 Lamar Jackson says he wants to be like Tom Brady with all of his success that he's had over his career. How can he do that? Not just on the field, but off of it. This special one-question episode of NFL Questions from Subscribers. And you know just what I mean, YouTube team keep it clean, you see my boy, he like out of made it, well that's my homie, ain't that right engraving, right engraving. YouTube team keep it clean, what's going on in St. Graven here with another video and another episode of NFL Questions from Subscribers. This is a series where you can ask me any NFL question you want to based off of any NFL team and we answer it in a video just like this. Now if you want to be part of NFL Questions from Subscribers, you just send me an email at teamkeepitclean at gmail.com and we'll answer your question in the video. Team keep it clean, I love y'all man. This is the first question from Subscribers, we're doing this on May 20th. This is the first question from Subscribers episode that we got that we're doing after hitting 27,000 subscribers. And that's crazy, man, it's crazy that 27,000 people would be crazy enough to subscribe to this YouTube channel. But I appreciate y'all, I appreciate your craziness. I thank you that you have seen videos where I'll have a piece of lint in my hair. These videos, y'all see up close and personal, you see every blemish bump on my face. If my lips are ashy anything, if I have a piece of the hoodie lint on my chin, like I did in the video a couple days ago. But I just, I appreciate y'all just sticking around, sticking through, riding out, showing a lot of love, man. I appreciate it a lot and I just, I love y'all. So appreciate it. The mask, of course, remember the mask, if you want your customized mask, you hit up MySecretDwelling.com, again, that's my aunt, so I know y'all been showing a lot of love, so I appreciate that a ton and like I said, she does as well. So just, just thank you all, man. Just thank you. We got it. Let's get into these questions now though, because we got plenty. First question came from my guy, Josh Hoffman. He said, shout out to Team Keep It Clean. I've got a tough, controversial question for today. I started off with a bang, man. He said, I've been wanting to bring this one up for a while, but it's very in-depth. So my apology in advance, because this one's long, even by my standards, oh, so this might be a one episode question, I mean one question episode, but we'll see, we'll see. He said, I hope it'll be worth it though. This story about the Seahawks trying to trade Russell Wilson made me think of it and prompted me to finally ask. It's really just the same question about players taking team friendly deals. I bet the reason the Seahawks did that is that they notice no team with the top 10 salary quarterback has won a Super Bowl for a decade. We saw what happened when the Ravens had to pay Flacco. We sure did. It didn't have to happen like that, because it didn't have to get rid of Anquan Bolton. They could have afforded it, but anyway, we saw some other stuff anyway. And when we have to pay Lamar, who knows, but obviously the team will not be able to be anywhere near as complete as it is now. My confident expectation is that Lamar continues to improve, but will he improve from year 5 to 6 enough to make up for the pay difference? That's why the Titans lost is the worst in franchise history because that was as good a chance as we're going to get. Brady of course, famously, oh and just to touch on that, he said that was as good a chance as we're going to get. When he says that, maybe he means, I mean, Ravens, they had a great team last year. Maybe he means salary wise, because what Lamar was being paid last year, his cap hit for last year was the cheapest that it's ever going to be in his entire career. Well actually, his rookie year was, but last year with the team being his, as a starting quarterback, that is going to be the cheapest that he ever is, ever, in his entire career. So that was an opportunity that was obviously blown by the Ravens, but anyway. He said, Brady of course, famously took less money for exactly this reason. Not only did it free up money to keep their team competitive, but it set a tone. In New England, if you're here, you have to want to win just a little bit more than the other guys. And I'm positive that had an impact on their dynasty going on that long. Players taking the team friendly deals is basically pointless for the player, because you can't do that if you're the only one doing it. That just makes you kind of a sucker, granted. And if you're not a top paid player, that's totally different. But if you're Brady, or Lamar who wants to be like Brady, you have a chance to make others follow suit. And we're talking about being the most highly compensated that exists. And that's why I'm praying Lamar does take a team friendly deal. I'm hoping he can do that because he seems pretty smart and seems like he wants to win. His merch idea was super savvy. He's been very smart holding off for that right endorsement. And since he's smart, he probably knows that once you have $40 million, you don't need football to make more millions. A lot of pro athletes and celebrities don't figure that out and end up broke, which is crazy. Whenever we see Ravens fans pray for players taking team friendly deals, other fans come out to shoot down those people. My normal predilections would be to do the same. I take the side of the millionaires over the billionaires. But ultimately, I want the Ravens to win. And I care about that more than players getting a few extra million on top of tens of millions that they're getting. That's why I watch. Not so I can feel satisfied that this or that player got paid such and such money. I don't even care about that except for checking if the Ravens have salary cap room to address needs or to see if players are contributing more or less than their salaries would indicate. So with all the millions he's going to make from football and from sponsorships and from his merchandise, I'm hoping he will take a deal which won't cripple the Ravens because that's my team. I don't want to see another post-flacco contract situation again. It's almost a non-starter. I get why the Seahawks did what they did. And that's the side that I'm on. If you asked me, I would have read or he said, if you asked me, would I rather make as much money as possible or else take just a little less money to be part of something better? Either for the learning or for the chance to make a difference, I choose the latter and have chosen the latter every time in my working life. If it's a choice between way less money, that's a different story. But 5% to 10%, I choose what I think is the better all around. That's just me. OK, I can attest to that too because, again, y'all know the story just to touch on it a little bit. Because with that part, I do agree. Because it all depends on the person too. Because, again, y'all know, when I was working at my previous job before, I guess YouTube really took over, I was working there and I got laid off. So then I started doing YouTube for a time. And then somebody at my previous job, she had told me that there was a position that was going to be hiring or that they were hiring. And it was a position that I had wanted to get into for years at my previous job. But I just I wasn't able to. I had an interview for them like two years before I got laid off. But I just obviously wasn't ready for it and still lacked a lot of not maturity, but just I just wasn't ready for the job. I just needed some more professional fine tuning. So after I got laid off, she told me about it. She was like, hey, we're hiring. And I was like, oh, well, I didn't get laid off. So and I didn't get laid off because I because of poor performance got laid off because of the company had come back. But when she told me about it, that's when things were starting to not take off for Team Keep It Clean, but I was just starting to do more around Team Keep It Clean like we were playing in the first flag football thing. And I was like, man, I'm really invested in Team Keep It Clean. But this job, this could pay me the most money that I ever made in my life ever. Now with the Team Keep It Clean, I would have to take a step back because I wouldn't have as much time because I'd be working a regular four time job too. And so I was like at a crossroads. I was like, man, like, yeah, I could make the most money I ever made before, but at the same time, man, I'm getting this opportunity with Team Keep It Clean and opportunities like this don't they don't happen too often. And I've been talking about like to my wife, like I can do this blah, blah, blah. I feel like I can do this, but I just needed the time. And then boom, I get laid off. So obviously got the time now, but so when I went through the interview, like I was just I was like, man, I do want the job. But at the same time, I almost didn't. And because money wise, oh, yeah. But then time wise, like, then I'm thinking like, YouTube has the stresses to every job has the stresses. But I'm thinking with that, like, yeah, I'm sure it can be stressful because the girl that worked at the job, she would tell me all these different stories and whatnot. And I'm like, Yikes. But again, YouTube has the stresses to. But and YouTube is more risky to them because YouTube, nothing is guaranteed like with that job. I would have had a set salary, would have had vacation, all that good stuff, blah, blah, blah, blah, but with YouTube, it's you like literally YouTube. So it's what you do, what you put out. There's no why there's there's no base salary. Like, OK, you get paid this much. There's also no set salary. So that's a good thing, too. But it's that risk. There's that risk, like who? But there's no vacation days either. Because you the beauty and what depending on how you run things, the beauty and the curse with YouTube is like you get what you put in. And you you get immediate results. You get immediate results because, hey, if you don't put in the work, blah, blah, blah. You're not going to get paid that much. But if you do put in the work, blah, blah, then you'll see results. But with the job, the job that I had applied to, OK, wouldn't have to. I mean, would obviously have to put in the work. So I had to keep the job. But the results, they were going an annual basis with YouTube. It's more immediate. But it's again, a lot more risk, a lot more risk, a lot more risk. But anyway, when long story long, went through the interview and didn't get the job. Went through the first interview. Did I have a second interview, too? Yeah, because the first interview was phone interview. Went through the phone interview, did that. They're like, OK, you can come in for second interview. Went through the second interview. I thought it went good. I thought it went good, but I didn't get it. And the manager told the girl that worked there. She told the girl that he just didn't seem like he was all the way into it. He just didn't seem that enthused about it. And I was thinking, oh, well, because again, and when I found that out, I was like, oh, OK. Team keeping clean. Let's do this thing, man. Let's do it. And two years later, over here now. But it was back to what he was saying. He said, if it's a choice between making way less money. I mean, no, he said, if it's if you ask me, would I rather make as much money as possible? Or else just take a little less money to be part of something better, either for the learning or a chance to make a difference? He said he would choose the latter. And he said he's chosen the latter every time in his working life. I can attest to that with this situation. Now, I didn't necessarily choose the latter because I didn't get the job. But when I found out that I didn't get the job, I was happy. Like it was a weird thing because I remember two years before that when I was still working in my previous job and I had interviewed for this position. I was hyped. I was like, man, come on, let's go. I hope I get it. And when I didn't get it two years, two years before, I was I was like, man. Come on, man. I was really hoping for it. I was kind of down. And I was like, oh, man, I didn't get it. But then you fast forward two years later after being laid off and then going through the interview process for that job, but then having team keep it clean right there. Didn't get it. But I was actually happy because I was like, OK, like, I'm cool with this. It's going to be risky. It's going to be something now. We're going to see how it goes, but I'm cool with it. So that just it just reminded me of that, man. But anyway, he said, as you know, and I'll tell everyone, I'm a lawyer and do a lot of criminal law. I constantly always and every day have to choose to help people in very hard situations or just reserve my time for more money. If everyone in my shoes acted like the pay or acted like the pay the man every time as NFL fans, it wouldn't be good at all. We have to give back everyone I'm talking. And I'm not talking to charity charitable contributions that help you pay less taxes. I mean our time. And if I were paid like top NFL players, I honestly think I'd stop caring one side bank 20 million because I know what to do with it. I want to chase the glory and helping others at that point because I wouldn't worry about money again ever. Why is it so different for NFL players? Every person's decision is fine for them. And if they choose right or wrong, I'm in no position to know. And even less to judge. But why do some fans have to come down on other fans like a ton of bricks for suggesting NFL players might maybe sort of think about it? So with this, I know for me, I've spoken a lot on that when when fans will get on players for for not taking less for for not taking team friendly discounts. And what would I always say from that point of view with the player situations I always talk about with NFL is it's not it's not for long. It stands for not for long. NFL also stands for not for loyalty, not for loyalty. These teams ain't loyal to you. You don't got to be loyal to them. And with the NFL standing for not for long, you never know when it'll be done for you. You never know when your career will be over. You never know when it'll be a rap. But that's why I say that's why I don't I don't get mad. Like I used to be on more of the fan side with that with Oh man. Hey, why is this dude holding out? Come on now. What are you doing until I started learning more of the business side of the NFL and understanding more of the business side of the NFL and understanding more little more about how these contracts work like in the guaranteed money and whatnot. Knowing that these contracts, they may say, Oh, this contract is for 120 mil, but you may only have like 60 mil guarantee. Still a lot of money, but these contracts are usually never as much as what they claim to be. But I started signing with the players more with that because I'm like, okay, hey, they trying to get as much money as they can from these teams and these teams are replacing. They replace you like that. Everybody is replaceable. Some for some people will take a little longer to replace them than others, but every player is replaceable. That's why every not every player has played for their team every single football year because they're replaceable. Players get old players contracts run out team. Sometimes they want to play the people they want to pay the people. Sometimes they don't want to pay the players it. Everybody's replaceable. So with that being said, that's why I would nowadays I don't I don't get on players when they hold out. Because I know they trying to get paid. They trying to get paid and whether that player is worth it or not or worth a big deal or not. I don't fault them for trying to get paid. Not at all. But I do understand to the other side of where he's going with it because he explained it in a very good way. Players when they do hold out that excuse me when they do hold out that oh no excuse me not when they hold out but with the contracts with the size of the deals. If they were to take a more team friendlier deal and if it's a group of players not just one player. The only one player that will make that big of a difference with taking a team friendly deal would be obviously a quarterback. But when it's a when if it could be a group of players taking team friendly deals all for the greater good of the team. I could get behind that and but they would definitely have to get behind it and there would have to be something for them. Some type of incentive whether the contracts were incentive based something where the cap hit could be smaller. I mean but it really if you're taking a team friendly deal you that would be you taking less money. So not even incentive base but just overall less money. Then whatever your market value is at your position. So I mean I could get behind that. I understand both sides how I'm a player will want to get paid because a this is the time they try to get paid they try to they hitting their prime. But I could understand to like if if as a collective unit a lot of players decided hey you know what we ain't trying to get paid the most money in the world. I ain't got to be the top pay I ain't got to be the top five pay not be top 10 cool but I ain't got to be top five whatever. I'm I'm willing to take less so we can build around this team a little bit more. And yeah that's the Brady rules so to speak. But anyway he said why do some fans have to come down on other in on other fans like a ton of bricks for suggesting NFL players might maybe sort of think about it. We as fans obviously have no control but we will still have dialogue as always like right now which brings me at long last to my question. Oh I thought we had a got it already. He said when the time does come for Lamar to decide between a team friendly $35 million a year and the 40 plus that some team will pay him. Well will you stand on that dialogue with regard to the differing views and please understand I'm not asking you to put out there what you think Lamar should do. I'm more asking about how you see us as fans navigating our own wants and beliefs. When Ravens fans strongly insist the players should by all means take as money take as much money as possible rather than a 5% discount. Do they realize they're saying they want the Ravens to be less competitive. It's strange but taking the side of the big guy in this case meaning the franchise is really the side of the fans for the most part. We're not shareholders in the Ravens organization in a money sense but we are invested emotionally. If Lamar or someone on his level does do that is that not highly commendable. And as much as Brady is a player I have loved to root against and hated for his special treatment in all the ways he got. I have no choice but to respect his decision to not chase extra money he probably never missed and instead to do so much for that fan base. No we should never harshly criticize a player for maximizing their earnings but I don't think we should criticize fans who hope their teams won't end up in the doldrums when a QB rookie deal expires as usually happens. Why are so many people so quick to do that? Is it living vicariously through the players imagining how they'd feel if someone told them to take less money? I think so. If so I'd say first imagine you have NFL money. Don't compare watermelons to pomegranates seeds. We're talking only the very best paid people in a very highly paid profession. People who never have to worry about bills again if they have an ounce of common sense. Is this not a strange place for toxicity and vitro to originate? Anyway looking forward to hearing your thoughts and thank you as always especially thank you for your patience and getting through this question. Shout out to my god Josh Hoffman man. And yes this will be a one question episode of NFL Questions from subscribers. But the question again. When the time does come for the martyrs to decide between a team friendly 35 million a year deal and the 40 plus that some team will pay him. Where will you stand on that dialogue with regard to the differing views? And that's a very good question. Whit Lamar. This has been a question that's come up every now and then. Because a lot of people have been thinking about especially after last year they like hold up. If that's a preview of what's to come this dude is going to cash in. And Patrick Mahomes he getting ready to get paid. Oh my goodness this contract. Whatever Patrick Mahomes makes it is going to blow everybody's mind. Even if you see even if you like even if you know even if you thinking like okay Patrick Mahomes he getting ready to get a $200 million deal. Even if you already have that in your mind like okay yeah he getting ready to get paid a deal that's worth 200 million. Even if you have it in there already when you see the numbers it's going to be like oh it's going to be crazy. It's going to be crazy. But with Lamar. I've talked about it briefly with how I do. I couldn't be mad at him for cashing out at all. Not one bit could not be mad at him for cashing out maximizing his earnings maximizing his getting that max deal. Shout out to NBA. But getting that max deal getting that big deal set in the market reset in the market. For the second time the Ravens quarterback will reset a market really Patrick Mahomes he going to be the one that really recess the QB market when that time comes. Because Joe Flacco did it first man. Joe Flacco did it well first well in Ravens the Ravens that did it Joe Flacco did it but I know Michael Vick he said it really with that $100 million deal from the Falcons I believe. But anyway I would have no problem if he's continuing to do what he's been doing especially if he gets a Super Bowl especially if he gets more than one. But especially if he gets a Super Bowl too and he continues to go at the pace that he's been going and continues to improve like he's been improving. Do I expect him to take these major leaps like he did from year one to year two. Maybe this year I expected a good leap we're getting the receivers involved more but like major leaps like that. Not necessarily it's possible but we'll see but I do expect him to continue to grow as a quarterback as an NFL player. But Lamar he would be the guy just the way that he's been and the impact that he's had on the franchise when you hear him talk. When you just just see how what it seems that his what it seems his character is he would be a guy that I could actually see doing something where he does make a lot of money as a quarterback. But at the same time it's still something that is team friendly. And yeah like you mentioned he does have his merch and he'll have plenty. I'm not sure what sponsors he has at the moment but he will have plenty of offers. Of course he'll be on the cover of Madden. He has his merch with the not the wild coyote not the wild dog. What is it? I forgot what animal it is. I forgot but he got that if he ends up getting shoes I could see that happening. I could definitely see that happening like they probably in the works already. And what I really thought that he was actually going to get his own shoe. I thought he's going to get his own shoe after that Seahawks game. After that Seahawks game because he kept he said he had he changed cleats like two or three times. So I thought that was going to be when he got his own shoe deal. I was like oh yeah Nike is somebody about to jump on this and be like hey Lamar what's up. And it's possible that they did it was possible that he may have turned it down who knows but Lamar somebody him his mom his he is somebody that that handles his business he take his money. Like how came out like a month and change ago that he was suing Amazon for using his likeness. Oh he said no and y'all over here profiting off of me. Oh no. And so him and his team his camp they are definitely about that bread man. They don't play about his bread man. They said you getting paid off of my image off of my likeness. No and I ain't getting nothing. Oh no. We ain't doing that. So yeah he'll have plenty of opportunities besides NFL to make plenty of money. Now we ain't pocket watching or nothing. But so he'll definitely be able to afford whatever he'll be able to obviously pay his bills or whatever he'll be able to hold it down even if he isn't the highest paid NFL guy NFL quarterback in the world. But I when it comes to him getting paid from the Ravens when that time does come as long as he's continuing this trend that he's on right now. Again he could be he could be the guy that I could see taking less. I really do he could be the guy that I could see really taking less just because again the the humble approach and not to say that oh just because he's humble. Oh that means that he should get paid less. No that don't mean that you should still get paid what you earned or whatever. But I could definitely see him being a guy that's like oh Cola I'm trying to win because that's that's what his mindset really seems to be. I'm trying to win. I want to win. Let's win. I want the best team around us. Let's do it. Let's win. I could really really see that's why I could really see him not setting the market at QB taking a less than the market deal or deal for less than what the market rate is what the going rate for QBs is at that time. I could definitely see that because of just everything that he's shown us so far in this small amount of time. We've gotten I can't even say we got a sample size of his attitude of his ethic but we've gotten a large portion of that. So I could definitely see him being like I'm straight. We ain't got to do the most. We ain't got to do the most because I just I want Super Bowls. I want Super Bowls and I want them now. And hopefully at when that time comes he will have already obtained at least one. We wouldn't mind to but at least one. So we'll see. We'll see. But again it would not surprise me if he was somebody that ended up doing it. It wouldn't surprise me at all. Had this conversation briefly with my guy TD fence talk who y'all are familiar with. And he brought this up to me and like I said there's been a couple of questions from subscribers on it not to this extent not to this level of detail. But me and TD we plan on having a conversation on that too. And involving everybody to set up something but I could definitely see Lamar being the guy that ends up doing that. Again less for the great example too.