On The Air

all coming up. On the cut to It podcast. We've got Colleen Wolf, a host for NFL Network who works Thursday Night Football, a number of NFL Network shows, A native of Philly, and just all around friend of the podcast. Colleen Wolf, wonna cut to the podcast. What did you daydream about when you're in high schoo Well, when I was in high school, I was a figure skater, so I got it out of I knew I could get it. That was it like to talk about? I was more

of No. Yeah, I started skating when I was like six years old, and I loved it and I got really good at it, and so I was I skated before school. Like I would get up at four am and go to the rink and turn the lights on. And like it was great because if you were the first one at the rink, then you could choose the music. And that meant like TLC was on, can you imagine

this little skinny little girl. I skate into T Speial Special and four Mr Philly and like, mind you, I like cut all my hair off too, so it's like short pixie cut. And my coaches were like, you are way too much of a tomboy. So they sent me to ballet classes because they were like, you need to

learn how to be graceful. But they were like, you have the athleticism, you can lend these jumps like you have all like the power, because I was like all I was all legs when I was skating, like I was all I want to do was skate faster than everybody, jump high or spin better, just like I mean, I was fueled by anybody else that was on the ice. I was gonna outscape them. And then my coaches were like, yeah,

all that's great, but you're like presentation sucks. So they were like, here's a bunch of dresses, and of course, like that triggered me because I was like, why don't have to wear dresses? And they sent me to a ballet teacher. Um, and I had to take about all these like serious ballet classes for years, and you know it ended up. I guess I got more graceful, who knows. But when I was in high school, that's all, that's

all I thought about. Like I would skate before school, after school competitions, Like I didn't take gym class because I got credits for going ice skating. Yeah, it was I was really in it. Did you enjoy any other sports? I ran track for a little bit, um my freshman year of high school, but then it was it was kind of in conflict with skating, and my parents were spending a lot of money. I had a choreographer at one point. Like it was so I mean, it's ridiculous

when you look back on it. But like the price of skates, you have to get them custom made, you have to buy the boot and the blades separately. You have to take them to special places to get sharpened. I mean, it is a lot. And my parents would take me at four o'clock in the morning and sit at the rink in the freezing cold and just watch me skate around. So all right, let's let's get over that part. Less week. That's too much. I know, I know, I was very intense. Anything that I do, I just

lock in. Let's let's talk about your TV career because a lot of people like I get the opportunity to work. I wouna say. I don't know if everyone knows that you guys are co workers on any Yeah. Yeah, so we're This is Colleen Wolf. She's the host NFL Networks Rising Star. She can host anything she and she loves sports. She knows about sports. But you didn't always have the confidence that you appear that you have the confidence now

and see I use that keyword appear. She does a lot of eternal dialogue that we're gonna get into later. But um, how did you get your shot? Didn't broadcasting? And when I say broadcasting, I'm not talking about TV, I'm just talking about in the business and the business of broadcasting. Well, this was like something that I had no idea I even wanted to do. This was not like, oh my god, I want to grow up and be on TV like that was not really uh the thing

like I was going to go to art school. You're gonna go to art I was gonna say, what what was it? Then? Yeah, I was like, so I was into figure skating and art. I was really cool, and she wears contacts, so I'm pretty sure she had no I'm just I'm just saying she She says she was really cool art and ice skating, so I'm like, you know, she and she's super smart, so I'm just going out there. She made she makes being intelligent cool. Well, thank you,

like listen nerds around the world. So I loved art and I was like, okay, I applied to all art schools. I was going to go to school for either illustration, graphic design or art education, and then, like last minute, I decided to go to Drexel in Philly, and I hadn't applied to their art school directly, so they were like, okay, you can't. You can't take any art classes this year. Just do something, you know as, take all of your electives this year, reapply, and then you can start your

art program next year. So they were like, just take something like communications. So I was like okay, great, and I was like this is really easy and kind of fun. At Drexel, you have to you go to school for six months and then you work for six months, and you do that three times. So you get to have three internships, like three co ops. And so when it came time for me to do my first one, because I stuck with communications, I was like, this is pretty great.

I'll just do some art stuff on the side. So it came time to do my first uh co op and through Drexel, all they really offered were really lame ones like you know, working in pharmaceutical eight like marketing spots and maybe you can get a job at like QBC or you know, home shopping network. And I was like,

all right, I don't really want to do that. But my dad, um it doesn't really follow sports, has never really been a big sports fan, but he was friends with one of the women that was on a sports talk radio show and Philly radio on the in the morning, and so I got an internship. They're just randomly and it was like, I don't that sounds like a fun thing to do when you're in college, work at a

radio station. So I went and I walked in and my first day I saw these four people that were on the morning show and their chemistry that they had together. They were having so much fun. They were talking about sports. They were like ripping on each other and it was such a great atmosphere here, and I was like, this is exactly what I want to do. How do I do this? What? What do I what? Is of course

exactly we're getting. Yeah, how it started, How it's going exactly Like you had a meme and you didn't even know it. So it sounds like you fell in love with maybe the atmosphere, but you you largely it sounds like you didn't have the most interest in team sports. It was you fell in love with that atmosphere being

at that sports station. I loved the atmosphere and I was competitive, but I hadn't like unlocked that yet in terms of like other team sports, Like I played softball growing up, and like I said, I tried to run track for a little bit, but that's not like a

team sport. And it wasn't until when I was in high school and the Sixers were in the playoffs with Iverson and like Kim Bay Matombo and Eric Snow and randomly I I stumbled upon one of the games and I was like I started watching the game and I was like, oh my god, this is say oh what is that big No no exactly, and I was like, oh my god, wait a second, and I started listening to the announcers and it was like in the middle of the series and I'm watching and I had no

idea what was going on, but I I was so intrigued by it. And in a bubble in Philly. My family was not into sports like we did that. It was not a house where there was football on on Sundays like it just that wasn't how I grew up, which is wild now that I think about it. I every time I got like, you know, on Thanksgiving or like yeah, on Thanksgiving, I'll go home and I feel like, you know where, why is it the TV on? There are games happening. What are we doing here? Like everybody

get it together? So so when I started watching, you know, more games and getting into more sports and what's I started working at the radio station, I was like, oh my god, I gotta I gotta really like figure this out.

So I this is like super embarrassing. UM. I went out and I got Basketball for Dummies, Football for Dummies, for Hockey three Dummies, and I read all four books and it took notes, and I every single day would read the sports section on like Philly dot Com, which was like the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia inquir and I just like, little by little, I started I would watch the games, and I started and listen to sports

talk radio station all the time. Once again, I just like locked in and became obsessed with trying to figure it out and obsessed with kind of like winning almost at it. And it's like, how do I become the best at this? And and I just it was it was ridiculous. Like then I was in college and I was doing this uh internship where I was waking up at four o'clock in the morning to go and do the morning show. And you know, thinking back on it now, it's like it was almost like it replaced figure skating

for me. It was something I needed and I latched onto it just like I did skating, and I just I made it every part of my life. And then I just from there as I as I started to understand it more and more and talk to more people about it and ask questions and learn and listen, I started to finally kind of break in and I got a lot of jobs behind the scenes, and then that sort of led to the stuff on camera. What were some of your duties in the beginning that you had

to do. Oh my god, like you know you're you're getting coffee for people. I remember so Hugh Douglas was on the show a couple of days a week, and he was like in the building where the studio was. There was in the garage like a car wash on one of the levels, and he was like, hey can you take these, like during one of the breaks, Hey can you take the down to the guys for my car?

And I was like, sure, no problem, and like I thought, he met like driving his car down and it was a Bentley and I don't even know if he knows the story. And I got in it and I was freaking out, like it didn't occur to me that I could just like drop the keys off to the guys down there and they would like drive it down. And I get in and I was like, oh my god, how do I work this machine? What is this? And it was so and I remember it turns in the in the parking garage to like get down to the

next level, and I was sweating so much. And then and I remember the steering wheel just being so heavy, like it was so hard to turn because like I just I always had total piece of crap cars growing up. I got back like five minutes later, and everybody was like, where the hell have you been. In the beginning, when I first watched on in that morning show, they would have me go out and do ridiculous bits and then

call into the station with it. So one of the ones I remember the most is uh, when Teo was having his contract dispute when he was in Philadelphia, they had me go to this city corner um. It was a fifth and Market, so it's like a busy intersection in Philly. And this was when Teo was like, I don't know, I don't have enough money to feed my family, and so they had me set up this giant They brought down this big, giant plastic kind of container, and I set up a collection for Teo. And I had

a like salvation army bell. I wore sandwich board, I had like a megaphone, and I basically people were coming by all morning long. They were throwing their lunches in, they were throwing like pens in for him to sign a new contract. Somebody threw some type of like lubricant in there for him. There was a lot of really interesting things that ended up popping up in the collection for t O. I've been an intern before, but I never ever had to do know something like that. That is,

I think that's worse than the UM. I always using this as an example. It's probably bad, but that's my podcast with care Um so around UM tax season. Liberty liberty people. Yeah, when they got the stature liberty guy who generally looks the same complexion as me. Sometimes right, this varies on where the liberty tax places. It varies varies, and always when we drive by, look at my kids, I say, you don't pay attention to school. That's what your ass is gonna be doing. Ride there? Now when

you getting paid? Was this for college credits? So for me it was no, my god, none of these stuff. I had none of the inter That's that's all unpaid, all unpaid work picker is the liberty task guy gets paid like when you are unpaid. Because I worked for the Charlotte Hornets, I was an unpaid intern. So they have you do all that crap. You got go get coffee for somebody, you gotta contact, you gotta go run stats to the coach of staff. But what she's having

to do like having to get embarrassed. Listen, I mean, but it's worth telling. You didn't even know that he used to work for the Hornets and his job for a little bit. He would give at halftime the status not to Bernie Bickerstaff, not to Bickerstaff's son j B. Not to j B's Bickerstaff Brown. He got to give Michael Jordan's the statue sheet. So his life wasn't that. I don't say I had nothing like you did, right, but she was. She was basically dressed up like a

Salvation Army kid. Yeah. If they had me do the most ridiculous stuff, and I was like whatever, I don't care, Like, if it's gonna if we're gonna get a laugh out of it, let's go. Let's do it. But it obviously in it puts something in you and the grains something need to where you're like, you know what, I want

more of this? Yeah? It it became addictive, and I think it's because that adrenaline that you get when you're on the air, when you're doing a show, Like for me at that point was a you know, college kid. I was calling into the radio station but they were on you know, I was on the station that you know, my friends were listening to and just being in that moment,

the rush that you get. It's such a high, and I think that's what I loved so much about it was the high from it, and it was like it was something that you know once you're once you're done the show, it kind of sticks around too. So it's just like a really euphoric feeling. And I love it. We have to take a break in the morning thing. We gotta pay some bills. You get, chicks. I love cut to It and I 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. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to It Podcast dot Com. Coming up on the

cut to It Podcast, We've got ja. Billis an n C double a analyst for ESPN, former player and assistant coach for Duke University and the author of the book Toughness. J Billis on the Cut to It podcasts grawing up in Rolling Hills near Sat Pedro. What how did it is shape your perspective on how you see the world today? Well, I mean I think I grew up in a little bit of a bubble honestly, where you know I went to. If it weren't for basketball, I think my my view

of things would be would be colored differently. Um. Basketball took me into so many areas of southern California. I used to play I used to go play pick up at Carson High School and Narbonne and all these different places. Um, And you know, so I got to know a lot of people that I wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise. And and so it was it was great for me. And it was a sort of a world, you know, world worldly experience, I thought. And then and then it

it obviously took me all over the world. But um, I think when you when you grow up like the place I grew up, as as the peninsula jets out from from the coast a little bit. So the truth was, nobody went to my area unless they had a reason to be there. It wasn't like a pass through area, so you could get a little bit sheltered. And basketball took that took me out of there because I played

every weekend from fourth grade through high school. Every weekend I played out of town somewhere and during the week at night, you want to go get a game, and so you'd go play pick up wherever there was a good pickup game. I mean I was at Venice Beach playing outside or um. You know I mentioned, we'd go to Carson High School all these different places and play and uh and so I made a lot of friends

doing that that have been friends to this day. Uh. So that that was what sort of opened my eyes to the way the world was, more so than anything else about the area I grew up in. So who introduced you to basketball before you became this top fifty recruit averaging twenty four and fourteen? My mother wanted me out of the house, so she had when I was

in third grade. She had read something in the local paper about basketball tryouts for the local, you know, little bitty league, and so she took me up there and kind of pushed me out of the car and I tried out for the league, and I thought, okay, well, the way it works is, you know, get to fourth grade, you get picked on a team, and you play for the Little Lakers or whatever, the Little Celtics, and you play your high school or you play at the local

high school every Saturday. And I wound up making something called the Conference team, which was basically a travel team. So we played uh forty fifty games a year, and we traveled for all of them. So we would play all over southern California, and we'd pile into the coach's car and and one of the parents they drive us to games, and we played sometimes on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

We play in three different tournaments. And it got to the point where we would start a game with our full team, and in the second half, like at the end of the third quarter, um, half the team would go with one of the dads and go start the next game. And then when the guys finished, they hop in the next car and go meet them and finish the game. But we played sometimes, I'd play nine games in a weekend, and um I played. You know, we we all were teams, you know, all our teammates, we

wound up playing in high school together. So we played hundreds of you know, a couple of hundred games together before we ever got to high school. And so we knew each other really well and hung out and every weekend, and and that was really fun. I learned a lot about about things just from doing that. And it was all just because you know, I I my mom wanted me out and uh and I from the first time I dribbled a ball, I fell in love with it. And I played baseball too, but I didn't love baseball

like I love basketball. And that's sort of where it came from. And and and that was like that was all my parents needed to keep me in line. Was if I ever did anything that got out of line, they were like, all right, you're not playing, and I was. I would do anything to two keep playing. So I actually did what I was supposed to do, just because

I wanted to keep playing ball. Well, you said you lived in a bubble, so is it safe to say your perspective on all the different cultures that you experienced it going into the different areas of southern California really helped you um to where you know, I mean, I find it interesting and I know you, but yet find it interesting knowing your playlist of rap music. Did that have to that? Did that start with the integrating of cultures and just hanging around, yeah, to just hanging around

different different kinds of people. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I think it was more. I think that sort of the rap music thing was more, um, you know, things that were popular at the time that that caught our fancy more than more than anything. I mean, there's a there's a big difference in appreciating black culture and understanding Black America and what you know, what Black Americans have

gone through and are going through now. And I think that's, in my view, that's the biggest disconnect in the in the conversation we're trying to have now where people sort of understand that, no, it's it is not systemic. Racism does exist. It doesn't mean that everybody is racist, but there are racist policies that we still live with and and and that shape our society. And when you know, I don't know, Steve, if you'll you'll remember this you

were younger, but or you are younger. But when I was a senior in college, um, I was a classmate of Lynn Bias, that played in Maryland. So when Lynn Bias died um, I think it was two days after that, a famous football player named Don Rodgers died exactly the same way. And I played against uh Don Rogers brother, Reggie Dgers, played basketball against him. He wand up going to the University of Washington, played the NFL too. He's

a great just great athlete. So when Bias and Rogers both died of of cocaine overdoses, that's when that's when Congress came up with all of these federal sentencing guidelines. And what what what people probably don't realize today is is so much of our prison population is made up of low level drug offenders and they're they're predominantly African American. And that goes back to sort of that that book The Color of Law, like that's those are Those are

issues of law. Those are not issues of people deciding to live in an area in self selecting. That's not what that is. And I think have having people understand that that's a that's a hell of a lot different. Understanding that is a hell of a lot different than understanding, you know, and have an appreciation for what Jalen Rose likes to call people who love black culture, you know, so so a pre shading hip hop and rap music.

That's that's nothing. Um. That's a lot different than understanding the um the system we live in and how it is it is slanted toward h white America and slanted against minority America. And it's not it's not just African Americans, but it's predominantly and and it's a our, our unwillingness

to have that conversation. I think is um is the biggest hurdle we have to get over ibl as a society, that we have to honestly have the conversation, rather than when there's an issue of police brutality, somebody asking the question of well, how many how many white people were killed by cotton. No, that's not the question, That's just not it. And and uh, we're we're having, I think we're having as a society a hard time of of addressing that honestly. And until we do, we're gonna keep

going in circles on this. I really believe the kudos to U J for UM acknowledging that and and and lead us towards the conversation because that's the biggest part. Well and that's the when you say root cause, Like I, I always try to look at when when you're thinking about the end result and and why are we getting this result, you have to go to the origins and so what are the origins of these laws? What are

the origins of of these issues? And until we understand the origins of things, we're not going to understand why we're getting the end result. And so when there was recently some changes in the criminal justice system, well, you know, you applaud the changes. One of the questions I had was, well, why aren't we letting out the low level drug offenders that that were subject to these um unjust laws in the first place, Like, haven't they served more than their time?

And and let's remedy those past wrongs in addition to uh, yeah, yeah, exactly, we're going to decriminalize it going forward. Let's acknowledge that we made mistakes back in the eighties that have perpetuated to the day to this day, and let's right those wrongs too. And uh and for some reason, we we have an unwillingness to do that. And you know, look, we have an industrial prison complex. Now that you know privatization,

there's so many issues that go with it. But until we're willing to look at the origins of things that acknowledge all of the systemic issues, then then we're we're going to continue to be arguing over you know, some of these end results things. And and uh and I get honestly, you know, you're you're having tough conversations with

your friends over the last several years. And uh, and you know, I'm I'm hopeful that you know, rather than people feeling defensive about it, like I don't feel like just um for myself, I don't feel like I need to feel guilty about things, but I need to feel responsible about the world we're living in. And so so accepting the responsibility for the way the way things are is the only way we're gonna we're gonna take steps

towards making positive change in the future. So so I'm you know, I don't think anybody is asking White America to feel guilty, but they're asking for a responsibility to be accepted and to be understood so that we can we can change. And uh, and I don't see where that there's anything wrong with that. I love this conversation and and I want to take a step further and really just talk about some of the things that you've done. You you are outstanding endalysts, UH broadcaster for ESPN and

and just basketball. And obviously your knowledge of basketball exceeds my, uh miniature knowledge of basketball, which is I am a true fan. I am, but I'm a fan of basketball in a way. I'm not gonna comment. I don't think about can this guy play or not play. I just watched, I just enjoyed. I'm not gonna tweet all this guy can't shoot. I know the guy can't shoot. Looks like he's sitting on the couch. Right. But Ja, you've been

extremely outspoken. And I am alumni and very heavily involved in my in my college, University of Utah, and I've seen the way the game of collegian sports has changed. But I've also seen the good and the bad. I mean, you, these kids are coming out where it doesn't matter what school they go to. Now they can go Division one, they go Division one, double A division to every school to some degree has a sponsorship by a by a

shoe company. Right, And I mean I've seen something and even some of the gear I get like this is ridiculous. They backpack, socks, shoes, jocks under here's t shirts, beanies, scarfs like now the mask that we have to wear. It even has the logo of the school. We both are a little bit long into tooth on sports, but we both have been around it enough to see the metamorphosis of of collegian sports. Where do you believe it, obviously in basketball, where do you believe collegiate sports is heading?

Good and bad? Now? I know journalistically I that was a that was a no no. I asked you two questions, double barrel. But what do you think it is right now? Jay? Well, the way I viewed Stephen and I got involved in this stuff on the policy side when I was in college.

I was a member of the n C Double a's Long Range Planning Committee when I was a player at Duke, So I spent two and a half years on that committee, and the n C Double A probably regrets having me on because I learned how policy was made and while at the time I had some pretty strong opinions in committee rooms, when the meeting was over, I didn't go out and voice my disagreement publicly because I didn't think that was appropriate. And and also you knew what got rewarded.

So I wasn't going to step out of line. But now that in my job. My job is to you know, not only analyze a game, but it's analyzed the game and the policies that surround it and the drive it. And so my view is college sports is no different than professional sports, except the only difference is that the players are enrolled in school. That is the only difference. It is sold the same way, it is marketed the

same way, um, the players. To your point about apparel contracts with the school, the players are unpaid billboards for sneaker companies. And now when you were in the NFL, you were a paid billboard, so you know, the the NFL has an apparel deal. Uh. For for a time, you were probably with Reebok and Nike all these other things for for the uniforms and the gear. Uh say

with the before you were with the Raves of Panthers. Um. Uh, you know you were wearing Panthers gear and maybe it was a Rebok logo on it and all that with the Panthers at the time, I think it was in between Rebok and Nike, So Nike, Rebok had it first, Nike, but then my peril deal. I was with Reboke for two my own personal deal. I was with Rebok for ten a half years and then I switched to So you right, so you wore your you had a shoe deal,

so you could wear what you wanted on your feet. Correct, But when you were in NFL um in your team activities, you wore your team issued gear that had the Rebok logo or the Nike logo, whatever it was at the time.

So by virtue of the fact that you were you were a paid employee of the Panthers, you know, you were a paid billboard for the NFL gear, and then you had your own deal for your shoe and then on your off time you were wearing Rebok or under armor, whatever it was at the time, and paid by directly by the company. So the players now, people sometimes look to your point earlier about the amount of gear they get.

Some people will look at, well, look at what the players get, and so they get more more gear than we got when we played. Well, I look at it as what they're allowed like, It's not like the university says, well, here is a here's a gift certificate to Dick Sporting Goods. Go get whatever you want. They don't say that. They issue them this gear and they have to wear it. They're not allowed to wear anything else because because the school is contracted to wear that. And in fact, when

I was playing, you were playned in college. If we had covered up the logo on our on our shoes for a game, if they call that spatting. If we had taken tape and covered up the logo, the university was required to give back money to the shoe company. We we were unpaid billboards. And my thing is like the the contracts for media rights, deals for television, UH, ancillary rights, internet whatever, um, all those are exactly the same.

NFL college football, NBA college They're exactly the same, exactly. The only difference is in what the players are allowed. And and so every once in a while when I say, hey players, college players are exploited. Uh, people go, oh, I wish somebody would exploit me like that, And I said, no, that's not that, you're not taking that the right way. They're exploited in that somebody is using them to make money while at the same time limiting what they can make.

That is the textbook definition of exploitation. Doesn't mean they're mistreated, it means they're exploited. Those are two different things. And my thing is if they're old enough to sell for billions of dollars, they're old enough to share in the revenue. And in the NFL players NBA players, they have a union, they negotiate with the league, and they're paid. Uh. You know, they get a percentage of basketball related revenue whatever that is. Uh. And people go, well, the NBA has a salary cap.

It's a lot different to say the players get a scholarship only and boy, the end of you know, the NBA players are limited to of basketball related revenue. That that's a that's a pretty big difference in in treatment. So my thing is when people say, well, we don't want the college football to be a minor league for the NFL, you don't have to worry about that. It is not a minor league. Minor leagues don't make billions

of dollars and have multibillion dollar television deals. College football and college basketball are major league sports, their major league. They stand on their own. Now what the players do afterwards. Nobody says that college football and college basketball are minor league systems for coaches. So when a coach when when Pete Carroll jumps from USC to the Seahawks, nobody said, well,

college football shouldn't be a minor league for coaches. You know, they don't say that, um, because it's major league and and it should be major league for the players and they should be allowed to share in it because every other student. Uh. There there's no restriction on what a normal student can earn or accept, like athletic scholarships aren't the only scholarships that are provided. Regular students are on scholarship too, and nobody tells them, well, you've got a

scholarship there short, therefore you're limited to only that. Only an athlete has told that, And I think that's wrong. I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather. Good, do it good. It's getting down to do good. Hey youre aret. Why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from Cut to a Podcast dot com, where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven oh four shot. But yeah, you can go on buy you a T shirt. Subscribed to us whereever

you listen to podcasts. Coming up on the Cut to a Podcast, we got Mike Garifolo. He's got over twenty years experience covering the NFL, works for the NFL Network and a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mike Garifolo on the cut to a podcast, where are you from and replace you call your hometown? Uh, well, I'm from phil I

mean I used to walk to the Vet Veteran Stadium. Uh. The Phillies games were dollar general admission, so you could go to a game for a dollar in the middle of the Yeah, and those were the cheapest seats and you'd sneak your way down obviously. Um. And then they went to the World Series and uh, the price went up to five dollars, which is a increase or iso. I never get that right, but regardless, it was an increase. That was a lot for a fourteen year old. So so, yeah,

that's that's my neighborhood. I wouldn't change a thing about where and how I grew up. I loved growing up in the city. Uh, in the neighborhood that was tightly knit. I learned a lot of things on the on the streets and then the on the playground. Um that you don't learn in school, that you have to learn life lessons and I wouldn't love her change a thing. Tell us like, what what did you learn in the streets? Uh? Well, when I say it that way, you start to think

like you know, the streets, the streets. I knew what I knew what you meant. But I just I just took what you said row with it. I figured that cut you off at the past before we went. I knew you wasn't slanging dope, bro Chill. I just meant you said you learned stuff in the streets on the playground, Mike young jeezy, dear Pholo. Hey, what's what's your name? My name is Mike, but they call me Mike. Mike.

You got my cash. I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about really, you know, it's sometimes people will say the streets and you know, as you know now, as parents, right, you can't have your kids hanging out with all kids because you know, so kids will pick up cursing, will pick up bad habits from other kids other places. So that's what I'm That's what I meant more as a parent perspective, not like, oh, you know,

Mike gringfolds of fugged like none of that. Well, and this is something that I My daughters just turned three, so we're not there yet by any stretch. Um, But this is something that I wrestled with because I learned a lot. The most that I learned in life was by doing dumb stuff, um and making mistakes. And so you know, I want to sit there and kind of tell my my daughter along the way to not make it, but I think you have to in life. Um, Oh they're gonna make it. We were in break earlier today

and my son Peyton is um. One of the one of the UH staff was asking, Um, Sarah was asking how is how is Steve as a dad? And he was like sarcass, He was like, oh, he was great, you know, but we're just talking about how parenting and my style and all that stuff. And he made some mistakes. But it's really cool now seeing him three. Kind of life is starting to evolve for him. But you gotta

kind of allow them. Yeah, but it's tough as a parent, Like you don't want them to like I like scared for him to fall on his face, right, and I don't. I'm I'm scared to admit, like I worried, Like I'm like, man, you know, even just him dating people I'm like, I gotta right, choose the right one, get a prenup, don't bring you know, just my mind just goes down the rabbit trail to the point of like if he brings a girl, if he ever brings a girl back over

to the house. I'm literally like, I'm like, what's she do? Parents do? What she lived? Well? You know, you know, what's her favorite color? All that stuff that I sabotage in my mind, like I ain't gonna like her. You're already going into the my preconceived notion is she ain't good enough? Look at you, Dad, I'm so I'm so territorial, like, you know, like to the point it's like I told look, if it ain't serious, don't bring the answer to the house, just straight up, you know, don't ask to come on

a vacation. Hey can if they last name am Smith, don't ask me. I don't care. So I get it. Bro and your little girls three, I only got one. If we had if we had, if me and Age had another child and it was a daughter, run me over. Your daughter is a different man. And I'm right there with you, right there. We got We're a month away from number two. We got to coming. Yeah, so Mike,

tell us about your family dynamic. My family dynamic. Uh. We were a family of five, older sister and a younger brother, all with extremely different interests, but we were we were still tight. I was really the only sports fan. My mother and I were the only sports fans. Now that's not true. My sister a little bit, but mostly my mother and me uh into sports in the family. Um, my brother and father not so much. Which was weird, right, Like you're supposed to learn sports from your dad and

all that stuff and all those stereotypes. No, it's not not how it was in our family at all. And my brother was three years younger than me, my sister two years older. Uh. We had a My parents has celebrated their forty six wedding anniversary yesterday. Congratulation. Yeah, yeah, we have a tight family. Where where is your family's place of origin? Uh? Well, nationality, which I don't think that's the words the nationality or is it heritage? Is Italian? Uh.

My great grandparents were born in Italy. My grandparents were born here. Uh, and we've been both sides of the family been h Philly all the way. I don't know why they settled here or there. Excuse me, I'm up in North Jersey. Now. See that's the that's the fun part of it all is my sister moved when she got married, moved five doors away from my parents. My brother when he got married, moved across the playground. I moved to North Jersey. You'd think I moved to you know, Russia,

the way that they reacted. I mean, I'm only an hour and a half away. Relaxed, We're not that far We're not that far away. Um, but uh yeah, we're still We're still very technic. Founder We're used to having you know, we'll have sports folks, but we want every aspect, every dynamic of sports. We've had Colleen on here and now we have you, and and I love having you on here because it's a different perspective. Right. You love

sports so much that you got involved into it. So take us down that road of how your career began. You know, I knew my athletic ability was not going to take me to places where they actually pay me money to play sports. So I think I made that determination earlier that I knew. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted to do. Um, whether it was how

did you know exactly what you want to do? Because I would watch the broadcast and and see what the reporters or announcers or analysts would bring to the table and say, yeah, I like that, that's cool. I always love kind of putting on a show. I was a kid. I kind of like the notion of what went into it, and you know how these guys brought their information and and um let it out on national TV. UM. So I kind of didn't know that I like that. Yeah, I uh, you know, I appreciated it from afar UM.

And then I got to college and my father uh said to me, well, why don't you check because everybody's doing internship. So I'm gonna do an internship here, an internship here, and into that's okay. There was one for uh. They called them producers, but basically they were board were board ops and engineers who ran the board and answered the phones for w I p UH radio in Philly. We would answer the calls and get the calls. Were basically run the whole show, UM, and I answered the

the ad. They called me back. I had an interview. I was a junior, was my second I was going to my second semester of my junior year what college at LaSalle University? And I just want, I just want, I just I need you to do. I had to refresh your memory on television. You just sir, Yes, sir, I got. You're letting your fans not here the important part. I have fans, Yes, you have all three? After this, there we go. That's what That's why I'm doing this. Um the mess up thing said. We mess with each

other all the time. You know what Garl follow does really well? Victim, Uh, that's why he kicked too. He plays. Oh yeah, you're yelling at me. I get more fans every time you man. People take it so serious. You'll get I'll get a tweet. Man. How you let Steve Spend do that to you? I don't know, man, that was that was pretty bad. Why why do you follow me?

People take that so serious? You'll have like with anything, like whether it's you and Steve or whether it's Steve when you on with any of the girls on Thursday night, like that's always the poet responses they don't like each other, like yeah, which is good and bad. Like you want you want people to be into it, but you don't want people to be too serious and recognize the joke for a joke, but we just mess with like he literally will say, hey, i'mna saying this, and I'll be

we're being good. I'm like, I'm like, I'm gonna say that was dumb. He's like, now some of it has been authentic. BS Like we got an argument on TV. That's so we're in the green room. Uh um, good morning football weekend. On a Sunday, Ryan Tannehill doesn't play well and he literally says, Integreen, this is now. Um, you usually got in after me, so well, just like

five forty five. Now I've eaten my my, my, my breakfast, my waffles with my my sirul he comes in and he's like, oh my gosh, can you believe how this poor? Why does he have a British accent? I don't know. And he's like and he says and he goes, my goes, they look like a high school team. Flipped my lid. I'm like, what he's like high school team. I'm like, all the damn practice they have. And then I was like, see, that's what's the matter with your reporters had had the

index finger. You went in the media anymore. Oh yeah, I just took my my piece out of my mouth. Like he's like, what what you know what what? I'm like, that's bs. He's like, no, it's now you see how they play and said, yeah, I've seen some high school games, said I mentioned some Friday night games. They don't look that good. He's like no, no, And what does he do? He doubles down. We're gonna air and said it and

I said the same thing and said I was. They said it was alive, was hot, and he thought the second time I was gonna be less animated. I was hot. He thought you got it out in the ground. I was hotter because I was like, Oh, you're gonna try meal TV too. Oh, it's just like some of the stories we have. But listen, don't don't think that I you say it like I expected that, Oh I get you in front of the cameras, and I wasn't. I

wasn't saying it like it was a gotcha. I just meant as a former player, and then as a as an analyst, I mean, as an insider, we have these conversations good and bad that goes from his journalistic point

of view. I'm part of that journalistic point of view, but also as a former player's point of view, and we kind of battle between the journalists information and how he takes it and read and dissects it, and then how that comes across as a former player, in which why reporters and players sometimes have this friction right right, because reports like I have to tell I have to explain it, like I'm talking to my eight year old grandmother and the players like, first of all, your eighty

old grandmother isn't watching the gamehic. Yeah. So it's it's always this dynamic that we go through. It's it's pretty interesting though. Well, so just to be clear, we're not gonna spend a ton of time. We'll go back and forth and all these things. Uh, but what I was saying was not even towards the players, by the way I was saying their offense. They weren't stretching the ball down the field. They were I don't even remember what team it was, but it was like there were no

passes over ten or fifteen yards. And I said that was like a high school offense. And we still got into it and I was like, well, I'm not saying that they look like high school players. And they're not playing hard. What I'm saying is you can't play that way. And the hitting character we were, we were into it by that, but I wasn't. I wasn't the only one though, wasn't. I believe Mike robbed man back up? Yup? No, but

it was. Mike is different, and I'm learning not Mike is different, but I'm learning in TV the perspective of a beat writer or the perspective of an insider, and they're all about information and players were all about process. And when those two are on television, they don't operate the same way. They're literally it's like a different perspective. I don't mean the soundness in the mean way. And I'm not saying he's the man or the female. I'm

the man of female. It's literally Mars and Venus, husband and wife. It's just we don't see it the same. We literally see it totally opposite. Right, he sees us, he sees us all that cup is half full. I see is No, I'm still thirsty. Right, it's so different. Let me tell a Tannehill story, because that's that's another illustration of what you don't do. And Steve Will, you know, Steve called you out for it on National TV. So I'm at the Dolphins training camp practice in middle of July.

It's like ninety degrees in human as all hell sons beaten down on me. I'm off camera while they're practicing it two in the afternoon for some reason, like it's I could do a morning practice or late afternoon where it's nice and cool, and Steve's somewhere else. I was

actually in Canton. It was how does fish grease? Okay, I say, you know, I'm talking about Tannehill, and I'm referring to the year before when Gaye had to back it down with this, with how much he fed Tannehill, how much he's allowing him to do with the line of scrimmage. And I'm saying, you know what, what what gays did was was stripping all the way down, and now he wants to rebuild it because you gotta remember, this is a guy that's used to the way Peyton

Mann did things. And I'm telling you and ste get Steve's yelling get him on camera. I want to see his face. Meanwhile, this sweat is just pouring down my face. I was enjoying the fact that I was off camera, I'm dying, and now I come on camera, she fits in and looking horrendous, probably making it look even worse that like, oh, Steve's calling him out and now he's melting on camera when really I was just hot because

of the heat. And he's like, don't you ever put Ryan Dannehill Ryan Tannehill's name in the same sentence with Peyton Manning? And I said, no, I wasn't competing. I don't care, you don't How could you make And I'm heard about that for months and years. I think I'm still hearing about it. Yeah, how to work out for Adam Gazon Ryan Tannehill? Hello, is this thing? Hello? I didn't again, I don't know how many times I gotta tell you. I'm not telling you he was going to

play like Peyton Manning. I am telling you that Gates was used to a certain thing. It's listen. If anything, I was highlighting bad coaching right that he was expecting a certain level of Peyton Manning from a guy who wasn't Peyton Manning. Hey, Hey, is Adam Gates are really a good coach right now? Because he ain't, Maybe we, maybe the Jets, among others, should have seen the writing on the wall. How about that. That's a whole different

conversation right now. You are a unique person, you are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Gerald 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, Baltol Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from my 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 Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. 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