Where does your candidness come from?

That’s the only way I know how to be. You can tell the truth, but sometimes you can’t always be in your face with it. I found a way to tell the truth, and put it in a nice, neat package for people to receive it. A lot of times, you have to put it in a nice, neat box with a bow tie and when they open it, it’s the truth. I think people respect that.

You’re very outspoken when it comes to social issues. Did it take time for you to be comfortable talking about those topics on a national platform?

All I’m doing is pointing out what other people see. A lot of people are already thinking what I am saying. A lot of people are afraid and think they can’t say things, but you can. People want the truth sometimes, but not all the time. People will be like, “It’ll get better, just don’t mention it.” But it’s not getting better. It’s like if you went to the doctor, and the doctor said you had an illness, and they said we won’t treat it for two years, it’ll just get better. No. A lot of problems that are going on aren’t going to get better if we don’t talk about it.

Race is the biggest one. It’s a very, very uncomfortable topic because the biggest part of America was founded on it. So I’m going to discuss it and try to present it in such a way to people are like, “Let’s sit down and have a discussion about this.” It’s not easy. I was born in the 1960s. I came up in the 1970s. I know how race relations were. The thing is I want to advance the ball, and never return to those days again. I want to keep the topic going. I’m going to discuss it. And we’re going to make America better. It’s my job as a citizen, and I demand it.

Do you think having these conversations with Skip, who is from a different background with different experiences than you, has helped you see things from a different perspective as well?

Definitely. I have a unique perspective because I grew up very poor in rural South Georgia and now I’m financially secure, so I get to see both ends of the spectrum and how one is treated differently. I can’t sit here and say, because I’m great, everything is cool. That’s not how my grandmother Mary Porter raised me, that just because I’m okay and a majority of people are not okay, I should just be comfortable. I can’t not in good conscience lay my head in my pillow and have those thoughts and feelings when so many people are suffering. Skip is from Oklahoma, and he will preface his opinion a lot by saying that he’s a white man and he sees things through this prism. The one thing I can say about him is that he has opened his heart and mind, and that’s what we need. If more people were willing to do that, I think we would be better off.

"Skip is from Oklahoma, and he will preface his opinion a lot by saying that he’s a white man and he sees things through this prism. The one thing I can say about him is that he has opened his heart and mind, and that’s what we need."

What’s your favorite part about working on Undisputed?

The platform I’ve been given. The opportunity to meet athletes I would have never met otherwise. I meet athletes from different backgrounds and see they share the same mentality and process as other athletes in other sports. To see some of the greats come on and talk about how they view things, the era they played in, how it was different from the era before and after them. Talking to guys like Jesse Jackson and Michael Eric Dyson. It’s unbelievable. When these athletes come on, I’m like a kid. I’m like a casual fan meeting their favorite athlete for the first time.

Has meeting these athletes changed your perspective on sports?

A lot of the football players that come on the show, they’re a lot younger than I am. For me, having played the game of football, I look at it through a much different lens. I don’t look at it from a fan’s perspective. I’m always trying to analyze and critique things when I’m watching sporting events. That’s why I never have the sound on. I like to watch it on mute, because I don’t want anyone to influence anything I say.