Wow wow, you know.
Hey man, Welcome everybody. It's Tuesday, August thirteen, twenty twenty four. Welcome to the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by Spartan Dogs. This is Sparta and Man, I'm your host, Jason straight Horned Law, my co host, Centric.
Swerve and Irvin. Oh look extra today you feel soon I get closer and close to the football. Is my favorite time of the year.
Straight yeah, it is.
My favorite time yours and my favorite time of the year. And you're not kidding. Don't forget the files on all of our social media platforms at this is spart of MSU. Don't forget to click the liking, subscribe buttons at let us know where you're watching from.
Please do that. We love seeing people.
Obviously Woody Carr in the house from Hawaii, a lot of Spartsan now see lands in the house. That is that brighton Michigan. I see Brighton Michigan as well. Swerve, you said it seventeen days. Man, until we get to be in that stadium, brother one more time, fau get to be in the booth with my man George right one.
What I love to do, what everybody loves to do.
Is watch a spartan football game. But I'm blessed to have the opportunity to call the football games. Swerve, you're gonna be in the house too.
Now straight.
The good thing about what I learned about going with the game with you and I go up there in the boot man the sweet food for free.
Oh, I can't wait, man. They eat so good up there.
It's so different when you different than the food down when the other people sitting down. I get to be up there with the the suburb people.
Man, eat good. Straight, I can't wait the suburb people. Oh yeah, man, you know you know boy Rev. You know he gets you right.
Oh, all the grass being swerved, got the sunglasses on everything.
Oh man, I just can't wait. Straight I'm talking about they eat good. They gotta pillay me young. They got the good dip in there with the with the nice tortedos. They got the good hot dogs, the chunky hot dogs, not the little skinny hot dogs. Man, thew eat food is so great. I can't wait, brother, and is free.
You can't you can't beat free if for me all day long?
Speaking of that, I mean, you know, so we got the game on August thirty, as everybody knows seventeen seventeen days away, we're gonna call the game. See Michigan State go out to a nice victory for Jonathan Smith's first victory as an MSU head football coach.
You don't see all kinds of highlights.
I know we're gonna be talking about it because the next day we got a big time event. Brother, we're gonna announce it right here, and that's gonna be joining us for Saturday, August thirty first at the McDonald's on sagging On Highway. Here it is right here, forty fifteen West Sagona Highway. That's John Campbell's new operator owner over there. Former Spartan Dog right there, who's gonna be doing a fundraiser.
To help support Marion Smith and his family.
As you know, if you haven't heard the news, his mother, Gala, unfortunately passed last Thursday. While we were talking about it on the show a little bit didn't know exactly what the stage was, but she did in fact past. The funeral arrangements will be talked about here. In the next couple of days. We'll push it out on social media platforms, but swear we're gonna be there. He's gonna have a
lot of players, current and former players there. Basketball gonna be in the house, but we got Aiden Childs, he's The confirmed players were Aiden Childs, Jordan Hall, Nick marsh and Dylan Tatum. Definitely gonna be in the house. We might get Sparty and all kinds of things going off for this one.
Okay, So I know Aiden child say he's gonna buy me a big meg meal. Jordan Hall, Okay, I can get a couple of dollars from Nick Marshall to you know, it's all about they gotta take care of Og. They called me Og. Okay, I let the O g Leffis Wyley. We had to bring your while for this one. And then I just went by McDonald's right and they got they you can get You can get forty nuggets for
ten dollars. You mean to tell me, Nick, they can't put two three dollars together and get the ol G some forty nuggets.
That's all I need. I'm good for two hours.
For two hours, We're gonna have to go longer than that because we got to work. We're gonna do a live taping the show. We're gonna do some interviews and man, I don't want to see you in the Ronald McDonald out there, but we're gonna have you know, we're gonna have some fun with it out here. Everybody's welcome to join in all the proceeds. You know, as we showed there in the edit, the graphic will be going towards Amaron Smithon's family. Remember six kids, you know, Gayala had six.
Amaron is the oldest of six and there's five siblings now that he's gonna have to take care of going forward. So we're gonna do everything we can to help him. Uh, any spartan dog that's in need, we are all gonna rally and support him. So happy to see the numbers are growing and it's go fund me. There is a link to that. QR code is in the graphic that we just showed. If you have any other questions about that, please you know, check our media platforms. We have it
all there. But swear we may go to make sure people got their ship together. You got you got to get your ship. I mean, if you ship together, you have to. You got to get your ship together. Attention all business owners, time to get your shipped together. Here's a message from gray Matter Exchange do.
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A stray uh since they talking about getting your ship I mean sh get your shipped together. I know it's gonna be a bad time, but I know we talked a couple of shows ago about me asking about the money I donated.
You think that still be Wait after the first game or no, we can't do it.
Maybe maybe after the first game in twenty thirty five you can talk about it.
No, no, no, no, straight Listen, listen, listen, you lost yours, I lost mind.
You know what I mean?
We cry, we get over boom boom by the end of the day. I need I think I'm gonna need that little five hundred facts.
It amazes me that some guy sits in his basement, probably in his mom's house, probably in his underwear, probably overweight, and he puts something on the Internet and anybody cares about what he thinks.
It amazes me.
I love that Okay, Well, I'm sorry, I won't. I just asked, you know what tell you? And people don't don't go with me. I'm sorry, But when the CTE kick in, I have to ask a certain questions that comes back that I forget about the situation. And then I just asked because it's in my mind. But then it's not the right time. But I just I just want to know because I did donate it, and nobody don't know. It could have been my last. But you know, once it's over and everything's going, we get back.
We let it go, We let it go, We let the Lord take care of the rest.
Okay, get back asking for it, so as I should ask God for it, then ask God.
That's right called God.
Gave it to me that I was able to give to someone out because they say, once you give, you should be giving back.
But don't worry about don't worry about don't don't worry about it. They'll come back to you in another way, one way or another.
Don't worry.
Get your ship together. Maybe they can get that. If people get that ship together, say I can get his money back. All right, now here we go here, there's are you shipping profit? Out the doors.
I like this. See here's a nice little free instant audit.
There's an app great manic Chase dot com slash perspectus call Great Matter Exchange two four eight six three three and it just went away, I mean real quick.
But you saw it right there.
They player six three three six eight five one two four eight six three three six eight five to one for Great Matter Exchange.
Swerve. We gotta talk about a.
Young man that is signed, an incoming freshman that plays on the tennis team that just won the boys USTA Boys eighteams national title to earn a spot in the US Open.
Brother.
Hey, the thing that I'm learning about this tennis over the last four months is Michigan State Tennis is something to be.
Wrecking with straight. I mean, we we We're gonna have a hell.
Of a tennis team, you know, and you know, and that's something I would love to support. And now the school to support. I know the facility is not the best, but the product that they're getting in putting out, Oh man, you'll think they got the best facilities, but they got the best players right now and they kicking their so let's ship it to them.
Yeah, it's speaking of tennis. There's another player. Uh, let's bring this up that had some honors over the weekend. So it's if M fifteen. I don't know what that is, but he was a champ. Aristotleus Thanos best name in college sports, hands down. He's Greek, he's a Spartan and he's a champ.
That last name, I think that means like like like like like in my turns in African turns me like Mandingo warrior Stanos. It's like equipment. You see that equivalent I'm learning for Listen. Yeah, yeah, you know, because last week it was moneytized. Now is equilivent. You know that last name is Equilivent. Took me from my tribe out in Zuluma. It's Mandingo warrior.
All right, man, Well we're talking about tribes. Michigan State Basket is over there in Europe right now. Spartan's in Spain. They took off earlier the day they're on the flight over there.
Uh so you have.
Three games Madrid, Milencia and Barcelona on the fifteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth respectively.
Basketball.
Go hey, man, they gonna get it in over there, and there's some good basketball over there as we saw in the Olympics.
Yeah, talking about the Olympics, Uh, you know, shout out to the USA and the women and the men coming with the gold.
I saw the four by four they got the gold even with the both me and the women. And then also the little eighth not even eighteen. I think he's sixteen.
Yeah, the youngest the able get a gold man. Magine going back to school. You just youre just on national TV.
You know you you you.
You over yoned over there in Paris, the camera on you, and now you got to go back to school. A man, what can you tell a kiddler and teacher? Come on, I'm not doing work for the first nine weeks.
I don't think he's gonna do too much work with that kind of promise ahead of him.
But swerve.
Talking about the promise ahead, we need to see what happened with your drone. Man, Your drone been all over the country lately. Let's see, I got to.
Get ready for this.
I gotta show you.
All right, so when I do my drones, raight, chake me out. I got to use this. And then I got my piece down here that I was showing you guys about. Right this This is how I controlled my drone and I got a camera right here that I look and I can.
I can do it all.
My guy told me if I lose forty pounds, they're working on a thing where I can get hooked up to the drone and it can take me to where I want to go.
Oh man, that'd be careful. Man, Is that is that certified? I don't know, but I'm willing to try.
I told him I was on the Mama Hall diet, but I don't know if I could ever get to forded that that that shit probably won't go. Yeah, yeah, but if not, I got it right here. And this is what happened. Right, So I flewid to East Lanson, right because I see why coach got his practice in scrimmages.
Uh uh close, because man, he cooking up something. You know they did.
They did the move the field, you know, the offense. You know it was fifty to fifty offense, made some plays. We got some first down deepense stops on the couple third down.
Then we went to the red zone and one of.
The receivers had a quick little injury and so I didn't want to see much. So what I did straight was I got back on my thing, right, and I flew it back down.
To Boca in Florida. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had.
You know, I'm one of those. I didn't do the um thing because I'm not you know, I'm not one of those. I just stayed. I just I just that dude from my Michigan state. The whole game, I just was there for like seven minutes. I just wanted to see the movement, wanted to see the body types and things like that. They they got some athletes, raight, they got. I don't think they're gonna be four in eight this year like there was last year. I saw the defense,
defense running around they got. They got a good freshman safety out there. They got a hell of a running back that was running north and south and making people miss. But if I'm coaching like I did coach before, we just got to play big men football, okay, you know, lining those guys up six inches apart and just blast their ass. Got you know, we've got to bullet them, and we gotta send that message to the to whoever next on the schedule.
But they got some athletes.
Yeah, I don't think they'll be four in but I don't think they got enough to beat us, But they looked good for the seven minutes that this up.
And I got a new name for my drum. What's that? You know?
You got death tell you got American Airlines? You got spired in Southwest Frontier. I called my drone air swerve.
All.
I was a little worried. I saw the mind came out in Fau.
We're only favored like by eleven and a half over them, so that that kind of concerned me. But I see why they got some athletes, as you just said over there, you know, coming out of Bocal. But they got to come into Spartan Stadium baby on August thirtieth and seventeen short days. So I think there's gonna be a lot of people in the stands to kind of cheer that new team in this new Jonathan Smith regime off right.
We gotta get them, We gotta get.
Them jumped off to a great start here, and I expect to stay to be packed on that Friday. It's coming up soon. We gotta get to our special guests. Who's waiting Paisley backstage for us? After these messages from our friends over at I Hobby Science five Yellar all you can eat pancakes or back at Eye Help for unlimited time or free with select Humbo purchase only at I Hobby a lot of pancakes for our next guest. I believe the way his physique, you know he did it the right waves.
Bring him in.
Oh man, it's a pleasure to introduce a two time Big Ten All American Office Alignment of the Year. Two times. He's talking about a guy that was the second pick of the draft. Man, but straight, you don't even know he was in the draft with Troy Aikman, Dion Sanders, Barry Sanders, at Waters, and his own teammate Andre Risen. This guy dominated his last two seasons to the point where he took a picture straight, Oh my god, and you see these little things.
I got rady, he got like four of them or one. I thought I had pretty good.
If you get to get the camera, he looked so good on that Sports Illustrated. If it was me, I would have spray painted that on my garage. It would be my screensaver anytime I meet somebody like.
You're talking about a beast man.
I'm proud to say he was a Spartan dog, he was alumni, he was a hell of a player. Man to you guys, he tony man. To me, he tony man.
He was a man child.
Come on in t Man.
Choice this is a spartan.
Man, sir.
Another day. Great to be here to see you guys. That was quite an introduction, Thank you very much.
Man, don't starting dog to a smart dog. Hold, hold on, hold on.
Let's started off like this, T Man. You were seventy nine. Straight Horn was seventy nine, and he probably won't seventy nine because you made the number popular, you made the sec But.
A good thing about it.
He didn't look close to how you look. I mean he he bow legged in one leg, he pitched the toe in another leg, but stood up there. On man, you looked at you.
Look man, I wish we would have played on the same team.
Somebody nobody in the check, somebody in the chest. Say what step in? Now you wanted to play with? I say, okay, listen, this.
Straight Horn was a good football player. You do that. Big something went on the team.
But Tony Man, Tony man bloat that had him and big head ass man, I would have broken the Russian record. Lorenzo White Man, Lorenzo White would have had ship on me about a half bloat that had him Tony Man, big head ass straight.
I would have.
Low White was pretty good.
Now yeah, yeah, shit on me. You can go tell him, I saying.
I'm sure he'll hear it. I was lucky to play with some awesome, awesome football players and how an unbelievable coaching staff, just like everybody on that staff was, you know, looking back, like when you leave, you have really nothing of compared to You're like, yeah, they're coaches. But as you keep going on in life, whether it's football and after football, you start to realize a lot of the stuff that they taught me in college, I've ended up
applying in my life. So you know, it's like you know George and Nick, and you know, you know Buck, Nisram, Morris, Watts, you know, and the list goes on. I mean, I don't want to. I mean, obviously I didn't mention some coaches, but there's too many to mention because there was so many.
Man you talked about, you know, in your relationship with all those coaches, like give us some stories from those coaches back in the daytimes.
And also me and I also tell us which coach you would have wanted to slap the shit out of you can see him again right now.
Man, I'll tell you, uh, you know, I'm not oh man, oh man, look at that. Look at that and seventy pounds beside Nick. He was like, so you better get your ass in that weight room. Oh yeah, he's the reason.
Is he the reason?
Well, you know he made that crystal clear like that's just part of the program, right as far as getting bigger, and you're and you're gonna get bigger as you get the Michigan State and you start following the off season running and everything as you guys know, you know, the off season running was brutal, you know, five and I mean we used to run it. I don't know if Cedric. Cedric's pretty young, so he probably doesn't remember Jennison field House when we used to have to run there in
the morning. I don't know if you it's straight. Did you guys run there? So Jennerson field House is where the basketball team used to play. Yeah, and we used to we used to have to wake up and buck buck Nister Brandow program, and we used to have to get up at five o'clock. We used to like be at Jennison Fieldhouse ready to go full sprint by six am.
And in the winter, I mean it's brutal, right, So we're stretching through snow and tucking through snow and getting there and changing out of our boots and stuff, and you know, I was like, wow, like, this is this is brutal, this is this is big time college football. And uh and you know what was awesome about Buck was he could squeeze every ounce of energy out of you and every bit of effort and all that stuff.
He was.
He was an absolutely awesome coach. I mean there was some I mean, I don't know if I would have said that when I was there, okay, because there was many times I was like cussing under my breath, right, But all that discipline, all that work, you know, translates into not just the football field, but into life, into life, and uh, Buck was a one of a kind. And then you know, when Buck left after three years, my first three years there, a guy named Pat Morris came.
Man.
He had he had left USC and come in.
You know what.
He refined the offensive line, you know, and it was it was a great thing. He refined us. I was bummed out that.
You know.
We went to the Rose Bowl that next year. I was I was bummed out that Buck wasn't part of that. I mean, he although he was part of that because he, you know, shaped us over the first three years that offensive line to become what we are. But he didn't get to go to the Rose Bull So but he was. He was awesome.
Yeah, I remember, we thought Pat Morris, I remember Pat.
Yeah, yeah, I think he was. I don't know how much longer he was there after I had left, but he was there my last two years and he was awesome.
You know.
Coach Beckold was a tight end coach, so we obviously worked real close together because of just the tight ends working with the offensive line. But it was it was awesome. It was awesome. You know when we would be on the offensive field doing team drills or individual at the beginning of practice. You know, Buck was constantly yelling and all this, but it wasn't as bad as like the defensive field and you saw Nick and you could hear Nick yelling at the dvs and we're like, man, we
thought we had it bad with Buck. I mean this coach Saban is like in their grill, So it was it was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy. But I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
Oh man. I mean those days.
I mean, he here always hears stories about Coach Buck and now he you know, had problems with the production in the four hole.
That's one thing that uh friends, the four hole.
Wait straight, they didn't have any problems in the five hole. I'll say that, no problem. I'm going to say that's all.
I'm going to say, none at all. No.
So when you were playing, who was the on the Misister State team? Who was the I guess, the.
Most entertaining, colorful in the locker room?
Oh man, that's a great question because there was more than one. You know, everybody. Everybody was entertaining, sometimes in a different way.
You know.
You know the late great Greg Montgomery was I mean he was hilarious. I mean he was awesome, not only an awesome player, but an awesome guy. And you know his brother also played, you know, Steve played fullback. Greg was awesome. Uh. You know, Andre, who I know you just had a couple of last week or a couple of weeks. Andre. You know, let me just say this before I say Andrea was a prankster, But let me just say this. I can't verify it, But I cannot
deny that Andre came up with Spartan dogs. You know, he's he's doing the copyright on that or claiming it. And I thought to myself when I was watching the podcast the other week, I kind of tilted my head and I said, did he come up with that? Or did I come up with that? No, I'm joking. I'm joking. No, I think I think I think it was Dre. It was Dre or one of the guys, and uh it was uh. You know, Andrea, in his own way was
a prankster. You know, we all. I mean you remember Blake e'swer Yeah, I mean he was a prankster, especially when he took my truck. You know, he borrowed my truck one time. I gave him permission and I said, you know, make sure I get it back by the end of the night. You can't get hold of them.
You know.
It was like m I A missing an action. So the next day he's like, all apologize and I'm like, don't apologize. You just didn't give me my truck back. I need my truck. I needed my truck. So he you know, Blake was was a tough, tough kid. Short guy, right, but he's from Vegas and he was tough and he
wouldn't take any smack from anybody. He was well. We would go out to since you know, Sensations and all places, and he would always you know, we would hang out together and he'd be like, hey, man, if anything happens tonight, you know you got me. You know, you got me covered. And I'm like, yeah, I got you covered. And then I brought him to the Silver Dollar Saloon where we had rock and roll bands and stuff, which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore. But that was a pretty wild place. There
was some pretty crazy times. There was you.
Guys, go the other way, to the other side where me and my well, don't worry about.
What on the side saying yeah, Yeahedric, what are you saying?
That's not what you know? You say up and save up your dollars. No where about we're talking about.
I don't knowstions.
People don't know where that the Sensations is where Harper's is now.
Right, Yeah, it was in the basement and upstairs with Duley's.
Yeah.
I think Cedric's talking about that guy Omar Yeah, yeah, yeah, gentleman. Yeah, he was a good guys. Dude, Yeah he was yeah, yeah, I mean he was all about you know, employment and stuff and the girls they were all going to school, right, they were like collecting money for their education. I've driven, I had driven by the place a few times. I had never gone in th.
That's your story, you sticking to it right right, Hey, Tony Man, you know you appreciate you tuning into the to the podcast and they tell me you're watching today's football too. How would you compare today's football to to your time in playing? Because I thought of you and I knew he was breaking on the show and me and straight some both have kids down at IMG, right, and look at this line six seven three h five three fifteen six six three twenty five six four two ninety five.
I can keep going like that's.
The line that that that these guys down at IMG has for the quarterback and the running back to run after. Like, how can you compare the game to those lines nowadays?
Into your die?
I mean, it's it's as far as the size of the players, you know, I obviously players haven't evolved that much in twenty years, Like where they're averaging three four is taller, and you know forty fifty pounds bigger, and they can still move. I mean that's the key, right, You got to be able to move does a matter of big yr I think it's been the science of nutrition, the best practices as far as you know how to train in the off season, how to train during the season,
and staying on top of all that stuff. You know, make sure you get enough sleep. I mean, these things are all like, all these things are crucial. There's a talk that I give I title it like the spokes in a wheel, and each one of those things is a spoke that makes the whole wheel strong. And if you start eliminating a spoke and say you're only getting now four hours of sleep because your party, it's like the wheel doesn't fall apart, but it's not as strong
as it was. So all those variables of nutrition, sleep, weight training, speed training, position, drill training, you know, off season stuff, all those things matter. I mean film, watching film matters and watching your opponents, studying your a it doing all those things are crucial to make the complete player. So when I you know, when I was at State, it was like, I mean, honestly, it was like lifting. I mean I was like lift as much as you as much weight as you can every time you step
in the gym. And to me, that was like the definition of you know, all out, balls to the walls, like give it everything you got, And it was like that. It was it was a hardcore, you know workout. We might throw in a light workout, but then the next time we would do legs or whatever we were doing, it would be a heavy workout. And in the long run, that's a detriment because now I have, you know, certain
aches and pains that do affect daily life. But you know, look when I was walking onto the second practice at Michigan State, like my fourth fifth year there at camp, It's like I could barely get out of bed. And I was like, and I thought to myself, I'm twenty one years old and I can barely get out of bed. And by the time I warm up, I'm okay. And I'm thinking, obviously there's going to be some issues down the road, but is it worth it? Absolutely so. The
game has changed. The game has changed. What I don't like is, especially in the NFL, the rule changes have protected people too much. Like look at what Jerry Rice did is absolutely phenomenal, and he did it in an era where when you're crossing the middle you could get your head taken off by Steve Atwater or Ronnie Lott or somebody. Now you cannot hit a defenseless receiver. That affects how fast that guy's right, he's not going to get alligator arms, right, he's gonna you know, look, Dre.
I never saw Dre afraid to catch a ball coming across the middle, you know. I mean, he was a tough set of a gun as well as one of the best athletes I've ever seen on the field. But so the game has changed there. And I'm not I'm for the protection of players for their health, but if you really want that, don't play football. You know, I
think you're changing the game too much. And then you know when even when I was in Indianapolis at camp in the mid to late nineties, our first six days we would get like eleven practices in hitting practices of camp, and that was like four or five days before the first preseason game. Now, you know, I envy these guys because I don't think they're allowed to have more inten hitting practices all of camp, you know, over the movie, not even.
Right nowadays, they got you got to have a hat day, you got to have a cool down day.
No more too days. I mean, it's ridiculous.
I hate this so our career, you know, our careers would have lasted longer because of that, because we're not pun But you know, you're also I think you also get certain injuries by not that of having that repetition of hitting. You know, I would come into camp at Michigan State in phenomenal shape, but there was you just couldn't simulate practice. I'd be sucking ara those first couple of practices because you just can't simulate that until you're in it. After a couple a couple of practices, I'd
be fine. But and I think not having that, I think is the effected the game. And uh, you know, me being old school and you know the era I played in, Yeah, I don't like it as much. Is it more exciting because more points get scored? I don't know. I've seen some pretty good, you know, seventeen ten games that were pretty exciting the whole time to watch, you know, So you're right.
I think that they did some some surveys with people, and look, they want more fans. You know, the NFL is they want right, big wide audience and the points is what won. So you know, they took rules against you know, protecting the quarterback and receivers, and they took the defense basically out of the game, just like they've done in basketball. But tell you, one thing that I
have seen was specifically relates to the offensive line. And I mean, I know this, this is something that's near and did in your heart too, said, but they said, that's one position that has not evolved because and we know what you're talking about right now is because of the lack of contact. It's hard to get better at that position when you don't practice it at full speed.
So you know, as you see your your athleticism when you talked about when you were at the combat once you run in the forty by the way.
For four sixty four was my fastest, damn said, I was pulling out. I was pulling away.
I just want to ask a question. I just want to ask him. You can lie. Tony looked good. I mean, he looked good.
He had all this, you know, he had all that he had on the tight Bichael short you know, he looked good, you know, but.
He's not beat me and no race. I don't.
I don't care what you say, whatever you're trying to say, whatever I read, Tony, ain't be me.
And no race, damn I saw that.
I see that the times don't match up. That's all I'm saying, Tony.
What you weigh when you ran that three eighty three eight? You know, if I would have known that we're going to compare traps tonight, I would have were medium.
Shirts of guys like this mediums now.
No. No, we definitely got a guy in the chat. Ain't Steve. That's all he wears every time we see him. Is just keeping.
Our man, our guy right medium. Hey, look your arm flick bigger, right? If you look good, you play good?
Hey, Tony, take me take me through your draft day, right, because I look at that list, man, you're talking about at least four or five, you know, hall of famers.
Take me through your draft.
For four of them, to be specific.
Mike, Look at Mike, Look at Mike.
They ran a four or five eight and and and I had COVID before it was COVID.
Yeah, we had the squish flu. I love it. I love it.
To take me through that draft. Did you know you was going number two? Take me through the whole thing you send down was you at the draft, but to get drafted number two.
Yeah, it was, Uh, green Bay, Like Dallas came out I think two weeks prior and said that they were going to draft Aikman because I think they were already negotiating a contract before they even drafted him. And you know, basically, green Bay came out and said if Dallas thanks Troy, that green Bay is going to take me. And and that's basically what happened. And I at that time, for
nine months, I lived in California. So they flew me to green Bay for the draft and and this was this was kind of like a cool thing that they did. You know, green Bay, the Packers, the organization like first class, and the fans are just unbelievable. Like any stadium we would go do to play, a third of the stadium was Packer fans. And they weren't traveling fans. They were fans that were native to whatever city we were playing.
But on that draft day, they had me from their you know, war room, call New York and call the green Bay Packer desk, and so I have to call them and say, hey, draft me. Okay, So they would then pass the message on to the commissioner and then that's how the draft happened. So it was like one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that you get, and it was I thought it was. I thought it was really cool and always be grateful for that. So you know, when I got to Green Bay, it was,
it was, it was, you know, great. I had a bad attitude, uh, to say the least. It wasn't the place I wanted to go. And unfortunately, because of my bad attitude with the whole thing, you know, I didn't realize how much tradition was wrapped up in Green Bay and what they represented and all this stuff. So, you know, looking back, even not many years later, when I was an indie, looking back at the Packers, I was like, boy, I wish I would have appreciated that a lot more
because that was like an iconic place to play. And but you know, I still have good memories and I have some memories that aren't so good from there. But those bad memories were of you know, my own fault, my eyr boy's fault.
So when you said that you didn't you didn't want to go there?
What what was your idea where's your ideal place landing spot coming out?
Well, I wanted to well, I would say if they said you could play anywhere, I would have said the Raiders because they were in LA at the time. It would have been a big market for advertising. So and then you know, knowing it's a short career, you know, even if you play. You know, I ended up playing seven years. Lucky enough to play seven That's a short
career for anything that you do in life. As far as a career goes, Yeah, I think the average career is two and a half years in the NFL, So I wanted to go somewhere where I could make the biggest impact, not just in football, but in advertising dollars, whatever that may be. And you know what, Green Bay did have good opportunity for that. I just had this sense of if I'm in a bigger city, there's going
to be more opportunity. Whether it was New York, LA, Miami, Dallas what you know, obviously wasn't going to be Dallas, but any big market like that ended up in probably one of the smallest markets, but one of the teams with the richest traditions.
So you always had that marketing maing there We talked about it before. When you're on the show, like as a young little lad watching you, you know, on cover of Sports Illustrating those things, you had that whole thing going way back before your time looking at today's athlete, right, nil is a thing we asked people a lot, like what would your nil value be today if you were playing in Michigan State.
You know, that's a I've pondered that for about a one second because I'm like, I'm like, it would have been awesome. Then I go next, right, like to get back to reality. It's like, you know what it did?
It?
I mean, obviously I probably would have made more money with that than I did in the pros, you know, I mean the way with all the hype, and then you know, being on the cover of Sports Illustrated just launched everything like up to the outer space as far as exposure and as far as media reach. You know, got to go on David Letterman after that, and you know, they asked me to go on David Letterman. I'm in college, I'm like one of my favorite shows at night to
watch with David Letterman. And then like you're on the show, right, and it's like, so it was like surreal, But you know, the nil money would have been nice. You know, I think about this, So I went to the NFL. I was one of the first NFL offensive lineman in the NFL that made a seventh figure base salary, like per year of my contract ten years prior to that in nineteen seventy nine. So think about the Steelers, because they won four Super Bowls in that mid to late part
of the seventies. Like, their average salary on their offensive line and almost all those guys were all pros, was less than one hundred thousand dollars. And you know, inflation didn't Inflation didn't go up that much in ten years, right. I mean, it went up that much in the last four years, but it didn't go up that much in the last ten years.
Right.
I always have to bring politics into it, don't I. Now I need to save space. Now I need to save space. But you know, when you think about that, like the way I looked at it was like the NFL was built on the shoulders or the guys before me and growing up, I mean the Steelers at that
time growing up was one of my favorite teams. So Webster, Mike Webster, course, and you know, all those great offensive linemen they had and defensive linemen, those are the guys I looked up to, and you know, they were only making that much money and they were going through the same stuff we were going through as far as physical you know, practices, if not even more, because they had
equipment that wasn't as good. And when I compare our equipment even in the pros in the late eighties early nineties, the equipment compared now to high school equipment like helmets alone, is just like it's like crazy the difference. Yeah, so you know, now offensive linemen are making you know, backups are making multiple millions a year, and I'm like happy for make as much as you can as long as you can because it ain't gonna last, you know, forever.
But again, inflation didn't go up that much in thirty years, like where it went tenfold, right or twentyfold, But so you know, it was the time, and I kind of feel like I contributed a little bit to breaking that ceiling for making seven figures for an offensive lineman because it was offensive lineman in the NFL. Munnos and I could go down the list, Jackie Slater, just tons of guys that were just awesome players that should have been making that kind of money easily, and you know the
next year, a lot of them did. And at least I tell myself, hopefully I was one of the people that broke that ceiling for them.
I don't think you have to tell yourself. It's a fact everybody you raised the bar offensive Lineman. I mean you threatened to go what you say you're gonna rip my Tyson's head off?
Is that?
What? Don't don't remind him? Well, you know, like Mike Tyson had like really like he was almost unchallenged the whole time at that point. So s I comes out again, another opportunity arises and they say, hey, look, you know, would you would you even consider fighting Mike Tyson? And I'm like, yeah, I'll fight him if the price is right right. So, you know, we negotiated, we got closer
and closer, but we never resolved it. And then I think what it did help was it helped give the packers a nudge to get me signed, and then I signed, and then crazy thing is, and I'm not saying I would have beat him. I probably wouldn't even be here talking to you guys if I thought him I'd be dead, but.
Tell you, Mike would seconds.
I have to agree with you. I have to agree with you. But you know, he lost. He lost the next fight that he fought, and I think it was because he was I mean, he was just he had too many distractions in his life and the other fighters. Mom had passed away the week before, so that kind of gave him my inspiration that he's doing it for mom. And you know, when stuff like that happens, that's why we play the game. You know, anybody can win on any Saturday. Anybody can win in the boxing ring. Anybody
can win in the UFC. There's people that should win. But really anybody can win if they get tagged. You know, you gotta watch out you don't get tagged. But I told Louduva, who had taken me through the boxing workout. He had said, he said, you know, we need nine months of training. He goes, and we can get you ready, and he said, I laughed. He goes, the fight will not last more than three rounds. He said, either he
will kill you or you will kill him. And I told him, and he's those are the two scenarios of game. And I told him, I said, look if he catches me, that's the only way I'm getting knocked out, because if I'm getting my butt kicked, I'm going to pick him up and throw him over the rope and get dequed, right. But I ain't gonna lose, So you know, it's probably you know, it's probably good, like like Cedric was saying, it's probably good that didn't happen because I wouldn't be here on this podcast.
But it was.
It was fun. It's a fun story to talk about because we still talk about it today. You know, there's people that say, were you supposed to fight Tyson? And I'm like, yeah, I was, you know, and it was it was entertaining, it was life has been interesting, to say the least.
It's only what So what what do you got going on right now? Man?
I know, like we're gonna talk about getting you back up to Michisti because I know last year we planned it and then the world blew up and he's.
Lancy, Yeah, I'm gonna get things settled. But what's going on in your life right now?
Just uh grinding away, you know, doing still doing photography, but putting another another iron in the fire for with work. I'm getting involved in in uh in the car industry. And that's a pretty broad thing to say, but I'm getting involved in the car industry as far as dealerships go. That's all I'll elaborate right now. The great thing is that will bring me to Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana probably
this fall, probably October November. Yeah, probably October November, as far as to go there and just to talk to some contacts. So you know, I've got iron in the fire with that. I've got an iron in the fire still with photography, but doing that for twenty years, still doing my public speaking. I just spoke to a special Olympics thing that was going on here about a month ago, you know, Still involved in a lot of that stuff and just trying to trying to physically, you know, repair
all these things. Like you know, it's like if one thing goes wrong and you start getting it fixed, then another thing's going wrong and what is going on here? You know, And I'm like, well, you know, next month will be fifty eight and it's like, well, you know, played football lifted since I was fourteen years old, and these things we'll catch up to you. But I don't
regret any of it was. It was worth all of it, even today when you know first ten minutes, first fifteen minutes of the day are brutal as far as lower back and just body aches and knees and ankles and wrists and elbows. But in spite of my pain, I stay grateful.
Man.
We're grateful to have you man as one of our brothers and a legend in the Green and Whites. Tony, like when you do get into the Midwest. I know you brought up Indiana with the Colts, and yes, we got to get you in East Lands.
Yeah, yeah, for sure this time.
Okay, yeah, you'll be a guest. Cedric's in the booth, you know, call it, you know while what they're calling you. Maybe you can do a quarter for.
Me, Cedric, Do you have like food.
Of the booth? Listen? Tone the listen.
Do I have to buy the food?
No? No, no, no, no, listen, listen, listen, listen. Listen.
When we when we woke up with with straight horn, because straight horn is vi P.
So what I do, no listen.
I'm the background singer because what I realized is enough for everybody. It ain't got to be about me. So I walk behind him. And once he go to sit with Blahah, I walk out and now I become the celebrity and I get older. Blake lay me on. I get the caviar. I get the best deal, the best So the hot dogs like this, not the skinny one, the good hot dog. So you'll be with me, you know what I mean? Your food is.
Early, awesome, awesome. Yeah, I'm I'm excited. I this has been bothered. The swatstake has been bothering me for about two months now, and I think if I didn't mention it, it would it would I just have to express how
I feel. And I think it's because of the George being under George Purlis and Saban and Morris Watts and Buck Nystrom and how they played the game and how they coached the game and and I know this is out of the hands of a lot of people, but when the schedule came out, I was like, obviously that first teams from Florida, but I've never heard of them. And then the third game, I'm like, I've never heard of that team. Why are we playing these teams? And
I know, I know there's revenue business decisions. Look to Michigan status team well, the second That's what I said. The second team is Maryland, right, but the third yeah, yeah, I don't know. I can pronounce it. I can pronounce it. Don't ask me where they are because I'll tell you it's the Continental US. I wouldn't tell you if they were a West Coast East go And I'm not at all throwing shade on those teams in school. I'm just
like we were taught. We were taught if you want to get to be the best, you have to play against the best, right And you know we played again, we would open up with USC, Florida State, Notre Dame. You know, those were all top five, top ten teams in the ranking. And even though sometimes we get our butts kicked, it got us better. So I ask myself, is this game gonna get me better as a player? From a player standpoint, and then from a team perspective,
is this going to get our team better? By playing? As coach Perlis would say, the Sisters are the poor from Detroit, you know, And again that's not throwing any shade on those schools. And I understand there's business decisions to be made with schedules are made, But if they thought that this team, the third team we play, was going to move up in the ranks a couple of years down the road and be in the top ten. I don't know.
We had the Raging Caguns until they backed out. That's why they had the Uh who are they?
Who are the Raging Cagns? Is that l s U?
That's where hey, big hey babe, that's he from l University of Louisiana. Right, Well, well, you.
Know what, Tony Man, I don't know if you look at Vegas like I did, because I put my.
Mortgage already up. They want to win more.
They say four point five games, So for me, I love those first in the third game, yeah, I put.
The whole If I was a betting guy, i'd be all in, right, But look, why are we there to play football? We're there to win and get better. And and again I gotta say this, it's no disrespect to those schools or those players or anything. I just would have to ask myself who's making these decisions? Because I want to be the best team in the in the NCAA. I don't want to be the thirteenth best team and I'll make playoffs.
I want to be the best team I like that. I like the way you think, Tony. You think like a winner and that's why you are who you are. And I hope that that does resonate with sayings everywhere and understand like that's you need that. You do need that iron iron I am. You know, cupcakes don't sharper iron very well.
If we're if we go three and oh in the first three games, do you think we're gonna move up to the top five spots in the country.
No, I don't think so.
Yeah, because they're going to look at strengthly schedule, but.
We gonna get closer to my bit d that's all like win, there we go.
Then the good thing is the fourth game. I got an easy one against the Scarlet Gray. Oh yeah, it is a fourth or fifth?
Yeah.
Yeah. After I saw the third game, I kind of went a little bit blind. I was like, what is going.
On, Tony? I want you to do your research on that thir.
I think. I hope I don't get any emails, you know, and maybe they'll ask me to speak at their commencement next year. I don't think so.
Appreciate you want?
You want something before we let Tony go, man get him out, so you can get ready to that ton.
Do me a favor, send me a copy of that sports illustrated Man, I'm gonna go around say this is my uncle. Man.
You know what I mean, So sign it. Man. It's a total sword man.
I'm gonna hang it up. I'm gonna hang it up with the rest of I need that picture, brother.
Brother, there's a there's a few of those covers on dark boards, you know, but I will I I will send you one. I gotta get one, but I'll send you one. I'll definitely send you one.
My man. I don't appreciate the time, brother.
I appreciate it.
I would love to see. We're gonna keep in touch.
With you, absolutely one hundred. I'm grateful.
I don't think the world's gonna blow up this year, this season, that we're gonna get through without any major issues.
All right, Yeah, but I'm not sure the world they're gonna blow up before they've ember fail.
Political statement another one.
Just saying I'm not gonna say what's gonna happen, power grid, but you know, you just never know what's gonna happen. I'm concerned. I'm very concerned.
Oh my god.
The right great to talk to you guys. Be good, keep on going. All right?
All right, guys, Tony Mandrids, send you something else. Man, what's.
You okay? Man? Whoa hey? Sword? What's your final thoughts? Man?
Because we gotta we gotta talk something before we do that. The T shirts. Man, we have we got a nice new campaign going on for Oar Maria and Smith and his family. All the proceeds, all the proceeds go back to the family and they're go fund of me.
Here it is.
We're proud to announce the purpose in the pain number nineteen collection.
All proceeds go back. So here it is. Nice shirts.
I mean, they're flying off the shelves right now. Be sure to get one of these. You got crop tops for said, real mediums for Steve Smith and his crew. So look, anything you want, man, woman, child and s mediums can get them.
Let's take Let's take it a step father.
Let's say because I ordered my shirt too, and when I get my shirt, I want to take a picture. Let's put it in the chat. Everybody that get a picture, I mean a shirt. Let's order these shirts. Let's get them out. Let's really support and take a picture of it. Put it in the chattel. We'll put it online on the Instagram and just hey, let's let's all support and then again, you know, to my god, Sean, I was only joking about the money.
I had just a joke with me and straight Horn. So but you know, straight.
Horn want to give it to me, I take it, but I'm not like that. It was all a joke, Sean.
That's all it was. Brother, that's it.
I just like this, and I want to bring laughter to the situation guy, because I wish somebody would have brought a little laughter to me with my situation. My mom passed.
That's all, Sean. I love you, Sean, hey, and we love all of you as well. For Cedric from Jason straight Horn. This is part of MSU. Everybody, have a good night, God bless you.
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