Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor & Channing Crowder talk personal mission statement, NFL Headlines & Storylines, Tua's future, Brett Favre news, Bryce Young, NIL debacle with QB Matthew Sluka and the guys reveal own football traumas & future fears

"There is nothing else in life I would rather be known as, or rather do, than play football. I never wanted to be alive and not have lived." Ryan Clark on the risks of playing football all his life. You have been asking and we finally made it happen, a conversation with just the Pivot talking about all things around the league, in life, in sports and some current hot topics that have sparked a more in-depth discussion. On this episode of the Pivot, in partnership with Fanatics, it's just the three guys—Ryan, Fred, and Channing—sitting down to talk about the latest in the sports world. With the NFL season kicking off, there's a been a lot to talk about, so we start it off by hitting on the headlines around the league. One major topic that’s been heavy on the minds of everyone in the NFL and the fanbase which always becomes more pressing when we see one of our own go down with a head injury is CTE. It’s something that’s affected our Pivot family personally, having lost people we care about to it, and it shapes how the guys see their own futures after Tua’s recent concussion and whether he will continue to play the game he loves or hang up his cleats. The guys dive into how the game always had the same risks, we just know more now than we did back then. Channing shares personal experiences and expresses his own fears with his health, while Ryan and Fred discuss the game that defined them for their entire lives and how they wouldn't change anything they did to play but also understand the unknown is scary and that new knowledge offers a different perspective but also doesn't change their love of the game. Will Tua come back this season—or ever? We dive into that, plus what it means to balance risk and living life, even when the game can leave a mark. For the guys, football is worth every hit. Along that topic, the news of Brett Favre’s Parkinson’s diagnosis sparked a lot of debate. It’s a tough situation, but the guys are brutally honest on not being able to ignore the welfare scheme scandal Favre was caught up in, making it hard to have sympathy for someone who stole from the poor and is now trying to get pity through his diagnosis. The timing of it all angers Channing and Ryan and they don't hold back as to why. Moving to College football, UNLV’s undefeated QB Matthew Sluka decided to leave the program despite his success because he didn’t get what he was promised. This new NIL system is at a critical point, and we break down the challenges of giving young athletes so much money and responsibility while minimizing the adversity of teaching moments which seems to lessen the learning curve for college players by big paydays. Speaking of money, Bryce Young’s situation with the Panthers came under the microscope as Andy Dalton took over the starting role this past week and led Carolina to a much needed win. The franchise paid the former No. 1 pick big bucks, but now he's benched after one season, so what’s next for him? And before the guys wrap the conversation, Ryan challenges Fred and Channing to think about their lives and how they approach each day, wondering if they'd change anything looking back and define goals moving forward shaping what each's "life" Mission statements would be as the guys open up and get personal, sharing their journey, the whys and experiences that shape their thoughts. Thank you SoFi for sponsoring the video! Go to https://www.sofigamechangers.com to enter for a chance to win. Our friends at SoFi are giving away $100k to public high school sports teams around the country. If you got a team who could use an assist, enter for a chance to win! And thanks to SNICKERS. We’re giving you a shot at turning your rookie mistake into a chance to win amazing prizes, including tickets to the Super Bowl! To enter and for full rules and relevant dates, go to https://SNICKERS.com/RookieMistake business.linkedin.com/pivotpodcast to post your job for free! 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend and marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand." When leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  Fellas, hey man, I feel like it's been a while since we chopped it up. When's the last time we just all sat and talked? Since I had hair. No, that's not true.

• 0:39Channing Crowder?

  That was a long time ago.

• 0:40Ryan Clark?

  Hey, also too, like whether or not you had hair when you thought you still had hair is subjective.

• 0:46Channing Crowder?

  He was all done?

• 0:47Ryan Clark?

  What you mean when I went on?

• 0:48Channing Crowder?

  Who said?

• 0:49Ryan Clark?

  He said, "So y'all saying I'm on the fences like Stephen A?" Then I let it go. Hey, look, I'm so cute, boy.

• 0:58Ryan Clark?

  Chan, you know he talking about. I like my hair. Like since I had hair. Well, you ain't had hair in a long time. I guess I have all of it. Yeah.

• 1:07Channing Crowder?

  You got a hell of a widow's peak.

• 1:25Ryan Clark?

  Hey, you guys, man. Welcome to the Pivot, a part of Fanatics. I'm RC, this is Freddie T., that's Chan. It's just the boys today. Every now and then, we like to just sit down, really just catch up with each other. For as much as everyone else needs time to tap in with their boys. I mean, shoot, we the same way. We haven't even really talked, Chan. And you know, you down there, working with the Dolphins, Freddie T. You also in South Florida since everything happened with Tua.

• 1:53Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 1:53Ryan Clark?

  And initially, all the conversation surrounded whether or not he should start to think about playing going forward. And so since, all kind of people have weighed in. Cam, which I think- Folks don't understand how we can find it funny. Cam told a story about the one time he truly knew he got a concussion and he laughed about, you know, thinking his mama was named Thomas Davis or his coach was named Thomas Davis or something like that. Can you remember an actual time where you were deemed as well?

• 2:23Channing Crowder?

  Man, I'll tell y'all, after watching Cam, man, friend of all ours, I go to fellowship. Whenever I go to Atlanta, I go to Cam's spot. Fellowship, go check it out. But man, I started thinking about it where like, he was talking about those black, those little black bubbles and those little, the little lights, the little birds that you see. Bro, that was three times of practice. That was four times a game to us, you know what I'm saying? And he was like, that's not a concussion. The real concussion was when I can't remember.

• 2:52Ryan Clark?

  That is a concussion.

• 2:53Channing Crowder?

  That is a concussion. So, bro, I thought about, and the first thing part of my mind was, I play with Zach Thomas. I bring up ZT all the time. And he called the defense. This is when we still, when we did base undero, double seven, adjust the switch. You know what I'm saying? Like, we still call signals in where it would be times where Zach would hit a dude and he'd say, CC, get up front. And I have to take the signal because, I don't know if people know about concussions. I don't know if y'all had them where it looks like you're looking through straws and then it takes 15, 20 seconds for the world to, to open up again, your peripheral vision to get back. I thought that was a part of football. I thought it was a part of when you play the game, like you hit a dude and the world

• 3:38Channing Crowder?

  is gonna open up sooner or later and you gonna get back in the game. And so if every one of those, the birdies, the black bubbles, the tunnel vision that opened up was a concussion, man, I remember a number of times, it was a time when Zach hit Willis McGahey, banged him. Willis fumbled. Donnie Spragan got the, I remember the play because I scraped over the top because Zach usually beat me the most tackles. And I scraped over the top and I remember watching Willis and Zach lay down with stiff bodies. Donnie gets the fumble recovery, they tackle him and by that time Willis gets off the ground, ZT gets off the ground. We get back to the huddle and I, I look at ZT, I'm like, I'm like, ZT, straight? He said, call the huddle. And he was sitting there getting his, his stuff back together.

• 4:22Channing Crowder?

  But those times that Cam kinda downplayed of, yeah, I saw the birds and all that, that scares me about the thing with Tua. And when Tua gets hit. Two it does, they call it fencing, I found the name. When your limbs lock up, and that's why it's on national TV. And that's why everybody thinks about it because it's on primetime games. But if all of the times that we saw the tunnel vision, or the black bubbles, or the little birdies, if those were concussions, I don't know how many times y'all had them, bro. But it scares me to think about how many times I had it if all of those times were concussions.

• 4:59Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, no, Chan, you said it was a part of football. It is a part of football, but it was more an analog and not digital. The science has evolved to a point where they can recognize it, like they're able to treat it a lot quicker, like they know what it is. It was just that when we played, it was a part of the game. Like, you get up smelling salt and you're back out there. I had several of those, much like RC. The way his body responds, when he was in Denver, my first ever concussion, mile high, thin air, got hit in the chin right here on a blitz pickup. Went out for a little bit, I kept playing. You know, I didn't know I kept playing until I watched the film the next day.

• 5:42Fred Taylor?

  Or, yeah, Monday morning, I watched the film. And I was like, I don't even remember this portion of the game. The only thing I remember is it was a fast forward from the first quarter to the third quarter. I remember little spots here and there, being in a locker room. They were asking me if I was OK, all that different stuff. Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get back in the game. I gotta help this team win the game. And that's what it's about back in the day. That was the analog portion. Nowadays, in a digital world, right? They can see everything, they know what to look for. They know outside of the, what do you call it? Two locking up, what is it called? It's called fencing.

• 6:24Ryan Clark?

  It's called a fencing posture.

• 6:25Fred Taylor?

  Outside of the fencing posture, right? You can easily identify those type concussions. It's the small ones that we can identify, the blitz pickups. Because I was just shook up. I didn't realize that I had a concussion again until after I Got back after I had to do the baseline test. I watched the film, I was like dang, where did the game go? And that happened to me twice in my career on plays where it wasn't severe contact. Much like to us, wasn't a severe contact. He actually hit DeMar's thigh in that situation. It wasn't a seam route, you know, watching RC dismantle Wes Welker. It didn't look anything like that.

• 7:08Fred Taylor?

  But in fact, it was a concussion. I had several of them in practices. You know, when we would practice two-a-days, full padded practices, twice a day. What we like to consider old school football. I like the direction that the game is going. As much as we like to say, oh, that ain't real football. It's football. It's being smart, it's taking care of the players, taking care of their families. You know, indirectly as you take care of them, you take care of their family. Because you create sustainability, you create longer careers and you create better health for these players. Remember, look at the CBS commercial that people talk about. Every play on that intro is illegal nowadays, right?

• 7:53Fred Taylor?

  The clothesline, the guys playing with their teeth out. The Young Bloods, back in the Jacks and the Mike Singletarys. All of those plays were good plays then, but nowadays they will be illegal. And most of those guys had sustained concussion. So to Cam's point, those little moments throughout practice. I had several, several of those. I didn't know how to identify them. It was just a part of the game. Like you say, it was just part of the game. We laugh at it and you keep moving.

• 8:23Channing Crowder?

  I remember RC when he was knocking people to sleep. Cause that was you were the banger safety when we played. And when you used to do that little roll up and you grab your knees.

• 8:33Fred Taylor?

  And shake your head.

• 8:33Channing Crowder?

  And you shake your head, look at the ground and then one of your teammates help you up.

• 8:37Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:37Channing Crowder?

  I knew what was going on.

• 8:39Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:40Channing Crowder?

  I don't know if they knew what was going on. You were trying to get your shit back together.

• 8:44Ryan Clark?

  But like I think it's about a culture change. You know, and I love Fred using analog and digital because it was just a different time for us. We didn't have the information, right? We didn't have the education. The NFL and the PA weren't sort of distributing those things to us because it wasn't part of our culture. And then as it continued to grow, now you have an understanding of it, but. What I don't think people understand is that made me have an admiration for you.

• 9:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:16Ryan Clark?

  That would make me have an admiration for Fred. You know, I've had conversations with teammates that would just tell me, RC, on the next series, just tell me what I'm doing each snap. All right, hey, you got, you got curl flat, you got the hook, you got middle field, right? You blitzing outside, like that was, and to me, we dap off and hug after the game and I appreciated that about people. And as we learned more and I was on the executive board, I can appreciate now that guys go to the sideline and say, hey, I'm a little foggy. Or, hey, I don't necessarily believe I'm all there. Can I be checked out? And there's somebody that sits on the perch up top, you know, a doctor that's disassociated

• 10:01Ryan Clark?

  from both teams that can look down and say, okay, this dude's wobbly. That would see me, right? When you said I'd hop up and do this, right? Or when I had a teammate who always told me, if he said he had a stinger, normally he was just trying to collect his thoughts.

• 10:16Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:16Ryan Clark?

  Right? He was trying to get himself back. And like, that was the culture of it. But listening to Cam even talking about it, it shows how much that was ingrained in us. I remember to this day, being 12 years old, I played quarterback at my little league team, and I tried to jump over a dude and a guy running hit me. And I remember standing up and being wobbly. And it was like the first time I ever felt that. And I collected myself, I gathered myself, I went in for the next snap. That happened the rest of my life, right? Until I actually was out. And so I just think that for, for us and the way we grew up, it was a different time. I do believe people like us have to have those conversations with our kids.

• 11:01Ryan Clark?

  Cause my son is kind of screwed up in the way I was kind of screwed up. You know, like I've had him tell me, yeah, Pop, you know, I had to get deemed one time. I ain't want the first time to be in the game. Because he knows us. He was in the locker room with me because he was older. You know, and so now seeing where the game is going, watching guys adjust, I think it's the right thing to do. I think they should protect themselves. But I said this on ESPN. Everybody's so quick to react in a way like you shouldn't play football. Football's so bad. And Fred Taylor, I don't care what anybody tells me, Fred Taylor was born to play running back. He's gonna do much more in his life that's bigger than playing running back. He's gonna mean more to people than he did to the Jacksonville Jaguars playing running back.

• 11:45Ryan Clark?

  But that is what he was born to do. You were born to play linebacker. You just were. And you're funny, and you're charismatic, and you're great to be around. But there was a period in your life that God made you to do certain thing. And me is the same way.

• 11:59Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 11:59Ryan Clark?

  Right? What we're trying to tell these people is because the thing you love so much is dangerous, don't do it anymore, even though God made you to do it. And that's hard.

• 12:10Channing Crowder?

  You worked so hard to get there.

• 12:12Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:12Channing Crowder?

  Do you know how much work Tua put in to be the number five pick of the draft? To be a franchise quarterback? To be what he is to get the stupid deal that he just got? Now you're gonna tell him retire? Just give that up? Because you got knocked out a couple of times?

• 12:29Ryan Clark?

  Well, the other piece is too, though, Chan, you talk about the money. People always go, well, you got this guaranteed. And I try to explain to them, it's not about the fact, like, he could have taken care of his family on the first bit of money. He could obviously take care of his family on this guaranteed piece. You're asking him to change a piece of who he is.

• 12:46Channing Crowder?

  Yes.

• 12:47Ryan Clark?

  And we don't, yeah, we all want to be as rich as we could possibly be. But we also want to do this thing that's really fun and that we truly enjoy and we really had this passion for it too.

• 12:57Channing Crowder?

  To be special. That's what I don't think people understand about athletes. Like, we talk about me when I was chasing the money. But I did appreciate being special.

• 13:06Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:06Channing Crowder?

  I did appreciate being the 1% of the 1% of that. You're a starting middle linebacker. There's only 31 other people in the world that can do what you do. Out of 6 billion. That's the thing that Tua, so when people are like, he needs to retire, don't pick that man's path for him. Because I'll tell you, with all the knee surgeries, with the feet surgeries, with the concussions that I know, I know now that I had, thumb reconstruction, shoulders dislocated, all the stingers. Bro, if you take me back to 14-year-old Channing, I'm still strapping it up.

• 13:40Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:40Channing Crowder?

  And Tua's gonna still strap it up. And I believe, honestly, this season, Tua will still strap it up again this season and play quarterback for the Miami Dolphins and throw touchdowns to Tyreek and Waddle.

• 13:53Ryan Clark?

  I was asked this question a couple of days ago when I finished Inside the NFL, TMZ, actually, and they said, should Tua Tonga Va'loa be looking at Brett Favre saying or acknowledging the people that he now has Parkinson's disease as a sign that maybe he should get out? Because one of the specialists that he saw said that they believe football contributed to him having Parkinson's. What do you think that is something that will make people say, or make football players say, make a Tua say, okay, maybe I shouldn't continue to do that if it can contribute to

• 14:38Ryan Clark?

  me being in that state?

• 14:39Fred Taylor?

  No, RC, that's, for me, I look at it differently. You try your best to mitigate risk as you live life, but you also want to live life, right? You want to be able to live in the moment. You want to be able to, you know, circumvent certain challenges that come with life. I think you've just got to go live. Like, he gets the joy and love and football is his passion. You gotta, you gotta live your passion. You know, you gotta, you gotta live and enjoy life.

• 15:09Ryan Clark?

  Does Brett Favre's... Admission make you think about maybe you should have lived like differently?

• 15:15Fred Taylor?

  No, because this is, you just mentioned, this is what I was born to do. This is all I knew how to do well. Like, I don't know if there's anything else in life that I know how to do better than play running back.

• 15:31Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 15:31Fred Taylor?

  Right? And running back gave me a, it was a blessing that God had given me that talent. Obviously, I worked more to develop, but that was sort of my home run in my life. Obviously, I try and do more on the back end, and that part is exciting. But I don't think there was gonna be anything or any person to deter me from playing the game and approaching the game the way I approached it. Yes, on the back end with more science and more knowledge of it, it's scary. And to see what a lot of these guys are going through, sometimes it's scary. And to hear parents say, hey, should I put my kid in the sport? Should I let my kid play?

• 16:16Fred Taylor?

  And I go and I ask them, you know, what's an excuse for the one-year-old that's in an accident? Or a person that didn't have an opportunity to live out their life? That was involved in a car accident? Or that probably developed some sort of rare cancer? Or all these different things, right? They didn't know. Like, you have to just go and live, like the babies that's premature. Or maybe even the person walking down the sidewalk and some bad shit happens. Just a tragedy. We did not know those things were gonna happen. You can't, like, live your life on eggshells. You just gotta go out there and have fun, enjoy life.

• 17:00Fred Taylor?

  If you're passionate about being competitive and playing football, go do it. You don't know when is your time to go. Like, you don't know these ailments are gonna happen. We have guys, LT was the baddest motherfucker out there. We don't know how many concussions he sustained. We probably know how many he had given out. But all the guys that he hit or guys that were concussed, even our concussions. Like the small ones we were just talking about, right? They say it's the small ones that are the bad ones over time that you sustain. It's not always the knockout shots that creates the fencing. So, we don't really know the real science behind it. We get to a point where we're older, we're diagnosed with these things.

• 17:45Fred Taylor?

  We just gotta be able to look back and say, man, we had a hell of a run. Something was gonna take me out, don't know what it is. Um, but we know death is guaranteed. Tua shouldn't look at Brett Favre's situation and be afraid. He should go and live his life and have fun. Like, he can retire tomorrow and get hit by a fucking bus. Sorry, we don't fucking know, right? Live your life, man, love your life.

• 18:11Channing Crowder?

  You can be asleep for real or you get hit by a bus.

• 18:13Fred Taylor?

  Love what you do and, and, and, and don't be afraid, man.

• 18:18Channing Crowder?

  But I'll tell you, I am, I'm scared. Not right now, but what the future holds. Because recently, I just, we just saw, we just saw Vernon Davis at the, um, Black Quarterbacks, uh, Evolution of Black Quarterbacks with Mike Vick and them. Just saw Vernon, made me think about Vontae Davis. And I think that has something to do mentally, because I just talked to Tay. We've talked about it, just talked to Tay months before that. Junior Sayal shot himself in the chest because he, he wanted them to have his brain. So I am worried, but on the other side of that, I think about the, we can go to the Tony Gonzalez's. We can go to the Tom Brady's who's doing TV. Hell, the Ryan Clarks.

• 19:02Channing Crowder?

  We go to the Fred Taylors, who I go to for investment advice. There are so many guys that got the hell knocked out of them that didn't go those, those measures and it didn't affect them in that way. So I don't know if I'm gonna go that way. I have bad days. Is it because of football or is it because I'm a human that has bad days? And so I am worried when I think about my friends that lives are now taken. And I don't know if it's because of the football. And I'll be honest, with Brett Favre, I'll be honest. The Parkinson's thing, if that has to do with football, like the doctor said, RC, I fully understand and I would agree with that if the doctor said. For him to be in a lawsuit with stealing money.

• 19:49Channing Crowder?

  And putting that into it, don't get pity off what my goddamn friends might have died off of. And that's as soon as I read that Brett Favre story, I'm like, yeah, so you stealing money from Mississippi? Oh yeah, I got Parkinson's. Motherfucker, you were stealing. So that's my thing with Brett. Brett, if, if, all love, I hope you do well. I hope you can, you can work through this medical condition. But don't use the thing, the CTE, the brain injury, the trauma, all of that that Junior and Tate went through, to try to make people feel bad for you because you were stealing money, consciously stealing money. And that's my thing on Brett. I hope he's fine, but don't use it as a crutch because I know other people

• 20:31Channing Crowder?

  that use football head injuries as a crutch and that shit gets to me. Because I have friends that's died because of those injuries. Don't use that shit to try to get sympathy off me.

• 20:42Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I, one, no matter how people take this, I have zero sympathy for Brett Favre. In the way that he decided to present it and when he decided to present it. I agree with you. It's not a conversation. I have a lot about Brett Favre stealing money and the way that he was treated opposed to the way that if you did it, you'd be treated. If you did it, you'd be treated. If I did it, I'd be treated. And so I think that's an entirely another conversation. But I do look at Brett Favre deciding to share that he had Parkinson's, however convenient it is to share it now.

• 21:23Ryan Clark?

  And it does make me think about our lives. Makes me think about my child's life, right? I've watched my child play football, tackle football since he was eight years old. But it was his choice. I mean, let it out to be his choice. The one thing I don't want to do when I think about the effects of whether it be CTE, football, is I never wanted to be alive and never have lived.

• 21:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. Right, I, I, I didn't want to be breathing until I died. Like just waiting for something to happen. Right, just always thinking about what's the next shoe to drop. Very well could be messed up. You know what I'm saying, I very well could lose it, you know, Brett Favres Parkinson's can absolutely have something to do with football. But Ozzy Osbourne didn't play football. All I saw Michael J. Fox do was play Back to the Future and be Teen Wolf growing up. Linda Ronstadt, she never put on a helmet.

• 22:25Ryan Clark?

  Right, there are, there are all these other people that suffer from these things, like the old women that I walk around or that you see that have dementia that can't remember their, their grandchildren's names. Or their sons, or they look at their son and call them by their husbands' names. Like all of these things happen, but what happens with us is when it's us, it has to be football, which it very well could be. And I think that part sometimes grinds my gears because it's like. Everybody, like you, you applaud it, you, you watch it, you wish you could do it, you wish it could be you.

• 23:02Ryan Clark?

  And then, once it's over, right, and once people don't live in it no more, once people don't necessarily, aren't necessarily directly benefiting from it. It's, oh my gosh, what could it be now? I don't have time to think about that. Right, like it's, it's, I can't go back and un-hit Willis McGahey. Right, I can't, I can't go back and pull off of Wes Welker because the ball was tipped. Right. Right, like I can't go back and push Stephen Jackson out of bounds. Instead of saying, hey, no, I want to see you at 6'3", 235, be at 5'11", 200, I want to see if you're a better man than me. And I don't want to change that.

• 23:46Ryan Clark?

  Like I, I don't want, I don't want to be a different human. Right, like you always ask the great question, what made you that? That, right? Like, that's why I walk around in life, maybe effed up. I don't walk around in life in fear. And maybe I should. Maybe I should be more aware. Maybe I should be less aloof. But I'm not is because I know I've stared down some things that other people don't want to stare down. And I know I can't control what happens going forward. It does suck that Brett Favre has Parkinson's. It sucked to see Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest figures of all time, turn into that. It's hard, right? And it's hard for everybody. But I just don't know. Like, I just don't know.

• 24:30Ryan Clark?

  And this is, and this may be sad for other people. There is nothing else in life I would have rather be known as, rather do, than play football. There's nothing. And, and, and, and I just think that's it.

• 24:44Channing Crowder?

  Well, RC, that's the question, though, because Tua, at this venture, he can go and not have to deal with that. Not have to deal with another fencing, not have to deal with that. And that's the thing. Us, as 40-year-olds, we sit back and say, we're gonna change the thing. Tua could change something right now. And I think that's the question. If we should, if we should move, if, if he should have, if he should have the option of saying, "I don't want to have that third, fifth, eighth, ninth, 11th concussion."

• 25:12Ryan Clark?

  I think he certainly, you know, has the option. But it also brings you to, like, you gotta make as much money as you can and when you're capable. We got so many quarterbacks that we get to talk about on this show as the season starts. And Justin Herbert is a little banged up. Don't know if he's gonna go this week, but that's not keeping him from doing great things. So shout out to both Justin Herbert and our sponsor of this show, SoFi. And just for what they're doing in the athletic sports community. You think about how we all have been involved in sports, but the cost keeps so many teams out and away from being able to fulfill some of their dreams of playing sports. And that's why what SoFi and Justin Herbert are doing is so meaningful.

• 25:56Channing Crowder?

  Man, I love SoFi. The all-in-one financing app, you gotta download that app, get it. They're helping the kids, because like you said, RC, we know how sports can affect young teens, and they're helping them. Justin Herbert, man, big shout out to you.

• 26:09Fred Taylor?

  You know, on here, we always talking about financial literacy and generational wealth. What I love the most about this is through SoFi's Generational Wealth Fund, they're giving $100,000 to public high schools across the country. Fifty thousand to one high school and ten thousand dollars to five other high schools. I think that's simply amazing. I wish that was around when I was in high school.

• 26:31Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, and that's beautiful. Like we say, we understand how sports can change a team's life. And SoFi, the all-in-one finance app, along with Los Angeles Charger Justin Herbert, they're teaming up to do just that for so many young people.

• 26:43Channing Crowder?

  Man, it's awesome what SoFi is doing. Justin Herbert, like I said, a big shout out to you. Let's jump back to the show. No person necessary. Fifty USDC. Eighteen plus who are nominees and either parent, guardians of the public high school students, a current or former high school athlete, or employed by a public high school. Void where prohibited by law. Contest entry period ends at 6:59 59 a.m. Pacific time, 10:07 24. Subject to official rules, including methods of entry, limited prizes, and judging criteria. SoFiGameCenter.com sponsors Social Finance LLC.

• 27:06Ryan Clark?

  That's why my dog at UNLV, like, I'll holler at y'all, though. Hey, what's his name? I feel funny about this. Matthew Sluka.

• 27:14Fred Taylor?

  Sluka, Sluka.

• 27:16Ryan Clark?

  Sluka, you gotta make your money the best you can. And now, in college, they're allowing kids to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. You know, Matthew, I think it's Sluka, Sluka, whatever his name is. Goes to UNLV, comes from Holy Cross, where he was that boy. He was like first or second in passing yards, rushing touchdowns. He was first. Like, FCS, he holds a lot of numbers. You go there, they've beaten two Big 12 teams already, and my man like, yeah, y'all made a commitment, and apparently, at least from what I'm reading, that commitment has been fulfilled. But now that the team is better, he feels like his numbers are rising. He said, I kinda want a little bit more, and I could be wrong here.

• 28:02Ryan Clark?

  But he goes in, and he says he can see that those things will not be fulfilled going forward. There were some requirements or some things that they decided to do, and now those things aren't happening. What do you think about this new world? Where it's true capitalism for these student athletes. We're like, nah, you ain't doing what I want and I'm balling? I'm out.

• 28:24Fred Taylor?

  Let me just say real quick, this reminds me a lot of what you and I went through on that other situation. You gotta get your paperwork right, Matthew. I'm sorry. It was some verbal agreements made by Matthew and assistant coach, not the head coach. We talking about a middle man. On top of that, their NIL, their collective, the UNILV, friends of UNILV. They tried to get creative, they put the NIL in there. They said it wasn't a formal offer made to young Mr. Matthew during the recruitment process. So as much as I hate it for the young man that he's balling, one.

• 29:07Fred Taylor?

  And he wants to be compensated above and beyond whatever that agreement was. I think it was like 100K. Allegedly, he's only received 300, I mean, $3,000. You gotta have that ink dry and contract gotta be in place. Before you get out there and do your thing, as much as we all wanna see Jamar Chase get paid. You know, he took it upon himself to go and get a Lloyd's London insurance packet. I think it was like 50 million to ensure his body for this season. In the event that he get injured and don't get the 100 million deal like Jettas and these other receivers have gotten. Which is a smart deal, Jamar, way to go.

• 29:52Fred Taylor?

  He know that the contract hadn't been done yet. You gotta get the contract done before you can make these demands. Otherwise, you're just gonna be, you know, in the portal in December and have to transfer and go try it again. And now you're a 23, 24, 25 year old, five, six year, seven year college player. And it's unfortunate, but as these young guys are learning how to do business. We had this thing on the show with Stoud and he mentioned about Nicky not signing a deal with that whole thing. You gotta get the deal signed. And it's unfortunate if he didn't get the deal signed, which is a lot of what's come out since he, you know, mentioned transferring.

• 30:37Fred Taylor?

  Verbal commitments, ain't shit.

• 30:41Fred Taylor?

  I committed to Florida State. I changed. Guys commit all the time. They change. Verbal commitments are worthless. And then there was a middleman. So keep balling, young man. I hope you love the game. Hope y'all can figure it out. But right now, it's zero. No grounds, nothing to stand on.

• 31:01Channing Crowder?

  The phrase NIL wasn't even in our vocabulary when this podcast started.

• 31:07Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 31:08Channing Crowder?

  It's hard to find something new in 2024. All these smart motherfuckers in the world trying to figure shit out. NIL is something new. We knew there would be repercussions. Every action is a reaction. We don't know what's gonna happen when a college athlete wants to renegotiate. That's a professional thing. It's just like when NFL guys, you talking about Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, them boys want new deals because Jamar saw, Ryan interviewed him the other day on Monday Night Football. Jamar saw everybody getting paid and a professional can say, I want a new contract. Athletes in college, it just started. How can I renegotiate an NIL?

• 31:48Channing Crowder?

  Because NIL just started. Colleges right now, with this situation with Matt, what's his name? Matthew, yeah. Matthew, they have to figure it out now. I need to, I bring up somebody else. What about the Florida State quarterback? DJ, what is it? I could call him DJ U. Ugugula, whatever his name is. They bring that man in, gave him half a million dollars. I looked it up. You think they want to continue to give him half a million dollars sitting in 1-3?

• 32:17Channing Crowder?

  They don't. But NIL is not like the league.

• 32:20Fred Taylor?

  It ain't dry.

• 32:21Channing Crowder?

  Jamar Chase has a contract signed to play, but he wants more money. Higgins has a contract signed to play. He wants more money. That's why they playing. They ain't got no choice. They have, and they out there doing their thing. So this kid signed a contract for 100 grand.

• 32:37Fred Taylor?

  No, he didn't.

• 32:37Channing Crowder?

  Some backup coach told him he'll get more money if he balls. It is a new thing and that's why this, I love this story. And when we said we gonna talk about, I said, I love this story because now they are professional athletes. He didn't have an agent. Every professional athlete or most of them, we know that.

• 32:54Ryan Clark?

  Now, now he's going out and gotten an agent and I think that's why the conversations are where they are now.

• 32:59Channing Crowder?

  When did we have agents? We got our little $1,200 a month scholarship check and we love that we lived in the dorms. It's different now and with every action, the NIL is the action. We don't know the reactions and now we're seeing the reactions of paying kids a half a million dollars a year to play.

• 33:18Ryan Clark?

  Well, the other thing is too, it's the NIL landscape is such a cluster fluff. Because Mark Emret, who's a crook.

• 33:27Channing Crowder?

  Mark Emret.

• 33:29Ryan Clark?

  Who's a crook that runs the NCAA, decided that he was gonna be hands off with it. Right? And because he was hands off with, he's now allowed collectives and universities and student athletes to create this thing that nobody has any control over. And so for me, whatever's going on with Matthew at UNLV, I say do whatever's best for you. Now, here's what's effed up about it if you're his teammate. We're at UNLV, we just beat Kansas, right? We're 3-0. We, we got 16 votes. We're 16 votes behind Boise State. We could move into the top 25. There are now 12 teams that get into the college football playoff. What if we go undefeated and we get there?

• 34:12Ryan Clark?

  Matthew's still thinking though, man, I just came from Holy Cross, right? I know good and dang well, I saw that boy from Colorado State say he passed up $600,000. And I watched him play last Saturday night or last Friday night, whatever it was, against Colorado. He's not that good. And so if you offering him $600,000, what would I get now that I shown you at UNLV, right? In Division 1 against Big 12 teams, this is what I could do, what I'm gonna get. And so now you go to your university and you say, I know what we talked about. I know what the discussion was, but I think that discussion should now have a new tenure, tenor to it. I think it should have a different layer to it.

• 34:55Ryan Clark?

  And the colleges and the universities can say, nah, that's not what we gonna do. And guess what? It's built in that I can now transfer. That if I haven't played in four games, I can use my red shirt and go make that money. If you're Matthew, here's your thought process, right? Coming out of high school, at least at that time, I was only good enough to go to Holy Cross. Even with a record-setting career at Holy Cross, it was only UNLV. What are the chances that I'm gonna make hundreds of millions of dollars playing quarterback in the NFL? That is not guaranteed to me. But what could be guaranteed is I could go somewhere else and be paid more money. You mentioned DJ at Florida State. Got half a million.

• 35:40Ryan Clark?

  You know, I'm sure Riley Leonard at Notre Dame got a good bit of money from their collective. Right? All of these quarterbacks, Gabriel that goes to Oregon. All of these quarterbacks, none of them are leaving for less money than they would get at the school that they are. And so if he's looking at it like that, you won't re-up me. Somebody will. They are paying for quarterbacks who aren't even good. I'm not promised that I'm gonna make money in the league. This may be my only opportunity to capitalize off of name, image, and likeness. And unfortunately, the other piece of it is this, dawg. I remember when I started, I didn't start until like I become a full-time starter in college until my third year. I was so proud because I had to earn it.

• 36:25Ryan Clark?

  I played behind all these dudes that got drafted. I played nickel. I played some at free safety. I played in all these different positions, but then when it finally was my spot, I knew I earned that. I knew that the guys I was out there with had to earn it the same way. And I was a part of the love we all had for LSU. This dude ain't got no love for UNLV. This ain't even where I committed out of school. You ain't recruit me. Nope. I'm here because I'm a mercenary. I'm here for the check. I'm here for this check. And if that check ain't inking like I want it, that direct deposit ain't looking like I want that direct deposit to look, I'm gone. And like, I get it. I'm gonna tell you what. I know Steve Staub, wish he had LinkedIn.

• 37:07Ryan Clark?

  Man, this man going from music business to advertising, back to the music business. Shoot, you had LinkedIn, it wouldn't take him but 24 hours to find somebody qualified. 86% of the small businesses that post a job, find somebody great in 24 hours.

• 37:22Channing Crowder?

  Man, y'all know I'm dibbling and dabbling in some businesses. I'm not, I'm not Steve now, but I go on LinkedIn and qualified candidates right there on the site. They only have to be looking for a new job, but they want to see what the options are. And LinkedIn gives them them options and I appreciate LinkedIn because they are gonna find the best candidate for you for that job.

• 37:42Fred Taylor?

  Look, like me, LinkedIn knows that small businesses are wearing so many hats. They don't have the resources or time to get the hiring process right. So guess what they do? They're finding so many different ways to make the process much easier for these businesses. That's why I personally love it. Listen, you want to sign up with my job? Go to LinkedIn, my job, my job.

• 38:04Ryan Clark?

  Your job?

• 38:05Fred Taylor?

  My job.

• 38:05Ryan Clark?

  They can't take this job, but we can probably try to give them another one. We need a lot of help, anyway. And if they want to do that, man, they can post their job on LinkedIn.com/pivotpodcast. That's LinkedIn.com/pivotpodcast.

• 38:19Channing Crowder?

  You gotta hire professionals like a professional on LinkedIn.com.

• 38:23Fred Taylor?

  They even just launched a feature that helps you write job description. That makes the whole hiring process that much easier. Go to LinkedIn.

• 38:33Channing Crowder?

  Well, I just want to bring up, you remember Josh Hamilton, Georgia Tech quarterback?

• 38:37Ryan Clark?

  Yes.

• 38:38Channing Crowder?

  Bro, he ran Atlanta, because he's a little bit older than me. He was famous in Atlanta. I might have more money than him being at Georgia Tech. I want to bring up Chris Lee, Cardale Jones.

• 38:49Ryan Clark?

  Yes.

• 38:50Channing Crowder?

  Bro, think about the quarterbacks that ran college football, that didn't make it in the league, that could have had 3-4 million dollars to start life. That's why I love NIL for those names right there. How much money could Tim Tebow have made at Florida? Tim Tebow built Gainesville. Gainesville, the infrastructure, for you back me up. Honestly, the infrastructure of Gainesville changed after Tebow Urban Meyer time. We have a damn building over six floors. Tebow came in, they won them two national championships and the infrastructure of Florida changed. Tebow could have made millions of dollars a year off NIL. So I love NIL. But now we have to deal with the repercussions of a change. And that's what these guys are trying to figure out.

• 39:32Channing Crowder?

  The NCAA fucked Mark Emmert, he don't do shit. I wish I had his job. I don't know how much he make, but it's too much.

• 39:37Ryan Clark?

  I want it. To do nothing? I just gotta wear my suit and just be like, you know what? I don't, I don't, I don't really know what they're saying about that, but I'm not touching it.

• 39:47Channing Crowder?

  He walk in at nine o'clock, throw his hands in the air, leave, go home at nine, 10. Fuck Mark Emmert, I don't know what he does. But they're trying to figure out what to do with this. And I love, and, and it's, um, UNLV quarterback. Bro, I just love the conversations that have to happen now because now they are not, they are not amateurs anymore. Y'all talked about, I think I heard Swag or somebody talking about ESPN. People criticize the kids more than how they get paid. And they should. But a 17, 18 year old is not.

• 40:16Ryan Clark?

  Actually, Deion Sanders said, we used to not attack kids. And attack young men that play college ball. But now that they make more money than you do, you feel like you can attack them, which is fair, right? If you are, you are, if you are, you are now paid to do a job. I should be able to critique you like somebody that's paid to do a job. We talked to Tom the other night though. When we saw Tom, and remember Tom was talking about what does this teach kids though? The fact that you could just leave. The fact that you don't have to, to fight if the money is better somewhere else. He was like, what about learning to fight through adversity? What about learning to, to, to grind? Right? Like all of those things. And he made a good point.

• 40:59Ryan Clark?

  He pointed at Channing. He's like, Channing's not Channing without having to fight through what he had to fight through. He said, Ty Domey is not Ty Domey. Ryan Clark's not Ryan Clark. Tom Brady's not Tom Brady. What do you think about that piece of it?

• 41:12Fred Taylor?

  You know what? I, I think, I love that, you know, Tom is button up. Tom is Tom, right? The greatest, the greatest ever. You talk about integrity. Let's go back to what this country. has been built on. We talk about capitalism. We're slipping away from the integrity and leadership in this country. And everything always comes back to capitalism. This is where we are. This is the landscape, even college football. I think the lesson here, in my opinion, there's a lesson to be learned for the other young players out there who are being compensated, who might have the potential to be compensated, the high schoolers. Because in Florida, we have high school NIL.

• 41:55Fred Taylor?

  Like, you have to be able to get your business affairs in order. The one thing that the high schoolers and these other college guys that have potential to collect NIL compensation, what they can learn from it is you have to follow through. You have to get these contracts done. And when that ink is dry and it's more so than a verbal situation, then it's in a paperwork. Then you let your representation, your agents, your attorneys handle it. Much like what Reggie Bush is about to do. You know, in suing the NCAA, USC, the Pac-12 for NIL, because they've made millions of dollars off of his image, name, image and likeness, more so than he did.

• 42:38Fred Taylor?

  So we don't want the players to be in that situation. But if you handle your business now, and maybe I skipped over a bit of what Tom mentioned about integrity, but they'll learn a lot, a lot other values in life, which I hope comes back to them maintaining a sense of integrity as they journey and matriculate throughout life.

• 43:01Channing Crowder?

  Honestly, I say the cream will rise to the top. With that question, the dudes that play, the dudes that have that dog in them, the dudes gonna do it, they gonna do it no matter how much money they have or don't have. I think it's gonna be guys without NILs that ball out.

• 43:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:14Channing Crowder?

  And I think it's gonna be guys with money that falter. But I still think, you talked about it earlier, that thought of that you can't look at that receiver running that cross and know I'm about to go break his shoulder pads? I don't think that's gonna leave the people that really can do what they do. Freddie T, I don't think he sees that real linebacker, know I can bop, bop, bop his ass once or twice and hit him for 90. I think that the cream is still gonna rise to the top through NIL and any changes that are made.

• 43:43Ryan Clark?

  You know, I just love, I love the landscape of it. And I think I love how it matures these young men.

• 43:51Ryan Clark?

  Right, because in dealing with it with Jordan, I was able to advise him. I never pushed him in any in any way. Right, and you know your kids, like you could feel their energy. Two years ago, when Herm was fired and Kenny Dillingham was coming in, I was like, hey, Jordan, what are you thinking? And he's like, well, I'm gonna go talk to him, Papa. I'm gonna see what he says. I'm gonna see where he wants to take the program. And he had that conversation and he felt he should stay. And at the time, I didn't feel that way. Right at the time, I was like, nah, this is, you know, Ricky Pearsall had left. Jaden Daniels had left. I wanted him to be a part of that 2019 class that went off to other places and were able

• 44:33Ryan Clark?

  to see different sorts of success and play in different venues that now people viewed them from a lens outside of Arizona State like, oh, you can go. Jaden Daniels doesn't become the second overall pick at Arizona State. He just doesn't. He doesn't grow in a way to be the quarterback he is. He's not put in those situations, right? I didn't, to me, Jaden Daniels didn't run from Arizona State. He ran to LSU. Ricky Pearsall didn't run from Arizona State. He ran to Florida to become a first round pick. And I think Jordan made his decision to now be at Notre Dame as an adult. Right? It was, yeah, I'm gonna talk to my pops and I'm gonna give him all the options and all the thoughts, but it's your decision to make.

• 45:18Ryan Clark?

  And now he sits in his decision every day, no matter what happens, wins, losses, good days, bad days. And he gets to understand that I put myself here. How do I live through it? And so I do think the NIL and the transfer portal, we may lose a little bit of what it's like to stay in one place and grind. But you gotta put the work in somewhere. Yep. Right? And now it adds the decision making of, and what you said earlier, the action, reaction, the decision consequence of, if you're Matthew at UNLV, I decided to come here because I was promised, or I thought that this was the situation.

• 46:01Ryan Clark?

  I have now outplayed at least the situation I agreed to when I got here, or I feel like some things aren't fulfilled. I have to go make an adult decision. Whereas for us, it wasn't an adult decision to make because I wasn't going to play at Southern. If I had to wait six years at LSU, I was going to play at LSU or I wasn't going to play anywhere. And so I do think there's so many different ways to look at it. And the other piece that it adds is if you're DJ, right? If you're Riley, because I see it firsthand, the expectations on who you need to be. When they give you this money is way different. There is no patience of you're a young man, you're a kid figuring out life and ball.

• 46:45Ryan Clark?

  It's hey, you better do what the hell we went got you to do.

• 46:48Channing Crowder?

  And they won in three DJ.

• 46:50Fred Taylor?

  But that's a, that's a perfect segue into what we're seeing with, with, with Bryce Young. We give you this bread, these expectations are here. You know, look at what's going on in Jacksonville with Trevor. We just gave you this 250 Trevor. We, we, we 0 and 8 in your last eight. Starting starts, no sir, that, that, that can't happen.

• 47:14Ryan Clark?

  And they stuck like Chuck too Fred, so I don't, they, they can say it can't happen all they want.

• 47:19Fred Taylor?

  No, it's bad. No, it, it, it's been bad and y'all know me. You know, I'm a run with Duval, I'm a rock with my Jags man and, but a lot of times, like I told my guys on the radio show, post game and all that. I said, I'm turning to y'all, you know, that these, these, these real journalistic takes. As a former player, been in a locker room, we, we know how the media spoke about us. But if you're a baller, you're a dog, you accepted that. You knew when your shit stunk, you knew when you messed up a play, you had a back, like, like Saquon.

• 47:51Ryan Clark?

  I was miserable about it already.

• 47:52Fred Taylor?

  You miserable, like Saquon, the big third down drop, he come back the, the following week. He lit the Saints up, you know what I'm saying? Big, big ball plays. So you have to have that sort of, be that caliber player, have that mindset and know that any moment, I'm gonna be good. Like, so in speaking post game about the Jaguars, just quick on, on Trevor and the Jags.

• 48:17Fred Taylor?

  That expectation comes with those new contracts. You always gotta feel like you wanna go out there and not let the fans down, not let the front office down and play up to those standards that you know you're capable. But that money just magnifies everything and it puts you there, right? So he has not played well, even prior to getting it. He has to play better. The team has to play better. The coaches gotta play better across the board. But back to Bryce, you mentioned the expectation, whether you're young. Bryce had not, I don't know if it's the Panthers. I believe it's more of the Panthers than Bryce, or at least that's just the way I look at it. Think he's a much better player.

• 49:00Fred Taylor?

  I hate to send him in this situation, but the expectations, we give you this money. NIL, same thing, you gotta get out there. We don't care about your age now. We wanna see results. And sometimes when you do get results, Jamar Chase, going back to that results, you don't always get compensated accordingly. So it's a tricky business. College football, the landscape is more of a business now. It's been a business on the NCAA side, but for the players itself, NIL, all that stuff, it's a business. So what Matthew did, I think was a cool decision by him trying to salvage that red shirt season, transfer out of there. Hopefully he can get somewhere and pick up where he left off.

• 49:42Fred Taylor?

  But yeah, man, when you get this check, these people, they want their return.

• 49:48Ryan Clark?

  That's the thing you think, you know, you look at Trevor, you look at some of these other guys, like they ain't rookies no more. And we know what it was like to be rookies and make, you know, rookie mistakes. But cool part is, Snickers don't care.

• 50:03Channing Crowder?

  Boy, these boys got my, I had to buy my own Snickers in college, damn it. I need me in I L to get me a Snicker. I have a thousand of them.

• 50:11Ryan Clark?

  Shoot, Chan, you talk about buying your own Snickers. Man, shoot, I used to damn near get girlfriends to try to help me get Snickers in college 'cause we wasn't getting that NIL money. At least, at least she was able to get a job and take care of me. But that, you know, that probably was a rookie mistake, 'cause I'm sure. They weren't happy about that, but whether it's dropping the pass, not making the right play, missing a check defensively was something I always did. You know, Snickers is now taking care of us for making the rookie mistakes. If you go to snickers.com/rookie mistakes and enter now, you can actually win an opportunity for tickets to the Super Bowl, and you can go to the big game in New Orleans.

• 50:52Fred Taylor?

  My biggest rookie mistake is I got injured. I went to Gainesville thinking that my coach wasn't gonna see me on the national televised game. I got back to Jacksonville, I got fine. I needed a Snickers back then.

• 51:05Channing Crowder?

  Man, Snickers, they gave me a little jump because I had to call the plays sometimes. That was Ricky do- you talked about it, RC. Yeah, I gotta make this check. Oh, we supposed to be in four, we in two. I can't get us in four. You know, I'm tired. It's the end of the game. I ain't played this long before. The quarters in college are shorter. But you gotta get out to the store, get you a Snickers or two, and you enter snickers.com and have a chance to win. You say Super Bowl tickets, bro?

• 51:31Ryan Clark?

  Super Bowl tickets. Chan, it ain't even just about winning tickets to the big game. If you enter snickers.com/rookie mistake, you can win weekly prizes that allows your game days to be way different than they were before you entered. So remember, that's snickers.com/rookie mistake.

• 51:50Fred Taylor?

  The biggest mistake they can make right now is not going to snickers.com and signing up.

• 51:55Ryan Clark?

  They need to make sure they do that, but we gonna be at the Super Bowl anyway. The Jacksonville Jaguars, as Fred mentioned, they probably won't be. The Carolina Panthers either, but it does make you think, right? We all talked about situations and the situation Bryce was in. And basically, we were all pissed off with David Tepper, Dave Canales. One, Bryce is our guy. We were all mad like, hey, can't nobody go in that situation and play. And then Andy Dalton comes out, he's playing against our other guy, AP, and Andy Dalton snapped. He ain't look like that since Cincinnati, right? And it makes you think about like the pressures to me of playing that position.

• 52:37Ryan Clark?

  Bryce Young is essentially in like his second tryout for a new coach. And he's had, he had Frank Reich through half the year, then you have a different coach. Now Dave Canales comes in, and he don't have no tie to you. Right, like, and so Dave Canal is looking at it, how do I win this week? How do I evaluate the rest of my players? Who gives me the best chance to do that? And who gives me the best chance to keep my job? This dude fired Frank Wright and got him up out of here quickly. You see what I'm saying? And so he's thinking to himself, let me make this thing look like professional football. I can't go out and get blown out by the Chargers a week after I get blown out by the New Orleans Saints. The only thing I didn't love that he did was when he got into the locker room

• 53:22Ryan Clark?

  in what was a complete team win, and I get it, you want to praise Andy Dalton. He reads off Andy Dalton's stats. If you know you have a young man in that locker room that is clearly struggling with the decision, putting on his best face, continuing to be a great teammate, after the way that he struggled early on in his career, maybe losing or feeling like he's lost his dream to be all he could be. To me, don't bring it in the locker room and throw it in the face. Look what our decision did, right? Don't, don't, don't say, hey, see, this is all it was. I could coach, right? We got good players. Our quarterback can't play. And I think it's all about how you're supported. It's also who you are and how you play. It's how you're supported, who are the people around you?

• 54:06Ryan Clark?

  And I just feel like in that situation, I didn't love the way that part was handled. But in watching that team play this week, obviously they had to go forward. It's like I can't really be mad with the decision.

• 54:20Channing Crowder?

  But failing, with failing you learn. I go to Raheem, my homeboy, Raheem Morris, you know, that's the OG. We love him, been on the show a number of times. When they saw Kurt in the shotgun, and then they come back and put Kurt on the center, and you see what he did. He ended up winning the big game. You can look around when, when guys have to pivot. They can pivot. The great, the great teams have to adjust to things. New Orleans Saints, bitch, they were scoring 40 points a game, and then when it got shut out last week. Because people seen it and good coaches adjust, and that was the adjustment. I don't just think flat out Andy Dalton is better than Bryce Young in football. I can't say that. But I think when Bryce left.

• 55:02Channing Crowder?

  They constructed an offense that accentuated Andy Dalton's strengths. And that's what people do. And like, as you see it, bring up another friend, Mike Tomlin. And with the Steelers, the defense is crazy. What they giving up, nine points a game or something crazy. They choking them out. They're taking Justin Fields, who Chicago gave up on, and they're winning games with him.

• 55:24Ryan Clark?

  And he's playing well, though. It's not just.

• 55:26Channing Crowder?

  And he's not going for 350 a game, but he's gonna get the runs when they need the runs. They're gonna matriculate down the field. They gonna snap the ball with two seconds left on the clock. They're gonna have a shorter game. They're gonna play it out because Mike knows what the hell he's doing. So you have to adjust. Good coaches adjust. And I don't want to say there's great coaches in Carolina. I just want to say the failure of what was going on with Carolina and Bryce Young changed them to say, let's put Andy in a better situation than Bryce Young. I don't know what Bryce can be.

• 55:57Ryan Clark?

  I think the other.

• 55:58Channing Crowder?

  I like Bryce. I like Bryce's family. I don't know what he is yet.

• 56:02Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, and I think, though, it points to who the people are, right? When we look at, at least, the most successful quarterback drafted last year is C.J. Stroud.

• 56:15Ryan Clark?

  There is a poise, a calmness, an understanding of just life in general that from the first time we sat down with him before his last year at Ohio State, we all walked away and we were like, whoa. Okay, he got it. And we didn't even know how talented he was. But we knew the intangibles and the person had what he needed to be successful, had what he needed to deal with adversity. And as far as I'm concerned, when you sat, when we sat with Jaden after he won the Heisman, right? The calm, right? The peace, the poise. Even watching him interact with his family, who seemed to be, you know, especially his mom, like, his mom's on it, right?

• 56:59Ryan Clark?

  She's into everything and she's making sure things go right. And he's like, no, it's cool. Well, that's okay, right? Oh, I can move around that. And then you see the way that he's played thus far this season in a situation that we didn't think was as good as Chicago. And Caleb having to now adjust and do things. And so I think it's all about like who these dudes are and who these dudes are surrounded by and the way that they're supported.

• 57:24Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, and you talking real quick about who they're being surrounded by. What I like to see for Bryce is for him to take this, right? Experience and just learn from it. Do not lose your confidence. Don't waver. I think he can be better in a different situation, maybe a different system. We know systems matter. We all can agree to that. We still think he's talented. We still think he's able to play in this league. Uh, he has to go out and prove it. So with that, I just want to say Bryce, man, try your best to keep your head up, maintain your confidence. You'll be back.

• 58:00Ryan Clark?

  But he got to leave Carolina.

• 58:02Fred Taylor?

  That's what I said, a different situation. He got to leave Carolina. That's what I'm talking about.

• 58:06Ryan Clark?

  I think like for me, the big thing that I care about is even on this guaranteed contract and the way that the league works now, Bryce Young has enough money. Bryce Young, at least I feel, is Bryce Young is a smart, good human. He's going to be okay as far as his life. I want him to be emotionally strong. I want him to be mentally healthy, right? I want him to feel and be in a place where he understands that Bryce Young has worth. I agree with you, Chan. The film I saw at Alabama, that's a man that could play quarterback in this league. The film I saw the first two weeks in Carolina, that is not. And I think that's why Dave made that decision. But to me, that's not the whole of who that player is.

• 58:49Ryan Clark?

  And in the right position, in the right system, I believe he can be good. Chan, man, you been watching the Yankees? Juan Soto killing them this year.

• 58:59Channing Crowder?

  Oh, boy, they might win it all. Juan and big, big Judge and them boys got, man, they gonna do something.

• 59:05Ryan Clark?

  And bruh, the Soto shuffle? Hey, that's my joint. You think you could do it?

• 59:10Channing Crowder?

  I, I can try, but I ain't gonna disrespect Juan like that. The man himself, I like to watch him do it.

• 59:15Ryan Clark?

  And your knees touch too, so that probably.

• 59:17Channing Crowder?

  My Kenny Smith ain't gonna do it.

• 59:20Ryan Clark?

  Hey, Fanatics is offering a once in a lifetime experience to meet Juan Soto. All they gotta do is download the Fanatics app and play free daily games. And bruh, you might get a chance to learn the Soto Shuffle from the man himself.

• 59:38Ryan Clark?

  I have a question I want to ask you guys, because I know we have to finish. Like, what we do, man, is like, we give game, right? And sometimes we do these three-man shows, and we jump into sports, and we're talking about all these different things, and we try to give game on life in that. I asked somebody this question earlier, and I want to ask you guys. And it's gonna be difficult to answer off the cuff. It's like, the biggest pivot, if you ain't know what the biggest pivot was, and you were coming on the show. And so either one of you could take it first. We all know what mission statements are for organizations, universities, for businesses, right? If at 44, 48, I believe, and 40, right? Am I right? Yeah. Someone said, "From today forward, what is your mission statement? What would it be?"

• 1:00:23Fred Taylor?

  Oh, jeez.

• 1:00:26Channing Crowder?

  That's a bitch, there.

• 1:00:27Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, it's a... Man, that's a really good one.

• 1:00:29Channing Crowder?

  That's a grown man now.

• 1:00:31Fred Taylor?

  That's a really good one, RC. It's sort of like the pivot question.

• 1:00:34Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I think, because like, in my thinking, it's like, hey, this is... When people watch this show, it's if Fred, Channing, and Ryan... Ryan were interviewing or sitting with Fred, Channing, or Ryan sometimes. And when we talk about other people so much, and what they're going through, and how we see that, we don't get to share that part. You know, we always kind of get the, "I wish you'd interview... I wish I would do Channing, or I wish you would do Fred." And I think asking these questions at some point gives us an opportunity for people to see that. I can go first, because I read the book, so... And so I had to think about it before. Yeah. And I can go, especially after this week, right?

• 1:01:16Ryan Clark?

  We put the clip out last week about Andrew Schultz and black women, and...

• 1:01:23Ryan Clark?

  You know, you get all of this sort of praise for your understanding, for us being willing to tackle the topic, for us tackling the topic with compassion. And like when, when you get that praise, I'm sitting in my house or reading it, and I'm like, man, I wish they'd stop. Right? I, I wish they wouldn't see me in that way because of this one thing I believe or I said. I don't think bad things are always the whole of people. I don't think the good parts of us are always the whole of people. And sort of when you get that adulation, I'm like, man, but I've done this in life, and I've done this, and I think this, and I feel that way.

• 1:02:07Ryan Clark?

  And you make these decisions or quote unquote mistakes or things, and they don't always come to the light. And so like there's this perception of you that you wish you could debunk because you don't want to let people down. You know what I mean? Because you don't want to disappoint people because they build you up in this way that your imperfect self can't always live up to. And I think that would be my mission statement going forward is to the things that I believe, the things that I feel, the things that I think, the things that I say always match my actions.

• 1:02:51Ryan Clark?

  Right? The, that the, the human in me, right? The, the weakness in me, the shame in me, the embarrassments of me don't overpower the, the goodwill. Don't overpower the, the positivity. Don't overpower the, the discipline. You know, I think. We have now grown to a point to where we are probably more important than we deserve to be. You know, we matter more than we expected to. And I want to like have an impact on our culture, on our community,

• 1:03:35Ryan Clark?

  on people in general, in a positive way that is true to not how I just I think, or I believe, or I communicate, but how I live. And that would be my admission statement.

• 1:03:49Fred Taylor?

  In this show, I've spoke a lot about exposure leading to expansion, which really aligns with with growth. I try to display a sense of integrity in how I move. I do want to inspire, you know, our community, the pivot community, as well as the the local communities that I can touch on a tangible level. Here on the show, I want to do it through transparency and being selfless and and and being vulnerable.

• 1:04:22Fred Taylor?

  And hope that it can help inspire someone or maybe change someone else's trajectory, you know, in life. You know, I always go back to that one saying, it's never too late to pivot. I I truly believe in that. Whether you're 40, you're in your 30s, 40s, whatever it might be, it's never too late. And I think them seeing how we move, right, how I move and being an example. And we hear stories about these billionaires out there. They became multimillionaires or billionaires in their late 40s. Like, you still have time. So just reminding them of that, trying to, again, foster growth,

• 1:05:06Fred Taylor?

  trying to inspire, empower, and just really at the end of it all, just lead with positivity.

• 1:05:15Fred Taylor?

  I think that'll get us a lot further than a lot of other stuff in this world and this environment. That would be my approach and my mission statement.

• 1:05:24Channing Crowder?

  First thing popped in my mind, that's when I laughed. From Bernie Mac, God rest his soul, funniest dude, one of the funniest dudes I've ever seen in my life, on House Party when he was talking to Kid. If people don't like you for who you are, fuck them. Be yourself. If you're a shitty person, shit ain't gonna work out for you. If you're a good person, don't change for anybody else. Do what you do. One thing was living the positive. I see a lot of people that just grab on the negative in this world and you could see a hundred things happen in your day and the two negative quotes on Twitter or the two bad things that pop up or the negative, that's what you're gonna attach your day to. What about the 98 positives? Attach yourself to the positive, not the negative.

• 1:06:09Channing Crowder?

  And just work hard. One thing about you saying us being in a situation that we shouldn't be in, us being put on this pedestal, like athletically, I thought that, you know, educationally, really, school was easy to me, I thought that, but with this podcasting thing, people come up and ask me for like the secret. Somebody just asked me the other day about the secret of podcasting. I'm like, bro, it's not no secret. And the thing I tell them, I say, we haven't missed a Tuesday or Friday in over two years. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to grind and put out shows for two years, twice a week? And people start looking at the ground and shit. Be yourself, man.

• 1:06:50Channing Crowder?

  Work hard and really, to your point Fred, don't overlook the positive shit that happens in life, because a lot of, it's easy to be mad, it's hard to be happy. Anger is easy to be, because now you can be upset and now you can try to yell at people and do all that shit. Man, be happy. But first thing and foremost, Bernie Mac said it, if people don't accept you for being yourself, fuck them.

• 1:07:17Ryan Clark?

  Pivot fam, thank you guys for pivoting with us once again. We see you on Tuesday.

• 1:07:47Speaker 05

  Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

• 1:07:57Speaker 06

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Somemagnitide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?