The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Unbreakable Episode 53 - Howie Long

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Former Raider and Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long shares his incredible journey and some amazing stories.  Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unbreakable-with-jay-glazer/id1641935224#fsr #oddcouple #herdSee 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.

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 IHeart 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith ruling. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Unbreakable with Jay Glaser, a mental health podcast, helping you out of the gray and into the blue. Now, here's Jay Glacer. Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer, and I'm Jay Glazer. Before I get to our guest today, if you're like many people,

you may be surprised to learn that one in five adults in his country experienced mental illness last year, yet far too many fellow receive the support they need. Carolyn Behavioral Health is doing something about it. They understand that behavioral health is a key part of whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs in tandem. Carolyn Behavioral Health, raising the quality of life through empathy and action. Welcome in now, my brother, my teammate, the one and only, greater Hall of Fame legend, television Hall of Fame

and really the best person I've ever been around Howie Long? How are you, buddy? That's a stretch. It's not a stretch because you're the guy so people don't understand us. Howie obviously is, you know, Mr. Crazy Raider, but his, well, for me personally, I adopted my son, Sammy.

I didn't know what I was doing. I leaned into Howie to learn how to be a dad. But on Sundays, too, when my sky is falling and Terry's sky is falling, Howie is our therapist, and he's the one that's the way, hey, hey, hey, the sky's not falling. The sky's not falling. It kind of makes you one of the best people ever been around, yes. I think it works, it works both ways in every situation. I mean, I think sometimes the best advice is advice you get from your friends and, you know, a lot of it's through experience. And, you know, there's no manual. I remember when Chris was first born, we were out in L.A. and Diane had just. graduated from law school and she took a job with a law firm and sleep was a priority, you know, during the season and with her having go to work and, you know, he'd throw up and you, all we had, we had no family out there. We have the Dr. Spock book. So, you know, you learn on the fly. You know, it's like page 42 vomiting. And that's how you kind of figured it out. And we unfortunately

did not have family out in California. So, you know, listen, like I say, if you're about, like $6.50 with kids, you know, in terms of wins and losses, you're doing all right. You know, you just got to show up every day and let them know you love them and try to give them as much guidance as they want to take. And sometimes they want to do it their own way, which is fine. You know, you're going to make mistakes and we all do. You know, I think a lot of people don't know this about you. And if I overstep and you don't want to hit it, you tell me that. But, you know, like our upbringing does make us, kind of who we are. And you had a way tougher upring than anybody knows. First of all,

tell people where you grew up. People don't know that. I grew up in Charlestown, Massachusetts, right in the city of Boston. Which is famous for the move of the town. More bankruptries than anybody, any other place in America. Howie robbed 75 of them. No, I can't say this was, you know, I don't have to pull the old, you know, I have no knowledge of the aforementioned No, I did not rob any banks. You know, about a particularly tough kid. I mean, I figured it out around 16, you know, where you start to kind of realize, wait, you know, I don't have to take this crap anymore.

And I'm physically, you know, I'm gifted enough physically where you don't have to do it. You don't have to take it anymore. And when you grow up in that kind of neighborhood, you know, it, in many ways, I think has, you know, shaped the foundation. of who I was. And, you know, we didn't play organized sports. I didn't play organized sports until we had the busing riots, desegregation in Boston, and I think it was 74, 75. I was living with my grandmother, my uncle Mike and my aunt Eadie. I was fortunate to have extended family that was kind enough to take me in. Uncle Mike was the oldest of four uncles and, you know, worked in the projects.

And, you know, that, a number of people in the family worked in the projects. That was Uncle Mike got the job. Then he got Uncle Billy the job. And then he got my dad a job there. And everyone else worked at Hood's Milk. And my uncle John was a cop in the North End. We played the street. And, you know, we played basketball, ball hockey, ice hockey. grew up playing that. And, dreamed about being Bobby Orr and, you know, learned how to compete and, you know, how to be tougher playing in the streets. And then when I went up to live with my uncle Billy out in Milford, you know, he was the first family member to kind of move out of Charlestown. And life is filled with, I think, a lot of forks in the road, you know, and I've been at a number of forks in

the road during the course of my life, you know, whether it's going to live with Uncle Billy, live with Uncle Mike, but, you know, certainly that walked down the hallway as a 14-year-old at Milford High School and high school coach by the name of Dick Corbyn, who ended up going on to coach at Harvard, asked me who I was and did I want to play football? And they showed me how to put the equipment on. And I was terrible. I was like a horse that just fell out of his mama and, you know, was just, you know, all legs and arms and, you know, dangling around, not really that good. fortunately it was a good football team and we had a couple of three guys that ended up playing you know in some form whether it was Canadian League or USFL Joe Resick went on to captain

Notre Dame uh his dad was the coach at Harvard and you know fast forward three years later I'm 17 year old who's you know fortunate enough to get two offers to play college football and another fork in the road do I stay at Boston College or do I go to Villanova my grandmother in her infinite wisdom wanted me to get out of the neighborhood and, you know, she liked the coach who recruited me, Bob Capone. Went down to Villanova. I was a 17-year-old freshman and went down there with the clothes on my back and no bank account, no credit card, no money, no driver's license.

And I never left Villanova. I never, you know, Uncle Billy and Aunt Ada who had two kids and two adopted kids, took me in and you know it was a very close-knit family but you know they were struggling i don't want to say struggling i mean i guess it was a struggle financially you know because the meals were i left there at six five two twenty one that summer i went to villanova i got a meal card and i went in the wait room for the first time i was two sixty five when camp opened i was a bigger person waiting to happen but started as freshmen played four years years and fast forward to, you know, getting out of Villanova.

And Diane and I had no idea that I played pro football. You know, I met Diane at Villanova. And, you know, that was obviously a fork in the road. And, you know, another one. And I think what makes you different, obviously, look, you're known as the big, bad Raider. You epitomize those badass fucking Raider teams. Because, and you and I talked about this, we both kind of have that beast in the box, right?

I got that beast in the box that gets me in trouble. sometimes, but also led me in a cage to go fight people and still drain and lid, you know, you being a bad motherfucker is what made you a Hall of Famer. When did you realize that you have that beast that we could use it for power, but it could also get us in trouble, like it's there? I think it, you know, it kind of popped its head out at Villanova a little bit. When did I fully kind of realize, you know, listen, when you're at Villanova and you're playing Delaware and you're playing Cornell and, you know, occasionally you play Boston College every year. You see a higher level of competition and then we played Clemson one year when they were

number one team in the country. You know, one of those games they schedule earlier than season and you drive down there and you get your ass kicked for millions of dollars and, you know, whatever, you know, the university got paid. You know, I think when I got to the Raiders, which, again, was, you know, you want to talk about a culture change. You go from Villanova where you're, you know, you're, you're. playing Delaware and, you know, you're, you're, I could have been hit by a bus at Villanova and would

have made page three of the newspaper, the local newspaper. And, you know, to go through the whole process of playing in the blue gray game, which I got in because Joe Restick's father was the coach at Harvard. And Joe Restick played at Notre Dame. His dad was the coach at Harvard. And he was on the selection committee for the blue gray game. And I wasn't, wasn't our Jimmy Johnson the coach? Well, that was the irony. You know, another in a fork in the road, Jimmy Johnson is the coach of the North. So go figure that. And end up winning the MVP.

And, you know, then I ran for, you know, people have pro days. When you're at a small school, people knock on your dorm room door on a Sunday. And they've got their girlfriend in the car and it's a scalp from, you know, fill in the blank team. And he's really just checking a box. You know, I mean, no one saw me getting drafted in the second round. The Raiders drafted me, and I, you know, I remember on, I think it was on ESPN, and I'm paraphrasing, but they, you know, they say, you know, they wasted a pick. He's, you know, they could have gotten him in the sixth round or seventh round or whatever.

And, you know, fortunately for me, you know, was Al Davis. It was Ron Wolf. It was Earl Leggett. Al and Ron are both Hall of Famers. Earl brought Michael Strahan up, brought me up as players. And, you know, kind of was the foundation. of who he became as players, and we've talked about that often, another fork in the road. You know, I was fortunate to be around guys, you know, you didn't really need to look too far

to see what great was. You know, you get drafted in that organization. You know, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, they were guys that, you know, were tough on me, but, you know, also brought me along early on Lila Alzado. I lived with a guy named Cedricer who was a great pass rush with the 49ers. And ironically enough, he was Joe Green's roommate at North Texas State. And we played Pittsburgh on Monday night, my rookie year. And here we are in this little house in Alameda. I'm making $38,000, $1,000

after taxes. And Joe Green's coming over for dinner. You know, and it's like, I played a Villanova. So the Steelers were kind of the team that I really paid attention to, which is ironic, because now with Terry for this year, it would be 30 years, he and I have been together, which is really ironic. But, you know, for Joe Green to walk in your house as a, you know, 20, just turned 21-year-old, you know, was amazing. And I really figured out who I was. Year one, I came in on third down. year two was a strike short in year so it was an eight nine game season and uh year three was my first full season and i was all pro and you know we went a super bowl and and i knew then you know

i'm not sure where where it was but i knew i could handle myself with just about anybody and uh i was confident about that and that was through a lot of hard work and you know great coaching you know when you're in an organization like that you know al davis ron ron Wolf, as I mentioned, Freddie Blitnikovs on the staff, Jim Otto is around, you know, great players who, historic players who were a big part of the history of that organization were always around. So, you know, you didn't have to look forward to see what greatness. Willie Brown, good friend, you know, coach for a long time, just passed away the last few years.

Cliff Branch used to sleep on our sofa, Cedric's and my sofa. aren't you living with Lyle Al-Azado, old point? I did. We, in 82, this is really, you were talking about mental health. In 82, we practiced in Oakland and played in L.A. So every game was a road game. And Diane was in law school. And here I was at the Oakland Airport, Hilton, Lyle said, you're living with me.

And we're in a single room with two queen beds. And he'd go to sleep at like 9.50. He'd have a piece of chocolate cake and a glass of milk. And he shut the TV off. Didn't ask if I was watching anything. But fortunately, Marcus and a guy by name of Cal Peterson, good guy, linebacker, were staying across the hall from us. And I'd get a rollaway cot and I'd go over there and sleep a lot of nights.

Yeah, Lyle was, he was everything you'd think and a little bit more. Why don't you tell Lila you wanted to watch TV? You know, I'm 21, 22 years old. He's 34, 33. And he's Lai Lovito. Yeah, it's Lail Lovado. You know, it's like, we didn't have a contentious relationship at all.

I always likened it to, it was Russia and USA. It was like, you know, it's if it happens, it's the nuclear, you know, kind of deal where you're going to blow each other up. So I think, I think, you know, he respected me from a physical standpoint. And, you know, I enjoyed Lyle. Lyle was very good to me. He was, you know, one day to the next or within a day. He could be in multiple moods. There was a lot of up and down

with him. But great player. Lyle prepared you for me and Terry is what you're saying. Right. If you can live with Lyle L'Azado and in Oakland Airport Hilton, you're good, you're good for everything. 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. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford 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 a TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap 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 it 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 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you 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 finishing that sentence.

Yes. 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 podcasts. Tell me one there. I can never tell it enough.

The story with you and Lyle going to the Super Bowl. Well, we always took a cab. Lyle and I always took a cab. The first time we took a cab. I never asked you that. Why did you take a cab instead of just going on the buses? Because the buses didn't leave until later. And we had pre-game meal early.

And, you know, you'd eat and they'd go through special teams roll call. And the L1, it was, you know, Smith, Jones, McCarthy, whoever. You know, it was the three guys would say their name just so that we knew who was going in on what. And that wasn't going to be screwed up. For whatever reason, that's what we did. And that was at like 9 o'clock. And it ended at 9. Everyone would go up to their room and hang out for an hour, hour and a half.

Lyle and I like to get, I like to get to the stadium early. I'd like to go over every formation. I had formation sheets and I had, if they ran 18 Bob Treo 25 times, I had it written out 25 times underneath the right tackle. And if it was Bill Otto to the weak side, I'd draw it up the number of, I didn't want to write it five times Bill Jokero. I wrote Bill Jokeroe five times because mentally in my head, I wanted to see it as soon as the whole.

huddlebrook. If I could divide the field in half and say, you know, near eye, far eye, splitbacks, whatever trips, you know, two tight ends, jumbo, Y off, why motion. In my head, I wanted to be able to process within five, six seconds what I thought the play was, or at least I could divide the field in half. And Lyle would get fully dressed and go lie down in front of his locker, put a towel under his head and he passed out and go dead to sleep for an hour, hour and a half before everyone came. Now, I was in my, still in my warm-up stuff, shorts and, you know, put on some cleats. I go out and do some strides, stretch a little bit. I like to get there early and be prepared. This is the Super Bowl in Tampa, right? So we take a cab for the first time when we go to L.A.

in 82. Lyle comes with us in 82. So he wants to take a cab to go there early. I said, I'll go there early. He ends up taking us to Dodgers Stadium. The place is empty, obviously. Cab driver. Cab driver. On the morning of the Super Bowl. His meters in the red.

So that's our first cab ride. So the season goes on. Right, right. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. We go to the Super Bowl.

Okay. And we've taken a cab every week. And you think about doing this now versus 1983. Now it's, you know, there's concrete block. There's, you know, streets are blocked off, the police, helicopters, the whole thing. Lyle and I got in a cab and went to the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 18 down in Tampa Bay versus the Washington Redskins, the then Washington Redskins. And we get stuck in traffic about three quarters of a mile from the parking lot.

And it's log jam. Kyle wants a cab driver to go up on the curb and, you know, avoid the traffic and get us to the stadium. Cab drivers frightened to death. He's, you know, frightened that he's going to lose his license, frightened to Lyle, and Lyle's meters in the red. We get out of the cab and we literally walk the last three quarters of mile through the parking lot with our bag and, you know, through the fans into the stadium for Super Bowl 18. How many people was Lyle going to kill? He just had that look on his face that, you know, if you knew Lyle, you just, you knew when that look was there was, is he's in the red. You know, he went, his D.RPMs were in the red. And if you,

if you couldn't read that face and the walk, you weren't real sharp. Could you imagine today, nowadays? Couldn't happen. Or is it just, you know, the no boundaries with anybody. I mean, you couldn't even think about it. No. No. I, you know, listen, it was a time when fights in practice, fights in the locker room, fights on airplanes, you know, And there was no Jay Glazer then. It was the three major networks, and ESPN was kind of doing tractor pulls and, you know, doing that at the time. And, you know, you had the local beat writer, Zarr. Matter of fact, John Zarnesky, who worked with us forever.

We love Zarr. He just retired last year. He was our local beat writer, along with, you know, a writer from the L.A. Times. And, you know, but the beat writer flew on the plane. He knew everybody. It was a wink and a nod. and things just weren't reported. So back down again, you were crazy, Harry, let's say, right?

You had to be. No. You know, Jay, I've kind of been the same guy. I was, the switch was on a lot more, but I was the same, I'm the same guy. I'm the same guy that doesn't like to go out. I'm not a partier. That's just not me. I do the Irish exit a lot, you know, but I was the same guy just, I was in the red a lot.

So that's my question. Again, I'm running you constantly, right? You're writing notes all the time and you're having versions of strawberry to keep that beast in the box. Did you make the decision, though, to, hey, I'm going to keep that writ, myself out of the red when you had Chris or was it before that or after that? When you had kids, it seemed like you changed your life then. I think Chris started the process. Having Chris, having a son, you know, it changes everything. You know, it changes how you handle yourself, what you do and what you don't do, and you never want, you know, the one thing you don't want to do is you don't ever want to disappoint your son or sons.

And I think for me, here was the thing. And, you know, Chris and I've had this conversation, and I've had this conversation with Kyle a little bit. I played 13 years and never had a dollar guaranteed, which means you could be cut at any time. Well, you never had a guaranteed Tiana bonus? No. Well, I had a sign. My signing bonus in 1981 was $80,000, which they told me it was too much money to give me all at once, so they spread it out over two years. Okay.

Really? Yes. So here I'm playing for 13 years, and eight of those years were with kids. So you're always under the gun, and there's injuries, you're getting shot up, and you're trying to come back, and you've got to play, you've got to be the kids. guy on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you've got to be the guy. And I think when I, when I finally decided to kind of pack it in, you know, not one specific thing. It was a number of things. One, you know, I, I know, I'm not sure I had, I think I had maybe seven or eight surgeries at that point. And things were, it took everything I could to make the Pro Bowl my last year. You know,

So I was right there on the fringe of being, you know, a pro bowl, non-pro bowl player. And I couldn't, I could not handle being good. You know, you wanted to be great. If you're not going to be great, I don't want to do this, regardless of what the money is. At that time, I thought I had kind of, you know, had enough money to where, you know, if I lived reasonably and, you know, did some appearances and whatever I could find my way and take care of our family. and we moved to Virginia on a Friday,

and I got a job at Fox on Monday. Now 30 years later, the rest is history. A lot of forks in the road in that story. Yeah, an awful lot of forks in the road in that story. You mentioned earlier that it's our 30s, your 30th year, it's my 20th with you guys. Is there one story in the 30 years that just stands out for you with TV

and just being there, Fox? Well, you know, I think we've leaned on each other. other over the years at times. You know, as I think everyone knows, Terry's had some medical issues over the last few years. And, you know, I was kind of the guy that he decided to confide in. And, you know, you're constantly, you know, checking and checking. I'll tell you one funny story. He's doing failure to launch.

And he calls me up. I'm up here in Montana. I remember like it was yesterday. Which is a movie with, who is it? Macaaccahnehy. And it was a great movie. It was a fun movie. And, you know, here he is. Diane and I are in the movie theater and he's butt naked. And, you know, all you see is his big white ass on screen. But he calls me up. He's in the back room getting ready to do the nude scene. And he said, little buddy. So they got these socks. These skin-colored socks that I've got to put on. And, you know, they run it around your waist. And, you know, it covers you up. but, you know, it doesn't really cover you up. And here's my problem. He said, they got a small, they got a medium, and they got a large.

Now I'm thinking the large, I can't pull off for sure. Maybe I can't pull off the medium, but if I go with the small, it's not going to look good at all. So I'm going to go with the medium and just take the middle ground. And I'm sure, I think the medium is the way to go. It's a great. Yeah, whoever would have thought that how many long who gets to, drafted out of Villanova

will be having this conversation with four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Terry Bradshaw about the size of his slung

for a movie with Matthew McConae. I'll tell you the thing about him that people, you know, a lot of people

don't know is he's a really good friend. He's a guy that has taken the Brinks truck all the way

to the bank doing that jig clamp it, you know, all shucks, you know, go go, go,

go go out to the cement pond do my Gazintas, he's one of the smartest people I know. And regardless of whatever happens, whether it was, you know, a rough Saturday night or whatever it was, when the green light goes on or the red light goes on, my man's up and on and he's a stop. And, you know, you can say the same thing over the last couple of years when, you know, he's had some challenges physically. and there was a lot going on there.

He was going through a lot and, you know, with the treatments and just so happy. We did Joe Gibbs' charity event up in D.C. this past off season. You know, we were up on stage for, golly, an hour and a half. He showed up to the thing. Here we are. It's like 700 people. I don't know how many people. There are 7,800 people in this big, huge ballroom up in D.C.

And I'm in a suit. He shows up late. Joe Gibbs and I are taking pictures. with, you know, people who paid to come in the back before the event, take a photo. And Terry walks in. He forgot his suit. So he's in raggedy jeans, a pair of sketches that I gave him. And, you know, a button-down shirt with his wide open and a T-shirt. So we're going to do this, you know, pseudo kind of black tie. It's not a black tie, but it's, you know, it's a high-end event and we're on stage and he does the whole thing and the thing that may be the happiest was

one he was himself he was as healthy as i've seen him and you know a couple of years and he was sharp just i i the drive home was you know i drove home from up in dc down to virginia and you know knowing that he was he turned the corner we always joke about you got to get it's it's the days of thunder you got to get through the smoke at turn three just hit the gas and go keep smoke and trust that God willing, you're going to get through the other side and you're not going to hit anything. I think he's through the smoke at turn three. 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 a lot of trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford 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. to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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 J. 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 crack. I'm down to talk about crack all 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, so. Then you're finishing that sentence. Yes. 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 podcasts. I told you, you know, again, it's my 20th. If you were 30th, you were right there. I think this is my best moment at Fox. It wasn't Spigate or anything like that. It was last year, we're sitting there around Christmas time, Beverly Wilshire. Remember he came over the table and he said, hey, man, you just, you understand? I just want to tell you. Because you understand, I'm just having a bad day between the years. And I just need to tell someone and you get it. And that just meant so much to me that we can have,

all could have this kind of brotherhood together. And the other thing that, you know, Terry and I do a lot of, and I brought obviously a whole chapter in my book about this, and you're a big part of this, is we have to use laughter to get out of our gray. And unfortunately for you, you're the target for Terry and I laugh. for our laughter. I wrote on my book that you're my muse,

the amount of jokes that I play on you. It's the same. It's the same in my family. The boys like to, they like to joke about me. Folks, let me tell you this. I'm not going to say exactly. I put two bumper stickers on Howie's car.

One of them, will paraphrase, said, I love porn. Howie drove around Beverly Hills for 15 minutes. with this bumper sticker. People are beeping, waving. I'm thinking, golly, you know, that Chevy commercial or that sketchers commercial is, God, we people are seeing that, you know, geez.

And I pull into ballet parking and the guy says, because I've stayed at the same place for forever, he says to me, Howie, you know, you have a sticker on the back of your car. Here's the real story. I had back surgery. I was stuck in the hotel, you know, because I had surgery. on a Tuesday, and it was the week that Al Davis died. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I had to go into work and, you know, talk about Al. And I'm stuck there with an ice machine, and, you know, they've got me on meds.

And, you know, Jay was kind enough to come over, a little did I know what... I was a very good friend is what I was. What his end game was, was he knew I was drugged out and, you know, I was on pain killers and I was going to pass out and he was going to put a Hitler mustache. I think on my upper lip. Allegedly. Right, right. So now Jay had this.

I sat over Howie with a marker saying the moment you go to sleep here, I am drawing this little hip, a mustache on you. And Howie's like, I said, I'm just being a friend. So Jay has a procedure for his ankle. And, you know, I'm saying myself, well, you know, Jay came over to see me and, you know, I've got to go over to his place. and make sure he's good.

So I go over to his place. I'm sitting in there for about an hour, and I go back out, and, you know, it was something about my truck had climbed something. Yeah, you were not going to. Yeah, no, it wasn't good.

But again, people are beeping at me, and I'm driving around. This is the second bumper sticker, folks. The second bumper sticker. The second one. And this one was more graphic first. Horrible.

And how he pulls in. to the same hotel, and our friend, the doorman over there, says, any chance were you, Mr. Glazers today? And a black tie event had just gotten out at this hotel and was taking pictures at Howie's car with his pornographic bumper sticker on the back of Howie Long's car. Thank you, Jay. He calls me up and he goes, do you put a bumper chick on my car?

He said, who is this? Do you put a bumper sticker on my car? I said, Mom? He's like, I'm going to kill you. Now, now conversely, I've also seen the only time Howie was ever going to strike me, which he still struck me for all this, is I'm training. I've had the honor of Howie's saying here, man, you know, this MMA program, I got to train Chris for a while.

Yeah. And trained Kyle for a long time. Yeah. And actually, probably shouldn't thank you for it. Better he's hitting you than me. You know, no shit. Well, Howie's in the gym, and I'm showing him, you know, we're doing these hammer fists where instead of slapping hands, you take a fist and you guys have seen UFC fighters

when you get on the ground and they'll use the back of their hand to strike someone's face. But you can do the same thing with Lyman's forearms and cornerbacks for them, but you've got to like practice it because most of these guys have their hands open. So I'm doing it over and over and over. And then Howie, it's like, he keeps button in. So I'm like, hey, dude, you like honey boo-boos mom. Just leave us the fuck alone. And Howie's like, he should, I find him to happen.

This is what we're doing. a crack how he's form and howie goes why would you do that and he goes and he the charlestown version of howie that beast got out of the box he goes in his pocket he pulls out his car key want you to see his folks how he takes his car key he puts it in the middle of his finger like this and tries to punch me in the eye with his car key because i hit him before you know maybe an overreaction would you say that yeah yeah it hurt it hurt that forearm thing hurt. I guess. I mean, if you connected, my career is over. That's it.

Yeah, and I'm in jail. Hey, you're in jail. But now I wouldn't have discharged. It was just brothers fighting with brothers. Yeah. Well, you know, listen, before I last you go, I do got to tell you, we'll talk. You know, folks, you, you know, I talk about leaning into your teammates. And I'm lucky enough to have a Howie, when the sky is falling for me, which happens sometimes. And particularly, there was one time, man, I had taken, you know, I've traveled a lot of different anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications. And I'm going to keep trying as new ones come out, but none of work for me. So I have to, you know, figure out other ways, unfortunately.

And there was one day I took one. And I came in and, man, the sky was falling and everybody hated me. And how he pulled me aside and just said that, hey, hey, hey, nobody's against you. The sky's not falling. We got you. And, man, just before we went on the show. So to have a friend like that who can know you that well and know what to say, this is where you got to lean into your teammates gang.

And when you can be honest and vulnerable, and your teammates are there to help you. What's that saying? This two will pass. Yeah. You don't realize you've got to hit the gas when you hit that smoke on turn three and just go through it. That was a dark day.

And I've had a lot of dark days in there because I put a lot of pressure on myself. And, you know, I think we all do on that show because we want to, you know, We want to, every Sunday, we're all trying to win the Super Bowl. We're not just trying to have a show. We're trying to win the Super Bowl Sunday, right? And that's what people also don't, you know, they talk about our show. We all love each other. We all hang out together.

We're all godfathers each other's kids and best man at each other's weddings. There's been a lot of weddings. And, you know, we're all there for it. But we constantly hang out, which is what makes our show different, I think, than everybody else. Yeah, you know, listen, I have for 43 years, I've been with two teams, you know, the Raiders for 13, and I have no frame of reference of what other organizations are alike. Other than, you know, Kyle and Chris playing and, you know, getting a kind of glimpse into New England, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and, you know, the Bears in Kansas City and Andy Reed and, you know, all that, you know, through your son's eyes. But through my eyes, it's 43 years with two teams.

And I couldn't imagine being at a better place. I've had the luxury of coaching high school football for eight years and Little League Baseball for eight years. And, you know, Fox was very accommodating. And they knew that that was important to me. And, you know, the guys, listen, my boys were nine, five, and four when I joined Fox. So, you know, everyone there is kind of an uncle. And, you know, everyone there has been along for the ride, you know, through high school sports and college sports and pro football and pro bowls and Super Bowls.

And, you know, we covered, you know, championship games and Super Bowls with Chris and them. And everyone feels like part of the family. And, you know, our boys view everyone that I work with as family. We're all loyalty guys, too. I think that's big. We don't just hang out. We're all loyalty guys. We all get each other's backs.

Yeah, we fight like brothers, but we... You and Michael fight like brothers. I, you know... It makes me uncomfortable. We got better with that. We got better with that. It's so funny. I'm 63 years old.

It's like, guys, grow up. We have, for God's sakes. And we've grown up. We've got through two of us. It's great. No, it has. There were times I'm like, you two are just ridiculous. Well, I'm not going back down home.

Right? And Michael imposes his will. Michael's like don't let Gapley smile fool you. He's a bad motherfucker. Oh, I'm not going to let him, you know, I'm not going to back down. I know that. I know that. Again, again, I think, you know, at the end of the day, if you need someone at midnight and you got to make a call, there's, you know, there's a short list of people that are on that list.

And the guys we work with are, you know, Jimmy might just not answer the phone or hang up. You'd call it up, but he'd say who? Hey, my last question for you. And I ask all my guesses. Give me your one moment in life. It's your unbreakable moment. The one thing that should have broken you, but didn't. And as a result, you came through the other side of that tunnel stronger forever.

I would say, and you know, you don't realize it at the time because you really don't know any better growing up the way I grew up. My dad was homeless living on Main Street in a car in our neighborhood. And when you walk down the road and you see that, you know, I'm not quite sure how I got by that and moved on from it and, you know, didn't try not to dwell on it. And, you know, I think when you grow up like that, you have a tendency of being able to shut that, put that, in a box, shut it, shut the door, and don't think about it. But, you know, I see the relationship, you know, Michael had with his dad and, you know, people have with their dad. And fortunately, I think as the years went by after our sons were born and later on, I reconnected with him and he would come to Montana and spend a month. And I still see him sitting out at the fire pit

at 1.30 in the morning and smoking a cigarette and having whatever he was drinking. And, you know, him reconnecting with the boys was kind of a full circle for me. But it wasn't a typical kind of childhood. And seeing that as a 10-year-old is not the easiest thing in the world to do it. That's traumatic. You just walked down the street. You would see him. Yeah, he's in the car sleeping.

Wow. Well, that's a lot to get through. You have to understand, he's a guy who grew up in an orphanage from birth to 18 years old and an abusive orphanage, you know, one of those kind that make movies about. So his frame of reference for family, there is no frame of reference. So, you know, for me... You've been able to forgive him, too. Right. And, you know, that's the big thing, Jay, is I needed to move on from all that and say with age comes perspective and I think you find.

find the ability, you find a way in your heart and in your head to say, I get it. I kind of understand why you were the way you were. He had a good heart. You would have loved him. He was, you know, 6, 7, 255. You know, God knows what he would have been if he, you know, he had a normal life or had a family. But, you know, to be in an orphanage for 18 years. Wow.

Think about that. From birth to 18. Wow. Yeah. He was screwed from the get-go. So for me, that was probably the worst moment. Maybe it taught you a different level of forgiveness and I certainly taught you how not to act toward your kids. You know, like, hey, I'm going to make sure I'm so there for my kids. Yeah. And I tend to be, yeah, I mean, I wanted to be better for a lot of reasons, just wanted to be better. And, you know, I've, like I said, nobody's perfect, but I've always been in the batter's

box and I've always been swinging and I show up. That's who I am. And that's who I'm going to continue to be until I can't do it anymore. Well, brother, thank you for not hitting me in the eye with their key that day. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for me. Thank you for me. And always being there for me, man, when the sky is standing above me, make sure it doesn't crash down on me. I love you, man. I appreciate you. Love you, partner. Howie Long, the Embrakeable podcast. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter 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 IHeart 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics

from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. guests.