The Breakfast Club - Stephen A. Smith Speaks On His Father, First Take, Ayesha Curry, Rihanna Comments + More

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Stephen A. Smith Speaks On His Father, First Take, Ayesha Curry, Rihanna Comments + MoreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Morning everybody, it's DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. We got our guest host with us, Lala, here this morning. Hey. And we got our guest, Book Elf right now. A person I'm happy to see, but also not happy to see. Oh, Lord. Why is that?

Yes. He knows why. Yes, yes. He knows why. Stephen A. Smith, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. What up, baby? Hey.

It's good seeing you, man. Good morning. It's always good to see you, Lala. You know this man dedicated the whole last chapter to his book damn near slandlander and Cowboy Fans? I'm not mad at it. I'm like, why? I wouldn't say slander.

I wouldn't say slander. I was being factual. And once again, I was proven to be correct. I mentioned you on Get Up the other morning. I heard about it. I'm like, it's ridiculous, man. These Dallas Cowboy fans, they're like cockroaches. They're everywhere.

They're delirious cockroaches. But I told them. I said, just be patient. They was winning games But I told them, I said, just be patient. They was winning games. Everybody was excited. I said, just be patient. It's coming. And sure enough, when the lights got brightest, what happened?

You'll be happy to know I had no expectations for the playoffs. They'll tell you. I had none. I actually thought they was going to lose to Tampa. Okay. Well, you do understand you're an anomaly. You're in aberration. I'm learning.

Most Cowboy fans. You're learning. I'm learning to be emotionally disconnected. That's what you have to do. You have to do because they're going to break your heart, bro. That's right. That's what the Knicks do to me. That's what the. I'm learning to be emotionally disconnected. That's what you have to do. You have to do, cause they're gonna break your heart, bro. That's right. That's what the Knicks do to me. That's what the Cowboys gonna do to you.

That's right. Now we can talk about sports all day, but you got a book out. An amazing book, by the way. Now you go into your life about this book. Usually you don't talk about your personal life at all. We never hear about your personal life. I never hear about your personal life.

Some of these stories that I've been hearing, I was like, really? I had no idea. So why did you decide to talk, to go so in depth about your personal life? of all the seat that i sit in every day doing first take on the espn you know i pride myself and not character assassinate people i talk about what you do not who you are but nevertheless by being in that seat similar to the seat that y'all have if you're going to do something like that then you know what you owe it to the audience to let them know who you are where you come from what your what your perspective is, et cetera, et cetera.

And I got to give both of y'all props, actually all three of y'all props, because all of y'all have been authors. And the fact of the matter is the kind of limelight that y'all have been in, the seat that y'all sit in when you start writing about something, you know, you ultimately feel an obligation to let people know who you are, what you're all about, what your perspectives are. And so to me me to see people do that i knew that it was if i was going to write a book there was only one way i could go about doing

it ain't no some damn sports book it's got to be about me who i am how i think why i came to be how i am the way that i think etc etc i thought i owed that to the audience and the only reason i hesitated uh once i got left go let go by his 2009, in 2011, people were coming to me to write a book. And I knew I wanted it to be about, you know, my life, et cetera, et cetera. And my mother at the time who had just gotten diagnosed with cancer, one that she lost in 2017, God rest her soul. She said she made me swear, you will never write this book while I'm alive. I understand why after reading it, because I'm sure it had to do with your relationship with your father.

Yes. Which I felt like- That's exactly why. Yeah, you addressed the topic, most men don't discuss enough, and that is our relationship with our fathers. How difficult was it to explore that topic? It was hard. And the reason why it was hard,

it wasn't the writing process, it was the editing process, which y'all all know. You write it, but they look at it, the editing process which y'all all know you know you write it but they look at it the editing process and so when they're editing it's calling upon you to revisit and revisit over and over and over again and i didn't wait until the book was finished to like show it to my sisters i got four older sisters and i didn't wait until the book was finished when i wrote those specific chapters i sent it to them and they didn't talk to me for two weeks really um and i thought they were them and they didn't talk to me for two weeks. Really?

And I thought they were originally upset. They weren't upset. They were just saying, we have buried these memories a long time ago. And you brought them back up. And they said, you brought it back up. We don't, we ain't knocking you for it. We understand. But it just hurt a lot to revisit some of those experiences because we had buried them for the longest time and the

details that you had they couldn't believe that i remembered because i reminded them and they were like yeah you never this happened this happened that happened my dad is no hero yeah my dad he wasn't i feel like the things you said about him in the book are the things you wanted to say about him at his funeral yeah that's accurate yeah um i told him to his face i didn't say anything in the book that i didn't tell him to his face um so let me be clear about that in 2018 he passed away 14 months after my mother passed away and when he passed away i caught my sister carmen the morning of his funeral and they had mapped out the funeral and you know the pastor was going to give the sermon he was going to eulogize him all this stuff and I said I'm doing

the eulogy and Carmen was like God no Steve please please Steve don't do this don't do this she said what are you going to say I said you'll find out when you get to the funeral and she's like Steve don't do this what will mommy want what will mommy want you know what mommy would say I said I got it and I was going to go in and I was going to literally say everything that you see in the book. And you spoke to Pastor A.R. Bernard. And I spoke to, I called Pastor A.R. Bernard. Something told me to call him. You know, I've been going to CCC. I've known Pastor Bernard for 30 years. And so I said, let me call him. And I called him and told him what I was feeling. And he was like, you're right to feel that way. I'm very familiar with your story. He you're not wrong he said but the bible talks about god's grace and god's mercy and he said and you

might want to think about that before you decide to speak your truth and when i eulogized my father i went up on this i went up on the stage after everybody gave all the portables all you know all the nice things the pleasantries they had to say about him and i walked up on the stage after everybody gave all the portables, all the, you know, all the nice things, the pleasantries they had to say about him. And I walked up and the first words out of my mouth was, that's y'all memories of him. Memories of my family. We have an entirely different story. And I saw my cousin Derek keel over like, oh, no, please. And I saw my brother-in-law was like, oh, Lord, he's about to go in.

And I saw neighbors that were in the audience that I hadn't seen in years that just showed up for my dad's funeral. And they were like literally lip syncing to me. Please don't, please don't do this. And I said, my father was not a good man. I said, but then I brought up my mother. I said, my mother knows nothing about sports. I'm Stephen A, I work for ESPN.

The world knows, the sports world knows who i am my mother says eps and whatever it is i don't know what she didn't even know the letters i said but she knew what a home run was she knew what a no hitter was she knew what a stolen base was and she knew it because of him because she loved my father so much that she knew baseball because of him i said so there evidently was something very special about him to have a woman like my mother and then i talked about a lot of the happy moments that he gave us and then i ended it by saying at the end of the day he's still my dad and i love him and i don't think i would have gotten to that point if it wasn't for a.r bernard wow what made

you change uh your perspective of how to talk about him for the book? Was it because you could add more context? More context. Because I could add the full context. And not only that, I owe it. If I'm going to write it, you know, well, then, you know, I didn't know it was going to be like 78,000 to 80,000 words. But I literally wrote 90,000 words. I wrote the book myself.

It wasn't a ghostwriter. It was me. I wrote this book. I did the audio. It wasn't another voice writer it was me i wrote this book i did the audio it was another voice it was me and i just said if i'm gonna do this then i owe it to everybody i mean and and you know because of the business that i'm in i imagine talking to you you or you i can see the questions you know because i'm experienced enough to know what's coming i know what i would ask i know what

i would think about and i wanted to make sure that I left no doubt as to where I stood and you know what I was trying to say and that's what I did and I have a question so even even though obviously you know how you felt when you were writing the book because it was your thoughts and feelings was there a sense of like that therapeutic element like you know when people actually put the words on paper and write it down and read it and look at it a lot of authors say like it's a form of therapy it's like i finally got it out my head and on the paper possibly so i'm not i'm not i'm not saying that i didn't feel that way but there was a bigger emotion coming from it la la i you know when my mother passed away i was a mama's boy i I loved it dearly. We were very tight and I was devastated for a long time. What I would tell you is while everybody else around us was very sad, the emotion that I had

was fury. And the fury that I had was that, you know, this is five years ago. I got my first big contract from ESPN in 2015. I got the second one in 2023 years after she passed away. But I was there and I knew that I was in a position where obviously I could give to her. But I was getting to a position where there was so much more that I could give to this woman who had done everything for us. Worked two jobs, 16 hours a day, seven days a week week one week's vacation a year for 20 plus years because she had to because he wouldn't do his job and so because of that to see her in the grave before him and to see her deprived she was 76 years old my mother was at a point where let her go on a couple of cruises a year and she's in heaven well obviously

i'm in a position to do more than that for her and so for me for her to pass away i was furious so when it came time for his funeral it it just galled me the thought of everyone showing up to celebrate someone who had taken so much away from her he took away from us too but that's all right stuff happens nobody's perfect mistakes deal happen but when it came to my mother's a different kind of animal you can make mistakes in life in a relationship or fall apart i'm man enough to say okay that's y'all business as long as you ain't put your hands on my mother we good that's y'all business what was unforgivable to me was not paying any bills yeah allowing her to work the hours you were supposed to be working right to have the obligations you

were supposed to have so that's the person you're supposed to take off you said you had a conversation with him when you had the conversation before he died what was his reasoning well this was years early i would tell you about five years earlier we were in my dining room we in my mother's dining room and my father was one of those dudes that was stubborn to the end and he didn't he never swore that he was wrong until he absolutely had to and so he's in there and his older brother my uncle freddie was sitting next to him and my father was like you don't know what the hell you're talking about you don't realize what i've done for you i said you haven't done anything for me. You know, you haven't done anything for me.

Don't give him too much of the book now. Right. Exactly. And I said that. I'm going to go buy it. And I said that. And, you know, he started arguing with me. And my Uncle Freddy looked at him and he said, Basol. That was his middle name, Basol.

And he said, shut the fuck up. He said, this is Steven. He's a journalist for a living. You know he knows what you have and have not done. Chapter and verse. You have no shot. Just be quiet. And my father just sat back and just took it.

And I just left it alone from there. You know, I think the relationship with your father is the most important part of the book because it opens up so much other stuff. Like you talk about how watching your father and your mother's relationship made you never want to get married. And you talked about things in the book I didn't know. I didn't know you had two baby mamas. How's Disney gonna feel about that?

Well, Disney couldn't tell. Well, first of all, I don't expect them to like it because it's the one thing that my mother was ashamed of. Of my entire life, I've been on this earth 55 years she passed away when i was 49 going on my 50th birthday and that was the only thing that my mother was ever ashamed of me for uh because i wore you know i had condoms on lock like like like credit cards it was like i didn't leave home without them you know i was never going to compromise myself by putting myself in that position and then I lost my way and so

because of that you know my mother was like okay so now that you did you screw this up she said there's only way one way you can make up for it you have to be the best father that you could possibly be you have to make sure what you made a promise to me about from the time that you were 16 years old that you will never be like your father. She said, that's what I expect. And so since that moment in time, that's why when Kobe passed away and everybody's talking about that girl dad, that girl dad, it's like it resonated with me in a very significant way

because, I mean, my daughters are everything to me. And so, you know, and I've always lived by this philosophy, but it's the same with my mom. It was with my mom as it is with my daughters you know think i'm not comfortable unless they're comfortable i don't eat less they eat i don't i don't go on vacation until they go on vacation i don't live a posh and affluent life unless they live in it i make sure that they're taken care of first and the thing that i was that i shamed her with is also the things that i've made her very proud about she was very proud of the father that i am and i'm very proud of the father that i strive to be it's a never-ending process i am not looking forward to growing you know growing older

with two daughters thinking about the man i once was before i became a daddy, you know, praying and hoping that they don't run in to a young Stephen A. You know, I'm definitely, I'm definitely that dude. But I'm also very, very happy and very proud of the father I am. And having two beautiful daughters has made me a much better man and a much better human being and far, far, far more compassionate than I ever thought I'd be. And I know we don't got much time because you got to get the uh go to do first take but it's so much does skip ever get in trouble for anything he said on first take because you talk about the times you first take or his show you first day because you talk about the time that you got in trouble on first take and i'm like well skip had crazy opinions too and the opinions you had weren't necessarily like

i know i never suspension worthy i never recall skip getting in trouble ever um in terms of a suspension or anything like that um when i got suspended i was furious i did not believe i deserved it i was pissed off to the highest degree because i just thought that you know it was made into something that it wasn't and so for me whatever my opinions are i don't mind anybody coming at me about that this is what we feel about what you said it's when they try to branch it out and turn it into something that it was not that's what pisses me off because what happens is when you have disney disney and and i'm not knocking disney for this at all listen man we got stockholders

got shareholders you got people to appease and so you got to pay attention to everybody you ain't after black white hispanic appeal you have to mass appeal you want it all and so as a result of that you have to pay attention to everything and everybody and so when that noise is made my boss at the time felt compelled to respond to the noise and when he got suspended 48 hours earlier he told me i wasn't gonna be suspended we're fine and then you know he turned around and so for me it was i've learned a lot i'm a lot better and what i try to do and all of y'all can attest to this at one time or another we've all had private conversations i'll whisper something in y'all ear about something to watch out for i'm very very big about these are the minefields yeah watch out

because what i'm saying is as a product of corporate america somebody that's been in corporate america for over 30 years i kind of know where the minefields are and so as a result of that i might see cats on the come up that i think is going to be in my position or an even higher position and i'm saying come here let me make sure i tip you off to this watch out for this watch out for this watch out for that. Cause I want y'all to succeed. I don't want y'all to fail. Who the hell wants to be successful alone? I was shocked that Skip sat with you though.

Oh, oh yeah. It shocked me too. But he, he, he didn't listen. He, he walked off the set and said, I ain't coming back until my man comes back on because he knew it was wrong too. But I was really shocked that he took that position. I certainly didn't ask him to, and I'm appreciative of that doesn't mean i mean we still disagree 99 of the time but i did appreciate the fact that he took that position on my behalf i was gonna say who the worst fans are they cowboy fans man why i care about that skip fans or the navy fans cowboy fans nobody's worse nobody's worse but i will tell you i would tell you the navy

got at you a little bit they came for your head first of all let me be very very clear you don't give a damn i don't give a damn i want to be very very clear about that doesn't phase me it really really doesn't i'm just lala after you've known you've known me for years i'm just, Lala, you've known me for years. I'm just built that way. Rihanna, if she had a problem, that would have bothered me. Not her fans. I challenge anybody to tell me one negative thing I said about that wonderful performer and young lady. Well, you didn't give no nuance to it. You just said Rihanna is no Beyonce.

If you'd have said Rihanna doesn't perform as well as Beyonce. Well, let me give you an insight. Let me hook you up on the inside. Sherri Shepherd's team. I'm promoting my book last Tuesday. Sherri Shepherd's team comes up to me and they said, since you're here, we want a debate-like

format. We want to have fun with it. I said, okay. Bring it. No problem. I didn't know what they were gonna ask right but i said sure no problem so i'm expecting a debate right and i knew that i was just in the room talking about beyonce because one of my all-time favorite performance beyonce with bruno mars and co-play is one of my favorites now obviously jay you know dr dre and snoop and them last year i mean i mean lord have mercy i mean i'm mad i wasn't there but that's i i think that beyonce might be the greatest female performer of all time

that that's how i feel about her i think rihanna's fantastic i think rihanna's fantastic by the way both of them got my money because i bought both albums okay so my attitude was rihanna's great but i'm thinking you got a lot to live up to because there's only one beyonce now you agree fine you disagree fine how we get to the point why he got a pit two black women again really well i i can't i can't i just can't be a fan of both but i I prefer Beyonce over Rihanna. That's a crime. I didn't know that. In your book, you talk about learning lessons.

Yes. And you have gotten in trouble for that before when you pitted Ayesha Curry against Savannah James. That's right. Listen, first of all, this. Yeah. Fair question. Lala said, yeah. Fair question.

Lala, and I'm going to talk. You said that take cost you the sports in the game, which I didn't know. I'm going to talk to Lala. I'm going to talk to Lala. I didn't know that. Yes, yes. Let me explain what happened.

So Steph Curry is in game six of the NBA finals. LeBron and Kyrie are coming. They won game five after Draymond got suspended. Bogut and Iguodala got hurt. They win game five after Draymond got suspended, Bogut and Iguodala got hurt. They win game five. Game six, they come in at Golden State. They down 12 with about four minutes left. And Steph Curry fouls out.

Steph Curry pulls out his mouthpiece, tries to throw at the official, but misses it, hits a fan by accident, blah, blah, blah. Ayesha Curry goes ballistic. What y'all may not have known was that and I love Aisha Curry I mean no problem no throwing no shade on her whatsoever I'm just telling you what happened prior to the game she had tweeted that she was upset because they were backed up in traffic now Jay-Z and Beyonce were coming to the game but nobody knew so the Cleveland Arena the Gundogan whatever it was right the quickest loans arena they held up They were backed up in traffic. Now, Jay-Z and Beyonce were coming to the game, but nobody knew.

So the Cleveland Arena, the Gundera, whatever it was, the Quicken's Lones Arena, they held up the traffic. So she was mad about that and was talking about how the wives and the family of the players for Golden State were being inconvenienced. She complained something else about the officiating, blah, blah, blah. Wow, now you're saying Nyesha versus Beyonce? No. Wow, Stephen. How you see me?

You're so crazy, man. Stop man so so so what happened is that she did that and then she went off after steph curry you know fouled out all that other stuff what i said was you are representing your man at that particular moment in time anything that you do it's not you it's the wife of him and so because of that you have to guard yourself and be careful skip comes back at me and says oh please you know what are you talking about blah blah blah and i'm jumping in like wait a minute you will get on LeBron about anything. How all of a sudden this escapes you. You know what I'm saying?

So that's how the whole Savannah Aisha thing came up. Because what I was saying was, if this were LeBron, you would have found an excuse to jump on him. And we all know that Savannah is phenomenal. So what are you talking about? That's all I was saying. My regret was at the same time i didn't say you are hillary rodham clinton bill clinton you cannot get yourself into some nonsense because she's running for the president you understand you can't be out there messing up because it's

going to bring attention to her while she's trying to win the presidency i didn't bring that up because i wasn't thinking about that in the moment but I'm only bringing that up as an example that I should have mentioned because I wasn't trying to make it an agenda thing. I'm saying if, if, if, if Lala is in a public position, if you or you are in a public situation in the moment,

and there's a tension that some, your spouse or your significant other could potentially bring to you that could detriment that that could make a detrimental to what you're trying to accomplish they can't get in the way of that that's all i was trying to say you've been in that position i've been in that position the thing is that also nobody in this room has been married to an nba player before day in and day out you're hearing about things that are going on you're getting invented to about everything you you have emotions you act off emotions sometimes so every night you're hearing about things that are going on you're getting invented to about everything you you have emotions you act off emotions sometimes so every night you're hearing about

this whatever's being said and it's just building up and you get protective and then something just sets you off and you want to say something because you realize your spouse has continuously taken the high road i said earlier i remember a time we talked about it before you came when i think i tweeted something at skip Bayless. Cause I was like, yo enough with the mellow slander every single day. And he's not saying anything. And I'm just like, this is enough because now it's affecting the household. It's affecting the mood.

It's effect. So it becomes a bigger thing. That's like, somebody got to say something now. Is it a right time and place for those things? Of course. But when you care about somebody, when you're protective and when you're competitive,

we're all competitors and you act off emotion, you say things that might not be the right time the right place but at that time you're not thinking like that that's absolutely true and my point is is that i didn't blame aisha curry for anything you know i was saying in that moment you can't do that i've never said a word about her prior to that right and so i said that and when i said that her response was you're putting two black women against each other and i was like what how we get to that so then you did whether you realize it or not okay fine i didn't look at it that way but that's fine if you're saying that i did okay well then now i'll correct it so what happens is I go back to the office and a few days later after the finals is over and it's like a damn morgue executives are walking around I'm

like what the hell happened and they were like man what you did it was bad it was bad and I find out weeks later the sports center the six o'clock sports center that was supposed to be given to me. I was supposed to host first take in the morning and the six o'clock sports center by myself. At night. And it was taken away from me because of that. So what's going to be taken away from you because of Rihanna? And you know something? And if it ever does, fine.

Because at the end of the day, there's a level of authenticity that has to come with what we do. I agree. I'm going to be me. Damn it, that's how I feel. I did not say a negative word about Rihanna. I think she's sensational. I'm just a Beyonce fan. When you go in there, I don't care.

And if anybody tells me differently, I'm not going to even discuss it because you're lying. We go home, we all got our favorite artist. We all have our favorite actors and actresses. We all have, there's a particular show we like watching more than others. There's a particular music we like listening to more than others. It doesn't mean that we don't like

this person, this person, or that person. It just means we have our favorites. That is not a crime. You didn't explain the context on Sherri. There no context to it well i didn't know i would have to how did i know this was gonna happen you gotta remember you live in this world i'm doing sports i didn't even know did you know that i didn't know about navy until last week really i had no clue as soon as you said it i could have said it wrong but i didn't care about that what i cared about to be honest with you the one concern that i had was right on this show when angela robbins talked about why are we putting two black women against us what

oh my god i'm glad i wasn't here that morning because i'm like what the hell are you talking about so if i sit up there and i said listen i'm not apologizing for this for example there's a lot of people that i like there's a lot of women that I know that are cool people. I don't like too many people more than I like Lala. Lala has always known that. I ain't apologizing for it to anybody. What if you say I like Lala more than? So?

So what? Listen, I'm not going to be able to say who he likes more than somebody else. I don't feel like it. No, no. If I sit up there and I say, you ugly, you got a stink attitude, I don't like you, that's different. If I sit up there and say, look, you know, you a sensational woman, but you ain't Lala.

Damn. That might be something you got to get over. You got to get over that. You know what I'm saying? I mean, listen, listen, I'm not a lot of people. So what? So if somebody says, Stephen A, you ain't no Kendrick Perkins. I love Perkins.

So what? That's your opinion. Last time I checked, the check still comes. I still got my job. I'm still going to work every day. I'm still the number one show. You can say what you want to say. I mean, you can say what you want to say.

It doesn't affect me. Now, if you sat up there and said you ain't shit, that's a different conversation. But if you have someone that you prefer more than me, so what? Now, Steve, you got to go. I know I have a question. So do you just feel like in your position you really just cannot care what anyone thinks about you? No. Because I feel like people always want to say, like, I don't care what anybody thinks about me.

But there is a point that everyone does care and everyone has a place where they truly do want to be liked by people but i'm not saying i don't care about what people think in general lala i'm saying there are certain things we can't care about because we know it's not as unfair and as inhumane as people are trying to make it out to be if i sat up there and I disrespected Rihanna and I said, I don't care. That's a problem because she doesn't deserve that. She's home. She's a new mom.

She's a beautiful artist. She's doing her things. Most people would dream to have the life that she said she's earned it. I got nothing but mad love and respect for her. If I said something disrespectful like that, and I didn't care that's a problem that's a lack of humanity i would never do that what i'm saying is it's not a crime to say i'm a huge beyonce fan there is only one and you about to go on the same stage she has

blessed not once but twice and there is a standard to live up to there's nothing wrong you come on first take I'm sorry y'all there's a bar that's been set I've said it you come on breakfast club there's a bar that's been set y'all said it you do what the things all the different things that you're doing with power and now BMF I'm seeing you I'm watching what you're doing you know you continue

to ascend well damn it everybody can't measure up to you now that doesn't mean they're whack it doesn't mean they're not gifted it means they're not you you got a line that's all you got a line in the book that kind of sums that up you say on first take we capitalize on the kind of polarization people supposedly uh abhor what's the word abhor i believe so i'm trying to remember what i mean i read it i've read it 11 times but i'm just saying that feels like though in terms of what like what you're discussing. Like it's the kind of polarization, you know, people act like they don't like, but we do it all the time. But what I'm saying is this.

You wake up and you pay attention. We all do it. You have a show. You know what's trending. You know what's newsworthy. You know what's percolating. And not only that, you know who percolates. And so because of that, it determines what subject matter you're

going to tackle because you're not doing the show for you you're doing the show for the audience you're trying to reach and i have an audience that has an expectation as it pertains to content and so when we're talking about sports and it's me there's a level of expectation that they have as it pertains to the issues I'm willing to tackle. I'm mindful and cognizant of that. And I operate accordingly. And when somebody questions that, I would remind them I've been number one for 11 years, every month, every year for 11 years. So evidently, I kind of have an idea of what people want to see in here. All right. I know you got to go. I got one more question.

It ties into all of this and the no safety net chapter. You know, you talk about, uh, basically personalities who attack other personalities for things they say. Cause you talk about, I think it was the Ray Rice scandal. Everybody got upset with what you said about that. And I feel the same way. I'm like, man, if you got a microphone in front of you, you're going to say something at some point that you're going to get backlash for.

So I don't understand when I see other personalities like calling for other personalities to be fired. It's what you can't say. Yep. Yeah. What it is is. And remember this, all three of y'all here. Remember what I'm about to say. When you're winning.

They always come in for you. Because unfortunately, particularly in this day and age, their definition of winning, the closest they can get to it, is knocking you off your perch instead of creating one for their own. It's inevitable. And it's just like when he used to call me donkey of the day and all of this other stuff that people expected me to have a problem with him. When I first met you, what did I say? I had no problem with it whatsoever.

You know what I'm saying? Because he didn't attack me. He attacked what I felt about a particular issue. I know the difference. They wanted to create that divide. You're not creating that because I'm going to root for y'all. And I want y'all to root for me. And I'm going to root for a whole bunch of brothers and sisters to make it. But in the same breath, you have to be real and authentic about what's going on in the moment that is going on.

And do what you can to enlighten folks if you feel you have an enlightening point of view. That's what you do. And you let the tips fall where they may. People who don't win are real good about doing what you describe. Let them keep doing it because it reminds you that you're a winner. Otherwise, they wouldn't be talking about you. I want to end it with something. Sure. Because I learned a lot from you and I feel like it's vice versa. I do want to say this because I was really

sitting here thinking about what we were talking about earlier and I want to say this. It is important that everyone can have an opinion and who you like better is your opinion. But I will say this. As a black woman, let's acknowledge and celebrate the fact that we have two amazing, talented black women

who were able to do the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Absolutely. Outside of sports, fans, and players, the majority of people I know, that's the reason they watch the Super Bowl. Not for who's playing. They're watching for that halftime show.

So let's acknowledge and uplift and applaud the fact that on such a huge forum you had beyonce and now you have rihanna as a black woman i'm proud of that that's something that makes me proud that doesn't take away from your opinion on who you like more whatever whatever but at that moment for me it's about uplifting the fact that we need to celebrate that well let me say well let me end it by saying this. I completely agree with that. 1000%. And what you're saying and what you would prefer is entirely different than someone throwing out an accusation that my sentiment was making it a divide between two black women.

That's a difference. You're just simply saying they're both great. Let's celebrate them no problem no problem whatsoever that's entirely different than and understanding that they're both the reason that right majority of people are even watching that's right you guys are watching for the sports aspect and sure majority of people are watching right for that half but what happens is is that when we question people's intent because they express something differently, what happens is, is that you didn't lose those folks, those folks that think like that because they're like, oh, here they go with this. And I'm like, no.

At the end of the day, Rihanna is phenomenal. And she's got her own army or Navy, as they say. Beyonce has got her crew. They're both fantastic. They both sell out stadiums and arenas. They're both making gobs and gobs of money, and they've earned it, okay? Much love and respect to you.

Ain't no doubt about it. I'm rooting for her. I ain't rooting against her. I'm just a Beyonce fan. I think with these microphones, it's something that we would debate until the end of time. Intention versus impact.

Yes. It's a lot of times my intention wasn't to offend, but then somebody like a liar gotta be like, nah, you offended, you know, you impacted that person in a negative way. In those moments you just gotta apologize and keep it moving. You know?

I understand. Which is what I did. But let me be very clear. People didn't like your apology either though. Well, how would all that? First of all, Leslie Jones on Comedy Central, hilarious. She got you. And she's supposed to.

That's what she does. I wasn't offended by it at all. Because she's great. Not even the hairline joke. No, bro. It's dead. It's struggling. But I'm 55. It ain't like I'm 35 walking around with this stuff. I'm 55. You know what? No. I might visit a hair club for men.

I might visit a hair club for men because I don't think I'm Godzilla, but I ain't the most attractive dude in the world. But if my hairline moved forward, I might have a... There might be hope for me. There might be hope for me. There might be hope for me. I got some Inala rice water drops for you. Okay.

Does it work? Does it work? It works. It better work, Lala. It better work. Let me tell you something right now. Because then they're going to get on me for getting out of another system because if it don't work, I'm blaming you, Lala.

I'm blaming you right now. I'm just telling you right now. I'm't work, I'm blaming you, Lala. I'm blaming you right now. I'm just telling you right now. I'm blaming you. I'm blaming you, Lala. I'm telling you right now. Didn't you recommend this for me? That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm telling you that right now.

I'm telling you that right now. I appreciate y'all, man. Thank you so much. I just want to tell you one last thing. Yeah, man. You know, we have a new studio. Okay. So now we have the option to go to you when we need some questions.

So next time, next season, the Cowboys start losing and I need to go to you for some backup or some help. You need like a Zoom call or something like that? Zoom, right to that camera. We could pat you right in. I got y'all. And you could just ish. I'm telling you right now.

I got y'all. Cowboys going to the Super Bowl next year. I can't tell you. I gotta go. I gotta go. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

It's the breakfast club, come on. Y'all ridiculous, man. Ridiculous.