Getting back to College Park to get more coats from closets and onto backs for winter

Every year for 21 season former Maryland Terrapins defensive star Shawne Merriman comes home to College Park to collect coats. Let him tell you about freezing out in a snowstorm as a child and how it motivated him to give back and keep people warm every winter. Find him before the Penn State game and give…

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

ravens, man, lamar, team, year, maryland, people, talk, coats, playing, prince george’s county, player, remember, shawn merriman, defense, week, football, penn state, bears, coming

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Shawne Merriman

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

So, looking back at W and st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive, we’re getting the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road. I’m giving away the Ravens scratch offs, we’re gonna get those scratching sniffs that gingerbreads into peppermints in a couple of weeks, but I’ve got like a dozen Maryland crabcake towards stops out. We’re gonna be over gertrudes at the PMA with Dan Rodricks later this month, we’re going to be Coco’s, we’re going to be fade these we’re going to be a Papist. We’re going to be Costas we’re also going to be I don’t know where we’re going to be, but I know where this guy is going to be. This guy comes on all the time we talk MMA and he’s got a promotion. It’s out on the West Coast. We played a little bit of football back in the day, but he is a Marylander he is he’s no stranger to the crabcakes certainly no stranger to College Park in the Maryland program. We welcome back one of our defending champions for his lights out promotion, which is right here. Right now. We welcome Shawn Marion back to the program. Dude, you’re not even on the West Coast. Like you’re, you’re like back on East Coast time talking to me right now. Right?

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Shawne Merriman  00:57

I am I am. And that three hour was hurt, right? Because we I wake up at 435 o’clock every morning. And so when you’re on the East Coast, you lose those kind of three hours. So now you’re waking up at you know, 233 o’clock in the morning. But you know, it’s good man, I get a chance to come back here a couple times a year waffle, obviously, as you said, the cold drive. But more importantly, me and my family still there in PG County, the Washington DC area, I get a chance to come back and you know, see the guys on the team and see some of my former teammates. So you know, this time of year is always pretty fun for me.

Nestor Aparicio  01:29

Well, you get a crab cake. Give me You better come north at PG can. By the way, if I call a PG candidate, I’ll get pissed off Prince George’s County and I feel like you’re not one of those guys though, right?

Shawne Merriman  01:39

I am. I’m absolutely not. And I still say PG County myself. I mean, you know, I think that you just gotta you gotta go with the times right?

Nestor Aparicio  01:49

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People to call the DMV and I’m like we call DMV. I could say PG County. Right.

Shawne Merriman  01:55

Yeah. You know, and you know, when I’m on the West Coast, you st DMV, right? They automatically think we’re going to get out and get a new license or something. Right. It’s right.

Nestor Aparicio  02:04

It’s regional. Well, I mean, you’re saying that you’ve been doing 21 years. Am I right in saying that? Yeah. 21 give everybody the background on this. Because I mean, it’s it’s such a compelling story. I don’t think you can tell it enough. And 21 times I think you’ve been on here 15 of the 21 times talking about it. With Glenn back in the day, but but you’re coming in. It’s Penn State. It’s cold drive, and And damn, Shawn, you get off the plane. Dude. We had frost this morning. First time. It’s been nice here. It’s been kind of okay. But the coat drive really speaks to it’s getting cold man and people need help.

Shawne Merriman  02:36

Again, and I’ll tell you, man, when I stepped off the plane late last night when I landed that cold hit my face for the first time. I’ve been very well. You remember how important is cold drive is and as you say it, man. 21 years is my 21st annual coming up. You know, we’ve collected over 33,000 coach and he’s 21 years man and it’s really to the people that came out. So you guys, if anybody’s coming to this Maryland, Penn State football game this Saturday, I’ll be collecting coats at 10am in the morning and one of the entrances of the Maryland stadium. And this is important to me man I grew up here in Prince George’s County, right don’t say presidents county what? And, you know, we we spent some time being homeless, we lost our home to a fire. So me my mom and my sister. You know, we went through the gamut mass slipping back into cars and shelters and government food stamps, everything and I just remember

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Nestor Aparicio  03:29

a matter of factly right now, like, you know what I mean, this point in your life. I mean, you just say it and like I have to think if that were five minutes of my life, that would be five minutes. Too much five minutes more than I personally had my life. Yeah. And

Shawne Merriman  03:43

you know, for me, the reason why it is so important because there’s a lot of people out here that need that help you know, we these type of things wasn’t around when I came up. And you know, the 90s here and impeach in Prince George’s County and in Washington, DC area, these things wasn’t available. And I always say Look, man, if I got into position to help somebody else, so they didn’t feel the way I felt that I would. To be quite honest. When we first when I first did it my sophomore year at University of Maryland, I didn’t expect to get more than 100 200 coats, I would have been more than happy. That’s 100 people that’s warmer right in the cold in the winter. We got almost 3000 coats my first year out and so at that point in time, I knew that we had something that people cared. People had old coats worn gloves, sweaters, sweatshirts, hoodies hats that they wasn’t wearing, right and this is in the back of your closet. So you know let’s let’s help some people out man I think this this one’s gonna be really big this year. And then more importantly, man, I know a lot of the guys Why didn’t play with right Stefon Diggs, you know Torrey Smith, a lot of the former terms the guys I played with this kind of reposting putting it back out there. That’s why this thing has been going on 21 years, man I show up I take a flight I do. You know, I got the opportunity to jump on do media hits and stuff like that tell people about it. But more importantly, man, it’s the people that’s in this. There’s been behind this thing for 21 years. That’s why I’m able duel for so long.

Nestor Aparicio  05:01

You know, I did a lot of Tony Robbins stuff in my life firewall x and a week of, you know, locked down. The word that always comes to me is abundance abundance, right? Like you have, quite frankly shit in the closet. You know what I mean? Just stuff that you didn’t knock aware anymore that you don’t need anymore. And I work with goodwill, we have done coke drives, we’ve done food drives, I mean, I’m so proud of our charity work. Matter of fact, it’s number 23. I want to give a shout out to curio wellness, for giving me a tour of their growth facility. I’m going to have Wendy on next week, but they are sponsoring my 25th anniversary cupcake here. And so many of the charity things we’ve done, but you see how it activates your audience and that, you know, we think we live in this awful world and everybody’s out for themselves and stuff. But I’ve seen too much of this right? And you have to that we all have. In our audience, we all have something we have that’s abundance, something we have a little $5 An extra bottle of water, we’re at the you know, it’s 100 degrees out and you’re at the at the red light, somebody’s hungry, you give him a buy, whatever it is abundance, but the jacket thing, this time a year, the first time you get cold you think 50 jackets in there, man, I got five langwarrin Since Merriman was in high school, right?

Shawne Merriman  06:16

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It No, it’s the truth. And it’s the truth. And, you know, more importantly, man, I think that, um, outside of just getting rid of job or getting rid of stuff in your closet that you don’t deemed as new anymore, you don’t where there’s somebody out there, you’re going to keep warm, right? If somebody’s out there, you’re gonna save their life. And I remember vaguely, you know, we had years when they got really cold here, I don’t know in a blizzard and everything else where, you know, homeless people are dying because they were being moved off of often events right in the city and Baltimore and Washington DC or anyone dying. And so that resonated with me that did something to me, where I said, Man, you know, these coasts and people are bringing this actually saving lives, right? And, you know, outside of that man, we were going to be donating to the vets right and make vets as we always partner with it’s there right there in Baltimore. So I’ve always been a big advocate man of helping out our military and taking care of them because truthfully, I just don’t think this country do enough for for our veterans, for our military and so it always brings me great pleasure man to be able to have the opportunity to do that.

Nestor Aparicio  07:22

I got the folks that mix that coming on next week as a matter of fact, they come on once a year as well show Mary minutes here lights out and MMA and say the one time San Diego Chargers that I remember in the lightning bolt and all that stuff and we’ll get to some Lamar will talk some football one last question on this part of it though. What was the real seat was this somebody you dreamed it up middle of the night? What Why coach why then back when your kid man right?

Shawne Merriman  07:49

I was there was there was one I would think it was the blizzard Blizzard at like 96 or 98 I can’t remember which which year it was. It was like one of those blizzards waivers. It was probably one of the worst we’ve ever had Blizzard 9698 Me and my sister we had we were outside. And I remember putting on two or three sweatshirts. We had socks on our hands, right? Because we couldn’t afford gloves. And we were outside. And I said man, this sucks. This really This really sucks. And I remember we had my first time being in a big football game we had Georgia Tech on ESPN it was my first time getting the game I had a big hit and that’s my got kind of got on the national platform. And I remember doing my big interviews and stuff like that and it was some of the guys in the locker room that remember it’s my story from high school. And I said man you know what, because obviously being personal just kind of me growing up and you know some of the same reporters some of the same writers from the Washington Post Baltimore Sun it was in and they brought up the story about how I grew up and I said you know what, I think I think I’m going to be able to do something this year and I just mentioned it and I had no idea that it was going to unfold the way it did that was that was your first

Nestor Aparicio  08:59

or something was it coats or just something you didn’t know what it was. It was some

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Shawne Merriman  09:02

kind of charity some kind of full drive cold drive clothes drives it was something that I was going to do and and I just remember that day that blizzard that we had like 96 or 98 how cold it was I say you know what is coach and it’s it’s been around for 21 years so

Nestor Aparicio  09:21

we’ll get down to Maryland on Saturday and I guess this is the part we talked about the football team a little bit about locks and about what the game has changed so much is NIHL thing I don’t really understand it as well and I saw Bob Knight die this week people asked me about that because I’ve covered sports for 39 years and I’m like you know that part of the game and I still carry John Feinstein you know all of that like that part of sports it and you’re part of sports even it’s it’s a different world now. It really really is.

Shawne Merriman  09:51

It is man I think. I always thought that something should be in place for the athletes in college to get taken care of. I’ve always thought that From from from, you know, decades I’ve thought that something should be in place to take care of guys. What I’m seeing now it’s kind of more of a wild wild west, right? It’s like like well crypto first came out there was there was no government about it it just you can it was like the wild wild west people trading sending stealing, you know this. It was

Nestor Aparicio  10:16

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an oversight politically and I do a lot of political when there’s no oversight there is very shenanigans there’s there’s there’s stuff that you cannot tolerate. There’s lack of integrity, there really is.

Shawne Merriman  10:27

Yeah. And I started seeing you’re starting to see a fractious now come down to universities, players, agents, companies, right misrepresentation, there’s going to be a lot of stuff happens here. And it’s the Wild Wild West, because you have these companies just coming to throw money at guys that go to certain schools. You’ll see people guys jumping the transfer portal not even getting picked up to like it’s just, it’s crazy right now. And there has to be some kind of cap, right? There has to be some kind of cat because you got to think these 1819 20 year old kids and I still call them kids because you haven’t hit that that adult responsibility yet. You got people around you, you don’t even know what the hell you’re doing just yet, right? So I couldn’t even imagine me coming from where I came from, I came from nothing. And so throwing me a half million dollars at 1819 years old. I’ve never seen that. But you have all these people around you this monitoring it with their hands in your pocket trying to tell you what to do, and not necessarily the best decision for the student for the kid for the player. And so I think at some point in time, they’re going to start cleaning it up, they’re going to start putting capital limitations on what can happen, because it’s going to get so much out of hand that it’s going to disrupt the function of a team I’ve just seen the other day I read something about Kayla Williams, possibly sitting out the rest of the year because he’s not gonna win the Heisman, and they’re not going you know any further and I’m sitting around like, what you know, but it’s the it’s the mentality of the NIO deal being in place of why everybody else saying, Hey, he’s already making a couple million dollars this year. Why play? Well, you should play because you gotta get you got a damn team, you got teammates, you got guys that are depending on you for their future, possibly in NFL, or, you know, finish up their collegiate career in a positive way. And you got people out here sitting saying, you know, hey, you got nothing else to gain here. Why don’t you sit down, sit down and not play anymore. That’s the mentality that’s going on. And they will ruin it will ruin college sports. If it gets any worse.

Nestor Aparicio  12:26

I was at a I was in Vegas last week seeing you too. And I was sitting in a bar just listening to conversation next to me. The guy was trying to explain to his wife load management in the NBA. And I’m thinking to myself, I like trying to understand the mind of a 19 year old kid, he’s got the money in the bank and saying I’m not going to damage this property before I get to the NFL. We went through this last offseason with Lamar, because was Lamar gonna come back. Was he making a business decision? He didn’t get on the plane for the playoff game. And then like well, maybe that’ll piss the Ravens off? No, they gave Georgia 16 million. You know, there’s no, and now they’re trying to have him run. Last I shown I want to talk to you about Lamar, and about the ravens and about the league at this point where we are because we’re six and two year and Lamar plays. He’s NFC teams, and they can’t really scheme for him. And they don’t really have a scout team sort of likeness in a lot of cases and they’re not ready for it even five years later. And I think some of these young defensive players see this in college, they see it in high school, and they get to the pros. And it’s just Lamar still confounds teams and he’s still special right?

Shawne Merriman  13:33

No question about it. And the thing is right now with the Ravens have going on, in my opinion, the biggest attribute they have is momentum, right? They’re playing like they got everybody on their heels and I’m watching the lions game and that RPL action was working so much the run game was working so much that now he started to show that action like he was going to run and then throw it to his tight end right but you just don’t know what these guys gonna do because now they got to capable wide receivers they got a tight in there run it you know they were running the ball pretty much effectively they’re blocking well, they’re playing great defense right now. This is a very, very dangerous team. I mean, what they did to the lions who also is a very good and dangerous thing. We just saw them you know the other night we so we know how good the lions are. Look what they did to the lions. So right now I think the biggest attribute with the Ravens is they’re playing what momentum you have no idea how these guys going to beat you week in and week out. And if they keep it up man and keep them are healthy, that is going to always be the biggest question mark about how far they go is how the health of Lamar if he stays healthy. It’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to have success. So we’re deep in the playoffs.

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Nestor Aparicio  14:39

Shawn Merriman share bring him a coat on Saturday before the Penn State game up there. 10am Collecting coats down at the bird I still call bird stadium and I still call it coal fuel house even though it’s hadn’t been that in forever. Defensively in row Quan, and a year ago this week, literally, the ravens and Eric Ditka hosta decided to have a heart transplant on defense and I guess they figured out Patrick Queen would move over and play his ass off and go get paid somewhere else it’s probably going to happen. Matt a BK is gonna get paid. It looks like Chino stone is gonna get paid. Lamar has got all the money and we all sort of know what happens when your quarterback has 20 21% of the cap. You start to lose players in free agency, and then your draft picks after workout. But this row Quan Smith acquisition, you say any of these trades this week? Do they matter at all? Well, they might have matter last year had Lamar stayed healthy. ropewalks was the best player on the team. And that’s no disrespect to Lamar. He’s just every single play. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen the 52 and the games played differently. And I know you see the game differently to that, that a linebacker could have this kind of impact on a locker room.

Shawne Merriman  15:48

I think that’s that’s the biggest thing. Bro Quan outside the Ravens make it a smart move which will show how dumb to bear is hard. Like you let a guy out like that out your locker room. I mean, he is a staple of anybody’s defense and you’re right the game has changed where it’s not as physical right the physicality has gone down you got a lot of guys who can’t play all three or four downs right? They got to come off the field this dude is around the football all the time and directly he’s the closest thing to a quarterback to that defense and you’re right Lamar is great. But this he’s such a staple not only that defense but of that team I saw Humphries and some of these other guys you know who kind of just talking about him and immediately talking about him like he is an ex coming up right now I don’t do the the player comparisons much I hate that I remember my a couple good years they compare me to Jr. Say I’m like dude, do yourself play 20 years, he went to 1011 Straight Pro Bowls like relax, right? And so, you know, like anybody compared to Ray Ray was obviously a mentor of mine. But when you’re talking about what his capabilities are, what he’s doing for that team right now, is what Ray did, right Ray made everybody around him better. Wroclaw Smith, is making everybody else around him better that front seven is playing the way they are because of his capabilities and his leadership. And so when you’re talking about yes, Lamar has got the money, he has the franchise, He’s the face of the organization, but who keep that team together as

Nestor Aparicio  17:15

well. And when I do out of town radio and stuff, they want to talk Lamar, and I’m like, better talk about the linebacker and what it’s meant, because I’ve seen the difference. It’s gonna get Mike McDonald job. I don’t know you say that about that. And then you sort of the other part of it for they would have to really be bad to get a player that good. I, you know, I think to myself, the Ravens don’t pick in the top eight, you know, never they had Ronnie Stanley last time when Flacco got hurt, but they never stink bad enough to get a player like that. And a player like that, to your point, never hits the street and free agency to fly under the radar, make a trade and say we’ll pay you will pay you and that you know, and they might have paid CJ Mosley at one point too. But I think the Ravens have really seen incredible value in the middle of the field.

Shawne Merriman  18:00

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No doubt about it. And to you know, we always talk about the passing of the torch, right when you got great players in certain positions or whatnot. I loved the interview that him and Ray had the sit down when they were watching Phil, like I love that, because that’s what the game was about. And when you got a stamp of approval from somebody like Ray who’s done with that organization for so long, and you got to stamp they’re not ready, you know, and he’s been raised not coming to put a stamp on anybody kind of passing a torch type of deal unless they are the real deal. And so I think going forward man, he’s such a centerpiece of what they’re doing and what they’re building. I know that Lamar has the money but at some point in time, you have to start recognizing what they’ve done on the defense side of the ball well how important role quantum is to what’s going on he is the backbone not of that defense of that team. That’s how much he made to that organization man so i i love it because the game is kind of you know, turned to the quarterback and offense and everything like that. So when you have somebody that kind of take the focal point off of what the NFL is trying to push who they’re trying to get behind the he’s so good that you can’t deny what he’s doing. That’s what I love about it the most man and we were conditioned now to talk offense talk quarterback talk wide receiver on the office side of the ball. He’s so good. You can’t turn your head.

Nestor Aparicio  19:23

Well, I knew I’d have no problem getting you to talk about defense with me Shawn Merriman here joining us lights out little MMA give me all the way out the door here what’s going on with your promotion because that’s usually the front door what you’re doing because beyond all this football and charity and PG Prince George’s County mean you’re really an entrepreneur in in a space right?

Shawne Merriman  19:42

Yeah, yeah, we got a huge fight coming up November 18. Will be a long beach but we’ll be live on football, TV football sports. You know, it’s cool for me because we climb into the top five top seven on football sports most watched all time by international soccer. So you know that’s that’s a big deal. You We’re showing internationally now and showing the growth we got to find those calls from all over the country trying to get all cars now which is really cool for

Nestor Aparicio  20:08

regional anymore because of the internet right? I mean, it’s global really MMA, right? Yeah,

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Shawne Merriman  20:12

yeah, it’s definitely global. We’re showing in Canada, France and Spain and we’re opening up some new regions here shortly so it’s you know, it’s chaotic don’t get me wrong as chaotic as hell behind the scenes and how crazy it is but this is such a great space man because it’s only up from here you know we got a great product so lights out extreme fight and 12 big fight November 18 will be live will football 6pm Pacific and so if you guys don’t have football get it we got a couple guys when this card is going to end up in the UFC in the next fight or two. So you guys you know make sure you watch us and you know just sit in front of TV because this was gonna be a good one.

Nestor Aparicio  20:48

Charges all right or no? You know? Yeah.

Shawne Merriman  20:51

Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know what, what’s all right right? I mean, you know, before the season started, you look on paper and you would you would say this is a Super Bowl contender team. Obviously Mike Williams went down that knee injury so you can’t really put too much emphasis injuries happen I just think that you know, the bears were bad. I was there to gain bears a bad team so I’m not going to put too much of a stamp but what I will say is I saw something out of them that I haven’t seen the last couple of games and I saw them guys playing with passion. I saw them playing with emotion. So I saw that there is a spark there that these guys can go out and get it done. I want to see that happen against you know the Jets right just got a great defense coming up they got the planet great. They playing great right now. So I want to see that same attitude, that same passion, same emotion they had against the bears, and let’s see what they do against the Jets. And then I will have more of a of a you know an idea of what the rest of the season going to look like. But when you got guys like Justin Herbert man and Austin Eckler and Khalil Mack Joey Bosa. Derwin James. KENNETH Mary’s playing great right now. I just can’t see them. You know, not turn this thing around and having a successful season.

Nestor Aparicio  21:59

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Khalil Mack another guy that bears

Shawne Merriman  22:02

Oh, yeah, no, no, they’re notorious for let’s get rid of all of our best guys, and let’s go have them somewhere else. And maybe Khalil Mac, you know, he had a great game against the best of nothing like playing your former team. You know, he has 656 x gets the Raiders. And he for sure, let the bears up. So thank you bears for for letting go. All your great players, the ravens and the Chargers. Thank you.

Nestor Aparicio  22:23

Shawn Merriman, thank you for bringing us with coach as well. He’ll be there 10am down in college, Park Terps. Penn State I leave you alone on the Terps and Penn State because it makes me sick when we lose these other schools and it’s been like a weird last couple of weeks as well. So hats off the Locksley fight hard this week against Penn State. Don’t give the Penn State people in my life. There’s too many of them. Don’t give them any more fodder. I can’t take it. Sean Good luck with everything and keep up the great work man. Appreciate you.

Shawne Merriman  22:52

You got it man. Thanks for having me.

Nestor Aparicio  22:53

Good community man Shawn Merriman lights out and bringing the coats in on Saturday morning down at Penn State and College Park. I am Esther we’re taking the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery we have these Raven scratch offs we’ll be giving away also our friends wind donation 866 90 day should you buy two you get two free five years 0% financing. And of course our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive