Club Shay Shay - Deion Sanders

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Club Shay Shay heads to Boulder, Colorado this week, with Shannon paying a visit to new Colorado HC Deion Sanders for an exclusive interview. Unc x Prime, nothing else to say! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Michael Rapoport, and I have been professionally podcasting for 10 years. The podcast game has changed so much, and if you're looking for the most disruptive podcast in the world,

then subscribe to the I Am Rapaport Stereo Podcast today. We're talking sports, politics, pop culture, entertainment, and anything that catches my attention. Listen to the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, guys. I'm coming to you from Boulder, Colorado, for a very special edition of Club Che Che Shea On The Road with Coach Prime.

You don't want to miss this one. All my life, been grindin' all my life Sacrifice, hustle pay the price Want a slice, got the rollin' dice That's why, all my life, I've been grindin' all my life Man, you love gettin' pampered. I wish I was gettin' pampered. Ain't no pamperin' with eight toes. Man, what a big... Oh, you ain't no good.

See, you ain't no good. You told me we was gonna be serious. I thought you was magic or something. You was just hiding it. Boy, look at him. You my dog, I can't be serious with you before about five, ten minutes. I brought you something.

It ain't gonna kill me, but you gonna bring me something. Yeah. Ooh. I took care of you. I took care of you. You always do. I like this dog. Because I know what it is.

And I think I love the colors. Oh, Jesus. Oh, yes, Lord. Shay Shay, a black and gold dog? Yeah, yeah. Only me and you got a pair of those. You ain't no good, but sometimes you good. Do I take care of my dog?

You do, you do. When do you get the person that has everything? More of everything. It was a rough year last year. Was that the big toe that you injured, that hurt, that really took? I had three surgeries for that. But it was a turf toe, wasn't it?

Turf toe, yeah. That's what started everything. Yeah. My brother had that same injury. Had that same injury. He had surgery, didn't do anything, couldn't do anything. It might be the same. And they told me my foot has been dislocated for 18 years.

So you do this every day? Two or three times a day. I have to. Two or three times a day? Yeah. It started hurting after a few hours. And I have to keep the blood circulating to get movement out of it. So.

Like I can make it through like three quarters of a game. Then after that, I'm on meds and everything. I'm limping. I got a little stroll at the beginning of the game. About a third quarter, I'm limping like crazy. So how long you got to live with this? Forever. I think it's my new normal.

I'm down to like seven pills a day. Right. I was like 30 something pills a day. What? Yeah, yeah. The pain was that bad? Just all, you know, I'm on blood thinners and everything. Oh yeah, yeah, you use blood thinners for the rest of your life.

Oh my God, I get a little cut, it's over. You know the first time I really let people really... I know. ...openly see this. Let me ask you a question. What about that third toe? Did you think about it like, you know, y'all going to straighten it out Why you there? No, I just like that. I know You want to straighten up each other know you know, you know, he's mad. You know, the home is gone. I mean

You probably weigh like a size 11, but you really ate with that if that's okay That'll have a size to have at least two with that toe straight. Not really. No, honestly, I'm a 12 on this side, and I'm 11 on this side. So no more sandals for you, no flip-flops for you, huh? Oh, my bad, Ty. You know what?

I'm tired. You know what? Maybe they'll do a special flip-flop. With a straight face, dog. With a straight face. With a straight face, dog. How you doing? He ain't no good. He ain't no good.

He ain't no good. Who come to visit a man that just just go at my toes? Cause I, cause you know why? Cause you already know if the shoe was on the other foot. Why you have to say the shoe? Oh my bad, my bad! But. But he ain't no good, man.

Man, that's one thing about my homeboy. He gonna be eight toes down for you. I mean, that's it. What's the saying with a 10-0? He, hey, he ride hard. He eight down for you. I'm glad you came to see me, boy, though. Man, you know I had to get up here and see you.

This your old stomach ground right down the street. It is, right down the road, man. Yeah, you ran that. Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Che Che. I am your host, Shannon Sharpe. I'm also the proprietor of Club Che Che, and we're on the road with one of the greatest athletes ever. He's the only player to hit a home run in an MLB game and score a touchdown in an NFL game in the same week. Played in the World Series and a Super Bowl, NFL defensive player of the year in 1994. He's a nine-time first-team All-Pro, eight selections to the Pro Bowl, two-time Super Bowl champ, an all-decade player as a corner and a return guy. The greatest corner,

I repeat, I reiterate, the greatest corner to ever play in the NFL. He's a cultural icon, a Hall of Fame classmate of mine. Got a bunch of names. He's let some of those go. Neon Dion, Primetime. Everybody knows him now as Coach Prime. Coach, how you doing? I'm going to try my best.

There you go. Not to show off. We not going to start this interview off like this. How? We not. We talk every week, like this. How? We not. We talk every week, and you know what it's like. So you expect me to be serious the whole time. Because I know you.

I know, but the cameras ain't on us, dude. You know, we could be us. Okay. Because a lot of times you call me and tell me, man, look, I know you're going to make me laugh, so let's just go ahead and get out of the way. Let's just go ahead and get out of the way. Okay. I'm going to be serious. Okay.

Walking on the field. You're looking, and here we to be serious. Okay. Walking on the field, you're looking and here we are in the locker room. Been a lot of different places. Came upstairs earlier, met you in your office. Has it sunk in yet? No, because we're just closing the chapter of Jackson State. And now we just opened the chapter

of full steam ahead. And it's still, yeah, we was walking in, I think, I don't know what time we got in last night because we flew out right after the game to get here because we had some recruits. And we were walking in, like 12 of us, and I said,

do you understand this is us? This is ours. But we got to make it what we want it to be. It's still, like even in this locker room setting up, I'm looking around like, dang, I didn't see the pictures and the numbers on top of the locker.

Dang, those lockers are big. I'm still in awe of how good God is. Right. Before we move forward to Colorado, let's go back. Let's go to Jackson State. Yesterday, you participated in the Celebration Bowl for the second year in a row. And for the second year in a row, you weren't able to win a great regular season.

You weren't able to like just get it. You were so close. Yeah. What happened yesterday? OK, the first year we got a little too lackadaisical. OK. We were smelling ourselves a little bit, and we got humbled. We did everything right leading up to that.

Right. Great week of practice, great meetings. Great week of practice, meetings, consistently. Guys were really in and out of the hotel. They were concise. There wasn't missing curfew. We just didn't get it done defensively. Right.

That was the thing. You're talking about the number one defense in the FCS, that we just didn't play up to our standards, and we were not disciplined, and we didn't get it done. We tried. God, the offense tried. The offense tried. But special teams as well as defense, and it's a team,

we just didn't get it done. And I'm going forever, remember this. This is the second time we didn't get it done. And I'm going forever remember this. This is the second time we didn't get it done. And that hurts. For me, as an HBCU alum, I want to say thank you. Because you're my friend and even if you weren't my friend,

I want to thank you for the eyeballs that you brought. College game day showed up to Jackson State. Commissioner, and I understand his nephew played on your squad, he showed up to Jackson State. Yes. Commissioner, and I understand his nephew played on your squad. He showed up. You've had so many scouts in and out, week in and week out. Oh, 32, yes.

And the attention that you brought to HBCUs, the way you've leveraged who you are with some of your corporate sponsors. You talk about a Walmart. You talk about an American Airlines. You talk about a Procter & Gamble, you talk about an Under Armour. Nobody has more uniform changes other than Oregon than Jackson State. You did that. You got a good friend of yours, Michael Strahan, to outfit your team so they don't look like an all-tournament team. Some guys would wear a hoodie, some guys would wear a sweatshirt or Jackson State paraphernalia.

When you guys went on the road, everybody slacks. Jackson State, everything. Looking professional. So I want to say thank you for what you've done. I'm not criticizing. And a lot of times we start to criticize for what someone didn't do. But they forget all the great things that you did do. When you heard the criticism that was coming, you were leaving what went through your

mind people are hurt and when people are hurt oftentimes their first response isn't the response that should be given okay they say things out of emotions and anger but I listen because when a person stuff, that's what they really feel. When they're hurt and out of emotions and anger. And I just thought to myself, if I didn't know who I was and where I'm headed, and if I didn't know the Lord, I would believe some of those things.

But I know me, I know my heart, I know my intentions off the rip, and I know God. And I know me. I know my heart. I know my intentions off the rip. And I know God. And I know when he speaks. It's funny that when I first came and I said God told me to come here, they didn't believe it. But if I say, well, God said it's time for me to go, you still don't believe it. So what do you believe? Right.

And what you should believe is I'm led. Come on, Shannon. This is the last time we put a football uniform on? But we're still going. Right. So if you don't believe in successful. So if you don't believe that God has his hands on us, something's wrong with you because you've got to see. I couldn't have done this by myself.

I had a wonderful coaching staff or a wonderful AD who allowed me to do the things that we're able to accomplish. But it's no way we could have done those things without being led by the Lord. Right. But you put a blueprint in place. You left a former member from your staff in place. Yeah, but they're mad because I got the pen. We put a blueprint in place, but I got the pen. Right. And they upset that. So now, really, you're not going to get the feeling that I gave you. Right.

Because you felt like I let you down. I walked out. First and foremost, and I haven't disclosed this yet, my AD, Ashley Robinson, when I took the job, he said, I want you to do something for me. I said, what's that? He said, at least give me two years. I Said you got it. Okay, you gave him three. It's real talk that That's what we discussed do you but let's just say for the sake of our sake of argument you gave them five years and says

Okay, even if you gave him 10 years? It ain't going to be enough. I understand because it's love. You fell in love and I fell in love too. I felt like we did more than we were expected to do. We just did it so expeditiously

that it overwhelmed you and you thought it was easy. Because what would normally take someone several years, we did it in two and a half. Right. That's what was staggering. CNN had a segment

where they asked, is Deion Sanders a sellout for you leaving an HBCU? People said he sold a dream then walked out on a dream. Your con man. Let me stop you right there. Okay, go ahead.

What did I sell? I don't know. I don't recall. Now, I could be wrong. I don't recall you saying you was going to stay for any length of time. But what was the dream? The dream is that I wanted equality. Right.

The dream that was I wanted these kids to get to know the riot team, get to the NFL. We did that. Right. The dream that was I wanted these kids to get the notoriety and get to the NFL. We did that. Right. The dream that we want better facilities and we're overlooked and underfunded. I established that. And we made strides towards that. Okay. The dream was that I believe, I believe that we could win.

I could believe that we could graduate at a certain rate. I believe that we could treat these kids could believe that we could graduate at a certain rate. I believe that we could treat these kids and raise them to be young men. That was the dream. Why did you stop dreaming? I ain't. Right. The dream continues.

Could it be the dream that you had and the dream that they had are different? That might be it. My man, let me tell you something. You know how I think. You know how I think. You know how I dream. And I don't know if that dream will ever align with my dreams. Right.

Because I don't just look at athletics. I look at everyone. We're for people. Right. We're not just for athletes. Right. Although that was my position, I'm in there fighting for everyone. You're more than a football coach you look at yourself as more than a football coach

don't you? yes because I am God ain't just called me to no ball that may be the title or the position but no matter whatever occupation you have you got to do more than what that job description says you more than this right? is that it? you know what I do that's not who I am You got to do more than what that job description says. You more than this. Yes. Right.

Yeah. That's not who I am. There you go. There you go. And I do understand the people. But what I don't understand is do something about it. Don't you give a little more. Right.

Won't you spend a little more time. Right. Won't you really try to bring solvency instead of sitting back throwing sticks and stones? Right. And it seems like all the people that are screaming and yelling and bickering and murmuring, check they're giving. What have they given? When I was at Jackson, I told Ashley, unless they're substantial givers, I ain't got time to be mean with them. About what?

About what? I have a vision for this school. I have a vision for this school. I have a vision for this department. Why am I meeting with you to talk about what I should be doing and you ain't doing that? Right. And to talk about all in,

both of my sons was on the team. Right. My daughter was playing basketball. Correct. And my son doing social media. Right. So who's all in? My mama there, my sister there, nieces, their nephew there.

So who's all in? Right. My dog even now. So here... Who's all in? All the same. Are you... Who is all in?

Am I... Are you all in? Right. Because I'm all in. But you said, and you said something very interesting, what you just said. You said, yeah, you offer all these critiques, but you ain't offering no check. It ain't even just a check. But that's what you need to be able to compete.

That's what you need. You need resources. Without resources, look. Forget the football part. resources. Forget the football part. Let's talk about the overall funding of school. We're talking about

HBCU. Period. I wanted to bring solvency to how we broke. How are we always asking? Why are we always in the deficit? Everybody? You need everybody. Why are we always in the deficit? Right.

Everybody? You mean everybody? That's a problem for me. So let's investigate that. Not saying that anybody's stealing or doing anything unfair. Let's investigate it. So let's find the fault. So if it's the state, if it's the government, where is this coming?

Dislike thereof. Let's find it. I was willing to hire a team to audit and find this because it's impossible for all of us to be in the same situation. Unless it is

true that only 77% of graduates are giving back to their alma maters, and when they give, it's not substantial. Right. So I believe that's a problem. That's the issue.

But you said something. You had an issue. Says, look, I don't mind playing all these bowls. I don't mind doing all this. But where is the money going? Is any money going back to the institution? I mean, to the football team, you have a problem with going to play these ballgames. The classics.

Playing classics. Yes. And saying the money goes to the general scholarship fund. It goes to the school instead of the football. Who's playing the game? Who's at risk? Right. We are.

So why should that not be in its totality ours? Right. Because we want enough to get us there. Right. And that's my problem. And then when it comes to the classics, I just had a problem with that. It's another home game. Right.

That we lost. We played in Miami last year, which was a classic. Wonderful classic at that. We played in Memphis, which is a classic. Wonderful classic. And we played in Miami last year, which was a classic, wonderful classic at that. We played in Memphis, which is a classic, wonderful classic, and we played in Alabama. That could have been three home games. And if we do our mathematics correctly and handle our business, that's at least

a million and a half a game. At least. We ain't see that. That would have been great, not for only the football department, but it would have been great not for only the football department but it would have helped the other departments as well. So that's just the way I think. My thinking is maybe because what we've been in life is way down the street. Right. It's not there. It's way down the street. Did you hate going to like these

meetings with Booster that it felt like you were begging? I wasn't going to no Booster's meeting. I wasn't doing that. For what? For a grant? I'm not doing that. Every little bit of help. No. My time, that, no. No.

No. That's an insult. My time is much more valuable than that. I'd rather be doing something with my kids, not my personal kids, my kids of the football team at JSU. I'm not doing that. And that's oftentimes what it is. I'm not doing that. One of the comments, why couldn't he stay at Jackson

State? Build Jackson State into a Power 5. Why can't an HBCU be the prize? Okay, tell me how you build that into a Power Five because if you go into the Power Five conference, all the other schools, I'm sorry. Let me reenter that.

If you go into a Power Five conference, just say the SEC, you know all the other sports have to go too. Right. So you're not just talking about... The football team. You're not Notre Dame. Notre Dame is independent. The football team might play here.

The basketball team might play there. But you're not Notre Dame. Right. And also, it's criteria that the school has to pass to be in those conferences. Right. And I don't know if that was going to be applicable to what we're trying to accomplish.

You also spoke out against HBCUs playing the University of Georgia or playing these Power Five teams when you know you've got no chance of winning. And then they give you $500,000, they give you $600,000. Oftentimes they don't even give you that. What? Oftentimes. I did a study and I showed it. We even tweeted it out and put it out there, Shannon.

I mean, and I'm not picking on y'all. I don't want you to pick on y'all because of the incident with the coach. But I was really just really shedding light. You had Alabama State go and play, do the numbers. They went to play UCLA. Correct. And UCLA requested the ban. Ban.

Okay? That's two chartered flights. Yes. Let's just do a modest number of 300,000. Correct. And UCLA requested the ban. Ban. Okay. That's two chartered flights. Yes. Let's just do a modest number of $300,000. Correct. That's $600,000. Correct. Okay, now you got to stay there for a couple days. Right. Because you're not flying all the way over there for a day and come right back. You got to stay there.

So let's just do hotel accommodations as well as food. So you're really at a million dollars at least. At the bare minimum. At the bare minimum. I think the purse was like $6.50. So you in a... Hold on.

You in a deficit to go get beat by $50? That's what it is. And that's not fair. No. You can't look at that as it's a prize. We're going to play against you.

You can't look at it like that. You got to look at it. Sooner or later, you got to put your business hat on and say, we got to do business. Right, yes. But it ain't no but in that one. It ain't no but in that one. And I hate to choose that,

but I'm not choosing that on the basis of what the coach said, your buddy, matter of fact. Eddie Robb, I played against Eddie. He was at Jacksonville and Tennessee. I think he's a good guy, too, by the way. I think he just got caught up in the moment. You, how does, because also what I hear is that everybody can't be Deion.

They can't build on what he started. He was Deion Sanders. How can they build on what you started, what you created? You could take somewhat of the blueprint and understand. Let me just give you something simplistic. We won, okay? We didn't win the championships. You all know the last two years we didn't win that,

but we had outstanding records. Yeah, you won the SWAG. Okay. We had a quarterback that can throw. Yes. Okay. The next best team in the swag is FAMU. Right.

Up under Willie Simmons. Great offensive mind. They have a quarterback that can spin it. Go get you a quarterback that can throw. Okay. Because when we get you down by 14, it's a wrap. Right. So at least go do that.

I'm going to give you that blueprint. That one's easy. Right. Go do that. Right. Because it's running the ball, running the ball, running the ball. Sooner or later, in some games, you're gonna find yourself down and you gotta spin it. Right. Okay. So that's just something simple. Okay. Okay. There's so many other things. the water crisis. True. And how difficult was it on your team?

How difficult was it on you to like, I got to win games and people don't want to hear excuses. I've known you long enough to know you've never made excuses.

Right. And when I talk to you, like, we're not using that as an excuse. But we're going to practice. And we're going to find a way. We're going to make it work out. But we got games to win.

And we did. And thank God that we had an AD that made it, he was so helpful into what we did and what we accomplished. Because we were on the same page through it all. Through it all. We was on the same page.

And we didn't have time for that. I mean, it was an ice storm there our first year. We were taking baths in the darn hotel pool, man. You know, the coaches and I. That's how bad it was. But that's not something that the city of Jackson can control. The water stuff is crazy. That know, the coaches and I. That's how bad it was. But that's not something that the city of Jackson can control.

Like, the water stuff is crazy. They've been going on for years. They need to just make up, be friends, and get that fixed. And that's, I think, billions of dollars to handle that. But we don't trip, man.

You know, it's so many things. It's not just Jackson that's dealing with adolescence and ignorance. It's multiple cities. But we don't make an excuse for it. We just keep on pressing and go make it happen. And that's what we did.

How did you convince your kids to not let the circumstance control the outcome? We keep the main thing the main thing. Every day I stood up in front of those kids. I gave them some type of message, whatever God placed in my spirit. And we prayed. That's how we start the day. And whatever was in my spirit, I gave it to them and they ran with it. And they were very focused and committed 100 percent. And I'm proud of them for that. The injury, not an injury, but you was in dire straits. True. You had a blood clot. Clots. Clots. Yeah.

And I knew something was seriously wrong. Because we talked every single week. Yeah. And there were a couple of weeks that we didn't talk. They took my phone. And I was like, I woke up and I can't say hi because I never smoked or drank in my life. So I woke up

under the influence. And they say I was just texting. They're like, ah, we're going to take your phone. You put somebody there crazy. Right. So they took my phone. But you're right. What was going through you when they told you your diagnosis and you were in dire straits?

They almost had to take not just the toe, but the foot, maybe even come up the leg. No, it was first it was the leg from knee down because I wouldn't get no blood. Okay. Then it was life. Okay. Wow. And then it was two toes.

Okay. And I thank God that it got to two toes. They take them. So you're like a sloth now. Three-toed sloth. My bad. No, you said we weren't joking. You said we, no, no, no.

My bad. My bad. I'm sorry. See what I'm saying? He told me he wanted to be serious, but this slow. My bad. No, you said we weren't joking. You said we, no, no, no, my bad, my bad, I'm sorry. See what I'm saying? He told me he wanted to be serious, but this is who he is. I'm glad y'all see who he is. Thank you. You just had to. You ain't no good.

You know you ain't no good. Well, let's get back into character. This is how we are. You ain't no good. Okay, I'm sorry. You ain't no good. So look. Wow.

That's with me forever. That's with me forever. That's with me forever. You didn't have no calves to begin with. I'm trying to. I started to get some. Is it being plant? What is it, a BB, BBC. A BBC?

For your calf? And while you're down there, you might as well go and hook me up, man. So what did they tell you? So when the doctor came in, he said. I saw that look. And he's telling you, Mr. Sanders? I saw that look, man.

First of all, I had three toe surgeries from my playing days. And it was bad. So I went to get it checked out again because it was bad. And the lady said, the nurse, I'm sorry, the doctor. She said, you know, your foot been dislocated for like 15 years. I said, how is that possible? They said, I'm pretty sure you've been feeling pain. I said, yeah, but we football

players. We played through that. I dealt with it for 15 years. And she said, you're going to have to have surgery. I said, okay. How long am I out? She said, you're going to have to. I said, no, I'll be back to practice tomorrow. I can't do that. Just give me a knee scooter, I'm straight. I went right back to practice the next day.

And as the week, I think two weeks went by, and they changed my bandage every morning, and my head trainer saw my first two toes was black. She said, oh, coach, we got to go to the doctor right now. This is not normal. I said, we're going to practice first. Then we're going to go to the doctor. And we went to the doctor. You know when you see that look? Yeah. And they said, we're going to practice first. Then we're going to go to the doctor. And we went to the doctor.

You know when you see that look? Yeah. And they said, we got to have surgery right now. I said, so what's wrong? We got to have surgery right now. Okay. What's wrong? Yeah. So it was, we got to have surgery right now. Have anybody in your family had blood clots? I said, I don't know. So we called my mama. You know

my mama. My mama said, yeah, baby. By the way, your uncle died from blood clots a few years back. And your other uncle almost died last year from blood clots. And I just got diagnosed with blood clots. I said, thank you, mama. I sure appreciate it. Mama had all that information.

Oh, you're sitting on it. Just sitting on that thing. Yeah. I'm about to check out, on it. Just sitting on that thing. Yeah. I'm about to check out and she's just sitting on this stuff. So we had nine surgeries. Wow. Nine surgeries in eight within a month. And I think I had another one after that.

All that. All that. And my son, you know, Shador was coming every day. Shalo was coming. But Shador came and said, Dad, I need you. You got to understand, he had never played a game without me in his life. Right. Except for those.

And I'm looking at the game, looking at his passing completion percentage, just slowly going down. From 74, 72, 70, 68. He said, Daddy, I need you. I said, I'll be there. So that's the time we played, I think we played Southern. And I got in the chair. It was freezing cold.

I was frail. You know, I lost about 30 pounds. Went to the game. And he brought us back that night. Then Shiloh had the game-clinching interception. And it was 21 points on the scoreboard. I was like, God, look at you. 21 points on the scoreboard. Shador made a game, look at you. 21 points on the scoreboard.

Shador made a game-winning touchdown pass and shallow clinched it. I said, God, look at you. I guess they didn't remember you did all that at Jackson State. But we move it on. We move it on. You got an incredible staff. Zim is going to be on your staff.

I think you're bringing Dennis Thurman. You got the head coach from Mississippi Valley. You went to Kent State and got your offensive coordinator. You went to Alabama and got your defensive coordinator. But you have a lot of minorities. You plucked a lot of minorities and brought them into a situation and give them opportunities, better opportunities, to branch out on their own if you're successful here at Colorado.

True. I got a tree now, too. I got a tree now. You got a tree now. Because TC is on that tree now. Right. At the Jackson State. Because we wanted TC, and thank God that they did that, because he's a good guy.

He deserves it. He worked up under us, so he knows how we run a program. Right. So I feel like he's going to be successful, and he's going to keep it going. And he's recruiting his butt program. Right. So I feel like he's going to be successful. Yes. And he's going to keep it going. And he's recruiting his butt off. Right. They said you're going to be the highest paid coach in Colorado history. Now, the AD said he ain't got no bread.

He ain't got no bread for you. He got no bread for you right now. They might be selling some fried fish dinners. Well, I tell you what, I ain't here for money no way. That's a good thing. Right. Because, Shannon, you know we's a good thing. Right. Because Shannon, you know we

had offers, man. Right. But it wasn't about that. It was about Rick George made me feel comfortable. He made me feel like we were going to do this together. He made me feel like this

was a need, a desire from the city, from the fans, from everyone that I felt like I was the guy for this job. And you know, I prayed on it. And we were definitely led here. And I'm excited. I'm excited because God always with me, he does the unlikely thing in an unlikely place.

And see, Jackson forgot. always with me he does the unlikely thing in an unlikely place right and see Jackson forgot I wouldn't they didn't I've read the stuff that they were saying when they first hired me I saw the looks when I was on stage of the people twisting they face up you know like we was at church and I was I was a pastor that wasn't giving the good good the best message that they wanted to know because it was conviction involved I knew what time it was. You felt they were saying, or you felt it, that you only got the job because of who you were,

not that you were qualified to have the job. There you go. But now. But now. Now. So I love the challenges, man. Right. What we all thrive on, though, real men.

Yeah, we're challenging, yeah. Thank you. I love that. We always, but the opportunity. You know, we say we want our black coaches to get opportunities. Well, when black coaches get opportunities, you can't then get mad at him for taking advantage of said opportunities. You being an HBCU coach, getting a power five job,

everybody should have stood up on their chairs and applauded. We don't, we don't, we we're not built like that as a people man. Why though? We build the lift up and the tear down. Some of us are, and I applaud those and I praise those people. Right. And I understand those people. Right. Those are the people that are

not narrow minded, the people that want to make it to the next step, the people that want more, the people that's willing to work for it, the people that is going to grab somebody on their way up. But the others, they don't want that. They want to sit there with their bow and arrows and their guns and shoot you until you fall down. And they don't understand that does not make them higher to shoot you down and stand on

Because you fail. You're not all of a sudden higher because he failed. That don't make sense to me make them hire to shoot you down. Because you fail. You're not all of a sudden hired because he failed. That don't make sense. You help bring him down. True. And what we've always done, we've always helped bring people up. Yes. And I don't understand how people can't see our history, not just his story.

Right. But our history has proven that we win. Right. We're winners, man. And we're going to win. Yes. You always talked about your assistants. You say, I want my assistant coaches to get recognized.

I want them to be paid accordingly because they work just as hard as I do and don't get nearly the credit that I do, but I want them. And so this is an opportunity for you to bring some guys and give them some resources. Yes, and we did. And even the guys that stayed there, we made sure they got increased in salaries as well. And salaries are totally different, man.

I mean, you got to understand, I had coaches working around the clock. We work our butts off. We work on every day to end with a Y, Derrick Jackson. And you got some coaches making 50 and 55 grand, man. I mean, I don't want to badmouth that because some people would love that. But as a college coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the kind of hours that you got to put in.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a college coach, that is unsatisfactory. When you came in, you got the job at your introductory press conference, you say you bring in some dogs. And you point it to your son and you say, well, there's your quarterback. And people are like, man, that's nepotism. His hunt ain't done nothing in Colorado. That ain't nepotism. That's real.

You better go get a film and watch. Right. That's real. Did somebody, what about when you said, okay, hey, some of y'all got to go in there and get in the transfer portal because we coming, we for real. It's not going to be the same. It's not going to be like it was. Whatever you thought you was doing and you thought that was hard and you thought that was difficult, go ahead and make a move.

Same speech as Jackson. Didn't change it a little bit. Didn't alter it one bit. Same thing. That's what we said and that's what we did. I think we rid ourselves of 70 young men that was not chosen by us. Right. That had no connectivity to our program. Right.

That we, they didn't understand smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character. And we had to get rid of them. Are you not compromising any of what you just said? Smart, fast, tough? Discipline. With character. You're not compromising any of that. Not one. I don't play that. We old school, man. You know

how. Come on, man. We old school. We were taught by old school coaches. I'm a little mixture of Coach Bowden, Coach Mickey Andrews, Coach Zim, Ray Rhodes. I'm a mixture of coach Dave Capel who coached me at Pee Wee League, coach Ron Hoover who coached me. I'm a mixture of all these young men that were old school. Did you

always want to coach? Because I remember I used to ask you all the time. I said, Ty, how you doing? I said, how somebody of your stature has the patience? I said, man, how? He said, man, the kids. I said, I get the kids. But see, that's the problem. They don't understand. You've been asking me this question for how long?

About 20 years. See, they just knowing Coach Pratt. But when I was out there on the field with these little five-year-olds. You brought them to the Hall of Fame in 2011. You brought a- Thank you. It was there. We brought seven buses.

Yes. We played in Memphis, kick butt. Got on the bus, went to Louisville kick butt. Came to Canton, Ohio kick butt. We brought... See, I get excited when I start talking about my baby. Yeah. We brought seven busloads of kids and parents to the Hall of Fame. Right. And when I was up there giving the speech, they were right out there. Yep.

And some of those kids are getting ready to come here and play for me now. Some of those same kids getting ready to come here and play for me now. Some of those same kids that were there. So did you know you always wanted to be a coach? I did. When did you get the coaching bug? When I was retired and I took Shiloh and Shador to practice.

Okay. And I was sitting there. And I was just watching the coach have these kids run 10 yards apart and go. And I'm like, somebody's going to get a concussion in here. That's Oklahoma. Somebody's going to get a concussion in here. So I got up and said, coach, at least let them go at an angle because they're too small for that. And then I get back up. They'll do another drill. I try to go fix the coaches. I just got tired of getting up,

so I just sat there and made up my mind while I was sitting in that chair. If I'm going to put my kids in this, I got to run it because they're not going to do right. So we started truth. Trust in God, respect myself and others, understand I have unlimited possibilities, try my best, never give up,

and honor the truth in this creed at all times. All our kids, all our parents knew that Creed From day one our first trial was at the Cotton Bowl Shannon. We had 1200 kids trial what yeah Five in the positions it was one gonna be one team, but I felt bad turning so many kids away So we had two teams at every age two five and six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve your teams And then we start migrating to 13 and 14. But I rented schools, man, in the summer and had summer camps with over 500, 600 kids, man. Then we added basketball, baseball, cheer, track.

We had everything. And you had to have a certain GPA, man, to even substantiate it. We hired teachers in the summer. Summer food program, we fed them three meals a day. I brought several school buses for these kids and picked them up from all around the city out of my pocket. So all this stuff they just knowing Coach Prime. Right. Y'all just know. I've been, you've been knowing. Just like I can't believe you remember they was at the Hall of Fame. I do remember yeah. Yeah those my babies man remember they was at the Hall of Fame. I do remember, yeah. Yeah.

Those were my babies, man. After the Hall of Fame, after our speeches, I went back to the college because they were staying at the dorm. Right. And stayed the night with them there. Not at the hotel. The speculation. What happened to the Truth Academy? Oh, you mean Prime Prep?

Prime Prep, excuse me. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. You know why? Why? It was the best thing that ever happened to me. You know why? Because without that failure and me attaching myself to someone that I thought loved kids as much as I do. Right. When it was business for them, but it was all that other stuff for me. It taught me a valuable lesson, man, that I never will forget. We'll forget.

And now I'm very careful of where I put my name, who I lend my name to, who I'm involved with when it comes to kids as well. That was the best thing I feel that ever happened to me. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Best thing to happen. Yes. Failure. Yes. Yes. Pick you up. Yes.

But you know people are talking. Mm-hmm. I don't know why people get so much satisfaction when they see other people fail. Yeah, but I wish they knew what they were talking about. Right. I wish they knew. You need to find someone that was involved in that with me to understand the only rights that I had was to my name that was on a building.

You said you've coached. Shador is the only coach you've ever had, he's ever had. Mm-hmm. What type of value do you try to steal in your son? Because also, you're his father, but you're his coach. Right. That's a very, very fine line because you want to like, okay, bruh, get it done. No, that's with Shiloh.

That was Shiloh. You hard on Shiloh. You hard on Shiloh, man. No, I have to be because he's that kid that's going to always keep you on your knees. You got to keep your knee pads on with Shiloh. He going to keep you on your knees praying. You hard on Shiloh. You hard on Shiloh, man. No, I have to be because he's that kid that's going to always keep you on your knees. You got to keep your knee pads on Shiloh. He's going to keep you on your knees praying. You got to stay prayed up.

Oh, you got to stay prayed up. But he's a wonderful talent. He has so much ability. There's nothing that he can't do, nothing that he can't accomplish. Shiloh can do anything he wants. Play the piano, chess. You talking about he's tremendous at table tennis? Everything.

Everything. I mean, there's nothing he can't do or he's going to find out how to do this? Everything. Everything. I mean, it's nothing he can't do it or he's going to find out how to do it and Google it and master it. That's just who he is. Right. But he has to keep the main thing the main thing. Right.

And he's going to go pro. Right. But Shadur. So what, so what, so you say Shadur like, Shadur has, from the very beginning, the thing that you told me, he says he has one mission. He wants to be playing at the level that you and I played at. Yes. And whatever I tell him, it's like he's like a sponge.

You say he was out there with Brady, and he was just absorbing everything Brady said. Everything. And he looks up to Brady. Right. He endorses Brady's brand. Right. And Tom keeps in touch with him and keep him on point and make sure he's who he is. But his work ethic is like ours. Right. And he's also man, his nickname is grown because he's been there.

We call him a grown ever since he was a shorty. What does it mean to coach your son? The coach, both of them is. I love it because I get the father and coach. Now you got to understand when we cross that line, I'm coach. I'm not your dad. I'm coach. So when they'll decide that, they refer to you as dad or coach? They better not refer me as dad. I don't play that. I don't play that. I'm coach.

You coach? Yeah. And they don't cross that line. Right. So how old were your sons when you started coaching them? Five and seven. And we lied about your daughter's age started coaching them? Five and seven. And we lied about Shador's age so he could play with his brother. But Shador has always been, he's never played any other position other than quarterback. Yeah, he's always been a quarterback.

He played a little strong safety, but that was just to learn everything that the defense entailed. Right. So he could be a better quarterback. And Shalo started out playing quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. And, you know, he just got to that point. I said, son, it's over. Quarterback is over. Why are you going to let him do it?

It is over. I said, Shiloh, you're going to be a corner. I can teach you how to do this. You're going to get offers from all around the country. Let me teach you. We went in the backyard, and we was getting down, doing some stuff. I had a couple guys running little routes on him. He told me, guy got off the jam, and he missed him clean because he closed his eyes and spread his leg.

He said, your stuff don't work. I said, God bless you. I walked right in the house, got in bed. He said, my stuff don't work. I said, don't. But you know what? He kept working. Right.

And we went to a couple camps and he ended up rushing people and choking them and running them out of bounds. Shallow nasty. He is nasty. Right. Yeah. But when you get a guy, Jackson State, now I see you. When a guy comes in and says, I want to go pro. I want to play at the level that you played at, and I want to play at a level that you

played at. What do you say? You're like, damn, son. I mean, you don't care, but you're like, well, I mean, what about the work? Are you willing to work? There you go. I'm saying, son,

I want you to do the same thing. But first of all, you got to work for it. I'm not going to give you none. I'm not going to promise you none. I don't know what these other schools are doing, but this is who I am. All right?

I'm not going to even promise you no number or no position. And I definitely ain't promise you to start. You have to come here and earn every darn thing you get. Then you're going to appreciate it more. Then you're going to want it more.

Then you're going to understand all what it takes a lot more. So it's not a sales pitch. I just tell them about reality. We don't promise things, man. You've got to earn every darn thing you get. That's how we got down. You've got to earn it, and you've got to work for it. So in the process

of getting guys ready, are you preparing them for life because, you know, let's just say for the sake of argument, you get 100 guys come in and go and come

and if you coach five years, you're probably going to coach, what, a thousand guys. Mm-hmm. Okay, maybe five, 10 of them go pro. But what about those 900 that didn't go pro

that's going to have to be out there in the real world? 95% of these young men that come through these doors are not going to have to be out there in the real world. 95% of these young men that come through these doors are not going to be a professional football player. 5% are. That 5% that are, it don't take a lot. It didn't take a lot to get Shannon Sharp ready

because he has something innate about him, about his history and his family that he had to make it. So my focus is really grooming and growing and maturing and equipping that 95% for life. So all my morning messages, my private meetings, my group meetings with those other 95%, they're the future fathers, they're future political figures, doctors, lawyers, whatever, teachers, people that's going to shape the communities and become leaders. I don't even have captains on our jersey.

We have leaders and we have dogs. Every dog ain't a leader. Every leader ain't a dog. I don't have captains. I don't believe in that terminology. But we do have leaders, and that's what we're trying to build. Do you feel you're the best recruit in America?

Wait, I would... Okay. No, I just paused for the effect. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm telling you the truth. You thought I was just going to answer you quick. I got to get the effect. Okay, say it again. Let me do my thing. Do you feel you're the best recruiter in America?

You see that look away? Now watch that come back. You're darn right I am. I'm not selling nothing. Right. I am who I am. You want exposure, I'm going to give you exposure. Right.

We got a documentary coming out when? December 29th. December 29th. Wait, wait. On what? We're going to get to that. That's my job. Okay, I don't remember.

Yeah. I'm going to forget. No, you ain't going to forget because I got it. But they want exposure. We're going to give them exposure. We know how to use social media like no other. Right. And we didn't even have the resources at Jackson.

Right. Now we do. We have a whole team. Right. A whole plethora of people that's designed specifically to make you shine. And I'm going to help you do that. Right. But I'm going to teach you about NILs.

A lot of these guys coming out of high school or coming from other colleges. These taxing NILs. Yeah, but the same image and likeness. And you sitting up here with your hair un-groomed, your face nappy, and you talk about you won't name, image and likeness. Who's going to put money on that? I got to teach you. I got to teach you those things and teach you how to articulate yourself. So when a CEO is flipping through the channels and he see you on the news because there's a lot of money here in Boulder and he sees you, he say, you know what? I want to invest something in that kid. That's how it works.

You ain't done nothing to earn that gift. I want you to earn something and then you're going to appreciate it like we talked previously. So you go into a mom, mom and dad, mom house, grandma house, you sit down on the couch. How you winning over mom? Because it's really the parents that you got to win over. And first and foremost,

you got to understand the kid is, let's just say the kid is 18. Right. Okay. Let's just be generous and say the mama was a good mama. She had him when she was 22. So what does that make him? What's that? 39, 40, 40. Okay. We 55, right? Right. So mama was about 15 when we was doing our thing. Right. Mama no. No. Okay. So mama done her homework. Right. So she all, she's already want to validate what she's heard and what she's known. We just got to come in and be consistent with what she's heard and what she's known. And I'm not trying to win mama, but I'm going to be honest with mama. One thing my mama said, she's going to do the daddy ain't going to do. Mama's going to tell you the truth about her baby. Now, how can i help your baby be a man right mama gonna tell you the truth father gonna play it off well he's already a man

no he ain't no no no i was talking to a kid last week i said tell me about you he was uh he's saying uh you know i have curfew at uh 10 30. i said you're senior high school yeah yeah i had curfew 23 i said what'd you do because that that's odd. Right. So what'd you do? Yeah, I got in some trouble. I said, let's just cut through the J's and talk about that. Right. And how can I help you get that so you're not consistently in trouble? Because if you had curfew at 1030, even on a weekend, you've done something.

Bad. That your mom and daddy do not trust you. Right. Yeah. But really, man, we don't make any promises whatsoever. We want to know what we can do to make sure that, boy, you deliver us, become a man. So you go into his home, what you eating? You eating fried chicken, fried fish?

You eating pork chops? I'm not eating everything they cook because I don't eat everything. Because you want me to tell the truth. If mama can't cook, I'm going to tell mama. Mama, come on now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not. Mama, come on now.

I'm going to say, mama, you should have put a little more seasoning in this thing. And Pop going to appreciate it because Pop want to say it, but he can't You brought you brought Trav with you Travis Hunter. Yeah, I Think if I'm not mistaken the first five-star to ever go to an HBCU a two-way player Tremendous tremendous talent the catch that he made on fourth down to catch the football to get it and get both feet down He beat double coverage to get you guys in the overtime What makes Trav special?

Chad's got a want inside of him man that is Insatiable yeah, he has a work ethic that is unparalleled and He ain't scared of the moment man a lot of guys are afraid of the moment. Right. You know, you can't call. They say they want their rock, but then you don't win. Right.

When he's calling for it, he's going to win. I mean, and I'm just seeing the chemistry of he and Shador going down those last few drives that I'm like, oh, my God. Like, this is going to be something. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He came as a two-way player. Yeah, he wants to play corner Yes, play corner. He's like well what better way to get tutelage than the greatest corner to ever play. That's why he came That's why he came. That's why he came. Let's not get that

Misconstrued yes, people get that misconstrued. No he came because of you But it seems to me that you believe his best chance is on the other side with your son. No, that's what he loves. Well, he might as well go there. There's a love and there's a like. Well. He loves to play receiver. First of all, that ball in his hands, he's electric.

Yeah. And his route running, I mean, is electric, and he knows how to get open, and he attacks the football. DB is something that he can do really well right better than a lot of others right but if i had to put my money on him right he loved catching that football a lot more than he loved defending it but he can do great at a high level so when you did both i mean you did it at a high level in the nfl i mean a lot of people say well yeah i could do but yeah yeah yeah well was this in college, or I was this in high school.

It's one thing to do it at those levels, and I'm not trying to knock anybody that played quarterback in high school or running back, and all of a sudden they're DB. But you played wide receiver in 95 at a very high level. You like, you playing both ways, legit. Yeah. Yes, sir. A hundred and some snaps a game game not even getting tired how that was

my life just because you get to a certain age of the stage and folks start telling you what you cannot do how's that how you gonna tell me I can't play football and baseball he never done that you said there but ate a taco and a tuna fish salad in your mouth stinking you ain't got no how do you tell me what you I don't understand that right so I got to a certain level and people start telling you right you can't do both And ain't never done nothing Did you did you do it because you could or you did it because you're trying to prove them wrong? No No, I'm never trying to prove you wrong

I don't care about your opinion because the opinion that you have of me is not the opinion I have of myself correct is when I look in that mirror. I'm straight. I'm straight with him. I'm straight with him He's perfect, but I'm good with him. So that's not the opinion. I did it because it's what I love to do, and I know I can help you win. You're going to be better getting the ball in my hands. Let me ask you a question. If you didn't play cornerback, if somebody said with time you can't play cornerback.

All pro. And you go. All pro. I'd have been all pro. You believe you could have made the Hall of Fame as a wide receiver? Yes. Come on, child. Yeah.

Because at one point they did a stat. I think every time I touched that thing, it was average 22, 22 yards to catch or touch or return. Whatever it was. Because they threw it to you. They handed it to you. Yeah. Tossed it to you.

Yeah. Yeah. I truly believe that. Of all the sports that you played, football, basketball, track and field, baseball, what was the easiest sport for you? Easiest sport was football. What was the hardest? Baseball. You told me the hardest thing to do is hit that ball, man.

That ball does some things to you, Joe. Any sport that you could fail seven out of ten times and become great and make two, three hundred million dollars in it, that's a hard sport. What made you want to decide to stick with baseball, even though you had this great football career?

The challenge, man. I love challenges. And I could not master it. And it frustrated me because I hate to lose and I hate not master it and it frustrated me because I hate to lose it I hate not mastering something that I know if I just had more time I could the speed they tell the story that you weren't supposed to run the 40 at the combine no I was supposed to run useful to run yeah but you but you were teasing that you might not run okay but you sure everybody else had got there. Why would you run? Everybody else had got there early.

Everybody else stretched and ready to go. You come up with your track suit on. You come with your little outfit on. No stretching, no warming up, get on the line. It's in my office on the back of my wallet. Cheetah never stretched before he go get his prey. You remember Wild Kingdom? Yeah, I remember.

When have you seen a cheetah stretch before he go get the antelope? So what were you anticipating? You was like, man, if I don't stretch, I can run this. you seen a cheetah stretch before you go get there? So what were you anticipating you like man if I don't stretch I could run this what time would you actually anticipate or two? Four to four to something low foe tools. So if you had stretch How can you say if because that's what that's bad. I can't touch my toes now I saw I never been a stretch ain't ever been flexible and you just took off I can't touch my toes now. So I ain't never been a stretcher.

I ain't never been flexible. And you just took off. You ran one time. No, I ran twice. I ran twice. I believe. No, you didn't. I don't know.

You should have been there, matter of fact. No, I came the next year. Okay. I thought we was the same year. No, you was 89. I was 90. Okay. All right.

So, now they tell you about the interview process. You know, you go in. You meet with the coaches. Hey, how you doing? A lot of different teams. Hey, how you doing? interview process. You know, you go in, you meet with the coaches, hey, how you doing? A lot of different teams. Hey, how you doing? They sit down and talk to you. You say you went to the Giants. And you say, hold on, when did you guys pick?

First of all, first of all, it was open house. I don't know how it was when you went, but it was open house. There's agents everywhere, girls everywhere, people in the hallways. It wasn't secluded like it is now. So I'm trying to get away from people and I back into this room.

And I see all these dudes with their heads down like they getting ready to take the SAT. So I'm like, what is this? And a dude handed me a phone book, man. I mean that thing was thicker than a phone book. And I said, hold on, hold on. What pick you all got? He said said I think we have the tenth. I said man I'd be going by then and I just walked right out. And I was being dead serious. I wasn't even trying to joke but it was a phone book.

Right. Was that the one to lick test? Some test that the Giants gave you. Why do they do that? What is that test gonna do about about a game on the field? Me writing something down ain't got nothing to do with what you gonna do on the field. So you're like, I'm good. I'm good. No, I'm great. I'm not good, I'm great.

Did you want, I mean you said if Detroit would have selected you, they gonna have to put you on layaway. Where did you want, where was the idea, where did you want to go? I was on an all-American trip going into my senior year. And we went to Atlanta. Yeah, baby.

I got off the airport, I got off the plane, I'm sorry, from Tallahassee. I seen black folks. I got in the car to go to the hotel. I seen black folks. We had a function that we were going to the hospital to volunteer help. I seen black doctors, black nurses. Got back in the car. So we riding through town. I see black folks in Mercedes and BMWs and Lexuses and all that kind of stuff.

I ain't never seen that before. It blew my mind, man. Right. I said, wow. This is where I want that before. It blew my mind, man. Right. I said, wow. This is where I want to go. Because I was good and ignorant. Right. Neck full of gold, curl, look wet, but it was dry. You know?

And I was flashy, flamboyant because I was straight Florida. I said, this is where I need to be. Right. Because they're going to understand me. Yeah. So that's when we told several teams, I'm playing baseball. Don't do it. Don't even do it. Don't even do it. Were you trying to scare them away?

Yes. Because I wanted to go to Atlanta, the fifth pick. And that's I got my dream. And I thank God for Atlanta for drafting me. That was the best thing that ever happened to me. It seems to me, everybody is trying to build a brand. But you built the brand 30 years ago.

Before they told you how to build a brand. How? How do you come up with the name Primetime? You come out there with the jewelry. You come out there with the gold. You come out there being outspoken. But it was a purpose though, Shay. I know.

I'm going to tell you the purpose. Okay. First and foremost, these guys trying to build a brand, first of all, you need to build your game. Uh-huh. I had game that was impeccable. I had a work ethic that was desirable. I had that. Your brand can't be better than your game, huh?

Come on. I'm knowing some of these cats' brand. I don't even know your game. Who are you? What you doing on the commercial? I ain't never seen you before. Like, so, I remember this agent was trying to secure me at the end of my sophomore year. And he gave me this pamphlet of how much everybody made in the NFL.

I didn't know that kind of stuff was disclosed. So at that time, I went down to DB's. There was no one making a million dollars. I was like, good Lord. And I'm going to the other position. DBs was one of the worst paid positions next to, I believe the offensive lineman at that time. And it blew my mind. I remember dropping that list and sat down and I said, Oh no. Right then I said, prime time. Now I came there in 85 with a Thunderbird with license plate that said prime time, 85 Thunderbird.

And my mama worked her butt off to afford the payments. And it was already primed from playing basketball in high school. So I took that name and just start building a brand like you could hate me all you want, but you want to see me play. So I would I had a black book. Most people had girls numbers in a black book. I had quotes in mind. I'm the best thing since peanut butter and

jelly. You punt the ball to me, you might as well get ready to hit a band. Throw the ball to me, at me, and get ready to make the tackle. It was all these different quotes that I knew they were going to come, and I just had to effectually put the quote in the right place. So I build that

thing, and I be darned. I run a punt back. What did you see on that punt? I just tell my punt return team, when I get it, just drop down to the ground so I can see. It was just stuff like that. You know, it was just stuff like that. Oh, just block four.

I got seven. It was stuff like that. Right. And slowly, we start building that thing, man. And it worked. Your famous quote, if you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good. If you play good, they pay good.

That was dead serious. That was way back in college. I think I went to my last game, ran in the black stretch limo. That's when everybody was in limos back in the day. And I had this tuxedo with a Houdini hat. That's what I wore to my last game.

Right. Because I knew that was it. I wanted to go out in style. It was look good, feel good. It was just, that was just my aura, like neck full of gold. See, the neck, the chains was what everybody had in Florida.

And that's how everyone was judged or ridiculed. Like if you had more weight, you was more significant. And back then, all the drug dealers had to wait. Right. So I didn't like that. So I was trying to show the shorties, you can have all this, but you can stay right. You don't have to take that left. Because these drug dealers, they never get old. I ain't never seen a drug dealer get old. Not where I came from. You just going to go go to jail or you gonna be dead. Right. Some type of way. So I was trying to emulate this in the correct fashion.

That's where all the jewelry came from. How did you know your worth at such a young age? Because the Falcons offered you originally a deal for $400,000. You rejected that and said, give me a little meal. Y'all settled for a year, I think $4.5 million. How did you know? I believed in me. And then I had an agent at the time, Eugene Parker, who was a youngster that wasn't no joke.

And he had a master plan for me. He would always talk about this master plan. And another young brother that, guess what, I gave an opportunity to. That no one knew him. He wasn't on the map like that. And guess what? He blew up. He blew up.

Blew up. He did. Yeah, because he was an honest, good guy that I loved to life. Took a lot out of me when he passed away. Right. Because that was my man. He did every contract I ever had in my life, on the field as well as off the field, before he passed. What was your first purchase?

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Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let me back up a little bit because you got to understand. Okay.

Going into my junior year in the summer, I signed a Yankees contract. Right. So it was like the first NIL. So you had some brain. I had a quarter mil going into my senior year. Okay. So now that you got that contract, you got to pay for yourself to go to school.

Yes. So the Yankees paid my tuition. Okay. And I was a walk-on. Okay. So I could stunt like no other. But because you couldn't challenge me. Right. So we get on the plane going. So I got, you know, I have on Snake. You know, Snake's in with the thing. Okay. So I could stunt like no other. But because you couldn't challenge me. Right. So we get on the plane going somewhere. I got, you know, I have on

snakeskin was the thing. Yeah. I had some snakeskin, some Louie, you know, because you couldn't challenge where you get this from because I had played six weeks in the summer. Right. And made a ton of money. Right. And then I know I'm going to be a top five pick in the draft going into my senior year. So it was a lovely day.

I had a crib on the golf course in Tallahassee, a condo, and I had my dorm room. So I was living. Yeah, you really living. But I bought a, coming out after my senior year, I bought a 560 SEC. And you know, cut the top off, dropped that thing, you know. Big long, that thing long. That thing like a limo. Yeah. And I brought a BMW M3. That was probably one of the dumbest buys,

not because of BMW. I didn't know how to drive a stick, and I bought a stick. How you bought that, you don't? Just ignorant. But that thing was nice. My brother had one, he brought one too. He brought the M3, ignorant. I was just ignorant.

Didn't even know how to drive a stick, and I bought a stick. So I get in the car like, what's this? I'm glad we can talk about this stuff now. But that's ignorant. So now I'm able to counsel young men on, don't, no stupid purposes. Don't buy stuff you don't need. Don't even understand this stuff.

Nobody questions your cover skills, but everybody be talking about, well he ain't gonna tackle, just run the ball his way. You ain't never seen that. You ain't never seen it. Right. Now, you know darn well, if folks would have been running through me left and right, I'd have been all over ESPN.

Right. You ain't never seen that. Right. But when your game's so strong, they got to find something wrong. They nitpick. That's what they say about me. You ain't come to see me block. You come to see me catch them tubs.

But they ain't never seen you giving up nothing. No, absolutely not. But they got to say it just to say something. They ain't never seen me. There ain't nobody running through not. But they gotta say it just to say something. They ain't never seen me, ain't nobody running through me, running over me, running past me. They never happened. When did you realize you were different? How old were you when you realized that?

I'm not like the other 10 year olds or these other eight year olds or these other 13. I think when I came out, I came out the womb like this. No, straight up, man. When I was a shorty, I had a gift, man. I had a gift. So you were always different.

I always beat everybody. You could always run faster. You could always jump high. You could always catch. But I had a work ethic. Right. Because I saw my mama working. Right. Working, working, working, working, working.

She wasn't there at night because she was working, working. So I had to get up and I was always ahead of my time because I was always mature. So I get up and I'm a stuff and get ready to get myself to go to school. You know, I'm gone. Right. With the key up on the mat. So I'm gone. I'm out. You know, that's been the neighbors look that way each other back then. I'm trying to rape each other. It's foolish stuff that's done now. So I was always mature, but I had a work ethic because I saw her. And I wanted it, man.

I never set up for mediocrity. Right. I never just wanted to be on the team. Right. I wanted to be the dominant guy on the team. Right. And I knew it took work to make that happen. You never led the league in interceptions because people rarely challenged you.

I mean, what was the game like for you? Because sometimes guys would, I mean, your uniform was just like you had put it on when you left the locker room. But, you know,

you know, he had you. You know what I'm saying? You know he had you. So, I didn't even want you to look like you had me. Right.

I remember I swung on one of my teammates because of that. But he got you. In San Francisco. No. No. Okay. No. We were playing against the Saints.

Okay. And we were playing two men. I hate playing two men. I don't like me. I don't need no brother's talk. You only have brother's talk. I got mine. You got to jump in the trail position.

I got mine. Thank you. I got to jump in the trail position. I got mine. Thank you. I got to jump in the trail position. So I got to jam and give him a couple steps and let him get out there. So the first play, guy got out there. Ain't no safe there on the top. So on film, what does it look like? It look like you got beat. I don't play that. I said, dog, look here.

You need to do your job, man. God, don't worry about me. I said, dog, look here, you need to do your job, man. God, don't worry about me. Are you stupid? No, no. Next play came. Dog, you need to do your job, man. Dude, I'll be there, don't worry about me. I'm in the running field back coach. You see me, I'm two yards behind the man, ain't nobody over top, look. Don't worry about me. I'm in the running film back, coach.

You see me? I'm two yards behind the man. Ain't nobody over top. Look like this guy's beating me. I don't play that. I don't even want him to look like he beat me on film. Don't worry about me. I got mine.

Okay. You want to do your job now? I'll sue you. Let's go. I might as well get my hand in. It'll sue you. Let's go. I might as well get my an ear then. It was like that. So you went to the game with a mindset. I don't care who it is.

Jared Rice, Chris Carter, Michael Irvin, Sterling Sharp. Y'all didn't get nothing. Got it. Leave your brother. I'll do this now. Leave your brother. Hey, he said that. Sterling, I ain't got nothing to do with that.

He said that. Mm-mm. Mm- that. He said that. Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm. Your brother's too big and strong and physical. What? Hey, man, look here. First of all, if you back off him and he catch a hitch, who gonna tackle him?

And then you get up there where he can grab you, he getting every slam he want. Mm-mm, mm-mm. Tim McCarron, come on over here. I ain't messing with that. You got that. No, that's man dog. So what was, I mean, you had some epic battles with Michael, especially Jerry. Yeah. You and Jerry, I mean, you was like, what was it like in practice with Jerry? We went at it. I mean, folks would stop to see us go at it. Mike was the same way, man. Mike

was a dog, man. And Mike had a whole different type of game. And Jerry was too. Andre Rison was a dog. Right. Yes, I played with some guys that can go to work, and we went to work and practice. But Jerry and I, because of the previous battles, the practice against him, it was very interesting.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. It helped both of us. Did you ever go into a game, did you not like a particular player at times? I never disliked someone. If someone talked about me, that's a misconception.

I never talked on the field. You did. You talked like the best. I was provoked. You were provoked. No, some people you ain't like, though. Some people you ain't like, and you did your homework, and you found out everything you talked about like a dog.

Don't think I don't know. Yep, I knew what to say. That's right. I'm trying to get a couple of cheap 15-yard penalties. You did, and you were really good at it. I was very good at it. You were really good at it. But I never talked to my opponent.

Right. I never said nothing. Did they talk to you? Please, who going to talk to me? Everybody that started out talking. They ain't talking to me. They didn't say nothing? No, because there's a possibility I'm going to get this thing

and half-step this thing. You ain't going to? No, because there's a possibility I'm finna get this thing and half-step this thing. You ain't finna do that because you know there's a point in this game that this thing may go to the house. Did the quarterback ever say that? I'm not afraid of you. I'm throwing to your side.

No. I just run around the field like I walk around the field now and go kneel down by the pono. Boom. Oh, that's a good one there, dog. Dang, you good. He kick it again.

Boom. Oh, you gonna make a kick it again, boom. Oh, you gonna make a tackle on that one if you do that. And I get up and jog off. The Super Bowls. You left Atlanta, and I remember you said Atlanta was trying to turn me into a loser. They were trying to get me comfortable with losing. I ain't never lost in my life.

I thank Atlanta, though. Because I didn't know how much they were blessing me. When they didn't offer me a contract and allowed me to go to San Francisco, they were blessing me because I didn't understand it until years later that they understood we're not a

winner. We're not going to win anytime soon. This guy's different. Let me let him go so he can win right now. And that's what they did for me. Because they never offered me a contract and I thank them to this day for that. I mean, let that sink in, ladies and gentlemen. This man's a free agent.

And the team did not offer him a contract. Right. I didn't just leave Atlanta. You think I want to leave Atlanta? No, you didn't. Who wants to leave Atlanta on their own recognizance? Right. At that time, Freak Nick was in full swing. That's a proper word. You know, when you came to Atlanta, Freak Nick was in full swing. But we ain't going to talk about Freak Nick.

We talking about the Super Bowl. That was the Super Bowl. Shout out to Luke. That was the Super Bowl. A party. Y'all think y'all got some time? That's a great word that you chose. You took the time to say party.

Yeah. Wow. Was the Super Bowl your proudest moment in the NFL? Because I remember you said something that, like, you won the Super Bowl, and you're supposed to be, but you didn't feel fulfilled. You didn't feel satisfied. This is going to trip you out, what my proudest moment was.

This is going to trip you out. We had a quarterback, that quarterback in our scout team. When I was in San Francisco. Billy Musgrave. Billy Musgrave. He came to me in Denver. I called him Musgrove. He was our scout team guy.

So he gave us the work. And, you know, I was like, I need to be challenged like this. Like, I would pick my scout team receiver that week. I need you this week. Mike is a big guy. I need the big receiver. I need you to work me this way. I want him to work me. And Billy was the quarterback. Billy didn't get to play the whole season, even though we were beating people. I think Steve may have taken during all the snaps. So we were up by margin in the Super Bowl. And I went to coach Seabrook. I say, put Billy in. He kind of looked back at me. I said, man, I'm dead serious.

Put Billy in. And Billy ran out there on the field, man. And I said, let him throw, man. Don't just put him in my hand. Let him throw what? And he got to throw a pass, I believe. But that was my proudest moment. Because that's a guy that worked his butt off

the whole season that didn't get the reward, but that day, I felt like he got it. He got to play in the Super Bowl, man. You made a joke about your exit from Jackson State was kind of like your marriages. I did, because I don't remember. You did. What did I say?

You said, uh, you was like, you said something like, I don't remember. You did. What did I say? You said, you was like, you said something like, I don't remember exactly. I think they were probably upset that y'all were getting divorced, kind of like Jackson State was upset that you were leaving. I don't know, maybe they were happy you were leaving. Jackson State clearly wasn't happy that you were leaving. You brought Brittany Renner in to talk to your players. What were you trying to accomplish by bringing her in, this social media influencer? Brittany is a real woman. She keeps it 100. She keeps it straightforward. And

she is a tremendous influencer on Instagram. Bringing her in to talk about game from a woman's point of view was unbelievable. Had I had Brittany Renner in a meeting when I was in college, I might be about $15 million more. Richer. Because she broke it down to these guys. To her game and what she was trying to accomplish. Not her game, but women. No, just the women.

And she even told them, I got more. The coldest line she said, I got more checks in my DMs than Nike. I said, wow. Wow. That mean they at her? Yes. Okay, and she's trying to tell them how this has played out. She say, it's women out there that do their homework.

They know everything about y'all because you tell on yourself on the gram and on social. So they know how to go get you. And you thinking you conquering it and you ain't because it's all a plan. You think you running game and run a game on you. She was unbelievable. And I'm hoping and I know a few guys learn tremendously from her speech. She brought us. She opened a lot of eyes.

When you sit down with guys and obviously they want to know about the game, the football game, but what advice do you give young players when you're talking to guys? I mean, now you're a coach and it's going to be a little bit harder for you to get out, but everybody would always ask you questions. Coach, time, prime. What advice do you give these young guys? What advice did you give them? In what regards?

Because we're talking about a whole plethora of things, I could say. How to approach the game. The game of football. Game of football. First of all, you got to love it. You really got to love it. And some people ain't like with it. Love the game or love the pay?

Because I think sometimes they love the pay more than they love the game. That's what I'm saying. So the thing about it, the game going to give you what you give it. Right. And when you're not giving it nothing, it ain't going to give you nothing. And you can't prostitute the game. You can't just seduce it and act as if it's going to produce a child for you. It's not going to do that.

The game is sophisticated, man, and the game has game. The game understands what you put in, you gonna get out. The game understands that there has to be affection and attention and consideration for it, for it to give you the results that you want. This game is real. And you can't just love this game just for this amount of time.

It's like a woman. You got to love her intensely. You got to take her home with a woman you got to love her intensely you got to take her home with you you got to take her out with you you got to just shower her with gifts and focus because she needs it and she wants it and she gonna bless you and make you feel good in all the right ways but you're gonna have to do what hadn't been done for this game. What about life? What advice do you give the guys about the game of life? The game of life has the scoreboard, unfortunately.

And it's measured by oftentimes what you have on, your shoes, your clothes, where you live. And that's not right. But it does have a scoreboard. But since it has a scoreboard, you don't have to worry about keeping score that way. But how do you play to win? Because anybody that keeps score, I got to play to win. Some fool said once in, it don't matter if you win or lose how you play the game. I said, yeah, if it ain't got no scoreboard. Right. We keep going for a reason. As long as it's a score, I got to win. Yeah. So it does matter if you win or lose.

But I want these guys to always focus on winning and dominate, and you can. But it also has to be a plan. I'm a planner, man. We don't do anything without making plans. No. We don't do anything with not being on time. Right. Yeah.

So life lessons are deep. It depends on the situation because I can really go into depth and detail because I got 115 young men as well as trainers and equipment persons that I got to pour into

because they're part of my staff. They're listening to you every word. Yeah. They hang on you every word. And I want them to. And I got to be filled. I can't be empty because when I'm empty,

I don't have nothing to give. So I got to keep myself full and I can't have distractions and dissension and mess. I can't have ignorance and none of that. So I don't let the family bull drunk get involved. I don't do that. Right. I don't know how people do that.

I don't do that. My family know the quickest way to exit my life is to bring me some bull drunk and some drunk. Friends as well. I don't do it. I'm too old and too bold for well. I don't do it. I'm too old and too bold for that. I don't play it. When you were doing what I did, you talked about football,

you did that. Guys, when you said, okay, this was wrong, or this guy didn't play well, they took offense to that. And you really never went back at guys. I mean, of course, you was like, bro, just pull the tape. That was all you would really say. Was it hard for you to bite your pull the tape. That was all you'd really say.

Was it hard for you to bite your tongue? Because sometimes. As an analyst? Yes. Yes. Because sometimes guys was challenging you. Because you got to understand, dog, they look up to us. Right.

We're gold jackets. Right. And we. But I still got a job, Ty. We're different. Yes. But it's the way you do your job. See, you do your job well, dog. But you're much more outspoken than I was.

See, I could never be critical of DBs because it was over. Right. I say things bad. But you're the DB God, though. Yeah, but you speak on everything. I just spoke on one thing. You speak on everything. And we look up to you and we look out for you. And your words empower us.

Right. But the same words that empower us, they take the air out of us. Right. Because that's how much effect that you have on people. I don't think you know, man. I think sometimes they think that when I say something, it's personal. No, it's not personal. And you know it's never personal.

It's not personal with you. I mean, I can criticize someone and I see you on the street and, bro, I'm going to damn you up. No, it's not personal. It's never personal. It's not personal with you. I mean, I can criticize someone and I see you on the street and bro, I'm going to damn you up. Yeah. I ain't blowing. I'm never going to. But they still mad. They still mad. Because there's power in your tongue. You know that. I didn't at first. I didn't

at first time. I mean, until you pulled me. I mean, you did this. You pulled me to the side. I'm like, bro, I'm just speaking the truth. I mean, it's not as personal with you. He said, but you don't understand who you are and what you've done. A lot of these guys are trying to do what you've done. So they have a gold jacket wearing a three time

and the Pro Bowls and the All Pro and the All Decade. See, normally, when a normal pundit, a guy that didn't play or if he did play, doesn't have the credentials, you can say, well, what did he do? What did you do? They can never say what I did. Right. It's documented.

So I've tried to do a better job, but I can't. I just got to tell it like it's his. No, no, you got to be you, and you can't stop being you. I can't. But you got to stop caring about what they say. Thank you. Because they're going to say it anyway. Right. But long as your heart stays pure

right and you're not doing it with any it's not a malice you ain't nothing like that i ain't never seen you mad at nobody no i don't know it's not it's not that serious i ain't never seen you mad at nobody or have a dislike of this thing no or talk about anybody but i ain't never no my life and i've been knowing you for a long time and i know you ain't no good but I ain't never. In my life, and I've been knowing you for a long time, and I know you ain't no good, but I ain't never seen you. He said I'm no good for another reason. Not because of anything else. Oh, no, not because of anything else, but a whole nother reason.

Yeah, yeah. But I've never seen you treat anybody unfairly. And I pray for you. You do? Yeah. I appreciate that. No, I do. Because you're our guy.

It's sort of like how they lofted me up there at Jackson, and I was supposed to do this, and they wanted that. You're our guy. So you fight for us. I do. You bring equality to us. Like, you give our side, and you tell us when we wrong. And you substantiate when we right.

Yes. But you fight for us. And we admire that, dog. We love that. We need that. It's not something I get into or something will... Because there's going to be

some bulljump four times a year. I told you that. There's going to be some bulljump four times a year. Somebody going to call me. Hey, boy, one thing about your boy, he got your back. Now, he ain't tell no lie.

He check you when you wrong, but he's gonna tell the truth when you right. And you always bring a different perspective than what I thought, because I wasn't even thinking that way. And I'm glad that you have this platform, because you got time to flush out your thought. Yes. Yes, I needed more time. But you always told me that. You told me, when

I got this job at CBS, you'll be good at it. He said, but that's not your final platform. That's not your final calling. That's right. He says, you need time. He says, I've been around you, and the way you think and what you have to say, you need more than 10 seconds.

He ain't do that in over 30 seconds. You told me that. He was trying to do it in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, then they hollering, rap, why you talking? You almost cussed one show. Yeah, a bunch of shows. Mother. Time, I wanna say shows. Mother! Time.

I want to say congrats. Thank you. I mean, from the bottom of my heart, no one is more deserving. I know what you put in to get to this point. So you're very deserving of everything that you've gotten to this point. And I want to say thank you for what you did at Jackson State. I want to say thank you for bringing a lot more of attention. HBCUs were good before you arrived. They're going to be good, but hopefully they become better because of what you've done. Best of luck here. One more thing.

I saw all the celebrities that you had at Jackson State. Are you going to have celebrities like that at CU? And you know what? I tried to bring Gilly Wallo on the flight that night. But they had to go shoot a show. But you know, everyone has called and said, we riding with you, boss. We got you. Opening Saturday. Pilsen, your boy here.

I'm holding it. I'm holding the seat right outside my office because I can't put you in the stand because they gonna get on your nerves. Right there. And I know you. You know your boy be here. You know your boy rock with you.

Oh no, I know you gonna rock with me. I know you gonna be a little bit more busy now so boy will be here. You know your boy will rock with you. Oh, no. I know you're going to rock with me. I know you're going to be a little bit more busy now, so I probably won't get an opportunity to talk to you every week. That's a lie. You come in the summer. And show my tight end. I got you. I got you. But I love this man.

You got to, it's a docu-series. Amazon Prime Video, Coach Prime. And we'll be able to watch the 20th. Everything. Behind the scenes. Everything. The entire 2022 season of Jackson State. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to see the to watch the 20. Everything. Behind the scenes. Everything. The entire 2022 season of Jackson State. Yeah, yeah.

So we're going to see the highs, the lows. Lows, the in-betweens, how I really felt about some things that I really couldn't disclose. Right. You're going to see how it played out. Right. Because a lot of things,

they know how to play it out. Right. But you know we keep receipts. Yes. And we're going to play it out. It's wonderful. Why would you want people to get that kind of glimpse

into your life, into the interworking, the behind the scenes of what it's like to be at a college program, particularly at HBCU? Because our kids want exposure. And I promised them I would give them exposure. Now you're getting to see our program on the inside and out. And what these kids want? Followers. They want likes.

They want love. And we're going to give them the exposure that they deserve. Are you gonna put something together like that at CU for your first year? Yeah, you already know. Yeah, it's already in the works. It's already in the works. You already know. My dog. My dog. Much love, baby. Still ain't no good. I'm gonna be a good man. I'm gonna be a good man. I'm gonna be a good man. Look around. What's going through your mind?

I don't use my fantasy, but for a task, I love it. But it's, I don't have words, Chan. Honestly, I'm still in awe of this. Because we didn't dream about this. Right. Our dream is always about the kids. Right. And just so happens this involved the

kids right so that's what the dream was about let me make sure these kids get what they want let me make sure these kids get the exposure they want let me make sure these kids um make it to the nfl make make sure these kids be professionals let me make sure these kids develop you know be great men have a great be great life yes you life That's what it's about This just comes along with it Was there ever a plan You coached little league You coached high school football

You went to an HBCU Was there a timeline that says If I don't get a power five job I'm just going I wasn't thinking about coaching Shador was getting ready to go to FAU with Coach Taggart. Okay. Shala was at South Carolina.

Baby girl was still hooping. And I was like, oh, I get to chill. Right. I've been chasing and running after them. Yeah. You know, coaching every team that has to do the baby. Yes, yes. I'm getting ready to chill.

Right. Then the calls start coming. Okay. And I said, for real? So let me get prepared. You know how we are. Yes, yes. Let me get prepared you know how we are yes yes let me get prepared let me put the staff together let me do it not to cut you off but when you were coaching your kids in high school no one no school picked up the phone that's when it started that's

when it started happening that's when coach ray okay pretty tony and constance was the management team like you know people are calling that you supposed to be coaching I said what you mean coaching the next level I said what you mean? Coaching at the next level. I said, what you mean? They say, coaching at the next level. Who? Then you start giving me the names, right? I said, I got to get prepared. I can't go on an interview and not ready. So we started getting really prepared.

I mean, prepared, prepared. So when we met with them, we gave them a whole synopsis of this is your three to five year plan. This is what I'm going to do in three to five. This is how I'm going to make it happen. This is your roster and what you currently have plan this is what I'm gonna do right and three to five this is what I'm gonna make it happen this is your roster what you currently have this is what we could go get right now right that's how it came about okay so with Jackson with Jackson State the only job that you interviewed for no I didn't know no not whatsoever there were two

power fives and then once the call start coming from Jackson, I didn't know what Jackson was. Right. I had to really do my homework and understand the history. Right. Of Jackson, then the history of HBCUs. I had to do my homework. That's the true story. And then I started thinking, hey, especially with what was going on in the pandemic, George Floyd and so forth. Hey. This might work. God, what are you trying to do? Because I knew I was overqualified to get those.

Right. But you closed the door. So what are you trying to do? Let me right there. Ashley Robinson had been calling me, A.D. at Jackson, had been calling me ad and uh, Jackson had been calling me for Weeks at a time and he's good. He did his homework and the thing that really got me. He said how's bossy doing I Say, how you know, I call my daughter bossy. He's a man. Come on. I'm wrong studying you like you study It was just a match made in heaven right I met I met with him and... The rest is history.

The rest is history. Look around. This. This. You hear. Power 5, D1, all that. You. Here.

I mean, I could see them cheering and chanting. I could feel the emotions. I could feel the hunger and the thirst and the want for us to just fall out. Right. For some dogs to run out that tunnel. Right. You know, behind Ralph and do the thing.

I'm scared of Ralph. I'm just not sure. Me and Ralph got to meet before we run out. Okay, okay, hey Ralph. I'm a good guy, I'm on your side. Take that right turn and you know, next thing you know, we're mean. Yeah, yeah. You ain't the old pride.

You ain't the old pride. You ain't the old pride. But y'all can see it. Right. I can feel it, Shannon. Like, this is, uh, this is it, man. This is, this is... We gonna pack this thing, man.

When you laid your head on your pillow at night and dreamed and thought is this what you thought I kind of see the conclusion of it okay before God shows me the beginning that's why I say I just see it packed and people scream chanting right hearing and they're happy now lady and we win right and when right and winning that's what I see you know I want to give the University of and we winning. Right. And winning. Right. And winning. That's what I see. You know, I want to give the University of Colorado some credit. Everybody talks about diversity. John Embry, I played with him at Denver.

Carl Durrell, I forget the guy, Mel Tucker. And now you four. I think in the last 15 years it's been four. That's a tribute to Rick George, I.A.D. He's an unbelievable human being, a God-fearing man, a man that understands people, and a man that does not see color. He sees the need and the desire in the one.

And he tries to bring connectivity to the want and need with that person and tries to bring them together. He is the reason I'm here. Right. Because I met with others. Right. Several others. Okay.

But he was the difference, man. Mm-hmm. He was the difference. You got to understand, this is unlikely for me. Right. Florida. Right.

That live in Texas. Yes. So, you know, all is unlikely for me. Right. Florida. Right. That live in Texas. Yes. So, you know, all this, come on. You've been in the South your whole life. Exactly. And you know I never played in snow. Right. 14 years.

Right. Never. Never played in snow. Wow. I remember it was so cold one time in Green Bay. I said, I go out when it's time to kick off. I'm not going out. So, doing this, I was checking the weather every day.

Right. I said, Rick, man, look pretty cold out of me. If you send me a beautiful picture of a day like this. Right. He said, no, it's about 62. You said the AD president, they made an impression on you. You're not easily impressed. Yeah.

A man as accomplished as you are, been where you've been, you have heard a lot of sales pitches. What was it about his pitch? It's honesty, man. In his heart, in his passion for this university. Like, he wanted to make change. He said that they deserve a winner, and I feel like you're a winner. Yes. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make sure this university wins before I leave here. That's what he said.

And we're going to do everything we can to give you the resources to make that happen. And it has been true since the day I said I do. Do they do they know who they hire? Yes.

What part of me? What part of me? Why you gonna make me show up? Why you gonna make us show up? Can we act right, please? Okay, okay, exactly right. They know, so okay. They know, okay.

What you mean by that? Because I know you. So you come here, like, yes, yes. I think I'll be great for the job. First of all, don't talk like that. First of all, don't talk like that. Because I know you man see you come here. Yes. Yes Second of all get to it you like I Really appreciate this opportunity. I just want you to know this opportunity will not be wasted or squandered. I Believe in you. Thank you for believing in me. I mean you all That's not how you really talk. Because I know how we talk.

And then it's like, well, we want you to be yourself. All right, all right, I'm going to be myself. I'm going to be called Friday. And then you switched up on us. So I know how you go. No, no. Trust me. You got to understand.

Before Rick got in that car or got on that jet to come see me, you know they did their homework. Yeah, yeah. And they know. They knew. And one thing that he elaborated, he wanted to come see me. You know they did their homework. Yeah, yeah. You know. And one thing that he elaborated, he wanted me to be me. I said, that's good because I don't know who else to be. I don't know how to be someone else. I'm the best me ever. Exactly.

Just like you. Ain't no other shakes. No. Come on, baby. I called you. You know that, right? And asked you about this. Yeah.

People don't know that. I don't. Because you my brother. I know. And I know you about this yeah people don't know that i don't because you're my brother i know and uh and i know you i gave you i gave you my honest opinion and uh but i want i wanted you to share your joy i was happy for you know i was happy for you i said brother i'm so happy for you but i wanted you and that's like you know yeah, I knew. That's not my place. That's not my place to steal his thunder. The man is going to be a head coach at a power five from an HBCU. That's never happened. He's got to share that moment. Not me, he.

You know what? I know you like a book. And you know how much I love you. And I know how you feel about me. Yeah. You was mad, wasn't you? At the folks. I was. Because they only see what you feel about me. Yeah. You was mad, wasn't you, at the folks? I was.

Because they only see what you didn't do, and they don't give you credit for what you did do. And I was very disappointed in that. That's all. But one thing about it, one thing I know for sure, oh, you're going to have me back. But you're a straight shooter. One thing.

You're a straight shooter. Ain't no punches. If I'm wrong, you're going to tell me. First of all, you're going to call me first. I'm going to call you first. I ain't going to say it publicly. I'm going to call you. You're going to call me first. I will call you first. I ain't going to say it publicly. I will call you. You'll call me first and let me know, okay?

I'm getting ready to say that. Yes. So that's what I love about you. That's the respect that we have for one another. And when I'm wrong, if I say something on there, he's like, bro, I don't agree with you on that. And I'm like, okay, so how should... It ain't what's wrong, it's your opinion. Right.

Your opinion. How can you be wrong with your opinion? The one thing that you did tell me, and I've tried to do, take a, you know, he's like, you have to understand how credentialed you are. Do you understand who you are? Your word carries weight. You're not just some pundit on TV. Right.

You're a three-time Super Bowl gold jacket wearing. And you're a real one. Yes. So you have to, so they're going to take what you say to heart a lot more because they know you know what you're talking about. And they're fans of yours. Yes, yes. So it's like, man, I looked up to you and you offended me. Right, right, right.

Like, how can you shoot at me and I looked up to you, man? Like, every word I came up with. And then sometimes I say, y'all offended me with that play. Come on, let's go. Words cannot properly express how proud I am of you. Thank you. What you've been able to do am of you. Thank you. What you've been able to do, where you've come from, I know how much you wanted a moment like this.

I'm proud. You know, if you ever need anything from me, you know you can call me. And if I don't have it, and I know somebody that does, I'm going to put you in touch with them so you can get it to make sure you have everything that you need to be successful. I know you're going to be successful. You've been successful at everything you've ever done in life. You know, I don't love you like a brother.

You are my brother. Ain't no people say, I love him like a brother. No, this is my brother. Sure. And I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you, bro. I need one thing, though, because you just told me that anything I need. What you need?

These houses are expensive. Do I know a realtor? Can you get a hook up? I need a hook up for getting real things. I'm about to put two trailers on some property. Hey, I be sleeping in your car? No, I can sleep in my office. You got a Sprinter? You got a Sprinter van, right? No, I don't. I may sleep in the office. Maybe I know somebody that can hook you up with a Sprinter. You got one. I ain't got one. I ain't got one, but I can get you one. I've been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice.

That's why. All my life. I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends.

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