This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm Steve Smith Senior and I'm Little John and this is cut to it. Cut do it, Cut do it. Let's get down to do it. God do it. We asked the questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked, let's cut to it. If you ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all My uncle Phield used to tell me. Literally, I got an uncle nay Field, Philip Spears, and my grandfather's brother.
He used to tell me all the time. The smartest men in the world know what they don't know like and you can't be you can't be um so immature and not the not acknowledge that. Like man, Listen, bro, I've spent the last four years with Dan Orloski. I've learned more about quarterback play in the last four years than I did mind Ticker in the NFL, because that's
his area of expertise. And tell walkers, walk us through what you've learned and get and give Dan some credit walking through what you've learned over what he's he's giving you. Because people do look at Dan and I and and you could tell him. I said this because Dan is Dan's text someone that's text me to tell Dan said, stay off such as such. But you know the quarterbacks. But I just I'm on the quarterbacks a lot because they get paid so much money. I've said this. We
had Doug Williams on and I asked him. You won't hire a receiver that can catch. You won't keep a running back that can't hit the whole your damn show, won't let the left tackle who can't block stay. But yeah, you'll give a quarterback a bonus, extend him for being a I. And then he goes, well, let's talk about just backups, right, and I, oh goodness, talk about back ups. You allow a backup who you hope, Let's be honest, you pray that backup never ever, ever, ever place unless
you need folks. Right, So tell us about Dan, What what he's taught you, and why why has that been so good? And what what exactly? Just just big up Dan and just what he's done for you. Well, one thing, man, is you know we we never sit in quarters. Well I never said in a quarterback meeting, So to hear some of the verbis that go on, how those meetings are conducted, and then to just like quarterback play from you know, this meeting, like you were talking about Tyrek
Hill crayon routes and all of that. Um, I didn't know how important it was to marry your feet with your upper body. Um, to have your shoulder pointing to your target. Yeah. You don't play golfer, No, not at all. That's why a lot of the quarterbacks are extremely well golfers. So a lot of the technique with it right, Um, A lot of the things that they have to see prior to a ball being snapped that that is either gonna help their team or put their team in the
worst possible situation they can be in. Still a line, you want to get your line to use, quarterbacks must confirm where they're going with the ball before the snapper, before not discovering. If you're discovering and you that receiver, yeah, that bad news. We wanted you to be that way. I'm speaking as a defensive We wanted you to be that way. We didn't like what we talked about with Peyton and what we talked about with Tom is that
they know where you're going before you know. Sometimes they're telling you the line of hey, shift, don't exactly like big fella. If you don't move, we're gonna run right there. But but but I'd have been up before with Peyton, like bro first year in Baltimore, Payton through six touchdowns on us when I was with the Ravens and me and me and Terrel so Sizzle was sitting on the bench.
Sis said, they ain't nothing we can do. We we We called Dan ps who was out decordinator, said, Dean, you know everything we're doing, he said, he said, best to luck to y'alls. You're talking to. Dean is with the defense, courting that he's in Atlanta right now. Dean was in Baltimore to Dean, but he came to tell you, hey, well, all we can do is bless him. All we can do it. Thanks go or you come in the offense and defense they say, hey, office, we need some help
from you. Yep, reality bro. So I think a lot of it, man, A lot of it. Um is just see kind of seeing the picture through a guy that was behind center. And honestly, like when I'm when I'm on set, like even with even with Ryan Clark RC, the secondary plate. Now I had a great idea of that because when I was at L s U, we did a lot of his own pressure. So I had to understand um coverages. I had understand where dudes would be, where my flat area was, where my drop hooks was,
all of that type of stuff. But but just like seeing it from a safety who played downhill, like what it is like when you what it's like when when when Marvin Harrison running a running a crosser and you know that you can't run with it, Like what's the technique to try to intercept him? Not the ball, just to get him on the grounds, right. So it's just it's a it's a lot of stuff, man, And and I think that's why, Um, that's why for me, like being around on different different guys like and and to
your point, different levels of expertise. Louis Riddick was in the front office is also you know what I'm saying, Like he had to break he had his job depended on getting the right guys, like making sure that the talent he was seeing allaying with what they was gonna do when they got to that team or he was out of them. Um, So it's just a lot, bro, It's a lot Man. Even Mina comes and I know
people get crazy. Bro, I have the amount of film and breakdown in time that Mina puts into understanding football and really knowing by talking to players. If you ever with Mina comes around the NFL like people, why how many players show her respect? I met her? This is the first time I get I got the meter. We're at the combine and I said that was great me and you. I love what you do and your respect. And she came and gave me that look like yeah,
sure you do right. But here's the problem. But here's the problem. I don't hand out those compliments to everybody because there's a lot of times I see a lot of people on television. I don't think they're great. I don't think they do a good job. I think sometimes
they're lazy, right. And the reason I know is because there are times I've been lazy where I I know, I know I'm gonna be on a show where maybe my football knowledge is not required as much they want to store they want to They desire the storyteller, and
I don't like the storyteller. I like the storytelling in in like this setting where we can we can mixture football, and the storytelling amplifies the conversation, but not where the storytelling and it minimizes the football knowledge because the people that are getting paid to represent a talk about football actually don't know any football. So I try to show sometimes I'm just kind of you to do that. I don't say this man like, I don't go that far.
I just listened to the people. I think, you know what the hell they're talking about? Well, I like to I like to watch everybody because it gives me. It gives me a sense, right I And is so much sports out there that I also I stay out of it because you can get inundated. You can go down a worm hole, a false false like I mean, you can find some alternative facts. Yeah, you start getting, you get You get a post for sixteen seconds that people
are following you. One point five million people view a sixteen second post because I'm in the New York Giants uniform, UH coaching staff and say, hey, I'm going to coach it on. Oh it must be real And it happens every summer for both of y'all being in this sports media game. What has changed that you're a fan of and then what would you like to see you change. I'm a fan of players having a voice, and they
all platforms. I like that, um because when when smittic in the test when we was in the league, you only got what you gave a sound bite up. Um. You know this whole thing with Drake Muond and this podcast right now after after games and he's not playing well that that he not muted because he didn't play a good basketball game, Like you know what I'm saying, Like now, you could get into what he's doing spending this time. I don't care about that. That's a grown man, um.
But ultimately I understand the other side is that you know people watching that, watching you playing the finals, and they yeah, they quote unquote had his expectation of what you should be doing when you're not playing, um, living your life. And I run into issues with that, But that's for a whole another podcast when we get into it. Um. But ultimately, for me, man, I like players having a voice. UM. I like I like when they say stuff because you get to you get to know how they really think it.
Yeah they see. That's the other part too. It does give you a peek into who they are, right and and and the one thing I do love about podcasts that I love to listen to. It's how they transition. The transition tells you how they're thinking from the game to the podcast in the conversations. A great, great example Tarik Hill or Cheetah. I listened to it, how he transitioned, what he said, how he said it, his eyes, his his attire. Right, he's wearing his his jersey with a suit.
He's trying to fix it and figure it out, and he's utilizing his stuff. The only advice I'll give him is when he's no longer, can he sustain it? And can he does he give hisself an opportunity and does he give his helf from the opportunity? Like we are where people are engaged and there's enough things to discuss in its organic And that's my that's my only thing is he's hot right now. But at some point will you be able with my coach? She always tells me,
Jail Montgomery, right, shout out to Jail. Make it about the other person. Yeah, right, And so that that's the only thing right, even even you though, like right like I heard I heard, I heard M J. J. Reddy Uh say something that that that was intriguing to me. Y'all know, I love basketball, man, I love talking about it. Um. But he talked about um steps, competitive stamina right Like. I didn't accomplished all this, Bro, I canna walk away from the game as one of the top seven, if
five players ever in the history of the NBA. That's why I have a tremendous amount of respect for Lebron. Tremendous amount of respect for use to me a career where you continue to elevate, but in the off season you approach it like you saw it right like, and sometimes that don't translate to being a Hall of Fame
or great player. I work my ass off in the off season like I approached every off season like I had to earn a job because you went in saying right, I never went in saying I'm a first round pick them up. I'm gonna how this. They're gonna know. I gotta earn this job every single year. Um, And some dudes don't. Some dudes they stuff, you know what I'm saying. They like the stuff. It ain't they run out of
the energy to continue to prepare and get ready. Um. But for me, like to your point, having an inside view of how these guys not only operate when they balled, because we could see that they got the footage of that um, But like, you know, what's important tool what kind of stuff are they saying? You know, we could see the tend we could see the thirty second minute and a half workout clips, but is it translating to what we see when you play on Sunday or what
we see when you're playing on the court. So I just like that. I like that they have a have a voice because for me, it says you can't lie to me through sound bites, and and so that leads that leads me to the one thing I dislike about working in media is former players have to when we when we break news, they have to verify. Yeah, but other media people who are not former players, there's no verification required, go with it. Yes, And that that's the one thing, and and and as a former player I
dislike I the one thing. There's a few things I dislike. One of the other biggest things I dislike is beat writers who give a false a false security, a false sens to the fans that they actually do know the players they're covering because they don't like not every beat writer actually has a really good relationship, but understanding of that individual. They sometimes only know that individual for the fifteen or twenty minutes of open locker room based off
if they even speak to him. They may see someone and say, oh, he's always upset. Sometimes maybe they just have that resting face, that's his demeanor. But oh, he's always angry. But have you ever spoke to him? Right, And then they go to, well, I have to write the article based on like my eight year old grandmother is reading it, meanings, I have to state all the bad things, not the good things, all the bad things
to tell you how he got to today. And a lot of beat writers the fans stink, oh you know, I'm using to us an example. Gerard little John has a great relationship with all of the all of the Carolina Panthers players here, So when he writes this article, he must have talked to several people. He may talk to one scout who may have a extra grind or a reason to talk about that individual, So there's a false narrative of that. They're all close ahead. I'm gonna
get an example. Let's tell you what I hate, all right, and it just happened I hated this Davante Aaron Rodgers thing. All right, bro, it's coming sense for Davante Adams not the one to be in Green Bay. He don't know if it's the quarterback coming back, but I said it on television and I'm hating you when you just don't like Aaron Rodgers. No, if if me, it's me to go into business together. And every day on summer he
telling me, Man, I'm about to bow out. I'm gonna say on my half, I'm gonna sell my share, and an opportunity comes along for me to have stability. And I've been on this roller coaster with Smitty, I probably should take that stable situation and the business with your best friend that you that you grew up with ya playing high school, so I had I had a big issue with the whole um. No, No, it's they. It's fine.
They they love each other. They hug when he threw his hundred touchdown and look broke a lot of NFL relationships in locker rooms are necessity. It ain't real. Circumstantials, circumstantial ain't real. Friendships that ain't real. Brothers were cool. We go alone and get along at times, and sometimes we just flat out no, like some of our team. Yeah,
that's the reality. So that that's the part that that bothers me about some of the media now is that it's it's either because of the success that they see it happened in a three hour window. They assume that this alliance and brotherhood just exists, like we're doing dinner together. Bro. Majority of the NFL players go home to their family and don't talk to their team. They say it said
the next day, are you serious? I know, dudes, but but yeah, man, like, but but you know something to your point, man, Sometimes it's this false narrative that that it's just this one structured way to have success. Like if a team win a championship, everybody is on the same page. That's a lie. No, they ain't. Like there's here's the thing that a lot of people don't know, man, that Baltimore Ravens team when they want to super Bowl, it was anarchy. It was beef and it was like
inmates was about to overtake the press. I'm not even gonna get into it, but I'm just I just know it was bananas what I heard. But yet when I got to Baltimore, we had some issues oh, it's just like such a such year. We I was like, what yeah, and I heard and that just lets you know, well, I had a good I had a good time. Let me say this. I had a good time in Baltimore
because I was still in checks. That was really all that investment I wanted the two gaps played first second down, get three or four tackles a game, and then let the young Bucks come in and get all that pass rushing and all that our new system. So I had a great time. I had agreed that I went downtown with Smidia after games and we got at the what it was that the Ritz and we would sit there
at the ball and enjoy ourselves. And not for one minute of that season when I was in Baltimore that I think I need to I need to get I need to come out here and I need to be a great superstar player. Not one time, not one time. I just wanted to do my job and get my check and get the hell out of there. When the season was over, and and and and the Lord be knowing what we need, because they cut me week eight
and submitted the next day. I was back in Dallas at my 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. What did you think about retirement would be? Yeah? And and now you're retired, what has it been? Um? I thought retirement would be I want to just do whatever I want to do all the time, no schedule, I just wanna. I'm I'm fishing, hun, I'm a comfortable I fish. I thought that's what I was gonna be doing, and following
my kids around because I figured they'd be athletes. My wife played in the w n b A, so we knew our kids was gonna be athletes and some some capacity. Um, but but then not realizing, Man, I think a lot of players I went through like I went through like two and a half three weeks of depression. Um, I didn't know how to define it at the time, but my wife was like, I think you need to gonna talk to somebody because but for real, bro, seriously, Like and I thought about it, man, after you know, after
talking to the therapist. I thought about it. From the age of six until I was thirty one, I knew what my year was gonna look like. I knew football season was coming, basketball season, and then when you get to the pros, you know how structured we are. We got our times in the yield, what we decided to do,
what we do, and then when it's gone. And that's what I tell everybody, Bro, they don't throw no parade, they don't throw like there's no there is no exit program that you go through to to get you ready for quote unquote normal civilian life. Um, Jared Jones ain't called me one time to check on me to see
how I'm doing right. So it's it's just it's just one of them things where I went through that phase and then when I what I realized is and retirement holdamn overrated, bro, I gotta have something to do, Like, I gotta have something to do. I gotta have a purpose outside of my main purpose, which is to love my wife, take care of my kids, and let the
Lord lead me where I need to be. Um, but from a work standpoint, doing what I'm doing in television now, I tell people all the time, bro, the reason why I have a great time is because this, this job is still not real to me. Like, I can't believe you can make this much money talking about football like that. I just didn't. I never equated potentially making more in a television career than I did in my football career. I never thought that was like something that was possible.
And then and then the other part, man, is like I like structure as much as I can probably say it all my life. I want to be where I want to be. I don't wanta know about it telling me where I need to go. I do like having
a having a having a calendar. I do like having things that I want to get accomplished, but also having a having a job structure of Look, you're gonna be doing this between September and February, right, and you got combined, and you got um the Super Bowl, and you got the Pro Bowl, and then to all of the experiences that TV has afforded me as well. Smitty, I met you in Charlotte because of television, like I was working at the SEC Network at the time. Um, So it's
it's a lot of that, man. So I've I've enjoyed not only having you know, being able to work at ESPN and you know, ascending and have success in this in this arena, but also like the stuff that what I tell people all the time is the gnomes for
me should be the nomes. I'm never gonna sacrifice time with my wife or my kids when when it doesn't need to be for any job because I don't have to, right, like the Good Lord gave me a long career to care my money and I'm fine, um, But also do value my responsibility to my job and to my co workers who depend on me to do what I do. So that to balance both of those things and still be able to live within those and give the proper amount of time and attention that they need is something
that I enjoy doing. So the retirement thing is overrated to me. Bro and and and honestly, where I'm from, my mom lives with me, has been living with me since I started playing in the league. Um, and she would, she would, she would, she told, you know, told me when I was young. But tell me, like most people died when they were tired. Um, and they don't have a purpose to be living for. So I playing on working, you know, as long as I as long as they
keep making these direct deposits, I'm gonna. I can tell you it's really interesting. Man. Just had a I want to say, epiphany, but I had a a thought. Um. You know, we go to Central up in Charlotte and Loran was it was killing it right, and he was just talking about um community and he's just talking about before the Lord comes and something that's happened with my wife family and they just got some Her parents are getting older. My wife is the youngest of seven, um.
And so you know with her being the youngest of seven, we have a niece. We got nieces and nephews that are like two years younger than us. My wife's sister in law, God arrest her soul is almost is literally like a year the same age as my mother. Right, and my wife's uh Angie, her oldest brother sixty soon to be sixty one, and he's he's still working and grinding, and until I actually connected the dots right, I was just going, Wow, it's been a blessing that at forty three,
sometimes I got to decide on to take off my plate. Yeah, and this, you know, my brother at sixty one is just trying to he just he's just trying to maintain right. And it's just such a different dynamic that in playing football is you know, we we we talked about a lot on the podcast. Geez from North Carolina is from lexing to and there are parts of him that I get jealous of because you grew up here in close proximity,
but I didn't. I never, very rarely, I would never run into anybody that I went to high school with here that I know. I never run into somebody that knows me from back when I was little Steve On. They only know me from football. They don't know me from when I was when I'm still hungry, when I was when I was really really when when I was when my stomach was growling, right when I had stomach pains. And but yet I've been able to. I live here, my my kids, like my my oldest son roommates with
his best friend from high school. He went to Walford, he went to Georgia, and now they're living here and he's complaining and talking about figuring out, you know, the prices of red here in Charlotte sho I buy and just all of those things that I've never had the advantage of experiences and tell them to the interest rates. Right. But but one of the cool things is is football has afforded us the opportunity to look at life at such a different perspective. Yeah, but we still deal with
the same things. Stuff. Are we good enough? How long will it take for them to find out that maybe we are declining, right, or maybe we weren't as sharp as we used to be, or maybe the promotion they gave us they realized the new responsibilities are a little bit more then we can handle. Yeah. Right, And I explained to your point, bro, it's my sister is a police officer, and God bless her. Yeah, man, you know, especially having a having a black female police officer, with
everything that's transpired in this country. And I know every day, bro, she goes to work to try to make a difference positively, right and um, but but you know, obviously, like us, she gets lumped into the negativity of the job as well. And you know, we've we've had a million discussions about you know, She's like she like, you play the game and you made this, and I'm I'm trying to protect the serve and I make this, and I'm like the kids,
like how do you deal with them? And I get so tired of money being the answer for people that like, don't complain, don't have Like it ain't that serious, dude, we go it's the same. It's all relative, uh to to what you go through, what you deal with. My grandmother passed three years ago, really close with her. I ain't think about my bank account one time. Um my mom got say, hey COVID, I ain't think about my
bank my bank account one time. Like real life, bro, don't give her a damn what you got or who you are, what you didn't accomplish or what you've done. So it's just hit home here and you talk about that submitted because a lot of times even in this job, right like you, I'm more quote unquote famous now because I'm visible. I don't have a helmet on, Like I'm
more recognized. People see me, talk to me when I'm out. Um, and you know, I love having real, rich conversations about look, bro is relative, Like, yeah, I get to enjoy some things that most people can't, right, Like I get to travel certain ways, I get to do certain things. But when when, like the crux of life, ultimately we all gotta we're all going through the same name. It's as funny as my kids. My kids are my oldest who's and whatnot? My my seventh year old Boston, who's very
much like me. It's I got four kids, but there's two just like they dad here. And some days that's good. Um. And some days my wife goes, she calls us the triplets, right, and sometimes my seventh year old. But he he'll say like me, he goes, m hmm mm hmm. And he finally said something. He uh I was. I was deposited of the check for one of my businesses, and uh I told him to hold this. I didn't say hold it to look at it, but hold it because I was reaching in the drive through and he looked at it.
He goes, and you've been talking, MYO. We ain't got no money, right. And I realized, probably about a year and a half ago, I realized, even even though I played as long as I played and saved my money. I still operate as if I'm broke. Yes, Lord, ay the worst thing, bro. I my kids, I tell them all the time. And we were talking about being poor earlier, and I still believe that a lot of the values when when we didn't have much are the reason why
I am what I am today. Your parenting, parenting or living out of fear of what you experience as a young bro. You don't want to go back exactly once you reach Once you get to a certain point, right you you don't want to go back to that. You start realizing how eft up it was in certain situations, like the naivete of being young and poor, and you're blessed.
It's kind of blessed a little bit. It's parents operating in this me and that they've been in for so long that it's normal to them, and and that becomes your your normal. And then you reach a certain level and you see different and you're telling me, I gotta go, bro, I gotta go back to Southbound Rouge with a one and a half bedroom house and share it with my sister and and my mama come in sometimes and be like, do y'all want the lights on the water this month, Like,
I don't want to go back to that. I learned some valuable lessons from that that that helps me, to your point, not get to the point where I'm like, man, I'm gonna go splurge and be outlandish, but also like I don't want to go back. I don't go back because I've I've I've experienced things that you know, that that that lets me know that that that is not as enjoyable as I thought it was, but the lessons were those lessons were more valuable than anything I've learned.
Since I attain a level of wealth, the only thing I've that I have for me that's always been a place that I, you know, have money, is I wanted to see the world, Yeah, and taking my family with
me to see it. Like that's one thing that I personally have to be careful of because sometime I'm always like, uh, that's a that that's a sixteen hour flight, and I'm like, okay, right, but she's like that's not realistic, right, And so it's like, because I have so much hunger to see the world because I know that there's so many people who haven't, right, and I also know what I have learned and how my eyes have Like when I started traveling and investing, I found myself this maybe this t M I. I
was using the bathroom in Israel and learned what who Kimberly Clark was. Do you know who Kimberly Clark is the only thing I know? It was a manufacturer like paper products. Yes, I'm from I'm from ath Carolina, exactly right. But I didn't know. So I text at the time I washed my hands after I text my guy app I know. I text my guy was like, Hey, we need to get some Kimberly Clark stock. He's like, where did that come from? Well, I didn't really I connected it. I so I was like, wow, I'm all the way
to Israel and they made stuff here. Wow, And it just blew my mind. It was Nestlee similar to what Marcus was saying, like, Yeah, Kimberly Clark plant was up from where I grew up in in Lexington. So that's that is one though just learned. I don't even know that. Yeah, that's one of the that's one of the big employers.
So you either go to Kimberly Clark, you either go to LFI, or you go to Dixie and if you don't know if you're work in one of those those factories, and if not, then you either on the streets or you're hoping that you're gonna make it out. So but that just kind of ties into we all have our ignorance, right,
the true essence of ignorance lack of knowledge. And some of the things that I've learned about myself discovered about myself have been in those times where I'm sitting either in a different country or somewhere on a trip by myself, asking myself, what did I learn or what don't I know?
And it's and it's been a lot of times. It's a hell of a lot of stuff I don't know that I'm just I'm just mat That's why, go bro, I'm just mature to it because because I I man, I'm fascinated with hearing you say that, because I've just learned, um, how how much, how important it is too, like experience outside of the things that you know. Now we all act like we know what it feels like, right, we could read and I'm I read. I just like as I've gotten old, I've started to read a lot more.
Was not a fan of reading growing up. Um, but that's something from from a maturation that I've I've started to do because I haven't had those experiences of going to a lot of places outside of the US, outside of the normal Jamaica's and Kabo and all of that stuff. Um, but books have opened me up to the knowledge of those places. And now I'm like, man, I need to go see what I just read about. I need to go,
you know, examine what I just read about. Um. I watched this documentary on Netflix called How on the Hall and it's about the historical like the cuisine and the historical um story of of black cooking and chefs in the origination of it. And man, this dude went to Sierra Leone, he went to and and just had those experiences. And I told my wife, I said, but we gotta, we gotta, we gotta do something different. Um. And And unfortunately, Bro,
we're like, we're not like a lavish family. My kids are because they you know, they look at all of that, But we ain't. My one vice as shoes, I'm gonna buying shoes. I love tennis shoes. That's like my one thing that I do. But to your point, man, like I envy will will travel world travel people, and not in a negative way. I just be I'll be like, man, I gotta go there. Tell me why I need to go there? Cut do cut do. Let's getting down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt?
You mean this thing? 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 as much as you're traveling like me, you know, going get the
was it a far? That book? I get that. I actually get that subscription to the house, and then I throw it in my bag and so when I'm on the airplane, I'm just reading, right, I see that, check it off and then just try I love travel books. I got this other book that someone gave me for my birthday long time ago, and it tells you, based on a month where they go, uh and so there's some places in there. I'm like, I don't even know, right, but I love It's not that I love to travel.
To Brack. I talked about traveling a lot on here, it's because I've learned so much about so many different things, and I've had to sit and look at myself and go,
you didn't know that? Why and why submitted to your point, man, I just probably four months ago I finished the auto biography of Malcolm X, and the part in that book to me, like of all the lessons that that that were being taught in that book and listening to Malcolm X's journey and all of that, the trip to Mecca had changed his changed his perception of the entire world right,
And it's not something that's highlighted when we talk about Malcolm. Absolutely, they don't talk about the shift and the shift they exactly that that that was made about his his his his different connection two people of all nationalities and racist
um and and man. When I got to that part, and I thought about all of the things that had transpired leading up to that, with what he went through with the Nation of Islam and for him to for what he preached about white devils and the white man and all of the things that that was attributed to Malcolm X. And one trip changed, one journey and he knew what he was going for, but still to pray with people of different nationality, skin code and realize like
humanity is way bigger than what's going on in America. That's that's exactly two thousand and I think four or five two thousand six. Growing up in l A, someone that that helped raise me was talking about uh l A was primarily uh you know, obviously Latino, and they had bill boards in my town side of the town where it was, you know, it was an English and Spanish, and I remember uh someone saying, if you're in our country, you need to speak our language. And so I found myself.
I went on the MRS trip to uh to Toko Lomi, which is a French colony, and on the way back, I got an opportunity to stop in Paris and our time, I had to go through all these all this stuff anyway, and I went to Nigeria as well, which is an English colony, and so I had to do all this stuff to get my password. Is I never had a passport, didn't any one never thought I'd go anywhere, and and
I remember that. So I was in Paris and you know, just a ninja, I'm you know, what you don't do, Let's go to the mall, to the mall right, I'm all away in Paris, and all I want to do
is go to the mall. So I go. I'm trying to find out how to go to the mall, have no idea how to get around, and so I try to talk to a few people, and you know, you speak friends, you know, and I'm looking at them, and I remember the individual who said that, who I respect to this day said and I replayed that individual's It was my grandpa. My grandpa said, if you're in our country, you need to speak our language. And my grandpa had in my head. My grandpa said, when you're in our country,
need to speak their language. And I was like, I'm in their country and I have no idea how to speak their language. And I felt so ashamed. And then I realized how small we are in America. We're we're a financial powerhouse, but yet there's so many other countries, continents that have been around longer, longer than us. Yeah, And after that, I saw how ignorant I was, how
I thought America was the standard. And ever since then, I've been wanting to see the world because I know I'm in their country and I don't speak their language, and I want to and I want to adapt. I know, I barely, I'm I'm still figuring out this English, Stuy, but I I want to see. And one of the biggest things when I was a kid, you know, growing
up in l A reading and Frank. I want to see and I've been, I've been to Poland, but I want to see in Denmark the museum that they have of her house because of what I just remember, the oppression of what I remember of that as a kid. That's challenged me to see so many parts of the world and to take my family because I'm learning at forty three and thirty five what the world looks like. But my kids have seven, one and seventeen. They know exactly the way the world looks and it's a lot different.
Let me get this, man, because I gotta I tell like my kids man, um speaking of knowledge and people that I talked to um, you know when. And I'm not an excuses guy. I understand that things happen, circumstances happened, that you can't get stuff done. But I tell my kids all the time, man, and hopefully it registers to them as they get then older and listening and talking to you guys, which has been amazing. Bro. I'll tell people all the time. Nelson Della spent two decades in
prison and became president. Why can't you do what you're trying to do right? Like? And that's the example that I use when I'm even in my head about like, Damn, I'm tired, man, I can't like, I just need to I need to take a couple of days off. Bromn Della spent two decades digging rocks and became the president and ended the part time n then the reason why behind it too? Yeah, exactly, and then we know we gotta let you go, man, We know you got your
ready for the NFL. Love man, and make sure you go check out Marcus M. Spears ninety six on Twitter at m speed nine six on Instagram. Brother has been a pleasure. Happens, Hey, tell tell Mina and and Dan. I actually respect him, I really do. And all right, and then tell it till till will it mag when we get the end of for nationals in volleyball with our daughters, don't be walking around because he no long bech good right, tell him that and and then and
and uh smack Ryan upside to head for me. Guys, 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 singor That Is Me is a production of Cut to It, LLC, ball Told 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
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