Up next in 10
Ahmad Rashad hosts Tug Of Words, from the team behind Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The gist is two teams compete to correctly answer word-clue questions that involve changing a single letter in a word that appears on the board, and then pulling the flag on the “tug of war rope” to their side. With each round, an additional letter is added, and the team with the flag on their side after three rounds wins the game, qualifying them for the bonus round and a chance to compete for $10,000.
Rashad being a former NFL player himself took the opportunity to weigh in on Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ stance on not being vaccinated for COVID-19. Check out the full interview here.
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0:00
and now here's your host ahmad rashad
0:04
hello hello hello
0:06
i am a margaret and welcome to tug of
0:08
words where peter and stephen take on
0:11
jessica and mallory in an exciting world
0:13
to claim the flag and a shot at ten
0:16
thousand dollars
0:20
oh wow what a trailer right there
0:24
it is
0:26
ready for that
0:28
i wasn't ready ladies and gentlemen hold
0:31
up man this is one of my favorite people
0:34
of of all time man let me do my thing
0:37
this is one of my favorite people of a
0:39
time um i at the time he was in the
0:42
league i modeled myself after him um as
0:45
a football player uh and from the time
0:48
he was out of the league i want to say
0:51
in the early 90s is when you first start
0:53
doing nba inside stuff and my mistake
0:57
no you're correct yep in the early 90s
1:00
and i recall in 1990 at the same time
1:03
you started there i started on radio
1:06
and i used to like to watch that
1:09
transition you made from a football
1:12
player where people perceive you as a
1:13
football player back in you know when
1:16
you think about what lebron james and a
1:18
lot of these guys through when they say
1:19
shut up and dribble you know and then
1:21
these guys can actually press that kind
1:22
of commentary back then they really was
1:25
like shut up and dribble
1:27
you know what i mean
1:30
and you pretty much shut up and dribble
1:32
uh for fear of maybe losing the position
1:34
but that wasn't true man you really
1:36
show people there's much more to you
1:38
than just what's on the field will also
1:40
happen off the field and i took cue from
1:43
that i took a lot of cue from that so
1:45
over the years that's out you and had a
1:47
chance to tell you this and say thank
1:48
you for that inspiration man now you're
1:50
doing something i always wanted to do
1:52
host the game show
1:54
and he's he's at it again hb he's doing
1:56
what i want to do
1:58
we got the one and only ahmad rashad
2:00
from tough to work here what up brother
2:05
wayne it is always so wonderful to talk
2:08
to you and to sit back and kick it and
2:10
realize it and you always
2:13
good because i really felt like when i
2:15
was first going from football to
2:17
actually into you know television radio
2:19
and all those things like that
2:21
i felt like it was really on me to sort
2:24
of try to set an example and to bring
2:26
people with me it's like because there
2:27
was nobody on tv there wasn't nobody
2:29
looked like me
2:30
i mean it might have been brian gumbel
2:31
was might have been the only one
2:33
and i i so
2:35
ed bradley was my mentor
2:38
and it just was one of those things
2:40
where you know once you let that crack
2:42
and then i was able to say hey you know
2:44
what a lot of people look like me you
2:45
guys can we can all do this this is
2:47
something we want to do and so when you
2:49
came and it was an inspiration that just
2:51
made me feel so good because that's what
2:54
i was trying to do and i'm still trying
2:56
to do it
2:57
oh man you knocking out the park man let
2:59
me tell you what it was too
3:01
um i grew up in oakland
3:04
you know and my mother used to say
3:07
things to me like well whenever you
3:09
curse it shows a lack of vocabulary use
3:11
your words
3:12
to express yourself and don't limit
3:14
yourself by your words
3:16
and what you did when you came on tv you
3:20
used your words and it when i first came
3:23
on tv with mtv one of my
3:26
the first things i said to them is you
3:28
know a lot of times people don't realize
3:30
that you know now mod that you know a
3:31
lot of times what you see people talking
3:33
about on tv is scripted so it's running
3:36
through a teleprompter and some writers
3:38
from somewhere wrote something for you
3:39
to say and when i got to mtv i
3:42
remembered how
3:44
expressive and articulate you were on tv
3:46
and you were hip at the same time you
3:49
were on the pulse you were cool you had
3:51
your own style and so it was important
3:53
to me that i didn't read a lot of what
3:56
people wrote or if someone used to do 20
3:58
stories in a day so you know you needed
4:00
help but if somebody did write i went
4:02
through all of those stories changed
4:04
them and made them into my own words and
4:06
it was important to me
4:08
to not be in a box or pigeonholed and
4:11
show that folks who came from hip-hop
4:13
culture have extensive
4:15
thought processes uh um
4:19
comprehensive levels of communication
4:21
skills all of those things and man you
4:23
inspired that in me bro you really
4:25
inspired me
4:27
you know i start introducing myself
4:29
i start using my lap my middle name
4:31
because my middle name is a mine and i
4:33
said i started introducing myself as a
4:34
mod after that
4:37
we didn't find that out till today
4:44
[Laughter]
4:49
i am really really honored okay that's
4:52
all i love man but let's let's talk man
4:54
i i watch tug of words and
4:56
um it's a how do you become a game show
4:59
host
5:00
how did that happen you know what
5:02
it's it's i i did a game show a long
5:05
time ago called caesar's challenge 20
5:07
years ago i don't know how long i did it
5:09
but it was in the middle of me doing a
5:10
whole bunch of other stuff you know what
5:11
i mean i was doing so many things that
5:13
you know i it was i had another show
5:15
that was on every single day and now i'm
5:16
trying to do this show so it was it was
5:18
in a big group of other things so now as
5:23
life has you know sort of
5:25
lovingly moved forward and you know and
5:28
i have a little time to do certain
5:30
things i always wanted to do a game show
5:32
but it had to be the right game show
5:34
and so they came to me over time was
5:36
asking about a game show he's like nah i
5:38
don't even understand that game show and
5:40
then another one is like nah that one's
5:42
too smart for me i know everybody know i
5:43
ain't that smart so
5:46
i
5:46
came for this one and this one had
5:49
man it had like it would be like if i
5:51
invited you over to the house you
5:53
brought some people over we sat down we
5:55
played this game we would have a blast
5:57
i mean it is so much fun
5:59
and it's uh and i just enjoyed doing it
6:02
once i got there and realized it was one
6:05
of those things where it's like if i had
6:06
all my boys over you know they brought
6:08
the girls over everything because you
6:09
play as a group there's two people to
6:11
play side so you play as a team man i
6:14
had so much fun with these people that
6:16
uh that i just look forward to it every
6:18
single day and i hope everybody else you
6:20
know sees it and has the same amount of
6:22
fun and it's one of those games you can
6:23
play at home as you sit there and you
6:25
know it's always easy when you're
6:26
playing from your own living room
6:27
because there ain't no camera on you
6:30
but if you put a camera on you them ten
6:32
seconds turn into about three seconds
6:34
yeah man it it it looks fun it's it's
6:38
it don't look that easy you got to be
6:40
sharp though you got to be sharp you got
6:42
to be sharp uh uh and you can win a lot
6:45
of money i watched it and i uh not and i
6:49
actually wanted to play and i thought
6:51
maybe maybe heather tracy and me could
6:53
be guests on the show one time of my
6:54
rashad i don't know
6:57
so great i would you guys might not go
7:00
back home in the same car
7:02
[Laughter]
7:04
might get mad at each other
7:07
yeah when you play as a team and the
7:08
other person don't get the answer the
7:10
other one gets a little mad at him it's
7:12
like man wait a minute you didn't know
7:13
that
7:14
yeah but they get mad at me every day
7:16
i'm not worried about that part
7:18
[Laughter]
7:25
hey man we got a moderate shot here tug
7:27
of words um it's on the game show
7:29
network and you go to
7:30
gameshownetwork.com hb you want to
7:32
highlight my buddy i do ahmad mr rashad
7:35
hi this is heather sway mentioned
7:37
earlier that i do do sports here and i
7:39
kind of do it in a fun way and sway and
7:41
i go back and forth because as he
7:42
mentioned earlier he's from oakland and
7:45
i was wondering just with like
7:47
everything that's going on just with
7:49
your football experience first like with
7:51
everything that's going on now with the
7:53
raiders if someone asked you to come
7:55
into the locker room and speak to the
7:57
team with all the events that took place
7:59
in the past couple of weeks what would
8:01
you say to that group right now
8:05
you know heather life
8:07
you know life is it moves on
8:10
and it is a learning situation that you
8:13
sort of when you go through sort of
8:14
things like this you sort of learn
8:16
and it's an experience that you take
8:18
with you forward that's the only thing
8:20
you can do because ain't nobody gonna
8:21
slow down for you you know
8:22
life's still going at the same speed it
8:24
was going before all that stuff happened
8:26
the trick is to try to figure out how to
8:29
figure out the good or bad or whatever
8:31
you get out of that than learning from
8:33
that experience and to move on and i
8:35
mean immediately move on because no
8:37
one's waiting
8:38
there's no you know whoever you plan
8:40
this week they plan you this week and i
8:42
think that in life
8:44
that's one of those things that you have
8:45
to deal with it's a learning situation
8:46
where whatever it is take care of it
8:49
move forward and move forward in a
8:50
stronger with a stronger mind and a
8:52
stronger set that you can make it
8:55
you know enhance who you are
8:57
because there's no way to sit around and
8:59
talk this thing into the ground you know
9:01
we already haven't talked it out we know
9:02
what it is we see what it is we figure
9:04
out what it is and we move on and i
9:06
think that's that's the trick that's
9:08
going to try to happen
9:10
but get over it and move forward because
9:12
life doesn't wait
9:13
you know you if you're going to keep
9:14
using that excuse you keep losing gain
9:16
well we did this well nobody don't care
9:18
about that you know at some point you
9:20
need to take care of that and move
9:21
forward
9:23
wow
9:24
move forward amen okay amen yeah yeah
9:28
but move forward forward in a learning
9:30
way to what makes you stronger
9:33
right in the learning way that's the
9:35
part yeah i got you
9:36
writing that down
9:37
this is tracy i'm curious um because now
9:41
we've had a number of athletes turn
9:44
news broadcasters um
9:46
just general broadcasters um actors
9:50
who are some names that have really
9:52
impressed you with the way that they
9:54
have um transformed their career beyond
9:57
sports
9:59
well
10:00
like i was saying earlier the people
10:01
that that
10:03
that i looked up to and that i tried to
10:05
be like were um ed bradley
10:08
for one number one guy
10:10
and
10:11
brian gumbel was also uh very prominent
10:14
during that time
10:15
and i think what happens is because of
10:18
all these
10:19
and radio shows and all in podcasts and
10:21
all those things
10:24
you have to go into this business with
10:26
uh the mindset are you going there for
10:28
like a 10 minutes or you're going there
10:30
for a career which one are you doing are
10:32
you hot at the moment or or are you
10:34
actually really setting yourself up to
10:36
look this is what i want to be i want to
10:38
be a journalist i want to make sure that
10:39
i'm doing
10:41
what i did with when i started mine i
10:43
didn't want to be the guy in that other
10:44
chair you know the last football player
10:47
and then he works for five years they
10:48
get rid of him and they bring another
10:50
one in i want to be in the chair that
10:51
the guy don't move
10:53
you know so i welcome
10:55
from time to time rather than welcome me
10:57
and telling me goodbye after the last
10:59
next first all pro sets in so it's one
11:01
of those things where i think you have
11:03
to realize
11:04
it's a it's a it's a job
11:07
and
11:08
the best journalist can do anything it
11:10
doesn't matter what the subject matter
11:12
is it's the same way that you approach
11:14
it but you approach football you
11:16
approach life you approach whatever it
11:18
is there's a way that you can go forward
11:20
and you want to be there for the long
11:22
run
11:23
not for
11:24
pay for five years i was pretty good no
11:26
you want to be that you want to retire
11:28
from there you want to be able to do
11:29
everything and i always felt like
11:31
my strong point was i did every sport i
11:34
did football basketball baseball i did
11:36
four olympic games you know i did things
11:39
like that so i wasn't pigeonholed
11:41
anywhere
11:43
and and sort of and to sort of you know
11:46
explain that it's like yeah so now i'm
11:47
doing a game show whoa whoa
11:49
you did all that and then you're doing
11:50
this yeah and i'm enjoying all of it too
11:54
you know i don't
11:56
i tried never to look back it's always
11:58
today
11:59
and forward and and i've enjoyed yeah
12:05
did he go am i am i
12:07
yes sir okay cool i i i thought you
12:10
could cut out a little bit um
12:13
that's you know
12:15
yeah the way you answer questions and
12:17
the thought process that you put into it
12:20
um in your experience is something i
12:22
really appreciate um and even that
12:25
responds to these questions today i'm
12:27
curious too uh about since we're talking
12:30
um nfl
12:33
um aaron rodgers you know the aaron
12:35
rodgers headlines he's been in the
12:37
headlines a lot for uh
12:39
not officially being vaccinated using
12:41
the word immune immunization and and
12:44
thusly misleading a lot of people about
12:46
his back status
12:48
and in many places people trying to
12:50
cancel him some folks say you know he
12:52
shouldn't even be allowed in the league
12:53
he should be suspended what are your
12:55
thoughts about that
12:58
that is such a you know it's such a
13:00
tough subject because people have their
13:02
reasons for
13:03
you know either not getting vaccinated
13:05
or not sort of
13:07
you know or taking it however they want
13:08
to take it as far as i'm concerned i
13:10
believe everybody should be vaccinated
13:12
and i feel like it's a it's you know not
13:15
only am i taking care of myself but i'm
13:16
caring about you too so i don't want to
13:18
give nothing to you either and so from
13:20
all the things that i've read
13:22
that i feel like it's a you know a
13:25
relatively safe way of trying to
13:27
help everybody keep everybody safe stay
13:29
safe but if you come in
13:32
and you're not
13:34
uh
13:35
straightforward
13:37
i don't know if it's as much his fault
13:38
as it is the team
13:40
you know because every place i've ever
13:42
gone you know during this pandemic and
13:44
we had to get tested every day they made
13:46
sure you got tested every day you know
13:48
when nobody coming in with some another
13:50
reason why they weren't if they were
13:52
they just weren't a part of it so for
13:54
for the the packers to allow him to play
13:58
i i don't get that i'm confused
14:02
they're not allowing kyrie irving to
14:03
play are they
14:05
uh no no no they're not no so how do you
14:08
get by that i mean how do you i mean if
14:10
you have certain things you're trying to
14:12
keep everybody
14:13
healthy and trying to keep everybody on
14:15
the right path how did somebody slide
14:17
through that by not being able to take
14:18
the test i i don't i don't get it
14:22
fair enough
14:23
whose fault is it for putting these
14:25
people
14:26
in danger i guess or
14:28
it's it's you know whoever's guarding
14:30
the gate and if they let somebody do get
14:33
past the gate then it's not his fault is
14:35
it
14:36
ahmad rashad you see why we got the same
14:39
name y'all you see why right uh
14:43
what are we doing uh
14:45
i i a man i enjoy your thought process
14:48
like let's look at the full picture uh
14:50
before you go before you go i i have a
14:53
beautiful daughter and you have
14:54
beautiful daughters
14:56
and condola is somebody who's been on
14:57
the show before um we've heather and
14:59
i've checked her out on broadway we
15:01
watch billions she plays kate on
15:04
billions she's doing an excellent job
15:06
um she's a tremendous actress and you
15:09
know i wanted to know we were having
15:11
this conversation about uh blended
15:13
families earlier and and and also
15:16
raising kids when you're single you know
15:19
and the mother's singing you're single
15:21
so on and so forth
15:22
and i was explaining early on in that
15:25
process with my daughter her mother and
15:27
me you know my her mother and i even
15:29
though we weren't together together we
15:32
were together but not together in a
15:33
relationship like that we used to have
15:35
huddles
15:36
hey man did you you hear what's coming
15:38
up woody what do you think about it yeah
15:40
i think this about what do you think
15:41
about it all right and then we'll call a
15:43
play and then we'll go break and leave
15:45
the huddle and go raise our kid right
15:48
but then as the kids get older
15:51
you don't you don't really have the same
15:53
rights they can run off and do what they
15:54
want to do after they reach a certain
15:56
point you just only hope they listen uh
15:59
does does your kid still come to you for
16:01
advice are you giving a lot of advice
16:03
these days a lot of direction or how's
16:05
the dynamic change not that everyone's
16:08
starting to get older
16:10
i trust my kids so much and i feel like
16:13
that you know and the foundation their
16:16
foundation i played such a huge role in
16:18
that so i trust them to make the right
16:20
ideas and yes they will run things past
16:22
me they're not running everything past
16:24
me but they will run things past me but
16:26
i just feel so confident in the way they
16:28
were raised
16:30
and and uh and uh condola's mom is
16:33
actually one of the most beautiful
16:34
people in the world and and and and
16:36
we've raised a wonderful daughter and
16:38
all my kids are like that so it's to the
16:40
point where you know we let you go now
16:42
you know what i told you this is what i
16:44
think and it's not the other you get to
16:46
make your mind up but at some point you
16:48
know it's all about you i'm here if you
16:50
want to ask me but if not i feel very
16:53
confident that you are going to be uh
16:56
live a happy life because of some of the
16:58
things that i've planted yeah
17:00
for you early on and that's that's it
17:02
it's just it's just fun to you know to
17:05
have a really good belly laugh with your
17:07
kids and as you're laughing you realize
17:08
that man i remember this little girl was
17:10
two years old
17:13
beautiful you know it's like looking at
17:15
a flower
17:16
you know and thinking about man i
17:18
remember when she was a seed now she's a
17:20
beautiful flower and just full of warmth
17:23
and happiness and just makes me happy
17:25
you know and i think that's the most
17:26
important thing in life is to be happy
17:29
absolutely man
17:31
so man i saw okay cool it's like you
17:33
know you hey you're on your own kid make
17:36
the right decisions i'll be at home
17:39
can i slide in with one final question
17:41
absolutely
17:43
okay cool only because of amma both
17:46
myself and heather are scorpios and hb
17:49
had mentioned how your birthday is
17:50
november which is two days after maine
17:53
and when you said that you only focus on
17:55
today and forward i wondered if you ever
17:59
when you were younger thought that you
18:00
would be working in your 70s or even
18:04
want to continue working in your 70s and
18:06
what does
18:07
retirement look like for you
18:10
heather
18:12
first of all when i say 70s it's like
18:15
that just don't fit it's like who is me
18:18
i ain't i'm 39.
18:21
because there hasn't been
18:24
i haven't had any major changes in
18:26
my uh
18:28
i look the same i feel the same i'm
18:32
still silly
18:33
i i don't know when you get old you
18:35
don't have any of those do you don't
18:36
look the same you don't feel the same
18:37
you ain't stealing no more but i still
18:39
have all of that so it doesn't it
18:41
doesn't bother it doesn't bother me like
18:43
that until someone goes hey man isn't
18:45
she 70. like nope i'm 39.
18:48
so and retirement
18:50
it is it is i haven't retired i think it
18:53
is a wonderful blessing to be still
18:56
wanted you know when people came to me
18:58
with the game show or you know i also
19:01
now work with the knicks and i'm just
19:03
people it's just that's a blessing to be
19:05
wanted you know you're still
19:06
you know you still can you still got
19:08
something that people want to you know
19:10
keep you affiliated with so those things
19:12
are good i don't even know what it's
19:13
going to be like when i get to the point
19:14
where i go i'm too tired to do that or
19:17
i'm going to retire
19:18
i guess i can say that i sort of do what
19:20
i want to do now which is really good
19:23
you know that that's that's always great
19:25
but i guess the bottom line though
19:28
is i'm happy
19:29
you know i mean that that's i think
19:31
that's the key no matter what i was
19:33
doing if i was happy hey that's it i'm
19:36
having a great time in life my kids are
19:38
great i got grandkids i even got a great
19:40
great
19:41
grandson i won't let him call me that
19:44
oh i'm sorry
19:45
[Laughter]
19:49
yeah man keep him in his place smart
20:00
congratulations to hear you say i'm
20:03
happy you know that made me happy man
20:06
congratulations
20:07
at the core of it all isn't that what
20:09
matters you're happy
20:10
that sounds amazing
20:12
that sounds amazing
20:14
i'll be happier if you watch tell the
20:16
words man i want to know what you feel
20:18
here you tell me if that ain't fun
20:19
that's fun
20:20
come on man i was watching the clip when
20:23
i can't think of the word they were
20:24
building on and it'll be a three-letter
20:26
word like like uh like ooh heather and
20:29
then you gotta use those three from
20:31
those three words amaya to give you a
20:33
who
20:34
it might be uh
20:35
uh
20:36
you know a a uh
20:38
a pot that uh that is known to originate
20:41
in japan and you take those and you can
20:43
make walk out of who you know you just
20:45
keep building on the base of that word
20:47
yeah it's it's really
20:49
i play words with friends so i probably
20:51
do exceptionally well at this game i
20:53
don't know about heaven and tracy but
20:55
ahmad if you if you like us to be on it
20:57
we'll be more than welcome more than
20:59
happy to be on it okay
21:01
all right i got it all right uh tugger
21:04
words the game show network let's
21:06
support it tomorrow shot thank you
21:08
always good to hear you okay can't wait
21:10
to see you in person
21:12
all right thank you guys all right thank
21:14
you stop man he's a citizen come on sway
21:17
in the morning
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