The Podcast That Really Upset Mike Florio: 21 Questions with Fred Smoot

Background: A few weeks ago I sat in my living room with Fred Smoot to enjoy some libations and his answers to questions asked by the wonderful people of Reddit during a "Ask me anything" Q&A session. That last encounter with Reddit led to some notable, hilarious answers from Fred; so recording his responses this time around sounded like the best idea.

At some point I played this this clip for Fred from Holden Kushner's radio show back in 2009 where Smoot mentions Emmitt Smith's analysis after a game - this was Smoot's reaction (at 16:16):

"Nobody that meets Emmitt Smith likes Emmitt Smith," Smoot said. "Have you ever heard anybody say, hey man, I met that Emmitt Smith and I really love him? Nobody likes Emmitt Smith. I don’t know if he’s just a jerk because he’s a Cowboy. I don’t know. He be rubbing people the wrong way."

Fred was mostly joking, and I thought that was obvious when he said "because he's a Cowboy"; but obviously this wasn't so clear to Mike Florio...

PFT: Fred Smoot, whom no one likes, says no one likes Emmitt Smith

The title of his article? Jeesh, Mike - who shit in your cereal?

"When it comes to the modern NFL, Fred Smoot falls into roughly the same category as Marcus Vick..."

"According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, the man who managed one rep in the 225-pound bench at the Scouting Combine and had a unique, to say the least, role in the Love Boat fiasco teed off on the NFL’s all-time leading rusher during a recent podcast..."

"For the record, I met that Emmitt Smith and I really love him. He’s funny. Engaging. Friendly. He’s the exact opposite of what I thought he’d be based on his work with ESPN, which makes me convinced that the producers at ESPN had no idea how to use him properly."

This is what adults call an ad hominem argument. Ad hominem as defined by Wikipedia, is an argument made personally against an opponent instead of against their argument.Ad hominem reasoning is normally described as an informal fallacy,more precisely an irrelevance.

Nevermind the fact that Smoot played nine more years of football than Marcus Vick, that combine numbers don't matter after said nine year career, and that nine years of professional football might give him better insight into the personality of Emmitt Smith than you, and your meeting with him - as long as you bring up the Fred Smoot love boat incident, Fred's point is invalid.

In the midst of your dead serious temper tantrum, I guess you never realized that maybe you got a better version of Emmitt than most people (from his article's comments):

I am from Pensacola (Emmitt’s hometown.) I worked for the airlines while in college, and I have come into contact with Smith several times and I can say with great confidence that the man is not a pleasurable person. He never smiles, and I heard stories of him charging kids for autographs (I can’t vouch for that, but it would not surprise me.) Other local stars such as Roy Jones Jr and Derrick Brooks are ALWAYS a pleasure. They talk to the locals, and are constantly signing autographs. I have also met numerous players who were flying into Pensacola to go to the Andrew’s Institute, and they were all engaging and generally awesome. I agree with Fred. Emmitt’s a jerk.

For the record, I know Fred Smoot, and he's infinitely more funny, engaging and friendly than Emmitt Smith - that is probably why Fred Smoot still is on radio and TV during the football season and Emmitt Smith isn't. You can't blame being bad at talking on producers at ESPN.

Forget Florio for a minute. The rest of the podcast has a lot of great and funny nuggets from Smoot. He is personal, he is candid and he is real. Here are the highlights:

The reality of Dan Snyder vs the perception of Dan Snyder:

Smoot: People don't understand how hard this guy has tried. He's tried everything. He's went out of his way to buy a Super Bowl. They come back and tell him that's not the way to do it, do it this way. He tried it that way. If he was a President everyone would love him because he's tried everything to win and make people happy. He's always treated his team good and us with respect.

We had a lot of unnatural things happen including Sean Taylor's death and stuff like that. He really stepped in and took care of his players. What people get really miscontrued about him is they look at him like the spoiled, rich kid that doesn't know how to run a team when all he did was try to hire the best people around him. He even brought Gibbs back. He did everything to bring a winner it's just for same reason we can't keep the players together and we've never had a franchise Quaterback and that changed last year.

On athletes blazing and being role models:

Role models?! We're just faster than most human beings. We're not meant to be role models. We're just players in a gladiator sport. You don't look at every boxer and say that's a role model. You look at an athlete and say that's who I should be like? Dennis Rodman?!!? NO! You should be like the local preacher. You have to pattern yourself after someone and have some plan.

On there being some good clips on YouTube of Steve Smith dogging the sh*t out of Smoot:

Somebody had to get me. One guy got me. I had my one day bad in the sun.

On Smoot's experience leading up to the draft:

Washington didn't fly me out. They didn't think they had a chance to get me because I was slotted so high. I flew to New England. I met with Belichick. He's a mad scientist. But I would have been like a Boston guy...coming through in my pea coat...I don't know if I would have wanted that. DC is more my flavor.

It was Champ, Darrell Green and Deion when I first got here. My first couple days I was 23 since Deion had 21. When he retired, he gave me 21.

On Emmitt Smith:

"Nobody that meets Emmitt Smith likes Emmitt Smith," Smoot said. "Have you ever heard anybody say, hey man, I met that Emmitt Smith and I really love him? Nobody likes Emmitt Smith. I don’t know if he’s just a jerk because he’s a Cowboy. I don’t know. He be rubbing people the wrong way."

What would you tell yourself as a rookie:

Lift weights. That’s one thing I never did. Lift weights. Like I’m one of the few players that made it completely through the NFL without lifting weights.

Toll on the body:

"Man listen to me – it was a painful 10 years."

Taking steroids and/or supplements:

"I never took a supplement in my whole career. I just ate food and played football. I think that’s why I never tore muscles though; everybody I knew that took supplements tore muscles."

Favorite TV Shows:

"I love Spartacus. It’s my show. You don’t watch Spartacus? The gladiators on Starz…it’s the true portrayal of Roman times"

Word Association

Steve Spurrier:

"ay listen to me. Great coach and friend. Great COLLEGE coach. I love Steve Spurrier he’s a great guy."

Catfish:

"I’m not going to say what you want me to say. You say catfish, I say fried."

Favorite food:

"My all-time favorite food that I can eat 365 days – Turkey and dressing…No stuffing. That’s the difference – you eat stuffing – I call it dressing. Is it cornbread with the sausage in it?"

Hazardous occupations:

"The thing about it is – if you ski down mountains and you come tell me "hey dude – I was in an avalanche" well guess what? People that ski down mountains get in avalanches. Because I don’t ski down mountains – I’m never in an avalanche! That’s all I’m saying. Come on – think about the day you heard the crocodile hunter died. It wasn't even no mystery how he died, was it? Now if he would have got hit in the street – I would have been like HOW AND WHY DID THEY HIT THE CROCODILE HUNTER? Now I would have been really hurt by that – like if a plane crashed with him on it or something – I would have been like messed up by it. But then they like alright "the crocodile hunter got stung by a sting ray" so I’m like OK – this is the same guy that’s yelling "Crikie" and "look at it"…he just did not care what he was doing to these animals."

When it comes to football:

"It’s part of the sport – it just wasn’t on the warning label"

Hanging out with rappers:

"Because I’m black you think I hang out with rappers? Why can’t I hang out with a rocker or something?"

Friendship with Wale:

"All the time I freestyle. "Listen to me, one time I had talked enough trash to him, we were chilling one night, I had talked to one of the people at the Redskins, they had relayed it to the people at the Wizards, and me and Wale were supposed to meet at halftime and have a freestyle contest at a Wizards game," Smoot said. "This was years ago, years ago. I was still playing. But I punked out. I didn’t feel like spitting in front of everybody. I would have cussed and everything, and it would have went [dead] quiet in there. It would have went downhill when I would have said give me the beat. When they would have dropped the beat, it would have went downhill, right then. Because you knew it was gonna be a wack beat, right? You know they can’t play a real tight beat in the Verizon Center, right? So they would have gave me the wackest beat ever, and it would have stunk. It would have stunk ass I’m sure. Smell like a bag of feet."