of children's books. Uh As Smitty Hits the playbooks and
(09:09):
Smithy Smitty tackles bullying. And it's actually, you know, it
ties into the reading program Reading with the Pros where
I'm going to elementary schools and talking to kids about
the importance of reading and literacy, but then also taking
the next step and saying like, hey, I'm not just
reading books, I'm actually writing books myself and writing stories
and telling them kind of explaining to them the process
(09:31):
of writing a story and writing a book and how
they could actually be authors themselves. And I've had students,
you know, we've had competitions to where we've had students
write their own stories and turn them into us UM
you know, as part of our Reading with the Pros program.
So it's just an additional UM tool and asset that
(09:53):
you can utilize to to incentivize and to inspire kids
to to love reading and to take that next step
of writing and showing and being able to have a
tangible example of like, hey, this is this is this
is my book that I wrote. This is something that
you know occurred in my life that I think can
(10:13):
translate and help you, um, going forward. And I think
that's the that's kind of the crux of it is like, hey,
you know, my my my thing now post retirement is
say how many opportunities cannot create for others? For a
lot of people that create opportunities for me? So how
can I do that? Um, you know, create opportunities for others?
And you know, ninety eight percent of the elementary schools
(10:36):
that we go to, our schools that are in lower
socioeconomic situations where these are kids are not that don't
have as much access to everything as maybe other kids do.
And so um, you know, those those are the places
where the wastementh Foundation and where you can find me
that's those are the places that we go and those
are the kids that we really want to tap into
(10:58):
a reach out to because um, it's needed. Yeah. Hitting
the decade mark now on the Wade Smith Foundation, that's
fantastic stuff. Everything you've been doing. So let's rewind. You
grew up in the Dallas area. You went to Lake Highlands,
which if you've seen this or listen to this podcast.
We had another Lake Highlands Wildcat and former Houston Texans
(11:19):
in Marcus Coleman on Everywhere. Yeah, and he pointed out,
he said when he was in the league, there was
a point when he was in the league, I think
that Lake Highlands had more alumni than any other high
school in American League because he had you two, you
had Phil Dawson, the kicker who went on to Texas.
You had all sorts of sorts of guys. You go
way back, and you know, there's Merton Hanks, the guy
(11:41):
with the basically the rubber neck. There's been lots of
great football players that have come out of that program.
And you and I have discussed this. I went to
SMU in Dallas. I'm from here, but I went to
SMU and my roommate that freshman year was a Lake
Highlands Wildcat. He had played football for coach to Pudo,
and right across the hall were two of his former teammates.
So I sort of knew about it, kind of as
(12:02):
a secondhand, uh, secondhand smoke type of guy. But how
much pride you take it being from there being a
Wildcat and you know, kind of staying in touch with
some of them. A great deal man like that that neighborhood. Um.
Growing up with the people that I grew up with,
I think helped shape you know, who I am today. Um.
(12:22):
The team moms that help you know, make you know,
lunches and stuff for us and snacks for us before
the games, and being able to go to some of
their houses, um and kind of seeing like wow, like
you know, people actually live like this and seeing something
that hey, I want you know for myself too. Um.
You know people don't realize this, but you know, the
(12:43):
Dallas Cowboys used to have a facility not too far
like in Lake Cottons area, right, So a lot of
the players settled in that that area. This is like
the seventies Cowboys, right when it's like uh, you know
Roger Styback and all of those type of when they
were winning Super Bowls on a consistent base in the
seventies during that run, their facility was literally in Lake Highlands,
(13:04):
and so a lot of those players settled there. They
had kids. Those kids ended up being my contemporaries. So
like uh, you know Robert Assuming, Robert Newhouse, and Bob Bruney.
These are guys that are former Cowboys players their kids.
I grew up with, you know, Reggie Newhouse and I
graduated the same year he went to Baylor, broke all
(13:25):
these receiving records, played in the NFL. He's one of
those guys that was one of the Lake Highlands players
that UM, you know, was in the league at the
same time when we led the NFL in that stat
But that neighborhood was diverse, you know, in a lot
of ways. There were a lot of there was a
lot of people that lived in apartments in that in
(13:45):
that area, UM, and there was lots of people that
lived in kind of nice neighborhoods, kind of like the
one I live in now. And there were all different
types of people. But we all went to that same
high school, UM, and that football program was kind of
a beacon to the higher area. And and it was
it was a lot of, you know, us against the
(14:06):
world kind of mentality because we were Lake Hollins High School.
We were in inside of Dallas city limits, but we
were in a different school district, were in Richardson Independent
School District, but we were it was just Lake Collins
was the city of its own. Basically, we took pride
in that in you know, the different traditions that we had,
and and it's cool that it's still going on today.
(14:29):
I mean, like Lake Collins High School is still um
being very successful in all their sports and very successful academically.
Like Lake Collins. It's not just sports. It's like you
know TV, there's actresses. Like if you if you google
Lake Collins High School and look at notable alumni, like
I'm number like forty on the list. If I made
(14:50):
the top forty, then you know, congrats, you made it.
But there's a lot of a lot of really talented
people that come from that that neighborhood and went to
that high schoo Yeah, and a little note out there
to those of you listening or watching if you ever
want to get Wade Smith's dander up to say, oh,
you went to Lake Hillands, you're from Richardson, because I
(15:10):
did that one time and you're like, yeah, from Dallas.
It was funny because you know, when we be in
the playoffs, you know, the Dallas Morning News is a
local newspaper, which is like the Houston Chronicle here, and
when we'd be early on in the playoffs, we're Richardson,
Lake Hillands Richardson, Lake Higlands, Richardson Lake Hillins for the
first few rounds. Once we get to the fourth, fifth round,
(15:31):
when we're competing against people in the state, all of
a sudden, now we're just Lake Highlands over Dallas Lake Collins,
you know, and so it was like come on. There
was always you know, we were we were kind of
in in in the middle, like in the middle of
you know a school. Richardson Independent School District is one
of the more prestigious academically school districts for sure in
(15:54):
the Dallas area, at least it was when I was there,
right and you know, there was there was there was
resentment on both sides of that because we drew from
the talent pool from kids from Dallas, but we had
the academics from you know, a suburban school district, and
so it was a melting pot of a lot of
(16:16):
great athletes and great academic you know at great students.
It was a perfect, you know, melting pot of what
a student athlete should be. And so because of that,
we were very successful in a lot of different areas
when it came to sports and academics. When you're competing
with other kids around the city and around, no doubt,
and you go on to Memphis after that's where you
(16:38):
play your college ball. You were mainly a tight end
I think in high school, and you started as a
tight end in college and got moved to the offensive line.
Helped me out. Am I writing that is it is
that partially write what's the story there? Now you're you're
absolutely correct. I was. I was a tight end in
the wishbone at Lake Collins wishbone offense. Um I was.
I was offered by multiple schools, but I ended up
(17:03):
signing with the University of Memphis in two thousand and
excuse me in nineteen ninety nine. And so my first
two years in college I played as a true freshman.
I played as a true sophomore at tight end, tight end,
h back. I was kind of like if you think
back to the old you know, the Texans when I
was there, I'd be like, I was like Joel Greeson
(17:24):
and offense, I wasn't the number one tight end, but
I was a number two tight end. Sometimes they moved
me around in motion, run a little routes, mainly a blocker.
That was kind of my role in that office, and
ran a similar type of offense is what the Texans
did kind of back in that time, that kind of
single back offense. Well, what happened was was, this was
(17:45):
in two thousand and two thousand and one, the spread
offense started to become a thing in college sports, and
so we were going to transition to the spread offense,
and in the spread offense, the tight end was going
to get maybe fifteen twenty snaps again. And my head
coach at the time, Tommy West, said, hey, we want
you to play. You're going to play one of our
(18:06):
best players. You can move to defensive line and play
fifty sixty snaps a game, or you can stay on
offense and play offensive line and play every snap on offense.
But tight end is really not going to be positioned
for you because you know, we're barely going to use it,
and we need you on the field. We need you
(18:27):
to play. And at that time, you know, mind you
my first two years I was like Joel Greeson. But
then the next two years I expected I was going
to be On Daniels. I was going to be a
man because the guy that was the number one tight
end went to the NFL. So it's like, okay, it's
my turn now. Right to take over and be the man.
And so my first thought was like, man, am I
gonna have to transfer? And it's not like now where
(18:49):
you transfer you can play the same year. If you
transfer back, then you have to transfer sit out a year.
You know, it was. It was a whole deal. So
Tommy West tells me in that meeting, he says, this
is right before spring break. He says, go home, talk
about it with your mom, but come back, talk about
it with your parents. But come back, please come back.
Don't give us a chance. And so you know, I
(19:12):
end up talking to my roommate at the time. His
name is jamm Ugh, who is our starting center, and
he said to me and he said, man, I said, man,
they're trying to move me to the offensive line or defense.
I said, bro, play offensive line. You're gonna love like
you You're gonna love it. And this is my best friend,
you know, great dude on the team, one of our
best players on the team. He's telling me you would
be good at this, and it kind of hit me differently.
(19:34):
I said, you know what, let me give it a shot.
After the first practice, after the first day of meetings
and practice, I was like, yeah, this aroundabout way. I've
always been offensive line. I played a tight end in
the wishbone, which means my senior year I called I
think three passes my tired senior year. But I led
the team in pancake blocks. It's a tight end in
the wishbone, right, you know. I went to I went
(19:57):
to Memphis. My first two years, I was lining up
at fullback and leave block, and I was the point
of attack on a lot of runs. You know, as
a tight end. I was basically a glorified offensive linem
and it's like, all right, let's stop messing around with
it and make it real. And so that's what I
ended up doing, and it worked out well for me.
Tommy West told me in that meeting, he said, if
you moved offensive line in two years, you'll come out
(20:20):
of the draft and you'll be one one of the
most or the most athletic guy in the draft, and
you're playing the league for ten years. And he was right.
I was one of the most athletic guys as an
offensive linement in the draft and I played for twelve
So yeah, you know, Tommy West, he kind of saw
something in me that I hadn't ever even contemplated and
thought was the possibility, but he did and I brought
(20:42):
in and it worked out well. So how quickly in
your mind after the switch positions did the NFL become
a reality? Because you hear, we just heard what your
coach said, But you know, how quickly did that stick
with you? Like, hey, I've got a shot here because
I'm guessing you thought you probably had a shot as
a tight end, but I did. I did so my
first two years in the league after seeing some of
(21:04):
the guys that I was playing against every day and
practice and playing against, you know, on the field, you know,
in competition. Because going when I went to the University
of Memphis, my thought wasn't I'm going to the NFL.
My thought was, I'm going to school for free. If
I didn't have the scholarship, I probably wouldn't be going
to college because my mom parents didn't have the money
to send me away to school like that. So I
(21:26):
was like, hey, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity,
do well in school, get my degree, and go start
a business. That was my thought process. But then after
I started playing and competing with guys, I was like, man,
you know, I'm just as good as that person, or
I'm better than that person. Maybe I can maybe this
NFL thing is actual reality. And I thought that was
(21:46):
going to be as a tight end. Then there was
a little you know, a monkey ridge thrown in the
deal with the position change. But once I changed positions,
and you know, I took my technique and stuff as
an offensive on my offensive line coaches Rick Mallory, I
kind of picked up, you know, the technique and stuff
well as being a pass protector, which is different as
(22:08):
a tight end and it is as a as an
offensive tackle. Um, I figured, you know, I can do this.
I saw some of the guys that I was going
against playing against, and then they're making it to the
NFL's they can make it to the NFL. I can too.
So it was pretty quickly. But I would say this,
you know, after my junior year, my draft grade was
like undrafted or seventh round, and they had the blessed
(22:29):
Though grading system. I don't know if they have still,
but you know, my bless though grade was going into
my senior year was seventh round at the highest D
and undrafted. UM. But what happened was is, you know,
from the period of you know, I played my senior
year and from the period of you know, the end
of my senior year to the to the combine, I
(22:50):
gained twenty six pounds. Mind you, I was a tight end.
It was winning two hundred and thirty five two forty
my first two years in school. When I when I
changed to tackle, playing right tackle I played, I weighed
two sixty five and then my senior I weigh two
seventy playing tackle and so offensive line in the NFL.
If it was the seventies, I would have fit in
perfectly fine. But this is two thousand and three. He's
(23:11):
not gonnat me have two hundred and seventy pounds, you know,
offensive tackles, And so there was a question by scouts
and this guy put on weights, put on weight, and
keep on weight. Where they didn't realize was that I
was I was a broke college student. I didn't have
money to like and stuff like that. Like it was
it was her very minimum, a lot of stuff just scraped,
scrapping and scrounging to make it. Buy off of your
(23:34):
meal plan and stuff like that. So once I graduate,
when once I finished my senior year, and then I
got an agent, and my agent was taking me out
to steak dinners. And then my future wife girlfriend at
the time, was making me meals and stuff. And she
was a basketball player in Memphis, so she had a
better meal plan than I did, so she was bringing
me Chick fil A and all this type of stuff.
(23:55):
I put on twenty six pounds and I was still
training and stuff. So all my athletsim and you know, conditioning,
all that stuff was intact. But I was eating a
lot better, training specifically, you know, to bulk up and
get big. By the time I made to the commod
I was two hundred and ninety six pounds and still
moving like a tight end. And so I ended up
getting drafted in the third round by the Miami Dolphins. Yeah,
(24:17):
and life begins in the NFL. What was that time
like there with the Fins. You move on to a
few different places before we come to Houston. But what
were those those early years the NFL pre Texans like
for you? Um? I would say that it was some definitely,
some some peaks and some valleys as my time with
the with the with the Dolphins, because you played all
(24:38):
over the line in these spots. Well, in Miami, I
played left tackle my first year started as a rookie,
started every game, All Rookie Team, Newcomer of the Year,
all the type stuff. But in that same season, I
gave up three sacks to Dwite Freeney. Um, that was
a rough day at the office. First. Yeah, I felt
(24:59):
a little bit better, like a few weeks later because
he did the same thing and Jonathan Argent on Money
Back Football, So I was like, Okay, uh, maybe maybe
I'm not as bad as I'm thinking I'm feeling, like
after getting picked on by Dwight Freeny, and throughout my career,
I ended up here in Houston eventually, and you know,
he was Dwayne Brown's new missus. Dwayne always you couldn't
(25:20):
stand him, and I firsthand understood where he's coming from.
So if you look back at some of those those
games when Freenye was over there, I wasn't helping Chris
Myers very much that that that day Chris, Chris had it.
Chris had to handle his business that owner day. I
was gonna make sure that Dwight Freeney didn't beat us,
because I know what that's like. Um So, but yeah, man,
I had some you know, peaks and Valleys had a
(25:41):
coaching change. Um, you know, I was starting my first year,
first couple of games in my second year, got bench.
Then we had a coaching change in the middle of
the season. I thought I was gonna be back starting
again that that season, but didn't work out that way.
So Nick Saban comes in as the head coach. I
think at that time it really changed the trajectory of
(26:05):
my career because Hudson Howk came in as an offensive
line coach, which Huston Hawk is is. Howk is like
one of the top I don't know five offensive line
coaches in the history of the game. He coached the
Cowboys offensive lines back and then you know it was
the nineties Cowboys with Emmitt Smith and all those. He
was a coach there, great coach Jackie Slater back in
(26:26):
the day with the Rams when it was Eric Dickerston.
So like Hudson Howk was a was a legend. And
so he came to Miami and he said, you know,
I think you could be a Pro Bowl center in
the NFL. And so I think he said, I think
you could play tackle. I think you played guard, but
I think you could be a Pro Bowl center in
the NFL. And so he said, I want to try
(26:48):
you out of the center, and so by me playing
center when they got there. If you play center and
you're on the team, you have to play guard as well.
You have to be able to go from back and
forth between the two. Plus I already had my background
and playing tame for the first you know, a few years,
the first couple of years in my career in the league.
That made me extremely versatile as a player. My intelligence
(27:12):
and understanding of understanding the game. I got it from
an even bigger perspective now because I'm the center. I'm
the one making calls, directing a line of scrimmage, all
that type of stuff. That helped me for the remainder
of my career. It gave me opportunity. Once I was
released by the Dolphins the following like in two thousand
and six, so not that season that Taman came, but
(27:32):
the second season he was there. I was released the
next week. I was picked up by the New York Jets.
I was there for two years. I was the first
guy off the bench there, so in other words, like
I was the six man, so I could play every
spot along the line, and that made me valuable for
the team. Because hey, if somebody went down and plugged
me in, and I was good to go because I
had that background of playing center and guard with the
(27:54):
Dolphins those two years and then also playing tackle and
starting in the NFL and having some success. So that
helped me tremendously there. Then I you know, next two years,
I was with the Kanna City Chiefs. Started half of
my games there at guard, and then had a lot
of success there just personally the team. We didn't have
(28:15):
as much team success, but personally I got an opportunity
to really play and get a lot of film out there.
And then you know, I was a free agent and
there was a bunch of teams calling, a bunch of
teams that you know, I went on a visit to
the Buffalo Bills, where I'm a visit to Houston. Here
in Houston, I went on a visit to the Arizona Cardinals,
and I still had Kansas City calling me, and so
(28:35):
I made a decision, which which ended up being a
great decision for me and my family, was to choose
the Houston Texans and kind of the rest is history. Yeah,
I actually think I was in the cafeteria the day
that you were visiting during free agency. I could be
wrong on that, but I think you were there so
money aside, Why did you choose the Texans? What was
(28:56):
so attractive about this place? There was a lot of things. Man.
For one, the season before they were nine in seven. UM,
they were nine in seven, and the big the kind
of the narrative for the Texans at the time was
they weren't physical enough up front. Like they couldn't run
the ball on a consistent basis. They weren't physical. They
(29:17):
had they had a good quarterback. They had Andre Johnson.
They had a good quarterback and throw the ball all
over the yard Andre Johnson receiver. UM, they had a
historically you know, they had coach Kubiak is you know,
the play caller, the head coach and play caller. But
they weren't physical enough up front. And kind of what
I hung my hat on UM when I was in
(29:39):
Kansas City UM, and I think being around a guy
like Brian Waters, who was a guard UM with the
Chiefs for a long long time. UM went to multiple
Pro Bowls, all Pro UM. He was part of that
that kN City Chiefs offensive line that had like print
priests homes and those guys they had one of the
better offensive Linds Hole and um Will Shields and some
(30:02):
of those guys on that line. He was part of
that line when I got around him. Like competing not
just with the guys across from you, but competing with
the guys in the same room as you took another level.
Like if I saw b Dub put somebody on their back,
I wanted to put somebody on the back because I
(30:23):
wanted you know, it was just it was a it
was a friendly competition, and we were taking it out
on the opponents, and so we had we had our
own little um competition that like money was involved, like hey,
if you know, the more knockdowns you get, you know,
you win the pot at the end of that week.
And so you know, being physical was kind of like
(30:44):
that was that was law in that offensive line room.
And so that kind of fit like, oh, these guys
are missing physicality and sentivizing, like putting people on their
back and being physical fund and running the ball. Oh,
this is a great fit to me. Now that's one
side of it. Then it was Texas, it was it
was I'm from Dallas. Um I knew that my parents
(31:05):
are going to be able to come to every game,
which they did um for four years. My mom was at,
if not ninety five percent of the games, ninety percent
of the game she was there. Um And and then
you know, it's Texas. Like a lot of people, I'm
from Dallas, people from Houston. It's like, oh, you know,
(31:26):
two different worlds. It's not when you leave Texas and
not people ask you are you from? Are you where
are you from? I'm from Dallas or I'm from Houston.
We came from Houston. Oh you're from Texas. Okay, So
either they loved you because you're from Texas or they
ate you because it's from Texas. But it's all the same.
You know. There is no oh, well you're from Dallas
so you're cool, or you're from Dallas so you're not cool.
(31:47):
For people that are outside. Now you got the in
state rivalry, I get it, but hey, it was the
opportunity for me to come home and play football for
a team that was nine and seven that was literally
a tiebreaker away from going to the playoffs. So catching
them on up it was a new franchise because I
remember playing them my rookie year and getting beat by
(32:07):
them who was my my and Andre Johnson's first game.
You know, I was starting to left tackle. He was
a receiver and pretty I think if I remember, he
had a really good day at the office against us.
When I was with Miami, he almost always did against
the Dolphins because yeah, from there, yeah, yeah, no question,
and so yeah, like, uh, you know, I thought to myself,
(32:28):
this is a young franchise. Um, it's from the it's
from the house there, you know, from the from the crib.
I'm I'm going there. The contract is right, everything is right.
You know, it's gonna be a perfect fit. And and
it ended up ended up working out that way. Yeah,
you get there, and two thousand and ten is your
first year. Aaron Foster goes off for sixteen hundred on
(32:48):
the ground. He also catches six hundred yards worth the passes.
You guys are able to run the ball really, really well.
Vante Leach also makes the Pro Bowl at fullback. In
twenty eleven. You're there for the playoff season. You get
another thousand yards out of Arian Foster. Ben take goes
over nine hundred yards as well. Easily the two best
(33:09):
offensive lines in Texans history. There's some movement the next
year on the right side, but twenty twelve, you guys
go back to the playoffs again. You finally get a
Pro Bowl selection. Should have gotten one in ten and
eleven as well, but that's kind of how the Pro
Bowl works. You get recognized after doing great things those
first few years. But how much fun was it once
(33:29):
you got here? I know, ten as a team doesn't
go well. Six and ten is the record, but there
were some problems on the defensive side of the ball,
and then Wade Phillips comes in and he helps fix
things and you guys take off. But when was that like?
Those years? Going to the playoffs the first time around
and then starting out eleven and one the next year.
It was a lot of fun, man, It was a
(33:50):
lot of hard work. It was it was I loved
coming to work every day, like you love the camaraderie
that we had in that locker room. UM. There was
a lot of trust from one another. There was a
lot of UM. The whole idea of next man up.
That was the twenty eleventh season. We had so many
guys that missed so many games that year and we
(34:10):
still had a tremendous amount of success that that was
cool to be a part of. UM. The the buzz
in the city of Houston was crazy, Like the fans
were so invested in in our team and what we
were able to do. Um, those those those milestones that
(34:30):
we were able to achieve that had not been done
before Enfranchise history. It was cool to be a part
of that and being like an important key, like an
important cog and help of making that happen. Um, that
was cool. Like you mentioned twenty and ten, the year before,
people are talking about how this offensive line is so soft,
and then the following year, you know, you come in,
(34:51):
you come in, there was only one change on the
offensive line. It was me. You know, I came in
there and it wasn't like I was all world or
anything like that. But I I think that my mentality
helped the group overall and just that whole competition amongst
each other and you know, going out and trying to
(35:14):
dominate and humiliate whoever's across from you. That mentality it
led to sixteen hundred yards by undrafted running back. You know,
and Arian Foster was really cool because you know, training
camp of twenty ten, you hear about, Yeah, we got
this running back named Arian Foster, and I Kakina heard
about him a little bit when he was at Tennessee,
(35:36):
but do you really know much about him, But he
was like he had last year that people were there
was little whispers like, you know, last year he had
a couple of good games in the year. He's gonna
be good. But then we drafted Ben take the second
round round. So we're thinking Ben Tate's going to be
the guy I Foster's gonna get some carriages to Steve
Slayton was still there, who had a thousand yards. Yeah,
(35:56):
people were acting like the Steve Slayton two thousand and
nine years was of a hiccup and he'd be back.
You'd seen in two thousand and eight. So it was
almost an afterthought to the general public. But you're obviously
saw a little something different than you. Right when we're
in training camp, you're seeing you know, you're watching nine
on seven on film and you're seeing the vision. You're
(36:18):
seeing the patients, the burst bellers put his foot in
the ground and getting north and south. Uh. You know,
Arian is really a guy that really loves art. Like
he played the game like like like it was like jazz.
It was poetic just watching them watching the game. There's
a lot of physicality, a lot of um. You know,
you know, there's a lot of physicality to this this
(36:41):
this sport, but he had he just was poetry in motion. Man,
he was just a smooth running back at great vision um.
And you saw that early on in training camp. He
saw that in OTA's like, man, I mean, Arian gonna
be the guy. And it's like you could tell he's
gonna be the guy and Ben take you know, he
was a rookie UM and rookies or rookies, you know,
(37:03):
it's very difficult for you to figure things out early.
But he ended up getting hurt in the preseason game
and there was no question of what it was going
to be going forward. And you guys all remember, you know,
two thousand and ten against the Indianapolis Colts, first game
of the season, goes to two hundred and thirty one
yards and everybody once that point it just solidified, Like
(37:24):
for me personally, as I'm walking off the field, you know,
waving at fans and smiling and cheeseing because we just did,
you know, such a great job against the team that
historically the Texans struggled with, and we literally beat him up.
You mentioned Vante Leach earlier picking on guys, picking on
other grow men. That was really fun. But I thought
to myself, I made the right choice. There was no
question in my mind. I made the right choice. I'm
(37:46):
here like for this, like I went. So it was cool,
but you know, to your your original question, like it was,
it was a really fun experience to be part of
those Texans teams through the through the good and the
bad ups and and that hounds, the injuries. You know,
we had a team that was a caliber of a
super Bowl champion and we didn't get there, but we
(38:07):
had that. We had the components on the roster, and
we had the culture in the in the locker room
and the coaching staff and you look, now there's a
lot of coaches that were on that coaching staff or
that was there, and you know that was part of
developing you know, so we got to that point that
are leading teams to lots of success to this day.
(38:29):
And so we had something special there and it was
cool to be part of. Sure is it's a great
point you bring up about that. If you want to
call it a Gary Kubiak coaching tree, that's that's been
a fruitful tree as as we've seen over the last
few years. All right, we got to wrap this up.
But you mentioned some of the guys you've kept in
touch with, Travis Johnson, you did the radio show with.
But you know, if there's a spectrum of guys who
(38:51):
are very very connected to their old teammates and guys
who are kind of out there in the wilderness, you're
very much on this end of the spectrum. You you
keep in touch with a lot of guys who are
some of your best buddies that you still talk with
that you played with. Um, so we got we have
a fantasy football m a washed up fantasy football league
that we have right when it's like myself, Arian hold
(39:13):
On and you say Arian and that was a big
point of contention for him when he was a player.
But now he's playing fantasy football. It's delicious. I love it,
no question about it. Like listen, NFL knows what they're doing.
They're talking about marketing their product. Fantasy football has changed
the game and just grown the game exponentially because it
gives you reason to watch every single game. You know
(39:36):
there because you know, you you build a team out
of so many different players from so many different teams,
you have best of interest in watching what happened, so
but yeah, it was you know myself, it's myself, Arian Um,
Antoine call Well, Eric Winston, m Kevin Walters. Who else
is on their Garrett Graham like, there's there's very Brian Harris,
(39:58):
Travis Johnson, bunch of guys Um, Chris Meyers. I think
I said, I don't know, but there's a bunch of
guys that are former players for the Texans that are
part of that fantasy football. So I keep up with
those those guys that way. I keep up with Ben Jones,
a lot of the offensive line. We have our own,
you know group chats. You know, Brandon Brooks, Ben Jones,
Dwayne Brown, Chris Myers, Um. A lot of those guys
(40:21):
are keep in touch with. And then there's guys that
I keep in touch with because I'm part of the
you know, the legends community for the Texans where we
weren't never we weren't, we weren't ever teammates together, but
we keep up with each other. Like Travis Johnson, we
never crossed pass even though we have the same birthday
with one of your part you know, I never I
never played on the same team as Travis Johnson. My
(40:42):
first year with the Texans, he was with the San
Diego Chargers and we were playing against each other. But
you know, Travis and I'm just a bunch of guys that,
you know, kind of random guys. Chris White, you know,
Chris White coaches youth footballball with me. Um. You know,
you know, people might know him as Catfish, Jack and Catfish.
(41:03):
But yeah, right guard? Right? Or did he play Yeah,
Fish played guard? He played guard. Yeah, he was ever
a starter so for the Texans, so you know, he
had to play the interior, so he played center and guard.
But yeah, he coaches with me, so I see him.
I see him probably more than any other form of
Texans because we were on the same coach and staff.
That's pretty cool. We're gonna need to do this again
(41:24):
because there's a lot more digging that i'd like to
I have about fifty sixty questions from stuff you just
brought up that I'd like to go further into. But
this is kind of like the baseline introductory where are
they now? But it's always fun talking with you. I
love bringing up some of the fun stuff from the past,
and it's cool to see all the fun stuff you're
doing and productive stuff and meaningful things that you're doing
(41:47):
in the in the world. So thanks so much for
the time. Man. You want to do this again, well,
of course, Man. I appreciate you having me. Man, I'm
enjoying it. Shout out to my Lake Collins Wildcats and
go Texans man, Sir Wade Smith, where are they now?
It's always fun to talk with Wade Smith. And Wade,
you played for the Texans for a while, you were
a pro bowler, you played in the league for over
a decade. You come on Texans Extra Points, Texans three sixty. Here,
you're on the radio Sports Radio six ten, but you've
never done or Where Are They Now? Podcast? And first
things first, it's great to see it and great to
(00:21):
be with you. How are you these days? I'm doing
good man, looking forward to chopping up kind of where
I am now in life, in how it's kind of
interacts with the Texans organization and interacts with the city
of Houston. Let's talk about it, because, like I mentioned,
you're on a lot of our shows. We talked football.
When you're on with us, we never really talk about you. So, Wade,
(00:43):
your final year in Houston was twenty thirteen. You went
to Philadelphia for twenty fourteen. But what have you been
doing since football playing has been finished? A lot of stuff, Man,
I tell people all the time. Once I've retired, my life,
I really got busy. You really got hectic. Definitely. My
schedule was um there was more on my plate just
(01:03):
because I had more freedom to do what I wanted
to do, and there's a lot of things that I
what I like to do and want to do, and
so um, you know, whether it's coaching youth football here
for local team, the Siena Stallions. I've been doing that
since two thousand and I believe sixteen was the first
year we did that, started with the flag team and
now they've already graduated and seniors and going to there
(01:27):
in middle school. They'll be in high school in a
couple of years. But coaching youth football, UM mentioned it
before doing radio with Sports Radio sixteen on a consistent basis.
You know, at one point I had my own show
with Travis Johnson, another former Texans guy that is great
candidate for where are they now? You know still, you
(01:50):
know I actually be on there, you know this week
Sports Radio sixten doing that thing and talking ball with
with with the people of Houston. My foundation, Wastements Foundation,
you know, we started in two thousand and twelve. M
we've been doing that since then. It's going on. This
is the tenth year of it being in existence. And
the various programs we have throughout the city of Houston
(02:12):
the state of Texas that have to do with childhood literacy,
the education from our scholarship program that we have going
on that we've we've given out, um right, around two
hundred thousand dollars in scholarships since it's in session, a
lot of stuff. Dad being dad, you know, just um
that that's a big deal. I have four daughters, you know, husband, Um,
(02:34):
you know, my two oldest daughters are played club volleyball,
and so there's a lot of travel that goes along
with that. M definitely been really really busy since I've
retired from them. Well, yeah, I know. Every time you
come on one of our shows, which is about once
a month, once every six weeks, the question is, well,
(02:55):
where are you off to next? Because you mentioned your
daughters are such great athletes, great volleyball play, and you've
pretty much criss crossed the nation going to tournaments and whatnot,
and it's always fun to hear where your next journey is.
I want to talk about the foundation though you mentioned
do a lot of different things, but one of the
coolest things I think you do is you read to
the kids. You go out on a regular basis and
(03:17):
you bring some of your pals from from all walks
of life to read to some of these kiddos, and
you really are on the forefront of attacking illiteracy and
you're a big, big proponent of reading books and I
love it. So it's so much fun to see yeah,
reading with the pros. It's a program that started back
in two and twelve and started, you know, while I
(03:37):
was still playing for the Texans, and I had guys
like Arian Foster and Ben Taid and Matt Shop and
you know, Chris Myers, Dwayne Brown, a lot of those
names that you know, we strapped it up and played
for the Texans um and you saw on Sundays, those
guys on Tuesdays would come and come with me to
go read to kids around the city of Houston, traveled
(04:00):
with me to go read the kids in Dallas at
my elementary school where I'm from. But the program just
started from the idea. First of all, I love to
read myself, and I feel like education is the ultimate
equalizer when it comes to whatever socio economic situation that
you you might start your life in, and without the
(04:22):
literacy component, you're literally fighting with one hand two hands
tied behind your back when you're trying to have some
type of career longevity or success in whatever field you
want to do, whether that's being an athlete, being a
you know, a teacher, a police officer, TV reporter, disc jockey,
(04:45):
whatever it may be, a doctor, lawy, or whatever. Any
career you have to have that that literacy component. And
I always loved to read since I was a little kid.
Like I love reading books. I grew up in a
situation to where I didn't really have opportunities to go
travel all over the country and and go through things
like that. But I could open up a book and
(05:08):
it could take me wherever I wanted to go. I
could be an astro night, I could be, you know,
my favorite sports star. I could be a detective, I
could be you know whatever I wanted to be, open
it up and reading it and that imagination and that
creativity that that reading brings to young people. UM, I
just wanted to share my love for that and share
(05:29):
that passion for reading with kids that I'm able to
come across. And you know, with the platform that I
that I've been able to get to by being an
NFL player. When an NFL player tells a kid it's
cool to read books, it has a little bit more
weight to it than when a teacher does, and a
teacher they're there on a day to day basis, just
(05:49):
like you know my kids, Um, even though I'm the
NFL player, I'm still just dad to them, or you're
still you're a teacher at the elementary school is just
a teacher that you know, missus, missus Krabapple, that's always
there every day. And so it's different when you have,
you know, somebody that you see on TV, or somebody
that you listen to on the radio, or somebody that
that um, you know might be a firefighter or some
(06:13):
type of professional in whatever realm it may be telling you, Hey,
reading books has helped me achieve what I've been able
to achieve in life, and without that, it's going to
be very difficult for you to do so. And so
we've gone to I don't know, somewhere around eighty to
one hundred elementary schools since we started, and we've reached
(06:35):
out to and and positively affected thousands upon thousands, tens
of thousands of of of elementary school kids throughout the country,
mainly here in the state of Texas, mainly in the
city of Houston, but throughout this country, and so very
proud of that impact that we've been able to make
and just sharing that love for reading, because any any
(06:58):
kid that might be an assembly, will we're talking to
the kids, or where we're going to actual classroom and
reading to the kids. Any kids that that can have
that aha moment like well, I see somebody on that stage,
or I see somebody talk to me that looks like me,
or that has a similar experiences me in life and
they're telling me this is a good thing. Hey, maybe
there's something not should try and do. And when they
(07:20):
do it and they have success, it's just it's life changing.
And so it just really happy with with how that
program is gone. We've had to adjust due to COVID
and you know, some of our our appearances are virtual.
You know, we've had virtual reading with the pros where
I've had guys. It's been pretty cool too because I've
had guys all over the country participate. But you know,
(07:40):
I have you know, Ben Jones participated. You know, he
plays for the Tennessee Titans. He's in Nashville. Um, but
what book did he read it? I can't remember. I
can't remember whatever it was. He nailed it. Yeah, yeah,
like Ben Jones is uh, you know, Salt of the Earth,
one of my favorite people that I've come across in
(08:02):
this league and just in life period. And you know,
I just reached out to him. He was like, yeah,
of course, man, He's done those Reading with the Pros
events in person when he was still here with the Texans.
But he's still somebody that you know, he's in Nashville,
He's got people all over the country. Chris Myers did
it as well. Chris Myers is living in Philadelphia right now.
You know, he did reading with the Pros as well.
So we had guys from all over the country participating
(08:25):
reading with the Pros. So it's just because of the
pandemic and because of you know, not necessarily having as
much access into schools as we did in the past,
we've had to adjust. But it's just there's always a
silver lining with anything. Because getting Chris Myers and Ben
Jones to come down and here to Houston for reading
with the Pros is not a you know, a realist proposition,
but when you say we can do a zoom call,
(08:47):
it worked out that way. So it's been pretty cool.
That is awesome, And I want to talk a little
bit about some of your former teammates in just a moment.
But on top of all these things that you've done
post football, you've also written books. What's it like being
an author? It's pretty cool, man. Uh wrote a couple
of children's books. Uh As Smitty Hits the playbooks and
(09:09):
Smithy Smitty tackles bullying. And it's actually, you know, it
ties into the reading program Reading with the Pros where
I'm going to elementary schools and talking to kids about
the importance of reading and literacy, but then also taking
the next step and saying like, hey, I'm not just
reading books, I'm actually writing books myself and writing stories
and telling them kind of explaining to them the process
(09:31):
of writing a story and writing a book and how
they could actually be authors themselves. And I've had students,
you know, we've had competitions to where we've had students
write their own stories and turn them into us UM
you know, as part of our Reading with the Pros program.
So it's just an additional UM tool and asset that
(09:53):
you can utilize to to incentivize and to inspire kids
to to love reading and to take that next step
of writing and showing and being able to have a
tangible example of like, hey, this is this is this
is my book that I wrote. This is something that
you know occurred in my life that I think can
(10:13):
translate and help you, um, going forward. And I think
that's the that's kind of the crux of it is like, hey,
you know, my my my thing now post retirement is
say how many opportunities cannot create for others? For a
lot of people that create opportunities for me? So how
can I do that? Um, you know, create opportunities for others?
And you know, ninety eight percent of the elementary schools
(10:36):
that we go to, our schools that are in lower
socioeconomic situations where these are kids are not that don't
have as much access to everything as maybe other kids do.
And so um, you know, those those are the places
where the wastementh Foundation and where you can find me
that's those are the places that we go and those
are the kids that we really want to tap into
(10:58):
a reach out to because um, it's needed. Yeah. Hitting
the decade mark now on the Wade Smith Foundation, that's
fantastic stuff. Everything you've been doing. So let's rewind. You
grew up in the Dallas area. You went to Lake Highlands,
which if you've seen this or listen to this podcast.
We had another Lake Highlands Wildcat and former Houston Texans
(11:19):
in Marcus Coleman on Everywhere. Yeah, and he pointed out,
he said when he was in the league, there was
a point when he was in the league, I think
that Lake Highlands had more alumni than any other high
school in American League because he had you two, you
had Phil Dawson, the kicker who went on to Texas.
You had all sorts of sorts of guys. You go
way back, and you know, there's Merton Hanks, the guy
(11:41):
with the basically the rubber neck. There's been lots of
great football players that have come out of that program.
And you and I have discussed this. I went to
SMU in Dallas. I'm from here, but I went to
SMU and my roommate that freshman year was a Lake
Highlands Wildcat. He had played football for coach to Pudo,
and right across the hall were two of his former teammates.
So I sort of knew about it, kind of as
(12:02):
a secondhand, uh, secondhand smoke type of guy. But how
much pride you take it being from there being a
Wildcat and you know, kind of staying in touch with
some of them. A great deal man like that that neighborhood. Um.
Growing up with the people that I grew up with,
I think helped shape you know, who I am today. Um.
(12:22):
The team moms that help you know, make you know,
lunches and stuff for us and snacks for us before
the games, and being able to go to some of
their houses, um and kind of seeing like wow, like
you know, people actually live like this and seeing something
that hey, I want you know for myself too. Um.
You know people don't realize this, but you know, the
(12:43):
Dallas Cowboys used to have a facility not too far
like in Lake Cottons area, right, So a lot of
the players settled in that that area. This is like
the seventies Cowboys, right when it's like uh, you know
Roger Styback and all of those type of when they
were winning Super Bowls on a consistent base in the
seventies during that run, their facility was literally in Lake Highlands,
(13:04):
and so a lot of those players settled there. They
had kids. Those kids ended up being my contemporaries. So
like uh, you know Robert Assuming, Robert Newhouse, and Bob Bruney.
These are guys that are former Cowboys players their kids.
I grew up with, you know, Reggie Newhouse and I
graduated the same year he went to Baylor, broke all
(13:25):
these receiving records, played in the NFL. He's one of
those guys that was one of the Lake Highlands players
that UM, you know, was in the league at the
same time when we led the NFL in that stat
But that neighborhood was diverse, you know, in a lot
of ways. There were a lot of there was a
lot of people that lived in apartments in that in
(13:45):
that area, UM, and there was lots of people that
lived in kind of nice neighborhoods, kind of like the
one I live in now. And there were all different
types of people. But we all went to that same
high school, UM, and that football program was kind of
a beacon to the higher area. And and it was
it was a lot of, you know, us against the
(14:06):
world kind of mentality because we were Lake Hollins High School.
We were in inside of Dallas city limits, but we
were in a different school district, were in Richardson Independent
School District, but we were it was just Lake Collins
was the city of its own. Basically, we took pride
in that in you know, the different traditions that we had,
and and it's cool that it's still going on today.
(14:29):
I mean, like Lake Collins High School is still um
being very successful in all their sports and very successful academically.
Like Lake Collins. It's not just sports. It's like you
know TV, there's actresses. Like if you if you google
Lake Collins High School and look at notable alumni, like
I'm number like forty on the list. If I made
(14:50):
the top forty, then you know, congrats, you made it.
But there's a lot of a lot of really talented
people that come from that that neighborhood and went to
that high schoo Yeah, and a little note out there
to those of you listening or watching if you ever
want to get Wade Smith's dander up to say, oh,
you went to Lake Hillands, you're from Richardson, because I
(15:10):
did that one time and you're like, yeah, from Dallas.
It was funny because you know, when we be in
the playoffs, you know, the Dallas Morning News is a
local newspaper, which is like the Houston Chronicle here, and
when we'd be early on in the playoffs, we're Richardson,
Lake Hillands Richardson, Lake Higlands, Richardson Lake Hillins for the
first few rounds. Once we get to the fourth, fifth round,
(15:31):
when we're competing against people in the state, all of
a sudden, now we're just Lake Highlands over Dallas Lake Collins,
you know, and so it was like come on. There
was always you know, we were we were kind of
in in in the middle, like in the middle of
you know a school. Richardson Independent School District is one
of the more prestigious academically school districts for sure in
(15:54):
the Dallas area, at least it was when I was there,
right and you know, there was there was there was
resentment on both sides of that because we drew from
the talent pool from kids from Dallas, but we had
the academics from you know, a suburban school district, and
so it was a melting pot of a lot of
(16:16):
great athletes and great academic you know at great students.
It was a perfect, you know, melting pot of what
a student athlete should be. And so because of that,
we were very successful in a lot of different areas
when it came to sports and academics. When you're competing
with other kids around the city and around, no doubt,
and you go on to Memphis after that's where you
(16:38):
play your college ball. You were mainly a tight end
I think in high school, and you started as a
tight end in college and got moved to the offensive line.
Helped me out. Am I writing that is it is
that partially write what's the story there? Now you're you're
absolutely correct. I was. I was a tight end in
the wishbone at Lake Collins wishbone offense. Um I was.
I was offered by multiple schools, but I ended up
(17:03):
signing with the University of Memphis in two thousand and
excuse me in nineteen ninety nine. And so my first
two years in college I played as a true freshman.
I played as a true sophomore at tight end, tight end,
h back. I was kind of like if you think
back to the old you know, the Texans when I
was there, I'd be like, I was like Joel Greeson
(17:24):
and offense, I wasn't the number one tight end, but
I was a number two tight end. Sometimes they moved
me around in motion, run a little routes, mainly a blocker.
That was kind of my role in that office, and
ran a similar type of offense is what the Texans
did kind of back in that time, that kind of
single back offense. Well, what happened was was, this was
(17:45):
in two thousand and two thousand and one, the spread
offense started to become a thing in college sports, and
so we were going to transition to the spread offense,
and in the spread offense, the tight end was going
to get maybe fifteen twenty snaps again. And my head
coach at the time, Tommy West, said, hey, we want
you to play. You're going to play one of our
(18:06):
best players. You can move to defensive line and play
fifty sixty snaps a game, or you can stay on
offense and play offensive line and play every snap on offense.
But tight end is really not going to be positioned
for you because you know, we're barely going to use it,
and we need you on the field. We need you
(18:27):
to play. And at that time, you know, mind you
my first two years I was like Joel Greeson. But
then the next two years I expected I was going
to be On Daniels. I was going to be a
man because the guy that was the number one tight
end went to the NFL. So it's like, okay, it's
my turn now. Right to take over and be the man.
And so my first thought was like, man, am I
gonna have to transfer? And it's not like now where
(18:49):
you transfer you can play the same year. If you
transfer back, then you have to transfer sit out a year.
You know, it was. It was a whole deal. So
Tommy West tells me in that meeting, he says, this
is right before spring break. He says, go home, talk
about it with your mom, but come back, talk about
it with your parents. But come back, please come back.
Don't give us a chance. And so you know, I
(19:12):
end up talking to my roommate at the time. His
name is jamm Ugh, who is our starting center, and
he said to me and he said, man, I said, man,
they're trying to move me to the offensive line or defense.
I said, bro, play offensive line. You're gonna love like
you You're gonna love it. And this is my best friend,
you know, great dude on the team, one of our
best players on the team. He's telling me you would
be good at this, and it kind of hit me differently.
(19:34):
I said, you know what, let me give it a shot.
After the first practice, after the first day of meetings
and practice, I was like, yeah, this aroundabout way. I've
always been offensive line. I played a tight end in
the wishbone, which means my senior year I called I
think three passes my tired senior year. But I led
the team in pancake blocks. It's a tight end in
the wishbone, right, you know. I went to I went
(19:57):
to Memphis. My first two years, I was lining up
at fullback and leave block, and I was the point
of attack on a lot of runs. You know, as
a tight end. I was basically a glorified offensive linem
and it's like, all right, let's stop messing around with
it and make it real. And so that's what I
ended up doing, and it worked out well for me.
Tommy West told me in that meeting, he said, if
you moved offensive line in two years, you'll come out
(20:20):
of the draft and you'll be one one of the
most or the most athletic guy in the draft, and
you're playing the league for ten years. And he was right.
I was one of the most athletic guys as an
offensive linement in the draft and I played for twelve
So yeah, you know, Tommy West, he kind of saw
something in me that I hadn't ever even contemplated and
thought was the possibility, but he did and I brought
(20:42):
in and it worked out well. So how quickly in
your mind after the switch positions did the NFL become
a reality? Because you hear, we just heard what your
coach said, But you know, how quickly did that stick
with you? Like, hey, I've got a shot here because
I'm guessing you thought you probably had a shot as
a tight end, but I did. I did so my
first two years in the league after seeing some of
(21:04):
the guys that I was playing against every day and
practice and playing against, you know, on the field, you know,
in competition. Because going when I went to the University
of Memphis, my thought wasn't I'm going to the NFL.
My thought was, I'm going to school for free. If
I didn't have the scholarship, I probably wouldn't be going
to college because my mom parents didn't have the money
to send me away to school like that. So I
(21:26):
was like, hey, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity,
do well in school, get my degree, and go start
a business. That was my thought process. But then after
I started playing and competing with guys, I was like, man,
you know, I'm just as good as that person, or
I'm better than that person. Maybe I can maybe this
NFL thing is actual reality. And I thought that was
(21:46):
going to be as a tight end. Then there was
a little you know, a monkey ridge thrown in the
deal with the position change. But once I changed positions,
and you know, I took my technique and stuff as
an offensive on my offensive line coaches Rick Mallory, I
kind of picked up, you know, the technique and stuff
well as being a pass protector, which is different as
(22:08):
a tight end and it is as a as an
offensive tackle. Um, I figured, you know, I can do this.
I saw some of the guys that I was going
against playing against, and then they're making it to the
NFL's they can make it to the NFL. I can too.
So it was pretty quickly. But I would say this,
you know, after my junior year, my draft grade was
like undrafted or seventh round, and they had the blessed
(22:29):
Though grading system. I don't know if they have still,
but you know, my bless though grade was going into
my senior year was seventh round at the highest D
and undrafted. UM. But what happened was is, you know,
from the period of you know, I played my senior
year and from the period of you know, the end
of my senior year to the to the combine, I
(22:50):
gained twenty six pounds. Mind you, I was a tight end.
It was winning two hundred and thirty five two forty
my first two years in school. When I when I
changed to tackle, playing right tackle I played, I weighed
two sixty five and then my senior I weigh two
seventy playing tackle and so offensive line in the NFL.
If it was the seventies, I would have fit in
perfectly fine. But this is two thousand and three. He's
(23:11):
not gonnat me have two hundred and seventy pounds, you know,
offensive tackles, And so there was a question by scouts
and this guy put on weights, put on weight, and
keep on weight. Where they didn't realize was that I
was I was a broke college student. I didn't have
money to like and stuff like that. Like it was
it was her very minimum, a lot of stuff just scraped,
scrapping and scrounging to make it. Buy off of your
(23:34):
meal plan and stuff like that. So once I graduate,
when once I finished my senior year, and then I
got an agent, and my agent was taking me out
to steak dinners. And then my future wife girlfriend at
the time, was making me meals and stuff. And she
was a basketball player in Memphis, so she had a
better meal plan than I did, so she was bringing
me Chick fil A and all this type of stuff.
(23:55):
I put on twenty six pounds and I was still
training and stuff. So all my athletsim and you know, conditioning,
all that stuff was intact. But I was eating a
lot better, training specifically, you know, to bulk up and
get big. By the time I made to the commod
I was two hundred and ninety six pounds and still
moving like a tight end. And so I ended up
getting drafted in the third round by the Miami Dolphins. Yeah,
(24:17):
and life begins in the NFL. What was that time
like there with the Fins. You move on to a
few different places before we come to Houston. But what
were those those early years the NFL pre Texans like
for you? Um? I would say that it was some definitely,
some some peaks and some valleys as my time with
the with the with the Dolphins, because you played all
(24:38):
over the line in these spots. Well, in Miami, I
played left tackle my first year started as a rookie,
started every game, All Rookie Team, Newcomer of the Year,
all the type stuff. But in that same season, I
gave up three sacks to Dwite Freeney. Um, that was
a rough day at the office. First. Yeah, I felt
(24:59):
a little bit better, like a few weeks later because
he did the same thing and Jonathan Argent on Money
Back Football, So I was like, Okay, uh, maybe maybe
I'm not as bad as I'm thinking I'm feeling, like
after getting picked on by Dwight Freeny, and throughout my career,
I ended up here in Houston eventually, and you know,
he was Dwayne Brown's new missus. Dwayne always you couldn't
(25:20):
stand him, and I firsthand understood where he's coming from.
So if you look back at some of those those
games when Freenye was over there, I wasn't helping Chris
Myers very much that that that day Chris, Chris had it.
Chris had to handle his business that owner day. I
was gonna make sure that Dwight Freeney didn't beat us,
because I know what that's like. Um So, but yeah, man,
I had some you know, peaks and Valleys had a
(25:41):
coaching change. Um, you know, I was starting my first year,
first couple of games in my second year, got bench.
Then we had a coaching change in the middle of
the season. I thought I was gonna be back starting
again that that season, but didn't work out that way.
So Nick Saban comes in as the head coach. I
think at that time it really changed the trajectory of
(26:05):
my career because Hudson Howk came in as an offensive
line coach, which Huston Hawk is is. Howk is like
one of the top I don't know five offensive line
coaches in the history of the game. He coached the
Cowboys offensive lines back and then you know it was
the nineties Cowboys with Emmitt Smith and all those. He
was a coach there, great coach Jackie Slater back in
(26:26):
the day with the Rams when it was Eric Dickerston.
So like Hudson Howk was a was a legend. And
so he came to Miami and he said, you know,
I think you could be a Pro Bowl center in
the NFL. And so I think he said, I think
you could play tackle. I think you played guard, but
I think you could be a Pro Bowl center in
the NFL. And so he said, I want to try
(26:48):
you out of the center, and so by me playing
center when they got there. If you play center and
you're on the team, you have to play guard as well.
You have to be able to go from back and
forth between the two. Plus I already had my background
and playing tame for the first you know, a few years,
the first couple of years in my career in the league.
That made me extremely versatile as a player. My intelligence
(27:12):
and understanding of understanding the game. I got it from
an even bigger perspective now because I'm the center. I'm
the one making calls, directing a line of scrimmage, all
that type of stuff. That helped me for the remainder
of my career. It gave me opportunity. Once I was
released by the Dolphins the following like in two thousand
and six, so not that season that Taman came, but
(27:32):
the second season he was there. I was released the
next week. I was picked up by the New York Jets.
I was there for two years. I was the first
guy off the bench there, so in other words, like
I was the six man, so I could play every
spot along the line, and that made me valuable for
the team. Because hey, if somebody went down and plugged
me in, and I was good to go because I
had that background of playing center and guard with the
(27:54):
Dolphins those two years and then also playing tackle and
starting in the NFL and having some success. So that
helped me tremendously there. Then I you know, next two years,
I was with the Kanna City Chiefs. Started half of
my games there at guard, and then had a lot
of success there just personally the team. We didn't have
(28:15):
as much team success, but personally I got an opportunity
to really play and get a lot of film out there.
And then you know, I was a free agent and
there was a bunch of teams calling, a bunch of
teams that you know, I went on a visit to
the Buffalo Bills, where I'm a visit to Houston. Here
in Houston, I went on a visit to the Arizona Cardinals,
and I still had Kansas City calling me, and so
(28:35):
I made a decision, which which ended up being a
great decision for me and my family, was to choose
the Houston Texans and kind of the rest is history. Yeah,
I actually think I was in the cafeteria the day
that you were visiting during free agency. I could be
wrong on that, but I think you were there so
money aside, Why did you choose the Texans? What was
(28:56):
so attractive about this place? There was a lot of things. Man.
For one, the season before they were nine in seven. UM,
they were nine in seven, and the big the kind
of the narrative for the Texans at the time was
they weren't physical enough up front. Like they couldn't run
the ball on a consistent basis. They weren't physical. They
(29:17):
had they had a good quarterback. They had Andre Johnson.
They had a good quarterback and throw the ball all
over the yard Andre Johnson receiver. UM, they had a
historically you know, they had coach Kubiak is you know,
the play caller, the head coach and play caller. But
they weren't physical enough up front. And kind of what
I hung my hat on UM when I was in
(29:39):
Kansas City UM, and I think being around a guy
like Brian Waters, who was a guard UM with the
Chiefs for a long long time. UM went to multiple
Pro Bowls, all Pro UM. He was part of that
that kN City Chiefs offensive line that had like print
priests homes and those guys they had one of the
better offensive Linds Hole and um Will Shields and some
(30:02):
of those guys on that line. He was part of
that line when I got around him. Like competing not
just with the guys across from you, but competing with
the guys in the same room as you took another level.
Like if I saw b Dub put somebody on their back,
I wanted to put somebody on the back because I
(30:23):
wanted you know, it was just it was a it
was a friendly competition, and we were taking it out
on the opponents, and so we had we had our
own little um competition that like money was involved, like hey,
if you know, the more knockdowns you get, you know,
you win the pot at the end of that week.
And so you know, being physical was kind of like
(30:44):
that was that was law in that offensive line room.
And so that kind of fit like, oh, these guys
are missing physicality and sentivizing, like putting people on their
back and being physical fund and running the ball. Oh,
this is a great fit to me. Now that's one
side of it. Then it was Texas, it was it
was I'm from Dallas. Um I knew that my parents
(31:05):
are going to be able to come to every game,
which they did um for four years. My mom was at,
if not ninety five percent of the games, ninety percent
of the game she was there. Um And and then
you know, it's Texas. Like a lot of people, I'm
from Dallas, people from Houston. It's like, oh, you know,
(31:26):
two different worlds. It's not when you leave Texas and
not people ask you are you from? Are you where
are you from? I'm from Dallas or I'm from Houston.
We came from Houston. Oh you're from Texas. Okay, So
either they loved you because you're from Texas or they
ate you because it's from Texas. But it's all the same.
You know. There is no oh, well you're from Dallas
so you're cool, or you're from Dallas so you're not cool.
(31:47):
For people that are outside. Now you got the in
state rivalry, I get it, but hey, it was the
opportunity for me to come home and play football for
a team that was nine and seven that was literally
a tiebreaker away from going to the playoffs. So catching
them on up it was a new franchise because I
remember playing them my rookie year and getting beat by
(32:07):
them who was my my and Andre Johnson's first game.
You know, I was starting to left tackle. He was
a receiver and pretty I think if I remember, he
had a really good day at the office against us.
When I was with Miami, he almost always did against
the Dolphins because yeah, from there, yeah, yeah, no question,
and so yeah, like, uh, you know, I thought to myself,
(32:28):
this is a young franchise. Um, it's from the it's
from the house there, you know, from the from the crib.
I'm I'm going there. The contract is right, everything is right.
You know, it's gonna be a perfect fit. And and
it ended up ended up working out that way. Yeah,
you get there, and two thousand and ten is your
first year. Aaron Foster goes off for sixteen hundred on
(32:48):
the ground. He also catches six hundred yards worth the passes.
You guys are able to run the ball really, really well.
Vante Leach also makes the Pro Bowl at fullback. In
twenty eleven. You're there for the playoff season. You get
another thousand yards out of Arian Foster. Ben take goes
over nine hundred yards as well. Easily the two best
(33:09):
offensive lines in Texans history. There's some movement the next
year on the right side, but twenty twelve, you guys
go back to the playoffs again. You finally get a
Pro Bowl selection. Should have gotten one in ten and
eleven as well, but that's kind of how the Pro
Bowl works. You get recognized after doing great things those
first few years. But how much fun was it once
(33:29):
you got here? I know, ten as a team doesn't
go well. Six and ten is the record, but there
were some problems on the defensive side of the ball,
and then Wade Phillips comes in and he helps fix
things and you guys take off. But when was that like?
Those years? Going to the playoffs the first time around
and then starting out eleven and one the next year.
It was a lot of fun, man, It was a
(33:50):
lot of hard work. It was it was I loved
coming to work every day, like you love the camaraderie
that we had in that locker room. UM. There was
a lot of trust from one another. There was a
lot of UM. The whole idea of next man up.
That was the twenty eleventh season. We had so many
guys that missed so many games that year and we
(34:10):
still had a tremendous amount of success that that was
cool to be a part of. UM. The the buzz
in the city of Houston was crazy, Like the fans
were so invested in in our team and what we
were able to do. Um, those those those milestones that
(34:30):
we were able to achieve that had not been done
before Enfranchise history. It was cool to be a part
of that and being like an important key, like an
important cog and help of making that happen. Um, that
was cool. Like you mentioned twenty and ten, the year before,
people are talking about how this offensive line is so soft,
and then the following year, you know, you come in,
(34:51):
you come in, there was only one change on the
offensive line. It was me. You know, I came in
there and it wasn't like I was all world or
anything like that. But I I think that my mentality
helped the group overall and just that whole competition amongst
each other and you know, going out and trying to
(35:14):
dominate and humiliate whoever's across from you. That mentality it
led to sixteen hundred yards by undrafted running back. You know,
and Arian Foster was really cool because you know, training
camp of twenty ten, you hear about, Yeah, we got
this running back named Arian Foster, and I Kakina heard
about him a little bit when he was at Tennessee,
(35:36):
but do you really know much about him, But he
was like he had last year that people were there
was little whispers like, you know, last year he had
a couple of good games in the year. He's gonna
be good. But then we drafted Ben take the second
round round. So we're thinking Ben Tate's going to be
the guy I Foster's gonna get some carriages to Steve
Slayton was still there, who had a thousand yards. Yeah,
(35:56):
people were acting like the Steve Slayton two thousand and
nine years was of a hiccup and he'd be back.
You'd seen in two thousand and eight. So it was
almost an afterthought to the general public. But you're obviously
saw a little something different than you. Right when we're
in training camp, you're seeing you know, you're watching nine
on seven on film and you're seeing the vision. You're
(36:18):
seeing the patients, the burst bellers put his foot in
the ground and getting north and south. Uh. You know,
Arian is really a guy that really loves art. Like
he played the game like like like it was like jazz.
It was poetic just watching them watching the game. There's
a lot of physicality, a lot of um. You know,
you know, there's a lot of physicality to this this
(36:41):
this sport, but he had he just was poetry in motion. Man,
he was just a smooth running back at great vision um.
And you saw that early on in training camp. He
saw that in OTA's like, man, I mean, Arian gonna
be the guy. And it's like you could tell he's
gonna be the guy and Ben take you know, he
was a rookie UM and rookies or rookies, you know,
(37:03):
it's very difficult for you to figure things out early.
But he ended up getting hurt in the preseason game
and there was no question of what it was going
to be going forward. And you guys all remember, you know,
two thousand and ten against the Indianapolis Colts, first game
of the season, goes to two hundred and thirty one
yards and everybody once that point it just solidified, Like
(37:24):
for me personally, as I'm walking off the field, you know,
waving at fans and smiling and cheeseing because we just did,
you know, such a great job against the team that
historically the Texans struggled with, and we literally beat him up.
You mentioned Vante Leach earlier picking on guys, picking on
other grow men. That was really fun. But I thought
to myself, I made the right choice. There was no
question in my mind. I made the right choice. I'm
(37:46):
here like for this, like I went. So it was cool,
but you know, to your your original question, like it was,
it was a really fun experience to be part of
those Texans teams through the through the good and the
bad ups and and that hounds, the injuries. You know,
we had a team that was a caliber of a
super Bowl champion and we didn't get there, but we
(38:07):
had that. We had the components on the roster, and
we had the culture in the in the locker room
and the coaching staff and you look, now there's a
lot of coaches that were on that coaching staff or
that was there, and you know that was part of
developing you know, so we got to that point that
are leading teams to lots of success to this day.
(38:29):
And so we had something special there and it was
cool to be part of. Sure is it's a great
point you bring up about that. If you want to
call it a Gary Kubiak coaching tree, that's that's been
a fruitful tree as as we've seen over the last
few years. All right, we got to wrap this up.
But you mentioned some of the guys you've kept in
touch with, Travis Johnson, you did the radio show with.
But you know, if there's a spectrum of guys who
(38:51):
are very very connected to their old teammates and guys
who are kind of out there in the wilderness, you're
very much on this end of the spectrum. You you
keep in touch with a lot of guys who are
some of your best buddies that you still talk with
that you played with. Um, so we got we have
a fantasy football m a washed up fantasy football league
that we have right when it's like myself, Arian hold
(39:13):
On and you say Arian and that was a big
point of contention for him when he was a player.
But now he's playing fantasy football. It's delicious. I love it,
no question about it. Like listen, NFL knows what they're doing.
They're talking about marketing their product. Fantasy football has changed
the game and just grown the game exponentially because it
gives you reason to watch every single game. You know
(39:36):
there because you know, you you build a team out
of so many different players from so many different teams,
you have best of interest in watching what happened, so
but yeah, it was you know myself, it's myself, Arian Um,
Antoine call Well, Eric Winston, m Kevin Walters. Who else
is on their Garrett Graham like, there's there's very Brian Harris,
(39:58):
Travis Johnson, bunch of guys Um, Chris Meyers. I think
I said, I don't know, but there's a bunch of
guys that are former players for the Texans that are
part of that fantasy football. So I keep up with
those those guys that way. I keep up with Ben Jones,
a lot of the offensive line. We have our own,
you know group chats. You know, Brandon Brooks, Ben Jones,
Dwayne Brown, Chris Myers, Um. A lot of those guys
(40:21):
are keep in touch with. And then there's guys that
I keep in touch with because I'm part of the
you know, the legends community for the Texans where we
weren't never we weren't, we weren't ever teammates together, but
we keep up with each other. Like Travis Johnson, we
never crossed pass even though we have the same birthday
with one of your part you know, I never I
never played on the same team as Travis Johnson. My
(40:42):
first year with the Texans, he was with the San
Diego Chargers and we were playing against each other. But
you know, Travis and I'm just a bunch of guys that,
you know, kind of random guys. Chris White, you know,
Chris White coaches youth footballball with me. Um. You know,
you know, people might know him as Catfish, Jack and Catfish.
(41:03):
But yeah, right guard? Right? Or did he play Yeah,
Fish played guard? He played guard. Yeah, he was ever
a starter so for the Texans, so you know, he
had to play the interior, so he played center and guard.
But yeah, he coaches with me, so I see him.
I see him probably more than any other form of
Texans because we were on the same coach and staff.
That's pretty cool. We're gonna need to do this again
(41:24):
because there's a lot more digging that i'd like to
I have about fifty sixty questions from stuff you just
brought up that I'd like to go further into. But
this is kind of like the baseline introductory where are
they now? But it's always fun talking with you. I
love bringing up some of the fun stuff from the past,
and it's cool to see all the fun stuff you're
doing and productive stuff and meaningful things that you're doing
(41:47):
in the in the world. So thanks so much for
the time. Man. You want to do this again, well,
of course, Man. I appreciate you having me. Man, I'm
enjoying it. Shout out to my Lake Collins Wildcats and
go Texans man, Sir Wade Smith, where are they now?
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