Odell Beckham Jr. | Club Random with Bill Maher

Bill Maher sits down with Odell Beckham Jr. for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from his iconic Giants catch to navigating injuries and the intensity of being in the spotlight. Odell opens up about the coaches and quarterbacks he respects, teases a possible return to the field, and reflects on the values of humility, fatherhood, teamwork, and playing the hand you’re dealt. No scripts, no filters – just two guys talking life, legacy, and everything in between. Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1 Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher’s Substack: https://billmaher.substack.com Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom Support our Advertisers: -Go to ⁠https://www.zbiotics.com/RANDOM⁠ and use RANDOM at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics -Get 50% off plus FREE shipping on your first box at https://www.factormeals.com/random50off and use code random50off Buy Club Random Merch: https://clubrandom.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it. For advertising opportunities please email: [email protected] ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion in “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility. That's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:32Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm 5'8". How do you think I feel?

• 0:34Speaker 02

  Put your wallet on the both feet, man. I'll tell you. Exactly.

• 0:40Bill Maher?

  So why don't you join the Steelers? That'd be great. Because he's on the Steelers now.

• 0:44Speaker 02

  I won't say that that is not a possibility.

• 0:52Bill Maher?

  Odell here?

• 0:53Speaker 02

  Nope, not here.

• 0:54Bill Maher?

  Beckham?

• 0:55Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 0:56Bill Maher?

  Reporting is ordered.

• 0:59Bill Maher?

  How are you? Excuse my left.

• 1:01Speaker 02

  Okay, I'll make sure.

• 1:02Bill Maher?

  Sports injury, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  No, I've never had any of those.

• 1:07Bill Maher?

  You got worse. Although this, you wouldn't want this. It's called a mallet finger.

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13Bill Maher?

  Happens in basketball. It's how I got it. The ball hits, you know, like straight on and then... And it's like, the doctor, I saw the doctor, he said, "You'd be much better if you had broken the bone because it's the tendon."

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Yeah. Or mallet finger, I had a boot near the fore knee. Boom, hit it, just like this. And they told me, "Keep it in the sling, it'll be straight."

• 1:33Bill Maher?

  And was it?

• 1:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, I tried to keep it as.

• 1:36Bill Maher?

  And you're the one-hand catch guy of all the people.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  A few of them, yeah.

• 1:43Bill Maher?

  I gotta tell you, lifelong New York Giant fan.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 1:48Bill Maher?

  I mean, literally, learned it on my father's knee. Who was a fan from like the inception of the team in the 20s. My father, you know, as he was a kid. So like, I took him to the Super Bowl here in 86 when they played the Broncos, when I couldn't even afford it. But it was important. So like, your years with the Giants, thank you.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:11Bill Maher?

  For great memories. Because that's my team.

• 2:15Speaker 02

  Definitely.

• 2:15Bill Maher?

  And, you know.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Me too, shit, it was just like, it's crazy because it was a different time and age.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  At the time and just, I'll never forget. Where I came from and then going to New York and how thick of skin I already had and how thick of skin, how much thicker of skin I grew.

• 2:37Bill Maher?

  Because of New York?

• 2:38Speaker 02

  Man, but I'm, but like I love New York forever.

• 2:41Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, you've been with a few teams since then. It's gotta be, but it's gotta be, it's gotta be tough when you start in New York because you're kinda, you know, it's, yeah, the, right. I mean, where you.

• 2:55Speaker 02

  Anywhere else you're going is never gonna be that.

• 2:57Bill Maher?

  Look, I, I grew up outside of New York and that's why they're still my team.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:02Bill Maher?

  You know, I was a part Met owner for a while. I mean, I'm all in on New York, but I've lived here for 40 years. I never really liked living in New York.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:09Bill Maher?

  But I get it that it's the Mecca.

• 3:12Speaker 02

  If we're being honest, New York is, you know what I mean? It's like, you can't, it's New York, like, respect to New York.

• 3:20Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 3:21Speaker 02

  Love L.A., it's a different vibe.

• 3:23Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  But it's New York, bro, like, and I, and it's so funny because when I was there, it was always like, I had just started kinda going out to L.A. and I had never been to California or whatever. And it was like, man, to be like, the, the L.A. would be something, but like, to be the king of New York or to be, you know, a legend in New York, it's completely different.

• 3:45Bill Maher?

  And you were. I remember Chris Collinsworth, like, coming in his pants.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:52Bill Maher?

  When you made that catch. I mean, the, the sperm almost came through the TV. It's like, shut the fuck up. I mean, I mean, you know, I mean.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  Well, maybe I didn't, I didn't have anything to do with that. I didn't feel that, see that, nothing.

• 4:04Bill Maher?

  I'm just saying, it is funny to me, the way sportscasters, you know, sports, the, the sport that's like super macho and there's nothing gay about it and we're like, and yet, they're kinda gay the way, I mean, they just go gay for the, for the players that they love and, you know, I mean, look in the stands. You're wearing another man's shirt.

• 4:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:25Bill Maher?

  Nothing wrong with it. I'm just saying, it, it's, it's not quite the macho image that they think. But there's, there's been a gay player now, wasn't, didn't somebody, somebody come out in recent years? A football player?

• 4:41Speaker 02

  There's a few, but it's like. You know what? But I mean, the world is open, like you be who you are. I personally, I feel like this. Every man has to look at himself in the mirror, everyone has to look at themselves in the mirror. And be comfortable with themselves, like, and I am who I am. It's something that I gotta live by. If that's you, that's you, you know? And it's just like, I know that makes it difficult and it's, especially in the sport of football, it's kind of like. It it's a tough cookie for people to like, you know what I mean, get with, but.

• 5:16Bill Maher?

  There's something about sports. I mean, obviously, it's just a bro thing and a guy thing, and there's still a lot of, I'm sure, Neanderthals and good old boys. And also Christians, you know, that's a big thing, especially in the black community.

• 5:31Speaker 02

  Right.

• 5:32Bill Maher?

  I mean, you know, there's a lot of, you know, boy.

• 5:38Bill Maher?

  Ineligible man downfield, you don't want an eligible man downfield.

• 5:43Speaker 02

  Well, everybody, listen. Free world we live in, like, I I feel like, at the end of the day, what what else are we looking for in this lifetime? But to fulfill ourselves and be happy.

• 5:57Bill Maher?

  Are you?

• 5:58Speaker 02

  Me?

• 5:58Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 5:59Speaker 02

  Oh, man. I'm happy.

• 6:01Bill Maher?

  You say it like.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  I'm working.

• 6:03Bill Maher?

  Throwing the glove down, yeah. I'm glad you are.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  Um, um, you know, and I'm still working.

• 6:09Bill Maher?

  Why? What makes you happy these days? Now, you're not with a team.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  No, we're the team.

• 6:14Bill Maher?

  So you don't care? Or you do?

• 6:16Speaker 02

  I care a lot.

• 6:17Bill Maher?

  You do?

• 6:18Speaker 02

  I've I've.

• 6:19Bill Maher?

  You still got stuff in the tank.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  I got shit that I gotta prove.

• 6:22Bill Maher?

  You can still get open.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  I promise you that. And I got, you know, I like to stay under the radar right now because I'm like, I'm trying to figure out my own life. It's like life hits at different times and it's like real shit happens. And like for me, having my son, like, just imagine you get to the pinnacle of your dream, Super Bowl. Yeah, I'm telling you, the game plan that McVeigh had drawn up and me, Coop, Stafford, everybody.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  I have to wear it. We know about it, you know?

• 6:55Bill Maher?

  That's a great fucking attitude. That's great. That's like, you ever read The Art of War? He says, you know, keep the sword right behind you, but if you ever have to touch it, you've already lost.

• 7:07Speaker 02

  Come on, it's right there.

• 7:08Bill Maher?

  That's right there.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  And it's just like, it just like, and obviously that's a touch for me because it was, it's bittersweet. It's like, I went and joined that team.

• 7:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and you made that great fucking catch and then got hurt, right?

• 7:22Speaker 02

  It wasn't just that, it was the whole playoffs. It was the energy in the building. People don't know the whole dynamic of how Vaughn Miller, Jalen, like the whole locker room, like it was a, like that brotherhood thing is real. Like when you have guys who are really rocking with each other, and I was, I came to a great team. And I'll never forget, I came to that team and,

• 7:48Speaker 02

  funny story, Robert Woods, I'm walking on the practice field, I watched it. They were practicing hard. I was like, damn, they're practicing hard.

• 7:56Bill Maher?

  Robert Woods?

• 7:56Speaker 02

  Robert Woods.

• 7:57Bill Maher?

  Who was that again?

• 7:58Speaker 02

  He was in L.A.

• 8:00Bill Maher?

  No, remind me who, what position?

• 8:02Speaker 02

  Receiver.

• 8:03Bill Maher?

  Robert Woods, okay. So he played alongside you as receiver?

• 8:06Speaker 02

  He was in L.A., tore his ACL. The day I was walking on the field, major part of their offense, went to Houston, he's done, he's had a great career. And it was like, they were practicing hard and it was just like, the competitiveness. I'll never forget, two days, me signing, me having an ACL where like, people didn't even know. It took me like twenty-four hours to sign the deal. Because Dr. Elitros came in, he was like, yeah, we have to let you know that you don't have ACL, MRI, blah, blah, blah. He's like, we can redo your surgery or you could play with it. And I was, I was like, I'm gonna die on the sword. Like, I've come too far, I've been through too much.

• 8:49Bill Maher?

  And you may not ever get there again.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm ready to go. This is when I was just leaving the Cleveland situation that happened. But anyway, signed over there, and I'll never forget, like, week after week, Dr. Elitros was like, that is my family now. McFay, the whole like, family.

• 9:11Bill Maher?

  Did he do, the one who did Aaron Rodgers too?

• 9:14Speaker 02

  I don't know, but he's Dr. Charles.

• 9:16Bill Maher?

  He's the man.

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Shout out, shout out, shout out to Doc.

• 9:19Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  He, he really is the man. He's a good dude, a good family, beautiful family.

• 9:25Bill Maher?

  So he fixed your foot?

• 9:27Speaker 02

  My knee.

• 9:28Bill Maher?

  Your knee?

• 9:28Speaker 02

  My knee, my foot was in, uh, New York.

• 9:33Speaker 02

  That's another story.

• 9:34Bill Maher?

  Well, you gotta bring your foot when you get traded. You can't leave your foot in New York. I mean, come on, you're, you're an athlete.

• 9:39Speaker 02

  The foot is what started everything and it's so crazy that people really don't even know this story is like, my doctor, um, Dave Hancock, I'll never forget this. He was like, mate, this is the type of injury that'll ruin people's careers. I've seen it happen multiple times. He's worked with multiple sports teams, Chelsea, the whoever's all, all over in Europe. He's a soccer player and he's like, what you're having done, like grade two high ankle sprain, what it could turn into is really bad. And I came back three or four weeks too early. I, I'll never forget, we had to sit, I had to sit out the first week of Dallas, at Dallas. And Dallas beat us and it was a division game.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  And I was feeling all the pressure and I was like, I gotta come back for my team. We had week two against, um, the Lions and it was a Monday night game and it was like, I know I'm not really ready, but I can't see us going 0-2 and starting off in a bad way. Like I gotta try and find a way to get back for my team.

• 10:43Bill Maher?

  I never understand how athletes can play when they're, you know, not at a hundred percent because the nature of elite athletes and professional sports, the reason why we watch them is because, I mean, everybody in, on the field, like when they were in grade school, high school, they were like way, way, way above all the other kids as far as how good they were. I'm sure you were too. And then they get to college and if you can still be like elite, but even a lot of college, great college players go to the pros. I've seen enough episodes of Hard Knocks to know the, the coach is like, it's just faster up here. Everything is just faster and this guy was great in college and we, we cut him in three days.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:26Bill Maher?

  So like, considering that you have to be on that much of a razor's edge level just to be that much above, better than the guy you're playing against. I don't know how you can do it when you're. Nursing an injury.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  It's just, it's like the heart, it's like the heart of who you are. And for me, God had already blessed me with, the parents that I have, like I come from, dad was all world, running back, supposed to back up Barry Sanders, went, instead of staying in Texas, decided to go to LSU. My mom was all world, track and field, went to the ninety-two Barcelona Olympics, pregnant, came in fifth place, or fourth or fifth, or whatever, so she didn't qualify, but she had a drug test and she found out she was pregnant. That's why I'm a little thrown off, honestly, because I'm four or five months pregnant and she, you know, she's running.

• 12:23Bill Maher?

  Is that right?

• 12:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's, that's why I'm a little, you know, I have my issues myself.

• 12:27Bill Maher?

  And you think that's because your mother was jostling you when you were in the womb?

• 12:31Speaker 02

  She was running too, too fast.

• 12:32Bill Maher?

  So you were just like, like.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was just, you know, I just.

• 12:35Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  But, but my mom had abs.

• 12:37Bill Maher?

  My mom drank, because that's what women in the nineteen fifty's did. She drank and smoked. I think I'm okay.

• 12:45Speaker 02

  Listen.

• 12:47Speaker 02

  Listen, we all came out okay, man.

• 12:49Bill Maher?

  Well, you know who else is, maybe your mother knows her, probably she does, Shay Gilgis Alexander? His mother was an Olympian.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 12:57Bill Maher?

  Did you know that?

• 12:58Speaker 02

  I actually didn't know that.

• 12:59Bill Maher?

  Gilgis, that's, I guess she married a guy named Alexander, but that's his heritage.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  That's fire.

• 13:06Bill Maher?

  Yeah. You should call him on, you should call him on that.

• 13:08Speaker 02

  It's his time.

• 13:09Bill Maher?

  Because I bet you guys would relate.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  He's like.

• 13:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  He's just in his era, he's, he's, he's a good man, he's a good. Father, husband, I, I think he's, I don't know his situation or shit, but he seems like, a good dude and he's just focused and he's just.

• 13:26Bill Maher?

  You know, but let's not pretend you have to be a father and a husband to be a good man, right?

• 13:31Speaker 02

  We are, we're, we're men, bro, we are, every, men, women, whatever.

• 13:34Bill Maher?

  I know, but I've never been married or had kids, I, so I can still be a good man, right?

• 13:38Speaker 02

  And we are who we are.

• 13:40Bill Maher?

  That's who I am.

• 13:42Speaker 02

  If I can look myself in the mirror, I can accept my flaws for who I am.

• 13:45Bill Maher?

  Yeah, that's, but that's not a flaw, that's just a choice, right?

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:49Bill Maher?

  I mean, do you want to, are you, you're not married?

• 13:51Speaker 02

  No, I'm not married.

• 13:52Bill Maher?

  Well, there you go.

• 13:53Speaker 02

  You know?

• 13:54Bill Maher?

  Do you want to be?

• 13:56Speaker 02

  Who knows, maybe.

• 13:57Bill Maher?

  I bet you if you did, you would. I'm sure lots of ladies would say yes.

• 14:01Speaker 02

  If if it happens, it happens, you know, but it's just.

• 14:04Bill Maher?

  What do we, what we will, it happens if you say, will you marry me?

• 14:09Speaker 02

  No, but.

• 14:10Bill Maher?

  Now, don't clip that and look like I'm asking him to marry me, please.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Definitely, I don't know if you're doing that, but my knee hurts right now, I don't know if I can get down on there right now.

• 14:19Bill Maher?

  What a good excuse.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  But at some point, you know, it just, it just is about where you're in your life, like, everything is about.

• 14:26Bill Maher?

  Don't do it, man.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  Life.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  Life stamps in the flows, like, it just.

• 14:31Bill Maher?

  Flow and go.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  That's it.

• 14:34Bill Maher?

  As an athlete, I mean, even in the offseason, you can't really go buck wild with partying, right?

• 14:43Speaker 02

  But I'm saying why, though, at the end of the day.

• 14:46Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  You work hard, you play hard, like, I was gifted with an ability. And everyone, not everyone was gifted with that ability.

• 14:54Bill Maher?

  No.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  It's it's for you, every, it's life, everything is about balance. How can you moderate and how every, everything in moderation is good, you know? Uh, so as far as.

• 15:04Bill Maher?

  So.

• 15:05Speaker 02

  Do you drink, do you, what, it's whatever, bro, like, you.

• 15:08Bill Maher?

  But obviously, you keep yourself in pristine shape because you still wanna play. You know, you're an iconic figure in the sport, and, you know, I can't believe that some team uh, isn't gonna be, I don't know who you would fit with, but like, if you still have the passion and think you can do it, I'm sure, you know, my boy Aaron Rodgers, who I love, sat there.

• 15:34Speaker 02

  You are too, you're too good at this, I'm gonna tell you this.

• 15:37Bill Maher?

  He was there, I, we had to.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  I'm gonna tell you this, I got too much pride, I got too much, since I was four or five years old, I've, I've, I've sacrificed too much to get to where I'm at.

• 15:49Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  To let anybody write my story off. Except for how I wanna write it, or how God's gonna write it for me. So.

• 15:57Bill Maher?

  So four or five, that young? You were like, you you you thought you were gonna do this when you were five?

• 16:03Speaker 02

  Uh, long story short, I'll tell you a quick short story. My mom, four four years old. I was in Atlanta, Georgia. My mom was a track coach at Georgia Tech. My stepdad was Olympic gold medalist. The ninety six Olympics was in Atlanta at the original.

• 16:18Bill Maher?

  I remember.

• 16:19Speaker 02

  This this is like one of my first memories. Like, one of my first things that I can remember. I was four years old.

• 16:24Bill Maher?

  Wow.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Um, my stepdad won a gold medal in the ninety six Olympics. My mom was a twelfth time All-American, twelfth time, I don't know the the numbers, but my mom was a beast. Like, my mom was the real deal.

• 16:38Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Um, and I just remember, you know, she went to Georgia Tech, Rice, Tulane, these, that, and she's at track practice, coaching, and I'm on the the pole vault pit, throwing the football up to myself, catching, doing one hand catches, doing catches.

• 16:55Bill Maher?

  At five.

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Diving, bottom of my feet, dirty as fuck. You know what I mean? Like, that was me, like, growing up. Uh, Matt Forte could attest to it at Tulane. He was like, he was always just working, like, he was over there just, like, working, like. And, uh, four years old, I remember it was snowing in Atlanta, I always tell this story. My mama came outside, she looked around the house, she couldn't find me, she came outside, she's like, you know, she cussed me out a little bit, but like, what are you doing out here? Like, I had no shirt, just my soccer shoes on, shorts, whatever, throwing the football to myself, and I told her, I was like, I'm practicing for Sundays. And she was like, I said it was so much conviction. She was like, I had no choice but to push you to be

• 17:38Speaker 02

  who you were. Like, it it was just built in.

• 17:41Bill Maher?

  And she did.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  And every, I gave up the weekends, I gave up, every weekend, we were in Biloxi, Mississippi, this, that, for a soccer tournament. Or this, that, for a basketball, or this, like, I was, for sports, it was everything for me. Like, I was always.

• 17:55Bill Maher?

  Kids wanna be playing sports. I, I mean, I played sports every weekend also, they just weren't in, like, tournaments, it was my backyard, but it was what I wanted. You must not have had, it must have been actually fun for you, no?

• 18:06Speaker 02

  No.

• 18:07Bill Maher?

  Too much pressure?

• 18:08Speaker 02

  No, for me, it was different. Like, I could stand on this, and it is what it is, because, you know, we could all do if if was a, but like, you know, take injuries aside, like, as far as athletes in the world. With God and my mom, my pops, everybody, whatever happened to me, I was one of those athletes in the world that could go from playing multitude of sports. Go take the, go take your LeBrons and all, you know what I mean, like everybody.

• 18:39Bill Maher?

  Baseball?

• 18:40Speaker 02

  Whatever.

• 18:42Bill Maher?

  You could have played basketball, you think?

• 18:43Speaker 02

  Whatever.

• 18:44Bill Maher?

  You could have?

• 18:45Speaker 02

  Whatever I would have chosen, I would have been great at. I just, it was in me. I have that ability.

• 18:53Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  That drive.

• 18:54Bill Maher?

  It makes sense.

• 18:55Speaker 02

  It, it just wasn't, it, it just wasn't. Would I have been as good of a baseball player as I would a football player? I don't know. Would I be any good at football? You, you never know. Soccer was really my first sport. And I was supposed to join the US national team when I was like thirteen. A couple of my coaches were from Trinidad, Tobago. And we used to have this AAU league and I remember like growing up how we grew up. I just could never imagine my, like, we gotta move to London and Paris and like, you know, like, how are we gonna pay the bills? How are we gonna, to chase like a dream that we don't know is gonna work out? And it's just like, football for me was just an easier thing, like, I just knew I would make it. And basketball was there, I'll never forget.

• 19:40Speaker 02

  The only way I was playing basketball is if I went to UNC because the Roy Williams camp wanted to be like my, like, I only wanted to play at UNC basketball, that was it. And I went to the camp, I won MVP and whatever grade it was. I'll never forget having the white Kobe Mamba's on.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  I'm like that, you know what I'm saying? Like, it just.

• 20:03Bill Maher?

  So what are these things that you think you've given up so much? Okay, so your weekends when you were a kid, that's a lot because kids need free time. That's true, I, I, but what else? Like, as a guy, you're.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  But it wasn't bad to me, though. Then when it, it wasn't bad, it was like, it was like I was doing what I loved, you know? But I'm like, looking back on it now and it's like.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  Are you every, every weekend it was traveling somewhere to go do this?

• 20:32Bill Maher?

  When you're actually doing it, I mean, like when you're with the Giants or the Browns or the Rams, the Ravens, you were there for a while, right?

• 20:41Speaker 02

  Loved it.

• 20:41Speaker 00

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal. At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision and hearing coverage in every plan.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  And the best part is every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 21:42Bill Maher?

  Love the Ravens?

• 21:43Speaker 02

  Loved every single.

• 21:45Bill Maher?

  Who is your favorite quarterback ever? What a good question, like I almost thought of it.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  It's a tough question because there's so many different, like it's so many different facets, like there wasn't a quarterback that I didn't not like, obviously Eli went to his high school. And every Friday, when I grew up in New Orleans, I used to be like, what is going on? Like there's some loud noises going on, like really a movie, literally, watch this. I'm talking about, I lived right here. There was a gate right here. I used to walk to the gate and watch the football game. And this is Isidore Newman, and I didn't know nothing about it.

• 22:23Bill Maher?

  Who's that?

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Isidore Newman, Eli, Peyton Manning.

• 22:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah, Archie Manning, the father, the pet are familiars of Eli and Peyton. That's, yeah, he played for, who did he play for in the pros? The Oilers, the, no, somebody like that. But yeah, I mean, he was, and now the kid, don't they have a kid now who's coming up?

• 22:46Speaker 02

  Archie?

• 22:46Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Bloodline, you know?

• 22:50Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no blood, I mean DNA.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  I'm talking about, I'm talking about

• 22:55Speaker 02

  a hundred feet, like I'm talking about one football field, maybe two football fields max, I lived right there.

• 23:01Bill Maher?

  Do you think that was destiny that you wound up catching his passes?

• 23:05Speaker 02

  I don't know, just, it just happened to work out like that.

• 23:08Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  But it was just like, I, like, it literally could be a movie, like, I remember walking up to the fence and I was like, watching and I was like, I wanna play here. You know what I mean? Like, I had no idea of anything. And, um, cause growing up in New Orleans, it would have either been Newman or Saint Aug.

• 23:25Bill Maher?

  You have, you have a very sophisticated, mature attitude for someone who's thirty-two, because I remember being thirty-two and I didn't.

• 23:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. I didn't, I've been through, I think I've done, uh, my, my twenty-two through thirty-two was a twenty through, through forty with what I had to go through and experience and all those things. And yet,

• 23:50Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 23:50Speaker 02

  I still have a lot to learn and yet I'm still someone who wants to learn, like when, someone like we sit down and have a conversation. I, I want to learn.

• 24:00Bill Maher?

  That's the most important.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  I'm not somebody who, I, oh, I think I know it, no, no, no.

• 24:03Bill Maher?

  That is the best.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  I want.

• 24:05Bill Maher?

  I am the same way, absolutely.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  Somebody, somebody younger than me could teach me something.

• 24:10Bill Maher?

  I doubt it, but, um, but my favorite three words are, I don't know. Because every time I say that, I, somebody tells me something. And I was facetious about that, you absolutely can learn from people younger than you. I love that. Luckily, the people that, younger than me are also better looking.

• 24:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, but if you don't have that mentality that you can't learn from somebody else, then it just, I don't know, it's just like, you, you, you think not to holler at yourself or whatever it is, but you're just not like, you're not open, like you.

• 24:39Bill Maher?

  No, but I mean, the classic mistake of youth, and I suffered it also, was thinking, you're so dumb, you don't know what you don't know. So you think you know it all. And, you know, what most people have to discover painfully through life is, you know, if you had just listened to this person, opened your mind, opened your ears, they could have, they were trying to save you.

• 25:04Speaker 02

  Right.

• 25:05Bill Maher?

  So much pain, but it's, but it's so, it's ironic.

• 25:08Speaker 02

  That's how I feel, that's where I'd stop you and I'd be like, for me, type of person I am? I have to touch that stove to know that it was hot.

• 25:17Bill Maher?

  It's not just you, it's everybody.

• 25:19Speaker 02

  You have to, everyone has to learn.

• 25:20Bill Maher?

  Everybody.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  It's the only way for someone to learn.

• 25:23Bill Maher?

  If you could.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  I get it that you can, oh, learn from my mistakes. You don't have to be like me, but no. For me, I have to grow that way, like that's how I'm going to grow. I needed to do that.

• 25:34Bill Maher?

  It's a shame because we could save so much pain and I would say, I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but like one out of ten times when somebody older imparts some wisdom to a younger person that says, I'm telling you, I've been down this road, I've seen this movie.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  But that was your life.

• 25:52Bill Maher?

  I've stopped at this inn, I know, but you're doing the same thing, we all have the same patterns. I'm telling you, you could save yourself so much. I think like one out of ten times that lands and the person actually avoids the mistake they would have made. Nine out of ten times, they just gotta do it for themselves.

• 26:10Speaker 02

  For sure, but also the one, let's compare the one out of ten to the nine out of ten. Like, who knows what it does for that person, like, maybe.

• 26:20Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 26:21Speaker 02

  The one out of ten who learned, didn't learn in other areas.

• 26:25Bill Maher?

  You're right.

• 26:26Speaker 02

  The nine out of ten who had to burn their hand.

• 26:29Bill Maher?

  So true.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  Took all the information in and they understood for the next time that something was coming. Like you just gotta like, everybody, everybody is everybody. We all have our own lives, we all deal with our own shit. And that's just how it's gotta be, like, we all have to. I wake up every day, I gotta look myself in the mirror. I gotta understand my problems, I gotta understand my flaws. Not to discredit anybody else, but at the end of the day, like, I gotta handle me and mine.

• 26:56Bill Maher?

  Especially now that you got a kid.

• 26:59Speaker 02

  Like I, I tell people right now, like, I'm in the middle of my own storm, I'm holding my umbrella. And my son and my family and people who I love and care for are under my umbrella. I can't hold your umbrella right now.

• 27:11Bill Maher?

  Umbrella.

• 27:13Speaker 02

  L I, L I A.

• 27:15Bill Maher?

  Wasn't that a big song?

• 27:16Speaker 02

  See, I can take your jacket off.

• 27:18Bill Maher?

  Well, oh my, oh my God, you're gonna sing umbrella now. Do it.

• 27:22Speaker 02

  Got me there.

• 27:23Bill Maher?

  Let's do it, yeah, that's quite a jacket.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, it might be.

• 27:28Bill Maher?

  That's a beautiful, oh, yeah.

• 27:30Speaker 02

  Might need this.

• 27:30Bill Maher?

  Take your, yeah, but you can reattach that yourself.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  I will get it.

• 27:34Bill Maher?

  That's okay. We can even keep rolling with this. And I'm sure, you know, we were talking before about how you said you're really forty, you know, you. No, but like mentally, because you, you do like when you're twenty-two. You not only you're playing this game in front of a lot of people and most people are not doing something in front of all those people. Whatever they're doing. And then after the game, you have to like sit down in front of the press. You have to go to a, you know, that table where you sit. I feel like it's the rock bottom worst thing ever you could ever watch on television. Is any sort of interview with an athlete. It's just.

• 28:16Speaker 02

  It's, it's kind of wrong, but it's like from, even for me, as a twenty-two-year-old. Everybody talks about this catch and it's like, oh, you know, they like to try and reflect and be like, oh, he only had one catch. And I'm like, mm, I think that was touchdown number eight of the season or whatever.

• 28:31Bill Maher?

  No, no, you're.

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like.

• 28:33Bill Maher?

  I'm a fan. I know how good you are.

• 28:34Speaker 02

  Let's be real.

• 28:35Bill Maher?

  Yeah, the people who watch the game know.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  Stop it. But it's like, at the same point in time, it's like, yeah, that was. One catch that was touchdown number eight, but to me, I'm over here as a twenty-two-year-old. Who's now been handed the world and now you have, I'll, I'll never forget the catch happened. I went from like almost being at three hundred K to by the time we had a game next week, one million followers. The week after that, close to one point five to, like going into my, like my second year, two point three million followers, like. Just taking off and people around the world hearing about it and it's like, not everybody can carry that.

• 29:21Bill Maher?

  No, you, how many followers do you have?

• 29:25Bill Maher?

  Okay, but it's a, I mean, I know it's a lot. I know you, I know you're like, uh, crazy. I mean, uh, I've got, uh, ten thousand on beeper.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'll just say for like, for the sport that I play, I've traveled across the world. And, and I fucking love it because it's like.

• 29:45Speaker 02

  It's great, like, I could be anywhere in the world and, not anywhere, but people know.

• 29:50Bill Maher?

  You have fans, yeah.

• 29:53Speaker 02

  Who I am, and like, as a football player, we wear masks, we're not playing basketball. Like, it doesn't happen to anybody. I'm not Tom Brady, who is the motherfucking goat. You know, like, there's only certain people who are like, you know, edge in the stone, like, and, and, and it just so happens.

• 30:10Bill Maher?

  So you think he's the GOAT of football? I'm not arguing, I'm just asking.

• 30:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm not arguing with you either. That's like.

• 30:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, he has a, I mean, he is pretty amazing. I mean, seven, seven.

• 30:21Speaker 02

  I used to dislike him.

• 30:24Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you try and it's hard.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  No, I used to dislike him.

• 30:26Bill Maher?

  No, I tried to.

• 30:27Speaker 02

  But I loved him, because it's like, why the fuck does he keep winning? He beat my Rams, and the Rams is my team, like, you know what I mean?

• 30:34Bill Maher?

  Well, he also, I mean, even if he just had the Super Bowls with the Patriots, it would be an amazing number. It's very hard to get to the Super Bowl, but then to leave the team, I mean, the studliest movie ever did was to leave the team and win a Super Bowl with another team, because that was the, that.

• 30:58Bill Maher?

  It was the mic drop of all time. It was like, I can do it without Bill Belichick, thank you.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  For sure.

• 31:05Bill Maher?

  And, you know, that led directly to Jordan Hudson.

• 31:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:10Bill Maher?

  And so it was a tragedy. No, it wasn't. I think she's fantastic.

• 31:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:15Bill Maher?

  I think it's fantastic he's with her.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  But at the end.

• 31:17Bill Maher?

  I think it's fantastic a coach can get young pussy. That's how great sports is.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility, that's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and cost share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 31:53Speaker 03

  You don't have to pause your career to keep growing. Ohio State's online Master of Public Health is built for professionals ready to lead. With a flexible part-time format, you can keep working while advancing your education, gain expertise in population health leadership and management, connect with peers across the health sciences, and apply what you learn to your work and the communities you serve. You'll gain real-world experience through a hands-on practicum while preparing to take on greater responsibility and drive meaningful change. With three start terms each year, take the next step when it works for you. Move your career forward with Ohio State's MPH, 100% online.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  Learn more at go.osu.edu/onlineph.

• 32:42Speaker 02

  Listen, man, life's great. It's just like you gotta respect them. Like, Bill was a real dog, too. Like, he was a real, like, he's one of those coaches who... He really was, bro. He was one of those people who, I'll never forget, like, coming up to...

• 32:56Bill Maher?

  But you didn't play for him.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Uh, we, it was close. There was times.

• 33:00Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 33:00Speaker 02

  Yeah. That was like, you know...

• 33:02Bill Maher?

  Would you have wanted to?

• 33:04Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 33:05Bill Maher?

  Yeah, 'cause he's great.

• 33:06Speaker 02

  Tom Brady was, Tom Brady...

• 33:07Bill Maher?

  You wanna, oh, of course, and Brady was it.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  Tom Brady was my guy.

• 33:09Bill Maher?

  Oh, that would have been awesome.

• 33:11Speaker 02

  It's also been funny that, like, I played with Eli, who... Eli was the only person to beat Tom, and it was just like that kinda like Newman connection, so it's like, it's always like a bud, but like, Eli was really, like, my fucking guy. Like, and people don't know it, and they always try and go back to this one interview that I did when I was young, and it's like, "Oh, you threw your quarterback under the bus," and it's like, you're telling a 24, 25-year-old man who's trying to accept a check to set himself up from an organization, so he can't really speak out on our organization, can't speak out on a quarterback...

• 33:53Speaker 02

  And he but you want him to take all the blame for it, but yet it's a lot more than that that's at fault. It's like me, I I've had this conversation with Eli, like, I know for sure how much I used to text Eli, I'm like, you're seventh on the list for greatest of all time, let's get it. This 2015, let's fucking get it. Like, we got shit to do. And it's like, when I was at the Giants, do you know how bad I would have loved to see Eli go out with the Super Bowl? Like, on his last, like, boom, motherfucker, you did it, like, I don't know, like, you did it, you know what I'm saying? Like, that was what it was for me. Like, it was deeper than, it was deeper than that.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  And like, people got it so confused because the media tries to play their games, and they try to play their role, and they know how to create the story, and make it this, and make it controversial, just so people read it, and then enough people read it, and enough people probably are happy with themselves, buy into it, and they all buy into it, and they make it bigger. It's just a vicious cycle.

• 34:57Bill Maher?

  I see this, I mean, when Aaron was here, he was talking about Devonte Adams, and, you know, I mean, I remember Terrell Owens crying, you remember that? Like, that's my quarterback. And I love it, because it's like, it just shows the camaraderie, and also, like, it's like, sports is great for being like transcending race.

• 35:17Speaker 02

  True.

• 35:18Bill Maher?

  It's such a, I've said this many times before on my show, it's such, it's a great example for society, because, obviously, you could, people can do it, they play together, and the, and the love that you see that the players have for each other. And it's like, because you're on my team, not on my race, you're on my team. And, I mean, and, and.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  Fuck that, we have, we have four quarters, and we have to win, how did we win? We all did this shit together.

• 35:44Bill Maher?

  But, but especially the, the love that I see between like quarterbacks and their receivers, and, I mean, they go together like drunken disorderly.

• 35:53Speaker 02

  And people don't, I'll be honest, and I hate this, people do not understand what it's like to be a receiver. They like to put these, like, prima donna, ten stat, imagine this, imagine this.

• 36:05Bill Maher?

  Especially on receivers.

• 36:06Speaker 02

  Imagine this, sixty-three plays in a game, average, you're the top receiver, you only get eight to ten to twelve opportunities out of sixty-three.

• 36:18Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  The O-line has to block. Everything has to block, the routes have to be, the coverage, just for you to get one opportunity to catch a pass.

• 36:28Bill Maher?

  How do you get open?

• 36:30Speaker 02

  Fuck, that's what you do when you train. But I'm just saying.

• 36:32Bill Maher?

  But how do you get, how does a receiver get open?

• 36:35Speaker 02

  Be him off line of scrimmage, it's just time and a place, like everything else. You know, but it's like for me, it's the, it's the idea that people have of a receiver, it's like, oh, he's selfish. Everybody else on the football field, the O line. As soon as the ball's high, they get to touch somebody with pads and block them or not block them. The quarterback, he gets the ball in his hands. The running back, if he gets a handoff, he's getting the ball. The linebackers, they see the running back getting the ball, they're coming up to make the play. They see the quarterback dropping back, they're dropping back and covering. The DBs are guarding the receiver. The receiver is the most selfless position on the field.

• 37:19Speaker 02

  We have to rely on everything else to go right, just for one opportunity to catch a pass.

• 37:27Bill Maher?

  I never.

• 37:28Speaker 02

  People don't think about that shit like that.

• 37:30Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 37:31Speaker 02

  You don't, because you're like, oh no, he's the premium dollar and all this, no. Motherfucker, I worked hard the same way he did. The same way, just for this opportunity to catch a pass. So, fucking right, I'm gonna be pissed if I got open and I didn't get the ball, and this is my chance.

• 37:48Bill Maher?

  And some plays you're just blocking, right?

• 37:50Speaker 02

  Some plays I'm just blocking.

• 37:52Bill Maher?

  That's gotta be boring.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  No, but not when you're blocking for a, a Saquon Barkley.

• 37:56Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 37:57Speaker 02

  Not when you're blocking for, I got caught so many times, I'll, I'll never forget. I'll never forget, like, Saquon coming to the Giants and finally being like, I have somebody. Like, never leaving New York, like, what the fuck, like, yes, I got somebody, let's build off here. And, um, it was the Philly game, we were in Philly, man, this dude. Is just, he's the best, right? And I'll never forget, I don't know what play it was, but he caught like a, he, he, he took a handoff and he was coming up the left side and he bounced and da, da, da. And I'm like looking at the, the, the, the, the Jumbotron, like, trying to block my guy, but he's like breaking right to me.

• 38:42Speaker 02

  And I'm like trying to get out his way so he could be great, cause he's, bro, he's one of, he's one of the best to ever put on cleats. Telling you that, and he's gonna continue to show that. And I just love it for him, but it's like, there's nothing better, also as a receiver, like, you spring that block that made the touchdown go, like, that's just as good as catching a touchdown, like, cool, every receiver wants to catch a touchdown, come on, be real.

• 39:10Bill Maher?

  You know what? In my world, the version of that is, like, if I'm, if I'm a comedian on, like Martin Short or something, like, last thing in the world is I wanna get in his way. What I wanna do is just set him up. In my business, playing a straight man, that's blocking.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 39:28Bill Maher?

  And it's extremely satisfying, and it's a skill that lots of people don't have. I love doing it, they pay me the same.

• 39:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:36Bill Maher?

  Whether I'm getting a laugh or you're getting a laugh.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely.

• 39:40Bill Maher?

  The check is still the same. And it is, it is a great feeling, a feeling of camaraderie and selflessness, and doing something for somebody else.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  For sure, bro, it's a mentality, and it's like, you know, that, again, break it down to this, there's good people, there's bad people, and I'll similar back to be like, there's some receivers who do want to score, to be like, it's me, like, you know what I mean?

• 40:04Bill Maher?

  Sure.

• 40:05Speaker 02

  And there's some receivers who are like, like, I did that, like, we, you know what I'm saying, like, I, I scored, like, for us though, like, we're good, like, let's go. Defense, you do your thing, like, it's, it's a camaraderie.

• 40:18Bill Maher?

  So what about Aaron Rodgers? The, the Steelers?

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Love him, we've had conversations.

• 40:23Bill Maher?

  So why don't you join the Steelers? That'd be great. Cause he's on the Steelers now.

• 40:27Speaker 02

  I won't say that, that it's not a possibility, and I won't say that I haven't had any communications, but I also.

• 40:34Bill Maher?

  Great coach, you'd love to play for that coach.

• 40:36Speaker 02

  Fucking love Tomlin, I was actually supposed to be drafted to the Steelers.

• 40:40Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 40:41Speaker 02

  That was the, that was the meeting that I had, that I was like, I think I'm going to the Steelers. And the Giants ended up taking me to twelve, still had the sixteenth pick, maybe. Um, I think that's a crime, Shazier. Um, in that drafts and just, it just was.

• 40:59Bill Maher?

  Well, I, I hope, I hope I see more of you because you're always entertaining to me and I.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  I'm not done, I'll tell you that.

• 41:04Bill Maher?

  I watch sports to be entertained, to waste time in the most elegant way I can. Um, I.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  Smoke you one of those?

• 41:12Bill Maher?

  I, no, no, I do, I, I, it's too passive. Um, a pot I use for, for positive things, like I, like I, I indulge myself here. I love it. Um, but I would never smoke pot and watch football.

• 41:27Speaker 02

  You like cards?

• 41:28Bill Maher?

  Cards?

• 41:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:29Bill Maher?

  No, like, like Bridge?

• 41:32Speaker 02

  No, cards, rummy.

• 41:34Bill Maher?

  Rummy, Bridge, that's it. Yeah, those are card games. Um, no. Uh, you know, I mean, poker, you mean like that?

• 41:42Speaker 02

  I mean, yeah, I, I wish I knew how to play poker.

• 41:44Bill Maher?

  I don't, I mean, no, is that what you do for fun? Cards?

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Love cards.

• 41:48Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Stimulate my mind. It's something, I feel like something about playing cards with somebody. Whether it's rummy, whatever it is, you get to tell a lot about that person. And their intent, you get to tell a lot about their decision making. How, how do they go about like? Okay, I need to get my, my three, three and my four. But I gotta get a pure run, but I have this, but I have that. What decision am I gonna make? You, you get to tell a lot about people.

• 42:14Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but the problem with cards is that it's too much luck involved. It's like you can't make a three come up. You can only play the cards you're given, as the saying goes.

• 42:24Speaker 02

  Isn't that the same in life? We're, we're all given fucking cards. And all I can do is make what I have of what I have. Somebody who's poor and doesn't have money, but goes out and finds a way to be fucking successful.

• 42:40Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 42:42Speaker 02

  They were dealt a shitty hand.

• 42:43Bill Maher?

  I agree.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  But they stepped it up. You know what I'm saying? That's how I feel like. In life, we're all dealt the cards that were dealt.

• 42:49Bill Maher?

  Exactly.

• 42:50Speaker 02

  And however you deal with that, that's how you deal with that.

• 42:52Bill Maher?

  No, that's the right attitude. I agree, but I just feel like with cards, like in life, you're dealt one hand. You know, when you're born and that, yeah, maybe you're dealt a few other hands along the way.

• 43:04Speaker 02

  Some people were dealt a better hand, some people were dealt a shitty hand.

• 43:07Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 43:07Speaker 02

  But I've seen a shitty hand turn out to be a winning hand, and I've seen a winning hand.

• 43:13Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, you're right.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  Find a way to be a shitty hand.

• 43:15Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and you could, and parents have a lot to do with it that you can, if you have great parents, you were dealt an ace. And if you have shitty parents, you were dealt a deuce, but people do overcome that. But, I don't know, I guess I'm more of a determinist. I feel like, yes, I, I know the cards, maybe I just have known my cards for such a long time now, that I feel like, yeah, I played them out and, you know, in the game of life, did I win thirty-seven, twelve? No, I did, it was not a cra- I feel like I won the game, but it was more like twenty-four, seventeen, you know what I mean? Like, I've had many setbacks and many defeats and many things, but generally I-

• 43:57Speaker 02

  The jokes with me and my friends, like, it could be twenty-five, twenty-four, like, I'mma look at you after we won, and be like, I just beat the fuck out of you. You know what I mean? Like, this is just to mess with them, like, it's like, bro, you won by one point. No, no, no, I beat the fuck out of you. Like, it's just that kind of like, a one, period. It doesn't matter how it is, and it's just like, I feel like life is all about perception. I always say, perception is reality, but like, your perception is not my reality. And once I used to live by everybody else's perception, and you're always trying to please that, as a person, you're always gonna find yourself displeased, and it's never gonna be good for you.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  So that means it's never gonna be good for the people that you're trying to do more for. It's just, you gotta just, you gotta find your own way in this life, you know? I feel like I can't, I can't rely on someone to-

• 44:54Bill Maher?

  No. You've gotta rely on you. That's the end of the day.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  It's too late for that.

• 45:00Bill Maher?

  Yeah, well, um, but, you know, one of the cards that's kind of shitty when you're an athlete, is you don't get the longevity card. Like, I'm still like, working my job at the top of my game, and I'm almost seventy. That's not gonna happen in sports. Now, you could go into another field, and you may, I mean, at some point, even if you play this year, next year, at some point in the near future, there are no forty-year-old receivers.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  Jerry?

• 45:28Bill Maher?

  Terry.

• 45:29Speaker 02

  Jerry Rice.

• 45:30Bill Maher?

  Jerry Rice was forty? Really? Okay, well, I wouldn't advise it. You're gonna get hurt.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  Well, if you do, you do. That's what you choose.

• 45:40Bill Maher?

  You think you could be a receiver at forty?

• 45:42Speaker 02

  What you choose.

• 45:43Bill Maher?

  Okay, well, but not fifty. At some point.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:47Bill Maher?

  You know, it's like.

• 45:47Speaker 02

  I think, come on, bro. You got a family, you got kids, you got, come on.

• 45:51Bill Maher?

  Like, what do you wanna do when the football ends?

• 45:54Speaker 02

  You know, I just wanna, to be honest, I keep a lot of, I keep a lot of my things private because I don't want people to steal my ideas, but like creating my own, like when I was with Nike, there was nothing more I wanted to do than build Nike up. Build, like, I, I, they used to call me, uh, Mr. East Bay. You know what I mean? Like, when I was young. You remember East Bay catalogs?

• 46:23Bill Maher?

  No.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  Where you had, uh, the cleats, the gloves, the everything, blah, blah, blah, like.

• 46:29Bill Maher?

  You mean where you buy athletic equipment?

• 46:30Speaker 02

  All I wanted, my mama, when she got her chicks.

• 46:32Bill Maher?

  Jock straps, everything?

• 46:34Speaker 02

  Uh, I never wore those until I got to leave, but, um.

• 46:38Bill Maher?

  Never wore a jock strap?

• 46:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, no.

• 46:40Bill Maher?

  Are you sure? Was your mother's running?

• 46:44Speaker 02

  No, my mother, my mother, Bob's in, Bob's out, yeah.

• 46:47Bill Maher?

  Maybe it was that.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  But, my, my, um, all I wanted was that clean. The orange Nike sherbet, Nike Mercurial Vapor, that one, sparkly orange one. That was it. Boom. The David Beckham, baby blue Predator Sparkler that came out. Adidas with the strap with the big toe. Boom. The Nike Mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo Carbon Fiber. That was like my thing. Like, it was always my thing. It was something that, and, and to be honest, one of my, I, I actually haven't talked about him a lot, and I have to give him a major salute. I was supposed to meet him recently. Ronaldinho was one of the biggest inspirations in my life.

• 47:29Bill Maher?

  Who?

• 47:29Speaker 02

  Those, Ronaldinho.

• 47:31Bill Maher?

  Who's that?

• 47:31Speaker 02

  Soccer player. The way he fucking played, the smile he had on his face, his movements.

• 47:37Bill Maher?

  Who does he play for?

• 47:39Speaker 02

  Now?

• 47:40Bill Maher?

  Ever.

• 47:41Speaker 02

  Himself, I guess. You know what I mean? He played for Barcelona, Brazil.

• 47:44Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  He had the gold Nike Timpos, like, he was.

• 47:48Bill Maher?

  Where is he from?

• 47:49Speaker 02

  He was in Brazil.

• 47:50Bill Maher?

  Brazil?

• 47:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was the man. Like, he's.

• 47:54Bill Maher?

  Is that where the greatest soccer players are from, like, Pele, wasn't he Brazilian?

• 47:58Speaker 02

  I think so.

• 47:59Bill Maher?

  That's like the last one I remember. I'm not into soccer.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  No, look, hey, I'm not a historian either myself, but Ronaldinho was somebody who inspired me more than people could ever imagine. And it's just like, I'll never forget, that was talking about meeting your heroes and blah blah. For me, my biggest inspiration is those kids, the way that they look at me, the way that they wanted to dance, the way that they wanted to do all that.

• 48:24Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 48:24Speaker 02

  That kept me going for a long time because the grown ass men who have their opinions and feel like they get to say whatever about whatever, like, that didn't inspire me at some point. It's just that it's another man judging me or telling me what I should and shouldn't be when they're not in my position in dealing with what I'm dealing with. You know, so I'll never forget how Mike was for me, Mike Vick, and I feel like he truly.

• 48:52Bill Maher?

  What were you, what are you saying you're dealing with at that time?

• 48:56Speaker 02

  And.

• 48:56Bill Maher?

  When you said, "Don't judge me, you don't know what I'm dealing with," what were you dealing with?

• 49:00Speaker 02

  Just in general life, like, bro, you don't know what it's like to have everybody watching you and you just wanna go into CVS and get some sourpuss straws and Gatorade if you wanna take a picture. People also don't know that your GMA might have passed on that day and now you don't wanna take a picture.

• 49:22Bill Maher?

  Don't you think that's a, I mean, I.

• 49:24Speaker 02

  But now you're the asshole because you didn't wanna take a picture, but I'm also, I'm a human, I'm going through stuff.

• 49:28Bill Maher?

  I understand that very well, but don't you think that, you know, as we said before, you know, you dealt different cards, some are good, some are bad. Don't you think the trade off of that for all the things that fame gets you is worth it? Wouldn't you, you wouldn't, you wouldn't trade that trade off, would you?

• 49:46Speaker 02

  I understand that, but also as a human.

• 49:51Speaker 02

  I have emotions. I have.

• 49:53Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I do too.

• 49:54Speaker 02

  But I'm saying I have things that like today might not have been my fucking day. Like it might have been a bad day.

• 49:59Bill Maher?

  But you know how I avoid that? I don't go to CBS.

• 50:02Speaker 02

  And you don't have to either. You're rich. You have a zillion followers.

• 50:05Bill Maher?

  I feel that part too, but maybe. I feel like any celebrity in CBS wants to be in CBS.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  I feel that, but maybe I needed specifically for me, I needed to go grab that candy. If it wasn't somebody else bringing it, I needed.

• 50:22Bill Maher?

  You wanted the experience of everyday life.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  That for me.

• 50:25Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 50:26Speaker 02

  And maybe it's just as simple as that, like.

• 50:28Bill Maher?

  Well, tough shit. I don't feel sorry for you.

• 50:30Speaker 02

  Well, I don't feel sorry for me either.

• 50:32Bill Maher?

  You're Odell fucking Beckham.

• 50:33Speaker 02

  Fuck it, I am.

• 50:34Bill Maher?

  You know what? If you can't go buy your hard candy at CBS, cry me a river. But, but.

• 50:42Speaker 02

  We live, we live where we learn. See, you learned.

• 50:45Bill Maher?

  I'm telling you.

• 50:46Speaker 02

  You could have told me the stove was hot. I had to touch it.

• 50:48Bill Maher?

  I could have, but I didn't listen when they told me the stove was hot.

• 50:52Speaker 02

  Well, shit, we both do.

• 50:54Bill Maher?

  It's good to get to know you. I mean, it's nice to meet your, your sports idols. And find out they're cool because you know, sometimes you meet people who you've only seen from afar. And they do the opposite. They disappoint you.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:08Bill Maher?

  You know, they're dumber, meaner, or you know, just arrogant and you're cool.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:14Bill Maher?

  That's great.

• 51:14Speaker 02

  I just feel like at the end of the day, the way my parents raised me, the way whatever happened, whatever my experience is. Like I'm a real ass person and I won't change. And I'm not saying that I won't get better, but I'm saying I won't change for anybody in that sense. Unless it's something that I need to do for me. I am who I am for better or for worse. Like I say, I know my flaws. I know my good shit. I know my bad shit. And I'm okay with that. When I lay my head at night, I'm okay with that. If I did, if I laid my head at night and I had to be like, damn, I didn't stand for who I was in this moment.

• 51:56Speaker 02

  That's worse than laying down your head at night and be like, oh, I could. I feel like good because I made everyone else.

• 52:02Bill Maher?

  Who who is your like close friends that you can always rely on when you're having these kind of thoughts? And you know, you gotta ask about what's real and you can, who can you depend on to tell you the truth? And to know the fame lifestyle and all that stuff that you're talking about, who who who do you go to?

• 52:21Speaker 02

  I think it's hard because it's like, so LeBron James is one of my.

• 52:26Bill Maher?

  LeBron James.

• 52:27Speaker 02

  Biggest role models, idols, this, that, or whatever.

• 52:31Bill Maher?

  A friend?

• 52:32Speaker 02

  Brother, all that, right? There's just so many people, but I'm like.

• 52:35Bill Maher?

  Sure, he understands all that.

• 52:37Speaker 02

  Every situation is different, like I can only take a piece from Bron. I could only take a piece from here, a piece from there, the same way when I watch Allen Iverson, I could only take a piece from here. What I'm saying, the same way when I, like all these people, I can only take a piece. And then I'm I'm always gonna be myself.

• 52:59Bill Maher?

  All sports people, are those are all the only people who could understand? No?

• 53:04Speaker 02

  No, you got, you know, regular people, you got your mom, you obviously, everyone looks at their mom, their dad, like. You know, growing up as to who I am or how I can understand things, but like when you're when you're gifted or or. Blessed, I don't know what the word would be, but when you're put in another situation and you have to live in a different way, it's kind of like.

• 53:28Speaker 02

  You left a fin for your own at the end of the day.

• 53:30Bill Maher?

  Most, I understand truly the downsides to it.

• 53:36Bill Maher?

  But um, most people would say I would give my right nut.

• 53:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, but they didn't have that opportunity, so they can't, I would give my right nut to have been six, six, but God didn't want that for me. And God knew, God knew why he didn't make me six, six.

• 53:53Bill Maher?

  What are you, six, three?

• 53:54Speaker 02

  Ha, you see, I like you. Yeah, yeah.

• 53:58Bill Maher?

  Why, what are you?

• 53:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I like to do, we only talk about it, but.

• 54:02Bill Maher?

  You're an athlete. Yes, or you're saying it would be, of course, you.

• 54:07Speaker 02

  I'd be a whole different man, person.

• 54:09Bill Maher?

  Players like tall targets and we and and quarterbacks have to be tall now too.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  I think women like tall targets too, like, you know, it just.

• 54:17Bill Maher?

  That's true.

• 54:18Speaker 02

  Could have been playing a different sport, who knows what I would have been if I was six, six.

• 54:22Bill Maher?

  Right. I mean, again, not gonna cry for you.

• 54:27Speaker 02

  I'm not gonna cry for you either.

• 54:29Bill Maher?

  Like.

• 54:29Speaker 02

  I think God did that on purpose.

• 54:30Bill Maher?

  So you didn't get that last four inches?

• 54:33Speaker 02

  No, he had to humble me. He had to. But like when he was making me, he was like, damn, I did a good job, but it was grueling over the pot. So he put the pot on the top and he's like, he's gotta stop right here.

• 54:42Bill Maher?

  You would have been too powerful at six six.

• 54:45Speaker 02

  For sure. I think so. I don't think I would have been as good of a man as I was if I was a little bit taller.

• 54:52Bill Maher?

  Is that true?

• 54:53Speaker 02

  I think so.

• 54:53Bill Maher?

  Wow. I can't think of much that would have gone better. I mean, you got to the top of your field professionally.

• 55:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just think my pride, I would be a little bit more like.

• 55:05Bill Maher?

  You'd be more conceited.

• 55:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, a little bit.

• 55:07Bill Maher?

  You'd literally be looking down on people.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 55:11Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm five eight. How do you think I feel?

• 55:13Speaker 02

  I'm well.

• 55:14Bill Maher?

  I've been in.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  Put your wallet underneath both feet and then I'll tell you. Exactly. Like that one.

• 55:21Bill Maher?

  It's.

• 55:22Speaker 02

  It's not.

• 55:22Bill Maher?

  You're six six yourself. Well, I mean.

• 55:28Bill Maher?

  I mean, that's, I hear guys say things like that all the time, but I guess when you have a kid like you do, it's.

• 55:35Speaker 02

  I always said, before I ever had my son, I said, I fear the day that I have to raise a child in this world.

• 55:43Bill Maher?

  Well, I hope you're a traditional parent. I have a dim view of modern parenting. Not that I am one, but I'm not oblivious to what it looks like, because I see these little rapscallions around me sometimes when I'm out and so forth, and they have no respect for their parents.

• 56:02Speaker 02

  I feel that.

• 56:02Bill Maher?

  I don't take any shit from your kid.

• 56:04Speaker 02

  No, for sure.

• 56:05Bill Maher?

  It'll make your life and the kid's life better.

• 56:08Speaker 02

  For sure. I'll take a little shit from him. He can't. Sometimes he gives you that look and it's like, damn it. Like, I'm looking at you, I'm looking at you, but I'm looking at me and I'm like.

• 56:16Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 56:17Speaker 02

  So. But every now and then, oh.

• 56:21Bill Maher?

  But these three, you know, come on.

• 56:24Speaker 02

  He's a great kid, though.

• 56:26Bill Maher?

  There's no turning down a three-year-old, I'm guessing. But when he gets a little older.

• 56:31Speaker 02

  He gets what he wants.

• 56:32Bill Maher?

  Keep him away from social media too much.

• 56:36Speaker 02

  By that time, it might be implanted in their brain.

• 56:39Bill Maher?

  Yes, it might be implanted in our brains and the robots are gonna take over.

• 56:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, they got a bunch.

• 56:44Bill Maher?

  Don't do that. You need those hands.

• 56:46Speaker 02

  I know, but these.

• 56:47Bill Maher?

  Those are very famous hands.

• 56:49Speaker 02

  Keep them strong.

• 56:50Bill Maher?

  Bro.

• 56:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:52Bill Maher?

  I hate to give you my left again, but.

• 56:54Speaker 02

  It's all good. I mean it. I know.

• 56:55Bill Maher?

  My fuck you finger, too.

• 56:58Speaker 02

  I wouldn't disclose it. I would've gave you the little.

• 57:04Bill Maher?

  Thank you.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  I appreciate it.

• 57:05Bill Maher?

  This was so much fun.

• 57:09Bill Maher?

  Oh, that's right. You are tall.

• 57:11Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 57:11Bill Maher?

  Well, even better on you for succeeding in sports.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Yes, indeed.