Interview Only: 2X Super Bowler Terrell Suggs says NFL not ready for Primetime and College game not ready for Ray Lewis.

Published Nov 21, 2024, 5:00 PM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

Stephen A. interviews 2X Super Bowl Champion and 7X Pro Bowler Terrell Suggs about his decorated career with the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs and Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement consideration. 

 

My next guest is a seventh time NFL Pro bowler and a two time Super Bowl champion who played for the Baltimore Ravens for sixteen of the seventeen seasons, obviously, before moving on to the Cardinals and the Chiefs. He was considered one of the most menacing defenders of his era and a key part of the Ravens dominant defense for so many years, finishing his career with one hundred and thirty nine sacks, ranking eighth in NFL history. The one and only t Sizzle Terrell Sudds in the house?

What's up?

Big time Houses? How you doing, man? How's everything? Long time?

No see what's up Stephen? A long time though? See man, it's good.

It's good to see you, bro.

You're looking good, looking, like you're taking care of yourself and the whole biding obviously your nominee for the Hall of Fame.

How are you feeling about that? Right now? You hear those words you the Hall of Fame?

Obviously everybody expects you to be a first ballot Hall of Fame.

But what are your thoughts?

Man?

Man?

I try not to think about it because it's given me so much anxiety.

You know what I'm saying.

Jo got in on his first chance, ray got in on his first chance. Ray Ed got in on his first chance, and now me and Marshall.

So it's very flattering, man, But I ain't gonna lie.

I'm feeling real anxious, like last year when I retired four years ago. It's not on your mind until you're actually on the list. And now, you know what I mean, The pressure is being the first ballot. I hope, you know what I mean. I think I got the resume to be first ballot, but you never know what the voters are thinking. Like I still live with the to O thing, you know what I mean, Yo, he had the numbers. To O Caro One's is definitely a first ballot Hall of Famer, but it took him three times to get in. And you know what I mean, I'm living with that kind of like fear, you know what I mean.

You just want to get in. You don't want to be waiting, you know.

Let me say this to you, and certainly me and Too have had our differences and what have you, but make no mistake about it, he deserved to be a first ballot Hall of fam It should have never been a second or third ballot. It was people hating on him and using stuff out off the field in terms of his personality.

I'm gonna hear all of that stuff.

That brother's one of the top three receivers in the history of the National Football League statistically, and he never should have gone past the first ballot.

Is that simple?

I could say the same for you in this regard, just so you know, I don't.

Know if you notice it not about yourself.

I'm looking at the NFL's all time sack leaders, Okay, Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Green, Julius Peppers, Chris Doleman, Michael Strayan, Jason Taylor, You, DeMarcus Ware, and Richard Dent and John Randall tied. Okay, all of them are in the Hall of Fame, every one of them. Okay, every one of them. Say no way in hell you ain't going into the Hall of Fame. And oh, by the way, DeMarcus where, Richard Dent and John Randall all have less sacks than you, So you're definitely going into the Hall of Fame. I would add, that's right, and less riggs, and let's because you got to Here's what I would ask.

You when you say anxiety.

Why does it mean so much to a player to ultimately be a Hall of Famer?

Just put it in perspective.

A lot of us who don't play, I think we know the obvious answer, but you give it to us.

Why does it mean so much?

I think it's it's the it's the pinnacle of appreciation. You know what I'm saying. You get kind of football immortality being a part of a championship team, but your family, you know what I mean, your legacy kind of get football immortality by getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.

And like I said, you.

Know what I mean, A lot of my constituents, a lot of my brothers, my teammates, they made it on their first ballot.

They made it on their first time in. I played with those guys.

And if you wanna, I wanna, like at this point, being a Hall of Famer just wouldn't be enough for me. It's like I really got my heart on set on being the first ballot, first ballot Hall of Famer, just like my brothers before me.

You know what I'm saying.

And you know it's a big shout out to Ozzie Knewsome, Right.

That man Gez should probably be.

Yeah, he should probably be the first person to go in the Hall of Fame twice that a player and as a GM. You know what I'm saying, because Ozzi's you know what I mean, reputation. I mean, his resume speaks for itself football wise and GM wise, like.

He very seldom ever misses.

And you know his last draft he drafted Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews, So you know what I mean, It's like there's nothing to say.

And by the way, just like just a reminder to the orders you were in the Ravens. You were inducted into the Ravens ringer on in twenty twenty three. That meant the world to you, okay, And oh, by the way, just another statistic you might not even remember about yourself. Do you know that you're played in all sixteen games in the NFL season When it was a sixteen game NFL season, you played in all sixteen games twelve times, and you played in fifteen games, and you played in fifteen of the sixteen games two additional times.

So of your.

Seventeen years in the National Football League, fourteen of those years you never missed more than one game. Twelve of those years, you didn't miss a single game. Did you know that about yourself?

I did not know that, but that goes to show you about that raven DNA. To be a raven, you have to love football. And you can't just love football when the lights is on it, you know what I mean. You gotta love football when you're not playing, when you're at home, or even taking care of your body getting treatment, you know what I'm saying, and being in that locker room, being in that organization, that's one of the things that if you don't pick up or you're not going to be successful there. You have to love football to be a raven. And I just loved football, man. I loved football. I love practicing. You can ask anybody. I had the most fun at practice. I probably had more fun in practice than I did the games, you know what I'm saying. So it was just you gotta love football, man, to be a raven.

All right, So you know who you're talking to, and based on what you're saying, you know, I'm about to go considering what you just said.

What the hell is wrong with your ravens now? I mean what the I mean? I mean, I'm talking about this defense.

I'm not talking about the office because we know it's an aberration of Pittsburgh, said Lamar Jackson Derek Henry. And they gonna do what they do. Okay, we understand that. What's up with this Ravens defense. I don't even recognize them, bro, I don't even reckon.

We've had a lot of we had a lot of changes on defense. You know what I'm saying. We losing Patrick Clean was big. Losing losing Gino Gino Stone was big. You know what I'm saying, losing and Jadeveon Clowney.

You know what I'm say.

You know the young kid coming on now? Oh, you know what I mean. I love what I seen last week. You know what I'm saying. I think the biggest thing we definitely need. You know, Marlin's getting up there in age, but he's still Marline.

He's still Marlin Humphrey.

So I think we need another lockdown corner just you know, I mean, not taking away from Brandon Stevens. And you know the young guy, Niate Wadings, he's coming. You know what I'm saying, He's still a rookie, you know what I'm saying. And also you know, this is Zach Goorre's first time calling plays, and one thing about football fans in general is that they're not patient. They want to fix now, you know what I'm saying, Zach's first time, you know, calling plays, and I just hope, you know, Harts kind of give him a chance to fix it, like work it out like everybody, you know, shout out to Mike McDonald, you know what I'm saying. You know, he called he was an actual defensive coordinator for his last year, ended up getting a head coaching job. But he was also he'd been in the system kind of he'd been there with He was there with us when I was there, you know what I mean, So he kind of had a feel of how to kind of call plays, you know what I mean.

Under the mentorship, I think he evidently knew.

He was going to be a coordinator and eventually inspired to be a head coach.

I think Zach, you know, his roads, his road started a little different.

He was a player first, and gradually, you know, I love that Zach's defensive coordinator, and yes, I want to see a raven dominant defense what we're accustomed to seeing over there, But I also know that there's a lot more going on than what you and I are watching on TV, and they still got time to give it fit, get it fixed.

But I would say when we won the.

Super Bowl in twenty twelve, that wasn't our most dominant defense.

It wasn't you know what I'm saying. That wasn't like it wasn't. So I don't think the.

Fans need to like, oh, our defense, So we don't got to change like we still have to when we won it, we wasn't.

That wasn't our best defense.

I will say this to you, though, I would say this to you, do t SiZ Patrick Queen. How the hell y'all let him a Raven become a stealer? I mean, that's not the Raven, That's not the Ravens organization that I would know. So I'm not I'm not gonna throw that, but that is not That is not something that's common, bro.

That is not very common at all. That's not very common at all. I don't know. I don't know.

That is a Patrick Queen question. You know what I'm saying. But you know, it wasn't just him, you know what I mean? We let a lot of people go that I think should have never left the building. Remember we eventually, like we let the greatest safety ever walk out of the building. The greatest safety ever eventually went and played for another team. You know what I'm saying. So I don't think we should have ever let me at Judan go. I don't think we should have ever let Sadarius go. I don't think we should have ever let CJ.

Mosley go. But it happens.

And when stuff like that happened, people have to understand that us as professional athletes, our window is only so big to kind of like set us up. And I think Patrick Queen understood the business side of it, and it was like, all right, I may not this is the only chance I may get to get a bigger deal. I'm pretty sure they probably approached him about taking less than he was worth to play alongside Rokwan who.

Got the big deal. You know what I'm saying.

You know, it's all numbers in business, and you know you gotta give Lamar, you know what I mean, tools to win.

You know what I mean.

You can't spend all your cap on defense, which what we used to do.

You know, do you ever find yourself fantasizing about Damn. What would it have been like for us when I was playing and I had Ray Lewis and I had Ed Reed and I had these cats playing if Lamar Jackson was our quarterback when we had that, when we thought just you ever find yourself fantasizing about that?

I do? I do, but I do.

But you know, I'm also appreciative for the TVs that I had at that time, But to have, you know, MVP Jackson as your quarterback, like, you can't you can't deny that, Like dang, can you imagine Lamar when you know the Ravens had a Lodi and and Jared Johnson. You know what I'm saying, Ed Reed, Jim, you know what I mean. Yeah, we've been in Dynasty. Yeah, nine times out of ten we'd have been in Dynasty. But you know what I mean, You just wonder. All you could do, I mean is just wonder how.

Do you feel about Lamar Jackson being as great as he is? I throw this stet at you. He is one and four lifetime now versus the Steelers. He's one in five straight up against Patrick Mahomes against everybody else, t Sizzle, He's sixty five and eighteen, Like seventy percent of his games he's won.

The only problems he's had is against Patrick.

Mahomes and against the Steelers, well, Patrick mahoons, Patrick Mahons, Okay, and I think like majority of those games were in Arrowhead. That is a significant advantage, you know what I'm saying. I think they've only played Kansas City in Baltimore twice.

But one of them was the ANC championship game last year.

That yeah, but that that wouldn't That wasn't on Lamar, Now, that wasn't.

It was. It was a lot.

It was a lot that happened, and they Flyers got a hold onto the ball.

You got to run the football more as well.

True true the football game man, and you know, shout out to the Chiefs.

They wouldn't want it, you know what I mean.

You gotta remember it was a time where, you know, when Harvall first got there, we couldn't get past the Steelers, you know what I'm saying.

And then we couldn't get past the Patriots. It's just like stepping stone.

Not everybody is you know, Patrick Mahomes and can just come in and have winning records against everybody they're playing against. You know what, I'm saying, so it was a lot win that game. But yeah, it's it's like, all right, it's Kate just beat on Lamar. Now you know what I'm saying, Like, all right, Lamar's one and four and I think the stealers are like seven of their last eight.

That gets Baltimore or something crazy like that, you know what I mean.

Like, that's that's that's everybody that ain't just a quarterback I got, that's everybody.

I got you.

Let me ask you this, Let me ask you this. What do you miss most about playing?

The locker room? I don't miss hitting people.

You don't miss you don't mis hitting people.

I don't miss hitting people. This body has ran its course. I don't miss hitting people. I miss the locker room. Like just that, the camaraderie we had, the relationships we had, just the fun we had in our little boys club locker room. That's what I miss the most.

I get that. That's the most question.

That's that's that's the question I get asked the most, is what do I miss most? Do you miss playing? I'm like, no, I don't miss playing. I missed the locker room. And you know, I hear stories about stuff I used to do saying I'd be like, I didn't I didn't do that.

I like that. I almost don't believe it. But apparently.

The guy I am now it was a different person when I was wearing helmet and shoulder pass it. I guess that's all of us. But I definitely missed the locker room. And I definitely think Justin Tucker needs me in the locker room.

Like right now, if you if you were in the locker room right now, what would you be saying to the Baltimore Ravens, Like I would know this thing.

We had this thing. I'm pretty sure you remember you know the movie, Uh, Meet the Parent. They had the big circle of trust. So we used to have a big chalkboard and we was good at policing ourselves. So right now we have a big circle of trust. And probably the only person would be on in there is Derrick Henry.

There.

Henry probably be Derrick Henry in the office the line. Probably the only people be in the circle of trust right now, you know what I mean. But everybody be kicked out, you know what I mean? And we all have to earn ourselves back in the usually earn it back in by getting the wind and you damn sure worrying about by beating your division rivals, you know what I'm saying. So it's gonna come down to pipe again. We're gonna see them again. We're gonna see Cleveland again, you know.

What I mean. And we're gonna play it at the Botts, you know what I mean.

But I never mentioned this to you before, but I'll tell it to you now. First of all, when they call you t Sizzel, obviously you brought something to the game, something significant to the game. You also brought something significant to your interviews, like seeing you on TV you have said was damn near must see TV because you always had some shit to say, always always used to love it right, Definitely. Who did you like talking to most on television in the media.

Definitely you skip, uh, you know, he's just to me. He's antagonists, you know what I mean. So it was like, I'm giving it to you because you like everybody I don't like. So you know, you like the Patriots, you like the Stealers, you like the Cowboys. I'm like, nah, I'm all of them. So you definitely my number one folk and and I like basically talking to the other team. You know what I mean, It's like, how can I get them kind of the play into my hands?

You know what I mean.

I used to get a lot of you know, slides and chips out of the Steelers because you know, they didn't want me harassing Big Ben, you know what I mean. But I'd be like, I'd be like, they scared of me. That's why they're always sliding, you know my way.

You know what I'm saying. I used to say something to try to get singled up.

You remember that quote you gave about big Ben, right, God could have his soul, but his ass is mine.

That's what you said.

That's what an old time great quote you gave about big Ben Brothlisberger.

Right. Absolutely.

I just wanted to let him know, like, yo, hey, I respect your game.

You know what I'm saying.

I probably wouldn't be sizzel if it wasn't for Big Ben. And you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers you know what I'm saying. But I'm coming for you. I'm letting them know. You know what I'm saying. And it was that that was when we used to get the hit and the Raven Steelers was raven Steeler.

That's when the game was really fun.

You think the Ravens gonna win it this year or you fearful that they're gonna come up short again.

I think they will. This is the thing.

Everybody know well, true football fans know that football between September and December is one thing. January football is a whole nother thing. Everybody get a clean slate. It don't matter if you lost to the Raiders in week two, you know what I mean, and you blew out Dallas in week three, none of that matters.

You know what I'm saying.

When you get into January football, you have to produce, you have to play, and it's.

A one week season, you know what I'm saying.

And honestly, everybody knows a Baltimore team in January dangerous. We're dangerous. So I think we just got a weather the storm. Now play it out, you know what I mean. Definitely when the rest of our home game, when the divisions, if we can you know what I mean, and getting the January.

Once we get into January, then we could play our styles.

So so you got the Ravens coming out of AFC going to the Super Bowl. Who playing against bro is it Detroit? Is it Philadelphia, Detroit, Detroit Lions.

Like we were robbed last year of possibly the best Super Bowl possibly ever Detroit Baltimore in Vegas. But this year we get a chance to do it.

Now.

Now just think Detroit Lions versus Baltimore Ravens in the big easy. Oh, we're gonna have two weeks down in the beginning. You know, the last on the Super Bowl was in New Orleans. Who got that thing done?

Y'all did, y'all did, but the lights listen, y'all almost lost it because y'all were doing y'all thing, and then then the lights went out, and then the lights went out of College Katholic then came back on y'all.

We was messing up the money. We were messing up the money, the spread and all of that.

They hit the.

Switch on us and we finished put up fifty two on them. Like we were like, hey man, we're gonna score fifty two points. We're gonna send Ray all right. By scoring fifty two, we probably would same Lions score, you know, fifty two to six.

But so you're telling me, so you're telling me that San Francisco's near comeback in the Super Bowl against y'all was a product of the damn electricity going out and stuff like that, and and that disrupted y'all.

Is that what it is?

Nah, I ain't gonna say that.

Oh we like that fun with it because it never happened before, and it's never happened since. Right, Okay, let's just be on. It never happened before and it never happened since. But here we are blowing out San Francisco forty nine.

You know what I'm saying.

We were up huge, the games put away at halftime, you know what I'm saying. Twenty eight come out from halftime, Jacobe takes it back.

You know what I'm saying. We're like, oh, we're running away with this one.

Then we go three and out, right, That's when we go three and out, and then we finished score again. Then the lights cut off on. Then the lights cut off, but they made a fantastic run. But there was just a daylight and Dallas short.

You know what I mean.

They say grenades and horseshoes. Then we go you can almost win with a grenade, you know what I mean. But wasn't, no, it wasn't nobody stopping at that raven. That raven wave. That was our year before I.

Let you get on out of here.

Man, I'm gonna go through these names again. Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Green, Julius Peppers, Chris Doman, Michael Strahan, Jason Taylor, You, DeMarcus Win and then Richard denn and John Randall or Todd NFL history, all Tom sacks leaders. Ain't no discussion. As far as I'm cerning, You're gonna be a first ballot Hall of Fame?

Up. Do you believe? Do you?

Do you believe?

Well?

Where would you rank yourself amongst your contemporaries.

As a football player, as a sack master?

I know Bruce Smith had two hundred sacks, Reggie White had one hundred and ninety eight, Kevin Green had one hundred and sixty. Where do you see yourself amongst those names?

Are you right where you belong?

Or do you think that the numbers ain't the only thing you can measure by and that you should be high on the list.

No, I think it's fair.

I think I'm right where I belong for the simple fact that I didn't realize I was as close as I was until the last two years. Because every year that you don't win it, you know, the big one is kind of like like, yeah, you had some success, but you didn't win a championship, you know what I'm saying. So like my main focus, you know, like especially when I got you know, to the to the NFL and before you know, I eventually retired, was I want as many rings as possible, you know what I'm saying. And uh so, like I wasn't like I didn't know where I was until it was mentioned to me, Like, yo, you just went to eight, you know what I mean. I'm like for real, like I didn't know. So I think it's fair. I think it's fair and all accept it. I'll accept it. And like you said, like I don't just have sacks, you know what I mean. I got picks, I got touchdowns, force fumbles, tackles for loss, I got anything.

The resume is preloaded like what little baby say.

You know I'm not the goat, but you know I definitely fit the descriptions round my my my resume said, you know, speaks for herself.

So as long as I got you campaigning for me, right.

You ain't got you ain't got to worry about that.

I'm damn sruggle campaign I shouldn't have to, to be honest, first ballot is shriming easy.

Ain't nothing even discussed. I'm gonna go to I'm gonna go to hell off if that doesn't happen.

Before I let you get on out of Before I let you get on out of here. Let me transition prime time. Deon Sanders, greatest cornerback in the history of football, coaching at Colorado, doing a hell of a job. Love the fact that I see too at his games. I see Larren Sapp coaching his defensive line. I he that's something you should be doing. As far as I'm concerned. As well, I would ask you this, Deon Sanders, as a college coach or coaching somebody like the Dallas Cowboys or the Las Vegas Raiders, where should he be college?

You gotta understand why I think.

I think because of his influence and like he get to kind of influence.

You know what I mean. This is you get coached by, like you just said, the greatest cornerback ever. You know what I mean?

The impact I think that he can make the young players lives, you know, not just on the football field, but all you know, at the the professional level. It's a business, and I think the pressure on him to win that evidently like ruin what he's doing, especially what he's done at the coaching level. Like good college coaches don't always make good NFL coaches. If you look at Nick Saban, like he was a great college coach, but he wasn't that good in the NFL. And I'm pretty sure there's some others. But like I said, like you know, I just said it. You know, NFL football fans aren't patient, so they want you to win, and they want you to win, now, you know what I mean. I think the pressure I mean not that I don't think Dion could be successful and handle it, but I think if he has one or two down years, they're gonna be ready to get rid of him and he probably wouldn't get another chance at it again. So I love what Prime's doing. I just think like once he's achieved everything at the college level.

Then he can you know.

I mean it's his decisions, you know, right, But my opinion is I think, like do all of that, like at the Cobbe level. You know what I'm saying. You got you know, his son coaching both his sons, you know what I mean? Travis Hunter. They finna be first round top ten picks. You know what I'm saying.

I got primed as my coach of the year. I got Travis Hunt as my Heisman Trophy when I got you. Jos Sandra's is probably the first quarterback taking any upcoming NFL draft. Let me transition to my very last question real quick, because I got to get ready.

To get out of here. Ray Lewis has meant the world to you.

Former teammate, champion went you, two time champion with you, as well as the mentor, well a mental big brother.

You're hearing his name. It's early.

Adam Scheffer for ESPN reports that it's early, but he's being considered for a head coaching job down in Florida. I think it is a Florida Atlantic. I believe it is Florida Atlantic University.

F A U H what ray Lewis as the coach? I mean that brother don't play. I mean, I mean he's.

Qualified in terms of his football mind, but I'm just wondering about his temperament.

With the kids.

Yeah, he different.

It's gonna be a tense and you can't have soft skin if Ray's gonna be your head coach, or you're gonna let him coach your children. You're gonna have to trust them, you know what I'm saying. Man knows football, I mean, and he's gonna demand greatness, you know, demand greatness at all of us. You know, I mean after we want when our our season ended, you know, after a playoff game. One time, he called me like the next week, asked me if I'm working out. I said, no, ray, I'm not working out. I'm actually on the couch, you know what I mean, Like ray Lewis and ray Lewis, and he's gonna demand greatness twenty four hours a day. So if they're gonna be good on defense, they're gonna play for Rosa's defense. I don't know how many points they're gonna score. You have to bring in an offensive mind. But uh, I think it'll work, especially you know he's from Florida, he's coaching in Florida.

I think it would work.

I mean, we had to get him time kind of like we gave prime time with the Jackson State. But it ain't gonna be too much time.

I feel you.

The one and only t Sizzle himself Terrell Suggs eligible for enshrinement this year, ladies and gentlemen, soon to be first ballot Hall of Famer.

It better happen, It better happen. It's good to see you, bro, man. I'm here anytime you need me, my man, it's so good to see you, bro.

It's so good to talk to you. All right, the one and only Terrell Suggs right here when Steven A. Smith show love him, Damn Wright. He should be a first ballot Hall of Famer. The numbers are there, everything is there. There is no excuse.

And by the way, he was beloved by folks inside and outside the football

Community as well, so there's no excuse to hold anything back when it comes to him.