Michael Strahan: My Greatest Hit
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How you doing, man? I'm good. I'm good. The tables have turned. Now you're in the hot seat and I like it. Not quite yet, buddy. I could turn it back anytime now. I know. You know, you're better at this than I am. I need to learn from you. You're a pro. But see, that's the thing. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I've never figured out what I was doing. That's why I'm doing it. If I knew what I was doing, they wouldn't like me. Yeah.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Literally with Rob Lowe. First of all, I just want to thank everybody for being a part of this podcast. I mean, turns out we're kind of crushing it. And that is a function of you, not me. God only knows that is the truth. It's all you.

But I really feel like we have a family out there. We have a real fan base of people who just really get what we're trying to do. And I read all the comments. So if you're posting reviews on Apple, please do because I read every one of them. And I learn a lot from them. And I'm learning how to make it better and better and better. But I'm glad you guys are loving it. And we have a really good one today. Very excited to get my sports freak on with one of...

The true Adonises on the planet and one of the nicest guys. If I could bottle his work ethic, I would be the most successful man on the planet. Michael Strahan.

We're going to talk to him. He is the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, multiple years, Super Bowl champion, 2008, against the undefeated New England Patriots, and literally is on every television show that's made. I mean, he's Mr. Good Morning America.

He's got the $100,000 pyramids produced. It's enough already with all the stuff this guy's doing. So we talked to him a few weeks back, but I'm really happy to finally get this out for you guys to hear it because it's a really fun conversation. So sit back and enjoy a really fun talk with a really great dude, Michael Strahan.

Isn't it true how like ignorance is bliss? It really is. Because, you know, when you go in and you don't know what to do there, you don't know what's right, what's wrong. You just go by instinct and then people can relate to that. I hate it when people are trying to be too perfect.

Yeah, nobody's perfect. Nobody. So when you screw up, you flub a word, you do this, you do that. Naturally, like on the news, especially I always be so worried. Make sure you say the word correctly. But you'll screw up in a conversation with somebody and you automatically correct yourself.

And I learned TV is the same way. Did you have a news voice? I like that news voice you were just doing. It was good. Well, I've had to develop one, Rob. Yes, this is Michael Strahan. This is Michael Strahan at ABC News. Oh, it's really good. It's buttery. Ha, ha, ha.

You know what I did? I don't think I have a news voice, but it's funny. I was at I was probably somewhere that I shouldn't have been. I think I was at Krispy Kreme or something. And I ordered and the girl said, boy, you have a news voice. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I do. Thank you very much. Maybe feel good about myself. I saw today a headline as I peruse the headlines every morning that there was some famous person.

poll that said 57 is the age you're officially old. That's my age. And I will say that like I'm, I have, look, I'm talking to a NFL all-star, but I get, I'm stiff when I wake up. What? You must be like the tin man. Ha ha ha ha ha.

You know what? I stiff when I wake up. I'm stiff when I'm sleeping. I wake up out of my sleep because the stiffness hurts so much. Oh, good. Me too. That's how bad it is, man. And I don't know what it is. You know what? It's so funny because I felt great. I'm 48 now, 15 years, retired at 36. I feel great. Body's good.

And working at Fox, Howie Long would always go, one day, Michael, you just wake up and shit just starts hurting. And I'm like, Howie, please just shut up. Like you're an old man. Be quiet. Yeah, right. He's right. He's right. The first like two years ago, I said, damn, Howie, man, I woke up. My my my freaking knee is just killing me.

And he just starts laughing at me. And I'm going, you jinx me. But he's right. Now my back is hurt. I get twinges in my legs. I'm like, where's that coming from? My knee still hurts. I never had a knee problem when I played. I think age just gets you in my shoulder now. But 57, I got a little ways to go. But that's not old. That's old back in like 1900s.

It's 2020. It's dead in 1900. Yeah, you're dead in 1900. Like now, 57, you're just getting started. Look at you. You don't have a wrinkle on your face. I feel, I actually do feel that way. I mean, I know I've never been in better physical shape for sure, in spite of how it feels.

And just in terms of my life and meant all of it, I wouldn't trade. I wouldn't trade this year age for any year I've ever had in my life for sure. So if this is what old is, you know, I'll take it. Right. You have a high definition camera on your face right now. That's a good technical question. You are a broadcaster. That is you don't have a wrinkle, man. You know, they say black don't crack. But I argue with that point looking at you.

That is one non-cracking white guy right there. Thank you. Thank you, brother. I think I might – my dad's like that, though. My dad – one of my earliest memories of my father is back in the day in Ohio, we'd go to, like, the county fairs, and they used to have guess your age and guess your weight booths, and we would clean up. They'd be like, you're 25. And then my dad would, you know, be like, no, I'm 40. Yeah.

That's a good thing. Let's kill it. That's how you compliment somebody their age. And I'm like, oh, no, I'm this age. Like, they're mad that they're older. I'm like, take it while you can get it. Because one day you're going to look your age. You're not going to like it. So I was obsessed with the Michael Jordan documentary, Last Dance. I'm assuming you were, right? Oh, yeah, man. Best thing on TV in a long time. It is like, wow. Michael Jordan had the attitude, right?

The only closest guy, the closest guy to him is Kobe to me. Totally. And I love LeBron. I think LeBron is an incredible, this generation's Jordan, of course. But the killer instinct and the guy who wants the ball in his hands every shot or at least the last shot or in the biggest crunch time or who had a switch that nobody else had, nobody had like Michael Jordan. And you cannot be a nice guy. I mean, people talk about how mean he is.

I'm like, I get it because I had to be an asshole too at times. And it's amazing because there's teammates, like pro teammates going, was he a nice guy? No. And I'm thinking, well, I don't know. Because like from where I stand, he's just a gnarly competitor. Yeah. But I think they're the fine line to be a competitor and being –

How could I put it? Motivating to be a good teammate. It's a balance. And I think Michael leaned more towards the, I'm going to ride your ass until you get it done. Instead of the, you know, everybody's a little different. Let me coddle this guy a little bit. Like I knew it. When you play football, you got like 50 something guys. Right. It is so hard to get everybody on the same freaking page. Like, hey.

We all I got to motivate each guy in a different way if you're the leader of that team. So I can go to one guy and I got to scream at him like, come on, let's go. And then I go and I look at Eli Manning, who's just sitting there like, you know, you can't yell at Eli. You got to just say like, no, dude, you can't yell at Simple Jack. No, you can't yell at Simple Jack. I can't do it.

Unless you want to lose them, you'll lose simple jack real quick. Yeah. But that's what I learned, man. You just got to like motivate each person differently. A basketball team, I think it's a little different. You can win with two or three great guys. Football, I need like a special team, offense, defense, like everybody. I think this has been one of the most fascinating documentaries. I could watch it over again and it would get me excited and

I've had to tape it and watch it, like, today in the morning because it gets me too amped up. Yes. Yeah, so what is everybody saying about, like, some of my greatest memories would be sitting with MJ and Ahmad, right? And those two are inseparable. Inseparable. And it always used to make me laugh at the end of games when Ahmad would play the journalist talking to Michael. And, like, they're total homies. Like, and it just...

Where they're like both playing a role. Like Jordan's playing. It's like, it just, that dynamic used to make me laugh because they were so close. But what are people in the sports world saying about the doc? But everybody loves it. Everybody loves it. Now I'm on a thread. I mean, a thread, like a text chain with the defensive line from the Super Bowl back in 07. Wow. And everybody watches it. We always, you know, we always talk about it. And the one thing that,

that we all understand. We understand his mentality. And on our team, I probably was more like the Michael guy because I didn't like, I was older and I wasn't putting up in anybody's bullshit. You know, it was like, okay, I'm here to win. I don't have much time left. I wish I had won six. I wish I was Tom Brady. But Brady's the same way. Like Tom's the same way. And every team, I hate to say it, put it in these terms, but it's true.

We always say you got to have a few thugs on your team. Yeah, you can't have a team of nice guys. I mean, that's the Dodgers problem. I'm a big Dodgers fan. That's that's the problem with the Dodgers. They're all too nice. I love them, but they're too nice. You got to have a few guys that are just go slap somebody just for the hell of it. You know what I'm saying? Just why did you do that? Just because your face is there. I don't know.

Like, you got to have a few guys who have some dog in them. You can't all be nice guys. And that's how that team was. That's one thing. Every player, they understand it. We've had the debate on our chain about who is the –

best player, GOAT. Jordan's the guy, right? Jordan and Kobe. Yeah. You don't have to think Kobe is as close to Jordan as we'll see. Yep. Mannerism, size, mentality. And I was friends with Kobe too, man. And that like, even seeing those two and seeing Kobe last week, and I just got a reminder, a friend sent me like two years ago when I was with Kobe, a picture of us and like,

Just, you so, it makes you so happy that you knew him, but makes you so sad that, you know, he's not with us anymore. But what, that all-star thing with him and Jordan, all thing, you hear Jordan talking about, that little Laker boy, that little Laker kid, he's not even letting the game come to him. He's taking it. Ha ha!

I was like, this is great. Like, this is stuff we would never see. And to know they've been sitting on that for 20 years. Amazing. I mean, that whole – whenever you guys get miked up for a fan like me, it's the best. I mean, hearing – whether it's Belichick talking shit or whatever it is. Because you know the guys are talking. You can see it. You're watching the game and you see the mouse move. You have no idea what's really being said. And I would love – Well, sometimes it's cool. I know.

I would love to see more mic'd up stuff going on. I would love it. Yes, but sometimes you're being nice. Hey, how's your wife? How's your kid? How's your mom? You know? And then other times you're like...

F your mom, F your wife, F your kids. It's crazy, man. All within like you just have guys who get along, you have guys who hate each other. It's the most insane thing to be on that field and hear some of the talking going because any place outside of that, it would literally be like call the police. We're going to fight.

But it's amazing. That's one thing I do love about football, that if you do, if somebody has a problem, like if somebody did something illegal to me, I would tell them I'm about to put you on the ground. I would tell them. And for me, it was motivating to me because I didn't talk a lot of smack unless you basically talked to me. And then the floodgates are open. And I don't care what I said. I don't care about your feelings at all. You meant nothing to me. And it was so funny because I remember a pregame speech yesterday.

um super bowl year and fox came they had the executives or somebody kept one of the giants people come and said michael you know you do the pre-game stomp you out speech blah blah blah can you not curse for like 15 seconds of it so that they can air it and i'm like get the fuck out of here

Get out of here. I'm not. Hey, man, I don't care about the networks and who wants to air what. I'm not here with you. We're trying to win a game. Get out of my face. And a lot of beeping goes on because I never knew I was going to say those speeches anyway. Just kind of came out. And that was one of my favorite things. That's what you miss the most. I don't miss like I don't miss practice. Of course, I don't miss getting beat up.

You miss the guys and you miss the crap talking. You miss the, just the competition in a game, like the physicality of it, because you could talk all the crap you want. It's nothing better than being able to talk it and actually back it up and physically get into it with somebody and not get, go to jail for it. I kind of missed that. That's the great Jordan quote from, he says, yeah, they were taught. He was taught. It's easy to talk shit when you're up five points. Let's see you talk. Let's see you talk shit when the score is zero, zero.

And you're down five. Yeah. Quarterback talk the most smack. Wow. You know, it's quarterback. A lot of them try to contain themselves because, you know, I never I never thought, you know, I always kind of got quarterbacks, whatever. You know, we're the pretty guys get all the girls. They get paid more than everybody else. I played quarterback in a Kurt Warner's charity football likes charity.

flag football thing and every celebrity football player had to play quarterback. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I throw a nice deep ball. I really surprised myself. I like that. I like to see that. But the short passes were a little tough. The touch passes, I put a little too much zip on them. That was a little off. But it gave me such a respect for

For the quarterback, because stuff is flying. Like people are crossing, coming from everywhere. And I'm like, oh, my God, what do I do? I can't imagine being in a game where all that's happened, yet these guys can actually hit you and they want to hurt you.

So I have all the respect in the world for quarterbacks, but most of them try to stay really focused because they got to get up and call plays and do all that stuff. Right. McNabb, Donovan McNabb would talk to you, you know, because he and I can do Chucky Soup commercials together. And, you know, so I would hit him and I'd be like, yeah, call your mama for some more Chucky Soup. You know what I'm saying? I would just be all up out of it. He would talk back. Favre would talk. Tom Brady would talk.

Tom is no punk, man. Tom, Tom, man. There's a reason this guy is who he is because he would get hit. You could say whatever you wanted to him and he would give it back to you. Like basically say, bring it, you punk. Or he would curse out his lineman if you were hitting him too much, like in the Super Bowl. He would, I'm actually surprised. Like, yo, you yell at people like this and you think they're going to block better for you? Wow. I would let you get hit more. Ha ha ha.

That's amazing to hear about Brady because he is kind of an enigma. It's really interesting. It's like there's something unknowable about Tom, I think. I think Tom doesn't want you to know. Right. Kind of keeps it that way. But when you're with him in person, he talks a lot of smack. That's so great. I love that. I always like the quarterbacks who get decimated.

And then we'll like come up and pat you on the back. Nice hit. Nice hit. Yeah, that kind of that kind of takes a little bit out of you. That's that's what you call psychology right there, man. You hit a guy as hard as you can. His cat pats you on the back. It's almost like he's completely taken everything from you. He just he just sniffed you. That's what I'm saying. That's that's the baller move when you see that.

Yeah, that's where you got to get your hands off me. You know, you got to act like you really like get off me, even though inside you're going, oh, man, that was really nice. He's a sweet guy. If you OK, so my boys are big football fans and we like to debate on what's the hardest hit we've ever seen. And I think it has to be when Drew Brees hung Reggie Bush out to dry with this fluttery little.

you know, sideline pass. And I don't know who took a running shot at him, but you know, you know, the head I'm talking about, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. Reggie's like my little brother, man. I, you know, Enzo, come on, baby. Daddy's working over here. So Reggie's like my little brother. He got that hit and I hit, I had to text him. I didn't know if he could read texts after that. I thought his vision was going to be blurry for at least a good month. That was crazy.

And you asked him about it. He was like, he tried to hop up like it was nothing. And then realized that his mind and his body weren't coordinated anymore. They were not in sync. So he just, he had to just go down. You know what's so crazy? When you're out there on the field, like a hit like that, you'll be running over there. You still got to get hit. You'll even say to yourself, whoa. But you don't realize there's so many hits like that.

when you're watching the film and you're in the meeting room and the guy gets hit, I guarantee you Reggie's teammates laughed at him in the meeting the next day when they watched it. Especially if they won the game. If they won the game, if you get knocked out and your team won the game, when you get in those meeting rooms, coaches are winding their back, guys are like, run that back, run that back. And they're clowning you, dude. They're clowning you.

And I've taken some hits and each one, it doesn't really hurt sometimes, but you know, it looks bad. And all I'm thinking is, oh my God, I'm going to get clowned as I'm getting it before I even hit the ground. I'm always already going, oh my God, they're going to clown me on this. Oh my God. And when you stop playing football though, and we do one game a year, basically that we go towards this year too, because we did the Superbowl for Fox. But other than that,

Maybe one game a year we go to and I watch guys get hit. I'm like, who is dumb enough to play football? This is like, they're hitting too hard. These guys are too big. What idiot would do this? Then I realized that I was one of those idiots. And one of those is putting the hits on people. You get hit and put the hits on people. Yeah, I like the hitting because I have a better chance of doing a hitting than getting hit. But Reggie and those guys, man, I mean, the shot that they take, I don't know how running backs do it. Just...

Bam, bam, bam. And no mercy at all. No. None. I'm excited to see these new stadiums. We finally got a big stadium here in LA. Yeah. That's the most expensive stadium ever. But I got to tell you something. The one in Vegas looks badass. That stadium looks nuts. And it opens like a clamshell and all this stuff. It's going to be insane. Yeah.

Well, all this, I mean, it's really amazing. The Giants, you know, the Giants and Jets built MetLife. They opened that. I retired in the next season. They opened that. Can we talk about MetLife for a minute? Let's do a little, let's talk about this. All right. So I'm friends with the Tisch family. And I'm like, Steve, come on. I know you have taste and I know you have money and I know you know what's what.

And you built this thing, this nothing, this nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing. You don't get any feeling. You have no feeling when you're there. It's just blah.

There's nothing. And I agree. And what kind of stadium you have each level, 100, 200, 300 level. And in order to get from one side to over to that side, you got to get to an elevator and go down and go over and then go back up. I just make the thing on thing go all the way around level to level. What are you doing? It just makes no sense to me. I don't have any feeling when I, I mean, I, I go there and it's just like, okay, it's like blah. Yeah.

And when we had Giant Stadium, it was decrepit. It was beat up.

We didn't have a facility. Everything we did was in the basement. So it was like, it was old school, which I'm great. I'm happy for because you know what? New York is rough, man. I'd go over there now when they have private chefs and you're skyline through these tall glass windows. You can see the skyline of New York. I would have been over there about 350 pounds looking at the skyline. I wouldn't give a damn about football. I'd have been too comfortable. Yeah.

And now, you know, but back then we had a dude who's cooked breakfast on a hot plate. Okay. The hot plate used to sit in the same room. That was our lounge, our like media. When the media come in, they cleared out, put a podium where you give your speeches, uh,

It was our lunchroom. You know, it was also Jimmy Hoffa's gravesite, apparently. Exactly. You can smell him sometimes when at breakfast, man. But the guy would cook freaking breakfast on two hot plates. And he had a towel to wipe out the hot plates. But he would get so hot, he'd wipe his face. And then the hot plate, you were like...

Dude, I'm telling you, it was primitive times back then. And then they built this new place that, like you said, I agree with you, has no soul, has no feeling. I don't understand anything. I don't understand why they did it. I also don't understand when it's the bright – they're billionaire businessmen. They have the access to everything.

And we know that home field advantage is such a big deal. Why wouldn't you build a stadium acoustically that you know is going to be loud? You design it. They build theaters that way. They build everything. Why? It's when they opened Levi's Stadium, right? Yeah. They had like fondue patios everywhere.

And like white wine spritzers and bean bag lounges. And then meanwhile, you'd be in watching the game and you could literally hear a pin drop.

You need a pin drop. People too comfortable. Like a football game, it's not about that. I know they're trying to play to whatever they feel like the demographic is in the area, but they need to learn. Go to Philly where they got a jail in the basement. Like, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. And I tell you, it's my favorite place to play because they get their friends game. Not a damn man. We would be on the bus.

First of all, you would get like death threats in your hotel room. You know, they call it a threat. Yeah. Which is crazy. Then you get on the bus to go to the game. And as you're cruising along, you come into the stadium with your police escorts and you can see the stadium like, you know, a bar.

500 yards away and the closer you got, you realize that the people, you go down south and the worst you get is that people give you the thumbs down. Or they wave at you like, hey, we're happy you're here to beat our team or to play. You go to Philly, man, they're giving you the picking up, they're giving you the middle finger. And those are the grandkids. That's not even the parents yet, okay? I'm telling you, the kids, then they would moon you.

No. They would be mooning the bus, and then they'd moon you and put their butts up against the chain link fence. So you got like a pizza board ass. They're all cut. It's like, come on, man. And they would throw batteries at you. I mean, they would. I remember we were playing a game in Philadelphia in an old veteran stadium, which was the worst stadium in the world. The turf sucked. The stadium sucked. Everything. But it was my favorite place because the fans were literally...

eight feet it felt like they were eight feet behind you like on top of you and we're we're playing a game we're getting beat down by i want to say 14 or 16 at halftime we come back we tie it up we go into overtime and christian peter tips the ball i catch it and i run in for a touchdown yes now i'm not i'm and earlier that week i actually went to a concert with tiki barber let me throw a few other people's name i think greg camilla a few but we went to see um ricky martin

OK, so Ricky Martin would just come out there in the front of the stage and he would just go just like pose and the whole crowd would go crazy. So I said, oh, I get a touchdown. I'm a hit with the Ricky Martin. And they're all making fun of me because like I'm a D lineman. I don't touch the football, man. I scored that touchdown and I hit him with that Ricky Martin.

Ooh, they were dipping and spitting in cups. You know, you spit in the cup. Yeah. All of a sudden I just get hit with all that crap. Oh no. It was worth every second of it, baby. Take that Philly. Take that, take that, take that. As Puff Daddy would say. That is, oh man. Hold that thought. We'll be right back.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers, passport. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. So let's talk about Simple Jack. You played with Simple Jack for many years. I love Simple Jack. I love that family. I've been made an honorary Manning so I can – because they give me more shit. Apparently the Mannings have seen St. Elmo's fire recently.

like 75 times and they quote from it. I've been to parties where the three brothers will sit there

And quote lines from, and you're like, what the fuck is Peyton Manning doing? Quoting. And then, you know, I had Peyton on my, my comedy central roast. Yeah. He was my first, first person I invited. And he said he was so funny, but Eli, I'm, I'm bummed that it ended the way it did for him. Although his legacy is, is amazing. And there's, I mean, he's, there's nothing you can say. His legacy is what it is, but yeah,

I just felt bad that he wasn't as celebrated as I thought he should have been leaving, finishing his career in New York. No, I agree. I think last the year before last, when they said, oh, he started all these consecutive games, record for the second game record for

He beat my record for the most games ever in a Giants uniform. And I'm like, you know, I love Eli. He was a baby when I first got there and won the Super Bowl, I think, his third year. And they took him out. Oh, we're going to look to the future, basically, was their excuse. And they take that and they end up making it. They put in Geno Smith.

No, just no, you know, no, no hate for Gino Smith, but I'm like, okay, that's not the future of this team. And you know it. So if you're going to break a guy's streak who has started almost every game in his career,

for what you know is not the future, then why would you do that? It made no sense to me. Made no sense to me at all. Made no sense to me at all. And then to put him back in, that bothered me. Like, that bothered me. That was just wrong in every way, shape, or form. And someone should have stepped in and said, you know what? I know you're the coach. That ain't happening. That's not happening. That's where Robert Kraft is a badass. Robert Kraft was like, you know what? You're not trading Tom Brady this season. It's not happening. Mm-hmm.

And Jerry Jones does it, but they seem to get his own way sometimes, which I'm not upset. He's a cowboy. So, hey, no.

Let him go. Keep it up. Yeah, exactly. But then Eli, man, I tell you what, the nicest, greatest. I got a teammate as a dude. What you see is what you get. He is funny. He doesn't, you know, in public go out there and scream and holler and do all those things because that's not his personality. But a drunk Eli is a funny Eli, I'll tell you that. I know. Oh, I know. Believe me. Yeah. Those Manny boys are some wild boys. Best. Yeah.

Fun, man. And I felt like Eli is a legend. I think people appreciate him now that he's gone. Yeah. And having Daniel Jones come in, I didn't mind seeing Daniel Jones play last year because, to be honest with you, you're going to get Eli killed. Yeah. Because, you know, the line and everything else, I mean, it just, they didn't, I don't, I felt that time, they didn't necessarily give him everything he needed around him in order to be as successful as he could have been.

And, yeah, I keep telling him retirement's not bad. Let me ask you this. If you were back in your day at your height and you were on an unblocked blitz and the running back was George Stephanopoulos, how far would you hit him into the next universe? Oh, oh.

I don't know if I would want to hit him and drive him, like knock him back. I think with George, I would do what, you know, you hit him and you lift him. And then when you land, you put all your weight on him. Pile drive him. Yeah, you pile drive him so he feels his bones kind of all together. Your weight. And then you stand up and you say, oh, I didn't mean to do that. Are you okay, George? You know. How...

It's so much fun. Rob, I tell you, it's so much fun. When you see a guy standing there and he doesn't see you coming and you are full speed and you're like, oh, I like it like that. I like it like that. Oh, it's going to get. Oh, it's so much fun. And we can hear the art because you don't hear anything when you're on the field. When you get up, when you get down there, like line up.

80,000 people screaming, but it's silent. Only thing you hear, you hit a quarterback. You can hear the guy across from you breathing. You can hear guys talking. You're talking. You hear your linebacker. Only thing you hear is within like 20 feet.

But the second you hit somebody like that, all of a sudden it's like they cranked the cranked his sound up on your headphones and like the loudest they could do it. It's the best feeling in the world. Oh, my God. It's the best. Do you remember your your what's your greatest hit? My greatest hit was probably Gus Farad. Oh, Gus Farad. Yeah. Redskins. It actually was on a two point conversion.

It would suck because I got a sack, but it doesn't count on a two-point conversion. But I had set up this move all day long, this inside move, man. And it was perfection. And Gus is just standing there. He doesn't see me. And when I tried to, I mean, I want to be, okay, people, I used to be violent in a sense, controlled violence, and not anymore. I'm very docile now, but

At that moment in my life, young and crazy, I was trying to take his spine and make it come out of the front of his chest. Like, I just wanted to run through him that hard.

And when I tell you, I think I almost accomplished it. I almost accomplished it. It was the hardest hit to the point where you hit somebody like that. You're like, oh, I know that hurt. Oh, it was fantastic. Fantastic. Did he get up? No, he didn't get up. He was there for a bit. He was down for a bit. He was there for a bit. He was down for a bit. Yeah.

Now, I heard. Is this true that when you were you were really little, like like in 12 and 13, that your like your brothers or sisters were like, you're fat. I can't imagine that. That's not. You know what? Yes. They were nicer than that. They called me Bob. And I didn't know what Bob meant.

So like for years, I thought Bob was like a nickname. Like, okay, go Bob. And I'm, I'm like, I'm the youngest of six. So I'm hanging out with my brother and all their friends. They're calling me Bob. I think that's cool. Like I'm the young kid in this group. I got a nickname. I'm in Bob meant booty on back.

No. Big old butt. Yeah, that's what it meant. Big old butt. Yeah, I was a little chunky. I was big boned, as I like to say. But I'll be honest with you, without them doing that to me, man, I would not have ended up where I ended up. I would not have played football, worked out, or done anything. Because that motivated me to get in shape.

And still to this day, it motivates me to this day. I bought the Jane Fonda workout VHS tapes. I started doing those. Herschel Walker coming out of Georgia. I bought the Herschel Walker workout book and I went to Heidelberg, Germany when Herschel was there doing like an appearance for Kodak.

And I met him when I was 13 and took a picture with him. And later on, I played with him with the Giants and against him when he was at Dallas and Philadelphia and Minnesota. So it's like it was like full circle. But without them making fun of me, I would have still been a big bone dude walking around right now.

Yeah, that's the thing is like, I know, look, bullying is bullshit. We don't like it. I get all that stuff. But man, it's funny. It's like the Michael stuff we were talking about earlier. Sometimes how you handle that can really fire you up. I used to get the same thing. I wanted to be an actor when I was little and I was in a place where there were no other actors and people thought it was like only a girl would want to do it. And they used to call me terrible names and stuff. And I was like,

You know what? I was like, I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to make this shit happen. And I don't know if I would be where I am today without that kind of adversity. But I got to say, the notion of you watching Jane Fonda's – did you wear those leggings that she had? Did you get some of those going? Yeah.

You made my headphones fall off. You know damn well I did not wear those leggings. Oh, I don't know. You know damn well I did not wear those leggings. Well, at least the ones I wore weren't pink. How about that? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

But no, I did not did not wear the leggings that I did not do. But but you're right, though. I think, you know, bullying is awful. I mean, we always talk about it and it's like something society, especially that the cyber bullying stuff. It just it's just so much. Yeah. But I think at the same time, how you handle certain things, develop a certain character that you're going to need later in life about how you're going to handle adversity as well.

And so all the people I'm sure who told you, oh, you ought to do that. That's what girls do, are going, oh, Rob, that's my guy. I used to always talk about acting with him back here. I knew he could do it. I knew he'd be successful. That's how it works. It's true. Now, when you made the transition into television, I mean, I think people who

aren't in entertainment, don't realize the level of competitiveness that there is in, in, in our, in, in our, our world too. We just can't hit each other. I used to, I used to, um, I remember so vividly, um, having a meal with, with magic Johnson in the day. And I was, and I remember telling him I'm so envious that you can back down Larry Bird and,

And like, you guys can go at each other and one of you is going to win and there's no denying it.

In our business, it's like, well, I think he's funnier than that one. Well, I don't. I think that was – and there's no appreciable way to go head-to-head with a peer, a rival, somebody in your league, whatever. And I was always envious that in sports, you could do that. When you transitioned to entertainment, did you find that to be a different experience with your competitiveness? Yeah.

Absolutely. I think I've had to change my outlook on a lot of different things and ways that I approach work and I've approached relationships at work because these business coming from sports, especially football is a team game. Like I have to learn how to be the best I can so I don't let other people down. And also at the same time, I want them to be the best so that we can all come together and have the ultimate goal, which is being the best. And I,

It's not an individual thing where I found, I think anything at entertainment, a lot of it's more individual because everybody's trying to figure out their career, get their career going. So it's not as if me being on your team is necessarily helping my career. I'm the one who's in control of my career. So I have to be more assertive for myself. And I just have never operated that way. And I still don't to this day. I mean, like you say, you know, there's this podcast was like, OK,

I, how do you even go to school for this? How do you learn to do this? You don't, you just talk to people, you have a conversation. And that I think has been the beauty of my post football life is that I've never done anything that,

I've necessarily gone to school for that. I had to really go, oh, you know, I got to elbow this person and move that person and and hope that someone like, no, I'm doing it because it's fun. And then the opportunities just start coming my way. And that's what I've learned in this in the entertainment business, in the news business and everything else that I've done.

You know what? You build a team, but yet you still got to understand that there are people with their agenda to get whatever they need out of it. And I get that in this business. It's not sports whatsoever. So I kind of come into everything with a different attitude because this is gravy on top of an already great life and a great career. So I don't look at it and think that, you know, if this doesn't work out.

going back to my parents. Nah, that ain't happening, buddy. I'm good. So I'm going to enjoy it as I have it and just keep going as long as I can.

You are, I think, the hardest working person, one of them that I know. I mean, the schedule you keep during the season, I don't know. How do you do it? What's the logistics of it? I'm fascinated with logistics. It's insane. You're flying, you're sleeping here. How do you do it all? I don't know. You know what I got to say? This time in quarantine. Yeah.

has really made me rethink how I want to live my life and what I want to do. Now, granted, I got, you know,

Stuff that I have to, I'm obligated to do. But at some point, I really want to take a pullback. I have to pull back because it's just this has made me realize that there is a lot of life to be enjoyed. And a lot of times I'm not really enjoying it because I'm always constantly on the go. So Monday through Friday, I mean, I'm it depends on what time of the year it is. But Monday through Friday, GMA is every day.

I'm up at five and then I'm done with that at nine. And then after that, I change and I go home. But then I have meetings for my production company, my clothing company, management. I've always got stuff going. So that's Monday through Friday, nonstop. Right after work on Friday, I have to go to the airport and go to L.A. because of Fox football. So, yeah.

The plane has become like the greatest place in the world to me. I get on there and I'm just put on the headphones, sleep, do whatever I want to do. Nobody bugs me. And I get to L.A. Friday afternoon. So about four or five o'clock. So I have a nice, you know, relaxed time. Saturdays I play golf pretty much every Saturday in L.A. My only day off in the morning. Then Sunday we're in the studio at 530 until like 5 p.m.

So Saturday is my really only day off. And every other day I have is long, long. And my dad came my dad came to Fox with me one day, 530 in the morning to five. And then we're done. You know, this is easy. I can do this every day. I was like, dude, I get back. Let's get back on the plane and let's go back to the East Coast. So literally, I'm right back on the plane after the show.

And I got to get back to New York because I have to work Monday. So it's like it's nonstop. And then a $100,000 pyramid. Oh, let's talk about it. That's like a week of, you know. The $100,000 pyramid. Okay, so I'm going to go when we're done with this and I'm going to look at you.

I'm eviscerating Gus Farratt on YouTube. But you are going to go on YouTube and watch me eviscerate the $10,000 pyramid. What? When I was 15 years old. I want it, baby. Guaranteed, I want it. Oh, it was. So I'm 15 years.

I get on at 15. It's like some child labor law. They're like work. Don't get like a certain age. You got to be. Well, so I was doing it. My very first big job was a TV series on ABC. And to promote it, they did a chair. It's like a teen version of it for charity. But but you are matched up with other celebrities. So I was matched up. I think. No, I played against Tony Danza.

He was the guy I played against. And I went to the pyramid every round. Wow. Every round I played. Got to the pyramid and then won the pyramid. And it was the best because I love that game. That's my favorite game. I grew up loving that game. And then Dick Clark was the host. Dick Clark. Yeah, Dick Clark, man. I mean, the man. I'm telling you.

First of all, you just talk yourself into coming in and playing the $100,000 pyramid. It's gone up since inflation, you know? Yes, inflation. You just talk yourself in to get an invite for that. I can't imagine playing a game and having Dick Clark be there. I grew up watching the game growing up, and then they had a few versions after. Right. But when they asked me to host it and I said, you know, we're going to produce and host it, I said, okay.

Let me go back and like really watch because I really got to know the game. And all I watched was Dick Clark. I didn't watch anybody else. And the one thing I learned from Dick Clark, first of all, he was so smooth. I mean, so smooth with it.

Secondly, he was so smart in a sense that you could watch certain game shows and the host, you really got to break a lot. Like you got to carry, really carry the game because you got to have a quick comment. You always got to be on top of it. Pyramid is such a special game that the game itself is the star. Right. And you're just like you're Magic Johnson, like you're just handing it off.

You got the celebrities and their guests that they're playing with. That's half the humor. It depends on who the celebrity is. I basically just make sure people at home know what's going on. It is so much freaking fun to do that show. And to do a show that Dick Clark did was amazing. And we're shooting it. And we were going to shoot it in March. And then this whole situation happened. Now we're hoping for August we can shoot the season of it. But it is so much fun, man.

It's the best. It's I remember Dick Clark. And this is amazing because he's the smoothest guy in the world. Right. There's nobody better. He's I mean, but I will tell you that he bungled my introduction five times and we had to reshoot it.

He was literally like, he couldn't say my name. Rob Lowe? He couldn't say Rob Lowe. And then his ad lib, which made me laugh.

was why you look like you're six feet tall. I don't look six feet tall at all. Maybe what he meant to say was I look old for my, for being 15. I come out, Michael and I've got this like David Cassidy hair, like, like part David Cassidy, part Karen Carpenter looking. Oh boy. Shag. It's, it's so fun. But,

But that will be the first thing that I'm looking at the second we're done. I'm all over that. And the other thing, okay, since you have a production company, here's what I want you to develop and bring back. Okay. And I'm dead serious. All right. Okay. I want you to bring back the battle of the network stars. Oh, but for real, like, here's the problem. Cause I grew up watching this in TV and I loved it. Me loved. Right. Yeah. But, but it was,

It wasn't like the fifth guy through the door in CSI. And it was the stars. Yep. And now because there's more than three networks, to really make it work, you'd have to have...

Like the dude from fucking Game of Thrones and against, you know, Better Call Saul along with. I mean, you'd really have to do it. And I don't know if you can do it. I would love to do it. I grew up watching that. So I always wanted to be on it. And they were legit. They'd be out there like kayaking and volleyball. They do everything. But now.

I would do it, but how many stars? I found out, man, people are too serious nowadays. Nobody wants to ever look like they can't do something. Right. Everybody's not great at everything. Be human.

So I think a lot of people get too afraid to be too afraid to look as if they don't master something instead of looking like, hey, I'm out here just to just do my best and have fun. I used to love it. That was one of the best things on TV. And I don't know if you can pull it off because half the time now, all the networks used to do it together. Yeah. Now you got to get clearance from Peter to go over to Paul to go over to Charles and then Chuck. And then it's got to go through Susie, who then got to go through 12 publicists.

You know, three lawyers and 25 agents. And that's just to let you know, no, they're not going to do it. Yeah. Spoken like now I know your production company is legit because that's the number one takeaway from trying to run a production company. It's crazy. And we'll be right back after this.

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Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. I got to ask you a question, man. Yeah, hit me. Okay, who's your favorite team, by the way, NFL team? Well, see, here's the thing. Because we've not had a team for so long, I've had to develop other teams.

you know, interest. And, you know, I'm very good friends with Jim Irsay and Peyton played there. So I've got an affinity for the Colts. I love, but on the other hand,

I love New England. I'm a weird dude. Like I can love the Yankees and the Red Sox because I'm not, I don't, I don't live in either place. So I don't have that kind of, and I appreciate Yankees. I appreciate the Red Sox. Like I'm one of those weird dudes that can, can do that. So in football, I'm trying to embrace the Rams now because they're here. But I didn't like last season much. I love Jared Goff. He's a good dude. Let's see how he does this year.

And, I mean, it's kind of a mealy-mouthed answer, I realize, because really I'm a more fan of the league because I haven't had a team for so long. Dude, I'm laughing inside at you right now because I was asking you that because I saw that meme of you wearing an NFL. Oh, the league! You're a fan of the league. I love it. Okay, now...

One of the greatest things ever, dude, I got to tell you. How funny was that? Please explain that to me. That is so funny, man. I like when somebody said that I'm just a fan of Roger Goodell. My team is Roger Goodell. That's my team. Okay, so I'm working for Fox. Fox has that game.

Um, they, they're going to, I know they're going to cut, they want me to go to the, to the game so they can cut to me in the stadium and talk about my new show. It's coming out. So that's the whole point. And it's great because I love football. So it's going to be great. Um, the, the Fox, they send the, it's a bunch of us going up. So they send a plane for us and we get on the plane and there's all this swag to where there is no team swag. Um,

None. It's only NFL swag. Now, I look at that hat and I go, first of all, I've never seen that hat before other than on a ref. I didn't know that it existed. It's a cool hat, actually, though. I actually like that. It's really badass. And I'm like, and this is the best thing ever because it's cool. I've never seen it. And frankly, had they had a team hat, I probably would have chosen one. But people were on my ass. They're like, that's...

Dude, what I tell you, it is truly one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life. You and your hat, it's just an NFL. And the memes and the comments were like first class. My NFL hat has a place in my office. It got so famous. It was one of those things where I was watching the game and my phone started blowing up in my pocket, like crazy, crazy blowing up.

And like, you know, it's like a public figure when your phone blows up like that. It's either something really, really, really good is happening or something really, really, really bad is happening. Panic sets in. You're like, oh, my God. Enzo, Enzo, stop, man. What kind of dog is that? A miniature golden doodle. That's about 30 pounds. And he's wanting her to fly, but he's being tough right now.

He literally sits by the door and looks out the back and looks for a cat that walks on the, I'm in a townhouse. So he sits there and look for a cat that walks on the wall between my townhouse and a neighbor and the cat. I think half the time he's seeing stuff. I don't know. It's never a cat. I see the cat once. So good. Hey, I got a question for you. Who's the best, who's the best celebrity like in our business golfer. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this. A lot of people say it's Timberlake.

Justin's my golfing buddy. Yeah, he was good. Played with Justin all the time. Justin's a really, Justin's a good golfer. Now, when you say, you mean just actor business? Yeah.

I'll throw it in sports, but it's kind of unfair. No, it is not. Sure it is. How many sports guys can't play a lick of golf? Golf and sport in another sport means nothing. Absolutely not a deal. Some of the worst golfers I've ever seen have been some of the greatest athletes in other sports. Charles Barkley.

Bam. He represents every sport ever about bad golfers. Charles. You know what's so funny with Charles? I love Charles, man. Charles said to me, the first time I ever met Charles at a golf tournament, he sees me and I never met him. Big Barkley fan. And he goes, you were on my shit list, but you're not anymore. And I'm like,

Oh, but he never brought. We never met. How could I be on a shit list? And we never met. He go, well, it's the list of people who had great careers, but never won shit. But now you won the Super Bowl. So you're off my shit list. Oh, thank you. Great. Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Barkley. But you know what? I've had some fun times with Charles, man. He is great.

No one. He's the best. He's the honest dude. He'll tell you what he's thinking. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. He is who he is. And I respect that out of him. But I would say Timberlake's a good golfer. With Justin, though, if you're going to play golf, make sure you do it in the morning because he may take you like, you know, 30 minutes to hit each shot.

Really? Come on, Justin. How is the wind? The wind is blowing. Oh, he's one of those guys? Yeah. Justin's very deliberate. He takes a while to play. You know what's funny? I go to a golf academy in Florida, Mike Bender Golf Academy. He's on Instagram, and it's the best. But one of the things that I've learned is all of the greats, their pre-shot routine was very, very limited.

And from the minute they stood over the ball, I'm talking about every great who ever lived. From the minute they addressed the ball, it was no more than eight seconds. Wow. Like, go back and look at it. No one stood over the ball longer than eight. And by the way, the eight seconds includes finishing of the swing.

But what's so weird about golf is when you think about it, I always think about football. Okay, I got 80,000 people screaming, hollering, the ball's moving, people running. I got to track. I got to get through all this crap to make a play. And you do it. Golf, I'm sitting there.

In outside nature, it's quiet, little boss sitting there. It ain't moving. Nobody's screaming. They're actually telling people to shut up. And I can't hit the thing straight. I can't, you know, it makes no absolute sense. It shows you how much you could talk yourself out of something because you usually don't hit a good shot because you kind of talk yourself out of hitting a good shot. But I, what's your handicap, by the way, since you're going to all these golf lessons and you're special instructors? I'm just curious. I'm a 16.

I'm not even going to respond to that lie. You're not a 16. I am. I'm a true 16 because I'm not consistent.

That's the thing. A true 16. Okay. We got to play. I got to see this. I got to see this. I don't believe it, Rob. Well, when you're... If you were a 16 handicap, you'd have more wrinkles on your face. You don't have any wrinkles on your face because you're an excellent golfer. So don't lie to me. Here's what we'll do. Here's what we'll put together. We'll do a Fox with Charlie Collier, me, you, when we're all back at it for sure. Because he's a stick, our boss at Fox. Yeah.

Charlie can play like that? Yes. Yes. I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. I love it. Here's, I'm going to end with this. All right. I need to know what your least favorite workout for those of you listening to hug Michael Strahan to shake his hand is to encounter a granite statue. Yeah.

it is quite a thing. So how are you managing...

with your busy schedule to continue to look like a block of iron. Oh, I wish I, I wish I did, man. But thank you for the compliment. I work out, I work, I try to at least give it an hour a day every day. I'm like, okay, if I work out an hour, I have 23 hours to mess around, do whatever I want to do. Right. Then it allows me to eat and drink and do all those things I like to do. Yep. So, but work it out, first of all. And, um,

I love working out. I don't like cardio per se. I will ride the bike. I like the bike. The state stereo bike downstairs. I like that. I hate any kind of exercise that has anything to do with something you would do like on a football field. You do those CrossFit classes and they have you doing burpees. Yes.

No. No. You've done enough of it. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you tell me. I will never do a burpee for anybody ever getting a burpee. If you see me doing a burpee, somebody hold a gun to me. I'm not doing it. No. Did you ever suggest other workouts other than the burpees, like perchance the Jane Fonda workout? Did you ever say like...

To the guys, hey, listen, I got my scene I'm doing back at my house alone. Yeah, I'm doing those side leg kicks. Side leg. That's all we remember. It was like the scissor. That's all we remember of the Jane Fonda work was this. Yeah, you see, I tell you what, it worked, though. Literally worked my ass off. Really did.

I'm going to pull out an old Betamax copy. I have them. No way. Somebody gave it. I got it as a birthday gift some years ago. I have the VHS tapes. I don't have the beta, but I have the VHS tape of Jane Fonda's workout. Still got them. And every time I see her, to the point now when I see her, I'm like, you know. She's like, I know, Michael. I know. I'm like, okay, Jane. I'm sorry. So I'm sorry. So good. But my butt is tight because of you.

Well, man, this is the best. This is the greatest. I'm going to come visit you at the Fox when you guys are up and running. You're on the lot, right? You're on the Fox lot? Yeah, we're on the lot. So come hang out. We'll get some golf in, too, at some point. Yeah, I would love that. 100%. This was great. You were...

A dream. I could sit and talk sports and shit with you another five hours. I appreciate you, my brother. But people listening have lives and they need to do things. These people who are listening are like, I now need to go and live a life. Well, they're quarantined and they're not doing much right now.

That's true. Hopefully, this thing's going to happen. Hopefully, this is over at some point soon, man. But who knows? But you know what I am going to do in some of this downtime I have? I am about to go pull up Rob Lowe on the $10,000 pyramid as a 15-year-old who looks tall for his age. Tall for in the hair. Just wait till you see the hair.

Hey, you got great hair, man. You got great hair. It's good stuff. All right, man. Thanks so much. I appreciate you. Anytime, anytime. Thanks, Michael. Bye, you guys. Strahan could talk about anything and just put a smile on your face. I mean, I just feel so good every time I've spent any time with him. And I am a 16 handicap, and I'm going to beat his ass if we ever do play golf. And then I just hope he won't pile drive me like George Stephanopoulos.

Thanks for joining me. I will see you on the next Literally. You have been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe. Produced and engineered by me, Devin Tory Bryant.

Executive produced by Rob Lowe for Lowe Profile. Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Stitcher. The supervising producer is Aaron Blairt. Talent producer, Jennifer Samples. Please rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts. And remember to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

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