From Day 1 and for the first few years of its eight-season run, CBS’ S.W.A.T. reboot was about David “Deacon” Kay being passed over for 20-Squad’s leadership position, in favor of Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson.

Deacon and Hondo would eventually reach a certain peace about their respective roles on SWAT, but they very much were co-leads on the team — two senior officers the others could rely on for wisdom, leadership and to “watch your six.”

As such, Jay Harrington, who played Deacon for all eight seasons, absolutely has thoughts on the S.W.A.T. EXILES spinoff that was announced not 48 hours after the twice-cancelled/twice-resurrected S.W.A.T.’s series finale faded to black.

Here is what Harrington, who thus far has been silent on the topic, shared with TVLine on Tuesday afternoon — about getting the EXILES news, series lead Shemar Moore’s “Tom Brady” analogy, and more.

Shemar Moore as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson and Jay Harrington as David “Deacon” KayCourtesy of Bill Inoshita/©Sony Pictures Television/CBS

| Before we get to when you found out about EXILES specifically, I’m curious: At any time in the past year or so, was there ever talk of any S.W.A.T. spinoff?
No. No. Not once.

 | OK, because I saw some reporting that “S.W.A.T. Academy” was half a gleam in someone’s eye.
I read that. That was the “quality control piece” in Variety. [Chuckles] I read that and I thought, “Well, jeez.” I mean, Deacon has run SWAT academy for I-don’t-how-many years. Can’t go that route!

 | How about when you were filming the season’s final episode — at that point, did you have any sense that news was coming?
Not at all.

Because of the way things had happened over the years with [S.W.A.T.] being cancelled, coming back, I had the thought, “OK, we could come back.” There’s a chance, you never say die, especially with the streaming world and such. My choices in my head were that, or it’s over. I did not have a spin-off on my bingo card, for sure.

 | So was it not until May 18th, two days after the finale aired, that you heard about it?
It was the day before. Shemar reached out to to all of us to say, “This is what’s going on…,” and, you know, there’s talk that they’ll reach out to us about stuff. He wanted to be the one to tell us, and say “your reps will find out shortly.” That’s when I told my reps, and they had no idea.

Look, I’ll be very clear. I’ve been in this business for a long time. You don’t get “owed” things just because you put in your time. If that’s the route they’re going to go, I wish it success. It’s just a fine line between “owed” and “just let me know,” for the studio just to say, “Hey, this is what we’re thinking…. It’s a new idea, but this is the route we gotta go, and unfortunately the way it’s structured, we want to make a clean break, start fresh.” Well, what do you say to that? “OK, well, good luck!” So if there was any disappointment, it’s that when they announced it, we weren’t mentioned at all. That was it. And it was short-lived because I thought, “I’m not going to let that take away from what I know in my heart is eight years of putting in some great work.”

| Which is kind of what David [Lim, who played Tan] said. That he won’t let the past two weeks define his time on S.W.A.T.
As a human being, of course you’re going to feel stung, but again, I didn’t want to go to that place because I thought, truthfully, “It’s show business.” It’s a business.

 | A quickly announced spinoff leaves 200 crew members and an infrastructure intact….
Including my brother [Matthew], who has worked on the show [as a stunt double] from the beginning with me. I mean, I’ve known these people since…. You and I talked about [both attending] Syracuse [University], well, that’s four years. This was eight years, double the friendships we made in school.

| So, ideally, you would have liked to see the actual announcement handled differently?
Yeah, maybe the wording. I get that it’s a new concept, but there’s the fact that, “Well, you can’t can’t have that concept without the success of the former.” That was all.

 | Did Shemar reach out one by one, or was it a group thing?
No, one by one.

 | Call, or text?
It was a text, and then he said, “I’m around if you want to give me a call.” So I texted him later and said, “I’m sure you did your best.” We’ve been brothers for years, so that doesn’t change.

 | Because in a lot of ways, the show itself was originally about “Hondo versus Deacon,” from Day 1.
Absolutely. And we forged that for a couple of years, and then when the writers pivoted and we were able to let Deacon let it go, that also was a lot of fun to play. Even down to the last episode where I say what I said and I give the team some watches and Hondo says, “I couldn’t have done it without you” — that was a nod from the writers to acknowledge that.

| That was a really nice moment. I was on vacation at the time, because my sons were graduating college, so I couldn’t write about the finale — they didn’t send it in advance — but it was great in the S.W.A.T.-iest of ways. I mean, the bad guys breaching HQ was f–king awesome.
Yeah, it really was — and it was a bear of an episode to shoot. I’m always amazed. When we had our wrap party, they played a sizzle reel of a bunch of seasons put together and stunts and all that, and you have that feeling of, “I can’t believe I’m on this show. It’s just I can’t believe we’ve done the things we’ve done.”

| The stunts were so good. There was one in the finale where–
The car flip? Yeah, yeah, he went over like eight times!

| Broadcast shows don’t do that!
No, and again, in the day and age we’re in with budgets, the fact that we were able to pull those off consistently was remarkable.

 | Are you privy to any of the details on the spinoff, like why Hondo is forced to retire…?
No, no. [Laughs] I got a kick out of your piece, “Make This Spinoff Make Sense.” Throughout all these years, I got to meet and know so many law enforcement officers, and to get to that level of SWAT, you have to be pretty [qualified]. You don’t just “become” SWAT. As they say, “you’re either SWAT or you’re not.”

 | And that was a plot point in the past two finales, where 20-Squad had spots to fill and Hondo and Hicks couldn’t find anybody who was up to snuff.
Yeah, the new writing staff, they’ll have some challenges making stuff make sense, as you pointed out.

 | Will you take the call if they do see a role for Deacon? Maybe he’s the person Hondo and his ragtag team answer to.
You know, you never say never, you never close any doors. I’d be interested to see if that’s the direction they go, and, “How do they do that?” That would certainly play a part. I’ve also had a great time directing over the years and, and I’ll be open to that possibility if that call [to direct] comes as well. You never say never.

| I was going to say that if this is the end for you and S.W.A.T., you have that to hold onto from your experience. You made your directing debut, you got to work with your college buddy Taye Diggs, you got stalked by Yael Grobglas, which is on my bucket list….
[Laughs] And I shot the 150th episode, written by one of our writers who was a PA on our show for four years. I got to put my brother in that episode, and he had a couple lines. I called [showrunner] Andy Dettmann and said, “You know, this officer that I walk up to ask a question, he just nods. I was wondering if you’d be open to having him say a couple words — and if that person could be my brother.” And he said, “Hell yeah, let’s do that.”

| If this is the end for you and Deacon, what will you miss most about playing him?
Just the calmness he had, and playing a character that was Catholic and had a family…. You don’t see a lot of that on TV.

What has been so heartwarming is to see the fans’ reaction to this news, because I get people coming up and saying things, people writing comments [on social media]…. I’ve seen how it means a lot to them, or, “This was something we watched in my family,” but to see that much at once was overwhelming.

| So what’s next? You’re now free for a Better Off Ted revival!
[Laughs] Yeah, I’ll put in a call to Victor Fresco and see if we can get some stuff cooking…. No, I’m open to lots of stuff. It’s a different world out there. My last major audition was for S.W.A.T. and it was in a room with people, and that’s not how it goes anymore, so I have to learn how to self-tape and put it out there. Gone are the days of being sent a script and given a call time. I have to get back out there and do what the majority of an actor’s career is, which is auditioning,

| Well, it was a hell of a show to be a part of — top-notch production values, a great cast, very little turnover until the end….
Yeah, and to put it all sort of in perspective for people, people ask, “What did you feel? Were you disappointed? Were you mad? Were you hurt?” I was thinking about it and the way I put it is: Imagine you have a relationship for eight years and you go your separate ways and you break up, and it’s on decent terms…. and then two days later you see your ex announce their engagement. [Laughs] It’s like, “Oh, OK. You’re already with somebody and you’re getting married.”

| “And I’m not invited to the wedding!”
And I’m not invited to the wedding. But I’ve said it before, I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. And also when I was a little kid, I played cops and robbers in the backyard or in the woods, and how lucky I am that for eight years I got paid to do that to play cops and robbers. I’m a lucky guy.

| Before we go, I did want to ask for your reaction to Shemar’s “Tom Brady” quote, because that seemed to rub some viewers the wrong way.
I know what he was trying to say, and the benefit of the doubt will be given to him because I’ve known him for so long. Because he and I talk sports all the time. As he’ll tell you, he’s from the Bay but his love is for Boston, so we talk sports all the time, and sports analogies are tricky because in this case, we weren’t “traded,” we were released.

I heard about it — I didn’t see it — and then when I saw it, I said, “I know this guy and he’s not trying to diminish us,” because, hey, if he’s using that analogy, Julian Edelman. Rob Gronkowski… they’re pretty solid athletes themselves and [potential] Hall of Famers. I tried to not take that as a personal anything. I think that when you make analogies, sometimes you have it in your head of what you mean and maybe it doesn’t come off as as you thought.

| Or as one of our readers put it, “But can Tom Brady win with young linemen surrounding him and rookie receivers?”
[Laughs] You need a good strong running game, so….. When he said the Brady thing, I think he was trying to play off of something I’d told him that I had said in an interview once, that [on S.W.A.T.] he and I were “Magic and Bird.” Everyone knew Magic and Showtime, but [Larry] Bird always called [Magic Johnson] Earvin. I told him that that was where I place our “sports relationship,” because we made each other better. I truly believe that. And I know he does, too.