Late night Convo: Hard Knocks, Zion Williamson, Chicago shooting & the pressures we face

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find After attending the Hollywood Unlocked Awards in LA, Ryan, Channing and Fred were up late and had a lot on their minds to talk about in sports, culture, life and everyday pressures we face. As they normally do, the trio doesn’t hold back and shares their perspective mixed with own experiences on certain topics, their own lives and how to navigate daily stresses and pressure we put on ourselves to be the best we can in all areas of life. 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.

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• 0:39Fred Taylor?

  Let's talk to my tennis shoes. I have a swimming pool. We get rid of cool, we get rid of fools.

• 0:49Fred Taylor?

  That's my reel that I'm posting.

• 0:53Ryan Clark?

  You know what, though? This is why it's funny. This is why it's very funny, when we have people walking through the show. I mean, that's really cool, too. But what's very funny is that you two can be so happy with what happened to y'all this week. Oh, we feeling good. Freddie T tweeting and texting during the game. Look at us, we won game two. We didn't even want to win it.

• 1:20Channing Crowder?

  Y'all didn't want to win game two?

• 1:22Ryan Clark?

  Chan, we weren't tripping on game two.

• 1:23Channing Crowder?

  I know, because I was getting y'all ass whooped.

• 1:25Ryan Clark?

  No.

• 1:25Channing Crowder?

  I understand what was happening, but you acting like it was just... Oh, OK, well, we're gonna let them beat us by 18 runs.

• 1:32Ryan Clark?

  No, you guys had like a five-run inning. And it's like, Florida Gators, we're so great. Oh, look at us. Caglioni, oh, we're gonna have a top-three pick. Guess what? We're gonna have one and two. And then what happened the next day? Y'all set a record. Look, we set a record for hits.

• 1:52Ryan Clark?

  We had a pitcher, best pitcher in the country. We warming him up, the man never had to pitch. We pitching freshmen, finishing the game, stunting on y'all. I bought y'all both, but because I know that you guys haven't touched the championship in a long time, I bought the both of you LSU hats to wear on our next show. So the next show that we do, I have LSU hats for both of you because I know it's important for you Freddie. Chan, you wear hats as well. I have both of you LSU hats. Now you can feel like a champion.

• 2:27Fred Taylor?

  That was nice. That was nice. You got to the point yet?

• 2:30Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, that we beat y'all, that we are the champions again. That, that now we're just so used to doing this, they don't know where it started, right? On ESPN, they were like, Angel Reese, oh no, that was Joe Burrow that did it. Like, we just doing it for all sports now. We're the litest school, we're the litest school in athletics in NCAA.

• 2:50Fred Taylor?

  You know what? That's true.

• 3:17Fred Taylor?

  You know what? I gotta tip my hat to your alma mater. You know, but you don't have to rub it in our face, right?

• 3:24Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, no, no. The All-Sport Championship always goes through Florida. The All-Sport Championship goes through Florida. Y'all don't even know, every single year, I tell people that and they want to make fun of it. It's basketball, it's football, it's, it's, it's the major sports. No. Florida runs NCAA athletics.

• 3:43Ryan Clark?

  Chan, but y'all haven't won anything.

• 3:44Channing Crowder?

  Florida runs, but it's saying, but you know what I'm saying? You ain't got, you ain't gotta always win.

• 3:50Ryan Clark?

  You just gotta be good.

• 3:51Channing Crowder?

  Sometimes you be two and three, like, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes you be two and three.

• 3:54Ryan Clark?

  Freddie T, are you gonna wear the hat for me?

• 3:57Fred Taylor?

  No.

• 3:58Ryan Clark?

  Oh, that, that.

• 3:59Fred Taylor?

  No, no, I'm sorry.

• 4:00Channing Crowder?

  No, no.

• 4:01Fred Taylor?

  You know what? That's the thing. We, we, we gotta, we gotta do what we gotta do.

• 4:05Ryan Clark?

  Thank you.

• 4:05Fred Taylor?

  You know what? Even so much, I went on Nike ID when I got the exclusive alert and I made some LSU colored dunk.

• 4:14Ryan Clark?

  And you gonna wear them?

• 4:16Fred Taylor?

  But they got Kobe Bryant forever on the back. You know, as long as you don't look at the back, they're Laker dunk.

• 4:21Ryan Clark?

  So they're Laker dunk.

• 4:22Fred Taylor?

  But no, seriously, LSU is, is showing themselves as a powerhouse. And I think what they're doing in the transfer portal with NIL is what you did with basketball. Now with baseball, football has already been there. It's gonna be hard to compete with.

• 4:37Channing Crowder?

  I would say it, it's always arms race and I would say LSU figured it out.

• 4:41Ryan Clark?

  Well, I think the, the thing that we've learned to do, like honestly, like all jokes aside, we've used NIL probably better than anybody has because we haven't just focused on football.

• 4:53Fred Taylor?

  Right?

• 4:53Ryan Clark?

  The highest, we have a gymnast who has the highest NIL earnings or projection in the entire country. She's actually not even the best gymnast on our team. Angel Reese, Flage Johnson, right now Dylan Cruz, skiing. We have all of these guys that we're putting money into all of the sports, not just focusing on the one. And now when you're Van Leith and you're over at Louisville and you're going back and forth with Katelyn Clark, you're like, hold on, wait, I could go be a star and compete with those girls that are on that team? I just think that that's why we're far ahead. But not everybody really wants to be a star. We could be like the Jets. And because the Jets, it's like, oh, hey, guys, we want you on Hard Knocks. Oh, no, we can't do Hard Knocks.

• 5:37Ryan Clark?

  We're too good. We have Aaron Rodgers now. Why would we ever do Hard Knocks? We went to Detroit last year.

• 5:45Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 5:45Ryan Clark?

  Right? Detroit ends up having a really good season. They're a team that fights their way to having a winning season. But people fell in love with Detroit. Jamal Williams, right? Now you got your Dan Campbell as a coach. Everybody's fired up to, the, the, the way that he gives speeches, the heart that he has for his team. Robert Sala could be the exact same way, but they don't want it. Chan, you, you, you'd be, you'd become a star.

• 6:11Channing Crowder?

  On Hard Knocks.

• 6:13Ryan Clark?

  You'd become a star.

• 6:13Channing Crowder?

  What does it do? What it do for the Lions?

• 6:16Ryan Clark?

  For the Lions, right? For the Lions now, right? It's a team that won. It's a team that ended up winning. They became America's darlings, though. People started to cheer. People started to tune in. You knew dudes on that team from watching Hard Knocks that you didn't know before the season started. So it's different.

• 6:33Channing Crowder?

  And it's different, and that's good. And that's what Hard Knocks wants to do, is get that attention. The Hard Knocks thing, I love it. I love it. I love the insight. I really do. I enjoy Hard Knocks, and I watch it every single year, no matter what team is on it. But for organizations, if you see the top organization, what do they do?

• 6:49Ryan Clark?

  Top organizations don't have to do it, though. If you go and win it, you ain't gotta do it.

• 6:54Channing Crowder?

  So what's the thing for the underdogs? For the young guys? What's the positive of Hard Knocks with them?

• 7:02Fred Taylor?

  What do I always say? Like you said, the top teams, they don't need it necessarily. What do I always say? Exposure leads to...

• 7:09Ryan Clark?

  Expansion.

• 7:10Fred Taylor?

  Expansion. So the teams that are here, or if they anticipate this team is gonna have a good season, that's where they insert Hard Knocks. And think about it, the old model of the NFL, we're always under the helmet. We gotta be able to market these players. Fan engagement. I think Hard Knocks is genius. I remember the years when they first started, they came to Jacksonville. We needed it in Jacksonville. The coaches, the inside, the front office, we, as an organization, have to learn to manage the distractions. That's at home. It has nothing to do with the outside stuff. You're gonna go out there and ball? You're gonna go out there and ball. Hell, I know when the cameras are on me, I [bleep] turn up. I want the cameras on me in practice. I'm gonna practice harder. I'm gonna go harder.

• 7:54Fred Taylor?

  I might talk more shit. I'm gonna let my homeboy know, yo, camera said we're gonna give it a little bit more. You know what I'm saying? But I'm gonna go back and do my thing. So I think the Jets, they need it. They got a whole new thing going on with Aaron Rodgers and the young receivers and Sauce on the other side defensively. It's a big opportunity for them. So if they show the world who they really are, then they go out there and match that intensity on the field and win like I think they can. The Jets can win at the AFC East. They can.

• 8:26Channing Crowder?

  The Jets.

• 8:27Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:28Fred Taylor?

  Miami could fizzle out.

• 8:29Channing Crowder?

  Miami Buffalo. Buffalo's won it three years in a row. Thirteen, thirteen, what was it, thirteen and four last year or something like that.

• 8:36Fred Taylor?

  Bro.

• 8:37Channing Crowder?

  The Miami Dolphins, what they're doing right now, and Jalen Ramsey on the side of Xavier Howard, with, with Tyreek Hill, with Jalen Waddle, with Raheem Mostert.

• 8:46Fred Taylor?

  I did not say they were gonna win.

• 8:47Channing Crowder?

  The Miami Dolphins have four of the fastest people in the NFL at the top eight.

• 8:52Fred Taylor?

  I didn't say they were gonna win it. I didn't say they were gonna win it. Key word, I said can.

• 8:57Ryan Clark?

  But the point is this though, right? There is, but there is no team, there is no team that now has, has a more interesting core of people for that show. Aaron Rodgers is somehow fascinating to everyone, right? The reason that he's on Pat McAfee every Tuesday, sitting on his couch, is because he's Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Rodgers has this conspiracy theorist way of thinking that everybody loves because they can't understand it, right? They don't know what it is. It's just provocative. It gets the people going. And right, so they lock in to what Aaron Rodgers just said. And now Aaron Rodgers has said, now being with the Jets, in the future, we can have the best player at each position on side of the ball, in Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. People gonna wanna see that.

• 9:41Ryan Clark?

  Robert Sala has like this kind of aura of tough guy-ness that Dan Campbell has, right? That, that kinda like, he, he swole up, ball head, when he go golfing, he wear top tight pants and tight shirt, so you can, like, he has that. Go be a star then. Go become a star or go show us how well you coach. I feel like there's a level of insecurity when you don't wanna do Hard Knocks. Cause they can't stop you from doing your business.

• 10:10Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, no. It's not insecurity, it's irrelevant. And I enjoy Hard Knocks. It's something more. As Robert Sala sits there, as Dan Campbell last year, they now have to figure out a way to now do what they're doing day to day to day, and also appease Hard Knocks. I love Hard Knocks, but as a young coach, why would you wanna put that on your plate? Why would you wanna put that in? In your, in your, in your building, where are these young guys? And we know these guys. They don't, they do not need more distractions. And I sound like the old uncle that's just mad at the world. Freddie, what you just say? I have to go to my teammates and say, hey, I'mma amp it up for the, I'mma amp it up for the cameras today.

• 10:51Fred Taylor?

  A little bit, put a little sauce on it.

• 10:53Channing Crowder?

  But why would you want a young team? Why would you want a sauce garden?

• 10:57Fred Taylor?

  But no.

• 10:57Ryan Clark?

  The reason, the reason, the reason Freddie, the reason.

• 11:00Channing Crowder?

  Why would you want them to have to go to each other and say, hey?

• 11:02Fred Taylor?

  No, I'm a veteran. I said it, I'm a veteran. I know how to show up. What's the one common denominator in, in sports? Definitely in the NFL. When you're talking about players, even coaches. It's, it's competing and it's challenges. It's opportunity. Dan Campbell, he welcomed the opportunity. They went out there, they embraced it, they went and had a good season. The Detroit Lions, probably been the worst team in the last decade. They embraced the opportunity. Sala, no different. Allow Hard Knocks to come into, to the stadium and to the facility. Just open it up, man. Show everybody your personality, what you bring to the table.

• 11:40Ryan Clark?

  Or you could just get a tattoo on your face when the dude dead.

• 11:45Fred Taylor?

  Hold up, you're interrupting, you're stopping my thought for that.

• 11:48Ryan Clark?

  I wasn't trying to stop your thought. I was trying to help it and you stopped talking.

• 11:52Fred Taylor?

  You know what? That, that, it might look like when Channing got the stripper for, uh.

• 11:59Ryan Clark?

  For Nick Saban.

• 12:00Fred Taylor?

  For Nick Saban.

• 12:01Channing Crowder?

  Gotta tighten him up.

• 12:02Fred Taylor?

  Hey, the tattoos and all. That's like $2 tat.

• 12:06Ryan Clark?

  Chan, and I've been wanting to talk to you about this for sure. Freddie's so level-headed that I already know where Fred's gonna go. But I think you're going to surprise some people here. Right, I think, I do, I do. Right? So Zion Williamson, weeks ago, comes out and he makes an announcement. It's a, an announcement that he and his current woman, I think her name is Akima, that they're expecting a baby. And because they're expecting a baby, Mariah Mills, who some may be familiar with. I know not you, but some people may be.

• 12:41Channing Crowder?

  I've searched her.

• 12:42Ryan Clark?

  Some people may be familiar with her. She goes on this Twitter rant, ends up getting suspended from Twitter. She's at, um, to me, in what could be considered a level of harassment. Right, and then now, over the, uh, over last weekend, I don't know whether it's true or not, if she really got it, you never really saw the needle touch her face, apparently, or at least she wants the world to think, or Zion to think, whatever, that she got his name tattooed on her face. My question is this, the way that people were dragging him, or the way that different pundits were saying things about him and giving true critique

• 13:25Ryan Clark?

  on who he was as a man, my thought process is that Zion Williamson has done nothing wrong.

• 13:33Channing Crowder?

  To your point, what did he do wrong? What did he do wrong? Off the court, what, your sex life is what it is. I know you're, you're laying it out perfectly, RC, and I appreciate what you're doing. It's his sex life. What does that sex life have to do with other people? We can go back to Paul Pierce, when, when he got in trouble with ESPN, but he was already retired. I just want people to think about the guys off the court are off the court. What they do is what they do off the court. Zion, and we've all seen the stories, and the reason she's getting the Zion tattoo right on her face is because supposedly there was something right on her face there. Read the story. What was on her face? And it's nasty, I don't know.

• 14:17Channing Crowder?

  What was on her face, Shannon? And all that stuff, like, me and, you know, me and Asia get down. I don't know, I might have, you know, it is what it is. It's nast, it's nasty type shit. But, what does that have to do? The thing that upset me about that story, RC, to answer your question, is that people were saying that the Pelicans need to trade him because she requested him to get traded. They need to trade him because he's played in 39% of games he's been in the league. That's why they need to trade him. I don't believe in Zion Williamson. He's overweight, he's, he doesn't, he doesn't take his job seriously. This is how I feel about Zion Williamson. He will never, never maximize his ability because of the fact of what he does and how he treats his body.

• 15:02Channing Crowder?

  That's why the Pelicans should move on from him and bring whatever they can. Let's ask this. But, no, but Freddie. For anybody to question a guy off the court, what he does, who he's spitting on, what he's doing, if he's having unpredictable sex, I don't care if you get herpes. I really don't. If you can dunk and drop, have herpes and drop 38 points a night.

• 15:26Ryan Clark?

  Nobody cares.

• 15:27Channing Crowder?

  You're my favorite player in the world, drop 38. You can have whatever you want. You can get, you can get, I don't even know if chlamydia is still around. Get chlamydia and drop 44 a night.

• 15:39Channing Crowder?

  Chlamydia, get your ass out there and ball. I don't care about that. And that's the part, that's the part that I'm upset with when people are talking about an organization worrying about somebody's off the court life and go on the court with it. Those are separate places. Those are separate places.

• 15:57Fred Taylor?

  So we'll just, we'll just meet in the middle. But no, seriously, seriously. How much of that, what he's doing off the court in his private life, how much of that do you think is affecting the fact that he's only played in 39 games? Those extracurriculars, you know, I was in Miami heavy back in my days and I had my share of injuries. And I buttoned it up at midpoint in my career. I was like, this is what I gotta do to stay healthy? And the game got easy. You know what I'm saying? How much of his extracurriculars do you believe is affecting his career?

• 16:28Channing Crowder?

  So can I answer that question?

• 16:29Fred Taylor?

  No, no, both of you guys, both of you guys.

• 16:30Ryan Clark?

  So, so here is, here is my thought process on it, right? It depends on how much of those extracurriculars have to do with what Chan calls running, right? We're, we're like, we, we don't see.

• 16:43Fred Taylor?

  Cause rest is involved.

• 16:43Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, but, but we, but we don't see Zion Williamson out all the time. There isn't pictures of him always in the club. There isn't pictures of him always in the streets. He's not at every event. Let's just say you're a young dude who has one woman. And you know, like Chan mentions it all the time. You know, him and Asia, they might do whatever, right? If you're getting as nasty as you want, every single day with the same chick, right, if it's the same amount of activity as Zion was doing with whomever he was doing it with, is that gonna affect the way you play? Would we look at him and say to him, "Hey, man, you and this one woman that you're always with, and you're always spending time with," we wouldn't.

• 17:26Ryan Clark?

  What it is, is the situation got messy. People, people do not handle things in home anymore, right? We haven't grew up in a place where, we haven't grown up in a world where one-on-one communication is what's paramount anymore. I don't have to look you in your eyes and have a conversation with you and get an answer from you that matters to me. I gotta get an answer from everybody else. And because, and because we as people are so effed up, we need help. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're scared to go to somebody and say, "You know what? I'm effed up, but I feel like you've effed over me as well. I have a problem with it. Let's have a discussion." So instead of doing that, let me go to my 1.1 million followers who know nothing, who

• 18:10Ryan Clark?

  know nothing about me, whether I'm a good woman, whether I've done right, all these things, and I'mma, and I'mma put out private messages, or I'mma let people know what's going on with us, and now this man has to deal with that, and I get it. Don't do it if you don't want to deal with it. I get that. But an unmarried, single man, right? And to now have to, to deal with that, the part about playing is fine. That's a fair assessment on who he is and how he approaches the game. But now, man, like the jokes and the way people getting at him, you know, like even, I had one slipped out. I was like, "Man, shoot, Baltimore's gonna have more options than Zion Williamson." Maybe Zion only had two.

• 18:52Ryan Clark?

  But I just think that we have to be very careful in taking someone's personal life in that sense and saying that could be a reason why they aren't playing well.

• 19:01Channing Crowder?

  And it's funny, no, no, no, to your point, quickly. Philip Rivers, he got like 14 kids or something crazy. Philip Rivers gives his wife pure D hell every day.

• 19:11Ryan Clark?

  Philip Rivers got a lot of kids. No, he does, for real.

• 19:13Channing Crowder?

  He gives his wife hell every day.

• 19:16Channing Crowder?

  Is it a difference?

• 19:18Fred Taylor?

  Nah, it's no difference.

• 19:19Channing Crowder?

  If Phillip is having sex every day, and Zion's having sex every day, while Phillip's having sex with his wife every day, and Zion's having sex with four or five women every day, but they get the same amount of sleep, they get the same amount of rest, they're eating, their diet's the same. Why do we judge them differently? And that's my problem with this whole situation about judging Zion and questioning him. I can question his, I question his availability, because you've seen it.

• 19:49Fred Taylor?

  And that's the difference.

• 19:50Channing Crowder?

  And when he plays, he is a monster.

• 19:52Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, but that's the difference, Chan.

• 19:53Channing Crowder?

  But if he doesn't play, he's not a monster. What's the difference? 14 girls.

• 19:56Fred Taylor?

  It's no difference. Wait, I don't want to debate you.

• 19:59Channing Crowder?

  A nut?

• 20:00Fred Taylor?

  I don't want to get into a yellow mess.

• 20:01Channing Crowder?

  A nut with one woman or a nut with six women? You still get a nut, you still go to bed at 12.

• 20:06Ryan Clark?

  Wait, Tom, no. I think, but Chan, I think that's different. Right?

• 20:11Channing Crowder?

  How?

• 20:12Ryan Clark?

  14, 14 in one day to one in one day is a difference. It's a different level of activity.

• 20:17Fred Taylor?

  The major difference is, we sit here and have these conversations, but this is us, this is the pivot. Like, we take it easy on people.

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• 20:56Fred Taylor?

  The real.

• 20:57Ryan Clark?

  Oh, that take it easy?

• 20:58Fred Taylor?

  The real media. Nah, Chan ain't gonna take it. But the real media. Like, the guys who really get paid for it. They sleep, eat, shit it every day. The difference is, like you said, availability. Phillip, he wasn't injured. As long as Zion is injured, that's the biggest difference. But before we drop-step pivot and go to the next conversation.

• 21:17Ryan Clark?

  Okay, so, because I know you got something to say. But it also just goes to the overall athletic mindset of...

• 21:26Ryan Clark?

  If you're ballin', I can accept certain things.

• 21:29Fred Taylor?

  Bingo.

• 21:30Ryan Clark?

  If you are, if Zion played 75 games this year and was available in the playoffs and was playing the way he played early on in his career, like, we would love that, you know? And even, like, think about, and I just remember being 11, 12 years old, or however old I was, when Magic Johnson made the announcement, and just remembering that he was a baller, and that he was likable, and I was sad. At that age, it didn't even equate to me that it meant he might have been running women and not women. And I've heard those stories later on in life as I've aged, but it still was like, oh, like, that's just how Magic

• 22:12Ryan Clark?

  lived. And it tells you, especially in America, man, the things that we are willing to forgive successful, especially men, for. And I think Zion's problem is, like you said, not being available, and now having these things come out. You can't not produce and then also have trash, things like this happen off the court.

• 22:34Fred Taylor?

  So, major drop step like Zion, let's pivot. Since we're talking about Messi, that's all Messi. The BET Award. Well, first, let me back it up. Cloud chasing is at an all-time high. I think that's what the attention for the tattoo and all of that, and that's the end of that. But the BET Awards, Messi. What do you guys think? What's the state of the BET Award? Remember back in the day, we used to get excited to watch these award shows, right? You guys got excited? I got excited. Yeah. Because it was more so inspirations, and black excellence, and all that different stuff. Now, it's like, what's this? And I hope they can pivot and change it up, because

• 23:17Fred Taylor?

  Tyler Perry bought it, and I support him, and I hope he's the right man for the job. But that ain't what, like, okay, for example, if you have a young aspiring artist, go to these type of shows, you want to go there, and they want to see the Beyoncés, the Mariah's, the people that, you know, inspired them to go do music, they ain't getting that. I think we gotta figure it out. What you guys think?

• 23:43Channing Crowder?

  Fred, this is what I always say. Don't say this podcast is a great black podcast. This show is a great black show. This show is a great show. That's what I always tell people. Don't put us in the category of we're a great thing with black people. We're just great and black people are involved in it. And I think that's what BET Awards have to do. Because now, it is. It was grimy this year, to your point. It was grimy. It was, we all saw it. You know, Tyler Perry, hopefully he can change it. But there's a standard that is set that you have to beat. You have to chase. You have to run. And you shouldn't be competing for the best thing in this color of people.

• 24:25Channing Crowder?

  You should be competing in the best thing that's on TV. And I think that's where we lost it. And I think that's where this year, I was embarrassed by the BET Awards and how it was run and people not showing up, nobody being involved, people winning and not even being there. It's not important to anyone. And that's what we have to get back with the BET Awards.

• 24:47Ryan Clark?

  But I think, right, isn't that what happens, though? Like, black people and culturally, you invent, and not just black people. I think in all walks of life, if you look at the LGBTQ community, it's when you won't open a certain door, we now create our own room, right? And we create our own room to be in that space. But the spaces we always wanted to be in were the spaces we weren't allowed in. And so, back in the day, there was such a sense of pride to be able to go to the BET Awards and to be able to perform. Like, I remember Drake had to perform from a chair his first year

• 25:30Ryan Clark?

  because he had tore his ACL or something like that. But he wanted to be there so badly because the Jay-Zs would go, because the Beyonce's would go, that he went still. And it's very much like I said at the end of Travis's show, like, we have to take pride. We have to value it first. And I know, Chan, for you, it's like, okay, I don't want it to be the best black whatever. Why don't we just be the best individually, right? Why don't?

• 25:58Channing Crowder?

  Don't compartmentalize yourself into, okay, now, there's black people involved. This is the best of black this. No, just be the best. And black people are involved. That's my, that's my point with all of this.

• 26:11Ryan Clark?

  Well, I think though, it has, it certainly has deteriorated, but you have to look at the channel as a whole, right? You have to look at the fact that we would rush home to go watch 106 at Park, even though I knew Bow Wow was gonna have a song on there for 62 weeks, right? It was gonna go from 1 to 10, and I was gonna watch it every week, whether it was Free, AJ, Roxy, whoever it was, because it was what we did. We went in for that destination viewing. There were certain things that we looked at the channel as a whole for. That has changed, right? And so, as that has changed, the music has been drawn out of it, which kept those people around, because you were gonna go perform on 106 at Park. They were gonna have like,

• 26:56Ryan Clark?

  the Spring Fling and all those things that people go to. And so, as that has gone away, I believe the interest in being a part of that has happened. And the other thing is too, man, it's like, young stars are different now, right? Think about, because at a time, our young R&B star was Beyonce. Our young R&B star was Usher, right? Our young rap star was Jay-Z, and it was OutKast, right? Like, these were, these were like, true artists to the game. And guess what? You couldn't be seen if you didn't go to the BET Awards. If you got a mother effing TikTok, and you got an Instagram, you don't need the awards.

• 27:40Ryan Clark?

  And I just think that like, the time is so different, and as we, what we've done is, we're like, the old, we're the old form, that are now adjusted to the new form, and it's met in the middle and made the pivot. That's what BET has to find a way.

• 27:56Fred Taylor?

  They, they do have to find a way, but much like, like you say, if you can get out there, you can allow a platform. You have all these other award shows that haven't really lost a step, you know what I'm saying? Like, they're still the top of the top. They're running 50, 60, 70 years, and still running now, all of the big awards. I think-

• 28:15Ryan Clark?

  So what would the big awards be? Grammys? MTV Awards?

• 28:19Fred Taylor?

  And we can be right there.

• 28:20Ryan Clark?

  And billboards, right?

• 28:21Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, they can be right there.

• 28:22Ryan Clark?

  See, uh, country music.

• 28:23Fred Taylor?

  The three I's, right? You're talking about interest, right? Inspiration. We need our people, the people that look like us to be there, to inspire us to wanna be there, and impact. You know, much like what, take Jason Lee for example, right? With the Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards. We attended. And in that building, in that room, wasn't it beautiful or not? It was 99% people that looked like us. And they did an amazing job of just really giving back. People that have impacted the culture. And we can continue to do that. It's a, you gotta leave with positivity. A lot of that, what we saw on the BET Awards. And I really, really, like, there's transparency and realness and I'm cool with that.

• 29:09Fred Taylor?

  Because I like to say it's my people. But at the, sometimes, man, you gotta turn the camera the other [bleep] way. Because that shit don't make no sense. It's fucking pathetic. And it makes you, not that I, I look down on them, and I'm not. But it, it's, it's like, come on, we could do a little bit better.

• 29:25Ryan Clark?

  Freddie T, but what you, what you're doing is, like, you're bringing these people together, who, that's who they are. But I think it's unfair to say, turn the camera, or it's unfair to ask people to behave ways that are different that you don't, that you don't promote. Like, you pro, you promote that behavior. That behavior has made certain people famous. Those people who, those people who may behave in a certain way. If they behave in that way, if I'm JT and I throw a phone at Uzi, somebody's gonna wanna put me on the podcast to ask me about throwing a phone at Uzi.

• 30:08Ryan Clark?

  And if I'm sitting next to that person that's asking me the question about the podcast, or about the phone, they're not gonna say to me, hey, you shouldn't throw that phone to him because it feels that way. You shouldn't throw that phone at him because it feels that way. You know why? And you know how I know? Because we sit up here, bro, and we very rarely do that. Right? We, we have to, we have to, we give people the space and we'll ask the question. And we've asked hard questions and we try to dive into things, but we don't try to change the way somebody is. We don't try to change the way that somebody acts, or the way somebody else behaves. And so if we, now, we wouldn't tell her come on here to talk about throwing the phone. But somebody will, right? Somebody will put that on Instagram four million times.

• 30:53Fred Taylor?

  Real Housewives of whatever. Real Housewives of Potomac, with this dude, they're getting divorced. People love it. And we embrace it.

• 31:02Channing Crowder?

  Our culture embraces the bullshit of that. To your point, they love that.

• 31:07Ryan Clark?

  I'm gonna say this.

• 31:07Channing Crowder?

  The Real Housewives of all that, bro. We love it and we support it and that's why they wanna do it.

• 31:12Ryan Clark?

  Listen, all cultures, I'm not, I'm not gonna let us do that because we ain't on Real Housewives of Orange County and they cut the food. We ain't on Vanderpump. We ain't on Shazam Sunset. So, all the, like, that's what reality is. It's not that just our culture embraces it.

• 31:29Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no. The whole culture embraces it. And we've been a part of some of them and I've seen how those things are shot. And when they come to you, you know what they say? "Hey, how you feel about this dude? Oh, that's my ace." "How do you feel about this couple? Oh, man, we've been, we've been cool with them for 10 years. How you feel about them? We weren't really fooled with them, like, we don't know them. Okay, y'all need to have dinner." It's, it's what the structure of those shows are. On all cultures, it's what the structure of those cultures are. And that's what people love, they embrace. They don't wanna see positivity. They don't wanna see happy families. Like, me, Asian, the kids, like, we, we've told shows before, like, "I don't know what y'all wanna do with us, but we're happy on the weekend. Y'all wanna come film us?

• 32:14Channing Crowder?

  We're gonna be in the pool hanging out, we're gonna go fishing in the backyard." Like, it's normal. That, that's not fun. That's not cool to people. It's what, it's what consumers have figured out that they want to see. And that's what they want. And every culture embraces it. But when it's the black culture, it, it, it puts a, it puts a spotlight on, "Okay, yeah, this is what they want. This is what they like. This is what they do." Because of the fact that we have to bring up that it's the black culture. If you think about it, "Oh, this is just normal TV." Do they call, do they call HBO and Showtime and all these shows, do they call them white shows?

• 32:50Ryan Clark?

  No.

• 32:51Channing Crowder?

  What do they call them? Shows. But then when Tyler Perry makes something, what do they call it?

• 32:55Ryan Clark?

  Black show.

• 32:56Channing Crowder?

  A black show. So we're fighting, we're fighting from behind. Really, we're fighting from 400 years behind, to be honest, and slavery and all that, Jim Crow. We can really get into it. We're fighting from behind. But when our people gravitate towards that, it is so sad, and I hate it. But it's what the, it's what everybody wants. To your point, everybody wants drama. Everybody wants the trauma. Everybody wants the...

• 33:23Ryan Clark?

  The viral moment.

• 33:24Channing Crowder?

  The viral moment. And then, when it's us, we're so far behind, and now, that's, that's, that's normal size. That's normality, and I hate that shit 100%.

• 33:35Ryan Clark?

  But you brought up something that I think is important. You brought up like authenticity, right? And being real, saying that if you talked about three couples, that was all aces, right? They're not gonna tell you to hang with that couple. They'll tell you to hang with the couple you aren't cool with. And maybe there could be friction there, or maybe you'll have to learn to get along with one another. All of those things. I have been not struggling, because I don't struggle with a lot. I was sitting down in Austin last week. I was training some guys, and the lady, she works, and she's a counselor. And she's a therapist to some of the players. And she sits next to me, and she goes, "I just want to thank you." And I was like, "For what?"

• 34:15Ryan Clark?

  She said, "Because of your show, and the safe space that you guys provide for athletes, and the safe space that you guys provide for entertainers, where they can come there, and they can be vulnerable, and they can talk about mental health." And I immediately, I didn't feel like a fraud, right? Because I never come over here and lie. Like, I just don't, I won't say it if I gotta lie. But I was like, "I have to be honest with you." I said, "I am actually not who creates, or who works purposely to create a space." I said, "I'm actually trying to learn." Right? I said, "Because I grew up differently than that." You know, like, I grew up, and I talk about it all the time, pushing through.

• 34:58Ryan Clark?

  I said, "So, really, I'm asking those questions so I can now understand what people are going through." But what I have to ask y'all is, too, how much pressure, or how important do you think it is in our platform? To be honest, to be real, to be authentic, right? To be able to walk off of these sets. And when people see us, that's exactly who we are. That's exactly what we think. And if they think something differently, like that woman thought I was like creating this great safe space for this. And I was like, no ma'am, I'm trying to learn because I actually don't think like that. How much pressure do you think it is for us to be exactly what we are every day?

• 35:44Ryan Clark?

  Once these cameras come on?

• 35:45Fred Taylor?

  There's a meme or caption floating around Instagram lately. Talking about honesty makes it easy for everybody. You know, so when we get on here and we're truthful and we're honest, it makes my job easy. Just to open up and speak to that. I think our conversations breed is a breeding grounds for other conversations. And you know, we get out here and we spill our guts. You know, with no hesitation, totally transparently vulnerability. And that's how we started and that's how we are. That's what people expected of us and it's so easy. I don't think it's no pressure. There's no pressure on my behalf because that's just who we are.

• 36:29Fred Taylor?

  You know, we're not running from anything. And I like going that way. People call you out. They can see straight through the bullshit. They know Chan going Chan. They know who you are. They know RC going to get on SportsCenter. You know, you'll have a two or three people say, oh Disney. But no, the other 97, 98% going to say, RC a real one. You know, RC spitting that shit. And then, you know, I'm going to speak to how you guys speak to it. We don't lose anything by doing that. So there's no pressure to answer your question, there's no pressure.

• 37:05Ryan Clark?

  I think it's pressure on him.

• 37:06Fred Taylor?

  I don't think it's pressure on Chan. He's so loose.

• 37:09Channing Crowder?

  It's no pressure on me. I would say there's no pressure on me, RC. There's a saying, be yourself, everybody else is taken. And people come up to me and I love when people come up to me in the airport. Going to my son's football practice, out with Asia. And they talk to me and they walk up to me and they're like, oh man Chan. And they recognize me and they give me that. And I'm like, what up, bro? You good? And I look them in the eyes and I'm me. And it's a fulfillment for me when that, when I see the click that, okay, y'all are the same dudes. And I ask, I answer questions about y'all all the time. They're like,

• 37:50Channing Crowder?

  "Yeah, man, the dynamic between y'all, you know, Freddie's the OG, we all know that. Freddie's the OG, give people flowers, but when he talks, everybody gets quiet and listens. And he can talk as long as the fuck he wants to. He can take four minutes to get to his point and everybody's just gonna sit there." Be honest, you know what I'm saying? Everybody gonna sit there and listen to that motherfucker until he gets to his point. RC's an order. Bro, you speak so well. You line up stuff so well. And we know you're getting, we know how you're getting, but it's beautiful. It's eloquent. You speak beautifully. You're eloquent. And that's what, and they're like, and you're the wild card. You're gonna ask questions people don't want. And I'm like, yes, that's exactly who we are. And then they meet us and they know it. It's no pressure.

• 38:30Ryan Clark?

  If you go four shows, like, if you go, if you go three shows, if you go three shows and don't say something nasty, there's gonna be people asking what's wrong with you. 100%. Like, I have been told, straight up, "Y'all gotta let the leash off Chan." I had to, like, somebody come. I said, "Hey, bro, don't nobody tell Chan nothing." I was like, "We doing shows." And I said, "And sometimes the moment presents and he does it." I was like, "But we don't force a certain thing." And I was like, "And we're freaking layered." You know what I mean? I was like, "Sometimes it's time to be funny. Sometimes it's time to be serious." What I am having a difficult time figuring out is, and it was like, all these things came up at one time. I had this woman talking to me about mental health and the space that we create.

• 39:15Ryan Clark?

  I'm going through some things with my family and I have a child who deals with some things mentally. And I was told that, like, it was hard to tell you certain things because you are a push-through type of dad, you know? I was told. For some people, that works. For me, now I know it doesn't. And the hardest part is, is like, you're just doing your best, right? Like, I want to be the best father I could possibly be, right? And I want to be the best husband I could possibly be. I want to be the best son I could possibly be.

• 39:58Ryan Clark?

  I want to be the best host. I want to be the best analyst. I want to be the best trainer. I want to be all these things, the best I could possibly be, which... If you're giving all of those things in all of these pots, what do you have left? Right? Like when I, when I sit down, when I, when I sit down at night and I think to myself and I'm like, "Let's go through the pots you've deposited in. How many times did you think of yourself today?" Right? And then the next thought is, "How selfish of you is it that you're now thinking about how much you thought of yourself?" Because of my mindset of everybody else has to be taken care of.

• 40:42Ryan Clark?

  And in not taking care of myself, or in, or in working so hard, or in doing these things, or in telling people push through, or pushing through myself all the time, am I just effing everybody up anyway? And it's like...

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• 41:27Ryan Clark?

  You know, like now, like I actually almost died, but still never thought about dying. You know? But now I think about it all the time. And not in this morbid, like I'm scared kind of way. Like in a real, like, "Oh, hell, this could happen." Right? And if it happens, and I'm dealing with all these, all these things, and I'm trying to put all this stuff in place, and I'm trying to make sure everybody's okay, whatever happens before everybody's okay.

• 41:54Channing Crowder?

  You run your cup empty. You run your cup empty. But it's, it's so, and I would say this with athletes, I don't know if y'all agree... We're so performance based that we need an analytical number to figure out what it is. You know, if you had more interceptions, you would go to the Pro Bowl. You know, if you had more touchdowns, more yards, more yards per carry, whatever, you go to the Pro Bowl. I think something with athletes, you have to have a analytical percentage or something of that nature to see success. And I think we try to do that. And it's something that me and Asia, like Asia explains to me all the time, like you can't quantify everything. I try to quantify everything.

• 42:37Channing Crowder?

  Athletes, I think, try to quantify everything because numbers are what we live off. We can't quantify how much time, okay, well, okay, well, my kid's struggling. I spent six hours with him. Okay, they're struggling. Okay, if I spend seven, it's going to be better or eight. It doesn't work that way. And I think that's, that's a lot of athletes' problems is that we're judged, we're paid, we're, we're, we're, we're squarely quantified in a box of numbers. And we try to, we try to figure out that in life and life is not.

• 43:08Ryan Clark?

  Chad, you know what it's not about numbers? You know what it is? We were tricked. We were tricked. Know what I was, you know what I was tricked by my coaches? If you work hard, if you do it this way, this is the result, right? If you get in here and if we bench every single day for the entire summer, your benchmark and what it was, your max and what it was in May will be higher in July. And every time I did it and every time I stayed healthy, every time I listened, it was higher. I was stronger, right? If I ate a certain way, it, it, it worked out, right? As long as it was things I could control.

• 43:49Ryan Clark?

  If I worked at it and I did A, B, C, D, then it happened. That's not real life, right? And it's like you put.

• 43:56Channing Crowder?

  But is it not?

• 43:58Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 43:58Channing Crowder?

  Is it not? Can, can you not make A, B, C, D in real life and resolve things? Can you not do it?

• 44:06Fred Taylor?

  I don't think it was necessarily considered being tricked. Like, there's a certain mindset, right? You're talking about getting as close as possible to perfection. The repetition, you know what I'm saying? Trying to be better than you were yesterday. 2%. Yeah, each day, getting better each day. And I think we needed that. To be able to be crazy enough to be in that space, in that box. Because we lived our lives between the chalk. Anything outside of that... When somebody asks you, "How far is something?", what would you say? 20 yards, 30, 40? Everything I measure is by yards. Yep. That's what it... because I live within that box. And in terms of pressure, um... We put the pressure on ourselves to be great.

• 44:52Fred Taylor?

  You had to do that when you... Before you went to the Super Bowl. You put that pressure on yourself. Anything you did in life as an athlete, you put that pressure on yourself. So, with that, I want to pivot because I think this is something that people need to hear us talk about. Do you guys think it was pressure for the Chicago prosecutors to drop those charges of the young man, the 14-year-old, who shot and killed and defended his mom from the brutal attacks in that restaurant?

• 45:26Channing Crowder?

  I think it was a shame that he had to deal with that. I think it was a shame that he got called up to do that. You know what I'm saying? I think that should be nothing that anybody gets gets put in that situation as a 14-year-old to protect their mom. And I would have done the same. But I feel for him to have to make that decision at that age, is what it is. And the prosecutors, to make it? I don't think he... I think he was doing what he was told. So, for them to drop those charges, I'm not saying I'm with it. I hate to say, like... Even when we were talking to Travis Rudolph, we're like... And at the end of the show, and RC did a great job of saying, like, "We don't promote gun violence."

• 46:10Channing Crowder?

  Like, I don't think nobody needs to be shot. Like, that's dumb. But...

• 46:17Channing Crowder?

  A 14-year-old mind shouldn't have to decide between listening to his mom and making a moral decision. And I feel sorry for him for that.

• 46:25Fred Taylor?

  I think...

• 46:29Ryan Clark?

  I don't know. All people are different. All men are different. I can only speak on my 43 years of living. I've never been told anything by any woman that would make me want to hit her like that.

• 46:49Ryan Clark?

  Just never in my life. I've never been out at a party. I've never been in line waiting for food. I've never been in an argument anywhere about anything that made me look at a woman and say to myself, "I want to knock her out."

• 47:07Ryan Clark?

  And

• 47:10Ryan Clark?

  this is for all women. All women should be valued. All women should be given the grace and understanding that a level of emotion that is displayed through words should never be met with violence. But for our culture, and I know we just had a show, we just had a segment where we were talking about it not being a black show. It's like, how much more undervalued and devalued can we make black women?

• 47:45Channing Crowder?

  Yeah. Hardest position in the world.

• 47:48Ryan Clark?

  Like, you think about mortality rates in hospitals. There's no mortality rate higher than black women. Right? You think about just in the sense of being able to marry men that look like you. That's changed. When you see them in the sense of them raising their kids in a situation where they have to, and this isn't every culture, a situation where they have to raise them alone, how difficult it is for now. You're asking this black woman to raise this black man without a black man. It's different than raising a man of any other color in this country.

• 48:30Ryan Clark?

  And we should be asking that America values these people.

• 48:37Ryan Clark?

  But on video, right? Think about anytime, anytime you say, you say, or I say, which I do, when an unarmed black man, or when an unarmed black individual, or woman, or person, is, is, is killed or shot by the cops, the first thing you hear is black on black crime. No, black on black crime is a misnomer. Because you kill, and you commit crimes on those who are in your vicinity. On the people who are in your proximity. But that's what they use on us, because they're like, "You don't even care." Or they point to the music and all this stuff. And on video, we have a man cocking back and telling him to knock you out, punching this woman. Khalilah Hood communicates to her son,

• 49:21Ryan Clark?

  that at the time Jeremy Brown is beating her. The kid gets the gun out of the car, he's 14 years old. He shoots him, and he, Brown approaches him, is what the, the record say, and he shoots him again. And so now she's arrested for first degree murder, and contributing to delinquency of a minor. But really, she's just trying to save her life.

• 49:41Speaker 07

  Correct.

• 49:42Ryan Clark?

  Right, and like you said, I don't think, I, I don't think anybody ever just deserves to die, but damn, that's his mama. And to him, ain't nobody else taking care of her. You know what I mean? But that's like, that's on, and I'm not that man, you're not that man, that's on him. And I get it, to his family, that doesn't change that they love him, that doesn't change that they'll never get to see him again, that doesn't change the hurt. I'm not saying that it should, I'm not saying that it should be all good, that he's dead, but godly, bro. And it's just, it's sad. And it's like, you know, it's one of those situations, like, dude, we can't be quiet about that.

• 50:26Speaker 07

  Right.

• 50:27Ryan Clark?

  You know, and so like, man, I do think it, I do think it, I don't think it's pressure, because I think it's right. I think it's the right decision, I think they did it the right way. Arrest him first, unfortunately. Arrest him first, go through your due diligence of finding out what happened, because somebody did die. He deserves that. He deserves his death to be investigated thoroughly. And when it's done, and you come to the right conclusion, let those people go, man. Let those people go. And it's like, I'm tired, bro.

• 51:01Channing Crowder?

  But it's the most marginalized, disrespected sex is women. The most marginalized, disrespected race are black people. A black woman is the most disrespected, marginalized, redlined, all the cute shit you want to say in the world. It's what it is. It's hard. It's the hardest person to be every day that wakes up is a black woman.

• 51:30Channing Crowder?

  And now, how do you navigate that disrespect? With a situation like we're speaking of? How do you navigate that? How do you figure out what I'm supposed to do? How do you figure out who I'm supposed to call? Who's supposed to help me? Who's supposed to do it? If the police were there? If the police were sitting there and that, you know, and we know cellphone videos and all. If the police were there, they would have dealt with that. But they weren't there. So what do I do now? When I have a son and I have somebody that could figure that out? And that's the problem with, period with women. Every color of woman being disrespected in that way. And marginalized in that way.

• 52:15Channing Crowder?

  But now, how do I deal with this situation at hand? And I think it's a lot of times and a lot of things that happen with people. People of all colors. Yeah, this is the way it's supposed to be. But as we watched that video, we saw what happened. What would you do if that was happening to you, current moment, right now? And that's what I think a lot of people need to open their eyes to, open their minds to.

• 52:39Fred Taylor?

  You know, I think when it went along the lines of being shot in a restaurant. Then some reports say he followed him out. So force was initiated, then he went and finished him off. Per some reports. But I believe there is only one person in the world, or actually that was in the world, that would disagree with the force that the young man used. And that's the aggressor who's no longer here. Everybody else would typically say the young man did the right thing by protecting his mom. I mean, what else are you gonna do? You're 14. What else are you gonna do? So I think the prosecutor's got it right.

• 53:21Ryan Clark?

  The hardest part about...

• 53:25Ryan Clark?

  Decision making in the law is that as much as they try to make it black and white, sometimes it's gray. I think this is a situation that is gray. Travis Rudolph's situation is a situation where it's gray. The larger factor is like, how much life do you take from people? In Travis's case, it took two years from him. You know, from 2021 to 2023, your life is forever changed. And I think that those are the things that you have to really look at in that. My, you know, even in having this discussion though, you think about what we're tasked to do, right?

• 54:07Ryan Clark?

  And the questions that were asked, you know, you mentioned being at Jason Lee's Impact Awards. And the question is like, like, what do you guys consider success? And like Fred said, something super sexy, you know.

• 54:21Fred Taylor?

  I was gonna ask you about that super sexy shit. Could you imagine doing a whole show on First Take? Or any of your segments on ESPN, like, you know, NFL Live, like, in my voice?

• 54:33Ryan Clark?

  No, because I can't make your voice.

• 54:35Fred Taylor?

  Try it.

• 54:36Ryan Clark?

  I'm not gonna try it.

• 54:37Fred Taylor?

  You should try it.

• 54:37Ryan Clark?

  I'm not gonna make myself look foolish.

• 54:39Fred Taylor?

  That is Ryan Clark.

• 54:41Ryan Clark?

  He's like, but like, soon as he said that, they're like, hey Fred, so what are you looking forward here tonight at the Impact Awards? Shit, I'm looking for some sexy shit. Did he not say that?

• 54:53Channing Crowder?

  That lies.

• 54:54Ryan Clark?

  Hey, shit, I was like, what? Hey, do you remember the lady goes?

• 54:59Channing Crowder?

  We had some roundtables.

• 55:00Ryan Clark?

  Hey, and the lady goes, well, I'm trying to do what you're trying to do. And he's like, well, I'm trying. Yeah, I was like, hey, look, I look back, whoa, that is not why.

• 55:12Channing Crowder?

  I was uncomfortable.

• 55:13Ryan Clark?

  Hey, I was uncomfortable. Hey, bro, how about Jason Lee's security guard wanting to put hands on us though?

• 55:20Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, yeah, he ran up on him.

• 55:21Fred Taylor?

  He was doing his job.

• 55:22Channing Crowder?

  But he didn't want that smoke.

• 55:23Ryan Clark?

  No, Fred.

• 55:24Fred Taylor?

  No, no, he was doing his job.

• 55:25Ryan Clark?

  Hey Fred, he actually was not doing his job.

• 55:27Channing Crowder?

  No.

• 55:28Ryan Clark?

  All three of us got to Jason.

• 55:30Fred Taylor?

  Well, yeah, that part, but who expected that?

• 55:32Channing Crowder?

  Ryan grabbed him, you grabbed him, I picked him off the ground, and then the man would run up with his arm bow. But you failed at this.

• 55:40Ryan Clark?

  Failed. Jason is joke. Hey, matter of fact, he is taken.

• 55:45Channing Crowder?

  He could have kidnapped Jason.

• 55:47Ryan Clark?

  We could have took Jason Lee from his own awards, bro.

• 55:51Channing Crowder?

  Put him in the car and drove away, and then the male would have stayed and been sitting there with the elbow.

• 55:55Ryan Clark?

  Hey, but wait, why, though, there is my biggest problem with him though, Chan. After he realized it was cool, right? Because Jason, oh nah, these my boys.

• 56:04Fred Taylor?

  He doubted everybody.

• 56:05Ryan Clark?

  No, he was still bucked up though.

• 56:07Channing Crowder?

  Bowled up.

• 56:07Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like, hey, man, put your arms down, dog, like, we.

• 56:11Channing Crowder?

  I flexed a little elbow back down. It was like that. I pushed a little elbow in. I was like, bro, you good.

• 56:16Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 56:16Channing Crowder?

  I pushed a little elbow down. He was about 6'4", but he was 192 pounds.

• 56:20Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 56:21Channing Crowder?

  Jason need to hire some bigger motherfuckers to protect him. I'll tell him now. Jason, get some bigger dudes.

• 56:26Ryan Clark?

  Hey, man, this was a good show. It's always good, man, when we get to chop it up. Everybody straight? Anybody else need anything?

• 56:33Fred Taylor?

  No, no, I do want to go back before we shut it down. I know we got to shut it down. About the Impact Awards, though, you know, we came out, we supported Jason, but it wasn't about that. It was actually showing up, you know, and being an impact, giving back. What do you guys think about our visit to Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards? How was it?

• 56:52Channing Crowder?

  Everything was free. I'm a big fan of free.

• 56:56Ryan Clark?

  No, I think I was, I'm uncomfortable in those settings.

• 57:00Fred Taylor?

  Why?

• 57:01Channing Crowder?

  It's weird, because you know what? It's weird that you are uncomfortable.

• 57:07Fred Taylor?

  That's why I'm saying why.

• 57:08Channing Crowder?

  People love you.

• 57:08Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, they do.

• 57:10Ryan Clark?

  I'm very uncomfortable in those settings. I think I spent, I spent so much time rationalizing why I never get invited to them. I think I spent, you know, I never went to Super Bowls I didn't play in. You know, I've said that before. This year, I'm gonna go to the ESPYS. It must be my first time ever. Yank would always be like, "Why don't we go to the ESPYS? You work for ESPN." And my thing was always, because I don't want to get like some bunk ticket because I asked for a ticket because I work for ESPN and they like sit me at the top. You know, I was like, when you go to those things, like they care about the players and

• 57:52Ryan Clark?

  they care about the award winners or the entertainers that they bring in. And it honestly hasn't been, bro, until us that I've been in these situations. We went to Komodo for the opening. Dallas. For Happy Dad and Grupman. And like I remember when we first got in, it was packed, bro. And when we first got in, I just put my back against the wall. And not like put my back against the wall like I used to do when we went to the club that was in Port Allen when I was in college, because I knew I put my back against the wall so they couldn't steal me from here when they play like Nuck If You Buck or, you know. Pride, Pat. Like I knew, okay, we finna throw. It wasn't like that. It was just like I was uncomfortable.

• 58:37Ryan Clark?

  And then when I get in atmospheres where everybody has to be somebody, right? Like what I like is we go to like a hole in the wall that my dad would like and we just sit in the corner and like we can drink and just talk. But when you're in those places and everybody has to be on and every interaction has to be this interaction about who you are, like that's uncomfortable for me. And I thought it was beautiful. And then I see people who like flourish in it, right? Like when Floyd walked in, I was like, this is what he does. You know what I mean? He had the vest on, he had the brim on, he was iced out, cheesing, smiling, just as comfortable because that spotlight is where he's best. I'm not, you know?

• 59:22Ryan Clark?

  I've said it before, like my baseline is like work. My baseline is trying to get there. And so now being there and having, and I don't have an imposter syndrome because like I don't, I don't just walk around that room like, oh, everybody's better than me. But I do feel a level of like social anxiety and discomfort in those settings, which I'm working on, but like it's hard for me.

• 59:49Channing Crowder?

  And it's so crazy because of the fact that I like, I've said it before. I didn't believe in in mental like the mental health stuff until I was around Joey Porter and Ricky Williams. And Peasy is crazy. And Ricky, I've watched him at Prime 112 with me and Ronnie Brown, sit there and have a wonderful, loving conversation like we're having right now. And then some people walk in and we expand the table and five, four or five people sit down and I could, I see him. I was with Rick the other week and I've told him, I told, we talk about this story and he's kind of, he laughs about it.

• 1:00:28Channing Crowder?

  And I could see him melt as a person and I saw the social anxiety stuff, but I don't understand like, I can't fathom why you. And I'm social, which is the other weird part. That's what I was gonna say. I can't fathom why you. It's weird, bro. Feel that way in a room of people that want to be around you. Because I've said it before, I really feel when I walk in a room, like I want to tell everybody you're welcome. I feel that way and you like, y'all can see it, like when I walk around like. You think you're the best thing in every room we go into. Looking, the smartest, the best, the the most intelligent, the everything in the room I'm in.

• 1:01:10Channing Crowder?

  And honestly, y'all probably got me if I want to be truthful to myself, but I don't feel that way when I'm in the room. And it, and we've talked about this off camera. I'm glad we're talking about it on camera. It, I do not understand why you're like that because what you do and the skill level you have and the things you've done on and now off the field are fucking superior to 95, 99% of people I know. And I get upset with you when I see you leaning against the wall. I'm a small group guy.

• 1:01:44Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? I'm a

• 1:01:46Channing Crowder?

  You make me mad when you leave me.

• 1:01:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you were like, what is wrong with you?

• 1:01:49Channing Crowder?

  Get your ass off this wall and come talk to these people.

• 1:01:52Fred Taylor?

  Right, right. That's what he needs to do. I mean, you're dope, bruh.

• 1:01:56Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:56Fred Taylor?

  But I understand it. I mean, I get it.

• 1:01:58Ryan Clark?

  I don't know, man. I think I was probably more social in settings like that when I accomplished less, because I felt like it was less pressure to to be a certain thing or whatever. And I don't know. I mentioned death earlier and that we are getting older. A friend of mine passed recently, Clark Haynes. We played together in Pittsburgh and he has a daughter and a son, Damon and Elena, his ex-wife, his mother. And the last time I saw him was at Troy's Hall of Fame induction.

• 1:02:37Ryan Clark?

  And Alan Fanica, Coach Cower. And so it was like a really big Pittsburgh Steeler gathering and function. And he had dealt with some demons, with some substance abuse. And his mom was like always with him. And she was so happy. And he was so happy to see us. You know, Clark was 46, man.

• 1:03:04Ryan Clark?

  And I got the call on the day it happened from Jack Kearney. He's the chief of police in Pittsburgh. He was always our head of security. And he was, and like Jack's like, like, Jack's kind of like Jack Bauer off of 24. He's just one of those dudes, man, like, doesn't get emotional. You feel like if the world was ending, he'd be the one fighting for it. He was crying. You know what I mean? Like, like grown men don't cry. And in that time, man, and y'all have been around, he's like, he's like, man, he's like, y'all were so special. He's like, I'm so grateful I got to be a part of that. And he's like, and we've, we lost one. And so I want to dedicate this show to Clark. I don't know.

• 1:03:50Ryan Clark?

  What your demons or the things that you fought did to your loved ones. But you were always beautiful to be around. And you made us happy, and you made us smile, and you worked like nobody else worked that I was ever around. And you lived with a joy, man, that even if it was only forty-six years, you brightened so many people's day. And I don't know if your family will see this, but my condolences, our condolences, our prayers and our thoughts are with you all. I love you, brother. See you soon.

• 1:04:32Fred Taylor?

  Five three.

• 1:04:35Fred Taylor?

  Five three.

• 1:04:37Fred Taylor?

  Beautiful.

• 1:04:38Ryan Clark?

  My man.

• 1:04:40Fred Taylor?

  It's crazy, bruh.

• 1:04:43Speaker 08

  Hold up. Limited, take a stomach, I'm pinning it. I thought they hear the witness shit. Them people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up. Knowing me, I got the key. Only bitch you not can trust. Trust. Limited, take a stomach, I'm pinning it.

• 1:05:09Speaker 09

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

• 1:05:14Speaker 01

  We go V.

• 1:05:17Speaker 09

  We go V. Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Some Maglutide injection, two point four milligrams, a GLP-1. Call one eight three three four Wegovy, or visit Wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?