New Rory & MAL - Rory & Mal Don't Know Ball | Shawne Merriman

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

On this episode of Rory & Mal Don't Know Ball, the guys are joined by San Diego Chargers legend, Shawne Merriman! Rory and Mal ask about how Virginia fits into the "DMV" conversation, how Shawne got the nickname "Lights Out", and recall when Shawne got popped by Maurice Jones-Drew #volumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Catch live events and other exclusive sports programs only on VICE TV. Go to vice TV.com to find your cable channel. The volume. All right, Roy, we are back with another episode of Rory and all don't know ball because we absolutely do not know more. We know a little bit about ball. We know what we need to know. But today we are joined by somebody that's going to give us more of an insight on ball.

The violent side of it. Yeah, yeah, the violence side, the physicality of the game. Today we are joined by a legend, from East Coast, University of Maryland Legend, with a 12th pick in the 2005 NFL draft role. The San Diego Chargers selected an absolute, let's just call them a tank. Fucking monster. Fucking tank. Make some noise for the legendary Sean Merriman.

Hey. And happy birthday as well. How are we celebrating? Torres gang. I'm about to be 41, dog. You know, them days have changed a little bit. I'm looking at doing a three-day juice cleanse or something.

Yeah, so that's my type of see. That's my type of shit. That's what I'd be on. Yeah, my birthday was two weeks ago and I went to Detroit for work. You know, when you get like 40 and over, man, like I think other people make more about your birthdays than you do. Yeah. You know, like, what you're doing for your birthday?

I'm like that. When's your, one of my birthday? Oh, next week? Oh, shit, I forgot. You stopped counting after a while, man. It just creeps. The next thing you know, it just creeps up on you. Yeah, I turned 35 and when my family was asking me, all I was thinking was like,

this is something I'm going to have to pay for. Right. So why would I sell? You want me to go do something that I'm going to pay for. All right, bet. Cool. I think I'll do nothing for my birthday then and save some money. Sean, how you feeling though, man?

What's going on with you? Not much, man. You know, we, you know, we got big fight coming up, you know, for Miami League, Lights Out Extreme Fighting. We got big fighting in San Diego, actually, back in my stomach grounds at Casino Palmer, June 14th, man. So just getting ready for that. And then, you know, making some announcements, too, with Lightside Sports TV, my network.

We had some new content, getting ready for this big tailgate show this year, through the NFL, the NFL parking lots, called the Yawksman fans on. we've got 20, we're like live streamed 20 teams, tailgates. Okay. With Gang DeHastatale, one of the best tailgate companies in the country, man. So it's going to be kind of crazy because we got three former players every team as host. So like, when you talk about personalities and you're talking about like guys just being comical and like talking football and interacting with the fans, like this is the biggest thing in me that just happened.

Really in a pregame of sports. So just getting ready for that. just grinded. It's just been working. Oh, I mean, that's the birthday party right there. You said 40 tailgates or something?

Yeah, we're doing 20 locations, 20 markets, so basically 20 teams. Tailgates at the same time. So we'll be like simulcasts and all of them. And it's going to be super dope.

Like, no one's ever done anything like this. So, you know, we'll be the first of doing on Whiteside Sports TV. I love that. All right,

Sean, so, so Rory and now, man, we got the, we started this show, man, because, you know, sometimes we feel like we know ball

and, you know, we come to realize that maybe we don't know. Maybe we just couch spectators and we feel like we could have made that catch or made that block. It's easy to say that. But somebody like yourself that played the game at such a high level, we're here to kind of dig into the nuances and break some of the stereotypes of people that sit home and say, oh, I could have done that. Exactly. Skid Bayless is what you're saying. Well, yeah, Skip.

We're not trying to be out of Skipbellis. But let's start at the beginning. Sean. Growing up in Maryland, you play basketball. basketball and football. What was the, like, why did you go towards football? Why did football pull you more than basketball? Why did you stop playing basketball?

You know, saying Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley and those guys, like, you know, 11, 12 years old, you're like, yeah, football probably going to be for me. Yeah, yeah. Like, they were so far ahead, and we all came, we were from the same area, in Prince George County Mellon, you know. So getting to see them. What's in the water out there? It's a lot of talent out of.

out of PG. Honestly, man, I'm surprised that like no one's done a big enough like story on this. How much talent. Not even just in basketball and football, too, and Vernon Davis and like, you know, Navarra Balman. Like, it's crazy. How many, how much talent has come out of the area?

And, you know, I would just want up. You know, I would just want up, man. So I, you know what got me in the football? I was just too aggressive. Okay. For basketball. And in my, when I was 11 years old, my basketball coach ended the season and said,

you know what? I got a sport that I think this would work well for you in. And so that's how I got to introduce the football field. So I'm assuming you were one of those that fouled out maybe in the second quarter? No, it was a middle affair.

You know, I made it past half time. But, you know, it's funny. You talked to any football player. The first thing, like, oh, yeah, you're nice to hoop in high school and college or whatever. I said, I was like Ben Wallace. You get what I'm saying? Like rebound and defense.

A lot of football. and free throws, you know, but again, you need, you need guys on a court like that. Yeah. That's what it is. Did football come naturally to you when you transition? It was crazy because I never really watched football. And I didn't even know what to do. And so my coach was like, when he put me out, they said, look, whoever got that football in

their hands go hit him. And I said, you know, what else? Listen, no, that's it. Yeah. I can do that. You know, I can do that. So that's what I did, man. First day of practice when I was a kid,

the runnerback came and called like a little swing pass out of the silence, and I came and whacked them, put them under like the water, under the water coolers, you know, the water coolers on the side. The water coolers fell down and it was a big scene. And the kid's mom, she was there. She came running on the field at practice and was cursing me out. Right. And so I go back to the huddle looking at my coaches like I did.

I'm wrong. And my coaches whispered in my ear and it was like, hey, do that shit again. You know, that's what you do. So that's why I was home. And then the next day, seven agents were at the pool. Seven agents from different all over the country. Yeah. How early was it obvious that you were different in that the league was probably in your

future? For me, man, it was, you know, so when I talk about Kevin Durant and Beasling and all those guys, you can tell 11, 12 years old normally, like, okay, these dude is going to go to NBA one day because everything that they were doing in the NBA, they were doing at 11, 12 years old. For me, it was like 13, 14. When I got in the high school, that's when I kind of started separate myself where people are like, okay, he's going to, this dude going to go to a D1 college. So I went to Frederick Douglass High School and up in Marlborough, Maryland. And at that point, everybody was like, okay, this is going to be the first kid out of the school to go Division

1. And so I did that. And then when I got to Maryland my freshman year, it was like, oh, okay, this is going to be our highest drive pick. So it kind of like one of those things. As soon as I stepped on every level, it was always those rumblers, those talks. I mean, of course it's hometown, but why Maryland? As far as college? I grew up 20 minutes from the school.

And like, for me, we just talked about so much talent coming from that area. Well, like Durant, Katie, went to Texas. So all the big-man guys, all the big-name kids, when you came out of high school, they left. And I was like, man, if we kept all the talent here, like, what if KD and Beasley and all these guys went to Maryland? Right.

You know, and so we had like myself, Vernon Davis and like, I mean, like Navarra Bowman. I mean, the list is crazy. You know, Joe Hayden, you know, so we were stacked up with so much talent, but everybody left. So I wanted to be like that one of the first ones that came out as a top prospect. Like, that was the number one player coming out of the DMV area, the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area. And so when I went to Maryland, it was like, man, this dude had offers from Alabama, from USC, from Penn State.

And for me, I was like, I'm staying home. I want to be the first. And I know there's some age gap, but are you in contact with Katie at this point, Vernon Davis, Beasley? Just because you guys are. They have never talked all the time. Yeah, me have talked to Katie a couple times a year. Or we're running to each other at, you know, some event somewhere.

and kind of chop it up. But we're a tight-knit group, man, like all of us, like super tight as far as, you know, we see each other. I don't care if it's two years. Like, we run up to each other and we talk like, you know, we talk on a normal basis, man. We're just a really tight-knit group. Sean, growing up, how much of football, like,

when did it click for you that this is what you want to do? And then how much, how much of your day revolved around the game of football? Well, I mean, back in PG County in Washington, D.C. area, man, in the late 80s and 90s, it was bad. Like, it's not like how it looks now where, you know, you can go outside running at night in certain parts in D.C. and jog. Like, it was nothing like that. Like, you wasn't going out. And so I knew for me to have a real opportunity getting out of that, football was going to be a big part of it, like to go get an education and go to Maryland or any school I wanted to go to. And so that's when I started to take a series.

you know, I had, you know, when I was younger, because of my living circumstances, like, I had angry issues. Like, I hate to come home to eviction notices. I hate to come home and didn't know if the house or going to have heat or lights going be on. And so football was like my outlet. I get those two hours in practice a day or get those game times to go knock somebody head off and it was legal.

Yeah. I was like, man, I can go take my frustration out. And so I knew that that was like an opportunity for me to get out of my circumstances. But I had bigger goals. man, just outside of, outside of football. And I just knew that that was going to be the way that I was going to get there. Now, what was the music scene for, like, for you growing up in DMV? Obviously, we know some of the DMV legends and guys that came out.

But, like, when Sean is in high school or, you know, working out, like, what was some of the music that you was listening to? Are you go-go or Baltimore Cleveland? Go-Go and Baltimore music, both of them, you know. And so I listen to back, y'all, junk, y'all, rare essence, EU. do. And I listen a lot of Kay Swift out of Baltimore. A lot of Baltimore house music. But that was really it all the way and through. And then I got into like my favorite, you know, rap group of all time, Three Six Mafia. And so I started listening like Three Six Mafia a lot. But yeah, probably probably out of those. That's what I was listening to in high

school. Pause. Are you able to still do the swing that shit dance? I've never been a dancer, but, you know, watch out of the big girls come on and some. I might, you know, I might move a little bit. Yeah, I mean, do you hear even like, I feel like Uzi and a lot of artists, I feel like adopted a lot of the Baltimore Club sound? Is that something that surprised you? Because it did take a while for Baltimore Club to bubble into mainstream, I feel like. Now you hear that shit on drill records.

Yeah, no, a lot of it, especially because of Wale, like, when Waleigh came, out what got with Rick Ross and mainstream, you start hearing a lot of it, you start hearing Gogol and Beyonce's music. Yep. You know, but Chuck Brown was a huge influence on all of us like growing up. And so just being

there and being around it, man, like, the DMV area is its own planet. Like, it's its own country in itself, you know, where you don't, you go from the DMV, you don't hear that anywhere else. You dress wise, you know, guys wearing drop socks and Tim. the lingo, you all hear anywhere else outside of the DMV area.

And then it was so big that it started trickle out where, you know, you go to Chicago, you go to, you start going to New York, and you start hearing guys talk like they from D.C. Does PG County identify more with Baltimore or with D.C.? Because I've heard it does a big split. This is a million-dollar question. That's the split right due. That's a split because the truth is, a lot of Baltimore

cast and DC cats didn't like each other. Yeah. You know? And so when I say Maryland, people automatically assumed that I was from Baltimore. But I was probably 35 or 40 minutes from Baltimore. Yeah. But like 10 minutes from D.C. Right. So I

started actually saying that I was D.C. because I didn't want identify as from Baltimore because Baltimore had like this. You know, I joke with Mello about this sometime and stuff because you had like a dirty like a dirty field to Baltimore. You know, that's how the D.C. guys look at it. then so um so i always i always used to say that you know i was from washington dc because

i was more closer to watching dc than i was to baltimore and then uh what is it michigan montgomery county what's the other one on the other county yeah that's what that's what's wallace from yeah yeah and that's you would say more identifies dc than it does maryland or baltimore in particular yeah 100% like you you would think while age from dc before he is from baltimore yeah well i mean i'll tell us that too yeah Love wallet. It's funny, the Virginia part of the DMV conversation is always the strangest one to me. Because there is like Alexandria and right there, but you still have such a big state.

Like I don't even think people, do people from Virginia Beach even claim the DMV or Norfolk? Is that way too far? No. Yeah, that's just way. Yeah. You're way out there. But again, you know, it's so hard to really talk about them because you talk about like Fairfax, Alexandra. Alexander, you can get from there to D.C. in 15 minutes.

Yeah, yeah. You know, but you're in Virginia. Yeah. And so I think when you start talking about like Richmond, Virginia, where you start getting on the Oscars. Yeah. Like, you know, Chris Brown up is from Virginia. Michael Vicks from Virginia.

Iverson. AI's from VA. So it's, again, man, it's so crazy when you get in that DMV area. Did you ever play against TC Williams? High School? No, that was, I think it was D.C. What's the Remember the Titans one? That's it, right? I watched Remember the Titans my entire life and thought it was in like the deep south. I found out that shit was five minutes outside of Washington, D.C.

I thought they were in some farms. Like, no, no, no. That show had you thinking that that was like the deep sound. The whole time, I did not realize Big Pooh's like, nah, though. That shit is like fathered from D.C. So basically thought Sunshine was from Alabama? Yes, 100%. I'm like, this is some country-ass shit.

They was not country-world. They was five minutes away from southeast. Exactly. All right, Sean, so you get drafted, the 12th pick 2005. You're going to San Diego, playing for the Chargers. What is the first thought on your mind? Man, that I was, so I took my visits to the then-Ranskins, you know, now Washington Commanders. Yeah.

I went to, like, Dallas Cowboys, the Lions, and I went to. to the charges. I've never been out to the West Coast before. Never. And so, you know, when I, yeah, I wanted to kind of stay home again. Like, if I got a chance to play for the then rain scans, I'm like, oh, man, I go to college here, go there, and I'm a knife pick overall. Like, now you're super hometown, hometown kid.

Right. Man, I took my visit to San Diego. I flew over that water for the first time for the palm trees. I said, man, God, they ain't going to bless me this way. Get drafted. I said, the only way, man, I got to do some more charity, got to go to church a little bit more. Yeah, yeah. I'm getting drafted out of here.

Yeah. And when I got drafted, man, it was like the best, because I always, I would say this to everybody, man. Like, I love home. I still represent P. I still got a 301 number. But you got to go, you got to see other things. You got to get away a little bit to experience and see other things. And when I went to San Diego, man, it was like a dream come true because, for one, they had a good team.

I was coming into a good team. I think they went 12 and 4 that year before I got there. And now you're the West Coast. In the best place, in my opinion, San Diego, the best place to live in the country. I've heard that before. San Diego was beautiful. Yeah, man, I went there.

I was like, man, this is unbelievable. You get a chance to be a high-draft pick, 12th overall. Normally, you go to Cleveland. You're going to rain maybe. You know, you're going to somewhere that's not really a nice city that people want to get drafted. I like Cleveland, but, you know, it's not San Diego. It's not San Diego, no.

Mall talks a lot on this show about athletes having to compete with rappers in the club, or, you know, when they get drafted to a city, they got to deal with the drug dealers. What was it like competing with Navy SEALs for women in San Diego? Because that's a very unique experience to San Diego. The rest of these athletes had to deal with rappers in L.A. or New York or whatever. You had to deal with Navy SEALs. Yeah, I'm taking Sean. I'm taking Sean kicking a rapist, any other NFL players ass.

I just don't know if the SEAL Team 6 is in the club if I'm taking Sean Merriman over the SEAL team. Yeah, they're not getting the sections of that man. Our tax dollars don't pay them enough? Yeah, I don't know. But, I mean, that is like a coach out there. I love my military, but they ain't coming with a bottom minimum, you know. So I think, which was crazy because San Diego didn't have really,

nobody else. They didn't have a basketball team there. They didn't have a hockey team. You know, like you said, it wasn't just the rappers. You got, there was no other sports teams really. Yeah. You know, the Padres kind of came around, but we were it. And so we were the basketball team. We were like the highlight of the entire city. And so it's, and then too, we were winning. Yeah. So on top of that, like, we weren't in scrubs. We weren't bums. And we were out there winning games. And so now it's, you're at the top of world at that point. Who is the greatest, who is the greatest athlete you've ever seen? that I played against or like...

Just in general. Actually, both, that you played against and that you just seen. Honestly, probably Vernon Davis that I played with as far as, like, just a freakish athlete. May I do a 250, ran a 4-3. You just don't even see nothing like that and crazy, strong and athletic and explosive. And I played with Antonio Carmari. He was another one. But, man, you get up there to the NFL, man, you start seeing some freakish, like,

Just some freakish players. I saw Lyman that's 350 pounds. I can windmill off the vertical. Like, you just, you're saying some silly shit at that point. Yeah. So you see, yeah, tons everywhere. I mean, you had LT at that time, too. What was that era like?

Even with Philip Rivers, LT was Antonio Gates? Yep, Gates. All right. Sensitive question. Why did that team not win the Super Bowl? See, no, we're going to go there, huh? What are you going to mean? Like, you guys have.

had a squat on both sides. You know what, man, I don't really regret a whole lot about my career. But that's one of them because, you know, I still talk to a lot, a lot of friends of my Hall of Famers and they got Super Bowl rings and, you know, Marshall Fox who I talked to, and Michael Irvin, Dionne Sanders and all these guys who I was around, they got either jackets and rings or both. That thing sting, man, because we have. Especially, we were really good between the 2005 and 2010.

We were at very good teams. That 2016, man, was, in my opinion, the best team of the decade. Yeah. And I know that the Patriots had their undefeated stuff in the Colts. And, you know, but that team that we had, man, was so dominant. And you look back and we asked ourselves the question on time. I was talking to L.D.N. Thomasson some months ago, and we got together. And I was like, we bring it up.

Like, it just happened. Like, how? like why not because we were so dominant and so many like I play with potentially five Hall of Famers on one team absolutely oh yeah you know all you all you're in jackets

yeah when you look at it like that it's like there's been there should have been no reason I think my the main reason is that we were young and we were so good that we always felt that we can get back there and so when it was things on the line like fourth quarters or big situations

I think that we we didn't lock in enough in some of those things, or penalties or just something dumb that we didn't really understand the moment because we were so good. We just, we felt invincible, man. I mean, dude, practices used to be harder than the games. Like San Antonio Gates every day

and then lining up against whoever it is, it didn't even matter. And so San Lorenzo, O'Neill at fullback, you got to clash with him. You ain't get no clash out of anybody else than that. Seeing LT, we were so stacked. But then one year we had Lidane and Thomason starred Michael Turner Michael Turner backing him up who did who killed it out there with the

Falkers when he left. We had Darren Sproes as a third string running back. That's how many we were just ridiculously stacked. Mall, you ever enter a phone plan and just think, wow, this is a great price. And then you get your bill. And it's like, nah, this is not the price we said it was going to be. But Boost Mobile does not do that.

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Hypothetically, had Eli stayed in San Diego instead, do you think it would have been different? No. No. Because, look, I don't want to take shots to Eli because he was a damn good quarterback and I think he's going to be in Hall of Fame at some point. But that defense that they had with Michael Irvin and like Osi Yuma Yure and

and God, Chuck, Justin Tup. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy. They had so many guys in that defense that also contributed. And you need a little bit of luck, man. Like, that catch said,

but my boy had off his help. Like that. I'm going to catch you. That dad just don't even. fucking one of the best safety's ever Yeah

It just don't even happen So I think The cards fell in place With them Also too You know Who they had to play Against at the time

You know The division wasn't Wasn't always the greatest I mean Dallas You know Cowboys were good But they just Were dominant in that position

Yeah I hear that Now you went to San Diego You wore number 56 Obviously the legendary Rest of Peace Junior Seah War number 55

How much of an impact did he have on a young Sean Marriman coming into San Diego? What were the conversations like with Junior Seyal? Man, so it's,

you always watched him as a player, right? You see him running sidel-on-a-sion, jumping over. He just, he played at a high level like for four quarters.

You don't even see anything like that, just next level. I didn't know how big Junior was until I got to San Diego. Like, he was San Diego. You step in there and you mentioned Junior Seah You're like you're talking about president level where he has he's just he captivated that city.

And he only had his restaurant. He had charity events and just he was the most loved person between him and Tony Gwyn to ever come through the city. And so I didn't realize how big he was. And I saw him when I got drafted. And I walked in. I was out there and I walked in the lobby of the building. He was coming down the stairs. And we stopped, we talked for about, you know, a couple, three, four minutes, or whatever, told me good luck.

And, you know, he was, wouldn't watch and see me playing, see what I did. And at the end of the conversation, he said, buddy. He's like, all right, buddy, man, take it easy to kill. Basically, you know, do your thing this year. And so in my head, I'm 20 years old. I'm not in 21, I don't believe. In my head, I'm thinking, like, yo, Julia Say, I just called me buddy. Like, I'm kind of hyped up.

I'm like, shit, he called me buddy. We're cool. We're friends, right? Yeah. And so I go to a couple of a couple of things. meetings and then I walk out of his meeting and I saw him going down the hallway and he called everybody buddy. It's deflated.

You're not special? It was his thing. He called everybody buddy, man. So I still tell that story because I thought I was like, I thought I was special. Yeah, I thought I was special. And, you know, he called me buddy. And, but man, he just, you know, I got a lot of workout tips from him. And even in his 14, 15, 16s during the all season, he still worked like an animal.

Like, he just, he wasn't even real. And so any doctors he had, his therapist, nutritionist, I hired him all. Everybody he went to, I hired everybody junior head. Oh, wow. That's interesting. Well, since we're on nicknames like Buddy, was there a specific moment that the nickname lights out happened? Yeah. Was it overtime or was it one day that somebody's likes?

Somebody's TV turned off. My sophomore in high school, I knocked out four kids in one game. So that's how the name happened. So I come up. You can't just breathe. You can't gloss over that shit. You can't gloss over knocking out four dudes. I'm like, yeah, so I did that.

And then, you know, then I went and just had some dairy queen after the game. And it was just like, whatever, you know? Yeah. And now you have four other mothers that I'm sure you had to deal with. I do it. It was a fiasco after that. So I walked off the field out of that game. And like 20 or 25 students come around to me and they said, man, you knock those kids,

you knock those kids, lights out. And I was like, yeah, you know what? Call me lights out. And so I go to school. I go to school. And I didn't even, I just said it. I didn't even think anything to it. I went to school on Monday and I got my backpack on.

I got my books in my hand. I walk and past, you know, everybody in school. And they're like, yo, what's up, lights? So it already somehow carried, this is pre-social media. So they already carried somehow in the school. And so I went home that day. And I literally begged my mother let me get this lights out tattoo on my right form. And so my mother was like a big smoker at the time.

So I ran in a room. I opened the door and like smoke just went everywhere. Like I'm trying to move smoke out of the way so I can find her sitting on a bed. Say, Ma, this lights out thing will be big, man. People who already call me lights out. I want to get this lights out tattoo on my right foot on. she looked at me and took one more puff and a cigarette and said, boy, get the hell out of the road. She knows branding.

You were ahead of your time with branding and marketing. Yeah. Yeah, so I always had that. So anyway, you know, every day for two weeks, I bothered him. And she finally let me go get this lights out tattoo on my right forum like two weeks later. And so I got to, funny story, I got to, got to Maryland and put it on a big platform. I had a big game Friday night against Georgia Tech on ESPN. I had a big hit.

And so, boom, that lights out thing came back on the national platform. I get to San Diego, and now you got L.T., Gates, and Philip Rivers, Lorenzo O'Neill, Jamal Williams, like all these, you know, Randall Gawfrey, Donnie Edwards, they're looking to me. I just turned 21. They're like, man, we're not

calling you no damn lights out. You're a rook. We're calling you rook on 56. And so I was like, I looked at him like, okay, cool. We had a game. against Kansas City and running back Prez Holmes, who was one of my favorite players of all the time.

And I went out and hit him and knocked him out. And after the right after the game, I walked over and LT put his hand out and it was like, hey, good game likes. So I got, you know, I got my respect in from all the guys. So you have to just show him one. Just show him one time. I mean, you put Priest Holmes down.

That's it. Yeah. Just show one time. All right, I have to backtrack. though, can you walk me through all four knockouts, your sophomore? You're like, can we do play by play one through four of each of these teenagers being knocked the fuck out? Yeah, well, one of them was a fullback, one of them was a quarterback, one of them was a

wide receiver to cut back and it was a guy on kickoff. We did like an on-side kick anymore. Yeah, we did the quarterback. The quarterback, wait. The wide receiver. The running back and a kick returner? So you took away their offense and special. teams in three quarters.

Yeah, this is a guy that was blocking me on an on side kick. It was a lineman that was blocked. I was freshman year of football. I would remember because we had to do weigh-ins every day. I was 102 pounds. If Sean Merriman knocked out the current wide receiver and it was like, get in there, Rory. And his nickname was lights out.

I would have quit football my freshman year. Yeah, you got to. Fuck that. I'm not so. It's funny. So after that game in high school, we talked about. the parents when I was a kid. I'd been a game of high school.

I had one of the parents, we used to walk up through these little gates, these fence, and walk on a basketball court in order to get up to the football field. I had a parent to kind of, you know how basketball players play defense and they get down in their stands, they put the hands out.

Our parent is blocking me from getting on the field and said, I don't belong to play with her son. I need to show a birth certificate. And it was crazy after that, man. They tried to get me off the field, and they actually challenged the school. I had to produce all these kind of records to show that I was my age.

It's crazy. I mean, I'd probably be that parent too, though. No, absolutely. I'd be pet and five. I'd be pet and five. I see Sean Marion and high school walking on the field and my son is 5-8, 140. It's like, get this fucking tank off the field, man.

So we just had the NFL draft and the news coming out of the draft this year. Obviously, with Shador Sanders fall into the fifth round. As somebody who's obviously traveled that road and played college football and had to go to the draft, what were you thinking watching that?

Did you feel like it was a personal attack on Coach Prime and his family? Or do you feel like maybe, you know, as a player, Sean Merriman looks at your door and says, the kid is not maybe as good as they think he is yet? Yeah, I think it was a combination. I think it was a combination of both. I think that Deion, who's one of my favorite players of all time. And I mean, I remember doing it back when I was a kid,

I had the headband around the neck doing the Dionne Sanders dance in the backyard when I scored. So, you know, he's one of my favorite players of all time. He has such a strong voice. You know, everybody listened to Prime that I think that a lot of teams didn't want to be on their scrutiny, you know.

And, you know, it was some pre-draft stuff that was said to, like, certain teams that they should do well or won't go to. I think it was a little bit, I think that, you know, Shadour probably rub some coaches the wrong way when those meetings. You know, I think it was that. a part of it. And also too, man,

I think that, you know, if you're going to take on somebody with all this media and attention behind him, like he better be a bona fide star, superstar in order for you to deal with it. Because the NFL will deal with it. If you got some baggage or you got something with you and they don't like certain

things, but you just number one of your position, they'll take a chance because they think there's enough upside for them to deal with whatever they got to deal with. So I think that the teams are looking like, man, like, you're going to get judged by Dion, if he ain't playing. You're going to have cameras in the locker room and media all the time.

Why this? Why that? Because you got such a big name and prominent player that with a strong family name and very opinionated, very like blunt. So I think it was a combination of everything. I don't think that I don't think it was one thing. I think it was everything when they went down their drive board,

their evaluation. They was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, okay, we can't do it. I don't think that, I don't think it was one single thing to happen. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Before we get off the lights out conversation, what was the hardest hitting running back? Not shifty is, hardest to tackle.

Who was the only one where you felt like, okay, I'm going to hurt myself too trying to tackle this. I mean, the only one ever got me was Maurice John Drew in 2007. And, you know, it's funny, like people call him small, but you got to think he's just short. Ain't nothing small, ain't nothing small. Right. Low gravity, too.

Yeah. Yeah, this dude got a seven. 100 pounds squat and he's just ridiculously strong and he probably like 250 so we're not that big of a size he's just short. And so 2007 we went down there and played him in the game

and they ran this formation where the fullback named Greg Jones who's also big as hell like 6-3 to a 6-2 250 plus or 260 running dead at me so I'm ready to go up against him he just moves a little bit over to the right

runs past me and Maurice Jones Drew is right behind them all five, six of them, and just, boom, hit me right under the chin. And I didn't know what the hell happened, right? So I got up, I'll pop back up because I'm like, I ain't nobody going to see this. And so they didn't know it was going to be that big, right? So I got up and I heard the crowd saying, ooh,

but I didn't really think it was ooh because of me because I got up so fast. I didn't really think, saw it. Man, we left Jacksonville because we lost that game. We left Jacksonville. We got home. By the time we landed, they had like two full-on commercials made on this hit.

Man, I was like, whoever in this editing house to flip commercials that fast, I'm like, I need to hire them because they do a magnificent job. They have two commercials made.

And you need your royalties for being in it. Oh, dude. Like, it was, it was bonkers. It was bonkers. But that's probably the only time I got got got. What about any tight ends that were tough?

Rob Grumcrowsey is probably the toughest. That's not, you know, Antonio Gase, I'm going to put up there, but he's my teammate. But after him, Rob Gruncowski was tough. Tony Gonzalez was tough to deal with. And some of the bigger ones, like the guy who was on the opposite side of Tony, Tony Gonzalez, people didn't talk about because he was a blocking tight end, Jason Dunn. But this dude was every bit of 6'7, almost 290 or 300 pounds, playing tight in.

Yeah. So he was hell to deal with. So, well, yeah, I've seen all the best of them. Now, we talked to Terrell Suggs a couple weeks ago, and unfortunately, you know, he was his first ballot to going to the hall, and he was denied. Coach Billichick was on a podcast, and, you know, he said any player that he had to double team

every possession is an absolute Hall of Fame in his eyes. Terrell, you know, expressed us to his disappointment and not making it first ballot. How important is the hall to you, It is. But, you know, for me, my career was cut short because of injury, right? So I know that, you know, it's a long shot for me to get in. Because I, and by the way, man, I believe in longevity.

And when I saw it Terrell's not getting in, I said, man, I'm never getting in. You get what I'm saying? Because he has such a long and great career. But, you know, it used to be something that was a priority to me for a long time. but then you saw looking at it, man, I started looking at the impact. Like the impact you had on the game when, you know,

when I was healthy and when I was playing for those years. And then, you know, whenever somebody talked about, you know, anywhere between 2005 and 2008 or nine and you put me up there with some of the greatest, not only numbers-wise, but just somebody that's dominant was taking over games and my name used to get mentioned,

you know, I'm pretty cool with that. Like, to me, I think that's dope for, or to get mentioned up there, the rest of those guys who end up going to the Hall of Fame, but you were still talked about doing that era. Yeah, I hear that. Before we get to our Don't Know Ball trivia questions, I do have to ask because it's one of my favorite shows ever.

What was it like to shoot on the show Entourage? I assume you got shot that one day. But it was still a pretty pivotal scene. Like, you were there with all the NFL owners, Jeremy Piven. Like, what was that day like? It was crazy how it happened. So I was good friends with Doug Allen who created the entourage. Shout Doug Ellen.

He's a great podcast now, too. There's an entourage podcast. Doug's the man. And so he hit me up by the blue one day. He's like, man, I got this scene. I think you'll really be good. And it's about an NFL team coming to L.A. And, you know, I think that you will be really good.

And I thought, I could call you. And he said, it's going to be good. And it's going to be good. So I literally, I drove up like on a day. known it's from San Diego to LA. And Doug didn't tell me that everybody else at the table was sitting in his suits, right? So I'll come up there in regular clothes.

He told me what the scene was and the whole thing, and I would have dressed accordingly. So I got, okay, cool, whatever, I got up there. And I didn't know that, like, because we didn't see Jerry Jones, everybody also in that episode, but they were all in that episode as well. And I didn't know what it was about. And the crazy story was outside of me,

supposedly being like the franchise player, wherever this team go, it's going to be the number one player that they were going to draft or bring up into this trade to this LA team. Well, LA end up getting the team. Like, you know what I'm saying? Several years later. And so just a coincidence of something like that happening, which is crazy.

And I still get asked about that show to this day. It's like all the time. Yeah. I'm iconic. Entourage kind of, I feel like they predicted a lot of stuff. The L.A. team, Medellin to Narcos, Aquaman. there was like 10 movies that Vincent Chase had that ended up being real movies

and then the whole LA Chargers going that was all in a hattarage The entourage it got to go down probably top five top 10 series of all time Oh absolutely My opinion TV show

Absolutely Well where do you have the wire Being a Maryland native Like two Like one or two Yeah I think it's up there Yeah for sure I'd have wire number two

Of course you do You love the wire All right Sean So we have some We have some trivia for you and you have some questions for us as well. We're going to see exactly how much ball we do or don't know, but we got to see how much music Sean doesn't know. So we got some questions for you.

So we're going to shoot our first question first. So with the first question, this Waleigh album, a DMV native, this Wiley album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it the only album of his to hit number one on the charts. Is it A, ambition, B, the album of, about nothing, C, the gifted, or D back to the future? Ambition?

Nah, see, the gifted. I would have got this wrong. I would have said B, I'm about nothing. Yeah, I would have said that one. That felt like the highest peak in the singles. That's the one, Jerry Seinfeld on the cover? Yeah. Well, he made, man, he did the mixtape.

I don't think ambition was the wrong with Jerry Seinfeld on in the loop. No. No, no, he had the mixtape about nothing, more about nothing, and then the album about nothing. and that was all the sign-fell stuff. All right, yeah. But, yeah, ambition had singles on it. I could see that, but I would have got this wrong, too.

Yeah, I would have said ambition. All right, it's on you. Did they give you the questions? Yeah, all right. So rank these quarterbacks in their career touchdowns from most or least, Elon Manning, Philip Rivers, or Ben Rothersberger. All right, most touchdowns. Most to least?

Most to least. Ben Rothersberger. Who was it? Ben Rothersberger? You got Philip Rivers and Eli Manning. Most to least, most touchdowns. I'm gonna go...

I feel like Philip Rivers might have the most. Yeah, I'm gonna Philip, Eli, Ben Rosserberger. Yeah, I'm gonna steal Rory's answer on that. So you got Philip one, Ben Rothersberger, two, and Eli Manning at three. Oh, all right. All right. You got one.

You had been in... Eli mixed up. No, right. Okay. But Philip was right, though. Yeah, Philip was number one. I feel like Ben just always had a running game where Eli didn't. So I just assumed he had more touchdowns.

But all right. Not too bad. Not too bad. We got one of them, right? All right. Second question. Future won a Grammy for best rap performance with this song. A, like that.

B, we still don't trust you. C, life is good. Or D, scientists and engineers. I would get this wrong too. I won a Grammy for best rap performance. What was the first one? like that. And what's the second one?

We still don't trust you. And then life is good and then scientists and engineers. I'm going to the first one. Like that? No, it was actually scientists and engineers. He just won that one, right? Yeah.

I mean, not like us cleaned up everything so like that couldn't even get a pre- We still don't trust you. I feel like like that would have gotten a Grammy had not like us existed. Yeah. Damn. All right.

So on you... All right, let's go here. The Tennessee Titans quarterback is the only quarterback I've accepted in my career. You got 40s here? All right, so we got Steve McNair. So it's the only quarterback I picked off from the Titans. Steve McNair, Kerry Collins, Vince Young, or Jake Locker? I'm going to say Vince Young.

Vince Young was spending $40,000 in Applebee's, so I know his head wasn't in the game for a lot. I'm going to go with Vince Young for sure. You going with Vince? I'm going with Vince for sure. Carrie, Carrie Collins. That would have been my second one. I thought you I'm going to go with the least biggest name one there, probably.

Jake. But yeah, Carrie Collins, I picked off. But how long was Carrie Collins even with the Titans? I think a couple of years. Just enough to give me my interception. Just enough to make that mistake, right? All right. Last question.

This song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the week you recorded, the only interception of your career. Is it A. Justin Timberlake sexy back. B. Fergie London Bridges. C. Nalz Barkley Crazy or D. Neo sexy love. This song was number one on the Billboard. It's AOD, man. It's AOD. I just.

Got to give me one. Pick the sexy. Let's go D. It's actually A, Justin Timberlake, sexy bag. That record was fucking every. with. I've heard sex and love as well. But yeah, yeah, that makes

sense. Yeah, what's funny is I probably would have went with Fergie London Bridges. Yeah, I mean, that record was everywhere. That Furgy record was over here. All right, you got one more for it, Sean. All right, let me go.

In 2006, I tied to charge a single season sack record with how many sacks? One, the first one is 14, second, 15, 16, or 17. In 2006, the charge a single season sack record. Fuck.

15. I'm gonna say 16. 17. My bad. I apologize, man. I should have went with the highest number. I missed that game.

I missed that game. I thought it was 21. Yeah, see, look, if you said 16, I'm like, all right, cool, but two sacks?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 16. All right, so it was 17. Nah, two of those were assisted. Yeah. And you know, whenever they were assisted sacks, I would go turn that to the NFL. Like, nah, man, you said I had this whole sack, man. As you should.

Is that a real thing? Is that shit that guys do? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. The thing is, though, I used to tell my 10 years, too, when I did. I didn't do it on the side of my man. I respect that.

I said, listen, your finger, my whole hand was on him. Your finger only touched him. So I'm just letting it know. I'm turning it in. All right. Before we let you go, favorite linebacker, Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis. I mean, I'm out of my game after Lawrence Taylor,

but I'm going to my brother Ray for life, Ray Lewis. Can't be mad at that. L.T. was a monster, though. And, I mean, not a Maryland native, but definitely adopted by the state of Maryland. Oh, absolutely, without a doubt. Sean, we appreciate you again. Tell us about the, uh, the, uh,

Lights out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. We got a big fight in San Diego, June 14th. Lights on the train fighting 24. People can get their tickets. If you're listening in the Sok-Han area, make sure you check that out, Lights OutXF.com.

And also make sure you all download Lights Out Sports TV or available on every smart TV, iOS, Android, completely free. Got a ton of free live sports there. And big, up, All-Outs fans on show coming out with our game day, house, Tally. Man, we got a big tailgate show coming up this year. What would be the one?

athlete you want to see in the octagon? James Herrickson. I already called him out. Ooh, shit. Has you said a word since? No, of course not. I mean, but, you know, look, I think that as y'all, your reaction tell me everything that why I want to do it. I think that a lot of people want to see it and, you know, people are tuning in, we're doing the lights on extreme fighting. Yeah. That'd be crazy to see that.

The fact that he quiet, though, I mean, saying something. He might be training. He might be in training. He might be in training. He might be a training. We're going to tell you the day before? We need tomorrow. You've been training for two years. Lights out extreme fighting and lights out sports TV.

Sean Merriman, a legend. Thank you, my brother, for joining us today. Appreciate to y'all. Thanks, having me. Love. Peace.

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