My Hair Fell Out!! From Stress!!! Josina Anderson | Funky Friday Podcast With Cam Newton |

When I left ESPN and I lost 40 of my hair, like I had a bald spot, that was the size of my hand. Here I had one that was the size. You know of a orange in the back of my head here and went through alopecia to lose. You know my job and to have lost my hair. At the same time, like I felt like for eight or nine months, I couldn't stop crying when I got up and people it's like it's just hair, but you don't really realize how much your hair is associated to your identity when you, when you're dealing with stress In your life, especially if you don't have an outward case like mine, where it shows you don't really realize how much that's just ravaging your body yo, what's good, what's popping What It Is, What It ain't, what it could be, what it should be, what it would Be Mr Cam Newton's son, Mr Boogie, to all, and I'm here only to give you good content for the masses and a promise to Keep It Funky for your asses. Today we have a journalist. Today we have a ward winning uh uh reporter. We have even more importantly, a strong iPad girl. You know what I mean. Y'All know what I mean independent woman. That'S right, you feel me strong black queen is in my presence, which makes it in our presence. We have Josina Anderson. Yes, how you doing? Thank you for having me, I love your colorful outfit man. You know I. This was really inspired off. You really digging I'm saying because you you you, you you, the soul sister and been a soul sister for years uh. When I was doing my research on this. With the help of my team, you were the first NFL female Insider, so you're Trailblazer. Thank you. Oh gee yeah, I don't know if you get a lot of a lot of you only. I don't think you get your flowers while you can yeah you see what I'm saying, but if it wasn't for John Cena, it wasn't a lot of you. I appreciate it. Yeah and you know the last time I saw you - we were in Paris yeah, we did uh Fashion Week and you know you were in your entire Splendor there doing you doing you both of us doing us always without fear, without fear dressing being our total selves. So we're an equal company, yeah yeah, so right now, where you are I I will be remiss if I did not give you or allow you to use my platform to tell the people um. What what do you have going on these days? So I'm currently at CVS, you know I was at ESPN for 10 years. Uh show time for a year before that fox for six years before that, so you know, I've been in the game for a long time, cam long time and so um. You know I was out of the game for about a year, starting up my own thing. While I was transitioning after you know, just processing everything that had gone on yeah and um. You know so. I had started my own podcast undefined with Josina Anderson and then uh Morris Chestnut was actually on that uh podcast and I had asked them to start up a show with me last year called The Crew, which I had done with him Derek Augustine. So I don't know if you've seen um Godfather Harlem he's the one that played Muhammad Ali yeah and then we did it with Josh Norman and, of course, uh Brian Urlacher, and this year we're back trying to elevate and evolve things shooting it in person in Brooklyn. It'S me Morris Chestnut and Fred smoots, I'm doing that with CBS still traveling doing the games and still keeping a funky right yeah. I swear now, listen even you know. Obviously, you got a lot going on you've been in this industry and I tease you prior to us. You know cutting the red button on and just saying, like you and my you in my territory right now, you know what I'm saying you playing in the away game, but in in a field that's so, oh so familiar for you uh, I told you and I Will reiterate that I don't report to nobody? I don't like report. No, no, but I never like reporting to nobody uh, but I have always implemented structure in my life. You know uh, you, you shouldn't, have the you know to say so to be able to speak on how I talk, how I dress how I present myself, how I express myself if it's not uh, condemning or affecting anybody in a negative way. So that's why I really created funky Friday because it allowed me to talk about things outside of football and I think, when you're playing you know in the NFL, which is the most polarizing sport in America, which makes it the most polarizing sport in the world. You'Re boxed in you know what I'm saying. I took opportunities like Sunday morning to express myself whether wearing a Babushka wearing a flannel jacket where they're wearing some green shoes just to express myself to just not verbally say it, but you know artistically say it in a way like man, I'm free, like I really Enjoyed things outside of just calling, you know, twins right, key left, 695 flash abstract sneak alert. You know certain things, you dig what I'm saying and a lot of a lot of NFL players feel that way, there's more to us than just you know. Football scoring touchdowns celebrations and yeah. That'S a lot of us, but that's not all of us and uh. I wanted you to kind of come on to speak your truth about so many different things. What you got going on in your life uh? Where are you going from here how the [ __ ] does ESPN, let such an amazing talent go and a lot of when I, when I was coming up with my questions, this is something that I thought about being a female reporter. On top of being a minority reporter, it has a lot of similarities to football players, and I want to ask you because I feel like being a female reporter. Is a young woman sport just like NFL is a Young Man. Sport me sitting at my age, I'm not, I won't consider myself. You know I mean I want somebody consider myself, oh, but at the end of the day you know you got 21s 20 year olds coming out faster than you are, can whatever to what somebody else. May deem, how do you feel coming from the reporter side when you see the landscape of women killing it, but at the same time you know here you are been. You know you have tenure, you have lineage in building something um in that manner. Well, I mean first of all, always respect everybody across the Spectrum um, but you know even in being in this career, especially over my tenure currently - and you know my last employer is always important for for me. First and foremost to let people see that I know what I'm talking about right and when people ask me about my experience, you know coming into the locker room dealing with athletes like yourself for 20 years. That was always my way to set my stage for how I was going to be. If, when you meet me, and the first thing that you see is that I know what I'm talking about, everything is disarmed from there. So yes, just like you, I'm gon na come in fully in my Splendor yeah and it's not for TV. I'Ve been like this since jump, you know going back to middle school and all that other stuff I was voted dressed best. You know, excuse me best dressed and all that other stuff um and I've been like this for a while I've been in the fashion. That'S why me - and you saw each other last in Paris, because I'm I'm legitimately into that stuff. And yes, I want to be a journalist, yes, I'm into building relationships and yes, I'm into building contacts, but just like you, I have other things that I can do and that's why I named my show undefined and that was really important to me. You know coming out of ESPN, but I guess you know for me, even when I see like some of the younger journalists coming up now, um or even some of the ones that are left at the places that I no longer work. I do feel proud about some things like so, for example, when I was working at my last place, you know some of the things that I felt like were really important. Just behind the scenes - and this is just off of the field - is that everybody get treated. The same way behind the scenes - and it could be something as simple as you're saying they did or they did not. It was important to me that they did okay so and what I mean by that it could be something as simple as the makeup room or the green room. So if some of my other uh, you know caucasian-american colleagues can come into the green room or the makeup room and they can start with their hair wet and get their hair done and be ready to go on. Let'S say Sports Center or whatever else, and not have to pay for their hair before they come to get their hair done. You know I want to be able to have that same experience so like, for example, I shouldn't have to spend whatever amount of money to get my hair done in New York. Before I get my hair done before I come to work or, for example, you know so I'm an Insider and obviously you have people that I respect very much um Adam schefter Chris Mortensen, or what have you that break news and are known for doing that on Those platforms, but for me uh, you know I'm probably the next one to do it with that same frequency right. So I'm going to notice when there is not the same attribution, for example, on the bottom line, so so yeah yeah that journalism that journalism coming out yeah but nuke this [ __ ] down for me. Please, because I will put some water to it. Yeah um! I I'm hearing you when, when you say, and let's just keep it a book yeah, if I'm a person yeah, let's say I'm a Caucasian, the attention to detail isn't as strenuous to some. Not all. Let'S just say some - and I have to be very mindful of saying this - of hair and texture in certain things right now: Justina Anderson walks in there Cam Newton walks in there and it's like bro. If you're not used to cutting my hair, you can't cut my hair. If you're not used to doing my texture of hair, then it's going to cost a little more, but that doesn't make that expense is not something that you can just bypass, because it has everything to do with my image. Or does it make me extra right? Because I'm asking you know I feel like like, and this is just one example - obviously there's many, but you know the same way there are products to take care of you know. Whoever else is here, that's not like ours is the same where there should be for us, you know, and if you know we have and not to say it's exclusive to black women, but if I got a track or whatever you know, it's not necessary that I'm Saying I need you to be able to do a wee before I go on, but if something is you know needs to be tired. I do need you to have the string to make sure it's not falling off on the air, and I would say you know I'm proud of that because I felt like that was something that I did speak up about. You know when I was there. In addition to what I was just saying about everyone, having the same, you know um uh, you know recognition for the report that they would have on the bottom line so that when people watching the TV, it's not just saying reported by Adam schefter or Adrian wojin Or woj it would say you know Josephine, Anderson or whoever else, and so that's something that I do feel like uh is the impact that I had now when you watch you not only see them, but you even see the regional reporters across too. So it's just. I mean there's examples like that of, and you know for me, I always felt like a unicorn. You know what I'm saying oh, and I think we are you know can in that way. Of course, I always felt like a unicorn. Just you know there. There was, you know there are other people who obviously break news and do that right, but as far as doing it as a black female, you know consistently across 32 teams consistently over 10 15 years. You know I felt like I was just in in that box by myself, as as a black female doing it in that place. So that way, you know what I mean. Can I be honest yeah. You have other issues too that you have to break prior to um, so you can do your job and it has nothing to do with your talent. It has everything to do with like this, who I am, it makes you uncomfortable yeah, but I still have a job to do. Yes, and I say that because you play you, your job requires you to be in the presence of masculine men, yes and you're. A good looking woman. Thank you right. No, let's just keep it above right and oftentimes. It may be easier to talk to an atom shifter. It may be easier to talk to a another man, but when it's coming from a woman, it's like oh man. I got all these distracting things to some not to all and I'm just I'm just giving you yeah yeah, I'm I'm just keeping it funky yeah. You dig what I'm saying and that's not to say your word should ever be compared to this person or he has more information than I have, because I have the same information, if not more information, but I'm just saying where you are you're fighting that hurdle too. It'S like, oh, my God and I was guilty. You know by making a public statement that you know. I have to be mindful of what I say and how I say it, because it can come off as insensitive. It can come off as sexist, but at the end of the day, the the truth is as an attractive female. It'S a gift in some Industries, but in this industry it could be a curse. Well, I feel, like everything is all about how you carry yourself and one thing I'm really mindful, especially as a black female is like narratives. I don't like you know. First of all, I I remember one time I had to tell my boss there just to give him an idea, sometimes how I feel you know I just said imagine walking into a workplace. You know that's all black people and you're one of the few white people. You know, or whoever else you know you know, type of ethnicity. Sometimes that's how we feel, and there are things that could be just as simple as me, pulling up to the building and dealing with microaggressions from security and how I'm treated even before I walk in the building. You know in terms of extra checking me and my Uber, and you know if I got my pet in my car and and I can't do this or or you know you may or you're delaying me just to like aggravate me, because people don't necessarily check their Biases or or their uh, you know their perspectives before they come to work. They carry that to work, and if I come into a me eating, you know I'm dealing with all of your uh. You know perceptions insecurity, your your thought, processes of just me as a black woman. When I just sit down in the meeting, and even before I say anything I mean I could be just defensive to you in just how you know how I just am or your or your preconceptions. You know what I mean or just me just speaking up, even though my volume might not be up, even though I might not be uh, saying anything in an attacking way. It'S already just perceived that way. Let me just give you one example. I remember when I did an interview with obj and Lil Wayne just to give you one example and there's a lot of them, because I was there a long time in other places. But one of the things that I kept saying before that piece aired was that Lil Wayne can't just sit there and you know and have it air like that. You know he also spoke up during the interview and he is knowledgeable about football he's, a Packers fan and obviously obj in that interview. He said a lot of impactful thing, things about Eli, Manning and all that stuff at the time, and you know at the time I felt like they were just so focused on what obj was saying, and that was the juice of what have you and they were Going to literally air it and I'm pretty sure it did air this way, if not just the minimal uh stuff said from Lil Wayne with him just sitting there, and I kept saying - and this was the night before the interview I kept saying - people are going to Watch this and be like, why is Wayne just sitting there? Oh, no! No! No! No and I'm like, but here's the thing like you. Don'T even have this interview without me, bringing it here. Yeah. That'S number one yeah they're, not nobody, they don't y'all, don't care about it being on the network, especially now, but this is the this is the issue, and this is what stems racism. This is what stems hatred. This is really what stem sexism any type of prejudices. It'S not that you don't care, it's the fact that you don't know people don't know how much of an impact Lil Wayne is in the culture you you listen to in a league, that's dominated by more than I say, 85 percent of the the men that are Playing in the NFL are black men right. If everybody knows who Lil Wayne is, I had a conversation uh, I had a guest yesterday and it was speaking on like man. Why don't? Why? Don'T everybody you know, take the Lil Wayne approach and drop mixtape at the mixtape at the mixtape at the mixtape, and it's like people in the high power. They don't feel like it's important, because it's not important to you. Well, you know what, before the game started, because I was doing that game from Pittsburgh, even though he was playing with the Giants at the time and it was uh Carolina and um, and then it was like. I remember before the game uh somebody had said to me: oh he's got 33 million followers on and I'm like. Yes, you know like it's not just he's Lil Wayne, but yes, he has a big follow and it's like. Oh, can you get him, but this was like you know an hour before the game, and, and the thing was, is that after it aired just to wrap, it up is that people were saying. Obviously it was good. You know it went all over the place, but they were like. Why is he just sitting there and I was like, but I said this and we were on a com and just to paint the picture a little bit more. You know we were on a conference. Call where I was the only one, a part of the conference, call that looked like me and it's not just and it's not to just immediately say that you can't understand me simply because you look different than me. But what I'm saying is sometimes you know you? Don'T really understand the feeling of that of being that only representative of that only ilk in that conversation trying to speak up and then, instead of after the fact well Joe Cena was right. Oh well, joseon always got this to say Josina this stat in the third, and so you carry whatever negative connotation, sometimes sometimes not all the times, but sometimes that can be connected to a black female specifically also, if you speak specifically, if you dress a certain way, Specifically, if your nails are done specifically if you red lipstick or whatever, when I walk on the field, it's already now, let's just let's just let's: let's keep it, let's Keep It Funky yeah White America. People who don't understand can can we show? Can you show the camera your nails? Well, this is really changed, but I'm just saying typically they're alive. That is what we appreciate that in our culture as a man, because my my rule is this: if one nail is broke all of them, of course, you know what I'm saying and it's not it's not to say that you get your nails done and you get Them acrylic, you get a feeling, you get this just like I'm, I'm a sucker for natural beauty. You know what I'm saying you don't have to wear lipstick, but if you got your lipstick on it better be put on, you know what I'm saying: it's not it's! Not that your hair has to always be done, it's just like boom putting your hair in a ponytail could be just as as a turn on you know to a person who who has their hair laid now at the end of the day, I think the the Understanding of knowing what other people like is just as important as you knowing what you like, and I think that's the issue um. You know where we are right now and I think it really made sense for me when I saw the um the documentary, um, Victoria's Secret angels and demons and here's a brand who accumulated so much wealth, Lex wessner and they talked about so many different. You know disparaging things about you know, obviously the Harvey Weinstein, the Epstein situation and that's not what I'm trying to get at what I'm trying to get at is from the brand side how they were tone deaf to understanding that okay, what got us here isn't going To take us there, meaning what got us to a multi-billion dollar entity is not going to keep us as a multivision. We got to evolve, they did not evolve and now, when you see companies like Fenty led by Rihanna yeah she's like bro, I'm not just trying to appease to the Caucasian blue eyes: perfect skinny, you know petite body yeah with a little plump, not a lot of Plump, but a little plump, although all you know rage, is doing a little bit more. You know these days, official and and natural synthetic. Yes, yes for coming from a man. I don't me personally: I don't care at the end of the day. If you invest in yourself yeah, then how? If you don't invest in yourself, I don't care if you're going to get an equinox membership, a LA Fitness, membership, uh or just walking down the street in Los Angeles, you see what I'm saying, how you expect me to invest in you with your time. You know what I'm saying so I get it, but at the end of the day, I'm not judging I'm just saying, listen for Victoria's Secret. They painted an image that was appeasing for a time when people started realizing. Like listen that, don't that's not me, I can't fit in the size too. You know for me, it's like. I can't fit in a size, 30 bro like Abercrombie and Fitch. Like that's not like, I made, I may I'm a fit man that bro, I can't be 220. If I wanted to, I will kill myself well, I do feel like um over time. You know um more women have been embracing, you know, self-love, you see more plus size models and embraced on the runway. You see it in the music industry with people like lizzo and what have you um fully embracing that on Instagram? Sometimes I feel, like I see more people being either natural without makeup, whether it's the Alicia Keys or just regular women being okay with showing their stretch marks and things like that. But you know even one of the things I just wanted to say to you just relative to what I feel like has been my experience. Speaking of self-love over the last couple years is just I learned so much about Stress Management, and you know just processing trauma. You know, especially specifically even well, I mean just you know, you know, I'm not married, I don't have kids, and so my job was just really important to me. You know, and I've always been like that. I mean I've sacrificed I've been on the road for 20 years, covering these games 20 years, and I'm okay with that. Like I'm good with that, we've talked, you know the guys on my shows. You know make fun of me for being a doggy Mama. We can get into that or what have you, but what I'm really trying to get into, especially because you talking about just impactful things, and I want people to hear this - is that you know um. What I learned in that time was just about the effect of stress and a lot of people don't know this, and I will talk about this on. Your show is that when I, when I left ESPN - and I know Carlos was helping me here - you know as as a PR rep, but a lot of people. Don'T know in the time that I left ESPN like I lost 40 of my hair and um, and I went through alopecia and preachers. I had alopecia and um it's a direct correlation for people who don't know it can spark a lot of things, but one of the main things is stress: yes is yes, it can be it can. You can have onset of that and so to lose. You know my job and to have lost my hair. At the same time, I remember a lot of people watched Fox and CBS. Excuse me uh CBS, with uh James Brown in the mornings, and people also don't know that he's a minister and there were just times that him and his wife were just on the phone with me where, like I felt like for eight or nine months, I couldn't Stop crying when I got up. Not only was I dealing with the loss of my job, but I couldn't even look in the mirror like I couldn't comb, my hair, um and, and you don't really realize - and people it's like it's just hair, but you don't really realize how much your hair is Associated to your identity and how you feel just going out in the day just if the wind is going to blow your hair and is it going to show like I had a bald spot, that was the size of my hand. Here I had one that was the size. You know of a orange in the back of my head here and the size of like a golf ball here and people didn't know, because my natural hair um is is thick by itself and I haven't had a perm for 10 years, so I would still wear It down on the air - and you wouldn't even know that I was covering up those spots and even just being intimate with the man or what have you I mean I started to. I started to feel and resolve within myself that I was just going to wear. Ponytails for the rest of my life, and so over that time um you know I I became so educated about ayuvetta and yoga, and you know it's almost like. I fell in love with the produce section in in the grocery store, and now I'm so much more educated on just herbs and Eastern medicine and all the natural things that are already on this Earth. That can just heal your body without Western medicine. And I just - and I just I just wanted to say that we don't when you when you're dealing with stress in your life, especially if you don't have an outward case like mine, where it shows you, don't really realize how much that's just ravaging inside your body And and that's what stress does and - and I just want to say like last year when all of a sudden we'll just say this real quick, I was walking, I had moved to a new place and I was walking into my bedroom and and TD. Jakes was on was on YouTube and I walked into my bedroom and TD. Jake said, and God said he was going to give your hair back and I had to like - and I was like did he just say that, and I was like that couldn't have been so I had to like rewind it back onto YouTube because I was like Did I just hear what I heard, but what I didn't realize is: there is a character in the Bible who had lost their hair and it came back, but literally as I walked in that's what I heard and like within three weeks I mean - and I haven't Showed these pictures eventually I will or what have you, but my hair came back so quick. I mean I'm just talking about two months. It just started like every. I never thought I never thought it would come back, and the point of that story is: is that as much as you can tell yourself that you are okay, your brain is so smart to really realize when it's actually true, when you really reach the place of Acceptance of your circumstance or just being at peace with something - and I really felt like at that point when I was willing to accept it and other things that had occurred, and especially the loss of what I felt was so big to my identity. And just almost maybe similar to a football or what have you or whatever else going on in your life? Is that that's when it that's when it came back and that to me that was like reflective of a lot of different things. You know man listen. I was I was like stuck because I'm like damn yeah, but at the end of the day too, and you were speaking on your identity and internal acceptance right to you, it may have been here to me. It may be my size to another person. It may be marriage, their husbands, it's other things, my husband, my man, my my partner, my girl, my dog, my and when you lose that, yes, it's like, oh, my goodness, now what God you know what would like. Where are you? What are you telling me and then people, you know, start blaming God and it's like well, if you love me so much, why you do this [ __ ] like what like and instead of saying? Why not me because more people identify with what you're going on or what you got going on more than you even know, so you even sharing that story is going to make people say, like you know what bro she ain't had to tell me that, because I Always looked at you, you know in a way where you want to you, you you one of me. You know what I'm saying you you you us yeah, you feel me and when I was reaching out to you and I was like man bro, I want. I need Josina to come talk because I need a strong black woman and I need a strong woman that can hold her on it and let's have a real conversation, because I don't know what went down to ESPN. I honestly don't even care and what God has for you is even bigger than that. I I claim that, but we would have never been able to have this type of transcript in in that field. You know what I'm saying and that's why I'm sitting up here telling like man look where I'm at in my life, I'm so at peace, I'm so at peace, because I really enjoy taking my kids to school boy. You got a lot of kids, no listen! I want more hear me like this ain't, this ain't, that situation that Society has painted us to be like. Oh man, we got all these damn kids like no. These [ __ ] kids got a hell of a damn Daddy and I'm glad that they give me a lot of purpose. There'S a situation going on in the NFL right now, where you know a person is like still there, and I had to my son, asked me a question the other day he's like man. What do you think about this and I'm like listen bro, you need me. You, like, I can't speak on that, but what I will tell you is: I enjoy picking you up from school you're in high school right now. Bro. I got two more years with you, you feel me and you going you're getting about my house and if you get into my house you're getting at your mama house too, because you ain't about to sit up and be a grown man not doing nothing playing Xbox Or Playstation all damn day, and I doing something so if you see me get dressed every single day, not to go work out, but to go work and come back and whether you know what I'm doing or not, it gives you understanding like man, my pop did: It so I got ta do something, and I want to be there for my children to teach my daughters, you know to protect them from men. Like me at one point in my life or boys like me, not men, but boys, you know what I'm saying and at the end of the day you know. I appreciate you just for sharing that because, like a lot of people appreciate real [, __, ] and well, listen, I've been I've been through it and I feel like that impacts my interview style. Even when I was interviewing people who are controversial or going through controversial things, whether it be Antonio Brown, whether it be Adrian Peterson, vontes, Burford, Frank Clark, I mean all the people that I've interviewed controversy or not. I feel like you know they know I'm still going to ask, but they also know it's going to be down. The middle is going to be fair and they also know I can understand, and I can relate, and even at times when people are doing things that people perceive to be great, you know crazy or a lot. You know, I remember my Super Bowl interview with with ab, and you know all the things that he's going through and he has gone through a lot and it has expressed himself in a lot of different ways. But my feeling, based on how I want to be treated and how I feel like people perceive me, is to ask you know, but what's the why, behind that, you know. Why are you you know expressing yourself like that? You know it comes from somewhere and Oprah once said that a lot of times that when she does interviews, she will ask people. You know like, what's the most traumatic thing that happened to you when you were a child, because that the answer to that one question can explain so much about a person. You know at the root of anger, is pain at the root of you know, frustration and acting out is pain, so if you can get to the pain of a person, that's you know. I mean before I told you that a lot of people wouldn't even have known that about me two two years ago, people might not have known - I had just maybe 340 in my bank account at one point, because I was just being stubborn about moving out of My spot, you know what I'm saying and doing what I needed to do, but at the same time I always came up because my mother is the same way and my father is the same way always said to me and and well my grandfather. The name starts, your last name starts with Anderson, so always act like you're at the front, but also too is you know to always dress Beyond where you are, you see what I'm saying like I know clothes gives you and a certain identity is a way to Express yourself, but like the other day when I was covering the uh, the Bills, Dolphins, game and I was going through a lot of stuff with my production behind the scenes, and I was not in a good space mentally before I did the game, and I was Just like whatever Camilla this designer has sent me some stuff - and I was just like I didn't know if I was going to wear it at that game. But I just did it for me because I was just like you know what and - and I felt so much better when I went to the game, not because it's not necessarily about flossing, because expressing myself has always been about how I'm feeling that day, yeah and It did just give me a boost, or what have you and I remember Ron Miller came over people like? Oh that's, but it did give me a boost and and and and that's what you can give yourself even when you know you're going through the through that nobody even knows I don't know what you were going through before you got here today to this. If what I did go through a part of my morning, routine, I do listen to inspirational clips and TD Jakes was in my audio. I I do that for multiple reasons, because I take pride in taking my children to school. I went to three different schools this morning: uh uh leave for real doing Daddy Day Care. Oh my goodness, I went to Westlake High School, which is my alma mater. My son goes there now yeah uh, I went to Woodward Academy and I dropped sovereignty or off my daughter and chosen off boom, and then I went to The Goddard School as well, where my son comitus, is going uh right now, uh in pre-k and as I'm Going through that, I play audios to get into their mind. You are great, you are impactful, you are smart, you are things as a way to it's, not affirmation. It'S positive affirmation and one thing that he said it's like listen. Some things in life require you to be your biggest fan. Don'T look for somebody else to give you something that you ain't even doing for yourself. You know my girl. She always says, like I'm, always guilty of being hard on myself like damn, can you stupid as [ __ ] right that was aggressive, but I'm sorry, but it it just. It comes out. You know, and it's like, oh man, damn you realize how you put that in that in you. But to me I say you know I always see Katie. Do it right - and you know it's just the first thing that popped up like when he shoots a three or whatever he slaps himself on the behind it's almost like a pat on in your back and like for me too, like when I do certain things like I'M just like, ah I give myself a hug and for a person who doesn't know me they'd, be like oh he's so into himself. Oh he's so arrogant, yes, and you can't and listen. You can't be afraid to let people know what you've done. You know because if, if anybody is going to give yourself uh, you know some positive love, you know it has to start with yourself. Listen, I don't have no problem, I mean thanks, you know for the introduction, but I don't know what I'm telling you either. You know, because sometimes you know people act like they don't know correct and, let's you know, let's know what it is, but even to what you're saying just about how you started off your day. You know one of the things that I found was um. How, and I think, was a big reason in helping my hair come back too was just how important um routine is, and even just the not only the experience of it. But like someone like my co-host Morris Chestnut, he, he gets up every day like around 4 a.m, and he always talks about like he's so diligent about it and like sometimes, I feel like we all get up like based on how we feel we like. I do it today based on how I feel, and he always talks about how important it is to get. You know yourself done for yourself before you do anything for anybody else, and there was a time when I was going through that for two years where I was really good, not necessarily right now, because the season started, but just making sure I get up, and I Do I do my yoga and I feel so much better when I do that, and I learned how how I mean - and we can get even deeper into this, but I yoga would teach you especially yin, yoga and other other stuff like that. Is that how much stress even women women carry in their pelvis section? So sometimes you might stretch out your pelvis and I realize, while you're crying, because you you can learn about that stuff, how you carry trauma even in your pelvis area, how you carry Amma in your brain and you and when you stretch you're, not just stretching just To release my you know, Muscle fascia, but you're also releasing things that you're storing in your body and it has to come and stretching is one way of releasing those toxins out of your body. Out of your mind - and you know and then juicing how important juicing has become to me, I can go on and on and on and on. Let'S talk about it, I'm I'm sensing that, through the darkest time of your life or one of the darkest times or a time in your life, you relied on diet as a way to cleanse yourself in my mind, in my heart and and also just became educated. Just so much about how, like I said there are things on this Earth that are truly healing how important it is just to start your morning off with lemon water and lime, water, people, you gargle your mouth, but you have to gargle your stomach. You have to clean your stomach and then you know from there how important? Yes, the gut is important. Absolutely how important you know. Celery juices and - and I know people make all these people make fun of me about that. But people don't really know that you know accelerating of itself is really a way to uh push out pathogens. Out of your body, bacterial and viral, I mean you know and cucumber and cucumber juice and how you know when you, when you peel a cucumber, you don't really notice how cold a cucumber is by itself and how cucumber can lower the temperature in your body. So you don't have inflammation and and mucus and things like that and how good it is for your skin. You know I'm proud to be. What am I 44. You know what I'm saying. Yes, I am you know, and I I proudly take care, but I've always done that and taking care of my skin. Who, who put you on this is this is what, as far as like the attention to this stuff? Oh yeah, I mean I wasn't all into this stuff until I lost my hair really when you have an autoimmune that was like a sudden onset um that - and I didn't know about alopecia at the time when it came out and I saw a boss spot there. I was blaming the hair just like how you you know you know, and now I mean like. I would lift my hair up here and had a huge ball spot here and I never thought my hair would be back here. But anyways I mean yeah. So I I became into that sorry um, you know going through that experience and you know just how important you know cucumber. Is you know with that and and people don't know like a East Indian herb like man, Jesus is important to move lymph and how important lymph is and then, like the other day, uh one of my uh uh uh. You know friends who's behind the scenes. He was showing me that he had eczema and and now he's getting ready to go to the dermatologist and I was like and I'm not poo pooing Western medicine, but I was just like you know. That'S all about your liver, you know what is happening on your skin is about your liver and heavy metals and and viruses and bacteria that you have to clean out and that they get trapped in your skin when your lymph is backed up. So when you clean your lymph and you move your lymph and your gut is healed, then everything can exit out your body as it should and not get trapped in your skin. That'S what eczema, psoriasis and things like that are the dermatoxin effects so like, for example, when I started juicing, I read about this thing called the dermatoxin effect that comes from Anthony Williams. You can, you know, go to his Instagram page medical medium or what have you and he was like you know if you juice and you don't exercise, you might see this thing called the dermatoxin effect. You get rashes or eczema certain things on your skin, and so when I went to the dermatologist to see what they was gon na say: oh, you have eczema and I was like no, I don't and it's the dermatoxin effect you. You know what I'm saying. I knew I started juicing, but I wasn't exercising at the same time. So if you start juicing, you don't exercise, it has nowhere. You have to do all you got mind. Body and soul has to go together. You have to do it all together, and so once I started exercising and then I was also taking this thing called mangisto and it's other things that I was doing at the time it cleared up on his own without doing anything like I had like no spots On my skin, you know whatsoever, and I didn't put no steroid creams or put any extra stuff. That'S gon na mess up my liver that is going to show up as something else three years from now so anyways. I can go on and on about that stuff. But I mean I'm a I'm a natural researcher, I'm a natural person that loves information, so instead of you know doing it for you to get ready for an interview, I was just doing it for myself yeah. I was just doing it for myself man I, like that man, I ain't gon na lie to you. This is the impact he's about to tell me might be like free agency, you go back and look at some of those clips. I have a tall thing of green juice on the set, because I know what you made. Yes, I knew I was what I was going through at the time. My last year at ESPN I was losing my hair and none of while they were stressing me out over everything going on behind the scenes they didn't know. I was literally losing my hair. At the same I mean, oh, my God we could so listen. That'S that's very wowing and impactful yeah yeah um, I told you, I gave you something man, you gay, you dropped it, I'm starting to tell you. You dropped information on me and for us just to be able to go back and sit there. Is she right? She was, but even then I I have to call a lot of BS on the industry right and it's almost like this. I feel it as minorities that companies will just do something just to say we did it like. Okay, we got somebody already. We don't need to infiltrate everybody like we got one, John Cena, we don't need. You know. I got one better for you not just to have the one as the representative of all, but when something happens to those - and you know whether it's me, whether it's Carrie Champion whether it's Jamel Hill, whether it's uh Dan Le batard, whether it's whomever but just to Speak even in the black female category - and this is not just at my former place but even over the path of my career - is to then just ignore or lift up under the you know, lift leave under the rug. Rather, you know what happened by just hiring another one. Don'T look at what happened over here see it's no problem over here, because we just we did that, but it doesn't yeah. So, to my point, I'm saying this: why is it that even in our culture, when we're taken care of, we don't look to our forefathers who came before us and that may be for not forefathers but for mothers right and also looking to say, okay man? Let me give I'm only here, because josino is here, you know what I'm saying I'm. I was only here because Michael Vick was here: Julius uh uh, Randall Cunningham Culpepper, uh, uh, uh Vince, Young uh, uh um shoot everybody Steve McNair, you know, I mean um, you feel me and even to this point it's like ice. Is it a? Are you proud of the women's state in the industry? Does women real women? We all talk about women, empowerment and this that and the third, but does women Empower other women really well? All I can do is speak for myself and I know I know this that if, for example, you know, let's say fox - wanted to hire me and it was going to impact Pam Oliver, I wouldn't I wouldn't take that job. I wouldn't do something that was going to impact her Frontier and Pioneer status. You know what I mean I have. I have respect not just for what my position is, but how it impacts everybody. Do you know what I'm saying, and I do feel that I mean me in particular, I have people that ask me and jump in my DMs and ask me questions all the time and I try to because I know how important it was you know for me. I know what it feels like to send out 200 resume tapes and not have you know someone responding how that just one person might be the person to get you through that week. You know I lived on the couch for four years. You know when I was waiting for my job before I uh. You know I got to Fox in Denver and how I almost quit and went to sports psychology you know and and how that one person that one day can be that impact. So I try to at least be that person to stop. You know, and I feel like that's what's led me to become an Insider, because I feel like I'm good with those details with people. I wish that they were all like that to me. I'M the one. That'S going to text you back, I'm the one! That'S going to call back. I try to be that for them, because I you know I didn't get to you know a place like a national to be a national reporter on, looks or because somebody gave it to me or you did something for somebody. You know, or I didn't get there when I was like in my 20s. You know, like you, see some of the younger ones now getting there earlier. I mean I got there in my early 30s. You know I've been to the Oregon's, the numbers of Chicago's all over the country and, like really came up to you know to, and so I understand what that feels like and I feel like I. I carry that in the way that I talk and I manage myself or just even with other people. So to answer your question, all I can talk about myself and how I would want people to handle it. You know with me, um and and - and I take that seriously and feel like when I'm in a field with people like y'all y'all can feel that energy and and likewise likewise, you can feel when it's not real and people trying to create that energy and, oh By the way, I see it with the ones that is not real. You know like for me when I'm doing the post game interview it really it's not just about the ex tell me about the X and O's of what happened when you know he was doing a cover one. It did it's not you know it's like you know. Tell me about the heart of what happened. You know, like you, remember the uh, the Minneapolis Miracle with Stefan Diggs, you know and he get no one expected that and then and then he and I'm a meme on Twitter because you know, but that's the moment you're trying to get you know when and I Forget uh the the name of the two players, but I mean they were so surprised. I think it was Robeson and I'm forgetting the other ones. Whatever his name is yeah and then they can see you remember that stuff. You see you remember when they came over and they gave me a big hug and it was messing my hair and then everybody's. Oh lord they're gon na mess up her weave on it and then they got their own prints in my head and all this other stuff. But those are the moments you're trying. So that's what you're trying to create, or I'm in the locker room with Tyree killed. This past whatever and he's doing the interview with his big sunglasses on so I get my big Versace on I'm like shoot you I have yours and I don't care, I'm like I'm not trying to look like your cookie cutter report, we're going to do it out And there's some people in my DMs, you know uh well, you know no, but we got the moment and it's about the moment it's about the moment and that's what I feel like is so I'm not gon na name names on that. Sometimes I do name that I'm not gon na do it right now, but sometimes it is too clinical and I'm like that's not what it is. That'S not what it is. I just said this recently and I said I came into a league that had I was a minority um. Now I'm looking at a lead now the Tom Brady's and the Aaron Rodgers are the minority. You know what I'm saying and even just to clear this up. Real quick, like there's no Squad, I wouldn't be, who I was without JaMarcus Russell right. I don't know how he feels about me but bruh. You know how to contact me and I'm looking forward to you contact me, because I'm going to contact you and as black men, we are in a position where we only feel Superior, where it only could be one of us when it needs to be all of Us you dig what I'm saying and the power in numbers and the power and supporting one another, nobody, nobody talks. I had Michael Vick, I had Donovan McNabb. I had all these different people that was there, but I had to learn a lot of things on my own. You feel me and a lot of what I did was outside the box, just like how you interview outside the box, but we can keep going on and on about man, Joe Cena Yeah appreciate you yeah. I appreciate you. Thank you thank you and, as I always in every interview on funky Friday, we're gon na start with this one. This is mine. Well, this will be ours, we're going to go to this one, and then we're going to finish with that. One. Okay, one finger one pinky, one thumb, one love with them: doggone Nails I got ta get. What is that? The French tip is that the first yeah this is a French manicure yeah a little angled one, though that really needs to be done, so don't get too close on it, because it's like it needs to be. I get my feeling, it's not doing. Cool we get it. Thank you appreciate it. Thank you, foreign