Odessa Jenkins

depends on where you are geographically. Let's not limit our folks just to the United States. Were trying to do this thing. We gotta get international, international, different zip voice sound internationally in another country that the voiceover do they do a voiceover? You want the truth or you want

the lie? I want the lie? Oh Man. A matter of fact, speaking of lies, UM, I remember like two or three years ago, right after right after you it retired, men, you started taking some some boxing lessons and we were fresh you, we were working, we were working out, and I probably told myself a lot that uh I was, I was in shape, but it was real tough, and it got us into good conditioning and you know, built

up some mass and all that stuff. But one thing I remember us talking about was it's starting to build up that competitive spin. We literally had to stop whole turkey. We really had the shot because you were starting to get back into almost football. So we started working out. That was It was about a year after I was done playing. I retired. I had a full year. I didn't want to work out, and I told him I

didn't want to work out. And because of around January February, late February is always in my career where I would start slowly start working out, and so my body was starting to get you so like, hey, this round. There's times and I started boxing, I felt and you can tell. And in the first time, I, oh, man, I was out of shape. And the second and third time I started, you was over there like and I'm over there, like

let's go. And I started like getting into it, and my body started waking up and my body said this to me, Oh, I know time, this is, I'm familiar with it. I love this time. And I can't even tell my language how I was talking was starting to change. My wife has always telling me, I know when football seasons back up because you start cursing a little bit more, slipping, the slip of the tongue, and I just started to feel my body started. I used to have goose bunks

going in there. I started to feel like looking forward, we're looking forward this ball time. This is this is aging eighty nine time where it started to build that persona of that anger. And even though it's a completely different sport, it didn't matter. My body said I know this time, and I'm ready for this time. And I have been hybrid nating and I am ready. And I started and we had to stop because I was like, man, this isn't good. And I can feel myself kind of

asking what I mean, I could I'm possible. I mean I'm feeling good. I still got the wiggle on the hips, okay. And we had to stop and and it's it's real silly, and somebody would be like, yeah, whatever, it really happened, and I had to and and I didn't realize the sixteen years of what I was training my mind and body to how to respond to there. It literally I was creating seasons within my body. It's just just football season.

We need to get ready for football season sixteen years of mid February, pretty much right after Valentine's Day, I would start working out with my trainer and that's when we started, right after our bowling event for the Foundation, and that's when I started to feel. So it lasted probably about a month or two and I said, man, I gotta stop this because I was really starting to get that itch. But what's crazy is I didn't want

that itch. So would you say, you're just you just mentally have that in YouTube where when you now, I don't. Over time it faded at that point in time. It's more of a mental thing to where you being a professional athlete, you're just I guess ingrained or you're just it's just it's just in you. Well that's where it called, you know, mastering your craft, and so it mastering your craft. It's not just learning how to run a go route, running how to beat beat press coverage or beat or

runner slant. It's all so the psychological part of it. It is the new or holistic meaning everything you know you're pro in the mental yet so playing on the football field, reacting is just sometimes you can just rely on your shoulders down. Mitch means that athleticism my god given talent. And then there's the shoulders above that you have to always sharpen and always have to be uh grinding through and processing. That is all year long that

you're always doing. And I realized that that I had started to start to spark the waste that the shoulders down part, and then the shoulders up was saying, hey, bro, we ain't supposed to be doing this. You know, it's like the little It's like the good guy on the shoulders and the other guy. Yeah, eat that dope nut. It's gonna be so delicious. Smith good, Smithy, Bastmithy, eat that doughnut. Bassman is like, you're gonna earl in boxing tomorrow, right,

And I earled in boxing right, So you know. So that part is good and and good and bad. But yeah, that that that happened. Yeah, I mean and we number one, you left a brother hanging. I ain't gonna forget that because I'm just showing. I show up and I think you text me He's like, Bro, I'm done, and I'm And we had that conversation before that you were thinking about coming back, but I'm thinking you just talking now.

This brother was done, like done, done, stopped like I think I went maybe two or three more weeks and then you were literally done. You had to just shut it down. I literally had to stop. I had to stop working out after not working out completely for a year. Like when I say not working out, I mean not working like this brother really was thinking about coming back.

I started, I thought, I started like when I was pulling up the hair on my forearms and the back of my next started crawling up like it would when they were sitting singing the national and they singing for me when they sung the national anthem. The next time was putting in my mouth piece, putting in my helmet, kick ass time, knocking on the and I was getting that feeling right like, this is not a good feeling. I tried. That was only I had the cold turkey right.

I had to stop. So, ladies and gentlemen, I almost brought Steve Smith out of retirement that close you did, so holds our guest. Today coming up on the cut to a podcast, We've got Odessa Jenkins, the CEO of the Women's National Football Conference, a former NFL coaching intern with the Atlanta Falcons, and she's a two time USA national Women's football champion Odessa Jenkins coming up on cut to a podcast. I'm jittery, I'm excited. It's like game day.

I can't even. I can't even. Don't don't be. Don't get caught at a lot of scrimmage when that quick jam come up on you. Oh no, I'm you're talking to two hundred plus touchdowns in my career. I don't, I don't get jam. What's on you? Yeah? About five hundred folks. Well, Osa, you've done all that, You've done all this, called all these touchdowns right now, you're about to get iced up. It's our second where we have a series of questions. They may or may not have

follow up. It just depends on how we feel and how you answer and how you answer absolutely, and so we'll get it right to us. So smart ahead and give her the first one. This tells me a lot about you, old Dessa, lets me know your character and also can I rocks with you long term? Favorite movie of all time? M hm mm hmm works, gum, we've a lot. Yeah, I'm going Forced Gump And why is because I think it goes through um so much adversity and because of where I come from. I was born

into adversity and and have learned to transition it. I think into fuel. And I think it goes through telling, you know, Bubba's story, because not just forces story is bubba story, is Jenny's story. It's the story of a black man, a white woman who suffered abuse to a black or a white man who was disabled. Like it just goes to the story of a mother and her child. So I just think it goes through a lot of different things that a lot of the world can relate to.

But more than anything, it it's about somebody who refused to stop competing. M hm, well, I love that and WHI. I always like asking someone, if you really want to know someone, ask them what their favorite movie is and why quick story. I had a button in the locker room one time. I cannot say his name because then I would lose all respect that I basically pained him on our podcast, but he said, I said, man, what

it was when Narnia was coming out? Memory Narnia was out and uh, I said, man, what do you think? He said, Man? That lion he was a beast like can go the jungle bro. It's a symbolism of Jesus, but it's basically a symbolism of God and all he took it is man. That line was a beast smooth overs in. I don't ask him for a reference of any movies ever. Again. Manifest himself into things that that so that people can understand it. Right, But this dude

totally missed it. This is a pretty good one, and this is gonna throw you off track, but I love it and I can't wait to hear from me because you sound so well rounded, just the way he gave us an answer FM forced cump. You're heading off to a desert island. Don't worry about why you're heading off. Just roll with me. You're heading off to a desert island. What do you pack? And why are those items essential? I pack a knife, okay, pocket knife for like a switchblade?

Um a pocket knife? I pack? I pack a pocket knife. Are you dead? Keep going? I pack uh a pot? Um so something that allows me to collect water. I'm a show that I'm like skinning an all clad pot, like a good a good Williams Sonoma. You know, I'm not as rich as Hue, So that was a privilege, and that was a privilege desert Like, Hey, they're good. Pause bro listen, no stick. You ain't got no margarine out there saying everybody's non sticking. I'm rocking with your dads.

I thought the same thing, listen, you know, but yeah, some gotta buy something the whole water in and then something to start fire with, and definitely some good reading materials. So I'm it's it's crazy because I'm e collected with that. So I either go with a Bible or a sports illustrated. I'm struggling. I don't know if I want to, like depends on the day. Yeah, so yeah, but definitely something to read. But that's what I would going with. So it's just a duffel bag or carry on, Um, it

is a Duffel bag. Good, okay, all right, we go with that one last one guilty pleasure? What's your guilty pleasure? No one knows that you you know you enjoyed partaking on as far as food that you know. It's a Friday night. Ain't nobody looking. You had a great week, you you you didn't have any cheap days, and you're just sitting there. You're going You're going there, You're gonna refrigerate or the close at the snack bag you like I need one of these honey bun. You know. So

I grew up in watts Is how central. We used to go to the corner store and they had penny candy. Now, might be aging myself. Yeah, you get the candy ladies. Her name is Ethel. He's my mom's best friend. It's it's always a relative to Yeah. So you go there and you get your candy, but the honey bun and thrown it in the microwave for ten seconds. Your microwave was it a dial where you turn it clockwise or to the numbers, like you know you had just got not it ain't just got just got not um maybe

back in the day. But I got a really nice microwave now and I and I eat it with a fork to make it seem like I'm feeling I'm made it in like you now, I'm privileged plastic Oh no silverware from William and said, no, look at you. You're gonna make fun to me. Let's get into it. Where are you from and what is the place you call your hometown? Yeah, I'm from South central Los Angeles, so California. So I grew up mostly on ninety nine in San Pedro. We spent most of our time there, but we moved

around a lot. I lived everywhere around San Pedro. Basically we've lived in every I lived in every South Central housing apartment, so I lived in Nickinson Gardens, all of them, the Pj's, um, you know, so Perro Courts, the Jordan Downs. Um. We spent a lot of time. So I spent a lot of time all over the city. Um. But yeah, south Central l As is my hometown. What did you experience uh growing up in South Central I you know,

everybody sees it differently. I had a great childhood. Um. Like I said, a lot of adversity, but a lot of people who who loved me. Room where I am today. I think that my parents saw something special to me. My dad was a contractor, so he did construction work. Didn't graduate, you know, elementary school. I don't think. I think he went to the fourth grade. My mom um was a hustle like. He always worked two and three jobs, and my my mom and dad were always into something, uh,

trying to bring home money. I come from a big family and so we had a lot of loss, a lot of tragedy. So my grandmother has ten children, eight girls and two boys. My sister has ten children um eight girls, eight boys and two girls. My mother has four, So we have a couple of hundred. We got a lot of people in my family. It's a gigantic grandmother had On my mom's side, my mom is one of thirteen. Oh and each one of them has had so me between my my mom, myself, and my children is sixty

five of us. Goodness gracious. And my mom was the oldest of ten. My mom was the oldest of ten and she had four in our own and uh, like I said, so growing up, I saw I lost my my my oldest brother was murdered in um to gang violence, and so that was that was really tough. I recently lost a nephew too, similar, So I saw a lot of loss, but saw a lot of a lot of gang My family has done a really great job. Now we got kids graduating college, going on and traveling the world,

starting companies. On the phone with senior, I don't know, life is life is good. How did those things that you experience growing up, how did they shape you and more importantly impact your your view on the world today. Yeah, I think that going through so first, having a big family as you need. You come from a big family, so you know, um, you learn really fast, especially as one of the younger kids, to kind of suck it up.

You know, when you fall down off of something, there ain't marry nobody they're saying, oh, you know, let's go all get It's like, hey, you need to get up so we can keep this thing moving. Um. So I think growing up and being one of the younger members of the family, the youngest of my immediate family, I learned really early that, um, you shouldn't be looking for anybody to pick you up. UM. You you got to do your part. You have to pull your weight, um.

And that that has helped me. I think through everything that I've seen as an adult. You know, I'm in women's tackle football, and so it's a market where a lot of people say, there's no money, there's no interest. You know, women shouldn't be playing this game. This game

doesn't belong to women in that way. And I think that the skin that I've developed to be able to walk in the rooms and have conversations with people who might not see a woman in that way because of some of the ways that my family groomed me, um to to not look for anybody to pick me up. Um. I think I come from a very loving family as well. I got a lot of love to give every I've never met a stranger. Everybody I meet is a part of my family until you prove otherwise. Um. And then

we were also ballers, we were achievers. Um as the only girl running around with a bunch of cousins and brothers, Um I had the ball or sit out. There wasn't any Hey, We're gonna let her play because she's the only girl and she's a smart though. You either tope the rock or you keep playing with us. You can either shoot the ball or be the PG, or you

can't follow us. So I think also growing up with a group of guys and my cousins and my brothers who made me reach their standard, help me be a really good athlete as well, pull your own way and suck it up does not sound very encouraging. However, that that encouraged you, and it gave you your sense and your purpose. But some people don't see that as characters. Some people see that is knocking down and not being encouraging.

And so that's why I'm asking to just let's hover then that because I don't be especially being a dad, right. And my and my wife is from an area she's from Utah, She's from an area where, um, she believes in sometimes debating with our children, and I believe in dictatorship with our children. And so that is a healthy balance because there are times where if I didn't miss

the tour out of muck some things up. But then there's times where she's like, dang baby, all right, we probably should have just told him, yeah, And so that's why I'm just kind of like, I'm I'm sitting in there because I mean, you said something that's that I I just want to sit on. Like, how was that encouraging for you when you were told either pull your weight or sitting on the bench, And sitting on the bench means you ain't playing right, You're not you're not

in it's not your time, I think. So I think it was pretty simple for my parents in the village around me, because there's there was all. There's also this concept in my family, and this still exists today. So some things are old school and some things are just

about the tradition and values of your family. One of the traditions and values of my family is that we have a village, right so I you know, Um, even today as a grown adult, if I walk in the room with my aunts, I'm speaking, I'm yes, ma'am, I'm no, ma'am. I don't curse in front of him. If I do it a slip up and I'm looking full back hand or something crazy like that. But it's just that's just

the way we're raised. So I think something some things about culture that you want to keep perpetuating, and then other things. You're right, like the world has changed for children. They have information at the at the palm of their hands that we would never think about. When I wanted to learn the possibilities of the world for the first half of my life, I had to go pick up a dictionary or I had to go ask an a dough So I just think that the possibilities of the children.

So yeah, you have to evolve in your parenting, but there are still traditions that you have to keep. So I go back to this. It was pretty simple for my mom and dad. Um. I think that they believe that you rear children, um in the ways that you want them to be, not in the way that you are, and the ways that they wanted us to be as they wanted they want, especially um as a black woman growing up in the in America. My parents grew up in the gym pro South, so they taught me based

on their perspective. Right. We live in the city in l A, but that was their perspective. So the things they never wanted me to do is to not have to They never wanted me to beg They never wanted me to have to rely on some one for when my next dollar or where my next meal was gonna come from. So I had to build. They had to help me build up callasis right in my mind, and had to help me go through experiences and learn the hard way. So when the world brought me a challenge,

if I didn't win, I didn't back down. So I think they were just trying to teach me. And that's what I learned, at least that's what I gained from it. So that, um, you know, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, figure it out on your own, learn how to take a loss, um, so that you learn how to win. Um. And I think they taught us through a bunch of ways. Um. Someone was it through study, someone was it through learning? Habits and other was through learn through stories that they

told us. So I think that that worked for my family and continues to work for my family in a lot of ways because it's tradition. But I wouldn't say that you are raising children the same way you did thirty years ago that you do today. Let's take a little break and come back to you about two or three minutes. Yeah. 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? And that's at cut to It on Instagram?

What about Twitter? At? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith se what about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merchant and you can subscribe to us 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. Playing football with the boys in the league, growing up in middle school, where your coach told you that you had to quit because there was no place for you to play in high school. Now the word I highlighted and I've just been sitting on for the last couple of days, prepping for this is no place. And as a dad of one daughter and then I was as a father of four and two three boys, I cannot imagine someone else telling my children that you

you don't have a place here. M what was going when you heard that? How did that sit with you? And and now hearing that so many years later, walk us through that. Yeah, it's still a chip on my shoulder that I carried today. Um. And and unfortunately it's it's a it's a story that a lot of girls and women are still being told by their coaches, fathers, brothers, sisters, moms. Um. But for me, sports was the one is I shouldn't

say was. But at that time in my life, UM, you know, I was about thirteen, I lost my brother a couple of years before. My family had been through a lot. My parents were on the voyage, on the verge of the divorce. Um. Sports was my refuge. Football was the place that I was going to on a consistent basis, UM to be outside of my mind and

inside of my heart. And I was on fire for it. Um. It was my safe space at the time, and that that family that I had with the boys who were on my team was so important to me, and my coaches were so important to me. So for my coach, who I trusted, who I believed, who told me I was exceptional. You know, I was a running back, so he he it broke my heart. I don't know how else to put it. To have him come to me and say, hey, you're great. You you you you, you

know the boys are getting bigger. Um, there is no option for you. And if you want to be a serious athlete, which he knew I wanted to be, he limited my options and he said, here are your options. And it was one of the few times in life where I let somebody else give me the options. Um, because I couldn't see past the people who influenced me. And I think that's a huge lesson, particularly for women, because the world guide so much of who we are and how we're supposed to be in dress, and who

we love and all those things. And so I think that it was heartbreaking. So I went on and I carried a fire probably into basketball. Um. I carried a little bit of anger in the way I played ball. If you watch me play, UM, I played a lot like a dB out there or running back out there going to the hoop, like I had all of that same fire that I carried from from middle school to high school and to college playing basketball. And so in

that moment, I felt heartbreak. UM. I felt like the world was telling me what my possibilities were as a woman and I and I like it. I really I really didn't like it. I will say that frankly, that coach was just making the right decision for me. Right. I wanted to go to college. I wanted college to be paid for UM, and so focusing on basketball helped me get that. For me, it was the right path.

But at the time, UM, I think that the way I think now is if you have somebody who you think is exceptional, maybe I wouldn't have been able to play running back at the varsity level. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to um even playing high school. Who knows, But I think totally eliminating that that was a possibility for me period, for somebody I trusted meant that I

shouldn't even try. And that that's where I think the miss was, like, you don't even try to do this because the path doesn't exist just because you come to a forking roads that's telling you to go left or go right? Well, how soft is the is the dirt in the middle, or to continue to go straight right? Like how is this brick in front of me? Or what? Uh? So I think that that and and you know, the

world happens exactly the way it's supposed to. But I think if you want to be a creator, if you want to advance something, then sometimes you gotta go against the grain. And I think we should do more encouraging, particularly our girls, um to make pass for themselves. And you know, for me, I use it as a chip. And now I got this league that I'm developing and creating opportunities for other women. So it worked out, But I would have loved for somebody to challenge me, to

challenge the system at that time. What would you tell yourself back then to maybe stand up to those coaches or just kind of say hey, I want to place or to create that space for you. If I could have went back and done that again, would have winning tried out for our freshman football team at bell Flower High School? Oh hold on, hole, you could have played exactly Bell Flowers still Google right now, let's give the world a context, compare them to Cincinnati Bengals. Oh, doctor

was like that, don't do the buccanmunes like that. We weren't that bad. We weren't. We weren't Arizona Cardinals bad. We were before fits. I mean, which Arizona car are you're talking about when they was in Arizona or I'm just trying to figure out when you say bell Flower, Yeah, I just I'm like, I just debunked our wholes story right there. Team bell Flowers stank. I put it like this, When bell Flower has a good team, they got a good team, it's a shocker when they don't bell Flower.

This is how bad bell Flowers. You either play at night or during the day. If you cannot play at night is because gang affiliated or your team is awful. But most of the time, even at night, when it's a big game and it's game affiliated, they just have a ton of police. I don't think bell Flower had a night game. Bell Flower is an offsite teak game for a big school. How about that. Just keep talking about my team, my school, and my in my line though you you I detect no lies, you are not.

And I felt like, um, like I could have I could have played in Actually you could have. No, they're gonna three years later playing a UM playing at will in high school, which was in the same division. So she she was alignment and so it was a little different for her. But I definitely could have got could have got a couple of years in on jav for sure. How was your support system through all of this? What did they ingrain in you? What? How did they hold

your hand? And what were those dialogues like, yeah, you know, nothing was more important than going to college to my mom, like she going and getting a college education. She knew, she had the foresight that sports was going to equal in education. Education was going to equal a good job, seeing more of the world, and then the possibilities were endless. So for my mom, she was she was all about listening. You know, you're a great athlete, you're a great ballplayer,

focused on that. So she wanted me to focus on back. I think she actually liked seeing me play basketball too, so that was her preference. Um, So when I got home, there were no um, you know, cry on my shoulder. It's just like I told her before, there was really no cry on my shoulder. It was either hey, are you gonna listen to them and not play football, or are you gonna focus on basketball. Whichever one you're going

to do, you need to go be exceptional at it. Um. I had a lot of love for basketball, so I saw um. You know, at the time, I had friends who were going off to college who were older than me, and so I really saw that path and focused on that path. And then I had a cousin. His name is Lonnie, and he was on his way um to college. He played It's crazy. He played volleyball at Lock. This dude got a volleyball scholarship. This is yeah, at Lock High School. He got alleyball. My mom and dad, Yeah,

so he got a volleyball scholarship. And he was like, oh, j look, I don't care what these people are saying. You can ball. You go focus on basketball. And that dude end up coming to like every one of my games all through high school, all through when you were playing basketball. Now, where is your heart? I know you possibly like our You're over there peeking over at football practice, like going, man, that could be me. I dug one in the basketball one. I jumped when I decided that

that was the focus. I jumped on and I completely focused on getting a Division one basketball scholarship. That was the goal, and I didn't look back until I signed my letter of intent. The first thing I did on my visit was go to the football It was so weird, um um, on my visit to the college and they were showing me all this stuff, the locker room and everything, and I just was obsessed and it was It retriggered

my love um for for football. Um. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I would have went to a big old powerhouse as He's football school, I probably would have not been able to focus at all basketball. Um. But that's what changed for me. And so I think I played, you know, my seasons of basketball. But I immediately met this guy named David Kellogg. He was an entrepreneur and he played dB. He was a dB uh

for the football team. In a couple of years into my college career, he was like, Oh, Jay, I'm gonna start I'm gonna start a women's football league. Oh. He started telling me that. He was like people, right, He's like, He's like, I'm telling you, when you've done with basketball, I'm gonna start this league. It's gonna be hot. Girls are gonna play. It's gonna be eight on age. You're gone.

He whispering, breath stink, no team, whispering sweet nothing. And she over there, she taking it all in too giddy. I was kitty so to dream. Oh he's so hard dreaming. Hey, I got this bridge. Now it's over. They call it over at the pond. Don't worry about that. It's not over at the pond. I got the I got the title to it. Man, it ain't in my pocket. I got the time to give me a hundred dollars and it's yours. She was like, do you accept everything in my pocket right now? Can I lay away? Do you

take bikes? I gotta bike. So so David Kelaw comes in and tells you about this women's football team that he that he wants to start. So what's your what's your reaction? Does that start to spur up your It sounds like it starts to spur up that level of football again. And how did you transition into that? It was wild because yes, so David, and David was actually the best friend of my college boyfriend, right so um, And now that y'all made me think about this, every

guy every dated back in the day. Um, we're all football players. So there was something I was trying. I was trying to stay close to the game and every way I couldn't. Um, you can kiss, but I just want your cliques. Poor guys like they they really didn't they really they had no chance, but um, but they can ballow. Like heading into my senior year, he completely tore up my focus at basketball because he stood up this,

he went and did it. It was just eight on eight women's football, tackle football, and he had all the little teams around all of the little cities. It was like six teams and it was all of these athletes, girls from the soccer team, from the intramural teams, and David mess around and put me at running back at one of the on one of these teams, and I was, I was, I could not there wasn't. I was so

overloaded with um, happiness and fulfillment. UM the idea because it was the first time I played football with women, and I never thought of the concept like, yo, I don't have to play against boys. I can actually play with girls, which was always my preference, like play against other women. And so um, we ended up doing that for a couple of years, and once I got a

taste of that, I never looked back. We hear people say, man, we want equal opportunity, we want this, we want that, But what does really equal opportunity from Odess's perspective really mean. I don't have a dream of women playing in the NFL. I have a dream of the w NFC UM standing alone, UM having an opportunity to bring in sponsorship dollars, build a strong revenue stream, UM work with universities and colleges and the men UM to build a pipeline for girls

to play football against other girls. So if me equity looks like developing a professional women's tackle football league UM that has it's uh support from professional men's football, but that we will wake up and no girl will ever be told that her time in football is over because no opportunity exists for her. And see that is an answer that I love. You want other women to have that opportunity, that not to hear what you heard, which

is you have no place. Because this world is big enough with the right leadership in every area, right and we're just talking about football. With the right leadership, there's enough football fields to go around, there's enough footballs to go around and there's enough cliques and listen, it sounds like there's enough bodies that want to get punished, like the game of football is right, and who are willing

to put themselves through it. Yea. And also to just personally, you know, I know you guys are looking and with with with the pandemic and all all of that stuff. I think it'll be good as Steve Smith uh senior Um comes along. We you know, whatever stuff you guys have havn't going on, email us and we'll give you a thousand dollars um. And then my foundation will also do a thousand dollars just just to say, you know.

And and the reason I say all of that is I can't fix all of the issues, but if if you get enough of enough people that's right behind y'all, that that's where it counts. And so that you know, So just hearing your answering and why really encourage me. And I loved it because it wasn't a it wasn't an extravagant you ask or thought. It was a thought through. It was a kiss for me. I believe in that there's things that will happen and will exist that I can't see, UM, but I've been in I've been at

this for a decade. This ain't new, right, Like I I'm working my ass off to build this. I'm not asking for anybody to give me or hand me anything. I've been working at it for a decade. So it's not like, um, this is happening overnight, or I see what's been built over a hundred years and think that I can build it into what what I'm asking for is that to your point, there are people like you. There.

There are brands out there, you know, shout out to Adidas and Rebel Sports who have already jumped on board with us, But there are people, um that could literally change the trajectory of the opportunity that women have in women's sports. And I think just takes um some unity, uh and some support, you know. I think that there's

billions and billions of dollars. Like I was on one of I don't know if you have all the sides, but there's one of the things that my presentation that I always present that says that five hundred million dollars has been invested over the last seven years in the failed professional men's football leagues. Five million dollars. Ain't lying, girl, And what I what I would do with one percent of that would blow somebody's mind. I think it's about

that time, just so I'll take a little breathing. Good, it's get 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 you talked about. This has been your

job for a decade. What is your job? So today I am the chief executive officer of the Women's National Football and we are the premier women's tape of football league in the country. And we have twenty teams across the nations. Where where are these teams? So we're from Washington, d C. To Washington State, so Seattle, Denver. We got two in California in San Diego and Los Angeles. Were in Las Vegas. We're in Denver. We're in Nebraska. We're in Phoenix, Arizona. We got two in Texas, in both

Dallas and in Houston. We're in Atlanta, We're in Mississippi. We're in North Carolina. We gotta seem mis Charlotte. And we got a team in North Florida as well, um and uh and a team in Mississippi, Mississippi and Alabama. We got we're all in the South. I always educate people women of and playing tackle football since nineteen thirty. Yes, yes, and there are several leagues there are about women women playing football in the US today. Crazy enough, the w

NFC is only a year old. And the reason that I created the league, Right, I played in I played over a twelve year period. Um, I played in different leagues, amateur leagues. Hold on, so you played over You had a twelve year career playing women's football, various leagues. Yes, okay, take us through. I want to sit in that because I want to hear what you have experienced as a woman that's playing let's be honest, semi professional um football.

So I'm glad we're having this conversation because I think a lot of people are afraid to talk what it's real. I think if for me, the way I envisioned it, it it is that if I want to create things and put really if I want help, if I want support, if I want sponsors, I gotta keep it real like these aren't. There's no smoking mirrors. I actually believe in

the product of women's tackle football. I believe that if you put the best athletes on the field with the best products, you're going to get the best women's professional sport you've ever seen. No no knock on the w n b A or soccer or anything. But when you get the top athletes playing football, there ain't nothing like it. To your point, um, you know, talking to you about my experience. I started playing in Dallas at the time for what was the best team in the country and

ended up winning a national championship with that team. It was rough. It was hundred dollars I think eighteen hundred dollars we had to I had to come up with as a player. Um, to play, I had to pay for travel helmet. When was this because don't go very well when you just said travel and helmet. This was a helmet about two two hundred dollars. And then you got a flight, so you pay for your own travel. And then our team paid the league to be in the league. Oh so you had to pay the play, Yeah,

so the team had to pay the league. We had to pay. So that's what the team was. It was like, dude, so you paid your eighteen hundred dollars and that helped the team to be able to basically say, hey, our team is locked in loaded, correct, so you have to have so many players, uh to pay that eighteen hundred dollars to help facilitate and rent I'm assuming rent um facilities or even so, when you pay for your own travel, was it a team bus or y'all? Just your car

proved it. It just depended on where we were going. Right, we had to go to Houston, it was a car pool. If we had to go to a couple of states over, it was a bus. But I'm not talking nice bus. I'm talking wasn't a good bus at all. Um. We'd be lucky if we had air conditioning at the time. Um. And so it was rough. It was rough, And that, frankly was my experience in women's tackle football for the first uh five or six years of my career. And I was being told that that was the best of

the best. I feel good like everybody seemed to be super comfortable with that being the existence for women and in twenty seventeen, Um, I was winning my I think it was like my fourth national championship. I'd actually got awarded the bill um Wash Diversity Internship and was going off to train a camp with the Atlanta Falcons. We had just come back from the US because we gotta say football. We had just won another gold medal over

in UM in Canada. And I'm sitting down at training camp in Atlanta and I'm seeing all this stuff that these men have available to I mean, like grapes, shade all around, shade all around. Headed to the locker room they you know, oh you know what I want to I want a new hoodie. Let me just walk into their free Rte Freeman and I got really close free walking into the locker rooms like oh what, I want some more tights, to get fresh pair of tights and Cleaton,

Oh let me try different pair of gloves today. It was just m discussed that she was hot. I was. It was unreal. And the coaches right sitting in nice offices and I've been coaching, and you know, I only want to It was just it was it was mind blowing, um what was available and how well the operation ran, and and um some of the mechanisms for making money and all these things, and I was soaking it up and frankly and my decision in my brain, I was making a decision that I wanted to coach at the

highest level. But at that point I made a decision that I'm gonna be a champion to bring this kind of experience to women and girls, saying, let's build this thing as a business. First. The game is great, but if it doesn't stand on the right feet and convince people like you to get involved in it, then no, it won't advanced to where I wanted to go. I

want more. I don't want more, I'm creating more. This last segment we have coming up is what we call a deep three, and really it allows us to take a deeper dive, ask some some deeper questions, to go beyond who you are underneath your helmet, you know, underneath your shoulder pads. So for me to go ahead and ask the first question, you've seen always be true to yourself. Was there ever a time you were not true to yourself? If so, why when I didn't pursue football in high school?

I think that I allowed the world to define the possibilities for me, and that is just not who I am. And it was a huge lesson learned from me that I haven't had to learn that lesson anymore. UM. I'm gonna live in my principle and I'm gonna die in my principle. And whether it's right or wrong, or gets me what I want or doesn't, UH, it's the way I'm going to live. What's the biggest change you hope occurs for women football players and athletes in your lifetime.

I hope to see that women have tackle football, fully clothed, fully sponsored um as a full time profession, paid profession in my lifetime. I hope to see a clear pipeline for girls into the w NFC and professional football in my lifetime. And I hope to see one support of the NFL of women playing tackle football against women uh. In my lifetime. I love food. I love the cook My grandmother taught me how to cook and and so

food is really a big deal for me. It's the way I connect um where I have a lot of moments with myself. I love fresh ingredients, you know, taking taking time off of the stem, right, chopping bazel, all that stuff to the point of where I wanted to name my daughter whose name Bailey basil Um, but they said you go, hey, hey stuff, A good one works, is okay? Um? So if you were a dish on tree, what would you add or take away? Oh that is a good one. Oh I know, girl on the back again,

if you're swaying right now. Um. If I weren't on tree, I would add more sauce because I don't think you can have too much sauce. Um. And I would take away spice. Okay, what kind of spice though? Is it like garlic? I think? Um, I'll say like hotsp it's like a like a tabasco or I don't cook, so I'm like after um the food hot um like um no, So what you know, Kayenne Kayane. Here's the hook line of secre So what dish would you be there? I'll be macaroni and cheese. I'm complex. It's it's harder to

put together than it looks. Oh girl, yeah, I'm my mom was I'm Lola Jenkins who cooked this? Yeah, but I think that that's what I would be. I mean I think, um, like that could be too much cheese, right. So sometimes you gotta be careful and just keep it simple, and that's where I take some away. Sometimes I want to put all the cheeses in, not just the cheddar. I want to do it all. And so I think if I had to take something away, it would be in this case, your sauce would be your cheese, but

I'd be mac and cheese. I think it's more complex to making it looks, but it's easily consumable. Um it's friendly. It's a feel good food, and I think it makes you think of the possibilities of the South and family and every single kind of people love it. They have their own different way of making it, but everybody loves it. Yeah.

I just want to take the time and thank you for one hearing your story you be transparent and telling us all the things, and then also how we can help and and what what kind of support and what you really need and one we need We need to have a person with a sound voice and a sound mind, and and you have that, and you have the ability to take this where you want to go. But your your story speaks for yourself, and so thank you for

taking that time, Thank you for spending with us. This is obviously been my favorite UH interview that I've ever done so far, and I've been lucky enough to be blessed enough to do a lot of them in my life.

But this has been special to me as an l A guy and frankly is a future Hall of Famer speaking um, but no, I think that it's uh, this means a lot to me, and I think it's a great step in the way towards merging women's tackle football with professional means football and and your support means more to the sport. And I'm I'm representing all the women who have played this game for so long and saying w NFC football dot Com on and w NFC at

at all of the socials. And I really appreciate you guys for heavy having me and allowing me to tell the story of women's tackle football. Yeah, that's what sports

is about. We've had Odessa on here, now, We've had Frank Kaminski on here, and just having those guys and gals and athletes talk about what sports has allowed them to remove themselves from, not removing themselves from reality, but just kind of quiet, quieting all of the outside noise and focusing and on focusing on something and allowing them to be themselves, to live life to the fullest, but not escape life, because a lot of times when things

are going on, people say, I wish I could just escape, just having a moment to pause and to be able to not deal with those things at the moment, deal with them at the appropriate time, but just not on the on that sports field. And I really like that about her. I really love what she's doing. She has such a powerful story, ton of energy. Just all of the things that she has brought to the table and what she's trying to do moving forward, and it's pretty

unique and it's different. Um, she's trying to bring football to women, but not play sports men against women, But she's saying that they want women to have the same opportunity to display their athletic talent on a stage that one is respected two has the same equal sponsorship and equality of equal and efficient equipment, up the standard, up the snuff, having a nice uniforms that every other men's sport has, having a having a support system to the

training staff, the travel expenses of a real athletic sport. Listening to her is something that was really interesting is she was a professional woman playing sports on the side, but yet they were high school teams that had more and better support and equipment than these grown women who some of them are career someone gonna stay at home mom, some of them are are CEOs, and yet they're getting hand me downs. I don't think that that's about gender.

I just think that's just about lack of And I just think that she's taking a step instead of complaining, she said, I want to do something about it, creating a path. That was the biggest thing I took from that is that she's creating a path. And whether she didn't have a path to where she wanted to get to when she was younger and and playing football, but now creating a path to everything you just said, giving women access and giving women a space, um, whether they're

in high school, whether they're in college. Beyond that, giving women a path to where they want to go. And so I could have we could have talked to Oh that's a force another hour or two hours, just so much energy, so much UM. I'm just impressed. He's one of my favorite distant cousins, real cousins. Here's one thing though, that I think we need to walk away from. That's very important. There's somebody's probably gonna listen to this or is listening to us say why do women need to

have the same opportunity as men to play sports? I was thinking about this longer hard when she was talking, because when she when I gave her a question, she answered it in a way that was so profound. It wasn't about men or women. Is this you know? I use a lot of food analogies. Does it just because we don't like or we disagree with that restaurant? Does that mean the standard of the way the restaurants should be held to health code should change because you don't

agree with that type of food. You may not agree with women playing tackle football, but does that mean they have to have less opportunity, unsafe equipment and be literally car pool and other teams because you don't think they should be playing tag on football. I don't think that's fair. I think if we have the same energy to put a a dog show on there and and have blue ribbons, I think we can muster up a few bucks to help these women pursue opportunities pursue a football career if

they wanted, let them do it. But I see every year they have the some dog shows the Westminster and I see people parading these dogs around, and some of these dogs are more taken care of than some of these some of the kids in in in the world. So I just I just I just kind of came my mind, like, what if we started if we don't like something, we started neglecting. Well, I don't like this kid, so I'm not I got four kids, but I don't like one of them, so I'm just not gonna feed

this one. This world would be upside down if we just started helping people based on our personal opinion of the action that they're trying to do. And we need to get over ourselves and just start supporting each other. That's just one thing that I took away from it,

and it really opened my eyes. And you know, I think, I think it would be really cool to see some of these women who want and who desired the opportunity in place to play tackle football and other ones play tackle football, and let's see how good they can be.

Because I bet you, I bet anything, there's some women out there because doing doing football camps, some of the best athletes as a young some of the youngsters that I have, some of the best listeners, some of the best technicians, some of the best players in some of my camps when I was doing it, or girls, they were easier to coach because some of the boys knew everything. Boys six one, ten years old, six one and his daddy played tight end. He wants to play tight end. Boy.

You got an old lineman body, right, and that just so it's just really cool. So that that's that's one of the things. So I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to reach out, you like to support financially or business inquiries about them more. Some ladies y'all here listening. You want to try out, go ahead and do it. W in f C Football dot Com. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. 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, Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. From Cut to It, executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John, talent and booking manager Joe fe She social media manager Peyton Smith from balto Creative Media.

Cut Too It is produced by Brian Falta Chevitch and Meredith Carter with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, production manager Sarah Pollock, Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all