Renaldo Nehemiah

We got Anthony Hamilton on our track. Man, that's cool, it's super cool. But why did you try to sing it though? Hey I just felt like that sometimes. Don't do that again. No, sorry, I'm not gonna be boxed in refresh all in February. You're not boxing me in listen what you what? What you did? Not hit? I want to box an You ain't hitting nor hater you actually yes, because my ears hate to hear that. My ears love and the hamblen See what you got on

your tell you what happened to me? I'm telling you there are some times I just sit back and giggle, giggle, giggle, grown man giggling. Oh it's it's some giggly stuff out there now, all right, all right, so just you know, Steve goes out out into the world. I gotta buy some stuff, alright, got the honey dudeless. So, um, you know, driving around Charlotte looking for some some items, and you said, hey, we should look at this, and so I go to a store. We're gonna buy all right. I sent her

your do to measuring it fits. Okay, it's on sale. It's always a good thing, that my combination if it's in sale, boom right as they say, you know in the mobster business, by the being by the back. Because I was buying the freezer, right, So the gentleman who helped me what was his name, um, the guy that helped me. No, No, he was actually he was really healthy to was extremely helpful. So I was like, hey, can we measure this? I just need I'm getting a freezer,

um for the garage. I need to see how deep the freezer is to see and because you know, looking online, you it doesn't really have I mean, you know you get measurements, but it really doesn't. You got an eye test, right, So I look, okay, perfect I said, all right, I gotta load this up in my car, so can we just take it out of the box, just be easier. Right, He's like, all right, we could do that, take it out of the the box. So I pay for it, and

I pay for it in the area. Got to receive the guy uh staples his card on there is Hey, if you need anything else, come to me. Absolutely, he took care. He was excellent, what a smile. I had a great time. He had a great time, and we chickchat a little bit. Boom. So mine of my business. And this is where it gets interesting. You got the little flat bed and so I'm pushing it going through. So I got on sweat pants and sweatshirt and hat

and I'm in public mask ah. So I go. I go past the little scanner things that you can scan and you know, the ch self checkout, but I pay for I got to recede in hand. I know who I am, meaning not Steve Smith, but guy individual person. I'm black. Let's put the cars on the table. I'm black. It's all going there. This woman says, can I help you on your way out? On my way out? No, And that's how I said it. No. Now when she says,

can she helps me? She has now stepped in front of the flat bed that has this freezer on it? Can I help you? What's it? No? Oh? Well, do you have a receipt? Mm hmm? I said, I know where this is going? I said, yes, m were you gonna let me see it? I said, what you didn't ask? You said, do I need help? A totally different questions. I know what the public school? You toss not killing them in the yell department. But she goes, it's the same thing. Yeah, not really, but okay, no, not okay,

and not really. I said, you didn't ask me if I paid for it? Or can I see the receipt? You said, do I need help? And I didn't need help? Well, I was asking the same thing, so you should you should know the difference. And in my head, I'm going, you should know the difference because help and prace on that half of bets are pretty different. H and all, so you've already paid for you trying to make your way out. She's basically has walked herself in front of

them and walked. She stopped and said, you know, can I help you? I said no, ma'am, I said no, we'll let me see the receipt I said, here's the receipts, actually trying to prove your purchase as well. She's trying to prove your purchase, which is nothing wrong with proving purchase. But then now you're mad at me. But because the way you asked me was I got I got not racially profiled, I just got profiled. Let me see if this,

let me see if he's telling the truth. Yes, you want to hear them still profiling, Yes, you want to hear. The best thing about it she never even looked at the receipt because the freezer and what it was scanned, it's not visible anymore. All the skill numbers were on the box that the salesman has. And so now she has an attitude with me standing in front of the

flat bed with a freezer on it. Do you think did she think you'd be that bolt to get a freezer off the shelf, unboxing, put it on a flat bed and just walk smoothed out of this retail established. I'd like to use the word waltz, however you want jaywalk moon walk? And what what bothered? What bothered me morning? You thing is how she approached me as if like I was in the wrong, and I understood, she's got

to do her job. She gotta do a job, but don't say can I help you and then tell me that helping and let me see the receipt is the exact same thing when it's clearly not. And it's just like this, she had an attitude with me. We'll have a nice day if i'd ran her Scott over with that flat bed in that freezer, didn't it be headlines, assault with a deadly weapon, or you know, whatever the

case may be. And I just and what it brought it up to me is there's been times that I've also looked extremely tacky walking into it into a designer purse store to buy something and you got questions, Oh, hey, how much can I see that back? Oh yes, it's such a Yeah. They love to give you the price first, don't they. And here's my problem with the price of a person. As in a designers store, you behind the register, you are gathering that product to show me your name

ain't Louis or Tom right, you work for them? And I walked in here, so clearly I have some sort of but I'm thinking about it, but it's not that person's place to make that distinction. No, I'm you know, all they know is that's a customer. Yes, now I'm a TACKI customer. It doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't. But I've walked in I I'm giving them my out. I've walked into a Louis Vauton Gucci store, bron sweatpants, house, shoes in the hood, and the hat looking like I

just strolled out of bed. But to assume that someone does not have it, they obviously are pondering them or thinking about making that purchase. So why are you gonna base off the way they look at least gonna discredit or or take away for them thinking about making that purchase. Because you know, when you're going those stores, you don't

go on those stories. You know you're going to that store a while in in that places a thousand dollars, So when you go on that store, you're going that store going if I buy this, I need to make sure it's the right choice. Correct. And I went to this department store or I went to the store and the lady profile man and I literally got out of the car, lifted the freezer in the in the trunk and drove off and I stopped, you know, and I got out the red line process and I got profile.

And how often that happens, right, Like I've I've been plenty of times. I've been the stories and I get followed around or I get asked to you much like what you just described. I'm walking in the store and I asked to see something and they said, oh, well this isn't on sale. Well how do you could have cash in my pocket? About the whole thing, I've done that before, right, So to automatically say, well, as if the microaggression is oh, you can't you can't afford, you

can't be able to afford. It was more than anything. That is how she tried to flip it on me, as if me, being a little bit apprehensive, was in the wrong and she was asking me all the right questions. She wasn't asking me all the right questions. Right, Maybe I wonder I'm to get dressed to go up in there, just like just just put on full suit. Can I help you? Know? You cannot help me. I'm looking for the I'm looking for the CBS c P A department.

That's that's how you combat it self identifies something completely different identify as a person who's getting everything in here for free. That's how we come back profile. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna walk around demanding discounts. I think it'll work, all right. Who we got coming up on the Cut to A podcast, We've got Ronaldo near Mayah, former world record holder in track and field and the hurdles, a wide receiver for the San Francisco Forts in the eighties,

and he's currently a sports agent for athletics managers. Ronaldo Nei A Mayah. On the Cut to It podcast, Let's Go Here we Go. Near our first segment, Ronaldo is called I really Hi, You don't understand how HiPE I am to do this? Sit down? Right? So it's gonna get out of stuff. It's our version of ice breakers. So okay, you know all about this, So I'm not gonna wait any longer me to go him and get him the first question A right, They're gonna be questions. It is an open book test. It is about you,

so if you fail, it is your fault. Okay, what does success look like for you? So success to me, it means that, uh, you know, when I'm walking uh through the mall, and someone's whispers. That's Ronaldo and m I. And the second thing they talked about it is that I would say a good guy or a humble guy more so than what I did on the field to play.

So that means that I feel that my mission was accomplished because I said earlier, if that's all you're talking about, is what I did as an athlete, and I failed to actually let people know who I really was, because athletes is what I did. It wasn't who I was. That if you knew today today was your last day of your life, what would you spend it doing. I would spend it with my immediate family and my daughter's wife, as many of my immediate family, as files with my

brother and my sister everyone. I would be around everyone that I love and that loves me. Mm hmm. I like that. All right, Let's get to something a little bit less serious. What's in your fridge right now? It's stopped. I just got back from the Whole Foods a couple of hours ago, so it's uh, lots of fruits and berries and salads and uh fresh wild caught fish. Okay, hold on, I always want to ask this question, how do you know it's fresh cut, fresh caught wild cat fish.

If if it's in the grocery store, I've been I've been debating that with my wife. Sometimes that's just packaging because you know, she's misorganic, and you know, I usually just buy stuff, and she's like, is it wall caught? And I'm like, what does that mean? You know, like they can say that, but you know, you know, it's been in a refrigerator freezer before I knew it, so I don't know it. Just we're buying labels, and you know, we're I didn't sink or no puny times, We're just caught.

So I go in there and everything. You know, when I come home, my wife knows after this many years that it's it's organic number one. And she didn't even have asked me if it's wild caught, because I just look at the sideways, like, yes, you know it is because somebody, somebody caught it. Somebody. They now they have like fish farms, yeah, fresh fresh farms and all these other terms. Yeah, but it's it's it's it's literally just like our our vegetables. They go up there and go

I called James, I'll call it. Let me throwing the Ronaldo's refriger. Uh. Do you have any nicknames? Yes? I had one up until I became a Niner. My nickname was Skeets and uh s k e E T S. Skeets. When I was a little kid, you know, the skeet at the rifle ranges when they say pull. Yeah, I crawled really fast, so that my real name Skeetze within the family. And then for years I was Ronaldo Skeets near Maya, and they called me Skeets because it was

less formal than Ronaldo. And then I remember my first day signing with the Niners, and two I decided I was old enough to be called Ronaldo and get rid of the kid name. And I've been Ronaldo ever since. So unless you're close to my age or a fan, you wouldn't even know Skeets. My wife didn't even know who Skeets was. Don't. Yeah, we do. I don't know why. So as a key, what was your favorite sports team in any sport? Wow? I grew up a Jet fan Joe Namath, and then I was a it's for weird,

and I was a Met fan with Tommy aig. Uh. It's kind of weird combination. Usually you're you know, you're not a Jet and a Met fan. You're you know, you're met in a Giants fan or something. But I was met in a Jet fan. I'm from New Jersey, so okay, you know where are you from in a place you call your hometown. I'm from a little parochial town called scotch Plains, New Jersey, which is uh, probably forty five minutes south of Manhattankay, Well, tell me the landmark.

Tell me something that you would identify with north Plainfield, New Jersey. Nork. Oh yeah, I'm just below Nork, about thirty minutes south of York. Alright, so growing up there, Um, how did that? How did it shape your perspective on the world today? Because you've been through a lot, You've seen a lot, You've been through a lot. Um that places. Has it started you? Yeah? It was? It was interesting, Steve. I was the first black quarterback at my school. I

was the first black homecoming king at my school. The town next to us was Clark and over the weekends, our parents forbade us to go over there because there was a cool because Klan activity on that way. Um, and so you know, team sports kind of insulates you from a lot of that because true then and true today. As long as you winning, you know, they tolerate whatever you might look like. And so I guess I was privileged because I had an abundance of talent and was

doing things that brought attention to my team. I didn't feel it within my school. We had probably about people in the school and maybe about two plus people of color. But yeah, being in the one of the star athletes in the school system, you know, you know how that goes. I was insulated to some degree, but it was on the periphery, so I knew it was around, and you know, here we are in you know it's still around. M Now, do you go back, you know, to your hometown any

I see? Um, yes, and no, I haven't been back, uh as far as regularly visiting. Both my parents are deceased and my parents are buried in my in my town Hillside Cemetery. I was just there a week ago visiting as they put out the winter wreaths. But that's the closest I really get to my hometown. I passed through it on the way to New York, you know,

on on occasion for different events. But most of my family immediate families are no longer there summer in playing field, but most of them moved out of the states, So I don't. I have some friends obviously, and go back from my high school reunions and all that. So yeah, that's the only connection. Well, um, you know we talked about you talk about your parents. Man, Um, you had an Earth Sharing event at the age of fourteen. You walk us through and tell us what happened. Yeah, you know,

when you're a kid and your mom. In this case, my mom was sick, and I just thought she was sick. I didn't really understand the implications and the severity of cancer. My mother suffer through both lung and breast cancer. I guess the lung cancer first filtered into with her breast. My mother used to smoke cools, and I remember used to go into the store to buy here the cools, not knowing the effects of it. And you know, watching witnessing, you know, one mestech to me, then the second mistec

to me, and then she's bedridden. I was the oldest of three, so I was the closest to her and she My mom groom me years in advance, and she was sick for about five plus years. And she told me how to cook and so. And I was inquisitive kid anyway, so I wanted to know all these things.

And so I was coming home from football practice one day in ninth grade ninety three and going to the local store that we used to go to just before we got home, and some kids I don't even know came up to me and said, hey, skeeze, They said, your mom is did And I remember that empty, instant feeling that I had in my stomach, and I dropped. I dropped the cupcakes and whatever I had in my hand. And I lived about three blocks from the store, and I just ran all the way home. I knew my

mom had was sick. And I get there and I see all these different cars around our home, so I knew something is up. And then when I come in, I see family members. And then my father takes me to my room and tells me what happened and that my mother had passed. And my mom those last two years, she we had a living nurse because she wanted to be with her children, you know, all the way to

the end. And you know, as a youngster, twelve, thirteen years old, fourteen years old, you're still thinking that you know mom is going to be there. You don't understand death at that point. And so that was my first time experiencing it, and as the oldest, I think I kind of it was numbed to the pain of the loss.

And you know, for years used to tell my friends when I see them speaking back to their moms, sa, hey man, you need to cherish your mom because you don't ever want to feel the loss of a mom. And uh, you know, so I had to grow up very quickly at fourteen. You know, my father was working and then I was like a surrogate mom to my brother who was a year and a half younger, and my sister who was five years younger. And yeah, it was tough. It was tough, and I grew up fast.

I mean I had to be really mature my teen years at that point. All the way to college. I kind of skipped by them. As far as being a teenager, I was a young adult. You know, through circumstances. We have to take a break and morning anything. We gotta pay some bills check. I love cut to it, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media to Smithie. Where where at 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 can subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. You played football, but obviously you ran a little bit of track. Track became my real love, my first love with football, and

my father introduced me to it. Um, I loved football. I became I was. I became quarterback, uh, because we had an injury to a quarterback and I could quarterback. I was a wide receiver, but we needed a quarterback. So that's why I played quarterback. Um. And then I would have probably played in college had I graduated a little bigger. And I was five nine, maybe five hundred

fifty five pounds, so can wet as a senior. And when I had chosen Maryland, um, they were more of a running team at that time, and so I'm like, well, there's no need for me to go through trying to play football. But yeah, my first love has always been football. My father was kind of surprised when I picked going

to college to run track over football. Um. But then as I started, you know, ascending through the ranks internationally and globally, um, my father and the rest of my family all of a sudden learned the support a track. Hold on, hold on, No, you glossed over work globally internationally, yes, break break that down, because you know we usually talked

about internationally globally, you know, Steph Michael Lebron. Yeah, when you're traveling Germany and all these different places as a kid, as a yeah, as a teenager, you can't speak the language. You know, the food is horrible. Machine guns common this country is they have machine guns Poland where you can't go out of your hotel without a passport, and yeah, it's very ominous. And uh, I'm sitting up there going

what I don't even understand these people. I don't know what they're saying, I don't know what their food is. I really just want to go home. I don't I felt like one of the uh, what's the rocky one? He says, I must break you and That's why I felt those foreigners would be looking at us, you know, like they had this historic look. The Russians look one way all the time, looking like they're looking through you,

not at you. And uh, I'm like, okay, well, let's let's tie these up and get it, get it going. But and it was tough being away from home time change, understanding commands and their language. You know, you have to practice hearing. Only thing. I knew it was two commands, whatever it was. The second one was set, and I knew it was a gun on the third one, so

I didn't really care what they said. I watched everybody getting the blocks, and then I knew the next one was set, and then I was waiting for the gun, and uh yeah, you had to. So at these track meets in different countries, you had to learn the different commands in those different different languages. Every country you went to, yes you did. And you go to someone and they say, okay, it's gonna be this command and I'm like, I don't

even know what that. What are they saying? So well, you know the first one, it's always on your marks. I said, okay, so I know everybody getting the marks. And then once we're in our marks, and you know, you settle down. I know the next one has to be set so yeah, I raised up and then I

just wait for the gun. You know. A couple of times I got tricked a little bit because they would be saying, uh, stand up, stand up, you know, and I'm taking off, you know, like okay, that meant somebody wasn't ready or somebody was moving, so they're telling us to stand up so we can do it again. But I got it down after probably about three races or so.

But it was always in a different language, so I never really tried to learn the language they tell us in the in the pre race meeting the night before. But I was like, okay, I just listened to the cadence. Okay, so you're running track at Maryland. When did it become international for you? Take take us through that process because there and the reason I said, there's a lot of people who just don't know how big track and field

is and how much of the store. Yeah, when you're you're in front of fifty thousand plus in Europe, you know, and I was like whoa. I mean, I was, you know, putting it bluntly. I was a rock star in Europe and unknown in my own country. I was eighteen year old year old and ran against the Russian USA meet and you know, my first time even in high school, the international prep meet at in Champagne. Not Champagne, but it was in Chicago and people from all around the world, Australia, everywhere.

And that was my first taste of running international competition, even though it was on US soil um. And then when I ran the US versus U S s R Meet against the Russians, I was just going into my freshman year into my senior in high school. How does track we You know you played, you played for the same Suri school for the Niners. You've lived, You've lived a lot of life. When you go back and think about what you were doing at eighteen your country, represent

your country. And then and then you see what college kids are doing in basketball and football, you would assume and think that, you know, being on that stage and how how glorified highlight hoops on Instagram all that stuff. But you're doing some things that you were doing this before the Lebron became Lebron. Oh yeah, I mean, it's so it's so funny. I always tell people because you know, all the people always want to know what you did

at what age. And I always tell everybody that don't follow my path because only God knows my path and bless me with my gift. Because uh, my high school, my ninth grades was in my junior high school, so I didn't go to high school until tenth grade. That

started high school. And in my tenth grade year, I was at Hotshot Junior High kick coming to high school, and I got hurt during winter track running a shuttle hurdle relay ripped the bone, the muscle right off the bone and my hamstring and I did not run again until spring of junior year. It wasn't until we got found the Jets orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed my injury. So from tenth grade until springtime junior year was the first time I was able to run in high school and

the first time I ran in high school. That season, I tied the state record and around thirteen six hur in the hurdles. And then my second year running in high school, which is year yeah high hurdle, I broke the national record and ran twelve nine coming off of the major Yeah yeah, I was five five nine, But but I did gymnastics and all that I mean, we did cross training before it was officially acknowledged as cross training. We did all these different sports. So gymnastics giving me

core strength and flexibility. I could do a Russian split, you know I had. I had a thirty five in seeing thirty four and a half inch in seems. So I was long legged, short short torso and so that was ideal for the hurdles and um, yeah, So I had a year and a half in high school and then a year and a half I ran thirteen six and twelve nine. So I broke the national record and broke all these records. And so when I tell people, don't use my chronology because it doesn't make sense. You know,

I ran, check this out. I ran fifteen three in ninth grade galloping three step hurdles. Then I got hurt, and then I ran thirteen six and twelve nine. So I always tell people that's God intervening in my life, saying you know, and knowing how badly I wanted it. And then my greatest gift, guys, And I tell people this all the time. I had this uncanny ability to

take words and put them into imagery. So my coaches were always older than me, and they couldn't do what they were asking me to do because they were older and they want the athlete that I was. But I could take the words and turn them into visual images, meditate on those in my head, and either right then, within five minutes or the next day, replicate what they

said exactly, and I can make these adjustments. And they used to tell me all the time, I don't know how you can do this, but I said, your words are images to me. I see it. But I was. I loved hurtling. I came alive with hurling. I could sprint, but hurling was it just it was a rush that I couldn't explain going over something, you know, being imbalanced for a few hundreds of a second and still coming back down on the other side and continue to run and pull away from people. That was man, How did

you get into hurley? Is it something that a coach suggested to you? Is it something that you just saw emulated. We had a split rail fence around our home. We lived on a corner, and I was always running and jumping over the fence, you know, running from my friends,

my brothers and everybody. And then one day in nineteen seventy, I had the TV on and Rod Millburn was running over the hurdles and it's the first time I saw something that was similar to what I was doing, and it was called the hurdles, and I was like, oh my god, they actually have an event like this. I can do this. And I was just engrossed in it and watched his brother just do his thing, and I said,

That's what I'm gonna do. And then in ninth grade, everybody was afraid to hurdle and I was the only one that stood up. I'll try it because I had done it all the time, so it wasn't something that was foreign to me. I didn't know how to do it in a actual track environment, but I knew I ran and jumped all the time, so I said, I'll try that looks like what I do at home. Please tell me and describe for us the difference between football speed and world class speed. Because you hear tore Hell

he's world class speed. He was going one miles per hour. But football speed and track speed, it's totally different. I feel. Track speed is that that speed where you get scared. You don't know who it is, so you just take off and then when you turn around you realize you didn't hit a gear that you've never experienced before. It's it's funny you say that to you, because I used to tell people when I used to race over hurdles.

I always told myself while racing, there's no a lot that someone was coming to get me, coming to get me, and I run like a bat out of hell. I was surprised myself. You know that I ran so hard, and but yeah, it's I don't mean to insult any but but I'm so tired over talk. Let me sit back, saying, back in the chair, buckle up, Schmidt, whether it's r G three or whoever has world class speed. I said, you don't even know what world class speed is. You've never even seen it. It would blow your mind if

you saw world class speed. Football speed is functional speed. You're you're quick for ten yards because you do ten series of tenure bursts, but you can't sustain that that top end speed for sixty seventy meters. And for instance, So I list a couple of world class guys Willie Galt, James jett Ron Brown. I give Terry kill Uh, James Trapp, James Jett James Jette. I'll even put an asterisk by Darryl Green during my day because Daryl could run. Yeah,

he can run rocket Ishmael remember him. Yeah, everybody else is quick. But let me just let me just show you something. So for forty yards, right, for forty yards in my best day, forty yards, I ran, uh four four forty over hurdles yards yards four four over obstacles, over obstacles, come hurdles. And I wasn't even the fastest guy out there. No though, are you fibbing to me, sir? No?

Fourth over? So you tell them forty Are you telling me that these dudes that go to combine, these young punks, these young well young whippers snappers, young, yes, and in shorts, spend that in a T shirt and who clicks? Those guys are running flying down there, and you telling me you a gallivanting Yes, sir, that's will go, will go vouch for it. He was a victim of it right on his campus. Did you say a victim? Yes, you

put that smoke dog. Yes. Hey, remember two years ago at the super Bowl when U boat ran boat ran forty right basically in the street clothes with some flats on and he ran four to some flippity flops. Yeah, he's just standing there with jeans on to some Jesus sandals, you know, Christian Coleman. These guys can run three eight b three eight three eight. They can fly. So when I tell people, if you want to really see world class speak, come to attract me and watch these brothers

and sisters coming by you. They're picking them up and putting them down. The difference is that track guys know how to run. Football guys look like they're running fast because they've got so much energy going all over the place, so much force wasted, wasted, movement wasted. I remember, this is no lie. I'm not saying. Nothing you're saying is

a lot. I just like Joe Montana and Bill Walsh had me run five to six yards farther almost every route because Joe said it always looked like I wasn't running and when he throw the ball, I was gone. And I said, that's because I know how to run, and when you know how to run, its effortless. He was used to seeing all that armed motion and herky jerky stuff, and he just thought you were running fast. And he's a skeeter. They called me Skeeter hes and

it looked like you just striding. And I throw the ball and it's like four yards behind you, and I go, you gotta throw it sooner. Man, You can't wait till I get past somebody. I'm gonna get past them. If you wait, you can't reach me. You were out running Joe Montana's past. Oh yeah, So my ten to twelve yard outs had to be fourteen and fifteen at my eighteen to twenty yard digs had to be twenty four yards. Hey, Cadillac, are you Cadillac turning it though? Because when you get going,

so I ran. Try when you get going, it's gone. You can't stop. You can't be pit a pattern. And Mr drummer boy, you gotta gotta lack turn, Yeah you do. Because they called me noodles because I remember my first year, I'd be running so fast, I like blow a tire out and fall, you know, and football you gotta have a wider base, right, And I like, ruh, we don't run like that. We don't run white leg. We run vertically. And he says, yeah, but you never you can't turn

like that because you're running too fast. You're that skateboard, hit that rock, hit that rock. So I had to learn how to run wider to be able to, you know, to control that speed, because if I use my speed, it was too much. You know, I just couldn't come out of your break. You can't come out of your breaking in. That's how, that's how the corner he closes on you. But because you have to and when you're running that fast, you have to have wasted movement to

be able to slow down. Because if you don't slow down and don't have that wasted movement, you know who's right, You know who makes you slow down? It's three syllables, A C, we'll make you slow down. They take you out the game on a car. You can't put that kind of force on a cut. It's gone. You're leaving on the ground. So it was so I had to. Yeah, I had to slow down so much before I could ever do that, which was frustrating because I'm so used to just taken off and you've got too much power.

You can't do that, you blow out everything. I think it's about that time, just so we'll take a little breathing. Good do good, let's getting down to do it. Good. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You mean, oh, yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. Many athletes missed the operat tunity to

participate in Olympics this year. You've seen you had the opportunity in nineteen eighty Olympics in Moscow, you missed it. Take us through that process and then I follow up after that, because I think it's extremely interesting. The Olympics are only every four years, and now now discovering they are eighteen to you know, twenty one or something events opportunities for track and field that I didn't know about. So I was just kind of thinking that I being ignorant,

which is lack of knowledge. I didn't know that they had the opportunity other than what I've seen on the Diamond Club, you know, watching that on television. I didn't really know that it was so many more opportunities, and no matter what level it is to run track, I just all assume I assume that they just they just practiced four years. They just they just actressive for this whole time. Yeah. No, um So, first of all, I don't know if you knew this track and field has

been professional since nineteen eighties. Are It's been the worst best known secret in the world. I remember before I came to the Niners, I was at the Superstars and Dwight Clark was there. There was a year of the Catch and Chris Collinsworth was there that they're the ones who had a conversation with me about playing football, And I remember Chris collins Worth said to me, man, you seem like a bright guy. You've got a lot of talent. Why are you wasting your time running track? You're not

making any money. So I said, arrogantly, I said, Chris, how much money do you make playing football? He was making sixty thousand a year, and I said, I make more than you, and he goes, what I go, I make more than you. My My Puma contract was a k back then, and he's just looking at me. I said, I'm not as dumb as I look. I said, I don't just run around as old for nothing. I do. I have sponsors, I get paid. And he's like, what I said, yeah, I said, but everybody thinks we're a

one in four year kind of sport. I said, no, I'm running all around the world, you know, I got all these and he's like, wow, I didn't know that. So since sport has been been uh professional, and guys and some girls have maken seven figures since that time. Not everybody only top, you know, but at least it

was it started to afford itself an avenue comes. Man, I'm pissed because they're talking about this boycott and I've been busting my hump and my only chance for you know, Wheat's boxes and Sports Illustrated covers and potential sponsorship revenue is going to be in Olympic games. And now Jimmy Carter is threatening the boycott. So I'm training because hoping

that we'll still go. You gotta go to Olympic trials because if they don't boycott and you don't go to Olympic trials, you're not on the team no matter what. So I'm training in Vain. And why is the Olympic trials important? Because if they lift the boycott and you don't go to Olympic trials, you're not on the team. The Olympic Trials to take the top three. So I'm thinking to myself, just like you're saying, why are we

having Olympic trials if we're boycotting. So in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, well, maybe we're having the trials in case the boycott is lifted in time to go that we have field of the team. So I said, okay, I'm gonna be ready on top of that at insulted injury. Remember the miracle on ice, Yes, there only and these guys that happened the winter of nineteen. So I'm sitting after going they let the l winter Olympians go, maybe we're don't get to go. They don't let us go. Well, well,

what do most winter Olympians look like? Hm? And what the most summer Olympians stuff? That's all. That's all I was thinking about it. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, this ain't even right. I know, the sun ain't shining out brightly in the wintertime, but got dog, this is blatant. You let them go, but don't let us go. So now I'm just I'm just distraught. I want, you know,

I want nothing else to do. And then I already know that the Soviet block in the Eastern Bloc countries was talking about retaliating in when the Olympic Games have been awarded to Los Angeles. So here I am thinking, I dug it. I might be training another four years for nothing if there's another boycott. So I'm like, I

can't you know, I gotta do something. So I always tell everybody the forty Niners saved my athlete of career at that point because in track was not pro the money that I was earning I had to have in a trust fund. That was the other obstacle I had to go through. So all I have money I talked about with Puma and all that it had to be put in the trust fund I had. I had to have my bank trustee okay, receipts, whether it was my apartment bills or whatever, it was, card notes, whatever, to

advance me the money to pay those. I couldn't just take the hunt in tars. So that was being regulated monitored um. And so when the Niners came about, and then Bill Walsh being a fan track fan, knowing that if I signed a pro football contract based on the rules, They're gonna ban me from track. So Bill Walsh did me a favor by guaranteeing me my entire contract. That

way he said, and he said it bunt me. He says, listen, I want you to do well, but if in case it doesn't work out here, you'll have some time to get on your feet and find a job. And so I appreciated him respecting what I was giving up to play the game in case it didn't work out, and so he guaranteed my entire contract. And so that's that saved my athletic career at that time because I had just graduated the University of Maryland, and what was most

college graduates want a job. I wasn't trying to retire. I was only years old at the time, but you know, there was no real future ahead of me and track and feel professionally at that time as I knew it. So now I had a asked to play professional football. Remember I grew up playing football. I love football. I said, okay, I can still be an athlete now and still, you know,

do what I want to do. And so the minute I signed, they banned me from track and field, and those assholes within a year decided to make the pro sport the pro the sport Pro and then then they blocked me out and I had to go to court for four years fighting them in court to get my reinstatement. That was the delay, and you getting back into your career wasn't necessarily the football. It was the fact that they blocked you from participating. Yeah, because I trained every

off season. I was ready to go back, and you know, the summer of eighty two, like in the off season, I was going to run if I could, and uh, but I couldn't because I was banned at that time. So it was when the at that time, the IF International Athletic associated and came to me and said, if you drop your lawsuit, we'll let you back in. And I was like, it's that simple. Then it cost me several hundred thousands of dollars all this time, and all

you want me to do is dropped the lawsuit. Well, they wanted me to drop it because now it was costing them money and the money I was making from the Niners was helping me fund the lawsuit. So you played with the Niners and then you returned back to track. How was that transition in terms of preparing your body, taking a different type of um wear and tear on your body. How was that transition going back to trek. It wasn't a good transition because I had to gain

twenty two pounds to play with the Niners. Remember Steve knows this. The Niners were possession passing team when hours with them, so everything was ten and twelve yards. You know. I was the experiment as far as the long ball, and I came into the Niners. I wait, a hundred sixty nine pounds, so can wet And Bill Wall said,

you can't play less than a five pounds what? So I had to get out of shape to gain that weight because you know, Steve, pounds and pads and camp and all that, you're not gonna keep any weight on. So I had to be what a nutrition is weekly, looking at my my weight, my diet, eating all this crap. And you know, I got up to four but I lost a lot of my innate quickness. Most people didn't see it, but I knew it um and yeah, it

reshaped my body. And then my first race back in six in via Reggio, Italy, I ruptured my achilles tendon because I had too much weight running. You know, all that force on the back of the heel and like the six or seven. Now I wonder to raise believe this, I ran and I wanted to raise. I limped across the line and I didn't run again. That was it one and done. And I had all this money, twenty plus thousand dollars a race waiting for me, and I couldn't.

I couldn't collect past one race. I was sick. When you were running, it was still considered a very isolated sport for the individual running. How did you cope with performing good and bad m and then only really having to go back to your room and it was just you? Like, how did you process that alone time? The disappointment that individualized? Yeah,

the highs and lows? Like, I guess, how was your mental health in the top, in the performance, good or bad, of each event, being across the world by yourself, from your family, from your wife, from your friends, from you know, just it's just you, right, So this made me chuckling out, got ready to say that I'm gonna say it anyway, the line, I don't mean the brag, I don't mean the boast. I didn't lose that much, you know that often maybe three or four times total. So, but my

training at home, I trained to break world records. So I was. I was breaking world records in practice, and I did it enough times. We were I was trained in condition. I was like a robot. I guess the training condition, and all I had to do was run practice, and I was okay, meaning that if I could run thirteen flout of better in practice, and at that time,

no one in the world could run that. But me then named too many people going to be at the finish line at that time but me, so short of me making a mistake, the closest they would be to me, probably the first three hurdles, four hurdles, and then I

would start to separate myself. The times that I did lose, it wasn't so much that someone was better than me, is that I was cocky enough that I wasn't training and I was doing a Dwayne Haskins back in that day, relatively speaking, not not clubs, hooking up with the college girls, you know, having fun and just thinking I'm okay. And then I get there and some you know, Greg Fosters on his A game, and then I make a mistake and then Greg, you know, beast me off the last

two hurdles. Um, so what I would do. When I did lose, it wasn't a very comfortable time. I wasn't fun to be around. I wouldn't I wouldn't out at the club that night. I wouldn't hanging out with the guy. I would be pissed. I mean pissed. I took it personally, and I couldn't wait to get back on the track to correct the error. So I get on the phone. I called my coach, because you know, we didn't bring coaches over. You know, they sent us on our way and you had to do it yourself. And I called

my coach and I talked to him. And one of the things that that I was trained to do was I had to be aware of what I was doing over every hurdle, because my coach would always ask me when a mistake happened, where did it happen, And if I was not in touch with what I was doing, he always said that then you can't make a correction at some point in the race if you're oblivious to

what you're doing. Yes, you gotta run fast, but you've gotta be aware of what's happening so that you can make the adjustment when it happens, you know, So well, I'd run a race and my coaches see it and eagle, So tell me what happened over number three or number five, and I better know what you know what happened, Otherwise you're gonna say you don't even know what you're doing. You're just out there running. You have to have complete

control of the race. You make a mistake over the second hurdle, when can you correct it the fourth hurdle? Why third hurdles too fast? It's a second or less. You can't. We can't respond that quickly. You can only respond by the two hurdles later. So we learned how to make those adjustments so that because most people, if they make a mistake, they try to make an adjustment right now, and then they make another mistake. So we we learned, Okay, that was a mistake. Okay, get to

the hurdle. Now corrected. So he wanted me conscious and cognizant of what I was doing at all time. So I go back, I get on the phone to him, and I could tell him exactly what happened. If if someone if it was on ABC Wild with the Sports, he'd wait till it came on that weekend and he'd match it up to what I was saying, and then, you know, we try to make that correction. But most of the time, Steve, it was because of my own arrogance. You know, I just thought I get to show up

and these guys are gonna fold like a tent. And then every now and then some guy would run really well, and then I'd make an untimely mistake. Whatnot. They could beat me, but they beat me on that day, Ronaldo. The last segment we have is called the Deep three, and it's three questions to go beyond who you were as a track star, beyond who you were on the track or even on the football field. So Smitty and

give him the first question of Deep three. With all the wonderful things that you've been able to do, travel all all around the world, um now being an agent to some of the world's best track athletes, men and women, having a wonderful wife and and and your girls, one of them being a surgeon. Are there any regrets that you have that when you look back on your life.

I have yes, Yes, in all honesty, I have one regret is that I never had a chance two really see what my full potential could have been in the hurdle race. And I only say that because I'm reminded constantly, you know, with the world record today being broken and before all the advanced technology that you know, the lighter hurdles, the faster tracks that I didn't have to run on. Had things been different, the world could have gotten to see what I really could have done in that hurdle race.

Because I ran twelve ninety three. You know, as a as a twenty two year old, I never even the world never saw me in my prime, and I just wished that, you know, if there weren't for boycotts and other things, the world, you know, I could even I could have really challenged to see what I could have done. I honestly believe and most people agree with me that I probably would have run twelve seven something based on all the things that are out there. But yeah, so

that's my only regret. It's not something that you know, you can't change time, but the circumstances of the time, I would still do the same thing. I would still go on to play pro football because they gave me a chance to continue to be a professional athlete and get paid as opposed to not getting paid. But I think, you know, I had to sport turn pro. You know, two years before I went to the Niners, I would

have never played professional football. But I don't regret that because I have a Super Bowl ring, I caught touchdown passes from Joe Montana, I had some great lifelong friends from the Fort and so and so. It's it's it's a part of me that I'm I'm proud of. However, however long or short, some might you know see it. Are there any milestones personally or professionally that are stealing your bucket list to achieve milestones? M no, And I'll say this, you know, for the record, for the second

time to outside of my family. I went to the University of Maryland because they offered me an athletic scholarship, and my ninth grade track coach said, you know, if you train hard enough, you might get it, or an athletic scholarship to go to college. All that was important to me at that time was trying to make my parents proud by going to school to get an education. I didn't know that track was even a pro sport because it wasn't at the time, or whatever, be your

pro sport, and I wasn't pursuing professional football. You know, I didn't have aspirations at that time. I love book ball, but I never saw myself that way. So um no, the I'm grateful that the ninth grade math he just saw something in me before I did. That sparked whatever was inside of me too to be able to tell the story today. I've heard this. Well now you don't know,

but here on cut to it. I talked about, you know, I've started running and I've experienced a lot of treadmill and this treadmill it's taught me a lot about life, more than I've realized. And on one of these one of the have a Peloton treadmill. So the guys talk and one of my Peloton bike man. So I was running and the guy said and training. He said, you're gonna hit mountains. He said this, which I've never heard, and I've been holding onto it tross. Okay, so you've

been to the mountain town. But what has been some troughs that you've hit that none of the mountaintop experiences has been able to teach you the way that the truth experience has. The trough was that I learned when I in my my second marriage, which was when I was coming back and I wasn't number one in the world anymore. You know, I got up to number two, but I wasn't number one. And one of my greatest fears slash insecurities, was what people still like me if

I wasn't winning. And I remember my wife said, I will still love you, m and so that took away that troth that you're speaking of, where it took away everything. It was those simple things that from the mouth of someone who really didn't even know the professional athletic world. All that mattered to her is that, you know, she would still love me. And I wasn't gonna die if I didn't win a race, and I would still beloved.

And I held onto that, you know, because that meant more to me than anything at that particular time, you know, not getting ahead of myself thinking I was, you know, the great Ronaldo and the m I or world record holder. It didn't matter at that point. It meant that when I came home, my peace of mind was that I

was in a loving environment. And that's all that ever mattered to me, because um Steve, I never I never had to watch TV or even read papers about what I did because I lived it, and so when people were talking about did you see this, you see that, I'd say no, and you didn't see what they wrote It was a great article, and I said it didn't get it, could never get better better than being there when it happened, And they're like what I said. I

lived every second of it. I was in it. And so when the race was over and the euphoria died down, I wanted to get back to normal as quickly as possible. As much as I understood my feet were gout garnering attention. I was most comfortable with regular folk, my friends. I have friends that are, you know, former professional athlete, but my key nucleus of friends just regular folk, regular job people, you know, because they kept me grounded. They weren't me,

and I didn't think I was anything special. Yes I did something on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but I wasn't any better than any of them. So they helped keep me grounded and kept me, keep me in touch with reality, what the world was. And so my few seconds of fame, that's all they were to me. You know,

I lived it. I benefited from them, but bro I just always wanted to keep my feet on the ground because everybody didn't have that experience, and so I never wanted to elevate myself like I was above them or better than them. You know, I was one of them. You know. It's like, you know, your boys, they were my boys and they're always gonna be my boys. And it didn't matter that I happened to be a world record holder or forty niner at the time, I was

still skeeets to them. And uh so That's that's something I've always held onto. It's like, and I get embarrassed when people start propping me up that you did this and you did that, because I don't like people talking about me for an extended period of time. I have friends with me and they're not saying anything to them, and I'm like, oh man, I feel for them because somebody's acting like they're invisible. So I you know, I was pushed the conversation away and talk about something else

because I already lived it. You know, I don't need you know, I don't need the extra attention anymore. I'm thankful what I did. I'm blessed by what I've done. I hope that I left my mark on many people, not so much the game itself, but how I played it, and and now all I'm trying to do right now is is paid forward. Have needs kids to understand that, Yeah, you know you've been giving a lot today and make it, make it count because when it's over, there's no reduce. Well,

we're not always and the privilege. Likewise, my friend, it's an honor. Brother. You are a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent and most of all your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singior, I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect

and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fuscy, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with

production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, the lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all