Terry Crews Part 1

Terry Crews comes to Club Shay Shay for a conversation with Shannon Sharpe covering the highs, lows and unexpected turns of his remarkable journey. From the heartbreak of getting cut from the NFL to working as a security guard for Ice Cube on the set of Next Friday, Terry's anecdotes are both hilarious, heartwarming and insightful. The experience of being an extra in Training Day with Denzel Washington adds another layer to his multifaceted career. The resilience that has defined Terry's career shines through as he recounts working on Friday After Next with a homeless Katt Williams.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You hurt me too, Tea when you tried to boycott
Magic City.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh, I would you know everybody nerves at closing that
all my life?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Grinding all my life sacrifice hustle bag Price, Want a slice?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Got the bron of Geist.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Swap all my life, Poppy grinding all my life, all
my life and grinning all my life sacrifice hustle bag Price,
Want a slice? Doctor Brone Geist Swap all my life,
Poppy grinding all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello, Welcome to another edition of Club Shasha. I am
your hole Shannon Sharp. I'm also the reropriud of Club
Shashe and the guy that's stopping buy for conversation and
the drink Today. Is one of the most recognized stars
on the planet. He's a world famous actor, multi talented
TV host, sitcom star, comedian, talented artist, best selling author,
children books, illustrator, advertising pitch pitch man, human rights activist,

(00:58):
a Hollywood A lister, one of the in celebrities on
the planet, three times People's Sexiest Man of the Year.
His acting career spanned four decades. A ward been starting
the Hollywood Walker fame carrying husband I think your grandfather
to proud father, greater Flint, African American Sports Hall of
fam in Ductee, NFL alum, good friend of mine, Terry Crews.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
It's been good, man, It's been a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's been a very long time.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Because I remember I used to bump into you all
the time, especially at events at the Super Bowl, but
I hadn't seen you in a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
And you say, you know a lot of things. You know,
you had the COVID and you know the family, you know, got.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Grandkids now, so it's just not as it's just not
as not as portable as it used to be.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, yes, but how you being? Man?

Speaker 4 (01:41):
I've been great, man, been really really good. I'm just thankful, bro,
just thankful to still be here. Right, that's the big thing.
Let's let's let's get back to you. Know you did
play at the National Football League. But I'm gonna go
back to you to your your high school and growing up.
You grew up in Flint when you were small, did
you want to with football on the list? Did you

(02:01):
want to be a professional football player? What did you
want to be growing up in Flint? Coming up in Flint,
I always knew I wanted to be an entertainer because
I came from the art thing. I was an artist,
pay team, okay, sketching. My first scholarship wasn't in football.
I had a scholarship the Western Michigan University as an artist,

(02:23):
and then I walked on to the football team. Uh listen,
well this this is the thing about football. And what
was kind of crazy with me is that football was
a way out of Flint, Michigan. I followed all the
greats there were there, Andre Rising that was called Banks. Uh,
there were the people even just any kind of athletic mean,

(02:46):
Glenn Rice went to Flint. I used to watch Glenn
play with Northwestern before he went on to Michigan and
went on to the Lakers and became a superstar. So
I knew athletics was going to be my way out
because no one was gonna pay me the paint, you
know what I mean. I was airbrushing T shirts and
doing all this stuff. You get five hundred dollars maybe

(03:06):
you know what I'm saying. But with with sports, I knew,
I said, this is gonna be my way out. I
had friends that were ready for the world. It was
either music of sports. I couldn't sing, couldn't do anything,
and I said, well, this is gonna be my thing.
But the big big thing about it is that for me,
football was always a means, but it was never the end, right,

(03:30):
which is wild because it took me years to figure.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Out I never really liked football. Wow, you just happen
to be good at You were good enough at it
to get a you know, to walk on. Did you
earn a scholarship? I earned a scholarship.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
I walked on, earned a scholarship, got drafted in the
eleventh round to the Los Angeles Rams in nineteen ninety one,
then got cut later on, and then went to the Packers,
the Chargers, the Redskins, Eagles, hopped all around because it again, it.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Was my way to It was the only way I
saw to make some money, right.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
But the big big deal was is that And this
is another thing. Man, we played at the same time.
You were you you became superstar pro bowler. The whole thing.
I always thought, well, you know, maybe it wasn't for me.
But the real thing was I realized is that because
of this deep down belief that I really I didn't

(04:27):
really like football that much, I wasn't really.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I wasn't studying it.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
You see, what I mean, like there was a thing
where you had to go to a whole other level
to be at your level. Yes, and it was other
things I wanted to do. There was just so many
other interests. Like I'd be in practice and my mind
be going off on what I was going to be
doing afterwards, what I was going to do before, and
I I don't have to say this because it's funny.

(04:52):
My wife, she she was my wife, was there the
whole time, and we've been married thirty four years. She said,
you know, maybe maybe wasn't that good. And I said,
you're probably right, because but the thing is, while you're
doing it, you're thinking, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do.
But I realized when I look back, I didn't study
my plays enough. I didn't do the little little things

(05:16):
because I had I had my interest. My minds were
always in another place.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Had you given football what you've given your entertainment career,
do you think you would have been better at it?

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Absolutely? Absolutely? But this it was too little, too late, right,
you know, once you start tooling around. Also, how I
came in. I came in in the eleventh rounds, So
it was, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
People looking now, they're like eleven rounds.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
No, that's way back, you know, which is basically a
glorified free agent. But I had some people who believed
in me.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
I was a hustler.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
And that's another thing too. I couldn't catch, I couldn't throw.
My ability was the ability to take tremendous amounts of pain.
I was a special teamer. I was that guy bustle
up the webs. They ain't even have a wedge anymore, okay,
but I was a guy that they was like, he's
giving it up every time, and that would make me

(06:12):
stick on a team. But then when it came down
to play and doing the things.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Being a lineback and hold specific specific physition, and this
is the thing.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
It took years for me to realize that and to
come to grips with that, because you always like, I know,
I was good enough because of your own pride, right,
But then when you look back and you're like, man,
there were people that was just matter. They're just they
were willing to do more. But then once I got
an entertainment, I realized that's the gift, what it was
meant to be.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's the secret.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
How supportive of was your family when you're growing up.
Did they know you wanted to be in the entertainment
because Flint is a very blue collar, hardworking. Normally, you
go to the factories and that's what you do. You
graduate high school, you go to the factories, or you
go to the military and that's it. So how supportive
was your mom and dad, your family members with you? Like, man,
I'm gonna be an entertainer. I'm gona be in Hollywood.
I'm gonna do this.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Did they look at you like, man, you got your mind? Yes?

Speaker 4 (07:04):
First of all, you gotta understand. I feel like I
got to go to the biblical story of Joseph, you
know when he told his brothers, yeah, you look, hey,
one day, y'all all gonna buy down to me. And
they was like, oh really, and they sold it. I
used to tell people what my dreams were all the time.
I was like, I want to be on TV, I
want to do movies, I want to make movies, I
want to draw, I want to do this. And they

(07:25):
were looking at me like I was from another planet.
They're like, hey, man, you and Flint, what are you
talking about? You are so far removed from all that stuff.
And it kind of got me in trouble a lot.
My mother got me in trouble, you know, back then
and now. But I also realized it was one of
the things where you know, I had big, big dreams,

(07:51):
and what was a big, big thing for me is
my dad. You know, my father was an alcoholic, but
also he was one of those guys that came up
from Georgia's a little small town Edison, Georgia, worked his
way up, got a factory, and created a life for us.
But at the same time, he was a little jealous.

(08:12):
I mean he looked at y'all didn't work as hard
as I did. Y'all didn't do the things that I
did to get where I'm from. Y'all, I really experienced life.
It was one of the things. And so he was
always kind of he never liked sports. My father hated sports.
He was always want me to go to army. My
mother was super religious, which at the time, you know,

(08:32):
going to church. I wasn't allowed to go to movies.
I wasn't allowed to play sports. I wasn't allowed to dance.
I wasn't allowed to listen to secondar music. Everything I
do today I was not allowed to do when I
was a young man, and so I didn't get to
play sports till later, like ninth grade, tenth grade, when
they kind of when I cajoled him, but they kind

(08:53):
of got my mom got out of that religious stuff
a little bit. But it was it was really really
strict man. And and when I would start talking about
that stuff, they were like, we can't even go to
the movies when you're talking about being in entertainment, right.
It was hard, man, It was really I felt like
a black sheep. I felt like a guy that was
always kind of eyes in the clouds. I'm left handed.

(09:13):
Everybody else was right handed.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
I'm drawing.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Everybody's like outside playing and like, hey man, what is
going on?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Do you think because normally the way kids are with parents,
the more kids parents don't want a kid to do something,
the more you drive that kid towards that. And because
they didn't want you to play sports, and they didn't
want you to they couldn't see your vision of being
an artist and being in Hollywood, did that drive the
passion to make you want to get to it even more?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Absolutely? Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (09:42):
You know it's kind of wild because I even I
even have problems, you know, but there's family members and
different things. A lot of guys counted me out even
back then, and now they're like, oh, okay, you did
their thing and whatever. But it's one of the things
where you never forget that, right, you know what I mean,

(10:04):
And you always felt I always felt like I had
something to prove, and that was that was part of
the reason I got into football. But then also once
I got in entertainment, I knew there was no way back.
Like you got what I'm saying. When I moved out
to I retired from the NFL and moved to LA

(10:25):
with my wife, we didn't know anybody. We had to
start from scratch, and I had my little severance package
from the NFL wasn't a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I didn't very very little. He is still very little.
So don't feel bad. It's not like it's it's not
like it's not like it's me right down front of.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
The damn it. I thought, he's get getting paid now, No,
I guess not. But you know, I was a journeyman,
so I had to start from scratch.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Man.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
My first job in LA was sweeping floors, and there
was a point where I thought, you know, and then
everybody had counted me out by then. I mean even
there was family member that was like he had a chance,
he blew it, you know. That was that was the consensus.
And it was like, well, yeah, this see I told
you this NFL thing.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Did you have people to say, you know what, man, brother,
you in the NFL and you gave that up to
come do this?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yep? Yep.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
First of all, they were looking at like why you
keep getting cut? That was the other thing, and it
was like obviously not working out, and it was just
you know, it's one thing where you got a lot
of people, family friends or so called friends waiting for
you to fail.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
And that's a big drive for me. It was like
I love when you count me out. You know, It's
like one of them.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Things where I got to show everyone everyone My wife
one thing. My wife has always always been by my side.
And there was one time when even when she came
to me and she was like, Terry, look, she said,
we hurt me. She said, we ain't got no money,
were starving. We got these two kids. At the time,
she was pregnant with my third and we had five total,

(12:01):
and so she was like, what what are we gonna
do if we're struggling like this, it's not working. And
when are we gonna go back? We're gonna go back,
I said. We are never leaving. I don't care if
it happens when we're ninety nine years old. We are
never leaving, la. I promise you this, I said, if
we just continue to do that, because this is where

(12:21):
I had kind of learned the mistakes I had made
in football, and I didn't have another chance on football,
you know what I'm saying. It was kind of like, man,
if I had just studied a little bit more, if
I had worked a little bit harder, if I'd have
really really done what I should have been doing. Because
that's the thing you tell yourself, you've been doing what
you should be doing.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
But then you eat the cake.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
Yeah, and you hang out and you do that, and
you stay up too late and you don't go to bed.
You do it and you totally mess your stuff up.
You show up late for a job interview and then
be like they didn't want me, they hated me.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
It's like, no, no, no, you show up late, bro.
And I totally had to be.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
Honest with myself. Man, start marking off things that I
wasn't doing. And I said, okay, well I'm going to
have to do. And this is the way I framed everything.
Even when I was here in LA I said, imagine
what if I'm sweeping this floor. Man, you understand I'm
almost in tears while I'm sweeping this floor because I'm
going through my life may never ever get back to

(13:18):
where I because once you're in an NFL, you need
see it. You see the money, you see the stuff.
You're like, man, I'm there, I can touch it. And
then the nice car in the jewelry, you see the
cars pulling out the line, you see the jurney, you
see the people living the life and the press and
now and then all of a sudden, but it's gone,
and it's gone, right, And I said, man, look okay,
I said, imagine if someone was going to give me

(13:41):
a million dollars to sweep this floor, how would you
sweep it? And this is these are the little bitty
mindsets that and I remember, I was like, okay, okay,
I have to imagine I'm going to get a million.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Dollars if I sweep this floor.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Correct, Because that was I had to play these kind
of games with my head in order to get over
the depression. And I remember sweeping and sweeping and sweeping,
and all of a sudden, I forgot about my problems.
I forgot about it. In fact, I was doing something
about my situation, and I decided to do that about
every menial job that I ever had. I was filing
papers and the uh that fell over in the veterans

(14:21):
that Veterans administration, all the papers that fell over in
the North rich earthquake.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I'm filing papers.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
I'm doing this. Then I started doing security for movie sets.
But it wasn't like you know, Bodyguard. It was literally
I'm standing outside on the parking lot watch it with
a flashlight.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Watching.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
But what I said is what if someone gave me
a million dollars to watch this parking lot. I got
to make sure I had my batteries in my flashlight.
I ironed my clothes. It was a mindset that I said,
I'm going to reverse that bad attitude I had in
the league that that didn't get me where I wanted.
I said, now every job I have to treat like that.

(14:58):
And what's so crazy is that I started to do
everything like that, like every little It created a habit
in me that kept me going. And so it didn't
really matter what people said. I felt like I was
getting this imaginary reward if I just did a great job. Literally,

(15:19):
if I just pleased God, That's all I had to do.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
But you mentioned depressed depression, because here you are. You
had spent five sixty leagues years in the NFL and
now you're sweeping a floor in a warehouse or a
factory and you're filing papers.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
So how did that mess with you mentally? To know
that you had a chance and you saw everything.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
All your dreams could have been solved, even though it
wasn't the path that you that you really wanted to
be on, but a lot of your things could have
been solved had you just did that.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Well, it was one of the things where my wife
literally because the depression is real when you quit football.
It's almost like the military. You're trying to figure out
what else? What am I now? How am I going
to continue this now? And I have to say this too,
And so many ballplayers never figured it out, Shannon, And Man,

(16:19):
I'm fifty five. I can count almost thirty people that
are dead from the NFL that I played with. They
ain't even thirty people in my class at high school
that passed away. But in the NFL gone, I mean
people that I put Junior say out just the other day,
Frank Whichek. It blows my mind, man, I mean people

(16:42):
that I play with. I'm sitting there like, wait, Steve
Henderson's gone, Kevin Green is gone. I was Kevin Green's backup.
He's gone. And it says, there's something to this, And
it's usually after they retire and they go through this
mindset of what am I right now? And you may
never find it right. And I thank God that I

(17:03):
have my wife to help me come back to life,
because she was like Terry. She said, you are bigger
than this, you are more than this. You have to
understand that this is. You are past this now again.
There were times when I didn't believe her, but it
was one of the things where I got so depressed.
I got out of shape, and I remember my wife

(17:23):
came up behind me, and this is this was a
life changing moment.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Man.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
She came up behind me and pinched my back fast.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Now. I was always proud of how I look, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (17:32):
And I said, what what you doing?

Speaker 2 (17:34):
You know it's okay, you know it's cute.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
And I said well, hey, ain't nothing back there. She said, oh,
it's back here. I said, what know what? And I
remember saying, okay, if I could change my life if
I just go back to the gym. And this is
the thing, man, I hadn't worked out in a year.
I was depressed, I was tired. I walked in the
gym and I told him I said, uh, I want

(17:57):
to work out here. And I listen, I ain't never
paid to work out, no, And they're like, yo, that's
twenty five dollars a month. I was twenty five dollars
a month. I said, but no, I'm gonna work out
here and they said, yah, it's twenty.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Five dollars a month. I remember going, okay, I.

Speaker 4 (18:09):
Put my money down and I went in the gym,
and I was so depressed. I went in, sat on
a machine, read a magazine, and went home. I said,
but I gotta come back. I said, make sure I
come back twenty days, twenty one days, and I made
a promise to myself just keep coming back and do
That turned into thirty something mile years. Man, I'm right

(18:31):
here like I never stopped that whole time. But that
was It's only what I have to say. Is These
things are what I call incremental. It's not one big
giant thing.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
For me.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
It was always one little message, one little thing. And
you know when I also, when I moved out here,
I was I started trying to get my thing on
animation cause I was like, I'm an artist, so I
can show you my portfolio. And I had my portfolio
in a Disney works at Hanno Barbara all this stuff.
But then at the same time, uh, hand drawing, animation

(19:07):
went out the window because toy story came out. So
all of a sudden, they were giving me my portfolio
back like that don't work. And then I got a
chance to act, and the rest is history. I did
not know that that was my destiny. I had no idea.
I actually was watching Q's car on the set of
Next Friday, and I was watching watching with all these

(19:30):
guys walking around this movie set as a as a
security guard, and Cube would walk by every day and
I watched his cars like, yes, mister Cube, are you
mister Qby Like yeah, yeah, what's up man?

Speaker 2 (19:41):
You know walk by like we just watched the.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Car, and and then all the way to being in
the next movie Friday After Next, which gave me my shot,
which really blew me up, which you know, just being
close being it. A lot of times for me, it
was just being just showing up and being open to
it because here it is. I didn't even know this
was my destiny, right, you know what I mean. I

(20:04):
never told anybody that I wanted to. I was trying
to get like, be a filmmaker and do all this stuff.
But it's unbelievable, man. And when I see that, you know,
I got a star and a Walk of Fame and
this stuff is still still I'm the most grateful man
in this town.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Man.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
When you tell your kids and one day you're gonna
be able to tell your grandkids, I don't know how
old they are or even like bro I was in
the league. I played against Barry, played with Jacket Slader,
played with Kevin Green. I played with some of the
all time great players. When you look back, are you
and all? Because I remember when I first got into
the league and I saw all the players that I
had watched on television, from Jared Rice to Joe Montana
to Lawrence Taylor and all these guys, I'm like, wow,

(20:45):
you know, one day, even if I don't have if
I don't have a long career, I can say, well, man,
I was on the field with this guy, on the
field with that guy. Do you ever look back and
think about the journey that you went on through the NFL.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
All the time, every day. First of all, this is
the thing people are always measure success by, oh man,
this was the first round pick. He's the big height,
he's the guy. And then you know what they measure
success from people who are good to great. But to me,
the true true measure of success it's always been how

(21:18):
long your journey was, meaning it was horrible, too great,
you know what I mean. I listen when I look
at what Flint, Michigan is right now, and I look
at where I came from, and I look at the again,
the friends, the people I came and how they ended
up and and how so many people fell to the side.

(21:38):
I just go, man, and I'm still here. Not only
am I still here, I'm thriving. I have to look
at the whole journeys. I got to look at how
far I came as opposed to oh man, you know, yeah,
I'm good. I'm here now and I want this and
then that. But I realized, man, I am one in
a million. And this is where the gratitude comes from.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
When you you're in the season and because it's tough,
you mentioned the teams that you played for, the Rams
you played for, the package you played for, the Washington
to get cut during the season and you got to
tell your white baby, you know, I got released today
and you know what, So what was she saying to
your team baby?

Speaker 4 (22:15):
We might need to get this up. Can I tell
you the story?

Speaker 2 (22:17):
This is crazy.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Here.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
I am nineteen ninety five, I'm on to Washington Redskins.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
There was a little bit. There was a time when
you know, you know, they had the depth chart sitting
up there and the whole thing, and it was right
before the camp, I mean right after camp, and they said, congratulations,
you made the team. And you know it's Monday of
the week where you're about to get ready for the
first game.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
And I'm going, oh my god, this is it.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
This is it.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
I tell my wife. We celebrate.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
We went through the cutdown days and the whole weekend.
It's Monday. We go to practice our practice all day.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
My wife while I'm.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
In practice, she checking my kids into school because we
had to wait until I found out if I made
the team right, right, and this is actually this was
not ninety five, was ninety six. And here i am
North Turners, the coach, and I'm like, I'm so happy
we made it. I go to practice, I go home.
I'm tired. I come b home and they said, hey, man,

(23:19):
come back up the Redskin Park and bring your playbook.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Wait.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
I had signed my kids in the school. I said wait,
but I went through the whole cutdown right, bruh. I said,
wait a minute, y'all, y'all joking. Somebody playing with me,
Like they said Monday, we I'm preparing for the week, right,
brought my playbook up there. They said, we're gonna let

(23:46):
you go man. On that Tuesday, which is the NFL
day off. They brought another linebacker from another team. And
I was sitting out there the whole time, and I
was gone that level of pain and my wife is
looking He's like, but I thought we made it, big, dude.
I get choked up thinking about it right now. Man, Man,
my kids are like, so I can't go to this school.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
We're gonna work something out, dude.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
I sat the whole year, didn't get picked up, tried
to find ways to make it work. Nothing, dude, You're
talking about the level of life. And then and then
I was stuck in the city where I got cut
from because you can't just hop up and leave.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'm there with my family.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
I like, I'm a move in with my parents, and
so I'm watching my putting. The friends are like, hey, man, yeah,
I'm calling hey guys, what y'all doing? And they're like,
we got a game okay, Yeah. I can't hang with
them the morning. So I'm lonely man, and it's just
me and my wife sitting in the town waiting for
Western next.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Bruh.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
That level of that's something now has never really talked about.
That's so many players because the sad office is you've
been there for a whole year. Remember, you don't get
your money to the game right. So I spent six
months on two hundred dollars a week to work out

(25:12):
and just knowing, just giving you risk everything so you
can make it and so you can at least get
that game check right. And I didn't get that was
that was that?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
That was Washington your last stop.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
It was I actually fill up for Eagles was my
last stop because I went the whole season and got
picked up right before Christmas for the playoffs for the Eagles,
so I got to play with that one last and
we played the forty nine ers and got in a
wild card game and got sent out, and that was
it for me. That was it. I mean, I played

(25:46):
that one game, got me a little money, got that
one game check at the end of the season, right,
and then.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Little playoff money. That was it was that.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
The final straw was that when you knew made it's
over for me. I'm done. The stress on your family,
you is one thing I put you got wife and kids, tea.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
But wait, I put her through it one more time
because I got to try out with the forty nine
ers and I went, I said, but you know, you
chase it right, man. It's like a drug.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
It is. It really is, man.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
It's one of the things where you're like, I'm this
close if I just and man. I went got a
try out with the forty nine ers, and I remember
this coach threw the ball at me and for some
reason he was about me. But to you, man, he went, whuh.
I suck my hand up and my finger was pointing
down with and I was like yo, and I knew

(26:38):
it was dislocated. I popped it back in. It was
swelled up like a sausage. And I fumbled around that tryout. Man,
That's when I knew it was over. Like when I'm
running around there and I'm going, what am I doing?
What am I doing?

Speaker 2 (26:53):
This is it?

Speaker 4 (26:55):
I don't have it no more. I don't know if
I can summon the strength to go through this again,
you know.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
And I was it.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
And then my wife because we gotta this is now.
I gotta go back to all the way back to college.
When I'm dating my wife. I told her we were
sitting out Wendy's parking lot, were sitting in the Wendy's
little places in the front where we sit there, and
I said, look, first of I'm playing the NFL.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Then we're gonna move to Hollywood. We're gonna make movies.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
I made that promise, you see, because I always talk.
That's what got on everybody's nerve. Okay, there was like
he talking again. But I told her, I said that's.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
What we're gonna do. We're gonna play in the NFL.
Then we're gonna move to Hollywood and make movies. She
was like, okay, okay.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
When I came home from that audition, from that from
that tryout. She looked at me and she said, remember
when you said we're gonna move to Hollywood make movies?

Speaker 2 (27:45):
You ready?

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yes, you see that right there?

Speaker 4 (27:51):
When I talked about somebody who's down with you? She said,
remember when you said that, Let's go, man? And I said,
you serious? You serious?

Speaker 2 (28:02):
She said, let's go. Right.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
We was in a little town home that we had
rented from another player, no furniture in it, just see it,
trying to see what's next. We loaded everything in our truck.
I had on werneas of our pithin at the time.
We loaded everything, put our two girls in the back
and drove straight out to California and didn't know anybody
whoof Wow.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I said, Man, I'm telling you that's power. Was it
that she knew you so well, she had been with
you for so long, she saw you come home. Not
to not to make it, baby, I don't think I
made it, And to know it's over. Yep, It's time
to transition into that second part. You know how he said,
I'm gonna go play in the NFL and then we're

(28:46):
gonna go make movies, where the first part is over.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Let's close the door. Let's open this door.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
She was so gentle with it, like, you know, because
again with me, you know, going like I said, but
we lived on a suitcase, been packing and move and
she was like, honey, I don't are you doing everything?

Speaker 1 (29:06):
I'm doing what I'm doing, I'm what I'm talking you know.
Did she ever tell you, Terry? I don't think Terry.
I don't think you're putting your heart into it. I
don't think you're putting it. She was gentle with it.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
She's like, well, should you be shouldn't you be doing?
I noticed you're not. You're not doing this kind of thing.
She would always kind of be real with me, and
I was like, no, I'm doing enough for but but
again I was male arrogance and and the whole thing,
and I'm the man and the family. I know what,
I know what I'm doing. She knew she was watching.
But finally finally she saw how broke I was after

(29:38):
that forty nine or try out.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
She was like, hey, you dreamed you was you was
mentally defeated.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
I was done, dude. Like when I say done, I
think she just saw it in my face, like everything
in it was like you know, and this is the
this is the thing where most players hit, you know,
no matter how high God, when it's time to go,
very few get some kind of parade, you know what
I mean. You get kind of kicked out. You kind
of like all of a sudden, you just disappeared.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
The getting in is easy.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
It's to getting out that's hard. It's hard, man, especially
when you don't leave on your terms. And how many
ever get to do that?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
No, Tom Brady, but Barry Sanders did. That's where everybody
looked at him like what this man just decided on
his own right. But usually it's injury. Usually it's cut.
Usually they want one more shot and they're not getting
it right. Man. That's some pain.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Man.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
So if the NFL asks, you'll say with Terry, I mean,
you played in the league, what is some of the
advice And we got guys and we need you to
talk to some of these rookies that's coming in about
transitioning from the game once it's over. What advice would
you give some some of the younger players, knowing that
there's gonna come a time and I know you think
because you're twenty one and twenty.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Two, you're gonna play fifty years, but you're not.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
What is some of the advice you would give them
about transitioning into a sex a post career.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
The biggest thing is humility. Humility. It's really really hard.
And this is one thing. Sweeping floor has humbled me,
like there's a breaking that you have to go through,
because there was a long time I wouldn't do that right,
And I was like, hey, man, you know, I'm too

(31:21):
proud for this, and what would everybody think if they
see me sweeping the floor?

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Right?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
And my wife was like, they don't know you, nobody
knows you. It wasn't that popular, you know. But in
my head, right, I'm this. Everybody knows me as this,
and man, man, man, let me tell you something, Shannon. Now,
I've been I've been doing Hollywood for twenty and something
my years, and what blew me away is perspective. And

(31:48):
this is why I want to tell any young person
coming up perspective. First of all, I've been to Korea.
Korea don't care nothing about the NFL. They don't know
anything about it. Right, I was looking for scores, couldn't
find them. I went to South Africa looking for the
NFL scores. They're like, what are you talking about? It's
rugby over here. Bro I said, okay, I've been Hong Kong.

(32:12):
I don't care about no NFL. Then I'll go to
Europe and I'm going, okay, well, how about it.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
What do y'all think about it?

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Here? They're like, it's okay, that's interesting. Then I realized,
wait a minute, in my head, it's this gigantic beast
and it is in America, right, But I said, the
rest of the world. When I went to South America,
they don't care. I went to Brazil, they don't care
about the NFL, and I said, dude, you don't understand.

(32:41):
It's a big, big world, and there's so much out
there that's for you, and you have to find it.
You have to find it. And this is what I
would tell every young man, is that there's something bigger
than the league for you, right. You have to find it. Though,
But that's a hard belief when every it's like when

(33:03):
everything and you spent your whole life twenty four seven
being this thing and you have to flip it and
all of a sudden it means nothing anymore. That's where
the humility comes in.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, because I think so many people find the NFL
is who they are, and because it's who they are
and not what they did. Yes, it's hard to separate
because you think, no, you're not. This is why again, man,
this is why I'm so proud of you. I'm proud
of Mike Strayan.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
I'm proud of players that have come out and have
literally realized, wait a minute, I'm bigger than this. Wait, man,
you bigger than the game. That's what I got. I
have to tell this to every NFL player. You are
bigger than the game. The game needs you, not the
other way around. But you have this belief because your
mind gets played with a lot.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Right.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
It's very I mean, the manipulation is real.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
That's one of the things that makes you get an
NFL people. Most of these players been manipulated. It's his college,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
So you trained in.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
That and so when you wake up and realize, wait,
it's a whole nother world out here.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
But a lot of cats don't believe it.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
And this is where I've seen cats commit suicide by overeating,
or suicide by putting a gun on himself, or suicide
by by drinking suicide by whatever.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
I mean that have the hardest times.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Because they think the whole world is thinking of them
as this, and if you just switch it and turn
it around, it's a new future.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I think it was a lot easier than what you
gave yourself credit for because football wasn't what you liked it.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
You didn't love it.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
When you get other people that they love it and
everything that they are, their entire fiber is NFL football
or being an NFL player, and when that doesn't work out,
they don't see the world.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
That's their world and everything that comes along with it.
You're right, I mean that the problem. The biggest advantage
I had was not being a superstar. That was my advantage.
I don't know if I'd be here if I had
been a superstar, right, if I had seen the level
that juniors say I had seen, right, I don't know, man,

(35:17):
I really don't. I could honestly say that that would
have been such a hard fall that I don't know
if I would have been able to survive it.

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Speaker 2 (36:29):
You mentioned that you told your wife like.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
You didn't want to do some of these jobs because
what if somebody sees me and I hear that a lot,
and you hear people like, man, I ain't working on mcdonald'
such so they might see me. I don'ly sweep in there.
It feels like there is beneath them, yep, when sometimes
you know a they need all walks to do something.
Before you got to another level, which you said, Okay,
I gotta sweep this floor, but I'm not going to

(36:54):
sweep this floor forever. It's just a means to an end, right,
get me in the door, and I'm gonna do something else.
So you're on the set of Friday as a security guards, right.
You had mentioned that you had never ever really told
anybody that you want to do acting. You wanted to
be behind the camera, not in front of the camera.
And so when did your big break come? When did

(37:15):
you get an opportunity?

Speaker 2 (37:17):
You know, it was amazing.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
I went I have friends in the business because doing security,
I knew a lot of location managers, right, and the
location managers would hire the security and this location manager
became a friend of mine. He said, hey, man, Denzel's
shooting down here in the jungle. It's a movie called
Training Day. You want to come down and take a look.
I was like, I get to watch this Zell do

(37:39):
his thing. I'm like, yeah, man, I'm coming. I'm walking,
I said, winn Is and he said, man, come on,
they stay shooting all night. So he said, come, you
gotta come late, like ten o'clock, about eleven o'clock they
will start the filming and the whole thing. And so
I'm down there in the jungle, man, and I'm sitting
there going what I'm watching this Denzel, the car, the
whole that called the Sack, the whole deal.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
And I'm going, ooh, this is hot.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
And I'm watching the Zel get ready.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
He got the change on, he got the dow rag.
The whole thing. Is that the King kNs.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
This is the King cone bro. Now let me tell
you this and this is gotta understand how magical this was. Man.
Antoine Fouqua, the director, saw me standing there and again by.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
This time, I remember I went back.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
I went back to the gym, because I had been
going back to the gym about a year or so.
I was kind of still in shape, right. He said, hey, man,
you want to be in the scene. I said, so yeah.
He said, hey man, just take your shut up. You
got see your tank top. I'll put you in the scene.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Bruh.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
I'm like, never acted. You're talking about no actent. I
stand there, I'm looking. I'm like, okay, okay, And I
just got that NFL man like like you know you're
about to come in and you go, you're facing off
against somebody and I and I said, just don't say
nothing and just mad doggie, I said, don't tell me.

(39:05):
And that was it. And so Vinzel's doing all this
out and you see, I'm just standing there the whole
time like this nigga yea and dude, it changed my
life when you say like that went to the Oscar, bro,
Like it was me and Denzel. When they showed that
scene on the Hoscar. My mother was like, you're in
the oscar. He said, well, I did't. I'm not not

(39:27):
at the Oscars, but I'm in this scene. And I
was like, I was hooked, like when I say hook
because all I had to do was just because remember, man,
I'm on the NFL field.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
In my mind is already going on right.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
I was like, this is what I always want to do.
I said, Man, now I'm in my element. Don't mess
this up, right, bruh watching this And then I got
a chance to look at the script and his script
was on the car and he had written the wages
of sin his death on the top of the script.
I was like, he's stunning. That's how he prepared. And

(40:00):
I was like, that's that's that level I have to
get to. That's what And all of a sudden, there
it was the acting thing and what happened was ce
remembered me. He was like, yo, man, you the security
guard because everybody loved training day. When training day came out,
he said, man, we're doing another Friday. I got a
call from the location man today said hey, man, c

(40:23):
people want to see you.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
I went in.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
It was me Cat William sitting next to each other
in a little bitting room and he was like, man,
come on in. We got this because Tiny Listen didn't
want to do My good friend, God bless her soul,
Tiny Listen didn't want to do the third one, and
they said we got a new character, a guy named Damon.
And the whole day I was like and see. You
got to understand too. I had nothing to lose. Like

(40:48):
when I see nothing to lose. I came in there
like Craig and day day, just the niggas I want
to see, you know, I had nothing. I went back
to Flint on them. I was like, this is where
I came to. These cats I knew. And I came
in there man and offa cube. Everybody's like oh, and

(41:08):
then Cat came in and just the audition and they
said you in, you in, and Friday after next I listen.
I saw Ce probably about a month ago, and I
walked up to him. Man, I said, dude, thank you,
thank you. So you have no idea how many careers
you started just by giving us that shot. A lot

(41:30):
of people never ever really get props. What props is,
do you know? Because they're like, well I didn't get
that much money, but dude, that was my start. Listen.
I was just going, man, I was just thankful. I
was walking around and listen. And what was so crazy
is me and Cat. Kat was homeless at the time,
so Kat was living in his trailer and me and

(41:50):
Cat said, hey, man, and I remember talking to Cat.
I said Kat, I said, we never get another opportunity.
We got to make sure they remember us, I said,
because we did two new cats in this whole thing.
They know everybody else, right, I said, but it's me
and you, And remember, man, I was not gonna let
what happened in my football career happened to my entertainment career.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Man, I'm listening that you tell the story Tea, and
the way you're telling the story. Football never gave you
the high that what you got by just doing.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
That sacly, I knew I was in my destiny when
I say this is what I'm saying, I found my destiny.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
I was gone.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
People. When people see that scene and Friday after next,
look you turned the sound down. They ain't a comedy, right.
We was crying, right, we were deep.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
They were so in it. He was crying. I was crying.
People were sitting.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Behind the monitors, like, what are we looking at right now?
Because I was so gone in and I said, this
is where And then it was so wild because I
didn't even want money anymore. I said, I don't want
that feeling again. You know you know what I mean.
It's too because you could talk about athletes and money
and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
But there's a point when I'm.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
Sure, when you just catching them doing everything right, you
want to you want to chase that again. They call
it the zone, they call it. It's just blow whatever
that is. And let me tell you you don't want
to hit that blow again. When I was doing White Chicks,
that movie White Chicks, everything I said, just blow Friday up.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Next White Chicks came off of.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
It came after that because again you're talking about the
whole the black Hollywood is very small, and they saw
it once Friday after next hit. People were like this dude,
And so what was so great is Keenan Ivy Williams
was like, hey man, we gotta get this dude to shot,
you know what I.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Mean, because they're like, man, we want some of that
on us.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
And it kept on. All My business shinning in this
town has been repeat business. I mean, the reason I
was with all these sidling movies, Adam Sandler called me.
But the thing is when I did Longest Yard, which
was my revenge on the NFL, me and Michael Irvin,
the whole movie, I was like, this is the one

(44:11):
everybody gonna remember, Like good God, Like.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Who hits that?

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Right?

Speaker 2 (44:16):
You know what?

Speaker 4 (44:17):
I mean, and I remember Chris Rock was like, hey, man,
he's on the movie Longest y'all. He said, dude, you're
killing I got something for you. I said, what is it.
He said, I don't worrybody, I got something for you.
I go home. The script for Everybody Hates Chris. It's
literally on my doorstep. I open that up. He's like,

(44:37):
I want you to play my dad because he saw
me and my wife and my two kids out there
all in Santa Fe, New Mexico when he was filming
The Longest Yard.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
He was watching.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
And that's the thing another people, you gotta remember, everybody
is watching it. Everybody is watching. And so then I
played Chris's dad, and everybody hate Chris for four years straight.
This man, When I look at my life, man, I
just think, I just thank God for every every opportunity.
And now this is another thing because I now reached

(45:09):
the point because I played with all these guys and
they're gone. Now I'm losing actors. Man Andre Bauer passed
away last week, and he took me under his wing.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Man.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
You talk about one of the best actors of our generation.
I mean, Juliard Trade, absolutely incredible. Emmy Award winning dramatic
beast Brooklyn nine nine, who was able to come and
flip it to a comedy like that. And I was like, man,

(45:48):
what is the secret? And he never this is nothing.
He was. He was with like a super all pro
who could have looked down on all of us but
decided he was just gonna pull us all up with
him sixty one years old. He was like my big brother.
I look at guys that are dying. When I look

(46:09):
at Michael Clark, Duncan's gone, tiny listen gone, last Reddit gone,
and I'm like Dadwick Bozeman gone. We did a movie
draft day together, okay, And I'm going, man, you don't
have forever, you don't.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
You gotta go for it.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
You got to get what you got, what you are
coming to get now, and you can't waste time. You
can't treat it like well, whatever tomorrow. Because I've seen
it in the NFL and everybody thought, and this is
the thing. Everybody has to determine. Certain people that already won,
like I won life.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
You won.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
You know, people say, hey won the Internet.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (46:46):
It ain't never over it. It's never how you start,
it's how you finish. And let me tell you when
I'm done, and I'll be honest with you, man, I'm
just getting started. I truly, truly feel I have the
same energy that I have when I first started. I'm
really thankful to be sitting here with you right now,
but I admire you for it. But just your transition,

(47:10):
you know what I mean, And the energy that you bring.
Your passion is palpable, and I'm the same way.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I'm one hundred percent passion. That's all I am.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
I don't know no other way. I have no other way.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
I'll do everything like I'm getting a million dollars.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
When when you sat down for the for the you
sat down for the audition to read with Cat, did
you know Cat pride of that?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Nope, not at all. And you guys became pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
At We became amazing friends. And what's so crazy? I
used to watch him because I was because we you know,
remember a movie, when you shoot a movie, then you
got to wait a year and a half for it
to come out correct, So you just wait. Like people,
You're like, man, well I got this thing coming. They're like, yeah, right, whatever,
And you know what's so funny? After Friday, the next
I had to go back to a security. I had

(47:54):
to go back because I didn't have nothing else to
turn to. But I knew it was coming, and well
it was so crazy. I was doing commercials and different things,
but I would go watch Kat Williams at the Hollywood
Park Casino. He had his own room and this man
was the funniest man I ever seen, which was crazy.
And then I'll never forget when he starts selling out

(48:16):
the Universal Amphitheater and watching him blow up. This is
another thing too, to watch people all. It's funny because
I see kids that's been on set and now they're
superstars now, you know, like Tyler J's Williams is now superstars.
You know, I've watched people here.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
This is the thing. You never never know what's going
to happen. You know, you look at things and you go,
oh my god, this man was.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
Listen. One great example we were at the BT Awards
and I saw this little kid walking around with a
little hat all and I was like, hey, hey, I
got his mixtape. I said, Kendrick Kendrick. He said, no,
I am, it's Kendrick lamar Bro. I said, man, your mixtape, dude,
section eighty it is amazing. I said, you are the
next I said, Rebecca, it's a kid. This is Kendrick

(49:01):
she was.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
He was like, you know who I am?

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I said, I said, I love you. I said, I
think you are going to be the future.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
And what's so crazy is that he called me a
few years later, ended up doing a video with him
because he said, remember when you told me you knew
who I was. I remember this and told me I
was going to be I was gonna be doing something great.
Look at this man, Look you tell me he's not
the best in the world right now.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
And I'm so proud.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
And the thing is too man, there's another thing I
had to learn, and that the NFL taught me that
I had to unlearned competing. I decided to never compete
with people. This was my problem because what if they
call it the center of comparison. When I'm looking at
what you got and comparing what I got, it's always

(49:53):
going to be a problem.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Yeah, always, because you always gonna come up short.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Yes, somebody always got more and then somebody always got less.
But you always want more, right, And I realized, man,
that creativity was the exact opposite competition. If I'm being creative,
I'm not competing. So I decided, you know what, because
everybody was like, hey man, you gotta you know when

(50:17):
you gotta be like tiny, you gotta be this, you gotta.
But I was like, no, no, no, no, no no,
I'm gonna be me. I'm gonna be me. And I
was like, yeah, but you kind of weird. I said, yeah,
I am. That's what made me you neque I am
all right. Listen. First of all, you can't even it
got to the point where we read scripts now to
that we want a Terry Crews type because they know

(50:38):
that's that's just me, right. And I decided by just
being creative, that was my ticket out of that world
of competition. Because this is the thing, man, The league
is always it's like, hey man, you versus so and so,
First of all, you got to fight the people in

(50:58):
your own locker room first before you even go up
against another team, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
What I mean.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
And then you always being judged like, well you missed
a step and did you miss that?

Speaker 2 (51:08):
But he didn't? Right.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
The coaches would never they will always tell you what
you messed up on, right, And then being black, we
would go into the locker room and if you hurt,
they like, mmm, you act like you don't want to play.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
I'll say, hey, man, first of all, the white.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Kids get it hurt and they're like, oh, yeah, yeah,
he's hurt. Right. I've never ever treated they never ever
treated any black guy I knew in the locker room
like he was really hurt. Wow, Like he was trying
to cut out on the game.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
So, in other words, you said, I gotta unlearned because
you know, it's a it's a jungle mentality, because someone
is literally trying to take food up your table, someone
is trying to take a roof from over your kid
in your family head to make sure they have one.
But once you got into the entertainment space, like I'm
not competing against him.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, what can I do with my leabe?
First of all, I didn't go to school that right,
I didn't go to You're talking to a dude who
ain't supposed to be here. Everything I'm getting ain't I
ain't supposed to have, So I'm already behind, you know
what I mean. But then I realized, wait a minute,
if I just bring what I bring, I'm ahead, you

(52:16):
know what I mean. If I can if I bring
what only I bring to a project, because you can't
do what I do, you know what I mean? And
this is one thing that the magic and this is
what I want to tell every young man is trying
to transition out. That's the way it works for everything.

(52:36):
That you have something that no one else has, but
it's shifting you to find it. You got to find it,
and don't You don't find it by comparing yourself to
everybody else or whatever. You find it by finding out
what you want to do. And this is when I
had to make the hard realization that man, maybe football
wasn't It wasn't it just it wasn't for me. But

(52:57):
it got me to where I am and I'm very
thankful for it. Let me tell you I love the game.
In fact, I don't even have a team.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
I just love the players.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
Right sitting here with players talk about you know what
we came through. It feels like a fraternity, man, feels
like something we can we can therapize each other, you
know what I mean, because we all know it, we
all seen it, and we all played those games together.
I mean I was there when they was like, ain't
no cte sit out? You're just weak? Right, man, my
head hurt, you know what I mean. I'm seeing double

(53:27):
and they're like, man, look, you're just weak. I was
there when it was telling everybody it wasn't it wasn't real, right,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
I'm like, no, this is real, man, this is real. Te. Obviously,
when you first starting out, you don't make a lot
of money.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
How do you get passed because everybody thinks that you
in the movie you make a million dollars or you
make five million dollars, and it's in the roles.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I mean, you're first starting out. It ain't no big payday,
not at all, not at all.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
You you get here's your five hundred dollars, thank you
very much. But that's the thing. I never did it
for the money. Remember I told you when we were
doing that Friday after next. I was chasing that feeling
of doing something, of going so deep and doing something
so well. It was like when I was sweeping those floors,

(54:17):
you know what I mean. Once you start that, you
chase it and you can realize that you I could
be excellent at night, and I chased excellence and what
I found is that the money will come right. That's
what's so crazy. But what problem is is when you
chase money if all of a sudden, because this is

(54:38):
the thing, and this is what blew me away. I
started to take job off my passion and what I
saw would further what I was trying to do. And
I wouldn't take jobs by the money, and a lot
of I turned down a lot of money making jobs
that was terrible, but there was a lot of things
that paid a little bit amount of money. But Man

(55:00):
took me to a whole other level. And by doing that,
by not chasing the money, it's like it comes man,
the passion will pay.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
For itself, not white chick. That's look. Damien was in
Next Friday. The Friday After Next was unbelievable. But it
was that movie where Terry Crews all of a sudden
becomes a household name.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Keenan Ivory WANs, Marlon Wands, Sean WANs. I owe him
a debt forever. That was one of the best experiences
I ever had in my life. When I say, from
beginning to end, hanging with them dudes, the freedom that
that family had, it was like being into jacksones Bro.

(55:46):
You know what I mean, Like because you listen I
washed in living color when I was I remember in
college all the way up and it in living color.
And oh the Keenan every ways is a legend yep,
And I'm near He's like, hey, Terry hit Man, do
whatever you want. Man, you killing this, do this. I
was like, what I could do it?

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Like everything I said, so I could just.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
And man, when you hit that level of freedom and
the ways, brother, this is the thing about comedy is
that it opens up like there was the phrase they
used to the phrase they say a lot of times
is that you know, there's the answers. Never know the
answers yes in comedy. So if you you've got a
question and answers yes, I mean you go. You just

(56:29):
keep taking it, taking it, taking it. And that's what
we did. And brouh. I had no idea by the
time we got done. And I remember that premiere and
the producer looked at me and he said, hey, man,
your life will never ever be the same.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
You got understand me.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
I spent. I was, like I said, I learned my
lessons from football. I remember being in that room singing
that song probably ten times by myself, by myself, so
that when I got on this that that was one tape.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
I was so ready.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
I had the head moves there, I had everything, and
people were like, we never seen nothing because you gotta
understand too. And the rules in comedy at the time
were Muscle's never funny, right, that's not funny. You gotta
be brewed. You gotta be you know. And everybody was
trying to tell me to be take karate lessons because
you had to be you're gonna be an action star.

(57:23):
I was like, no, nah, I'm gonna be funny. I
think I can make people lie. And they were like,
but muscle's not funny. You too big. You gotta get fat,
you gotta get chubby.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
I was like, no, nope, I'm gonna do everything I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (57:38):
And I remember resisting what everybody was saying, and people
were looking at me like I've never seen a funny
big dude before.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
You know what I mean? And it changed the game.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Did you know when you're shooting that movie and when
you rapp, did you realize that we got a classic.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
We gotta hit. We have something that's gonna stand. No,
it's purt jokes.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
No, I'm sitting there, I'm like, man, if the kids
laugh I'm like, hey, great, no, no, but now people
are coming back like that's quiet, man. But my daughter, okay,
she was a baby. My daughter is now twenty years
old in college. She goes to college in San Diego.

(58:23):
They sat over this summer, sitting there watching White Chicks.
She didn't say any place. She's like, that's my dad.
She was a baby when it was when it was
came out. She's in college, like, and all her friends
are sitting on the rooftop watching White Chicks, the whole
school cracking up. I'm like, we didn't know, right, we
didn't know.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
But that's the power of going all out.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Because it outlast year. You know what I'm saying, the
legacy outlast year.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Go all out.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
You do not get another shot, you see what I mean, like,
really really enjoyed, don't Because this is the thing too.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Man.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
I used to be a complainer. Man, I used to
be one of them, Oh well if it ain't perfect.
And then and man, that's the thing. Well I started
to realize, Man, what opportunities we have, we gotta take
it right. And I'm just so thankful right now. I'm
just like, and you know, just to go on to
have this kind of career. Now. I got to even
flip it to AGT because I told my agent and manager,

(59:25):
I said, look, use me as a guinea pig. I
said where, I said, where you would typically see me.
Don't give me those roles, give me the roles that
you would say. There's no way they were going to
hire him, and I said that's what I want. And
they were like, Terry, that's a hard road. I said, yep,

(59:46):
I'm gonna take the hard road and I'll never forget.
There was Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which was
a daytime version that Wants to be a Millionaire, and
Cedric the entertainer didn't want to come back. He was
like moving on and they said, Terry, they're talking. This
is open. I said, give it to me. I said,
let me go in, let me audition, let me take it.

(01:00:06):
Because I knew if I learned how to host, if
I learned how to get in front of that camera
and show my personality and talk to people and interview people,
that could be a change. That's a whole other revenue stream,
that's a whole other level of passion.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Right, But it was horrible.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
Listen, who wants to be a millionaire the daytime version.
Nobody watching it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
I did three hundred and sixty episodes of that while
I was doing Brooklyn nine nine and people were like,
why are you doing this? I will go back on set.
They were like, dude, it's no one watching this. It's crazy.
Then I did another show called World's Funniest Fails and
it was like terrible and nobody was watching it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
And I was like, I was on Fox.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
It was one of the silly shows. And then I
host the TV Land Awards. I was like, but I
want to be a host, dude. All of a sudden
they got to spin off for AGT and I get
my shot. I said, it's the biggest talent show in
the world, bro, and I've been doing it strong, going
on six years. All the iterations, we got a brand

(01:01:09):
new Fantasy League coming out, we got the regular agt's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Number one show the summer.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
And wait, and you gotta understanding, I ain't a host.
I'm not that guy. I came in this thing, but
I said, God, give me the strength to learn new
skills and let me stay open, and I will stay
humble and I will learn this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
You know what I'm saying. It was a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
But I look at I take thank God right now
because now I can go two or three ways.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
I'm looking at you a white chicken. Some of the lines,
did you did you just come up with these lines
of what they written? It's like, once you go black,
you're going to need a wheelchair.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
I was written. So how much leeweight did they give you?

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
No, it was a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
It was. I mean, this is the thing, like the dancing,
they probably let you do you Oh yeah, that was
all me. That was all the dancing. But you understand
a lot of this stuff was It was like the
stuff between me and Marlin, and it was like, oh,
a little lady, you sure can't put it away. I
mean that's me. It's stuff with but they let you
do it. And then the editor comes in. Don't worry

(01:02:16):
about the rest later. But dude, we were coming up
with stuff off the head. They were coming up with stuff.
They had no idea, and we had no idea, but
we just knew. We said, man, we had such a
blast doing that movie. Same thing with longest yard guys
that you had the wrestlers, you had the comedians, you
had the football players. I mean, you had all that together,

(01:02:36):
and you had a classic movie you know where I
grew up watching the Burt Reynolds version, the first one,
and you're like, man, this is one reason why I
even tried playing football in the first place. You're like,
and dude, that's why. To me, all I can say
is that I've been given more opportunities. I must rephrase

(01:02:56):
that I seized more opportunities, because it's the thing given
people give you charity, opportunities aren't really giving right. You
seize them right, you grab it. It's like hunting. It's
like sitting in the forest and there litting there watching it.
All of a sudden you see something that you want
and you see it and if you go up to it,

(01:03:17):
it was run away. But you gotta grab it. And
I remember just grabbing every little scene, every little thing.
I'll never forget getting the opportunity on expendables. Here, I
am man Sebasti stallone all those sports and anger. Bruce
willis me. And wait, I wasn't the first pick. It

(01:03:38):
was supposed to be Wesley Snipes, but Wesley had got
down on all that tack stuff, and then they went
to Forest Whittaker and he couldn't do it. And then
they said, well we got this guy, Terry Crews. I
was like, I'm here, yo, I take it. Hey, man,
I didn't look at that it's down. Most of my
stuff has been like man, somebody dropped out. No, no, no,

(01:03:58):
I'm taking it. Seen and dude, here I am an
expendablest movie. And they gave slide give me that tunnel scene.
I'm blowing people away boom boom boom, boom boom, coming
through that tunnel and people flipping them up there in
the theater, jumping up, and I'm going, who gets this?
Who gets this? Like to make people laughs, to make
people jump, to make people I've been giving more moments

(01:04:22):
than probably any other actor that I know I work with.
It's cast been on TV twenty years. Don't get those
kind of moments, you know what I mean? And that's
where I'm like, man, and this is where again, though,
had I not been through all that stuff in the NFL,
I wouldn't have learned what it took. You understand what

(01:04:43):
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
I wouldn't.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
I probably would have got complacent, probably would have been like, yeah,
it's automatic, and I've seen people get there like yeah,
you know I should have had that yesterday, but I
never feel that way. Man. I'm always especially now that
we're losing people, especially now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shashay profile and I'll see
you there