Sorry to all of the people out there who might have their game ruined by the following story. But the truth is that if you have a beard, you should take the necessary precautions to ensure that the next person you kiss doesn’t wind up with a major case of beard burn.
A disturbing video went viral on TikTok featuring a woman with red spots on her chin who claims to have “kissed a guy with facial hair.” The clip caught the attention of Dr. Muneeb Shah, known on TikTok as “The Derm Doctor.”
PSA: clean your beards @Rylee Kriete #dermdoctor #impetigo
The Derm Doctor is incredibly popular on the platform, with over 18 million followers. His response to the red-faced woman racked up over 19 million views.
In the video, the Derm Doctor confirmed that making out with someone with a big beard can cause problems. “Clean your beards,” the doctor said before explaining that they can cause minor cuts in the kiss recipient’s face. Further, if the beard isn’t clean, bacteria can be transferred to the open wounds, resulting in impetigo.
Impetigo is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics.
The good news is that this infection of passion can be prevented with a bit of prevention. “On the receiving end, using a barrier cream or moisturizer before contact can help,” Dr. Kautilya Shaurya, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC, tells Real Simple. Dr. Shaurya also suggests that those with beards keep them short, moisturized and clean so they don’t injure their partners.
Sorry to all of the people out there who might have their game ruined by the following story. But the truth is that if you have a beard, you should take the necessary precautions to ensure that the next person you kiss doesn’t wind up with a major case of beard burn.
A disturbing video went viral on TikTok featuring a woman with red spots on her chin who claims to have “kissed a guy with facial hair.” The clip caught the attention of Dr. Muneeb Shah, known on TikTok as “The Derm Doctor.”
PSA: clean your beards @Rylee Kriete #dermdoctor #impetigo
The Derm Doctor is incredibly popular on the platform, with over 18 million followers. His response to the red-faced woman racked up over 19 million views.
In the video, the Derm Doctor confirmed that making out with someone with a big beard can cause problems. “Clean your beards,” the doctor said before explaining that they can cause minor cuts in the kiss recipient’s face. Further, if the beard isn’t clean, bacteria can be transferred to the open wounds, resulting in impetigo.
Impetigo is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics.
The good news is that this infection of passion can be prevented with a bit of prevention. “On the receiving end, using a barrier cream or moisturizer before contact can help,” Dr. Kautilya Shaurya, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC, tells Real Simple. Dr. Shaurya also suggests that those with beards keep them short, moisturized and clean so they don’t injure their partners.
Every era has its own taste in interior decor, and the typical post-Millenium American home is saturated in grays and beige, or “Greige,” as the vibe is known. It’s a far cry from the flashiness of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, the Brownpolcalype that was the ‘80s, or the hunter green-hued ‘90s.
The current trend in minimalist decor, even during the holiday season, rubbed TikTokker Ave the wrong way, and she’s fighting back with an audacious display that recalls a world before farmhouse chic was a thing.
“I have decided that I will not be participating in ‘Minimalist Beige Christmas’ this year,” TikTok user Ave says while showing a picture of some very beige, very sparse holiday decor. “If this is what you like, if this is what you want, good for you, do it, enjoy the hell out of it. It’s not for me. I think this is pretty, I think it’s simple, I don’t think it’s giving enough. Not for me.”
I usually dont decorate until after thanksgiving but I might change that this year #christmasdecor #nostalgicchristmas #colorfulchristmas #maximalist #maximalistchristmas #nostalgia #interview #fyp #greenscreen #christmaslights
Ave wants to embrace the history and playfulness of the holiday by making her home a place where nostalgia trumps taste.
“The theme this year is nostalgic early 2000s Christmas. I want all the rainbow lights. I want the mismatched ornaments. I want the random wrapping paper. I want nostalgia,” she says. She wants her home to look like someone lives there on Christmas, not a “Crate & Barrel showroom.”
People in the comments feel she totally read the room regarding the vibe of Christmas 2023. “I loved the minimalist Christmas until I had kids, now I want to make sure they experience the Christmas magic I did growing up,” Makayla wrote. “The theme is to try to feel something this year,” NikandTorrie added.
Every era has its own taste in interior decor, and the typical post-Millenium American home is saturated in grays and beige, or “Greige,” as the vibe is known. It’s a far cry from the flashiness of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, the Brownpolcalype that was the ‘80s, or the hunter green-hued ‘90s.
The current trend in minimalist decor, even during the holiday season, rubbed TikTokker Ave the wrong way, and she’s fighting back with an audacious display that recalls a world before farmhouse chic was a thing.
“I have decided that I will not be participating in ‘Minimalist Beige Christmas’ this year,” TikTok user Ave says while showing a picture of some very beige, very sparse holiday decor. “If this is what you like, if this is what you want, good for you, do it, enjoy the hell out of it. It’s not for me. I think this is pretty, I think it’s simple, I don’t think it’s giving enough. Not for me.”
I usually dont decorate until after thanksgiving but I might change that this year #christmasdecor #nostalgicchristmas #colorfulchristmas #maximalist #maximalistchristmas #nostalgia #interview #fyp #greenscreen #christmaslights
Ave wants to embrace the history and playfulness of the holiday by making her home a place where nostalgia trumps taste.
“The theme this year is nostalgic early 2000s Christmas. I want all the rainbow lights. I want the mismatched ornaments. I want the random wrapping paper. I want nostalgia,” she says. She wants her home to look like someone lives there on Christmas, not a “Crate & Barrel showroom.”
People in the comments feel she totally read the room regarding the vibe of Christmas 2023. “I loved the minimalist Christmas until I had kids, now I want to make sure they experience the Christmas magic I did growing up,” Makayla wrote. “The theme is to try to feel something this year,” NikandTorrie added.
Julian Edelman spent 12 years in the NFL, all with the New England Patriots, working his way from being a seventh round pick in 2009 to eventually becoming Tom Brady’s most trusted target en route to three Super Bowl titles (and one Super Bowl MVP award).
After retiring from playing football following the 2020 season, Edelman made his way into the media space, first creating his own content and then joining Inside the NFL. This year, Edelman made the jump to live television with Fox NFL Kickoff, spending an hour every Sunday morning breaking down the day’s upcoming games with Charissa Thompson, Charles Woodson, Michael Vick, and Peter Schrager.
“It’s been awesome. The working environment, the team unity, it feels very comfortable. You know, you feel like you’re part of a team at Fox,” Edelman says. “And everyone at the workplace is awesome. Like everyone is there to go out and perform and do your best on the air, which sounds like Patriot talk, but it really is. I’ve done TV the last two years. I did a recap show on Inside the NFL, which was live-to-tape. Jumping onto live TV and a kickoff show, I like it a little more just because you have the whole week to prepare for your show and know what’s going to go down on Sunday, in comparison to what I used to do where you watch the games Sunday and Monday and you shoot on Tuesday and you have to come up with your thoughts. So it’s different, but I like it.”
The move to Sundays also allows him to mirror his preparation for the show the way he would for a game week during his playing days. Edelman channels the same work ethic that allowed him to go from a seventh round pick to a star in the league into his broadcasting, and that includes seeking out coaching to get better at the craft of being on TV. That means the start of the week is for watching the tape back from Sunday’s show with his broadcasting coach, Jill Montgomery, to see what he can improve on going forward.
“One thing [Bill] Belichick always used to say was, ‘To improve you can’t just go and work hard.’ I can’t just go and watch film or watch TV. You need to find someone or a coach or a mentor or a peer or someone who’s on your team, and you need to find out what you have to work on,” Edelman notes. “So that’s what Jill does for me. She helps me on what I have to work on. I work hard at those things, and then you’ll naturally improve. People don’t realize, yeah, you want it to be like locker room talk up there on TV, but you also still have to be able to put sentences together. And I’ve been in a locker room for the last 13 years, you know, we’re not English majors. We’re football players. So being able to formulate your take and just practicing it which, with reps everything gets better. It’s been a fun process to try to make yourself better at something that you’ve never really done, which gives me, once again, that feeling of what I felt when I was competing in football.”
From there, he spends Wednesdays and Thursdays on calls with the producers to go over topics and Fox’s stats department — who, in his words, are “really great” — to get all the information he needs about the teams so he can analyze the matchups and where advantages lie in that week’s games. Much like how practice and film work allows you to play free once game time rolls around, that preparation during the week allows him to go into Sundays on set and break down games, fire off takes, and banter with his colleagues comfortably and confidently, all within a natural conversation. Edelman calls it his “football fix,” noting that he’s excited to head into the studio on Sundays because he gets to talk football with other football people.
“As athletes, we’re all creatures of habit, Edelman says. “You do miss football and with these kinds of shows you get your fix of sitting and talking football with football people. You’re getting to hear the stories from Charles Woodson. I’m getting to hear Mike Vick’s interpretations on things. Peter Schrager is so in tune with everything — he’s one of those guys that just knows everything and has great memories on games from five or six years ago. Charissa Thompson being like a point guard and dishing things left and right. And she knows her sh*t crazy too. Everyone’s got their role and you get that football fix, you know? Football guys like to talk football with football people, with all due respect to people in the TV world. And that’s what we’re here to do is we’re here to broadcast and perform and give our takes, but ultimately, it’s different when you get to sit and talk to Terry Bradshaw about the 1970s Steelers or Howie [Long] and what he thinks, you know? That’s what you did in the locker room. So you get a fix of that when you get to work on this show. It’s been awesome.”
For an hour every Sunday, he gets that fix, and he particularly appreciates what he can learn from his co-analysts on the desk. There’s an interesting dynamic having a wideout like Edelman on the desk next to a Hall of Fame defensive back in Charles Woodson, alongside one of the most unique quarterbacks to play the game in Michael Vick. For Edelman, what he enjoys is getting to see the game through their eyes, because he only knows one way having only ever played for one coach and alongside one quarterback.
“I was in one system for my whole career. And so, I kind of know my system. I know what [Bill] Belichick thinks on offense and defense. And it’s always good to see guys from different systems or different organizations, and how they have attained success,” Edelman says. “Because there’s multiple ways of doing things. And with Charles, the guy is such an elite DB, not just corner but safety. It’s fun, you can talk coverage with him. With Mike, there’s a lot of stuff that people don’t realize between the receiver and the quarterback, the chemistry. I learned a lot from how he was as a leader and a quarterback and what he wanted. And he hears from how I was coached and how I was taught and how I was with the guys that I played with. It’s good bouncing things off of guys that played meaningful football.”
While he only ever knew “The Patriot Way,” Edelman does have a unique understanding of what it’s like to be on just about every rung of the NFL ladder when it comes to player roles. That allows him to be a bit more empathetic to what players are going through and the various stresses they face, whether it be a guy trying to stick on a roster or a star carrying a heavy burden, and he tries to make sure he considers that in his analysis and discussion of guys.
“I’ve been in every situation. I’ve been the guy trying to make the team. I’ve been the special-teamer bouncing around the squad looking for a role. I’ve been the star receiver. I’ve been the guy who won a Super Bowl. So I’ve been in a lot of roles,” Edelman says. “So I know how hard it is for every single player and the stresses that every single one of these guys have to go through. Everyone has a stress in the National Football League. It doesn’t matter what guy on the team you are. When you’re a guy trying to make the team, you have that stress. When you’re going to try to find a role, you have that stress. When you’re a guy that has expectations as a superstar, you have the stresses of maintaining that excellence and that success. So, I try to put myself in the situation, and it’s hard.”
Edelman continues.
“But also, it depends on how that person that you’re talking about, how they’re coming off and how they’re showing themselves through the media. You can get a read on a guy that comes in that looks like he thinks his stuff doesn’t stink, and we’ve all been in the locker room. So you’ve been around these types of guys, and you always want to understand the situation. But you’re never going to know the situation because you’re not in the situation. You can assume through your experience of situations that you’ve been in that are similar. So, I try to do that.”
As our conversation wore on and we shifted away from TV talk and dove into football more, it became apparent that Edelman really does just love talking ball and could do it for hours a day.
He can’t help but get excited talking about the things he is watching for as the season progresses, particularly the way so many offenses are taking advantage of shifts and motion, particularly from the Shanahan coaching tree, and wondering how defenses were going to adapt as the season went on. He pulled up his stats from that week’s prep and rattled off the teams that ran the most pre-snap motion and compared it to the list of the top 10 offenses, noting the lone exceptions were the Eagles and Bills, and how those teams rely so much on their star QBs, while teams like the Dolphins and 49ers are scheming guys open. He was enamored by Arthur Smith’s use of motion to create space in the running game despite having sub-par QB play, and how we’re getting to see offenses evolve in real time — with excitement for how defenses will adapt alongside.
The result was a quick dissertation on why motions drive defenses crazy, the importance of variability in your personnel groups as an offense, and how having a QB that can make quick reads can unlock everything for an offense — with a little dig at defensive guys as you’d expect from someone who spent his whole life playing offense.
“Defenses — I’m telling I was around the greatest defensive mind in the history of the game — defenses hate that because hey, what are defenders? They’re usually the most athletic guys, but let’s be honest here, they’re not the sharpest tools in the shed. That’s why they play defense,” Edelman says. “So if you get these guys communicating? When you make a team have to communicate, when you bring a motion or a shift, and then the safety drops, these guys don’t want to do that. They want to sit back, and let you do what you have [done] before without the motion, so they can pin back and do what they know they have to do. So, you know it’s a huge asset.
And it also tells you that these teams, the coaching staffs that do this, you have to have a smart team to execute those things. It’s not easy to have multiple personnel groups for communication getting into a huddle. It’s not easy with alignment, assignment, not having pre-snap penalties. You gotta have some smart-coached teams and you’re seeing that with a lot of these teams right now.
There’s going to be some point of the season where these defensive coaches, they get smart too now. These guys are smart. They’re sitting back and they’re dialing up what they’re going to do for these motions and shifts and all that. It all ultimately comes down to the relationship between the quarterback and the coordinator. If you have a quarterback where you have one play that can beat every coverage, you have your zone read up front on the right side, you have a man beater on the backside, you have a checkdown to get out, if you have a quarterback that can understand that? That’s when it gets dangerous. And I was always with the guy that knew that. You know what I mean? That’s when your confidence is at an all time high, and it’s just ultimately about execution. That’s when you get the game within a game; matchups in the game, you know? Because you know how to manipulate the defense just on their tendencies alone through formations, personnel groups, all that. And that’s what you’re seeing a lot of these teams do now.
That’s what we did for a long time in New England. Everyone didn’t like playing us because we had so many different personnel groups. Now people go, ‘Why does that matter?’ Well, if you put in a 13 personnel group you have one receiver, maybe three tight ends and a running back or two tight ends, a fullback, and a running back, what do you get with that? You get a big defense. You get a base defense. Maybe you get a heavy defense. But if you have versatility in players where you can spread that offense out, and you can put them wide? That instantaneously creates slow guys on the field that have to cover space. So that’s the matchups you’re starting to see with a lot of these explosive super offenses that you see in San Francisco that has so much talent everywhere; Miami Dolphins, which have so much speed everywhere. And another thing with those two specific teams, they have such crazy catch-and-run guys. You look at their YAC, yards after catch, these guys will take a six yard throw — I mean, San Francisco’s the best screen team in the goddamn league. They get 100 yards per game on screens, outside screens. They’ll put in the 13 personnel group. They’ll put Christian McCaffrey out wide. You got [Kyle] Juszczyk, you got a f*cking backup tight end, and [George] Kittle out there. And then they throw everyone out there, and they got athletic linemen. And you got base defense out there.
How are you supposed to beat it? So if you have a team that is smart enough to get in and out of the huddle and choreograph this sh*t, sorry for my language, I’m in football talk. That’s what you’re starting to see with some of these teams.”
There really isn’t much better than listening to football talk from football people, and every Sunday morning Edelman gets his fix and gives viewers theirs.
As Dua Lipa is gearing up for the release of her single, “Houdini,” fans are looking forward to hearing the types of sounds she’s experimented with in this impending era. Kevin Parker of Tame Impala is credited as a producer on the song, leading fans to theorize that Lipa’s sound may be evolving from disco and synth-pop to more psychedelic. Given Parker’s resume, fans can gather what “Houdini” might sound like.
What songs has Kevin Parker produced?
In addition to songs for his music projects — which include Tame Impala and Melody’s Echo Chamber — Parker has produced for a variety of artists, including “Aydin” by Discodeine and “Perfect Illusion” by Lady Gaga.
He is credited as a songwriter and producer on “Tomorrow” from Kali Uchis’ debut album, Isolation, “Skeletons” from Travis Scott’s Astroworld, Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello’s collaboration “Find U Again,” and The Weeknd’s “Repeat After Me.”
As a songwriter, Parker is credited on Kanye West’s “Violent Crimes,” as well as Kid Cudi’s “Dive.”
As Parker’s discography shows, he has worked with an eclectic group of artists, but on many of the songs he’s produced, he leans into trippy, transcendental sounds.
Earlier in the week, Azealia Banks had some pretty vile and defamatory things about Busta Rhymes. But when you have other hip-hop friends like Young Thug, it cancels out. Although the “From A Man” rapper is currently incarcerated, that hasn’t stopped Thug’s team from keeping his musical legacy going. In fact, Young Thug’s latest guest verse will appear on Busta Rhymes’ upcoming single, “Ok.” Today (November 8), Busta Rhymes took to his official Instagram page to share the news.
In a video clip taken during a recent performance, Busta Rhymes, alongside his longtime friend and collaborative partner Spliff Star, spoke about the forthcoming record. “We are officially 17 days away from the release of the biggest album on the biggest day in the biggest moment! [My] brand new album ‘Blockbusta’ is dropping 11/24/23! My new single [Ok] featuring Young Thug is dropping [this Friday] 11/10/23,” read the post’s caption.
Busta Rhymes revealed that the song is produced by record production and songwriting duo Cool & Dre. During his performance, the crowd joined Busta Rhymes in an erupting chant of ‘Free Young Thug.’
Blockbusta is out 11/24 via Epic Records. Find more information here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Grand Theft Auto fans received some welcome news this week with word that a GTA 6 trailer will go live in early December. As far as a release date goes, the publisher was less forthcoming, but nonetheless, gamers can cross fingers for a swift turnaround after the trailer.
This update arrived more than a year after word of a source code leak that was later confirmed as the result of a “network intrusion” upon Rockstar Games. We don’t yet know the “when” of when GTA 6 will arrive, but what of the available platforms? PC might be the way to go (albeit not on Day One, according to Comic Book), but if you are looking to play the game on a PS4, you are likely out of luck. It’s hard to imagine that this game will arrive for a 10-year-old platform, and that’s especially going to be the case if the trailer arrives long before the actual game release day.
In other words, prepare to play this upcoming release on PS5. The chatter on the GTA 6 subreddit also reveals that — while there’s no official word on platforms from Rockstar Games yet — that this is what gamers are planning for, and Sony surely won’t want the game to be toned down, simply so that it will work on the slower processors of a PS4.
In fact, word of the trailer might just spur some extra PS5 sales for Christmas. That’s a better long game than releasing the game for PS4 simply to sell some extra copies right at GTA 6 release. Granted, there actually are not too many PS5 exclusive games yet, but with such a highly anticipated release like GTA 6, it seems likely that PS5 will be the launching point.
As well, games can also look forward to a GTA TV series (which got sort-of hat-tipped by 50 Cent) in the works. Vice City will be prepped for Paramount+ by Paramount and Lionsgate, so hang tight for more developments there, too.
Another day, another toxic Azealia Banks rant. This time, the internet’s most notorious troll has targeted Australian singer/actor Troye Sivan for some reason, accusing him of pedophilia, calling him an “expired twink” and predicting that he’ll “come out as trans next.”
So, what did Sivan do to draw the “212” rapper’s ire? He cited her only actual hit record as his “favorite pre-game” record. That’s right, Banks is going after people who compliment her now, meaning the only safe way to deal with her is to never mention her at all and completely ignore her misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, blatantly attention-craving, bigoted rants entirely, so I never have to write about her again. Deal?
“Your [sic] a late condescending expired twink anyway bitch,” she wrote on Instagram. “We’ve been past 212… Give it up, puberty hit that ass and made u a doofy looking young man. I bet he’ll pull the grift [and] ‘come out’ as trans next.”
Azealia Banks responds to Troye Sivan stating her track ‘212’ is his ‘go-to pregame’ song, via Instagram stories. pic.twitter.com/i04f6P0IJ3
Now, to quote John Mulaney, we don’t have time to unpack all of that. But aside from just the raging homophobia on display in calling somebody an “expired twink” (do… twinks expire?), insinuating that trans people are all “pulling a grift” when they are hundreds of times more likely to experience negative discrimination, up to and including violence and murder, is just … heinous.
Kids: Don’t do… any of this. Be a better person than Azealia Banks. Clearly, it’s not even that difficult.
The Philadelphia Eagles are flying high right now. The defending NFC Champions look primed to make another lengthy run once the postseason runs around, as Philly currently holds the best record in the NFL. The team is 8-1 on the year, and last week, the Birds came out on top in a thrilling game against the Dallas Cowboys, once again making clear that the NFC East — and, in all likelihood, the NFC as a whole — runs through the City of Brotherly Love.
DeVonta Smith found the end zone once against Dallas, which marked the fourth time this season he’s caught a touchdown. On the year, Smith has hauled in 42 balls for 533 yards, and has served as one half of an absolutely devastating duo at receiver alongside A.J. Brown. Those two, mixed with Jalen Hurts under center, have given the Eagles one of the league’s most dangerous passing offenses, and if they are able to get over the hump in February and lift the Lombardi Trophy for the first time since 2018, it stands to reason that the former Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Alabama will play a major role.
On the heels of Sunday’s win, Uproxx Sports caught up with Smith via his partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its apparel brand VRST to discuss beating Dallas, why he and Brown work so well together, the unsung heroes on the Eagles, and much more.
What do you have going on with VRST?
Yeah, been working with VRST since I came out of college, and it’s been amazing. Comfortable, comfortable clothing, no matter what you want to do with it — if you’re working out, you’re going to a business meeting, they have everything that you need, a lot of versatility in the clothing. And that’s what I’m looking for, anything where I can stick to one thing and have everything that I need.
I know when I go to Dick’s, I’m looking for a pair of sweatpants, a jersey, maybe a pair of Nikes. You ever think you’d be turning to Dick’s for fashionable stuff?
Never would have thought! Look at it, man, it worked out perfectly.
You guys just beat the Cowboys. What’s the vibe around around the office over the last day or two?
It’s been great, man. Winning a division game, right before the bye week. You go into the bye week with a good feeling, man. Ain’t no telling how you’ll be feeling had you lost a game going into the bye week.
It was interesting because wasn’t your most explosive game as an offense, but you guys got the job done. What is it about the dudes that you have on your offense that make it so, even on an off day against a great defense where everyone’s a little bit more amped up because it’s such a big game, you guys are able to go out and get the job done?
I would just say it has to come down to the mindset everybody has. Good day, bad day, you have to grind it out, man. Every game is not going to be a great game — that’s part of the game, having ups and downs, but it’s all about how you respond to it. And I think we responded well, going out there and doing the things that we needed to do, and just staying locked in and our situational awareness, things like that. Everybody being on the same page.
You hear a lot of players, a lot of coaches, teams, they try not to get too caught up in a single game. But in the Cowboys, it’s always a battle for the division, always a battle for the conference. Do you feel like you have to bring that a little something extra? Do you celebrate the wins a little harder? Or do you really have to treat this as one of 17?
It’s just one of 17, man. Honestly, the rivalry is kind of like, for the fans, we know how much it means to them. Not gonna just brush it off, it means a lot to us, too. Not just because it’s Dallas, but because it’s the next game, it’s a divisional game with a divisional opponent. So, just going out there and knowing that we win this game, it’s only going to put us a step closer to where we want to be.
I got to ask about the celebration with A.J., how long have you guys had that one planned? And did you see LeBron gave you a little bit of love for it?
Yeah, I saw LeBron give us some love. We actually thought about it earlier in the week, never practiced it, just went out there and did it.
I want to ask about A.J. specifically, because like that dude is outrageous. We see what he does every single Sunday, but what do you see every single day that explains why he is so great?
Every catch that you see him make in a game, he’s probably made it that week during practice. There’s never a day that goes by that he doesn’t have some crazy, one-handed catch. So, when he goes out there and does it in a game, it’s just like, we’ve seen this a couple days ago. So, we expect it at this point.
When I watch, it’s obvious that you two are such a great complement for one another. Why do you think you two complement each other so well?
I would say because, one, we feed off each other’s energy, and then also, we’re both learning from each other. We’re two different types of receivers, him with the late hands, playing through the contact, things like that that I try to implement in my game. And with me it’s being more finesse, at the line, releasing and things like that that he tries to get from me. I think that’s what makes us so dynamic is that we learn from each other, we’re happy for each other, and we always want to go out there and never let one guy be out there doing it by himself.
I think anyone who watched you in college should have known you were going to be a great pro. But obviously, there’s always learning, always growing. What’s the biggest difference between senior year Devonta Smith at Alabama and the guy you are now?
I would say with the NFL just being so much slower than college, calling in every play and things like that, it gives you a lot more time to think and actually see the big picture of what’s going on in the game. College is kind of on the fly — you’re looking at the sideline, looking at a board, trying to go fast and things like that. In the NFL, it’s like, okay, you come to the huddle, you gotta think, hear the play, you got time to see everything, it’s not moving as fast as college.
How important is having that? You’re not coming right up to the line of scrimmage, it’s not the check with me, it’s not looking at the boards. Just getting like that 10-15 seconds to kind of just digest the last play and think about the next one?
It’s great. Honestly, not just for the mental side of the game, but physical. You get a chance to catch your breath. Those 10-15 seconds to catch a breath make a big difference.
The thing that stuck out from those Bama days to now is how effortless you make the little things look, how you win at the line of scrimmage, how you run really crisp routes, you’re always making sure you secure the ball, that stuff. I know that making it look effortless is never that easy, so how much work goes into making sure you are able to get down all of those little details about playing wide receiver?
A lot goes into it, man. It starts in the film room, knowing your opponent, knowing how they play, especially the guy in front of you, knowing what kind of corner he is, how he likes to press and things like that. So, that’s the first step, and then when you go out there and play the game, it’s just like, you’ve been doing that all your life. Go out there continue doing the things that you do. You just have to know the little things, like what this person is trying to do.
Have you always been the kind of guy who wants to sit down and watch film every single day, or is that something that as you’ve gotten older, as you got into college, as you got into the NFL, it’s become more of an emphasis for you?
I would say when I got to college. In high school, it was just kind of going out there just playing. High school, you ain’t see many guys who wanna go out there and press like that. You may come across a guy every now and then, but you ain’t really run into many guys like that who wanna sit there and press. So high school, it was kind of easy just going out there just playing, but college was when I really dove into seeing how guys actually play.
I’m sure Coach Saban probably hammered that into you pretty quickly.
Yeah.
One thing that sticks out to me about the Eagles is that so many dudes get attention for one reason or another — whether it’s Jalen, you, A.J., the offensive line, list them off on defense. Who is, or who are, the dudes who you think fans, media, etc., don’t talk about enough, and what do we not see about them?
I’ll probably say guys like Jack Stoll and Grant [Calcaterra], those guys because they take the hits off Dallas. They come in, they do the dirty work, Nick calls them hockey something, something to do with hockey guys or something like that. They come in and do all the dirty work for Dallas, and then Dallas goes out there and catches all the past. So, I would say those guys, those are probably the two guys on offense that doesn’t get the recognition they deserve. But definitely, behind the scenes, they’re doing a lot of the dirty work making sure that this offense gets where it’s supposed to go.
I watched that video of you when you were mic’d up from the Commander game, and it was you, Jalen, Hasson, and coach Sirianni. You kept talking about belief and believing in each other. Why is hammering that home to everyone on the team such a priority from you guys when we see greatness from your team on a weekly basis?
Just telling somebody that you believe in them gives them a confidence boost. And that’s what having confidence is, you believe in yourself and someone else believing in you. So, you just get it into somebody’s brain, like, “Oh, man, I believe in you, I believe in you,” they’re gonna get so much more confident.
My last question here, you’re the last non-quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy. There’s a chance that changes this year because of a guy who plays wide receiver from Philly. Have you gotten the chance to check out Marvin Harrison Jr. at all? You got a chance to speak to him? And if you have, what sticks out about him as someone who knows great wide receiver play?
Yeah, I’ve talked to him a couple times. I would just say, his love for the game, going out there, and like we were just talking about, believing yourself, the confidence you need to have. He truly goes out there and feels like there’s no one that can stop him. And I think that’s happened, him going out there doing that. And then he’s an amazing talent. He’s a big guy, he’s fast, can do everything. I think that’s what separates him a lot, the size that he has, just been a guy that can physically beat you and can beat you finesse-wise, too.
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