Latest / The Fish Tank: Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep / Sammie Smith: Give Yourself Grace

Transcript

Sammie Smith: Give Yourself Grace · The Fish Tank: Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey fish tank family, let's keep it real.
0:02
[SPEAKER_02]: That can hit hard and it doesn't care who you are, but you don't have to face the loan.
0:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen people struggle, and I've seen what a second chance can do.
0:10
[SPEAKER_05]: That's facts, Jews, and when it comes to getting folks out from under it, nobody does it better than Van Horn-Logrew.
0:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Chad and his team don't just talk the talk.
0:19
[SPEAKER_05]: They show up and fight for people when they need it mostly.
0:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I've known Chad Van Horne for over a decade.
0:24
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a good friend and more importantly.
0:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen firsthand the river sauce he and his team delivered for people all over Florida.
0:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Bank reps, debt relief, whatever it takes to help you breathe again.
0:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Over ten thousand people have gotten a fresh start, thanks to Van Horn Log Group.
0:40
[SPEAKER_02]: No judgment, just real solutions.
0:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so get us home you back.
0:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Call Van Horn Log Group at nine, five, four, six, three, seven, zero, zero, zero, or visit Van Horn Log Group.com for free consultation.
0:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you mention the fish tank, they'll even cover the cost of pulling your credit report so you know exactly where you stand.
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right, don't wait.
1:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Take control and get back into game with Van Horn Log Group.
1:08
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, Juice.
1:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I always say I've got a guy for everything.
1:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you do big set.
1:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got a guy for printing, a guy for cigars, a guy for what was it custom pool flamingos?
1:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Don't knock the flamingos.
1:20
[SPEAKER_05]: But when it comes to remodeling your home, my guy is Alvaro Fratis and his crew at Casabella Design Group.
1:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Ah, yes, your favorite contractor, right?
1:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, he is my favorite contractor and he'll be yours as well, which is one call.
1:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Casabella has been remodeling homes in South Florida for over twenty years.
1:39
[SPEAKER_05]: Kitchens, bathrooms, full home renovations, even outdoor spaces that will make you forget that you live on that call.
1:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And they don't just make things look good.
1:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, they handle the mitts, planning, destruction, all the stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out.
1:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Easy on the hair.
1:56
[SPEAKER_05]: But trust me, Albro shows up with a plan, a crew, and he may even bring you the Cafesito, the man is a machine.
2:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're ready to love your home again, or I mean, you just want to make your name as jealous, head to CasabellaDg.com and schedule your free consultation.
2:12
[SPEAKER_05]: That's CasabellaGg.com and tell Alboro the Fish Tank Center.
2:17
[SPEAKER_05]: He might even give you a deal, or at least a hug.
2:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Casabella Design Group, Kyle Partner the Fish Tank.
2:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's do something beautiful together.
2:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It took me many, many years, and I'm talking, I still have to remind myself today not related to that, to always give yourself a grace.
2:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're called to give people grace and show mercy to folks, but as a football player, when you've been trained to compete all your life, tracking field and athletic.
2:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to learn many years later that man, I need to be able to give myself grace.
2:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the fish tank presented by Van Horan Law Group and Casabella Design Group Seth Levitt and the only podcaster to lead the NFL in receptions and ball a perfect game.
3:04
[SPEAKER_05]: He is OJBWWJ.
3:06
[SPEAKER_05]: How's that bowling game?
3:08
[SPEAKER_05]: I haven't asked you that question.
3:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know what, man, the bowling game is it's on average right about now, man.
3:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm somewhere around, you know, one ninety one ninety five.
3:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to be able to two hundred two.
3:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to.
3:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I want to say who's average?
3:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Not my average because I'm way below that.
3:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That's for sure.
3:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and they're going well though.
3:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I only go out there once a month nowadays.
3:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to get more work in that's that's the problem.
3:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well, it's all about the reps in the ten thousand hours for sure.
3:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, listen, speaking of reps, another podcast, another offensive ball.
3:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
3:36
[SPEAKER_05]: We're on an epic run of offensive ball players here as we are so excited.
3:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody cares about defensive players, man.
3:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I care about defense.
3:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man.
3:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We care about no damn defense, man.
3:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, spoken like a wide.
3:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Most defensive guys can play defense too.
3:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Most defensive guys can't play offense too.
3:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't I can't dispute it.
3:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And I have no evidence to support say most not all just most.
4:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, fair enough.
4:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Fair enough.
4:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, this offensive player is not a wide receiver because we were on a crazy run of wide receivers.
4:06
[SPEAKER_05]: But he was a dude who could run.
4:08
[SPEAKER_05]: That is for sure.
4:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Sammy Smith, diving into the fish tank.
4:12
[SPEAKER_05]: We've been texting back and forth and messaging through social media.
4:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Sammy gave us his word that this was going to happen.
4:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And here we are.
4:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome to the fish tank, Sammy.
4:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, thank you, OJ.
4:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Seth.
4:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, you know, the texting back and forth.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: This is somebody I wanted to do for a while.
4:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, to have the opportunity to come on and spend a few moments with you all.
4:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's certainly an honor.
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited about being able to be on here and share some of my journey with you all.
4:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, and it was quite a journey.
4:38
[SPEAKER_05]: It was definitely quite a journey.
4:39
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to discuss all of that.
4:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And so, and actually, that's one of the things we start doing the research and especially someone who's had a story that has so many different chapters in it like yours.
4:50
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like where do you start, but it seems.
4:52
[SPEAKER_05]: to us that it makes the most sense to start this thing where your Miami Dolphins career began.
4:56
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're going to go back to in the nineteen eighty nine and obviously going to talk about you, but I think it's also important that people, especially our younger listeners, understand where the dolphins found themselves at this time as well, right?
5:05
[SPEAKER_05]: So the dolphins had this amazing run in the early eighties.
5:08
[SPEAKER_05]: They went to two trips to the Super Bowl.
5:10
[SPEAKER_05]: They revolutionized offensive football with Dan and Dupe and Clayton, you know, the Marks brothers, all of those things.
5:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But then, you know, at nineteen eighty four, right?
5:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Nobody had thrown ever at throwing forty touchdowns, Danny throws forty eight.
5:22
[SPEAKER_05]: But then they go on this run of eight and eight and seven and six and ten.
5:27
[SPEAKER_05]: They bottom out at six and ten and nineteen eighty eight.
5:30
[SPEAKER_05]: The killer bees are faded away at that point.
5:32
[SPEAKER_05]: And while Danny might still be playing at an all-pro level, the run game juice not existed.
5:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, when I say not existed, they literally in nineteen eighty eight, the year before Sammy Smith is drafted.
5:42
[SPEAKER_05]: They have the lowest, the fewest amount of rushing yards in the entire NFL.
5:46
[SPEAKER_05]: So the dolphins need a savior at running back as April rolls around.
5:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's what's happening here.
5:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's three backs entering into that draft that are considered top ten guys.
5:56
[SPEAKER_05]: You've got the Heisman trophy winner.
5:57
[SPEAKER_05]: And as we all know now, a Hall of Famer and Barry Sanders, you had a guy by the name of Tim Whirley.
6:02
[SPEAKER_05]: out of Georgia.
6:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And then we got this six to two hundred twenty six pound stud, who was also a track star, who had broken Florida State single season rushing record in Sammy Smith.
6:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Sammy tell us about heading into that draft after that career that really incredible career that you had at Florida State.
6:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Like what were your expectations heading into that draft, which juice real quick, in the United States?
6:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Four out of the first five picks go on to the Hall of Fame.
6:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Got Troy Ackman.
6:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep.
6:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Barry Sanders, Derek Thomas, Dion Sanders, who we'll talk about because he and Sammy were very close to their teammates.
6:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, later in that draft Steve Outwater, so the United States, Eddie on draft was an epic one.
6:40
[SPEAKER_05]: But Sammy tells about what your expectations were and what it meant for an apoptic kid who grew up rooting for the Miami Dolphins to get that call at number nine.
6:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my expectations were to go high.
6:51
[SPEAKER_01]: My had a lot of answers from several of the teams that were in the top.
6:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, ten to twelve teams picking.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, when I got the call from Coach Schueler and the staff there, man, I was ecstatic.
7:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I was excited about coming to Miami and being a part of revitalizing the run game there.
7:08
[SPEAKER_01]: My thought that, you know, we got off to a decent start.
7:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And then my second year there, we actually made the playoffs.
7:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was really excited about the prospect of the team working on the running game, drafting T-Sams and Richmond Webb.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Going into my third season there, man, I was excited about having a breakout year in a big year.
7:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, I actually missed most of the preseason.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the first game of the preseason was Tampa and I had a knee injury.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I came back, you know, that first game, not ready, really played professional football.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But I got thrown in the game and things didn't turn out as I would have wanted them to turn out.
7:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But being drafted by my enemy was,
7:51
[SPEAKER_01]: a dream come true for me plan for legendary coach plan with the best quarterback in the league and then you know sharing the stage really with Lewis Oliver who's a dear friend of mine both of us being first round draft picks and we still communicate some work today as I do with a lot of the players that I play with there
8:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we're going to talk about Lou, you know, the fact that the dolphins did have a second first round picked that year.
8:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks to a trade with Chicago, you know, we got Lou at twenty five, you know, when you look at Lou, he's one of my favorite teammates ever.
8:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I got a chance to play with Lou.
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad he was on my team.
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Say, I mean, put it that way.
8:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean, he'll make a man jar of food for them both for those safety's boy.
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: They bring they brought the hat, right?
8:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
8:32
[SPEAKER_02]: But like you said, and therefore what we understand, but you and Lou were friends and had competing against each other, you know, over the years, of course, the Florida State Florida rivalry that, you know, Big Sapp knows a lot about how cool was it for you to show the camp with the co-first round of brother in your draft class.
8:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, honestly, who really was like another brother to you given that history you guys had together.
8:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I love Louis Oliver.
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I love Jarvis, you know, he's going on to grace now, going on the glory, but those were two guys that, again, I competed against in college.
9:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Had a lot of respect for both of them.
9:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, like you said, oh, Jay, I was glad it was on my side.
9:08
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a lot of collisions in college.
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just excited to see that all coming together.
9:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you know, you had Lorenzo Hapton that was there at the time that was a Florida.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, some others that won the team that came from
9:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Florida teams but Lewis and Jarvis were two of my dear friends and man.
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I was excited to actually be on the same team with them and not having to keep competing against them anymore.
9:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's crazy to think about now because that sometimes that's the criticisms.
9:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, they don't get enough players from the state here.
9:44
[SPEAKER_05]: And we've got obviously all this talent here locally.
9:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Juice likes to talk about the talent no higher when I understand the respect that, but you know,
9:51
[SPEAKER_05]: different.
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I've learned I've learned and I realize that Florida has the best football players, you know, me, but we're sitting at that second level with Texas and California and us.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Pennsylvania's got a few guys too, but you know, you can't just discount Ohio like that all the time.
10:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we've got to keep somebody.
10:08
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to keep somebody.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to keep somebody's Florida players in state going out Florida colleges.
10:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's, yeah, absolutely.
10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, the money is all over the country now.
10:19
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just money all over the country now.
10:21
[SPEAKER_02]: They can find them and pay them, yeah.
10:24
[SPEAKER_05]: It is a whole different Paul game.
10:26
[SPEAKER_05]: So you know, I was just talking about the hope that was invested in in you being selected as the night overall pick.
10:33
[SPEAKER_05]: But once you get through that excitement and joy of the draft like what happens next are the expectations made clear to you like I would wonder what is Don Shula say to his prize draft choice under those circumstances or
10:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Or how does a veteran player like a damn marino, a Mark Clayton, a Mark Duper?
10:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I just wonder how they approached this young guy who now enters the offensive meeting room, or even other backs, because there were other backs on the roster who were probably taking some heat for, you know, things not being the running game that that people would have hoped that it would have been.
11:06
[SPEAKER_05]: And then as you're kind of painting the picture of what you walked into, I also can't leave.
11:11
[SPEAKER_05]: There's another name juice.
11:12
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't leave this character out.
11:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Your offensive coordinator, Mr. Gary Stevens, was quite a character as well.
11:17
[SPEAKER_05]: So just talk about the environment that you walked into and how you feel your rookie season went.
11:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Because it certainly had it share of promise.
11:25
[SPEAKER_05]: You had over six hundred fifty yards rushing.
11:27
[SPEAKER_05]: You had six touchdowns.
11:28
[SPEAKER_05]: But then there were some challenges as you had indicated with being banged up a little bit.
11:32
[SPEAKER_05]: There were some ball security things.
11:33
[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm just wondering how you would kind of say, all right, let me look at this rookie year and what that experience was like.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, all the guys accepted me in the meeting room, whether it's the running back or the offensive meeting room with open arms.
11:47
[SPEAKER_01]: They were all helpful to try to strap for the rental captain.
11:50
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they were guys that would help in the meetings.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted you to perform well.
11:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted you to
11:56
[SPEAKER_01]: practice well they wanted to make sure you were prepared when you got in the game to play and then Danny and the rest of the offense was the same you know my love mark played in the duper and so it was with open arms the coaches Tony Nathan was one of my favorites miss coach Tassett you know that with my running band
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They were all supported now, but I came in with my own expectations.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I really wanted to come in and light it up.
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, as a rookie, you got to learn the game and you got to learn a whole new offensive scheme.
12:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to learn your players.
12:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I felt like my rookie year could have been a lot better.
12:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to get the camp as soon as I could.
12:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that was a little holdout stuff going on.
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That was happening when you were negotiating.
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And I kept
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: time to press my agent.
12:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'm ready to get the camp and then I get there and I think maybe I'm there for a week, you know, and we got a game.
12:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't remember if it was a preseason game or if it was regular season, but I remember we played up in Foxboro and my first carrier to I ripped off a couple of nice rods and
12:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I twist my ankle.
13:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I think that comes from just not being there getting the reps, being in the environment of training.
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I go into the first few weeks of the season kind of banged up with a bad ankle.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And so again, I was excited about the opportunity to play.
13:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Opportunity to learn from the guys that were there.
13:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't like the way our record was at the end of that season.
13:22
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, it was excited about coming back the next year and hopefully making the playoffs and being able to
13:28
[SPEAKER_01]: see some kind of uptick in the running game, which you know, I thought that we did overall.
13:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's how I was going to ask Sammy, like, was it ever vocalized like, hey, we are running game has not been what it is and we need you to come in here and bring this to do X, Y, and Z for Dan or the offense, or was it just kind of understood and you had your own standards as you had indicated?
13:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I just, I'm just curious if it was ever really like on the nose brought up to you and vocalized or if it was just something that was understood.
13:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was understood.
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it wouldn't like vocalize at the point like, hey, you're the savior here.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, again, I had the opportunity to come in and learn.
14:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, that's one of the things that I can say with the guys that were there and the coaches is that they're wouldn't like a pressure from them.
14:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I had pressure with them.
14:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I had pressure within myself because you know I wanted to be great and I wanted to help that team become a playoff team again and a team that will compete and you know and be buffalo and and you know I think that second year if I remember correct man we had buffalo come there
14:32
[SPEAKER_01]: on a hot as the muggy day and in Miami and we beat them pretty convincingly that you know I think it might have been thirty to seven or something it was a lot of fans are still crying about hot muggy days and they still cry about it pop side scored so you know that second year I felt like
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Our team was headed in the right direction, you know, so like we were a team on the verge of having having a breakout to become a team that would challenge every year.
14:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And then that third year happens and you know, it goes down here from there.
15:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Sammy, management football.
15:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's one thing.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can certainly relate to the adjustment of leaving a big program where you're a team leader, a key contributor, you know, and to for that dream to come true, you know, being a first round draft choice.
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That's big time next.
15:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that Seth I finally get a chance to talk with Seth because Seth gives me a hard time.
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: See him.
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: You're all the time about being the first round draft pick.
15:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I got somebody that's picked.
15:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Sixteen picks ahead of me and he loves going to guys been drafted at him.
15:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that.
15:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was hard time.
15:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Big time for me.
15:36
[SPEAKER_02]: This is role in the red carpet.
15:40
[SPEAKER_02]: with, you know, and then you're out there with a bunch of grown men and honestly that are out there, you know, trying to basically try to feed their families.
15:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But as soon as the season ends, football became really insignificant when you're facing something that honestly no parent should ever have to experience.
15:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And from what we read, you just returned home from being out of town, discover that you tragically lost your two month old son, the Sid Sammy.
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And as a father two words myself, man, I can't even imagine how devastating that was.
16:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think about your testimony that you share with a lot of young people nowadays, man.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you personally say that this was the moment that you could, you know, point to where things in your life kind of started spiraling?
16:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say it's probably one of them.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely was a traumatic
16:23
[SPEAKER_01]: thing to go through for me and my wife at the time.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, but I do know that O. J. God had his hands and all of that.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I had left.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe this was on a Friday.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm thinking this was on a Friday.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And I drove from Miami down to our Orlando to a pop area.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: and I was out with some friends at night and for some reason I was compelled to tell him hey man I'm leaving and I'm getting ready to drive back down to my aunt and they couldn't understand what man you just drove all the way down here why why are you getting ready to head back I said I just feel like I need to be home
16:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, I ain't really feeling this club seeing.
17:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I get in my car.
17:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I get on the road and I'm headed back down the turn park.
17:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going home.
17:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even call my wife and tell her, hey, I'm coming home.
17:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to get home.
17:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I walked into my place about what's it been about three in the morning or so, two, thirty.
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And the first place I went to was our baby's crib.
17:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I reached in the touch of my son, he was cold.
17:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a weeds that came out, you know, just like a weeds.
17:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was
17:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He was going, you know, and so my wife woke up.
17:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We were hysterical.
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, we called a nine-one one.
17:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And he had passed.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that that was a God kind of watching out for me that I would be there with my wife.
17:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wouldn't wake up the next morning.
17:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And my home and a pop could have to deal with her finding our baby alone.
17:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been out partying all night.
17:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think God kind of looked out for me at that moment.
17:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say that to say, I'm thankful that I was there and that I was able to experience that with her and not have the guilt that I would have felt had I woke up somewhere else.
18:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And just thinking about that incident, it was a tough, tough thing to go through.
18:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And it took a long time for me to kind of wrap my head around why God did that I'd never really knew.
18:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And it would have been two thousand and thirteen
18:22
[SPEAKER_01]: The two thousand and fourteen, I think Orange Bowl, or thirteen Orange Bowl, Florida State Play down there.
18:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was the guest speaker at the FCA Breakfast that they have down there for that bowl game.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And there must have been a thousand people at that event.
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got a chance to kind of share my story.
18:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked to him about that.
18:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to him about my time in Miami.
18:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was done, man, there was a lot of people waiting to come and talk to me.
18:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And I kept seeing this one couple
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: They kept getting to the end of the line.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to be last to talk to me and I had hundreds of people that were there in the stands that they that were apologizing for the same sucks chance that they were there and they didn't know that I had gone through losing a baby and how tough it was down there.
19:08
[SPEAKER_01]: But this one couple came up to me at the end and they asked me what tears in their eyes, they said, Sammy, we just want to know how to do in your wife get through losing your son at two months old, because we just lost the baby to sin.
19:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was at that moment, O JJ, that God gave me the answer.
19:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I had been answering that question to God for many years.
19:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And he gave me the answer to give to them, but it was for me too.
19:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He told me, says, you know, was my son not more important than your son.
19:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave this life willingly so that you could be in a right relationship and have an opportunity to have a right relationship with the Heavenly Father.
19:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I share that with those folks and I told them I said you're gonna have a testimony that'll be able to help people that may have gone go through the same thing you're going through just like I am doing it with you all now.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for asking me that question because I got the answer that I've been looking for all these years is what I told them.
20:04
[SPEAKER_01]: awful.
20:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a fast forward.
20:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I had been an Ole Miss working as their life coach for seven seasons there.
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: In two thousand sixteen I went there and I moved back here to Lake County in two thousand twenty three and I'm visiting a church.
20:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We're deciding whether we want to be a part of that congregation.
20:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And my wife and I started going through this connections class.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: In this gentleman, you know, he told me said he had been one of the acts before a few weeks.
20:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But he didn't know how to approach it.
20:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He thought I was the same.
20:34
[SPEAKER_01]: He missed that play down there.
20:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he came up to me one day before church.
20:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And he expressed to me that he wanted to bring it up.
20:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And he went, sure, how I had I got an over it.
20:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the paramet that showed up that night when we called nine one, one for my son.
20:53
[SPEAKER_01]: My goodness.
20:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so basically with tears and both of our eyes, you know, I told him that
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I thanked him for his service and being there.
21:02
[SPEAKER_01]: He shared that with me that man.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a huge dolphin fan and I was on the scene and I didn't realize until after we had left that that was you.
21:11
[SPEAKER_01]: He says when we left and I'm riding and we're riding away I tell the guy that's with me man that was Sammy Smith that plays for the dolphins.
21:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We just came to his house in this tragic moment.
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So to meet this man,
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: What, some thirty-something, thirty-plus years later at this church service, I think it's pretty home.
21:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Markables the right word, yeah.
21:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Wow.
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Man.
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
21:34
[SPEAKER_01]: at Lake County in Lake County.
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not down here, but in all places.
21:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, recently moved out here.
21:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Him and his wife.
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That's incredible.
21:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That is absolutely incredible.
21:44
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, when we hear stories that as Jews said, you know, football becomes its insignificant, you know, you hear a story like that.
21:50
[SPEAKER_05]: And we just have this with another guest as well.
21:53
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like, okay, now I'm sitting here looking at our questions and going to pivot back to football, which seems so silly.
21:59
[SPEAKER_05]: But the reality is is that's what people don't understand is is
22:03
[SPEAKER_05]: You guys are the superheroes from one o'clock to three o'clock on Sundays.
22:08
[SPEAKER_05]: But then you take your helmet off and you're real people.
22:10
[SPEAKER_05]: So you are doing that dance.
22:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And so like it feels awkward for me to ask the next question.
22:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But that's the dance that you guys did every day was was have to kind of balance this being all in and this elite football world and then go deal with real life.
22:27
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe that's how I kind of process going through these questions.
22:29
[SPEAKER_05]: But thank you for sharing that.
22:32
[SPEAKER_00]: What of going bankrupt was the best thing that happened to you?
22:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's your wages being garnished, car repossessed, house foreclosed, or you're suffocating with that.
22:41
[SPEAKER_00]: A good bankruptcy attorney can give you peace of mind that you need and deserve.
22:45
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Chad Van Horn from Van Hor Law Group, and I've personally seen people thrive after filing for bankruptcy.
22:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The shame of bankruptcy is just a toy to keep you in debt forever.
22:55
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no shame to work with Van Hormor and log group to get rid of your debt for good.
22:58
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're ready to get your life back, call us today.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Say, I'll blast, Ben, you'll.
23:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And that was right after your rookie season.
23:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And so then, and you, you know, you indicated this a little bit earlier.
23:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And your second season, it did look like things were all starting to head in the right direction.
23:13
[SPEAKER_05]: You played in all sixteen games, you rushed for more than eight hundred yards, you had eight touchdowns.
23:18
[SPEAKER_05]: the playoffs roll around juiced and Sammy we juiced and I were just talking about the current dolphins last night and it's like you need your best players to be their best in the biggest moments and so when the playoffs roll around you you ran for almost two hundred yards and two games the average nearly four and a half yards per carry the dolphins
23:35
[SPEAKER_05]: you know, beat the chiefs and you were a big part of that and then you know, weren't able to win that next game, but you know, you certainly brought your A game and we were like, look, this is why Sammy Smith is here.
23:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, this is the compliment to Marino's greatness that we needed.
23:48
[SPEAKER_05]: What started to click in that second year that we were able to see signs of what all of us, including yourself, I think, had expected.
23:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think, um, Keith Sam's enrichment with the big fellas.
24:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
24:02
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that.
24:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He seems in Richmond Webb and then one of my favorite teammates of all Tony Page was incredible.
24:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, just the play action man, the play action that we were able to generate where they kind of started respecting the rise of men.
24:19
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, seeing a Dan be able to make big plays to Clayton and Duper and Farad.
24:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And the crash gents from all those guys.
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we all just started to come together as a team.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I felt like that season, you know, we were on to something that we could build on during the off season.
24:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, man, that off season.
24:40
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I probably worked harder that all season than I had at any point in my career because I was excited about coming back and being able to be the player that I knew I could be and the player that the dolphin fans wanted and my teammates needed.
24:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, just, you know, unfortunately there, I wouldn't be able to make it through just the preseason to get ready.
25:01
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when you get hurt in the first game and it's a knee injury,
25:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're on the show for the next three, you know, three, four weeks trying to get a knee right.
25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And to come back and play and start the season off the way it did.
25:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It was pretty traumatic, man.
25:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't fun for me.
25:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And as I look back and as I've had the time to look back over the years, I really kind of assist that Kansas City game to the game that really turned my career around for a negative that really showed my career.
25:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was going to talk about that big stuff that that can't the city game like you talked about a little bit to anybody started season on IR which always always makes things tough no matter what man and you know, then in October there is that two games stretch talking about Kansas City and then home against Houston we're after
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: as you're talking about right now, your entire world change.
25:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And at least your football world from us turned upside down.
25:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's start with that Kansas City game.
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The Chiefs, they're riding, we talked a little bit early before we got it.
25:59
[SPEAKER_02]: They're riding Christian Akoya for five straight plays.
26:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Just go on the first drive.
26:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you guys march down to the field to answer.
26:06
[SPEAKER_02]: But with first and goal at the two, you're stripped of the football and Kansas City returns at a hundred yards per touchdown.
26:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Next thing you know is fourteen nothing, Kansas City had not much change after that, forty two to seven.
26:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But did I hear this correctly?
26:18
[SPEAKER_02]: By the time you got to the sideline, you don't even remember the play.
26:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I did, I did.
26:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And the funny thing about that game was I got instructions from Coach Tassett and Coach Schuler going into that game, you know, in the locker room.
26:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we're going to use you sparing leave a day.
26:34
[SPEAKER_01]: We know you're not in shape.
26:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You've only had a few days of practice.
26:37
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're out there and you get tired, this looked to the sideline and motion and start coming off and we'll get more heat again.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wasn't even sure that it was the first series of O.J.
26:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was later on in that first round.
26:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it was the first series.
26:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure, but I could remember going in and having like, you know, two or three carries back to back, and they were, you know, eight, nine, ten yard runs.
27:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm tired and I start walking all and signaling them for Mark Higgs to come in and coach Schuels, tell you where he's on state bed.
27:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I do remember that.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember because we talked about it, you know, the game plan change.
27:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It went from, you know, we're gonna just play you spare and leave if you get tired, you know, come on out.
27:22
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I got this guy and he's running the ball pretty good, right?
27:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to make this big joke a play.
27:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's way in the shape.
27:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But I remember, you know, going back in the game, I vividly remember Dan asking me, Sammy, are you all right?
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm in the puddle, lean and puff and tired.
27:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, man, I'm tired.
27:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, we'll get out of here.
27:41
[SPEAKER_01]: and get his in.
27:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, well, Coach, she will have told me to stay in.
27:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I tried to do that.
27:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we run another play.
27:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember what it was.
27:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was a pass to Jackson that picked up, you know, a nice little, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty yards or whatever it was.
27:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But on the go line, I don't remember it.
28:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember, you know, I know I had to know the play that was called because I went to get the ball, didn't secure it well.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was, you know, on the tackle was
28:11
[SPEAKER_01]: from watching the film and listening to Tony Pays that was returned for a touchdown.
28:16
[SPEAKER_01]: But in that moment, I didn't remember.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I just remember walking to the sideline and asking Tony what happened and him telling me that, man, you follow the ball, they picked it up and ran it for a touchdown.
28:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he calls the trainer.
28:30
[SPEAKER_01]: and they come with the, you know, break the smell and song and they do the little song.
28:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he tells me this Tony tells me, you got to talk to Tony, he tells me all this.
28:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm back in the game later on.
28:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still kind of playing and there was a few types where we apparently broke the hurdle.
28:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't know what the play was or what the count was.
28:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And I woke up the Tony as a fool, but hey, what's the play?
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And what's the count?
28:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we would get back to Miami after that game and I had some testing the next day because I had headaches and it was found that I had a concussion.
29:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It sent my medical records.
29:07
[SPEAKER_01]: But then how do I play that next week?
29:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, there was no protocol, right?
29:11
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, there was no, they didn't have the concussion protocol.
29:14
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think not in ninety one.
29:17
[SPEAKER_01]: We did it.
29:17
[SPEAKER_01]: We did it.
29:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that those two games, like I said, man, they just derailed my career, especially the one in Miami.
29:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that game there, just my confidence level was shot.
29:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And it took me many, many years.
29:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm talking, I still have to remind myself today, not related to that, to always give yourself grace.
29:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're called to give people grace and show mercy to folks, but as a football player, when you've been
29:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, trying to compete all your life and tracking fuel and that led it.
29:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to learn many years later that man.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to be able to give myself grace.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to be able to forgive myself for, you know, mistakes that I made or wrong things and I would go through stuff, you know, with the prison situation.
30:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I had to find out how to give myself grace because if I can't give myself grace and how am I going to extend it to someone else.
30:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, how am I going to allow God to use anything that's happening in my life for the betterment of other people if I can't give myself grace?
30:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you know, Ali, and when you think about that that next game without knowing the what happens before that, you know, I've got as a bunch of rabid fans and we've probably all been them and for whatever teams we cheer for for me, it was, you know, your Miami Dolphins, but, you know, you're sitting there in the stadium all the sudden and by the way, juice, you have Warren Moon vs. Damoreeno in that game and they each through three intersections in the first half.
30:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
30:48
[SPEAKER_05]: But like it was an ugly game but it came down to the wire and then here we are first and go on the on the one again and and that happens and it really was you look back at it now and especially hearing your entire story it was one of the darker moments
31:03
[SPEAKER_05]: in the history of this franchise in terms of the way the fans responded and you are interviewed in the locker room afterwards and and this is the quote that I found in one of these papers here you said there will be a day when the fans cheer me again and when they do it will never occur to them
31:18
[SPEAKER_05]: what they said Sunday and how much it hurt me, my family and my friends.
31:23
[SPEAKER_05]: They don't care.
31:24
[SPEAKER_05]: They only care about wins and losses.
31:26
[SPEAKER_05]: I maybe you said this the following week in a locker room reading that and that's that's pretty profound in that moment and then and that's without you even knowing how long you would carry that game in that moment and those the same he sucks chance and all of those things without really having any idea of what would happen afterwards.
31:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So I just, and I guess you just kind of answered it.
31:48
[SPEAKER_05]: But when was that moment where you started to kind of give yourself grace or what was there?
31:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Was there ever a point where you were able to not just be in the funk, but identify that the funk could be traced back to that moment?
32:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think Seth, that moment changed so much in my life.
32:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
32:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, again, it took away my confidence in myself as a player.
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I had always been a confident player.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I had never had an issue where I was sick that we lose games in high school and in college, of course.
32:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Did I have big games in college and some games that maybe weren't as big as I'd like them to be, of course.
32:26
[SPEAKER_01]: But I had never experienced anything like that.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to play the game with football, man, you gotta have confidence.
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be at an all-time high to go out there and compete in your confidence level and I lost that that day.
32:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And not only that, I think I lost some other things that were important to me, like my character traits, how I had been raised.
32:48
[SPEAKER_01]: The people that had poured in to me, my coaches from college, coach Bout, my high school coach, my mom and my dad.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, all the things that they had poured in to me over the years,
32:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of lost that then.
33:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you fast forward and you look at my time going to Denver, I went there to train, excited about getting ready to play.
33:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I tore my groin muscle there, which sideline me getting ready for that season.
33:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when it was all over and said and done, you know, you've been a part of a community and you've been a part of a team all your life.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're out and football is taking away.
33:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm trying to do positive stuff in my community.
33:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I found a
33:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Founded a company and I was building homes for low-income people that couldn't afford.
33:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I was holding mortgages from trying to help them get homes and then I stepped into something that was really something that turned my life upside down with some friends that were involved in illegal drugs.
33:45
[SPEAKER_01]: legal drug trade and started out with me letting money and basically that was the most of it you know me letting money and getting involved and something that would turn my life upside down but I think when you asked that question what was the the countless what kind of started the healing it's sad to say it was getting arrested and going to prison yeah
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: because at that point, I had an opportunity to slow down, really doing overlook of my life and what had happened transpired in the previous five to six years of how long it was.
34:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had an opportunity to really, um, assess, what do I want to do with my life?
34:25
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, what purpose does God have for me?
34:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And then at that point, once I started to figure that out football was irrelevant, I knew that I had more purpose and, you know, one of the things that
34:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, really kind of hit the nail for me.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It was nineteen ninety.
34:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It was an Edgefield South Carolina at an Edgefield Correctional Facility there.
34:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm walking around the track.
34:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hear Sammy Smith report to the Wardens Office.
34:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, geez, what did they want with me at the Wardens Office, right?
34:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I started hitting there.
34:57
[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing I'm thinking is they've done like a shake down in the rooms and somebody's somebody's playing at some in my space.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting ready to get locked up in the same segregation.
35:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And so as I walked into the building, I hear these voices.
35:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear the word known the speaker phone and he's in his office and I hear two other voices talking and laughing with him.
35:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know these voices.
35:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this coach bowed and then Jim Glett.
35:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
35:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Jim Gladden recruited me to Florida state and and they wanted to know if I would be willing to record a video for that ninety eight football team that was under the you know the free shoes university stuff that was going on.
35:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You know with Peter Wark and him and right I guess the shoe scandal or merchandise scandal there and tell the ass.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So for Locker.
35:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I agreed to do that, but I say that to say that, man, I walked out of that office, filling up lifted.
35:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I was walking in their kind of objective, but I walked out of their filling, man, I could be used.
35:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that guy can still use me to coat the problem.
36:01
[SPEAKER_01]: want me to share in the situation I'm in they want me to share some encouragement to that football team and so I knew right then and there that that God has something for me to do and I wanted to embrace whatever it is that he had for me if that meant sharing my journey sharing the ups and downs and I was going to do it the best that I could
36:20
[SPEAKER_01]: man.
36:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's good.
36:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Every every you know we're talking about how powerful it is.
36:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm gonna tell you what man.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a huge fan of Bobby Biden.
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I know he and Joe Paterno were really good friends and I think they both had the same thing.
36:32
[SPEAKER_02]: They loved their kids, you know, and they it was beyond football.
36:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Sam, you had you had run the rock for them and how long at that point?
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
36:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And they still prepared.
36:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I always lean on Coach Bowden for yeah.
36:46
[SPEAKER_01]: advice me even when I in two thousand and sixteen when I was contemplating leave in this area because I was working for the fellowship of Christian athletes here and I had a facility that I was using to train kids you know for speed and agility and weight lifting and
37:01
[SPEAKER_01]: There was another source of ministry for me to be able to do ministry to that facility.
37:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had the opportunity to go out to Ole Miss to serve as their character coach and their chaplain for the football team and the coach's ministry.
37:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really didn't want to leave.
37:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I was happy doing what I was doing.
37:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I reached out to Coach Bowen and just kind of, you know, wanted his advice.
37:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And he told me, say, Sam, if God's open the door for you, pray about it.
37:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it's open for you, walk through it.
37:27
[SPEAKER_01]: If he's calling you there and he said something to me that sticks with me today.
37:31
[SPEAKER_01]: He said that God's not concerned with your ability to do that job.
37:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He's concerned with your available availability.
37:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're making yourself available and you allow him to use you, you can be impactful for those players and the coaches that Ole Miss.
37:46
[SPEAKER_01]: While I went there one to the first season, I was there a coach who frees recruited me.
37:50
[SPEAKER_01]: to come there and then he's gone.
37:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You all know the little scandal thing that happened with him.
37:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm there with him one year.
37:57
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought me there and now he's gone.
37:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that was for the reason I was there for the help that team navigate through losing control.
38:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
38:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in transition, I never forget Matt Luke took over for Coach Freeze and we had that staff meeting the next morning.
38:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And he looks at me and says, send me, you got anything for us.
38:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just lost our leader.
38:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We just lost our head coach the day before and Luke has to step in and take his role.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, you got anything for us.
38:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, yeah, I do.
38:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, it's not just for you all.
38:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It's for all of me too.
38:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, make sure you practice in what you preach.
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I say, it was coach free.
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He's yesterday.
38:38
[SPEAKER_01]: But man, if we're not living to the standard, like we say we are and the things that we value and it's not coming out in our private life, then that could be one of us.
38:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That could be you, Coach Luke.
38:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The next time that could be me, you know, and so that was my message to them at that moment was man, just make sure that how you betray yourself and who you are that, that you are actually practicing to be that person that you say you are.
39:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Makes all the sense in the world.
39:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And Sammy, you know, it's really cool to hear that moment where you kind of rediscovered purpose when they, you know, when they visited you to get that message.
39:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm sure you have shared your story.
39:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, you told us hundreds of individuals at a ball game.
39:24
[SPEAKER_05]: How many hundreds of players, but then you decided to document it and you wrote a book.
39:30
[SPEAKER_05]: My name is not one eight one two one zero one eight a transformative story of hope discovered in the shadows of life's lowest moments.
39:37
[SPEAKER_05]: It's literally what we just detailed here.
39:40
[SPEAKER_05]: What inspired you
39:42
[SPEAKER_05]: to document it to not just show up and be a guest speaker or to walk into a room, a locker room, what inspired you to document it so that you have this now written testimony.
39:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe I'm answering the question here with the question, but this written testimony that that now can be shared beyond your availability.
40:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that book actually there's so much more that
40:08
[SPEAKER_01]: is not in that book that I could have put.
40:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I started writing probably about seventeen years ago.
40:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I had about five chapters, and then I hit a little roadblock.
40:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew at that time, it's just one time for me to do it.
40:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I got to Ole Miss and started serving that team, some other things started happening in my life, some, you know, just seeing God moving a lot of different ways.
40:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Seeing, having the opportunity to work with Coach Freeze for that year, having AJ Brown and DK Mackhapp and these kids coming and being a part of the FCA and the things that we were doing there.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I just felt like there was some story that I wanted to get out and that I wanted to share in the book really is basically an encouraging book.
40:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Each chapter I'm talking about something that happened in my life.
40:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And at the end of it, I'm posing questions to the reader to challenge them to think about how they handle these certain situations.
41:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just excited about
41:07
[SPEAKER_01]: putting pen to paper and being able to share some stories that hopefully would be impactful.
41:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I have the one in there about my son, you know, losing my son.
41:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I have one in there about beyond.
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's chapters and title humility.
41:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The average fan.
41:25
[SPEAKER_05]: That's funny.
41:25
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fan wouldn't attribute humility to the deal.
41:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked about I talked about something back in college and I had tried to get the on to come out for track and feel from the time I was there because I knew he could fly.
41:38
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't have a track back ground, but I did.
41:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I ran track all through college and for my first couple of years there I was a conference champion in the hundred and two hundred meters and then you know I got the on the come out our last year and the on that never you know done handoffs been a part of real easy
41:55
[SPEAKER_01]: had done that and the coaches went to the yard and he didn't know I knew this.
41:59
[SPEAKER_01]: The coaches went to the yard and asked you told him that we're going to put you at the anchor league and we'll put Sammy at third league.
42:07
[SPEAKER_01]: That way you only have to receive the handle.
42:10
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to give it.
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You just got to learn one thing and the yard tells them no.
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to just have to learn how to receive an end-hand because that Sammy's bro.
42:18
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been the anchor
42:19
[SPEAKER_01]: of this relay ever since he's been here and he's gonna stay in that row.
42:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you know track and feel, I mean in a four by one relay that's the show boat.
42:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the highlight.
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the one that gets the cross to take first.
42:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, for D on to show, in my opinion, great humility and say, no, I'm gonna work to get to where I need to be to make
42:44
[SPEAKER_01]: this relay team successful and I'm gonna do it at the third leg not the anchor I thought showed a great deal of humility and so just a lot of little stories in the book like that and I'm actually gonna working on another one I don't know when I'm gonna have it out but there are so many people that would send me messages man I want it more I want to know more I want you know and there is so much more that I could have talked about in that book
43:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Tap your day.
43:09
[SPEAKER_02]: The next chapter is going to be written at some point in Sammy.
43:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We're looking forward to it too, bro.
43:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So Sammy, we wrap up every episode with two fun segments.
43:19
[SPEAKER_02]: The first one of which is we call fish tank numerology.
43:24
[SPEAKER_02]: So at both Florida Stadium with the Miami Dolphins, you wore Jersey number of thirty three.
43:28
[SPEAKER_02]: What was the story behind that number?
43:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually, my favorite number was thirty-four.
43:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I wore thirty-four in high school.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a huge HRSA Walker fan.
43:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted number thirty-four and then when I got to Florida State, Ron Sellers, number there is retired.
43:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Number thirty-four is retired.
43:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a push, and I think that Ryan Sellers would have let me wear that jersey, because I was like the highest recruited running back coming out of the country today.
43:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I was going to say, just they don't just hold numbers out of retirement for rent, unless you smash those basal, yeah, for sure.
44:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that there had been some conversations and I could have probably gotten that number, but that was his.
44:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his legacy.
44:11
[SPEAKER_01]: That number was retired and run sellers, you know, as part of his legend at Florida State and the next closest one that I wanted to make legendary was thirty three and Tony Dorset was one of my favorites to write.
44:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You damn right.
44:29
[SPEAKER_01]: That's cool.
44:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, so when I came to Miami, the number was available and I was able to get it worked.
44:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, well, not overall pick.
44:37
[SPEAKER_05]: They're going to make sure that number is, unless it's all the rafters too, it's going to be available.
44:42
[SPEAKER_05]: I love that stuff.
44:43
[SPEAKER_05]: So the second segment that juice was looting to is actually how we end every podcast.
44:48
[SPEAKER_05]: It is our fish tank two minute drill.
44:51
[SPEAKER_05]: So in your mind, we think about we've got two minutes left on the clock.
44:54
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to throw a few questions that maybe will be fast-paced.
44:57
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll see if you want to melt the clock.
44:59
[SPEAKER_05]: You can use a few timeouts.
45:00
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll leave that up to you.
45:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And then we're going to bring this thing home and let you get back into doing what Sammy Smith does on the daily basis.
45:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Cool.
45:06
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
45:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Here we go.
45:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Two minutes on the clock, Big Seth.
45:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, sir.
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Santa, we established that UND on Sanders were both top ten picks in the eighty nine draft and most people have now figured out that you won't for teammates at Florida State and I know I know that you top prime how to maximize the speed, but my question to you is who's faster?
45:28
[SPEAKER_02]: But the arm was fast.
45:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I get the notoriety of teaching the un how to maximize speed.
45:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where that come from.
45:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I made a statement that got blown up.
45:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure.
45:41
[SPEAKER_01]: The gun could flat out run.
45:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He was inflexible.
45:44
[SPEAKER_01]: He couldn't stretch.
45:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
45:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't want to come out of the block when he first got there.
45:49
[SPEAKER_01]: We worked on that.
45:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But man, once he learned how to get out of those blocks, I couldn't catch him in those hundred meters.
45:55
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
45:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that makes sense too.
45:57
[SPEAKER_05]: You see him in the everyone talking.
45:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Everything's like high step straight leg.
46:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, everything.
46:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
46:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Game speed versus that.
46:03
[SPEAKER_01]: The uncame out and then had any track experience and probably four or five track meets in.
46:09
[SPEAKER_01]: He runs sub ten three and the hundred meters.
46:11
[SPEAKER_01]: That's insane.
46:12
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and so he was just a phenomenal athlete.
46:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted him on that really with us.
46:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I bet you did.
46:18
[SPEAKER_05]: I bet you did.
46:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, we'll keep moving here two minute drill.
46:21
[SPEAKER_05]: You are the second a pop kaha grad to be drafted by the Miami Dolphins.
46:25
[SPEAKER_05]: You were the force a pop kaha grad to actually play for the dolphins at some point in your career.
46:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Can you name any of the other three individuals from a pop kaha from a pop kaha that also were Miami Dolphins.
46:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, geez.
46:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I think A were Jones played down there.
46:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he did.
46:43
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one year, ninety seven.
46:44
[SPEAKER_01]: A were was drafted the year before me.
46:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We were teammates.
46:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
46:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if I don't think sad that Sam didn't leave for Miami.
46:53
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
46:53
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
46:54
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
46:55
[SPEAKER_05]: No.
46:55
[SPEAKER_05]: No.
46:56
[SPEAKER_05]: So, but a guy who played with Sam was a receiver by the name of James McKnight.
47:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Jay.
47:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, Jay Mac.
47:02
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a loom.
47:02
[SPEAKER_05]: The James did.
47:03
[SPEAKER_05]: The Jay Mac was won and then there was another one.
47:06
[SPEAKER_05]: There was another one.
47:07
[SPEAKER_05]: So those two guys came in as free agents, but there was another guy who was drafted.
47:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And I saw a picture of you and him.
47:13
[SPEAKER_05]: He was a full man from Auburn.
47:16
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, it was Chandler Cox.
47:18
[SPEAKER_05]: It was a phone call.
47:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
47:19
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I was thinking.
47:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Chandler Cox.
47:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
47:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
47:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
47:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
47:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
47:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a chance to spend some time with Chandler, you know, doing Ole Miss Auburn games.
47:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
47:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And together.
47:32
[SPEAKER_05]: I saw this great picture.
47:33
[SPEAKER_05]: That's what kind of gave me the idea.
47:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I wouldn't have met and silly me.
47:37
[SPEAKER_05]: He were teammates.
47:37
[SPEAKER_05]: I would Aaron Jones would have been.
47:39
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought the hardest one because he played the least amount of time for the dolphins.
47:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Good stuff.
47:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Clock has run in juice.
47:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
47:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Are we established?
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: You play for Bobby Bowden, Don Shula and Dan Rees.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: If you had the pick, one of these three legendary coaches.
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: one to be a stand up comedian fun to you know to have your back in the bar bra and one to go fishing with who gets what job a coach bound would be the comedian I take coach you in the bar bra I believe it and I take Dan they go fishing go fishing all right
48:11
[SPEAKER_04]: So good, so good.
48:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, final question here.
48:15
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to cross the darn goal line on this one, Sammy.
48:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I believe it.
48:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Prior to the nineteen eighty eight season, FSU released the seminal rep.
48:24
[SPEAKER_05]: There was some controversy surrounding it just because the University of Miami had won their championship.
48:29
[SPEAKER_05]: They did not like it.
48:30
[SPEAKER_05]: That first game.
48:31
[SPEAKER_05]: You guys want to let anyone in that first game was one.
48:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure you want to forget.
48:35
[SPEAKER_05]: But I want to know, is nearly forty years later.
48:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you remember your verse from the seminal rap?
48:42
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Sam.
48:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to run.
48:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Just give me the ball and I'll get the job done.
48:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Because of six foot two way, two, twenty four.
48:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Just give me the ball.
48:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, me school.
48:51
[SPEAKER_01]: One or nine, four hundred.
48:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Turn on the dime.
48:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Get in my way.
48:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It's power time.
48:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm not here to brag about this and that.
48:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to do the seminar.
49:03
[SPEAKER_04]: That is a touchdown baby.
49:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's forget that wrap man.
49:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's forget that wrap
49:09
[SPEAKER_04]: You ever forgot that Sammy, so I certainly can't either.
49:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Man, oh man, that was great.
49:14
[SPEAKER_04]: This was fun.
49:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It was too fun.
49:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Too good.
49:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey Sammy, thanks for diving in, man.
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you guys, man.
49:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate you, like I said, I get a chance to catch you all from time to time.
49:24
[SPEAKER_01]: We pop up on my time line and my social media.
49:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love what you all are doing.
49:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep doing it.
49:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Stay blessed.
49:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure they're up and number one.
49:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, y'all.
49:35
[SPEAKER_03]: This ain't all, then there's what's wrong.
49:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been at pitch tight.
49:46
[SPEAKER_03]: It's on the legend that we talking with you.
49:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been there for a long time.