Jamarcus Russell Tells All: The NFL's 1st Pick to the Biggest Bust in History?

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find From the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft to never making another NFL roster 3 years later, Jamarcus Russell joins The Pivot to finally tell his side of the story about what really went on to cause such a short NFL career for the quarterback who had so much potential. This conversation covers everything with emotion filled losses, tension filled frustrations and honest reflection of one of the most disappointing stories in the sport's history. Jamarcus, the highly successful LSU alumni and MVP of the 2007 Sugar Bowl, shares the Tiger ties with Ryan and reached out because he felt after all these years, it was time to answer many of the stories that shadowed his career and ultimately led to his downfall. Giving him every opportunity to explain and take accountability for what went on- Ryan, Fred and Channing ask the tough questions to find answers we all want to know. Getting right into it, the guys ask him about substance abuse stories, not watching film, missing team meetings and relationships with coaches and teammates on the Raiders during his years there. Ryan asks Jamarcus if he considers himself the biggest NFL Bust of all time to a response that may come as a surprise but he also makes it clear where he stands financially after getting 35 million guaranteed and addresses rumors of the former quarterback being broke. Not overlooking his ability to play at a high level, Channing asks Jamarcus how his talent led to losing seasons and not a lot of playing time as Jamarcus talks about his regrets, relationship with Al Davis, Nick Saban, Tom Cable, Hue Jackson and others in the organization who he feels played a role in his short NFL career. Reflecting back on a lot of "What Ifs', Jamarcus tells Fred he often wonders what it would have been like and how the course would have changed if Randy Moss was never traded to New England the year he was drafted and dispelling the rumors of his beef with Jeff Garcia and why he never made it on to another NFL roster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  Oh!

• 0:31Fred Taylor?

  Hey! We ready to roll now.

• 0:33Speaker 03

  So, Cap?

• 0:34Fred Taylor?

  Ball time! What up, dawg?

• 0:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm chillin', bro.

• 0:38Fred Taylor?

  Now, you good now?

• 0:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 0:40Fred Taylor?

  We straight?

• 0:41Ryan Clark?

  Hey, man, you don't sit down with nobody.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  No need to. I don't really have much to say. I felt the need to do this, though.

• 0:49Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 0:50Speaker 03

  I watched you guys and, uh... It felt good to me.

• 0:54Fred Taylor?

  I love it, I love it. He say he was a big fan when he was a shorty.

• 0:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 0:59Ryan Clark?

  Oh!

• 0:59Fred Taylor?

  A Freddie T?

• 1:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, man.

• 1:01Ryan Clark?

  You can't be no Freddie T fan, man. Freddie T tore us up in, uh...

• 1:04Speaker 03

  That's when you...

• 1:05Ryan Clark?

  In Jeff Valley.

• 1:06Speaker 03

  That was then, before I got there, but as a kid, yeah.

• 1:08Fred Taylor?

  That's crazy, man.

• 1:09Speaker 03

  Football player, checked him out.

• 1:33Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, man, welcome to the pivot, man. Obviously, uh, we're blessed to have you. Fred been talking about it forever, Chan, uh, as well. For all the people, uh, that are watching, uh, subscribe YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Uh, make sure you like, too. Uh, this is gonna be an epic episode. Shout out to Happy Dad, I'ma go and open one up. You know what I'm saying? I'll pull this one up later on. Shout out to our folks. Um, I think, I think so many people, Jamarcus, um...

• 2:05Ryan Clark?

  You know, for y'all who don't know, this is Jamarcus Russell, uh, number one overall draft pick. For so many people, they want to start there. I want to start before that, though. I want to start before that. Like, I, I, I remember Notre Dame, Sugar Bowl, and who you were, but tell me a little bit about who the kid from Alabama was, the, the, the number one recruit, the, the big time football player. What was his family like? What was his family like?

• 2:34Speaker 03

  Uh, growing up, y'all had a, uh, my family was cool, but seven people in the house, you know, I was, um, the first grandson. So I was like my grandmother's baby child. So I got that treatment. As far as, uh, a younger brother, like, my mom was always working, so I was always home with my grandmother or my uncles, you know, so she always took, you know, great care of me. Like I say, she always took me places with her. My mom would work, I'd never be at home, I was always with my grandmother. She used to, uh, be in the booster club at the football, at the school, so I've been there a lot. And then the name of Williamson just being where all my family went, you know, it was like, she kind of got my juices flowing at a young age.

• 3:19Speaker 03

  Then, you know, the band. I don't know, when you growing up, everybody wanted to be in a band, at least act like it, you know? But, um, that was part of it. Now, I got a great family.

• 3:29Ryan Clark?

  You become the star, which you were. You know, you don't get to LSU, uh, without being that. And you talk about, you know, having a, a great family and, and a support system and all of those things. When you stepped on campus at LSU, how did you know that it was going to turn out to what it ended up being for you?

• 3:49Speaker 03

  I, I, I didn't have a clue, bro. I was just, um, a young kid that, that loved the game and, um, really got a chance to, um, get away from home. You know, growing up out of the neighborhood, the thing is to go to college. No matter how you get there, but fortunately, my thing was football. You know, it wasn't basketball.

• 4:09Speaker 03

  I played a little basketball, had a few scholarships on the line, but football the one where the most recognition came. So that's what we moved towards. My senior year, mom didn't let me play basketball because I had a scholarship, you know.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  But it was crazy, bro. It was kind of, everything happened, happened so fast. And you know, I was always a child that was able to play, so it was new to me. Everything that happened, even going to the NFL, it happened so fast. It was new to me. Like when I got to LSU, Dwayne Bowe, Buster Davis, the guys that was coming. And Jimbo Fisher, he recruited me.

• 4:47Speaker 04

  Right.

• 4:48Speaker 03

  Well, first, Coach Muscham recruited me. By me playing quarterback, Jimbo took over. If I'm gonna be with him every day, he need to know me, we need to have a conversation, we need to talk. So that's how that took on. But the guys that was coming, I knew they were coming, they were receivers, running backs. They just said, if we have you to add to this, we can do a little bit. So that's, that's what I chose. It was two hours away from them. Two and a half hours.

• 5:16Fred Taylor?

  Why LSU? Like, why LSU?

• 5:18Ryan Clark?

  I don't really like the disrespectful way in which you said that. Why not LSU?

• 5:24Fred Taylor?

  There you go. I need to know. I mean.

• 5:26Speaker 03

  Like I said, the guys, they were coming, they were coming. And the people that were already there. Like growing up, Alabama and Auburn, I never really liked it. Alabama, I just liked some of the players. I liked Auburn over Alabama. But I never wanted to go to college there. I never did.

• 5:45Channing Crowder?

  Did you know what you was gonna do at LSU? Did you ever, like, when you was, K C was coming up and I wasn't, I wasn't there. I wasn't there, I ain't lie, I don't know your Alabama career and all that. But did you know what you was gonna do at LSU? Because all of us watched you flourish. Yeah.

• 6:01Speaker 03

  I didn't have a clue, bro. I started, I started out on scout team. I was redshirt. We had a fifth year senior and Marcus Rander was a fourth year guy, Matt Mark, the other guy. So crazy, quick story. First, first day there, Matt Mark and I was roommates. Never told nobody this ever in my life, this crazy, bro. You know, he the starting quarterback, so I was like, Matt, you gonna help me out? You know, show me what's going on, you know, this and that? He said, nah, bro, you got a playbook, you gonna see what's going on, so.

• 6:33Channing Crowder?

  So you learned it yourself?

• 6:36Speaker 03

  If I'm lying, I'm flying, I'm sitting down. But that was like, like, this, this the real deal.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  You had to get it on your own. And I say Marcus Randle, he was a good guy, bro. Marcus Randle took me on his wing and showed me the ropes. Because Nick, oh, man, that was crazy for me, just from high school to college. But Nick Saban, Nick Saban, he's a, man, he's, that's why he's great today.

• 7:03Channing Crowder?

  What was it like being his quarterback?

• 7:05Speaker 03

  Nick was very militant. You know, he's very militant. He's strategic, he's, he's gonna get in your ass, I can say that. Because he know what you can do. He knows that you can do it, so when you don't show up, that's when it turns out bad, bro.

• 7:23Channing Crowder?

  And to look back, because I played for Nick, Nick drafted me, oh, five. When he got, first year with the Dolphins, bro, he drafted me third round. Ronnie Brown, Matt Ross, myself, he drafted us. And he drafted dudes that he played, that played against him. And he respected off the field. And I believe he could have been a good coach in the NFL, but he had to always be in charge. That militant stuff, because I done seen Jason Taylor cuss his ass out, Zach Thomas cuss his ass out.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  Those guys been there for a while.

• 7:52Channing Crowder?

  And they OGs. So do you, could you see playing with Nick Saban? Can you see that he could not make it in the league? Because obviously, he can't.

• 8:02Speaker 03

  He, like you say, control. He feel like he can control the situation, he win. If he can't, ain't no need of dealing with it, it's out of my control. Why would I want to deal with something that I can't control? If that's the type of person I am. If I know everything it takes to for us to win for the summer workout, even the 26 110s, man, the 180s in the spring. You know, if I can get it down to a science on how I do this, then if I can't control all this, why do I need to do it?

• 8:33Fred Taylor?

  It's been some controversy following Nick lately with some comments and I don't want to talk about them too much. But, you know, he seems that he's the type of coach that he wants to be able to coach you, but he also wants to win by any means necessary, right? Like, they say if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, or do business as business is being done. Along those lines, right?

• 8:54Speaker 03

  Right on.

• 8:55Fred Taylor?

  I, I, I heard a story, it's a gang of stories out there about you, Big Dog, but I'm, I'm here to, you're here for a reason.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  We could talk about it.

• 9:01Fred Taylor?

  100%.

• 9:02Speaker 03

  We could talk about it.

• 9:03Fred Taylor?

  You were hurt during college and you went to class and you had your styrofoam cup.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  Most definitely.

• 9:11Fred Taylor?

  And you had your painkiller, as most people might think that they're Tylenol or this or that, but you had your drink, your painkiller. Story got back to coach and the, and the coaches. And you said they handle business, they didn't get out of everywhere, but they handle business. And again, by any means necessary, we gonna win, we gonna handle it in-house so we can win. Is there any validity to that story?

• 9:35Speaker 03

  There's a lot of truth to it. Well, actually, I had, we had a banquet. I, I had a swing, I had separated my shoulder in the championship game. And I went to the banquet, I didn't want to wear my suit with my sling on, so I, I took it off that, that night. And that was a mistake.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Man, I thought she was hurt so bad all night and I said, I didn't, I didn't want to take the pills because I'm not a, I'm not a pill guy. My mom was there, I told her I'd be back. I went through the neighborhood in Baton Rouge, you know. Before, someone told, it had been a few days in between, so like I say, it had, they had to catch on or whoever. But once, they called me in for a urine sample, I told them, hey, I had been drinking, you know, cough syrup, you know, due to my issue. We gonna find out, I'm just letting you know before you go. And once, it happened.

• 10:28Speaker 03

  Actually, Les Miles was the coach at the time. I was going home for, for Christmas, for the break, driving home, got a phone call. Need to see you. Like, damn.

• 10:39Speaker 03

  This shit finna work hard.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  Like say the syrup thing came out. I, um, my first time, like I say, trying it. It wasn't on intentions. It was by mistake. At the park. And shit, the grownups, they be out there weekly, because the kids, you know, park ball. Went in the cooler and, you know, pineapple fango.

• 11:06Speaker 03

  Like, damn. After a while, I start, I start feeling a certain way. And the guy that, that I know, like my uncle to me. He, um, got me a room. And got me situated, because he knew what was going on. But like I say, later on, I didn't, I didn't drink that again until, like, till college. You know what I'm saying? Because I, it gonna make you sleepy, it ain't even let you feel nothing. I knew that. I didn't, I don't like Laura Tab and all that, I ain't never, you know, got down like that. But, um, as far as the drink thing. Shit, that was, that was my thing. You know, that was me.

• 11:41Ryan Clark?

  Do you feel like that in any way hindered who you were supposed to be? Like, how, how, how did that affect you from the sense of the things you were able to accomplish? Because if you did it in college, I mean, you the best quarterback in football.

• 11:57Speaker 03

  When it come to football.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  In high school, I had a teammate that drank some gin or some shit before the game. Like, he go out and make twenty, thirty titles. Like, this is no bullshit.

• 12:11Ryan Clark?

  Like him?

• 12:12Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  That what you did, bro?

• 12:14Channing Crowder?

  Bro, I told the story a number of times. Saturday night before a game.

• 12:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:18Channing Crowder?

  Down here in Miami, or whenever we went somewhere else. Uh, you said, uh, Marshawn?

• 12:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:23Channing Crowder?

  Sean, watching that, when Sean was in Buffalo, we, we, our land, me and Sean would go across the border to Toronto. Drink, party, be back to the hotel, go out there and steal ball. And Sean would do his thing, I'd do my thing, but we just, we having a good time, we enjoying it.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  That's another thing, I, I never, let's clear this up, two chain, I know you gonna see this, titty boy.

• 12:43Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:44Speaker 03

  I never hung out the night before no game, ever.

• 12:47Ryan Clark?

  That's a story. Now, I heard that story too. I was gonna ask you about it.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  Ever, never. This shit he got on TV and talked about, he got some truth to it. And he talking about the, yeah, the drink again. Like, here's my buddy. My buddy like drink. When I show up, I'ma have my buddy what he like. It could have been some cocaine. It could have been some weed. It could have been some whatever. My buddy like it. When we go party, make sure my buddy okay.

• 13:10Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  Same as you. You my buddy, whatever. I'ma make sure you cool.

• 13:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:14Speaker 03

  And that's just how it was. He was speaking on some shit he saw.

• 13:18Speaker 03

  Not some shit that happened between him and I. And I didn't appreciate that at all. Period. Still don't. I'm not an entertainer. Wasn't an entertainer. I'm not no rapper, none of that shit. I play football to feed my family. Football is much different from your world. Know what I'm saying? I had went to jail for this shit. And now I hear you here talking like, glowing in the fire like it's cool, like you doing your world. I ain't get down with that, period.

• 13:40Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I was gonna ask you, man. I know, um, it's a ton of rumors out there and

• 13:45Speaker 03

  They talk about it.

• 13:45Fred Taylor?

  I don't speak on them, because I don't know. I just hear what people say, right? Would that be the one particular rumor that just drive you crazy?

• 13:54Speaker 03

  Don't nothing drive me crazy, bro. God been good to me.

• 13:57Fred Taylor?

  Because you haven't said anything. So is there any one particular

• 14:01Speaker 03

  Why I say something?

• 14:02Fred Taylor?

  That you would address?

• 14:03Speaker 03

  I ain't tripping on nothing.

• 14:04Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 14:05Ryan Clark?

  Like you say you aren't tripping, and like we've talked a lot recently, you know, and I know there is so much going on. But like, what I wanna dive into is like some of the things you went through as well, you know, and in reading the story, you know, in The Athletic and, you know, seeing how close you were to your uncles. And your pro day, which 100% was epic. You know what I'm saying? Like, this was a pro day that was talked about more than any pro day there's ever been. To this day, when people speak about those days, you know, they always say that like this, that this pro day is like Jamarcus Russell's pro day.

• 14:46Ryan Clark?

  But to speak to the adversity in your life, like, you get a call shortly after that your Uncle Marcus is dealing with something.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  I was there. We was on, it was the very next day after the pro day, we, um, went to New Orleans.

• 15:00Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  To get the Man in the War. So, um, like that night, I told Uncle, like, let's go hang out. He was like, nah, I'ma chill with my wife, you know. So I was like, damn, I ain't got something, must be wrong, you know, cuz she, we, let's go. The next morning, wake up, my mom, she beating on the door. And I brought some jeans, you know.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  So I knew it was serious. She was like, uh, it marks someone, Uncle Mark. Like, that's where I get my name from. I'm Joe Marcus, he Marcus. Before my mom had me, like, he the, he the little brother, so she the half him, you know, babysitting him, you know, so. I go down, and he, um, he on the floor. He ain't moving, he unresponsive, the family, they just, man, they. They crying and shit.

• 15:48Speaker 03

  So it's like, what's wrong with him, like, you know, is he dead or some shit, like, what's up, did y'all call the paramedics? He started, his tongue started to move. Kind of find out, he had been fastening to stop drinking. Or whatever, but he was dehydrated, hadn't been drinking the right fluids, he just wasn't drinking none, I guess. But, um, when he got up, he was kind of like, in the air, like, I rebuke you, Satan, I, like. So I really tripped out, and I was like, okay, it's some spiritual stuff, you know.

• 16:24Speaker 03

  But after a while, he looking at us like, he don't know who the hell we are.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  Like.

• 16:32Speaker 03

  And so I smiled. I was saying like, oh, he okay then.

• 16:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, devil, they said you was gonna smile at me. Talking to you? Damn, this your nephew, this me.

• 16:45Speaker 03

  He was there, they kept it up. Then the police come in. And, um, New Orleans police are, are very wild, you know, so I was kind of in my mind, like, prepared for. To die, maybe, wanna say? Cuz I won't let him harm him. He didn't do anything wrong, we call you guys, whatever.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  But he was shaking the whole time, bro, and like this is the guy who started me to play in football, you know, so this was like a hard situation for him. Oh, he never made it to the draft. Like, I had fifty family members at the draft, except for him. Like, how that feel? Like, this ain't, it's supposed to be good, it's supposed to be the best thing smoking for you.

• 17:27Speaker 03

  But on a lot of my pictures, I wasn't really smiling. I didn't feel the smile, smiling in me, you know. Showed him a picture of my house after I moved from Oakland. Man, this was where he was gonna stay at. He supposed to came move with me, came come stay with me. But unfortunately, he didn't, he didn't, he didn't get a chance to make it because of that situation. And today, we just went through it again like a year ago. I almost lost him. After Thanksgiving, you know, we had dinner, whatever, and I just saw him up and running like us, you know.

• 18:03Speaker 03

  A week later, mom called me, needed to get up, take your uncle to the hospital. Alright, what time? Shit, well, I gotta take him. He, he, what's up? He ain't been able to walk. I'm like, what you mean? Get to the bedroom, bro, his eyes sunk in his shit, like he lost so much weight just in the bed. So I'm like, hey, uncle, I'm here to pick you up. They already told me can't get up, so I'm trying him. Get up, get yourself together.

• 18:32Speaker 03

  So shit, he gonna get up, he, he can't even lift himself up, bro, like. So I'm gonna grab your clothes. No, no, don't go on that. I'm like, bro, you chilling, man, let me get your clothes. No, bro. Man, I opened the damn closet, bro, I seen like a hundred, I ain't gonna say it was a hundred then, cause I didn't know how, how many there was then. But when I opened the closet, bro, the whole floor, this shit lined up like it come from, from the store or something. Like, he set them one by one, lined them up. But when I ended up counting, I cleaned out his room. It was a hundred and sixty-one bottles of, of wine. Cause at the time, then he had stopped drinking for years, like, years. Then my uncle know, him pass, and when they pass, it's like...

• 19:11Speaker 03

  Who else he got like, you know, there was his older brother. And two his older brother, but like as far as my grandfather, my grandfather passed when he was three. So he never had a life with him. So he looked at his older brother as his father. So once he died, you know, it brought upon more, more pain to him. Um, he end up um, having a daughter, you know, and um. Yeah, more stuff start coming on him. So this is like, this is like a year ago. And now he uh, he up and running, bro.

• 19:43Channing Crowder?

  Damn.

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Up and running, bro. Real good.

• 19:46Channing Crowder?

  Bruh, that substance abuse thing and like freely talking about the stories, that's something that here, you know. Like we were talking before, we was like that BSing before about just the stories that come out about you and that substance abuse. And now hearing about your uncle that you, you named after.

• 20:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:01Channing Crowder?

  Like that substance abuse thing, some people say that's what ended your career. Can you speak on that? Because a lot of people say, you know what I'm saying, like the syrup and all that, the party.

• 20:12Speaker 03

  What ended my career, I feel, bro. And I did, I'm just being honest as I can. This is my point of this, this from me.

• 20:20Speaker 03

  Being at LSU, bro. It showed um, a lot of family. My coach, he wanted to coach me.

• 20:31Speaker 03

  He wanted me to do well. He wanted me to succeed. And others around me as well, too. In Oakland, I didn't feel that, bro. My first year, my first coach, Coach uh, Flip, Coach Knapp. Those guys, I felt wanted me to succeed. Every Tuesday, we supposed to be off, we on the field going over the plays, we watching film, we doing this, doing that. Uh, Monday, we doing the same thing, you know, weekly. After we got a coaching switch, everything switched.

• 21:06Speaker 03

  I've been going about the same way. You know.

• 21:10Speaker 03

  They talk about a film thing once, like. Bro, I watch film, but I ain't the type going there and watch five hours of film. I ain't never been that type of player. I go out there and play football, bro. Make plays, bro. I mean, I can't help. The older quarterback might go in there and watch ten hours.

• 21:29Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 21:29Speaker 03

  But guess what? He might not be shit on the field.

• 21:32Channing Crowder?

  Right. It's real. Yeah.

• 21:34Speaker 03

  Period.

• 21:37Speaker 03

  That ain't never been me, bro. But I got a flex for that.

• 21:40Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, they did the switcheroo down in Jacksonville.

• 21:42Ryan Clark?

  The switcheroo thing, though, that Fred brings up.

• 21:45Speaker 03

  Say it again?

• 21:45Ryan Clark?

  The story about giving you a DVD

• 21:49Speaker 03

  Okay, so.

• 21:50Ryan Clark?

  that wasn't filmed and then you coming in and all of those things. Is that a true story?

• 21:56Speaker 03

  Bro, guess what? That could be one up on me, bro. Check it out. My coach, if we coming in, and this is what we doing. We coming in watching film, bro. The other two quarter, we all watching film. This is what we do. So after some fire shit go on, a few weeks later, I come in. My shit the only one on the table, like. Y'all already been mean before. I got here or something like, where y'all shit at? So every day I come in, my shit just be thrown across the table. So at that point of time, and my life, what was taking place, shit, I might not watch it. But when he asked me a question about it, hey, yeah, it was cool. Whatever, let's go, get on with it. But why would you play a fucking game with my life? Why would you fuck me over like that, bullshit me? You supposed to be teaching me so we can get better, man. Like, what's up?

• 22:41Speaker 03

  Like, I never, you know, got that. And LSU wouldn't have done no shit like that, like, for what? Why would we, why would we even play that? You know? And like I say, if it is, so be it.

• 22:54Fred Taylor?

  Had they approached you prior to that, that situation?

• 22:59Speaker 03

  No.

• 22:59Fred Taylor?

  Like questioning your, you know, your work ethic, your habits?

• 23:03Speaker 03

  On Thursdays too, man, I used to go in the head coach office, bro. We just go good tape, bad tape. Like, we used to do this, like, it ain't nothing like. That's what I say, after a certain, certain time, everything switched.

• 23:12Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  The head coach went on TV and said I was the worst thing that ever happened to the Oakland Raiders.

• 23:16Ryan Clark?

  That was Tom Cable.

• 23:17Speaker 03

  But before that, I didn't never knew this man. Guess they asked me, they told me about him beating on women. I wouldn't have stuck my neck out for this guy. He could have done it. This is my coach, I'm finna take up for him. You know, fuck what he done, I know, though, that ain't my business. Just for anything, that's not my business. But when you go to doing that, bro, like, it's crazy to me. Then he wanna have everybody sign papers to come see him one on one. After he been talking all this shit, doing crazy stuff. Like, I didn't sign my name, bro. I signed these nuts on there, cursing.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  Cause I knew, bro, if I would've seen him one on one in the office behind closed doors, bro, like the type per- bro, come on, bro, anyone that lasted, bro. And he was already doing whole shit, bro. I seen him in the hallway.

• 24:07Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch. In Bev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Tripped him up, bro, on my mind, bro. The guy ain't even looked back to see what he tripped up on. And he just kept walking. So I knew what type of guy he was, so why would I even go put some more evidence into that, bro? I just felt like the money came into play, bro. I was young, you know? It is so much shit, bro. Like, I held out. Bro, I ain't held out, bro. Why would I hold out, bro? I'm trying to play fucking football, bro. Y'all tell me what y'all gonna pay us, bro, then we, you know how it go, bro. But guess what? This when the business shit start coming out, I start finding out about the business side of it. A TV check. Every team get a TV check, three, four hundred million.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  So my contract wasn't being negotiated up until the first week of the season. That ain't my fault. I'd have been at every mandatory mini camp, every whatever. I've been there, I ain't missed a day. So why would I miss a day now? They called us immediately, gave us more money than they were supposed to give us in the beginning.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  Mario Williams. Supposed to gave away. Seven million dollars so he can be the first pick. Everybody and their mama knew Reggie Bush supposed to been the first pick of the draft, bro. I didn't know none of that. So. Whatever his contract was, he made giving away the seven million, right? So I'm coming up next year. They try to base my contract upon. What he gave away with the seven million, not what he's supposed to be in with the seven million. So when my agents say, J-Rock, this is supposed to be this. Okay, cool. That was just supposed to be. But when they get their money for their TV check. They didn't question nothing. They wrote us a check, bro. And that was that.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  How would I know about some TV shit? I don't know nothing about none of that. I'm a rookie. I ain't been in this game but thirty days.

• 26:35Channing Crowder?

  I want to ask you about that because that's the thing. That's the thing. A lot of people don't take into to to perspective. You a young, you a young quarterback, first pick, first round coming out of LSU.

• 26:46Speaker 03

  This shit new to me, bro.

• 26:47Channing Crowder?

  Did your thing, bro. We all watched you.

• 26:48Speaker 03

  It's new, bro.

• 26:49Channing Crowder?

  When did you start figuring out the business side of it? Because you just said that twice.

• 26:54Speaker 03

  When I was gone, when I was out the league, bro.

• 26:56Channing Crowder?

  Bro, when you was out the league?

• 26:58Speaker 03

  Bro.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  You, the business side of it, like, it, I guess it wasn't really hit me because I'm here Oakland Raiders. I just left LSU for so many, I got a contract for six years. Okay, the good go with the bad. She throw interception, okay, cool. That's what we work on. You might throw two, three of them, bitch. But get what? The coach, hey, but it know that stuff happen, whoo, whoo, let's go to it. But it wasn't like that. This man trying to play his, his quarterback. This man brought a guy, two guys that'll play with him.

• 27:29Speaker 03

  You thought I'm gonna bring him out, but it just somewhere I know I can get him in the game and not finna play him?

• 27:32Channing Crowder?

  Who you talking about? You said that this guy brought two guys?

• 27:35Speaker 03

  I don't even like to say their names, bro. But. He brought two of his guys from Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he'd already coached these guys.

• 27:44Speaker 03

  So he was already driving me from the get-go, bro. That's how I felt. You know what I'm saying? I have no problem with skin color. You know what I'm saying? But. I'm not finna let you bullshit me no matter, no matter your skin color, whatever, white, black, green, orange, like, come on, bro. And there were some things that was done that. I didn't agree with.

• 28:05Speaker 03

  I didn't like, but I'm a youngster, bro. I'm moving forward. Like, I don't know what's going on in this building. I don't know who with me, I don't know who against me. Like, that shit was lonely, bro. It ain't like it was for college. Then like I say, all my family start dying and shit, so who I'm looking to now? Ain't nobody on the team come to with me. But Gerard Warren, big money. Money. That's my man. Then guess what? Yeah, you out here too. So shit, I'm like, you know, like I said, I feel lonely, bro, for real.

• 28:38Fred Taylor?

  You speaking on feeling lonely. And a lot of times, if you don't have the right support staff, the right support system in place. How you feel like your circle was then?

• 28:50Speaker 03

  We was young, bro. My brother from school. Like I said, my uncle couldn't come, so I had one of my uncles, my brother from school. We wasn't on no crazy shit like that, bro. I wasn't doing no hanging out, bro. I wasn't doing no shit like that, bro. Like I said, I ain't never done that, bro. I'm in California, bro. Folks just gave you all this money. I don't know all these folk out here, bro. I got a bullseye on me, man. I'm from the hood, homie. Well, rub your ass, set you up to kill you, homie. I ain't for all that play shit, man. I'm trying to chill, relax, what we doing tomorrow? And trying to win some football game. Fortunately, I won't win it. But I was dealt the bullshit hand. I'm at practice, bro. These folk can't catch a reverse, bro. Six plays straight, homie. But you want to go downfield and catch a ninety yard pass? How? He can't fucking catch a fucking,

• 29:35Speaker 03

  you know what I'm saying? Come on.

• 29:36Ryan Clark?

  When you got there and you talked about, you know, feeling supported in the organization, you know, and I love what you keep saying about being at LSU. People wanted to see you win. People wanted to see you succeed. And I think that's, that's all we ever want, right? We want to be supported. Did you feel like when the Raiders drafted you number one overall, they were like, that's our guy? Everybody in the building felt like they wanted Jamarcus Russell.

• 30:04Speaker 03

  No, I didn't feel it at all.

• 30:07Ryan Clark?

  What was it like to you?

• 30:09Speaker 03

  I just told you, bro, it was going in that building every day, bro. It was like, what's gonna happen today? Like, bro, I was getting fined for crazy shit, bro. I didn't know they had my weight set at a certain weight, bro.

• 30:22Speaker 03

  So when I get my check, yeah, I'm 10,000 per pound. But I might be, my shit might be set at 265, might be 276, 277. You do the math. Damn, coach, you wanna go, oh, this, oh, this ain't nothing too much. I'm like, what you mean? Like, certain shit. Oh, get to the, oh, the dinner table before the game. I'm one of the last person, I walk in with the coach. Okay, cool. Tuesday come, my shit say, oh, you missed the check out for dinner. Crazy shit, bro, like, they were trying to find ways to get paper back, I thought. And then motherfucker said, I owed the money. Why would I owe money on a contract? I signed a contract. That's another thing crazy. The Oakland Raiders did a jive contract, bro. I never spoke upon this in my life, bro.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Agent call, say, hey, you know, you got a contract taking less money.

• 31:11Speaker 03

  What you mean?

• 31:15Speaker 03

  I had no representation there, like, nobody was there with me. So when I sit down and discuss a contract.

• 31:21Speaker 03

  But this what they saying, they say, you know, less money? Nah, bro, we gotta see about that, bro. So the phone call start being made. We finna go to court.

• 31:33Speaker 03

  Fit? I fly to San Francisco and everything. The morning of court, we get a phone call, Jamarcus, no need for you to show what you want.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  I want what you owe me, let me get out the way.

• 31:48Ryan Clark?

  So here's my question, and, you know, I'm big bro. We went to the same school, you know, and I'm listening to you talk about all the things around you that weren't in place to allow you to succeed to your fullest potential. When you sit back and think about it, what is Jamarcus Russell's culpability? What are your responsibilities? What is the accountability you have to hold on yourself as to why you didn't fulfill the potential God blessed you with?

• 32:18Speaker 03

  Everything that went wrong, like if I could have done better, like say, if it was to watch more film to make my game better, if it was to be in better shape, or whatever it may have been, like, I take fault in it. I ain't... Let's get this straight home. I ain't asking for no pity from nobody, under no circumstance. What happened, happened. You heard? Let's move on. Football don't last forever. It gave me a great start on life, man. I ain't mad at nothing or nobody. I don't have no reason to be. Shit, Al Davis blessed me, man. And guess where I got some good friends? And some good family members. I'mma ride this thing till the wheels fall off.

• 32:54Ryan Clark?

  What lessons have you learned? From the NFL and everything that's happened from in your playing days, since you've been retired, up to this very point? Lessons? From 07, no, it was 07 to now. Whatever you learned?

• 33:09Speaker 03

  Keep your shit tight. Stuff that I didn't do right, now, I can give it to the youngsters, you know?

• 33:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  That's what I enjoy doing. Like it haven't been really a lesson for me, just stuff that I... I was a young kid, bro. 21 years old, bro. It was stuff I was learning. I was learning to be a professional athlete. I was learning to be a grown man. I was learning all this shit, bro. I was learning all this stuff. Like, after that shit ended,

• 33:44Speaker 03

  I learned quicker because I had more time to. I had, like, bro, I ain't really had time to really

• 33:52Speaker 03

  grieve for my family, bro. I really wasn't about to go to Oakland on the 28th of July, 2009.

• 34:00Speaker 03

  I just lost a fat bro, like, that was really, that really fucked me up. So you lost your uncles around that time, right? Yeah, I lost, uh, Ray, uh, what was it, April 17th, 2009, we were in training. And I was, uh, me and my mom, we were in Oregon, going to get my cleats and stuff made for the next year. And I got a phone call that night. And my Uncle Mike died, like, that, he died out of nowhere, though. Like, my Uncle Ray had a heart defibrillator, so we kinda, we didn't know. But we know he had a problem with his heart. But Uncle Mike, like, it was like, you know, it came out of nowhere, bro, so it was kinda like, then shit wasn't going right, you know what I mean? So it kinda like, took a toll on me. As a young kid, I, I look back on it now, it's like, I was reaching out for help.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  In those memes, "We gotta get better, we gotta do this," shit, "Help me get better." Like, "How, how, how, how the fuck I get better? Help me." Like, the shit y'all doing right now, it ain't helped me none whatsoever. You know, I only do so much, like, I only know so much right now. Like, this is my second, third year. My first year, I only played, everybody was here, y'all, Cinemawake, Dante Coldpepper, you know, Josh McCarron, like, y'all send these guys away, these vets. Goddamn, uh, Jeff Garcia, y'all send these guys away, they vets. 14, 15 years in the league, I can learn from these guys. But it, it ain't go that way.

• 35:24Channing Crowder?

  Jay, that circle, man, you, you talk about your circle, Fred asked about your personal circle. But the NFL circle, we even asked, I've asked a number of people on this show, like, you believe the NFL supported you enough as the number one pick in the first round?

• 35:41Speaker 03

  To do what?

• 35:43Channing Crowder?

  To succeed.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  No.

• 35:45Channing Crowder?

  Like, to be what everybody in the world, including myself, bro, I'll be honest,

• 35:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:50Channing Crowder?

  thought you was gonna be.

• 35:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  I don't think it went that way. To how the day game go, how they setting everything up to make this guy be our guy? We wanna make this guy win, we wanna make this for this guy, like, no, no way possible. I didn't see it. Found out later that these people didn't even wanna draft me.

• 36:09Channing Crowder?

  The Raiders?

• 36:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:12Speaker 03

  So I kinda felt like, damn, maybe that's why all the jibness went on.

• 36:16Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  But I don't know, who to say.

• 36:20Channing Crowder?

  And, and you're like, he asked you about accountability. And like, I, I like, I was just talking about, I was talking about, like, on this show, I was the one that fucked off the most. And I say it in that perfect way, fucked off the most.

• 36:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:32Channing Crowder?

  I was the one partying, I was the one sliding, I'm still the one that parties and slides. But, do you think there's something in you? Because this, we asked Tyson, we had Tyson on, and Tyson was on burning, taking shrooms, he was taking, uh, whoa, he threw, he threw Freddie some, some chocolate with shrooms in it. Freddie, Freddie, Freddie had it.

• 36:53Speaker 03

  I pumped fake them, I ain't fake them.

• 36:56Channing Crowder?

  Hey Freddie, sticking between his legs like this.

• 36:58Speaker 03

  Everybody keep asking, you took them shrooms, man, I wish I would've taken some shrooms with Mike. I pumped fake them. Do them shits in the garbage like Steph Curry.

• 37:08Channing Crowder?

  But with that,

• 37:10Channing Crowder?

  Jay, you think you was running from anything? With the, with the drink? With the partying? With the messing off? With the videos we saw you with the, with the fur coats on in Oakland, the motherf- some of my, you don't need to wear a fur coat in Oakland. Were you running, were you running from anything?

• 37:24Speaker 03

  Actually, that was a, a GQ magazine shoot, out at the airport.

• 37:28Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  With the full length.

• 37:30Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  That was a GQ magazine shoot.

• 37:32Channing Crowder?

  So that, they, they all, that was twisted.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  Man, I'm telling you.

• 37:36Channing Crowder?

  But, but, but my question, bro, do you think you was running from something with anything? That, the stories, the, the, uh, the syrup, the drinking, the partying? Were you running from something, were you chasing? Cause you just said, you don't believe as if Oakland even wanted you there.

• 37:52Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't say running from something, I, I never ran from nothing. You feel?

• 37:59Speaker 03

  Like, see, you say you hung out and get down, shit, that, I, I didn't go out and do all the partying and hang out at the clubs and this and that, I, I ain't do that. You know what I'm saying, so it was like, if some shit was really said like that, it was some shit to be said to tarnish what I had going on. They even said my dad was spending like, um, weed putting up to the facility. My dad ain't smoke weed, we didn't smoke weed till we, till I got released, man. You feel me, so it was like so much craziness, like in, in, in between and the midst of what was happening. Tell you a story, bro, our last game, we was playing on, on the Baltimore Ravens. I had prayed to God, to God, just to keep me safe and, and unharmed, just to get me out of here.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  I really don't wanna play for this team no more. I was warming up on the field, cause I had went to Al Davis, bro, and asked him, just like, I don't, told him, I don't feel like this guy is for me. I don't feel like he trying to get me any better, I don't feel like he's trying to help me. But at the time, he was like, he didn't have nobody to take the job, you know? And he wish he was, um, able to be out there with me like his earlier days in his life and his career. And he apologized, and, um, just told me to, see if you can tough it out. So it bring me to this game. Knew the coach, but like I say, if you're not with my team, bro, I ain't no conversation for you, bro. I'm with my team. So the guy warming up, he come up to me, take out my headphones, like, "Bro, how you doing?"

• 39:27Speaker 03

  Like, "I'm all right, what's that?" Real sharp with him, "I don't know you, bro." "What's up?" "Man, I'm good, I'm trying to get me a leg side." "Why you ain't playing, bro?" "Come on, bro, you really gonna ask me this?" "I don't know, bro, right now, I don't wanna be bothered." But now, you know, um, me and the old man, we good friends, I've been talking to him a bit. And, um, you never know, you might start seeing a lot more of me. Like, "Yeah, all right." So he left. By the time he get to the sideline, he turn around and say, "Hey, whatever you had in mind, you can cancel that shit, your ass gonna play today." Like, "Damn." God showing me, you can't tell me, "I got you here, so how you gonna want out?"

• 40:10Speaker 03

  You gonna play today. And at this particular time, before this, we had an incident where when our quarterback got hurt and come in a game and we did alright, but we like I said, shit, we ain't winning, so it didn't matter. Tom Cable asked, see me the next morning, watching film, we leaving out. It's crazy that we bumped to each other. He was like, what's going on? How you felt about the last game? I'm like, shit, what made you ask me that? You never asked me that, like, and it was crazy because at the time I had felt like quitting. We was playing against the Redskins. Like I'd never been hit that much in a half, like more than a game. I just felt like I was out there by myself or some shit, so he was like, well, that ain't my problem.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  My problem is who gonna start tomorrow? I'm like, man, you the head coach, you know, I'm sure you'll make the right decision for the team, you know? I'm a team player, what they didn't know. If any kind of way you can help us win, bro, I'm with you. I'm a good team. I ain't never seen, they don't really know who I am. They just come at me just for what they see me as, you know? So the guy ended up starting, but he ended up getting hurt that game. Coming in the game, we win. Following game, come to find out this guy played for the Cleveland Browns, but never got a chance to start when he made the starting quarterback job.

• 41:36Speaker 03

  On the way to the team that they was playing against, the guy got traded. So when the team go this way, they put him in the car and took him to his new team where they finna play. Well, this is the team you on now. So he never got a chance to start. So I guess the coach wanted to let him start again in this game. Like I say, he watched too many hours of film, first player of the game, pick six. Because the guy used to be our coordinator of defense. Oh, when they do cover three, they drop the end to the field. But this time they dropped it to the short side of the field, right up on our slant, Kevin Wimbley. Yeah. The next week we playing the Ravens, right? So I told you how that went.

• 42:15Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 42:45Speaker 03

  This guy get hit so hard, bro, it's like, I didn't know he was still injured from a few weeks ago. Like, some dis- something wrong with his dis in his back, you know? He dragging his leg like he got shot with a shotgun, throw a touchdown. But I had to get back in the game. Like, we almost won, but we, um, like I said, we lost.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  But, long story short, after that, bro, my dad and I was at the house, um, chilling. That's when that D's nut shit came. Had to go, you know, you had to go in, uh, get your, you know, if you ain't hurt, you ain't got to stay. Get your physical out here, so why am I signing papers to go see you? So, went to the house, my mom. Well, this is what I told them. We the brown call and say, we, um, got the team meeting. I'm like, man, I gotta take my mom to the airport, you know, bullish and lying. I just ain't feel like putting up with it, you feel me? He said, alright. I'm like, shit, what could they say? Some of y'all be here next year, some of y'all won't, you know, we, it was good, but it wasn't good enough. See, that's the end of the year.

• 43:47Speaker 03

  So, I'm at home, me and dad, I'm like, dad, never had been to Vegas, let's go to Vegas. Come on, son, you wanna go out, go cool. Load up, go to Vegas. But before we get there, San Francisco, we missed the last flight out. We didn't go. Seen one of my teammates, chopped it up. Yeah, I'm about to. But I go back to my house. So, the next morning, we go to Vegas. I get there like around 12. Soon as I get there, knocking my door. What's up, bro? Aw, J-Rock, you ain't gonna like this, you ain't gonna like this. What's happening?

• 44:21Speaker 03

  Got me on SportsCenter. Jamarcus Russell skips team meeting to go party in Vegas. So that's how that come about. But who am I to go change that and say something different about it when you already got it on SportsCenter plastered 24 hours a day, weekly? So like, okay, cool, that's what happened, that's what happened. I know the truth. You know the real truth. Like, he want to go party. I just got him sleep. I ain't even did nothing yet. But that's just what they wanted to say, I guess, like, put out there.

• 44:48Channing Crowder?

  You can put something out there and say, no, it's not. You can get better. I don't know that back then if you could have, but right now, like, shit.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  Now, today, yes.

• 44:56Channing Crowder?

  You put out your own narrative and you let people decide.

• 44:58Speaker 03

  Now, today, yes, but then, no.

• 45:00Channing Crowder?

  It wasn't there.

• 45:01Ryan Clark?

  People wasn't gonna listen at that point.

• 45:03Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 45:03Ryan Clark?

  Like, people had this perspective.

• 45:05Speaker 03

  They already had what they, in their mind of me, who they wanted to have, so.

• 45:08Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like.

• 45:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, he did that right up his alley, he did that.

• 45:11Ryan Clark?

  When you look back at everything, Jamarcus, if we just think about it chronologically, obviously, you have this great LSU career. You have a pro day that is unmatched still. You're the number one overall draft pick. You don't play a lot your first season. You start 15 games, I think it was, in your second. Teams five and 10 in those starts. You think of starting nine the next year. And so you have this career where it's different coaches, there's different people around. Al Davis passed. Like, it's all these things that, that go on in your career. When was the point in that time that you thought, you know what? I might actually succeed?

• 45:52Ryan Clark?

  Because someone as talented as you, like, we always make fun of Fred on this show, because like, Fred's the talented one.

• 45:58Speaker 03

  Oh, no, Jay.

• 45:59Ryan Clark?

  Right? Like, just being honest, like, I'm a very normal human. I just am. I was blessed to play the years I was played, but like, Fred, he's tall, and he's, and he's, he was strong, and he's big, and all these things.

• 46:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, I didn't know he was that tall, man.

• 46:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. You're a freaking monster, right? You're a monster. You could throw a ball 70 yards from your knee.

• 46:17Channing Crowder?

  Gosh, remember that video? When he was on your damn knees and threw that bitch 70 yards, we all saw it.

• 46:23Ryan Clark?

  Right, and having that much talent, Jamarcus, and in your career, was there ever a point though, dawg, where you was in the building or on the field and you was like, like, "I'm finna do this. Like, I'm going to be good."

• 46:36Speaker 03

  Not to toot my own shit, but I was pretty good growing up, bro. But it was like nowadays, everybody kids, they going to the league. We was hoping on that shit. Hoping to go to college, hoping, you know what I'm saying? So it wasn't really a point to where I felt like that. I just, you know, wanted to go out and give it a shot. You know, you said I had a great career at LSU, but I also had great teammates, a great team. You have to be, have all that for a quarterback to be what he needs to be, a linebacker. And like I say, it wasn't all that. They had the first pick for a reason, dawg. You know what I'm saying? Like I say, I don't like to be the one to throw guys under the bus, but man, come on, bruh. For real, that shit was way before I got there.

• 47:20Speaker 03

  And I just feel like us as black men that come, become black quarterbacks, they wanted to be like Jesus Christ and save that shit. But I need some shit to save.

• 47:29Fred Taylor?

  So do you feel like you were sort of distracted by the antics from within the organization and that sort of knocked your confidence as you went forward?

• 47:40Speaker 03

  I wanna say it knocked my confidence, but at times, I did feel like, damn, I might be the star. They, they booing or say I am like at that time. Because if you tell a person that they some for so long, shit, they might start to believe it. Because ain't nothing, no good showing. I gotta look on TV all, when we played my teammate, Dwayne Bo, that guy, damn, I still wish I had that motherfucker in me right now. You feel me? Like, come on, bro, you got these guys that supposed to be professional, bro. Like at practice, bro, like, this shit wasn't going good at practice, bro.

• 48:15Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  If you can't catch that motherfucker at practice, you damn sure ain't gonna catch it in the game.

• 48:19Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 48:20Speaker 03

  Or if you can't hold up a double team at practice, you not gonna do it in the game. It wasn't myself. If I don't make this throw at practice, I'm gonna make it in the game.

• 48:27Fred Taylor?

  How much of those frustrations led up to the final straw and what was that?

• 48:34Speaker 03

  I think when my coaches started tripping, bro. When they started to bullshit and I felt like, like really, what am I really here for? If y'all gonna do it this particular way, you know what I'm saying, like? I didn't feel like they were fuck me, bro. Know what I'm saying? The guy that they got there now, they fuck him. It shows. The coach wanted coaching. They went and got a receiver that got now can catch whatever you throw at him. Double team, triple team, you gonna give him the ball. And stuff to go along with it, you feel me? Come on, bro. If you put Tom Brady or Peyton Manning on one of them teams. What, you swear?

• 49:18Speaker 03

  Shit, come on, bro.

• 49:20Channing Crowder?

  He read, he read, he read my mind.

• 49:23Speaker 03

  Come on, bro, I'm just being honest, bro. I love Tom Brady and Peyton Manning to death. I love those, I like, really like their game. And Rodgers, I like their game, bro. But put one of them on just a fly-by-day night ass team.

• 49:36Channing Crowder?

  On the 09 Raiders.

• 49:37Speaker 03

  Come on, he could be shit, he could be everybody.

• 49:39Channing Crowder?

  No, I, bro, I was gonna ask you. Because I, I honestly, I went third round, but there was rumors I was gonna go first round to the, to the, uh, to the Patriots. And I think about that shit sometimes because it was 05, I came out in 05 draft. They won the Super Bowl the year before, they had a 32nd pick. And I look at it and I went third round to the Dolphins, but I look at it. That next six, seven years? They won Super Bowl after Super Bowl.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  How many times?

• 50:08Channing Crowder?

  So I could, I could have multiple rings if I done went to the Patriots.

• 50:12Speaker 03

  He gonna kill it here. They got me taking pictures and shit with Randy Moss jersey. Boy, I finna go play with Randy Moss, this shit finna be crazy. They traded. What the [__] does Tom Brady need with Randy Moss, really?

• 50:28Speaker 03

  For dominating. Bro, like, what he need with him?

• 50:30Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  For dominating.

• 50:31Channing Crowder?

  Well, honestly, that's, that's the 50 touchdown year.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 50:36Channing Crowder?

  That's what, that's what.

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Randy Moss.

• 50:37Channing Crowder?

  As your question, JR, that's the answer.

• 50:39Speaker 03

  You feel me, bro?

• 50:40Channing Crowder?

  You give Randy Moss to Tom Brady, he throw 50 touchdowns.

• 50:43Speaker 03

  You give Micah Jordan, Micah Jordan, what you come up with?

• 50:45Channing Crowder?

  You give Randy Moss to Jamarcus Russell.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  Championship. Alright, man, shit.

• 50:49Channing Crowder?

  You give Randy Moss to Jamarcus Russell.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  Changes career. I don't know, bro. That was, that was what I thought, bro.

• 50:56Channing Crowder?

  Is that something that?

• 50:57Speaker 03

  That what I thought, that was what I thought was gonna happen, bro. They had me, like I say, I was taking pictures and shit in his jersey, like.

• 51:01Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 51:03Speaker 03

  This, this can be. Yeah, week before the draft, y'all ran to go to Big Bad Brady, that's what we call in my hood. Big Bad Brady.

• 51:14Ryan Clark?

  You know, we've talked a lot leading up to this. So I called Hugh Jackson. And so I was like, Hugh, man, you know, I'm gonna have Jamarcus on. Are there any stories about you two? And he goes, he's like, man, that kid could play.

• 51:27Speaker 03

  That's who I was talking about, who I was talking to at the game. That was Hugh Jackson. Hugh Jackson came over to coach me. At least I thought. That's when I thought it was about to change. I got somebody who wanna coach me, bro. Oh, shit. Hey, Coach, I really appreciate you, you know what I'm saying? I learned more from you in these four months you've been here than I learned from this guy. I had a whole season with him. We get a call from Hugh Jackson, hey, son, we about to sign Jason Campbell. Damn, for real? Okay, then. They trying to make me work hard or they finna have somebody I can learn from. Like, that was my mind. That Campbell came in my rip star again, short end shit, you feel him? So, okay, cool, I feel it.

• 52:10Speaker 03

  That's when I knew it was going other ways, you know? I told Hugh Jackson, I don't know how real the tears were, but he shed a few tears, you know, so did I. Cause I thought this would, you know, be it. It ain't go like that. The same, the guy that, we had the same agent, one of the quarterbacks in the team. So when Coach asked about who I, who I think should start, I spoke up for him. Man, Bud had been here for quite a while, he deserve a chance, you know? So he ended up playing, right? Like I say, when Jason came, we had just finished a workout.

• 52:51Speaker 03

  And when in the locker room, like, damn, they got a little quick. Big money nephew, he ain't throwing today? What you mean, throwing? Who did, who? I look outside, the whole team out there, except for me. Ain't nobody telling me who's throwing. So I'm like, okay, like, stuff like that used to happen, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, another time, the whole team was there, we was getting ready to leave. It was summer workouts, and we only had a bag drill and a ladder drill. This was it, bro. Then we had to throw the football, so he say, um... The conditioning coach. If you guys throw at a certain pace, while you guys throwing, we'll have to do this. So when he said that, in the locker room before we go out, guys start, damn, get my flight.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  We gonna start doing their flight, you feel me? That what they do. You guys know when it's time to get a little early. What they do? Make their flights so they can go somewhere. Cool, bam. So once we were done, I went back to my house. Man, I get a phone call saying that I had an incomplete workout.

• 53:56Speaker 03

  Me? Like, damn, everybody, we all did the same thing, so how? Me, I had an incomplete workout. So why I'm going, bro? I'm, I'm, I'm dog cussing coach. Like, man. You, you know what you said, bro? Like, just be real. Open your mouth. Say what the, you said. Motherfucker tell me. Ain't like you don't need it. Talking about running. But I'm like, this ain't no college, this ain't no punishment running. You got me fucked up. Like, what's, what's up? Over there and back, over there and back. Uh, jog, stride, sprint, two minutes. Like, I did the first one. But the second, I was like, bro, what's up, bro? So I ain't know, I ain't even do that shit, nah. I start running hundreds.

• 54:41Speaker 03

  I run, run a hundred, walk the end zone, run a hundred, walk the end zone. Nick say, I did ten laps. That's twenty hundred. Like, bro, what you wanna see, other than that, bro? I'm finna go, bro. Cause like, you on the bullshit today. You can't even be man up and say what you said. Like, where the rest of the teammates at?

• 54:55Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 54:56Speaker 03

  So much iffy type shit, you know?

• 54:58Fred Taylor?

  Things didn't work out in Oakland. After Oakland. Take us there. Did you get any phone calls, or many phone calls, for workout?

• 55:05Speaker 03

  Well, actually, I worked out for the Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears. Two thousand thirteen, bro. I was, I had a crack at it, bro. I end up, um, having to have surgery on my knee. Micro fracture and a piece of torn cartilage. But the coach, um, he gave me a chance, bro. He told me, um, if any of the guys get hurt, that, um, he'll give me a phone call. True enough, the third string quarterback got hurt in the first preseason game and was out for the year, bro.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  That was August 8th, 2013. My birthday, August 9th. I got the phone call, August 9th. That was a hell of a birthday present, but I couldn't get it. My surgery was set for August 10th already.

• 55:55Speaker 03

  So that was, when that happened, bro, it was kind of like, like I said, God walking back to the door again. But I was kind of fed up, bro. I had been training and working out by myself for, for some years now. Like, it wasn't, it wasn't fun. Like, I want to be around some teammates, some homies, like, who I used to do this shit with, so. When I had to have a surgery, bro, I was gonna have to have a whole nother year of training and conditioning, so, and rehab, so. Um, I kind of, kind of took everything out of me then.

• 56:23Ryan Clark?

  Jamarcus, I have this saying, and I obviously have a chip on my shoulder, or I did, because I was undrafted, right? And I felt like I should have been drafted, but it was what it was. But I always said about first-rounders and early draft picks, you have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you cannot play. Absolute, like, you got to prove to the whole world that you can't play football. But I said, undrafted guys and late-round draft picks, you spend your entire career proving that you can't play. Though, you were the first overall draft pick. Your talent was unmatched, and nobody ever doubted that. When you look back and think to yourself, you played three years,

• 57:05Ryan Clark?

  and you were never on another roster, how do you reconcile that? Like, how do you deal with that, like, saying, I was the first overall draft pick? I played three years, and I never got another chance?

• 57:20Speaker 03

  See, I never got caught up in the first pick shit. Like, that's for the world. I was just happy to be drafted to be able to play football. You know what I'm saying? So, um, by not being able to be on another team, um, for a while, bro, when I first started, I didn't watch football for a minute. I felt like I belonged. Like, still to this day, if I was to get in some shape, I still feel like it's not 32 guys that's out there that's better than me right now. You got a, a top 10, that's it, bro. The rest of that shit ain't nothing, for real. And it's been that way for some years, years. You got your top 10, bro, and your few here and there, but, bro, it's no, no, no. It's something that, you know, football move on, and that just was a part of my life.

• 58:03Speaker 03

  It got me started. I wish like hell I could have played 10 to 15 years. But we got a guard and I guess he didn't want that for me. He brought the people to the door. He called me on my birthday, man. I received a phone call the day I was born to come back. So what can't be more better than that?

• 58:20Channing Crowder?

  One thing about, like you said, game gonna take us all out. Gainer took all of us all out. Brother, one thing, first pick, let me know the numbers because I'd have seen them. 61 million, 32 guaranteed.

• 58:33Speaker 03

  Actually with 35, that's where the extra three coming out when I supposed to went to court. When I say we end up getting more guaranteed money than it was normally. So it was like.

• 58:40Channing Crowder?

  35 M's.

• 58:43Speaker 03

  That was crazy to me.

• 58:44Channing Crowder?

  And the world thinks that shit is gone. Bro, you ain't run through 35 M's, did you?

• 58:48Speaker 03

  Nah, man. How could I?

• 58:51Channing Crowder?

  Let me know.

• 58:55Channing Crowder?

  I ain't get nowhere close. I would ask the question.

• 58:58Speaker 03

  I ain't the rigid, I ain't the rigid out there and I ain't, I ain't the poet either. My life good. I ain't tripping.

• 59:04Channing Crowder?

  But you good. You ain't run through the 35. Because that's what everybody talking about. Floyd Mayweather wanted to let us know, listen what you want to say. I'm not broke.

• 59:12Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, if it is, if I am, who, who, who, who, who, who does it bother?

• 59:19Channing Crowder?

  It bothers me because you got 35 guaranteed. I need to get me broke.

• 59:26Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 59:55Channing Crowder?

  I think I got seven guaranteed.

• 59:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:00Channing Crowder?

  And I still got it. So to get thirty-five, bruh. Bruh, me and you gotta lock up and you might win. He bigger than you, coach. Oh, but we both, we both going to the hospital. That's my thing, Jamarcus. If I fight somebody, you might whip me, but we both going to the hospital. We both going to the hospital.

• 1:00:17Speaker 03

  Long's your rough, bro.

• 1:00:18Channing Crowder?

  We both gotta get a stitch in the lip or something. So, is Jamarcus Russell broke?

• 1:00:24Speaker 03

  No, listen, bro. I'm far from it, bro. You heard? I might not be the flashiest out there. I ain't on no social media. I'm not that guy. I have nothing to show and tell. I'm not impressed by none of that shit y'all doing. I been did that shit, done that shit, so it's cool to me. Y'all have y'all fun. I'm relaxed, I'm chilling, I'm, yeah, cush ups. Every day, daily. So whatever you feel like you wanna say when you see me, talk to me and we can, like you say, we can handle it. But I'm far from that and I'll never be that. This shit so long, it can, give your kids and your kids something. How about that? Then I got good friends, bro. Like, I can't never be that. I got great friends. If I needed something, I, I, they'll pull up.

• 1:01:05Channing Crowder?

  Give my kids something?

• 1:01:06Speaker 03

  Shit, they can be Uncle J-Rock.

• 1:01:10Fred Taylor?

  But seriously, aside from that, man, um, I'm, I'm glad you on here, bro.

• 1:01:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, bro. Hey, bro, I'm gonna be honest, bro. I had saw Marshawn, bro, and I saw, um...

• 1:01:19Fred Taylor?

  Just talked to him yesterday. He hit me yesterday.

• 1:01:21Speaker 03

  And I saw, um, Antonio Brown. I was like, "Bro, you need to do this, like..."

• 1:01:27Fred Taylor?

  Right, I appreciate that. That's good stuff. Good dude. They, they solid.

• 1:01:30Speaker 03

  Honestly, bro, like, y'all were the guys, bro. That other shit won't fuck me, bro. But when I saw...

• 1:01:35Fred Taylor?

  That's, that's love. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

• 1:01:38Speaker 03

  I watched it as a kid, bro, like, real, bro.

• 1:01:39Fred Taylor?

  But even along those lines, man, for me, I, I try to keep things in certain perspective, man. I understand the money. And Channing asks for more of a, you know, concern, big brother, not being a business.

• 1:01:49Speaker 03

  It's cool, bro. I'ma knock on his door if I need it.

• 1:01:52Fred Taylor?

  You seem like you're in a good mind state. That's, oh, I give it...

• 1:01:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, bro.

• 1:01:56Fred Taylor?

  Even, you talking about the first pick.

• 1:01:58Speaker 03

  For a while, bro, I wasn't, bro, because, um, like you say, I, I deal with it live, bro. As far as my family, bro, I'm, I'm so close, like, near to my family, bro. Like I said, this stuff, this happened to my uncle like a year ago and way back then, like, we still were dealing with this stuff, so like, uh, when it came to a point to where he got much better, bro, and... Like say, like say run from something like, go ahead and talk to them people, bro, they wanna see me. You know what I'm saying? They been asking, bro, but I never been there, been that guy to wanna do it, bro. But I wanted to do this with you guys, bro.

• 1:02:32Fred Taylor?

  Appreciate it.

• 1:02:32Speaker 03

  You made me feel that way, you know?

• 1:02:33Fred Taylor?

  We, we get, we been getting DMs since we started, like.

• 1:02:37Ryan Clark?

  Bro, especially when you came on that start, I, I truly been like a groupie. You're a marshall star, like, we gotta do it. Like, we gotta do it, man, we gotta get you on.

• 1:02:44Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, so with that, man, I, um, you know, you say you wanna come on, like, if it was anything that you want your fans, you still got fans, people still love you, I tell you, bro. You know, if it was one thing that, you know, you, you would wanna come on here to tell them, you know, what would that be?

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

  I'm doing well, bro, and I hope that you guys are well. Keep me in your prayers, I'ma keep you in mine. I'm living life, bro. Like you say, I ain't, I ain't want for nothing, bro. Hadn't in a long time, gonna stay that way. You know, God, like you say, I might have played three years, but that three years gonna cover a lifetime anymore.

• 1:03:21Ryan Clark?

  I'm always in probably the unenviable, uh, position of this. I cover the sport. Uh, it's what I do daily. Whether it's, you know, Trent Richardson, Ryan Leaf, all of those things. Whenever that dreaded word bust comes up, you're a part of it. Do you consider yourself the biggest bust in NFL draft history?

• 1:03:47Speaker 03

  When you look at it that way, I say I must have been the best to be the biggest, right?

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  I'll say my shit didn't turn out how I would wanted it to, or not how they expected it to. You know, but if you gonna call me a bust, like you say, put the biggest on that motherfucker, man.

• 1:04:09Speaker 03

  If you gonna say it, put the biggest on that motherfucker. But that shit don't bother me, man. Like, that's, that's, that shit is not in my world. In my world, I'm a motherfucker. You feel me? That bullshit don't hap, it don't apply in my shit. It don't apply in none of my family shit. It don't apply in none that we have going on, so, yeah, man, they can bust all they want. Like I tell them, I bust out and went to college. I bust out and bust some scenes out my shit, so, like, it's cool, bro. Like, I never been the guy that really talk shit, but, bro, when I do it, bro. Shit, my homie right there like, come on, bro. You know it was happening, bro. Like, this shit go deep, bro.

• 1:04:44Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:44Speaker 03

  I was there when a lot of the boys got put on, bro.

• 1:04:46Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:47Speaker 03

  And I'm still here, bro. I just ain't in the Instagram and all that shit there. I ain't got nothing to show and tell.

• 1:04:52Fred Taylor?

  What's next? Can we get a book or something?

• 1:04:54Speaker 03

  Um, maybe, bro. Maybe. It's, I don't know, bro. I don't know. When the man give it to them, bro, it's gonna come. Like, he gave this to me about wanting to do this. You feel?

• 1:05:04Fred Taylor?

  When it come, can we be the one to promote?

• 1:05:07Speaker 03

  I mean.

• 1:05:09Ryan Clark?

  That's a good question, bro. What the hell you doing now, bro?

• 1:05:11Speaker 03

  Um, actually, um, I've been, um, coaching football, bro.

• 1:05:15Ryan Clark?

  That's awesome.

• 1:05:15Speaker 03

  I had started, um, doing it with the Pop Warner and stuff like that.

• 1:05:19Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:19Speaker 03

  But, um, my high school, shouts out to Williamson High School, bro. That's where I'm at, bro.

• 1:05:25Ryan Clark?

  Do you get an opportunity, though? Obviously, we understand your football knowledge.

• 1:05:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:31Ryan Clark?

  You have a wealth of knowledge about life.

• 1:05:33Speaker 03

  That, and that's what they enjoy, bro. They like that. We might have, however many kids we got on our team. Every morning I go, I individually give each one of them a handshake, a dap, or whatever it may be. I'm going around to each one of them to talk to them and jive around with them. But when we go on the practice field, it's different. You know, like I said, I'm up on the next saving, bro. So I know how it's supposed to be, what it's supposed to look like in order for you to win. I still go to these folk doors, knock on their doors, take my kids to camps with Jimbo Fisher or whether to go to see Nick Saban, like, yeah. So when I talk to the kids, like, what you want to do with your life? And I always say to them, man, they been killing like a motherf**er lately, like, for real. Like, more than normal, like, as of late.

• 1:06:18Speaker 03

  So when the kids see that, this the way we living in, so what do you want to do? I show them a picture in my phone, one of my family members. One of the most gangsta motherfuckers I could hear of or know, like. But this how you want to end up? Yeah, he stressed out. Somebody got him this time. This how you want to end up? Because he one of the gangsta motherfuckers I know. Look how the gangsta motherf**er get done. This what you want to be? No, Coach, I'm not a motherf**er look at it. Because that's how we gonna be looking at you if you get out there and do something crazy. So, like, like I say, it's fun. I enjoy it.

• 1:06:50Ryan Clark?

  That's so valuable, though.

• 1:06:51Speaker 03

  Try to teach them how to be a, a black brother in the world, let alone a football player. What you up against? Because once you leave here today, just think about your next coach. He might talk bullshit to you. You gonna know him from a can of paint to a box of crayons. So, how you wanna take?

• 1:07:10Channing Crowder?

  Now you spinning that real. Now we get into you spinning that real. Bro, regrets. I like to ask real dudes about regrets.

• 1:07:19Speaker 03

  I regret that I wasn't able to

• 1:07:24Speaker 03

  become the football player that I always once wanted to be as a child.

• 1:07:31Speaker 03

  I wanna be some shit like Dan Marino. Know what I mean? Like, I want always the fastest. I want, I like to throw that motherfucker, you know? Like, that was cool to me. And, you know, like you say, the shit that happened, I just, that's what I do regret. I regret I couldn't be that guy. You know, that, that I wanted to be. Fuck what everybody else say about who they wanted me to be for them. Talking about for myself.

• 1:07:55Channing Crowder?

  But the situation, it's funny being, you say Dan Marino. The funny situation is Dan got in a situation down here with, uh, who was it? Shula? And then he built an offense around him. You know what I'm saying? So, not even to, you know, saying to, to, to take over your point, but like, it's like, to hear you talk about that you don't think you would-

• 1:08:16Speaker 03

  When they want you to do it, bro, they gonna do it for you.

• 1:08:18Channing Crowder?

  But you weren't in the best situation, but Dan was. Dan got drafted, what, 22, 29, some shit? Dan went the first round late. You was first picking, first round. But, to your point that you said, just listening to it, is that when you get picked first overall, you going to a terrible fucking team.

• 1:08:37Speaker 03

  You are, bro. And they expect you to be, like you say, be guard for them. Like, they talk about, uh, the money shit. What about Sam Bradford? You know? What about my guy? He just won a championship, been there 13 matches. Stafford, he had fucking Megatron, bro, like, for real.

• 1:08:52Channing Crowder?

  And couldn't do nothing with it.

• 1:08:53Speaker 03

  So, all this shit being said about me, so they say I was the best then, right? But then, you know, you got Cam Newton.

• 1:09:02Speaker 03

  Cam Newton was a good dude, good brother, but when he spoke my name, that's when I lost for him. I never felt Cam Newton was a hell of a quarterback. He can run, that's what they want us to do. He can throw, but it look like he hurt. When he throw, he don't look fluid to me. But I ain't get up there and say that on TV about Cam Newton, right? Jamarcus Russ and Vince Young, guys like that, they the one messed up the money. He ain't say shit about Sam Bradford.

• 1:09:28Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:28Speaker 03

  Bro, you gonna get yours, then what you got, a hundred million? Way more than I got, so what the fuck you mad for? You feel me? Cam Newton, I ain't got no beef with you, but when I see you, we do need to talk.

• 1:09:40Channing Crowder?

  Bro, we should set up for y'all. We could set up for y'all to talk. We'd have had Cam on, Cam, my dude. Y'all can cash that out.

• 1:09:48Speaker 03

  Straight up. Yeah, that's easy. That's an easy play.

• 1:09:51Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, that's easy.

• 1:09:52Speaker 03

  Your biggest pivot in life? My biggest pivot in life?

• 1:09:57Speaker 03

  After football, to get my mind right, to become a human being again. But you know you got to recalibrate that shit, you know, so. And I'm still, I'm still working on it, you know, becoming a better person, you know, day by day, but like I said, that's my biggest one, bro.

• 1:10:13Ryan Clark?

  I think, man, as, as I get older, like, I just want to see us do well. And, you know, I didn't know where you were. To watch you look in the camera and say that you all right, though, that did my heart justice. I'm just gonna be honest, man, like, I think, you know, it, it gets to so many of these points in our lives where people always say, if I had that chance, I would have.

• 1:10:38Speaker 03

  They wouldn't do shit.

• 1:10:39Ryan Clark?

  But people don't understand.

• 1:10:41Speaker 03

  They, they, they had life like us. They got every chance in the world. And their outcome became their outcome, right?

• 1:10:46Ryan Clark?

  Yep.

• 1:10:46Speaker 03

  So, they miss me with that shit.

• 1:10:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, and so.

• 1:10:48Speaker 03

  If I was tall, if I was this about, come on, bro.

• 1:10:51Ryan Clark?

  And I think, like, to, to, to see you okay, man, it's just done, it's done a ton for me. I think.

• 1:11:00Ryan Clark?

  What you have in the next chapter of your life is what's most important. To hear you say, "I dap 'em all off, I speak to 'em all, I talk to 'em." To give those experiences to those kids, man, like, that's your purpose. Everything that we've lived through, we get an opportunity to talk through on this show and share it with people. And when you called me the first time and you said, "I don't talk a lot, but I wanna do it here." I don't think I've ever been more honored in my post.

• 1:11:33Speaker 03

  I had no idea how it was gonna come out, or, like, whatever, but I felt the need to, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:11:39Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:40Speaker 03

  It's been so long, and, like I said, I've been through the slander. Like, my grandmother just turned eighty, like, she had to hear that type of shit, you feel? And, like, motherf**ks say what they want behind, like, say, closed doors or the Instagram or all that shit, but face-to-face, a lot of that shit won't happen, bro. 'Cause I ain't going for that, bro. I'm just, like you say, I'm like you. Lump me, I lump you, or whatever you are, whatever me, like, you know what I'm saying? That's how it's gonna go. And it always been that way. Like, I ain't never been no, you know what I'm saying? I just always was quiet, 'cause I was learning shit, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna go in a room and be, and I'm still trying to figure shit out, so I'm still, you know, looking around, see what's going on. And, uh, that's where I was, bro. Like, I'm twenty-one, bro, two years in this shit.

• 1:12:25Speaker 03

  Show me one guy that, two years in the league, and he was the best thing smoking, like, right then. Like, like I say, your team have to be that too, bro, and it just didn't add up together.

• 1:12:37Fred Taylor?

  You just mentioned looking around, man. Something just came in my mind. Two of your influences in football, Nick Saban and, uh, Al Davis. You talked about looking around. Was it a somber feeling or a black cloud come over you when he passed?

• 1:12:55Speaker 03

  Man, crazy story, bro. You won't believe this. When I left Oakland, that, um, in the two thousand, I left two thousand nine, hadn't been back, bro. Two thousand twelve, bro, I went back to stay in my house. The day I got there, Al Davis died, bro. The day I got to Oakland, brought me in my house, this shit popped up on TV. Breaking news, Al Davis passed away at such and such age. Like, really, bro? Like that was, that was crazy to me. Like that was wild.

• 1:13:25Fred Taylor?

  And Shannon asked about regrets. Is there any regrets that come to mind when you think of him? Something that you wish you could have said?

• 1:13:33Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:13:34Fred Taylor?

  Set him down with or about?

• 1:13:36Speaker 03

  Like I said, we did, but I think his hand was tied, bro. As far as with him and everybody in the organization, I think he was like one against everybody. So you had to go with the majority, bro. You know, he had to, like you say, I wasn't winning. Like that shit go along with tickets sales to go along with everything else.

• 1:13:54Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 1:13:55Speaker 03

  That, it was a business move, bro. You know, it wasn't that friendly shit. It wasn't the, the kid he thought was gonna be that no more became a business move. This kid good for my business. So like, I understood that. But at the time, it wasn't business. Cause I'm thinking, hey, you know shit. Like you say, you play ball, interception gonna happen, a fumble gonna happen, a touchdown will happen. All this shit gonna happen in football, but.

• 1:14:18Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 1:14:19Speaker 03

  Uh, they took it to an extent where it was so detrimental where this was the end of the world. Like, like it can't get better from here. Like, like I said, how do I get better? I didn't feel like I received that proper quarterback to coach care at a certain time. You know? Your running back coach gonna be in there, he gonna make sure whatever. If you that guy, you the hog. If you the hog on my team, I'm gonna make sure you the guy that, man, we gotta make sure he got this. Make sure the guys know this, to make sure that I receive.

• 1:14:49Fred Taylor?

  Just through simple conversations a lot of the time, just having that conversation.

• 1:14:52Speaker 03

  I couldn't tell you whether my coach liked it men, when he was married to a woman, or whether he had kids.

• 1:14:59Fred Taylor?

  Nothing in common.

• 1:15:00Speaker 03

  I couldn't tell you that. We didn't discuss nothing on the phone. We didn't have no conversation on the phone. Like I said, if it, we didn't watch film right then and there, um, at the facility, I didn't talk to you no more. Like you barely talked to me in the meetings. Or on the practice field, we interact here and there, but it was nothing like I

• 1:15:19Ryan Clark?

  But Mark.

• 1:15:20Speaker 03

  If you that guy, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:15:21Ryan Clark?

  But Mark, you saying that, dude, man, like even from a teammate standpoint, to hear the stories of you throwing money.

• 1:15:28Speaker 03

  Sorry, Kirk Morrison, he was a hoe, and I'm happy you said that. He was the main one getting the money, bro. My thing was this. What'd you do for your own rookie show with the team?

• 1:15:39Channing Crowder?

  What'd I do? I brought in a stripper and had him dance for Nick's sake.

• 1:15:44Speaker 03

  Okay, cool. What you did, uh, for the team?

• 1:15:46Channing Crowder?

  I ain't do nothing.

• 1:15:48Speaker 03

  What you did?

• 1:15:49Ryan Clark?

  I sang.

• 1:15:49Speaker 03

  So I'm not a singer. I'm not a rapper. I play football. I ain't one in the choir, no church, or no shit like that, so what could I do? Go to the bank. We only got fifty-three hundred dollars. We got fifty-three players, right? So in my mind, that was a hundred dollars a player. At least give you a hundred dollars of gas. But I'm gonna do it like this, him. Hey, bump that wang. Make it rain.

• 1:16:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:16:14Speaker 03

  My teammate, Kirk Morrison, yeah, he the first one getting all the money. But he wanna go in there and get views and say it was a funny story and what he thought about the team quarterback. But did he not say he was the main one get the majority of the money that I threw?

• 1:16:27Channing Crowder?

  Main one scooping.

• 1:16:28Speaker 03

  I ain't, man, come on, man. On the sideline, tell me what club we finna go to, man. We playing football. That shit don't matter right now. What I was talking to in LSU, bro, once you get between them white line, I don't give no fuck what your life consists of outside them motherfuckers. But once you get inside these white line, that's all we thinking about is football, bro. I ain't got no team and say, yeah, Kirk Morrison and T-How and R.I.P. him and y'all out there worrying about what we finna do. Like, man, we got a football game going on. Like, I ain't never been that type of guy, but when you motherfuckers go to scream my name and I go to saying certain shit, then

• 1:17:01Ryan Clark?

  I didn't get this story right.

• 1:17:02Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:17:03Ryan Clark?

  So your rookie show, fifty-three dudes on the team.

• 1:17:06Speaker 03

  I went and got fifty-three hundred.

• 1:17:07Ryan Clark?

  Fifty-three hundred.

• 1:17:08Speaker 03

  And my book bag, y'all.

• 1:17:09Ryan Clark?

  Fifty-three hundred singles.

• 1:17:11Channing Crowder?

  And you threw him up during the song.

• 1:17:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:17:15Channing Crowder?

  And that's what people criticize you for.

• 1:17:16Speaker 03

  What's bad about that? You just said you brought strippers to the team for Nick Saban.

• 1:17:19Channing Crowder?

  You remember Tip Drill?

• 1:17:21Speaker 03

  Come on, man.

• 1:17:21Channing Crowder?

  You remember Tip Drill?

• 1:17:22Speaker 03

  White chocolate.

• 1:17:24Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:25Speaker 03

  White chocolate.

• 1:17:26Channing Crowder?

  Tip Drill, I Got Her, she had a Jason Taylor jersey on. It was Tip Drill. You think about the one on the Nelly video.

• 1:17:34Speaker 03

  That's Tip Drill, that's white chocolate.

• 1:17:35Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, we had a Miami Tip Drill.

• 1:17:37Speaker 03

  No, you ain't had no Tip Drill then. Your shit was a finger roll drill.

• 1:17:40Channing Crowder?

  She was an 8.5.

• 1:17:42Speaker 03

  Nah, you ain't, uh, finger roll. Your shit was no tip. You ain't had no tip, no.

• 1:17:48Channing Crowder?

  But nah, she, well, I brought strippers in the Dolphin facility. She walked in with nothing but, with a thong on and a Jason Taylor jersey. And she went up there, Nick Saban was on his chair, and she went up there and shook it for Nick Saban. And Nick Saban grabbed her hips, moved her to the side, and he ran up the stairs.

• 1:18:07Speaker 03

  I know the hell he did.

• 1:18:08Channing Crowder?

  Cause I know, I know his dick probably was hard. That's why he ran up the stairs.

• 1:18:12Speaker 03

  Won't it run, huh, bro?

• 1:18:13Channing Crowder?

  You got in trouble for throwing $5,000?

• 1:18:15Speaker 03

  That's trouble by who?

• 1:18:17Channing Crowder?

  I said, that's what you getting criticized for?

• 1:18:19Ryan Clark?

  It's a bad story about you. People trying to say that you weren't professional for doing that.

• 1:18:23Channing Crowder?

  For throwing $5,000?

• 1:18:24Ryan Clark?

  Kurt Morrison, like you said.

• 1:18:25Channing Crowder?

  I would love to have you on my team. Give me a hundred. You got a hundred right now?

• 1:18:29Speaker 03

  And get with it, bro. I don't even like to talk about this, bro. R.I.P. to my boy, man. Mario Henderson. Lewis Murphy. I just found out that this guy, the vice president, uh, for the Oakland Raider, Marcel Reese. Man, just look out for these people, man. I just might look out, man, like for real. Here you go, my boy. I was saying, go get yourself some more. We can go out there weekend, but I know you ain't got nothing right now. Like for real, that's me, man. That's what I do. If Dee Foden gave me this, man, I'm blessed to have. He's my teammate. We finna go do our thing with. Hey, uh, Mr. Dave, Mario, he's a good guy, man. Woo, woo, woo.

• 1:19:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, cuz. Know the coach was, they talked bad on him. He the only, one of the only black guys in the offensive line room. That man used to get bullied. This I know for a fact, bro. Like, I used to look out for them boys, like for real. This ain't nothing like to play about. This is shit that go unsaid because I don't, I ain't got none of this. This ain't what I'm here to do. Talk about none of this. But nobody hear about them stories. Exactly. They not gonna say it, bro. Yeah. People in Oakland, bro, I gave them folks plenty of paper, bro. One lady, I forget her name, but we keep in contact with the kid, brother lady. I was a recovering on drug addict, you feel me? In her forties, eight kids. Yeah, right there, wish list down. Uncle J-Rock got that, you feel me?

• 1:19:52Speaker 03

  All eight on, it could have been fifteen, I ain't on that bitch, I got it. Then get what I do for, take it to Bank of America on Hickenburger. Put a twenty thousand in her savings, put a ten thousand in her checking. Then we leave out this bitch before we get out. I'm gonna get a five thousand cash before she, when she go in the house. Come on, man, go there for Christmas. I leave out the door with them with some goddamn gym shorts on. Her daughter, baby daddy was there, he around in World Fourteen. Y'all get these, y'all get this, get this too.

• 1:20:21Speaker 03

  Damn it cold out there. Hey, give me some short of that car. I see y'all next week for Thanksgiving, I mean for, for New Year. Yeah, my husband send a car down to get y'all, yeah. Brought the fuck up to my crib, yeah, hang out. Do this. Or when Thanksgiving come, how about this? Three eighteen, what it's worth of food, get to the community. See, that go unsaid too, you feel me? Them stories don't, don't them stories get out.

• 1:20:42Ryan Clark?

  I'm talking about stories that unsaid though. Like, what, what is it you, you need to sit down here and get off your chest though? Like, cause we, we could ask all the questions we need to though, but I think.

• 1:20:52Speaker 03

  Jeff Garcia. I ain't had no beef with Jeff Garcia under no circumstances, right?

• 1:20:59Speaker 03

  So, a guy calling me, right? They in San Diego, they got the sources for me to get back to the league. Wow, I'm there. Well, I've been waiting, let's do it. So, I just got one thing, Jeff Garcia gonna be here, like, what the fuck that matter?

• 1:21:14Speaker 03

  We might be mad at me, what is I don't know? Like, I ain't got no beef with him, he ain't did shit to me. Like, what's up? Okay, cool, we get there. Uh, go out to eat. When I told you, the coach had brought two of his quarterbacks there, right?

• 1:21:29Ryan Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:21:29Speaker 03

  Jeff was one of them. So, the guy was like, you, um, did you know why Jeff left? Like, what you mean? I thought they had let him go or something, you feel me? He like, nah, he left because he was telling Oakland that he saw you weren't ready to play football. He thought he should been the starter, so when they didn't start him, he left.

• 1:21:51Speaker 03

  I was like, damn, find time to tell me now. Why you couldn't tell me then? Like, I was really going through some stuff. We probably could have talked about it.

• 1:21:57Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:58Speaker 03

  You probably could have got you a little starting job. I could have went and talked to A.L. Davis and say, hey, man, let this guy. I really need some time to myself. I need some time to suck all this in and get, like, I really need time. Like, I really did. And when I found it out way after then, after now, I was like, oh, now you tell me this? So, like, what's been the beef? What you felt to make you tell me this? And then Jeff ain't even tell me the other guy did. But you get on your little thing and say, uh, all I did was shovel food down my mouth over the summer. Man, you don't know the fuck I had going on, for one. And for two, you ain't said none of that shit while you saw me in San Diego. But when I was in San Diego, working out, I only saw Jeff Garcia four days.

• 1:22:43Speaker 03

  And that was the four days these were there, the cameras. Other than that, I ain't seen him that, nah, other time, bro. But to the world, I was out there training and working with Jeff Garcia, which I wasn't. They just, like I said, they always say stuff and make it to be that. Like, I never had nobody to, how they come out, uh, OGs, the big dogs, to come up and try to. Like, none of that shit was going on, bro. I ain't seen it. You know what I'm saying? I ain't seen it to, hey, little bro, man, this how it's supposed to be, uh, we trying to do it this way, the woo woo. Like, none of that shit was going on. I felt like, shit, every man was for himself. Especially when I saw my own teammate that we had the same agent.

• 1:23:26Speaker 03

  He told me, shit, Jerr, I'm trying to get me a job too. You know what I'm saying? Like, it could have been different for other people. Like, when I got around my college teammates, it was different because, like, these boys on team that's ballin'. They come around, they got them hell of a stories, or they game, or how they came back, like, yeah.

• 1:23:43Ryan Clark?

  College way different.

• 1:23:44Speaker 03

  Come on, bro.

• 1:23:45Ryan Clark?

  College way different.

• 1:23:46Speaker 03

  But then, my story, bullshit, I gotta tell my story, how they fuck me around, or how they bullshitting on this, or how I gotta, like, come on, bro, that, it was crazy. It was like, that was crazy for me at that point.

• 1:23:55Ryan Clark?

  No, I think, man, the biggest thing I take from it is, though... With all that you said, you alright. Yeah. And I think that's what's most important. And that's what I want to end with, because the world needs to know that. So many people want you to be down. So many people want you to be broke. Why though? So many people want you to be broken. You are, from now until forever, the black quarterback. Straight up. The one they want to point to for all things negative. And what you get to show, when you continue living, when you continue sharing your story, is that they didn't break you. So, to me, that's your biggest pivot. They didn't break you, man. So we appreciate you being willing to share your story with us, dawg. All love, my dog.

• 1:24:40Ryan Clark?

  Thank you, sir. Hell, yeah, boy. You know what I'm saying?

• 1:24:44Ryan Clark?

  Good talking to you, bro. All love, bro.

• 1:24:46Channing Crowder?

  That joke was big as hell, though, Eddie.

• 1:24:50Channing Crowder?

  Shit, I took down Matt Mark easy. Ay, Matt Mark Lil, huh? Ay, Matt Mark Lil.

• 1:25:19Speaker 04

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