"Marshawn Lynch"

I'm ready to start, welcome to SmartLess.

Hey,

Dude, look, who's counting other than you? I mean...

Yeah, it looks like you're doing pretty well.

Yeah, sitting in a wingback.

Sitting in a wingback, you know, I felt like. this is the chair that I've always deserved.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You know? And...

You're also talking, you kind of, you sound like you're keeping it down because someone.

Yeah, are you trying to stay quiet because the kids are asleep, or...

No, you know, no, you know why? It's kind of echoey in here.

Yeah.

So I'm just trying to be, like, not as echoey.

Oh. Oh, because you probably have hardwood floors in that nice hotel. Sure do. And high ceilings, right?

Sure do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm over here visiting some friends, and then, of course, I'm going to the football on Sunday, which I'm really excited about.

The NFL is having a game on this weekend over, they're trying to expand the league.

You are something, you are something else. I'm going to see Liverpool play West Ham up at Anfield, their home ground, in Liverpool, on Sunday. Chappie and I are going, and I'm very, very excited.

Mm-hmm.

I can't... Would you ever consider getting each other rings, you and Chappie?

You know who we went and saw yesterday? We went last night and saw Johnny Vaughn, my buddy who I've mentioned, who's on the radio over here, and he's a great talent. Oh, yeah. And so I went and joined the 4-0-7 thing with his crew, everybody from Gav the Woodman Woods to Dr. Santa Templeton, to Big Sai and Little Sai.

How about that? Like a betting casino?

It was... Yeah, it was very... It was different, but it was great. This guy hosted us. It was amazing.

I can't picture... Look at Jason's face. I know. I can't picture anybody... He doesn't know where it is.

They got casinos everywhere, Sean.

Really?

Yeah. You ever heard of Macau?

I'm going to be going to Vegas in a few weeks here, and I'm anticipating not going to the tables at all because I don't drink anymore, and I feel like I need to be inebriated to.

Not Sean. Sean can do it at breakfast. Is that true?

I can do it. Oh, my God. I love it.

Wait. Sean, are you one of those that at like a buffet, do you sit at the table, fill out the bingo cards and everything?

Yeah. And then I go to Vegas.

I went with Sean once. You remember that? Years ago, we went to Vegas.

Oh, my God. That was a long time ago.

Do you remember that?

That was so long ago.

Was this after Istanbul, you guys?

It was before Istanbul. Yeah. Well, before. Well before.

I went to Vegas once.

But maybe after Venice.

Oh, boy. Yeah.

Because we did Venice, Italy, too.

Does Chappy know about Sean? Is he okay with him?

I'm trying to keep him under wraps right now.

Will and I have tattooed rings.

Toe rings.

But Sean, I saw Sean one time at a blackjack table just go nuts and he was splitting and doubling down. And at one point he just had, he was playing like an eight hand thing. It was so many splits and doubles.

But it was $2 units, right? It was just a $2 table. No, it wasn't.

No, it was great. And that one time, I think it was that time or another time. You won? Yeah, I kept winning. I was really drunk and I was really young.

See, that's what I mean. I don't think you can win when you're sober.

No. And yeah, because you make horrible choices.

Well, you make pragmatic decisions, and that's, that's sort of at odds with a successful gambling, I think.

Yeah. And I, anyway, I had like 300 bucks or 200 bucks left, or something like that. And I turned it into like 10,000 bucks and I gave it all the way to the people at the table.

The people. Yeah. Like Robin Hood.

Like, just like Robin Hood.

Hold on a second. If you work for the IRS, if you work for the IRS, it was $9,999, right?

How are you with the, how are you with the jet lag? Can you adjust really fast?

It kind of hit me. I actually left dinner a little bit early because the jet lag kind of hit me in the, between the eyes. And I was like, guys, I got to go to sleep. But I can tell you this. I'm really excited to go to my first, as you guys know, I do love Liverpool and I love what they call football over here.

Yeah. They make sports fans look bad here in the States because you guys got the, or they guys, you're, you're, you're one of them. They, they, they, all the songs that you sang, it's real good fan stuff.

I'll be into that.

It's super, super fun. And it's a great environment. I've only been to one match over in Europe and that was in Spain a few years ago, but I haven't been here and I'm so excited and I love the football and I'm glad I'm saying football because it's reminding me, it's reminding me, you know, our guests today, I'm so excited because I just want to get to them. Our guest today is an incredible entrepreneur.

No way.

Marshawn. Marshawn. Good morning.

Marshawn.

What's going on?

Marshawn, can I ask you a question? Why do you spend so much time with this guy, Will Arnett? What happened? Does he have photos on you or something? You guys are so close.

Nah, man. I told him like, if you ever, if you ever call my phone, bang my line, I'm gonna make it work. Cause he gave me an opportunity to do some shit that I ain't never done before. So, anytime he hit my phone, I'm, I mean, I'm coming through.

So that's just for forever in perpetuity. He's got you as a, as a guy, throwing favors. For sure. Cause I want to tap into that.

Can we know what that was or no?

No. Murderville.

Yeah. A lot of people don't realize how hilarious Marshawn is because they think of him as like a football, you know, icon. And I'm like, this is a funny dude. And I'm so lucky. You know, I'm so happy that you do return my calls.

Honeymoon.

Well, we went, we covered the world cup last year. We did this thing together and we never talked about how you started in pro football, just in football in general. And I guess, I guess that's on me. I should have asked, but I'm asking now, how did you, what was your first, uh, when you were in love with football, when you first started, when you were a kid, like what was the, what was the deal? What was your relationship like with football starting out?

Um, I mean, the relationship with football was, uh, I was, I was big on, on playing it. Not too much of a, uh, not too much of a fan of sitting down and watching it.

Really? That's interesting.

But when it came to it, it was like, yeah, if we had the opportunity, every opportunity I had to play it, I was for sure getting down. But, uh, I really wasn't, I wasn't, like. I said, I wasn't big on sitting down and watching the game. It wasn't like no big ass tradition that we did. where everybody come through on Sunday and watch the games, or, you know, Monday nights, wasn't like, we got to watch this Thursday.

Which colleges you ended up going to?

Uh, Cal University. Oh, yeah. California.

Berkeley.

Yeah. So, I mean, the shit worked out for me in the long run, but yeah, for sure. When I, when I first found out, I'm like, hell. nah, you want me, you want me to go to more school?

Like more voluntary school.

Like, nah, hell, nah, I'm cool off that. But, uh, I ain't gonna lie, luckily I had, I had two cousins, who was, who was really into that shit.

What's that, schoolwork?

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

Really into schoolwork? Yeah. Yeah, man. They, they, I'll say they took on the jobs of the, uh, of the teachers by, uh, making sure I maintained, uh, you know, a reasonable, uh, grade point average to even be able to give college an opportunity. That's awesome.

Do you remember the process of, of getting used to getting hit? Like, oh, did you start playing football so young? Where you don't, where you don't remember it. Were you so young when you started that you don't remember it? or, or, or, or?

Like a turtle.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm not sure when you, I'm not sure when you did this, this, uh, this role in that movie, but you sound like you, you got that move from the little giants.

Exactly. I'm just a small, soft actor. Uh, and they all laughed at me. Um, the movie was a comedy. Thank God.

That's right, though, Jay. I wouldn't think of that. That, that is true. Like, cause Marshawn, I'm, I'm the opposite of you. I'd rather watch it than play it.

So do you remember that process was, is there a learning curve? that's painful on that? Or were you too young?

Most definitely. Uh, so I mean, I got the, I probably got the latest start out of, cause. it was a group of us and I mean, you know, it was more family, um, you know, close friends like in the neighborhood. and uh, you know, I think I was probably one of the later ones that started maybe around age 13.. Yeah.

Right.

And you know, one of my closest friends, rest in peace, we were doing hidden drills, angle and tackling. It's the biggest thing in football.

And uh, is what is angle, tackling, angling, tackling, tackling, drill. What does that mean?

Cause you line up on opposite sides, put a cone out and you come to a point where you have to earn your manhood. Uh, huh. A lot of us, a lot of us were, a lot of us seen it, and, um, you know, he was a veteran. This was my, my first year, my first year in full contact, uh, uh, sports, and, um, somehow he, he convinced me to go first, which, you know what I mean? Was not a good idea, but, uh, so he called go and we ran and we hit like, like a couple.

of Rams hitting each other with their horns. Right.

Yep. Except for, I didn't lower my shoulders or my helmet. And I went in standing straight up, like I was trying to give him a bear hood, but, like Frankenstein, he actually put a stomach. Exactly. He actually put his helmet right in my stomach, and I'm talking about all.

I'm laying down. Yeah.

You want me to do this again? Right. I just, I'm like, I don't know what to say. I'm going to tell him like, Hey, you know, I just went, but then, you know, everybody in line. Hey, line up, line up.

Yeah.

So, in the midst of him, lowering his helmet in his shoulders, I had already been lowered in smashing. Bam! Coaches like, Oh, okay. The little rookie got something to him. Line up again.

And we will be right back.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare. on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alena Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly.

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And now back to the show.

By playing offensive line first, do you have sympathy for the offensive linemen that once you became a running back, power back, you start running into the backs of those offensive linemen? Do you remember the days when running backs used to do that? to you? I'll bet it hurts.

No, man. To be honest with you, I take care of my offensive linemen. And one of the things that I don't do is I don't run into the back of them. I'd rather, if I see a pileup or something like that, I'd rather bounce outside and run into a defender than hit my offensive lineman in the back.

Is that something that offensive linemen do complain about?

Hell yeah. If they get a running back, it's just like, damn, pick your eyes up. Because they feel like, hey, look, I'm doing my job. I'm running this dude out of there and you running into my back. If you want to hit somebody, hit one of their players.

The guy with the other color on. Yeah.

For real.

During the, well, was work harder during football or is work harder now with the acting? You know, because the hours in acting can be, you know, usually 12 hours. And sometimes that hard work is simply trying to manage boredom, because no one, there's, no two people that are working at the same time.

And concentration, though, when it's gone, right?

Yeah. Or was the football harder because of, you know, all the obvious parts of it, the traveling and the strenuousness?

Well, see, the thing was, you know, the traveling, meetings, you know, practice, games, being able to take care of my body, you know, making sure I don't lose my mind.

And why is it important to you? just out of curiosity? Have you always had this thing in the back of your head? that's like, you know what? I want to stretch this muscle in my head about this acting thing or this artistic kind of side of me.

No, it's just that. really, I don't want to be bad, because I mean, shit. I mean, you know, you hear about it all the time. Like for individuals after their first career, they go and get into something else and it kind of don't pan out for them in the same breath in which, you know, damn, he was a great football player or he was a good football. However, you view me as a football player, you're not going to say I was bad unless I done something to your team.

So it's almost like a challenge. You enjoy the challenge of it. I can say that.

What about the gym? I imagine the gym would have been a big part of every day during your football career. Is it this? Are you? What's?

To be honest with you, that was probably the place where I spent the least really work at. Okay. I mean, you got to think about it. If you want my career, I played in a league with 12, 13 years. And then you got to think college was another three high school, for a little league.

Or just see who's in the steam.

Yeah.

Yeah. That should work too. Final stay in the room, for sure.

But so I have like a, I have a two-parter, Marshawn, like, so. when you were playing, when you were playing football, was there a person or a moment that made you want to, that kind of clicked your brain into. what if I did this, you know, expanded into entrepreneurial stuff? And what if I, was there? a person that you're like, gosh, I really admire the way he handled his career after football or during football?

Well, the first part is before I even knew about money or anything, because it wasn't like. that was something I came from. I remember they was having these, what is it? Financial advisors coming to, coming to the facility and, you know, get a spiel, you know what I mean? And you can, you know, choose a financial advisor that way.

Oh, so the team brings people in to talk to players and, and sort of help them kind of figure out what to do.

That's good actually.

Yeah. Yeah. The player personnel, like, you know, the guy who looks after, after the players. on a more personal level, they'll bring in individuals who they know, maybe through dealings with, or maybe got introduced by another player. But I remember the first time he, my financial advisor, came in and he came in there and he was talking and shit.

It's in one ear, out the other.

Shit, it didn't go in no ear. I'm asleep, dead to the world. And he make a, he don't say nothing. So as he finishing up and he, you know what I mean, kind of come to and up on the board, I see all these names, and these names are NFL players who, you know, I thought, if you play in the NFL, you like the richest person in the world. I'm looking at, looking at all these names and I'm saying, like, you know, they got a number on the side to the right of their name and another column and I'm like, damn, they got all this money.

Right.

Now I'm up.

Yeah.

But now it's presentation.

Now I'm awake. Yeah.

I'm like, hey, hold on. What you mean, they bankrupt? Like, you know, I seen some of the names of individuals who, you know, I looked up to. Now, what the fuck? So after he said, man, you slept through my whole meeting.

But can you start from the beginning again?

Where you said all my, all of these players up here is broke. now. I'm like, what the fuck is going on?

And the number next to them are the millions in debt they are.

Man. And I'm like, how do I not become one of them?

Good for you. Good for you.

Well, you know what, Marshawn? First of all, you can't go to sleep in my meeting. How do you look?

Right. Right.

Quit bringing up old shit. We talking about moving forward.

Was there, what was early on one of the, if you, if you did, make like a just foolish, you know, uh, purchase, do you remember like one of the dumbest things you've ever bought?

You said, one of the dumbest things I ever bought.

Like when you first started out, you're like, oh, I got an extra, you know.

Did you ever buy an animal that should probably be in a zoo?

Yes. I have. But that didn't come, that wasn't early on. That was after everything was set.

Oh, really? And what kind of animal was this?

I bought a monkey.

A monkey. You did really? I've always wanted a monkey. What kind of monkey? A red hand tamarin.

Is that true? Did you really buy one?

Yeah. About as big as my hand. Lil Pimp was his name.

Oh my God. Lil Pimp. That's L-I-L apostrophe?

Man. Nah, no apostrophes.

Is this the kind that throws stuff at you?

Nah, he don't throw no shit at you. Nah, he will get the yelling at you, though.

He'll, yell.

Really? Yeah.

Is he still with us?

Hell, yeah. No, no, no, no. See, they got a short lifespan.

Yeah. I was always nervous. I wouldn't want to get that, like a monkey would come and like end up, like ripping my arms and my balls off or something. Or my face, like eating my face.

He was about as big as my hand. About as big as my hand. And I mean, that little motherfucker was fascinating. Oh my God. He did some of the most crazy shit I've ever seen.

Do you have to get a trainer for that? Or do you train him yourself?

Nah, to be honest with you, he really cool, though.

Oh, so they come trained?

Nah, I won't say that. But as far as like, I mean, he's so little. Like, if he take his shit somewhere, it's like, damn, is that rat shit? Right. So it ain't like.

Never a diaper on Lil Pimp?

Nah, man. We wasn't confining him, man. Lil Pimp, he was a real true one.

Lil Pimp. R.I.P. Lil Pimp. R.I.P.

Lil Pimp. But there was a few, I mean, there was a lot of guys that, I mean, I started to see turn. You know, like, used to watch O.J. in movies, Jim Brown in movies. And I mean, you know, just to see them being able to do it again, like, oh, it's an opportunity there to do that.

Yeah, you did that. You did that with, like the, with the Seattle Kraken. You got ownership in that. You know, Sean, you might not know this. Marshawn's like part owner of a bunch of sports teams, including the NHL, Seattle Kraken.

Very cool. Very savvy.

Yeah. No kidding. Like team ownership. That's, that's where it's at.

Yeah, man. Just trying to try to kind of position myself.

I mean, I have. I have one thousand dollars to invest in this team.

Can I say, look, you just a little bit too late. We just did a round where you could have bought into that nickname too late. You could have bought into the Oakland Roots. We just raised two million in Oakland. More.

So, wow. Yeah. Why don't you start? Why don't you? why don't you start doing a show like like our friends Rob and Ryan and just have cameras following you around?

That'd be a good show. Yeah, that would be a good show. Actually, that's a good idea. Thank you.

Not a bad or podcast. Thank you.

And we'll. we'll produce it through smartless media. Yeah, we will.

We just made some money. Well, that was where I came on here. I'm trying to. that's where we go. Let's do that.

Let's get a podcast going, with you popping around and visiting on the teams that you own. I want to hear locker room speeches. I want to hear play by play. There's all kinds of things. we can wait.

You worked with some great coaches. You worked with great players. You got to know that Marshawn's quarterback, when he was at Cal, was none other than Aaron Rogers. And then his quarterback, while he was a pro for most of his career, was Russell Wilson. to the all-time great quarterbacks.

like from. I'm going to go like this Pop Warner High School. It was easy because all the coaches was, you know, from my neighborhood. They understand how to speak to me, understand how to get the most out of me. Then going to college, because I ain't grow up with no father in the household.

Right.

Coming downhill at a defensive back.

Oh, interesting.

He didn't know what it looked like as a running back running down a defensive back. So he's able to tell me. when he tell me, Marshawn, right here, square your shoulders up. He knew that DBs don't want to tackle running back.

No.

So make him make a business decision. Make him stick his head through his shoulder pad.

It doesn't work.

You know what I mean?

It doesn't work. Only in the movies.

It hurts. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention to that early on. But, like I said, when I figured it out, OK, this shit makes sense now.

We'll be right back.

All right, back to the show.

It seems to me the guy like Pete Carroll, does he coach? I feel like a lot of his speeches are really esoteric, like, really out there, kind of like, are they football related? Or does he make a lot of like big sort of inspirational speeches about life? And is that, am I right on that?

I fuck with Pete. I won a championship with him. But as far as speeches and all, you know, I would, I would leave out of his meeting.

Did you do any standing up sleeping in the Pete Carroll meetings?

Nah, I'd sit down sleeping in that motherfucker. I wanted my good race.

Dig in.

Yeah, I would, I would. You know, after a while, it just started to become repetitive for me. Right. And then I'm not a guy who you need to like. get me ready to go and bust somebody.

Like, hey, hey.

And he'd be like, what the fuck? Like, hey, it's five o'clock in the morning, bro, cool out. And I'm like, hold on, man. I just seen this motherfucker didn't leave out of the facility until like 11, 12 o'clock at night.

And he's back at five.

And he was leaving. Hey, buddy, I'm going home.

You have a great night.

I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure you're ready on time. And he's like, hold on, this motherfucker. This motherfucker. And then it ain't no difference.

Marshawn, tell me, do I remember this right? Did you spend an entire season not talking to the media?

A few seasons, which means a season where you refuse to talk to the media.

Right. What they do, what they do to make you take that position.

What they did was they showed me who they was. They showed me who they was. And the thing, like I said, I started to stand on principle, morals and values. And because, I mean, you know, like I said, I was raised different. I seen things through different lenses.

Sadly, we live, we live in times where, where obviously we're, we're sort of negativity cells. I've seen movie reviews that start off with a, with like a negative headline and then you read it and it's like not a bad review. And I'm like, oh, you just wanted people to click on the shit and people just want that kind of shit, which, which sucks. And it's not, not positive. I will say this.

Well, yeah, that's probably the longest standing, ah, business that I got. And probably the, I mean, that's, I started that immediately, ah, well, I'm not going to say, ah, we started that immediately after I, ah, decided to, ah, enter the draft. And I mean, since then, ah, we just been on a tear. Like, I mean, it didn't matter wherever help was needed. We tried to fill that gap.

And what specifically, like, what's the mission? Like who you got, who you trying to help? Like, what's the, the main?

The, the, the inner city youth, ah, we looked at, ah, a lot of, a lot of the, a lot of the kids, ah, you know, from our neighborhood, they don't get a fair shot. So we just tried to, you know what I mean, even it up a little bit by, you know, ah, supplying some of the, some of the needs that they needed in order to, you know what I mean, be able to, you know, compete with, you know, somebody from, ah, a higher, ah, background or education level. And I mean, it, you know, it just started as a football camp. But then it turned into architect camps. Like, we do, an architect camp for the kids over at, ah, at Cal.

Yeah, there's actually a group of people that are making it. The people on screen are just in it.

Jason, you said this once and I love this. Everybody on set, when you go on a movie, everybody, from catering, to background holding, to locations, to team driver, you know, everybody's a filmmaker. Right, yeah. Everybody on that set is a filmmaker, and it's what makes it so great.

There's no one there that doesn't need to be there.

That's exactly right. I love, Marshawn, I love that you're doing that. And it doesn't surprise me, because I know, you know, I got to know you. You're such a great guy. And, man, I'm just, it's so great to be able to talk to you.

No, I told you, you, folks, Brad, you good in the hood, man, anytime.

Marshawn, you're the best, man. Thank you. Continued success.

Thank you, Marshawn.

You're just, you're just always, always you. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll talk soon.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Marshawn.

All good, man. Y'all have a blessed day, man.

Nice meeting you.

You too. Thank you. Thank you, Marshawn.

What a sweet fella.

What a great guy, huh?

Yeah.

How cool is it that here's a guy who has not just a football career, but he wins a Super Bowl, and he goes to the Pro Bowl, and he's a first-team all-pro, does like every basically thing he can do as an NFL player.

Superstar.

And then has this, retires three times, by the way, he retired, because he kept coming back. And then he retires, and he turns all that into, becomes this entrepreneur, and he goes into the arts, and goes into all this stuff. And I'm like, this dude is unbelievable. He truly is. He's gone beast mode through life, not just on the football field.

It sounds like he didn't need to. He held on to his money, and he probably doesn't need to continue working so hard, but that's just part of his makeup. Yeah.

I love that, too.

He's such a savvy dude, and he's just so cool. And, again, I should point out, he's such a good person, too. So I'm lucky that he came to dinner. I'm lucky that I know him.

Yeah, he seems very kind.

Yeah, he is very kind.

Did you guys see Jason's headline, the meltdown thing?

Yeah, the little stuff you guys chopped together and put on the show. It's like, Bateman has meltdown. What are you talking about? No, no, I know. But to your point earlier, you said in the interview here that people will find a headline just so you can click through.

Yeah, click through.

And the fact that I said in it that I had a full meltdown, they were able to use that, put quotes around it, and then say Bateman has, quote, full meltdown on podcast. So it's the headline they need. But it's good. It's good press for us, I guess.

I haven't looked on the Internet, and I'm so stymied by that.

Well, you'd need a Google alert on Smartless and or me.

Oh.

I'm going to get one. I'm going to look into that. I might lease one.

You're going to lease a Google alert?

Yeah. What does it cost you to get into one of those?

Well, the rental's pretty steep, but, uh.

Well, you know what, though? Maybe I could. Yeah. Go ahead. No, you go ahead.

I was going to say, maybe if you can't afford a full subscription, maybe you could do a buy monthly.

Buy monthly.

Why are you holding your stomach?

You have an Abe Froman t-shirt on. That's pretty good. Sausage. King of Chicago.

That's right.

Jason, say bye.

Bye. Smart. Less.

Smart.

Less.

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