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TTalk: Beyond the Field serves as a platform to showcase the incredible talent, dedication, and perseverance that our Tulane student-athletes possess. TTalk goes beyond the confines of conventional sports podcasts. Through the ancient are of storytelling, we are developing historical records of our experiences as student-athletes. We celebrate the achievements of our athletes, both on and off the field. Together, we uplift one another, inspire future generations, and create a legacy that transcends time. Join us, as we celebrate the indomitable spirit of New Orleans and the transformative power of Tulane University.
The TClub is an affinity group, of the Tulane Alumni Association, made up of alumni who are former student-athletes.
00:04 - Carmen Jones (Host)
so welcome to tea talk, where athletes get to tell their stories in their own words. Today on tea talk, I'm so excited to have our quarterback slash wide receiver from the late 80s, jerome McIntosh. Jerome started off as a quarterback, was successful in that position, but he went on to switch over to wide receiver where he had even a greater impact on the Tulane football team. He set some records, he wound up playing with the Saints and he's just had an incredible career and an incredible life. So we're excited to have Jerome on. So how are you doing today, jerome?
00:53 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I'm doing well. I probably need you to come with me anytime there's an introduction that needs to be said of me. That was very good.
00:59 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Thank you, thank you. So we're just going to get right into it, and I just want to know what was it like growing up, jerome?
01:10 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, most people know I am a military kid, so it was every four years.
01:16 - Carmen Jones (Host)
You're going to move, and so what were some of the places you lived that you remember.
01:20 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
That I remember Well. I was born in Idaho, in Idaho, in Idaho, yes, and I stayed there probably long enough until this baby could fly, and then we moved to Germany okay, today, therefore, do you remember? Germany. We were in on a Han Air Force base, okay, and most people don't even know where that is, and I don't. I can't recall now either. Do you remember?
01:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
what it looked like. No, do you remember anything about being there?
01:48 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
No, From you know, I think I went up to second grade there and I just remember snow Gotcha. And then from there we make a drastic change and we move to California Edwards Air Force Base.
02:01 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay.
02:02 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So we are right outside Bakersfield Edwards Air Force Base. Okay, so we are right outside Bakersfield and you know I'm a kid so I don't know any of the California stuff. That's going on Four more years. We moved to Florida, to Eglin Air Force Base, which is the largest Air Force Base in the nation. So we're there and you know, you're learning discipline, you're learning how to cope with change and adversity, because all your friends are back in California and now you're here in Florida. Who do you know? Well, you gotta get to know them, because one thing that the military will do, they'll put you next to somebody living wise and they don't care if you like them, they don't care if you get along. That's where you're gonna to stay for four years. So it's in your best interest to get along with people and, to you know, make some bridges and help people along the way.
02:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So what are some of your early family memories or traditions? I know you guys were moving around a lot, but what type of things kind of grounded you from a family perspective?
03:04 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I think as a family we always went to, like the Blue Angels, the Thunderbirds, we always were active on base. So you know you could go to the air shows and you were around you know 747s and it wasn't like an awestruck thing, it was just what military kids did. I can tell you as I got out of Tulane this is jumping ahead. But the school I used to teach at was right outside the Air Force Base and at five o'clock everything stopped to present the colors and to end that day.
03:42
And so a lot of people that weren't around, that didn't know, are saying well, why are you stopping the baseball or the softball game? And our kids knew and they'd stop and their hands were on their heart and they would go through it and everybody else would kind of look like are these people just crazy? Is it just because they're close to the base? And that was just a ritual that you just knew and going forward you were going to do, regardless of where you were. Once you heard revelry, you knew it was time to stop and address the flag.
04:12 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So it was kind of patriotic growing up in your household.
04:15 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Definitely so. Yes, yes. And, like I said, just you know you will have some discipline and you're going to be around other kids that are military kids. So when you stay on base, that's all you know is military life. There's everything that you need, that you may go off base to try to find Everything is on base for you. So you've got military people, you've got the military police there, you've got the commissary, the BX, everything that you needed was right there. So why, you know, I feel like I was a little bit sheltered, although I moved a lot, but I was sheltered because I was always on a base and everything was at my beck and call on base.
04:54 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So, as you're in school, at what point did you start dipping into sports?
05:01 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I started playing sports wait, I think I would say pretty early in life. I know when I got to California we started playing the rec league sports and for me it was football and basketball. We played those. And then it was the move to Florida where at my at that time it was a junior high school. So I'm out at junior high school football and I'm playing wide receiver and I'm thinking, you know, I think I'm pretty good at this, it's okay.
05:31
The story that happens is we call the play, I'm on one side and I'm thinking, okay, well, the play, the ball's supposed to go on the other side. So I'm not really going to run this route as hard as I can. And, unbeknownst to me, quarterback throws it, I'm not even looking, it hits me in the back of the head. I can't be a wide receiver anymore because that right there.
05:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
That was the end.
05:54 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
That was the end, not my doing, but our coach was like if you can't pay attention enough to watch where the ball is going to be thrown, you can't be out here. So you know, I took a little bit of a regression there.
06:09 - Carmen Jones (Host)
How did it make you feel hearing?
06:11 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
that, oh, I was tore up. I mean I had people laughing at me and coaches yelling at me, and you know, because as you live on the base, all the people that are on that team are with you on the base, and so they got jokes all day long, and so it just got to a point where it's like I got to do something to redeem myself, and you know we didn't have a backup quarterback. So I said, well, can I try that? And back in those days, you know you might've thrown the ball five or six times a game. That was it. You were going to run the ball until somebody stopped you, and so we just ran the ball and I was just a facilitator to get it to our running backs gotcha.
06:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So so you're in middle school. Things are moving along. What was it like playing basketball for you? How good would? You know, how good were you in basketball?
07:02 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
well for basketball I was. I thought I was better in basketball than I was in football and I think my like my eighth grade year I had numbers to prove, you know, averaging probably 30 a game wow and we were winning.
07:15
And you know, when you're winning, things seem to come a little bit easier. And so, um, I went up to the high school. Once I got to the high school, we ran into a coach that kind of said you know, we want you to pass the ball at least six times before you even look to shoot it, unless you have a layup.
07:36
If we're in our offense, that ball has got to rotate at least six times before we look to shoot. So that kind of cramped, my style and the style of the guys that would play with us, and so we weren't very good in high school, I'll tell you that.
07:50 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So did you play any other sports, or was it just football and basketball in high school?
07:54 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
It was just those two sports and that took enough time for me to kind of stay on the grades and, you know, prepare for football or basketball when it's not in season.
08:06 - Carmen Jones (Host)
And what kind of student were you Like? Did you put a lot into schoolwork, like what? Were you thinking of as a student?
08:16 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I think I was probably that kid and I can say this because I'm a high school teacher right now. So I was one of those kids that I'm going to probably do the bare minimum to get by. If my mom says you need a B in this class, I'm probably going to get the low B, but I got the B. It wasn't ever a thought of I'm going to fail something. I wasn't that bad of a student and the discipline at home made it such that yeah, you're going to pass.
08:45
And that's not even. That's not even up for debate. We're not going to have parent conferences. You are going to take care of what you need to, or we're going to start taking things away from you, and the first thing would be you're not going to get to play sports. You will have enough time to do your studies.
09:00 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So you were passionate about playing sports. At that time, that was my motivation.
09:05 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I wanted to play sports, and the byproduct was well, you better have good grades to do that, and so you know I did what I needed to do academically to stay eligible, and not so much eligible, but it was more. You're going to be the AB honor roll. If it's a higher level class, you can get a C, but we're not dealing with the Ds or Fs. That's not happening.
09:28 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, so as you're playing, you start receiving accolades. What are some of the awards you got in high school between football and basketball?
09:37 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
High school awards. I played quarterback from my 10th grade and back then you had your junior high school, so it was 7, 8, 9. And then you had your high school. It was 10 through 12. So I didn't have a freshman year of high school, it was just I was at the junior high school at that point. So my high school career, let's see. I went, I was the two-time 4A state quarterback player of the year. Basketball-wise, like I said, high school basketball, we weren't very good, so there weren't many accolades to be spread out. We just kind of, you know, we were probably maybe a 500 team, but the athletes that we had were way better than the 500. We just did not gel or have the direction to be better than what we were.
10:32 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, so you know you're playing football in high school. At what point did you go? Hmm, I think I can go to the next level with this.
10:43 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I had some guys early in my career that were like, as I was a sophomore, we had a guy who went to the University of Florida to play. We had a guy to go, Ricky Thomas, went to the University of Alabama to play. And you know I'm a little ashamed but when I was in high school college football wasn't my, my like desire, I just thought that they went. And in my junior year we had another guy running back David Castile goes to the University of Alabama, and so I'm like geez, these guys can get to college. And you know, back that time we didn't have any cell phones, we didn't have anything like that. So if I were trying to reach out to somebody to get some information, that was pen to paper and you had to wait and they had to get there and read it and do the same thing back to you. So I was kind of sheltered in the whole recruiting phase because I just didn't know. I didn't know what school I wanted to go to. I knew one thing and I carry that through with the kids that I coach now and that is you got two options you can go to.
11:45
I knew one thing and I carry that through with the kids that I coach now, and that is. You got two options. You can go to a school that is a big school in a small town, like the University of Florida, Alabama. Even I put LSU in there. There's a big, major presence of LSU fans in Baton Rouge, but if you're not on campus, you still know about LSU. So you can either have that or you can be at a small school in a big city, and that's the road that I took going to Tulane, because you know, I came to Tulane and it was wow, this is not the military base that I've always been on this is more active and there are more things to do, and I gravitated to that.
12:27 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So how did Tulane get on your radar? What was that recruiting process like?
12:33 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
You know it's strange because I've listened to a few of the podcasts and it was Mack Brown. Mack Brown was recruiting me to go to Oklahoma. He was their offensive coordinator there before he came to Tulane. And you know he I think he was very straightforward with me and forthright, and he says well, I'm going to interview in New Orleans at this school and I'm asking for way too much. But you just never know, if you don't ask, they won't ever give it to you. So he asked for it and probably the week after he says hey, now I'm at Tulane University and I want you to come here. It's a lot closer to Florida than Oklahoma is. So that's the recruiting process for him. He came and got me and you know he had Daryl Moody on the staff, who was, you know, a character in himself, and so that recruiting process started that way.
13:31
And so what were they telling you that made you want to choose Tulane? You know it was one in such that back then I didn't want to go to, as they call them, the football schools. I wanted to go to an academic place, not because I was the smartest, by no means. I just thought I am more than just a football player. So in my recruiting I had, I looked back and I had Bobby Bowden at Florida State.
13:54
He comes over to the house because we're about two and a half hours away from Tallahassee. So he comes to the house and beautiful presentation, he's like we got a jersey for you. And beautiful presentation, he's like we got a jersey for you, we have got a position for you. You just have to play wide receiver. And me, as a 17-year-old high school kid, full of testosterone, thinking he knows everything, says I appreciate that, but I have never played wide receiver, aside from getting hit in the back of the head, so I'm not going to do that. I think I am a quarterback by trade and that's what I wanted to be. And so I go to Tulane. He's still in Tallahassee and we played them every year and so I had great or good conversations with him after our games and he would still remind me you could have been with us and you could have been doing that at Florida State.
14:42 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So what were some of those conversations with Bobby Bowden like?
14:46 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, his sales pitch was always we are family and we are going to take care of each other and we are going to get some people from the Pensacola area, so you will have areas with people to come back with, to drive home with, to go forward with, and you know they are very. He ran a very nice and tight ship and it wasn't the. I appreciated him so much because he says we've got quarterbacks, we want you to move somewhere else. And that is when, oh, the Ward guy who won the Heisman, played with the Knicks, played basketball and football. Charlie Ward, yes, so that's around Charlie Ward's time, I remember. And yeah, he played and he played well. And I think I was the ultimate competitor where I wasn't going to say that guy's better than me, I'm going to fight and try and do whatever I can to get on the field, and that kind of showed at Tulane.
15:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Gotcha Okay. So when you first got on campus, what were your impressions?
15:50 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, I got there, like in the summer, so all the freshmen got there and we had practice and you know it was one of those things where I'll never forget my freshman year Larry Routt. So Larry Routt is out there and you know I'm around. They've got some bigger guys out here, but I'm going to compete. I saw him cramp. He cramped up and they stripped him down to his jockstrap right on the field and just poured container of container of ice on top of him to get his body temperature down and I thought I don't know if I can do this.
16:27
That's a big guy and he looks strong and he is just suffering over there. Once we got through that, you know, it was just football football 24-7. That's all you were doing because we were the only ones on campus. And so there is one glorious day where the rest of the freshmen show up and we're now sharing our campus with all these people. It's like wow, finally we get to see other people aside from these football guys. So my experience there was I was just ready to see other people and we finally did. And you know, freshman year geez it was. It was a definite departure from being at home. I will say that.
17:11 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So you, you come into Tulane, you want to play quarterback. Mack Brown is there. You had to come up against one of the more celebrated athletes in Terrence Jones. So what was that whole process like? Taking the field with Terrence, competing with Terrence what was your thought process like?
17:33 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yes. So Terrence and I both came in together. There was a guy, ken Karcher, that was there before us, and so we both came in and Mack Brown was going to change the offense up. We were going to have more of a option style rollout, spread out kind of game. And so, you know, I saw Terrence and I'm like geez, this guy's big, I don't know if he's the quarterback and then you know, you start watching him play. And Terrence had a phenomenal arm. He could put balls where only he could do it. And so my thought was, well, I'm going to learn the playbook better than him.
18:09
And, fortunately for me, we ran basically the same offense in high school as we were going to at Tulane, and so Terrence struggled a bit with that, with we were doing a read option and so making reads and making the pull and pitching the ball to the running backs. He struggled with that a bit, but he had enough athletic ability to. If I make a mistake, I can correct that mistake by my physical talent. So yeah, he was definitely a good guy. You know, we ended up being friends and are still friends today Harbored no ill will toward him. He was a Louisiana guy, so I knew at that point that people came to see him Aside from this Florida guy from a small town called Niceville, florida, they would much rather see their guy from Lutcher, who is, you know, very good and very talented. And so he ended up playing his first year and I got redshirted.
19:11
So, we had three quarterbacks on the staff and I was the third one, so as a redshirt back then you didn't get to play, but I had to go because we always took three quarterbacks. So I went to all our away games and I dressed and I warmed up the whole thing, but I never got to play because either Ken or Terrence was playing, which was good for me. I thought the development of that year very, very much helped me.
19:39 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Yes, definitely. So you go into your true not your true freshman year, but the following year where you actually get to play your first year eligibility.
19:50 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yes.
19:51 - Carmen Jones (Host)
And Carter is gone.
19:53 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So it's.
19:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Terrence and it's you, yes. So, as I recall, it seemed like you and Terrence were sharing quarterback duties during the season. So what was that decision? You and Terrence were sharing quarterback duties during the season, so what was that decision like? How did they come to that decision and how did that come about?
20:12 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Okay. So, as Terrence played his freshman year, terrence was our running back. You know he played a little bit of quarterback but he was primarily our running back and his talents had already been shown. And so I think, yeah, we shared, but it was more like I'd say 70 30 him to me. So I did get out there and I, you know I'm going against their first team and you know we, both Terrence and I, are playing together and trying to, you know, develop an offense that was high powered and was formidable for any defense to try to defend. You get out there and you're just trying your best. You look at guys and say I know I'm not the starter, but there is no fall off here. I am going to compete and I'm going to play as hard as I can.
21:00 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Yeah, just from what I recall and you can kind of correct me, yeah, just from what I recall and you can kind of correct me, it seemed like when Terrence, he was not going to stand in the pocket If the pocket started collapsing. Terrence was gone.
21:14
He was taken off and then it seemed like when you were in the pocket, you would just stand in and just release the ball, take the lick, like I was, like he keeps getting hit, why is he? But you would literally stand in there for you know a longer period of time than Terrence and you could see, and you were left-handed.
21:37 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yes.
21:37 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Terrence was right-handed, so there was some stuff that the defense had to prepare for, with you and Terrence both playing at the same time. So was that something that Mack had in mind, or did it just develop?
21:53 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I think that just developed. You know, terrence was always a right handed kid and I was always a left handed guy and by the time it got time for me to get out there and, as you say, sit in the pocket. You know, I'm trying to go through my reads as quickly as possible, and so I think, as any quarterback, I would rather kind of take the hit than to throw an interception. You know, I'm trying to make sure our guys are open. Sometimes you've got to throw it early to throw them open and so, standing in the pocket, I thought was something that you needed to do. You know, there was times where you needed to scramble.
22:31
If you know, the blocking broke down quickly, but I tried to give the offensive line time to set their blocks and all of that. So if you have a stationary pocket where people are moving around, linemen have zero clue because their back is to the quarterback. They have zero clue where you are. So if you stayed right where you are, they knew if I make this kind of U-shaped umbrella around him, he will be safe and they would complete their blocks. And so that's what I tried to do.
23:02
It didn't always happen that way, I definitely had to run sometimes.
23:08 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Definitely so. How did, how did you feel about your freshman year plan Um the overall experience I?
23:15 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
liked the you know I.
23:17
We had our spring game, like two weeks before we were going to play Louisville, our first game that year, and I kind of I went back to throw the ball, I threw it and my pinky, my throwing hand, caught a helmet and so I pulled like five ligaments in my finger and I'm the backup quarterback and so I've got it I've got.
23:39
I had surgery the next day and I got that fixed. But now I've got my fingers all taped together and as a quarterback you want full range of your hand, surgery the next day and I got that fixed. But now I've got my fingers all taped together and as a quarterback you want full range of your hand, and so my fingers are taped together and we go to Louisville and probably late in the fourth we're maybe down three and Terrence gets hurt and so I got to go out there with his hurt finger already. And so I get out there and I think the first play, you know, I get ready to fall, I put my hand down to brace my fall and someone steps on the finger that still has the stitches in it.
24:14
So now my finger is bleeding, you know, I've gotten hit in the face of my mouth is bleeding and we've got. I remember Maurice Nelson. He came into the game and he's looking at me like oh my gosh, what's going on.
24:27
I need to play. What's the play, what's the play? And you know, we get out there and we were all young, very, very young, like freshmen, out there playing, and so it was. It was a strange time but in fact, louisville game, it came down to a field goal, which I think we missed the field goal and lost by like two. But just the competitive nature of the game, it was very fun and it was like I can play at this level I can. I know I can do this, so that was eye-opening for me.
24:59 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Gotcha. So a little adversity kind of pushed you over that limit at that point.
25:05 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, without a doubt, because I knew we didn't have anybody else in terms of being a quarterback. We had a guy from Georgia, clay McCall, and Clay was our long snapper and our punch snapper and extra point snapper and he was our third-team quarterback and he's like you can't get hurt. I'm not ready yet and so you know there wasn't much pressure from that, but I just wanted to make sure. I want to show everybody I can play at this level and as good as Terrence is, I can match that.
25:36 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Cool. So what was your reception like on campus outside of the football field? So on campus in the classrooms? How did you navigate that as you came in your true freshman year?
25:52 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Okay, so our freshman year. You know, like I said, once everybody started coming on campus and then you got your schedule, I'm like, okay, this is going to be good. We've got classes now, so we get to class and I can distinctly remember a professor say all the football players stay after class. I'm thinking, oh, we're going to get something. Good, you know, you guys don't have to do this. He's like no, this is what I want you to understand. We are an academic institution. I don't care about football. I know you play on Friday, but if we have an assignment that's due on Friday, you better have it here on Thursday. I'm not taking it Monday. When you come back, you will not get any kind of concessions or anything that you think or you've heard of about college football, guys not going to class and all that If you don't go to class.
26:40
You're not going to pass, and that was just day one. And so I remember, you know, kind of kind of slacking off and whatnot and it's like so you would see like students that would look and say, oh, that's the football guys, and they would kind of move to the other side. It's like I don't have, I don't have a plague or anything, you don't have to move. And so at that point, you know, just because of my competitive nature, I started thinking I'm going to show them. So that's, when you go from the mid in the seating sitting up front, I'm showing this teacher that I am interested in this class and I am going to. You know we always had study hall, so you are going to go to study hall to. You know we always had study hall, so you were going to go to study hall. And then those grades started to come up and you know you start making better grades on tests and you feel a little bit good about it.
27:31
So you start holding that paper up so people behind you could see he got a 98. How'd he do that? Oh, we have a study session in the library. If you ever want to come, you just let me know. Just kind of breaking the ice and letting kids know, because a lot of the kids went to private high school.
27:49
And so they're coming from other parts of the country and they get to Tulane, which is a private university, and so the parents feel like they're going to get that same quality education and they do. Except there are people that look like you and I that are at that school, that are doing and pursuing the same goals and dreams that they have. They just haven't been used to that. So it was. It was, I guess, a change for some. For me it really wasn't. It's just you know you're going in there to learn and not to be cutting up playing with people, so you go ahead and get your books done and football took care of itself.
28:27 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Did you feel like you had any advocates in the athletic department? That would kind of, you know, check on you, make sure that you were going down the proper path.
28:40 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
The two that we had Dr Tom Hill of course he was there and Phil Hughes. Both of those guys were our advocates to any kind of teaching or any kind of if you needed a tutor, anything like that, they were on it. I know in my situation I still got to a point where I was going to be academically ineligible, so I'm not going home. That's not an option. They're like well, if you don't get these grades up, we're going to rescind your scholarship and you got to go somewhere. Well, I'm not going back home, not to face the wrath of my parents.
29:20
So I took it upon myself. I stayed that summer and took summer classes and I stayed in New Orleans the rest of my time in the summers. So I ended up getting back eligible and in the end I ended up graduating with two separate bachelor's degrees which, as Dr Hill says I think you're the first person that's ever done that Not to get a dual degree, but to get two separate bachelor's degrees. I said, well, I've been going to school a long time and there hadn't been a change During the summer. I'm doing a full load, because that's just what I knew I had to do to stay on top of things. A full load because you know, that's just what I knew I had to do to stay on top of things.
30:03 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Excellent. And what? What did that? Did that relationship continue with Dr Hill and Dr Hughes?
30:18 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
How did that relationship progress? Those guys were, you know, dr Hill was one a former Olympic champion, and so he knew. And so when you, when you had that bad day, when you needed to just go talk, it wasn't about football, it was just about life. And how am I coping? And how do you do this? If these people don't want to coexist with me, how do I still manage that? And so those guys were definitely influences in shaping how I felt at school and just being in New Orleans itself.
30:48
I came to Coach Brown one day. We had a day off, and so I'm thinking, ok, well, small town kid from a military school, I'm going to go ahead and go downtown. I go downtown, I'm on Canal Street and there's a black RX-7 pulls up next to me and I had just gone to Popeye's, I got my box of chicken, and the RX-7 pulls up and the tinted window is completely black and the window goes down and a gun comes out, basically, and I'm going oh, what am I supposed to do? I'm just stuck and they pulled the arm back in the car, the window went up and they drove off. Wow.
31:29
I was like coach, I can't be here.
31:33 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So were you down? Did you go down on Canal Street by yourself?
31:38 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yes, I did Because I didn't know any better. That was the thing. I didn't know that we were going to go as a group or football players were going to all gang together and go. I was just solo by myself looking around, going okay, this is good, this is good.
31:53
And then this gun is pulled on me and I'm thinking no, I got to get out of here, went to talk to Tom Hill and he was the one that kind of took me off the ledge and said now that's an isolated incident, he probably will never see that again. But make sure, if you do go downtown you got to go with people. It's got to be a group of people, because solos they can get picked off, but if it's a group nobody's really going to mess with the group. So a lesson learned in that case.
32:21 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So you were considering getting out of Dodge at that point.
32:24 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt, called mom and everything. Hey, academically I'm okay, but this city has got too much for me. And I just wanted you know, because I had never been in a major city by myself. You know, it's always been with the family. So I got my dad, who was 6'6". You know I've always been with the family. So I got my dad, who was 6'6". You know I've got family and so they're not going to bother the family. But the solo guy, yeah, you can get picked off. And so it was just a lesson that I needed to learn and from that point forward, never went downtown by myself. If I did find myself alone, I was vigilant about who's around me, what's going on, how are my surroundings. You know, just being, it's basically just growing up, you know. So now when I return back to New Orleans, I have no problem, I am as comfortable as I've ever been in New Orleans.
33:16 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Yes, indeed. So who were some of the friends that you gathered after that incident?
33:23 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
who were some of the friends that you gathered after that incident. Well, I had a guy who my freshman year roommate was Preston Washington. He was from Pensacola, Florida, A little peed up, he was a little shorter than me but he was ultra competitive and there was always going to be a challenge If it was who leaves Sharp Hall to get to the bathroom first, it was always going to be a challenge with him and I fell into that and I appreciated that. You know, we got uh johnny marks who was from there, uh melvin ferdinand who stayed. He was from there also. He came a little later but we had some guys that you know would take care of you. We had older guys that definitely would look out for the freshmen and just kind of brought you into the Tulane football family.
34:12 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Excellent, so then you go on to your next year. Is that when you started thinking about? Well, how did the thought come about you moving from quarterback to receiver?
34:27 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
That thought was easy. But to bench I was tired of sitting on the bench and I was like I know I could play at this level, but at that point it was the campaign of Louisiana Jones, and so they're pushing him to be a Heisman candidate. And it's like I watch enough football and know enough that the backup quarterback to the Heisman guy is not going to dethrone him. So I thought I've got to find a way to get on the field. And we had Mark Zeno at X and I thought, well, he's an All-American, I'm probably not going to beat him out. But on our backside I thought, well, he's an All-American, I'm probably not going to beat him out, but on our backside I thought I could probably do that. That's over there. We had some guys that were young and inconsistent and I thought, well, I can play that, not never knowing that I never caught a ball. I've never played receiver before.
35:20 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Was that Bobby Bowden in your head, or was that just like? How did that thought?
35:26 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
come about. You know his. His words echoed once I became that receiver. But the first time I was out there I was just like, okay, I've thrown to enough receivers. I know that if I've got to block, I'm blocking somebody my size. I'm not going in there and trying to block the Fred Davises of the world, I'm just not. I'm too small, I'm not going to do that and I wasn't required to do that.
35:52
So I felt good about making the transition and a lot of times people thought well, how are you going to be able to do that if you don't? Well, as a quarterback, you are supposed to know all the routes and where everybody is. So that made it very easy for me. I knew where the receiver was supposed to be. It was just a matter of getting to that spot, and so it made it easier for me. I think if you're transferring from one position, like if you're a running back trying to be a wide receiver and you knew exactly what running backs do but you didn't know what the receivers did, that would make it a little bit harder. But I thought with me I was supposed to know what they did anyway. So I knew the route tree and I knew where the ball was supposed to be going, so it made it easier for me.
36:36 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So did the transition happen during the season or was it during the spring?
36:46 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
And who did you bring the idea to? It was during the season and it wasn't even so much my idea, you know, I just I got tired of being on the bench and you know, I think anybody that's a competitor. I want to go out and play, I want to be out there. I don't want to sit and watch people do it, I want to do it myself. So I think our wide receiver, coach Tim Nunes, and I spoke about it and he says well, if you really think that you can come out here and be a wide receiver, oh, we would welcome you. I said, well, I got to talk to the head coach and all and we'll see, but let's try to plan on that, because I think the coaching staff saw talent in me. I think they knew that I could do things, but I wasn't going to outsee Terrence, so I had to go somewhere else and luckily I went to a spot where I could add value immediately.
37:37 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, so you go, but you don't have to deal with Zeno, who is the All-American on the other side. You go on to dealing with the more inconsistent people. How long from the time you made that decision started practicing, did you actually get on the field and start catching balls?
37:59 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I want to say it probably took a week, a week of practice, and that was about because I said I knew all the plays. So it wasn't as if a learning curve had to happen with me in the plays and I knew the routes. It was just going from taking the ball from under center to being out in a stance and making sure you know if the defensive back rolls up on you, you got to protect yourself. That's a fight right there. It's just a fight. It's not a technique kind of thing. You need to get to a spot and he's probably trying to stop you from getting there.
38:30
So once you've got that in your head and blocking that's always been you know something that if you're going to play wide receiver at any level, you got to block and most people think no, that's counterintuitive. You got, you got to block and most people think no, that's counterintuitive. You got to be able to catch the ball. Well, we're not going to throw it to you if you can't block for other people. So that became a challenge for me blocking. But you know it's one of those things. It's. It's it's just you and him. You're not going to have to block five guys on one play, you just block one and do that very well and you'll be fine. And it's's not a 10-second block, it's short sustained contact with the person and generally you'll have a running back and we had several. Marvin Allen was one of my roommates and Michael Pierce was one of my roommates. They're going to make a cut. You know Chance Miller, smaller guy, he's going to make a cut off of your block. So if you just maintain contact, they will find a way.
39:27 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Gotcha, and did you get any help from the receivers to help kind of bring you along? How did that work out?
39:36 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, I'll say you know and I know Mark Zeno. So Mark was one. It was a quiet confidence and he would share that with you. But it wasn't like you got to do this and you got. He was just like you got this, just do what you do. And so with that you're thinking what is it that I do out here?
39:58
And so you know, and I think that's when Melvin Ferdinand was there and James Toney had come in, maurice Nelson had already played there I just thought, yeah, we've got some guys out here, but for whatever reason, I think I'm best, I'm the best one, and that kind of confidence, you know, while I was at Tulane I kind of had that. And you know, as I look back afterward I thought, geez, I was probably, I was probably a mean guy to a lot of people at Tulane just because of my mouth, because I was so confident in what I could do. And you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't shoot anybody down. But I'm saying, yeah, now that Zeno's gone, these balls are coming to me because I'm going to catch them, I'm going to be the man. That was just my mentality.
40:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Great, and I mean it paid off. It has. You wound up playing really well, being at first on the other side of Z and then, after he left, you became that primary receiver. Who was your quarterback? What was that like as you guys developed?
41:04 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I had. I had a year with Terrence. He was still there and you know I tried to replicate some of the things that Zeno did. I ended up leading the team in in yards and touchdowns and in catches that year I think Zeno had like 70 something, I had 55. So I was in the ballpark first year playing it, and so the next year I had duron smith.
41:29
He had come in and he was backing up terrence for a while, and once terrence went to the canadian football league he had graduated, um duron was there, and so it was one in which now I'm the veteran. I know what's going on and I know what I expect and when I should be receiving the ball and all of that. And Duran was one in which you know he had a big arm also, and so it was good to have strong arm guys that could get you the ball on time and not have you, you know, waiting and, as you know, every time you wait somebody's coming to get you. So let me get the ball quickly, and Duran was one to get it out there where I needed it.
42:10 - Carmen Jones (Host)
All right. So two questions what was one of your memories playing that you know was a difficult situation, and how did you get through it? And then, what is a memory that you remember that was just, you know, one of your incredible memories that you had.
42:29 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
A difficult situation that I had to get through. I tell you, I didn't realize the rivalry between LSU and Tulane. And so I'm a Florida kid, I'm getting up and we're going up to Baton Rouge, and I think they were getting ready to play in the sugar bowl, and so one of the things that the little confectionery sugar cubes that you would drop in your, in your coffee Well, apparently the whole stadium had those and I remember Mack Brown saying before we left he's like make sure you put your helmet on and you keep it on through the tunnel and until we get on the sideline and you will keep it on then like geez, why is he being so mean? I don't want my helmet on it's heavy and all of that.
43:12
But then we came through for special teams. Right before the game starts, special teams comes out and you must have got pelted by at least 3 000 little cubes of sugar just hitting you on the helmet, because that's where they were going and it is an in-state rivalry, and so that's kind of what you do, and I'd never expected that. I was like geez, this is way more than my high school, this is way more than anything that we've done in the Superdome, know, and so that was probably the most adversity that I thought, wow, we're not gonna get any calls here because it's just, it's just a hostile environment. Um, the second part of your question, the the probably the best stuff was, I think, when I felt comfortable enough and then we would play. I tried to have big games against the SEC or Florida State, and so I could say that I had three touchdowns in one game against Florida State and I felt very good about going across and hugging Bobby Bowden and you know saying, yeah, I wish I would have made that decision to be a Seminole, because I could have done this, and he was like I told you, but I was a 17-year-old kid that thought he knew everything, opposed to this gentleman who has coached for half of his life and he had won some national championships. I just didn't listen. I don't know, maybe my stubbornness kind of hurt me there.
44:43
And then LSU games. I think every LSU game I played in I either threw a touchdown or I caught a touchdown. I just I I reveled in the thought that this is the in-state rival. I think my junior year I catch a touchdown with about a minute left and we go up and I'm thinking I could be the hero of this game. I caught the winning touchdown and then they kicked it off to Harvey Williams and Harvey runs it out to about the 40. It's like uh-oh, what's going on here.
45:20
And they proceeded to go down the field. I think they threw the ball. Maybe once, didn't even get into a two-minute drill, they just kind of ran the ball and some shuttle runs and things like that and I was just like, are you kidding me? Are they going to go score? And they went. And there's a guy named Matt DeFrank, who played kicker at LSU and I played against him in high school, who played kicker at LSU and I played against him in high school and he was the kicker and he knocked it through and it was like man, if we could have just held them. But you know, that was one of those kind of bittersweet kind of things, because I thought yeah, we're going to finally get them.
45:56
We are going to beat them in the Superdome. But you know, forcing didn't have it that way and that's kind of a metaphor for life. That's just how it is Cool.
46:06 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Do you remember when you you know the last thing, your last play in college? Do you remember what that like, what that feeling was like?
46:19 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I don't remember the last one. I remember playing LSU in the Dome last game of my college career, and we had a guy from Mobile Alabama, jerome Woods, and he comes in a quarterback and he throws me a deep ball and I catch it and I maneuver through a bit of the defense and I go score and generally after I scored I would just toss the ball to the referee. There wasn't any celebrations because I wanted to act like I had been there before and I planned on getting back there again. But this was probably in the fourth quarter and I'm thinking, well, this might be the last one I score. So I got into the end zone, I point at the crowd, I take a bow I take two bows in fact and like on my highlight film, I could see this bow and people were like oh, you were a showboat, you were the no, that was the very last one and it was a bittersweet thing too.
47:19
So you know you're playing against LSU and you're doing well and they're game planning. I think that's the ultimate compliment when you get another team to game plan for you, they're not just saying, well, he's over there, whatever, don't even worry about him, he's not going to impact the game. They were bringing and shifting their coverages toward me, coverages toward me and I. You know. In hindsight I thought, wow, that was impactful because I made a difference to the point. They needed to have more than one person watching me.
47:50 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Excellent. So at what point did you realize that I mean you talked about getting a two degrees at what point did you realize that maybe you could continue playing as a professional football player, as?
48:03 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I saw, probably as I saw Mark Zeno, and then he went, and then Terrence he went, and then we had some guys that came in with me Lonnie Martz and Richard Harvey. These guys and Mitchell Price came in a little bit after but graduated with us. These guys ended up going and they were getting drafted. I'm after, but he graduated with us. These guys ended up going and they were getting drafted. I'm like I competed with them here. I know the next level. I could do the same In my case.
48:32
I was an undrafted free agent and so I went with the New Orleans Saints and I thought, well, they know who I am because of my time at Tulane. But at that point we had like five receivers and they were keeping six. Five receivers were coming back and they had a guy from Canada who they already paid pretty good money back then, so it was probably $200,000. And that was good money back then. So they brought him in and so we had probably 11 receivers total, but they had five already returning and they bought this one in.
49:11
So you know, at some point you look at it and you go. I might just be a camp body and that is the guys that run around all through camp to keep the starters, which kind of hurt me, because it was Eric Martin who played at LSU and here I am being a camp body for him, and so you know we had some good ribbing with the Tulane and LSU rivalry and so it made it harder. I guess you know you want to impress and you want to try and put good things on film because you knew you probably won't be here. But you never know out of all the NFL teams who might be watching your film and where you might go next.
49:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So how did that work out for you?
49:55 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So I made it to our last cut and I'm thinking, wow, we got one more cut. Just just keep your head under under the radar and, you know, maybe you're going to actually make this team. And then you know, the guys come in and they call him the Turk. Here comes the Turk and you're like, oh man, I waited all this time. You should cut me early so I could have gone to another camp and possibly shown them. But I got cut and you know, I took it. I took it, as you know, a compliment that hey, I lasted this long and I stayed in new orleans and so I'm still working out and eric martin rolls his ankle and so they're like, well, we need a receiver, well, I'm local and I'm right there, and so they call me and I come back and I'm doing a little bit more with them. And this is you got to keep in mind this was before they had the practice squads and all of that stuff, so they just were familiar because we had you in camp. But then we cut you. So I come back and this probably happened two or three times throughout the season You're going to come back and you're going to get a little bit. You get a little money and hopefully, you know you can sustain us. And it was primarily just in practice. You know you're just in practice giving reps to the quarterbacks and all that stuff.
51:15
But the experience I would not change that experience at all. You know I have kids today say, well, why didn't you stay in? I can easily and proudly say, well, why didn't you stay in? I can easily and proudly say I probably just wasn't good enough. You know I wasn't good enough to be at that level or had that commitment. Because when I got to New Orleans I looked around and you know I was 6'1" 185. And our kicker, morton Anderson, was like 6'3" 215. And I'm like this dude is way bigger than me and I know what they do to the kicker. So what is going to happen to me? And I just thought at that point, the edge that I had, the edge that I always brought to football, you can do whatever. You're not going to hurt me. You can't do this. I'm going to be the one to be successful. I started to lose that and once I started losing that kind of head, I thought, man, this is when you get hurt. So I had no problem getting out of football and leaving it where it was.
52:15 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So what was the next thing for you and how did you get there?
52:19 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So I thought that I was leaving football where it was. And then New Orleans finds out that they are getting an arena football team, and so the New Orleans night comes in and I'm like I could do that. I could play some defense too, because it was like seven on seven, except you couldn't substitute your quarterback, so you had to play offense and defense. I was a linebacker on defense. I thought, man, this is, this is crazy, but you know it's funny. You're getting a little money and you're still active and you're still doing the thing that you love.
52:54
And so I played that a couple of years and I just, you know, I've got two degrees. I don't need to be out here with the chance of hurting a knee or, you know, getting hurt, because I was. I was blessed enough, I guess, to play my whole high school and college without any major injuries. And so I thought, well, I guess the time is ticking on me and I don't want it to happen. You as I am out, I've got my degrees, but I'm not working, I'm still doing this football thing. And so, you know, it was, I guess, bittersweet to go ahead and just let it go, but I did and.
53:31 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I moved on from there and how did you move on? Who did you talk to? What resources did you tap into? So, from Tulane, there were.
53:38 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Really, at that point I don't think there were any resources or I didn't know them. You know, really at that point I don't think there were any resources or I didn't know them. You know, and I think that was it. I don't think guys really said, hey, if you do this, if you go talk to that guy, that guy's hiring people. That really wasn't it.
53:55
I had a friend from high school, a guy named John Cooper. Rest in peace for him. He was out, he went to the Navy and he was out in Seattle, washington, and he calls me with all the questions that he already knew the answers to, like are you married? Do you got any kids? Is there a Fortune 500 job that you're working? No, no and no. Why do you ask? He says, why don't you move out here? Why, well, nothing's keeping you there? I, why do you ask? He says, why don't you move out here? Why, well, nothing's keeping you there? I had moved as a kid, so I wasn't bashful about moving. So I packed up all my little stuff and I moved out to Seattle, where you know this is this is probably 25, 26 years old and I'm like I thought it was very nice.
54:37
It was a culture shock to me, it was very different. But it was a nice city and from there I ended up doing an adjunct professorship with Western Washington University and I became a school teacher. And so I had been a school teacher for probably 10 years. I had moved back to Florida. I went back on vacation, went to see the old middle school, which was the junior high, and then it changed to middle school and the principal says so, if you are working on your teaching degree, once you finish you have a job here. Don't even question, you have a job here. And I thought, well, I can't pass that up. I get to come back to Florida and be back where I know everybody.
55:26
And so, yeah, I came back and I taught for 10 years, 10, 11 years there, and I met my wife, and blessings are plentiful because she's a doctor, a neurologist. And so she says the first year after we had gotten together she's like well, okay, so here's our problem with taxes. We're going to have to pay more in taxes than you make as a school teacher. And that was just foreign to me, because I, you know, I had my school teacher money and that was it. And, you know, maybe you get a little refund, but it really wasn't much. But then her doctor money came and just moved me up to a whole new tax bracket where I got to pay money. I get that. They took my money and now I got to still pay their money. I really had problems with that. So I was off out of teaching for probably a decade. So I had taught for 10 years, okay, and then I was out of teaching for 10 years.
56:29 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So what were you doing, Jerome?
56:32 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I was staying out of trouble and by my waistline I was eating too much. That's what I could tell you. I was just kind of. I was the house husband and I was my daughter, grace. She was doing travel softball and travel volleyball and that's what I was. I was the dad there with the video camera. We're going to catch all of it. I was the splicing guy. We're making highlight films for her and I like to think that it all paid off.
57:03
She ended up going to Georgia Tech to play volleyball. She got there and she was injured and I thought, come on, come on, girl. But you know, there was a time where, before she got to Georgia Tech, I always tell her listen, you are the best player around here, but you got to expand it, because when you get to college they go around the world, they don't just stay here. And her experience was they had brought all the girls in and they really liked her, but there was one spot that was available and they hadn't filled it yet and then her coach, who was from Brazil, ended up filling it with a girl who is like 6'6 from Brazil, who played in Germany, who played the international circuit, and when she got to Georgia Tech. She was in front of Grace and she was ACC player of the year, probably four years running. So I thought well, sweetie you, you're gonna have to either play a new position, because I don't think you're going to beat her out.
58:03
And she ended up hurting her toes. She had a medical retirement so she didn't end up playing a whole lot. But probably the proudest thing is that she graduated from Georgia Tech. That was one of the proud papa moments. She's a graduate of Georgia Tech University.
58:20 - Carmen Jones (Host)
That's incredible. So I know you started coaching, so what was that like? Bringing the coaching side to students? How did that work out for you?
58:32 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Initially I was coaching in Florida at the middle school that I was teaching at. It was just an easy transition You're a teacher and then you're the coach, and so in a lot of schools, even in this day and age, they need coaches in the school, because the guys that are playing the sports kind of will respect you a bit more and will act better in school than you know.
58:57
If I'm going to tell your coach if you don't start acting right, ok, I'm going to straighten up because they could. I got to run or I got to do up downs or whatever, so that that was an easy transition for me. I did that in Florida. I was a head coach of the football team, head coach of the basketball team, felt good about it. You know, I thought there's some information that I have that I can probably give. I thought there's some information that I have that I can probably give. And you know, once, as I said, my wife came along and I was like, well, now I'm not coaching, now I'm not doing anything.
59:35
And we ended up moving to Owensboro, kentucky, where I'm presently at, and so, as they entertain doctors to come to, potentially come to the hospitals, they also have their spouse. What do they do? And so I went to Owensboro High School and our head coach, jay Fallon, took me around. And it's, like you know, this school is really dedicated to the arts, but we have a great football team, we have great tradition, we are one of the five schools in the state of Kentucky that have this many victories and whatnot, and so I was like, wow, this seems pretty good. And I thought, okay, I can do this, I can do this. And they brought me on staff and I'm currently the assistant wire receiver coach. So still here, still trying to get things done that's really cool.
01:00:21 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Um, so you, you've been doing all of that. You do you get back to Tulane and do you get the opportunity to kind of talk to the student athletes, like, what type of things would you like to tell them?
01:00:36 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Um, I am coming back this year to the homecoming against Temple. I will be there, um there, with wife and kid in tow, so we'll be there and I've gone to some of the games. But I don't think it's my place because definitely I am an alum. But I am way alum. I'm not the Darnell Mooney's that is playing with Chicago Bay. I'm not that kind of alum.
01:01:04
But I will talk to the guys and I have, um, it's just a matter of you know, you've got to know your worth. And so in the event, like in my case with Terrence and I, you know, anything he did, it was cheered and everybody loved that. And then the things that I did, it was like, and so I'm thinking, well, I got to be my own advocate. So that's what I would tell kids is be your own advocate If nobody is cheering for you. If you throw a good ball, say, good ball man, good ball, I like that Boy. That's a good ball there. You know, be your advocate. And it's showing other people this is what I expect. I want people to give me my, as they say, give me my flowers while I'm here.
01:01:46
So if I'm doing well, I want you to let me know.
01:01:49 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Cool. Do you have any thoughts about NIL? How has it impacted recruiting? I know you've been a coach. What type of things have you seen impacted by NIL and the transfer portal?
01:02:07 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, I'll say this when I was in college and that sounds like the old guy talking but when I was there, you know you weren't getting any money that that way, and a deal because of your name, that ain't happening. You'd be glad that you got this scholarship, and a lot of people didn't realize that your scholarship was for one year. You had to renew that. It wasn't a four-year scholarship. You had to renew that thing every year, and so you had to come to the table with what you've done. What did you bring to this university?
01:02:36
So the whole getting in trouble and bad grades and all that stuff, those were deterrents that I saw a number of guys not be returned. We don't need your kind on our campus, and so you just had to do it. If you wanted to be here, you had to maintain the level in which they wanted you to be at, and so I thought that was fine. And now I start watching and the NIL guys are just leaving every year. It's like and I'm not talking like from a mid-major or a small university to the we got guys that are going from Ohio State. Nope, I'm going to go to Georgia now and then from there.
01:03:16
I'm going to go to Penn State and these are major D1 colleges that you are. Just I don't understand how you know you, at some point you have to stay, you have to grow roots in a place. Instead of, well, first sight of adversity, I got to go and that's kind of how I see it. You know, I like and I support, like the Georgia Bulldogs, and Georgia loses guys left and right all the time. We lost a guy who was on the basketball championship team and you didn't come back for the next year. He went to Texas and started Texas.
01:03:54
And so I don't know if it is the money, because a lot of you know, as they get to the league, a lot of guys say, well, I'm going to pay off my mom's house, I'm going to do all this with the money. And so now the game. I think college game especially, it's become more of a minor league for the professionals because these guys are getting paid and I think it'd be very hard as a coach to try to coach or teach a kid who's making more money than you. To try to coach or teach a kid who's making more money than you. That just seems very hard to do unless you are just straight, disciplined, and this is what we're going to do, and a lot of times, the kids this day and age aren't really into you screaming and yelling at them. So the hard line discipline is a thing of the past, I think.
01:04:42
And so you know, guys, maybe that's the case and that's why people I don't really like being over there. Well, you know, in life you're not going to like everything that you got to do, and that's probably one of the lessons that people need to know. Instead of I'm just going to jump in the portal, because I think what what's lost in that portal is. So let's say, you've got 500 people that are in the portal. Well, there's only going to be like 50 of them named.
01:05:09
That gets out of the portal, and so now you done, dropped out of school, and that school that's back there is probably responsible for you. And so, you know, tuck tail between your legs because now I didn't want to be with y'all and now I got to go back to you. That's hard. A lot of times when people get in that portal they go down a level. They got to go to a smaller school because they thought they were better than what they were. And I don't know.
01:05:34
You know, I don't think you have an agent and so you don't have somebody, an advocate for you. You are just doing all this on your own and you think and most athletes do, they think they're better than what they are. And as I've gotten older, oh, I'm way better now than I ever was. In my mind, in my mind now, my old body says you can't run as fast as you thought you could, you can't do this. And so, as I'm with these high school kids, you know I'm trying to keep up and throw and catch balls and all that stuff. And you know they don't see me afterwards where it's like a little bit of soreness and all of that.
01:06:09 - Carmen Jones (Host)
But you know you present that facade to them that no, I'm it, I can do this experience with any student athletes that may have had issues in the portal or may have had not so good experiences with NIL, or you just haven't been in a position where you experienced anything like that.
01:06:32 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
What we in fact at Owensboro we had our Starting quarterback was a four, like a four-star recruit. His name is Gavin Wimsett. Gavin went. He ended up his senior year, he played four games and then he left us and he went to Rutgers. So he goes from Owensboro to Kentucky, to Piscataway, new Jersey, to play for Rutgers and I think he's the only kid that has played both high school and college in the same year Because, again, he started four games for us and then he went there and they had him playing spot position.
01:07:09
Sometimes he's still the quarterback, but it wasn't. He was starting, he was still getting some playing time and this past, probably within the last two to three weeks, he had jumped into the portal and now he is coming back to the University of Kentucky. So he will be at UK this year. So he's been the only guy that we've had jumped into the portal that I had been around. There's other guys that are, but I wasn't coaching at that point, but Gavin was. He was the first quarterback that was around when I got here and you know this guy now, I thought terrence had an arm good lord this guy.
01:07:48
You know he can throw. He can probably flat foot throw at 80 yards. I mean it's so.
01:07:53
I remember very distinctly the very first game that we had. You know how you go out for pregame and all that stuff and he throws a ball in the pregame and breaks a guy's finger. And he comes out and his finger is sticking the wrong way and he's like Coach, I think I need to get some tape and he's like that's broke. And so I continually would talk to Gavin about it's great that you've got a strong arm, but if they can't catch it you're doing yourself a disservice because it's going to ricochet and possibly get picked off. So I tried to work with him a little bit, but you know he was pretty set that. You know he had the arm and he was going to show it off and that was his talent.
01:08:35
I mean he could run if he needed to, but he would rather. I guess you know I saw a little bit of me in him. He would much rather stand in that pocket and throw the ball as opposed to run, and so he was always deemed as the dual threat quarterback. But I don't think Gavin really wanted to run a whole lot. He just wanted to throw that ball and show off his arm and it's great. And it got him to college at Rutgers and it got him a return trip to UK. So hopefully this year, this year, next year we'll see Gavin Wimpsett playing at the University of Kentucky.
01:09:08 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Awesome, that'll be great. So, jerome, I've been having fun talking to you.
01:09:15 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yes, ma'am.
01:09:16 - Carmen Jones (Host)
And now I have a few questions I want to ask just to, you know, kind of get to know Jerome a little bit better.
01:09:24 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Uh-huh, uh-huh Okay.
01:09:26 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, what is something on your bucket list?
01:09:30 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
A bucket list for me? Ooh, I think going like when I was with the Saints I had to get my passport and I went over. We played in London. I would like to travel abroad more. The only stickler with that is the way relations are in the United States now with the rest of the world. I don't want to get caught up in a foreign land. So I have that on a bucket list, but I'm a little tentative about actually doing it.
01:10:08 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, would you rather bike or hike?
01:10:11 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Bike.
01:10:12 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Would you prefer book smarts or street smarts?
01:10:17 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, that's a great question. Now, keep in mind, I came back to the class. Oh, that's a great question. Now, keep in mind, I came back to the class and so I am a ninth grade, basically a freshman science teacher right now. So the book smarts versus Wow, I like common sense, I really do, because that can kind of get you through. But definitely I got to go with the book smarts I really do. I think you can learn common sense, but if you don't have just basic book smarts, you think you can learn common sense?
01:10:51
Well, ok, here's my example.
01:10:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I'm just asking. I'm just asking.
01:10:55 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Here's my example. I had to learn common sense Don't go down New Orleans by yourself at 18, at 17, and you don't know anything.
01:11:05 - Carmen Jones (Host)
You know what I mean. Don't go down there by yourself.
01:11:07 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So I had to learn that and that wasn't common sense to me, because wherever you're from, you know if you're from a small town, oh, it's great to walk around and that's what you can do, but then you hop to a big city and you get caught up, see, so you learn that and so, yeah, I think the book smarts if you ain't got them and I've been around it's like how do you not know this? I wasn't taught that. Well, it definitely in my days, I think. Hi, you probably were taught it, you were probably on your phone or you probably were distracted, so you didn't listen and that's. I think that would be a big issue with, uh, high school kids at this age.
01:11:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Do you want to score or you want to defend?
01:11:47 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
oh, I'm scoring. I mean, there's some defense going on, but hey look, I got this work or work out work.
01:11:56 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I would rather work, yeah would you rather sing karaoke or go to a movie? I?
01:12:02 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
gotta go to a movie. You ain't heard me saying it ain't bad it ain't, but it ain't good karaoke song. See you making the assumption that I do karaoke what's your go-to karaoke song? I know you have one my go-to karaoke song would probably be, and my wife like this uh, no Diggity by Black Sheep. That's what I'm going to go with no Diggity, no doubt.
01:12:30 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Board games or video games.
01:12:32 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, I always tell my wife I'm a gamer. I'm a gamer, but it's technology. So I'm going to go with the board game because that's easy.
01:12:40 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Planning or spontaneity.
01:12:42 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, you got to be well, I'm thinking because, you know, and I'm always putting it back to my relationship with my wife, and it's like, could you be spontaneous? Yes, we can be, but I like a plan. And you know I'm like the old 18. I love it when a plan comes together. So when that plan is executed and it's like with us it's okay, we're leaving at 8 o'clock, at 745, we get in the car, that plan is executed. I love that part.
01:13:17 - Carmen Jones (Host)
But most of the time we leave at like 12. What's a television show you used to watch in college and what's something you binge on now?
01:13:22 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Something I used to. I can tell you now. Something I used to watch in college was the A-Team with Mr T. I don't know if I binge watch it, but if it's on I'm going to watch either Matlock and this is I'm showing my age I'm going to watch Matlock. I'm going to watch In the Heat of the Night. Oh man, if there's a marathon.
01:13:44
I might spend about three, four hours just watching all the stuff that you had already seen and you look at it and I think everybody on that screen is dead right now, but I'm still watching the show, so they had an impact on me.
01:14:00 - Carmen Jones (Host)
What's the best concert you've been to?
01:14:03 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
best concert? Oh, I used to go, you know, to the. They have those festivals in New Orleans and there was some. There were some reggae concerts that I really liked and then I went to, I would probably say, in my age, in my older age, it's been uh, cool in the gang. Okay, I went to see cool in the gang and I think they had a new edition. New edition was there with bobby brown and boy. It was just one of those things where bobby brown would sing a song and then he'd disappear. You wouldn't see him, he'd be off, he'd be getting some oxygen off stage and he'd come back two songs later and he'd do his little dance and then he'd disappear again. So, those off stage, and he'd come back two songs later and he'd do his little dance and then he'd disappear again. So those things that you know, things that you used to listen to, and then you see them as older people and it's like, yeah, he running out of breath right now.
01:14:52 - Carmen Jones (Host)
He got to get some air. He need to be over there with that oxygen. So I like those ones. What are some of the?
01:15:04 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
things your teachers used to say about you on your report cards in elementary and middle school talk too much. That was probably. This boy talks too much, and it wasn't like I'm just talking to get attention. I I thought my thoughts, I did for me, I thought I'm giving, I'm putting out some nuggets here. These people are to learn something today from me and you know it was probably a whole bunch of hard wash, but you know, I thought I was being smart, I thought I knew what I was doing.
01:15:30 - Carmen Jones (Host)
A lot of times you know.
01:15:32 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
sometimes, as I tell kids, the quiet one is always the one that possibly knows, and if you don't know, nobody knows that you don't know because you're quiet. Once you open up your mouth, you let everybody know if you're smart or not.
01:15:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Right. Would you rather go back in time and meet with your ancestors, or go forward in time and meet with your descendants?
01:15:55 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Ooh, I'm going back in time. I'm going back just because I'm a firm believer If you don't know where you came from, you definitely don't know where you're going. So I would love to meet with my ancestors and talk shop with them.
01:16:13 - Carmen Jones (Host)
And if they were writing a movie about you, what would the title be and who would you like to play the lead character?
01:16:20 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Oh, I would say the title of it would be Survivor. That sounds good and again, my wife would like that, and probably the lead my guy would be LL Cool J, because she always says you kind of look like him. I was like no, I don't even think so. But you know, it's what she says.
01:16:46 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Okay, jerome, that him say no, I don't even think so, but you know it's what he says. Okay, jerome, that was great. Do you have anything you want to add anything? You know we didn't cover that you might want to get to yeah, what's on your bucket list? What's on my bucket? Uh huh well, jerome, let me say this I haven't been to Hawaii yet, so I may go ahead and say that. Okay, but you know me, if something is on the list, I'm going to try to figure out a way to get to it.
01:17:11
Yeah, that's why I asked, I pretty much hit everything on the list.
01:17:16 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
That's why I asked, and I figured you've already been.
01:17:19 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I'm kind of doing a little extra, but the stuff that I really wanted to do. I have probably done it already, okay, all right, I see you're trying to turn the tide.
01:17:33 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, because I'm talking to this inductee into the Hall of Fame now. Oh my God, I didn't know. I was around, royalty, you and Zeno.
01:17:44 - Carmen Jones (Host)
You did not know I was royalty. I did not know. I am so shocked. What did you think I was?
01:17:50 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I thought you was a very quiet little young lady at Tulane. I couldn't hear, because she was always whispering and I'm like you got to speak up. I did, and I never did tell you that in college.
01:18:03 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I never did tell you that in college. I never said speak up.
01:18:05 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
But then, I got older. Yes, you did, did I?
01:18:07 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I can mention some rude moments that we had, but you know I just took it on took it on the show.
01:18:16 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I just brushed it off and then when I come back, you know I always spend some time with you. Melvin Fursman, exactly so I just thought these are just regular people. These are my people. They're just regular.
01:18:29 - Carmen Jones (Host)
We are your people. None of us are regular.
01:18:34 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Then I started looking at these Hall of Fame inductees and like wow, wow, okay, okay, I knew she could ball a bit, but come on Hall of Fame.
01:18:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
We've had some ball times in the gym, right, yeah, we have.
01:18:49 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
You and I have. And you know I thought, well, she ain't going to beat me because I'm a guy, and walked out of there with your tail tucked Like man, come on.
01:18:59 - Carmen Jones (Host)
She just got lucky. She got lucky that time, all the time, all the time.
01:19:05 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
She got lucky that time.
01:19:07 - Carmen Jones (Host)
You know, yeah, that's cool. So is that it? Do you have anything you want to add?
01:19:15 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
No, I'm doing good, doing good. Like I said, I'm looking forward to homecoming this year. Like I said, I'll be down there with my wife and kid Looking forward to meeting people because again we've got a new coaching staff.
01:19:28 - Carmen Jones (Host)
We've got new guys. Come on. Everybody's really excited about him. He's done a real good job with recruiting. This is one of the best recruiting classes that they've had, so they're excited.
01:19:42 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Now was he a coach at Tulane before.
01:19:45 - Carmen Jones (Host)
It's a while ago. Yes, Okay, okay.
01:19:48 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
So he knows what's going on, okay, so, yeah, I'd like to get down there and meet them.
01:19:54 - Carmen Jones (Host)
We have the new athletic director, who happens to be the first African-American athletic director as well.
01:20:01 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yeah, I saw that brother and I thought I got to talk to him too. Not that I got much to say, but I just want to talk. I got no problem doing that.
01:20:10 - Carmen Jones (Host)
He seems to be very receptive to meeting alum and I found him to be pretty pleasant and welcoming and welcoming and where is he coming from? Um, he was at, I want to say, northern iowa, okay, but he actually is from baton rouge oh, okay, all right yeah, and he played in the sec.
01:20:38
I don't want to say which school because I'm not quite sure, but he he played in the sec. Um, so I think he has a uh, you know, because he's a former player. I think that leads to a certain uh attitude about former players. I'm not sure, but you. But you know, hopefully, you know, we want to get behind them.
01:21:03 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, definitely so.
01:21:05 - Carmen Jones (Host)
And I think that you know it's an excellent time at Tulane right now.
01:21:10 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Yeah, it seems, it seems that way and I saw that. In fact I was looking. They had a walk-off home run last night to win the ACC and I was saying Baseball won. I was saying, wow, look at, baseball is coming through now. So, yeah, it's exciting at Tulane now, I think.
01:21:28 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Yeah, I think, like you said, it's just really exciting times. Everybody's excited, so hopefully they'll keep elevating the program. Yeah, without a doubt, and you know it's again.
01:21:44 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
I hear the echoing words of my professor. This is an academic university, so be glad that we're doing sports, but that's not going to be our foundation. And so if the kids are and I say kids, they're probably in their 20s If these guys are, you know, going forth with that, then they're going to be okay Because, as I tell kids, sports is only going to last as long as it wants you.
01:22:11 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Right.
01:22:11 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Nobody says, oh, I gave up the game in my prime. They say Barry Sanders did. He probably did, but for the rest of the people, no, no, the sport gives you a sign you're not good enough anymore and so it passes you by. You don't pass it.
01:22:29 - Carmen Jones (Host)
So hopefully everybody will understand that great, well, good, I had fun today, jerome yes, ma'am, it's always fun talking with you yes, definitely. So we're gonna have to get together soon and maybe we'll do another video. We'll do a part two.
01:22:47 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Well, I'm here, you know why, as Prime say, I ain't hard to find.
01:22:53 - Carmen Jones (Host)
I definitely appreciate it and I think everything was awesome. Thank you again.
01:23:01 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Thank you, yes, tell Miss.
01:23:02 - Carmen Jones (Host)
Laurie. I said hi, you know I will, because she's probably standing at the door. I think everything was awesome.
01:23:04 - Jerome McIntosh (Guest)
Thank you again. Thank you, yes. Tell Ms Laurie. I said hi, you know I will, because she's probably standing at the door.
01:23:10 - Carmen Jones (Host)
All right, good night, we'll see you.