Latest / Kustom Conversations / From NOLA to NE to KC, And Everything In-Between | Neil Smith Interview | EP. 02

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From NOLA to NE to KC, And Everything In-Between | Neil Smith Interview | EP. 02 · Kustom Conversations

• 0:00
  Neil Smith: So all these years I never told anybody.
• 0:01
  Neil Smith: And I think it's probably time that I could reach unfolding on your show.
• 0:04
  Neil Smith: My mom kind of leaked it out.
• 0:10
  Casi Joy: What?
• 0:12
  Neil Smith: You know.
• 0:14
  Casi Joy: Every story is different.
• 0:15
  Casi Joy: Every episode is custom.
• 0:17
  Casi Joy: Get ready to pull back the curtain on your favorite artists, athletes, and entertainers.
• 0:22
  Casi Joy: I'm your host, Cassie Joy, and this is Custom Conversation.
• 0:31
  Casi Joy: Welcome back to Custom Conversations.
• 0:34
  Casi Joy: Today's guest is so special.
• 0:36
  Casi Joy: We have a Kansas City Chiefs legend in the house.
• 0:40
  Casi Joy: And I'm gonna have to look at my notes for this one because we have so many sp special stats here that I do not want to forget.
• 0:46
  Casi Joy: He is a former first round draft pick.
• 0:49
  Casi Joy: Whoa, a six-time Pro Bowler, two-time Super Bowl champion, and member of the Chiefs Hall of Honor.
• 0:58
  Casi Joy: He was one of the most dominant defensive players of his era with 104.5 career sacks.
• 1:06
  Casi Joy: Please welcome Neil Smith.
• 1:08
  Neil Smith: Thank you.
• 1:08
  Neil Smith: Thank you.
• 1:09
  Neil Smith: What a great introduction.
• 1:10
  Neil Smith: Oh man.
• 1:11
  Casi Joy: Hey, you did all the work.
• 1:12
  Casi Joy: No, that's all you do.
• 1:14
  Neil Smith: You know what?
• 1:15
  Neil Smith: You did that so well because um, you know, it it was it was so short and sweet, it's almost like you read my whole career.
• 1:22
  Casi Joy: Well, no, there was within five minutes.
• 1:23
  Casi Joy: There's so much more.
• 1:26
  Casi Joy: I was just trying to condense it as much.
• 1:28
  Casi Joy: So I was like, let's not give it all away right in the intro because you've done so much and you're just such a legacy here.
• 1:36
  Neil Smith: Thank you very much.
• 1:36
  Casi Joy: Um so, Neil, I am a Kansas City girl, so gigantic Chiefs fan.
• 1:42
  Casi Joy: But before we start, I do have to confess that like I am not your girl that's gonna be breaking down like a defensive scheme or anything.
• 1:50
  Casi Joy: Um but we are gonna talk about football and lots of stuff, just kind of digging deep with who you are as a person.
• 1:57
  Neil Smith: Thank you.
• 1:57
  Casi Joy: Yeah, because I know you've probably been on like thousands of like sports podcasts and sports radio, talking stats and plays and players and whatnot.
• 2:07
  Casi Joy: Um, but I don't know how much you've talked about just you and kind of the pulling back the curtain a little bit.
• 2:13
  Neil Smith: Well, you know what?
• 2:14
  Neil Smith: I'm gonna try to unwind as best I can.
• 2:15
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 2:16
  Neil Smith: And uh we got our first landing that I have for the opening season.
• 2:23
  Neil Smith: So this is the first podcast that I've been on going into this season.
• 2:26
  Neil Smith: So I don't know how you land this, but you land the right one at the right time, and I'm like, We got people.
• 2:31
  Neil Smith: You know, because you your schedule gets so busy, you you'll be out there, and you just like, you know, you gotta be here and there.
• 2:37
  Neil Smith: But when you have people that works around you and it can get them and sit them down and just like, hey, come here and do this, it was my pleasure.
• 2:43
  Neil Smith: So I appreciate having you and um you having me here.
• 2:47
  Neil Smith: And so, you know, um, I'm gonna do my best.
• 2:50
  Neil Smith: Yeah, my best to just unwind and let it happen.
• 2:52
  Casi Joy: Please do.
• 2:53
  Casi Joy: Yeah, this is a very cool, calm, collected environment.
• 2:55
  Casi Joy: Um and yeah, we appreciate you being here and making time for us because you just just got done playing a golf tournament.
• 3:03
  Neil Smith: Yes, I did.
• 3:04
  Neil Smith: I just you know, golf is one of the things that I picked up uh about eight years ago.
• 3:08
  Neil Smith: Yeah, it's a struggle, but it's it's a very good game to fall in love with.
• 3:12
  Neil Smith: And uh, you know, I never had an addiction, I could say, you know, as a player, as anything that that really, you know, controlled my life.
• 3:19
  Neil Smith: I was really in control of my life as far as, you know, because I grew up as a Christian, I had a great mom, I had a great dad leadership, you know, to lead me in the right direction.
• 3:27
  Neil Smith: So it kept me away from the drugs and all those things.
• 3:29
  Neil Smith: And um, you know, this game of golf, and once I started picking up and started playing, it's like, you know, it's just right at the end, you do something great things, it makes you come back to it.
• 3:40
  Neil Smith: Uh-huh.
• 3:41
  Neil Smith: You know, you could be bad all day, but you hit the one part or whatever make you unfold and and and come back, and you just want to repeat it.
• 3:50
  Neil Smith: So I've had a lot of reputation.
• 3:52
  Neil Smith: And what I've wanna learn about the game is it's it's it's hard.
• 3:56
  Neil Smith: Everybody else plays it or try to play it, but it's a repeating thing.
• 4:00
  Neil Smith: You just keep repeating the same old thing over and over and over again.
• 4:02
  Neil Smith: So it's like muscle memory.
• 4:04
  Neil Smith: Yeah, and it's just like anything pretty much what you do in life, you know.
• 4:07
  Neil Smith: You put your makeup on the same way, it's how you proceed the ball.
• 4:10
  Neil Smith: So I I kind of do things like that in remembrance.
• 4:13
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 4:14
  Neil Smith: To make myself realize where I'm at.
• 4:16
  Casi Joy: What a good little um hobby to pick up, too.
• 4:18
  Neil Smith: I love it.
• 4:19
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Casi Joy: Um, so we're gonna start with the early days of Neil Smith.
• 4:24
  Casi Joy: So before anybody knew you as number 90, the one and only, what was little s little Neil like growing up?
• 4:32
  Casi Joy: And were you ever little or did you just come out just like just a beast?
• 4:36
  Neil Smith: Yes, I was I was yes, I was once little.
• 4:38
  Neil Smith: There's no question.
• 4:39
  Neil Smith: Um, you know, uh looking back at you know my childhood, you know, growing growing up, uh being from uh New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 4:47
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 4:47
  Neil Smith: You know, I grew up in the city of Louisiana, in New Orleans, downtown.
• 4:51
  Neil Smith: I uh started in a housing project, and then my my journey was pretty simple.
• 4:55
  Neil Smith: You know, it's just like, you know, when you don't have anything, you you you know, you wish and your dream and you hope for things that's big.
• 5:02
  Neil Smith: And, you know, once I found and gave my you know my life to the Lord, I really feel like, you know, uh those things started coming past.
• 5:09
  Neil Smith: And, you know, prayer, prayer is a strong thing.
• 5:12
  Neil Smith: I tell people all the time, you know, I pray a lot, I pray for my kids, I pray every day, you know, for things to come.
• 5:18
  Neil Smith: And and and when God put it in yourself and in a person, you know, He stands by you.
• 5:23
  Neil Smith: And man, what what you know what a what a great journey he put me on.
• 5:27
  Neil Smith: And I have no remorse whatsoever um about where I went, who I met, and the people that was around me, um, that to get me to where I was at.
• 5:36
  Neil Smith: Uh once was little, you know, everybody um that grew up with me down in Louisiana, you know your name changes.
• 5:43
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 5:43
  Neil Smith: Uh when your name changes, they, you know, they give you, you know, names, uh, that memory.
• 5:48
  Neil Smith: And uh the first name, nickname I had was Bunny.
• 5:52
  Neil Smith: Well, it didn't roll with me.
• 5:54
  Neil Smith: They called me Bunny because I was born on Easter.
• 5:56
  Neil Smith: Oh, yeah.
• 5:57
  Neil Smith: And you know, growing up, I'm like, ah, I don't like the name Bunny.
• 5:59
  Neil Smith: Yeah, nobody gonna call me Bunny.
• 6:01
  Neil Smith: Like uh that's too soft.
• 6:03
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, so I want to grow up and be tough or whatever.
• 6:06
  Neil Smith: But what I really loved that the fact that, you know, when I started to play sports, um, they gave me the name, you know, Bullet Head.
• 6:13
  Neil Smith: And I kind of like, oh, okay, so everybody started calling me Bullet and Bullet Head.
• 6:17
  Neil Smith: So when I hit those people when I go back home, someone ever said that to me out loud, that means that they grew up with me in the early ages of my time.
• 6:25
  Neil Smith: So that's how you know.
• 6:26
  Neil Smith: I kind of like, you know, I love that part of my my life where, you know, someone that grew up with me in the nick, that name, you know, transitioned from me when I was really young into, you know, when I was older.
• 6:38
  Neil Smith: Of course, when you you move on, you go to high school, you know, you get a nickname.
• 6:42
  Neil Smith: So bullets stuck with me through high school.
• 6:44
  Neil Smith: That's a cool college to give me a name.
• 6:46
  Neil Smith: You know, when I was in college, uh, I went they called me steel, you know, like you know, you gotta be handy with the steel.
• 6:52
  Neil Smith: So they call me twisted steel, and I love that.
• 6:55
  Neil Smith: That's so cool.
• 6:55
  Neil Smith: I was with the Chiefs, they called me Holmes.
• 6:58
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 6:58
  Neil Smith: So, you know, everybody called me, hey Holmes, what's up?
• 7:00
  Neil Smith: How are you doing, Holmes?
• 7:01
  Neil Smith: So everybody was like a homeboy, like a home person to me.
• 7:05
  Neil Smith: And I don't know why it did, but it just resonated.
• 7:07
  Neil Smith: Some of my teammates called me 9-0, you know, now my you know, my kids, uh, my oldest son, all of his friends call me Pops.
• 7:15
  Neil Smith: So I got a lot of, you know, nephews and people call me Pops.
• 7:19
  Neil Smith: So, but other than that, I'm just still, you know, I'm just still Neil.
• 7:23
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 7:23
  Neil Smith: Everybody knows me.
• 7:24
  Neil Smith: You know, my kids know me as daddy.
• 7:26
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 7:26
  Neil Smith: Not dad.
• 7:27
  Neil Smith: Yeah, daddy.
• 7:28
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 7:28
  Neil Smith: Uh grandkids are are wonderful.
• 7:31
  Neil Smith: You know, I, you know, have nine grandkids, and and I can say I just made 60 this year, so I feel really, really good about how, you know, my life has been from where I came from and and all the way through, you know, college up into, you know, the pros.
• 7:44
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 7:45
  Neil Smith: And it it's enlightened because it's been a journey and I love it.
• 7:50
  Casi Joy: That's so cool.
• 7:50
  Casi Joy: Yeah, and we're definitely gonna get into um your family a little bit later because I got just a glimpse of it and I was like, whoa, what?
• 7:56
  Casi Joy: And we could use some tips because we just had our first.
• 7:59
  Casi Joy: She's four months old, and she's here today, so she might make an appearance at some point.
• 8:03
  Casi Joy: Absolutely.
• 8:04
  Casi Joy: Bring her.
• 8:04
  Casi Joy: Let's go.
• 8:05
  Casi Joy: I told my husband, I was like, do not bring her on camera unless she has her big red bow on.
• 8:09
  Neil Smith: Well, she might have a bankini of a memory.
• 8:11
  Casi Joy: Yeah, but she's gonna have a bow.
• 8:13
  Casi Joy: There you go.
• 8:13
  Neil Smith: Let's introduce it.
• 8:14
  Neil Smith: Absolutely.
• 8:15
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 8:16
  Casi Joy: So as a chief, you were 6'4, 240 pounds, with a seven foot and one inch and three-quarters wingspan.
• 8:26
  Neil Smith: Yes.
• 8:26
  Neil Smith: So much arms.
• 8:27
  Neil Smith: It's almost like a TNT where they say I can reach out and touch you.
• 8:31
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 8:32
  Neil Smith: So, you know, we're like, hey, when I reach out, I can touch you.
• 8:35
  Neil Smith: You know what I'm saying?
• 8:36
  Neil Smith: So that's you know, I can turn the speaker off from my hands.
• 8:38
  Casi Joy: Yeah, you can do it.
• 8:39
  Casi Joy: You know, yeah, can you change that?
• 8:40
  Neil Smith: One of them was my it was my it's my kryptonite, you know.
• 8:44
  Neil Smith: It's like, you know, you it I can swat a ball down.
• 8:47
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, I had where, you know, if players came closer, got it in close with me, which I played a D-line, I can I can just stand out and guys can get away from my body.
• 8:56
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 8:56
  Neil Smith: And I use them for that.
• 8:57
  Neil Smith: And um this was a weapon that I had.
• 9:01
  Neil Smith: And, you know, it was a part of me.
• 9:03
  Casi Joy: I didn't learn, I didn't know I was gonna have long arms and long legs, but you were you always like a bigger, like a big tall kid growing up, or like was there a time where it was like growth spurt and you were like, oh, tremendously growth spurt.
• 9:17
  Neil Smith: So when I was in high school, you know, I grew from six foot to about six three um my first year, and then uh when I got out, I grew another three inches.
• 9:25
  Neil Smith: So it was, yeah, it was like uh is this kid gonna stop growing?
• 9:29
  Neil Smith: Exactly.
• 9:30
  Neil Smith: So I high jumped, you know, I did uh field events, I played all three sports.
• 9:34
  Neil Smith: And um when I got introduced as a as a kid, you know, one of the things I did, I learned how to play all sports.
• 9:41
  Casi Joy: Yeah, yeah, I knew you played a lot of basketball too, right?
• 9:43
  Neil Smith: You know, and I was good at basketball, baseball, I played, I ran track, and football was one of those things that I just did.
• 9:48
  Neil Smith: You know, and I did it pretty good.
• 9:50
  Neil Smith: And I just, you know, when I learned when I learned for myself too, you know, how I was going to, you know, pick coming out of high school, where you're gonna go in, and I just, you know, I I really signed up for the Marines.
• 10:03
  Casi Joy: That's yeah, I was gonna ask about that.
• 10:05
  Casi Joy: Yeah, so you did sign up.
• 10:06
  Neil Smith: I was signed up for the Marines, and I was headed to the Marines because it would have third I'd have been the third generation um to serve my country.
• 10:13
  Neil Smith: My grandfather did it, my father did it, and then it was it would have been me.
• 10:18
  Neil Smith: And um well back then, um how I got out of it was was it's a blessing in disguise.
• 10:24
  Neil Smith: I mean, literally, they didn't have to do it, but they did.
• 10:27
  Neil Smith: Um, I was under 18 at the time I signed up.
• 10:31
  Neil Smith: So therefore, then I can come out if I decided to come to college or go to college.
• 10:36
  Neil Smith: So I never went in yet as as going in as a Marine, but I just I caught it right at the time where I could say, okay, I changed my mind and I want to go to college.
• 10:45
  Casi Joy: Yeah, because you got and you got offered a scholarship to Nebraska.
• 10:49
  Neil Smith: To University Nebraska, absolutely.
• 10:51
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 10:51
  Casi Joy: So going from New Orleans to Nebraska, what was that like change of scenery like?
• 10:59
  Casi Joy: Were you like, what?
• 11:00
  Casi Joy: It's just cornfields, like it's just very culture shock, right?
• 11:05
  Neil Smith: Very culture shocking.
• 11:07
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 11:07
  Neil Smith: Um wasn't you know, never seen snow.
• 11:10
  Neil Smith: Maybe a snow, a snow flour is a two here in Louisiana.
• 11:13
  Neil Smith: Okay.
• 11:13
  Neil Smith: You know, never got cold.
• 11:14
  Neil Smith: Oh.
• 11:15
  Neil Smith: And, you know, uh, I remember when I first went to uh Nebraska, one of the the I tell this joke all the time, but it really wasn't a joke.
• 11:22
  Neil Smith: People take it as a joke.
• 11:23
  Neil Smith: And I got to Nebraska and, you know, I never forget our first snow day.
• 11:28
  Neil Smith: And I was I was sleeping in a dormitory and I knew, you know, it was practice, or you know, I knew I had to go to class or whatever.
• 11:36
  Neil Smith: And um I actually, you know, I um I I I looked out the window and I seen the snow and it was above the cars.
• 11:43
  Neil Smith: Lending it was a snow drift above the cars, and I like, what is that?
• 11:47
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 11:47
  Neil Smith: I've never seen anything like it.
• 11:49
  Neil Smith: I mean, because you know, when it rains in Louisiana, it's storm, you can hear the lightning and thunder, you know, you know, you can hear the rain.
• 11:56
  Neil Smith: But the snow was so quiet then I wake up and I'm like, whoa, what is this?
• 12:00
  Neil Smith: I'm like, oh, that's cool.
• 12:01
  Neil Smith: I'm gonna go out and play in that, you know, later on.
• 12:03
  Neil Smith: And I went back to sleep.
• 12:05
  Neil Smith: I slept to practice, I slept to uh a missing dinner.
• 12:09
  Neil Smith: Uh uh, I'm in school, and um I get a knock on the door, and it was Dr.
• 12:14
  Neil Smith: Tom Osborne.
• 12:15
  Neil Smith: He asked me to say, Son, what are you doing?
• 12:17
  Neil Smith: And I say, Would I doing?
• 12:19
  Neil Smith: He's like, Yeah, he's like, you miss practice, you missed, you missed um um dinner, you you you you didn't go to weightlifting and all these things he started naming.
• 12:27
  Neil Smith: I'm like, Well, coach, did you see what's out there?
• 12:29
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, that was my first impression.
• 12:31
  Neil Smith: We can't go on.
• 12:32
  Neil Smith: What are you gonna do out there?
• 12:34
  Neil Smith: He's like, he said, you gotta come.
• 12:36
  Neil Smith: He said, I tell you what, come to my come go to my my um room, go to my office, and I'll meet you there, and and we're gonna talk about this.
• 12:44
  Neil Smith: So I was like, okay, well, uh, go to your I'm gonna go over there.
• 12:47
  Neil Smith: I'm sorry, well, well, how am I gonna get there?
• 12:48
  Neil Smith: He said, Well, you're gonna walk like everybody else do, or you're gonna get over there.
• 12:51
  Neil Smith: I said, Well, coach, I don't have a coat.
• 12:53
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 12:54
  Neil Smith: You know, I'm like, I don't have a coat to walk in and like I don't know.
• 12:57
  Casi Joy: Like, what are snowpants?
• 12:58
  Neil Smith: So I had I had a um uh I had a little lettuce jacket uh that I, you know, in high school, let hims jacket, and I I kind of like froze my butt off with that.
• 13:07
  Neil Smith: Oh my gosh.
• 13:08
  Neil Smith: And I went over and um I went to talk to Glenn Abbott, was how he was our uh trainer at the time.
• 13:13
  Neil Smith: You know, back then you couldn't give they couldn't absolutely give you anything um as a gift, and you couldn't have jobs.
• 13:19
  Neil Smith: Everything was against the NCAA to as far as you know um you know for putting teams on probation.
• 13:26
  Neil Smith: So um I was I was gifted my first jacket.
• 13:30
  Neil Smith: I went to the trainer, he gave me my first jacket.
• 13:33
  Casi Joy: Oh my gosh, do you still have it by chance?
• 13:35
  Neil Smith: No, I don't have it.
• 13:36
  Neil Smith: I don't know, I wish I would have because it was a part of the turning point of my my my my life, and and I got this jacket and I walked into the training room, they had all these jackets lined up, you know, and he gave me one.
• 13:47
  Neil Smith: And the next thing you know, all the jackets was taken off.
• 13:50
  Neil Smith: I've never seen the same jacket again.
• 13:52
  Neil Smith: So they changed the colors of the jackets because it was, you know, it was a sideline jacket, and everyone asked me, like, hey man, that's a nice jacket.
• 13:58
  Neil Smith: Where did you get it from?
• 13:59
  Neil Smith: I was told don't tell nobody where I got the jacket from.
• 14:02
  Neil Smith: So all these years I never told anybody.
• 14:04
  Neil Smith: I think it's probably time that I could unfold it on your own.
• 14:07
  Casi Joy: You're gonna hear it.
• 14:08
  Neil Smith: And tell them that I got that jacket from my head trainer.
• 14:11
  Neil Smith: And then, you know, so if you want to go back and put Nebraska on four base and go in, so let it be.
• 14:16
  Neil Smith: I got a free jacket in my life.
• 14:18
  Casi Joy: So But it's legal now.
• 14:20
  Casi Joy: It's legal now.
• 14:21
  Neil Smith: You know, I've always wondered, you know, playing in front of 84,000 or 80, 89,000 people in at Nebraska.
• 14:27
  Neil Smith: And I often wonder, like, where is like why am I broke?
• 14:31
  Neil Smith: And why are all these people here where I I I I I can't get a job because you couldn't work.
• 14:37
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Neil Smith: And we had to do all the things that was necessary.
• 14:39
  Neil Smith: We had a scholarship, we had a places to live, and we had schooling, and we just that's that was a routine.
• 14:45
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 14:45
  Neil Smith: And you know, and I was like, I gotta make some money.
• 14:47
  Neil Smith: I've always wanted to make money.
• 14:49
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 14:50
  Neil Smith: And and you know, I couldn't take a girl out to a date because I didn't have anything.
• 14:54
  Neil Smith: Yeah, I had a free.
• 14:55
  Casi Joy: All I have is this coat.
• 14:56
  Neil Smith: So I was grateful for what I had when I was there.
• 14:59
  Neil Smith: But then it put me in a mindset that, you know, this is not it.
• 15:02
  Neil Smith: This is just a pastoral.
• 15:03
  Neil Smith: And once it hit me, then I really started to, you know, um get within myself that, you know, there's another, another place that I want to be.
• 15:11
  Neil Smith: And I started seeing people that was playing my position um go before me.
• 15:15
  Neil Smith: I started on the dev chart number 17.
• 15:18
  Neil Smith: And I watched myself just go all the way up the list to my senior year, to when I became, you know, I got my black shirt and I got I got the starting role.
• 15:27
  Neil Smith: And from then I was like, man, I just seen a journey come from 17 people working my way up to the top until I got a chance.
• 15:34
  Neil Smith: And when it was my turn, then I said, I'm now, I'm gonna do something about this.
• 15:39
  Neil Smith: And you know, I'm never gonna let them forget who I was.
• 15:42
  Neil Smith: And I would just, you know, everything was became about the business side of where I was gonna go.
• 15:47
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 15:48
  Neil Smith: And that was my journey.
• 15:49
  Neil Smith: You know, it was one of the crossroads in my life that how I got there was was is not a fluke because um they were supposed to uh recruit our um our captain, excuse me, our quarterback in high school.
• 16:02
  Neil Smith: And back then it had real to real um tapes, where on real to real tapes, you know, had the the the all the team and special teams and everybody was on the same reel to reel.
• 16:15
  Neil Smith: So you can watch everything on one reel.
• 16:17
  Neil Smith: And I kept showing up on the offense side, I kept showing up on special team, and I kept showing up on defense.
• 16:23
  Neil Smith: So uh Jack Pierce, the guy that recruited me, um now he passed, God bless his so he was the one that that really changed my life.
• 16:32
  Neil Smith: He's like told the coaches, like, hey, I see this kid.
• 16:35
  Neil Smith: He's you know, he's pretty undersized, but he got a model, he can run, he can, he can do everything.
• 16:40
  Neil Smith: And of course, what it was gonna recruit our quarterback, it just that our quarterback got in trouble right before he was gonna get, you know, right before he was gonna get um go to college.
• 16:50
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 16:51
  Neil Smith: And it kind of like opened that window for me.
• 16:54
  Neil Smith: And I actually literally got the last scholarship of 1984 to go to the University of Nebraska.
• 17:01
  Neil Smith: They last scholarship.
• 17:02
  Neil Smith: When I say the last one, they called me the sleeper going in.
• 17:06
  Neil Smith: So I kind of said to myself, I'm sleep now, but when I get done, I'm gonna be proof.
• 17:12
  Neil Smith: I'm gonna rise from the dead.
• 17:13
  Neil Smith: Oh my gosh, that is so cool.
• 17:15
  Neil Smith: A turning point of your life, you just don't know where your life's gonna turn.
• 17:18
  Neil Smith: What's gonna be in your pathways?
• 17:20
  Neil Smith: But you know, when the doors of, you know, you know, the the doors of God open up the doors of heaven, man, you could just walk through it, you know.
• 17:28
  Neil Smith: You could struggle in, you know, in in in your music career or or or writing something, and then you know, something's gonna come to you.
• 17:36
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, it's gonna be an answer for everything.
• 17:38
  Neil Smith: And that's why people see why I'm so I'm so into my community because of that.
• 17:45
  Neil Smith: Um it makes me it makes me a better person.
• 17:47
  Neil Smith: And then I just I just love helping people.
• 17:50
  Neil Smith: I just love helping people.
• 17:51
  Neil Smith: That's me.
• 17:51
  Casi Joy: Oh, I love that.
• 17:52
  Casi Joy: Okay, so with um going from Nebraska or from Louisiana to Nebraska, did you was there a food culture shock?
• 18:07
  Casi Joy: Because uh, Louisiana has, in my opinion, like from touring, it is still my favorite food on in America.
• 18:15
  Casi Joy: Um probably on planet Earth.
• 18:18
  Casi Joy: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:18
  Neil Smith: Yeah, I mean, you know, the Creole style of Louisiana uh makes us, you know, and I love cooking it.
• 18:24
  Neil Smith: You know, everyone's gonna be a good one.
• 18:25
  Casi Joy: Yeah, I saw you um hosted uh your son's team for uh what'd you make?
• 18:30
  Casi Joy: Was it like a shrimp boil or something?
• 18:31
  Neil Smith: So I made a shrimp oil for my son and them team when they won the um uh the championship up there when he was in high school.
• 18:37
  Neil Smith: That's so cool.
• 18:37
  Neil Smith: And I and I went and fed the kids, and it was one of the things that I love to do, you know, it was just roll it out there, and I tell you those kids went to some shrimp.
• 18:44
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 18:45
  Neil Smith: I bet they went to some food and it was teenage boys.
• 18:49
  Neil Smith: Yeah, a bunch of teenage boys, and and you know, my prayer go out to Michael Jill's uh family.
• 18:54
  Neil Smith: Um he was a teammate of my son at Liberty North um high school in, you know, in passing this week and last week.
• 19:01
  Neil Smith: Um it was a big shock to you know Kansas City that you know we lost him um, you know, um in in a in a help situation.
• 19:09
  Neil Smith: And he's gonna be you know, my son was devastated.
• 19:11
  Neil Smith: And you know, it's it it's hard to, you know, to see a kid that just made 21, you know, pass and that way and that style.
• 19:19
  Neil Smith: Um because you you know you see so much life ahead of him.
• 19:23
  Neil Smith: And you know, like I try to tell my son, I try to to give him enlightenment, like, you know, life is short.
• 19:29
  Neil Smith: You have to live every day like it's the last one.
• 19:31
  Neil Smith: And not to say go out and do everything that you want to do in one day because it don't work like that.
• 19:36
  Neil Smith: You just gotta live it and you gotta tell the ones that you're around all the time when you leave how much you love them.
• 19:41
  Neil Smith: And because you never know when it's the last time.
• 19:44
  Neil Smith: So and you know, that happened to me, you know, here in Kansas City.
• 19:49
  Neil Smith: You know, when you lose a young person like Derek Thomas, you know, it's devastating.
• 19:53
  Neil Smith: Um, I lost my best friend.
• 19:55
  Neil Smith: And my son lost his best friend.
• 19:56
  Neil Smith: So it's kind of in that same boat, but he's younger than me, and hopefully he can, you know, he can recover from it.
• 20:01
  Neil Smith: I know he will.
• 20:02
  Neil Smith: And I told him, take those great things that you guys always had in yourself and grow from it and keep it.
• 20:07
  Neil Smith: If it's a memory, you can always say, Hey, you know what?
• 20:10
  Neil Smith: I'm I'm playing this game for Michael.
• 20:11
  Neil Smith: You know, you can put something in remember of him, you know, write his number on it and let him know he's still with you and he'll be with you, man.
• 20:17
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 20:18
  Neil Smith: Throughout the journey.
• 20:19
  Casi Joy: Yeah, and you've I'm like you've carried on Derek's legacy with the Third and Long Foundation, absolutely.
• 20:24
  Casi Joy: Which we'll get into um after we get through kind of trying to go in a little bit of like a chronological order thing here.
• 20:30
  Casi Joy: Um so let's get to the draft.
• 20:32
  Casi Joy: So it's 1988, it's the draft, and you were picked second out of everybody in the in college football.
• 20:41
  Neil Smith: Should have been first.
• 20:42
  Neil Smith: Really?
• 20:43
  Neil Smith: I'm telling you, I should have been first.
• 20:45
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 20:45
  Neil Smith: I know I was the best one in that draft.
• 20:46
  Neil Smith: But I gotta say, there were four people in my class that that made the Hall of Fame, and I have not made the NFL Hall of Fame yet.
• 20:54
  Neil Smith: But I'm up there, and hopefully it's gonna happen one day.
• 20:56
  Neil Smith: We'll see.
• 20:57
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Neil Smith: You know, once they see me on your show, they know my life, hey that's guy, we remember this guy, he's still here.
• 21:01
  Casi Joy: We're going viral, baby.
• 21:02
  Casi Joy: There you go.
• 21:03
  Casi Joy: Breaking rules, college rules, all the things.
• 21:06
  Casi Joy: Um, so you get drafted second, and like what is going through your head at that time?
• 21:12
  Casi Joy: Like, were you expecting it, or were you like, I mean, what was that?
• 21:16
  Casi Joy: Is such an incredible thing to happen.
• 21:19
  Neil Smith: It is extremely hard to to to describe it, but you in the moment.
• 21:25
  Neil Smith: You know what I'm saying?
• 21:26
  Neil Smith: Um, you know, as an artist, you know the moment, you know, when you when you approach the stage and you know what you're about to do and what you're about to give them.
• 21:33
  Neil Smith: It was almost like that.
• 21:34
  Neil Smith: Um I I I I what I loved about it is that the night before, um, small story, um the Raiders owner, Al Davis, called me the night before, and they told us to stay in our rooms because we might be getting calls from from teams.
• 21:48
  Neil Smith: So Al Davis was the only one to call me in my room.
• 21:53
  Neil Smith: Really?
• 21:53
  Neil Smith: And they was actually picking number four in the draft that year.
• 21:57
  Neil Smith: And he said, Neil, you my guy.
• 21:59
  Neil Smith: pick you here's what I want you to do don't say nothing but when he when he called me my mouth dropped I was like literally and I had like three or four suits I had like three or four suits laying out like what color I really want to wear or whatever.
• 22:11
  Neil Smith: If I hear somebody I'm gonna put the colors on where I heard from L.
• 22:14
  Neil Smith: So I had a gray suit I think it was a black shirt a gray and black tie because I thought I was gonna be a raider you know and man I and I I told this to my mom and I say mom you got to listen to me you cannot say nothing.
• 22:26
  Neil Smith: Lily say nothing he told me don't send nobody that he called me I'm like he really called me L Davis called me I'm so super excited you know uh about being a raider and um I never forget uh my mom kind of leaked it out what and you know God bless him so in her resting place she couldn't hold nothing and she leaked it out and um uh when I say leaked it out it was on the news in Louisiana that night before the draft that they put on that the Raiders might get Neil Smith they're gonna move up in the draft and get Neil Smith well you know what do you think that's what made the Chiefs because the Chiefs like moved their traded someone or something I don't really know absolutely so the Chiefs had the third pick and moved and then Detroit had the the second pick and then um I think it was Atlanta had the number one pick and of course we visited Atlanta we told them our number and I think we scared them by the number that we asked for going into the draft so they was like no so they went what they went in another direction grab a guy named Andre Bruce.
• 23:33
  Neil Smith: Yeah so the Chiefs and this is how it unfolds when the commissioner comes out he'll come out he was like okay the number one pick went to Atlanta now Detroit is on the clock and I'm watching I'm sitting here and I'm watching you know what is Detroit okay I don't know who's gonna go to Detroit or whatever it's cool.
• 23:51
  Neil Smith: And he walks to the door and he and he and somebody handed him an envelope and he didn't go in.
• 23:56
  Neil Smith: He walks back out on stage and then he said there's been a trade up he said he said um Detroit trading with Kansas City Detroit gonna move down to take the third pick and Kansas City gonna move up to take the second pick well that didn't blow across my head I'm like I'm cool I'm a remote listening so I'm like oh maybe you know Kansas City like it's about it and when he walked back he walked back to that same door and hand him another envelope I mean it went that quick and as soon as possible it was like he walked back out of commission walked out and he's and he said and um uh the Kansas City um pick out the University of Nebraska Neil Smith and I'm like and I'm looking and everybody was like hey man that's you that's you you go and I'm like hey me man you're like yeah you gotta go man you gotta go that's you like I was like oh okay so I gotta go and I'm going up and I get to Kansas City Hammond and I'm looking at him like what is this yeah I'm sitting here and I'm like what is this I'm like oh my god I'm like what happened to the Raiders Helm and I thought I was gonna be a Raider you know they got the next pick well the Chiefs did the right thing they moved up they got me because they knew that I was probably high on that depth chart oh my god and they brought me in and this was my new home I never left since you know so I've always made it based here home the Midwest you can get anywhere around the world at the same time I mean I love it I love it um being here um everything about it really you know yeah besides the winners you know I'm getting a little old and the winners are getting you like those snow I'm over the first snow yeah the snow days is behind me I think you know my body with this metal and all this stuff all this stuff that got fixed is kind of like you know wearing on me but I still love the fact that I um I am here I'm here for a reason and I'm not gonna stay bound here I'm a chief of life and they couldn't pick a better guy because um I've always said it you know it was in me yeah so I kind of got over it and you know at the draft after you get drafted they immediately put you on a plane to send you to that city so I left from New York yes like right then and at the okay out the door you go you go to that city they put you on a plane and do what just tourists and you know of course they they already got their stuff set up you know here in in the city you know the places you're supposed to speak well of course coming from New York you know that the the draft was at that night I really didn't get into late that night so I really didn't do anything until the morning and the first thing I did is I got I got on the radio and this lady gave me my first uh my first lecture I was kind of still asleep and I'm like oh welcome to Kans City and they you know put me on the it's like okay um and she said like hey Neil like um they asked me the questions like you know uh how do you feel like being in you know in in in in um Kansas City well I said well you know it's so good being in Kansas and and this and this lady calling she's like well first of all you ain't in Kansas let's get this straight okay and then I had to give her a little lecture like okay I know that you know that's Kansas that's the state line you know it's divided by the you know the Missouri River because I had to do my homework it's confusing if you're gonna have to do my homework and I kind of put it back in push back and I was like okay I gotta be in Kansas City I got to put the city behind it.
• 27:04
  Casi Joy: And you know I don't know if our jinx our team now yeah how uh so for the people um the Kansas city Missouri Chiefs are moving to Kansas we don't really know when is it like 2030 or something like that we don't know.
• 27:20
  Neil Smith: What you're saying that like it's a long ways away.
• 27:22
  Neil Smith: I know and it's in this year already they came so you're looking at about four years or more you know that they will be leaving you know probably the sacred ground in in in on on the Missouri side.
• 27:34
  Neil Smith: I call it sacred ground because so much great football was played there.
• 27:37
  Neil Smith: Yeah I mean throughout all these years now that you know our our home team is winning championships and we pretty much got probably the best quarterback in the NFL in a long time I think you know in Patrick Mahomes and I just think that all of those things you look back and you know when they close the doors that's gonna be a sad moment for a lot of people and I don't know how I'm gonna go down I-70 and I see that it's never gonna be an event there.
• 28:05
  Neil Smith: That's gonna be really hopefully maybe I'll just move away a little further where I don't have to pass.
• 28:08
  Neil Smith: Yeah you don't see it I don't want to see it every day.
• 28:10
  Casi Joy: Yeah you know but I've only live you know I've only lived like three four exits away from there so yeah I mean yeah I'm sad that it moved because I'm from the Missouri side north of the river so it was always like they're the Missouri Kansas City Missouri Chiefs and now that it's moving to Kansas I was pretty sad.
• 28:30
  Casi Joy: But I understand that like there's so much more stuff out there.
• 28:34
  Casi Joy: Like right now at Arrowhead it's pretty much like you can go across the gas station or to the gas station across the street or Taco Bell.
• 28:41
  Casi Joy: Yeah so I mean I think that I think the moving would probably be better it's a good business move.
• 28:46
  Neil Smith: Yeah um I I I know they would never do anything if it wasn't for good for you know the the the up and coming Chiefs totally so you can't stay the same and I understand that you know moving is a part of it and a lot of fans don't understand the business side of it.
• 29:00
  Neil Smith: You know it's like players you know I was caught up in the first year of free agency no one knew about free agency but it was the first year when I made it you know when I went out and you know into free agency and pick a team and they didn't know that it was the end of me leaving.
• 29:17
  Neil Smith: No regardless who I picked and where I went I still went there so um players go so you know I tell fans all the time like you know what you can fall in love with your team but when you fall in love with the players that's when you have a problem because players now moving so much in the league that they're going to other teams yeah you know and teams that you might don't like that's in the same division such as myself and you know and and but life goes on.
• 29:43
  Neil Smith: You can still be the fan of dance but the team of you you know the teams where you're supposed to you know where you're and you can always come back.
• 29:50
  Casi Joy: Absolutely so speaking of players you played with another KC legend Derek Thomas um and you two were described as one of the most feared pass rushing duos in NFL history.
• 30:03
  Casi Joy: When you guys were on a team together was your connection instant like were you like this is my guy going down the field.
• 30:10
  Neil Smith: You know Derek was so so different um in a in a sense that you know I had to make him talk he was very quiet.
• 30:17
  Casi Joy: Really?
• 30:17
  Neil Smith: Yes he was very standoffish you know I didn't know if he was you know how to how to approach him yeah you know and I and and and I went to him and I and I talked to him and he was like you know yeah no one liner she was giving me one liner just and I'm like well I'm not gonna give up on him you know I know I was told that you know he's he's a hell of an athlete I heard about him um through my uncle before he got drafted my uncle told me he's like hey man this kid from out of LA from college yes cool so I was I was here with the Chiefs and my uncle told me you know he's a big LSU fan he told me he said hey man you see that guy that y'all got in the draft I said I didn't even see the draft uncle I was you know I was somewhere in the world and and he said I was like well who did we get he said well you got this kid named Derek Thomas out of University of Alabama he said let me tell you something he said this man is a game changer I'll never forget that day he told me that and he's like he loved football he loved college football and he said I've never seen one single kid I've seen this man take over games and I was like okay man you you know you're getting a little bit overhand or whatever and well so when Derek first came into Kansas City you know and I greeted him and we both was young because I was this my first or second year in there um before Morty came and and you know it was quiet and man when I tell you I see this kid go and practice it was effortless and I was like man he's really good I mean he's like and then when I when when the game day was on I'm like I mean he turned into some kind of animal yeah so we kind of grew this bond like you know I you know he won a rookie year his first year you know of course I I I missed eight games I could have did that so all the things that I was trying to do Derek was doing it yeah you know in his first and second year he was making a name for himself and he was getting involved in it you know he got him involved with the in the community you know with his own foundation what we all and and that's a big contribute to Daron Cherry he was one of the first guys that got into the community to say okay give back yeah you know and and and and got it involved in keeping it going as even to today.
• 32:18
  Neil Smith: But um the old uh Julius Buck Buchanan was one of the guys that um really got me involved.
• 32:25
  Neil Smith: I was one of the first things I ever did in Kansas City um as far as um you know uh the community service was um with the special olympics and um um buck bechannon uh took me out to a special can uh special olympic deal and I became one of the one of their their ambassadors uh with the with the with the um special olympics and I just grew from there you know and and we all started we all had our foundations and we came together and we helped each other with them.
• 32:52
  Neil Smith: We still to the day you know the people just still have them we do the work man that we laid the foundation and the groundwork on on on on um our community awareness.
• 33:03
  Casi Joy: Yeah you are like extremely charitable I feel like left and right you're doing something some golf tournament for something and the you know and like the pass the hat and and then also being a part of or a founder of um the Third and Long Foundation um with Derek Thomas.
• 33:21
  Casi Joy: Let's talk a little bit about that in case people don't know what that foundation is because it's a really cool cause.
• 33:26
  Neil Smith: Yes Derek started the foundation and he needed a name and I'm with one of these guys that you know I'm pretty good with you know trying to give names or found the names or whatever.
• 33:36
  Neil Smith: So I sit there and I ask Derek he's like man you gotta find a name help me find a name for my foundation I'm wanting this kid foundation and and and well where can I go with this?
• 33:44
  Neil Smith: I said let me ask you a question what down do you you feel like your best down and he'll look at me every down you know with a straight face every down is my best day like okay so I said well no I want you to tell me real what down do you think that is the best down that you ever would you like best situation that you ever like he said man I like third and long if I get him in third and long they ain't coming and I said it is he said that what is I said that's the name third and long is what you should name your foundation he named those he named say man I never thought about that but I love that he said I love everything about what you just said so we have started the third and long foundation started the reading program and what Derek do when Derek touches something he wants to make it bigger than big he wants to make it four more better than everything.
• 34:35
  Neil Smith: He took the third and loan foundation he took his foundation he won the man of the year in the NFL you know one of the highest prestige awards that you can get um uh in in in in the NFL you know with your with your foundation uh of course you know uh he works with the inner city kids we work with the inner city kids was 58 of them and we we we have a rating program where we impeled them you know advanced them as reading and and he just he gave it all you know when we were short on on stuff you know we used to give basketball games we gave celebrity golf tournaments we gave I mean we I mean if you go to our website and you see all the things that we're still doing today as he gone as a friend I was asked when Derek passed uh would I be involved with it because the NFL was going to cut them off the funding for the for the uh for the third loan foundation you have to have a living active uh person to to to take it over and I'll found I mean Miss Betty Brown from day one she's been there and she called me she said Neil she said I have something to ask you and uh our president said like you know I need your help and I know you're the only person that I know well I'm running my own foundation and the last thing I need is another foundation and I said Miss Brown she asked me like would you would you help us with our foundation we need you and Kevin Regan was the attorney um with us and I couldn't say no I mean what what could you do?
• 36:10
  Neil Smith: You know this was the best friend of mine and it was his dream it was his baby and and I I just couldn't see it go away.
• 36:17
  Neil Smith: Yeah well I took the initiative to close my foundation what I was doing just to help the foundation and the Third Lawn Foundation because um it means that much to me.
• 36:27
  Neil Smith: Yeah I just wanted to keep Derek's you know dream and his and his flame lit within the city and and you know I don't get paid for this but this is my community awareness.
• 36:37
  Neil Smith: This is what I love to do.
• 36:39
  Neil Smith: And we have you know we do a lot of things that you know of course we need help.
• 36:46
  Neil Smith: You know we need you need volunteers and we always need funding.
• 36:49
  Neil Smith: Sometimes we come short we do turkey drives we you know like I said we do golf tournaments.
• 36:55
  Neil Smith: We have a legend awards coming up where you know we give community active um um awards to people that's in our inner city that means stuff to us that we give you know a a a gala and we acknowledge those people of their work here in the city and man I tell you it's it's get bigger and bigger every year and and you know super sighty but you know it's a lot of work but yet you know um it ain't done until you know until everybody go home so we got a lot of work more work to do.
• 37:24
  Casi Joy: Yeah until yeah do it get draining sometimes sometimes it does yeah but you know you just gotta keep pushing yeah it's for such an awesome cause um and you have so kind of the goal around the Third and Long Foundation is to sack illiteracy right and you kind of have a connection with that with growing up with dyslexia.
• 37:45
  Casi Joy: Absolutely right when did you figure out that that's what it was like w were you struggling in school?
• 37:52
  Neil Smith: Yes I was struggling in school I had a lot of testing yeah um being behind and and and and having a learning disability was something that you know I you know uh I you get teased as a kid you know they'll call it bullying now but we call it teasing um it didn't rub very well you know um and I didn't like it and you know of course you know um I became this problem child because I used to hate people teasing me about something that I didn't know was wrong with me.
• 38:21
  Neil Smith: And so I kind of got you know I got handsy with things as I would say.
• 38:27
  Neil Smith: Then I um I was ignored to to do a golden glove.
• 38:31
  Neil Smith: They put me in golden glove because you know I was so you know was taking so much vintage um on people where I didn't like them to know what I was you know what was wrong with me.
• 38:41
  Neil Smith: I didn't like the fact that people was teasing me but I learned to to to release it in a gym and that frustration and and and I box and I didn't like boxing because I didn't like getting hit.
• 38:54
  Neil Smith: You know I can give it but then I ain't like to take it especially on my face.
• 38:57
  Neil Smith: So um I went through that I went to a program like that um I got to test it but I I what I really really loved about it is that it was a way that I can learn how to learn.
• 39:09
  Neil Smith: Yeah in your own way in my own way and uh and it's and that I was never alone there's there's a lot of people that have this problem and you know I didn't know I was seeing the words backwards or writing it backwards or reading it backwards.
• 39:24
  Neil Smith: I thought the page was supposed to go from you know from right to left not left to right.
• 39:29
  Neil Smith: Okay.
• 39:30
  Neil Smith: So um that made sense to me you know and uh the numbers was backwards and so it it it took me a while to to to really uh learn but yet you know once I found my way of learning how it goes then it became it was slower for me but yet I still prospered it to the best of knowledge that I could ever did.
• 39:50
  Neil Smith: And it really didn't hinder me.
• 39:52
  Neil Smith: I'm not no person that you know I can read but I you know I I I don't I don't like to read out loud.
• 39:59
  Neil Smith: Yeah you know it's like you still caught in some of these little little ways where people are you know hiding um the fact that they have a have a problem and they think they're long.
• 40:08
  Neil Smith: No you're not alone.
• 40:09
  Casi Joy: Yeah I mean what a special connection you can have like with these kids and the foundation where you can show them like how successful you can be sure even though you learn in a different way and it doesn't mean you can't learn it's just differently.
• 40:22
  Casi Joy: And like a quote that I heard recently was like you're not a broken horse you're a zebra.
• 40:26
  Casi Joy: Yes like you're just a little different and that's exactly and a zebra is a beautiful animal.
• 40:32
  Neil Smith: Yes it is you just have stripes and like why did you get some stripes and he's a horse we don't know as a kid you look at him different than a regular a regular horse but it did never it never stopped me you know for wanting to learn yeah and I still learn today even at 60 years old um and I and I just you know I just keeps it in you know but um I um I don't have problems you know I can go out I don't have no fear of speaking in front of people yeah I'm talking to you you're doing behind closed doors and I love your I love your set you know with the speakers um so it it it and and I love to talk about it because it's it it was a problem that I know that people that deal with it it is hurtful but yet you're still you're still human and you can learn you can find a way to make you to to make you get it and and if I can do it I I always tell the kids you can do it because I was the worst at it.
• 41:23
  Neil Smith: I feel like I was the worst it was worse on me than it was on anybody but I cannot know how they can feel but I just let them enge them that encouragement to do it.
• 41:31
  Casi Joy: That's all well and to to show them that not only can you become like an NFL athlete hello but just to go to college with with learning differently I think that's so cool for you.
• 41:44
  Neil Smith: Yeah and I had some I had some classes that um you know I I still went to class and I still you know of course my way of learning is that you know of course if I couldn't write the notes down as fast as I could I had to record it.
• 41:55
  Neil Smith: Every class that I ever went into I recorded it.
• 41:58
  Neil Smith: Yeah and then I went in there and and and I came back and I had a way where I can break the tapes down what was he talking about this is what he was talking about.
• 42:05
  Neil Smith: And so it was just like extra for me and you know when when everybody went home you know for for spring break and stuff O'Neal was there.
• 42:13
  Neil Smith: You know it was never a dull moment for me.
• 42:16
  Neil Smith: I've always when everybody was going home to sleep I had to go to study hall I had to take one-on-one study hall with people so it was nothing that somebody gave me you know I still was there and and and did the work the body of work for it so you know it it what can you say you know I I was like I said it it's it was something that came in my life that I didn't know about as a young age and then I caught it yeah because some people couldn't hide it and you know it was still when I struggle today I think the law for my sister you know if I don't know something I can call her you know she's there.
• 42:50
  Neil Smith: When I used to call on my mother my sister's like my mom so yeah so I can call on her and she can really you know all get me through so I I I don't I don't I don't shy away from it.
• 43:01
  Casi Joy: But I'm human shouldn't yeah yeah that's so cool that you've just been like public with it and been able to help other kids with that same thing because if if that goes unnoticed and unhelped and treated then you know kid just gets left behind.
• 43:14
  Neil Smith: Yes.
• 43:15
  Casi Joy: And you know what if you would have gotten left behind then you would have never been you would have been in the Marines which would have been awesome but like here you are and with this incredible journey.
• 43:24
  Casi Joy: Yes it was so cool because you weren't left behind.
• 43:26
  Casi Joy: I appreciate it thank you thank you so as a Kansas City girl yeah before this one let's take a drink break or get real um I could maybe use one do you need one Neil um I just need some ice thank you not tequila or do tequila let's see what happens just I still have to parent after this so as a Kansas City girl I'm legally required to Address the elephant in the room that happened years ago.
• 44:02
  Casi Joy: After nine seasons with the Chiefs, you signed with the Denver Broncos.
• 44:08
  Casi Joy: How much backlash from like Kansas City?
• 44:12
  Casi Joy: Like, did you feel that in the moment?
• 44:14
  Casi Joy: Because it wasn't really a social media time or anything back then.
• 44:17
  Casi Joy: No, it was not.
• 44:18
  Neil Smith: No.
• 44:18
  Casi Joy: Like, was that heartbreaking for you?
• 44:20
  Casi Joy: Or like how did that all feel?
• 44:23
  Neil Smith: It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
• 44:25
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 44:25
  Neil Smith: Uh deal with.
• 44:26
  Neil Smith: And I, you know, I feel like, you know, when you do a body of work, you know, such as I've done, you know, with my teammates, because I would never ever do anything alone.
• 44:36
  Neil Smith: I've always been a team player, thank you.
• 44:38
  Neil Smith: I've always been a team player.
• 44:40
  Neil Smith: And I just feel like that moment was when I was called in and told me that my service was no longer to be used here.
• 44:50
  Neil Smith: Hurt.
• 44:51
  Neil Smith: And I just like, man, I'll sit there and I was like, are you kidding me?
• 44:54
  Neil Smith: It's like, you know, all these things come through my mind.
• 44:56
  Neil Smith: You know, what did I do?
• 44:57
  Neil Smith: What I was wrong.
• 44:58
  Neil Smith: Can I do it over again?
• 45:00
  Neil Smith: And and it was just, it was the end of it.
• 45:02
  Neil Smith: It was the end of a great journey.
• 45:04
  Neil Smith: It was the end of um, you know, of something that I really love.
• 45:09
  Neil Smith: And um, I, you know, I had a place of business in a restaurant, I had my kids, and you know, I could've I could have walked away at that moment.
• 45:19
  Neil Smith: You know, the moment I got released, I could have said, hey, you know, I was done with it.
• 45:22
  Neil Smith: I don't want to, I don't want it anymore.
• 45:23
  Neil Smith: But nevertheless, I um I stuck with it.
• 45:26
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 45:26
  Neil Smith: Um, you know, I I feel like I had a few more years that was left in me.
• 45:30
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 45:30
  Casi Joy: Well, and you sure did because uh I did.
• 45:33
  Casi Joy: Right after that, you win two Super Bowl rings.
• 45:38
  Neil Smith: Actually, you know, and one of the hardest things that really hurt me more than that is that I felt like I was betrayed, you know, for a little bit, you know, because the fans didn't have no understanding of the business side of it.
• 45:49
  Neil Smith: And that's why I was saying when you put yourself in that in that spot, uh, a lot of hatred towards my family, you know, a lot of threats um uh against my uh businesses, about, you know, uh blowing up the the restaurant, closing it up.
• 46:05
  Neil Smith: Wow a lot of you know, a lot of this this little things and and and and I'll just say like man, it's just a football game.
• 46:11
  Neil Smith: It's a game that I play, that I love, that I love, that I like.
• 46:14
  Neil Smith: Uh I never had I never um had security because I didn't feel like I needed security because I've always wanted to walk my head up.
• 46:22
  Neil Smith: And I never feel like, you know, I had to get security for my you know my family.
• 46:26
  Neil Smith: Those little things, you know, that I've never done that have to do, you know, because I wasn't here and I left.
• 46:33
  Neil Smith: Now, you know, the business didn't tell you where you're gonna take you to.
• 46:37
  Neil Smith: You know, you don't know the journey.
• 46:38
  Neil Smith: And the journey was, you know, I was supposed to be here.
• 46:42
  Neil Smith: I I I've always wanted to know how I was gonna retire and what are the things I wanted to do in my mind that, you know, if I wanted to finish here, this is where I wanted to be at, you know, to walk away, you know, like, hey, take my shoes off and put them in the middle of the in the middle of the uh field, take my my pants off.
• 46:59
  Neil Smith: What of course, you know, I'm gonna have some shards on or something.
• 47:02
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you do you.
• 47:03
  Neil Smith: And just leave the whole uniform in the middle of the field and then, you know, let it sit overnight and then have the equipment manager to bring it to me and then wave to the fans, it's like, hey, you know what, it's been a great journey.
• 47:12
  Neil Smith: Those type of things.
• 47:13
  Neil Smith: You know, it it you just wanted to end right.
• 47:15
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 47:16
  Neil Smith: And and it comes to your mind.
• 47:17
  Neil Smith: But when it doesn't go that way, you know, it's it's the journey don't mean that it stops there.
• 47:22
  Neil Smith: Um, I took another job, you know, that I let I made less money than I ever made.
• 47:28
  Neil Smith: Playing here.
• 47:29
  Neil Smith: You know, uh most of my money that I made was in the SNF package, meaning that I had no control of it.
• 47:36
  Neil Smith: It was all team oriented.
• 47:38
  Neil Smith: And I just happened to land a spot that, you know, was needing the peace that I was given as a rusher and as a defensive end.
• 47:47
  Neil Smith: And, you know, of course I can't went there, didn't know when you go to another team, it's like you gotta start over.
• 47:51
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 47:52
  Neil Smith: Who's gonna like you, who's not gonna like you?
• 47:53
  Neil Smith: All these things come to your mind.
• 47:54
  Neil Smith: Where do I fit in at?
• 47:56
  Neil Smith: You know, can I do some of the same things that I've done?
• 47:58
  Neil Smith: And I tell you, I couldn't went to a better situation in my life because I had a bunch of young versus um veteran guys that really understood, you know, the game and really, you know, open me had open hands to say, hey, you know what, you know, um, we needed you.
• 48:15
  Neil Smith: At least we got one of them off of our back, now we can block the other one.
• 48:18
  Neil Smith: Me and they were talking about Derek.
• 48:20
  Neil Smith: Um so I went there and it just, you know, uh, it was meant to be.
• 48:26
  Neil Smith: It was just meant to be.
• 48:27
  Neil Smith: You know, uh the moment I stepped there, it was all about the business side of it.
• 48:31
  Neil Smith: And one of the main objectives that they wanted to do, and that's all they talked about, winning the Super Bowl.
• 48:37
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 48:37
  Neil Smith: And you know, I just think that we fell short here because we never said that.
• 48:41
  Neil Smith: We never bought Super Bowl in it.
• 48:43
  Neil Smith: You know, we always say, okay, win our division, go to the playoffs and win in the playoffs.
• 48:47
  Casi Joy: But if you speak it aloud, it stopped there.
• 48:50
  Neil Smith: So, you know, when you speak the power of the tongue and you're saying it yourself, that power of the tongue is like a voice.
• 48:55
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 48:55
  Neil Smith: You know, you speak it and and and and then you can receive it.
• 48:59
  Neil Smith: Um when they spoke it, I've never heard it, and it was it saying it sounded good to me, and I started speaking it.
• 49:05
  Neil Smith: I started manifesting it.
• 49:07
  Neil Smith: And it really uh it really helped me.
• 49:10
  Neil Smith: Uh uh, you know, as a as a as a leader, I went there and I could be a leader and a player.
• 49:16
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 49:17
  Neil Smith: And they took care of me, you know, but at my older age, it was aging on me.
• 49:21
  Neil Smith: Um, you know, they extended it for three years.
• 49:24
  Neil Smith: I didn't have to work as hard, and I had a lot of help around me.
• 49:27
  Neil Smith: I just had to do my part.
• 49:28
  Neil Smith: And when I did that, it all unfold, you know.
• 49:31
  Neil Smith: Winning the championship, man, the ones that understand it when you do it.
• 49:36
  Neil Smith: You know, and I and I thought back of the guys that never got that chance.
• 49:39
  Neil Smith: I know it's got to hurt because you put your everybody as a kid.
• 49:43
  Neil Smith: All for that one thing.
• 49:44
  Neil Smith: All for that one thing.
• 49:45
  Neil Smith: We all searching for that team to get there and to win it and win it all because you could never take it away, regardless of where it comes from.
• 49:54
  Neil Smith: You know, yes, over the years the rings get bigger, more diamonds, but it all means the same from the first one to now.
• 50:02
  Casi Joy: Mm-hmm.
• 50:02
  Casi Joy: And did did your mom get to see you win a Super Bowl?
• 50:06
  Neil Smith: Oh, absolutely.
• 50:06
  Neil Smith: My mom had both Super Bowls.
• 50:09
  Neil Smith: Um uh she enjoyed it, you know.
• 50:12
  Neil Smith: Oh, she just was enlightened, you know, that, you know, uh she was always been she was always been there.
• 50:18
  Neil Smith: And you know, um, and as you say, you know, boys become my mama boys.
• 50:23
  Neil Smith: And I was one of those mama boys where, you know, I don't I'm not trying to wait for my kids to ever be, you know, loving their mothers.
• 50:29
  Neil Smith: And my boys love me too, but they love their mom more.
• 50:32
  Neil Smith: The girls are more, you know, they they they're more daddy girls.
• 50:36
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, and that's the way it is sometimes, and you know, that gives the mom a break, you know.
• 50:41
  Neil Smith: When you when your daddies, you know, you have girls that love the daddies, and they it's just like, you know, when they when you look at that person at the for the first time, they look at you in the eyes, they fall in love with you.
• 50:52
  Neil Smith: Mm-hmm.
• 50:52
  Neil Smith: The first thing they ever fall in love with, you look for that all your life.
• 50:55
  Neil Smith: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:56
  Neil Smith: So you look for that same person.
• 50:58
  Neil Smith: So, and uh, and sometimes you fall short, but you gotta still keep get up and and do it again.
• 51:04
  Casi Joy: Yep, absolutely.
• 51:05
  Casi Joy: Um, that's a good segue into I wanted to talk about your family.
• 51:09
  Neil Smith: So you have five girls, five girls, five girls and and uh and and three boys.
• 51:17
  Casi Joy: Three boys and then nine grandchildren, and nine grandkids.
• 51:22
  Casi Joy: That is correct.
• 51:23
  Neil Smith: Nine grandkids, and I just made 60, and I'm blessed, and I had a house full, but uh on last weekend it was full.
• 51:31
  Neil Smith: They always there, so a lot of noise.
• 51:34
  Neil Smith: Yeah, a lot of noise, but um, it's fun, you know, when they get them together and they uh they come over.
• 51:40
  Neil Smith: Um I got you know uh from the youngest one, um, from she's three, and then I got a five-year-old grandson.
• 51:49
  Neil Smith: So it goes up from there in life.
• 51:50
  Neil Smith: You know, I just had my my oldest uh grandson, um Brody, he's um going to the University of Missouri.
• 51:56
  Neil Smith: Oh, cool.
• 51:56
  Neil Smith: This year.
• 51:57
  Neil Smith: So yeah, so he's um first year as a freshman.
• 52:00
  Casi Joy: Oh my gosh.
• 52:01
  Neil Smith: And then I still have a son that plays for the University of Nebraska.
• 52:04
  Casi Joy: Yep, I saw that.
• 52:05
  Neil Smith: Yep, and um, so Keelan is um is is is in college and um And he's playing tight end.
• 52:10
  Neil Smith: No, he's yeah, he's a wide receiver.
• 52:12
  Neil Smith: Yeah, yeah, he's a wide receiver, so he's working his way up.
• 52:15
  Casi Joy: That's so cool.
• 52:16
  Neil Smith: You know, the hardest thing, you know, with him is just trying to keep him patient.
• 52:18
  Neil Smith: The game has changed now.
• 52:20
  Neil Smith: These kids are getting paid.
• 52:21
  Casi Joy: Yeah, how do you how do you feel about like were you like, man, I hope that he goes into this, or were you like like are you I mean, you've got to be so proud.
• 52:32
  Neil Smith: But I'm I I'm proud as a father for Keelan.
• 52:34
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 52:34
  Neil Smith: Because I know Keelan was he was one of the ones that always is what he loved.
• 52:39
  Neil Smith: And he loved to play, he loved to compete.
• 52:42
  Neil Smith: And like I said, sometimes, you know, when you get caught in a holding block, don't mean that you ain't good enough to play.
• 52:47
  Neil Smith: It means that you just gotta develop a little bit more.
• 52:50
  Neil Smith: You know, now it's standing in college for players that can go back to college.
• 52:54
  Neil Smith: Even if you go um, you know, and and you don't make it in the pros, you still have eligibility.
• 52:59
  Neil Smith: You're playing against wrong men, pretty much now.
• 53:02
  Neil Smith: Wow You know, that freshman that played as a freshman out of high school, you're playing as, you know, 17 and 18 years old.
• 53:08
  Neil Smith: They got kids now, they got people that's there five years into the league, and almost six years that've been there in college and still can play.
• 53:15
  Neil Smith: Wow.
• 53:15
  Neil Smith: So it it changed.
• 53:17
  Neil Smith: It's just like, you know, and everything that you see as um, you know, as a player, you gotta understand that you can just got it's a holding period.
• 53:25
  Neil Smith: You know, that don't mean that you're not good enough to stay there.
• 53:28
  Neil Smith: Stick with it.
• 53:29
  Neil Smith: The hard times are some of the good times.
• 53:31
  Neil Smith: When now, when you get your chance, that's your window.
• 53:34
  Neil Smith: Your chance is your window, how you, you know, you you you have a chance to get it, and then once you get it, you don't want nobody behind you to get it.
• 53:41
  Neil Smith: So you gotta stay there.
• 53:42
  Neil Smith: So all of those things plays a part, you know.
• 53:44
  Neil Smith: Uh I never got comfortable in my position.
• 53:47
  Neil Smith: I know I was good at it, but I never let the man behind me try not to get on the field because I know he might be just as good as me.
• 53:54
  Neil Smith: So I was had to stay.
• 53:56
  Neil Smith: I want to play every down, you know, because we all can be replaced.
• 53:59
  Neil Smith: And that's just the nature of this business.
• 54:01
  Neil Smith: And sports comes with injury.
• 54:03
  Casi Joy: Yeah, I was just gonna say get injury.
• 54:05
  Neil Smith: Comes with a little betrayed.
• 54:07
  Neil Smith: Everything can anything can happen.
• 54:09
  Casi Joy: Yeah, absolutely.
• 54:11
  Casi Joy: So let's get in.
• 54:12
  Casi Joy: I was doing my research.
• 54:14
  Casi Joy: Hang on, this chair is still swallowing my body.
• 54:16
  Casi Joy: They're so huge.
• 54:17
  Neil Smith: Oh, I love that big chair.
• 54:18
  Neil Smith: That chair fits you so well.
• 54:20
  Casi Joy: It's just you just sit back and there's a lot of Neil lore out there of little fun facts about you.
• 54:29
  Casi Joy: I discovered that you basically, is it true that you have an NFL rule named after you?
• 54:34
  Neil Smith: Absolutely.
• 54:35
  Casi Joy: The Neil Smith rule.
• 54:37
  Neil Smith: Yeah, it's a that's X theory.
• 54:38
  Neil Smith: Hey, what's the Neil Smith rule?
• 54:40
  Neil Smith: The Neil Smith rule is um it's called the flinch, where you cannot flinch at a player to make him jump before the ball is snapped.
• 54:49
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 54:49
  Neil Smith: And that came about in Arrowhead, and Arrowhead is so loud.
• 54:54
  Neil Smith: And and in Arrowhead, and I was mainly I got off the football by looking at Derek.
• 55:00
  Neil Smith: I used to I had to change my stand from a right-hand stand to a left-hand stand where I could just look over there and I could see Derek.
• 55:06
  Neil Smith: When Derek moved or flinch, or even I think he's going, I'm a step behind him.
• 55:11
  Neil Smith: And he has such a quick get-off that I just will look at him.
• 55:16
  Neil Smith: I never watched the football.
• 55:17
  Neil Smith: So we'll roll sometime.
• 55:18
  Neil Smith: And we, if pass, if you go home one on two, it goes, I'm going.
• 55:23
  Neil Smith: Well, one time I was gonna I was rolling off the ball and I went up to like this, and the ball didn't snap, and the guy jumped, and I came back down and he jumped.
• 55:32
  Neil Smith: I'm like, oh wow.
• 55:34
  Neil Smith: He moved and I didn't even and I didn't even get out of my position.
• 55:37
  Neil Smith: He's that scared.
• 55:39
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 55:39
  Neil Smith: So it just hit me, it just came to me just like that.
• 55:42
  Neil Smith: I said, Well, cool.
• 55:43
  Neil Smith: I'm gonna use this here later on.
• 55:45
  Neil Smith: I'm gonna use this little technique later on.
• 55:47
  Neil Smith: So I kind of like, okay, I was he lined up and it was third and short.
• 55:52
  Neil Smith: And he had on like a few yards, and I just went, I just like I was going.
• 55:56
  Neil Smith: I was getting up like I was going.
• 55:57
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 55:58
  Neil Smith: I never got out of my stand.
• 55:59
  Neil Smith: And he just start, yeah.
• 56:01
  Neil Smith: He's gonna start.
• 56:03
  Neil Smith: And I think I think the I think I got Reggie McElroy, I think he played for the Raiders.
• 56:07
  Neil Smith: He actually came here a couple of times.
• 56:09
  Neil Smith: He played with the Chiefs too.
• 56:10
  Neil Smith: Uh, I think I got him like six times in one game.
• 56:13
  Casi Joy: Oh my god.
• 56:14
  Casi Joy: I just encountered in one game.
• 56:16
  Neil Smith: I used to count it because it was so funny that they know I was gonna do it.
• 56:19
  Neil Smith: And I did it for like, I don't know, I did it for four years or more.
• 56:23
  Neil Smith: And it was a problem.
• 56:26
  Casi Joy: The powers that be were like, and then you know what?
• 56:28
  Casi Joy: You gotta quit.
• 56:30
  Neil Smith: I was told from Mr.
• 56:32
  Neil Smith: B, Pat Bolden, the Denver Broncos owner at the time that I played for.
• 56:36
  Neil Smith: He said, you know what?
• 56:37
  Neil Smith: He said, I was on the committee because I had to get that rule change, put in existing.
• 56:42
  Neil Smith: I said, You put my rule into existing.
• 56:45
  Neil Smith: He said, Yeah, it was me.
• 56:46
  Neil Smith: He said, Because I got tired of moving third and chart and you moving us back because guys didn't know the snap count.
• 56:52
  Neil Smith: I said, Well, it's not my fault that you don't know the snap count.
• 56:55
  Neil Smith: Those guys in the huddle, they say we're gonna one or two, we're gonna three or four, whatever you want to call it, or we're gonna have no snap.
• 57:02
  Neil Smith: I don't know what the snap count is.
• 57:03
  Neil Smith: I ain't got nothing in my so I'm just trying to do my job.
• 57:06
  Neil Smith: And if I can get a little edge, I'm gonna do it.
• 57:08
  Neil Smith: Well, that's my edge.
• 57:10
  Neil Smith: I used it only when I needed to.
• 57:12
  Casi Joy: Wow, I didn't know that you made it four years before they were like, but it was three to four years easily.
• 57:16
  Casi Joy: How were you like proud of yourself when that rule was?
• 57:21
  Neil Smith: It was like a kid that's all okay, go in that corner, we're gonna put you in timeout.
• 57:24
  Neil Smith: You can't do it no more because bad boy, bad boy.
• 57:27
  Neil Smith: I'm like, oh Jesus.
• 57:28
  Neil Smith: I'm like, okay, they took my little weapon away now.
• 57:30
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 57:31
  Neil Smith: So I was told, and I was walked in, I was told, just like this, you cannot do that anymore in a game.
• 57:37
  Neil Smith: If not, it's gonna it's gonna be called against us of like, what?
• 57:40
  Neil Smith: Like, okay, whatever, dude.
• 57:42
  Neil Smith: So it became a Neil Smith rule.
• 57:44
  Casi Joy: Dang, that's so cool.
• 57:45
  Casi Joy: Legendary.
• 57:46
  Casi Joy: And you have um your your famous celebration was kind of is it d do I understand that it's a different story than what a lot of people think that it started as a golf swing?
• 58:02
  Casi Joy: Yes.
• 58:03
  Casi Joy: And ended up as a baseball swing.
• 58:05
  Casi Joy: Yeah, tell the people.
• 58:08
  Neil Smith: It came about, uh it really came about uh I was watching everybody had a sack dance.
• 58:15
  Neil Smith: Yeah you know, they everybody did their own little thing, sack dance or whatever, and I was like, man, I gotta get the people what they want.
• 58:22
  Casi Joy: Yeah, with all your sacks, you gotta have a thing to do.
• 58:24
  Neil Smith: I gotta do something, you know.
• 58:25
  Neil Smith: I I I I gotta just do something where they they they get it, you know.
• 58:29
  Neil Smith: You know, Chris Jones, do this, let me hear you, whatever.
• 58:32
  Neil Smith: But mine's was that I was watching Johnny Carson one night, and you know, Johnny Carson was a little funny cat, he was funny, Nebraska guy.
• 58:40
  Neil Smith: And when he do, when he do a joke hit, the drama would go and he went like and I'm like, oh, I stuck with my scene.
• 58:50
  Neil Smith: I'm like, oh, this is it.
• 58:51
  Neil Smith: I love this.
• 58:52
  Neil Smith: This is the man.
• 58:53
  Neil Smith: It's like I love that.
• 58:54
  Neil Smith: What did he do?
• 58:54
  Neil Smith: And I kind of like we couldn't run the TV back, but I'm like, so I started the very first one.
• 59:00
  Neil Smith: It was like a golf split, it was like a putt.
• 59:02
  Neil Smith: And like, bing! Yeah, it was like a putt.
• 59:04
  Neil Smith: And I kind of brought it up.
• 59:06
  Neil Smith: And I just did it for like three times, and I get to the I get to the meteor, and the meteor said, hey, I see you got a new um, I see you got a new um baseball swing out there.
• 59:18
  Casi Joy: Yeah, is it for George Brett?
• 59:19
  Neil Smith: Yeah, this is for George Brett, yo, you commending George Brett 3000 in.
• 59:22
  Neil Smith: And it just clicked on.
• 59:24
  Neil Smith: I'm like, absolutely, as quick as I can.
• 59:25
  Neil Smith: Like, George Brett, I'm gonna get 3,000 on sacks and I'm gonna I'm gonna break his record.
• 59:30
  Neil Smith: And that's when it became a base a baseball swing.
• 59:33
  Neil Smith: And now I still see kids still do it.
• 59:36
  Casi Joy: So going into this season, how excited are you for this team?
• 59:40
  Casi Joy: Do you have any special thoughts?
• 59:41
  Casi Joy: You know what?
• 59:42
  Neil Smith: I I'm I'm I'm pretty scared going into the season.
• 59:44
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 59:45
  Neil Smith: All because, you know, the way they're doing it now, they're not playing the players, you know, uh, in preseason games.
• 59:53
  Casi Joy: Right.
• 59:54
  Neil Smith: And a lot of people not, you know, and I know it's a lot of money invested, but I think the most sense for me is that you have to get your body acclimating to you know, playing.
• 1:00:06
  Neil Smith: And you know, uh when you go into the season at at the at the early ages when they first come in, you see more injuries.
• 1:00:13
  Neil Smith: You know, you see more injuries happen.
• 1:00:15
  Neil Smith: And, you know, of course, injuries just a part of the game.
• 1:00:17
  Neil Smith: You know, the game is played tempo fast.
• 1:00:19
  Neil Smith: And you know, those guys are big, they're fast, they're strong, and it, you know, uh, and they just have a lot of injuries.
• 1:00:26
  Neil Smith: Um going into the season for the Chiefs, I just think that, you know, I think we're gonna shock a lot of people um going into it.
• 1:00:33
  Neil Smith: Um this first game is gonna be really tough.
• 1:00:35
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 1:00:36
  Neil Smith: Um am I afraid for it?
• 1:00:37
  Neil Smith: Yes, I am.
• 1:00:38
  Neil Smith: Um why?
• 1:00:39
  Neil Smith: Because, you know, Mahomes are coming off his you know, his injury and after such a like quick recovery, as well.
• 1:00:45
  Neil Smith: Quick recovery, and you know, he haven't had no live football.
• 1:00:48
  Neil Smith: Not to say that it's not prepared right, you know.
• 1:00:51
  Neil Smith: Once you get that first initial hit or somebody fall on it or whatever, um, you know, you you kind of get that adrenaline flow.
• 1:00:58
  Neil Smith: And you go from there and see, then you say, okay, I'm good.
• 1:01:01
  Neil Smith: I can do it.
• 1:01:02
  Neil Smith: Yeah, I can take it or whatever.
• 1:01:04
  Neil Smith: I'll get that first initial hit.
• 1:01:05
  Neil Smith: Um it's gonna happen probably.
• 1:01:07
  Neil Smith: Oh, it's gonna happen.
• 1:01:08
  Neil Smith: It's just a boundary.
• 1:01:10
  Neil Smith: And once you see that, then you become into yourself, like, okay, my stuff is good.
• 1:01:13
  Neil Smith: I'm not gonna worry about it.
• 1:01:14
  Neil Smith: I don't think anybody, but the moment you limp, then everybody's gonna say they know your weakness and they go after it.
• 1:01:20
  Neil Smith: It's just like a lame duck, you know.
• 1:01:22
  Neil Smith: It's like I'm just you know, so we got a long season.
• 1:01:25
  Neil Smith: And, you know, I don't waste nothing on nobody.
• 1:01:27
  Neil Smith: Um but I think that we have some young pieces in the back of our secondary that, you know, I think that we we we can do um, you know, some good things, you know, uh with number one pick, you know, at the corner corner position.
• 1:01:40
  Neil Smith: We got, you know, only one vet back then.
• 1:01:44
  Neil Smith: That kind of scares me a little bit in the secondary.
• 1:01:46
  Neil Smith: But I think we're gonna be good up front, you know.
• 1:01:48
  Neil Smith: I just think we're gonna get better.
• 1:01:49
  Neil Smith: So um it's gonna be a pretty exciting season.
• 1:01:53
  Neil Smith: Um this first game's gonna be tough.
• 1:01:55
  Neil Smith: Yeah, you know, uh always tough against division rivers with the Broncos.
• 1:01:58
  Neil Smith: And um, and and we are favored by three.
• 1:02:02
  Neil Smith: So if we're favored by three, we're gonna win 20 to 23 to 2020.
• 1:02:06
  Neil Smith: So I like that.
• 1:02:07
  Neil Smith: Yeah that part of it.
• 1:02:08
  Neil Smith: So if it's by three, I think it's gonna be a close game.
• 1:02:12
  Neil Smith: And you know, the field goal.
• 1:02:13
  Neil Smith: But uh Butner is is is is the real deal.
• 1:02:16
  Neil Smith: I mean, he kicked a almost a 70 yarder in preseasons, so yeah.
• 1:02:19
  Neil Smith: I think um, you know, that that part of it really, that's a weapon.
• 1:02:23
  Neil Smith: That's a weapon.
• 1:02:24
  Neil Smith: If he can keep that up, more power to him.
• 1:02:26
  Casi Joy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:28
  Casi Joy: Are you gonna go to the game?
• 1:02:29
  Casi Joy: Is it is it a home game?
• 1:02:32
  Neil Smith: This one is a home game, uh, Monday night game.
• 1:02:34
  Neil Smith: It's the first one off.
• 1:02:35
  Neil Smith: You almost want to be there for that one.
• 1:02:36
  Neil Smith: You know, it's gonna be some good fireworks.
• 1:02:38
  Neil Smith: That's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be a lot of excitement.
• 1:02:40
  Neil Smith: Um I think that the players are, you know, once you get out of camp and you know you made that roster, you know, some of the new guys want it ready to play and you know, just to get that that that you know, to feel that, you know, that feeling in, you know.
• 1:02:54
  Neil Smith: And people want to know how you feel.
• 1:02:56
  Neil Smith: It's like, oh, they say, do you think you can still do them?
• 1:02:59
  Neil Smith: Like, absolutely not.
• 1:03:01
  Neil Smith: I can't do you nothing no more.
• 1:03:04
  Neil Smith: I got everything I had is been out the tank a long time ago.
• 1:03:06
  Neil Smith: I emptied the tank.
• 1:03:07
  Neil Smith: I can't make a lap.
• 1:03:09
  Casi Joy: So put us back, we're in a different weird time warp here.
• 1:03:12
  Casi Joy: You and Derek are against Mahomes.
• 1:03:15
  Casi Joy: Are one of you sacking him?
• 1:03:17
  Neil Smith: Oh my god, would we?
• 1:03:19
  Neil Smith: I wouldn't want to sack him.
• 1:03:20
  Neil Smith: I wish we had him on our team back in the back.
• 1:03:22
  Neil Smith: But if you had to be against him, like, well, he's a swirly guy, and we pretty.
• 1:03:29
  Neil Smith: I just think that um, you know, you gotta know your opponent.
• 1:03:32
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 1:03:33
  Neil Smith: You know, we got some we have some guys, some scapegoat type of guys, but I don't see nothing like him.
• 1:03:37
  Neil Smith: He rolls and he rolls up higher.
• 1:03:40
  Neil Smith: So um, to me, I think you just got the bill on him.
• 1:03:44
  Neil Smith: You know, you gotta make him go inside because, you know, that's where your help is at.
• 1:03:48
  Neil Smith: He's he's really a scapegoat because he can get outside and he can make it happen.
• 1:03:52
  Neil Smith: I see guys, you know, for us, we always used to, you know, we could set the end, you know, to turn everything back in.
• 1:03:59
  Neil Smith: And that was our job.
• 1:04:00
  Neil Smith: And we was quick to do it so we can get lateral.
• 1:04:03
  Neil Smith: And it's just angles for for me.
• 1:04:05
  Neil Smith: If I was playing against him, it's just angles.
• 1:04:07
  Neil Smith: I see people take the wrong angles to him.
• 1:04:09
  Neil Smith: They don't know how fast he is, but then we need to just start running.
• 1:04:13
  Neil Smith: Yeah.
• 1:04:14
  Neil Smith: You know, so you can't take the angle what you think.
• 1:04:16
  Neil Smith: You gotta know that he's fast.
• 1:04:17
  Neil Smith: So you gotta kind of like, it's all in how you study an opponent.
• 1:04:21
  Neil Smith: And of course I could play against him.
• 1:04:24
  Neil Smith: You know, like of course I could sack him.
• 1:04:26
  Neil Smith: There's no question, you know.
• 1:04:27
  Neil Smith: I would never say that I couldn't.
• 1:04:29
  Neil Smith: I've sacked him many more.
• 1:04:30
  Neil Smith: You know, I don't think none was better than him, but I'm like, I just think that's a good one.
• 1:04:34
  Neil Smith: It doesn't matter still sacking me.
• 1:04:36
  Neil Smith: It's no question.
• 1:04:37
  Neil Smith: I just can get him back in my prime, no doubt.
• 1:04:39
  Casi Joy: Yeah, well, yeah, you had a hundred and four point five career in 80 something with just the Chiefs.
• 1:04:44
  Casi Joy: That's right.
• 1:04:45
  Neil Smith: 87 with the Chiefs.
• 1:04:46
  Neil Smith: I think it was I think it was a third now um overall.
• 1:04:50
  Neil Smith: I think uh Tama Haley probably um surpassed me in the Chiefs uniform.
• 1:04:54
  Neil Smith: Wow, but I got him in a long run.
• 1:04:56
  Casi Joy: Yay, I love that.
• 1:04:58
  Neil Smith: But he might go back and catch me, but I can't go back.
• 1:05:02
  Casi Joy: Hey, stats are stats.
• 1:05:03
  Casi Joy: That's it.
• 1:05:03
  Casi Joy: It's done.
• 1:05:04
  Casi Joy: Well, Neil, thank you so so much for being here.
• 1:05:08
  Casi Joy: This has been like such an enlightening and inspiring conversation.
• 1:05:11
  Casi Joy: I appreciate you, yes.
• 1:05:12
  Neil Smith: I uh I really enjoyed it and um we'll hope to see you again.
• 1:05:16
  Casi Joy: Yeah.
• 1:05:16
  Casi Joy: Um, is there anything you want to promote or anything or check out the Third and Long Foundation?
• 1:05:21
  Neil Smith: Well, if you know Yeah, you can always go to our Third and Long Foundation.
• 1:05:23
  Neil Smith: Go to our website, the third and uh Derek Thomas, Neil Smith, Third and Long Foundation.
• 1:05:28
  Neil Smith: If you want to be a part of it, uh if you want to help us, you know, or you want to send us a donation.
• 1:05:32
  Neil Smith: We always have um events space that's coming up.
• 1:05:36
  Neil Smith: And um, feel free to just want to get in part of it because we always have the open windows for everybody that wants to join us.
• 1:05:42
  Neil Smith: And also, you know, I have to say that I'm with Team Gekes now, Gekes Barbecue.
• 1:05:47
  Neil Smith: So I'm gonna be doing a lot of promotion with the um the Gates Barbecue.
• 1:05:51
  Neil Smith: Um, Mr.
• 1:05:52
  Neil Smith: Ali Gakes is um 90 years old, and I'll tell you what, this man has been in his business for a long time.
• 1:05:57
  Neil Smith: He did a lot of work here in our community with some great barbecue.
• 1:06:01
  Neil Smith: And I'm I'm here to say that I'm joined the the Gates team.
• 1:06:04
  Neil Smith: So I've been doing a lot of promotions and stuff with him.
• 1:06:07
  Neil Smith: I'm super excited about it.
• 1:06:08
  Casi Joy: That's awesome.
• 1:06:09
  Casi Joy: Gates, that's my number one barbecue in Kansas City.
• 1:06:12
  Neil Smith: We have a lot of great ones, though.
• 1:06:13
  Neil Smith: We sure do.
• 1:06:13
  Neil Smith: We have a lot of great ones, but this is the oldest active one that's still been around.
• 1:06:17
  Casi Joy: Yep, we just got a presidential platter last weekend.
• 1:06:19
  Casi Joy: There you go.
• 1:06:20
  Casi Joy: I'm still munching on it in my fridge.
• 1:06:23
  Neil Smith: It never goes away.
• 1:06:24
  Casi Joy: Never does.
• 1:06:24
  Casi Joy: Well, that's so cool.
• 1:06:26
  Casi Joy: Neil Smith, thank you so very much for coming on.
• 1:06:30
  Neil Smith: And take care of that little one.
• 1:06:31
  Casi Joy: I will, yeah.
• 1:06:32
  Casi Joy: She's she's somewhere out there crying, or I don't know, my husband's trying to corral her.
• 1:06:38
  Neil Smith: You should be fine.
• 1:06:39
  Neil Smith: Let him do his work.
• 1:06:40
  Casi Joy: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:41
  Casi Joy: Well, thank you guys so much for joining another episode of the podcast.
• 1:06:45
  Casi Joy: I'm your host, Cassie Joy, and be sure to follow us on all the social media platforms.
• 1:06:49
  Casi Joy: They'll be down right here-ish.
• 1:06:51
  Casi Joy: And if you want to get some Chiefs tickets, be sure to get them at ticketsmarter.com.
• 1:06:57
  Casi Joy: And don't forget to hit subscribe, share this with your friends, leave us a review, um, all the stars, all the things that is super helpful for us just getting the word out there and uh helps us rate higher on all of the streaming platforms.
• 1:07:09
  Casi Joy: So thank you guys so very much.
• 1:07:10
  Casi Joy: This has been Custom Conversations.