BEST OF SEASON TWO

cut to it. You've been doing a lot of good stuff, man, I appreciate you. Listen. Yeah, I think a lot of the former teammates listen. They and they also had an opinion like why he ain't gonna have me on? Nah? Yeah, that you liar, I said, I know that. I lie. Nah, I'm talking about some of other people. I'm gonna have them one. I just don't. I just don't want to flood the panther market because that's easy. Yeah. And it's like, oh and then I'll be considered a homer. So I

gotta just I gotta switch it up. You're very resourceful and I try to be. I try to be take us down that road to football because a lot of people don't know you've been overall picked by the Carolina Panthers, drafted and injured, has surgery prior to the draft. Now, the Panthers had some inside because the guy that did your foot world right now, Bob Anderson, who does most guys feet, they knew the recovery time. But they thought

they knew the recovery time. But yet, just like anything else, that surgery for some people takes X amount of time. For you, particularly, how long did it take you after your surgery for you to feel right comfortable enough to become the player you ended up becoming Because people don't know drafted in April, when you have your surgery March March, right before the draft, you didn't become Jonathan Stewart until when. I mean I didn't have no time. I had from

March until the third preseason game. But my rookie March so April, well actually April, May, June, July, August. They put you in September, October, so probably about December when you were and now the weather's change where you were expected to start impacting your team as a top fifteen pick.

So how did you feel getting in the game. March of two thousand and eight, I was having surgery before my birthday, twenty first birthday, and I was in Eugene, Oregon, and I was hearing ESPN telling folks that I was a drifter and I have a foot injury, and I shouldn't be a top pick and all these things. And I have already committed to go for the draft early

as a junior. And so you're hearing all these things for the first time about what you're not when you've been told what you are, what you are, what you know, what you could be for the recent time and until you got injured, right, and um, you know it was tough, you know, mentally, not really sure what to expect, where

I'm gonna land and all that. And you know, I went to Pro Day and when I was at the pro day, Um, now you have pro Day not being Pro Day, Yeah, yeah, pro Day knowing you cannot perform. But I had calm, I had the combine and then Pro Day and I didn't have anyone talk to me that Pro Day or anything like that. But I did have my combine, which Doug Williams. He was there. He was with the red Skins or Tampa Bay at the time.

Tampa he was with Tampa Bay at that time. And so I saw him in passing in the hallway and he had recognized me. That kind of threw me off, like that's get that. I'm like, man, he knows who I am. But it's more of yeah, but he hit me. He put me into the side, and he had must have heard about my situation from the training and all that stuff being there, that I wasn't gonna run because I had my toe injury and he had what was

the toe injury? So I had turf toe white skirt to such a big issue because you have to as a running back, you have to be able to balance on the foot. You gotta be able to make cuts. So your big toe was just hurting. No, big toe ain't working. It's swollen, jammed up, ligaments, torn, all kinds of stuff. Right. Turf toe is not like, oh, I hit my foot on the coffee table trying to trying to,

you know, get the remote. Turf toe is pretty much taking your phone, yes, and just having someone just smashing a bunch of times and so and and so now where your knuckle is and where you know, all of that everything in between your knuckle and your fingernail, it's pretty much Swiss sheets and swollen buff Yeah. With that's your big toe, man, Like, listen, your calves, your hamstrings, you're you're blower back that right. That big toe is

activating all that. It's it makes you lopside it right everything, and then you compensate and then that and then you compensate because now you're left I has all of the work, and it's now doing the work of the left side and doing the work of the right side. So a conversation, now the left side gets overworked and it potentially start causes a strain. So now you gotta muscle strain on your left side. You got a non firing right side. Man. You you up, you up a creek without a pattern?

Which is what? Which is? He eventually what I started, you know, experiencing Overcolm Satan from my toe. Um. But going back combine Doug Williams passing in the hallway, he said, listen, if you fast, you're gonna run fast no matter what. Go out there and run. I don't care, I said, all right, So I called my agent. I said, look, I called. I saw Doug run. He said, go out there and run. So Doug Trump, Well, my agent is like, well, if you feel comfortable run, I'm like all right. So

I went out there and ran. I did the vertical jump. I ran a four or four six so on on a jam on a turf toe, turf toe. I was run on the side of my foot and then I did the vertical jump and I think it was like thirty seven and a half jammed turf toe and so what what I realized though, is Doug was really telling me if you're a dog, you're a dog, go out

there and like, this is your opportunity. And so I think that helped me in the long run absolutely, for people fell in love with, for me to go through what go through injury and to show what I have. I'm a firm believer in whatever you're going through, God's preper right. And so like I'm hurt, I've been hurt, I've gotten through it. I've been hills and all those things. So I'm not gonna spend time, you know, focusing on

what people are telling me that I'm not. I'm gonna take that, you know that advice that I got from Doug Williams improved to people what I am. Even though I am hurt, I'm still a dog. So just let me get healthy, right, And so that was my mindset during the combine. Pro date comes around at Oregon. I'm not even in the vicinity. I'm not even asked to come there. It felt weird, like like I was just almost kind of like forgotten, right, and then the Panthers take me off site to a hotel and I have

a meeting with the Scott Scotting Department. I didn't think nothing of it. Don Gregory besides one team that I didn't even meet at the combine, you know what I'm saying, took me to the side and yeah whatever, like they checked on my my, you know, if I was rehabbing and all that kind of stuff. Um draft comes around. Sure enough, Carolina Panthers called me and I'm drafted. Go to O t a s. I didn't even go to like a ceremony or jersey hanging or anything like that.

But because of my upbringing and the simple mindset that I had, my expectations were here. Okay from receiving anything, but I knew I had to work for whenever my time was come, whenever I was able to get on the field, I had to be ready. And so O T A S. I show up. Now, I remember John Beeson. He was coming off of a surgery and all those types of things, like he had like a shoulder surgery or something, and you know, and and because obviously I looked up, you know, players on the team and who

is who, and you looked up guys. Yeah, damn, that was a dummy. I never looked at nobody, but like, but I just learned something. But it was my But I was excited. I knew I was coming to play football with Steve Smith, Julius Peppers, you know what I'm saying. Like I was like, Okay, this was up and so John. But seeing John in his situation, it kind of like took a little bit of pressure off me knowing that here's a guy that was drafted first round, that's hurt,

he's rehabbing. This is how this thing goes. This is their off season. I have a little bit of time. I don't I'm not immediately needed, if that makes any sense. So I go back to college after O T A S. Finish up. What I gotta do there because in the league, yeah, you're not allowed to participate with the team out of college if your school within the quarter system, it's still in in session. Tried the same thing, and so go back and then I'm rehabing, um, working out. I get

back to training and then it's June. Rookies had the report early, so I reported, stayed in the holiday in and all that stuff or whatever training camp and I was finally ready to practice, and so defense was looking their chops. Thomas Davis. I remember getting hit in the backfield. Immediately, I thought that it was a a gap blitz from tv M. He came off the edge. So that's how quick I got hit. I thought it was from the middle.

He came off the edge, and so I was like, Okay, this football thing is really fast NFL and they can hit and I'm piste off right now. And the very next play, de' angelo was supposed to come in and Skip. I looked at Skip. I was like mad, and he said, yeah, stay in there. And the very next play I just went crazy and started stiff farming people and just that's kind of how that went. And man, so throughout training camp, you know, like watching how things were going and all

that stuff with you know, the team. I started getting acclimated to the team, you know, and then preseasons going by. I missed the first preseason game, missed the second, the second preseason game, the third preseason game, I think we played Philly. In Philly, I got in there on the very last drive. I gotta carry. I got like a draw and it was just like in practice TV. I got hit immediately and then Skip took me out. He said, no,

get out. And I say that because it takes the right people right, And I called, I'll beltur to Yeah, And I call that like a grace moment for myself by having a coach that understood the situation. I'm in there with the third stringline. The following game, we played the Washington the Washington Redskins washing football team. Well back then it was a it was a Redskins. That's when things started to get real for me, right and slowing down a little bit. Like I remember, like pre game,

I remember seeing Sean Springs. He was still playing. I'm like, man, he's still playing sold like you know Jason Taylor then uh he was back there. Yeah, you got to see football life. So I'm not I'm not talking. He was with Washington, he said he was still yeah, but um. And so then I had a I had a outside you know zone play drawn up, followed Brad Hoover who and took it down the sideline, scored and it felt easy. And I'm not easy like like cloud, you know, just

like like whatever. But it's just like what you knew. It felt like what I knew. I felt like I was in a zone. It felt like I belonged where I was, no questions. And then Smitty was the first person in the end zone pick me up. I'm like, wow, this man is strong, right, but obese. It was obese jump jump for me. But it was just like one of those moments where I was like, Okay, I can

do this right. And then but it still didn't really like I still didn't stop you What do you mean you belong How does a guy who's drafted over the

first round, first round pick you got? According to our listeners, you got You're getting paid a king's ransom to play a child's game, and you're telling me after scoring a touchdown it took a touchdown, not being drafted, not flying New York, not getting fitted for a suit, not getting put on first class from Washington all the way to Charlotte, not being picked up, not getting your locker, not signing thernarchy contract, not getting pick your jersey, not them fitting

your helmet in your head, not for you eating in the cafeteria, and and Julius Peppers walks past you. Not any of that made you feel like you belong until you hit a touchdown. How I mean, my expectations, right, you know, my expectations weren't settling for getting the helmet

or getting a jersey. You know, I remember you first, and jersey gonna be replaced unless you do something great, right, So my expectations was I want to prove to myself that I belong here because I just came from a real to recovery and a lot of you know, side questions as far as is he gonna be okay, is

he gonna be ready? And all these things, And now I had an opportunity where I was successful in the beginning stages of me feeling like I belong you know what I'm saying, and so and then everything else added to it. Like I mean, that was the beginning stage. I would say, Monday night football my rookie year was the played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mine and Night football

home game, and that was the moment where it for me. Yeah, that's when when me and with me and D'Angelo went ham, oh no, no, that was uh, that was I left my grandpa passed. Yeah, oh yeah, I remember. I was like, oh yeah, yeah, that was right after thanksgive right, yeah, And that's that's just amazing, right, like the realness of what actually transpires behind the lens, right, but what people go through, like we out here performing and doing all these things and living our dream in real life and

real life is happening. How do you keep football the focus? Then, my injuries is what kept me focused because if it was if it wasn't for me that feeling great in the mornings or feeling great for practice or feeling great in the morning of the game, I wouldn't have had that focus to maintain and to get to the point to where I can actually perform. And so me being injured required me to focus on my injury. What does this mean that I can't move my ankle the way

I used to? You, you know, what do I need to do? Right? And not getting the answers right up front and having to search and having to wait and having to to figure it out and be played mind games by the staff at times, right, because that's just how Football League like it. It. It pretty much stimulated me to just say, Okay, I have this thing that I've been blessed with, how can how am I supposed to be the steward of this? Right? And and so

you look at my rookie year. You know, I went through what I went through, bounce back whatever, get on the planing field, start zone and start getting in the zone. Get an ankle injury? Oh man, how much supposed to recover from this whatever? So it's just a continuous, you know, time of just being stimulated by injury knowing that I have to be on the field. So my mind was, I want to go and play music. I want to go home and just edg out and play video games.

I want to go and hang out and enjoy the fruits of you know, the labor that I've been in, you know having right, I think year three it all clicked in the sense of mind, body, spirit, right three things. Everybody talks about it, but for me, like if my body wasn't where it needed to be, that means spiritually and mentally. I needed to be on my a game, because if my spiritual sense wasn't right, I ain't got no everything. I'm up a creek without a path. Right. Mentally,

I gotta be where wherever I am. Mentally, if I'm not there spiritually, my mentals are gonna be on a whole different path. So how did you get there? Then you have to put in the work. Just like you train your body, you work out just like you. I want to be the best football player. You go out there and catch balls and you run and you do your jilly cluts and all that right. Mentally, right, you have to stay sharp. So how do what do you? What do you do? What are you doing to to

stay sharp to where you're not feeling the pressure? What did you do knowing? What did you do? You study? You study, So whenever you study your opponents, you go through your When I'm not practicing right, when I'm not. But but whenever, whenever you're not doing what you are, what you feel like you're supposed to be doing, you gotta mentally grasp that right, So you gotta envision yourself doing that thing. So playing football, I'm not playing football.

I need to visualize that and stay on the game plans and stay in the classroom and actually take notes like I'm taking notes for the first time about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We played them the first time, but I'm I know exactly who's who, But I still gotta take notes and put things down and drop them down as if there's as if it's the first time me seeing it and experiencing it. So that way I stay fresh and still I stay sharp because part of the

mental thing is I ain't got it no more. I probably ain't gonna be able to have it when I'm back, or am I gonna be ready? You know, the being uncertain because you haven't been on the football field for a couple of weeks now. So are you telling me as you are processing getting ready on the field, you're also honing in and learning how you learn how you can consume information and hold it, and it'd be part

of making you good at your crime. I love cut to It, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to it Facebook cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr what About online and you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com, where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Uh yeah, I got

all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother, Cut to a podcast dot com. We've got Arian Foster or, four time Pro Bowl running back for the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. He was first team All Pro in t and he holds the Houston Texans franchise records in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Where are you living these days? I'm still out in Houston, man. I got all my babies out there, so um, until they until they you know, are out on their own and experience in the world,

I'm gonna be there. I gotta foot in there at least all right. How has life been for you for the last eighteen months? Oh? Man? Well, split with my lady and I think that was like one of the first times where UH really experienced heartbreak because before I think I have been Um, I don understand womanizing, man, but like I played the game a lot, right, and so this is the first time I was really like

invested in a family like that. And so, um, long story short, Um, you experienced some heartbreak to where it was like really informative, and it kind of changed the way that I viewed things, kind of changed the way I looked at myself and um, you know, in the midst of it, just kind of figuring out um uh forgiveness and kind of meet people where they're at instead of where I expected to be and that that's that's been really helpful. So we already started off this way.

I love asking asking it this way. You know, where are you from in the place you call your hometown. I grew up at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Um, went to high school in San Diego. So I kind of read both. Both kind of read me. So I called both home. Okay, how would you describe your childhood? Chaotic but um but fun, it's chaotic. Elaborate on that if you if you if you're there too, Yeah, yeah, So I grew up. I mean it's nothing the story that nobody's heard before. But

I grew been a domestically violent household, uh, group of poverty. Um, and so kind of navigating those waters and and trying to uh hold onto a dream you have as a kid. It gets uh you know, it gets dramatic. There's just a lot, a lot of moving pieces, UM, a lot of emotional baggage you have to work through in your loat of years that that you were unable to UM.

And then you know the family dynamic that comes with that as well as being a bread winning your family from somebody from first generation wealth to being able to manage all of those relationships and the expectations that come with that UM friendship. So uh yeah, man, I read something my my my research scene gave me that which was really good and I want to park on it. Um, you raised in an Islamic household? M hm yes, so my father and Muslim um I believe was raised Catholic, um.

But his life. You can't just say that casually and they're skied over it like so so so so when I when I say, when I say Muslim in the house I grew up in, it was, It's not the like traditional Eastern Muslim, right, it's more so the americanized um fo I through the islam minister ericon, like it was that sect of Islam that I grew up underneath, which is basically the same thing, except that they are

a little more um politically active, politically motivated. So like, in order to in order to to to be in the f O, I like, you have to have a very good foundation, and you have to understand your Black history. You have to understand uh, your Bible, you have to

understand your Karan. And I think growing up in that household, which obviously I'm not a Muslim anymore, but I grew up in that househor of allowed me to um it a good root foundation of religion in general, because I think if you're if you're born in the Crypt from my experience, and if you're born in a Christian home, if you're born in a Catholic home, I grew up around a lot of Christians and Catholics. Uh, they're not

really necessarily interested in other religions. Um, but when you grow up in that household that I grew up in what we are and it's it's more so to understand it's also they intersect, right so uh, now to get too deep into it, but you can Jesus and Jesus in a in a Christian belief is the last prophet before God is supposed to have come back in Islam. Muhammad is Dad right, um. And Jesus was a prophet in in in Islam, and so they view and love Jesus like a prophet, but they just don't view him

as divine like Christians too. And so there's a lot of healthy respect and love for a lot of the tea us that Jesus brought uh from the perspective of a Muslim. And so, like I said, growing up in that household, um, it allowed me to kind of get excume, allowed me to get it kind of a baseline understanding of the world religions, the major world religions, um. And so that's kind of how I navigated my theological belief system was kind of trying to understand it all um.

And I mean that journey took me to an attire of different place, but I think the root of it was was was necessary and not being pigeonholed into this is the truth because we say it's the truth, and and anything else that you're going against the family, you're gonna get. And that's that's kind of when I run up into when I went to college. When you go to college. Um, this is like pre internet days, real internet days, and there was internet, but it wasn't like

it is today. But this is this is when where you were from, Like that was the culture there, Like the cultures are kind of melting together internet or who who are allows them? Who if you allow them to melt together? Yeah? Yeah, I mean that's that's a that's

a whole difther conversation. But um uh so let me let me, let me let me ask you this then, because what's funny is, you know, as I'm sitting here listening to you and hear you talk, I can also see you know, you're always considered a guy who who who thought well beyond his years. You always thinking you

were a thinker. And by the time you're what sixteen years old, you have the ability to have a complete, well rounded education of black history, a complete education of the Muslim culture and then also obviously other cultures as well. You're living in um uh Albuquerque, New Mexico. That that in itself is a unique dynamic. Um. I mean I can imagine feeling out of place and be and and

and sticking out would be an understatement. Yeah, that's kind of been my experience everywhere I went to be honest, and there wasn't anything purposefully, No, you couldn't. It's just it's I hate to say that users it's happenstance. And I was gonna do you do you run from that or do you embrace it? Well? I used to run

from it. I think when you're a kid and you're kind of developing who you are as an individual, you know, your people can tell you, you you know, be yourself all you want to, but still there's that social pressure to to fit in. You wanna have friends, you want to have, you want to have ladies, you want to you know

what I mean. And so I think when you're younger it's viewed as a liability to your personality, but as you grow, what you started learning is it's a it's an asset and you use it, is so and so I never, I never, I don't like run down to

I'm grown now, I don't give a ship. But when you're when you're growing up, like it's it's harder to like like when everybody around you it's Christian, everybody around you Christian, and you're must just like that that dude's weird though, and it's like you have to defend that without even um it's it's not you're not the aggressor, but you have to defend it, you know, or else

or else. It's constant. It's a constant garage. On top of that, where I grew up around predominantly um my earlier years, I grew up around a lot of like Mexicans,

a lot of Mexicans. So you the outcast in that sense where you're black, and so you gotta defend the blackness to all these Mexicans, right, and then you get around the brothers and sisters at that age you have almost black No, you have my mother, my mother, My mother was a Mexican, right, So so I grew up let's see, that's that's the type of say but but not so then you're not you're not black enough, right and so and so it's always fighting that dynamic socially

until one day I just realized, like fund these people like you don't like these people, couln't care less, and and that that that in itself is attractive and you're unapologetically yourself. That's that's when people come and say, okay, cool um, and you know it's just a life lesson you have to you have to go through the learn I asked my wife, because my wife is my wife from Utah, she grew up Mormon. Um, but she's obviously married to me with four kids, so she ain't Mormon.

And I asked her a question to ask you just based on being raised one way in living an experience in life another way. And so uh so, shout out to Angie of giving me this great question. I can't I can't take credit for it. Um, But she said, Uh, as you've gotten older, have you recognized any patterns or ideologies that were passed down from you to you from your young age that you catch yourself having a correct now that you're older. That's actually a great question. Um.

I married up, so that's right, that's right gradually. Uh No, But um, the reason why that's a great question because it's not necessarily applicable to me, but I see it everywhere I go. Right. So, my mother friends was like she was raised Catholic, and she was she would probably consider herself agnostic. Now, um, I don't want to miss call moms, but but she was like super raised Catholic like back and she I think she's going to fifty nine.

So like when like I used to do something to you know, school, the teacher, she just slap you with the rules and hold on, you can't be telling your mom year when she was born. Bro, she owned it, man, I know she owned it, but she don't want you owning it forward though she said, my apologize he was born. He was born at eight nine. But but but yeah, so she grew up in like like in a Catholic system where like they used to like hit them, they

like they had permission to hit the kids. And so like she has residual because she's not a believer anymore in that sense. Um, she's unsure about the higher power thing, but she's like, uh, she has residual. Like, man, I'm afraid of hell, Like she's super afraid of hell. And so like sometimes she says it's guilt. And we always, you know, we always we joke about it. But the one gift that I am extremely grateful that my parents gave me, and I always tell people all the time,

is they gave us the freedom to be ourselves. They gave us a foundation of religion, like this is what we believe is the truth. But like you're your own person, go find it if it brings you back to what we believe in, that's amazing. If it doesn't, that's also amazing. Be who you are. And they gave us a foundation, um, and they taught us how to think and not what to think. And that was that was the gym that

my parents gave me. And they gave me the freedom to explore without feeling um shackled by by their belief system. Oh man, sometimes I back in my childhood, I used I never experienced that because I never had to go through It's like, we're praying, if you want to join us, join us, Like this is how we pray, this is what we believe in. And for years, this is what I believed until you know, I've found my own path

and my own journey. But um, I was very grateful for my parents because they never looked at me differently throughout my journey. At the end of my theological journey to this day, they're just like, as long as you're happy, man, that's that's all that. That was the general they gave

you to me. That's that is the goal. The life goal of a parent, you as a father, you as a mother, your goal is to have them prepared for the world, to live in the world, to be a productive member of society when I'm going, when I when I'm when I'm dead, if they can human being and and be productive and take care of themselves and take care of the loved ones like then you did. Let's talk about that though, because I'm about to throw a monkey wrench in there, right, because you know, uh, we've

all done you know, obviously, me and you. We've done football camps. Right. You go those football camps and you see little little right right right, little Ray Ray out there. Ray Ray ain't nothing but like nine. And you see those parents out there screaming and hollering and little Ray Ray is gonna take care of me, right. And I just know for myself is I've done so many football camps or been to games, and I started to see those parents who are talking about Ray Ray are talking

about John. John is gonna make it and leave. He gonna take care of his mama. Right. We we look at sometimes sports in a way as an outlet. But I guess so I'm asking you because I think you're a great guest to talk about it. We short change ourselves, especially in the lower income community. And I think the Lord He's saying that lower income is important to stand

and saying with color Lord in come. We look for our son and daughter to make that opportunity in sports, but we don't invest the same energy in the school books making sure Lora Ray, little John can read, can write, can count. And I'm asking YouTube, gentlemen, why do you think that is the reason why we don't invest into

our children's education is because it's not as um. Our neighborhoods and our our communities don't have the infrastructure that other communities do, So they don't have the after school programs, they don't have the stamp programs as prevalent as they do in other communities. UM. And there's a whole bunch of societal structure issues as to why UM. But that's like from the outside of perspective. From the inside of perspective,

which is equally equally important. UM is Minnistererica. I used to actually touch on this is like when you look at black people in America, they don't there's no natural resource that they have here right in order to develop wealth. And you talk about why some communities are more poverty strictly than others, it's because they have been denied access to, uh, having wealth in this country legislatively that you're talking about redline and laws, you talk about all this kind of stuff.

And so he used to talk about how our athletes and our entertainers are our natural resource because wherever the culture moves is where we move or where where wherever we move is where the culture moves. I'm talking about in entertainment in America, right, and so, uh that has kind of been a real outlet in in our communities is you can make it like this, you can do you can you can be a musician, you can be

an athlete, you can be an entertainer. And that has been a real pathway, especially growing up, like you said, a group in l A. You see, you probably know a lot of people that that were athletes entertainers that

you know, quote unquote made it. And I think that becomes like almost a viable expectation um to at the very least, you can pay for your own college, Like I don't have to as a parent, pay for your own college, right because we're out here struggle there Like as a parent, like we're out here struggling, Like you can provide for yourself in that manner if you focus on your sports and so school is like such a

long game. Like even if you do get a full ride as as a and an academics, the degree in which you get like there's no guarantee for a good steady job, Like you definitely up your chances, Don't get me wrong, you are. The probability you're getting a better

job with higher wages is way higher. But it's just a more when now mentality, which is which permeates our communities and so, like I said, there's a lot of different variables, but that's just kind of touching the surface of it's easy for me, It's easy for It was easy for me to say, like do you just gotta grind? Like you just gotta get there? You gotta like you just gotta you gotta because that's what I did, right, Um.

But and that that was my mentality to my family that I just tell the kids that, like, and it was to me irresponsible now as a little older man to say those kind of things because when you're leaving out contextually everything that I had been privileged to have. Uh, And this is one thing I preached my kids all

the time. It's like you're a privileged like I didn't like when I grew up like we used to, like my mom used to send this hungry sometimes to bed, like we didn't have food, like you guys are you guys get to pick, you have options about what you have to dinner. There was never options. Whatever it was there, that's what we was eating. Like that that's a privilege. She these houses, like this is a privilege. I took him. I took my daughter, she's eleven years or I took it.

I took it to like some of the lower income neighborhoods and used im like you see this, like this is where your dad grew up, Like he grew up like this, and she just bewilled. She goes to private school. Now she doesn't understand, like she didn't understand that side. And so like I'm very make sure she's aware that she's privileged. Um not to shame her for her position, because it's not her. She was a true perspective of

both sides. And exactly I'm I'm allowing her to see that like what her father has done, um uh to help bring this family's financial trajectory into a different place. Um. But then but also in doing so, like I said, when I was when I was in the league, it was more so my mindset was like, yo, you gotta go get it. Like I don't hear all these excuses

like yeah, just bitching like that type of stuff. Right, I was never like I was just never aware of the issues that they faced on a day to day basis that can be debilitating right to where it's like if I get a flat tire, I can cause somebody up and it's it's fixed and it's no problem. Is what it is. A flat tire can ruin somebody's month. Flat tie can be the difference between like gas money and money when yeah rent man. So when you compile like all of the problems that are possibly out there,

you compile that with all the societal pressures. You compile that with with the issues that people face, like all the generational trauma. Like you compile all of this stuff, it's really easy to uh not have empathy to people who are living to check the check, which is the

majority of America. Right. And so to to to answer your question, it's it's you have to uh attack it with different mindsets that it's it's a duality, so you have to attack it from the micro which is like, like I can tell my brother right was was he's struggling, um, and I'm and I was like, listen, I don't like this current economic system that we live in, but it's what we live in. It's what it is. If you want to get to where you want to get to in this in this society, you have to grind to

the point where you're isable. You have to do something that nobody is willing to do. You have to do it day in and day out and be dedicated to and it's ugly and it's disgusting, and nobody's balu and it's lonely, and you have to be unhappy. Like that's what it is. But because if you don't like the freedoms and the and the things that you want, they're

just not gonna be there under this economic system. That's the micro right when you look at it from the day to day and you and you're really telling people how to how to make it in this country or in this in the system, um. But when you look at it in the macro, uh, that's when the empathy starts to come. When you start to throw in all of the things that that that that have transpired towards people, towards legislatively, all of these things, and all of these

factors also factor into your individual life. Yes, it's possible for you to to to be wealthy in America, but the probability of it is very low. It's very low, and so you have to understand your place in it. Yes, it's it's it's very possible, but it's just not probable. And so you after being which is lousesing to what we were talking about earlier, you have to be content like with who you are as a human being, which is when when when moms and dads and they're struggling,

or whoever is raising me, they struggling. They work in the nine of five, you don't even see them that often. They're frustrated. They don't have the time or the energy to sit here and emotionally cater to a child like like they need it, like they need to write. I have that luxury, but not everybody does, and so we rely on school systems. We rely on That's why they say it takes a village. We rely on a lot of other people to help raise our kids. Good do it,

good do. Let's get down to do it good, Hey, Gerard why did you get that T shirt? You? Oh, yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. We've got Andre Reid inducted into the Hall of Fame. In Andre Reid and the Buffalo Bills

went to four consecutive Super Bowls. Andre rinks eighteenth in NFL history and total career receptions and fourteenth in NFL history and total career touchdown receptions. This process for the whole time, I've always you know, UM, back in February February two thousand two, I started working with a sports psychologists who worked with golfers mainly, and we start doing the visitization and UM daily, weekly, monthly, short term, long term, and then lifetime goals. And one of my lifetime goals

I've not marked off yet, it's Hall of Fame. And UM, I've always steered away from it because it's so subjective and it's a and you should and you should. That's that's probably the most important thing for you for you now, is that just gotta. But but I'm I know I'm

doing that, but I also wanna. I actually want to enjoy, no matter what the outcome is, the process, because I've steered away from it so much that I've almost set myself up for to believe that I'm not you know, I'm not this, I'm not that, but more of anything through your journey, Why was it special to be inducted in the process and the procedure that made it such a special moment for you and your family? That's a great question, I think. Uh, it's it's been seven years now,

I think every year. Uh. And this is just aside from how they go about doing things, how the Hall of Fame selectors and all that kind of stuff, um to get to the point where they picked five guys that are the guys that they feel are worthy of induction and a bust and all that kind of stuff. And I always tell people they're like, well, who do you think should be? People ask me who do you

think should be the next receiver going in? And I go, well, I can't really tell you the next one, but I can tell you about three or four guys have been waiting a while they deserved m Um and the process. It took me nine years and I retired number three, five and seven yards touchdown catches of all time. And it took me nine years. So to your point, Steve, the first three or four years I was eligible, you know, you're just like, Okay, do you think of it? Yeah,

this is my year. No matter what my stats say this, then I'm a team this that. But it took me four years to figure out how they go about doing it. And I had to respect that whether the o the outcome was yes, this is your year or it's not your year. You stepped out on the field, somebody had to somebody had to take somebody had to find you because you disrupt and you you change games. That's where a Hall of Famer to me is and you're in

that category. You uh, Tory Halt. All the receivers that are up now are just like when me Chris, Tim Brown. You know Jerry was in his own category, but me, Chris and Tim Brown for five years took votes from each other for five years. I go in Tim, I mean Chris goes in thirteen. I go into fourteen. Tim Brown goes in fifteen. So that that that's the process that I that I'm trying to get at is that they do this regardless of who's saying something for you

or not. When all forty four of those guys get in the room, they're influenced by each other, regardless of that's the guy I'm talking about or not. So the guy that's gonna be representing you not only has to convince the forty four other guys, he really has to convince himself that that's I'm in here because this is my guy, and everybody, every one of those guys, that's my guy I have. I'm on his behalf to make

sure you guys go. Guys know why he should have a bronze bus that the last sixty thou years, no doubt about it. Everybody who's on the ballot, they don't put you on a ballot if they don't think you're worthy of it. I don't care how many years you played and whatever, if you're not on it. If you're on the ballot, you're worth you should be a Hall of Famer. That's just my that's why we don't have votes. Mm hmmm. They sent me a ballot every year, Yeah,

who do you think? And I checked people off or whatever, that's not going to them writers. Mhm. It's it's not gonna influence what they feel and how they go about presenting no matter what. So right now, this is your first year eligibility, right yeah, okay, so let me tell you just what you have. You got the holdovers. So

you got Tori Hines Ward, Uh, Reggie Wayne. These guys have been in it for a while, they've been in the finals for a while, and it's kind of like it's the same process that me, Tim and Chris Carter went through. So sooner or later, we're gonna have to start breaking these get breaking everybody up. They're gonna have to start breaking everybody up. And then once one goes and boom boom boom boom boom, it all beat and effect almost it would be a dominant effect. So and

then I always look at it. You look at errors, right, you look at errors. When they get in that room, they're gonna look at what error they played in, what type of game was it in that error? And that's maybe maybe one guy thinks of it that way, and maybe three other voters think of it a different way.

Whatever it is, but they put all you guys are gonna put all you in a category, and they're gonna look at the error, and they're gonna look at numbers, are gonna look at play all, they're gonna look at all that stuff. But it's the one guy that says something that the other four guys or other five guys

how many it is, doesn't say. So whoever is gonna be presenting you to the voters and the writers, he's got to be on his game, and he's got to say something about you and none of these other three guys got hmm, that's gonna be the difference you're gonna get in. But what can he say about you? The same guy said something about me nine years and erupt. Did you say the same thing every time? I mean,

let's reshuffle the deck, bro, you know. I mean like, did you say something year four that you didn't say, oh you're six? Or what? How did you go about doing that same movie script? And every uh we saw this movie? I started, Hey, I started writing stuff down, said hey, you start, you start? You started meeting? Hey, what we got this week? What we got this ship? No? No, no, no, Andrew, you had to google your own state. You had to

google your own stats. No, no, it's not so, I think you know of the it's such a it's it's a dumb it's a dumb excuse my my friends as a dumbass process. It is because if you were an impactful player and you showed up every game and you played, there should be no question. But that's not how they work. They don't work like that in that room on Saturday morning, the day before Super Bowl. They don't work like that. I think it's gonna be you're you're you're gonna be

going against those guys. That's the bottom line. When when you got that jacket to make it all worthwhile, then no doubt about it. Man. I wouldn't say it changed my life. It just it just put a stamp. It put the stamp of approve on what I did. Everybody else can think this and think that whatever they wanted. But this jacket means that you were great at something that a lot of people weren't. A lot of people weren't great at m That's what it means. And it

just ain't any old jacket. You ain't gonna go down here to North Room to get one of the fact, that's for sure. So once that happens for you will you be different, of course, but all the people around you, family friends, somebody had said something to you when you were in high school, somebody said something to you, and popcorn or whatever. That's that's the things you think about.

That all flashed before my eyes the minute I got that call, m h. And it's it's a feeling that that I'll never ever be able to describe for you. I mean, like really describe it, because at that moment, man, I just had like an out of body experience and it was and I mean I thought about a lot of people, thought about my dad because my my dad wasn't there. He wasn't there in triment day. He wasn't there to see it. So those are the emotions you it.

And I'm in aquarius. I'm a very emotional person anyway, So it um. It really put in perspective not only you as a player, for you as a person, mhm, you as a person. Man. That's the most important thing is what's in here. They can take a lot of things from me. They can't take that. That's hard to get from somebody, especially if they don't want to give it to you. It's hard to get. So it's it's a and I sometimes when I'm alone, I think about it and believe it or not, just it tears me

up because it is there's something you dream about. You know, you're getting a they have the Gold Jacket lunch and and you're in a you're at the hall. You're in this room and there's no media. Nobody's allowed in this room. Not either. If a fly got in the room, they're kicking his ass. Now. Yeah, and it's a room with the greatest players ever, a hundred of us in that room. And we just talked, and it's uh, it's beyond any

fraternity you can imagine being in. So you you're I'm looking forward to you being a part of our fraternity. Brother Shure, Hey, you just sucked me up. Picture, didn't I felt like I was there the boys over here talking about right. I just put a glass on the on the door right there, that's gonna listen, yep. It's uh. I mean when you listen to Jim Brown talk, mhmm, you can't help but listen to that man, and it's uh, it's a heck of experience. Man, You'll never forget it

the rest of your life. Next to your kids being born, it's a close second. Mm hm, did you guys get that? It's a close second. I know, man, Andre appreciate you sharing that. I mean, that was a That was a picture that I don't know that anyone else could paint probably, but you to be able to elaborate on that. And uh, I know I speak for Smithie. Um, that was really really cool. That was really cool. Yeah, yeah, I uh, I appreciate you guys having me on I respect Uh.

You know Steve so much as a player as a person. Every time I see him, we always laugh about things. I'm sure next time I see him gonna laugh about a few things. But he is a not only the consummate pro he was, but every time he stepped out on the field, you're you're gonna get your best from from eighty nine and he he showed that every single Sunday. Um. He was a credit to the game, um, a credit to himself, his family, and again, I can't wait for him to be like that. So they took an old

picture and did that. I'm not trying to be funny, but I'm just asking like, pretty, it's pretty, it's pretty good. Actually, this is the one you get. It's made a resin so this will last forty thousand years and the one in Canton is bronze. So it's like sight So uh, you know, if you don't mind me ask you, where do you put that? Like, I mean, I know for the show you got it right there, but yeah, putting

I have downstairs. I put it on that just a mantle by itself, you know, not not calling you out, but you ever kind of walked down the hall and you know you're having a peek atam or no, not peek at them. It's like you you forgetty there and you think so you think it's a true like hey, hey hey, oh no, that's just me. That's just me. Hey. You walk down to look at it and you go, who is that? They didn't have to go back and you have to go back and look again and make sure.

But it's it's it's coming, brother, I mean my you know, guys like John Randall and and guys that already been in the hall three or four years before I was there. Like, just has to have patience, you know. Patience is a virtue. It's really hard. But Dad taught me that it's hard to have patient, especially in this world. It's hard to be a patient person because everybody wants it right now, give that now, now, now, now now. Patience is a virtue man. And when that patient that pays off, it

was all worth it. It's all worth it. You are a unique person, you are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerald Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It was d smith Singer. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It, LLC, Baltol Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith Singer, co host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton's if you ain't heard about it, then without to let you know it's all, it's all