Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
I'm ready to start. Welcome to Smart Lunch. Smart Lunch.
Hey, yeah, so Will is joining us from over the pond there in London. It looks like you went ahead and treated yourself to a nice, at least a one-bedroom, maybe a two-bedroom suite. Dude, look, who's counting other than you? I mean... Yeah, it looks like you're doing pretty well. Yeah, sitting in a wingback.
Sitting in a ween back, you know, I felt like this is the chair that I've always deserved. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know? Yep. You're also taught, you kind of, you sound like you're keeping it down because somebody's sleeping or something. Yeah, you trying to stay quiet because the kids are asleep or... No, you know why? It's kind of echoey in here. Yeah. So I'm just trying to be like not as echoey. Oh. Oh, because you probably have...
Hardwood floors in that nice hotel. Sure do. And high ceilings, right? Sure do, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm over here visiting some friends. And then, of course, I'm going to the football on Sunday, which I'm really excited about. The NFL is having a game on this weekend over. They're trying to expand the league. You are something else. I'm going to see Liverpool play West Ham up at Anfield, their home ground in Liverpool on Sunday. Chappie and I are going.
And I'm very, very excited. Mm-hmm.
Would you ever consider getting each other rings, you and Chaffee? Maybe just tattoo it around your ring finger. You know who we went and saw yesterday? We went last night and saw Johnny Vaughn, my buddy who I've mentioned, who's on the radio over here, and he's a great talent. Oh, yeah. And so I went and joined the 407 thing with his crew. Everybody from Gab the Woodman Woods to Dr. Sunta Templeton to Big Si and Little Si. It was just a... And then we went out for...
Nice Chinese food dinner. At a casino. Oh. So, yeah. How about that? Like a betting casino? It was, yeah, it was very, it was different. But it was great. This guy hosted us. It was amazing. Incredible Chinese food restaurant in the basement of this casino. Good times, man. I can't picture, look at Jason's face. I know. I can't picture anybody. He doesn't know.
I can't picture gambling anywhere other than Vegas. So they have casinos there. Does it feel like Vegas? They got casinos everywhere, Sean. Really? Yeah. You ever heard of Macau? I'm going to be going to Vegas in a few weeks here, and I'm anticipating not going to the tables at all because I don't drink anymore. And I feel like I need to be –
inebriated to enjoy the mindlessness of gambling and the fear of gambling. Sean can do it at breakfast. Yeah, I could do it. Oh my God. I love it. Wait, Sean, are you one of those that at like a buffet, do you sit at the table, fill out the bingo card and everything? Yeah. And then I go to Vegas.
I went with Sean once. You remember that? Years ago, we went to Vegas. Oh, my God. That was a long time ago. Do you remember that? That was so long ago. That was like 2002. Was this after Istanbul, you guys? It was before Istanbul. Well before. I went to Vegas once. But maybe after Venice. Oh, boy. Because we did Venice, Italy, too. Does Chaffee know about Sean? Is he okay with him? I'm trying to keep him on my laps right now. Will and I have tattooed rings. Totally.
Toe rings. I saw Sean one time at a blackjack table just go nuts and he was splitting and doubling down and at one point he just had, he was playing like an eight hand thing. It was so many splits and doubles. But it was $2 units, right? It was just a $2 table. No, it was great. And that one time, I think it was that time or another time. You won?
Yeah, I kept winning. I was really drunk and I was really young. See, that's what I mean. I don't think you can win when you're sober. No. And yeah, because you make horrible choices. Well, you make pragmatic decisions and that's sort of at odds with successful gambling, I think. Yeah. And I, anyway, I had like 300 bucks or 200 bucks left or something like that. And I turned it into like 10,000 bucks and I gave it all the way to the people at the table. The people. Yeah. Like Robin Hood. Like the, like...
just like a second if you work for the irs if you work for the irs just it was 9999 right yeah how are you with the how are you with the jet lag can you i'm okay really fast it kind of hit me i actually left in a little bit early because the jet lag kind of hit me in the between the eyes and i was like guys i gotta go to sleep i'm
But I can tell you this. I'm really excited to go to my first... As you guys know, I do love Liverpool and I love what they call football over here. So I'm excited to go. It's a big thrill. And Jay, as a sports fan, you can appreciate how cool it is to go to a new...
Yeah, they make sports fans look bad here in the States because you guys got the – or they guys. You're one of them. Thank you. All the songs that you sing. Oh, the songs are incredible. It's real good fan stuff all the time. I'd be into that. It's super, super fun, and it's a great environment. I've only been to one match over in Europe, and that was in Spain a few years ago. But I haven't been here, and I'm so excited, and I love the football.
And I'm glad I'm saying football because it's reminding me. Oh, here we go. It's reminding me. Watch this. You know, our guest today, I'm so excited because I just want to get to him. This guy will. Our guest today is an incredible entrepreneur.
He's a philanthropist. He's involved in all sorts of businesses from media consulting to management to blenders to sports apparel. Oh, blenders. To team ownership. This is a guy who's done so much and it started, a lot of it started because he had so much success
on the football field. And you know, you talk about people who do amazing things and then you talk about guys who went in the first round of the NFL draft, who played three seasons in Buffalo, twice led the league in touchdowns, voted to four consecutive Pro Bowls, won a Super Bowl, and also I think he got really well known for his incredible, what they called the Beastquake
What? Touchdown run. What? During the 2010-2011 NFL playoffs, he rushed 67 yards while breaking nine tackles, considered one of the greatest NFL runs of all time. He's an all-time great. He's an all-time great guy. And he's also, more importantly, my friend, you guys, it's Mr. Marshawn Lynch. No way. Marshawn.
Marshawn, good morning. What's going on? Oh, my God. Marshawn, can I ask you a question? Why do you spend so much time with this guy, Will Arnett? What happened? Does he have photos on you or something? You guys are so close. It's the weirdest couple in all of Hollywood. Nah, man. I told him, like, if you ever call my phone or bang my line, I'm going to make it work. Because he gave me an opportunity to do some shit that I ain't never done before.
So anytime he hit my phone, I'm coming through for him. So that's just for forever. In perpetuity, he's got you as a guy throwing favors. For sure. Can we know what that was or no? No, Murderville. Yeah. A lot of people don't realize how hilarious Marshawn is. Because they think of him as like a football icon. And I'm like, this is a funny dude. Yeah.
and I'm so lucky, you know, I'm so happy that you do return my calls and, and,
You know, Marshawn, we've never really talked about football, like in a way, or like how you started. Think about it. Over the last few years, we've talked about so much other weird stuff. Honeymoon and all that other kind of stuff. Well, we covered the World Cup last year. We did this thing together. And we never talked about how you started in pro football, well, just in football in general. And I guess that's on me. I should have asked. But I'm asking now, how did you...
What was your first... Were you in love with football when you first started, when you were a kid? What was the deal? What was your relationship like with football starting out? I mean, the relationship with football was... I was big on playing it. Not too much of a fan sitting down and watching it. Really? That's interesting. But when it came to it, it was like, yeah. If we had the opportunity, every opportunity I had to play it, I was for sure getting down. But...
I really wasn't, like I said, I wasn't big on sitting down and watching a game. It wasn't like no big-ass tradition that we did where everybody come through on Sunday and watch the games or Monday nights. It wasn't like, we got to watch this Thursday. No, I wasn't. No shit like that. And then the opportunity to go to college and play there
I thought it would all end for me after high school. And then, you know, we started sending letters like, oh, yeah, you got an opportunity to go to college and shit. That wasn't something that was, you know, really talked about in my household as well. So... Really? I mean, it just all seemed, yeah, that shit all seemed like a little fairy tale or whatever, but... Which college did you end up going to? Cal University. Oh, yeah. California. Berkeley? Yeah. Yeah.
So, I mean, the shit worked out for me in the long run. Yeah, for sure. When I first found out, I'm like, hell no. You want me to go to more school? More voluntary school? Like, nah, hell no. I'm cool off that. I ain't gonna lie. Luckily, I had two cousins who was really into that shit. What's that, schoolwork?
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Really into schoolwork. Yeah. Yeah, man. I'll say they took on the jobs of the teachers by making sure I maintained a reasonable grade point average to even be able to give college an opportunity. That's awesome. Wow. But then once it was like, once I got there and, you know, seeing what type of time they was on, what I had to do in order to...
accomplish, you know, going to the next level, then shit just made sense. And it was like that shit clicked. Cause now it was like, oh, I got a, I got a goal and I got to do X, Y, and Z to accomplish this. Then let me just do what I need to do and see how far I could take. Do you remember the process of, of getting used to getting hit?
Like, did you start playing football so young? Oh, sorry for him. Where you don't remember it? Were you so young when you started that you don't remember it? Or do you remember like, because, you know, I never was allowed to play football. My mom was British. She wanted me to play soccer. But I got this one part in a football movie where I actually got to put on pads and a helmet and I played like a defensive back or something. And this one take, I had to tackle a guy.
And I didn't know what to do with my head. I felt like, well, if my head hits that person's shoulder, it's going to break my neck. So what I thought would be smart to do is just to kind of shrug my shoulders up and trap my helmet in the hole that the shoulder pads create so it's locked in there. Like a turtle. Yeah, exactly. I'm not sure when you did this role in that movie, but you sound like you...
You got that move from the little giants. Exactly. I'm just a small, soft actor. And they all laughed at me. The movie was a comedy, thank God. That's right, though, Jay. I wouldn't think of that. That is true. Because, Marshawn, I'm the opposite of you. I'd rather watch it than play it. Because I played it when I was a kid. I was terrible. But when I watch it, when I see the heads hit the bodies, I think the same thing. I was like, how does their neck...
Yeah. So do you remember that process? Was, is there a learning curve that's painful on that or were you too young? Most definitely. So, I mean, I got the, I probably got the latest start out of it because it was a group of us. And I mean, you know, it was more family, you know, close friends, like in the neighborhood, you know,
You know, I think I was probably one of the later ones that started maybe around age 13. Yeah. So a few of them started maybe age six. Six, eight was around the normal time for them to start. So they were called, like, considered the veterans. Right. And, you know, one of my closest friends, rest in peace, we were doing hidden drills, angling, tackling. It's the biggest thing in football. Is what? Is angle tackling? Angling, tackling.
Tackling drill. What does that mean? You line up on opposite sides, put a cone out, and you come to a point where you have to earn your manhood. It's not a lot of us. Sure. We're a lot of us seen it. And, you know, he was a veteran. This was my first year. This was my first year in full contact sports in the U.S.
Somehow he convinced me to go first, which, you know what I mean, was not a good idea. So he called go, and we ran and we hit. Like a couple of rams hitting each other with their horns, right? Yep, except for I didn't lower my shoulders or my helmet.
And I went in standing straight up like I was trying to give him a bear hug. Like Frankenstein. And he actually put his stomach, exactly, he actually put his helmet right in my stomach. Ouch. And I'm talking about all the wind was blowing out. Like, ooh, shit, I don't know. And I had to make a decision because...
As soon as he had hit me, all you can hear is the coach is like, man, what the hell y'all doing? Like, line up. And I'm like, line up? Like, oh, you want me to do this again? I'm laying down. You want me to do this again right after? I'm like, I don't know what to say. I want to tell him, like, hey, you know, I just went. But then, you know, everybody in line, hey, line up, line up. We got to line it up. So I'm like, oh, you want me to do this again? So it was like, oh, hell no. I seen what you just did to me.
And I was like, now this time, I'm going to duck my shoulder in my head and run it into you. So the thing was, I was a little faster than him, so I was able to get to the point quicker than him. So in the midst of him lowering his helmet and his shoulders, I had already been lowered and smashing. Bam! Coach is like, oh, okay, the little rookie got something to him. Line up again.
And now he's calling all his veterans to the front of the line. And now he want to see the rookie hit with all the veterans. And so it was a thing of like, oh, this is just what you got to do in order to be a hitter on the team. Those are the people who get all the praise, all the cheerleaders make love. Go number, you know what I mean, whoever your number is. And I'm like, oh, shit. So if I become a hitter then...
I could be one of them. And then, I mean, you know, my first position I played offensive line. So that's where all my little, I guess my toughness and all that, ain't afraid to hit somebody. And then, you know, as much as, so for y'all who don't know, I'm an offensive player, but my mentality is defense. And we will be right back. And now back to the show.
By playing offensive line first, do you have sympathy for the offensive lineman that once you became a running back, power back, you start running into the backs of those offensive linemen? Do you remember the days when running backs used to do that to you? I'll bet it hurts.
No, man, to be honest with you, I take care of my offensive linemen. And one of the things that I don't do is I don't run into the back of them. If I see a pileup or something like that, I'd rather bounce outside and run into a defender than hit my offensive lineman in the back. Is that something that offensive linemen do complain about?
Hell yeah. Yeah. Cause it's like, damn, pick your eyes up. Cause they feel like, Hey, look, I'm doing my job. I'm running this dude out of there and you running into my back. If you want to hit somebody, hit one of them. The guy with the other color on. Yeah. For real, for real. Yeah. During the, the, um, well, was work harder during football or is work harder now with the acting, you know, because, um,
the hours in acting can be, you know, usually 12 hours. And sometimes that hard work is simply trying to manage boredom because no one, there's no two people that are working at the same time. And concentration, though, when it's called, right? Yeah. Or is the football harder because of, you know, all the obvious parts of it, the traveling and strenuousness? Well, see, the thing was...
You know, the traveling, meetings, you know, practice, games, being able to take care of my body, you know, making sure I don't lose my mind. That became like second nature. That was more so like just my walk in life. And then with this, you know, with, you know, going over into, I guess you would call it entertainment, it's more of like a challenge to me. So I'm not looking at it as...
is it hard or is it strenuous? It's more so like, I want to understand it. Yeah. I want to, I want to get a, I want to get a understanding for this, the way that I did for when I was playing my sport. But, but ultimately, if I'm just looking at it from a time management point, when I, when I lock in for football, I,
I had to lock in for eight months out the year. That was just what it was. Right. And why is it important to you, just out of curiosity, like, have you always had this thing in the back of your head that's like, you know what, I want to stretch this muscle in my head about this acting thing or this artistic kind of side of me? No, it's just that, realistically, I don't want to be bad. Yeah. Because, I mean, shit, I mean, you know, you hear about it all the time, like,
for individuals after their first career, they go and get into something else and it kind of don't pan out for them. But in the same breath in which they're, you know, damn, he was a great football player or he was a good football, however you view me as a football player, you're not going to say I was bad unless I done something to your team. Then maybe I'm shitty to you, but otherwise, you know what I mean? But otherwise, you're going to say, you know what I mean? He brought something to the game and then,
You know what I mean? Going into my second career, motherfuckers see me on TV like, oh, you know what? He ain't bad. He did a good job. So it's almost like a challenge. You enjoy the challenge of it. Yeah, I can say that. What about the gym? I imagine the gym would have been a big part of every day during your football career. What's the amount of hours you're doing in the gym per week? To be honest with you, that was probably the place where I spent the least time.
Really? Work at. I mean, you got to think about it. My career, I played in the league with 12, 13 years. And then you got to think college was another three. High school, four. Little league, I got about three in. So 20 plus years of doing the same shit, you got to think like, all right, I got to figure out a way.
to do some other shit in order to stay in shape or to get my body right. So then, I mean, you start getting creative. And I mean, you know, I would say realistically, maybe two, maybe three times in the gym a week. And it ain't to do like, you know, like you see that you probably be like pumping all this weights and all that shit. It might be just to get a stretch.
You know what I mean? Or to utilize the swimming pool. Or just see who's in the steam. Yeah, that should work too. Sign a steam room for sure. So I have a two-parter, Marshawn. So when you were playing football, was there a person or a moment that made you want to – that kind of –
clicked your brain into what if I did this, you know, expanded into entrepreneurial stuff? And what if I, was there a person that you're like, gosh, I really admire the way he handled his career after football or during football? Or was there a moment? And the second part is, what is your favorite or most rewarding entrepreneurial effort so far? Well, the first part is before I even knew about money or anything, because it wasn't like,
That was something I came from. I remember they was having these, what is it, financial advisors coming to the facility and, you know, get a spiel. I mean, and you can...
you know, choose a financial advisor that way. That was the way in which we met financial advisors. Oh, so the team brings people in to talk to players and sort of help them kind of figure out what they want to do? That's good, actually. Yeah, the player personnel, like, you know, the guy who looks after the players on a more personal level, they'll bring in individuals who they know personally
through dealings with or maybe got introduced by another player. But I remember the first time my financial advisor came in and said,
He came in there and he was talking and shit, I had this thing where I could go to sleep standing straight up. And so he came in and he started talking all the while and I fell asleep straight up. Yeah, it goes in one ear out the other. Shit, it didn't go in no ear. I'm asleep, dead to the world. Yeah, yeah. And he make a, he don't say nothing. So as he's finishing up and he, you know what I mean, kind of come to him up on the board, I see all these names.
And these are names of NFL players who, you know, I thought if you play in the NFL, you're like the richest person in the world. I'm looking at all these names and I'm seeing like, you know, they got a number on the side, to the right of their name in another column. And I'm like, damn, like fuck, they got all this money. And then at the end of it, you know, we go through like three slides and I'm talking about maybe some of the most notable names in football.
And at the end, he say, all bankrupt. And I'm like, what the fuck? Yeah. No money. I'm like, no, hell no. Right. Now I'm up.
Yeah. But now it's presentation. Now I'm awake, yeah. So I'm like, hey, hold on. What you mean they bankrupt? Like, you know, I've seen some of the names of individuals who, you know, I look up to. Like, nah, what the fuck? So after he said, man, you slept through my whole meeting, I said, yeah, I did. You know what, my bad, but... But can you start from the beginning again? I had to see the part where you said, all my, all of these players up here is broke now. Like, what the fuck is going on? And the number next to them are the millions in debt they are. Man, and I'm like...
How do I not become one of them? Yeah, good for you. Good for you. Well, you know what, Marshal? First of all, you can't go to sleep in my meeting. Look, quit bringing up old shit. We talking about moving forward. What was early on one of the, if you did make like a just foolish, you know, purchase, do you remember like one of the dumbest things you've ever bought?
You said one of the dumbest things I ever bought. Like when you first start out, you're like, oh, I got an extra, you know. Did you ever buy an animal that should probably be in a zoo? Yes, I have. But that didn't come, that wasn't early on. That was after everything was said. Oh, really? And what kind of animal was this?
I brought a monkey. A monkey. You did really? I've always wanted a monkey. What kind of monkey? A red-hand tamarin. Is that true? Did you really buy one? Yeah, about as big as my hand. Lil' Pimp was his name. Oh, my God. Lil' Pimp. That's L-I-L apostrophe? Man, no, no apostrophes. Is this the kind that throws stuff at you? No, he don't throw no shit at you. Now, he will get to yelling at you, though. He'll yell. Really? He'll yell at you. Is he still with us? Hell yeah. No, no, no, no.
See, they got a short lifespan. I was always nervous. I didn't want a monkey to come and end up ripping my arms and my balls off or something. Or my face. He was about as big as my hand. About as big as my hand. And I mean, that little motherfucker was fascinating. Oh, my God. He did some of the most...
Crazy shit I've ever seen before. Do you have to get a trainer for that? Or do you train them yourself? No, they... To be honest with you, he really cool, though. Like, I mean, as far as... They come trained. No, I won't say that. But as far as, like... I mean, he's so little. Like, if he taking shit somewhere, it's like...
Like a squirrel. Like, damn, is that rat shit? Yeah, right. Oh, he's so tiny. So it ain't like there's no messy-ass shit like that. Never a diaper on Lil Pimp? Nah, man, we wasn't confining him, man. Lil Pimp was, he was, hey, man, he was a real true one. Lil Pimp. R.I.P. Lil Pimp. R.I.P. Lil Pimp. But there was a few...
I mean, there was a lot of guys that, you know what I mean, I started to see turn. You know, like, used to watch O.J. in movies, Jim Brown in movies. And, I mean, you know, just to see them being able to do it, it gave me, like, oh, it's an opportunity there to do that. And then, I mean, you know, throughout the league, you know, you had players who...
you know, getting into investments and like, hey, man, you know, I'm working with this company, you know, blah, blah, blah. Like, you doing what? Oh, yeah. You know, I'm an outreach person. And I'm like, OK, outreach. Like, well, I mean, you know, I don't really like people like that. But for the for the simple fact that I'm seeing you being able to be on a level of professionalism even after you're done playing football, like,
you know, I kind of got inspired by that and I wanted to see what was actually out there. And a lot of this shit that I did learn or that I did get into, it basically all started off like a joke, kind of like, you know, damn, well, see if they'll let me get ownership.
Right. Okay. And then it's like, okay, yeah, you put a couple dollars up and they give you some ownership. Like, all right. Yeah, you did that with the Seattle Kraken. You got ownership in that. You know, Sean, you might not know this. Marshawn's like part owner of a bunch of sports teams, including the NHL Seattle Kraken. Really? Marshawn and I did this thing for soccer for the World Cup last year.
And then like two weeks into it, he sends me this sweatshirt from the Oakland Roots. And I go, what's it? And he goes, yeah, this is this MLS2 team that I co-own. And I go, we've been talking about soccer every day for two weeks and you're only telling me now that you're an owner of a team? But he's got all these pieces of these teams, which is so, so cool. Very cool. Very savvy.
Yeah, no kidding. Like, team ownership, that's where it's at. Yeah, man. Just trying to position myself. I mean... I have $1,000 to invest in this team. Can I... See, look, you just a little bit too late. We just did a round where... Oh, okay.
He could have bought into... That's his nickname, Too Late John Hayes. He could have bought into the Oakland Roots. We just raised $2 million in Oakland. More so like, you know, my team, my city. It's something big going on within the Bay Area just because, you know, within the last, what,
Five years, we done lost, what, the Raiders, the Warriors. And the A's. And I think I just heard the A's is going to be leaving too, so. Wow. Yeah. Why don't you start doing a show like our friends Rob and Ryan and just have cameras following you around. You go visit all the teams that you own pieces of. That would be a good show. Yeah, that would be a good show, actually. That's a good idea.
Thank you. It's not a bad idea. Or a podcast. Thank you. And we'll produce it through Smart List Media. Yeah, we will. We just made some money. Well, that was where I came on here. I'm trying to see the blueprint. Here we go. Let's do that, Marshall. Let's get a podcast going with you popping around and visiting on the teams that you own. I want to hear locker room speeches. I want to hear podcasts.
play by play. There's all kinds of things we can do. Wait a second. I was going to ask you about locker room speeches because you worked with some great coaches. You worked with great players. You got to know that Marshawn's quarterback when he was at Cal was none other than Aaron Rodgers. And then his quarterback, while he was a pro for most of his career, was Russell Wilson, two of the all-time great quarterbacks. Your coach for a long time was Pete Carroll in Seattle. I mean, you've been...
It's funny, I feel like sometimes great players and talents are attracted to each other, and you got in with, you were with a lot of talented people. What was your relationship like with coaches? Well, specifically like Pete Carroll, but coaches in general through college and then into the pros? Early on in my career, like from, I'm gonna go like this, Pop Warner High School,
It was easy because all the coaches was, you know, from my neighborhood. They understand how to speak to me, understand how to get the most out of me. Then going to college, considering I ain't, because I ain't grow up with no father in the household. So going to college and then I have, I mean, in Oakland at this time, probably 90% black. I got a white head coach and this motherfucker don't got no filter.
And I'm talking about maybe one of the most, how could I say that? At the time, I thought, like, I regretted it. I'm like, man, this motherfucker racist. I can't do nothing right. And then it was like, all of a sudden, it just clicked for me. Like, oh, shit, no, he's not racist. This dude was preparing me for going to the league and what I was about to go through in the real world. Knowing where I'm coming from,
I mean, I was basically trapped in a box. And he was opening my mind to shit that I didn't even know exist. Coaching was something that...
I didn't take, you know, lightly. Like, man, fuck you. How you gonna tell me what to do? Like, motherfucker, you ain't playing. You ain't, you know what I mean? And then I... The running back coach that I had when I was in college, I found out he played DB. And I'm like, how the fuck you gonna tell me how to be the greatest running back and your motherfucking ass played DB? Didn't make sense to me. But what it did was it taught me to... It taught me to learn from...
from individuals from different perspectives. Mm-hmm. He knew what it looked like as a running back... Right. ...coming downhill at a defensive back. Oh, interesting. He didn't know what it looked like as a running back running down...
Right. A defensive back. So he's able to tell me, when he tell me, Marshawn right here, square your shoulders up, he knew that DBs don't want to tackle running backs. No. So make him make a business decision. Make him stick his head through his shoulder pad. Yeah. Make him wiggle his head through his shoulder pad. It doesn't work. You know what I mean? It doesn't work. But I wasn't. Only in the movies. It hurts. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention to that early on. But like I said, when I figured it out, okay, this shit makes sense now.
We'll be right back. All right, back to the show. It seems to me that a guy like Pete Carroll, does he coach? I feel like a lot of his speeches are really esoteric, like really out there kind of like, are they football related or does he make a lot of like big sort of inspirational speeches about life and stuff? Am I right on that? Yeah, I fuck with Pete. I won the championship with him. But as far as his speeches and all that, you know, I would leave out of his meetings.
Did you do any standing up sleeping in the Pete Carroll meetings? No, I'd sit down sleeping in that motherfucker. I wanted my good race. You'd dig in there. Yeah, I would. You know, after a while, it just started to become repetitive for me. Right. And then I'm not a guy who you need to like...
Rob Markman: ... to get me ready to go and bust somebody. Because I'm already at a disadvantage because that's what my lifestyle was. So I don't need that. That extra shit, that shit just going to make me upset, make me like, "All right, bro, you talking too much. I don't want to talk. I just want to bust a motherfucker's head and you keep talking as you damn near talking me out of going to go bust a motherfucker's head now."
I want to let them do something to you because you talk too much type situation. So I don't need rah, rah, rah. And he was that type of guy. So anytime I could eliminate the rah, rah, rah, I would do that. But I mean, I done had some great coaches along the way. Men who I feel has taught me to stand on principle, morals, and values, which I feel that...
that shit is a thing of the past. That shit is a myth. If you hear somebody standing on principle more than values, for real, he did? He must be hella old or something. That ain't something right now that is looked at as a good thing. They taught me that walk, to walk with conviction as a man and
I hold conversations with them till this day still. I mean, contact with them and reach out to me, reach out to them, check on them. But I mean, it's a funny thing because I mean, like I said, from my mindset before on the coach was like, what you talking about right now, that shit don't concern me too. Okay, now these are individuals who have lives, families,
And they actually walk with a purpose. And I feel that, you know what I mean? Once I opened up my mind to that, thanks to Coach Teffert, to seeing them for more than just telling me, okay, Marshawn, you got to run through the B-gap, you got to run through the C-gap, or you got to cut back right here. And I took it for more than what it was worth. Shit started to open up for me. And it was a big thing for me. You know what I mean? It's funny you talk about Pete Carroll because at the time,
He had got another coach over there, Tom Cable. And that was like my connection. Tom Cable and Coach Sherman, those were my connections to the team. That was how I got the information about what was going on because, you know, Pete was just a little bit, he was too much for me. You know what I mean? Like, I'm...
You wake, I'm telling you, you come in at, because I had weird ass hours when you start talking about the gym and shit. Like I would come into the locker room maybe at four o'clock in the morning.
And, you know, I'll go do some extra work, sign a steam room, you know, maybe a little bike, swimming or whatever. And it'll be about 5 o'clock in the morning, and I'll see Pete coming into the office, and he, hey, buddy, hey, how you doing? It's going to be a great day today. Like, hey, hey. And he'll be like, what the fuck? Like, hey, look, it's 5 o'clock in the morning, bro, cool out. And you're like, hold on, man. I just seen this motherfucker didn't leave out of the facility yet.
until, like, 11, 12 o'clock at night. - And he's back at 5:00. - And he was leaving. "Hey, buddy, I'm going home. You can have a great night. I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure you're ready on time." And he like, "Hold on, this motherfucker." And then it ain't no difference when you see him at breakfast.
He come in that meeting the same way. You see the motherfucker at lunch the same way. You see him on a practice field. You see him after practice and the meetings after that. And when he going home, he the same way. And best believe if you dare to see him come in in the morning, it's like, man, this motherfucker got to be a robot. Marshawn, tell me, do I remember this right? Did you spend an entire season not talking to the media?
A few seasons. What do you mean, a season? There was a few of them. Where you refused to talk to the media, right? What'd they do? What'd they do to make you take that position? What they did was they showed me who they was. They showed me who they was. And the thing, like I said, I started to stand on principle, morals, and values. Because, I mean, you know, like I said, I was raised different. I've seen things through different lenses. And then I listened.
They used to come into the rooms and they tell all the media it is that and a third, they're not your friend, blah, blah, blah. And then they'll double back and say, you got to remember, no press is bad press. What the fuck? So that was a conflict for me. And then you had a situation where it was a point in my career where everybody wasn't fucking with me, where I was doing shit that you would think...
20-year-old with, you know what I mean, with a couple dollars in his pocket. Some mistakes that would be made. And it would go from, I'd be here one day, hey, Marshawn, you're greatest, this, that, and the third, oh, yeah, yeah, he, he, he, he. And then I'd get in trouble, and then it was like,
Oh, I knew that motherfucker was a thug. Oh, that motherfucker ain't shit. Oh, fuck him. He needs to be in jail, not on the football. And then it was all this shit. Started to, and I'm like, damn, this the same motherfucker who I just seen last week was just telling me how much of a good run. And, you know what I mean? He looked forward to seeing what comes out next week. And then, motherfucker. They turn on you. Motherfucker make a mistake.
Or a motherfucker got caught doing some shit he shouldn't have been doing. But the thing was, I seen how judgmental they was. And the thing was, all right, when y'all not recording and doing all of that shit, it's hee-hee-hee. And I'm, hold on, you motherfuckers is too confusing. It's too confusing to try to find out who you individuals truly are. So in my terms, instead of, I'm thinking like, you know what I mean? If we was back in the hood...
I beat your ass. I roll your ass up. I take your camera. And I was like, oh, no, you can't. You can't do that. You can't act that way. So it was more so like, hey, if you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all. Now, these individuals who, you know, talking big shit about me, I could care less what anybody else think about me. And if this is my way to get people to understand where I'm coming from and X, Y, and Z, fuck that. Who I need to deal with?
I'll talk to them individuals, let them know what's up, and then I just go about my business. I didn't feel I needed to broadcast it to the world. Sadly, we live in times where, obviously, where sort of negativity sells. I've seen movie reviews that start off with like a negative headline, and then you read it, and it's like, not a bad review. And I'm like, oh, you just wanted people to click on the shit, and people just want that kind of shit, which sucks. It's not...
Not positive. I will say this. One of the great positive things you do, I know, Marshawn, you've got your FAMFIRST Family Foundation, which is pretty awesome. And I know you've been doing a lot of giving back through that. You want to talk about that for a little bit, how that came to be? Well, yeah, that's probably the longest standing business that I got. And probably, I mean, I started that immediately. Well, I'm not going to say. We started that immediately after I decided to,
entered the draft. And I mean, since then, uh, we just been on a tear. Like, I mean, it didn't matter wherever the help was needed. We tried to fill that gap. And, uh, and what specifically, like, what's the mission, like who you got, who you trying to help? Like, what's the main, the, the, the inner city youth. Well, we looked at, uh, a lot of, a lot of the, a lot of the kids, um, you know, from our neighborhood, they don't get a fair shot.
So we just tried to, you know what I mean, even it up a little bit by, you know, supplying some of the needs that they needed in order to, you know what I mean, be able to, you know, compete with, you know, somebody from a higher background or education level. And I mean, you know, it just started as a football camp, but then it turned into architect camps. Like we do an architect camp for the kids over at...
Shout out to Cal for letting us utilize their facilities. We do, you know, reading programs, math programs, entrepreneur programs. We got Shopify supply this with some shit. And we do beast mode of business where they create their own business and, you know, able to have it go live on Shopify. Yeah.
I mean, anything that you could think of from coding to fucking building a shoe, creating clothing lines. I mean, teaching them ways in order to, you know, think outside the box of what, you know what I mean? We call it the 580 and the 880. But to think outside of that and show them many ways, like with the production company, everybody think like you got to be the individual producer.
that's on the screen to make their money. They don't know that there's a guy back there holding a mic, that there's a guy holding a camera, that you got grips, that you got motherfucking ADs and all these other things. Like I said, I'm watching y'all right now to see. I see two people on this. They don't know this. All they see is they're going to see the clip go from me talking my bullshit to Will to you two
And that's all they're going to see and say, oh, I want to do that, not knowing it's a whole team that made all of this shit come to life. Yeah, there's actually a group of people that are making it. The people on screen are just in it. Jason, you said this once, and I love this. Everybody on set, when you go on a movie, everybody from catering to background holding to locations to team driver, everybody's a filmmaker.
Right? Yeah. Everybody on that set is a filmmaker and it's what makes it so great. There's no one there that doesn't need to be there. That's exactly right. I love, Marsha, I love that you're doing that and it doesn't surprise me because I know, you know, I've gotten to know you're such a great guy and man, I'm just, it's so great to be able to talk to you. We've held you here too long, kind of held you hostage, but I just want to, I could. No, I told you, you folks, Brad, you good in the hood, man, anytime, so. Well. It's good. I had no problem with that.
Marshawn, you're the best, man. Thank you. Continued success. Thank you, Marshawn. You're just always you. Yeah. And we'll talk soon. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Marshawn. All good, man. Y'all have a blessed day, man. Nice meeting you. You too. Thank you, Marshawn.
What a sweet fella. What a great guy, huh? Yeah. How cool is it that here's a guy who has not just a football career, but he wins a Super Bowl and he goes to Pro Bowl and he's a first-team All-Pro, does every basically thing he can do as an NFL player. Superstar. And then has this, retires three times, by the way, he retired because he kept coming back. And then he retires and he turns...
He turns all that into, becomes this entrepreneur and he goes into, it goes into the arts and goes into all this stuff. And I'm like, this dude is unbelievable. He truly is. He's gone beast mode through life, not just on the football field. He's just gone beast mode into everything he does. And I have so much respect for the guy. He's such a cool dude. It sounds like he didn't need to, he held onto his money and he probably doesn't need to continue working so hard, but that's just part of his makeup. Yeah.
Yeah, I love that too. He's such a savvy dude and he's just so cool. And again, I should point out, he's such a good person too. So I'm lucky that he came and did it and I'm lucky that I know him. Yeah, he seems very kind. Yeah, he is very kind. Did you guys see Jason's headline, the meltdown thing? No. Yeah, the little stuff you guys chopped together and put on the show. It's like Bateman has meltdown. What are you talking about?
No, it's, it's, it's no, no, I know. But it, to your point earlier, you said in the, in the interview here that,
People will find a headline just so you can click through. Yeah, click through. And the fact that I said in it that I had a full meltdown, they were able to use that, put quotes around it, and then say Bateman has, quote, full meltdown on podcast. So dumb. It's the headline they need. But it's good. It's good press for us, I guess. I haven't looked on the internet, and I'm so stymied by that. Well, you'd need a Google alert on SmartList and or me. Oh, okay.
I'm going to get one. I'm going to look into that. I might lease one. You're going to lease a Google Alert? Yeah. What does it cost you to get into one of those? Well, the rental's pretty steep, but... Oh, you know what, though? Maybe I could... Yeah. Go ahead, Shane. No, you go ahead. We're going to do it for you. I was going to say, maybe you could, if you can't afford a full subscription, maybe you could do a... Bonsley! Bye! Bonsley! Why are you holding your stomach? Bye! You have an Abe Froman t-shirt on. That's pretty good. Yeah.
Sausage King of Chicago. That's right. Jason, say bye. Bye. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarv, and Bennett Barbico. Smart. Less.
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