Donovan McNabb and Emmitt Smith and Antonio Gates Join! (Hour 1)

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Live from the play show. Get out over the ostentatious Mandalay Bay Convention Center inside Radio Row.

It's day number five. We've made it. What a crazy, action-packed week this has been and we will end it off with a bang, obviously, right here on CBS Sports Radio for the Zach Gelb show across all of our great locals, CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app and momentarily will be up on YouTube. YouTube.com slash CBS Sports Radio. A lot cooking inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and we have a loaded, loaded, loaded, and I mean loaded show for you today. Micah Parsons will be stopping by later in the program. Eli Manning, Adrian Peterson, Bijan Robinson, Arthur Blank, and so much more. But actually we're going to start the show today with an interview and earlier today I was able to catch up with one of the greatest running backs in NFL history as the most rushing yards in NFL history and that of course is Emmitt Smith. We will play you our conversation with Emmitt Smith right out of the gate here on CBS Sports Radio at the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, welcome back in to the Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Now joining me, one of the greatest running backs of all time and every time he joins us at the Super Bowl he brings us some tequila and I still have this tequila in my apartment in New York City and I'm slowly drinking it because it's so damn delicious.

He of course is the great Pro Football Hall of Famer in Emmitt Smith. Emmitt, great to see you again. How you been? I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. How about yourself? Well I'm doing fantastic.

Appreciate you jumping on board with us. Let me start you out with the Cowboys. So it was one of those seasons again, great regular season and then come postseason time they just can't get the job done but it didn't happen in the division round, didn't happen in the conference championship game to lose against the Packers. Just how do you process it all these weeks later? Well I process it in the context of being extremely disappointed because I did not see a team that I truly believe had the capabilities of not only beating the Packers but also had the ability to even make it to the NFC Championship game. But I played that particular day was just not even close to the level of expectations not only for myself but probably for the guys too and I don't know why but our team looked unprepared. And now we've seen this multiple times like you go back against the Niners three years ago the first time they lost to San Francisco in the playoffs McCarthy even said it before the start of the game that they were after the game they weren't ready to go.

Same thing happened a few years later. I know what you've said in the last 24 hours about Mike McCarthy but that is mystifying to me why they bring him back as the head football coach and what appears to be kind of a lame duck year on the final year of his contract. Well at the end of the day it is his job to get his team ready to go.

Yeah. And if you know that you made a mistake a couple years ago against the Niners why wouldn't you put more emphasis on not doing the same thing and changing it and making it work for you this time when you're back in the playoffs. I mean those things right there should not happen. It should not happen. If you're gonna get beat if you're gonna get beat get beat doing being your best being at your best or even giving it didn't even look like we gave the right effort.

And so we we tried things but it just didn't happen. Everybody knew exactly what's going on on the football field. The Packers came in and it just made us look bad. It was embarrassing.

It was definitely embarrassing. That's what it is and I know that you are someone that loves this organization you want to see this organization do best. But man it's been the same old same old the last few years. Emmitt Smith here with us who should be like let's say you were making the hire you had Belichick available you had Pete Carroll available. Mike Vrabel was available too. Who do you think should be coaching this team this upcoming year. I probably would have given Mike Vrabel a try.

I probably would have. A younger younger coach had had success up in Tennessee. We probably have better better players than what Tennessee. Absolutely. And and so I think that overall we would have had a number of the pieces of the puzzle in place for him to come in and lead these young men.

I'll take it a step further right. Dak has one year left on the contract. I know it's an enormous cap hit but Emmitt Smith do you think they should just let this ride out and then see how this year goes before even potentially entertaining a contract. Yeah I think so. I think so. I would if we don't have to move anything right now we don't have to do a whole lot.

I would just keep things as they are. I don't think we need to be Dak is going to be our long term guy. I think we're committed to him have been committed to him and and now we have to see this thing completely through. And it's not necessarily Dak is not capable of it. Oftentimes coordinators have a chance to make a player look good as well as look bad. And so but Dak has to take on the responsibility of understanding game situations and not playing to those situations.

The prime example I can give even though Mike McCarthy comes in and want to throw the ball against Detroit with less than two minutes left in the game or three minutes left in the game three straight times then on the third time you don't throw it out of bounds you don't throw an incomplete pass you keep the ball in play and you take a knee or get sacked or whatever you got to do wrong with it but you keep the clock moving because the clock is your friend. Do you think this team is mentally tough enough with what they've been through. I think that's that's been the biggest problem. Right. I think physically we got everything that we can do and with quality from a physical standpoint but mentally I don't think we're there because when they lose it's like you shouldn't really say anything when you lose to continue to add legs to the story and it seems like there's just not an accountability within the organization for the shortcomings that have happened in the postseason. No one is stepping up and taking on the responsibility of playing piss poor for them especially at the wrong time.

Absolutely. You spend all this off season and training and everything else going through training camp to get to the place where now you made it to the playoff where you want to be at and you lay an egg like that doesn't doesn't register with me. Oh look at this Adrian Peterson Emmitt Smith connected together we'll see Adrian Peterson later on the show that was a pretty quick a pretty cool moment right there and that's what happens all the time we're talking to Joe Montana the other day Drew Brees walks by so pretty neat stuff here on Radio Row. Alrighty we got through we got through all the Cowboys stuff you know I don't want to it just it's sad hearing you talk about the Cowboys right now because you projected with the team so let's talk about a happy moment then one of my favorite moments from the NFL season was seeing Jimmy Johnson going to the ring of honor you and Michael Irvin being there in person that was just so awesome to see your guys natural lation that you had for your football coach. You know what you saw was natural and you said natural and that's how players should feel about their coach and when you think about how we feel about Jimmy and what we accomplished with Jimmy then you parallel that to today's I don't see that. It's tough because the current player now I think I don't think the my way or the highway coach works anymore in football so the new coach is kind of you have to be a player's coach but you can't be a doormat and that's what I think is the tough separation like Dan Campbell player coach not a doormat Mike Vrabel player coach not a doormat and that's why I'm fascinated to see what happens with a guy like Belichick who is my way or the highway but he's won six Super Bowls if he does get a job moving forward because today's player does not fit with Belichick and that isn't a Belichick problem it should be a way that we talk about players. Yeah I think it's a way that we talk about players players are spoiled players are selfish and everything else and they don't want to be told what to do all the time. Yeah.

And let alone be pushed to work hard because they already coming in thinking they're great. That's all I can say I mean that's that's what you're dealing with. And you know what I get a chance to talk to a lot of coaches going back to Jimmy Johnson it's so neat the respect that all the current coaches have for Jimmy Johnson he's kind of like turned into the godfather of coaching that whenever someone gets a job you need to go down I think it's the Florida to the Keys and go fish with Jimmy Johnson a little bit and you kind of have to earn your stripes with Coach Johnson. I mean here's the thing with Coach Johnson I mean here's the thing with players too players have to trust their leadership players have to trust the coaches that they're playing for have their best interests at heart no matter how hard they drive them they see something in you that you don't see in yourself.

Yeah. And you have to believe that and they have a way of bringing out the best in you if you trust the process. Some players can even begin to get on the process they already coming in oh this is who I am and this is what I'm going to be because they've been told that it was great the whole time but at this level it's totally different level and you need coaches to tell you the truth you need coaches to help shape that talent into what they believe can be something great.

Not every coach is a great coach they have some coaches out there that shouldn't even be coaching and they study the game they understand the game but they cannot motivate a player and there's situations where coaches lose the trust of the team and they lose chemistry that way and that has happened many times whether it was Pete Carroll losing some of the chemistry up there in Seattle or whether it's someone else losing chemistry on the team I mean you got that players have to be able to trust the relationship that they have with their coach. Tell me about what we're doing with the great tequila once again. Same thing I mean I mean I've been working with tequila head of door for 13 years now going on 14 and it's still the finest distilled tequila in the in the market. It's a winning tequila that doesn't let you down in the big spots the antithesis of the Cowboys. Exactly exactly I can count on my tequila a lot more than I can count on my boys winning the big one. So let's say we're sitting around and we're doing a few tequila shots and I just so have a little bit of a and I just so happen to have this poster here and I say to you do you ultimately believe in this relationship between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift you think they're one day gonna get married? You know what I hope so yeah it's a fun story because it's great to find people to see people fall in love yeah but here's the problem yes they both are so visible right now too many people are in their business well and they need to start setting boundaries in terms of who they are collectively yeah they are individually and who they need to who they need to allow into the circle too many people in the circle well here's the problem so I live in New York City Taylor Swift lives about like five to eight minutes from my apartment you walk around the city uh there's people around her house 24 7 yeah that you you can't hide if you are her unfortunately well that's that's part that's part of the problem that's part of the problem yeah uh not that she won't she not that she's asking for all this attention people are stalking starving so much to get a photo to get a photo of somebody that's done great things yeah and these folks don't really have true lives yeah the only life is to see somebody like that which she's an inspiring woman she's an inspiring guy but they have lives to live and people can't separate the public life nor the celebrity life always love talking to you appreciate it thanks so much and you maybe one of these years your cowboys will be here maybe maybe there he is Emmitt Smith the Pro Football Hall of Famer joining us on Radio Row Super Bowl 58 on Westwood One is streaming for free sponsored by AutoZone on Super Bowl Sunday hear every minute of Westwood One's broadcast live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on the Westwood One affiliate stations digital platforms and get in the zone with AutoZone AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone get in the zone AutoZone restrictions apply all righty we are inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center it is a zoo in here we were just joined by Emmitt Smith still to come today Donovan McNabb always love our conversations with him Antonio Gates will have two spots from the Atlanta Falcons one with Bijan Robinson and one with the owner of the ball club in Arthur Blank Eli Manning uh-oh I'm gonna have to talk to Eli being a Patriot fan I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy that Adrian Peterson on set together will be Brandon Cooks and Stephon Gilmore so busy busy busy day we will take a break make sure you're following along on Instagram and Twitter at Zach Gelb that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B and we got more from Las Vegas as we get closer and closer to the big game on Sunday after these short messages a peanut butter M&M's production in a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring but the runners-up get nothing one retired cop return that's one retired quarterback read the script oh sorry one retired quarterback returns to claim what's his um that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter but you're on a roll the ring of comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you okay picture this it's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available h-track all-wheel drive and three-row seating my whole family can head deep into the wild conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe visit hundayusa.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details Hyundai there's joy in every journey 2024 Santa Fe available early 2024 Dana Carvey and David Spade here you might know our podcast fly on the wall featuring guests from across the entertainment industry we decided to spin off called super fly and it's fun it's just two of us riffing on current events pop culture catching up impressions joe trump's trying to be a dictator yeah she says you know bump on the tater tots joe no listen to and follow super fly on the odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast all righty number five will always love you that's right we're back inside the Mandalay bay convention center this is at gilb show coast to coast on cbs sports radio one of my all-time favorites donovan mcnabb here with us and now donovan he's always been big in the media game but i sat next to your your podcast partner uh armando salguro for the afc championship game you better be on your toes because armando's gonna go after you each and every listen i i make sure i put armando in this place you know i know how to get to armando throw a few things at them confuse them a little bit all you got to do is go into the music tell them to tell them to name an artist yeah or name somebody outside of florida or he can't he can't talk about basketball either he can't talk about basketball i know he is i know i love armando my romano's done a great job for me uh on the podcast we have great chemistry have great time um you know we're closing up our show next week but it's still man it's been fun we spent a week here together and get a bunch of guests we have flavor flave on the show and we're going to be flavor flave on the show and he lost it he went well he's got the little clock the big clock is in the hall of fame now it's in the rock and roll hall of fame absolutely so got a chance to ask me about that it's good to see him i've seen flavor flavor in over 10 years so uh it's always good seeing familiar faces great time to see andy reid doing what he's doing now with the kansas city chiefs and you have mahomes who's won two super balls right uh has a chance to win his third on sunday i know how close you are with andy right and you spoke to the team at right three years ago spoke to the team a few years ago i actually was trying to go yesterday yeah um to make my record hopefully three and oh but i didn't get a chance to get over there um i'm gonna send him a text tonight or tomorrow uh but i'm just happy for him and where he's where he started to where he's going i can't say where he's at because it's not over um the progression uh he learned from what we did in philly he took what we we learned from philly and then obviously added to that uh patrick mahomes is a big key to that uh and it's funny when you reflect back on when it started 25 years ago that's crazy it's wild that's crazy and if he could get this one on sunday i already think he's one of the greatest coaches of all time 100 for a while you know what it was it was he could get close close close but can't get the job done now he picks up a third one i think the we all praise andy reid as it is but i think the praise them would go to a different level that's it's like an immortal kind of feeling that around it was funny to bring it i think the praise goes to appreciation um it's a good way to put it we've seen we've seen the belicheck and brady era we've seen the marv levy and we've seen uh the jim kelly era where the coach quarterback combination and the success that they had now people look at marv levy and jim kelly and the first thing they say while they lost four super balls but they don't understand the winning that happened each and every year buffalo was on and i obviously went to school syracuse which is only an hour away from buffalo the the fanfare the energy in buffalo when it was sunday everything was about the bills it was sarah saturday syracuse food family football that's all it was and so you add that in new england same thing you looking at philly families i've had i've had kids have come to me and said i grew up watching you play and it was an opportunity where as a family everyone was at the house sunday watching you play monday watching you play and of course the kid is probably like 30 now but i'm like but you know what it also is too forget about the great moments you had on the field right i'm telling you one of the great endorsement deals of all time was that the campbell's chunky noodle soup with you and your mom absolutely absolutely that humanized a professional athlete like you right that this is the same guy who we see him on the field as a warrior but here he is off the field like a big teddy bear loving his mother well it again is it's mom loving on the kid too that too and so but we know that always happens well that's what happens and the whole thing is you know people talk i've done some stupid crap my mom goes i still love there you go there you go after she pops you in the head but again it showed it also it showed that we are family men like we're family men like yeah we're our mom and dad's kids but we're family men and so that whole chunky soup deal we we put them on the map because it was a it was genuine and it was actual mom and son like before us it was the kid and it was an actress and we fought to change that and my mom got on and so now we got the kelsey's um in which we need to have a competition because you know me and my mom versus both jason and travis and and their mom i think we'll come out on top well here's the thing it's underrated with donna kelsey donna mcnabb she talks a lot of smack i love that i love like how i love the smack talk in between your mom and donna kelsey i think would be better than any smack talking you travis and jason could have well the the problem with with travis and i like i said i've talked to him many times the problem with travis and i we get to laughing too much and then there's jason yeah and then jason's he's strong like he's that guy but but the thing is we always like as a quarterback we take care of our big guys up front in the forest center yeah i love guys like that like like jason is he's always smiling he's having a good time he likes to walk around with no shoes on auto field i love that he's a man's man exactly he's a regular dude he's a caveman there's me there's me and travis so it's like we're just having fun and so i would love to have if they did that uh obviously it would take some some contracts and some money in that but uh to bring us all together it would be outstanding so do you think this is andy reed's final game because that's been floated out there no no it's not with andy he wouldn't hide that that fact and he wouldn't do it now um he's having so much fun in this run and when you have a guy like 15 behind center you have a chance and so and that's the thing is people need to understand his coaching tree the coaching tree from philly is unbelievable the coaching tree in in kansas city again sprouting out head coaches doug peterson's a head coach you know matt naggy was a head coach eric vietnamese should be a head coach uh steve spagnolia was a head coach dave tobe who's the head of special teams he was with us in philly he should be up for a head coach and so the list goes on of different guys kate is david cully you know he was a head coach now we got different guys who played with me uh and greg lewis greg lewis was a receiver coach then he was a running back coach last year for the super bowl now he's in baltimore todd pinkson's a receiver coach assistant receiver coach over there in kansas city so he's he's opened the door and paved the way for everyone and he's bringing in more guys to give them that chance to gain that experience to hopefully get a shot you now hear the way people talk about jaylen hertz is donovan mcnabb is here with us totally different than what it was last year and you know when a team collapses like that quarterback is the first one they focus on not only that but things come out about his leadership skills and his personality how much of what you've been hearing in the last month two months about jaylen hertz is real and how much do you just say it's bullcrap a hundred percent of it is bullcrap because this this is the thing that bothers me and from being in the position it's never enough and it's always more you can do so as a quarterback we're trying to do everything we can to one cater to different personalities we have be well prepared execute the plays do it the right way put the ball in the end zone not turn the ball over everything that we're trying to lead by being the first one there the last one lead to leave uh you know the list goes on and so when they were winning he was the greatest leader out there he's an example setter we love his cliches we love when he speaks to the media he's so upfront he's a grown man he prepares well look how effective he is one of the best quarterbacks in the nfl all of a sudden they go 10 and 1 he's an mvp candidate no one's talking about anything they start to falter and this was happening to me by week seven week eight it was starting to fall apart and i seen it and i called it out a couple times they stopped running the football they started featuring different guys defense was awful they couldn't tackle wasn't covering well and they just weren't the same team and everyone's expectation was so high for what they seen at the super bowl run well it's hard to get back there consistently and do it each and every year but the first person they looked at was jaylen oh do you think that he can be more of rah rah guy you know he doesn't smile much maybe hang out with the guy no that's not him that's not what you saw since he's gotten there so why would he change and then it's like you know well he's not he's not the same guy out on the field he was banged up a little bit and he's trying to grow his game like let's everybody just relax because the same question can go to josh allen the same question can go to joe burrow the same question can go to lamar it can go to everybody it can go to patrick mahos this year we can say well patrick didn't patrick had like 15 interceptions this year well he's not throwing anybody that's happened to a lot of quarterbacks like you know what i'm saying but where is patrick now patrick's here in the super bowl and so i think for everyone that points the finger at jaylen at this point is just trying to find an answer and the first person they can say oh it's jaylen and then they think they're good well the first finger i point is that nick seriani well i don't the first i don't think he should be the coach anymore i believe he should i believe he should but i'm gonna tell you why okay go ahead um i'm gonna tell you why because he's another guy since he's got in the building things have changed the culture has changed the attitude has changed the approach has changed they were winning the one that i pointed the finger at who should be on the not be on a hot seat but the one that's under fire i know he is how he rolls i knew you were gonna say that he brought these this talent in and then they paid this talent that they had and they kept guys a little bit too long but here's the problem i have with that going into this year everyone said oh i love this roster with the eagles i love this team with the eagles they should be a super bowl team as they said that it's not a good job of the gm then as the as they said that who was the one bouncing around like yeah that's me yeah gm of the year that's what i'm saying so if you're you're willing to stand in front of the camera and smile and gloat you got to be willing to stand in front of camera so you know i got to do a better job because we haven't hit strong on a lot of our draft picks on a consistent basis you know why selfishly i wanted syriani fire so spike eskett is my boss his father is howard eskin howard i know spike yeah howard and i know how howard hates bill belicheck like hates bill belicheck like anyone ever before i would have loved to have seen bill uh coaching the eagles then having howard suck up and kiss ass of uh bill belicheck that's what i wanted to see how howard would have done that i would have done that and i'm sure jeffrey potty looked and entertained that a little bit but it was right to keep no nick but the thing that kind of threw me off is why you fire all your all your coordinators and coaches like that made no sense so that's why i don't think he should be brought back because because here's why it was all it had to be an ultimatum it either had to be like because they did that to doug they did that to doug peterson but here's the difference doug won a super bowl doug doug had the leg to stand on where he should say but that was me like i'm a puppet i get to pick my coordinators but that was funny you said that because before it in they were trying to fire doug very after the first year they they were like i don't know if doug's the guy he's not vocal enough remember i think it was who was the uh defensive coordinator that was coaching or defensive line coach that was there jim schwartz jim schwartz they wanted him to be the head coach he's got the he's got the pulse of the team they're following the season exactly they were trying to fire doug that and that was what was going they were all talking and so they allowed doug to stay doug wins the super bowl not everyone loves doug and as soon as things start to fall apart doug's the first one to go but that see the organization and i love doug peterson as a coach i know they had a disappointing year this season but for doug peterson when he was brought in he was viewed as kind of a puppet and now i kind of think nick is viewed as a puppet where it's jeffrey and howie pulling the strings and he's he's the coach and they said that like what do you do you're not calling the plays your defensive coordinator situation was disaster this year and he lost control of the locker room who brought who brought patricia that's a good question i don't know the answer to that you think that was howie yeah donovan just looked at me he's like what are you stupid well the thing is think about it did you even know patricia was on the staff i knew he was on the staff when did they bring him in they brought him in the off and in the off season right so you got the side he's like an analyst role or something like that and then he becomes a defensive coordinator quickly in right but but also then shouldn't there been a problem on decide getting the job at first decide actually it should have been learned under it should have been uh denard wilson that's what it should have been i think this i learned under vic fagio am i correct i think you may be right on that yeah and so who's now the d coordinator oh yeah see and so decide took the hit well we all know that was ganon's fault because if ganon was just more truthful what was going on with the cardinals fangio would have been in miami he would have been in philly last year well all this is avoided well i don't know about that but i mean you know it's it's one because people are patient enough like you lose both coordinators and become head coaches yeah and then you fill the role with the guys like i don't think john johnson was that bad of a coordinator to to fire him in one year decide i think just you have to look at the talent that he has out there so is it the scheme or is it the players and so it's the pretty much the same scheme that we see with with the last defensive coordinator am i correct yeah you're not wrong and so now you look at they've lost a lot of guys lost safeties both of their safeties are gone lost the linebacker now they got the same guys that detackle which davis is now healthy enough jordan davis and then you go and get get their first first round quarter first round defensive tackle very good he should have been up for rookie of the year but i just i look at in the sense of they're not getting the production up front because remember what did how many sacks did they have last year oh they love the league it was historical yeah they were toward the bottom of the and then also at the end of the year they were dropping asan redick into coverage didn't make sense and i am a huge huge huge asan redick band he was a college classmate of mine at temple so didn't make sense anyway i could talk to you all day yeah congratulations the show with you and armando's been fantastic this year appreciate it the five spot check us out on our kick yes youtube spotify boom there we go he still knows how to cut the promo you know after all these years donovan mcnabb thanks so much antonio gates coming up next improv comedy the chris chatman do-over an odyssey and paper kite production listen on the free odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts all righty welcome back in and this is at gilb show coast to coast on cbs sports radio and of course now it's time for ask the pros question of the day it's time to ask the pros where you the listener gets asked this question it's brought to you by rally auto parts simply tweet your question at cbs sports radio or at sack yelp using the hashtag ask the pros be listening later in the show we might answer your question think about the auto parts for all your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at o'reilly auto parts now joining us live on set in las vegas at the mandalay bay convention center he's one of the greatest tight ends in the history of the nfl and that of course is antonio gates chargers legend nfl legend and antonio gates joins us right now antonio always appreciate the time thanks so much for coming on how are you i'm good man how you doing well i'm doing fantastic so there's no good way to go about this right this is like the the awkward moment whenever uh people sit down interview today full disclosure when we scheduled you last week i said this is going to be awesome and he's going to get the announcement on thursday he's going to be a hall of famer on friday it's going to be great i was shocked shocked last night i couldn't believe it it makes no sense yeah uh you uh want to make both of us but i think reality is that you know you try to um learn from this situation right you you know to me i've always felt like timing was everything and in due time things will happen the way they're supposed to happen uh unfortunately the disheartening part about all of it was just uh to me the pain of not being able to go in and get in that call but more importantly like the people who went through this journey with me the family the friends uh just me feeling like i let them down and i think that's the pain part because i know they wanted it bad i know they know i put in the work from a sacrificial standpoint so uh you know at the end of the day you win you win and you have you succeed in certain things and same things you don't but every single day you get up and you move forward whether or not you do it you succeed or not and i think that's the main approach that you need to take in this type of circumstance and i remember i know dwight freeman well so congratulations to dwight obviously i actually got a text for him that's my guy too but but i said the same thing to dwight last year i was like i couldn't believe he he didn't get in and then it happens that the next year and it's it's a weird process i said the wife i know right it's crazy i said the same thing and and for someone like you everyone you say there's some people that get called legendary and it's like all right they're not really a legend you are actually with your story and what you did on a football field you're a legend so we all know it's inevitable we all know it's going to happen but it's just a weird spot because you retired five years ago there's nothing you could do to continue on the stats and and add on to that nor should you need to so it puts you in just like an awkward position it does man i you know like i said man it's one of those things it's just you control what you can control and i think that's you doing what you know and uh every single day you being who you are at the end of the day i don't know if one moment can define a person uh you know i don't believe that and i don't know if someone else's perspective can define a person i think my journey is special in its own right just like the guys who went in their journey is special in its own right and like i said man due time that you know things probably would happen uh just have to be patient and timing is everything and everyone's going to try to be like a genius today antonio gates and tell you why you didn't get in and try to come up with these theories the only theory i have and it once again goes to the process yeah is that you know whoever was presenting you right it's the chargers so it's not one of these big flashy teams like if you let's be real you played for the cowboys oh you played for the packers like one of these iconic legendary brands you would have been in no questions asked so i just wonder if it's more of the the process that kind of gets exposed into this because i yeah maybe i'm wrong on this like when to didn't get in i thought it was bullcrap i think that the writers were just sticking it to him because maybe they thought he wasn't the greatest teammate or he didn't talk to them i don't think anyone's really ever had a difficult uh post-game experience with you in the locker room am i wrong on that no you're not uh i know i i think so i that's what's you know it's always hard to wrap your head around things when you don't understand them i think you know believing in what's right and what's going to happen is more importantly you don't lose belief uh you don't lose faith you know what i mean i think it's just it becomes the timing yes unfortunately uh next year it'd be another great group of guys coming in that's a very elite group to be in the pro football hall of fame is a very exclusive elite group um just hopefully i've done enough to be mentioned in that in that realm of people all right i'll ask you one more hall of fame question then i'll stop bugging you um about this stuff as antonio gates is here with us did you genuinely like because the last few years i used to write have david baker knock on your door all righty you're in the hall of fame like the the night before uh everything goes down or actually a few hours before everything goes down the last few years i've seen that they've had players like come to people's houses did you genuinely find out last night that you weren't getting into the hall of fame or is this something you knew the last few days uh well you know they did tell you before actually the day you know because i think um you know i guess i don't know guys we used to get mad that they would come with their families and everything and uh give them the option to still come you know if they didn't make it i think some guys don't know they're going in so those are the guys that they probably don't call you know yeah it makes sense so i don't know what the formula i don't know really what the formula is i got the news prior to yesterday though oh so i knew and uh i think uh the shocking part for me was i mean you know i've been through a lot in in terms of like just the sports in general because i was a basketball player but i think what was surprising i was telling somebody this earlier i couldn't believe how hard i was like uh you know because you know it's one thing to not get yeah you know not win a super bowl or whatever or you get to i don't know what it was that made it so painful you know like because it's just i'm stepping stone right i'm closer than what i was before that's all i see all i'm saying is your focus and your destination is to get to a certain place right so i you know i don't know why it was such a very very disturbing pain sharp disturbing pain because i just felt like damn this is crazy you know i actually had wouldn't lay down i'm like emotional i'm like this is crazy why am i so hurt then i thought about i said you know because i put in so much work i put in so because my degree of difficulty unlike any other player that ever played the game it's just what it is what it is is not me saying it in no egotistic way is what i had to come from a free agent to be a starter as a rookie starting in the nfl as a rookie is already hard but i guess being a basketball free agent is even harder do you understand to start i think i was a starter as a rookie i went to the pro bowl as a second year so for me not to be a basketball player let alone if i was just a free agent or just a regular college kid if a guy was cj stroke is doing and what they won rookie of the year offense that's what i was doing you deserved it but they was number one and number they were both first rounders right so next year he got to go to the pro bowl well he did go to pro bowl but next year you understand what i'm saying i was doing that as a free agent but still with no bass no football so that meant i had to do something so like eye warming to the coaches that have forced them to say you know what he's a basketball player start him that you do you understand what you got to do to become a starter let alone as a free agent to become but what if you didn't even play you know that'd be like you're just getting up and going to play for the lakers and then you'd be like man guess what he's starting you know what i'm saying do you know what let's be if i was playing for the lakers right because i can throw some elbows and pops out that's about it it would be like that kind of concept it's like so i understand sports to the core because i was a basketball player um i just that part is what's probably the the thing i'm like damn what did i do wrong nothing because i just i felt like my range was such a difficult thing to do and i'm not like i said i'm not saying it because i'm just saying for me as a person i just know how hard it is to play in the national football league i know how hard it is to make a team let alone i know how hard it is to start then i know how hard it is to be a franchise guy because i had to go to those layers and then staying at that level right so now you're talking a guy that's done all that and try to do it etiquette that mean you you take time from your family you lose friendships along the way you you're not with your wife and kids you you're spending so much time into perfecting something i remember preparing to the point where i wouldn't worry about playing i was worried about playing well understand what i'm saying so i prepared to play well because those guys were dependent on me you know and i just never wanted to let them down i felt like i didn't do it i didn't go in i let y'all down you know what i mean so despite all that sacrificing and hours of when guys would leave and i stayed that's those are what that meant to me those are what hall of famer guys mean to me like superstars are just guys who play at a high level to me when you become a hall of famer you've done it for so long you prepared at a level it comes with a stigma of you you don't have as much time to spend with your family kids and i think i you know i know i did that you know i mean because i i've seen myself look back on it like man all them days of just being there and practicing and training and training and training i still feel sure how could that be possible as a human i want to know what i did wrong and you know what the unfortunate part is this hall of fame class it's nothing about the guys that that are going in it's going to be remembered as wow antonio gates didn't get it it's it's just the way i've covered this stuff long enough yeah that's more people last night on social media i saw were saying can't believe antonio gates didn't get in compared to oh congratulations to you guys congratulations to this guy congratulations to that guy congratulations to that guy so you know what you're going to get in you know i it's slam dunk you know pun intended yeah that you will be a hall of famer and i'm just shocked that we're sitting here today let me ask about the current group of the chargers jim harbaugh you got to be excited right it seems like that's a big time move that puts the chargers on the map in la yeah he he's uh all right he's a proven commodity i mean what's not to like about that that choice uh you know he's approving he's proven it in the pro in the pro level too so he's i've watched him turn that san francisco 49ers team around uh he has a a history of being able to you know transform quarterbacks and making them play at the max of their potential i watched him take a michigan team and win a national championship when i know alabama team was a better team physically and talented wise so i you know so that means he understands how to get the max out of his players and i think that's what it comes down to in a pro level is how can you find a way to get your guys to buy in and now you take a winning a proven winning coach who has who has a the respect that he has and you know obviously the accolades that he has i'm sure those guys would buy in not to say that the coach who we had before he couldn't do that but i guess when you start losing games you can lose those kind of things and i think now we are we are i'm excited the fans are excited to see the excited you hear the the vibe that's around surrounding los angeles so we all excited about jim and what he's able to do with a guy like justin and kean and hopefully we bring austin back if not whatever we do uh we have weapons to be here next year we're in new orleans and and you know what your teams when you played i know sean marriman well he comes on in new york city all the time he was trying to tell me the other day that the euro team in 07 was better than the 07 patriots i said in 2006 maybe it was the 14 and 2 year i had you had you had a you had a great point that team was better the patriots got lucky not in uh 07 but the the guys that you had marriman lt you and those powder blue uniforms man like i'm i grew up as a kid on long island yeah every single kid had an lt jersey had a antonio gates jersey and because that powder blue was was just so unique well hey we got a rap because i we have a hard out at the top of the hour and i already start to hear the music it's like the grammys they're going to start fading the music up and they're going to try to get us off the set i wish you nothing but the best and i know that this was tough but next year we're having a party in new orleans uh vegas it's a good time to have a party i'd rather get some gumbo though uh in new orleans and we'll get you in the hall of fame next year he's antonio gates this is the zach yelp show on cbs sports radio bijan robinson good to join us coming up in the next hour we'll come on back live from las vegas a peanut butter m&m's production in a world where super bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring but the runners-up get nothing one retired cop return that's one retired quarterback read the script oh sorry one retired quarterback returns to claim what's his um that's claim a ring with diamonds made from m&m's peanut butter but you're on a roll the ring of comfort coming soon to a super bowl new you okay picture this it's friday afternoon when a thought hits you i can spend another weekend doing the same 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