Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. The
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals are coming off their first loss of the season,
Speaker 1: but I've seen the Cowboys now in person after calling
Speaker 1: their game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. I've seen
Speaker 1: the Rams twice, obviously against the Cardinals and then a
Speaker 1: Thursday night game against the Seahawks. I've seen the Packers
Speaker 1: in person against the Cardinals. Of the four teams with
Speaker 1: one loss in the NFL, I still feel that if
Speaker 1: the Cardinals are whole, they're the best team. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: they're going to win the Super Bowl, but watching these
Speaker 1: teams in person just gives me the perspective of the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are better, They're deeper, they're better on both sides
Speaker 1: of the ball, and Kyler Murray is still deep in
Speaker 1: the MVP conversation. The Dave Pash Podcast is presented by
Speaker 1: bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals,
Speaker 1: and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Today's guest on
Speaker 1: the Dave Pash Podcast is NBC Sports Mike Tarco, longtime
Speaker 1: ESPN and ABC announcer. He's been at NBC now for
Speaker 1: a while doing a number of things, play by play
Speaker 1: on Notre Dame, NFL play by play, hosting Football Night
Speaker 1: in America, the Olympics, hockey, you name it, Mike tarco
Speaker 1: has done it. We have a great conversation about his
Speaker 1: broadcasting background, his mentors, and also why he's been a
Speaker 1: mentor to me and helping me in my broadcast career.
Speaker 1: Mich will also give his thoughts on the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 1: and Kyler Murray and if he's a believer in the
Speaker 1: Cardinals for being a potential Super Bowl team this year,
Speaker 1: and Mike reveals his top broadcasting moments from his career.
Speaker 1: So here he is NBC Sports Mike Tarrico. So Mike,
Speaker 1: let's start first of all by just tell everybody what
Speaker 1: this week is like, because I know every week for
Speaker 1: you is different. You're doing so many different things. What's
Speaker 1: this week looking like for you? It's about twenty percent
Speaker 1: of your week. So that's okay. I'm not a dave
Speaker 1: past schedule anymore. I'll leave it to you young guys.
Speaker 1: This week we have Navy against Notre Dame in South Bend.
Speaker 1: But I'm also a trustee at Syracuse and we have
Speaker 1: a board of trustees meeting, so I'm going to be
Speaker 1: heading up to Syracuse for a few days, spend time
Speaker 1: on campus, then head to South Bend. Unfortunately, I've seen
Speaker 1: the Irish back to back week, so we three in
Speaker 1: a Rosa will be easy. We'll take care of Davut
Speaker 1: and then they get to town on Friday and then
Speaker 1: after the game Saturday head to probably New York or
Speaker 1: Connecticut for Football nine in America. At some point in there,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about trying to squeeze in a quick run
Speaker 1: to Chicago to my daughter's parents weekend cheese in college
Speaker 1: in Chicago Land area. So as you live as we live,
Speaker 1: these weeks are never the same. They're always hectic and
Speaker 1: they're blast and then Sunday we'll do Football nine in
Speaker 1: America with Dungee and Breeze and Chris Sims and Maria
Speaker 1: Taylor and that crew, and then then start the hampsto
Speaker 1: reel back up again on Monday. So obviously you were
Speaker 1: working last night and I ended up doing that game
Speaker 1: for what Wood. So we both watched Cooper Rush and
Speaker 1: what he accomplished. And look with Dak Prescott, my clearly
Speaker 1: they are a great team, but it seems like with
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush. Maybe they can hang on depending on how
Speaker 1: long Deck's going to be out enough, certainly in the
Speaker 1: NFC East, to stay atop that division. What are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on kind of where the Cowboys are right now?
Speaker 1: That's it. I think they can they can hang on enough.
Speaker 1: I believe that what your number two quarterback needs to
Speaker 1: do is be able to win two out of four games.
Speaker 1: You know, just have somebody there who can get you
Speaker 1: maybe three and one. Like when Breeze was heard the
Speaker 1: last couple of years with the Saint Scott out of
Speaker 1: Teddy Bridgewater and then James Winston, you just said, need
Speaker 1: to have somebody who can do that for you, because
Speaker 1: especially Nowaday, given how much quarterbacks are running. But you've
Speaker 1: watched this evolution doing college games and then get into
Speaker 1: NFL games. Right, the college stuff, the Thursday and Saturday
Speaker 1: stuff is showing up on Sundays. They are big, growing, faster,
Speaker 1: defensive players who hurt guys a lot quicker. There are
Speaker 1: more hits, more contact, more injuries in the NFL. Because
Speaker 1: of that, and because quarterbacks are running far higher percentage
Speaker 1: than they used to. I think you need a guy
Speaker 1: who can save you a couple of games. That Cooper
Speaker 1: Rush helped save the Cowboys the game on Sunday night.
Speaker 1: He threw for over three hundred yards. He looked like
Speaker 1: he'd been in the system for three or four years,
Speaker 1: and he executed the system and when it came down
Speaker 1: to gotta have it drive, as Chris collins Worth said,
Speaker 1: like one of those lifetime moments or Cooper Rush. He
Speaker 1: came through just like Mike White did for the Jets
Speaker 1: with over four hundred yards. I think Dave one of
Speaker 1: the biggest mistakes the NFL has made in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. He's not mandating that the third quarterback
Speaker 1: to be active for every game. And more importantly of
Speaker 1: that third quarterback is a young developmental guys, second year,
Speaker 1: third year guy you are going to allow to develop
Speaker 1: because five or six teams a year of loose third
Speaker 1: quarterback for significant stretches. So you want to have continuity
Speaker 1: of play. When but he's in the system, they can
Speaker 1: step in and perform and play. Not the level of starter.
Speaker 1: Hoop Rush has been there a while. If you watched
Speaker 1: Hard Knot and his knowledge of the systems comforted with
Speaker 1: what was going on. Is the reason that they're still
Speaker 1: sitting on one loss as we turn the calendar to November,
Speaker 1: and when you look at the injury situation here with
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, we don't know yet about Kyler and whether
Speaker 1: he's going to be able to go Sunday. If he
Speaker 1: weren't able to play, obviously, you'd be Cole McCoy. And
Speaker 1: then Chris Travelers your backup. I know you're dialed in
Speaker 1: on everything. I don't know how much though you've got
Speaker 1: a chance to really watch the Cardinals. But based on
Speaker 1: what you've seen, are you a believer? Yes? Absolutely, the
Speaker 1: Cardinals get your attention. So we'll sit in a room
Speaker 1: on Sundays and watch the NFL games and the Cardinals. Obviously,
Speaker 1: because the time zonner usually in the late window, we
Speaker 1: watched all the early games. So there are nine screens
Speaker 1: up and there are maybe twelve of us in a
Speaker 1: pretty large room. But I'm sitting with Drew Brees to
Speaker 1: my right, Tony Dungee to my left, to myself because
Speaker 1: you're sitting by one Hall of famer and a future
Speaker 1: Hall of famer. A coaching question, defense question, question about
Speaker 1: quarterback play offenses, you get an answered, just do by
Speaker 1: going like this, And then Chris Sims is in the
Speaker 1: room and Sims is into the film every day and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So with all of us in the room,
Speaker 1: we pretty much have an eye on every game. And
Speaker 1: there's more, Hey, look at the Cardinals. Hey Kyler, Kyler's
Speaker 1: doing this. Kyler's doing that. And I think the less
Speaker 1: circus plays and the more picking out those moments that
Speaker 1: he's gonna do, it's going to keep him healthier and
Speaker 1: keep him around for when you need him to make
Speaker 1: those circus plays in December and January. I think Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson and Aaron Rodgers are the two mobile quarterbacks different
Speaker 1: levels of mobility, who have shown these young quarterbacks like
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, there's a template out there to use your speed,
Speaker 1: your elusiveness, your ability to throw on the run. You
Speaker 1: use those sidelines to use that slide, use those rules, man,
Speaker 1: and Kyler has done a pretty good job to this
Speaker 1: point of it, and that's going to be important to
Speaker 1: keep it going. But I love that this team has.
Speaker 1: I love the talent that's been built on both sides. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the jj W want injuries a bummer, but there are
Speaker 1: people they are on both sides of the ball, and
Speaker 1: they've restopped this Steve Time has restocked this thing really
Speaker 1: well in a short period of time, and I think
Speaker 1: they're staying power to stay with the Rams in the
Speaker 1: NFC West, no doubt. I agree, And I'm I know
Speaker 1: people probably think, well, you have to say that, but
Speaker 1: I think most people know twenty years are doing this.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty fair like I'm a fan when things aren't
Speaker 1: going well, I wear it on my sleeves that the
Speaker 1: listeners can certainly sense that. But I feel Mike, you know,
Speaker 1: I've seen Dallas now in person. I've seen the Rams
Speaker 1: twice in person, and obviously saw Green Bay Thursday against
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. I still feel like when the Cardinals are whole,
Speaker 1: they're the best team. It doesn't mean they're gonna win it,
Speaker 1: but I feel like their roster is the best in
Speaker 1: the NFL. And part of that has to do with Kyler.
Speaker 1: If he keeps playing the way he is, he's going
Speaker 1: to be. In the MVP conversation, you're right when you
Speaker 1: get to see the other really good teams in and
Speaker 1: you walk away with a good feel for if your
Speaker 1: team can hang there week in week out. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad you said it the way you said it, because
Speaker 1: yes you can. We can I don't know what you think.
Speaker 1: If you've done a bunch of Syracuse games, you obviously
Speaker 1: if you've got twenty years of Cardinal Syracuse as your school,
Speaker 1: it's my school. Um, there's a there's a different feel
Speaker 1: when you're calling a game for a team that you
Speaker 1: will root for when you're not doing their games. And
Speaker 1: we can do that. We can stop if if somebody
Speaker 1: can play football against their brother and tackle their brother
Speaker 1: and hit them right physically, do harm to your you know,
Speaker 1: your same DNA essentially right. If you can do that,
Speaker 1: we can put aside our loyalty or our fandom for
Speaker 1: three and a half hours in calling down the road
Speaker 1: or down the middle and be even. Um. I think
Speaker 1: when we do that, we see the flaws of the
Speaker 1: team that we care about the most. I used to
Speaker 1: remember doing Syracuse games back in the old Big East
Speaker 1: days of basketball. I could see syraciss flaws which helped
Speaker 1: me know when they had a good team. And you
Speaker 1: are in that same boat, I think with the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: because you want to know if the Cardinals really good,
Speaker 1: you can be honest with your listeners, and I think
Speaker 1: you're right on. I think they're good. I like what
Speaker 1: Dallas has. I really do like what Green Bay has.
Speaker 1: Remember the Green Bay has been to the lip of
Speaker 1: the Cup, They've been to the championship game twice in
Speaker 1: a row. And the pieces may not be as talented,
Speaker 1: but they've come a little bit of something about them
Speaker 1: when Aaron brings that group together. You all saw that
Speaker 1: in person on Thursday nights. So I think I think
Speaker 1: they and the Rams and Dallas are going to be
Speaker 1: the top of the list of tough outs. But certainly
Speaker 1: this is a team that belongs in the conversation, is
Speaker 1: going to stay in that conversation with them the entire way.
Speaker 1: And they're not for good Tampa obviously the simple chance,
Speaker 1: So let's not forget those guys. I think their roster
Speaker 1: is talented too. But you see when Gronk is hurt,
Speaker 1: right and they're hurting on the back end, their vulner
Speaker 1: their roster compared to the New Orleans roster, it doesn't
Speaker 1: match up right now. But New Orleans defensively got after them,
Speaker 1: and they couldn't stay with New Orleans on the edges
Speaker 1: with the corners. And it's in the run game and
Speaker 1: the past game. So five terrific teams in the NFC
Speaker 1: pretty much I've only lost to each other, so I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna make it a really good second half
Speaker 1: of the season. Well, look, Mike, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: I wanted to get you on was to talk football,
Speaker 1: but I also want to talk about you. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about broadcasting. I want to talk about our
Speaker 1: friendship because I've known you since I was a freshman
Speaker 1: at Syracuse. You were doing at the time local television
Speaker 1: at Syracuse and like the next year you got to ESPN.
Speaker 1: I remember one year I'm talking to you and you're
Speaker 1: a reporter at a local TV station. The next year
Speaker 1: I'm watching you hosting Sports Center, and then obviously you
Speaker 1: took off and it become, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: greatest broadcasters of all time. And one thing that's always
Speaker 1: stood out to me because man, you you have been
Speaker 1: so impactful. You're one of my mentors, and you've always
Speaker 1: been there for me. You've always been supportive of young broadcasters,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious, was there somebody particular that mentored you,
Speaker 1: that gave back and put into you that you said,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to do the same thing for
Speaker 1: guys like me. Well, it's nice you to say thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate. I appreciate all of that. You know. I
Speaker 1: think the world that you two pounds. So proud of you.
Speaker 1: Every time I hear you're doing a game, I'm just like, man,
Speaker 1: it's one of our one of our guys. It's part
Speaker 1: of the family. You know. There were some people like
Speaker 1: Dick Stockton and Bob Costas and Marv Albert who came
Speaker 1: back to Syracuse and shared a little bit of insight
Speaker 1: of what the industry was like for all of us
Speaker 1: as students. I always wanted to be the guy who
Speaker 1: came back was able to do that at some point
Speaker 1: down the road. Just a little bit of that. But
Speaker 1: it's also a little bit of the college radio station
Speaker 1: that we worked at, WAER Radio, where all the names
Speaker 1: I just mentioned and hundreds, I mean hundreds of others,
Speaker 1: including people outside of the sports realm like Ted Copple
Speaker 1: and Dick Clark, Dave's now part of the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame and Waar for his great career. You know, that
Speaker 1: sports department. We had a bunch of people who went
Speaker 1: on to be successful in the business. And Sean McDonough
Speaker 1: and great Papa who has been a long time voice
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area with the Raiders and now the Niners.
Speaker 1: Those guys when they would come back to town, they
Speaker 1: would share with us, and I always wanted to be
Speaker 1: that person to be able to do that, and that
Speaker 1: kind of grew into a love of our industry and
Speaker 1: seeing an industry where we can root for each other,
Speaker 1: you know. And we've been lucky because all of us
Speaker 1: jumped into the radio TV world covering sports at a
Speaker 1: time when ESPN Crew and regional sports grew and now
Speaker 1: digital platforms, so turkeys field hockey games are on TV
Speaker 1: right Arizona State as a great communication school. The kids
Speaker 1: to Cronkite School are broadcasting sporting event today. You know,
Speaker 1: Big Big ten Network, PAC twelve network, there's Student Involvement
Speaker 1: ACC Network. So the think continues to grow so we
Speaker 1: don't have to be fighting over the same jobs. There
Speaker 1: are a lot more jobs out there than there used
Speaker 1: to be. And I just enjoy being able to share
Speaker 1: a little bit of my experience with folks and kind
Speaker 1: of give back because I felt like along the way
Speaker 1: people were really kind to a kid in his twenties
Speaker 1: to know what the heck he was doing to help
Speaker 1: me out. So that's what I love to do. Why
Speaker 1: I love to do it, and I enjoy seeing the
Speaker 1: next generation come on and come through and just not
Speaker 1: ready to kick us out the door just yet, but
Speaker 1: pretty soon they will, and they'll be doing it better
Speaker 1: than we are for sure. When I got the Syracuse
Speaker 1: radio job, you and Sean mcdonneh were part of the
Speaker 1: group that got me hired. There were several other Syracuse
Speaker 1: people in the mix, and you know, eventually got the
Speaker 1: job and I got to work with you and Sean
Speaker 1: and Marv Albert and cost Us and call a game
Speaker 1: with you guys, which was an incredible experience. And I
Speaker 1: get to ESPN and again you and McDonough were the
Speaker 1: two guys who were always kind of you'd see me
Speaker 1: doing the great outdoor games or a softball game, you'd
Speaker 1: hit me, hey, keep it up, man. You guys were
Speaker 1: best my chops a little bit, but for the most
Speaker 1: part it was encouraging. But the phone call that I
Speaker 1: will never forget because it probably in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways shaped my broadcast career was the phone call that
Speaker 1: I got in two thousand and six after the first
Speaker 1: game that I did with Bill Walton. You were Bill's
Speaker 1: partner on NBA. Was you Bill and John Barry, and
Speaker 1: you were doing Monday night football, so you couldn't do
Speaker 1: all the games, all the Wednesday games in November. So
Speaker 1: they needed somebody to do a handful of games or
Speaker 1: ten games. And so it was my first year and
Speaker 1: the first time I worked with John and Bill. JB
Speaker 1: pulls me a sign and says, hey, you have to
Speaker 1: ask me questions because if you don't, I'll never get in.
Speaker 1: So that was the first thing. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: and I remembered Bill growing up watching them on NBC.
Speaker 1: But then I did a game with Bill a few
Speaker 1: months later and Lebron took his head band off and
Speaker 1: threw it towards the bench and he started going off
Speaker 1: that it's a technical foul, and I just let him go.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you remember this. You called
Speaker 1: me like the next day and said, man, you have
Speaker 1: to stop him. That's what you told me. You have
Speaker 1: to stop him. That's your job. I never forgot that
Speaker 1: because when they paired us back together doing the pack
Speaker 1: twelve games, I always remembered Mike, which you said, you
Speaker 1: have to stop him, and look, you can do any sport.
Speaker 1: You're great. The thing that has always stood out to
Speaker 1: me Mike, about you is how you work with various analysts.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the key to that? Because
Speaker 1: you've worked with Bill Wall and you're working now with
Speaker 1: Drew Brees, who's a rookie broadcaster, hasn't done this before.
Speaker 1: What's the key to that, Dave? I think we have
Speaker 1: a job, and it's our profession to be announcers, journalists, hosts,
Speaker 1: who ever you want to call us, depending on the
Speaker 1: moment in the role. I think the analysts this is
Speaker 1: their really third profession because they were either players or coaches,
Speaker 1: and then they decided to get into the media, and
Speaker 1: now they're in the TV side of the media, and
Speaker 1: they don't certainly have the area of expertise that we
Speaker 1: should have. We should have more than Malcolm Gladwell ten
Speaker 1: thousand hours of experience on the air than they did.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that they don't have that, but that's
Speaker 1: maybe the core answer to your question of trying to
Speaker 1: connect with different analysts. I feel like I've got a
Speaker 1: moreph what I do to the person who is sitting
Speaker 1: next to me. Man woman, first year, twentieth year. You know,
Speaker 1: grew up in an IVY League, Ivy League educated house,
Speaker 1: grew up in a house where they were the first
Speaker 1: gend to go to college, didn't go to college. Whatever
Speaker 1: it is, we've got to sit next to that person
Speaker 1: and make them the best version of an expert that
Speaker 1: they can be given the night the game, What experiences
Speaker 1: in their lives are germane to the audience, and I
Speaker 1: just feel like we have to change our game. I
Speaker 1: think it's been a little bit different than NBC. But
Speaker 1: I'll give you this. I'll do some games with Chris
Speaker 1: Collinsworth and have the last couple of years. I probably
Speaker 1: approached the game a little bit differently when I'm with
Speaker 1: Chris than when I'm Withdrew or with Tony Dungee, who
Speaker 1: did the nerd name games last year but hadn't done
Speaker 1: games in the booth. But Tony knows eight thousand times
Speaker 1: more football than I've ever imagine knowing. But Tony's different personality.
Speaker 1: Chris and different personality. Drews a different personality. So I
Speaker 1: think it's up to us. I'm sure you know with
Speaker 1: Wolf you're different than maybe you are when when you're
Speaker 1: doing an ESPN college football game with the various partners
Speaker 1: you've done, just like you do a game with Walton
Speaker 1: if you know you end up with Darris Burke during
Speaker 1: a game, you do your job a very different way
Speaker 1: because they're drastically different people. But we have to be
Speaker 1: point guards. We have to give them the ball where
Speaker 1: they like it, get out of their way. And with Walton,
Speaker 1: I learned that the hard way. I'd sit there and
Speaker 1: Bill would just go and he just go, what are
Speaker 1: we doing? The producers got to show the viewers and
Speaker 1: Bill is just he's in Bill world, and you've got
Speaker 1: a good grab him. And when you do it, and
Speaker 1: you've you've become the best to do in this like
Speaker 1: better than anybody I've seen do it when you just
Speaker 1: got to do it in a loving way. Bill's grateful
Speaker 1: that you do it. I mean, you kind of get
Speaker 1: him back to the game every once in a while,
Speaker 1: but you give him the space to have the canvas
Speaker 1: to be so enjoyable. My son goes to school, to
Speaker 1: pac twelfth school, and we're watching it and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is insane. Does he ever talk
Speaker 1: about the game. And then like a year later, it's
Speaker 1: like it's hysterical And I watch in UCLA play Oregon
Speaker 1: State for no reason except Bill Walton. So that's the
Speaker 1: thing that becomes our responsibility to make that happen. And
Speaker 1: you've crushed that. It's been fun to listen to. You've
Speaker 1: covered and called everything. So this is probably and I
Speaker 1: get asked this too, I have not done the level
Speaker 1: of events that you have because you've done so many.
Speaker 1: You haven't done just the stick and ball sports. You've
Speaker 1: done everything. But do you have a favorite moment or
Speaker 1: a few favorite moments that stand out in your career
Speaker 1: that you've been a part of. Absolutely, Like there's one
Speaker 1: really parochial one that is no big deal, I think
Speaker 1: to folks, but Syracuse two Syracuse games, doing a Syracuse
Speaker 1: basketball game at the Big East Tournament at Matsison Square Gardens,
Speaker 1: sitting in center courts. You got a chance to do
Speaker 1: some of those two swire school. I grew up in
Speaker 1: New York City. Madison Square Gardens my building that's like
Speaker 1: the mecca of basketball, and we got to sit for
Speaker 1: multiple years right at mid court, the best possible seat
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden, a seat that I never dreamed of
Speaker 1: sitting in. I got to sit there two times of
Speaker 1: Bill Raftery, a bunch of times with Lenny Elmore, like
Speaker 1: you did and call my alma mater in my favorite
Speaker 1: basketball arena in one of the great tournaments in college
Speaker 1: basketball when it existed, the Big East Tournament. Like those
Speaker 1: those are cool? I do the Syracuse Notre Dame game
Speaker 1: in Yankee Stadium, like seriously, Like it's Notre Dame in
Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium. That was the thirties of the forties against
Speaker 1: Army and all these legends, and that was a Top
Speaker 1: twenty matchup. Notre Dame kicked Syracuses button. I was calling
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame on NBC game, but still it was
Speaker 1: a great experience. The two that stick out for really
Speaker 1: the same essential reason. One is September two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: the Saints returned to the Superdome the Katrina game against Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Michael Vick and the Falcons go three and out. They
Speaker 1: punched the ball. Steve Gleason blocks, Curtis DeLoach scores. It's
Speaker 1: fifty six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the last time the
Speaker 1: significant number of people were in that Dome. It was
Speaker 1: truly a place of last resort, trying to just survive
Speaker 1: from the hurricane. And the hole was cut the Superdome,
Speaker 1: the roof, the skin peeled off, all of that, and
Speaker 1: then fifty six weeks later it was Euphoria and it
Speaker 1: was important to me because that night cemented in me
Speaker 1: forever the value of sports, like sports matters. You know,
Speaker 1: the symphony in Phoenix, I'm sure it's incredible, the ballet
Speaker 1: is probably world class. They're not running around with Phoenix
Speaker 1: or Arizona on their tuxedos or their ballet costumes. But
Speaker 1: the Cardinals are running around with Arizona, and so are
Speaker 1: the d Backs, you know, and that matters. That is
Speaker 1: a civic connection, and it's only through sports in a
Speaker 1: way unlike anything else in our country. And that night
Speaker 1: New Orleans told the world that one of the great
Speaker 1: celebratory cities of the world was opened for business again,
Speaker 1: and just to be there that night they cemented it
Speaker 1: for me forever. And then the other one. David was
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen at the Winter Olympics doing the opening ceremony
Speaker 1: with Katie Kirk Like, I'm pinching my stuff, Like what
Speaker 1: am I? This is me? It's Katie Kirk is next.
Speaker 1: This is crazy, right, And it's my first Olympic opening ceremony.
Speaker 1: And here come the athletes from North and South Korea
Speaker 1: walking together under one unified flag. And if the North
Speaker 1: Korean athletes one month before or in the four years
Speaker 1: three and a half years since, would be walking in
Speaker 1: South Korea, it would be immediately detained, questioned, and they
Speaker 1: certainly would be sent back back to their home country.
Speaker 1: Those two countries are technically still at war. Those two
Speaker 1: countries don't get along. They have a border where obviously
Speaker 1: there's always great concern about what's going on the other side.
Speaker 1: But for two and a half weeks they came together
Speaker 1: in the name of sport. That's the only thing that's
Speaker 1: brought North and South Korea together. And to be there
Speaker 1: and to share without our country, that moment happening in
Speaker 1: front of us, and say, here's something you've never seen
Speaker 1: before I may never see again, unified Korea, North and
Speaker 1: South coming to compete as one of the Olympics like that,
Speaker 1: That to me was a time that I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: And the common connection with both events is that sports matters.
Speaker 1: And you know, you may look at it as the
Speaker 1: toy shop, it's not real. It doesn't change the lives
Speaker 1: of your listeners. If the Cardinals win or lose, like
Speaker 1: they're happier or sad, but It doesn't affect the meal
Speaker 1: that they can serve or how much money they have
Speaker 1: in their bank account. But man sports matters in a
Speaker 1: certain special way that other things don't, and we're lucky
Speaker 1: to be associated with it. Another skill of yours that
Speaker 1: again I think you do as well as anybody in
Speaker 1: our business, is when you interview people. Your interview skills
Speaker 1: the answers you get out of people, and part of
Speaker 1: that is whether you're hosting or doing a one on
Speaker 1: one sit down. Is there a person that is a
Speaker 1: more memorable interview to you than others? Maybe somebody that
Speaker 1: is listening today to the podcast that doesn't know much
Speaker 1: about this person, or they think one thing about this person,
Speaker 1: but the reality is over here and you've been able
Speaker 1: to kind of bring that out of somebody. I know
Speaker 1: that's probably a tough question. Yeah, no, no, it is
Speaker 1: a good question because you don't do it all that often.
Speaker 1: I give you a really bizarre answer. Lindsay Vaughan, the
Speaker 1: Olympic skier. I was just out to do a file
Speaker 1: on her for the for the Winter Olympics four years ago,
Speaker 1: and we end up doing the profile at the house
Speaker 1: where Lindsay's dad grew up and her grandparents lived as
Speaker 1: like a ski vacation type house and it's where Lindsay
Speaker 1: learned how to ski pretty much, and her grandpa was
Speaker 1: huge in building a little little snow area that she
Speaker 1: was able to learn on that her dad also learned on. Well,
Speaker 1: that was the last time Lindsay saw her grandpa, and
Speaker 1: from that moment on, I understood like the fearlessness, the drive,
Speaker 1: the competitiveness, yet the fragility of the individual because of that.
Speaker 1: It's it's one of those things that and you kind
Speaker 1: of hit it a little bit there in your question.
Speaker 1: I don't ask that like sixty minutes gotcha question, you know,
Speaker 1: like what did you know and when did you know it?
Speaker 1: I really like to make the other person opposite chair
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. I like to hear hear them to tell
Speaker 1: their story. I think, deep down I'm a curious person.
Speaker 1: I want to know about people and what they do
Speaker 1: and who they are and what makes them tick, what
Speaker 1: makes them fearless or special or great. So I would
Speaker 1: say that that is kind of what I try to
Speaker 1: go into things with. I really almost never come in
Speaker 1: with holding a list of questions. I always felt like,
Speaker 1: when you're holding that list of questions, the other person
Speaker 1: feels like they're on the defensive. So I try to
Speaker 1: remember just some themes. Maybe I'll write down a word
Speaker 1: or two to remind me the next topic. And I
Speaker 1: just love sitting there and talking to somebody. I hopefully
Speaker 1: it puts them at ease, gives them the best opportunity
Speaker 1: to share a bit of themselves that maybe they otherwise
Speaker 1: wouldn't And we can do that for people that that's
Speaker 1: what we want to do in those interviews, and that's
Speaker 1: what I love to do. All right, back in football
Speaker 1: for a few and then we'll get you out of here.
Speaker 1: Now that we have a seventeenth game in the NFL
Speaker 1: and we've had playoff expansion to the level of a
Speaker 1: wildcard team per conference, do you like? Do you do
Speaker 1: you want to see more? Because the ratings obviously are
Speaker 1: going to continue to go up, the television revenue is
Speaker 1: off the charts. You think we're good with seventeen regular
Speaker 1: season and one more playoff team per conference? Or do
Speaker 1: you think eventually we're gonna get to eighteen and more
Speaker 1: playoff teams? And should we? I like one playoff team.
Speaker 1: I like where we are right now. You know, fourteen
Speaker 1: out of thirty two means about half the league is in.
Speaker 1: It means ostensibly two thirds of the league is usually
Speaker 1: holding on to some if then tiebreaker scenario hope in
Speaker 1: the second and the last week of the last week.
Speaker 1: That's fun. That's great. I mean, how great of those
Speaker 1: moments when you know, like the one team's in the
Speaker 1: locker room and they're watching another team, and the fans
Speaker 1: are sitting in the stands watching our buddy Andrews Siciliano
Speaker 1: on Red Zone channel and de Eric TV and Scott
Speaker 1: Hanson as well. They're watching to see if their team's
Speaker 1: going to get in. While some games ending there and
Speaker 1: some of the wild finishing, but you've been a part
Speaker 1: of a couple of those. Those are fun. So let's
Speaker 1: extra team allows a little bit more of that, more
Speaker 1: people to be invested in the party. Like the stupidest
Speaker 1: thing in sports right now, Dave, is the fact that
Speaker 1: the college football playoffs, four teams, like five big conferences,
Speaker 1: all with intelligent leaders went in and said, let's make
Speaker 1: a system where one of us is out no matter what.
Speaker 1: That's the dumbest thing ever ever. Like they how they
Speaker 1: did that as beyond me, and I think they're paying
Speaker 1: a price for it will expand here in the next
Speaker 1: few years. But I like us in the NFL at seven.
Speaker 1: You know, the seventeenth game still worries me because look
Speaker 1: at all the players who are getting injured. This game
Speaker 1: is more physical, not necessarily because the guys are hitting harder,
Speaker 1: they're just bigger. You know. The field is the same
Speaker 1: size as it was when Red Grange played without a
Speaker 1: face mask. These little tiny guys no, and you see
Speaker 1: these guys. The speed in the contact is so ferocious
Speaker 1: that I don't know the a play gets better if
Speaker 1: we go to eighteen weeks. So I'm still even for sixteen.
Speaker 1: But the seventeen ship has sailed, and I think we're
Speaker 1: in a good spot right now. Let's let's keep the
Speaker 1: where it is. I think this works. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: college football playoff, and I'm with you. The four doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense, and they obviously realize that it doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense and that there's a lot of money to be
Speaker 1: made by expanding it. So it's going to get expanded.
Speaker 1: But right now you're stuck at four. You had Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati and Cincinnati right now, I'm curious. You know what
Speaker 1: you think about them? Is the Notre Dame win for
Speaker 1: them good enough if they go undefeated for the first
Speaker 1: time since the invention of the college football playoffs seven
Speaker 1: years ago. For a group of five team to get
Speaker 1: into the top four, it should it should be. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't, this system is really fun. I can see
Speaker 1: how you can say they're eleven or oh, they didn't
Speaker 1: go any place and beat anybody. They beat Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: who was in the playoff last year. They're not even
Speaker 1: sound as good as they were. But if No Name
Speaker 1: ends up ten and two, that's pretty good in a year.
Speaker 1: Whereas you've seen firsthand, there are a lot of average
Speaker 1: teams in college football, a lot of average teams. There's
Speaker 1: there's the velvet rope group of the VIP teams that
Speaker 1: are inside those velvet ropes like in a movie theater.
Speaker 1: That's a really small group. This year, I'd love to
Speaker 1: see Cincinnati get a chance. I think they deserve a chance.
Speaker 1: I hope they have the opportunity to play when they
Speaker 1: played in the boat. Did you do that ball game
Speaker 1: last YEARNS Bowl Game? No? I did not. I had
Speaker 1: that's right, since Cincinnati in the bowl game. I know
Speaker 1: there were opt outs on the other side, but they
Speaker 1: hung in there. Yeah, Nome no names a good team.
Speaker 1: Uh they Cincinnati physically was a better team on the
Speaker 1: field in South Bend on that Saturday, and they had
Speaker 1: a little diversity. Norda got back to within three and
Speaker 1: they came down. We won those championship drives. They scored. Yes,
Speaker 1: I definitely want to see them, and I hope they
Speaker 1: go eleven and O hope they win their conference championship
Speaker 1: game and get into the playoffs. It would be good
Speaker 1: for the sport, not just to change it up, it's
Speaker 1: change it up with a program that has built without
Speaker 1: the opportunities and resources of some of the legacy programs.
Speaker 1: One of the things that the Cardinals are doing is
Speaker 1: called Cardinals Folk Tales. And one of the things we're
Speaker 1: doing is the Monday Night meltdown from two thousand and
Speaker 1: six when the Cardinals had the lead over the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: It was a game that you called for ESPN on
Speaker 1: Monday Night Football. It was also the game where Denny
Speaker 1: Green went on his famous rant post game, and that's
Speaker 1: really what Cardinals Folk Tales is about. But I had
Speaker 1: Greasy on earlier the season to get his perspective on
Speaker 1: a lot of things. But also on that because he
Speaker 1: was Rex Grossman's backup, he thought he was getting into
Speaker 1: the game. Rex obviously stayed in the game, and he
Speaker 1: led the Bears to the Super Bowl. Do you remember much?
Speaker 1: I mean, you've done so many games. Do you remember
Speaker 1: that night? So Davir charts from games by the way, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I did. My wife, Hallie and
Speaker 1: I when we were redoing we accidentally threw out about
Speaker 1: a thousand of them. So I from from like two
Speaker 1: thousand and three to two tho ten. There's no evidence
Speaker 1: that I ever did a game for ESPN or the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals. Let me just let me just say, did
Speaker 1: Hallie accidentally be the one who accidentally put that in
Speaker 1: the accidentally get rid of this pile? Mike? I don't
Speaker 1: know that I could answer that, because if I did,
Speaker 1: because if I do, brother, I might I might not
Speaker 1: have a bed to sleep in the night when I
Speaker 1: get home. Well, I only ask that because I have
Speaker 1: looking at it right now. I've got a stack of
Speaker 1: folders and legal pads from almost every game I've done
Speaker 1: going back to my ESPN time. So there's like some weird,
Speaker 1: weird stuff in there. Right, There's like Philip Rivers. I
Speaker 1: found the chart of Philip Rivers first started North Carolina State,
Speaker 1: which I did, and like I brought it to Philip
Speaker 1: when we had one of his games last year because
Speaker 1: we kind of do. It was near the end, so
Speaker 1: that was fun, right. But to your point, the Monday
Speaker 1: Night stuff I kept it was ten years. I just
Speaker 1: kept throwing credentials. I don't know what we were gonna
Speaker 1: do that. I'll probably rim at all. But I've got
Speaker 1: my production meeting notes from that game. And the best
Speaker 1: part of the Crownham quote from Denny was that Denny
Speaker 1: told us that in our production meeting on Saturday. So
Speaker 1: I'll give you the quick story. So it's it's meet
Speaker 1: Kornheiser and Jaws, Jay Rothmans, our producer Chip Teams, our
Speaker 1: director Susie Covers, our sideline repporter Michelle as well. But
Speaker 1: I don't know from the shows in the room with
Speaker 1: us she might have been. So we're out there. We
Speaker 1: did the meeting, same same meeting room, the same area
Speaker 1: the Cardinals still do their stuff in, at least over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years since I last was there.
Speaker 1: And Denny is telling us about the Bears because the
Speaker 1: Cardinals played the Bears in the preseason. It was the
Speaker 1: third preseason game, so it was good against good for
Speaker 1: a half. When that still happened a fourth preseason games
Speaker 1: and the Bears, people were building up the Bears in Chicago.
Speaker 1: They started asking is this team as good as the
Speaker 1: eighty five Bears? And Danny played it right down the line,
Speaker 1: right down the traditional line. During the week, they're good,
Speaker 1: they're good, they're good. But we got in and so
Speaker 1: I'm kind of going down this line of question and
Speaker 1: Denny's you know, Denny can could have when during when
Speaker 1: he was with it, he could run a little bit
Speaker 1: hot at times. You could just see him a getting frustrated.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you they're not as good as the
Speaker 1: five Bears. Denny's voice again, the eighty five Bears. People
Speaker 1: want to crown them, People want to crown them as champions.
Speaker 1: It's October. Don't crown that. Don't crown them like the
Speaker 1: eighty five Bears. So when he says at the podium,
Speaker 1: um crown him, and he bangs his arms and he says,
Speaker 1: bangs his hands and shot we had to and we
Speaker 1: let him off the hook. Like that was the continuation
Speaker 1: of our production meeting on Saturday. So when that cores,
Speaker 1: like commercial ran, and when that clip runs, I immediately
Speaker 1: flashback to that meeting and just laugh because we saw
Speaker 1: that first hand. That was an incredible night and Liner
Speaker 1: plays and they got a chance to beat him and
Speaker 1: Hester with a kick return as only Devin Hester could
Speaker 1: do and all that stuff. That was one of those nights.
Speaker 1: So we because Corneiser didn't love to fly, we had
Speaker 1: a bus for Monday night football that we didn't take everywhere,
Speaker 1: but the bus whatever with the same bus driver, bus
Speaker 1: driver Jeff, and we're pulling out of the stadium and
Speaker 1: we are watching on a TV. It took him to
Speaker 1: direct TV the live postgame one Sports Center, and we
Speaker 1: saw that. We broke out laughing in the bus because
Speaker 1: we knew exactly what Danny was saying about want to crowd.
Speaker 1: Crowd the hook is one of my all time favorites.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you asked us. Every time that comes up,
Speaker 1: I relate that story to somebody. It was just like
Speaker 1: cool to add some context to the quote that became
Speaker 1: a commercial last one. As I mentioned, Mike, this is
Speaker 1: an audio podcast for those that are listening that may
Speaker 1: not see if we if the Cardinals put out a
Speaker 1: video clip, you have a guitar behind you. Is that
Speaker 1: your guitar? And is this something I don't know about
Speaker 1: Mike Terrico. Does Mike tric play No, I can't play. Um,
Speaker 1: it's kind of strapped in here. I can't get this out.
Speaker 1: It's probably expensive. Don't don't do anything. There's a big
Speaker 1: hat here, the big straw hat that was from the
Speaker 1: World Cup in South Africa in twenty ten. There was
Speaker 1: a show called Last Call and we put somebody wear
Speaker 1: the hat and I actually did shows, which I couldn't
Speaker 1: believe with that hat on. It looked so stupid, but
Speaker 1: we passed it along. We had one of the great
Speaker 1: memories on that show. We all worked together. We made
Speaker 1: a blast and I just said, I'm taking a hat
Speaker 1: with me and I did. And I've had it for
Speaker 1: almost a decade now. Hang on to it. Love it.
Speaker 1: The guitar is a gift from my wife. It was
Speaker 1: a birthday gift. Fun It was like a fortieth or
Speaker 1: something signed by Springsteen. I'm a Springsteen junkie and she
Speaker 1: got me signed Springsteen guitar. So I can't play it,
Speaker 1: but my members does and that's my musical getaway. So
Speaker 1: it sits here in the office with a Mike Rouzi
Speaker 1: only hockey stick and a master's picture of Gary player
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange and me and I
Speaker 1: got Arnold, Gary and Jack to sign the starter's chief
Speaker 1: from that day. It was the first time the three
Speaker 1: of them together with the honorary starters, and they came
Speaker 1: in to do a sports inner hit with us. Curtis
Speaker 1: went to wake forest On and Arnold Palmer golf scholarship,
Speaker 1: so he knows Arnie obviously knows Jack and Gary. So
Speaker 1: that's my little corner office there. I got those guys
Speaker 1: to sign the starter chief from that Day's one of
Speaker 1: the only autographs I've ever asked for my life. I
Speaker 1: got them to do it in my orange sharpie. That
Speaker 1: was the coolest part of it. So I got Arnold,
Speaker 1: I'd probably have the only Arnold Gary Jack same thing
Speaker 1: signed in a range sharpie in America. So that's my
Speaker 1: little collection here. That's awesome. That's awesome. Man. Well listen, Mike,
Speaker 1: I could talk to you for hours, but you have
Speaker 1: a life, and I've just appreciate spending forty minutes with
Speaker 1: him me. Man, I really do. I appreciate our friendship,
Speaker 1: and again, thank you for just continue to lead the
Speaker 1: way for so many of us. Man, you're one of
Speaker 1: the most talented people in our business and stop one
Speaker 1: of the best of all time. Man, stop it, stop
Speaker 1: and stop it. Thank you. I I love hearing you
Speaker 1: driving in a car listening to Westwood on a Saturday
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting around waiting to do my football games
Speaker 1: with Walden late at night. I just laugh and smile.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm so proud of you and your association with
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. I'm jealousy. You remember telling this around playoffs
Speaker 1: times and Super Bowls and stuff. I'm jealousy because you
Speaker 1: have an association with the team that I've never had.
Speaker 1: I'd love to do that at some point because there's
Speaker 1: a whole generation of Cardinals fans who forever will associate
Speaker 1: your voice with that team, and I think it's just
Speaker 1: the coolest part of the ride. I'm I'm so happy
Speaker 1: for you and so happy for everybody in your in
Speaker 1: your world. You are the best and you're eating better
Speaker 1: person in our broadcaster and most of the listeners know
Speaker 1: that and we mean that. So thanks for having me
Speaker 1: on It's an honor to be with you, budd great
Speaker 1: stuff from NBC Sports Mike Tarico. So many things that
Speaker 1: stood out to me in that interview. I think first
Speaker 1: of all, the conversation that he had with Denny Green
Speaker 1: in the production meeting leading up to the Monday night
Speaker 1: football game against the Bears. The unique perspective that Mike had,
Speaker 1: the fact that Denny had told him days before in
Speaker 1: response to people comparing that Bears team to the eighty
Speaker 1: five Bears, that Denny said, it's crazy and they're not
Speaker 1: who we think they are you thought they were, and
Speaker 1: people shouldn't be crowning him yet. And then he said
Speaker 1: those exact words after the game. Just hilarious to get
Speaker 1: another perspective on for Cardinal fans, but was a devastating
Speaker 1: night back in two thousand and six against the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I really connected with was when
Speaker 1: Mike talked about some of his favorite moments from his
Speaker 1: broadcasting career, in particular calling the Saints game in New
Speaker 1: Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and how important that game was
Speaker 1: to the city of New Orleans and the people of Louisiana.
Speaker 1: I live on the West coast. It was important to me.
Speaker 1: I connected with it. I remember Steve Gleeson and what
Speaker 1: happened on that night, and I actually went down with
Speaker 1: a group of friends to Louisiana to do some post
Speaker 1: clean up a group from our church after her came Katrina.
Speaker 1: I saw firsthand the devastation that that did to that community.
Speaker 1: So to see it come together and to see the
Speaker 1: importance of the Saints to New Orleans and Louisiana and
Speaker 1: how it played out that night a national TV and
Speaker 1: how well Mike documented it for all of us. It
Speaker 1: goes back to his line about that sports matters because
Speaker 1: it's entertainment and it's fun and we get to root
Speaker 1: for our team, but it also provides an escape, and
Speaker 1: it also allows us to connect with the athletes and
Speaker 1: the team. I think last year during the pandemic, not
Speaker 1: being able to go to sporting events, having to call
Speaker 1: events from the stadium here or in my house. I'll
Speaker 1: never take for granted again being in a sporting event,
Speaker 1: because when we're there, we feel a part of it.
Speaker 1: We connect with the players, the coaches, the events, and
Speaker 1: these things stick with us. And obviously that moment, that
Speaker 1: game stuck with Mike and as he said, will for
Speaker 1: his entire career. That'll do it for this edition of
Speaker 1: the Dave Pash Podcast. You can follow us on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Pash Pod. We are sponsored by bet MGM, the
Speaker 1: official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by
Speaker 1: Hila River Hotels and Casinos. The Cardinals play the forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers this Sunday in Santa Clara. We will talk
Speaker 1: to you next week on the Dave Pash Podcast