March 13, 2024 • 49 mins
Back in the day, a professional athlete played, maybe made some money and then hung it up. When they retired, there was sometimes a chance to work for a local company to leverage whatever fame they had accrued. But a few players have realized there was much more to be done both before and after that final whistle blew. They also recognized it would be a good idea to get some help. That’s where Constance Schwartz-Morini comes in.
On the latest episode of The Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, we speak with this National Football League executive-turned-manager who’s worked with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Erin Andrews.
Schwartz-Morini explains how she’s created one of the most successful playbooks for second acts—two high-profile examples of which are former football stars Deion Sanders and Michael Strahan. She says that Strahan embodies what she’s trying to do with athletes and entertainers: help them transcend sports into the broader culture.
One of her most prominent current projects is happening not in New York (her hometown) or Los Angeles (her current home), but in the Rockies. Schwartz-Morini is a primary architect of the post-NFL phenomenon that is Sanders, aka Coach Prime. A man who pushed himself into the zeitgeist as “Prime Time” back when he played for both the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons, Schwartz-Morini managed to guide Sanders toward coaching, first at Jackson State and then now at the University of Colorado Boulder.
You can also watch The Deal on Bloomberg Originals, YouTube or Bloomberg TV.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Previously on the Deal and get yourself a great partner
like Constance Schwartz Marini, who I'm scared of because she's
behind me. So I got to say all these nice
things about the boss. She is so lovely. Cannot wait
for you too to have a conversation with her.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Michael is obviously my business partner, but we always say
like brother from another mother, mister from another sister.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You guys know a snoop.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
We had a little bit of an exchange in the
boardroom that I stood up to him, and next day
someone from his team called and he said, we want
the girl from the NFL running the snoop team. I
was like, whoa, whoa, I'm not a manager and they're like,
too bad, you're a manager now.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
So Constant Schwartzmarni. This episode is kind of a part
two of a two part series, as it were, Alex,
because she is the business partner to Michael Strahan. But
you've known her for years. Who is she to you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
In many ways you mentioned Michael Strahan and Constant. The
comparable for me is like Charlie Munger to Warren Buffett
and Warren's the guy out there right, so is Michael,
but she's the one in the background that just brings
a lot of sanity and self awareness and they make
each other better. And if you think about some of
the brands that Constant has been involved with, from Deon
(01:39):
Sanders to Snoop to Aaron Andrews to cutting her teeth
in the early nineties in the NFL, and the stories
that she told us, oh, fascinating.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It's unbelievable because she gets into, like you said, those
early days of the NFL, before the NFL was the NFL,
when little sport called baseball was probably the more dominant
in the culture. NFL takes off in part because of
some of the things that she does. She goes to
the music world. I mean talk about being at the
center of the culture. She is a primary architect of
(02:11):
Coach Prime, like today's Coach Prime. It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
And to think that Constant was in the cover of
Sports illustraated with Dion was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, no question. And when you think about what's happening
at this intersection we talk about it all the time, sports, business, culture, music, technology.
No one has been at the center of it more
than she has, and yet she self describes in this
interview working class kid born in Yonkers goes to Sunios WeGo,
but she's like as Hollywood as they come.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
At this point.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
On this episode of The Deal, Constance schwartz Marini, I
guess we should have you formally introduce yourself, hell us
who you are.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That would be helpful. So first of all, thank you
for having me. This is so exciting. But I'm Constance
schwartz Marini, and I'm co founder and managing partner of
Smack Entertainment.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And so Michael Strahan is your business partner. We spend
some time with him. Who is he to you?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Can I cuss?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I'm sorry. So Michael is obviously my business partner.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But we always say like brother from another mother, mister
from another sister. We've met, oh my gosh, yeah thirty
years ago when he was playing for the Giants and
I was working at the NFL. I'm an only child,
so I say he's the brother I never wanted. He
was my minister and my wedding like it goes deep
yeah wow yeah. And my husband's name is Mike too,
(03:45):
So the two of them jokes that it takes to
Michael's to handle one contence.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
And I love Michael so much and I admire him
so much. What is it about Michael from your point
of view that makes him different and special?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Because Michael and I had the same workout thick and
the same sort of ethos, which is when, not if,
when this happens, when I can do this? And I
say that only because you have to have the trust
with whether it's a client, a partner, or a friend,
to say, what's your dream, what do you want to
go build?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Let's do it together.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
And that's one of the many things it's so attracted
about him to many fans in that they don't.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
See just a retired football player.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
They don't see a good morning American news anchor, they
don't see the NFL on Fox sportscaster. They think that
he's their best friend. And that's something that you can't explain,
you can't teach, you can't buy. And that's one of
the many, many qualities that's just so endearing about him
is any room he's in.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Everyone feels like they know him. He makes you feel
like he knows you.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
He's friendly with everyone on the set, not just the talent,
but whether it's the grip or the sound guy or
whoever it is, and he will reach out to me
for more favors for those kind of folks that he
works with than any talent ever. You know, when Pop
fifty was at Yankee Stadium, he said, can you please
get me four tickets?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The sound engineer wants to go.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I was like done, and for me too, I'd much
rather help someone like that out who's not going to
have the access that we are all privileged to have.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
This guy. So, speaking of Michael, I mean, when you
think about like the through line of the people that
you've worked with over the years, what is it? Because
it's such a fascinating collection of people.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's a good way of putting it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If you really dig deep and look at all of them,
they're like Alex, they're a multi hyphen it. You know,
they excelled greatly at their core career. Obviously he was
a baseball player, but you've gone on right to have
a show like The Deal and all your investments in
your television career.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And that's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Whether it's Michael or Aaron Andrews or Kurt Menafie and
Coach Prime, they all did so well at the core,
but they knew they could do more and wanted to
do more. And that's how we look at it is
there's no guard rails, there's no blinders.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
It's like, let's go, let's talk about you. Let's talk
about the early days, because I think something Alex and
are both fascinated with. Is you starting your career at
the NFL before the NFL is really the NFL, it's
not what it is today. What was it like when
you got there? What were you doing in those early days?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So in those days, the NFL was two different companies.
There was the National Football League and then there was
the marketing and licensing arm called NFL Properties. So my
first job was an assistant at NFL Properties in the
corporate sponsorship to do. This was the early nineties, nineteen
ninety one. Wow, Yeah, I was a junior in high school.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, so it was. It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I had two amazing bosses, Jim Schwabl and Maureen Rosen.
I'm still super close to Maureene. She really gave me
my start in my shop because she would say, whatever
you can handle, I'm going to give you more of,
you know, And that's what she did and she gave
me the best advice that I used to this day
with everyone that comes and works with us at SMACK,
which is, when you mess up, although it was a
different word, and you will, you come to me, you
(06:56):
own it, you say I messed up and need help,
let's fix it. That has stuck with me throughout my
whole career, my whole life and everything, because it's such
simple common sense. But unfortunately more people go the other direction,
which is to cover something up or lie about it,
and then the issue snowballs. And that's how we work
with everybody at the company, not just the talent, but
(07:17):
the staff too, And that's just was the best thing ever.
And yes there were women executives back then, not many,
but I was very blessed that she was the one
that looked out for me.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
And I want to sort of stick with this notion
of what the NFL was then, in part because the
show is called The Deal. What were those early deals
that you remember?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I couldn't have received an MBA at any school that
would have taught me what the NFL taught me about
the art of the deal, in the sense that it
was just our jobs, like everyone's like, oh you got
into producing so late in life. I'm like, no, we
produced at the NFL, but you didn't get a credit
in a sense because it was your job. When the
network deals were done, there were hours carved out for
(07:56):
the NFL to program and you'd go to the sponsor
say what are your guys objectives? And you know, nineteen
ninety three and it was Miller Lte at the time.
They're like, well, the Pro Bowl, which was in Hawaii,
that's our target. So you know, the NFL Films guys
would come up with the Pro Bowl Beach Challenge, and
then there was the NFL on Skills Challenges and then
the NFL Lineman Challenge, which was one of the ways
(08:18):
Strahan and I got to really interact and connect because
the show needed a little dusting off, and so Tracy Polman,
who's still at the NFL, was like, you guys need
to sit with Strahan, and we brought him in and said,
what do you think of the show. You've you've participated
in it, you know enough years, and he was like,
I like this, I like this, but why don't we
replace this skill challenge with that one?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That was when the light bulb went off about him.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You're like, Wow, this guy isn't just great on the field,
but understands all the things you know that go into
off field careers.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
You're doing these deals and the NFL does start to
take off a little bit. I think we're both fascinated
with this idea, is like, what was it like inside
there was there a sense that something special was happening
in terms of the NFL and the culture, because that,
I think is one of the most fascinating things about
you is that you're looking at this not just through
(09:08):
a sports lens, not just through a business lens, Like
what was happening then?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It was early nineties, so hip hop, you know, is
really starting to take off, whether it was Snoop and
Ice Cube and they're all rocking jerseys and Starter was
was the it jacket, and I think they might have
even been doing some jerseys as well back then. And
we saw that and we just ended up really tapping
into it, and we hired a company called Loud Records.
(09:33):
It's Steve Rifkin, where he's like, I can help you guys,
and started placing jerseys on the you know, folks that
weren't already wearing them. And then I just even keyed
in to say, Okay, we have the Super Bowl halftime
in the anthem, but there's so much more. And I
started working with the music industry and we would do
these NFL New Artists tours and we'd tap people to
(09:53):
play at the Pro Bowl, which.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Nobody ever really paid attention to. And the cool thing.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
About it was the artists that we would tap in
at that point were on the come up. So then
two three years later were they're the biggest stars in
the world, whether it was in Sync or the Backstreet Boys,
even Creed Kelly Clarkson, like, they all wanted to just
stay and be a part of it and would still
come back and not charge the seven figures that they
could have to be a part of all the events
(10:18):
and activities concerts.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Is interesting. You say nineteen ninety three, and that was
the year that Michael Strahan and I were both drafted.
But at that point, at least what I remember was
Major League baseball was still America's pastime. And some may
say that at that point mob Baseball was greater than
the NFL. But what's happened over the last thirty years
is phenomenal. I mean, it's incredible, and they become behemoth
(10:42):
of network television in the world that everything's dying and
they're still growing. Their numbers are crazy. In hindsight when
you look back thinking about the deal, was there one,
two or three things that happened that started changing really
the future and landscape of the NFL.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
This is just my opinion, and I think it's what
sets them apart still to this day, is you know,
on Sundays and Mondays where you were going to be watching,
Like you knew on Sundays and Mondays that was NFL
football and that's what we really would drive to and
for when I was there, it was all about, Okay,
the NBA, the players aren't wearing helmets, so how do
(11:19):
we make sure our players are identified? And that was
when the groups that I was in, whether it was
special events or liaising with the NFL Films Group, is
let's get more content out there that showcases our players
without the helmets. I think those two things for me
would be identifiers looking back on when you could see it.
And then Michael Jackson's halftime performance which was at the
Rose Bowl, that was pivotal. I mean I wasn't involved
(11:42):
in any of that, but just being a small, little coordinator.
And then we also started the NFL experience back then,
which was really I think the first fan fest, which
is what a lot of people call them, where you
would really lean in to the local community. But as
you guys know, how many hundreds of thousands of people
show up in a Super Bowl city, so you were
giving them another activity to do than just drink at a bar.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
What is it about the NFL? What is it about
pro football that makes it so culturally relevant and valuable today?
The gap between every other sport in the NFL is
massive when you think about valuations, when you think about viewership,
when you think about every element. What is it about
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
In the thirty years you know since I started there
to where we are now. Fantasy football huge, huge, and
you went from just cheering for your local team to now,
all of a sudden, wait a minute, I have players
spread out at all the teams. Then Sunday Ticket was born,
so you didn't have to just watch your team in
your market. You could then watch all the teams. And
(12:47):
I think the betting, you know obviously has just for
every sport, has just taken it through the roof. But
those would be the things that stick out for me
right now. And then the limited amount of games. I mean,
you know better than I do. How many games do
the NBA and MLB play a year?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Eighty two and sixty two?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
So, because I haven't, you know, I'm always thinking about,
like what happens inside these very famous boardrooms that all
of our viewers would love to be a fly on
the wall. But when you think about the last thirty years,
is it Roger Goodell? Is it Jerry Jones? Is it
Robert Craft? Who were the key players in that room
that you think shifted this?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Well?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I wasn't in those boyfriends, but one thousand percent. I
mean they are such visionary leaders. And you know, I
was lucky enough to get to know Kim Bogoula from
the Buffalo Bills, and I think she was a big
visionary for one of the new ownership teams that came
into play. Steve Ross, who I know you know very well.
My dad was his driver. Talk about the.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Deal and no way what?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, that's interesting, And it's this is how much I
love Steve Ross. So I run into him at Super
Bowl every year, and whether it's the tailgate party or
the Commissioner's party on Friday night and he's with all
of his fancy billionaires and he's a big hug and
he says, this is Consent's her father used to work
for me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And you can see them like, what did he do?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And we both go to his driver and it's the
greatest thing because I'm a blue collar kid, and I
think that's something that gets so lost in the deal
that you have to go to an Ivy League school
and you have to know Steve to have connections. And
that's one of the reasons I love him so much
is it doesn't matter what you did, if you were
(14:24):
smart and you're a good person, you just excel. And
when he went in, you know, and bought the Dolphins,
I know there's like this, there's always controversy with every
team owner, but he brought such a different point of view,
coming from the successful real estate market and everything. So
but Jerry obviously and the whole family. I mean, Charlotte's
a dear friend and what she's done, you know, in
(14:46):
marketing the team and building the star and Robert Kraft
just what hasn't Robert Craft and the Craft family done?
But absolutely those are the owners that I just remembered vividly.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
So let's talk about music if we can, because you
mentioned that, you know, those early days, you bring in
these artists and music becomes really interesting to you. Talk
to us about that transition into a different part of
the sort of cultural zeitgeist, as it were.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I owe my music career to Hoody and the Blowfish.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Believe it or not, don't we all have.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I'm so excited they're touring again next summer.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We a whole bunch of us text are like, we
have to go and see them on the road somewhere.
But literally, Don Garber, who's commissioner of Major League Soccer,
was my boss at the NFL at the time, and
he said, hey, I just got a call from someone
at a record company. Can you take it? And that
one conversation changed the course of my career. And I said, Saron,
I called this woman and she said, we have this band.
They love sports. They're playing at Jones Beach. Would you
(15:42):
come see them because we think there's something to be
done with them. In my mid twenties, I was like cool,
grabbed a couple folks from the NFL. It's like, let's
go to Jones Beach. And see this band forgot They
were opening for like Genesis, somebody like that. And I
was so in awe and so blown away. And again
this is mid nineties. I go back to the office,
is Don, we have to hire them for the tailgate party.
(16:04):
And for those of you that don't know, the tailgate
party is the party of the super Bowl. It takes
place right before the game. It's all the corporate partners,
the owners, the networks. I mean, every fancy is at
this party. So you have to come correct, not just
with the music, the food, the decor. And that was
one of the projects I worked on. And Don says
what I said, Don, You've got to trust me on this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He's like, are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
You think I can take a band that no one
knows and have them play for the owners.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I said, just trust me.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well, Book, I think it was Casey and the Sunshine
Man as well. I said, And if I'm wrong, you
can publicly fire me and then we'll put.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Those guys as the headliner.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
This is August, September, October, November, climbing, climbing climbing. By
the time the Super Bowl comes around, I don't even
know how many Grammys they're nominated for so Don was like,
con this is what you're going to be doing now,
and so that set me on this course. And everyone
I met from the hoodie camp, you know, from the
publishers and the record company, they said, what more can
(17:04):
we do?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And it's time.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Garber was like, go go create this entertainment marketing division.
And I would just cold call because there was no
social media, and so you would use a telephone like
a handheld telephone, and you dial numbers and I said, Hya,
it's Constant Schwartz from the NFL. We're expanding our music interactions.
It's outside of just Super Bowl halftime pregame. Would you
(17:27):
be interested? And who didn't want to work with the NFL?
So we created NFL New Artist Tours, where you'd work
with the record companies and they'd put new artists on
tours going to each stadium because how else are these
new artists ever playing in front of seventy eighty thousand people.
And it just kept snowballing. And then we started securing
venues at the super Bowl outside of obviously the stadium,
(17:49):
and we'd set comedy. Jamie Fox played in the late
nineties like it was the Super Bowl comedy tour, and
then we started a Super Bowl concert series that took
place at the NFL Experience, and all those things just
kept elevating and growing. And next thing, you know, after
the Cowboys Thanksgiving Game, we held a Shania Twain concert
at the stadium that was then rolled right into CBS's
(18:11):
you know after the game.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Was so much fun. God, I'm like sitting here reminiscing.
I'm like, I want to go back.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
But it's interesting, I mean, because you were living obviously
deep in baseball world. Baseball's not doing this. No, Like
baseball is like, we're America's past time. We're good. Everybody's
going to watch, and meanwhile, the NFL is eating their lunch.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And to think that in the late seventies when the
Yankees played the Dodgers, forty five million people watched that
game six and you cut to twenty twenty and those
eleven million people and watch the Dodgers win the World Series.
So it's been interesting to watch one ascending and the
other one.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Being a little bit challenged. But the cultural relevance is
obviously at the core of that. When we come back,
we talked to constants about managing Snoop Dogg ing Smack
with Michael Strahan and everything coach Prime. Then you start
(19:17):
to really get into the to the music business. I mean,
fast forward to today. You're still there. You and Snoop
Snoop Dogg, Snoop Dogg' like you know all the names.
How does he come into your life? You have a
movie coming out with him?
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Do?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We have a movie that's streaming right now on Prime
Video called The Underdogs. But my last two years at
the NFL, there was a new show they were developing
called NFL Under the Helmet, which was our answer to
inside stuff, and it was let's get the helmets off
the players, and Michael Strahan was our correspondent with Brandy
Chastain while he was still playing for the Giants. We'd
send him out into the field. But it was where
(19:54):
we literally combined sports media and culture because artists on
that show were everybody from run DMC and ice Cube
and so at that point I start getting calls from
management companies and labels and they said, Okay, we know
you're having a time over there and it's been great
for us, but we want you to come work at
a record company. I was like, I'm not leaving the NFL,
(20:14):
and then another a management company in LA, was like,
come out here, you can do strategic marketing and all
the partnerships.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
It's like, I'm not leaving New York City.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But then I just kept getting so many offers that
you get to the point where, Okay, someone's offering me
a senior vice president position to create a new department.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
In a new area.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And as you guys are doing the show called the Deal,
how do you say no to that? And that was
how I ended up leaving the NFL after a decade there,
and I went to work at a record company for
eleven months. Wasn't for me, but I learned so much
and I'm so glad I did it. And then I
moved made the jump and moved to LA to go
really in the entertainment space. So when I was at
(20:53):
the firm, we represented everybody that you can imagine in
the early two thousands.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Remind us about the firm, because that's seminole not just
for you, but in the sort of.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Many people that are going to be in these chairs
with you. So the Firm was a talent management company
who wrapped everybody from Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Martin Scorsese,
Ice Cube, Vin Diesel, Kelly Clarkson, Enrique Iglesias.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, it just goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And I was brought into strategic market, the talent, brand partnerships, endorsements,
and believe it or not, the music business wasn't as
comfortable as they are now with doing endorsements, so it
was sort of helping them understand that it doesn't compromise
the integrity of your music or who you are.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It just enhances it.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And if we can get a brand to cover, you know,
your release week, your tours, your release parties, why wouldn't
you want to do that, especially if it's something that's
so organic. And Enrique Iglesias was just coming off Heroes,
the biggest thing in the world, and we just had
so much upside and so much fun with him. And
again early on how it's so important to establish trust
(22:03):
with the talent because I'm new to the talent space. Yes,
I worked with football players, but I was at the NFL,
and I mean, my goodness, Enrique had a Dorrito campaign.
He was in a Pepsi campaign globally with Britney Spears,
Beyonce and Pink playing a Gladiator.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
You have to look that one up. It's phenomenal. And
then the way Snoop came into my life.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
We threw a Super Bowl party in San Diego and
I remember what year and Snoop was a guest and
somebody from his team ended up talking to someone from
my team about the firm. And the next couple of
days their call comes in that Snoop wanted a meeting
and I'm barely out of a suit right, like, I'm
as corporate as you could be. And Snoop was doing
(22:43):
that GFL, the Gangster Football League, and I was like,
I don't want to work with him, Like I don't understand,
like I'm going to stick in the pop world. You
guys know a Snoop once you meet him, I mean
the best. And so I was on his marketing team,
though different than I was anyone else, but we had
a little bit of an exchange in the boardroom that
(23:06):
I stood up to him, and next day someone from
his team called and he said, we want the girl
from the NFL running the Snoop team. I was like, whoa, whoa,
I'm not a manager. Yeah, this isn't my forte And
they're like, too bad. You're a manager. Now the talent
wants you, and wow, I jumped on a plane I
think it was the next day to Reno, Nevada, where
Private was waiting for him. He was on tour to
(23:27):
take him to New York to do press for Starsky
and Hutch and maybe soul plane.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And that was the beginning. And I never looked back,
and we had an amazing run together. But I stepped
down as his manager when I turned forty just because
I wanted a life, Because.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
When you're with Snoop, that is your life.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, because I think we should stick on that for
a second, because I feel like now it's like, oh, Snoop,
he's like Mark, he's doing a show with Martha Steward,
and he's got he's like this empire. That wasn't totally
the vibe then.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
No, right, not at all.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Snoop was in his thirty and you know, still had
a lot of activity happenings, say, you know, at home
from Long Beach, and maybe some kerfuffles with the law
here and there. But once you really understand him, there
was never anything that he has done or still does
with bad intentions. Right, A lot of it's wrong place,
(24:19):
wrong time kind of things. And I saw that, and
he is such a star, and yes he had a
global footprint, but we saw because this was again pre
social media, so a lot of people aren't going to
understand what I'm talking about. But in order to really
build your base, you needed to be there. And so
we just hit the ground running. And I was on
tour with him internationally for that entire time, and we
(24:41):
hit every continent, whether it was hosting the Europe you know,
Video Music Awards MTV was so big that you'd go
to Germany, he'd host that and that would pop. And
we had a family doc on the E channel called
Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood. Clothing lines had him in commercials like
he was in a commercial with Yaya Coca for Chrysler.
(25:01):
That just really took him from say the gangster rapper
to the media sweetheart that you know him today and
my most proud accomplishment with him, And there you'll see
a string.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
A thread for me. I said, what's your dream?
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Forget any barriers, what is your dream? And he said,
I want my own youth football league. He said, I
played as a kid and I tried to coach my sons,
but where we live, they didn't want me. And just
all I need, like my whole career is, don't tell
me why I can't tell me how I can. And
when a client tells me, you know that someone's telling
(25:35):
them now, it just it gets me going and it
puts the battery in my back. And I said, Okay,
if you'll follow my lead, I will make this happen.
So Commissioner Taglibu was still the commissioner at the NFL.
Roger Goodell was the second in command, and I called Roger.
I said, Okay, I know this is going to sound
completely insane, and I know I've only been gone for
(25:55):
less than two years, and you're going to say, what
the hell has happened to you since you moved to California.
I want to bring Snoop Dogg in to the NFL
headquarters on Park Avenue for a meeting to talk about
supporting us starting our own youth football league in southern cal.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
To their credit, Snoop and I showed up. We walked
up those stairs and I said to him, do not
smoke one blunt before we go anywhere near these offices.
And if you do, you are spraying yourself with some clone.
I'll give you a tip travel for Breese, a tiny
little bottle throat in the purse which got me through
my time with him.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But it was one of the most.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Memorable meetings I ever had, and Commissioner Taglibou and now
Kimishner Cadell couldn't have been more gracious and more open.
And going back to what you're talking about is the
cultural relevance of the NFL. They saw it, they got it.
The majority of players going into professional sports aren't growing
up in Greenwich, Knnikut. I'm sorry, like you know, at
least not in the NFL. And for them to see
(26:57):
the impact he can have on these children that not
everybody comes from a two parent home, not everybody's you know,
working nine to five jobs. A lot of these kids'
parents might have been in jail, and Snoop is helping
them as any way he could, and they greenlit it,
and we just said we want to be able to
just know we have your support. We don't need anything else,
(27:17):
but the kids want to be wearing the NFL team jerseys.
And then we ended up starting to play a Snooper
Bowl game at the Super Bowl every year, and they
allowed us to use that because that's something you get
to see. Some desistance shut that down, and there are
thousands of kids that went on.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
To play at the collegiate level. CJ.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Stroud right now is an SYFL kid. Black Mamba Shuster,
He's another SYFL kid, And that's actually the inspiration for
the Underdogs was just these kids. It's still going strong.
I think the last number I heard was eighty thousand
kids have come through that lead.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
So that kind of brings us to Smack and sort
of this relationship network we talked with with Straighthand about it.
This is a very interesting collection of people, is as
I think we both appreciate. I mean, we're talking about,
you know, Whiz Khalifa, Aaron Andrews, Tony Gonzalez, you know,
Michael obviously talked to just a lot about that. What's
(28:18):
the underlying idea.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
For me starting SMACK.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I actually didn't plan on going on my own truly,
Like I didn't realize I was an entrepreneur. I always
joke about it, like kale and entrepreneur weren't words you
used back.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
In the nineties.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And when I went on my own, it was because
I got fired, which was the best thing ever. So
I'm so thankful to them for, you know, telling me
to hit the road. But when I parted ways with Snoop,
I had Michael and I had Dion, but they weren't
coach Prime and Straighthan. The media, you know, behemoth now
and I understood it. But wherever I was interviewing at
they wanted me, well, you worked in sports, you'll work
(28:53):
in sports. You produced Snoop's reality show, you should be
a reality show producer. You're great at brand partnership. So
don't you get it, Like I have twenty years of
the best experience ever combining what I learned at the
NFL and what I learned at the firm. That's what
this company is. That's what it's about. One of our
new people that just came into the company on the
(29:13):
production side, he said to me what McDonald's is to
hamburgers and what phones are to Apple smack is.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
To game changers.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
And I never looked at it like that, And I
actually had a little a little teary for somebody that
didn't work at the company who had that perception of
us on the outside.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I was like, that's what it is, and that's truly
what it is. It was.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It reminded me of when Strahan went into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. When you get that, you go
back to your team and they present you, you know,
with the team, and you get a ring. And I
was on the field when he was being honored and
all the Giant sponsors were there, and a wife of
a big sponsor overheard or she goes, why is Michael
Strahan from Live with Michael and Kelly being honored at
the Giants game. I never looked at me like that
(29:56):
that I was going to be upset, and I started
high fiving my team.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I was like, my god, guys, like.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
We've done this, like in these short years, in six years,
we've crossed him over, you know, from being a retired
athlete to a media powerhouse.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Sokasa's described the business of SMACK. What is it, what
does it do? And what kind of people are you
looking for?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So SMACK stands for sports, media and culture and it's
a multi hyphen it like talent management, production and brand
incubator company. So we manage talent, we produce whether it's scripted,
non scripted documentaries and now feature films, and then on
the brand side, we launched straighthands like head to toe skincare,
you know, clothing lines, and then we have a pet
(30:37):
line called Snoop Doggie Dogs with Snoop, and then a
headscarf line with John tay rottis his wife and Snoop
in the whole family.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
We have whereby.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Aaron Andrews, which we launched with Aaron five years ago.
That's what the culture comes into play, because we look
and see what's happening in the world where there's white space,
you know, where there's something that we can really lean
in on, and those are the ones we've targeted.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Right now, I want to talk about this moment that
happened in this NFL season where probably the most famous
person in the world, Taylor Swift, shows up at her
second game in Kansas City, and she's wearing Aware by
Aaron Andrews. Top. I walk us through that moment in
sort of what led up to it and what it
(31:19):
means for a brand like that.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Aaron, like Michael, is one of the moost hands on
entrepreneurs you will ever meet.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
When I tell you, she busts her ass at every.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Game, not just obviously being super prepared, you know, for
sideline reporting. But she will come with a stack of
gear and hand it out to the fans, and the
fans are like, Aaron am wearing this, I'm wearing thiss
like they're screaming, And I tell you that just to
say that didn't just happen with Taylor, I would love
to say it did. But Taylor's PR team had reached
out to Aaron, you know, to come to a show
(31:50):
over the summer, and then when it came out to
Taylor and Travis were dating, we sent a huge care
package to Taylor's PR team and then Aaron's very good
with Travis, and even on her Calm Down podcast over
the summer, they'd put it out there because Travis was
telling the story how we went to a concert and
couldn't get the bracelet tour. So everyone on this like Tiree,
like Taylor, please go on a date with Travis. It'll
(32:13):
be great for America too, like going on and on.
So there was some connectivity there. We had no idea
she was gonna wear their jacket, And when that happened
on Thursday Night Football, Aaron calls me, she said, I
think she's in our jacket. I'm like, oh, my god,
I'm like, I pulled it up on my phone. I
forgot where I was. But the way she was wearing it,
we couldn't see the whole jacket and like the shot.
(32:35):
So we're just literally spent five minutes like we were
John Madden, you know, with teleprompter dissecting, called someone else
from the team like it's our jacket is not. We
were screaming like we were little girls at our first
time at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
We couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And then it was just like, oh my gosh, buckle up.
Our partners at Fanatics were like, okay, we need to
go now. Our manufacturer I said, if you have to
send somebody overseas to go stand in these factories and
make more jackets. We sold out that night. The orders
kept coming in, pre sales kept happening. But even more
(33:15):
so and exciting than that, how many young girls are
now fans of the NFL, specifically the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So just seeing that hotailor effect, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I mean, thank you, Taylor, including my two daughters and
not watch ye right, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So we think about cultural relevance and I think about
the last twelve months. There's one man who has emerged
as one of the most culturally relevant people in sports,
and that is Dean Sanders. Coach Prime. Talk about a
man who's had many names. How do you distill down
Coach Prime.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I've worked with Coach Prime now for over a decade.
I think it's probably about thirteen fourteen years. Dion could
have had a television career as big as is Michael
is You.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
But he wouldn't leave Dallas. His commitment was coaching the kids.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
He started a truth league, similar to how Snoop had
his Snoop Youth Football League. That's what Dean did as
soon as he retired. So every time something would pop up,
a new talk show, a radio show of this, he'd
be like, can I do it from Dallas? And this
is before COVID, I mean, this is you know, a
long time ago. And they're like no, and he's like, nope,
(34:26):
I'm good then, And so he had his NFL network job.
Shiloh was off at University of South Carolina. Shadore the
Baby is now senior year high school and getting ready
to make his decision and where he's going to go
play on at the collegiate level, and I popped into
the NFL network to see Diani was doing a shoot
or something, and he said, I've been baking an idea,
but you know, I don't like to bring them to
(34:47):
you till they're fully cooked. I'm there, I said, okay,
you know, you're just sort of like what's coming. I
sent a letter to the ad at Florida State. I
want to help them recruit. Why would you help them recruit?
I said, what do you mean? I said, I understand
it's not the norm for somebody to go from coaching
six year old to high school to the collegiate level,
(35:09):
but you're not anybody. You're Deon Sanders. And he said, hmmm,
let's figure it out. So again, good at what I know,
better at what I don't know. I called one of
my best friends, Jordan Bejon's now at Fox Sports, who
was an agent at the time. I said, hear me out,
kind of like when I called Christer Cadell. I said,
Dion is ready, you know, to move on to the
(35:30):
next level, and he's going to be a.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Head coach at a college. Hello, And Jordan's like, you
know what.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Con If it was anybody else, I'd tell them they're crazy,
but it's you and him.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
He's like, let's do this. And Jordan helped prep us
because it's a.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Whole different world and if you don't come from that world,
you don't understand it. And so there's the search firms,
and the search firms make the first calls, and then
you have to prepare your playbook and you present your playbook.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
To whoever it is.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
It's doing the interviewing from the ad to the board
of trust, you know, all the folks, and Dion like
he is the most prepared individual. It's remarkable and he
was crushed these interviews. But I think those schools just
weren't ready. And he always says, God's plan is something
(36:17):
that none of us you know, really know, and you
have to follow it. And there was a reason why
he didn't get those first couple of jobs because then
a call came in from Ashley Robinson, who's the AD
at Jackson State, and said, I heard he's looking to
be a head coach and I'd love to.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Talk to you guys about it.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
And coaches eyes lit up, and he said, this is
my calling and I want to go to Jackson State
and I'm going to shine a light on all the
HBCUs and let's go do this this year especially he's
been a blur and what an amazing run he had
at Jackson State. And we still help, you know where
we can with the HBCUs, with brand partners and anything
of that sort. And then when it came time to
(36:52):
go to Colorado, Rick George, who's our boss at AD
at Colorado, I said, Rick, you have to understand you're
not just getting a head coach. You're getting the machine
that comes with it, and you're getting a docuseries that
comes with it. So if that's not something you're comfortable
with the Board of Regions, he probably won't want to.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
You know, take this job. You know, there's a lot
of other offers.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
And Rick was like, I am all in, Like I
understand you know him and what comes with it, and
I am all in. And Rick honestly was the main
reason Dion chose Colorado because he's such an innovative AD
and just truly welcoming and partnership and everything. And when
that spring game hit and everyone went like all of
(37:39):
it that day was sold out, the whole season was
sold out, and then it just kept going and going,
and I would love to sit back and tell you
what a great deal maker I am. And then I
knew all this was coming. There is no way anybody
could have predicted how big and how fast it was
going to take off. But what I absolutely do you
(38:00):
know and continue to know is he's a winner. And
for everybody that started, you know, just criticizing the way
the season ended, we knew that we would have some
dogs coming. And so when Jordan Seaton you know, announced
that he was signing with Colorado, and it just silenced
the haters.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
That is the best part of it all.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
But one thing, and like I said, you know him, well,
none of the noise ever creeps in ever, like I've
I call him and I said, okay, I think we're
going to clap back at this.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We're going to respond to that. He said, oh no,
you're not. I was like, but why he.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Goes It just feeds us like haters are the marketing team.
We have a show that we're developing with him, scripted comedy,
amazing writer Ali Larroy. I don't know if you guys
have worked with him. Everybody hates Chris and a few
other great shows and in the pitch because it's it's
loosely inspired by coach's life, takes place of a celebrity
(38:52):
head coach in a like a professional NFL team, but
in like Wichita and what Ali says in this pitches,
haters never focused on a loser.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
And I was like, I'm going.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
To start using that, Like, think about that because it
takes a second to sink in.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I feel like that's going to be written on the
corpse soon.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
But it's so true, right yeah, Like I've never thought
about it like that, and that helps me as the
person that has to guide him that I'm like, I
don't care when anybody's saying anything. I really don't because
if someone's gonna hate when we win, they're definitely gonna
hate when we lose.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
It's cool.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Not only is Deon a force of nature, but he's
also like I consider I'm a friend and a mentor.
And I remember when I signed my big deal with
Texas going back to two thousand and one, We're playing
the Reds and we were running sprange right before the
game and spring training, and I asked Ian. I said, Dan,
what advice can you give me? And he said, obviously
you'll take care of the baseball, but just make sure,
(39:50):
you're the best teammate in that clubhouse to those twenty
four other guys, and I never forgot that. But my
question to you is what is Dion's super power? What
makes him so special?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
His faith?
Speaker 3 (40:04):
And why I say that is because it's that faith
that makes him want to lift everyone up around him.
For a lot of the critics, they're not listening to
what he's saying. They might hear it, but they're not
listening because if you read his social media posts, if
you listen to him an oppressor, if you read an interview,
he's not talking about himself just to talk about himself.
(40:24):
He's talking about whatever he's working on to build the
people up around him. I'll call him and say, I
can't believe you just blah blah, I didn't do it.
We did it. It's such inclusion and mentorship and guidance.
I've never seen anything like it. I really haven't. It's
the most endearing quality about him is the faith that
(40:47):
he helps you have in yourself, no matter who you are,
whether you're a student athlete, whether you're one of his coaches,
whether you're one of his brand partners. It's just this
faith that he helps you to believe yourself. It's the
advice he gave you exactly when you were playing. Yeah,
it is his superpower.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
One of the things that clearly happened both at Jackson
State and then at Colorado. He was at the forefront,
leading edge, poster child, whatever you want to say, for
an entirely different business of college football. We talked about
you being a witness to the NFL at this catalytic moment.
(41:27):
This is a catalytic moment for college sports if there
ever was one. How do you see it from where
you sit, Like what's happening right now?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
I am so immersed in it that it's hard for
me to take a step back at the three sixty level.
But the one most important role we all have is
it's got any deal we do, it has to be
authentic to him. We're getting a lot of offers in
many different categories, but if it's not something that he
uses or does, we don't. We've passed and we'll leave
(41:56):
money on the table. But it comes back to you,
and that goes for the docum series, that goes for
any appearances he's making. I mean, I'm talking about off field. Yeah,
I'm off field, And when the mania hit everyone at Smack.
It was like all hands on deck, including Michael, like
we needed to get the kids dressed in our suits,
so what I mean all hands on deck, But we
(42:17):
had to make sure it was never too much, it
wasn't off brand, and we would end up having debates
internally do we launch this? I mean the sunglasses should
be an Anita Elber's Harvard Business School study because those
weren't supposed to come out until November. And we worked
for a year finding the right partner. Because he wears
(42:39):
sunglasses all the time, this was just like, oh, let's
get a sunglass Like no, no, he needs his own
line because there's many instances and Alex knows this that
you're going to put your name on someone else's brand
and there are times where it needs to be your own.
He needed his own sunglass line. And we called these
guys at Blenders when the coach the Colorado disrespected Mama
Connie and we said you need to go now, like
(43:01):
we need to go this week, and to their credit,
they ramped up and we got all the glasses in
the kid's hands at the team.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Deane's mom gave the pregame speech that week with the rock.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
We sold in the first couple of days that week
over a million dollars in sunglasses and they're reasonably with
fist like these, aren't you know, over the top ridiculous sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Like it was nuts.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
I mean, it was just you. You can't make this out.
Like every time something happens. I'm like, if we wrote
this in a script and turned it in, the studios
would push it right back to us to say this
is just too far out. Even with I mean, we
lost I think it was the last five or six games,
but we signed the number one O line in the country.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Everyone thought he was going to.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
All the other Power five schools who loved to throw
some shade our way, and Jordan's Seaton signed with us.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I mean, one thing that I've been thinking about in
talking to you and talking to Michael about you, is
this idea that you know, you get these epiphanies again,
Like you're in this seat where you're seeing some of
the most disruption, some of the most opportunities, some of
the biggest challenges in the sports and culture world. What
happens next?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Do you think On a smaller scale, what I'm seeing
is more and more brands want real people. And what
I mean by that is not a celebrity, not a
paid influencer, but real life executives or coordinators, you know.
Just that's a shift that I'm seeing a lot of
and just even internally here at SMACK is like as
(44:35):
we talked about them being seen and honored, that's the
shift where nobody. I think people are kind of sick
of just hearing from the suits in a sense, and
it's like the world shifted since the pandemic and you
want to just have more one on one, real conversations.
And that's a shift that I'm seeing, and that's where
a lot of these podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Are coming up.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
And the fact that I'm here, like I don't take
this for granted that you guys are having me here
when you're having the Michael Strahans of the world, but
that to me is indicative of what's happening in the
real world. Is people want to understand more about like
how did you get there, what happened and being proud
of it, Like I'm a blue collar kid. I went
to Suniasuigo and I to this day still fight every
(45:18):
day for every win that we have, and you want
to celebrate those wins and that's what I'm seeing and
I'm going to see a national championship in our in
near future for Colorado.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Wow, there's my vision.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Well, I'm a buyer of that stock if you say it.
But you know, as we were prepping for who do
we want on our show? Here the deal, your name
came up very quickly. With the work we've done and
me getting to know you over the years with Michael,
people say, how would you describe Constance, And some of
the words I use was savant, definitely a visionary.
Speaker 4 (45:50):
Gritty and a plus character.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Right, So if you think about nineteen ninety one when
you first started your career, what advice would you give
some of our young viewers and all viewers of what
can they do to be like you?
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Thank you for saying that. And I'm kind of little speeches,
which we all know it is not hard. I mean
it's hard. Out of those words you use, the only
one that I recall at twenty two years old was gritty.
I've always been gritty. I didn't see any you know,
of those words back then. Those characteristics and adjectives and
descriptions don't give up, you know, if I could look
(46:29):
at my younger self and just say, I wish you
had a little bit more belief in how things were
going to work out, because I don't ever like to
lean into the male dominated industries. It was what it was,
right and here we sit and a lot of times
I'm the first woman. I just want to be the best.
It doesn't matter what you know, sex you are, and
things like that. That's what I would tell these young
(46:53):
kids is hard work does pay off.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Nurture your relationships.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I mean, it's it's one of the reasons why you
both have me here right Like, I mean, it just
can't be pounded enough. Respect each other, like somewhere that's
gone away and it's common sense. I have a little
bag that says common sense is not so common And
if we could.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Just go back to that.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I know this you're expecting some big visionary but that's
the core and that's the base. It's just truly work
hard and respect one another. And you two be sitting
at to deal with you.
Speaker 4 (47:29):
Guys, well, thank you. This was really fun. I mean
to really sort of go back and get into it.
I mean, I think we agreed prepping for this, like
few people have seen the things you've seen, and I mean,
if you were to put together this collection of people,
it's like, what is the through line? Like you're the
through line, which is kind of an amazing, amazing thing
(47:51):
to witness.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
And here's my forecast. First of all, congrats for all
the extraordinary things that you've done and are continue to do.
But I believe that you're still in the early stages
of this empire that you're building, because I feel like
you're just getting started and I'm so excited for you.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Thank you. Life begins after fifty.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
There you good. That's good to know, all right, Thank
you so much.
Speaker 6 (48:18):
The Deals of Production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deals hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our
producers are Victor Veees and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor
is so Dartha Mahonta. Our assistant producer is Stacy Wong.
Blake Maples is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our
creative director. Our direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Original music
(48:41):
by Blake Maples, casting by Dave Warren. Our editorial supervisor
is David E. Rabella. Our Executive producers are Sage Bauman,
Jason Kelly, Adam Kamiski, Kelly la Ferrier, Ashley Hoenig, Trey Shallowhorn,
Kyle Kramer, and Andrew Barden. Additional support from Rachel scarm
Is you Know, Elena Los Angeles, Vanessa Perdomo, Anna Maazarakis,
(49:04):
David Fox, Audrean Atapia, Alex Sugira, Oshna Shaw, and Diana Colonge.
David Dominguez is our director of photography. Our camera operators
are Josh Devereaux, Jesse Ridner, and Ryan Kvatero. Katia Vanoy
is our video editor. Rob Silcox is our gaffer, and
our grip is Pronoy Jacob. You can also watch The
(49:26):
Deal on Bloomberg Originals, YouTube and Bloomberg Television. Subscribe to
The Deal wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Previously on the Deal and get yourself a great partner
like Constance Schwartz Marini, who I'm scared of because she's
behind me. So I got to say all these nice
things about the boss. She is so lovely. Cannot wait
for you too to have a conversation with her.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Michael is obviously my business partner, but we always say
like brother from another mother, mister from another sister.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You guys know a snoop.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
We had a little bit of an exchange in the
boardroom that I stood up to him, and next day
someone from his team called and he said, we want
the girl from the NFL running the snoop team. I
was like, whoa, whoa, I'm not a manager and they're like,
too bad, you're a manager now.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
So Constant Schwartzmarni. This episode is kind of a part
two of a two part series, as it were, Alex,
because she is the business partner to Michael Strahan. But
you've known her for years. Who is she to you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
In many ways you mentioned Michael Strahan and Constant. The
comparable for me is like Charlie Munger to Warren Buffett
and Warren's the guy out there right, so is Michael,
but she's the one in the background that just brings
a lot of sanity and self awareness and they make
each other better. And if you think about some of
the brands that Constant has been involved with, from Deon
(01:39):
Sanders to Snoop to Aaron Andrews to cutting her teeth
in the early nineties in the NFL, and the stories
that she told us, oh, fascinating.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It's unbelievable because she gets into, like you said, those
early days of the NFL, before the NFL was the NFL,
when little sport called baseball was probably the more dominant
in the culture. NFL takes off in part because of
some of the things that she does. She goes to
the music world. I mean talk about being at the
center of the culture. She is a primary architect of
(02:11):
Coach Prime, like today's Coach Prime. It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
And to think that Constant was in the cover of
Sports illustraated with Dion was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, no question. And when you think about what's happening
at this intersection we talk about it all the time, sports, business, culture, music, technology.
No one has been at the center of it more
than she has, and yet she self describes in this
interview working class kid born in Yonkers goes to Sunios WeGo,
but she's like as Hollywood as they come.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
At this point.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
On this episode of The Deal, Constance schwartz Marini, I
guess we should have you formally introduce yourself, hell us
who you are.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That would be helpful. So first of all, thank you
for having me. This is so exciting. But I'm Constance
schwartz Marini, and I'm co founder and managing partner of
Smack Entertainment.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And so Michael Strahan is your business partner. We spend
some time with him. Who is he to you?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Can I cuss?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Now?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I'm sorry. So Michael is obviously my business partner.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But we always say like brother from another mother, mister
from another sister. We've met, oh my gosh, yeah thirty
years ago when he was playing for the Giants and
I was working at the NFL. I'm an only child,
so I say he's the brother I never wanted. He
was my minister and my wedding like it goes deep
yeah wow yeah. And my husband's name is Mike too,
(03:45):
So the two of them jokes that it takes to
Michael's to handle one contence.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
And I love Michael so much and I admire him
so much. What is it about Michael from your point
of view that makes him different and special?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Because Michael and I had the same workout thick and
the same sort of ethos, which is when, not if,
when this happens, when I can do this? And I
say that only because you have to have the trust
with whether it's a client, a partner, or a friend,
to say, what's your dream, what do you want to
go build?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Let's do it together.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
And that's one of the many things it's so attracted
about him to many fans in that they don't.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
See just a retired football player.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
They don't see a good morning American news anchor, they
don't see the NFL on Fox sportscaster. They think that
he's their best friend. And that's something that you can't explain,
you can't teach, you can't buy. And that's one of
the many, many qualities that's just so endearing about him
is any room he's in.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Everyone feels like they know him. He makes you feel
like he knows you.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
He's friendly with everyone on the set, not just the talent,
but whether it's the grip or the sound guy or
whoever it is, and he will reach out to me
for more favors for those kind of folks that he
works with than any talent ever. You know, when Pop
fifty was at Yankee Stadium, he said, can you please
get me four tickets?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The sound engineer wants to go.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I was like done, and for me too, I'd much
rather help someone like that out who's not going to
have the access that we are all privileged to have.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
This guy. So, speaking of Michael, I mean, when you
think about like the through line of the people that
you've worked with over the years, what is it? Because
it's such a fascinating collection of people.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's a good way of putting it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If you really dig deep and look at all of them,
they're like Alex, they're a multi hyphen it. You know,
they excelled greatly at their core career. Obviously he was
a baseball player, but you've gone on right to have
a show like The Deal and all your investments in
your television career.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And that's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Whether it's Michael or Aaron Andrews or Kurt Menafie and
Coach Prime, they all did so well at the core,
but they knew they could do more and wanted to
do more. And that's how we look at it is
there's no guard rails, there's no blinders.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
It's like, let's go, let's talk about you. Let's talk
about the early days, because I think something Alex and
are both fascinated with. Is you starting your career at
the NFL before the NFL is really the NFL, it's
not what it is today. What was it like when
you got there? What were you doing in those early days?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So in those days, the NFL was two different companies.
There was the National Football League and then there was
the marketing and licensing arm called NFL Properties. So my
first job was an assistant at NFL Properties in the
corporate sponsorship to do. This was the early nineties, nineteen
ninety one. Wow, Yeah, I was a junior in high school.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, so it was. It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I had two amazing bosses, Jim Schwabl and Maureen Rosen.
I'm still super close to Maureene. She really gave me
my start in my shop because she would say, whatever
you can handle, I'm going to give you more of,
you know, And that's what she did and she gave
me the best advice that I used to this day
with everyone that comes and works with us at SMACK,
which is, when you mess up, although it was a
different word, and you will, you come to me, you
(06:56):
own it, you say I messed up and need help,
let's fix it. That has stuck with me throughout my
whole career, my whole life and everything, because it's such
simple common sense. But unfortunately more people go the other direction,
which is to cover something up or lie about it,
and then the issue snowballs. And that's how we work
with everybody at the company, not just the talent, but
(07:17):
the staff too, And that's just was the best thing ever.
And yes there were women executives back then, not many,
but I was very blessed that she was the one
that looked out for me.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
And I want to sort of stick with this notion
of what the NFL was then, in part because the
show is called The Deal. What were those early deals
that you remember?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I couldn't have received an MBA at any school that
would have taught me what the NFL taught me about
the art of the deal, in the sense that it
was just our jobs, like everyone's like, oh you got
into producing so late in life. I'm like, no, we
produced at the NFL, but you didn't get a credit
in a sense because it was your job. When the
network deals were done, there were hours carved out for
(07:56):
the NFL to program and you'd go to the sponsor
say what are your guys objectives? And you know, nineteen
ninety three and it was Miller Lte at the time.
They're like, well, the Pro Bowl, which was in Hawaii,
that's our target. So you know, the NFL Films guys
would come up with the Pro Bowl Beach Challenge, and
then there was the NFL on Skills Challenges and then
the NFL Lineman Challenge, which was one of the ways
(08:18):
Strahan and I got to really interact and connect because
the show needed a little dusting off, and so Tracy Polman,
who's still at the NFL, was like, you guys need
to sit with Strahan, and we brought him in and said,
what do you think of the show. You've you've participated
in it, you know enough years, and he was like,
I like this, I like this, but why don't we
replace this skill challenge with that one?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That was when the light bulb went off about him.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You're like, Wow, this guy isn't just great on the field,
but understands all the things you know that go into
off field careers.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
You're doing these deals and the NFL does start to
take off a little bit. I think we're both fascinated
with this idea, is like, what was it like inside
there was there a sense that something special was happening
in terms of the NFL and the culture, because that,
I think is one of the most fascinating things about
you is that you're looking at this not just through
(09:08):
a sports lens, not just through a business lens, Like
what was happening then?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It was early nineties, so hip hop, you know, is
really starting to take off, whether it was Snoop and
Ice Cube and they're all rocking jerseys and Starter was
was the it jacket, and I think they might have
even been doing some jerseys as well back then. And
we saw that and we just ended up really tapping
into it, and we hired a company called Loud Records.
(09:33):
It's Steve Rifkin, where he's like, I can help you guys,
and started placing jerseys on the you know, folks that
weren't already wearing them. And then I just even keyed
in to say, Okay, we have the Super Bowl halftime
in the anthem, but there's so much more. And I
started working with the music industry and we would do
these NFL New Artists tours and we'd tap people to
(09:53):
play at the Pro Bowl, which.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Nobody ever really paid attention to. And the cool thing.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
About it was the artists that we would tap in
at that point were on the come up. So then
two three years later were they're the biggest stars in
the world, whether it was in Sync or the Backstreet Boys,
even Creed Kelly Clarkson, like, they all wanted to just
stay and be a part of it and would still
come back and not charge the seven figures that they
could have to be a part of all the events
(10:18):
and activities concerts.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Is interesting. You say nineteen ninety three, and that was
the year that Michael Strahan and I were both drafted.
But at that point, at least what I remember was
Major League baseball was still America's pastime. And some may
say that at that point mob Baseball was greater than
the NFL. But what's happened over the last thirty years
is phenomenal. I mean, it's incredible, and they become behemoth
(10:42):
of network television in the world that everything's dying and
they're still growing. Their numbers are crazy. In hindsight when
you look back thinking about the deal, was there one,
two or three things that happened that started changing really
the future and landscape of the NFL.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
This is just my opinion, and I think it's what
sets them apart still to this day, is you know,
on Sundays and Mondays where you were going to be watching,
Like you knew on Sundays and Mondays that was NFL
football and that's what we really would drive to and
for when I was there, it was all about, Okay,
the NBA, the players aren't wearing helmets, so how do
(11:19):
we make sure our players are identified? And that was
when the groups that I was in, whether it was
special events or liaising with the NFL Films Group, is
let's get more content out there that showcases our players
without the helmets. I think those two things for me
would be identifiers looking back on when you could see it.
And then Michael Jackson's halftime performance which was at the
Rose Bowl, that was pivotal. I mean I wasn't involved
(11:42):
in any of that, but just being a small, little coordinator.
And then we also started the NFL experience back then,
which was really I think the first fan fest, which
is what a lot of people call them, where you
would really lean in to the local community. But as
you guys know, how many hundreds of thousands of people
show up in a Super Bowl city, so you were
giving them another activity to do than just drink at a bar.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
What is it about the NFL? What is it about
pro football that makes it so culturally relevant and valuable today?
The gap between every other sport in the NFL is
massive when you think about valuations, when you think about viewership,
when you think about every element. What is it about
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
In the thirty years you know since I started there
to where we are now. Fantasy football huge, huge, and
you went from just cheering for your local team to now,
all of a sudden, wait a minute, I have players
spread out at all the teams. Then Sunday Ticket was born,
so you didn't have to just watch your team in
your market. You could then watch all the teams. And
(12:47):
I think the betting, you know obviously has just for
every sport, has just taken it through the roof. But
those would be the things that stick out for me
right now. And then the limited amount of games. I mean,
you know better than I do. How many games do
the NBA and MLB play a year?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Eighty two and sixty two?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
So, because I haven't, you know, I'm always thinking about,
like what happens inside these very famous boardrooms that all
of our viewers would love to be a fly on
the wall. But when you think about the last thirty years,
is it Roger Goodell? Is it Jerry Jones? Is it
Robert Craft? Who were the key players in that room
that you think shifted this?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Well?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I wasn't in those boyfriends, but one thousand percent. I
mean they are such visionary leaders. And you know, I
was lucky enough to get to know Kim Bogoula from
the Buffalo Bills, and I think she was a big
visionary for one of the new ownership teams that came
into play. Steve Ross, who I know you know very well.
My dad was his driver. Talk about the.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Deal and no way what?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, that's interesting, And it's this is how much I
love Steve Ross. So I run into him at Super
Bowl every year, and whether it's the tailgate party or
the Commissioner's party on Friday night and he's with all
of his fancy billionaires and he's a big hug and
he says, this is Consent's her father used to work
for me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And you can see them like, what did he do?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And we both go to his driver and it's the
greatest thing because I'm a blue collar kid, and I
think that's something that gets so lost in the deal
that you have to go to an Ivy League school
and you have to know Steve to have connections. And
that's one of the reasons I love him so much
is it doesn't matter what you did, if you were
(14:24):
smart and you're a good person, you just excel. And
when he went in, you know, and bought the Dolphins,
I know there's like this, there's always controversy with every
team owner, but he brought such a different point of view,
coming from the successful real estate market and everything. So
but Jerry obviously and the whole family. I mean, Charlotte's
a dear friend and what she's done, you know, in
(14:46):
marketing the team and building the star and Robert Kraft
just what hasn't Robert Craft and the Craft family done?
But absolutely those are the owners that I just remembered vividly.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
So let's talk about music if we can, because you
mentioned that, you know, those early days, you bring in
these artists and music becomes really interesting to you. Talk
to us about that transition into a different part of
the sort of cultural zeitgeist, as it were.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I owe my music career to Hoody and the Blowfish.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Believe it or not, don't we all have.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I'm so excited they're touring again next summer.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We a whole bunch of us text are like, we
have to go and see them on the road somewhere.
But literally, Don Garber, who's commissioner of Major League Soccer,
was my boss at the NFL at the time, and
he said, hey, I just got a call from someone
at a record company. Can you take it? And that
one conversation changed the course of my career. And I said, Saron,
I called this woman and she said, we have this band.
They love sports. They're playing at Jones Beach. Would you
(15:42):
come see them because we think there's something to be
done with them. In my mid twenties, I was like cool,
grabbed a couple folks from the NFL. It's like, let's
go to Jones Beach. And see this band forgot They
were opening for like Genesis, somebody like that. And I
was so in awe and so blown away. And again
this is mid nineties. I go back to the office,
is Don, we have to hire them for the tailgate party.
(16:04):
And for those of you that don't know, the tailgate
party is the party of the super Bowl. It takes
place right before the game. It's all the corporate partners,
the owners, the networks. I mean, every fancy is at
this party. So you have to come correct, not just
with the music, the food, the decor. And that was
one of the projects I worked on. And Don says
what I said, Don, You've got to trust me on this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He's like, are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
You think I can take a band that no one
knows and have them play for the owners.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I said, just trust me.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well, Book, I think it was Casey and the Sunshine
Man as well. I said, And if I'm wrong, you
can publicly fire me and then we'll put.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Those guys as the headliner.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
This is August, September, October, November, climbing, climbing climbing. By
the time the Super Bowl comes around, I don't even
know how many Grammys they're nominated for so Don was like,
con this is what you're going to be doing now,
and so that set me on this course. And everyone
I met from the hoodie camp, you know, from the
publishers and the record company, they said, what more can
(17:04):
we do?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And it's time.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Garber was like, go go create this entertainment marketing division.
And I would just cold call because there was no
social media, and so you would use a telephone like
a handheld telephone, and you dial numbers and I said, Hya,
it's Constant Schwartz from the NFL. We're expanding our music interactions.
It's outside of just Super Bowl halftime pregame. Would you
(17:27):
be interested? And who didn't want to work with the NFL?
So we created NFL New Artist Tours, where you'd work
with the record companies and they'd put new artists on
tours going to each stadium because how else are these
new artists ever playing in front of seventy eighty thousand people.
And it just kept snowballing. And then we started securing
venues at the super Bowl outside of obviously the stadium,
(17:49):
and we'd set comedy. Jamie Fox played in the late
nineties like it was the Super Bowl comedy tour, and
then we started a Super Bowl concert series that took
place at the NFL Experience, and all those things just
kept elevating and growing. And next thing, you know, after
the Cowboys Thanksgiving Game, we held a Shania Twain concert
at the stadium that was then rolled right into CBS's
(18:11):
you know after the game.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Was so much fun. God, I'm like sitting here reminiscing.
I'm like, I want to go back.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
But it's interesting, I mean, because you were living obviously
deep in baseball world. Baseball's not doing this. No, Like
baseball is like, we're America's past time. We're good. Everybody's
going to watch, and meanwhile, the NFL is eating their lunch.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And to think that in the late seventies when the
Yankees played the Dodgers, forty five million people watched that
game six and you cut to twenty twenty and those
eleven million people and watch the Dodgers win the World Series.
So it's been interesting to watch one ascending and the
other one.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Being a little bit challenged. But the cultural relevance is
obviously at the core of that. When we come back,
we talked to constants about managing Snoop Dogg ing Smack
with Michael Strahan and everything coach Prime. Then you start
(19:17):
to really get into the to the music business. I mean,
fast forward to today. You're still there. You and Snoop
Snoop Dogg, Snoop Dogg' like you know all the names.
How does he come into your life? You have a
movie coming out with him?
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Do?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We have a movie that's streaming right now on Prime
Video called The Underdogs. But my last two years at
the NFL, there was a new show they were developing
called NFL Under the Helmet, which was our answer to
inside stuff, and it was let's get the helmets off
the players, and Michael Strahan was our correspondent with Brandy
Chastain while he was still playing for the Giants. We'd
send him out into the field. But it was where
(19:54):
we literally combined sports media and culture because artists on
that show were everybody from run DMC and ice Cube
and so at that point I start getting calls from
management companies and labels and they said, Okay, we know
you're having a time over there and it's been great
for us, but we want you to come work at
a record company. I was like, I'm not leaving the NFL,
(20:14):
and then another a management company in LA, was like,
come out here, you can do strategic marketing and all
the partnerships.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
It's like, I'm not leaving New York City.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But then I just kept getting so many offers that
you get to the point where, Okay, someone's offering me
a senior vice president position to create a new department.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
In a new area.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And as you guys are doing the show called the Deal,
how do you say no to that? And that was
how I ended up leaving the NFL after a decade there,
and I went to work at a record company for
eleven months. Wasn't for me, but I learned so much
and I'm so glad I did it. And then I
moved made the jump and moved to LA to go
really in the entertainment space. So when I was at
(20:53):
the firm, we represented everybody that you can imagine in
the early two thousands.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Remind us about the firm, because that's seminole not just
for you, but in the sort of.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Many people that are going to be in these chairs
with you. So the Firm was a talent management company
who wrapped everybody from Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Martin Scorsese,
Ice Cube, Vin Diesel, Kelly Clarkson, Enrique Iglesias.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, it just goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And I was brought into strategic market, the talent, brand partnerships, endorsements,
and believe it or not, the music business wasn't as
comfortable as they are now with doing endorsements, so it
was sort of helping them understand that it doesn't compromise
the integrity of your music or who you are.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It just enhances it.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And if we can get a brand to cover, you know,
your release week, your tours, your release parties, why wouldn't
you want to do that, especially if it's something that's
so organic. And Enrique Iglesias was just coming off Heroes,
the biggest thing in the world, and we just had
so much upside and so much fun with him. And
again early on how it's so important to establish trust
(22:03):
with the talent because I'm new to the talent space. Yes,
I worked with football players, but I was at the NFL,
and I mean, my goodness, Enrique had a Dorrito campaign.
He was in a Pepsi campaign globally with Britney Spears,
Beyonce and Pink playing a Gladiator.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
You have to look that one up. It's phenomenal. And
then the way Snoop came into my life.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
We threw a Super Bowl party in San Diego and
I remember what year and Snoop was a guest and
somebody from his team ended up talking to someone from
my team about the firm. And the next couple of
days their call comes in that Snoop wanted a meeting
and I'm barely out of a suit right, like, I'm
as corporate as you could be. And Snoop was doing
(22:43):
that GFL, the Gangster Football League, and I was like,
I don't want to work with him, Like I don't understand,
like I'm going to stick in the pop world. You
guys know a Snoop once you meet him, I mean
the best. And so I was on his marketing team,
though different than I was anyone else, but we had
a little bit of an exchange in the boardroom that
(23:06):
I stood up to him, and next day someone from
his team called and he said, we want the girl
from the NFL running the Snoop team. I was like, whoa, whoa,
I'm not a manager. Yeah, this isn't my forte And
they're like, too bad. You're a manager. Now the talent
wants you, and wow, I jumped on a plane I
think it was the next day to Reno, Nevada, where
Private was waiting for him. He was on tour to
(23:27):
take him to New York to do press for Starsky
and Hutch and maybe soul plane.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
And that was the beginning. And I never looked back,
and we had an amazing run together. But I stepped
down as his manager when I turned forty just because
I wanted a life, Because.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
When you're with Snoop, that is your life.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, because I think we should stick on that for
a second, because I feel like now it's like, oh, Snoop,
he's like Mark, he's doing a show with Martha Steward,
and he's got he's like this empire. That wasn't totally
the vibe then.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
No, right, not at all.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Snoop was in his thirty and you know, still had
a lot of activity happenings, say, you know, at home
from Long Beach, and maybe some kerfuffles with the law
here and there. But once you really understand him, there
was never anything that he has done or still does
with bad intentions. Right, A lot of it's wrong place,
(24:19):
wrong time kind of things. And I saw that, and
he is such a star, and yes he had a
global footprint, but we saw because this was again pre
social media, so a lot of people aren't going to
understand what I'm talking about. But in order to really
build your base, you needed to be there. And so
we just hit the ground running. And I was on
tour with him internationally for that entire time, and we
(24:41):
hit every continent, whether it was hosting the Europe you know,
Video Music Awards MTV was so big that you'd go
to Germany, he'd host that and that would pop. And
we had a family doc on the E channel called
Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood. Clothing lines had him in commercials like
he was in a commercial with Yaya Coca for Chrysler.
(25:01):
That just really took him from say the gangster rapper
to the media sweetheart that you know him today and
my most proud accomplishment with him, And there you'll see
a string.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
A thread for me. I said, what's your dream?
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Forget any barriers, what is your dream? And he said,
I want my own youth football league. He said, I
played as a kid and I tried to coach my sons,
but where we live, they didn't want me. And just
all I need, like my whole career is, don't tell
me why I can't tell me how I can. And
when a client tells me, you know that someone's telling
(25:35):
them now, it just it gets me going and it
puts the battery in my back. And I said, Okay,
if you'll follow my lead, I will make this happen.
So Commissioner Taglibu was still the commissioner at the NFL.
Roger Goodell was the second in command, and I called Roger.
I said, Okay, I know this is going to sound
completely insane, and I know I've only been gone for
(25:55):
less than two years, and you're going to say, what
the hell has happened to you since you moved to California.
I want to bring Snoop Dogg in to the NFL
headquarters on Park Avenue for a meeting to talk about
supporting us starting our own youth football league in southern cal.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
To their credit, Snoop and I showed up. We walked
up those stairs and I said to him, do not
smoke one blunt before we go anywhere near these offices.
And if you do, you are spraying yourself with some clone.
I'll give you a tip travel for Breese, a tiny
little bottle throat in the purse which got me through
my time with him.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But it was one of the most.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Memorable meetings I ever had, and Commissioner Taglibou and now
Kimishner Cadell couldn't have been more gracious and more open.
And going back to what you're talking about is the
cultural relevance of the NFL. They saw it, they got it.
The majority of players going into professional sports aren't growing
up in Greenwich, Knnikut. I'm sorry, like you know, at
least not in the NFL. And for them to see
(26:57):
the impact he can have on these children that not
everybody comes from a two parent home, not everybody's you know,
working nine to five jobs. A lot of these kids'
parents might have been in jail, and Snoop is helping
them as any way he could, and they greenlit it,
and we just said we want to be able to
just know we have your support. We don't need anything else,
(27:17):
but the kids want to be wearing the NFL team jerseys.
And then we ended up starting to play a Snooper
Bowl game at the Super Bowl every year, and they
allowed us to use that because that's something you get
to see. Some desistance shut that down, and there are
thousands of kids that went on.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
To play at the collegiate level. CJ.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Stroud right now is an SYFL kid. Black Mamba Shuster,
He's another SYFL kid, And that's actually the inspiration for
the Underdogs was just these kids. It's still going strong.
I think the last number I heard was eighty thousand
kids have come through that lead.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
So that kind of brings us to Smack and sort
of this relationship network we talked with with Straighthand about it.
This is a very interesting collection of people, is as
I think we both appreciate. I mean, we're talking about,
you know, Whiz Khalifa, Aaron Andrews, Tony Gonzalez, you know,
Michael obviously talked to just a lot about that. What's
(28:18):
the underlying idea.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
For me starting SMACK.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I actually didn't plan on going on my own truly,
Like I didn't realize I was an entrepreneur. I always
joke about it, like kale and entrepreneur weren't words you
used back.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
In the nineties.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
And when I went on my own, it was because
I got fired, which was the best thing ever. So
I'm so thankful to them for, you know, telling me
to hit the road. But when I parted ways with Snoop,
I had Michael and I had Dion, but they weren't
coach Prime and Straighthan. The media, you know, behemoth now
and I understood it. But wherever I was interviewing at
they wanted me, well, you worked in sports, you'll work
(28:53):
in sports. You produced Snoop's reality show, you should be
a reality show producer. You're great at brand partnership. So
don't you get it, Like I have twenty years of
the best experience ever combining what I learned at the
NFL and what I learned at the firm. That's what
this company is. That's what it's about. One of our
new people that just came into the company on the
(29:13):
production side, he said to me what McDonald's is to
hamburgers and what phones are to Apple smack is.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
To game changers.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
And I never looked at it like that, And I
actually had a little a little teary for somebody that
didn't work at the company who had that perception of
us on the outside.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I was like, that's what it is, and that's truly
what it is. It was.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It reminded me of when Strahan went into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. When you get that, you go
back to your team and they present you, you know,
with the team, and you get a ring. And I
was on the field when he was being honored and
all the Giant sponsors were there, and a wife of
a big sponsor overheard or she goes, why is Michael
Strahan from Live with Michael and Kelly being honored at
the Giants game. I never looked at me like that
(29:56):
that I was going to be upset, and I started
high fiving my team.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I was like, my god, guys, like.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
We've done this, like in these short years, in six years,
we've crossed him over, you know, from being a retired
athlete to a media powerhouse.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Sokasa's described the business of SMACK. What is it, what
does it do? And what kind of people are you
looking for?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So SMACK stands for sports, media and culture and it's
a multi hyphen it like talent management, production and brand
incubator company. So we manage talent, we produce whether it's scripted,
non scripted documentaries and now feature films, and then on
the brand side, we launched straighthands like head to toe skincare,
you know, clothing lines, and then we have a pet
(30:37):
line called Snoop Doggie Dogs with Snoop, and then a
headscarf line with John tay rottis his wife and Snoop
in the whole family.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
We have whereby.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Aaron Andrews, which we launched with Aaron five years ago.
That's what the culture comes into play, because we look
and see what's happening in the world where there's white space,
you know, where there's something that we can really lean
in on, and those are the ones we've targeted.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Right now, I want to talk about this moment that
happened in this NFL season where probably the most famous
person in the world, Taylor Swift, shows up at her
second game in Kansas City, and she's wearing Aware by
Aaron Andrews. Top. I walk us through that moment in
sort of what led up to it and what it
(31:19):
means for a brand like that.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Aaron, like Michael, is one of the moost hands on
entrepreneurs you will ever meet.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
When I tell you, she busts her ass at every.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Game, not just obviously being super prepared, you know, for
sideline reporting. But she will come with a stack of
gear and hand it out to the fans, and the
fans are like, Aaron am wearing this, I'm wearing thiss
like they're screaming, And I tell you that just to
say that didn't just happen with Taylor, I would love
to say it did. But Taylor's PR team had reached
out to Aaron, you know, to come to a show
(31:50):
over the summer, and then when it came out to
Taylor and Travis were dating, we sent a huge care
package to Taylor's PR team and then Aaron's very good
with Travis, and even on her Calm Down podcast over
the summer, they'd put it out there because Travis was
telling the story how we went to a concert and
couldn't get the bracelet tour. So everyone on this like Tiree,
like Taylor, please go on a date with Travis. It'll
(32:13):
be great for America too, like going on and on.
So there was some connectivity there. We had no idea
she was gonna wear their jacket, And when that happened
on Thursday Night Football, Aaron calls me, she said, I
think she's in our jacket. I'm like, oh, my god,
I'm like, I pulled it up on my phone. I
forgot where I was. But the way she was wearing it,
we couldn't see the whole jacket and like the shot.
(32:35):
So we're just literally spent five minutes like we were
John Madden, you know, with teleprompter dissecting, called someone else
from the team like it's our jacket is not. We
were screaming like we were little girls at our first
time at Disneyland.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
We couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And then it was just like, oh my gosh, buckle up.
Our partners at Fanatics were like, okay, we need to
go now. Our manufacturer I said, if you have to
send somebody overseas to go stand in these factories and
make more jackets. We sold out that night. The orders
kept coming in, pre sales kept happening. But even more
(33:15):
so and exciting than that, how many young girls are
now fans of the NFL, specifically the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So just seeing that hotailor effect, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I mean, thank you, Taylor, including my two daughters and
not watch ye right, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So we think about cultural relevance and I think about
the last twelve months. There's one man who has emerged
as one of the most culturally relevant people in sports,
and that is Dean Sanders. Coach Prime. Talk about a
man who's had many names. How do you distill down
Coach Prime.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I've worked with Coach Prime now for over a decade.
I think it's probably about thirteen fourteen years. Dion could
have had a television career as big as is Michael
is You.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
But he wouldn't leave Dallas. His commitment was coaching the kids.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
He started a truth league, similar to how Snoop had
his Snoop Youth Football League. That's what Dean did as
soon as he retired. So every time something would pop up,
a new talk show, a radio show of this, he'd
be like, can I do it from Dallas? And this
is before COVID, I mean, this is you know, a
long time ago. And they're like no, and he's like, nope,
(34:26):
I'm good then, And so he had his NFL network job.
Shiloh was off at University of South Carolina. Shadore the
Baby is now senior year high school and getting ready
to make his decision and where he's going to go
play on at the collegiate level, and I popped into
the NFL network to see Diani was doing a shoot
or something, and he said, I've been baking an idea,
but you know, I don't like to bring them to
(34:47):
you till they're fully cooked. I'm there, I said, okay,
you know, you're just sort of like what's coming. I
sent a letter to the ad at Florida State. I
want to help them recruit. Why would you help them recruit?
I said, what do you mean? I said, I understand
it's not the norm for somebody to go from coaching
six year old to high school to the collegiate level,
(35:09):
but you're not anybody. You're Deon Sanders. And he said, hmmm,
let's figure it out. So again, good at what I know,
better at what I don't know. I called one of
my best friends, Jordan Bejon's now at Fox Sports, who
was an agent at the time. I said, hear me out,
kind of like when I called Christer Cadell. I said,
Dion is ready, you know, to move on to the
(35:30):
next level, and he's going to be a.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Head coach at a college. Hello, And Jordan's like, you
know what.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Con If it was anybody else, I'd tell them they're crazy,
but it's you and him.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
He's like, let's do this. And Jordan helped prep us
because it's a.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Whole different world and if you don't come from that world,
you don't understand it. And so there's the search firms,
and the search firms make the first calls, and then
you have to prepare your playbook and you present your playbook.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
To whoever it is.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
It's doing the interviewing from the ad to the board
of trust, you know, all the folks, and Dion like
he is the most prepared individual. It's remarkable and he
was crushed these interviews. But I think those schools just
weren't ready. And he always says, God's plan is something
(36:17):
that none of us you know, really know, and you
have to follow it. And there was a reason why
he didn't get those first couple of jobs because then
a call came in from Ashley Robinson, who's the AD
at Jackson State, and said, I heard he's looking to
be a head coach and I'd love to.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Talk to you guys about it.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
And coaches eyes lit up, and he said, this is
my calling and I want to go to Jackson State
and I'm going to shine a light on all the
HBCUs and let's go do this this year especially he's
been a blur and what an amazing run he had
at Jackson State. And we still help, you know where
we can with the HBCUs, with brand partners and anything
of that sort. And then when it came time to
(36:52):
go to Colorado, Rick George, who's our boss at AD
at Colorado, I said, Rick, you have to understand you're
not just getting a head coach. You're getting the machine
that comes with it, and you're getting a docuseries that
comes with it. So if that's not something you're comfortable
with the Board of Regions, he probably won't want to.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
You know, take this job. You know, there's a lot
of other offers.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
And Rick was like, I am all in, Like I
understand you know him and what comes with it, and
I am all in. And Rick honestly was the main
reason Dion chose Colorado because he's such an innovative AD
and just truly welcoming and partnership and everything. And when
that spring game hit and everyone went like all of
(37:39):
it that day was sold out, the whole season was
sold out, and then it just kept going and going,
and I would love to sit back and tell you
what a great deal maker I am. And then I
knew all this was coming. There is no way anybody
could have predicted how big and how fast it was
going to take off. But what I absolutely do you
(38:00):
know and continue to know is he's a winner. And
for everybody that started, you know, just criticizing the way
the season ended, we knew that we would have some
dogs coming. And so when Jordan Seaton you know, announced
that he was signing with Colorado, and it just silenced
the haters.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
That is the best part of it all.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
But one thing, and like I said, you know him, well,
none of the noise ever creeps in ever, like I've
I call him and I said, okay, I think we're
going to clap back at this.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
We're going to respond to that. He said, oh no,
you're not. I was like, but why he.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Goes It just feeds us like haters are the marketing team.
We have a show that we're developing with him, scripted comedy,
amazing writer Ali Larroy. I don't know if you guys
have worked with him. Everybody hates Chris and a few
other great shows and in the pitch because it's it's
loosely inspired by coach's life, takes place of a celebrity
(38:52):
head coach in a like a professional NFL team, but
in like Wichita and what Ali says in this pitches,
haters never focused on a loser.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
And I was like, I'm going.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
To start using that, Like, think about that because it
takes a second to sink in.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I feel like that's going to be written on the
corpse soon.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
But it's so true, right yeah, Like I've never thought
about it like that, and that helps me as the
person that has to guide him that I'm like, I
don't care when anybody's saying anything. I really don't because
if someone's gonna hate when we win, they're definitely gonna
hate when we lose.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
It's cool.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
Not only is Deon a force of nature, but he's
also like I consider I'm a friend and a mentor.
And I remember when I signed my big deal with
Texas going back to two thousand and one, We're playing
the Reds and we were running sprange right before the
game and spring training, and I asked Ian. I said, Dan,
what advice can you give me? And he said, obviously
you'll take care of the baseball, but just make sure,
(39:50):
you're the best teammate in that clubhouse to those twenty
four other guys, and I never forgot that. But my
question to you is what is Dion's super power? What
makes him so special?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
His faith?
Speaker 3 (40:04):
And why I say that is because it's that faith
that makes him want to lift everyone up around him.
For a lot of the critics, they're not listening to
what he's saying. They might hear it, but they're not
listening because if you read his social media posts, if
you listen to him an oppressor, if you read an interview,
he's not talking about himself just to talk about himself.
(40:24):
He's talking about whatever he's working on to build the
people up around him. I'll call him and say, I
can't believe you just blah blah, I didn't do it.
We did it. It's such inclusion and mentorship and guidance.
I've never seen anything like it. I really haven't. It's
the most endearing quality about him is the faith that
(40:47):
he helps you have in yourself, no matter who you are,
whether you're a student athlete, whether you're one of his coaches,
whether you're one of his brand partners. It's just this
faith that he helps you to believe yourself. It's the
advice he gave you exactly when you were playing. Yeah,
it is his superpower.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
One of the things that clearly happened both at Jackson
State and then at Colorado. He was at the forefront,
leading edge, poster child, whatever you want to say, for
an entirely different business of college football. We talked about
you being a witness to the NFL at this catalytic moment.
(41:27):
This is a catalytic moment for college sports if there
ever was one. How do you see it from where
you sit, Like what's happening right now?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
I am so immersed in it that it's hard for
me to take a step back at the three sixty level.
But the one most important role we all have is
it's got any deal we do, it has to be
authentic to him. We're getting a lot of offers in
many different categories, but if it's not something that he
uses or does, we don't. We've passed and we'll leave
(41:56):
money on the table. But it comes back to you,
and that goes for the docum series, that goes for
any appearances he's making. I mean, I'm talking about off field. Yeah,
I'm off field, And when the mania hit everyone at Smack.
It was like all hands on deck, including Michael, like
we needed to get the kids dressed in our suits,
so what I mean all hands on deck, But we
(42:17):
had to make sure it was never too much, it
wasn't off brand, and we would end up having debates
internally do we launch this? I mean the sunglasses should
be an Anita Elber's Harvard Business School study because those
weren't supposed to come out until November. And we worked
for a year finding the right partner. Because he wears
(42:39):
sunglasses all the time, this was just like, oh, let's
get a sunglass Like no, no, he needs his own
line because there's many instances and Alex knows this that
you're going to put your name on someone else's brand
and there are times where it needs to be your own.
He needed his own sunglass line. And we called these
guys at Blenders when the coach the Colorado disrespected Mama
Connie and we said you need to go now, like
(43:01):
we need to go this week, and to their credit,
they ramped up and we got all the glasses in
the kid's hands at the team.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Deane's mom gave the pregame speech that week with the rock.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
We sold in the first couple of days that week
over a million dollars in sunglasses and they're reasonably with
fist like these, aren't you know, over the top ridiculous sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Like it was nuts.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
I mean, it was just you. You can't make this out.
Like every time something happens. I'm like, if we wrote
this in a script and turned it in, the studios
would push it right back to us to say this
is just too far out. Even with I mean, we
lost I think it was the last five or six games,
but we signed the number one O line in the country.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Everyone thought he was going to.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
All the other Power five schools who loved to throw
some shade our way, and Jordan's Seaton signed with us.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I mean, one thing that I've been thinking about in
talking to you and talking to Michael about you, is
this idea that you know, you get these epiphanies again,
Like you're in this seat where you're seeing some of
the most disruption, some of the most opportunities, some of
the biggest challenges in the sports and culture world. What
happens next?
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Do you think On a smaller scale, what I'm seeing
is more and more brands want real people. And what
I mean by that is not a celebrity, not a
paid influencer, but real life executives or coordinators, you know.
Just that's a shift that I'm seeing a lot of
and just even internally here at SMACK is like as
(44:35):
we talked about them being seen and honored, that's the
shift where nobody. I think people are kind of sick
of just hearing from the suits in a sense, and
it's like the world shifted since the pandemic and you
want to just have more one on one, real conversations.
And that's a shift that I'm seeing, and that's where
a lot of these podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Are coming up.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
And the fact that I'm here, like I don't take
this for granted that you guys are having me here
when you're having the Michael Strahans of the world, but
that to me is indicative of what's happening in the
real world. Is people want to understand more about like
how did you get there, what happened and being proud
of it, Like I'm a blue collar kid. I went
to Suniasuigo and I to this day still fight every
(45:18):
day for every win that we have, and you want
to celebrate those wins and that's what I'm seeing and
I'm going to see a national championship in our in
near future for Colorado.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Wow, there's my vision.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Well, I'm a buyer of that stock if you say it.
But you know, as we were prepping for who do
we want on our show? Here the deal, your name
came up very quickly. With the work we've done and
me getting to know you over the years with Michael,
people say, how would you describe Constance, And some of
the words I use was savant, definitely a visionary.
Speaker 4 (45:50):
Gritty and a plus character.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Right, So if you think about nineteen ninety one when
you first started your career, what advice would you give
some of our young viewers and all viewers of what
can they do to be like you?
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Thank you for saying that. And I'm kind of little speeches,
which we all know it is not hard. I mean
it's hard. Out of those words you use, the only
one that I recall at twenty two years old was gritty.
I've always been gritty. I didn't see any you know,
of those words back then. Those characteristics and adjectives and
descriptions don't give up, you know, if I could look
(46:29):
at my younger self and just say, I wish you
had a little bit more belief in how things were
going to work out, because I don't ever like to
lean into the male dominated industries. It was what it was,
right and here we sit and a lot of times
I'm the first woman. I just want to be the best.
It doesn't matter what you know, sex you are, and
things like that. That's what I would tell these young
(46:53):
kids is hard work does pay off.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Nurture your relationships.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I mean, it's it's one of the reasons why you
both have me here right Like, I mean, it just
can't be pounded enough. Respect each other, like somewhere that's
gone away and it's common sense. I have a little
bag that says common sense is not so common And
if we could.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Just go back to that.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I know this you're expecting some big visionary but that's
the core and that's the base. It's just truly work
hard and respect one another. And you two be sitting
at to deal with you.
Speaker 4 (47:29):
Guys, well, thank you. This was really fun. I mean
to really sort of go back and get into it.
I mean, I think we agreed prepping for this, like
few people have seen the things you've seen, and I mean,
if you were to put together this collection of people,
it's like, what is the through line? Like you're the
through line, which is kind of an amazing, amazing thing
(47:51):
to witness.
Speaker 5 (47:52):
And here's my forecast. First of all, congrats for all
the extraordinary things that you've done and are continue to do.
But I believe that you're still in the early stages
of this empire that you're building, because I feel like
you're just getting started and I'm so excited for you.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Thank you. Life begins after fifty.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
There you good. That's good to know, all right, Thank
you so much.
Speaker 6 (48:18):
The Deals of Production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deals hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our
producers are Victor Veees and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor
is so Dartha Mahonta. Our assistant producer is Stacy Wong.
Blake Maples is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our
creative director. Our direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Original music
(48:41):
by Blake Maples, casting by Dave Warren. Our editorial supervisor
is David E. Rabella. Our Executive producers are Sage Bauman,
Jason Kelly, Adam Kamiski, Kelly la Ferrier, Ashley Hoenig, Trey Shallowhorn,
Kyle Kramer, and Andrew Barden. Additional support from Rachel scarm
Is you Know, Elena Los Angeles, Vanessa Perdomo, Anna Maazarakis,
(49:04):
David Fox, Audrean Atapia, Alex Sugira, Oshna Shaw, and Diana Colonge.
David Dominguez is our director of photography. Our camera operators
are Josh Devereaux, Jesse Ridner, and Ryan Kvatero. Katia Vanoy
is our video editor. Rob Silcox is our gaffer, and
our grip is Pronoy Jacob. You can also watch The
(49:26):
Deal on Bloomberg Originals, YouTube and Bloomberg Television. Subscribe to
The Deal wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.