The Herd with Colin Cowherd - All Ball - NBA Draft , Team USA Struggles -- Guest Maurice Clarett on Overnight Stardom, Miami Title Game, Tressel

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

In this episode, Doug breaks down some of the top NBA Draft prospects and if Cade Cunningham is a lock at #1, and Team USA's losing ways carrying over into the Olympics. His guest is former Ohio State standout running back and national champion Maurice Clarett, who looks back at his Youngstown upbringing, the surprising way he ended up at Ohio State, how he went from 4th string to 1st string in one day, his memories of the 2003 national title run, the championship game against a legendary Miami team, and the NCAA Investigation that spelled the end of his Buckeye days. Make sure you download, rate and subscribe here to get the latest All Ball Podcasts! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

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That's 1,800flowers.com slash tune in. Hey, welcome in. I'm Doug Ghaly. This is All Ball. Usually we reserve this space for basketball discussions. But I did think that sometimes

you reach out in their stories. If you go back through our catalog, I would implore you to listen to T.J. Hushman Zada's All Ball. His personal story is unbelievable. I think we have a little bit of the same thing with Maurice Claret. And we got a couple parts coming up to this Maurice Claret stuff.

This is part one. And we talked a little bit about his upbringing and how he landed at Ohio State. And the Miami game, there's a lot to it. I think you'll enjoy it. So we'll get to Maurice Claret momentarily. Let me share with you a couple of thoughts here as where USA basketball has, at the time of this recording, lost to France, beating the crap out of Iran. And now they continue to try and move on in the Olympics.

I give you some thoughts there. And the NBA draft is, of course, upon us. We will drop another pod where we'll have more of a draft preview and a draft post view, et cetera, et cetera. Let's start with the draft. I do think there's a drop off after five. I do think Kate Cunningham is the best prospect. It's really hard, though, to tell.

These evals are very difficult. Why? Well, you have, you know, at least two of the top ten. You'd think Jonathan Caminga goes in the top ten. Although I've heard a lot of people kind of down on him, not understanding what he looks like in an NBA uniform. But you have Jalen Green and Jonathan Cominga and they'll probably be lot. They'll both be lottery picks, potentially both top five, maybe more respectively top ten picks. Green probably goes two or three. but they haven't yes they have played in an NBA rules and with an NBA coach but they weren't playing against NBA caliber players it was a truncated season there were no fans there there's not pressure it's really hard to tell exactly what they are or who they are right they've improved she and green probably improved the most comminga has made a name for himself but it's hard to tell

we also haven't had multiple years of the G League select so we don't know what what a star player is supposed to look like. We only know that Dacia Nix gained weight and look bad and may fall out of the draft completely from the exact same experience. But we don't have, there's, there's no guide for this. There's also no guide for Kate Cunningham, who, you know, you're playing in what was last year by anybody's estimation, a much weaker Big 12 than in the past. If you don't believe me, there's no Kansas first round draft picks.

okay there's none out of Texas Tech probably will be out of Texas okay Baylor yes you know and he didn't always play great against Baylor so it's it's hard to tell you know TCU K State Iowa State all super down so we're going to use Big 12 games as our guide like the talent in college basketball specifically in the Big 12 was off wasn't at the level that it's normally that. So who's he actually competing against? On the other hand, he did make everybody better, and you'd think the space is better once he gets to the NBA. And then you have some of the foreign players, you know, I think Josh Gidey is going to be a player who's going to have a lot

higher value after the Olympics or, you know, in the next day, because we saw him compete against the U.S. Olympic team because we've seen him. And we may over-emphasize the the skill he has, the toughness he has over the athleticism he may he may lack at the position that he plays. There's a lot to it. It's going to be a hard year. I do think Kate Cunningham's the number one pick. And I think it's for he has the tangibles that others have. His intangibles are really remarkable. I've said it before on Twitter. I'll say it to anybody. If I'm Oklahoma City because of his ties to Dallas growing up there, because playing Oklahoma State, this is the guy that you use all those draft picks for.

All these, you know, smaller market teams are all trying to do the same thing. The most quality draft picks possible because that's their way to get star players. You can't get them as free agents. If I'm Oklahoma City, I move mountains. It doesn't mean that those mountains can be moved, but I do what I can, with exception of trade and Chey Gildes Alexander in order to get him. All right. In regards to Team USA, obviously if you watch them, they're starting.

to come together. It's really hard. I thought USA volleyball and team USA in basketball, very, very similar, right? So volleyball lost to ROC, which is basically a Russia, the Russian Olympic Committee. They lost them and that's a team they're going to have to beat if they want to win the gold medal. That was like a night after Team USA lost in basketball. And then the volleyball team playing Tunisia, the basketball team play the Iran. So stick with me for the parallel.

Both were games that they were supposed to win. Both looked much better on offense. They looked much more fluid, much more cohesive. But the level of competition was so much lower, it's really hard to tell. But I don't find fault with Greg Popovich. You have all these people like, well, Greg Popovich, you know, when Mike Chishsef's like, look, I think Mike Chishavs, he's an amazing coach and amazing motivator. But the fact is that if Greg Popovich, as much as they're not playing as well as they

could with their personnel. Like if Greg Popovich had LeBron James and Steph Curry and Anthony Davis and you know pick the 10 best NBA players and he had or he had 15 best NBA players and he had 10 of them, he's going to win.

And we also have to remember that Coach K's last couple of years, last couple teams, like the games were closer. They weren't all blowouts. The world, it's a different game, a different style of fish a different set of rules and these guys haven't played together. And they also play on teams all year long, which, and again, some of this is about the

player selection process. They're the guy and now they have to be one of, it's just a different style of basketball where you have to move it. You have to trust everybody. And oh, yeah, by the way, post players are really, really valuable. Really valuable. And we just don't have good American posts because anytime a kid is big, you know, some of them play volleyball, most of them shoot

threes. Nobody can score down low. And we just don't have a ton of, we just don't have a ton of shot blockers. I mean, the MoBomba hasn't evolved to that level. That guy had he put on 25, 30 pounds and there's a great

American-born big guy. Carl Anthony Towns, of course, played for the Dominican Republic, so he couldn't play. There are some reasons we don't have great big guys, but not having great big guys is a big issue. So too is our style of play, the difference in the play, and it's hard to tell if we really improved or we were just playing against Iran.

Okay, so there's a lot that people know about you, but even more, I think, that people don't know about you. You're a kid, you're growing up Youngstown, Ohio. All football all the time, you're a multi-sport kid. Like, pay me the picture of what, you know, sixth, seventh grade, Maurice Claret was like. From an athlete standpoint, I played football, basketball, and I ran track. That was, I don't know, late 90s, you know, track was real big. We had, you know, Maurice Green and Michael Johnson and all those guys were in the Olympics.

So every kid wanted to emulate that and go run track and, you know, played AAU basketball and everybody else. And, you know, just your normal junior high, middle school basketball. I think around that age is like I think when most kids are finding their position, you know what saying when I was in Little League, you know, you kind of bounce around at different positions to kind of see what you are. And, you know, you're a different weight class. And so you go play other guys. But from a sporting standpoint, I had basically, we just, you know, just playing three sports like every other kid. And, you know, I think that's where you

find a lot of your socialization too. You know what I mean, that's where you still have friends to this day from our guys, you know, from, you know, childhood sports and, you know, play all three of them. What was, what was home like? Just, you know, just normal inner city life, you know, You have my mother raised three kids. I grew up on a street that was notorious for a bunch of violence and whatnot. But it was a typical inner city like everything else. You know, the 90s is, as everybody knows, was painted with a bunch of violence. And Youngstown, if you go back and historically look, you know, we had outpaced everybody in regards to murders and violent crimes.

And so as a result from that, you know, you just get elements of that in your neighborhood. You get elements to that of your mentality and your attitude. And, you know, looking back on it now, I can see how I've done a lot of disservice to a lot of kids with them. You know, when I look at it now, I see how it's kind of become a bad rocking my strength for, you know, how I've motored through adverse moments. You know, it's interesting is, you know, you grow up, your running back, which means in the 90s, the running back, the best player on the team, best athlete in the team played running back. Whereas now it feels like the best athlete in the team in high school plays quarterback. right? Yeah. Fair to say, I mean, if you are coming up now, you would have played quarterback not running back.

I probably wouldn't have to build for it. You know, me, most, you know, most guys are like, they're built like Lamar Jacksonish or, you know, those guys that kind of slender, slim, 180 to 210 pounds. Most of those guys are over 6'2. I just don't think that I would have to add the bill for it. You know, the game change. And, you know, I think the goal is that most people try to put the ball in the best athlete's hands and just try to put that guy in a position to make the most, or have the ability to make the decisions on what would happen. So I think that's why you see a lot of guys who are super athletic. I even think to this thing, I think there's more guys who could transition from like your H-back positions

and your slot receivers to quarterbacks, right? When you look at your Z and X receivers, it's kind of like they're going in a way. You know, guys tend to play everywhere. And I'll credit this to something else. When you look at just the advancements and training, more guys. You can look on Instagram, Twitter, everywhere. You know, guys are five, six, seven, eight years old. You just have a better athlete sooner.

And I think guys that just may not play receiver or, you know, just may not be tough enough to play running back in some regard. I think those guys shift over the quarterback. And the game allows you to, you know, it allows you to be. a dual threat, you know, to throw short passes. You don't really have to have a big arm anymore. You know, you can manipulate guys running the ball and, you know, you can complete passes under 15 yards and be an effective quarterback. You know, anybody can, you know, chuck one deep down the field. You know, you can have a weekend warrior who can do that, you know, I'm saying if you practice hard enough. So then the game has definitely changed, but it's changed all for

the purpose of getting the ball and the best athlete's hands on every snap. Great way of looking at it. Okay, so you go to high school and you went to one high school, freshman year and then you transferred. Your first high school is which way? I went to Austin Town Fitch my freshman year and then transferred to Warren Harding and Austin Town Fitch was a good school but Warren Harding you know like most most areas they have like one dominant school who like is like the premier place. Warren Harding was that premier place for us. They play like all division one level guys all of your guys throughout the state in different sections out of Cincinnati, Cleveland. We play some guys from Canada. We just played the best of the best.

And when I finally realized that I had some talent, I said, man, what if I go, or let me go over here to, to Warren Harding and to compete against these guys because I obviously seen that they had guys going to Michigan and Penn State and Ohio State and, you know, your premier division one level of schools at that time. And I was like, hey, man, I want to go. I put myself in a position to go to one of those schools. Okay, but what was your, did your mom push back on that? Did anybody say like, let's let's think about this for a second? No, it was supported by everybody. And it was a discovery process.

You know, oftentimes when I talk, things are so, it's easy to understand now, but just in the context of, you know, 98, 99, you're just trying to find your way. You know, the NFL wasn't the thing to everybody. You know, you can talk about it casually easily now. But like, as long as you went to a good school back in the day, that was like the pinnacle, you know what I'm saying, at least for me, you know, when you're in high school, if you're like, hey, if I just go to good college, you know, I'll be okay. but I had success my freshman year and I broke my ankle.

And you can just see like when we played these guys or when you heard about them on the news, they were just doing something different. You know, they were turning out. They were just, they were turning out guys like to premier schools. Like the year I transferred to them the year prior, they sent like eight guys to Division I level schools. And so like that was a lot for kids in inner city.

And so I said, hey, man, I want to go be a part of that. And my mother just supported it because she said, okay, he's good. And, you know, he'll go somewhere. It's kind of like my deal. What do you remember about going to it? Because I knew high school, because I did that. I went to a different high school, but I went all four years at school.

But I remember early on, like my first year, outside of the basketball guys who were all older than me. I didn't know anybody. What was it like for you? Did you know all those guys? I mean, I know Youngstown's not a huge city, but it's big enough city. I don't know. What was your, did you know people when you went to your high school? No, so I actually went to high school.

that was like 30 minutes away. It was called Warren Harding. And I didn't know anybody. And if I look back on it, it actually benefited me because I spent the majority of my time just developing myself, right? With lifting weights, staying after practice, watching film. And, you know, I didn't feel like alone or I didn't feel distant because most of the guys that who were my friends, we played basketball, football, and we ran track together.

So I felt like I had friends, but, you know, I didn't have that socialization piece because I didn't live in a city. So where some kids may have been in a rush to go home or, you know, let me hang out with my boys. Like I was just like, I came to school. I practiced and then, you know, I drove 30 minutes back home to, you know, be where I was from, which was Youngstown. And so if you look at it, just the amount of time that I put into practice and an amount of time that I put into just developing my game, I think that it came from just not being

from that city or not being from that area is sort of like feeling the need to go socialize after school. Okay, so when did you first start getting recruited by Ohio State? The irony is, I've never got recruited by Ohio State. And I'll just tell you the quick story. So my junior year, or my sophomore year, I did good. And I really didn't get a ton of offers. I just got interest from people at Indiana was one of the first people that had interest in me.

And then my junior year, I went out and I went to a couple camps and they had like junior camps and all this sudden little stuff. And I went competing against everybody. And I said, man, if I was. I take this thing serious this year. This is like the summer of my sophomore year going into my junior year. I told myself if I get very serious that I can be good. And so at this time, all like within like an eight-month period, Ohio State at Los John Cooper, Jim Trussell goes down there.

And I'm becoming better at Ohio State in regards to football. And so what ended up happening was that I called Ohio State and told them that I was coming. And it was just like an Ohio pride thing. it was a Jim Trussell thing, to be honest with you. Jim Trussell had won a ton of championships at Youngstown State. And ever since I was a kid, you know, when you're a kid, you don't know Division 1, AA from anybody. You just understand, like, a college football team is a college football team.

So Youngstown State was like the biggest thing when I was a kid. So me wanting to go play for him influenced me to want to be that guy. But then also, I got fortunate. I had three people who kind of like influenced my game. coach Tom McDaniels, who was Josh McDaniels father for the Patriots. You had Matt Richardson, who was my running back coach. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

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Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark, Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

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basically took a lot of the offense from Youngstown State. And so what happened was that I understood the game, but also when I would watch Ohio State, I knew what I was watching. And I understood that my self, skill set fit in very well to what they were doing. And I knew I was excelling with this. And I said, I don't need to, you know, try to go get recruited by anybody else. Like, I just need to take what I've learned here and just take my skill set and put it in that system. And, you know, it was a,

it was a bold move. They had brought in three running backs prior to that. And they were all freshmen. And we were all within the same, you know, within the year of each other. So, you know, it was like, you know, hey, you're taking the gambon itself. But I knew that if I just had a fair shot like everybody else that I could excel and I knew my skill set was better in that system that any guy who had basically been running at the time. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And within the IHeard Radio app, search FSR to listen live. Beaver Sportsbook wants to invite you to discover the complete sports betting experience. The foundation of that experience is a massive number of betting options on nearly every regulated sporting event around the world. add on top of that live streaming of sports every day.

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and the guy named Rex Hogan. I'm not sure if you know Rex. Rex is for it. I think he's like the GM or he's in the front office at the Chicago Bears. He's either with the Bears or the Jets or I don't know, he won't one of those last few times. But Rex at that time was a GA at Notre Dame. And I initially committed to Notre Dame when Urban Meyer was there.

But when Bob Davy got fired, the whole staff got fired. And then I think Urban ended up going like the bowling greener. something and I was like, you know, I'm not going to bowling green. But I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I want to graduate early. I want to forego my senior year. That's how the whole thing started. They said, you can't forego your senior year, but you can forego the second half of his senior year and graduate early. Rex Hogan was the one who actually helped me to figure it out. And so I went to a summer school class and then eventually when they got fire, Ohio State kind of inherited all of the work

that Rex Hogan had done prior to that. And I end up going to Ohio State and coming down early. And eventually, you know, I had a chance to work out all the kinks that most guys, they probably, you know, come in and fall camp and then have to work them out through the first three games before they're, before they become a freshman. But, you know, I came and I was on special teams, the majority of spring ball. And, you know, I found out the workflow, the work pace. I found out, you know, my way around campus.

and I had, you know, spent two semesters or whatever there was, I don't know if they're on quarter or semesters, but I had spent a ton of time on campus already. So by the time we came to the first game, I felt like I was heading into my second year or I felt like I had enough experience to like, you know, I didn't feel nervous or scared. I had been through spring ball and all of the, just the other stuff you go through that's, that young guys are curious about. They want to know how I feels and just don't know how to navigate, but I had done it already. So, you know, that was, it was good for me. So you're getting ready for your first game at Ohio State. You're a freshman. Where were you on the depth chart?

Well, I was fourth on a depth chart two weeks prior to the season. And like they say, you know, preparation opportunity meets itself. That's how people become lucky. And we had a goal line drill. And the goal line drill, to make a long story short, the first two guys, one guy was fumbling a ton. The other guy, his ankle. was hurting or he acted like he was hurting.

But if you go back, you know, we had a number one defense and they were just like knocking the shit out of guys, right? And so, you know, practice was, you know, practice was real rough. And we had like just rough, old school grungy, just old school college players, right? And so when we go to, when we go to the goal line drill, as you know, the coaches asses tend to get a little tighter. They want to be like have great looks on defense and all that stuff. And they just weren't getting good looks.

And so Coach Truffle came to me and he said, you know, you're always talking about you want to get in, you know, get in. You know, this is go line. And so I go in and I just told myself, like, I'm just not going to run from anybody. And like three or four runs, I just had great runs to the point that the defensive coach got mad and said, you know, fuck like, you know, like stopping, right? So then we went from there to an inside run and we would go to inside run. It was a very similar to the same thing. I had a bunch of success in inside run.

And then coach Dan Antonio, who was our defensive coordinator, at the time, he came over and said, hey, I need you to basically do this in team. So I went to our team exercise and I did it in team. And the next day I came back to practice, I went from fourth to first on the depth chart. And they had called me in earlier that day. And they say, you know, practice was at 1 o'clock. You know, come in at 12, we want to talk to you. And the coach that told me, he said, man, Coach Dan Antonio actually advocated for you to basically

be the running back because you gave our team a better chance to weigh him. And so I didn't even get promoted from my running back. coach or the head coach. It was a defensive coach who seen me practicing, but you know, this is just even like, you never know who listens to this stuff and I just really want to leave like a tip bit of wisdom. I took a ton of pride in playing on scout team and people

oftentimes shun scout team. But scout team was the first time that I had a chance to go against the number one defense. So when it was my time to go against these guys, I wasn't as intimidated or scared as other guys. And I also knew that it was the only way I was going to get reps. When you got a bunch of people, the only way you can get reps is go scout.

team or do like the intern work. You know what I'm saying? And it ultimately put me in a position where, you know, I was able to go from fourth to first within a day's time. So you get to start, you started your first game. What do you remember about? I just didn't go to sleep the night before. Just constantly replaying plays in my mind.

Constantly just thinking about what. about to take place, you know, we get over to the stadium. Just, you know, and I used to have like a routine, just stay solid the entire day, just kind of visualize what you want to do. That was a real big thing I used to do in high school, just visualize and try to, like, play the game in your mind prior to coming. You know, we used to have, like everybody has it. Now you have a first 15 plays.

So I would visualize what I have to do. I would visualize the different blitz packages that they would have. And I was one of those guys who read the little write-ups on everybody. So I knew all the little write-ups and, you know, what a guy was good at and where he went to high school. And I used to find, like, a fascination in that. I just felt like that, even though it's not relevant information, I felt like that information just like allowed me to focus on a task at hand. And we get to the game. And, you know, the first few series, we really didn't do too much.

And then, like, you know, just like anything else, you know, in the first few series, for those who don't know, everybody's just trying to adjust. Like, everybody's trying to figure out how the other team lines up. And what ended up happening was I got in the backfield and we called a set that we knew that we could take advantage of them in the set that they had. And we got the right blocks. And then I broke like a 48-yard touchdown in the third series. And from there, you know, I remember jogging to the sideline. I was like, yo, it's over. Like I just knew, like, I knew once that happened and once the people started cheering.

And I had confidence. You know, after you break a run, you have confidence. And, you know, you understand you can move the ball. And, you know, I ended up with like 178 yards, 100. 175 yards and three touchdowns. And, you know, at that point, that's kind of feel like, you know, just like, that's what my life changed. That's where, you know, how everybody knows me to this day from that moment, you know,

that moment kind of introduced me to the world, to the sporting world at large. What's that like? You're suddenly a superstar running back as a freshman in Ohio State. Did you go out that night? Do you go back to your room? Like, what did you know? No, we went out. We party.

And, you know, I have family members and I had people from my neighborhood. We all get together. You know, we go out, we party and, you know, just had a good time. And it was like, it was almost like movie-esque. You know what I mean? Like, you know, there wasn't social media back then, you know, saying so like when people viewed you already looked at you, they looked at you still like as if you were a star, not just like another guy.

You know what I'm saying? So like, you know, college football is still cool. And, you know, it just wasn't like, you didn't have like super access to people. And so there was still like a level of appreciation and coolness to win. Imagine an Olympics. where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger

than I ever imagined. And now, I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the

biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your

podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of it. crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

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Search learn the hard way and listen now. You went out and people just appreciated you. You know, I was still like the old school camera era. You know, camera phones are real new. You know, cell phones are real new. So, no, we just went to have a good time. But I remember, I just remember going out, man. And I said, man, like in one day I have become addicted to just like fan love.

You know what I mean? You go out and everybody loves you. They scream me in name. They want to hug you. And even though, you know, it's shallow. still love it. You know, so even though you know it's not real.

That's human nature. Of course you do. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So now you're on this rocket ship of success. Okay.

Like now looking back, what's this 20 years removed? Now looking back, what are the memories of that season? I mean, because you guys won the national championship. You're the best running back. right there with any conversation

the best running back in the country. What do you remember about that season? I have nothing but good memories from the season. You know, I think the biggest stuff is that, you know, you fought through, you know, three, four, five closed games that really brought us together,

like stuff that you were right in a movie where you got players on the sidelines, you know, clinched to each other, looking at the clock, looking at the defense, random turnovers and returns for touchdowns, field goals, all of the stuff that,

if you set a group of riders in the room and said, hey, let's just, you know, write a movie on sports and football and adversity and the team eventually becoming champions. Like, we had experienced that entire year and it was just so cool. You know, I can remember, you know, I just remember for those who don't know when you go to Wisconsin, you know, in third quarter, they play the jump around some, right? And I remember looking at Craig Crenzel and I'm looking at him and he's like, man, isn't this the coolest thing in the world? And I'm just like, yo, like, like, I don't know, you watch stuff on TV and then you're actually.

in the moment and you're like, man, like, I'm actually in this moment. This is happening. And like, this is cool, right? So, like, you know, I have those memories. I have the memories of going out to Arizona and like Arizona being like a new thing and like, man, we're about to play Miami. And I remember watching Miami that entire year beat everybody. And, you know, you understand that they had, you know, Antroarola and Sean Taylor and DJ Williams and Jonathan Vilma and Vincent Woolfocus. You know, it was just, it was a, it was a memorable time. Like, You just couldn't have made a better story. And for all those guys who, you know,

who went on and to have illustrious careers, for everybody as kids to be together and playing and competing. And I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world. What do you remember what was the Miami game like? I mean, on TV, like I remember watching, I just got done with college. I remember watching it and both teams were stacked. I mean, there was no quite, like,

these are the two best teams in the country. It would seem like as much as you had played a lot of football and high level football in the Big Ten, like that game was at just a different level. Oh, so the biggest thing at that level, everybody knows what everybody's doing. That was the, I think that was the, that's something you can't hear in the stands

when, like, it's very weird when you line up and you motion into a set and they say, hey, they're about to run it right here, they're doing such and such. And 80% of the plays you run, they know them, they fill them, and they have an understanding. It's not like you're messing around with guys who aren't talented.

These are some of the most talented guys in the history of Miami football. You know, they've had a few Hall of Famers and all that. And so that was fun. But another thing, and this was, they would never experience this on TV. It was longer than usual. Like, you know, I didn't realize how many commercial breaks, how many an extended halftime. You have to remember we went to three overtime.

You know what I'm saying? So I just remember it was at a point in the game. And I think everybody has like this internal clock that you say, okay, I know how long we've been playing. Like, it's time to wrap your sting up. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, we were playing Miami. And I was like, yo, this is like a long game.

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Know what else grows in the forest? Our imagination. Our sense of wonder. And our family bonds grow too. Because when we disconnect from this and connect with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring. at Discovertheforest.org. Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the Ad Council. It's so funny. So my son, he's 12, he played his first tackle football game at 10,

and all he'd ever played was flag football. You know, flag football is a wrap like 40 minutes, right? And I remember in the second half, he's like, are we still playing? How long is this to show? No doubt. And I was sitting there and telling him like, yo, dude, you want to, you're done? He's like, no, I want to keep playing,

but like how long does it go? Like, well, there's a clock right there. Man, this thing takes forever. That's the Miami game. That's the Miami game. I say you win. Was it a good call? Was it a good call?

Yes. I'm on the winning side, so of course I say yes. So I'm pretty sure if you ask anybody from the state of Florida or who plays Miami, they would say it's a bad call, right? So, you know, I don't look, I don't call the game. Here's my rebuttal to this whole thing, right? And this is always been my rebuttal, right? At the end of the day, players play and referees ref.

Like, it's not like you're going to come out there and say, oh, a ref, like, let's rent it back on a replay and let's like, the technology wasn't there. Like, we didn't have the ability to do that or to make that call, right? And so the fans at home, they felt a different way because they seen the replay and they thought that, hey, you know, it should be. done. But at the end of the day, I'm just a player on the field going to play the game. I hear what they say. I hear how they talk. I hear how they love themselves.

Miami is supposed to have that sense of pride. But if we were that horrible, why didn't you just blow us out? Why didn't you just beat us so bad that, you know, it shouldn't even been in a situation where it should have been that close call. And those are like my rebuttals to it. You know, I think since they had such an... Here's a question. Okay. because my dad is Ohio State alum and obviously, you know, Coach Cooper could beat anybody except for Michigan, right?

Couldn't be Michigan. That's why I got by. Tressel comes in. Tressel comes in and this is year two, he flipped it. Right? And he won a Youngstown,

he won there. Okay? What's the secret sauce to Jim Tressel? Yeah, so he kept this simple and he understood the metrics of winning, right? If you had X amount of Russian, If you had X amount of passing yards, if you minimize mistakes and you didn't beat yourself,

and if you had X amount of turnovers, right? And these guys coached to that. And so we didn't have a thousand sets. We didn't have a thousand things. We had like four or five different formations. We were running the same four or five running plays out of, right? And people hated it. But we just understood that if we can keep things simple and kind of control the game from a

ground standpoint, we would get there. We also understood that we needed some takeaways. And we had like basic defenses. we didn't do nothing spectacular. We locked up Chris Gamble on people's best player and we went from there. And so when I was to look back on it, and the team was built more on character, right? And what I mean by that, there's a lot of people who,

like, I don't want to bash anybody's program, so I won't go there, right? But he had the philosophy that there's no man, one man above the team. The best man wins the position. Everybody's fighting and valiant for one another. You're going to be the best conditioned team out here, and we're going to keep the game simple. Now, is that everybody's game? No, you know, do people like to air it out and score 70 points to make the fans love you?

That's a little bit more entertaining. But in the era or the time, we were in football, you know, probably through the 90s and in the early part of 2000s before the game came and transitioned into the gun, the spread option or whatever the new stuff is called. he mastered that part of it. And I'm very fortunate that he was the leader of our ship at that point. Okay, so you win the national championship. Then what happened?

When the national championship, the off season comes, I have a wonderful time during the off season, and obviously it accelerates and goes to a year two, you know, a month have passed, and then that's what I basically went through my NCAA investigation.

Okay, so how did you know, like the NSA is investigating you. How did you find, how did you find out there investigating you? How did this all kind of come to be? They called me up, said, it was really simple.

Coach Trussle called me up and said, hey, you got to call the athletic directors office, compliance, I mean, and I talked to compliance, and they said, hey, you know,

we have to come down, the NCAA wants to interview you and investigate you for things that happened last year. And, you know, I had no clue what they were going to ask, what they were going to talk about.

And so basically I just went over to the compliance office. And when I got there, I didn't expect that. You know, I didn't expect like this full on-blown, full-gone investigation. But when I walked in and I kind of seen that they had two or three people there and just the nature of the meeting was serious, right? You see, you had like, like, you know, you walk in somewhere and it's not friendly. It's more like it's stern and firm. Yeah, like you know what I'm talking about.

You come from, you know, all of a sudden there's a bunch of dudes who are wearing suits and they got notebooks and you're like, whoa, wait, what kind of meeting is this? Yeah, I'm not lying to you. Since it was so close to the season, I think this, I think this would threw me off. I said, in my mind, I said it's so close to the season, it can't be that serious. And like, nothing that serious is about to happen now. That's kind of like my thought. And like, even throughout the whole deal, I didn't believe it was as serious as like it had gotten.

I'll say that. All right, that's it for this edition. of All Ball more to come, more to come with a guy who was a great running back and then fizzled out in the NFL. What went wrong? That's going to be our part two. You'll just have to tune in. I'm Doug Gottlieb, and this is All Ball. Did you know Amazon provides ways of working that fit your lifestyle? They know you value your time outside of work, juggling families, school,

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This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriters. Street or Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all. Embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kier Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having him with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing.

How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.