Jeremy Bloom

in Big Sky. Was that Montana? Montana? Yeah, ain't a lot of brothers in. I was gonna say, school, Why don't you up in Big Scott? What was going on in Montana? What was going on in those Montana streets? The slopes, Montena slopes. I was. I was out their skin and it was good. It was fun. That's my um that's my happy place. Okay, it's my favorite place. It's just peaceful, man. It's uh, you're just on the mountain.

No agendas. Uh, well, there's agenda not to fall and if you look to you know, try to avoid bears. Like last year we were out there and uh we left and there was a bear. Um, but it's um just a good opportunity, good good, good fellowship. There's about there's about fifteen of us, about three houses, five or six rental, all guys nice, all guys UM and these guys all most of them, majority of them, Uh you know, they went to college, like the core guys went to college.

So there's some guys who went to Florida. And then I'm I'm friends with a guy that wanted core guys together. Yeah, went the four together. And then I'm friends with want of the core guys. Um, d C shout out to d C and over the ears is just they invite people that they feel um that brings something to the table, whether it's energy, uh, personality and also too, you know, are you trustworthy a little bit right? And so it's it's all good fun ski um. We eat play cards,

tell jokes, talk crap to each other. So it's like it's like a it's like a Baschlard trip without the bachelornus. No no, no, no bachelors. It's it's literally it is four or five days of during the day's skin in the evenings and in the mornings you're catching up on work emails and it's just you just skiing. Man, it's um, there's some good skiers, there's some guys who don't belong. Give me the ski highlights, so ski highlight, um any

new contraptions. So so so here here's what happened, right, And so when you say, man, Steve's a skier, like when I said, I just enjoyed skinning, that's my little happy place. So when I go back in my history, right, I had moonlight basin, I skied seventeen point nine miles. Uh that my max speed was forty five point eight. That was downhill. I was moving average speed sixteen ski Nissan total was sinned. So I was high as fourteen

thousand four. Man, I ain't never and then just altitude nine hundred nine thousand, two hundred and fifty four and I hit twelve runs, seventeen slopes. That was day one. Day two, oh yeah, day two that's what I was. It was good, twenty three slopes, so we we showed improvement day too. Oh yeah. But but but the last day that's when I got after twenty two miles, I got as high as thirteen thousand. I was well. I switched over to this little thing called a snow snow

god bike. It's like a ski it's like a tricycle for skiers and you put your feet in. I get to wear uh snowboarding boots. So if you ever skied, it puts a lot of pressure on your feet and you're locked in. Man, this snow this snow good bike. It was fire. It was skiing but without being locked in. But you have a little snowboard freeness. It's like a little hybrid eat bro. It was awesome, like is it was?

It was nice, it was. It was good, especially after skiing for you know, seven eight nine hours every day and to have this one. So it was nice. Man. I enjoy skinning because it's just it's a quiet place. There's no economic status, there's no racial status. They're just you can either ski or you can't. And if you can't, only only person that really it impacts is yourself. So I enjoy it. I love it. Man. It's one of the few places, um, I could just be me right

and you get on. You know, you're on the slope next to somebody and sometimes you have conversations, sometimes you don't. But it's Uh. Skiing is fun but also too if you. When you're on the ski lift. You can also people watch. You can see people who you can see who You can see people who have gotten on the slope and they realize they're green, which is easy, but they don't know they're on the blue, which is difficult or experience. Or they they're blue, but they thank they're black diamonds,

and some of the black diamonds. I don't go on some of the black diamonds because of the name. So it's like that is that is that the most some black diamonds is that that's like a black belt of skin. Yeah, here's what it is. Yes, it's a black belt, which is you can get your ass. We here's some of the names of some of the black diamonds, bone crusher, sticks and stones, and the last one the wittoe maker. Oh, the widow make. Yeah that ain't that ain't good? No,

that ain't good. I'm not going on that one. It's telling you if you do not belong here, you have found out, you will find out the hard way that you shouldn't have got on this. So maybe that's reserved for like your a length type of skiers. Ain't it ain't for me? That's all I know I'm not getting on anything that says you can die in their name tag widow maker. I enjoy the skin. It's nice, it's fun, it's um. You get up on that mountain clear air. Uh it was nice, and you know, it snowed a

few days and it was clear. But one of the cool things is you go high enough. At one point, I was high enough that you felt like, if I can just take another ski left up, I can maybe touch the clouds on on the way up to the ski left. That's how high the mound was. It was pretty cool. And that's that's hot. That is high high. That's higher than stoop Dog. It's really I ain't never been there, but man, it was awesome. Man. I love it. I love it. It's it's just a great place. Man.

I'm looking forward to it. And I think we got someone coming up who has their fair share of experience when it comes to skin as well. Well. Listen, if you're talking about the guy that I think you're talking about, I think so I'm gonna try sits compared to him, like I still got my training wheels on. Welcome to the cut to a podcast. Jeremy bloom um Man, Good friend. Also, are you loving time World Cup gold medalists, three time World champion, two time Olympia, former skier, farmer, NFL player,

but also a Colorado University of Colorado outstanding playmaker. Thank you for coming on the cut to a podcast. Make yourself at home, get comfortable. Yes, man, We're gonna jump right into it. Listen when you're down. What makes you feel better? Ice cream cake? Okay, cream cream cookie dough oreo, you name it, um, chocolate chip cookies. I'm a big dessert guike. In fact, I learned how to ski by my grandfather throwing candy bars down the mountain. True story three,

Ages three, four and five. The grand grandfather got off the lift through candy bars down the mountain, and if I was good enough to ski down and find them, I could eat them. So I've been a bit of a dessert guid my life. Have you tried that training on anyone else? Not yet, But but I have an eleven eleven month old daughter in the house. You will be learning the same way. What can what candy bar? Uh? He threw Snickers and Mars candy bars. Those were his favorites.

All right, man? In place you would like to travel, but haven't done it yet? Where and why haven't you done it? I would say, I mean, I think Antarctica would be a bucket list thing. Obviously it's really hard to get down there. There's not a lot down there, but just to be able to go to all all the continents I think would be pretty special. So at some point I'd like to get down there. Um. The other one I guess would be New Zealand. I'd love

to track and hike the Milford Sound down there. It's just, you know, really incredible beautiful landscape and you know, I love being outside and in the nature. So I think I think New Zealand and Antarctica are two on the list. And article is definitely on brand for you. Butther like me, ain't going to an article. I don't think a lot of people are putting that over on Brandford Jeremy Nough, What what's the most beautiful drive you've you've taken? Um?

I would say, you know, you know, I was part of the United States key team for a bunch of years. We would compete. We'd start the season in Europe and we'd ski um the Pyrenees, like you know, in in France. We'd we'd ski the Alps, you know, in Switzerland, we'd see ski the Dolomites in Italy. Um, I would say, you know, nothing can compare to that, certainly nothing I've experienced in the United States, because the mountains are just so much higher, not from an elevation perspective, but the

town's basically started sea level. And if the mountains go up to you know whatever, eight thousand feet, and they just they look like Mount Everest. So I would say, you know, driving in in the in the Alps or the Dolomites are the Pyrenees, it's just you know, otherworldly, it's pretty incredible over there. Um, are the Alps rowed like in Colorado and in Utah. I heard they're a little bit more dangerous. The Alps are are more there. There's less trees in the Alps, so there's not a

ton of tree skiing. It's just like big mountains, open mountains and runs for days, and a lot of the ski area is in In Europe, you can ski from country to country, that's how big they are. Like you can ski from one country and go have lunch in another country and then ski back and take take the lifts. Um but you know, they do groop some of the some of the runs some of the mountains, but it's more off piece, more back country skiing than than typically

like in Colorado. Is that why you have I'm assuming you have more injuries out there skiing out there, because I've heard that some of the some of the of the skiing out there is a little less um they have less warning, they have less you know, understanding where

you are because you know you're in Colorado. You know a skiing utah a lot, and there's just like you know if you're going off, you know, off the trail, and I hear in Europe you you don't find out until your off the trail and down the hill you are spot on, Steve, That's exactly how it is. I mean, we're the land of regulations here in the United States. We have regulations for the regulations, and that certainly plays

out in skiing. Like you don't have to be very intelligent or a good skier to follow the regulations in the United States. But yes, over and over in Europe, um, they they don't really tell you if you're going off peace or off mountain. You really have to pay attention to like the runs because you will find yourself so in the complete back country, and those back country runs would be a black diamond or or or harder blue.

Then you would anticipate where you know and like Utah or Colorado, you can you'll see it as well lit and understand you go down this, well, this is now a mogul right and am I am I off base because going going to the Swiss helps is one of those that that's that's one of my bucket lists that I'm I'm going to do. But I'm also a little bit hesitant because of the runs just aren't well, uh, they don't have a lot of good direction. Now, you'll be fine as long as you pay attention. And you know,

you gotta go to Zermatt. If you go to Switzerland, you've gotta skiser Mat. It's probably the best ski area in the world. Um, it's the Paramount Paramount pictures. You know the mountain from the Paramount. That's that's where the mountains you know comes from. It's it's it's in Zermatt, Switzerland. It's incredible. It's an incredible town. Um, I'm sure you

will be great on skis. I don't know how much you've skiwed before I went to snowboarding with Troy palamalo Um and it was hilarious because he snowboards just like he played football. Like he's just absolutely fearless, like trying backflips when he had no business doing backflips, and you know, he's just you know, you guys are guys are fearless. And I've been skiing since two thousand three college. Did

you ski when you went to Yeah? I skied out there, and then once I was done, once I graduated, once I left college, I started skiing. So I ski now and I go to Utah. I primarily go to Utah. I've been a breaking ridge. I think it was a breaking ridge. We've been a breaking ridge. That you were with me, you were you were with me when my GPS didin't regulated and just yet, no, when you're saying I was with Colorado Colorado, I still don't remember the name. So he was in I know it was in Veil,

so I think it was breaking ridge. So we did breaking Ridge, um. But mainly I do the canyons because I have an epic paths, so that's that's where I liked going. And I'm one of those guys too, like uh, I don't need them, but I've had them long enough. I need some new ski boots. And then because I need new ski boots, I needed some new new ski pants. Just go to hold, just go to whole nine, get the whole Yeah, absolutely, like, yeah, I think I'm gonna do that. I think the only thing I want. Said

you look good, but you don't buy. I think I hear yeah he said yeah, but yeah, I didn't see something was a little really good on the left, Brothers, get off the left. I just I just drink. So all right, let's get into a man. Where are you from in the place you call your hometown. I'm from Loveland, Colorado, born and raised. It's northern Colorado, kind of outside of Boulder, and I went to school at the University of Colorado, played football there, made a couple of stints in the NFL,

the Pittsburgh Steelers and in the philip the Eagles. So lived out on the East Coast for a little bit, and then, you know, for the last decade, I've been really focused on building a nonprofit Wish of a Lifetime. We grant wishes to nine hundred year old people. It's been just an incredible journey and then building a company, UM Integrated and we're enterprise software business, and we were recently acquired by a private equity firm by the name

of Autex. It's based in Boston, and so it's a great milestone for everybody involved in the business and about thank you, about three employees globally. And now we're working inside of Audex to to build an even bigger business. So those two things keep me pretty busy. But I'm currently residing back in Colorado. UM and living in Boulder still feels like you just scratching the surface and all the things you're either doing or have done. You just

a man of many gifts and talents. I'm grateful I've been very blessed and been able to, you know, just just try a lot of different things in life, from football, the skiing, to building a nonprofit, building a business, to being on the front lines of bringing name, image and likeness to to college athletes. Of course, I had my own battles with against Double A, you know, when I

was in Colorado. Get into that, because I think a lot of people don't really realize the extent of what you have to deal with personally found you know, professionally and what it did, how it held you back, how it impacted you, um you know amateurly and and and professionally. You know how what it did to Yo psyche as well. So we'll get into that. But man, um man, growing up in Colorado the mountains, skiing, snowboarding, and you were

destined to do extreme sports. But what what what really captured your heart and having such a strong desire to want to do sports at at such a young age and what was that age? Yeah, it really happened because it too defining moments in my life. The first was and I was born in nineteen eighty two. John Elwood was drafted in nineteen eighty two. We were a huge Denver Bronco fans, so from a very young age, I would watch the Denver Broncos play football every Sunday with

my with my dad. So I wanted to be John Elway from a very young age. Of football really was the dream. First, I only grew to five ft nine, so the idea of being a quarterback was kind of thrown out the window and was moved to receiver in high school. And then when I was ten years of age, Um, I saw the Olympics for the first time the Winter Olympics and I saw skiing, and I saw a guy by the name of Edgar gross Berraun win an Olympic gold medal in front of his hometown crowd in Team France.

And it was really at that moment. And you know, I've been skiing for about seven years, just casually as you know, with my family, it's really at that moment where I told my parents I wanted to skiing the Olympics and I wanted to play in the NFL. And then I wanted to dedicate my my whole life, you know, my my childhood an earlier adulthood to to you know, trying to live out both of those dreams. So I knew pretty young, um that I wanted to be a

skier and a football player. What was your parents response when you said you want to do both of those things? That he said he wanted to dedicate his life. I know. That's why I want to ask, as from a from a standpoint, what was their response, because I know my mom would go somewhere, I want to dedicate my life to ski like that is that is such abnormal statement for a kid like I want to be a not I want to be a football player. I want to

be a skier. But when you say I want to dedicate my life, I'm just I'm like, you know, just trying to get clean your room. Hey, brother, just trying to get accrustable. Seriously, what was the response? So, so, both my parents have always had a healthy disrespect for the impossible, and so you know, both of them said, you know you can do that if you attack your dreams, and they you know, they conditioned us at a pretty young age to know that life wasn't going to give

us any handouts. You know, we weren't kids that you know, if we fell down and hurt ourselves, we weren't allowed to complain for too long. We were getting up putting some duct tape on it, and you know, we were were keep you know, we were going to keep moving and if we if we didn't succeeded something, we were never allowed to kind of blame other people. So, you know, we were conditioned at a young age to know that, hey,

you know, life is hard. Accomplishing great things is really hard, and if you want to be world class and anything, you better work harder than anybody else, and you better go attack your dreams and goals, and so that was kind of the framework in which way you know, my brother, sister and I were raised, and so you know, at TWN, I knew that if I wanted to do that, I did have to dedicate my life, I did have to

work harder than anybody else. And if I did that, and then when I went and attack it, then who knows, maybe I could acknowledge it. 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 to Smithie where where at at cut to It? On Instagram? What about twitter? At cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It feature in Steve Smith sing your what about online and you can follow Louis that cut to It podcast dot um where you can buy merch and you can

subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions, UM, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother cut to a podcast dot com. How did you attack from that point forward? UM? I really focused on putting in more hours than anybody else. And whether that was kind of in at the regional levels of skiing in the early days where I was just competing with folks and

kids in Colorado. I would observe what they did. I would I would see how they trained, I would see how long did they spent on it, and I would try to just do more um and and same in in football. I had to do more in football. I was, you know, I think I was born with more ability and skiing. From a very young age, coaches said, gosh, you you know you could ski in the Olympics. You

have a you have a pretty pretty good ability. I was the smallest kid on every football field I ever stepped on, and most people outside of my inner circle would would would commonly say, like, what do you do and playing football? You're gonna get hurt. You're a good skier, maybe you got a future there quits quit football and

go focus on skiing. But but again, you know, I watched guys like Steve Smith, you know, and and Steve knows this, but like, there was no receiver who I looked up to more my entire life, and Steve Smith and I watched thousands of hours. And Steve was nice enough to send me some some clips when I was at um at the Eagles on how to get off the line of scrimmage against press coverage, and nobody did it better period, Like I'll go to battle that one and and played you know, at five nine, but played

like six ft four. I I tried to embody everything that's Steve that you you you brought to the to the football field, and that helped me a lot, because I don't think inherently just from a you know, a hype weight skill set perspective, I should have had success in college. I should have been drafted the NFL. I think I really had to try to overachieve and and try to work really hard, um to be able to

having success that that I didn't support. Well, that leads me to you know one, first of all, I appreciate and I appreciate you telling your fans and our fans just the willingness that you had. And then also obviously the report that we had when you were you know, just coming out and just being drafted. And you know, I always I watched them and they were talking about this, uh, this low receiver, this low returner. What I saw was a guy who was dynamic, who was an instant impact

player at Colorado. UM. I just love the way he played. UM. But really What caught my attention was all of the who blah, to get you on the football field, and we'll get we'll still we're still holding that tight. But with all the success that you had at such a young age, how much was football still tugging at you? Because you are now you're you're talking about at the By the age of fifteen, he became the youngest freestyles

scared to ever make the US ski team. Hey, I mean, you're on the biggest stages, You're in all these different countries, and yet that pig scale was still called. It never stopped calling Steve ever, you know, not after I won my first World championship, not after I made my first hold on, hold on? How old were you? First years old? What what did that do for you? It was a surreal moment in my life because I won that World championship the same year that I was named as a

freshman All American at the University of Colorado. And I'm sitting here at nineteen thinking of myself. I'm living out my wildest childhood dreams. And on on one hand, I was just over the moon excited because the feeling of being the best in the world, of knowing there's not a single other person on this planet who is better at what you do. Improving that I was able to

do in skiing is an incredible feeling. But on the other hand, it really made me start thinking about life after sports, because it's like, Okay, I'm like nineteen on

top of the world. It's not gonna last forever. Where am I going to put all this passion that I have um for football and skiing when when it's all over and I was really you know, that fear of living an unfulfilled life beyond sports really drove me to kind of plant a lot of different seeds outside of athletics over the next decade from nineteen or twenty nine.

That ultimately led me to the path I am now um, but but anytime gosh, winning the world championship, being the best in the world and knowing that all the blood swept two years, long hours, you know, all the failures along the way, we're just avenged and I'm the best in the world was a really cool feeling. But from a mental standpoint, how are you? How are you balancing that? I had to learn how to balance it, really um,

and I wasn't good at it in the beginning. It's and it's a bit ironic because in third grade, I probably you know, spent more time practicing my autograph than I did in math or science or any other subject. I always had this drive to be known in the world, to be famous in the world, and then I reached the level of notoriety and and and fame, and I absolutely hated it. I hated the fact that people I didn't know had a preconceived notion of who I was.

And you know, I read too many press clippings at that age, and I would, you know, get really down on you anytime somebody would say something bad about me. So you know, I wasn't very good at at nineteen or twenty or twenty one. It took me a couple of years to kind of figure out how to deal with that type of spotlight. I think it's fair to say, you you are becoming one of the youngest freestyle skiers at age fifteen, your champion at nineteen, I'm going out

on a limb. It's pretty safe to say you're really just discovering puberty, hormones, success failure. You're learning about your own heart as you are developing it and experiencing these things for the very first time. And yet you got these grown folk who don't even know you writing articles that impacts who people perceive you to be. And yeah, you barely know yourself based on this new Jeremy Bloom, you're Jeremy Bloom, the youngest freestyle on the Olympic team

or the US ski team. A year and a half later, two years later, three years later, four years later, you're Jeremy Blue. Who's nineteen, who's eighteen. You're figuring it out as you go, but you are a young man experiencing grown men achievements and talking to grown men and women who are now judging you with the same critical I but not giving you that grace of a little kid. That you are so well said, and that that resonates

with me. Every word you said resonates with me. And at eighteen or nineteen, to your point, you don't, you don't. I didn't know who I was at all, And the more that I would read these articles, to some extent, I would build my identity through what people were writing because I didn't know who I was. So I was very influence able, just like any eighteen or nineteen year old.

So you know, I did obviously had to get to a point where I stopped reading the articles, and that was that was a big step for you know, for me, and I'm lucky. Look like you know, I've lived a life in a career where most the articles have been positive. Um, I'm not a superpolarizing figure. Where I've done a lot of controversial things in my life, you know, most of them were you know, pretty positive. I couldn't imagine being someone who's a bit more polarizing at a young age.

And and and not only you know, reading what's in the press, but to your point earlier point, if you have a Twitter handle, you know, now you've got a microphone and you can say whatever you want and tagged the person. It's um, it's no wonder that where why you know, mental health issues are you know, on are just skyrocketing, especially you know for young kids. How important was your support system and huge and how good was

the support system? I was really lucky from a support system perspective, because both my parents have been very involved in my life and great advisors. Both my brother and sister have always kept me grounded and humbled. I'm the youngest and I've never been super cool to them no

matter what I've what I've accomplished. And you know, my dad, you know, instill the behavior of being becoming a champion inside of me and my mom and still the behavior of giving back and being humble and and and trying to treat people great respect. And so I had, you know, I was very lucky with the parents that I had growing up to to instill those values. And then you know, I was really fortunate to just meet some exceptional people

at a young age. I met John Elway when I was a really young guy, and I, you know, was able to communicate with him and be around him and look up to him. I get met guys like you, Steve and and Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward and these guys at a very young age, and so I was able to kind of emulate what what they were doing. And in skiing this the same thing was true. You know, you befriending world champions at the age of twelve fourteen.

I've always been a big believer like, if you can surround yourself with people who are doing it at the highest level, and you you pay attention to what they're doing, and you're a sponge in the room, you got a great chance of maybe becoming them one day. And and and uh so I've I've I feel like I'm just a product of a lot of the great, amazing people

I have been around in my life. Take us through this whole amateur status back in the day, n C double a, you're skinning playing football, like, take us through that. I don't want to press you, but you know, it's been it's been a while, so I just want to, you know, give me some statute of limitations. So I just want you to give your take of what you experience as the individual going through it. My situation was that, you know, I graduated high school. Um, I took that

next year off to go competed in the Olympics. I just went to the Olympics. Where was the Olympics at that time? That you took a year, you took a gap year. I took in Salt Lake City, Okay, So you know, I went to the Olympics, and then I enrolled in the University of Colorado and I had a full ride scholarship there. When I enrolled in the University Colorad,

I was nineteen. I was the number one ranks skier in the world and in an Olympian and the n C double A said, all right, well, if you're gonna, if you're gonna play amateur football for the color of buffaloes, you can't accept any money and skiing because that would

make you a professional. But I said, well, wait, that's hypocritical because you allow other amateur athletes to be professional in one sport and an amateur and another couple of examples, Drew Henson made over one point five million dollars playing professional baseball and amateur football at Michigan. Rickie Williams did the same in Texas, and there's a bunch of other examples. And so I said, well, how is that any different. I'm a skier, you know, No, I don't play baseball,

but I'm skiing for the United States. And anyway, they said no, no, no, and I sued them in Boulder District Court. Unfortunately, my my judge sided with the n C double A was reluctant to modernize the system and structure at that point in time. So I had to, you know, tear up all my endorsement contracts and any ability to make money as a skier and pay for my you know, it's very expensive to fly around the

world and have coaches or whatever. UM. And I did that for two years, playing for the University color Otto, UM, not accepting any endorsements or accepting any victory money for skiing because I, you know, I had a dream to play for the car of Buffalos. And then after my sophomore year, I was just broke and I wanted to go to the two thousand and six Olympics in Italy. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it unless

I accepted endorsements, and so I accepted endorsements. I told the unstable and I'm not leaving that after kicking me out of school, and they waited about six seven months, and right before fall camp my junior season, they declared me permanently ineligible for taking ski ski endorsement money. What did that do to I? Was? I was infuriated. I

was so piste off. I you know, it was the hardest pill I think I've probably ever had to swallow, because here I was, I worked so incredibly hard to be in this position, UM, to to have an opportunity to play college football, to have an opportunity to skip for the United States. My coaches on both sides for Fine.

I was having a lot of success in both sports, and an organization that I didn't know a single person that ever spoke anybody yet in Indianapolis took away my dream of being the number one receiver on my car to Buffalo team my junior and senior season. My sophomore year, I was the number three receiver behind two very good receivers. One went off went to play in the NFL, the other one was a free agent for a while. And that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to

be the number one receiver. I wanted to have a chance to prove that I could be number one receiver on a on a team. That development that I would have gotten my junior and senior year is is invaluable. I never got that And to think that it was all taken away from me by this, you know, kind of nameless organization in Midnapolis, n C double A who you know, the judge, the jury, the execution or what they say go. They don't have to be held accountable

to anybody. Um. It was frustrating. It was really really frustrating for me, and it was hard to go back to the games. You know, I would go to some of the games watch from the stands and just it would eat me up inside, absolutely me up inside. And what way did they plant some of the seeds of what you're doing now some of you were with integrate. How much did that kind of I don't know, you

probably didn't know then, but how did that point those seats? Well, the seeds that it really planned was I was going to dedicate whatever portion I needed to in my life to fight for name, image and like to fight for student athlete rights because I didn't want anybody. I didn't want another athlete to ever have to go through what I went through. And so I testified in Congress on

d process in the n double a. UM. We put out a documentary last year on on on Vice called College Sports Game, which they did a phenomenal job telling

story of amateurism. UM. I've answered every call from every state senator, worked closely with senators from California to Colorado to work on the image and likeness, and you know, unfortunately we got there, you know, and now we're living in in a time where student athletes have rights and not only do they have rights in another sport like I was asked for that they have rights in their own sports. So like you know, they can capitalize on their name, image and likeness and ability, and I think

that's what's right. I know that it's going to create some complexities for athletic directors and and coaches. You know, you got the transfer portal now and people can freely transfer, and you got some other challenges. But but you know, ultimately comes down to a civil rights issue of those kids. That's their ability, that's their name, it's their image, it's their likeness. If they want to monetize it, to monetize it,

they should be able to do it, just like you can. Yeah, they should be able to monetize it because the colleges are monetized. And what most people don't realize when they even think about those numbers is that you know, they think, well, you know, the n C double A pays for scholarships, or these schools pay for the scholarships and it comes out of the athletic department. Well that's not the case. In most of the big schools. You have individual donors.

Had a scholarship donor Neiversity Colora who paid for my education, and individual Roy Durbin was his name. So the university Colorado didn't pay for my education and didn't pay for

my education. Roy Durbin did. And so all the billions of dollars that's coming in through through college athletics and certainly football and basketball, all of that's going to who cool, it's going to the coaches, it's it's going to schools, and none of it, very very little, hardly any of it is going to the people on the field who the people buy tickets to go see. How about how about this my scholarship Stephen Angie Smith Wide Receiver Scholarship.

Every year I get the new name and a plaque of the receiver they reached the benefit of my scholarship. The wide Receiver's meeting room at the University of Utah. Steve Smith, wide Receiver calling about seventy five the music that has played coming out of the tunnel before the home game at the University of Utah. Mm hmm. I

wrote to check for being part of the school. I start to see, like, wow, now I get to see when I was the player, I didn't realize the tunnel wheel coming out of, or the or the seat cushion I was sitting in someone else paid for. I do believe the honor of pain. Because a complete stranger paid for my tush to be cushioned before the game, that I am responsible for reciprocating the same thing, Shaky Smith.

I think he was a receiver. I don't think I ever met him, but it's the point of it's not about who he was, it was the purpose of who he could be, the same way the complete stranger said who I can be. And so I think it's my inherent right and duty to pay for that complete stranger the same way a complete stranger pay for me. Forward, Yes, sir, because if it wasn't for that complete stranger, there's a trickle down in fact that I don't want to know

what I would have not experienced. I probably wouldn't be I know, for a factor, I wouldn't have the opportunity to be doing this podcast. I and they're going to be friends with you because of that complete stranger, because of that cushioncy good do it, Good do it. Let's get down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You mean? 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. What added pressure did you feel after getting drafted, having to walk away from skiing and then started, you know, a new venture in the area that you you believe exactly what you wanted, but you went to a place that it's a little brun It ain't like Colorado. I can tell you that you got drafted by the Philadelphicia Eagles. Yeah, so you know a twenty three when I got drafted,

that's in time. I knew how to deal with pressure. I had skied into Olympics, I played in big twelveth championship games. So it wasn't the pressure that I think got to me at all. It was it was the attention of being a rookie on a team without proving any of my worth and having all the cameras on

me that bothered me. And that also bothered me at the University Colorado when I was a freshman, before I did anything because because of the two sport nature of it, and the last thing I wanted to do was you know, turn off my new teammates to you know, the the attention that I was receiving. So I try to do, you know, the best to minimize that. The biggest challenge I had in the NFL was I hadn't run with

cleats on for two straight years. I underestimated the impact that that would have um And so the you know, the muscles that you used to to really sprint and be a receiver and cut and get out of brakes like the hamstrings and and some of the calf muscles that you don't use, and skiing just for underdeveloped, not at all, it's not at all. You're literally in a

so like you know, like two years I not. You know, if I had to do it over, I just I would have crossed trained more during that two thousand, five thousand and six having up to the the Olympics, because when I got and it didn't happen immediately, but when I got into training camp and you know, Steve, like how many miles you need to sprint during those training camps and your body's got to be really well conditioned to take on you know that that type of situation, My

answering just popped, you know, it reached the point where it didn't have the stamina and enter the mussels in it, and uh that that created a challenging situation for me. That's what I found so interested when we were get ready to talk with you, is that being a two sport athlete is one thing, but you were two sport

athletes that use very very distinct muscle groups. Right, Like you just talked about your feet being in boots, Whereas when you're playing football, you're having to use so many foot movements, right, cuts, getting out of brakes, all that stuff. So like, how how are you able? I mean, of course, you know, unfortunately it ended with your hamstring, but throughout when you were playing in high school and in college, how were you able to balance these two sports from

a from a physical standpoint that are so unparalleled. Yeah, it's a great point. You know, the physiology is completely different. Um, the anatomy is completely different. Um. But as I was growing up, I would I would always cross train. I mean, you know, ski season would end in April May I was playing football, and it would happen that like you know,

like like clockwork. And it wasn't until the n C Double A took away my scholarship and kind of forced me to focus only on skiing for for those two years that I just didn't play football anymore, and I just said, all right, I'm just gonna focus on on skiing and you know, being the best year I can be, and then maybe I'll have an opportunity to to go play football. And uh that you know, I paid the price for doing that, so you know I was able to balance that, you know, most of my athletic career,

but but it had had a bit of a breaking point. Um. You know in the NFL, what what do you learn from pro skia and what do you learn from pro football? Football is obviously a team sport. You know, you win and die as a team. You can have your best individual game ever and lose and you're you're gonna feel pretty pretty crappy. Um. And skiings and individual sport, right, so you're either best in the world or not that day, and it's your fault if you aren't. So Um, there's

kind of this singular accountability nature to to skiing. Um. Look, I don't think that there's anything like the Olympics, you know, walking and opening ceremonies and representing the country and being around the world's best athletes and lots of different disciplines to you know, living in the Olympic village for for three weeks to a month and meeting a lot of other incredible athletes. You know, it was the honor of my life to represent the country twice in the Olympics.

That being said, football in America it's the biggest sport in our country. I mean it's it's every week seventy eight thousand people on on a national TV. And that excitement that thrilled, that pressure, that magnifying glass. You know, it's hard to it's hard to duplicate that. You certainly can't duplicate it in skiing because in skiing you have one big, big event every four years. It's not not

every Saturday or every Sunday. How grateful are you to have you have the ability to focus in on one sport skiing and then how you know, and and basically because you had the opportunity to do that, you exhaled

greatly in there. Well. You know, as I look back at my athletic career and some people have asked, me, hey, you know, do you think you would have had more success if you just focused on one Like if if if you didn't ski and you only played football and dedicate a kind of football and you know, maybe you could have won a Super Bowl, or maybe you could have you know, been an All Pro or you know whatever. And as I think about that, I wouldn't trade that

for the experiences that I had across both sports. Um, you know, I kind of look back at my athletic career and and and just feel incredibly grateful, um and humbled by whatever whatever I was able to accomplish, the journeys that I was able to go on, and people that I was able to meet in both sports. So

I really wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. You know, even if I was a fourth time Olympic gold medalist and skiing, if I would have never played football, or if I would have been a multiple Super Super Bowl champ. I did something in athletics that no human being has ever done, um, skin the Olympics and be drafted into

the NFL. And I think that that's pretty cool because there's been a lot of human beings on the planet, a lot of multi sport athletes, and um, you know, it's it's it's accomplishment that I hold you me or in the ear of my heart. It was the benefit to versatility the common thread for me in life is is I think I always think of things with the end in mind, and thinking about life with the end

in mind, like we're not here for that long. But like talk to anybody in their eight nineties are alder, They'll tell you this thing goes really really fast, and I believe that, and so I think we have a very fine night period of time in our lives to go do the things we've always wanted to do and accomplish.

And so I've always thought of myself as you know, more of a life experience guy, like I just want to experience as much as I possibly can on this this you know, little amount of time that that I'm here. And fortunately I've been able to have success in a lot of those areas, um and I've learned in all of them. And I think the common thread for me is is I get energy from other things, other challenges. If I only focused on one thing every day, I

would probably get burned out and become disinterested. And so I think, you know, especially for kids, playing multiple sports is a great thing. I see kids parents saying, oh, you gotta specialize in one sport the age of eight, Like, are you kidding? Me at age of eight, like you really want to pick the kids should be playing everything? Um so, I I think you know, diversity is really

helpful in our lives. Just talk about the the the evolution of your business, but then also how sports has helped you and how sports have hurt you in the business. So so sports has really helped me in business, primarily thinking about um having a deep conviction and belief that very few things are impossible and anytime you're building a new company, you're going to reach points in time. I

certainly did. We did. Or it just feels like failure is inevitable, like the chap like the challenge is just too insurmountical, it rains it pors. I mean like we've almost failed three or four times to integrate the company I started a decade ago. And it was during those times that I really drew back into my athletic experience. I no, I reject that, and I'm going to use great tenacity. I'm gonna freaking figure it out. And we

were able to do that. So how how did your employees and how did those people handle that grit and tenacity because they weren't you know, you own, you aren't on a gridiron. You're you aren't on the on the ski lift, right, You're not on a mogul. You just you out there with a with a stapler and and and and some white out and APN and some sticky notes. I've been super lucky to work alongside people who I would go into any rabbit hole with. And those people,

you know, because business is the ultimate team sport. A single individual who controlled the great, great business, you really need functional leaders and every other business doing great things. And we had that. We had that to achieve. One of the things that the biggest leadership lesson I had to learn in building a startup and growing a business to the point where where we are now is you can't talk to everybody the same. Like if you're in front of a football team. You know, there's a common

language to get people motivated. You know that people people have been called every cursework you can imagine it. Well, like there's just like you can't do that in this is It's got a lot of people who have never even been yelled at their whole life, you know. And and that engineers you think about so like in the early days of Integrate, I'd come in like drawn my experience from Mike Tomlin. You know what what what what would you read? Do you know? Like? What was some

of my Olympics? And I got in trouble because you have the sales guys. Typically they're like, they think like athletes, so like you can treat them more like a football player, and they're like, they'll run through walls. But if you've got a bunch of engineers in the group and you're trying to inspire them like a football coach, they're gonna

turn white. And uh so you know I had to I had to learn pretty quickly that I had to change the way that I spoke to the whole group and say different things different people and understand people like to ingest information a different ways. Talked to us about the forty hour rule. So this was my second Olympics and I came into the Olympics as a number one rank ski in the world, and um, I was skiing great and had a great first run and made just the tiniest mistake. Um you know, one inch split in

the legs in the final run. That's all it takes in the square free sale skiing. And I didn't win that Olympic gold medal that I wanted, and I was just devastated. And I was sitting there in Trino, Italy and thinking about how in the world am I going to recover from this? And I came up with this the forty hour rule, and I said, I'm gonna take forty eight hours. I set my watch, I turned off

my phone. I didn't talk to a single person, and I just said, I'm gonna do whatever I need to do forty hours and feel bad for myself or learn, you know, dissect what happened and and and try to come up with the common learnings. And after that fourty hour window, I'm done feeling sorry for myself from moving on a thousand miles an hour. And it was through that kind of mental conditioning, and now I use it

in my life today. You know, you get bad news from a customer, will cancel a contract, you gotta deal with that, or he'll fight with the wife or you know whatever, and I'll try to be disciplined. It's not always forty hours. Sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter. I think that helping the muscle, the brain muscle, to be able to move on from things and not look back is is a healthy one. You had the opportunity last year too. You know, you're featured in HBO film called

The Weight of God. You know, take us through that process of why you felt it was necessary for for you to take part uh in that in that documentary to HBO. Yeah, this was a huge passion project for me. I had personal connections to this story. So Jared's Peede Peterson was a skier I grew up skiing with. We both went to the Olympics together. He's an Olympic silver medalist and he came to me at one World Cup

just devastated, saying he fights demons. I had no idea what that meant at the age of twenty two or twenty three wherever I was. Ultimately, sadly, Jared took his life. He committed suicide UM a couple of years ago, several years ago. And after he took his life, I said, gosh, I need to get smarter on this, this the topic of mental health. I felt ignorant. I felt somewhat responsible

because I wasn't there for him. I didn't know what the right things to say were UM and so so the m Brett Racken is the is the producer of the film. He he was doing a story on a Bob's letter. Um uh, Stephen Holcomb who who took his life during during the interview. While he was still doing the story that the night before they were going to meet together and he called me and he said, is there a bigger story here? I said, yes, we have to make this film. I called ten of my Olympian friends.

All of them said I'll I'll be interviewed. Um. I raised a bunch of money for the film to get off the ground, and Brett and I we didn't know it was going to be called Away to Gold. We didn't even know HBO was gonna, you know, pick it up. We didn't even know if Michael Phelps is going to be involved at that point in time. We just knew

that there was a story year to be told. And the story was, you know, had the goal of showing folks that even the best Olympians of all time, I'm talking Michael felt So, I'm talking Apollo on No and um you know, Lindsey Vaughan and and Bodhie Miller, Sashak

and good analysts, everybody struggles to some extent. And we wanted to normalize the conversation about mental health, about you know, struggling and show people that it's not just you know, because you don't have money or you don't have fame, you don't have success, that you're dealing with demons and mental health issues. Mental health doesn't care how any trophies during the trophy and it turned out to be, you know, incredible documentary. We were up for Documentary of the Year

in the Emmy's um changed a lot of lives. I still get a ton of feedback from people. I'm very proud of the story that we told in the Courage of you know a lot of Olympians to tell their stories. I mean, even Sean White on the documentary said that he's considered thought about taking his own life after I think his second or third third Olympics. So I think

it's a it's a powerful story. M man, everything you've been through, everything you've experienced, looking back now today as older Jeremy Bloom looking back at young Jeremy Bloom, what would you tell him? He wouldn't believe what I would tell him, you know, And I'm sure you think about this too. I mean, you know, going back and having a conversation with our ten year old self, twelve year old self and just saying let me, let me walk

you through what your life's gonna look like. UM. I try to remind myself that because I think I don't know why this happens. But sometimes I think we get numb to to our blessings, to the things that we've done in our lives. I'm not just talking in sports, but you know how we've given back and the life that we're living, and oftentimes we're our worst critic and we're hardest on ourselves, and we don't give ourselves credit for the things that we do with things that we

work on. And I, you know, sometimes think about going back and sitting down with my ten year old and twelve around self and walking him through his life, and I just I'd imagine what that ten year old or twelve year old would say, and I think suffice to say, he'd be pretty pumped on where we are, and he wouldn't believe you. He would he wouldn't think it wouldn't

be believable. I think one of the things that why we're wanted to a lot of athletes, no matter what you've played, how far you've played, I think they really we've been told to act like you've been there before, be humble, and be this that. I think we have stopped ourselves from actually embracing the celebration of some success because think about it, you have a forty eight our rule for when you fail, but you don't have a forty eight for ye Yeah, like you're freaking eleven time Olympian.

I it's part the ground culture too, Like we don't we we we we we minimize success. We and we and we maximize you know what we do wrong? Yeah, I think it's and that and that spans across I know, but I'm just I really like I'm sitting here thinking about it, like we don't. We've been told so many times to act like you've been there before. I'm forty three years old now, I don't know what it's like to score touchdown anymore. Right, I'm not saying that I

want to go backwards and see how it feels. Like I asked myself, what if I really just through a forty eight hour party in my head, that possibly can change the dichotomy of the lands I see things of success versus all Right, I've done it, move on to the next thing instead, Right, and I'm not talking about like, I'm not talking about like a party, but I just mean a psychological it's taking time to celebrate what you've accomplished, with what you've done, or the or the or the

positive things, because that's right I mean, And like I said, it's it's really just part of overall I don't even want to call the microwave generation, but just just culture in general that we just tend to minimize. We just tend to minimize the good things and we maximized, like I can't believe I did this. Oh, I can't believe I made that bad decision. Oh what? Oh? Woe is me? And we just don't take the time to look at

the positive. I think that's really interesting. And you're right, we do fixate it on the things that aren't working on our in our lives or the things that we messed up on, and we don't give ourselves enough credit for the things that are going well in our lives and the relationships that we have and the support structures that we have, the friends that we have, the little winds in life. I completely agree with that. Man, look up imprint. Look up the definition of imprint. That's you

You're leaving an imprint and that's really cool on the slopes. Absolutely, you are a unique person, you are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith, singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto 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, singr 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 Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. If you ain't heard about it,

then we're about to let you know. It's all