October 31, 2025 • 20 mins
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Curtis Robinson joined “You’ve Got Mail” presented by Delta Dental to discuss what it means to be the team’s reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, his approach to leadership, and shares his hot takes while answering fan questions.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, faithfool, I'm sitting down with Curtis Robinson. Curtis, thanks
for joining me today. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Appreciate you having me?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, awesome. I'm looking forward to our chat. This is
your third time on You've Got Mail, but your first
time as the forty nine Ers Walter Payton Man of
the Year nominee. It's been ten months since you were nominated.
How have those ten months been representing the forty nine ers?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's been amazing. I've spoken on it before. I really
do love representative organization, not only for myself, but for
my mom specifically. She's from here and grew up a
diehard Niners fan. So for me to be able to
represent an organization in general is a blessing, but to
have that title and that honor is even more of
a blessing.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So I don't take it for granted at all.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I know. Since you've become Walter Payton Man of the
Year nominee for the forty nine Ers, you focused a
lot of your efforts on Mobilized Love, which, for those
who don't know, Mobilized Love is basically this organization that
puts resources on trucks and goes out into the Bay Area,
into the underserved communities and helps out the Bay Area.
So can you tell me about your relationship with Mobilized
(01:09):
Love and how it all started.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it all started my rookie year here or Christian
who runs it. He was really close with Flann and
Disease who were here obviously, and those were like my
two best friends, and they kind of introduced me to
him just through I think it was the whole for
the Holidays event that was my first time meeting him,
and it kind of just that relationship grew over years
because we do a lot of work with him throughout
(01:31):
the year, whether it's the community Tuesdays or just kind
of stuff that he does with the organization. And yeah,
I think my mission that I had focused on was
really just bridging the gap as far as equal opportunities
concerned in the Bay Area. And he's someone that I
know that does that, like you said, with all of
his work mostly in the East Bane and the city,
and so it kind of just made perfect sense to
(01:51):
be able to collab with him when the opportunity came up.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, and that relationship brought life to the Curtis Robinson Barbershop.
Check tell me about how that came to life.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So, like I said, I already knew that they had
the truck set up, so he kind of lobbed me
with that with already having that set up. But for me,
I had focused most of my attention on education in
the past year, and for this year, I was kind
of just thinking about, like, Okay, we've done a lot
of work with a lot of the bear necessities, right,
and they handle that, whether it's food, water, shelter, shower,
(02:23):
stuff like that, and so I just kind of was
trying to brainstorm with the communit relations team to figure
out what kind of things get overlooked for low income
households and for kids who may have two or three
siblings and have to worry about school and school supplies
and all that type of stuff, something like haircuts and
school clothes or things that make it overlooked and you
may have to go do hand me downs, and again
(02:45):
you're not you're not necessarily prioritizing a haircut over certain
bear necessities. And so for me, I thought it could
be a really cool, cool opportunity to get kids the
haircuts that they need, and you know, to be able
to have them be out there with confidence at whether
it be at sports, socially in school, but then also
from a personal standpoint, like I know we take so
much pride and getting our haircut before games and stuff
(03:07):
and making sure that we look our cleanest for whether
it's the red carpet here or just when we're on
the road, And how confident that makes me feel as
an individual with the haircut. So I just want to
be able to share that with kids who may not
have the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That is so so cool and like a very intentional
gift that you're giving to the community. So I'm excited
to see the truck move around the Bay Area. That'll
be fun to see it in action. Now, your leadership
didn't start here with the forty nine ers as the
Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. It's definitely a
part of who you are. I stumbled upon a video
of you at Stanford, and in that video you talked
(03:39):
about the importance of leadership, you said on the field,
in the classroom, in the community. Where did you learn
that from, Like, who instilled those leadership qualities in you?
Is there anyone you looked up to throughout your life?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I mean, growing up. Obviously my parents.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
They both serve very different roles for me, but they
both were just excellent leaders, whether it was with than
their professional within the home. So I saw that from
a young age. But even playing football and organized sports,
I was very fortunate to go to a school like
Modern Day for High School to where I was around
the best of the best from the first day. So
(04:15):
I really saw firsthand what it was like to be
not only an elite athlete, but an elite person, an
elite leader. And even from a coaching standpoint, Bruce Rollinson
he instilled him and Leobose instilled a lot of really
really important things within me, I think at a young age,
things that still stick with me to this day.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But again, same thing with Stanford. You get to a place.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
That's run by someone like David Shaw. He's not somebody
that's gonna let little things slip through the cracks. And
I think that at the young immature age of eighteen,
I may have thought I was more mature than I was,
and he definitely took me under his wing and just
taught me what it really meant to be a leader.
And again I also had guys around me within that
program that kind of just showed me the way. So
(04:58):
it's kind of just absorbing those things throughout the year
and then finding a way to make it work with
my personality.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
But yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
When I'm hearing you talk about the way you've worked
to becoming the Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee
for the forty nine ers. You always talk about your parents,
your mom and dad, how your dad is a coach
and your mom's an education and how that's influenced you.
Just how proud are they of your status here at
the team.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I would hope they're pretty proud.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I mean, my mom, they always tell me how proud
they are, and it means a lot to me. I think,
you know, I feel like, as their child, I'm a
representation of the upbringing that they gave me. So I
just try to I try to represent them the best
way that I can, whether I'm on the forty nine
ers or just you know, being Curtis out out in
the world. It means a lot to me to be
able to represent my family in a positive way. When
(05:45):
they hear the name Robinson, I want them to think
highly of our family. And so whenever I have the
opportunity to represent my family. I do what I can
to do it in a positive way. But yeah, I
think they're pretty proud.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah that is so cool. So we've got the barber truck,
You've done hospital, it's time after time, you're in the
classroom with the kids. Where do you want to take this?
Where do you see the future of your work going to.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Be honest, I'm kind of just being where my feet
are right now. I'm really enjoying having an impact on
the Bay Area. I've been fortunate to be out here
for almost ten years now, and I really feel like
I've rooted myself within this area and I really just
want to continue to have an impact, not only the
people that I've already built relationship with relationships with, but
I want to continue building relationships with people out here,
(06:28):
whether it's South Bay, East Bay, and the city, because
I think it's a much more tight knit community than
I was aware of when I first got out here,
and I think that I want to continue on. Obviously,
with my education stuff, We're working with a group called
Driver for Change that I'm really excited to continue to
collaborate with. It's an amazing group based out of Oakland,
(06:48):
they collaborate with the ela Omday School out there. It's
a great group of kids run by a great mentors.
His name is Howard Oliver. He's a wonderful person. We'll
have more stuff with him coming up very soon. But yeah,
like I said, I really want to be where my
feet are and enjoy this moment. I think not everyone
has the opportunity to want experience somewhere like the Bay,
but to to be able to be immersed in the
community aspect like I have been, It's something that I'm
(07:10):
really just trying to enjoy.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I love it. You've been doing such great work as
our Walter Painman of the Year nominee, and everything you're
doing is very impactful for the community. But I want
to take it back even further. Last time you were
on the podcast, we showed that fun photo of you
when it was trending of you in elementary school. Yeah,
but right next to that photo was an awesome quote
from yourself. You said, in ten years from now, I
(07:33):
will be graduating Stanford University with a history degree. You
set a big goal for yourself as a child, and
you've surpassed it. Tell me about the importance of setting
goals in your life because you've been doing it since
you were a bebe.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I think I think it is really important. It's
funny because I've always thought of stuff like that not
so positively. I've always been like more action oriented than
word oriented. So for me, I'm never huge on, you know,
saying stuff like that out loud. But as a gotten older,
I understand how important it is to visualize things like
that because you kind of have to. You have to
(08:06):
be able to visualize and dream for things like that
to be able to attain those in my opinions, as
I've learned with my experience, but setting goals is just
something that allows you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
To have a benchmark.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I think if you don't have a goal or a
path that you're trying to strive to get to, it's
kind of hard to find direction. And I think that
that's something that a lot of people struggle with, is
really finding direction. So for me, that's as I've gotten older,
I've really tried to become more goal oriented, and I
think that's helped me follow a more narrow path as
far as progressing in my life.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
How do you think elementary school Curtis would react to
seeing NFL Walter Payman of the Year, Curtis, That's.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
A good question. I think.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I think it'd be pretty surprised. I didn't think that
I would make it this far, honestly. Obviously I wish
I would have at that age, but I think he
would be he would be pretty impressed that I'm still
doing this football thing, for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I see.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Is there a secret to setting goals and meeting them?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I think it depends. I think everyone's different. Some people
like to shoot really big, and then you know, even
if you don't get to the main goal, you're still
you still progress so far, that you've achieved so much
on that journey that you can still be you can
tang your hat on what you've achieved. For me, I
think it's important to set small benchmarks. That's how I
(09:23):
just approach it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Honestly.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I think sometimes you can get too carried away with
trying to reach a huge main goal that you kind
of ignore all the little steps that you would have
to take and all the accomplishments that you would be
able to accomplish on the way to that. So for me,
I think kind of setting a main goal, but then
also having benchmarks within that path, I think is a
really good way to do it because you can kind
of reset at each benchmark and understand that I'm still
making progress even though I may not be where I
(09:46):
want to be or have gotten to where I want
to go. But yeah, I think that's the main thing
that I think about when I set goals.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I love it. I mean, it's the secret sauce. Now, Curtis,
you talked a little bit about playing high school football
at modern Day, and I believe you played with the
Saint Brown family, right, Amonran Osiris and all of them.
What was that like being so close with the Saint
Brown family.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
It was awesome that that is a unique family, to
say the least. I think the world gets to see
it now with Amran Equinimus' podcast. But those are my guys, man,
I think I think the world of that family. John
Brown and Miriam have always been great to my parents,
and I have a really good relationship with all the brothers,
So it's cool to see, you know, Amoran Equinemias continue
(10:25):
to have their success, and I still have a really
good relationship with Ocyrus. But yeah, one of the John
Brown is one of the coolest and funniest people I've
ever met.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Ye, honestly.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, it's so cool to see their family dynamic.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I wish more people.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I wish more people could meet him in person because
he's actually so great and so many people just see
the quotes.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, that get put out. But he's awesome. He's
the best.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I love to hear it. Yeah, so cool. And no,
Cyrus was your teammate at Stanford. Yeah, I believe that
you and Christian also played at Stanford around the same time.
If I got it right. He was a junior while
you were a freshman.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, so Christian christians last season was my freshman season. Okay,
so the year that he declared for the draft was
my my first year at Stanford.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you have any fun memories with him? At Stanford?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We didn't interact much because, like I said, it was
really only just for that season. Yeah, but I'll never
forget my first month there. We had our summer workouts,
which anyone who's gone to Stanford knows that, other than
winter workouts, that's the hardest time of the year. And
he used to just destroy everyone in those workouts. Like
I can't even describe how far ahead of everyone he
(11:26):
would be during those runs. He wouldn't look tired. He
would just be moving like a robot. And then it
just makes you feel so bad because you're just like, Wow,
I came in thinking I was in great shape, and
he's over here just dogging everybody. And even our our
strength Colacht time coach Turley. He had told us before
we even got the chance to work out with him,
He's like, you guys are going to see what it
really means to play Stanford football, he said. Other than
(11:48):
Andrew Luck, he is the one of the greatest athletes
he's ever been around.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And it still stands to this day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, and it shows so Yeah, even on.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
An NFL practice field, Christian still out shut. That's awesome. Well,
your football career has led you to really cool opportunities.
You worked with former Secretary of State Condolleza Rice, You've
been a credentialed photographer at a San Francisco Giants game.
You're an avid golfer and philanthropist. Really cool stuff. We
want you to have a very long and successful football career.
But after all these really cool opportunities, what do you
(12:20):
see yourself doing once you hang the cleats up.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
That's a great question. I've been trying to put more
thought into that. I think once I actually got into
the league, I really just kind of convinced myself to
really put my head down and focus on football and
get the most out of this experience because it is
very short lived for a lot of us.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Eventually, I want to go back to school. I would
love to get an MBA.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
That's really my main and media goal once football's done,
and I would hope that during that process of going
back to business school that I could kind of hone
in and figure out really what career path I would
like to settle on. But I do know that I
want golf to be in my future for sure. I
would love That's probably going to be more of like
a philanthropic thing for me. Like I said, I don't
know really what it looks like, but I know seeing
(13:03):
my dad have that as his career growing up, I
know for a fact that I want to be around
that in my adult life for sure. So some whatever
way I can kind of enagle that to make that
a part of my life, I will do.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's so cool following a little bit in your dad's
footsteps because he's a coach right for golf over at colleges.
That's really really cool. Now we're gonna shift gears a
little bit. We're going to New York this weekend to
play the Giants, and I know your bestie is on
that team. Flan, your locker made a faithful favorite over
the years, Dmitri's planning and fouls. Are you excited to
meet up with him?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I cannot wait to see Flann. I've been sending trash
talk messages to him all week. This morning I sent
him a really annoying voice memo. He didn't like it
too much, but I can't wait to see him. I
haven't seen him in a minute, so it's gonna be
really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I know you guys have that dynamic here in the
locker room and it's still going on. That's been changed.
The faith will probably know about this, But he was
famous for his Flan thoughts. Yeah, just his hot takes
that I'm sure you guys debated in the locker room.
He actually sent me one of his plan thoughts for
you to react to to hear it. Yes, all right,
he said, fruit is not supposed to go with cake
or ice cream thoughts.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So is there is there a camera I can look
at or no, that one right there, Flan, you need
to grow up. And everyone that knows you on this
team would agree with me. You need to stop separating
fruit from your dessert. We go to restaurants. It's so bad.
We go to restaurants and a chef will prepare this
beautiful dessert for us and I'll never forget it. We
(14:25):
were in Atlanta and we had an extra day, so
we went out to dinner as linebackers and we ordered
dessert and they brought it out. And the look on
his face when there was fruit touching his.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Cake was discussed. It was awful.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I felt bad for the server because the chef like
came out and presented it to us and was being
so nice like how gorgeousness is, and Flann is just
like picking the fruit off the cake in front of it. Yeah,
shout out to Flann. I love him, but he's a
child and.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
He knows that.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
All right. So, in this spirit of these heated debates,
we're gonna play a little game of hot take for you. Ready, Yeah,
all right, So here's a cup. Yeah, we've got a
couple of hot takes on them. Read it and give
us your reaction.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Okay, what does it say In and Out is the
best fast food in California.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's up there.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I think I love In and Out because and again
I'm a homer, so I always have love for In
and Out. I think it's extremely like overrated, Like we
have to acknowledge that it's fast food, Like it's not
like a gourmet burger joint much.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
The best fast food.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I mean, what would you say is better than in California.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It's just so fresh, That's what I'm saying. Like it's
high quality stuff and it's good price. I'm gonna say, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Not a hot take. That's good.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's a couple more.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, yeah, Machia isn't good. People just pretend to like it.
I've never had macha, so I can't speak on this.
I think it's one of those things that is very
much a fad. I think people will find some cooler
drink that's a nice little color that looks sesthetically pleasing
that people will latch onto.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But so right now, just kind of a trend.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But we'll figure out.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Call it a trend, I don't know if it's I
think coffee will stand the test of time. Oh yeah,
what does the sun saying drinking coffee is the very
first thing in the morning is the only right way
to do it. This is crazy behavior. Shout out to
Sydney in the community relations office. She does that consistently
and it's so scary. Drink water. Drink water in the morning, please.
(16:25):
And if you're not going to do that, eat some
food or something like. Coffee should not be the first
thing that touches your stomach, So not the very first thing.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You just need to have like a full stomach something.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, we should change that to water for sure. Golf
courses should have nineteen holes and you throw out your
worst hole.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Terrible take, terrible, take terrible.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I thought that was actually a pretty good tape.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
If you're not ready to play when you show up
to the course, that's on you. They have driving ranges
and practice putting greens.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
For a reason.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Your dad would be proud of you.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, Flann would love that nineteenth hole. It's pretty much
impossible to light more than one candle with a single man.
So I have a weird feeling that somebody told you
about this. Hmmm, because tell us the story. Yeah, so
I have this stupid little game that I play at home.
I have candles like all throughout my place, and again,
(17:13):
this is so dumb to say out loud, but I'll
try to light as many as I can with one.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
With one match. And what's your record so far?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Four?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Okay, which doesn't sound impressive, but like no, based on
the location of where they're at, I felt pretty good
about it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But I feel like it would take me four matches
just slight one candle.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I wouldn't recommend doing it if you have carpet, because
I may or may not have gotten some ash on
my carpet, but yeah, it's not impossible if you really
care enough.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Sweet. I think that's all of our hot takes. We're
going to wrap up this podcast with just a few
fan questions before you go. Curtis the Faithful submitted them
for you, and let's see what you got, all right.
First question, if you were a SpongeBob character, who would
you be?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I would say Squidward?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, sure, yeah, white Squidward.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I've I tend to have a pessimistic outlook on certain
things and like a little bit of like a sarcastic,
grumpy outlook, just as a joke. But my family would
agree when I had surgery last year, my mom had
gotten me a little squidward like like plushy or stuffed animal,
because she was like, this is what you look like.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
This is who you are right now. That's so funny.
All right, what's your favorite post game meal?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's a good question. I would say probably chicken parm
It's basic.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
But that's your go to hunt. Yeah. I can't even
learn how to make it, right.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I did, I got right this offseason? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Nice? All right when you try to some of Curtis's
chicken parm All right, who is your favorite NFL team
growing up? Because I know your mom was a.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Huge Nighters fan, so give me so much hate?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
No, I mean you didn't know they come to the Niner.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I mean they can blame my dad for this. I
was a Cowboys fan, as Bryant was my favorite player
growing up. So yeah, I won't speak too.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Muchow a mom Niner fan and dad Cowboy fan. I
don't know how that works.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh, we used to talk trash to my mom too.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's so funny. Now your mom she's on your team.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Now, that's so sweet. All right.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
What's the most important quality to have as a linebacker?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I would say it's a tie between aggressiveness and instincts.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Great answer. Yeah, I'm sure all the linebacker room would agree.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Last question from the faithful, what's your favorite movie to
watch on a plane. We've had a lot of away game,
so a lot of time to you know, watch movies
on the plane. What's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Depends on the length of the flight. If we have
a long flight, I would say The Irishman. If it's
a short flight, I would say The Wood.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Okay, sure, nice, So West Coast we're watching The Wood. Yeah,
maybe this week we're watching what was it The Irishman?
The Irishman? Yeah, lovely? All right, Curtis, that's all we
got for you on today's podcast. Thank you so much
for joining us today. Thanks for listening to this episode
of You've Got Mail, presented by Delta Dead. Don't forget
to subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, sirius, XM, and
(20:04):
your favorite podcast platforms. Also, if you'd like your question
featured in another episode, be sure to follow the forty
nine ers on social media to submit your question. That'll
do it for today and go nighters.
Hey, faithfool, I'm sitting down with Curtis Robinson. Curtis, thanks
for joining me today. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Appreciate you having me?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, awesome. I'm looking forward to our chat. This is
your third time on You've Got Mail, but your first
time as the forty nine Ers Walter Payton Man of
the Year nominee. It's been ten months since you were nominated.
How have those ten months been representing the forty nine ers?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's been amazing. I've spoken on it before. I really
do love representative organization, not only for myself, but for
my mom specifically. She's from here and grew up a
diehard Niners fan. So for me to be able to
represent an organization in general is a blessing, but to
have that title and that honor is even more of
a blessing.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So I don't take it for granted at all.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I know. Since you've become Walter Payton Man of the
Year nominee for the forty nine Ers, you focused a
lot of your efforts on Mobilized Love, which, for those
who don't know, Mobilized Love is basically this organization that
puts resources on trucks and goes out into the Bay Area,
into the underserved communities and helps out the Bay Area.
So can you tell me about your relationship with Mobilized
(01:09):
Love and how it all started.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it all started my rookie year here or Christian
who runs it. He was really close with Flann and
Disease who were here obviously, and those were like my
two best friends, and they kind of introduced me to
him just through I think it was the whole for
the Holidays event that was my first time meeting him,
and it kind of just that relationship grew over years
because we do a lot of work with him throughout
(01:31):
the year, whether it's the community Tuesdays or just kind
of stuff that he does with the organization. And yeah,
I think my mission that I had focused on was
really just bridging the gap as far as equal opportunities
concerned in the Bay Area. And he's someone that I
know that does that, like you said, with all of
his work mostly in the East Bane and the city,
and so it kind of just made perfect sense to
(01:51):
be able to collab with him when the opportunity came up.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, and that relationship brought life to the Curtis Robinson Barbershop.
Check tell me about how that came to life.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So, like I said, I already knew that they had
the truck set up, so he kind of lobbed me
with that with already having that set up. But for me,
I had focused most of my attention on education in
the past year, and for this year, I was kind
of just thinking about, like, Okay, we've done a lot
of work with a lot of the bear necessities, right,
and they handle that, whether it's food, water, shelter, shower,
(02:23):
stuff like that, and so I just kind of was
trying to brainstorm with the communit relations team to figure
out what kind of things get overlooked for low income
households and for kids who may have two or three
siblings and have to worry about school and school supplies
and all that type of stuff, something like haircuts and
school clothes or things that make it overlooked and you
may have to go do hand me downs, and again
(02:45):
you're not you're not necessarily prioritizing a haircut over certain
bear necessities. And so for me, I thought it could
be a really cool, cool opportunity to get kids the
haircuts that they need, and you know, to be able
to have them be out there with confidence at whether
it be at sports, socially in school, but then also
from a personal standpoint, like I know we take so
much pride and getting our haircut before games and stuff
(03:07):
and making sure that we look our cleanest for whether
it's the red carpet here or just when we're on
the road, And how confident that makes me feel as
an individual with the haircut. So I just want to
be able to share that with kids who may not
have the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That is so so cool and like a very intentional
gift that you're giving to the community. So I'm excited
to see the truck move around the Bay Area. That'll
be fun to see it in action. Now, your leadership
didn't start here with the forty nine ers as the
Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. It's definitely a
part of who you are. I stumbled upon a video
of you at Stanford, and in that video you talked
(03:39):
about the importance of leadership, you said on the field,
in the classroom, in the community. Where did you learn
that from, Like, who instilled those leadership qualities in you?
Is there anyone you looked up to throughout your life?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I mean, growing up. Obviously my parents.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
They both serve very different roles for me, but they
both were just excellent leaders, whether it was with than
their professional within the home. So I saw that from
a young age. But even playing football and organized sports,
I was very fortunate to go to a school like
Modern Day for High School to where I was around
the best of the best from the first day. So
(04:15):
I really saw firsthand what it was like to be
not only an elite athlete, but an elite person, an
elite leader. And even from a coaching standpoint, Bruce Rollinson
he instilled him and Leobose instilled a lot of really
really important things within me, I think at a young age,
things that still stick with me to this day.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But again, same thing with Stanford. You get to a place.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
That's run by someone like David Shaw. He's not somebody
that's gonna let little things slip through the cracks. And
I think that at the young immature age of eighteen,
I may have thought I was more mature than I was,
and he definitely took me under his wing and just
taught me what it really meant to be a leader.
And again I also had guys around me within that
program that kind of just showed me the way. So
(04:58):
it's kind of just absorbing those things throughout the year
and then finding a way to make it work with
my personality.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
But yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
When I'm hearing you talk about the way you've worked
to becoming the Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee
for the forty nine ers. You always talk about your parents,
your mom and dad, how your dad is a coach
and your mom's an education and how that's influenced you.
Just how proud are they of your status here at
the team.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I would hope they're pretty proud.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I mean, my mom, they always tell me how proud
they are, and it means a lot to me. I think,
you know, I feel like, as their child, I'm a
representation of the upbringing that they gave me. So I
just try to I try to represent them the best
way that I can, whether I'm on the forty nine
ers or just you know, being Curtis out out in
the world. It means a lot to me to be
able to represent my family in a positive way. When
(05:45):
they hear the name Robinson, I want them to think
highly of our family. And so whenever I have the
opportunity to represent my family. I do what I can
to do it in a positive way. But yeah, I
think they're pretty proud.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah that is so cool. So we've got the barber truck,
You've done hospital, it's time after time, you're in the
classroom with the kids. Where do you want to take this?
Where do you see the future of your work going to.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Be honest, I'm kind of just being where my feet
are right now. I'm really enjoying having an impact on
the Bay Area. I've been fortunate to be out here
for almost ten years now, and I really feel like
I've rooted myself within this area and I really just
want to continue to have an impact, not only the
people that I've already built relationship with relationships with, but
I want to continue building relationships with people out here,
(06:28):
whether it's South Bay, East Bay, and the city, because
I think it's a much more tight knit community than
I was aware of when I first got out here,
and I think that I want to continue on. Obviously,
with my education stuff, We're working with a group called
Driver for Change that I'm really excited to continue to
collaborate with. It's an amazing group based out of Oakland,
(06:48):
they collaborate with the ela Omday School out there. It's
a great group of kids run by a great mentors.
His name is Howard Oliver. He's a wonderful person. We'll
have more stuff with him coming up very soon. But yeah,
like I said, I really want to be where my
feet are and enjoy this moment. I think not everyone
has the opportunity to want experience somewhere like the Bay,
but to to be able to be immersed in the
community aspect like I have been, It's something that I'm
(07:10):
really just trying to enjoy.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I love it. You've been doing such great work as
our Walter Painman of the Year nominee, and everything you're
doing is very impactful for the community. But I want
to take it back even further. Last time you were
on the podcast, we showed that fun photo of you
when it was trending of you in elementary school. Yeah,
but right next to that photo was an awesome quote
from yourself. You said, in ten years from now, I
(07:33):
will be graduating Stanford University with a history degree. You
set a big goal for yourself as a child, and
you've surpassed it. Tell me about the importance of setting
goals in your life because you've been doing it since
you were a bebe.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I think I think it is really important. It's
funny because I've always thought of stuff like that not
so positively. I've always been like more action oriented than
word oriented. So for me, I'm never huge on, you know,
saying stuff like that out loud. But as a gotten older,
I understand how important it is to visualize things like
that because you kind of have to. You have to
(08:06):
be able to visualize and dream for things like that
to be able to attain those in my opinions, as
I've learned with my experience, but setting goals is just
something that allows you.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
To have a benchmark.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I think if you don't have a goal or a
path that you're trying to strive to get to, it's
kind of hard to find direction. And I think that
that's something that a lot of people struggle with, is
really finding direction. So for me, that's as I've gotten older,
I've really tried to become more goal oriented, and I
think that's helped me follow a more narrow path as
far as progressing in my life.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
How do you think elementary school Curtis would react to
seeing NFL Walter Payman of the Year, Curtis, That's.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
A good question. I think.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I think it'd be pretty surprised. I didn't think that
I would make it this far, honestly. Obviously I wish
I would have at that age, but I think he
would be he would be pretty impressed that I'm still
doing this football thing, for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I see.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Is there a secret to setting goals and meeting them?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I think it depends. I think everyone's different. Some people
like to shoot really big, and then you know, even
if you don't get to the main goal, you're still
you still progress so far, that you've achieved so much
on that journey that you can still be you can
tang your hat on what you've achieved. For me, I
think it's important to set small benchmarks. That's how I
(09:23):
just approach it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Honestly.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I think sometimes you can get too carried away with
trying to reach a huge main goal that you kind
of ignore all the little steps that you would have
to take and all the accomplishments that you would be
able to accomplish on the way to that. So for me,
I think kind of setting a main goal, but then
also having benchmarks within that path, I think is a
really good way to do it because you can kind
of reset at each benchmark and understand that I'm still
making progress even though I may not be where I
(09:46):
want to be or have gotten to where I want
to go. But yeah, I think that's the main thing
that I think about when I set goals.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I love it. I mean, it's the secret sauce. Now, Curtis,
you talked a little bit about playing high school football
at modern Day, and I believe you played with the
Saint Brown family, right, Amonran Osiris and all of them.
What was that like being so close with the Saint
Brown family.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
It was awesome that that is a unique family, to
say the least. I think the world gets to see
it now with Amran Equinimus' podcast. But those are my guys, man,
I think I think the world of that family. John
Brown and Miriam have always been great to my parents,
and I have a really good relationship with all the brothers,
So it's cool to see, you know, Amoran Equinemias continue
(10:25):
to have their success, and I still have a really
good relationship with Ocyrus. But yeah, one of the John
Brown is one of the coolest and funniest people I've
ever met.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Ye, honestly.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah, it's so cool to see their family dynamic.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I wish more people.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I wish more people could meet him in person because
he's actually so great and so many people just see
the quotes.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, that get put out. But he's awesome. He's
the best.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I love to hear it. Yeah, so cool. And no,
Cyrus was your teammate at Stanford. Yeah, I believe that
you and Christian also played at Stanford around the same time.
If I got it right. He was a junior while
you were a freshman.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, so Christian christians last season was my freshman season. Okay,
so the year that he declared for the draft was
my my first year at Stanford.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you have any fun memories with him? At Stanford?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We didn't interact much because, like I said, it was
really only just for that season. Yeah, but I'll never
forget my first month there. We had our summer workouts,
which anyone who's gone to Stanford knows that, other than
winter workouts, that's the hardest time of the year. And
he used to just destroy everyone in those workouts. Like
I can't even describe how far ahead of everyone he
(11:26):
would be during those runs. He wouldn't look tired. He
would just be moving like a robot. And then it
just makes you feel so bad because you're just like, Wow,
I came in thinking I was in great shape, and
he's over here just dogging everybody. And even our our
strength Colacht time coach Turley. He had told us before
we even got the chance to work out with him,
He's like, you guys are going to see what it
really means to play Stanford football, he said. Other than
(11:48):
Andrew Luck, he is the one of the greatest athletes
he's ever been around.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And it still stands to this day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, and it shows so Yeah, even on.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
An NFL practice field, Christian still out shut. That's awesome. Well,
your football career has led you to really cool opportunities.
You worked with former Secretary of State Condolleza Rice, You've
been a credentialed photographer at a San Francisco Giants game.
You're an avid golfer and philanthropist. Really cool stuff. We
want you to have a very long and successful football career.
But after all these really cool opportunities, what do you
(12:20):
see yourself doing once you hang the cleats up.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
That's a great question. I've been trying to put more
thought into that. I think once I actually got into
the league, I really just kind of convinced myself to
really put my head down and focus on football and
get the most out of this experience because it is
very short lived for a lot of us.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Eventually, I want to go back to school. I would
love to get an MBA.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
That's really my main and media goal once football's done,
and I would hope that during that process of going
back to business school that I could kind of hone
in and figure out really what career path I would
like to settle on. But I do know that I
want golf to be in my future for sure. I
would love That's probably going to be more of like
a philanthropic thing for me. Like I said, I don't
know really what it looks like, but I know seeing
(13:03):
my dad have that as his career growing up, I
know for a fact that I want to be around
that in my adult life for sure. So some whatever
way I can kind of enagle that to make that
a part of my life, I will do.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's so cool following a little bit in your dad's
footsteps because he's a coach right for golf over at colleges.
That's really really cool. Now we're gonna shift gears a
little bit. We're going to New York this weekend to
play the Giants, and I know your bestie is on
that team. Flan, your locker made a faithful favorite over
the years, Dmitri's planning and fouls. Are you excited to
meet up with him?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I cannot wait to see Flann. I've been sending trash
talk messages to him all week. This morning I sent
him a really annoying voice memo. He didn't like it
too much, but I can't wait to see him. I
haven't seen him in a minute, so it's gonna be
really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I know you guys have that dynamic here in the
locker room and it's still going on. That's been changed.
The faith will probably know about this, But he was
famous for his Flan thoughts. Yeah, just his hot takes
that I'm sure you guys debated in the locker room.
He actually sent me one of his plan thoughts for
you to react to to hear it. Yes, all right,
he said, fruit is not supposed to go with cake
or ice cream thoughts.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So is there is there a camera I can look
at or no, that one right there, Flan, you need
to grow up. And everyone that knows you on this
team would agree with me. You need to stop separating
fruit from your dessert. We go to restaurants. It's so bad.
We go to restaurants and a chef will prepare this
beautiful dessert for us and I'll never forget it. We
(14:25):
were in Atlanta and we had an extra day, so
we went out to dinner as linebackers and we ordered
dessert and they brought it out. And the look on
his face when there was fruit touching his.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Cake was discussed. It was awful.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I felt bad for the server because the chef like
came out and presented it to us and was being
so nice like how gorgeousness is, and Flann is just
like picking the fruit off the cake in front of it. Yeah,
shout out to Flann. I love him, but he's a
child and.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
He knows that.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
All right. So, in this spirit of these heated debates,
we're gonna play a little game of hot take for you. Ready, Yeah,
all right, So here's a cup. Yeah, we've got a
couple of hot takes on them. Read it and give
us your reaction.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Okay, what does it say In and Out is the
best fast food in California.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's up there.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I think I love In and Out because and again
I'm a homer, so I always have love for In
and Out. I think it's extremely like overrated, Like we
have to acknowledge that it's fast food, Like it's not
like a gourmet burger joint much.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
The best fast food.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I mean, what would you say is better than in California.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It's just so fresh, That's what I'm saying. Like it's
high quality stuff and it's good price. I'm gonna say, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Not a hot take. That's good.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's a couple more.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, yeah, Machia isn't good. People just pretend to like it.
I've never had macha, so I can't speak on this.
I think it's one of those things that is very
much a fad. I think people will find some cooler
drink that's a nice little color that looks sesthetically pleasing
that people will latch onto.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
But so right now, just kind of a trend.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But we'll figure out.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Call it a trend, I don't know if it's I
think coffee will stand the test of time. Oh yeah,
what does the sun saying drinking coffee is the very
first thing in the morning is the only right way
to do it. This is crazy behavior. Shout out to
Sydney in the community relations office. She does that consistently
and it's so scary. Drink water. Drink water in the morning, please.
(16:25):
And if you're not going to do that, eat some
food or something like. Coffee should not be the first
thing that touches your stomach, So not the very first thing.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You just need to have like a full stomach something.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, we should change that to water for sure. Golf
courses should have nineteen holes and you throw out your
worst hole.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Terrible take, terrible, take terrible.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I thought that was actually a pretty good tape.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
If you're not ready to play when you show up
to the course, that's on you. They have driving ranges
and practice putting greens.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
For a reason.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Your dad would be proud of you.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, Flann would love that nineteenth hole. It's pretty much
impossible to light more than one candle with a single man.
So I have a weird feeling that somebody told you
about this. Hmmm, because tell us the story. Yeah, so
I have this stupid little game that I play at home.
I have candles like all throughout my place, and again,
(17:13):
this is so dumb to say out loud, but I'll
try to light as many as I can with one.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
With one match. And what's your record so far?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Four?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Okay, which doesn't sound impressive, but like no, based on
the location of where they're at, I felt pretty good
about it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But I feel like it would take me four matches
just slight one candle.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I wouldn't recommend doing it if you have carpet, because
I may or may not have gotten some ash on
my carpet, but yeah, it's not impossible if you really
care enough.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Sweet. I think that's all of our hot takes. We're
going to wrap up this podcast with just a few
fan questions before you go. Curtis the Faithful submitted them
for you, and let's see what you got, all right.
First question, if you were a SpongeBob character, who would
you be?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I would say Squidward?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, sure, yeah, white Squidward.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I've I tend to have a pessimistic outlook on certain
things and like a little bit of like a sarcastic,
grumpy outlook, just as a joke. But my family would
agree when I had surgery last year, my mom had
gotten me a little squidward like like plushy or stuffed animal,
because she was like, this is what you look like.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
This is who you are right now. That's so funny.
All right, what's your favorite post game meal?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's a good question. I would say probably chicken parm
It's basic.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
But that's your go to hunt. Yeah. I can't even
learn how to make it, right.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I did, I got right this offseason? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Nice? All right when you try to some of Curtis's
chicken parm All right, who is your favorite NFL team
growing up? Because I know your mom was a.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Huge Nighters fan, so give me so much hate?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
No, I mean you didn't know they come to the Niner.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
I mean they can blame my dad for this. I
was a Cowboys fan, as Bryant was my favorite player
growing up. So yeah, I won't speak too.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Muchow a mom Niner fan and dad Cowboy fan. I
don't know how that works.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh, we used to talk trash to my mom too.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, that's so funny. Now your mom she's on your team.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Now, that's so sweet. All right.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
What's the most important quality to have as a linebacker?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I would say it's a tie between aggressiveness and instincts.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Great answer. Yeah, I'm sure all the linebacker room would agree.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Last question from the faithful, what's your favorite movie to
watch on a plane. We've had a lot of away game,
so a lot of time to you know, watch movies
on the plane. What's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Depends on the length of the flight. If we have
a long flight, I would say The Irishman. If it's
a short flight, I would say The Wood.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Okay, sure, nice, So West Coast we're watching The Wood. Yeah,
maybe this week we're watching what was it The Irishman?
The Irishman? Yeah, lovely? All right, Curtis, that's all we
got for you on today's podcast. Thank you so much
for joining us today. Thanks for listening to this episode
of You've Got Mail, presented by Delta Dead. Don't forget
to subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, sirius, XM, and
(20:04):
your favorite podcast platforms. Also, if you'd like your question
featured in another episode, be sure to follow the forty
nine ers on social media to submit your question. That'll
do it for today and go nighters.
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