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Speaker 4: Well he filled in for me last week.
Speaker 2: Popular talk show host in Chicago, Really talented guy, Danny
Speaker 2: parkins a lot him pop his book later. Although he
Speaker 2: doesn't need my okay to do that. I thought i'd
Speaker 2: bring him on. It's you know, it's an interesting time.
Speaker 2: I sort of have a rule, Danny, you and I
Speaker 2: both do volume work or on the treadmill. When you
Speaker 2: do three and four and five hours. I mean local radio.
Speaker 2: A lot of shifts is yours four hours? Is that
Speaker 2: what your shift is?
Speaker 4: Yeah, two to six pm Central, so four hours a day,
Speaker 4: five days a week. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's the opposite of Tom Ronaldi, who does a remarkably
Speaker 2: poignant piece once, you know, fifteen times a year. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I'm so jealous of these people that gotta do these
Speaker 2: master pieces on the air, and you and I are
Speaker 2: on the treadmill half the time, just trying not to
Speaker 2: fall off. But I always have a rule, don't do
Speaker 2: Twitter after a cocktail or after a tragedy because you're
Speaker 2: too emotional and it just gets You're gonna say stuff
Speaker 2: that you're like, I'm gonna bow out. And it was
Speaker 2: interesting during the assassination attempt of Trump, I just had
Speaker 2: a lot of thoughts and I thought, I'm gonna take
Speaker 2: the day off. I just want to learn more. So
Speaker 2: I don't watch a ton of television outside of sports
Speaker 2: and occasional politics, but I you know, I was literally
Speaker 2: just watching TV the last twenty four hours, just curious
Speaker 2: getting all the information. What is sort of your tape
Speaker 2: when you're a sports voice. There's a non sports tragedy
Speaker 2: in America, especially when you mix in politics. What did
Speaker 2: you make of it?
Speaker 4: What was your reaction and how did you react? Yeah,
Speaker 4: So I've got a four and a two year old,
Speaker 4: so I was my mom was over for dinner, my
Speaker 4: wife was out of town, and you know, there's so
Speaker 4: there's just like pure chaos in the house, four and
Speaker 4: two year old boys. And I glanced at Twitter and
Speaker 4: saw it, and because it's Twitter, you don't even really
Speaker 4: know if what you're seeing is real, and it looks
Speaker 4: so ridiculous, and then you're trying to like play Paw
Speaker 4: Patrol with your kids and so like it's it's just
Speaker 4: a weird headspace to be in. But then I passed
Speaker 4: my phone too my mom to show her, and she's
Speaker 4: kind of amazed at the whole thing, Like we know
Speaker 4: it's this huge moment, but we can't we don't really
Speaker 4: lock in on it because I'm with a four and
Speaker 4: to two year old, right, And so there was like
Speaker 4: the anxiety of what happened? Is it still happening, and
Speaker 4: then not being as glued to it as I would
Speaker 4: like to be until a little bit later in the evening.
Speaker 4: But you know, I think my take on opinion on
Speaker 4: this stuff is kind of evolved. In terms of participating
Speaker 4: in the discourse, I'd rather do it in a forum
Speaker 4: like this than on the internet because tone gets lost
Speaker 4: in translation. On the internet, everyone is so heightened understandably
Speaker 4: when something awful happens like that, well then the other thing.
Speaker 4: I have dialed it back a bit because I don't
Speaker 4: think many people are having their opinions changed. And so
Speaker 4: it's like, are you if I say what I feel?
Speaker 4: And I've got a lot of thoughts on this. I
Speaker 4: studied political science in college. I'm pretty politically active. I've
Speaker 4: got strong opinions on it. But it's like, am I
Speaker 4: either preaching to acquire? And so then who cares? You're
Speaker 4: in an echo chamber and you're saying things that people
Speaker 4: agree with or are you just pissing off your audience?
Speaker 4: And who is really changing their minds anymore? And so
Speaker 4: what's the upside of sharing it? I have found myself
Speaker 4: more likely to have a conversation with my wife, with
Speaker 4: people in my very close circle of friends and then
Speaker 4: consume all of the content. But I have definitely dialed
Speaker 4: it back a little bit, at least on the Internet,
Speaker 4: in terms of participating in the discourse. Because I just
Speaker 4: think the upside is so limited. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 4: I it's really interesting. So I generally agree with you
Speaker 4: that I always I remember during a time when John
Speaker 4: Skipper ran ESPN and there were a lot of young,
Speaker 4: mostly progressive people on the air, left leaning, and they
Speaker 4: were talking a lot of politics, and I would watch
Speaker 4: the daily ratings and they would come down and down
Speaker 4: and down, and I'm thought, man, there's a lot of
Speaker 4: platforms to talk about this, probably not on your ESPN show.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of where I come down. Is the
Speaker 2: advantage of the volume is ten minutes on something I
Speaker 2: can't get.
Speaker 4: On the radio or FS one.
Speaker 2: And you know, Danny, I've always said this, if I
Speaker 2: just did serious, my show would be different than it
Speaker 2: is now. If I just did television, it would be different.
Speaker 2: I have to use a radio clock on TV, which
Speaker 2: is sort of a disadvantage. But be that as it may,
Speaker 2: I do every platform. I would react differently. If I
Speaker 2: just somebody bought the volume and I just worked at
Speaker 2: the volume and did this, I would probably talk more nonsports.
Speaker 2: Is that I do believe that there's a responsibility. Nobody
Speaker 2: turns to Sean Hannity for football picks. I do believe
Speaker 2: there's a general responsibility that to stay on the course
Speaker 2: of the people paying me a lot of money. But
Speaker 2: I do think young people feel peer pressure. I don't,
Speaker 2: but young people feel like, well, will I get respect
Speaker 2: from my peers If I'm a thirty six year old broadcaster,
Speaker 2: I don't feel that.
Speaker 4: I don't give a damn.
Speaker 2: But if you ever felt some pressure among other young,
Speaker 2: smart young people. If I don't talk about this, what
Speaker 2: do I look like among my kind of my my demographic.
Speaker 4: My age. Definitely, And I mean listen, like, there's there's
Speaker 4: takes of me out there breaking that rule back in
Speaker 4: the day, and maybe some of it is or was
Speaker 4: peer pressure. I think a lot of us were learning
Speaker 4: as it went down. I mean I was on the
Speaker 4: air doing ten am to two pm. I believe at
Speaker 4: the time it might have still been nine am to
Speaker 4: eleven am. But I was early in my career doing
Speaker 4: mid mornings mid days in Kansas City when Sandy Hook happened,
Speaker 4: and it's like you're on the air talking about the
Speaker 4: Royals lineup construction and these kids are massacred in a classroom,
Speaker 4: and it's like, well, it felt ridiculous to be sticking
Speaker 4: to sports in that moment, and then everybody was sharing
Speaker 4: all of their thoughts on with Colin Kaepernick and Black
Speaker 4: Lives Matter and that movement because it was coming into
Speaker 4: sports right, and I did feel like it would be
Speaker 4: completely disingenuous to tap out of the conversation as a smart, educated,
Speaker 4: white dude of privilege with a platform. I was like,
Speaker 4: I got something to say on this, and I feel
Speaker 4: like I got some responsibility to say it. Yeah, you know, like,
Speaker 4: but I think that we've evolved. I think the industry
Speaker 4: has kind of evolved, and the data came in on
Speaker 4: some of that stuff, and so I don't know, Like,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to mention it much on my local
Speaker 4: radio show tomorrow. You know, I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 4: going to grandstand. I'm not gonna take calls. I'm not
Speaker 4: going to do an hour on an assassination attempt. I
Speaker 4: do local radio. I live in the suburbs of Chicago.
Speaker 4: I was at the Fourth of July Parade next to
Speaker 4: Highland Parks Fourth of July Parade when there was a
Speaker 4: Fourth of July shooting, you know, two years back, and
Speaker 4: so you know, I talked about that as a parent.
Speaker 4: I knew a bunch of people who were there during it,
Speaker 4: so like that was like a hyper local story that
Speaker 4: we talked about. But it's I don't it's it's an
Speaker 4: inexact science. Man, there's no there's no great answers. But
Speaker 4: I didn't say anything with the assassination attempt on Twitter
Speaker 4: checks my it was just one person, so who cares?
Speaker 4: Was one person? But I thought about it, so, oh,
Speaker 4: you haven't condemned this, I'm done with your radio show.
Speaker 4: Yeah a lot A second, Like I have to comment
Speaker 4: on every single thing at all times. I don't think
Speaker 4: that's a reasonable expectation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of how And I do think I
Speaker 2: think we're learning a lot. I just I think with
Speaker 2: the explosion of platforms, there are a lot of places
Speaker 2: talk about a lot of things. And I thought, well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna wait for Danny on Sunday Night to talk
Speaker 2: about it, and that'll be the place that'll be the
Speaker 2: platform to do it, you know, after I've consumed all
Speaker 2: this stuff, and I you know, listen, I've said before,
Speaker 2: I'm not a Trump fan, but I'm America and I'm
Speaker 2: an America fan, and that's that's where I land on
Speaker 2: this stuff. And it pissed me off at the Secret services,
Speaker 2: you know, having two buildings one hundred and fifty yards
Speaker 2: away with all the you know, the rifles. Today, I'm like,
Speaker 2: what an egregious you know, lack of forecasting by this
Speaker 2: secret service? So like to me, I saw a lot
Speaker 2: of conservative voices immediately jump on. But I will say
Speaker 2: that my first reaction was I was angry, Uh, this
Speaker 2: is not who we are. You know what I thought
Speaker 2: to myself for a second, Danny if I may I thought,
Speaker 2: have we become the country that when I used to
Speaker 2: watch CNN, I was absolutely sure we would never become
Speaker 2: the crazy country the country where there were you know,
Speaker 2: regular attempts at politicians life. And it was mayhem and
Speaker 2: I thought, no, eight, I remember Reagan and Gerald Ford,
Speaker 2: this has happened, that this has happened, We've had it.
Speaker 2: I've always been surprised and hasn't. To be honest with you, athletes,
Speaker 2: there's mental illness issues. Guns are everywhere. I am always
Speaker 2: like when I go to games, I'm like strangely vigilant
Speaker 2: looking around at you know.
Speaker 4: That kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: But I think my initial my initial take was I
Speaker 2: was angry that that I mean, what was your if
Speaker 2: you had an initial take, once you knew it was true,
Speaker 2: what was yours?
Speaker 4: So it's odd because I'm I'm not a fan. I'm
Speaker 4: not a fan, but like that all washed away immediately,
Speaker 4: you know, it's like saying, you know, right, like but
Speaker 4: it was it was relief in a weird way because
Speaker 4: obviously terrible and tragic and someone did lose their life
Speaker 4: in addition to the shooter. But man, what would this
Speaker 4: country feel like right now if it was an inch
Speaker 4: to the right, no question, you like that part of me.
Speaker 4: That's the thing that I can't shake is it would
Speaker 4: have been broadcast on national television. We've got an election
Speaker 4: in four months. We are I hate when people say
Speaker 4: as polarized as ever. I don't believe that we had
Speaker 4: a civil war, but we are very polarized. People are
Speaker 4: very angry, people are very armed, and it would be very, very,
Speaker 4: very uncomfortable. It already is uncomfortable, don't get it twisted.
Speaker 4: I mean, the Republican Convention is seventy five minutes north
Speaker 4: of me in Milwaukee, and the Democratic Convention is in
Speaker 4: Chicago in a month. So like it's you know, I'm
Speaker 4: very close to it. It's happening, the tensions are going
Speaker 4: to be high. But my god, like inch to the right,
Speaker 4: do I leave my house since yesterday? You know what
Speaker 4: I mean? Like, like what would we be feeling if
Speaker 4: that had happened? So it's really weird because it's not
Speaker 4: anger is probably more appropriate, but relief. And then the
Speaker 4: only other thing I'll say to what you said, man like,
Speaker 4: I'd like to think that that's not the country that
Speaker 4: we are, but I don't have much evidence to support
Speaker 4: that statement. You mentioned Reagan, obviously, doctor King. There were
Speaker 4: plenty of threats that we know of made against Barack
Speaker 4: Obama and his children that have come out publicly. We've
Speaker 4: had shootings at every place that should be a safe haven,
Speaker 4: from a grocery store to a college campus, to a
Speaker 4: kindergarten classroom to a movie theater. You know, So I
Speaker 4: you know, we have people marching with tiki torches. We have,
Speaker 4: we've got, we got. It's not great, like it better
Speaker 4: than it's been, you know what I mean? Like, I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't think we're in no worst time ever. I'm
Speaker 4: not saying that, but this idea that like we are
Speaker 4: somehow totally above that, Yeah, I can't say I was shocked, Colin,
Speaker 4: I can't say I was shocked. I was angry, I
Speaker 4: was relieved, but I can't say I was shocked, which
Speaker 4: is terrible. I'm just terrible. So it's a jarring the end.
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean in my I mean, I'm thirty
Speaker 4: seven years old, right, Like, I don't I don't remember Kennedy.
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't remember Reagan. You know, I was
Speaker 4: obviously wasn't a lie for Kennedy. But like, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, that's that is definitely the highest profile
Speaker 4: assassination attempt in my lifetime that I have any sentient
Speaker 4: memory of. H So, yeah, it's it's scary, man, It's scary.
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Speaker 2: Today, you know, I had a scheduled dinner. I hung
Speaker 2: out with my son all weekend up in Portland. So
Speaker 2: I went to dinner right after and had a drink
Speaker 2: with another friend and was on a plane flying home,
Speaker 2: and I, you know, I kind of looked around and thought,
Speaker 2: you know, I wonder what the reaction will be today.
Speaker 2: And then this morning and Brian Stelter that writes for
Speaker 2: The Vanity Fair, you know, he had an interesting x
Speaker 2: Twitter post today that he said, we're not at each
Speaker 2: other's throats as much as you think we are on
Speaker 2: social media. That we're on planes together, in grocery stores together.
Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of times moments like this.
Speaker 2: I can remember right after nine to eleven, for about
Speaker 2: two weeks, people were so kind to each other. It
Speaker 2: was like whoa whoa, whoa, whoa. We are being attacked.
Speaker 2: We it was a collective us against them. And I've
Speaker 2: thought about this a lot, Danny over the course since
Speaker 2: nine to eleven. Is that is that where we are?
Speaker 2: That assassination attempts and horrific tragedies is like the only
Speaker 2: way we're together. It's one of the reasons for the
Speaker 2: record why I love sports. It is the one unifier.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, wasn't the country pulling for the Cubs
Speaker 2: in the World Series.
Speaker 4: That they were?
Speaker 2: I mean, I can remember the Eagles and Nick Foles
Speaker 2: and Brady everybody wanted Nick Foles to win, and it
Speaker 2: was like, in a weird way, it was like, this
Speaker 2: is what's great, you know when you go you know,
Speaker 2: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, even though people see it as polarizing,
Speaker 2: people are so into the DOUBUNBA. Now this morning, I'm
Speaker 2: like looking at my sports on TV calendar, I'm like, Okay, Spain, England,
Speaker 2: I want to watch Caitlin Clark And I thought, Wow,
Speaker 2: what a pivot for me that is, And.
Speaker 4: I want to move into that is that weird segue?
Speaker 2: But I never wanted to be an eighty percent NFL
Speaker 2: show and as I've done this, the longer I've done this,
Speaker 2: the NFL now has so separated, for a variety of
Speaker 2: reasons from every other sport that there was a point
Speaker 2: about a year or two ago when college football was
Speaker 2: still very Bama dominated, that I wasn't talking college football,
Speaker 2: and I thought, God, you could put my show, it
Speaker 2: feels like, on the NFL network.
Speaker 4: And that's not a goal of mine.
Speaker 2: I actually the do WNBA to me has been such
Speaker 2: a breath of fresh air, not because I'm woke or
Speaker 2: not because I feel that women deserve attention in sports,
Speaker 2: because it's good. It's polarizing, it's kind of tribal, it's captivating,
Speaker 2: and it allows me to get out of the NFL bubble.
Speaker 2: Do you ever feel a little bit sometimes like, God,
Speaker 2: I'm doing seventy five percent NFL talk and I can
Speaker 2: do more than that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what, it was funny filling in for you.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm in that pitch meeting and I'm I'm
Speaker 4: pitching your terrific staff takes and I had, you know,
Speaker 4: his NFL Team USA things like that, a little bit
Speaker 4: of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Rookie of the Year, and
Speaker 4: so I had all the takes that I wanted to do,
Speaker 4: and then I said, so, but you guys are the
Speaker 4: experts on like how Colin would structure a show. What
Speaker 4: should be like the lead, what's what's the a block?
Speaker 4: Because it was July eighth, there's nothing going on, which
Speaker 4: is why you were on vacation. And they're like, oh, well,
Speaker 4: your DAK take should be the lead. I'm like, but
Speaker 4: nothing's happening with dead and they're like they're like, they're like,
Speaker 4: say that he took off his boot and then do
Speaker 4: your DAC take. I'm like, okay, so that's that's like
Speaker 4: enough and I and of course there's a reason for it.
Speaker 4: Everybody cares about it, a huge team, huge fan base
Speaker 4: and all of that. But yeah, it's definitely something that
Speaker 4: if and when I'm doing more stuff in your world
Speaker 4: in orbit, I'll feel that way. But local radio baseball
Speaker 4: still matters a lot yees, so I do a lot
Speaker 4: on the Cubs. The White Sox are historically bad, and
Speaker 4: that's actually kind of interesting. Either be great or be awful.
Speaker 4: Don't be a seventy six win team. So the White
Speaker 4: Socks are historically bad and that's providing a little bit
Speaker 4: of humor. And then the Cubs are really interesting with
Speaker 4: a huge fan base that's super engaged, and we air
Speaker 4: the games, so there's a new baseball game every day
Speaker 4: and so there is at least something there. So locally,
Speaker 4: I am not as starved for topics sometimes that have
Speaker 4: mass appeal. But Angel Reese is in our backyard here
Speaker 4: in Chicagos. Like I do think while I am not
Speaker 4: watching games first quarter to fourth quarter and like completely
Speaker 4: locked in, people are more interesting than teams. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: these people are interesting stories that people have a lot
Speaker 4: of opinions about. So I'm all for it. And we
Speaker 4: have been doing some and frankly, we're probably going to
Speaker 4: end up doing more. You know.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this knowing that you were coming
Speaker 2: on today. I was walking to the Portland Airport and
Speaker 2: this is just kind of random, but I was thinking.
Speaker 2: So nineteen seventy two was the first year I watched
Speaker 2: sports on a black and white TV in my baseroom bedroom.
Speaker 2: I watched a Laker Blazer game on CBSK Musburger was
Speaker 2: the announcer.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: And then I watched the Washington Miami Super Bowl. The
Speaker 2: Dolphins won fourteen to seven. I can almost go team
Speaker 2: to team, roster to roster.
Speaker 4: On that one.
Speaker 2: And I was a huge fan in the mid seventies
Speaker 2: of mostly National League, but of baseball, and I can
Speaker 2: go through the Reds lineup that I was National League, Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Dodgers,
Speaker 2: first American League team I really liked. I liked Reggie
Speaker 2: Jackson of the Yankees, and then I liked George Brett
Speaker 2: was my favorite player. I liked those Royals teams with
Speaker 2: John Mayberry, Amasotis, Freddie pot Tech, you know that, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: Willie Wilson, Yeah, yeah, I mean those are my you know,
Speaker 2: they astro turf rounded corners, triples everywhere, if you hit
Speaker 2: it in the corner.
Speaker 4: Bags of cocaine falling out of their pockets.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Then, and then I was thinking about that because
Speaker 2: I had a long walk in the airport today and
Speaker 2: I was thinking about you and about Cubs, and because
Speaker 2: I had looked up some stuff from you, and I thought,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was the emergence of the
Speaker 2: Seahawks in Seattle, John Elway, Dan Marino, but there was
Speaker 2: a point early to mid eighties because I was a
Speaker 2: triple A baseball announceder out of college. I got a
Speaker 2: very lucky gig. I got really, really lucky. There was
Speaker 2: a point about mid eighty eighty six, eighty seven that
Speaker 2: I felt myself like was into NFL more than baseball.
Speaker 2: I was all baseball, like seventy four to eighty four. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then I just pivoted, and I thought, why there
Speaker 2: wasn't there weren't devices to distract me. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of it was some of the personalities of baseball.
Speaker 2: Pete Rose, maybe Johnny Bench, guys I loved maybe mid
Speaker 2: to late eighties moved out of it. In the NFL,
Speaker 2: it was more about the star quarterback than the team.
Speaker 2: It was becoming more of a passing league. But were
Speaker 2: you I was initially a baseball fan. What was your
Speaker 2: nine years old?
Speaker 4: What were you into basketball and baseball? But like so
Speaker 4: I talk about this all the time, like that sweet
Speaker 4: spot of being ten years old. You're old enough to
Speaker 4: convince your parents that you can stay up late occasionally.
Speaker 4: You have no other real interest, like school doesn't really matter.
Speaker 4: I'm not chasing girls. But you're collecting sports cards and
Speaker 4: so you can remember statistics. And so I'm born in
Speaker 4: eighty six, and so that makes me ten years old.
Speaker 4: That's ninety six. That's the beginning of the second Jordan
Speaker 4: three peete and that takes you to you're twelve years old.
Speaker 4: Ninety eight, Summer of ninety eight, Sammy Sosi, Mark Maguire,
Speaker 4: the home run Race. I'm a kid raised on the
Speaker 4: North side of Chicago. Before we moved to the suburbs,
Speaker 4: thirty seven hundred Lake Shore Drive. You could see out
Speaker 4: the sixteenth floor of our apartment building. You could see
Speaker 4: Wrigley Field from the fire escape, So I'm a North
Speaker 4: Sider going to Wrigley It was the stereotype of mom
Speaker 4: and dad taking you out of school on Opening Day
Speaker 4: to go to the game. I was at the one
Speaker 4: game that Michael Jordan played in a major league stadium
Speaker 4: when he was on the Birmingham Barons, which was at
Speaker 4: Wrigley Field and a Crosstown Classic in an exhibition game.
Speaker 4: So like, the blending of basketball and baseball in Chicago
Speaker 4: in the mid to late nineties was my main thing.
Speaker 4: And while I loved the NFL. My mom is from
Speaker 4: Kansas City and a Chiefs fan. My dad was from
Speaker 4: the South side of Milwaukee and a Packer fan. There
Speaker 4: wasn't really a Bears influence in my house, and so
Speaker 4: when the NFL Sunday ticket came out, my parents were
Speaker 4: like the first people to get it because they're like,
Speaker 4: we got to watch our teams. They're not on TV here,
Speaker 4: this is amazing. So when I was a kid, I thought, well,
Speaker 4: the Cubs have Sammy Sosa and the Bulls have Michael Jordan.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be a Cowboys fan. But like the early
Speaker 4: mid nineties, I was like, my team is just supposed
Speaker 4: to be the most interesting with the best player, and
Speaker 4: so I just I was a Cowboys fan. It's like
Speaker 4: Deon Sanders is the cool guy I've ever seen. And
Speaker 4: so while I loved it all, it was I was
Speaker 4: drawn more to personalities than teams supercars, and it felt
Speaker 4: like if why would you root for a bad team?
Speaker 4: I always felt that, like, like, why would you root
Speaker 4: for an uninteresting bad team? I'm gonna root for Sammy
Speaker 4: Sosa and Michael Jordan. And it was I mean, it
Speaker 4: was a real awesome time to be a kid in
Speaker 4: Chicago or the Chicago suburbs. I'm the opposite.
Speaker 2: All my Seattle teams were awful, and so I liked
Speaker 2: other teams because mine were unwatchable, yours were great. So
Speaker 2: you're like, I like the good teams. Mine were terrible.
Speaker 2: So I liked the good teams. I was like, I
Speaker 2: love the Reggie Jackson Yankees, not the Mariners.
Speaker 4: Sure, and that's why I was like, I was like
Speaker 4: the Bears. I was like the Eric Kramer, no thank you,
Speaker 4: and like he's a top six quarterback in Bears history.
Speaker 4: And I was like ugh, uh yeah. So I like,
Speaker 4: I was like, why would you watch bad sports when
Speaker 4: there are good sports? Yeah? And I mean I bonded
Speaker 4: a lot with my dad. I'm like going the games,
Speaker 4: and you know, he would tell me about seeing Henry
Speaker 4: Aaron back in the day and like the or you know,
Speaker 4: Luel Cinder and like in that era. And so then like,
Speaker 4: you want to go to a college football game. I
Speaker 4: was like, yeah, sure, but it's Chicago. There's no good
Speaker 4: college football team. He's like, no, no at all. We're going
Speaker 4: to go to South Bend and see Notre Dame in USC.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, so you just want to go
Speaker 4: to good games too, So we did. It was just
Speaker 4: like our thing. We just we just there's a good
Speaker 4: game in a reasonable radius for us to go to.
Speaker 4: Like that was like, oh, this is your Christmas present.
Speaker 4: We're going to get tickets and we're going to go
Speaker 4: to this awesome game. So that was a big part
Speaker 4: of my childhood.
Speaker 2: So I always kind of roll my eyes, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm kind of I am numb to kind of criticism.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I work hard, I do what
Speaker 2: I do. I got a great staff. My staff, we
Speaker 2: just don't really you know, we do content. We don't
Speaker 2: have time to look back. My rule has always been,
Speaker 2: I have opinions. You can have opinions on my opinions.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to have an opinion on your opinion
Speaker 2: of my opinion. Like I got three hours to fill tomorrow.
Speaker 2: But I like and I see it infrequently. I think
Speaker 2: sometimes the Internet has scared away a lot of sports hosts.
Speaker 2: Not political hosts, they don't care. But sports hosts are
Speaker 2: either more insecure, are more defensive, you know, Sean Hannity,
Speaker 2: Rachel Maddow, Oberman, they don't.
Speaker 4: Care like I.
Speaker 2: But a lot of sports guys are bothered by getting
Speaker 2: picked on by you know, whatever the site is, and
Speaker 2: so nobody wants to be told you have a hot take.
Speaker 4: But the truth is, I like sportscasters who are.
Speaker 2: Like I'm gonna lay it out here, like I don't
Speaker 2: get this, And about two years ago, this was my
Speaker 2: hot take, and I'm gonna ask for your hottest take,
Speaker 2: and my hot take was, Luca is just a much
Speaker 2: better version of Carmelo. Anthony not in great shape and
Speaker 2: after about four years, you're never going to be Steve Prefontaine, Okay,
Speaker 2: I can come.
Speaker 4: To terms with it.
Speaker 2: A prodigy offensively, therefore never really had to be engaged
Speaker 2: defensively to matter. In the end, his teams will be
Speaker 2: lobsided and he'll go through teammates, He'll work with some,
Speaker 2: never ideally with any. But he's a better version of Carmelo.
Speaker 2: And I don't think it's a hot take because Melo
Speaker 2: did not complain to the officials as much as Luca.
Speaker 2: Luca is much more like Magic Johnson, like it's just
Speaker 2: a constant chatter. But my take is that he's better
Speaker 2: than Mellow. I'm not and both their first belt Hall
Speaker 2: of Famers. I mean Mello for his lack of postseason
Speaker 2: success as an all time score, He's way up the list, right,
Speaker 2: is that Luca is a better version of Mellow. He's
Speaker 2: never going to be in great shape. He was such
Speaker 2: a prodigy, like being a pianist prodigy at seven, You're
Speaker 2: probably not gonna be great at sports. You're not gonna
Speaker 2: be great at other things because you're just gonna lean
Speaker 2: into your artistry on the piano, right. And I think
Speaker 2: they're so gifted offensively, where Lebron never had a great
Speaker 2: jumper early. He was just he was gifted physically, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't a pretty offensive player.
Speaker 4: He really had to work at it.
Speaker 2: Mellow at twelve could hit an eighteen foot and it
Speaker 2: looked like art.
Speaker 4: It was a monet.
Speaker 2: And that that's my hot take, is that Luca, we're
Speaker 2: gonna look back. He's gonna be a top five score.
Speaker 2: He may get a ring. He's never in great shape,
Speaker 2: that really engaged defensively, and he'll he'll go through a
Speaker 2: series of teammates. Somebody gets along with many he doesn't.
Speaker 2: That's my hot take. Where's yours?
Speaker 4: It's a good one. It's a good one. Luca a
Speaker 4: better passer than Mellow, so I even like more complete
Speaker 4: all around this game, Like Mellow up your score, Luca, man,
Speaker 4: I mean I have so many that like age poorly
Speaker 4: and like immediately like you do this for a lot
Speaker 4: for long enough you do. Like if people like pick
Speaker 4: on me or get mad at me for like me
Speaker 4: just being wrong, I'm like, okay, then you document twenty
Speaker 4: hours of opinions a week and won't see how you like?
Speaker 4: You know what actually like first to sensitized me to
Speaker 4: not caring about being wrong. Gambling like I've been. I've
Speaker 4: been gambling on sports longer than I've been hosting radio
Speaker 4: shows professionally. I started gambling on sports when I was
Speaker 4: recovering from back surgery in high school. I was fifteen
Speaker 4: or sixteen years old. It was like, yeah, you're wrong
Speaker 4: sometimes on your predictions. I mean, I said it was
Speaker 4: there was a zero percent chance, but Tony Laruss was
Speaker 4: going to get hired as the manager of the White Sox.
Speaker 4: He was hired. Four days later. I said John Baldwin
Speaker 4: was going to be a Hall of Famer. He was
Speaker 4: an incredible bust. There are so many that are listen.
Speaker 4: I said that I would trade my dog for Deshaun
Speaker 4: Watson for him to be the quarterback of the Bears.
Speaker 4: And five days later there were sixty five accounts of
Speaker 4: sexual misconducts that came out of it. Oh God, I've
Speaker 4: had I've had some real ones that blow up my face.
Speaker 4: But it's funny, you know, the one from your from
Speaker 4: the six hours of doing your show that I'm getting
Speaker 4: killed for the most in my group chat with Like
Speaker 4: my friends, Nick has gotten on me. You think Justin
Speaker 4: Herbert's the third best quarterback in the world to start
Speaker 4: a franchise with, Like, yeah, I do you know he
Speaker 4: has no playoff wins? Yeah, but there has to be
Speaker 4: an eye test. I have to be able to say that, yes,
Speaker 4: he has no playoff wins, he has a horrendous blown lead.
Speaker 4: He's there have been multiple coaches that have been there.
Speaker 4: But I have to be able to trust myself that
Speaker 4: no matter what a grade looks like from a scouting service,
Speaker 4: or a yards per attempt or a win loss record,
Speaker 4: I have to say that when I watched these games,
Speaker 4: when I watch eleven hours of football start to finish
Speaker 4: on a Sunday, who's more physically talented than that dude
Speaker 4: throwing a football? Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: That's the list, And my list was Mahomes won, Allan two,
Speaker 4: Herbert three, Stroud four. People like, how do you not
Speaker 4: have Stroud in front of him? I'm like, well, Stroud
Speaker 4: was amazing, but he's done it one time. He had
Speaker 4: twenty three passing touchdowns, like it was. It was an
Speaker 4: incredible year, five interceptions over four thousand yards as a rookie.
Speaker 4: No one thought Nico Collins and Tank Dell were going
Speaker 4: to be things. And now he's you know, made him
Speaker 4: into great players. But like he did it once, no
Speaker 4: one's thrown for more yards through the first five years
Speaker 4: of a career than Justin Herbert. And I know Anthony
Speaker 4: Lynn was terrible at clock management, and I know the
Speaker 4: Chargers have been cursed with injuries, and I know he's
Speaker 4: had three different play callers or four different play callers
Speaker 4: now since he's been into the league. I'm like, at
Speaker 4: some point, I just have to trust my eyes. And
Speaker 4: there's no doubt in my mind that Harbaugh and him
Speaker 4: are gonna win big. So I haven't sold a share
Speaker 4: of Justin Herbert stock. Like I if if the Bears
Speaker 4: would have traded the rights to Caleb Williams for Justin Herbert,
Speaker 4: I would be like, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 4: I it'd be hard for you to pound the table
Speaker 4: because Caleb is so much cheaper. But I just think
Speaker 4: that that dude's so unbelievably talented that I'm willing to
Speaker 4: go down with the ship.
Speaker 2: Now, is there a hot take that you're proud of,
Speaker 2: I'll throw one out. I said, Johnny manziel and Zach
Speaker 2: Wilson can't.
Speaker 4: Play a lick. Oh, good for you.
Speaker 2: I was like, Nope, Johnny manziel And, by the way,
Speaker 2: I've met Johnny. There's qualities about Johnny that I think
Speaker 2: are great. I think he's probably a great hang and
Speaker 2: a great friend. If you had to pick NFL quarterbacks
Speaker 2: to go party within a Friday night, he'd be a blast.
Speaker 2: He'd be funny, he's cocky, he's smart, probably tells great stories.
Speaker 2: I just I said, I don't care.
Speaker 4: What Nick Saban says. That is not an NFL quarterback.
Speaker 2: He's not disciplined enough, his shoulders, his waist, he's too tiny,
Speaker 2: he's small. People think Baker Mayfield, but I always said
Speaker 2: Baker's overdrafted, but he can play. He's a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 2: People think I hated Baker. It's like, no, no, no, he's draftable.
Speaker 2: I just wouldn't draft him as a GM. I don't
Speaker 2: like his temperament as a twenty year old I also
Speaker 2: said Zach Wilson, and I think Joe Douglas is a
Speaker 2: good GM. I'm like, guys, go to the three best
Speaker 2: teams he played in college he won during a COVID season.
Speaker 4: He can't.
Speaker 2: This is not an NFL starting quarterback. So pat myself
Speaker 2: in the back. Do you have one you took shit for?
Speaker 2: But in retrospect, You're like, I'm kind of proud of
Speaker 2: that one because I was on an island.
Speaker 4: You know, it's so funny. I mean, like, again, there's
Speaker 4: a hundred of them, because you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm so right about so many things and so wrong
Speaker 4: about so many things that I don't even really think
Speaker 4: about it in those terms. But so my wife went
Speaker 4: to Clemson and we were in Mexico and Clemson was
Speaker 4: playing Georgia and there was like a twenty inch TV
Speaker 4: on in like the sports bar and the all inclusive
Speaker 4: resort that we were at, and Clemson in their first
Speaker 4: game of the season. They were starting fifth year senior
Speaker 4: Cole Stout. Yeah, And I was like, Okay, I don't really.
Speaker 4: We were just like dating at the time. It's like
Speaker 4: one of our first trips we took together. So I'm like,
Speaker 4: trying to. I'm watching more college football because of her.
Speaker 4: She's super into it, Like, all right, let's check out
Speaker 4: this Clemson team, Like, oh, cole stout. This guy stinks.
Speaker 4: Three possessions into the game, they bring in a true
Speaker 4: freshman by the name of Deshaun Watson, and this guy
Speaker 4: throws a ball sixty yards in the air and it's
Speaker 4: I'm just like, who is that? And she's like, she's like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but she's a fan, but she doesn't
Speaker 4: know that, like she's not following like recruiting. I'm like,
Speaker 4: who is that. She's like, I don't know. I'm like
Speaker 4: googling it, like that guy's your quarterback. That guy's gonna
Speaker 4: win a Heisman Trophy. That guy's going to the NFL.
Speaker 4: He's gonna be the first pick in the draft. And
Speaker 4: he wasn't. But I ended up watching every game that
Speaker 4: he played in college. We went to Arizona to watch
Speaker 4: him in the title game against Alabama when he had
Speaker 4: four passing touchdowns a rushing touchdown and they lost because
Speaker 4: Nick Saban on sidekicked to kick the ball to keep
Speaker 4: the ball out of his hands. So it's not like
Speaker 4: the hottest take in the world. Because he was obviously
Speaker 4: a big time recruit. But I pride myself on actually
Speaker 4: watching the games. I'd like, I'm going to watch the games,
Speaker 4: and I try not to be terribly on Twitter during
Speaker 4: the games. I try not to see everyone else's opinion
Speaker 4: on things while I'm watching the I try to watch
Speaker 4: the game, have an opinion, and then see if I'm
Speaker 4: in the majority of the minority or I'm alone on
Speaker 4: an island. And so I felt like with him. So
Speaker 4: the Bears had the third pick in the draft. They
Speaker 4: traded up, and I was like, I don't understand this.
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't get the Mahomes thing. I
Speaker 4: don't get the Trubisky thing. Mahomes is from the Big twelve.
Speaker 4: They've never put a good quarterback into the NFL. It's
Speaker 4: the air raid. There's no way that'll work. Mitch Trubisky,
Speaker 4: he's in the ACC with Deshaun Watson. He's started for
Speaker 4: one year. And you're telling me that a guy who
Speaker 4: played Bama in back to back title games one to one,
Speaker 4: lost one and the first four thousand and one thousand
Speaker 4: yard guy in college football history. You're telling me that's
Speaker 4: not the number one pick in the draft. And so
Speaker 4: I was just banging the drum for the Bears to
Speaker 4: take to Sean Watson and obviously he goes third. He
Speaker 4: would have been much better than Trubisky. The personal off
Speaker 4: the field stuff. Who could have known that aged very poorly.
Speaker 4: But when he had that five thousand yard forty eight
Speaker 4: hundred yard season with Bill O'Brien at twenty three years old,
Speaker 4: I was like, I told you. I was like, I
Speaker 4: told you this better than Mitch Trubisky. I'm like, I
Speaker 4: should be the GM of the Bears. So like, and honestly,
Speaker 4: isn't that an obvious point?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: What do these guys get paid for to do twenty
Speaker 4: hours a week of work? To say that a one
Speaker 4: year starter at North Carolina? How does that happen?
Speaker 2: Listen, I'll give you an example, and I so Greg
Speaker 2: Cosel I was in great Yeah. And so Greg and
Speaker 2: I connect every off season before the draft and he'll say, Hey,
Speaker 2: I want you to watch three or four guy you
Speaker 2: know before the season this year in college football. He'll
Speaker 2: give me a list of guys to watch. He gave
Speaker 2: me Josh Allen. He said, watch this kid, he's really rising.
Speaker 2: So I watched him against Iowa Oregon, and he was
Speaker 2: horrible in both. But he had a howitzer, he had
Speaker 2: an arm that was he looked like a pony out
Speaker 2: of a barn that nobody had ever taken the time,
Speaker 2: and he was just he was just romping wildly all
Speaker 2: over the field. And I'm like, he made a throw
Speaker 2: into the corner of the end zone and I was
Speaker 2: just like, that's not that's above the NFL. That that
Speaker 2: arm strength is serious. So he told me a few
Speaker 2: years ago. He goes, I was on vacation. He goes,
Speaker 2: watch Mitch Trubisky, tell me what you think. So I
Speaker 2: watched him. It was against Florida State, and I called
Speaker 2: him and I said, yeah, that's not it.
Speaker 4: Ball dies at twenty yards.
Speaker 2: I don't that's not that's not Nope, that's a backup athletic,
Speaker 2: but a backup And he and he gave me his report.
Speaker 2: He sent me his report. He called him a front
Speaker 2: leg thrower, and he goes, you and I see this
Speaker 2: exactly the same. So uh and and a lot of
Speaker 2: times Gregil tests me, and you know, Breg knows what
Speaker 2: he's really doing. And I also lean on a lot
Speaker 2: of my GM buddies and executives I'll be like some
Speaker 2: of my strongest opinions.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons I love Sam Darnold so much.
Speaker 2: I liked him, I knew him, but like two of
Speaker 2: my GM friends were like, he's pretty good, he's got
Speaker 2: he's got a quirky release, or he's got a slow release.
Speaker 4: He should and he.
Speaker 2: Could never speed that slow release up. He just never
Speaker 2: never could. But yeah, no, I I think it's pretty weird.
Speaker 4: Like so the Jets.
Speaker 2: Joe Douglas, I think is an excellent GM, but he
Speaker 2: missed in a left tackle on a quarterback. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: You can't miss on those two positions, right, So exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I I always think if I was a general manager,
Speaker 2: the one thing I would avoid, and I think Ryan
Speaker 2: Poles in Chicago's done a great job. I hated Velis
Speaker 2: Jones out of Tennessee because at USC, I knew assistant
Speaker 2: coaches and they said he can't track the ball. He's
Speaker 2: gotta be a punt returner. He can't track the ball
Speaker 2: as a receiver. He just he doesn't have the feel
Speaker 2: for it. He was a speed guy out of college
Speaker 2: in Alabama, so I hated that pick. But you know,
Speaker 2: he's redeemed himself. He's made pick after pick after pick.
Speaker 2: It's been very good. But I always think if I
Speaker 2: was a GM, if I didn't do this, my favorite
Speaker 2: job would be a GM in the NFL. I do
Speaker 2: mock drafts on paper. My staff makes fun of me
Speaker 2: is that I would not dabble in free agency much.
Speaker 2: I just I would be pretty contrariant on that. I'd
Speaker 2: be a little bit like Chris Ballard. I would wait
Speaker 2: it out and then by day five I'd get the
Speaker 2: fourth to sixth best pass rusher. I would because I
Speaker 2: think it's fool's gold. It's like buying a used car.
Speaker 2: If a team's letting somebody go, they know the odomitor,
Speaker 2: there's an issue with the car. It's like if a
Speaker 2: house is for sale, first thing I always ask is
Speaker 2: how long did they live there?
Speaker 4: Because if it's a.
Speaker 2: Weird neighbor and it's had two owners in five years,
Speaker 2: it's probably a neighbor issue. Like you have a crazy
Speaker 2: person right like that you know, fires off a shotgun randomly.
Speaker 2: So I think that's the one job in sports that
Speaker 2: if I didn't do this, that would be my favorite job.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you and Bill Polling and I
Speaker 2: had these conversations on and off the air when I
Speaker 2: was at ESPN Quarterback is You know Bill was known
Speaker 2: for first and second round hits. He said, boy, you start,
Speaker 2: you start drafting quarterbacks. It's a lot of heart, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of toughness, it's a lot of cognitive discipline.
Speaker 2: He said, there's a lot of stuff here. You can't
Speaker 2: measure it anywhere. And he you know, he told me,
Speaker 2: he said, you're gonna miss you go, you just have to.
Speaker 2: He goes, We got you know, we had Peyton Manning.
Speaker 2: We didn't have to worry about it forever. He said,
Speaker 2: But I know smart guys that have missed on quarterbacks.
Speaker 4: Oh man, it's it's so interesting, like they haven't figured
Speaker 4: out how to and they tried with the S two test,
Speaker 4: but then it looks like CJ. Stroud just broke the
Speaker 4: S two test. They haven't figured out how to really
Speaker 4: measure if a quarterback is gonna panic or like his
Speaker 4: brain is gonna speed up or slow down once the
Speaker 4: ball was snapped right. They can they can evaluate the film,
Speaker 4: they can do it on a chalkboard, they can do
Speaker 4: the mock interview. But there's a huge difference between college,
Speaker 4: the play call comes in, you just do it, and
Speaker 4: you've got to verbalize the play call in the huddle.
Speaker 4: You've got to verbalize a second play call in the huddle.
Speaker 4: You've got to have a check with me. You've got
Speaker 4: defenses that are as best athletes in the world doing
Speaker 4: all sorts of confusing things, and then a guy comes unblocked.
Speaker 4: What the hell are you going to do? Do you
Speaker 4: calmly hit your check down or do you panic and
Speaker 4: run backwards out of bounce like Mitch Trubisky would do.
Speaker 4: And it's like, I had a guy who scouted him.
Speaker 4: He was like, now it's true. I was like, how
Speaker 4: did you guys spend five hours with mahomes in five
Speaker 4: hours with Trubisky and feel like this guy was smarter
Speaker 4: than that guy. And he's like, he haste is on
Speaker 4: the board test. He hasted it. It's that he couldn't
Speaker 4: do it when the bullets were flying. So it's a
Speaker 4: hard job and if you have the quarterback, it makes
Speaker 4: everything easier. And I know what I would be susceptible to.
Speaker 4: I would be susceptible to ridiculous athletic feet of strength
Speaker 4: that has nothing really to do with football, but it's
Speaker 4: just cool, like the three hundred pound guy who jumps
Speaker 4: out of a pool. I'm like, what, Joe Milton, have
Speaker 4: you seen the videos of that quarterback from Tennessee. I
Speaker 4: think he went to the Patriots. Yes, yes, he was
Speaker 4: in the Orange Bowl and in practice he took an
Speaker 4: orange and threw it one hundred and five yards. I'm like,
Speaker 4: he should be the number one pick of the draft. Like,
Speaker 4: apparently you can't read a defense for anything. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm I don't care. I would want him on the
Speaker 4: team and I would just be like, throw it to
Speaker 4: Randy Moss deep Like so I would I know I
Speaker 4: would need someone who would be a little bit and
Speaker 4: I would draft every week guy like I would every
Speaker 4: guy who failed a podcast and fell ten spots in
Speaker 4: the draft. I'd be like, there's a market inefficiency. I'm
Speaker 4: drafting you. Yeah, so I know I would have my
Speaker 4: blind spots as a GM. I character like it. It
Speaker 4: obviously matters, But sometimes I think these guys forget that
Speaker 4: they're building a football team and you don't need fifty
Speaker 4: three choir boys. I'm like, like, why is Jalen Carter
Speaker 4: not a lion? Like I don't really understand that like,
Speaker 4: that was like the that was the most obvious pick
Speaker 4: in the world. They needed someone to put inside for
Speaker 4: Aiden Hutchinson. Outside, You've got Dan Campbell as a coach
Speaker 4: like you had your I don't like that was the
Speaker 4: most They're like, ah, he doesn't fit the culture. I'm like,
Speaker 4: then why do we have coaches like what?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 4: And then he goes to Philadelphia and it's of course
Speaker 4: perfect and so like I would draft the questionable character guy.
Speaker 4: I would draft the freak of nature, like ninety nine
Speaker 4: percentile athlete. But I'd also like to think that I
Speaker 4: wouldn't draft Mitch Trubisky over Deshaun Watson. I'd like to
Speaker 4: think that I got better.
Speaker 2: You know. It's what's interesting about the character thing is
Speaker 2: I actually, and I've said this more than once, the
Speaker 2: overwhelming majority of pro athletes, at least the domestic ones
Speaker 2: that we watch in college or or you know, if
Speaker 2: somebody comes from overseas, I don't know much about their history,
Speaker 2: but I think ninety eight percent of our athletes are
Speaker 2: such good kids. You know, I'm sick. Yeah, Like, do
Speaker 2: you know how lucky we are that our star quarterbacks
Speaker 2: are Herbert Mahomes Lamar Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow. It's like
Speaker 2: you could have a you know, just a schmuck. I
Speaker 2: mean nothing against Jay Cutler, but he was not very likeable.
Speaker 2: I knew people that were friends with him and they're like,
Speaker 2: not a great guy. You could have that, right Like
Speaker 2: you look at the NFL, go look at the NBA.
Speaker 2: John Morant went sideways and Zion has a weight health issue. Overwhelmingly,
Speaker 2: they're all like Chet Hungern and Wemby and SGA and
Speaker 2: it's like, there's good kids right like and now they're
Speaker 2: worth one hundred million and twenty four and they're still
Speaker 2: good kids.
Speaker 4: The Bears drafted Caleb Williams and Roman doonesday we went
Speaker 4: to to Detroit really just for like the feat are
Speaker 4: of the Mine and to paint the picture for the audience.
Speaker 4: It was it was a fun trip for the show.
Speaker 4: And the day after the Bears were cool and they
Speaker 4: both called in and it was six minutes back to back.
Speaker 4: They literally were in the same car and they Caleb
Speaker 4: handed the phone to Ropes. We did six minutes with
Speaker 4: both of them and they were both it was I know,
Speaker 4: you know Caleb a bit. I don't know if you
Speaker 4: know Roman yeah, but in six minutes, I'm like Jesus Christ,
Speaker 4: Like it's so impressive, how mature they are, how grounded
Speaker 4: they are, how prepped they are, how like ninety nine
Speaker 4: percentile athlete, but also like somehow ninety nine percent of
Speaker 4: like polite, humble. Yeah, it's completely insane. Like the new
Speaker 4: athlete Caleb Williams has a foundation. Everybody talks about how
Speaker 4: he made ten million dollars from nil money, Like okay, fine,
Speaker 4: like in the course of his life, the ten million
Speaker 4: he his dad made money, like in the course of
Speaker 4: his life, Like ten million dollars is going to actually
Speaker 4: be fairly insignificant. The guy has a charitable foundation as
Speaker 4: a drafted rookie that when has that ever happened? But
Speaker 4: that's the thing that you do after you have two
Speaker 4: contracts and you're in your thirties and you're thinking about
Speaker 4: a legacy after your career. So these guys are just
Speaker 4: so much more evolved and advanced and prepped in all
Speaker 4: of it that that Yeah, it's it's a lot of
Speaker 4: hand ringing by people that are jealous and uncomfortable that
Speaker 4: they got cut from the high school team, or that
Speaker 4: they live paycheck to paycheck or whatever. These kids are
Speaker 4: largely amazing. They really are.
Speaker 2: So when you filled in for me, you discovered how
Speaker 2: good the staff is. And I tell the staff all
Speaker 2: the time. I said, you know, we're lucky. Our management
Speaker 2: trusts us. We do our job, and then we're home.
Speaker 2: You know, we're on the road at one in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: one fifteen, which in LA I like my staff to
Speaker 2: get in early, but leverally, I don't want you sitting
Speaker 2: around in the building and stewing. Get out of here
Speaker 2: the minute you can get out of here, go take
Speaker 2: a nap, go home, pick up your kids from school.
Speaker 2: So I'm a big believer, and let's play the long
Speaker 2: game the show. You know, football season is like six
Speaker 2: and a half months and almost no days off. It
Speaker 2: just wears people out. It's like being an accountant and
Speaker 2: it's six months of April. Like, just guys, get out
Speaker 2: of the building and the all. There are some quirks
Speaker 2: to doing the show, and I thought it was in
Speaker 2: interesting reading what you said about it, because I I
Speaker 2: don't think about it now, but it is incredibly cavernous
Speaker 2: and you're doing the show next to a show that ends,
Speaker 2: and I thought, oh good, hell, I should have warned
Speaker 2: him about that. So take me because Chicago's heard it.
Speaker 2: Take the I've done it for years, so I don't
Speaker 2: think about it, but I get it when I read
Speaker 2: it for you, and you're like, oh god, I should
Speaker 2: have told Danny, like, come prepared for the first seven minutes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and it's funny. You're you're I mean,
Speaker 4: listen like Alex and Kyle and Eric, right, Eric is
Speaker 4: your researcher. Yeah, oh my god, Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 4: I was like, so, I mean, so the whole thing
Speaker 4: is incredible, right, Like I so they told me a
Speaker 4: lot like I had. I had a pre call before
Speaker 4: I flew out there with your two top producers, Alex
Speaker 4: and Kyle. I had a pre call with UH management
Speaker 4: and some of the management from LA. So like they
Speaker 4: gave me like a pretty good idea. The meeting starts
Speaker 4: at six. The Carl pickie up at five forty five.
Speaker 4: You know, what do you want for breakfast? It can
Speaker 4: be in your dressing room between seven thirty and eight.
Speaker 4: Don't wear your clothes, but bring your clothes because they'll
Speaker 4: steam them and iron your shirt. Like they walked me
Speaker 4: through basically everything that was gonna happen, but you can,
Speaker 4: you're still not prepared for it until you get into
Speaker 4: the moment. And so like I walk into that conference
Speaker 4: room and like, where do I sit right the head
Speaker 4: of the table, Okay, and there's nine people around this table.
Speaker 4: I have two excellent producers Shane Riarden and Chris Tannehill
Speaker 4: and my co host Matt Spiegel. And like I used
Speaker 4: to run my own board in Syracuse like it was
Speaker 4: a one man man. And then in Kansas City, like
Speaker 4: you had one producer who also did the updates, who
Speaker 4: also booked the guests, like you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 4: like I've had a theory a long time in this
Speaker 4: industry that actually, like the higher that you rise up,
Speaker 4: there's obvious more pressure, there's more attention, but in some
Speaker 4: ways it's easier because you have more support. I was
Speaker 4: telling him about a thought about like rock party when
Speaker 4: just one of deebo Iyuk Kittle, McCaffrey or Trent Williams
Speaker 4: is not there, and I'm like, I know the numbers
Speaker 4: go down, but it's pretty drastic for him. And like
Speaker 4: I said that, and then I was onto like a
Speaker 4: Cooper flag thing that I was pitching in the meeting,
Speaker 4: and Eric just like stood up, walked over to the printer,
Speaker 4: walked over to my side and like put a piece
Speaker 4: of paper down on the on the table neck for me,
Speaker 4: and he had the numbers in like eight minutes. It
Speaker 4: would take me one hundred and eight minutes to get
Speaker 4: one of them. It was incredible. And so your staff
Speaker 4: is excellent. But then, yes, it's finally time. I'm nervous.
Speaker 4: This is the biggest show I've ever fronted by far.
Speaker 4: It's three hours of national TV. And I said this
Speaker 4: not to your face, so I may as well say
Speaker 4: it to your face. Like I do think that you
Speaker 4: have the hardest job in Sports opinion, because every other
Speaker 4: big show in sports opinion has someone out there with you,
Speaker 4: and I know that you have Jmac, But like it's
Speaker 4: first Take is a debate show, there has to be
Speaker 4: someone to debate. Get Up is a panel show. Undisputed
Speaker 4: is a debate show. First things First is a chemistry show.
Speaker 4: PTI is a chemistry show. You're a monologue in take show.
Speaker 4: And so three hours of sol I mean, good Morning America.
Speaker 4: They got a panel. So three hours of solo TV
Speaker 4: and radio is no joke. And so you know, I
Speaker 4: am not too proud to say that I was nervous.
Speaker 4: I've done four hours of solo. I've done five hours
Speaker 4: of solo. I've done twenty four hour broadcast. It's not
Speaker 4: the length of the time. It's just that it's different.
Speaker 4: And that studio is bleeping huge, and I have net.
Speaker 4: It's huge. It is barn. It's a barn. It's a barn.
Speaker 4: Radio studios are intimate by design, because you're funny when
Speaker 4: you're comfortable, and you're intimate and you can make eye
Speaker 4: contact with your producer and the whole thing. And so
Speaker 4: it's a huge room. And so that was disorienting. But
Speaker 4: then also I've never met Skip Bayless or Keishawn Johnson
Speaker 4: or Rachel Nichols, and so I'm a fan. I'm aware
Speaker 4: of who these people are. And so I am sitting
Speaker 4: in your studio or in your chair, with the herd
Speaker 4: fairly powerful brand on, like one hundred lcdtvs all around me,
Speaker 4: and I'm getting ready to do this monologue into a camera.
Speaker 4: By the way, like in radio, you talk to your
Speaker 4: people on first things. First, they're like, the one note
Speaker 4: they gave me was don't look at the camera. You
Speaker 4: talk to wilds, you talk to Brussard, you talk to Nick.
Speaker 4: You don't talk to the camera on your show. You're here,
Speaker 4: don't your monologue and do a camera and so it's
Speaker 4: all like a little different in disorienting. And then I'm
Speaker 4: like they're like, you know, there's no break between the
Speaker 4: end of their show and your show. So I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, Like I'm opening with Dak Prescott. Skip
Speaker 4: Bayless is gonna hear my Dak Prescott take you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. I'm like, I don't really care if
Speaker 4: he agrees with me or disagrees with me, but like
Speaker 4: I'd like to think I'd like him to think that
Speaker 4: I'm doing a good job.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know.
Speaker 4: So it's just like it's just you're just aware of it.
Speaker 4: And Skip goes like tomorrow on Undisputed DN like and
Speaker 4: then it's like right into the herd, like there is
Speaker 4: no break. It is so quick. And so I haven't
Speaker 4: gone back and put myself through the ordeal of watching
Speaker 4: the full three hours. I've watched the clips. I've watched
Speaker 4: some of it, but I was much more comfortable from
Speaker 4: the start the second day than the first day. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because it's just and I wasn't on radio, you know,
Speaker 4: I was just on TV, so I guess you're radio producers.
Speaker 4: You normally can see them. There's a radio booth there,
Speaker 4: so I mean it was just Ashley Brewer, who was lovely,
Speaker 4: but she had never done herdline before. She hadn't been
Speaker 4: on TV in a year. So we're like, man, they're
Speaker 4: really gonna let us take this plane off the aircraft
Speaker 4: carrier here, like like you're and I kept asking your
Speaker 4: staff and I you could cut me off or whatever
Speaker 4: if I'm rambling, but like I kept asking your staff
Speaker 4: like what's the out time? Like how long do I
Speaker 4: how long should I take this? And they're like, don't
Speaker 4: worry about it, like just we'll tell you you need
Speaker 4: to rap if you need to wrap, because frankly, I've
Speaker 4: done some local television. Like they're so good at like
Speaker 4: when I trained, you know, you do two takes in
Speaker 4: an a block or something. They're so good at the
Speaker 4: graphic changing immediately and the b roll changing immediately, and
Speaker 4: like the video kind of following my voice as I
Speaker 4: was transitioning from one thing to the next, Like I
Speaker 4: was like, wells, like what do I need to que
Speaker 4: you guys, like you know in radio, if I want
Speaker 4: to like fire a SoundBite. I obviously have eye contact
Speaker 4: with my sound guy, but it's like you like set
Speaker 4: up a clip in this it's video. They're just they're
Speaker 4: just following you with your voice, and so like I
Speaker 4: have trust in your people now that I didn't have
Speaker 4: on like the minute one of take one. And so
Speaker 4: it's just it's a very impressive operation that you've built.
Speaker 4: And they made a very unnatural situation, even for someone
Speaker 4: who has I have my ten thousand hours of radio time.
Speaker 4: I do not have my ten thousand hours of TV time.
Speaker 4: But uh, they made something that is just like unavoidedly unnatural.
Speaker 4: They made me really really comfortable. They were great dark
Speaker 4: to do it again because I'd love to do it
Speaker 4: again because day three, I would imagine, would be even
Speaker 4: better than day two. So that's why that's that's my
Speaker 4: to get to do it again.
Speaker 2: It's the opposite of baseball, where the picture, you know,
Speaker 2: they take the picture out so you don't fase the.
Speaker 4: For the third time. We're different. You're best at bat
Speaker 4: is your you know absolutely? Oh and and I mean,
Speaker 4: oh god, so like you know, I didn't get a
Speaker 4: ton of sleep. There's jet lag, and like again I'm
Speaker 4: nervous and there's nothing going on. Con I'm waiting for
Speaker 4: the car in the lobby of the hotel and I'm
Speaker 4: just scrolling Twitter and Connor or posted twelve teams that
Speaker 4: can win the Super Bowl, and I was.
Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, let's go Connor eating that NFL beast baby
Speaker 1: in July. Let's go, let's go anyway to talk some football.
Speaker 4: It was, Yeah, it was. It's fun, man, it's a
Speaker 4: it's a it's a really fun thing that you have
Speaker 4: built for yourself. It really is. Well, you're I'm a
Speaker 4: huge fan. You're gonna get a lot more swings at it.
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, I have on more than one
Speaker 2: occasion told our staff, you know, gambling digital filling in
Speaker 2: for me. In fact, it was interesting, they had said
Speaker 2: to me, and we'll wrap it up here. They had said, hey,
Speaker 2: how about you put Danny Parkins when Jason McIntyre's off,
Speaker 2: you put him on herdline. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Danny's a host. He's not going to be subservient to me.
Speaker 2: I don't want him to feel like he can't. I said,
Speaker 2: you put Danny in my chair, let him go. I
Speaker 2: don't care if he makes mistakes. He'll be great. But
Speaker 2: I said, and that's not a knock at the people
Speaker 2: who do it, but I said, Danny's a host. It's
Speaker 2: like what Michael Jordan and Charlotte did he tell like
Speaker 2: Kemball Walker, he said, take the shots, it's your team,
Speaker 2: go right like he recently. Yeah, yeah, so you know
Speaker 2: that was the thing. It's like, put him in the
Speaker 2: big boy chair, let him rip. And that's why I say,
Speaker 2: when I'm gone, Jason McIntyre, like, put him in the
Speaker 2: big boy chair, let him rip. This is not a
Speaker 2: perfect business as a treadmill. Let the young guys go.
Speaker 2: It's the only way to get better. And you're both
Speaker 2: super talented. All right, buddy, it's great talking to you.
Speaker 2: Enjoy Bears camp because I'm gonna tell you something. You
Speaker 2: got about fifteen different angles and we'll bring you on
Speaker 2: the show. By the way, during the year. I love that.
Speaker 2: But I think you have first or second most interesting
Speaker 2: team in the league. So that and you don't say
Speaker 2: that about the Chicago Bears once in fifty years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Bears most interesting team in football probably hasn't been
Speaker 4: the case since the eighty five Bears. That's it, which
Speaker 4: is one of the most interesting teams ever in any sport,
Speaker 4: So if this team could even approach that in terms
Speaker 4: of interesting, Hug and A the HBO producers agree with you.
Speaker 4: We got contents coming up in August. Baby, we got
Speaker 4: Hard Knocks, Hard Knocks recaps Tuesdays in August. I cannot wait.
Speaker 4: All right, Buddy good talking to him. Thanks com the volume.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 2: take a moment rate and review