Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Duke Manyweather Recognizes Protests Against Police Brutality

Episode Date: June 1, 2020

After a tumultuous weekend in America, offensive line scouting & development consultant Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) joins the show to share his perspective on how the football world can react to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. But first, Gabe & Geoff react to an Roger Goodell's official statement on the weekend's demonstrations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Monday, June 1st. Welcome to Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. Today, we'll do a different show, guys. It has to be done. I know you come here to listen about football, learn about football, and we do a good job making you a smarter football fan. But today, there's more pressing needs to talk about. There's issues at hand that have to be discussed.

And look, we have eyes, we have ears, we have a heart. We see what's happening right now. And it would be ignorant to ignore the issues that are happening around our society right now. We'll bring on a good buddy of mine, Duke Maniweather, who's an offensive line performance specialist, but also very thoughtful, very introspective. A guy who has lived a lot in his life and able to share some thoughts about how we can all be better as a society. And look, I hope you can enjoy this. If not, fast forward to the end, listen to Duke, whatever you want to do. We'll see you next week. See you later this week. But we're doing this. So Gabe, welcome in.

Something that we have got to do, right? I mean, we talk, me and you, a lot off the air about things that just aren't football, right? I mean, we are people that listen, we absorb, we're curious, we talk about things that happen in life. And this is what has to be discussed now. Yeah, it felt like it had to be. And I mean, basically, look, my job on this show is to kind of read back what the internet is saying and kind of have you weigh in on the takes that are bouncing around.

There's no one in the football community who isn't talking about the very same things we're watching on the news, right? So like you said, for people who maybe aren't interested in hearing that or wish that this would be football talk as an escape from that. You know, this may not be the week for the show. It's as simple as that. So it's basically it's been a disturbing week for anyone in America. I'm going to keep my personal thoughts kind of to a minimum here and just sort of stick to my role. I want to read you the takes I'm seeing on Twitter, which I can summarize pretty simply. People are frustrated,

people are sad, people are angry. After days of demonstrators taking to the streets to protest police brutality against black people after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the NFL issued a statement. This came when many cities were already in flames and peaceful protests had turned into clashes with police. I won't read the whole NFL statement. I'll simply say that it was almost unanimously panned as insufficient, tone deaf, far too little, far too late. People were not happy with what the NFL had to say. I wasn't expecting them to be. In that statement, there was no mention of the police or Colin Kaepernick. There was acknowledgement that, quote, there remains much more to do as a country and as a league, but not the fact that Colin

Kaepernick and other players were trying to say exactly that years ago by peacefully protesting on the field. The irony was not lost on people and they were upset. Frankly, it was very hard to swallow. I want to highlight Brian Flores, head coach of the Dolphins, one of just three black head coaches in the league right now. He had probably the strongest statement I saw from someone in the league. He referenced the outrage so many fans shared when players were peacefully kneeling on the field or when the league tried to address the minority coaching issue. And he said, quote, I haven't seen the same outrage from people of influence when the conversation turns to Ahmed Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and most recently, George Floyd. He continued, many people who broadcast their opinions on kneeling or on the hiring of minorities don't seem to have an opinion on the recent murders of these young black men and women. Heavy stuff, man. I'm sorry to just keep on reading and reading, but I think it's important that I give you some facts. My opinions aren't really the point here. Listen, now some people in the media are calling for

Kaepernick to be signed. I'm not sure that that makes a lot of football sense or frankly, that it would calm what's going on in the streets. Many players issued statements or shared thoughts. We haven't heard from some of the biggest white stars in the league though, so that leaves some people wondering. My only bit of optimism right now comes from the fact that two of the younger future stars in this league Joe Burrow this year's number one pick Trevor Lawrence next year's expected number one pick both were vocal about this both shared thoughts on Twitter and maybe it's possible that a new generation of star quarterbacks in this league specifically white star quarterbacks in this league, specifically white star quarterbacks in this league, will do something that I don't think we've seen from very many of the current star white players in the league. So with that as a summary, I'll kick it to you, Jeff.

I know this isn't an easy one for us to discuss. No, it really is actually not a difficult discussion. You have to be willing to discuss it, right? And I'm glad that NFL players, especially white NFL players, have put out statements of support, right? But it comes down to more than just statements, right, right? And I'm glad that NFL players, especially white NFL players, have put out statements of support, right? But it comes down to more than just statements, right, Gabe? And this is kind of the crux of what's happening right now is that we are hearing athletes, not just athletes, but people, you know, saying, okay, I want to be better. I want there to be change. We need to have change, but you have to do it yourself. It starts with yourself. You know, if you're going to put

out a statement, great. I'm glad you acknowledge that, but you have to talk to your teammates in the locker room, right? You have to understand what they're feeling. You have to understand their culture and the way they perceive people view them, right? You have to donate your time and your money to help. Not everyone can afford to donate money. I'm not saying that you, listener, have to donate money. But yeah, it'd be kind of nice if you were able to donate. There's plenty of places. Maybe I can retweet a link with all places you can go to donate money and actually give some money and some time more than just platinum social media like social media to me game i've been at the teetering at the edge of like way done with social media but it's great for my job right like i have to kind of do it it's been

it's got me jobs it's got me gigs you know when i meet executives like hey i love your twitter i love your content it's great for that I've increasingly moved away from tweeting about anything but football because it shouldn't be a right or left thing to treat people well. It shouldn't be a right or left issue, a political issue, whether or not we should we should tolerate racial profiling, racial injustice. It shouldn't be that. Right. So just be a let's be better people. Let's let's be better in life. Let's try to create the life that we all want to live. And social media, it's a dumpster fire, man. I'm going on there this weekend. I'm trying to see, get information at all about what's happening in my city in Charlotte, which we had some protests and some, I don't think it

was much looting. Maybe there was other cities. It's just information so inaccurate. It's so inaccurate. It's a one-side pushing agenda, another side pushing another agenda. And so that's basically why I didn't post on social media. People are wondering. I know people have asked me to post. I didn't because I feel like Twitter is not the best medium for that. I'm more concerned how people feel about me in real life, how the relationships I form with people, how they feel I treat them rather than social media.

So look, I'm glad that these athletes have done this. But again, it's about voting, right? It's about not just voting for your president, voting for the people that run your city, voting for the judges, voting for the sheriff, right? It's more than just that. And that's not always the answer. In this election, to be quite honest, I don't think we have great answers, all right? But you know, like you go vote, go vote. You can't complain on social media if you don't vote. And then it comes down. And this is why to your point about the younger generation is that comes down to parenting. We have kids that are very young. It's our job to teach them compassion, but not just compassion for people that look like us,

compassion for everybody and empathy and love and wanting to learn and learning about cultures and different in the way different people do things and being accepting that not everyone's going to be like you. It's okay to do that. And so all these things, I think, might lead to change. It might not, but that's the first start. It's not going on social media and saying, hey, man, I'm with you, right? We get it. Like, that's the thing about social media, Gabe, is like, if you are a sane rational person you see the killing of george floyd and it horrifies you like you should not have to go on social media to let people know that horrifies you the people that that know you well should know that already is a problem now speaking up

obviously i'm glad people are speaking up i'm glad we're raising awareness but you gotta do a little bit more than putting on social media posts so look, look, I get why the NFL, people are pissed at the NFL. Like Colin Kaepernick, 100% was blackballed. Joe Lockhart, former, was he VP of Communications? Now, I think in political stream, wrote about how, you know, we all know. He got blackballed. It wasn't appropriate then. And signing him, to your point, Gabe, signing him now is a slap in the face, right? It's like we're just trying to appease everyone by signing him.

Could have signed him last year. Plus, it's been four years now. signing him now is a slap in the face, right? It's like, we're just trying to appease everyone by signing him. Could have signed him last year. Plus, it's been four years now. I mean, I don't know what, you know, how many guys could sign for four years off. So signing him is not the answer either. But it's acknowledging that you made a mistake. And the NFL has yet to acknowledge it. And there are probably liability issues why they haven't done that. But I just, I'm sad because I feel like this shouldn't be a difficult thing

for people to understand, to just be compassionate, to just have empathy. And it's hard for a lot of people right now to do that. It's hard for people to just listen, listen and hear what other people are saying about their, just because you didn't experience it doesn't mean they didn't experience it. Why would they lie about it? Like, just listen. It's okay to listen and to feel that you need to make a change and you

need to help make a change. And we don't do that anymore. We just don't do that. And maybe that's a social media thing, but I think it's a real life thing. We see it happen all the time. And that's just, it just bothers me, man. Like I know that I can rant and rave on here about, about it. And I hope people are listening, take it to heart. I don't know. I think coming up, talking to Duke, that might help. I hope it helps while we're bringing them on. So I think coming up, talking to Duke, that might help. I hope it helps while we're bringing them on. But look, again, I'm glad NFL players have made their statements.

We've heard coaches make statements. But to you, same as you, it just kind of feels like, all right, well, you made your statement. What's going to happen now? What are you going to do about it now? And I do feel fortunate, man. fortunate man like i i looking at some of these statements of quarterbacks mostly quarterbacks i feel like like almost um what's the right word to use but like i i feel grateful that i grew up around different cultures like i went to a high school that was mixed everywhere it was a third of of every race right fourth of every race it was multicultural different religions i play with guys that were muslim i play with guys that obviously I'm Jewish. I play with guys of all

faiths, of all colors. And like, I grew up around that. I see quarterbacks putting out statements like, I didn't grow up around it. Like, what do you, like, how do you not realize there have been problems in this country? Like, I don't know what, why it was this instance where people spoke out, but I'm glad they did eventually. I do think it's because there's nothing happening right now, right, Gabe? If there was minicamp right now, we would get no statements, right? Well, yeah, it's sad to imagine that this might not have gotten the right amount of attention if guys were busier. I guess we're lucky that people are forced to confront some of this. I mean, I just want to ask you one quick question.

And I think this time is best spent listening to what duke has to say not not what i have to say but i'm curious if you think if we're going to um agree that the nfl maybe did a little bit too little too late is this a chance for a reset is there a chance that this year the the games when they are played will be the players will be able to make the statements that they've probably wanted to make for years that the fans will be a little bit more open-minded to this, that some of the narratives we were told a couple of seasons ago about why, you know, what Colin Kaepernick had started was a bad thing, apparently, that maybe that argument will go away and that this could be a good year for the NFL and players in the locker room can have some frank conversations. Look, the locker room conversation is, you have to be open to having a conversation.

So you've known me now for a couple of years. I love having conversations. Like during my last locker room time was in 2016. It was during the election, right? It was in August. We talked about politics every day. All of us did, right? There were people that were Hillary people, Trump people.

There were black athletes. There were white athletes. There were white athletes. There were coaches. I had a black offensive line coach. We talked about politics in life. But you have to want to do it. I wanted to do it. I am okay with discussing difficult things and listening to what people have to say about them and absorbing what they have to say.

And thinking about it myself. Look, politically, you don't change very often. And I like to hear opinions of people. But just like listening, you have to want to do that so when these players go back in the locker room they have to want to be curious they have to want to learn and and and so you can say it's great that hey we're going to now get to a locker room and hang out kumbaya but again like you have to be willing to to open your ears and listen what people are saying and taking the experiences of those that aren't like you.

And I think that is number one thing. You have to do that. And so I can say, yes, it's going to happen, but I don't know. I hope it does. And we've seen, to be fair, we've seen the Eagles, right, have done a fantastic job with this. Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Long, all those guys in Philly, in that locker room did great.

As far as the kneeling thing, I think Goodell would not mind it. I think the owners are probably still have an issue with it. And it's still Gabe, still. As long as we have people that say all lives matter. We know your life matters already. We get it. Okay. We get it.

Again. So show some compassion for people that aren't like you. And as long as people still say that like if i tweet out right now black lives matter i get 50 responses all lives matter jeff like until that ends gabe people are going to be upset that nfl players are kneeling and again should we care no but the nfl is a business to run that's the reason why they didn't sign colin kaepernick back the first time so i think we might see players take a knee. I think it's possible. Again, I don't know what the response

will be from the owners. I mean, Goodell, I think Goodell would be fine with it. But, you know, he's basically the mouthpiece for the owners, right? The owners tell him what to do.

Goodell gets too much crap in my opinion. But I think that's what the owners tell him to do. And if the owners say, look, we're not allowing it, then they're not going to allow it. But I think they would allow it.

But I don't know, Gabe, how many players are going to do it. I don't know. I mean, who knows what impact it would have now. The thing that they were trying to spotlight is now evident to everyone in this country with a television set. So if you were pretending that you didn't understand what those guys were protesting about before, it'd be pretty hard for you to claim that any longer. So perhaps the statement isn't needed. I don't know.

This isn't my call to make. But this is like the thing. I know I keep railing on this, but people – every now and then I – oh, look. I follow political accounts on Twitter. I look at the replies, man. I know some of them are bots, but some of them are real people. is so far from reality that does not give me hope that someone who thought that Colin Kaepernick was protesting the military and the police and the American flag, you know, he hates America. And other players, by the way, there were other players besides Kaepernick that have had different

messages, by the way, the different messages, you have to listen to what they're saying. You know, what's going to change in 2020? Nothing for them. They're still the same people that are tweeting out crazy things on Twitter and on Facebook. I don't think people are going to change their minds. I hope they do. But I think NFL fans that are set in their ways aren't going to change if the players kneel in 2020.

The people I should say that were against Kaepernick in 2016 are certainly the same people now. Yeah, maybe. in 2016 are certainly the same people now. Yeah, maybe. And all I'm saying is I'm hopeful that as a new generation of star players, you know, look, I'm not singling Tom Brady out or making Joe Burrow into some hero, but he's 20, Joe Burrow's 20 years younger than Tom Brady. He's a full generation younger. And if Joe Burrow's first act as an NFL player is to be on what I would consider the right side of history. While an era of quarterbacks I grew up with are going to leave the league never really weighing in on these topics, perhaps the fan base or the owner's fear of their fan base will change.

I don't know. I'd be curious what Duke has to say about this because I know that you and he have a relationship where you can be pretty open about this kind of stuff. I think he's going to shed light. On this part with Burroughs, I think it is important. When he tweeted that out, his teammates validated him. That to me is the most important thing is that people said, hey, look, this guy's saying it, but he also is acting this way in life. And so that to me feels like the important part here. to me feels like the the important part here that's my kind of my point about backing up what you say in social media is that burrow lives that life where he has teammates saying hey this is the guy he says he acts this way in real life and so yes to your point i think that it's great to see

we saw trevor lawrence talk about it we saw you know carson white has younger quarterbacks still you know we saw obviously joe burrow we saw any dalton who's older but you know he discussed so it's good that i'm glad that players are speaking up. Great. Well, I mean, listen, I'm hoping that the few minutes we're spending on this is useful for people. But I think our guest has probably got deeper thoughts here, certainly from following what he's been saying on Twitter. He's put a lot of thought and care into the words he's using. So I'm curious to hear what he'll have to say.

Same here. So let's bring Duke on. Good buddy of mine. We've been friends now for like 20 years. So I'm looking forward to this conversation. All right, welcome back in. Jeff Schwartz of Smartly. We're going to make you smarter now by adding in Duke Maniweather,

a good friend of mine. We've known each other now. You sent me the picture the other day. I mean, since 2002 or 2001, playing high school football together. That was 2001, the first photo you sent. We've known each other quite a long time. Duke is an offensive line performance specialist, but also, like I mentioned at the top, thoughtful, introspective, a guy that really studies all cultures, all walks of life. And Duke, you posted something yesterday that I want to get you on to talk about.

But first, how are you feeling, man? I know you were in L.A. this week. It was a little crazy in Los Angeles this weekend. Yeah, you know, first, thanks for having me, Jeff. And I think we may have first met in, was it 99 or 2000? Whatever year you got to high school. I was 2000. 2000. Yeah, so 2000. So it's 20 years, man.

20 years. All right. But yeah, you know, I went down to L.A. to visit the parents. And quite frankly, you know, with all that's been going on, the uncharted territory that we've all been in as a nation, I felt like that it was just I felt like I had a couple of days that I could wiggle away to go see my mom, my dad, and, you know, some of my cousins and my aunts and uncles before, you know, everything got hectic on my end in terms of training and getting in the preparation for this next season coming up.

Little did I know that, you know, going to L.A., returning home, it almost had a bigger meaning. And you know me, I'm always looking for the big picture and like the underlying. And, you know, I think recently I've turned you into more of a conspiracy theorist. But I say that to say this, you know, I went there to, you know, to get away. But I think it was important for not only that I was there, my sister made the drive down from San Francisco, the Bay Area as well. She actually got in Wednesday night. And so we were together as a family for the first time in a long time.

And it was that time was invaluable because what we are all going through with the quarantine and the virus and then to see the rioting going on and the protests going on throughout the entire nation. Those are times where you need to be together as a family. You know, those are times where, you know, you need to have dialogue and express feelings, vulnerability and, you know, displeasures and things of that nature that you may have been going through. I could not have thought of a better place to be than with my mom and dad and my sister and around cousins and stuff like that during that time because it was really a sickening feeling to the stomach as you're probably going to get into here, that in 1992, I was, you know, right there on the ground before the 92 L.A. riots.

And so just a lot of emotion being in L.A. while some of that protest was happening and kind of seeing some of the things that I kind of replayed even, you know, from the childhood. So you put out a statement on social media. You go to your Twitter. I always forget. It's at BigDuke50.

And Instagram is at TheBigDuke50. You know, you talked about your background, growing up in L.A., the riots, your parents, you know, being part of the 95 riots as well. I'm assuming the 65 riots as well. But I found a couple of things here just really like informative. I think now is the time we have to listen, right? And so, you know, you mentioned here about why the protests. And I think people are searching for why they're protesting. Why are they protesting? What's the purpose of it? And I think you laid it out better than anyone. And I said, can you go over for our listeners kind of the timeline you set up about why it matters to protest? Yeah, absolutely.

So one of the things that I tried to really articulate and really take time is to really put out there that this is 100% the right cause, the right time to protest these things that are going on. I think I'm going to backtrack because I put this in my statement a little lower, but this needs to be brought to the top of the surface is that we have a big time issue here. And the issue is that not just the end result of African- Americans and minorities being wrongfully murdered. That's a result really of the main issue, and that is

there is blatant racism that people have turned a blind eye to that these are now really the issues that are coming to the surface. The second issue is that the abuse of power and law enforcement in which, you know, what came first, the chicken or the egg?

But I think we're dealing with two issues here. And I think what we've seen unfold here in just the last really 40 days is, and these are just the ones we know about, are three African-Americans wrongfully killed. Actually, two have been caught on tape. One going for a jog and essentially was hunted down. It was filmed. There was a young lady who was killed in her bed in a detention center.

No real answers. No real justice brought upon that. And then, you know, with Floyd. And as I reflect back on this, again, what is the underlying thing here? You know, what is the common trend here? And it's African-Americans, and you see that it really takes outrage, and it really takes people to really, in some ways, yell and cry out for people to pay attention. And so what you're seeing here with the protests and the rioting is that when people feel like they're not heard,

when they feel like something is broken, when they feel like something needs to be fixed or destroyed, but yet they can't tangibly and physically change that problem and fix that problem, they destruct. And that happens even in people's lives. When you hear self-destruction, why does that happen? It happens because people don't have answers or feel like they don't have the power to change something that's wrong. So what you're seeing now is that people are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

And so they're resorting in to destroying something that's physically there because that's what gives them power right now. And they feel like by at this time, this is what is giving them power and the voice to get people's attention. And so people are saying, and I agree, the message sometimes can get lost when violence and destruction happens.

But what it is, is the violence and destruction and all that stuff get your attention to say, OK, why are they doing this? Or they're doing this because we have a big problem. And again, that problem is the racism, the systematic racism, the abuse of power that people in the higher ups are displaying. And again, I think a lot of this is people want to make this political. You can make it political if you want, but it's the complete removal of the human element and empathy for even wanting to understand

people that are different from yourselves and i think that's something that you know uh me and you have always had open dialogue and we don't understand something in each other's culture like we're like hey can you explain this to me and i think it's like we end up making a joke about each other afterwards. But, you know, we've had so many moments of open dialogue like that. And quite frankly, it's what's needed. But what I've seen, and this is relevant on Twitter, on Facebook, and I think social media has exacerbated this over the past 10 years. I can remember when we did a podcast a couple years ago with Amy Trask and there was another, I believe it might have been the Eric Gardner.

What we were talking about was social media has turned into such a nasty place at times because social discourse is lost. The ability to agree to disagree and then empathy is lost. The willingness to be able to understand and then people completely

remove the human element. They don't realize that me and you hurt just like anybody else hurts. Me and you get sick to our stomach about things that other people should too and I think that becomes lost.

But again, the call to action here is first acknowledgement. And then I think really accountability. Like I think a lot of times the problems that we're seeing right now is that people don't, there's a lot of people that don't acknowledge that there's a problem, you know, and they're not willing to understand that there is a problem. And to me, and I've had conversations with people like that, and I get to the point like, why does this need to be explained? Who are you telling, man?

Like, I think we talked about this before you came on. Like, I don't understand, like, looking on social media and seeing people talk. Like, it's like, what are you not, can you not see this? Like, I don't, I just, so continue. It blows my mind, dude. And we talked about this, like, it's like, what are you not, can you not see this? Like, I don't, I just, so continue. I, it blows my mind, dude. And we talked about this, like I grew up, I feel grateful. I grew up with different cultures around me. I mean, I just, I, I just don't, for me, it's just hard to see that other people can't

see what's happening right now. Yeah. That's the, that's the hard thing thing, is that I think people are choosing not to see. And I saw a great video, a clip from a social experiment at a university from might have been 10 or 15 years ago. It's pretty much a predominantly

all Caucasian student body. And a professor stood up there and said, will you guys agree that we have a problem in this country? And some people raised their hand, some people didn't. And I forgot what the second question was, but the third question was, will any of you white students want to be treated like our black students or Africans Americans in this country?

Raise your hand. And not one raised their hand. are Africans Americans in this country? Raise your hand. And not one raised their hand. And she said, so you guys don't think there's a problem in this country. But yet when I asked the question, would you want to be treated like African Americans? You guys didn't raise your hand, which means that you acknowledge that there's a problem in this country.

Yeah. And I thought that was really powerful because it goes back to not acknowledging and really omitting how you feel kind of in this situation kind of adds to the problem. You know, if you see something, say something. If something's wrong, you got to correct it, nip it in the bud. And I, for one, been in certain situations that I've been in, have been real – I always have kind of been this way, but I've been real snippy about nippy things in the bud when it comes to race and people pushing the envelope on what they think they can say or what they think they can get away with. we do this thing as a society now where if you speak up when something's wrong people say that oh you're offended easily or uh you know um you know oh you're just being you know weak and uh whatever the new pop culture terms or whatever it is but in reality is like no i'm putting you in

your place and that's a cop-out for you to get away with what you think you're going to get away with. And I think, again, this dialogue, I don't have all the answers to even understand what needs to be done, but I think from me to you and then from you to somebody else, just to have these conversations and understand like, hey, there is a problem. See something, say something. That's where it starts. And then again, you go into the law enforcement piece. I think more training. I think, you know, more funds put into training and higher requirements needed. I think policies.

I think the mental resilience training for officers and, you know, and not just one day in the academy, but something that's continuing education. I think that legislation and policies should be put in place in terms of what a criteria looks like for law enforcement. So check this out. When you look at high performance and high performance, we talk about this all the time and what we do, you can train the body, you can train the craft, you can train the mind, okay? High performers train all three and function all three, especially the mental part at a high level, the mental process.

In your world, NFL, same way. Guys I'm training, the difference I see in high performers and those that get it and show resiliency is this right okay our law enforcement officers by what their job is should be

high performance and not just by title but in how they're trained and how they operate. And I've heard far too much from friends of mine that are law enforcement officers, people that have been law enforcement officers. So many of our law enforcement officers are scared when they go to scenes. And to me, if you're scared, just like in a game, or if you have any doubt, just like in a game, that means you're not prepared and you don't trust your training.

And so as we always talk about, trust is behavior over time, you know, and confidence is the story we tell ourselves. So if they're getting these proper trainings and they're doing this mental resilience training and they can do these de-escalations and just their overall approach with how they're approaching people and how they're handling people, I think that's a start. On the federal levels, again, I think legislation and policy, I don't know exactly what that looks like, what that would entail, but I think that needs to happen. So again, I'm just spitballing ideas because I don't have the answers. I think nobody really has the answers, but again, acknowledgement that there is a problem and then all of us doing our part to stand up, to speak out, and to really try to any and everybody that's around us, get them to do the same. That's where it starts. Turning our attention a little bit to football, because we discussed before we came on about the quarterbacks that have reached out.

We've seen white quarterbacks predominantly, which is we've never seen before, making statements, putting their name out there, even on the college side. Trevor Lawrence has said something. Joe Burrow's incoming. Do you feel that, at least on the sports side, it would raise more awareness if these white quarterbacks continue to be vocal on social media and be a part of hoping to find a solution? You know what?

I think speaking out and acknowledgement, again, listening, acknowledging, that's the first step. If it's going to be a bunch of fluff, what's behind it? This goes for everybody. If you're going to speak out, I think really the message

needs to be is, I see it, I hear it, I don't stand for it, I'm going to call it out. So however you want to word that, perfectly fine. But, I mean, we can all go on soapboxes and talk about, you know, what needs to happen and what you're not for. But at the end of the day, again, I think for, you know, non-black quarterbacks, white quarterbacks, it's just I see it, I hear it,

I acknowledge it, I'm it, I acknowledge it. I'm not for it. I stand with my people. I have your back. And then you go from there. Last question here. This has been absolutely fantastic. We talked about our relationship and how I'm always curious.

I've been in locker rooms. You know me. I talk all the time. I ask questions. I don't mind if the questions are a little off the wall. I want to learn. I'm about learning. What needs to happen, you think, in locker rooms to maybe foster better ask questions. I don't mind if the questions are a little off the wall. I want to learn about learning.

What needs to happen? You think in locker rooms to, to maybe foster better relationships to where guys are able to then teach their kids better values and kind of spread out, you know, just kind of being better humans. Well, interesting enough. And you will probably agree with,

you probably know the answer to this. Locker rooms are one of those places where that happens. I think a lot more than the general public now yeah but but my thing is like i mentioned earlier was like you have to actually like listen though like you have to be curious enough to ask the questions like i would ask the questions but like you know you have to be able to like like and the locker room is very diverse and we talk about it but you have to actually like input the information and decide to change maybe who you are to make it really work well i think a lot of it goes back to actually getting to know

some of your teammates just passing in a football player you get to understand them as a person and once you know them as a person kind of it sounds sounds cheesy, but like team building things, you know, I think once you start to talk and have dialogue, um, and not necessarily race, but you may find that there's maybe some similarities that you may have from a kid from inner city LA, um, because me and you did, you know, after we started talking, just how we food. Yeah. Well, but more than that, of course, but more than that, you know, after we started talking, just how we. Food. Yeah. No, but more than that, of course. But more than that, you know, just kind of family values and food.

You know, we came from two separate areas in L.A. and Southern California with two different backgrounds and upbringings. You know, there was still some common ground, but we didn't know that until we got to know each other. Yeah. still some common ground, but we didn't know that until we got to know each other. And so you look at even other people we played with. I mean, we still talk about some of the characters we played with that were funny, but

at the end of the day, we found common ground. And I think really what that boils down to is, again, like you said, having conversation, having dialogue, being able to take it in, compute it, think about it, process it, and then going from there. In locker rooms, I think that more dialogue, talking, and then understanding, having great conversation for those curious, asking questions. If you don't know the answer to something, never assume.

I think those are all things that we can do not only in a locker room setting, but even in social settings with friends. And I think a lot of times, too, it's not what you say, it's how you say it and when you say it. Having tactfulness to understand how to get the type of answers that you want and to get people to talk and want to open up. A lot of people don't talk and open up because of how they're approached. If you are abrasive or approach people in a way where they don't feel comfortable or they feel like you're being condescending or they're insensitive to what they're going to tell you, then they're going to shoot you down. And I think that's important as well.

Just how things are framed, the timing of it. And I think there's a lot of room here. And I think there's a lot of possibility here for growth. and I think there's a lot of possibility here for growth and I think that the NFL locker room, the NFL whole line room provides actually

a great space for that I think that because it is so different it is a little more diverse than probably any other sport that it allows people from all different walks of life, economic backgrounds, social

backgrounds, in some cases different parts of the country. Now, guys from Canada, guys from overseas. When we start to get to know and start to understand

or want to understand or even if we can't understand but hear them out I think that's where the changes start I think that's what will allow you to have tools to give back to your son and daughter and so forth and so on on how to deal with this or maybe you know

you're great friends with Jeff Allen you play with Jeff Allen you guys have kids around the same age you know when you're great friends with Jeff Allen. You play with Jeff Allen. You guys have kids around the same age. You know, when you look at Jeff and Marissa and their two young kids and you and Meredith, your two young kids, growing up different ways, but at the same time, you guys being able to talk about certain situations, that allows you to go back and essentially help to foster that in your family

and vice versa. I agree. The conversations you mentioned in the locker room were great. We used to continue to have conversations. Social media might not be the way, but that's all we have at the moment because locker rooms aren't there, and social media is a big part of life. Duke, appreciate you joining me as usual. Take care, buddy.

Thank you for the insight. You should go follow Duke besides the offensive offensive line stuff, like I said, thoughtful, introspective, great to talk about life with. That's at BigDuke50. Duke, appreciate it, buddy. Thank you. All right, thank you guys for joining me today on another episode of Jeff Schwartz Smart.

Obviously, this was different. So glad that Duke was able to come in here. And, again, look, just listen, right? Listen, okay? See what's out there. Be true to yourself. I'll end with this. My high school coach, who Duke and I both play with,

like we mentioned, he said, best advice I've ever gotten in my life, don't lie to yourself, all right? Don't lie to yourself. You see what's happening. You see if you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem. Don't lie to yourself. And with that, we're back later this week, hopefully. Hopefully, we can talk more about NFL topics. There are some sports to discuss. And then we'll be back next

week, as usual, with Gabe. Take care, everyone. Stay safe. Try to make a change. Try to do something. Appreciate you guys. Take care.