Randall Cunningham: The Quarterback Who Changed the Game Before It Was Ready

Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back all the smoke Las Vegas Players era college basketball Tournament. Shout out to the MGM and Park MGM for having us. But we decided to throw a little curveball at y'all, or maybe not a curveball, a long ball, an audible. There you go down. I'll Mary Hall Mary. That'll work too. Man. Someone I grew up idolizing one of my favorites football players. I wore the number twelve and initially wanted to be quarterback because of him, but I found out I was a better receiver than quarterback. I actually got a chance to go watch him preach Sunday and kind of seal the deal here as well. Man, welcome to the show, the great Randall Cunningham. 00:00:39 Speaker 2: Thank you, brother. 00:00:40 Speaker 1: I appreciate you, man, I appreciate you. I mean to be able to sit next to you. Know, this is probably the perks of what we do is you know, we get a chance to interview some amazing people. But this is special for me because again, you were one of mine. You and Jerry Rice were my two favorite players growing up, and to be sitting here with you today is a treat. I want to read it. A comment that we found online. That was really praising you said, Randall set the standard for all black quarterbacks who were not getting drafted up until him. Not McNabb, not Vic, not Lamar. It was Randall cutting him. When you sit back and look at your career, do you understand now how important you were and the and the ceilings you broke and the doors you broke down for today's modern quarterback. 00:01:25 Speaker 2: No, I don't. And once again, thanks for having me on the show. I've seen you guys in. Yeah, you guys got it going up. I don't really do podcasts, so you know, I'm always busy at church. So it's like to be able to sit here, it's an honor, it's my honor. 00:01:40 Speaker 1: We appreciate that. 00:01:41 Speaker 2: And are you guys doing great things? No, I don't. And I don't look back and think that I deserve any credit in a form of humility. I'm just so grateful that these guys are getting the opportunity. I saw a statistic recently that they were speaking about the African American quarterbacks who are starting in the NFL now, and it was half of the league, and I just I kind of just smiled because I know what I went through. It wasn't as dark and gloomy as maybe would Vince Evans or Doug Williams or Warren or Shaq went through back in the day. But I did have my experience of people who didn't like me because of my skin color. 00:02:19 Speaker 1: How did you deal with that? Again, this is you know, talent Asi. You're one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the game, but still you can't outrun the color of your skin. And that's when a lot of people, the standards some people held you to. 00:02:31 Speaker 2: You know, I kind of I went through a lot when I was a kid being in Santa Barbara, California, growing up where it was, you know, not very many African Americans predominantly Hispanic and Caucasian people. So I got to see the other side of growing up with friends that didn't look like me. But how did I handle it? When I first was drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles, I went into the press conference and the first question was how do you feel being a black quarterback in Philadelphia? And immediately I had to defer or stay away from the question. I said, you know, I'm in South Philly, so I thought I was Italian, and that's how I answered the question because I didn't want to open it up to more discussion. So it's kind of like, well, you asked me the wrong question. I don't want to talk about that, and so it was kind of like shutting it down in a light way. I just really didn't deal with it. I didn't want to look at myself as I'm black, I'm white, I'm Hispanic, I'm Hawaiian whatever. I didn't want to deal with that. I just wanted to play ball. 00:03:30 Speaker 1: Being the Trailblazers that you are. 00:03:32 Speaker 3: Do you think you were the first duel threat quarterback or who was before you that you looked as somebody that you looked up to? 00:03:39 Speaker 2: Everybody in you know, forty fifty sixty years old. We know about Fran tarking to Roger the Dodger. Even there were guys Bobby Douglas back in the day who I didn't know about until they started telling me, and he said, you just took his record down, the rushing record. I'm like, oh, okay, but these guys were dynamic. I didn't think the same way they thought. I don't believe when I went into the game, I wanted to study not just the defensive backs and the linebackers. I wanted to study the defensive lineman because I wanted to know if I have to get out of there, I need to know the percentages of me getting out of the pocket and keeping myself healthy. So I was trying to stay healthy because I was only six foot four and a half one hundred ninety six pounds when I went into the NFL. So I was one of the lighter guys. You know, I wasn't Big Ben in Pittsburgh, you know, with this nice physique. I was just a skinny dude. And they're wondering. They used to say, hey, they used to compare me to Robinson and I'm like, no, I don't play basketball. David Robins said, yeah, I'm like, no, that's not me. I'm like, do we really look alike? But it was because I'm so I was so slim. 00:04:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to ask you about two guys. Give me your thoughts. Should do a Soundles love. 00:04:49 Speaker 2: Him the treatment and everything he's going through. Whoo, that's a lot. And I was so happy he got that victory against the Raiders here in Vegas. But I like him. I loved that kid. Ever met him before, but I love him. Of course, Dean and I are friends, but I just really I watch him and he really wants to stay calm and he just really wants to get through everything. And he doesn't come off as arrogant or or like I'm all of that. He is all of that. And I'm telling you, once he gets the real opportunity to have all the weapons around him and a defense and everything, and they just say, Okay, we're just gonna go with you. You're going to see the same kid you saw in college, most dynamic player, you know, playing quarterback. 00:05:31 Speaker 1: Right. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: The kid is good. He's really good. But I mean there's a stigma of you know, being a Sanders and the prime time and all of that, and I think that that kind of overshadows who he is because he's a great kid. 00:05:43 Speaker 1: He's embracing. 00:05:43 Speaker 2: Really, I watch his interviews and I'm like, yeah, I wish I was wise like that when I first got Yeah. 00:05:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think obviously too. With him. It's for some quarterbacks it's okay to be confident, but his confidence is labels arrogance or cockiness instead of just being confident because he's no, he's's put the work in. As you said, he's media I mean, he's built for this. Yeah, he's built for this, and it just rubs people the wrong way, which is crazy. 00:06:07 Speaker 2: Yeah. Lamar Jackson, Oh my god, when he was up for the Heisman, I was calling him. I think I think I called him when he was sitting there, you know, and who was gonna win the Heisman? Love him. I think he's possibly the greatest quarterback ever to play. I mean, Brady was a different quarterback, but Lamar is probably the most talented quarterback in the history of sports. I don't care if it's rugby, football, whatever it may be. This young man is so dynamic and I will go to games and see him, and I don't go to football games, but I'll go see him. Yeah, at any point in time, he could change the game and the excitement and just knowing that at any point in time he might run for a sixty seventy ninety yard touchdown, or he might launch a bomb. He might you know, hit a slant and run all the way to the end zone. High five and the guys. You know, he's just that talented. 00:07:01 Speaker 3: When you're evaluating a quarterback, what's one of the most important things you're looking for. 00:07:06 Speaker 2: Well, they're all smart you can't play quarterback unless you're very smart. But I look at their. 00:07:10 Speaker 1: Points moved me to receive safety. 00:07:17 Speaker 2: You can't get out there because there's no faking it at the quarterback position. You're gonna get hit. You're gonna have to make precise, split second decisions, so you have to be on edge all the time. And then you have to have a little crazy because you're getting hit by three hundred and fifty pound guys and you have to get up. So it's amazing. But Lamar and shaduur amazing players. 00:07:41 Speaker 1: Let's take it back a little bit. Your older brother, Sam, all American fullback at Southern California, went on to play for the Patriots pro bowler, led them in rushing for six years. What did you pick up from him to help you with the game? You developed? 00:07:57 Speaker 2: Get teary eyed because he passed away a few years ago. But he lived I think to about seventy, which was good because my father passed away at fifty six. But I remember when I was in high school, my junior year going into my senior year, and he came to town and whenever he would come to town, you could hear his SS chevelle coming down the street with those glass packed pipes, and we would hear him coming and we would get excited because we finally got to see our brother. And I asked him a question. I proposed this question, I said, I said, Junior, I said, can I make it into the NFL? This is at seventeen years old? And he says, your arm is as strong as the NFL quarterbacks right now. That gave me great confidence. He said, but you have to develop your leadership. And I was like, okay. So from that point on, that's what I worked on, going and gathering my teammates and working just behind the scenes, staying after practice and just really taking it to the next level. And we were blessed that year. I think we went thirteen and one. We got beat by the Great Long Beach PAULI you know they're still yeah, yeah, but it was it was it was just him sewing a seed, saying, you need to be a leader. If you can't be a leader, don't try to go to the NFL. 00:09:15 Speaker 3: You were so called at UNLV that your jersey was retired while you were still playing. 00:09:20 Speaker 1: We talked about that. 00:09:21 Speaker 2: That was a blessing. I didn't know any of that was going to happen. I didn't know that I was doing well enough to be honored like that. But I had a great group of guys on the team, guys from California, a lot of California kids. 00:09:36 Speaker 1: You play with somebody that everybody knows. Oh yeah, night he played with Mary Knight. 00:09:42 Speaker 2: My brother was marrying back we were college. We do and shug, but he was marrying with us. 00:09:47 Speaker 1: How was he? What was he like back then? 00:09:49 Speaker 2: He was cool? 00:09:50 Speaker 1: Was it? 00:09:50 Speaker 2: I mean? And you know, every time I saw him over the years. I saw him the night that the Tupac got shot, hugged him into everything. You know, he was yoked up too. It was big, but it was like just like college. 00:10:04 Speaker 1: You know. 00:10:04 Speaker 2: It was nothing crazy or anything like that. It's just the same old guy, you know. So to have my my jersey retired was it was a blessing because I go to the games. I have a box at the U and l big games. I was telling you, and I love going to the games because I get to support the guys, and uh, I see people wearing my jersey still in college, and I'm like, wow, that's it's an honor to me that somebody still remembers me from playing college football, you know, because that was eighty through eighty four, I believe. 00:10:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. I was born in eighties. 00:10:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it was. 00:10:40 Speaker 3: Vegas in the eighties. What was that like? You know, the boxing was heavy. Oh, yes, talk about Vegas and eighties. 00:10:46 Speaker 2: In the nineteen eighties, we had a dynamic basketball team with Richie Adams and Sydney Green and all these guys, and uh, it was it was they were the talk of the town basketball and everybody went to the games. I remember we used when they built the Thomas and man, we had twenty thousand people and they would come every time there was a game, and you know, I just remember those guys just really being what represented UNLV. But Las Vegas with the boxing, Oh my gosh. I used to go. I remember we would go and we would be ushers at the Caesars Palace and we would wipe the seat and I remember OJ would come in and he would tip us a couple of dollars. 00:11:25 Speaker 1: You know, Is that why you were in college? 00:11:27 Speaker 2: Yes, they would let us have a job just doing that, and we would we would we would get an opportunity to go and watch the fight, but we were ushering and all the celebrities would come into town, and it was it was great. It was like you wanted to live here in Las Vegas. It was just it was the place to be. It wasn't about the gambling. To me, it was born so about the celebrities that would come in town. 00:11:50 Speaker 1: One of your mostmable memorable boxing matches, you recall. 00:11:53 Speaker 2: Holy Field Tyson, Well, well both I went to both of them. I paid all that went to it. I'm a big holy Field fan and a Tyson fan, and back then I hadn't met Tyson, but I'd met Holyfield, and you know, he was just a nice person. Still is the nicest guy. But I would always go and spend time with him after the boxing match and we would sit and he would sit just like we're sitting here and just talk like a normal person. And that's what I love so much about him. He's down to earth, but Sugar Ray Hagler, hearns all those boxing matches. I got to be at all of those boxing matches as a young college kid. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. 00:12:30 Speaker 1: How hard was it to keep your head on straight around the town with all that going on? 00:12:34 Speaker 2: It's very difficult, you know, you know, leaving high school and living in a small town like Santa Barbara, California, and coming to Las Vegas. This is this place is different. It was different back then, and it's even you know, grown and become bigger now. But it was hard because there were so many distractions. I mean I looked like I was twenty one years old, so I can go into the casinos and we would go to the buffets and things like that and try to stay there all day, eating, eating all the food, but just trying to stay away from the gambling. All of the clubs, all different types of clubs. You know, it was just had I had to stay focused or I knew I wouldn't make it. I mean I could have ended up in an alley somewhere if i'd have went down the wrong street. 00:13:23 Speaker 1: Any lessons that you learned, because I remember, you know, I went to UCLA and I felt like that was kind of like our bubble, you know, although LA surrounded us, we kind of still felt safe and we did things we probably shouldn't have did and got away with some stuff. Was there stuff here that you did or maybe you had a wake up call that you kind of remember, like, yo, I need to get it together. 00:13:40 Speaker 2: Yep, And I'm almost I almost don't want to share it. Come on, now you're here, I mean, I'll do it for you, guys. 00:13:46 Speaker 1: Because appreciate you guys. 00:13:48 Speaker 2: Keep it real. My first year of college, I was staying in a studio with one of the teammates because we hadn't got our stipend checks yet. And this girl saw that I was tall and she wanted me to be her pimp. And my response was no, I want to be a professional football player. And that ended that interesting. I don't even think that was me speaking the natural being. I think it was the spirit speaking through it. But I was like, nah, I want to be a professional. 00:14:16 Speaker 1: So she came up and said, will you be my pimp? 00:14:18 Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, all you have to do is bail me out? And I'm like, no, where could I sign? Nah? No, that could have been That could have been. 00:14:32 Speaker 1: The end of my life right there. Yeah. Crazy, you know I could be in. 00:14:35 Speaker 2: Prison right now and now I get to hang out with you guys. 00:14:39 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't want that car all my life. No, why has the u s LA? I mean, excuse me, UNLV's either. Yeah. 00:14:48 Speaker 3: I had much success recently in football, basketball. 00:14:51 Speaker 2: Basketball wise, I can't give you the answer, but we do have a new athletic director who is turning things around, which is yeah, yeah, yeah. So things are turning around at un LV. Our football team. Now, I think we're nine and two. I think that's our record eight and two. Are nine and two, and we're not ranked, but that's what we were when I was playing. We were nine and two, and then we went ten and two and finally eleven and two, and they put our whole team in the Hall of Fame, the Southern Nevada Hall of Fame. Oh really, Yeah, So I think that with Eric Harper as our new athletic director, oh, things are turning around. He cares about not only the school but Las Vegas, and he doesn't want to go anywhere. And most of the coaches who come here, they're using it as a springboard. They want to come and spring to somewhere else. That's bigger. But I mean with the stadium we have now, Thomas Max still amazing. With the Raiders stadium, you can't ask for anything better. I mean, so he's doing an excellent job. Our players on the team are great. We're not just getting California players. We're get players from Georgia, Florida, Texas, everywhere. You know, there's a lot of players that are coming. It's not just the West Coast Crew. 00:16:08 Speaker 3: Fun fact, you played three years as a start of UNLB and broke eighteen UNLV records. 00:16:14 Speaker 1: He was also named first team All American as a punter. Yeah, that's crazy. How did that happen? 00:16:21 Speaker 2: When I was young, I was just I played everything. I was not good at basketball. Just let y'all know. I can rebound and couldn't shoot. I could dunk, Yeah, I could dunk, but after I did the tip off, I was so tired running back and forth. I do one of these right here. He pulled me out. Let y'all do what you do. So I respected you guys. But when I was young, I played every sport football, basketball, baseball, ran track, I'd play soccer. And then one of the great things. I went to the Boys Club, Santa Barbara Boys Club every single day from when I was nine years old all the way to seventeen, eighteen years old. That was where I lived. And Donnie and Cliff Lambert and the people who were there, they really treated us like we were their sons, and and and because of that I got to develop continually, not just picking one sport and just playing one sport, but developing all of my muscles, my motor skills and everything. And I love track and field, so I would run track to keep me in shape for football, and so it's just a great place to grow up. And I think that that helped me. And I was always kicking field goals, kicking off punting from when I was a little kid because I was bigger than everybody else, a big foot, So that helped out too. 00:17:38 Speaker 3: It is day third longest punt in the NFL history. 00:17:43 Speaker 2: I gotta tell you it was Wendy that day. I got a lot of help that day. 00:17:49 Speaker 1: I feel like, and I love that you touched on this, that I was someone who lettered in four sports in high school, all American and two and I felt like all those skills you know, led me to you know, an NBA career. Kids today don't get a chance to do that anymore. And what are your thoughts on that? Because you're still actively coaching and have people in sports, what are your thoughts on that. 00:18:10 Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of like everything is becoming tighter because you have so many club sports and there's so much hypening now you see what's happening in basketball, same thing in seven on seven. You know, it's like we're hyping all these kids up like they're going to be the Olympians and the NBA players when it's really not that easy. And to get three letters, that's like you're one of the greatest in the United States. So to get four, that doesn't happen anymore. You know, you play one sport and an off season you are training and trying to hopefully doing your nutrition and you know, training your body in the right areas with the pliometrics and the weights and everything, but you got to take care of your body and you need time off because the sports are so long now it's like they're ten months. Yeah, year around sports. And it was like that when I grew up, it was you know, there was football, it was season past, yeah, it was seasons yeah yeah. But everything is a club sporty. You know, I'm about to put my daughter, my thirteen year old daughter in volleyball, and I'm like, well, what about tracks? Is ah a, we got we got an Olympian, three time olympian, you got an NCAA indoor and outdoor champion, you got state champions. These are what your siblings have done. 00:19:23 Speaker 1: It's in your blood. 00:19:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to do volleyball or o thing. Yeah, I'm like, you gonna do track too. 00:19:30 Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty five, the thirty seventh picked to the Philadelphia Eagles. What did that moment right there alone mean to you? 00:19:39 Speaker 2: I'll tell you about the process. I'm sitting there with a guy from ESPN or a writer from you know, Sports Illustrated or whatever, and the draft is on, and you didn't go to the draft back then, you know, you didn't have your nice customs suiting, a whole bunch of jewelry hanging cool hat. You sat and you watched it on television. And I was sitting there in the first went by, and they said that I would be The projection was I would be drafted in the second or third round. But I just wanted to be drafted in the first round. And I'm Kodak All American punter, animal quarterback, so I'm figuring, you know, maybe I will. So the first round goes by, I'm not drafted. Second round go so I picked one, two, three, four, five, and I just lost it. I said, I got to get out here. I don't even want to watch it anymore. So I left and I went to the mall. And when I came back, my next door neighbor who was a teammate, he says, you got drafted. And you know, I wanted to play for the Raiders or the Chargers. I wanted to stay on the West Coast. And they said you got drafted. I said by who? They said, Philly. I said really, I said, stop lying, because I was just done. I was thinking I was going to get drafted. And he said, check your answering machine. So I went to my answer machine and Lynz Styles, it's one of the directors. He says, random Conningham, this is Lynn Styles and the Philadelphia Eagles. We've drafted you the seventh pick or ninth pick overall in the second round, and you're going to be an ego. So G me a call and I was like, wow, that's deep. I really And so I made the call, and uh yeah, I made the call. And sure enough, you know, I went there and I had already signed with the USFL. I signed a you know, a three million dollar deal for five years with the USFL, and they didn't know about it. Because I was like, had a little backup plan. 00:21:25 Speaker 1: Oh so you did that before the NFL draft even happened. I talked to us about that. 00:21:30 Speaker 2: I liked that mister Bassett was with the Tampa Bay Bandits and my agent was Jim Steiner at that time, and Jim said, look, we got assured that you're going to, you know, be able to take care of your family in the future. So here's a contract, and uh, you know, we don't know what's gonna happen with the NFL. You should be drafting the second or third round. He's just be signed this contract. So I inked it. And uh when the owner, Norman Brahman found out, we will never sign you to a contract here with the Philadelphia Goals, and I really didn't pay attention to it because I already had a carntract. But then the league folded before and so there was litigation in all the nonsense. But ended up playing for Philly. 00:22:09 Speaker 1: So that was I don't really know money, money, what it was like back then, but three million dollars oh at the gate was a monster. 00:22:17 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it was. There were big contracts. Steve Young had signed a forty million dollars deal with the l Express or someone like that. Herschel Walker was getting getting busy, and it was, but the league. 00:22:27 Speaker 1: Folded so it didn't make a difference. 00:22:29 Speaker 2: And we all ended up back in the NFL. 00:22:31 Speaker 1: Or any NFL Any interesting or crazy pre draft questions that you got. 00:22:38 Speaker 2: You know, people were asking me, do you think you'll get drafted? Like, why won't I get drafted? The statistics show I've got twenty five hundred each each year. The only people had done that back then had thrown for twenty five hundred yards were John Lway and myself and Doug Flutie. So I'm figuring, yeah, it probably should be in the NFL. 00:22:59 Speaker 1: Why not. You shared a big city with some big names Mosas Malone, doctor J, Charles Barkley. Any fun stories before you decided to really lock in you have. 00:23:13 Speaker 2: I got to hang out with Barkley. He was a great dude. I met doctor J, and I was like, man, that's doctor J. Teddy Pendercash lived in like Philly, Mike Schmidt and all these guys ron he style. I was just another guy in town, you know. But it was like really amazing to be in the fifth largest city in the United States and be able to walk out of the locker room and we had the same stadium and just go watch the baseball game, you know, Shilling doing his thing and watching all these guys playing. And it was really really amazing. And you know, now Vegas is becoming like that. But it was different being in Philadelphia because the people are sports enthusiasts. 00:24:00 Speaker 1: They know their sports. Oh my god, how long did it take for you to win over the fans? 00:24:04 Speaker 2: You know, they didn't know who I was, and I didn't know who I was. But when I played in the preseason my first year, I ran for one hundred yards or something like that, and They're going like, who is this kid? And they would just say, that's Sam Bam Cunningham's little brother Will. Okay, yeah, but who is the kid? We know who Sam is. And so I was telling my daughter this, My little daughter, Sophia, thirteen years old, just I said to her, you know, Sophia, I was thinking I wasn't gonna play my first year. I'm like, Ron Jawissey is the quarterback. I got to sit over here for about two or three years, and he's probably going to retire and then I'll be ready to play. And I said, but Sophia. The first game we went to play the Giants and we hadn't passed the fifty yard line, and I said, man. 00:24:49 Speaker 1: Let's go. 00:24:50 Speaker 2: Let's got you know, I'm just rooting Jaworski on, handing them water, doing everything I can. Then and coach Marchha brought to said warm up. I knew he wasn't talking to me. In my mind warm up. I was content, I'm going to sit for two or three years. And I'm like, warm up, who warm your arm up? And so I started warming up, and I'm like, you know, like this, I get in the game, I get ready to put my hands under there, and I look over there and there's, yeah, Carl Banks, LT's over there, Carson Bert. And I'm like, man, I'm in the NFL. I think I didn't get to snap that play, but it was it was it was it was something, you know, that was something she had froze. I was, yeah, I was froze for a few games. 00:25:41 Speaker 1: When did how long do you feel like it took you to kind of get your feet under you, because I mean, this is right out the gates. 00:25:46 Speaker 2: The next week, I think it was the next week, we went to Washington and I'm like, oh god, and the Jeworski kept telling me. He said, look, man, the regular season is not the same as the preseason. Take it up about seven knots. And I didn't understand that. And I went in the game. They condensed it from about ninety plays to about fifteen or twenty plays for me so that I can get it down. And we went down there and I just remember, I don't think I was completing passes. I might have been thrown interceptions. But I threw a ball to Ernest and he took it to the house and we ended up winning the game in Washington. We hadn't beaten the Redskins in Washington and we don't know how many years. So now they're patting me on the back and I'm supposed to be someone and I don't have a clue. Go to the next game. I get hurt. My thumb came out, was way over here. I'm coming off like this, yeah, my thumb. And then I went like that and went back in. I said, oh, I'm good, and I went back in the game. That's kind of yess, how crazy you got to be in the NFL. You can't You just didn't sell it. Did after the game. So I was out the next week and the week after, and Joworski went in there and got busy on them. And it's just it was a learning curve. 00:26:55 Speaker 1: It was. It was. 00:26:56 Speaker 2: It was difficult, and so I think I really began to feel it probably about my third year, you know, like, Okay, I could do. 00:27:05 Speaker 1: This, the game slowing down a little bit. Yeah. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: And the other thing was the trust factor of the coaches trusting me. They would limit me and like, well, let's just not have him thrown interceptions because you know, when you're a young kid, you're just gonna fire that thing in there. But they taught me the game, you know, and as I learned the game, it was like, Okay, it did slow down. You know. 00:27:26 Speaker 1: You guys know, Buddy Ryan was such a heavy, defensive minded coach. How did you guys get along? Obviously your style is they've seen it before, but I don't think to the level of athleticism and arm strength that you came into the game with. How did how did how did that dynamic go with him? 00:27:44 Speaker 2: Buddy was someone there was no reason for anyone to try to figure him out. Because he was Buddy Ryan. He was going to do what he wanted to do, and he was always going to do his way. But he loved us as players, which is what won us over. You know, he was a players coach, and so you would do whatever you had to do for him, and he wanted bar room brawlers, and so we all became those who took on his orror and so we were just kind of almost like lunatics on the football field. And so when teams played us, some of them were a little concerned, like they might knock you, take your knees out, they might try to rip your head off, and that's kind of crazily, that's really who we were as a team. We didn't care because we took on his personality. But the main thing that I loved about Buddy Ryan is that he saw my talent and he says, look, I'm going to use you for what you like to do and what you're great at, and we'll work on the things that you're not good at. And I was like, wow, that's patience. And so he said, make five big plays and we'll win the game. Defense to do their job, that's what he would say, and I'm like, okay, you could do that, and we believed it, and we went out and we would go ten and six and ten and six, eleven and five, but we didn't win in the playoffs. But he was a father figure to all of us. I remember he ran us so bad, and I was just like I had to go pick up the game plan or my check, and I'm like, man, I don't want to see him, you know, and you know if you went by him, he was going to say something to you. 00:29:17 Speaker 1: Hold on. So the coach used to hand the game check. I said, no to the office. 00:29:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, so so. 00:29:24 Speaker 3: If I got to pay you off your performance today. 00:29:31 Speaker 2: So I went through there and I'm trying to just you know, the old you walk by. Some of you close your eyes so you don't see him, but they see you. I tried that, and he said twelve, come in here, and I'm like, oh man, I'm just like, man, I just want to go home, study in my place. He says, hey, kids, you're doing a great job. He without saying I love you, he expressed it. And I'm like sitting there like, man, this guy is a real deal. And I walked out of his office and I'm saying, man, I love that man. You know, that's how I really felt it was like he cares. He doesn't care if you're in a bad mood, you don't like him, He's going to call you and be the same guy all the time. And I think that's why we won games with him. 00:30:14 Speaker 1: But I don't think people that may not play sports understand how far that goes. Oh my God, the confidence of your coach, the love of your coach, can change the tra directory of your career. 00:30:23 Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've been coaching all of my own kids, and praise God, they've all been successful. My daughter of Ashti. People don't know that I know high jumped because they're like, he was a football player, now he's a pastor, how could he be coaching. Well, my daughters went to the Olympics three times. She's been fifth and sixth, and there's times that she's won a gold at a World Indoor Championship, a silver to the World Indoor Championship, a bronze and an outdoor World Championship, two global goals, and people will still say he doesn't know what he's doing. But here we are ten years later, and it's not about me, it's about what God is doing through us. My daughter's won sixteen national titles. She's almost the record holder and she's only twenty seven years old. Has nothing to do with me. It's just I love her, pour into her and whoever trains with her. They're my kids, and I pour into them everything that I have, and I'll bend over backwards, just like Buddy Ryan Tatters. 00:31:22 Speaker 1: I love that same way. Yeah, the late great Reggie White, Yes, obviously we got to see his talents. What are some of the stuff we didn't get to see? 00:31:30 Speaker 2: Reggie was no joke. The late Reggie White. Reggie would get in your face, and I kind of take that from him as a minister. I remember he told me I was when I was young in the league, my first or second year or whatever, third year. He said, I was living with a person and he said, you should marry that girl. I said, then, why are you with her? Either marrier or or leave her alone. He's up to you. I was like, you don't. Then he brought this one to me. You're Christian. Randall said, yes, you pay your tithes. I said, no, show me in the Bible where he said he took me to Malako chapter three, And from that day I have been paying my tithes. Ever since nineteen eighty six, I think I've been paying my ties because he got in my face and challenged me to do what God told me to do. 00:32:29 Speaker 1: What was how big was he? 00:32:31 Speaker 2: Six five and a half three point fifty bench press? Whatever you put on the bar, he did best pressed the bar would do like this. And then the thing about him is when game time came, his eyes would turn bloodshot red because he would joke around and play around like a little kid the whole week in practice, joking around, and he would get in the game and he would get in his stance and he say, get ready, here comes Jesus. And he used to toss three hundred and fifty pounds with this thing called the club. He used to he would run and he would club them. And I mean, I saw guys fly in practice, and I saw guys fly in the game. This is this is real stuff pro bowlers. And I'm like, yeah, you don't mess with Reggie blocking him one on one. It wasn't gonna happen. And then you throw Jerome Brown in. 00:33:28 Speaker 1: About it, Reggie, They and just throw them off one. 00:33:33 Speaker 2: On I saw that practice. We would have our our blitz drill ones versus ones the defensive ones and the offensive ones. And I was standing in the shotgun normally at five feet about five yards, I was about six or seven. They snapped that ball and he and Jerome and go looking on Pitts and all those dudes would come through. I just hand them, coach the ball. 00:33:55 Speaker 1: Here you go, blow the whistle. 00:33:58 Speaker 2: I mean that was like in the second and a half. So when you talk about Reggie White, he not only was a great player, he influenced the guys around him. And one of the probably the greatest defense in the history of the league was nineteen ninety ninety one, I think, or ninety one or ninety three. 00:34:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, on the other side of someone else that was also special in the same division as you, Lawrence Taylor. Oh yeah, I talked to us about LT. 00:34:25 Speaker 2: LT. I've always had the utmost respect for LT and the Giants. They just were just a scrappy rugged just come on up here to New York, you know. And I remember herschel Walker was telling me during the week. He said, man, they need to change his game plan. They got me blocking LT. I'm gonna do my job, but they need to slide within them big offensive tackles and I'll help the tackle out. 00:34:54 Speaker 1: I'll chip him out. 00:34:57 Speaker 2: So I remember LT. It was a third down and I dropped back and it was third and eight and I had to get the first down or games over. And I took off and I'm running, and all of a sudden, here comes LT. And I put my hand out as big as I can make, and I try to stiff on his face as hard as I could, and I got him, but I didn't get the first down. So he dragged me down about this far short of the first down. And I already had respect, but I gained more respect because it's one thing for Lamar Jackson and Montana and Barry Sanders to make a play, but he made it on the defensive side of the ball, you know, so that I gained so much more respect for him. 00:35:45 Speaker 1: You played in an era of great, great quarterbacks who were some of your favorite matchups to go against. Obviously, I know it's the team, but you also played against some great Oh I like going against Lway el Way, Yeah, because Lway was he. 00:35:57 Speaker 2: Was just scrappy. He could run, He had all the ability that I watched him in Stamford pitching and all that, and I just I looked at him. It's just like I want to go against l Way, you know. And I had respect for him and the team and Dvance Johnson and whatever they call the Three Amigo's. Then they had Shannon Sharp. They had just a great team. And I mean, I like going against Steve Young also because Steve and I we would battle it out for the rushing title. And I remember being in the Pro Bowl one year and we're sitting eight and twelve and he keeps looking at me like this, and I'm like this, dude's. 00:36:32 Speaker 1: Staring at me like you guys didn't know each other really yet. 00:36:35 Speaker 2: Playing against each other. So he's right here and he keeps staring at me. I'm trying not to look at him. And I turned around and look at me. He's like this. Because I got the MVP that year, He's like, you're all right, Randall that day. He became my favorite player that day because you know, he's an LDS guy and I've always appreciated his faith. There was even a time when he was up for commercial with Coca Cola and they called me up and they said, Randa, we got a commercial for you, and I said, all right, cool. We were going to try to give it to Steve Young, but he wouldn't take it because it has caffeine in it. And I said, you mean like coffee type caffeine. I mean it's not illegal, and I asked him about it. He basically said, yeah, it's just part of who we are. We don't use caffeine. And that was two hundred thousand dollars in my pocket. So he really became my favorite. 00:37:32 Speaker 1: Speaking of money in your pocket. Nineteen and eighty seven's Labor Dispute any memorable stories from back then and explain to those that don't know what a scab was. 00:37:43 Speaker 2: Scab was a player who crossed the line. And in a town with teamsters the way we had them and the union, that was not the thing to do. But there were players who were injured who had to go get treatment. But the scab players were players that would replace us. And Philadelphia was like a no, no town to do that, big union town. And I just remember all the teamsters, the truckers and just everybody from the unions coming together as one unit. And that really showed me the city of brotherly love. Because this was so crazy that I could let this out now, But I remember there were trucks blocking the exits where you couldn't get off and go to the stadium. Big rigs just parked, you know, would sign tires, flat engine broke down. But the city stuck together and it's like, don't don't come in here without our players. We want play. Oh yeah, And there was unity and we we picketing with them. We became players who got to hang out with everybody in society, and we developed even deeper relationships with the community. 00:38:50 Speaker 1: I love that one of my favorite video games of all time. And you were arguably one of the greatest players on that But why was your name q QB Eagles Mob? Yeah? Man, what happened there? I didn't give him the rights, okay, So that that you just weren't interested. Then the money wasn't right. 00:39:08 Speaker 2: Money wasn't right, okay, And uh but I played it. You still play I played it? 00:39:13 Speaker 1: Yes, I did. You were a bad man on that game. Man, You and Bo Jackson on that game. 00:39:17 Speaker 2: Unbelievable himage Smith. 00:39:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:39:19 Speaker 2: I would play against the Cowboys all the time, and Emmett would run for two hundred and eighty three hundred yards and you couldn't stop him. And uh, but I got pretty good at the game, and I would pull all the starters out and I could finally beat the Cowboys. 00:39:34 Speaker 1: You know, you took their starters out. Yeah. 00:39:37 Speaker 2: No, I took our starters out because I got I got better at the game, you know, and uh, there was just ways you could you could win on the game. 00:39:44 Speaker 3: You were quoted saying back then, I was a different person. I was immature. I was trying to figure out who I was. Can you speak to that, because I think as men and as we grow up, we all come to that moment at some point, especially evolving for the better, changing for them. 00:39:59 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you know, I'm just grateful my parents took me to church growing up, because at least I was sitting in the House of God, and I didn't know who he was. I did not have a relationship with God. But when I got to NFL and I began to realize I got it going on. You know, you get to that point where that pride kicks in as an athlete. And so I remember I was driving and walking down the road one day and I had set these visions and goals of being a professional football player from when I was a little kid nine years old, and I said this to God. I said, God, I must owe you something, and it was like an audible voice from him said, you owe me your life. And I didn't understand that because I didn't really understand who God was, and so I did things that I was not happy. My vocabulary was horrible. My desire for life. I wanted a wife, and I just figured you just went out and dated people if you know it worked out, it worked out, and get married. But that wasn't how I was supposed to do it. And thank God that I woke up. But during then I was ignorant, I was foolish, and I did things that I'm not proud of today. And once again my vocabulary, I didn't think before I spoke, and I was just not who God wanted me to be. And then I had my encounter. You know, I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of, you know, and it was just my character, you know, because whatever the scene was, I fell into the scene. If people cursed, I cursed. If people drink, I drank, And you know, I don't drink. I don't smoke, I don't smoke cigars. I don't smoke cigarettes. I don't smoke pipes. I don't do any of that. I don't curse anymore. My life has turned around, and it's because I had a revelation that God really is. 00:42:00 Speaker 1: That cussing part. How long did that take? 00:42:02 Speaker 2: I cursed all my life. I think my peers and my parents taught me pretty much how to do it. But I think by I think I was probably twenty something years old, and I said, you know, if I love God, I got to keep my mouth clean. And that's when it started to change for me when I started reading my Bible. 00:42:26 Speaker 1: Though. 00:42:27 Speaker 2: When I started reading the Bible, it says we praise our Lord and Father and we curse men who have been made in His similar to both praise and cursing from the same tongue. This should not be. That's in the Book of James. And like, when that one hit me, I was like, yeah, so I became like a recluse and people were like, he's an enigma. They couldn't figure me out. I'm like, I can't figure myself out. You know, I'm trying to find out what my identity is and you know, my validation. I'm not validated by sports now, and I realize that not how much money I have, but I'm validated by the blood that came out of Jesus Christ. And oh my god, when I think about that, I'm okay. Now I can I can conquer all of the things in my life that are hindering me from being whom I'm supposed to be, and studying my Bible would change that. I started studying every single day, you know, chapter day. I would meditate on a word and that really helped me. I really did. 00:43:24 Speaker 1: That's interesting, especially fun at that young age. Again, as we talked on the kind of off camera in the middle of the midst of your career, with all the noise around, to be able to lock into that is special. Your style of play. You're running, you're diving over the top of line, jumping over people, throwing the ball the way you did. When did that catch up to you because you had some of you. 00:43:46 Speaker 2: Do you think it caught up to me yet? Because in my mind I think I could do it, But you know, at sixty two years Oh, that's not happening. I watched old I watched old Dak going in the end zone against the Eagles. 00:43:56 Speaker 3: It didn't Hey, I'm happy he did it, but he did not know how to fall. 00:44:00 Speaker 1: He was like, he broke his neck. I'm talking about he felt he felt crazy. Yeah, it off. 00:44:06 Speaker 2: He was about this high off the ground too. But he got in there, you know, but I was like, oh, is he all right? I was like, darn it. He scored, you know, but it's like, yeah, when I got to I had this thing, when you get to the five, you die. When you get to the four, you gotta score. You get to the three is up to me. You get to the two, you know what to do. You get to the one, job's done. 00:44:24 Speaker 1: That's kind of how I thought, one more time, one more time, to. 00:44:27 Speaker 2: Five, you gotta dive, get to the four, you gotta score. You get to the three, it's up to me. You get to the two, you know what to do, you get to the one. 00:44:33 Speaker 1: Jobs done. 00:44:35 Speaker 2: So I kind of lived with like little cliches like that. And when I saw that to that the other day and I'm like, man, that dude did whatever it took to get in there. Yeah, to get in there. And and that was probably the difference in the game that when he did that, his team was like he sold himself out for us, and the next thing, you know, it was a done deal, and I turned the game off, you know, because I had been praying for Jalen Hurts. That's my boy. I prayed for him all the time. But when I started twenty one twenty one and then something happened, we had a punch or something like, oh, I was like, oh my gosh, I don't want to Yeah, it was the fumblem I was like, oh my gosh, my boys. You know, so I just prayed without watching too much. It's too much for me to handle. 00:45:20 Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite run of your career? 00:45:22 Speaker 2: I have two. One was against the Washington Redskins at home. I dropped back and I never wanted Dave Butts to touch me because he was big. He had an angry look on his face and he weighed three hundred and sixty pounds, and so when I dropped back, I saw him coming and I did one of those and he missed me, and I was like, oh, I was a good one. Then I ran and there was guys coming and I stopped. I put my brakes on my feet, went to the front of my shoes and I cut back in. I saw four guys fall down. I'm like, oh, I'm still up, and then I ran and as I'm running, I'm like, I'm gonna get there. I'm gona ge there, and out of the corner of mine, here comes Daryl fast as can be, and I'm thinking I got to run from Daryl. I gotta go, and he's always catching me. And then there's a DV right in front of me, and I tried to run him over at about the five or six yard line. That hurt. That hurt pretty bad, and I'm all of the years that after that, I thought it was Daryl that hit me, but it was the guy in front of me. I probably got a concussion and I didn't score. I got about to the three and I'm pumped up, the adrenalines working and I'm excited. And then the other one was against the Cowboys. I dropped back and I rolled to the left, and I was kind of cornered and one of the defensive linemen and linebacker and I just duck and they flew over me. And then I cut back in and I'm like, oh, I'm still going. And then baits Bill Bates got me. Yeah, he was a bar He got me though. Because I was I thought I was going to have another one. 00:46:55 Speaker 1: Randall cutting him celebrity rap without even knowing. You're one of the pioneers to what we're doing today. Started back in the in the in the early nineties. What was that like and how that come about? 00:47:08 Speaker 2: I loved it was like this. I got to sit with a lot of people. You guys probably remember Downtown Julie Brown. 00:47:17 Speaker 1: Downtown Juli Judy. 00:47:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, I had watched her on MTV and uh, they asked me who I want an interview? I said, and so they threw out all these names and said her and it was Donald Trump back then, believing he was the man. 00:47:31 Speaker 1: We were talking about that on the wait like everyone loved Trump back then, everybody loved him. 00:47:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, so I said, I want Trump, I want Barkley, I want andre Acacy and mc hammer. You know. So I got to interview all of them, and uh, it's it's on YouTube. Even the interview with Donald Trump was on YouTube. 00:47:48 Speaker 1: You know. 00:47:48 Speaker 2: I had my high top. I thought I was somebody. 00:47:50 Speaker 1: Back in the day where that Where'd that style come from? 00:47:53 Speaker 2: I don't know. It was a short kid and play. 00:47:57 Speaker 1: It was one right, I thought, k playing the late great Whitney Houston. Talk about her. 00:48:04 Speaker 2: You're going deep now A little bit digging now. 00:48:08 Speaker 1: Player, I got to ask some questions. Man. 00:48:09 Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I was just a big Whitney Houston fan, big in Vogue fan, of course, Michael Jackson and just I love music and uh BB and c C whinings. You know, they actually sang BB saying our wedding. But I was I don't know. I was kind of toward the peak of my career and I saw her, and you know, I guess I was infatuated, just like every all the other men. And I just happened to know her publicist, and I said, do you think Whitney would like to go out with me? If I asked her? She said, yeah, ask her. So her nickname was Nippy. So she invited me to I'm Your Baby to night release party and it took a couple of teammates and I went and I said, you think tonight would be to night? And she said yeah, go ask her to go on to day. Tell her you'll take her to Antigua. And so I said, I said, Nippy said, hey, like to take you out get to know you better, and she said, real, that would be that'd be very nice. I was shocked, you know, And so we met and back then I told the owner of the team. I said, Hey, I'm gonna go on a date with whitt Houston. He says, well, I'm going to give you my private jet. I'm gonna fly you to Antique with So. 00:49:21 Speaker 1: I filed the deal. Yeah. 00:49:23 Speaker 2: I flew to Miami, stayed with Norman Brayman at his house with he and his wife and just great people. He sent me down there. I'm on the plane, I'm listening to her album and to me, I was like, and this is no offense to Bobby, you know, I want to be careful, but I just thought she was just a wonderful person and I was thinking, you know, and back then she said she was single. So we went out and it was about a day and a half day. You know, nothing big. We just went went to dinner, hung out on the beach. 00:49:55 Speaker 1: But that was about it. 00:49:57 Speaker 3: It's a thing on INSTAGRAMD when somebody said could I borrow some money and he sung the picture of Whitney Houston and why you send me that? And the person said, because I have nothing. 00:50:16 Speaker 1: For you. Yes. You made an appearance on Martin, one of my favorite shows. What was that like? 00:50:21 Speaker 2: Martin is a genius When I went to and Snoop Dogg was on the show as well. But when I went, I'm like, man, I get to be on the Martin Show. 00:50:31 Speaker 1: That was that was it back then, Whitney. 00:50:34 Speaker 2: I mean, Arsenio Hall and Martin there. So I go there and I meet Martin, just the nicest guy, and he was studying the book was this big and I guess he had to memorize the whole book. And I'm like, and I had my little lines, you know, I'm just messing up on my lines. And then I remember he was playing Roy Rome. It's on YouTube. Yeah, so in that he had libs and I'm not knowing that he's gonna do that. So he says, you know, I had just got my hair like tightened up ready, and he said he said, look like you comb your head with a brick. And I lost it. I lost it, And I'm like, that wasn't on the script, you know, but that was Martin. That was how witty and how smart he is. 00:51:28 Speaker 1: He's so quick, like comb me head with a brick. 00:51:36 Speaker 2: And I was just laughing, and I messed that whole scene up. We had to read through the whole scene. But I've always and I got his phone number. I got the contacted and they you know, Martin would answer, and I sais I still had his number because I'd like to call him see how he's doing. 00:51:51 Speaker 3: That's funny, jay Z Heart of the City name drop uh scrambledack round the ways, scramblack around the ways coming hand but the only thing running his numbers found one of the best songs. How did you feel like when you when you heard jay Z drop your name? 00:52:05 Speaker 2: He as crazy as that sounds. I don't listen to rap because it takes me back to the person how he used to be interesting, and so I can't go out dancing. I can't listen to rap. I can't do certain things. I have to have a little box around me sometimes. But people would go like, jay Z put you in this song, man, and I'm like, at first I didn't know who he was. Wow, you know, because like I said, I didn't listen around. I mean, I know who the cool mod and Curtis blow are you know from back of the day. These are the breaks, you know. But and then I kept hearing the song, like when I would go into stories and things like that, I'm like, and then I'd hear my name I'm like, he really did, I mean it rap song? It was, it was, it was awesome. 00:52:50 Speaker 1: I mean I think it was pretty cool man. 00:52:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, jay Z, I mean, come on now, he's jay Z. 00:52:55 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:52:56 Speaker 3: You know, this segment is brought to you by stock x to trust, the source for the most coveted drops. Jay and Hurst recently paid homte to you wearing the black Jordan one cleats. 00:53:05 Speaker 1: Yeah. What was your history with Nike? 00:53:07 Speaker 2: I had a contract with him, and my daughter is signed with Nike right now. Just talk to the rep the other day. But Nike has been a part of my family because my brother Sam wore Nikes when he was playing in the NFL, and then you know, Howard Slusher was his agent and he's good friends with Phil Knight, so there was an inn there, and like I always wanted to wear Nike, you know, and then once Jordan came around, everybody wanted to wear you know, and so it was it was. It's been a great relationship, you know, being my daughter's coach. They do have a coach of stipend in there as well, so the relationship is still there. And that's all I wear. I only wear Nikes. I don't know, I don't wear anything else. If I'm not wearing Nikes, I have a suit or jacket on or something. 00:53:51 Speaker 1: We see fly. You used to wear the all blacks though, with the white or the gray uniforms. Like, where did that come from. 00:53:58 Speaker 2: Buddy Ryan? 00:53:59 Speaker 1: That was fly? 00:54:00 Speaker 2: Yeah. So when Jalen, when Jalen you know, busted him out, it came up on my Facebook page, and I don't even know why it came up that day, but they had both of us right there, and so I took a picture of it. I said, Man, I said, there you go, bro, and He's like, yeah, I had to represent you. And I'm like, I didn't know he was doing it because I did it. And then I just saw him wearing the white ones and I was like, okay, yeah. But he's a great kid. I mean, I really love his character. I love how he presents himself. I loved he He's got a great wife, and he just represents just who we should be in sports, especially in the football game. Game of football is. I mean, there's so much that comes at you and he just says so calm and relaxed. I like that. 00:54:54 Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. He as an all women team around him, as well as agents and managers and all. Yeah, strong women to keep a nice tight circle. Yep, briefly nineteen ninety five, you retired, but you were convinced to come back by the late great Dennis Green. 00:55:11 Speaker 2: How that happened, Denny, Yeah, to go back a little bit before, Jenny, there was a lot in public in my life because I retired. I said, you're too young to retire. When are you coming back? I said, I'm not going back. And I told all the teams that don't call me, I'm not going back. I'm done, you know. And my thing was, I have enough money in the bank. I played, I don't want to be you know, injured and broke up, you know. I want to live my life, you know, and take care of my family. And sure enough they so many people asked me, when are you coming back? I just got back down on my knees and said, God, is this you speaking to me? Do you want me to go back? Because if you want me to go back, I'll do it. But other than that, I'm not going back. And so I said, give me a sign. If I'm supposed to go back, give me a sign. Half teams called me up because I told the teams, don't call me, I'm not coming back. Sure enough, Jeff Fisher, Tennessee Titans called me up and said, hey, Randall, I want you to come and help out with Eric McNair, the lady Eric McNair. I want you to come and be his like guy. And I said all right. And I said, well, God, I'm going back, but I'm not going back on my own. I'm leaning on you one percent because I really didn't want to go back because I just was done with it, you know, I didn't like to being criticized so much, and it just really it really like it took a toll on me emotionally and mentally. And so I happened to go to Super Bowl and I was working out in the gym and this man came up to me, Keith Johnson. He says, you're Randall County and said yep. He says, I'm the chaplain for the Minnesota Vikings, Keith Johnson. And he says, he says, what you're doing working out? And I said, I'm making my comeback. He said, oh, that's great. I'm going to tell Denny Green and I'm like, so, I'm about to sign with DITKA with the New Orleans Saints and they offered me six seventy five, which was kind of weird because he wanted me to be the starting quarterback and that wasn't even up to par back then, and so he said, look, take it or leave it, and so I said, I'm going to just take one trip. He said, well, you better let me know quick. Went to Dinny Green. Dinny Green said, look, Randall, we want you here. You're going to be our backup and we'll give you five hundred and twenty five thousand to be the backup quarterback. But you know, Brad Johnson's our quarterback, and you know, if we need you, we'll put you in there. I said, okay, talked to my wife and we ended up signing with them. Yeah, so he brought me out and then you know, the rest was history. It would have been great if we could have won the Super Bowl that year. It just wasn't. It wasn't God's timing. 00:57:40 Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that season though. 00:57:43 Speaker 3: Randy Moss Turkey Day Game three catches for one hundred and sixty yards and three touchdown. 00:57:48 Speaker 1: How special was he? 00:57:50 Speaker 2: Randy six foot four and three quarters four three forty hand eye coordination out of this world and just just a beast. He made a difference in a lot of quarterbacks careers. And because he was tall and fast and had great hand eye coordination, I could literally lay it out their ten yards in front of him. We had this rule, if you drop back and you're throwing a bomb, it's forty and five from the sideline. With Randy it was fifty. So we would launch it fifty years out there and he'd run underneath it. He'd run past two deep zone. I mean yeah, he would really run past two deep zone. And so when they were running too deep, which most of everybody in the NFL was doing, I said, I could just throw it over the safety's head and Randy's going to be there. So we started doing that and people would be shocked. So I would drop back and I look off and the load that thing up and launch it and he'd be able to go get it. 00:58:54 Speaker 1: Chris Carter as well, Right did you have? Did you play? Chris? 00:58:56 Speaker 2: It was Chris with you in Philly. 00:58:58 Speaker 1: Philly First. Right was like reunited with him. 00:59:01 Speaker 2: It was great. 00:59:02 Speaker 1: I don't think he gets the respect he deserves as a receiver. 00:59:05 Speaker 2: He's a Hall of Famer, thank god. But you know, Chris was that guy who he was like a coach. 00:59:12 Speaker 1: On the field. 00:59:13 Speaker 2: When you went on the field, he was going to put pressure on you. I remember I was telling somebody this the other day, yesterday, I said, there was no today in practice. I was telling him, I said, you know, there was so much pressure when I played for the Minnesota Vikings. I said, you had to be perfect on every play and on the offense if you didn't put the ball right it was supposed to be. Chris was like like, come on, man, let's go. And I mean it was like that every play. So we worked so hard and we were perfectionists. And it's because he was a leader on the field and he expected excellence. And you know he would be a great coach. I tell you he could probably take a team to the NFL. I mean an NFL team to the Super Bowl. I think that his demeanor is so deep like that. 00:59:51 Speaker 1: You guys, when your running back Robert Smith, Robert he was tough. Oh yes, he was tough and a good yes, big too, like six two sixty. 01:00:00 Speaker 2: Three, yes, track step out there. Yeah he was. He was at Ohio State. Yeah. I just called him about maybe a month ago and just talked to him. It's just like I just reminisced I'd be handing him to the ball the next thing, and oh he scored again. Made my job easy. Yeah. 01:00:15 Speaker 3: Do you think that year when y'all went fifteen to one and was upset of by Atlanta and over time, do you think that was your best shot to get in the chip? 01:00:23 Speaker 2: Yes? And mine for sure. Yeah, you know, we had it all offensively. We were like the San Diego Chargers with Dan Fouts back in the day, where we would put a lot of points on the board and it was coaching. Brian Billick was just an amazing coach. He knew our talents and he could just pick plays for everybody and the plays worked, and if they didn't work, it wasn't like he would get on your case. I remember one time I asked him, I said, he said to me, he says, rand what play you want to call? I said, whatever you want to call. I said, I trust you're a great coach, and whatever you call, that's what I'm going to execute. And that's the kind of coach we had. So it was it was amazing having Randy and Robert Smith and I mean Jake Read and all of our offensive line, you know, was that offensive line is? I still think those guys, you know. 01:01:16 Speaker 1: Post career. We got a chance to do with Eric Dierson about a month ago, and he really opened our eyes to the health insurance and the pension issues that the NFL has. What are your thoughts on it? 01:01:26 Speaker 2: I try to stay out of the politics. I like to keep relationships. Eric is a good friend of mine. He was in my wedding. We had a great time. He's still a great friend. Just talked to him. He just texted me a couple of days ago. He texted me, he says, man, I'm watching your highlights. I'm like, I'm watching. But we do that as players. You know, you got respect for each other absolutely, But when it gets to a lot of that, the NFL did me no wrong. Can things be better? I mean, I look at my pension, I look at my four oh one K and then I'm like, whoo. You know, I'm grateful, so I don't. I mean these guys that are getting you know, cts, or they're getting these these brain issues. That is real, and and and and guys need to be taken care of. It's they need to go back to the older players who are still living, you know, the guys that are probably in their seventies and their eighties, and they need to like do something for them, just like I guess they're doing that in college with this nil thing. They need to go back to those guys because like O. J. Bragants is a good friend of mine and we were in ministry together. He's you know, been fighting for his life, you know, in a wheelchair, and some guys have passed away. Andre Waters Junior say, these guys have passed away, you know, and at young ages, you know, and it's like I can understand where Eric is. I'm just as not as vocal as Eric. 01:02:46 Speaker 3: Yeah, chause Chris Paul did that, and they did it for the retired players and the older guys. Make sure they all had insurance. Again, we have lifetime insurance. So they made sure the guy came before us. They made sure they got it too. 01:02:59 Speaker 1: So yeah, good. 01:03:00 Speaker 2: Yeah. The medical is really important because I think that like Eric's been diagnosed with a couple of things. I'm not really sure what it is, but yeah, just give him a better, better life your church. 01:03:15 Speaker 1: I got a chance to visit it Remnant Ministry Remnant Ministry twenty years. You've been doing it. That's nice building. Gotta you show me the house across as you got a nice little fortress over there. See the basketball court, I didn't get a chance to Yeah, I'm at a full court. Yeah, it explained how that came about. And and you know how much you enjoy giving you a chance to do that. 01:03:36 Speaker 2: I was retired in nineteen ninety five, ninety six or something like ninety five, and I was working in Marvel and grand Field doing countertops and florin. And the guy who was my partner, well he wasn't my partner then he was, you know, yeah, he wasn't my partner. Joey said, hey man, we should start a Bible study. And I said, yeah, who's gonna teach? You say you are? That's what you mean? 01:03:57 Speaker 1: I am? 01:03:58 Speaker 2: He says, you know, more than me fell for it. And so we would have two or three guys and we would have Bible study. Next thing, you know, it was thirteen thirty. Then it went to fifty to ninety. And my pastor, the late John Michaels from Calvary Chapel, said, we've got to get you ordained because this is not a Bible study. You have over fifty people. It's a church, so we have to get you ordained. I'm like, oh God, what is he talking about if he's never done anything wrong in my life. Until you said that I'm a pastor, I wasn't trying to be a pastor. And so I kind of avoided him for about two years. You know, still stay friend, went to church and everything, and then he said, Hey, we're having an ordination on the twenty eighth of March, the day after my birthday. We'll see you and he said, this is thirty days in advance. He says, you need to pray about getting ordained. So I said, honey, what do you think? She said, I don't want to be the wife of a pastor. Nobody thinks like that unless you go to seminary. I didn't go to seminary. I've been in Bible College. No, I've just been taught, and I've hung out with the chaplain the vikings and things like that. So he says, so are you going to receive And I said, yes, pastor. So that was two thousand and four, two thousand and six, and the Bible study went to a high school and it began to grow. We went to one hundred and forty people. Then God gave me a vision cause we started. We did a building fund and we built a church seventeen thousand square feet with five hundred seats, and God gave me a vision of the church being completely filled up. The first service we went there, it was completely filled up, and I went up front and tears came to my eyes and I'm like, God, you showed me this. And so the next week we had one hundred and eighty people in our congregation grew forty people that week, and now we're up to three services. You know, we probably got about maybe a thousand, but we have you know, a lot of people that watch us online the Remnant Ministries on Facebook, Rented Ministries Christian Church, and on our site is Remnant Ministries dot net. And there are a lot of people who support us online as well. And it's like I just keep moving forward. My wife is a system fastor in church because it's founded by God doing it through us. But we just love people, you know, and when you come to the church, you're gonna feel that you're love. Everybody's gonna hug you, hug you to death. 01:06:16 Speaker 1: You know, and great energy in there. Yeah, and it's still interesting too to kind of obviously be a fan of you and then come to see you preach. And then people are still blowing away that it's you. Obviously you're in his church. But I heard probably three or four that's random, godamn, like, yeah, you're at this church. I don't even notice that obviously. I'm sitting back listening to the word. And then when everyone's getting like you said, everyone gets up and hugged when it's over, and I came to find you. But passing through, I heard a couple of people That'sdomyam. A couple of people said hello to me. But I just thought it just brought a smile to my face because it's just like, you know, like my favorite quarterback is a preacher. It's amazing. 01:06:51 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I told the congregation this on a Wednesday night. I said, you know what, I love what I do. I said, I have an office now because I didn't have an office. You know, I got an office probably five or seven years ago. But we've been there twenty years and we keep growing and I'm in the dungeon. I'm in the amplifier room. Helped back in the room. I got to get a candle or something to like, and sure enough I told the people. I said, I love you guys, and I said I love what I get to do. And I said, you need to love what you do. I said, because it's all for God and there's a reward in the end. I said, it's only what you do for Christ to last. And I said, you know, enjoy what you do. And you guys do a great job here. Everybody our worship minister. She says, I know who that is. And then she was joking about it again today and I said, I'm going over there with the with my guys, and I told him about you, and they said, we watched that show. 01:07:46 Speaker 1: Yeah. They were retaliated. Definitely. People are stopping me. So we love your show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:07:51 Speaker 2: And it's like, you know, everybody was, yeah, when he came into the church, you got to coming next time. 01:07:57 Speaker 1: I will gotta hang out with us. It was a spur of the moong. We finished filming early on, like, I'm gona run the church real quick because you gave me the get the time. You had three services on Sundays. I think I could make the eleven. My daughter got baptized Saturday. 01:08:08 Speaker 2: Oh congrats. 01:08:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, I had to get baptized. To be honest with yourself, I'm working towards that. 01:08:14 Speaker 2: I want to baptize you. 01:08:15 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah that's the deal. 01:08:16 Speaker 2: Yeah. 01:08:17 Speaker 1: I got two sons that need to be baptized too, So we make it. We're gonna make it the whole thing. Yeah, I would love that. Yeah, that'd be great. 01:08:23 Speaker 2: I love that. 01:08:24 Speaker 1: Quick hitters before we get before we get the quick hitters. I forgot. We didn't ask this, but you're scrambling around in the end zone sixty yard bombs after Fred Barnett. Who's that two? And it was like a ninety seven yard touchdown? Right? 01:08:37 Speaker 2: Yes, it was against Buffalo Buffalo Bruce Smith. 01:08:41 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:08:42 Speaker 2: I dropped back and I knew he was coming, and he knew that. I knew he was coming, right, but I wasn't gonna get sacked. 01:08:49 Speaker 1: That was in the end zone. 01:08:50 Speaker 2: Yes, we were like the five yards, yes, And I just remember dropping back and I said, all right, whoa, and I'm looking this way, and I feel. 01:08:59 Speaker 1: Bruce breathing down your neck and then I ducked. 01:09:03 Speaker 2: And he flew over me and then I rolled out and I said, well, might as well punt this thing. So I just threw it. It was windy, and I just threw it down the field and Freddy caught it and I went like, oh my god, they're not going to catch Freddy sprinter and he took it into the end zone, act like he was going. 01:09:21 Speaker 1: Through the table with ninety five yard touchdown. 01:09:25 Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, And I remember going to the sideline and Seth Joyner came up to me and he was. 01:09:30 Speaker 1: Like the greatest place I've ever seen. Yeah, he was like just like this right. It's like I don't know. Yeah, I was a little kid. I remember seeing that. Man, that's beautiful. 01:09:40 Speaker 2: I reg if Freddy would have dropped it and we wouldn't be talking for it. 01:09:43 Speaker 1: Right quick, Kidter's first thing to come into mind. Let me know what the players you've played against. Who's your corey, who's your running back, who's your receiver? And who's your tight ends? 01:09:53 Speaker 2: Yes, like I can't even answer that one too many? 01:09:57 Speaker 1: How about this? Just do the different guys you didn't play with who were some great so you would have liked to had in the backfield, had a tight end and had out wide, give me a tight end. Two receivers and a running back. 01:10:08 Speaker 2: That is so hard. Oh, because I played with so many great guys. Oh my gosh, i'd go, yeah, that's. 01:10:18 Speaker 1: Too hard for guys didn't play with. 01:10:20 Speaker 2: Still, that's hard. There's so many guys I respect, and I'm like, man, because I would say Jerry Rice is a wide receiver. You know, it's like Jerry was the man we came out together. Okay, Barry Sanders, but I played with him in the Pro Bowl. Barry would be in the backfield. I'm sorry, you got to have him and Dickerson together. 01:10:41 Speaker 1: I'm not mad at that. Yeah. 01:10:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, they switch. They're in it all the time. Oh. I played with Ricky Waters, so I can't say Ricky Waters, Dion I'd have in there somewhere on the offense. He's got to be on the offense. Who else I have left? 01:10:58 Speaker 1: Tight end? 01:10:59 Speaker 2: All I got played with Mark Mark Uh. Oh yeah, so I can't say him Gates tight end Gates. 01:11:06 Speaker 1: Antonio Antonio was a beast. So Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson deon Sanders that one ride. 01:11:13 Speaker 2: Jerry Well, he got to be somewhere on the field. 01:11:15 Speaker 1: Off Yeah, Jerry be there, Jared and then uh, Antonio Gates. That's solid. 01:11:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, funniest teammate you ever had, the funniest Oh my god, if he was here right now, we wouldn't be able to record. He's a Canadian player named Henry Gizmo Williams. See you don't remember running back. He was Edmonton Eskimos. He was receiving and a returner. He's all over YouTube all so, but Gizmo came in and he was five six hundred ninety pounds yoked up. We used to train together and he would bitch, frast I put my two plates on there and get a couple in. He put another one on there, throw a twenty five on there. I'm like, that's like five or something like three sixty five. I'm like, what are you doing? 01:12:01 Speaker 1: And he would just go like this little arms. 01:12:05 Speaker 2: But we were in a restaurant in Atlantic City, because we would go to Atlantic City and eat, and Gizmo had this noise he made and he would go and it was this noise man that would it would catch you off guard. And so we're in a restaurant and this is well to do restaurant, and he would do this thing where he would grab you and he would bite you on the shoulder. He would say, give me a bite, dog, and he would bite you, and you're going, hey, and didn't even hit that noise right after that. So we're in a restaurant and he used to tell jokes. He says, man, I was so poor. We used to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and lick other people's fingers and stuff like. He would just say stuff like that all day, right, And so he did that, and then we're laughing so hard in the restaurant. He falls out on the floor and everyone in the restaurant starts laughing and they don't even know what they're laughing at. And somebody walks by and says, get I'll have whatever he had, right, So they thought he was drinking. Didn't drink right, funny, And so everybody in the restaurant is just crying, laughing, and we would say, please stop because I can't breathe, and that's when he would bite you again. And the bunniest person in the world to me, and then Chris Tucker. Of course, Chris is just funny period, not even trying. Yes, you know, he's just funny. 01:13:38 Speaker 1: Naturally scariest defender you've ever faced. You face some bad ones Wilbur Marshall ooh Chicago yep. Mm hmm. You saw Mike Singletary too. They had a defense. 01:13:50 Speaker 2: I still remember playing against Singletary the first time, and I used to They would talk about his eyes rough, you know, and I was on the field and I was like, whit's twenty five he was doing that and I started laughing. 01:14:02 Speaker 1: Because his eyes would move like side the side, right. Yeah. 01:14:04 Speaker 2: It was like he was so intense and I was like, I laughed and it was like, man, that dude really is like that. 01:14:12 Speaker 1: I think the scaries was Randall on your team? 01:14:14 Speaker 2: Oh, we had we had some. 01:14:16 Speaker 1: He was scary. 01:14:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, Johnny Randall, the d D lineman. I just talked to him the other day. Yeah. He yeah. He was about six foot one and just completely muscular. He was just like Marshall. 01:14:30 Speaker 1: Yeah from Minnesota. Yep. 01:14:33 Speaker 2: But I'm telling you, if Wilbur hit you, his he was like the Nigerian nightmare at linebacker. 01:14:41 Speaker 1: Christ on the defensive line at the linebacker who Cadence, Oh. 01:14:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't like it wasn't like the guy with the what's his name? He used to do all the hey over there, how are you doing today? I've been hitting the head a few times. He was with the Colt Peyton. Yeah, all that stuff he does, it's not real. No, you don't have time for all of that. It's a lot of dummy calls, is what it is. Yeah, it's down, said wife fifty eight. Whife fifty eight. Hut, you know, and you gotta you have to make audibles spur of the moment. 01:15:16 Speaker 1: And one album on repeat. 01:15:18 Speaker 2: It used to be be B and CC. Okay, yeah, I don't remember the name of the album, but it was b B and CC. I used to listen to them all the time, and I just like their their worship sincere so sincere child and crush childhood crush. I don't know. I just I love football so much. 01:15:37 Speaker 1: That was your girl? That was this girl? 01:15:40 Speaker 2: Football? 01:15:40 Speaker 1: Was it? 01:15:41 Speaker 2: Yeah? I guess I could say it was. Oh my gosh. She was a model, She was an actress. I can't think of her name though, but she ended up getting married each other. Those dreams went down to. 01:15:53 Speaker 3: If you could see one guest on our show, who would it be? But you have to help us get your answer on the show. 01:16:00 Speaker 1: Your friends, that do you think would be good on this show? 01:16:02 Speaker 2: Chris Tucker. Man, he would do it. Come, yeah, he would do it. Chris. I'm telling you. He golfs, we go golfing, he comes to town, he goes to church all the time. 01:16:14 Speaker 1: You guys built it, really, you were telling me that's not to cut you off. You built a really strong relationship with Chris Tucker. 01:16:18 Speaker 2: Yeah. 01:16:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's real. 01:16:21 Speaker 2: You know, he stands for what's right. He's down to earth and it's not about money, it's not about fame. He loves everybody in public. You go in public and you're like, come on, Chris, let's go. Man. He's just shaking everybody's hands and talking to everybody. He doesn't shy away from people. He's nice and he's just down to earth. 01:16:43 Speaker 1: Chris. You heard that. Yeah, coming from the pastor himself full of well, Randon, we appreciate you, man. It was an honor to be able to sit down and spend some time with you on Sunday as well, get to know you and definitely looking forward to being baptized. I'm looking forward that. We'll definitely talk. Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Yeah, thank you Randall. Cutting here, let's a wrap from all the smoke you can catch US and all the Smoke Productions YouTube and the Draft Kings Network. See you guys next week. Mm hmmm, mm hmmm, mm hmmm mm hmmm.

Randall Cunningham: The Quarterback Who Changed the Game Before It Was Ready

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