Speaker 1: My name is Jensen Carpet. I'm a sports fan, which
Speaker 1: means unless I'm down to watch things like the fifty
Speaker 1: first National stone skipping competition for the World Sign Spinning Championship,
Speaker 1: ESPN is of no use right now, so I'm jones
Speaker 1: ing for my athletic fix. As a result, I've decided
Speaker 1: to talk to athletes and sports industry professionals about what
Speaker 1: they're doing in quarantine, hoping to figure out if they
Speaker 1: miss competing as much as I miss watching it. Oh
Speaker 1: and thanks to you, listeners, were now a top new
Speaker 1: and noteworthy show on Apple Podcasts. And that's all because
Speaker 1: of you. So please continue to rate and review and
Speaker 1: subscribe and tell your friends and constantly refresh your phone
Speaker 1: until your fingers are bleeding and we release new episodes.
Speaker 1: It all helps, anyway. This is the No Sports Report.
Speaker 1: Levi Wallace's struggle to play football makes Rudy Rudiger look
Speaker 1: like he had it easy. A walk on in college
Speaker 1: who didn't see the field un till junior year, when
Speaker 1: he fought his way into a scholarship and an important
Speaker 1: senior year role on the epic two thous eighteen Alabama
Speaker 1: team that took home the National Championship in overtime. But
Speaker 1: then after graduation he went undrafted. Not ready to give
Speaker 1: up yet, he found his way onto the Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: practice squad. And that's usually where these stories end, maybe
Speaker 1: one training camp and then guys become high school coaches
Speaker 1: or electricians. But Wallace has a rare drive to succeed,
Speaker 1: one that's almost supernatural. Not only does he end up
Speaker 1: on the Bill's main roster, somehow he becomes a starter,
Speaker 1: and now he's an integral part of their defense, signing
Speaker 1: a contract extension to stay in Buffalo as a standout cornerback.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of April. He once again defied the odds,
Speaker 1: but that's nothing new to him. What is new being
Speaker 1: isolated all alone by himself. During quarantine, we talked about
Speaker 1: my favorite sandwich spot, how Americans can find motivation during
Speaker 1: times of hardship, and why he gave out his phone
Speaker 1: number on the internet. All of this would leave I Wallace,
Speaker 1: and later on in another installment of Pandemic, we'll hear
Speaker 1: from c. J. Toldano of Bleacher Reports, House of Highlights
Speaker 1: and co host of I Heart Radio sports podcast The Greatest.
Speaker 1: This is the No Sports Report. How from except Press one. Hello, LEVI, Hey,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm well, man, I have decided that
Speaker 1: you're the only Levi I want in my life right now.
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear jeans. I'm in sweatpants only.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out what are you wearing during quarantine?
Speaker 1: Like what? What? What is your go to outfit right now?
Speaker 1: I'm man, Yeah, you have to. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: terrible I mean, if someone in my life was wearing
Speaker 1: denim at this point, I would cut them out completely.
Speaker 1: I would never speak to them again for sure, or
Speaker 1: not pants for Easter. But that's about it. That's it.
Speaker 1: And that was And they don't even see you from
Speaker 1: the waist below on on zoom, so I didn't even
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure I wore pants to our easter.
Speaker 1: Where are you currently quarantining? What? What city are you in?
Speaker 1: I'm in Buffalo, in Buffalo, okay? And who are you with?
Speaker 1: Uh myself? You know? And how has that been? You're
Speaker 1: you're actually you're weirdly the first athlete I've spoken to
Speaker 1: on the podcast who is by themselves in quarantine. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's fine, it's not bothering me. I've talked to maybe
Speaker 1: like twenty different people a day on FaceTime zoom. But
Speaker 1: you know, I like it. I thinly focused. I have
Speaker 1: my garage with my gym. I was hoping that you
Speaker 1: were in Tucson, which is where you're you went to
Speaker 1: high school, at least where you're from, and I was
Speaker 1: going to ask you to mail me a sandwich from
Speaker 1: Bison Witches. You know what, I've never been there. No,
Speaker 1: it's right next to year high school. It's like just
Speaker 1: a block away. I know and all my friends they
Speaker 1: used to eat it back in the day. I'm not
Speaker 1: a big sandwich guy to begin with. And if I
Speaker 1: if I'm craving sounds a Subway, well number one, that's
Speaker 1: not fair to me. But if Subway wants to sponsor
Speaker 1: the podcast, I'm totally fine with it. But I will
Speaker 1: say Bison, which is I went to University of Arizona
Speaker 1: for a year in Tucson, and I may have stayed
Speaker 1: there more than two months only because of Bison Witches.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite sandwich in the United States. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that's saying something. I might need to go and check
Speaker 1: it out. Then, yeah. Yeah, when you go back to
Speaker 1: see your family or whatever, you gotta go there. What
Speaker 1: have you been doing in quarantine to pass time? Not much.
Speaker 1: Monday is kind of routine now. I wake up, cook breakfast, workout, shower,
Speaker 1: read the Bible. Started reading this book by Rick Warren
Speaker 1: called The Purpose Driven Life like read chapter that after
Speaker 1: that either movies, video games, not too much. Yeah, between
Speaker 1: the book and the Bible, it does sound like you're
Speaker 1: taking this time to do some self reflection, which is good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to waste his time now
Speaker 1: that I do have it. I'm not at the training
Speaker 1: room or out in the bottle driving around onto the malls.
Speaker 1: Now that we're mandatory to stay home, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to waste the time by just sitting here
Speaker 1: on the couch and getting lazy and and not making
Speaker 1: it the best. You know. The weirdest thing for me,
Speaker 1: I I didn't think i'd miss anything. I'm pretty much
Speaker 1: a homebody and my wife especially loves to stay home
Speaker 1: so and we have a nine month old, so it
Speaker 1: works out perfectly. But I missed them all, you know what,
Speaker 1: you both man, I missed them all as well. And
Speaker 1: I never buy a sting at the mall. I just
Speaker 1: missed walking in the mall and having the option and
Speaker 1: seeing all the people around. I like the people watch
Speaker 1: so I know me too, and food courts, the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I miss it all. But I have caught you streaming
Speaker 1: a little bit of video games. I know Fortnite is
Speaker 1: one of your favorites. What else have you been playing?
Speaker 1: That's about it? Fortnite not gonna have this time. I
Speaker 1: watched all the Star Wars movies, and uh, right now,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of high on Star Wars. So I bought
Speaker 1: a game and I beat the game that ago that
Speaker 1: pretty You are twenty four years old, so I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that this might be your first run at the
Speaker 1: original Star Wars movies. What are you up to? Like?
Speaker 1: What have you seen? I've seen them all. I watched
Speaker 1: everything the one and that was the first time you've
Speaker 1: seen him ever. Oh yeah, well, my brother he was
Speaker 1: trying to make me go watch the newest one that
Speaker 1: just came up, and you know me, I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I got to see the person one. I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: know what's going on. So I decided to watch them
Speaker 1: all and then I just saw the most recent one
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, it was pretty good.
Speaker 1: It is pretty good. It's a decent review from you.
Speaker 1: I will say, now that you've seen them all, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite one? They're all different, I think because I
Speaker 1: am twenty four, there has a lot to do with
Speaker 1: the graphics. You know. I'm gonna go with like the
Speaker 1: last one that just came out, the last trilogy was
Speaker 1: pretty good, and then maybe the ones before that, like one, two,
Speaker 1: and three. Oh, like the prequels. Yeah, that's a hot take, LEVI.
Speaker 1: I mean, but like I said, I'm I'm more of
Speaker 1: a graphics type person. You know. The older ones are
Speaker 1: just kind of too old. I love the story of them,
Speaker 1: it's just a little too old. So yeah, that that
Speaker 1: is a hot take to like the prequels. But if
Speaker 1: you look at the originals, it is true. Yoda has
Speaker 1: like a stick in his back. I agree. It's all
Speaker 1: kind of very jankie, but I guess it's that was
Speaker 1: good when we were kids, right. Yeah, now you can
Speaker 1: definitely see the difference on the yellow. Yes, there you
Speaker 1: have a c g I Yoda. We had one made
Speaker 1: of a sock for sure. Uh So, congratulations on signing
Speaker 1: a brand new one year deal with the Bills. That
Speaker 1: must have been a great feeling. Just a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago was making that happen with the team and your
Speaker 1: agent and getting all the pieces together. Was it any
Speaker 1: harder because of the pandemic? No, not even a little good.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's really affected me or what I
Speaker 1: had going on this offseason. We came to an agreement
Speaker 1: and got it done. That works out. So the season
Speaker 1: is currently set to open in September with tons of
Speaker 1: questions circulating about if it'll be empty arenas or if
Speaker 1: you're playing at all. What's your feeling on a season
Speaker 1: actually happening in Do you see football without fans? Do
Speaker 1: you see football at all? I honestly don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: it just depends on how this all shakes out with
Speaker 1: the vaccine or you know, how however long we're going
Speaker 1: to be in this quarantine. I know for me personally,
Speaker 1: I would not like to play without fans. You know,
Speaker 1: I think swssler in Buffalo, But we have the best fans.
Speaker 1: We use that to our advantage for sure, and it'd
Speaker 1: just be a whole different field to not be able
Speaker 1: to play in front of the people that support us
Speaker 1: the most. You know that on the most loyal fans
Speaker 1: in the country. And yeah, I'm not sure if we
Speaker 1: have this season or not. You know, I think it's
Speaker 1: bigger than football right now as far as keeping everyone
Speaker 1: healthy and safe. Yeah, it's so hard for me to
Speaker 1: grasp what sports is gonna look like, and that's part
Speaker 1: of the reason we started the podcast. But like you said,
Speaker 1: it's just it's hard to imagine football or any sport
Speaker 1: without anyone in the stands. All right. You were saying
Speaker 1: about the garage that you have a gym set up there.
Speaker 1: So are you continuing to condition and trained to stay
Speaker 1: in shape? Yeah, I mean I would hate to go,
Speaker 1: you know, next next month they say, all right, we're
Speaker 1: going back, and I'm out of shape. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've gained too much, right to have a
Speaker 1: fast and capitalism, but just being out of shape or
Speaker 1: not as strong as I know I could be. Kind
Speaker 1: of had surgery back in January, so I've been be
Speaker 1: having that as well, trying to get that back strong.
Speaker 1: Do you need to go see a physical therapist? Are
Speaker 1: you able to do it all on your own? Because
Speaker 1: I know I have friends who need physical therapy and
Speaker 1: those offices seem to be closed. Yeah. I think now
Speaker 1: I've gotten to the point. So I was trying to
Speaker 1: strengthen it. So I FaceTime my trainers and they watched
Speaker 1: me do the exercises that we go from there. I
Speaker 1: don't really need someone just staring at me, you know,
Speaker 1: being a professionally and being able to take care of
Speaker 1: what you want to take care of, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: really affect me. You had a great end of two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, quite a nice streak, which was helpful when
Speaker 1: negotiating your deal. I'm sure does it feel weird at
Speaker 1: all to sort of have that momentum slowed up? Or
Speaker 1: do you think it won't be a problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've been playing almost your whole life, so I wonder
Speaker 1: will this mess things up timing wise in your head?
Speaker 1: Not for me. He's got to treat it just like
Speaker 1: it's regular O T. As you know, we still start
Speaker 1: meetings on zoom and then you're still conditioning. I think
Speaker 1: the only thing that's kind of affected is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a team chemistry that's built during O T
Speaker 1: A S. But I think you can make up for
Speaker 1: that during camp, and I think we'll have a camp
Speaker 1: before we even get to the season. There aren't many
Speaker 1: players in the NFL that have faced what you have
Speaker 1: and what you've overcome. You you walked onto the prestigious
Speaker 1: Alabama football team and fought your way to to a
Speaker 1: walk on scholarship junior year to end up playing in
Speaker 1: the national championship team. Then you went on drafted, worked
Speaker 1: your way from the practice Bill's squad to a starting
Speaker 1: job and now another contract. It's truly inspiring when you
Speaker 1: see what we're facing as a nation right now and
Speaker 1: you've been through your own personal fights to to not
Speaker 1: give up on your passion. What do you see as
Speaker 1: ways to keep us going? I know, for me, I'm
Speaker 1: big in my faith and I have been for years now,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what just kept pushing me. So
Speaker 1: you make all these thoughts that I have, So I
Speaker 1: think that's what keeps my head on and keeps me going.
Speaker 1: You knowing that this is all going to pass eventually.
Speaker 1: Walking on it passed, you know, the story of meeting
Speaker 1: under Dollar. It's going to pass eventually. UM, and then
Speaker 1: I'll get the respect that I deserved eventually, just like
Speaker 1: everyone else in this pandemic, that is going to pass,
Speaker 1: you know, and we have to keep going. UM. And
Speaker 1: until then, what I do I see? Like I said,
Speaker 1: I say in my Bible. I pray every day, especially
Speaker 1: for others. Made a list my song ago with the
Speaker 1: people that I talked to over the phone, and pray
Speaker 1: for them. You know, those are some of the hardest
Speaker 1: stories that I've heard when I know they're going through
Speaker 1: a lot worse than I am. Oh, I think that's
Speaker 1: the only thing that we can do to keep our
Speaker 1: spirits up. Just enjoy the time with your family that
Speaker 1: you have. Yeah. And and for those who don't know,
Speaker 1: you did do something extremely unique and thoughtful. You posted
Speaker 1: your actual phone number on Instagram and you ask people
Speaker 1: to call you if they were looking for support or
Speaker 1: just had some football questions or felt lonely. What made
Speaker 1: you do that? Uh? I saw Mike Todd do it,
Speaker 1: pastor of Transformation Church, go I follow and it just
Speaker 1: inspired me. So I said, I have a platform too,
Speaker 1: So let me just check open on Bill's Mafia and
Speaker 1: see how everyone's doing. Um that's who mostly follows me,
Speaker 1: as well as Alabama fans. So I just want to
Speaker 1: check them on people and see if I could help
Speaker 1: them anyway, if I could pray for them. Um, just
Speaker 1: letting others they're not allowed in this that I'm literally
Speaker 1: alone sitting into my house, you know, by myself. So
Speaker 1: if I can try to give them a little bit
Speaker 1: of hope, you know, I hope I did. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: you got five calls in the first seven and a
Speaker 1: half hours. What were some of those calls? Like? Um?
Speaker 1: Half of them were just asking about the season and
Speaker 1: things like that. When I tried to tell people that
Speaker 1: I didn't want to answer football questions, you know, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to really genuinely check on them and how
Speaker 1: they were doing. But you know, football is just a
Speaker 1: great distraction sports are as well, and you can see
Speaker 1: it as there's no sports being played. So I think
Speaker 1: people just missed talking about sports. So I had kind
Speaker 1: of sense to the people about the season and and
Speaker 1: my play and what I thought about this upcoming season.
Speaker 1: W was which was nice, um, But my main focus
Speaker 1: was just pray for people and stuck on the well being. UM.
Speaker 1: I heard stories from people that did have the chronovirus
Speaker 1: that were laid up in the hospital, the people who
Speaker 1: just lost the grandparents or their mom and dads. It
Speaker 1: was hard to your stories like that. I talked to
Speaker 1: people from all over overseas, Hawaii, Michigan, Missouri, Florida, everywhere
Speaker 1: even in Canada. Do you plan on keeping the line open, Like,
Speaker 1: did you get calls today? No? No, that was actually
Speaker 1: I had got another number that wasn't my actual action number.
Speaker 1: I had a second number, the burner number. The burner number. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well listening. If I have a bad game, I don't
Speaker 1: want everyone's just blowing up my phone, so listen. I'll
Speaker 1: pray that they don't call you on bad days, just
Speaker 1: on good games. Well, it's all right. I got through
Speaker 1: all the numbers and it was easily over a thousand.
Speaker 1: It took me a good four days and I I
Speaker 1: was living the most time of being since last year's
Speaker 1: training camps. Yeah. I assume that makes up for some
Speaker 1: of the workouts in two days. You aren't doing yet, right.
Speaker 1: Have you been able to keep in touch with your teammates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we touch every day, not not all the teammates, but
Speaker 1: I try to reach out to a different teammate every
Speaker 1: single day. This is check on them and make sure
Speaker 1: that the family is good. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: people have family and kids um in this organization, So
Speaker 1: even the coaches, I've reached out to them and just ask.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think everyone's excited just to start talking
Speaker 1: about football again. So we usually try to wrap up
Speaker 1: with something positive. And then I'll be stupid, uh and
Speaker 1: give you some suggestions of things I think you should
Speaker 1: do in quarantine. But first, is there anything that you
Speaker 1: think that's been going on during this quarantine, during the
Speaker 1: pandemic that you think we could maybe continue to do
Speaker 1: once we're out of it, Something that we picked up
Speaker 1: as a new habit or a new process that you
Speaker 1: think is good moving forward. We should stick with this one. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure about that one. Honestly, I'll give
Speaker 1: you mine. I'll give you mine. We we talked about
Speaker 1: it a little up top. I'm wearing sweatpants. You'll see
Speaker 1: me out in public matter where I am, I'll be.
Speaker 1: I'll be at a business meeting, and I'll be straight
Speaker 1: up wearing sweats right. I mean, I mean that's not
Speaker 1: a bad one at all, I think, I think for
Speaker 1: me personally, I just used this time to get into
Speaker 1: the word and um, so to go closer to God.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are looking for something,
Speaker 1: for a substance to help them do this, and I
Speaker 1: think that searching, searching deeply and realizing that it's right
Speaker 1: there in the Bible. You know. Sure, Well, let's go
Speaker 1: from something powerful to something very dumb. These are suggestions
Speaker 1: that I have for you in quarantine. Here are three
Speaker 1: things that I think will help. You're the only athlete
Speaker 1: I've spoken to so far who was alone, so I
Speaker 1: really appreciate that. So first, I know you're big into Fortnite.
Speaker 1: You've been playing a lot. I have an alternative that's
Speaker 1: a game similar to Fortnite. Okay. It is called Cuisine Royale.
Speaker 1: It's available on Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation four. Just like
Speaker 1: the Fortnite Battle Royal games. It's free to play. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not a sponsor. It's just a very cool thing
Speaker 1: that I play every once in a while. It started
Speaker 1: as like an April fool's joke. It's a lot like Fortnite.
Speaker 1: It's pretty standard as far as Battle Royal games go.
Speaker 1: The big difference is that all the armor that you
Speaker 1: use in the game is stuff you find, and it's
Speaker 1: kitchen where so like pots and pans and walks and
Speaker 1: cutlery and wafflemakers, um. And as you find them, you
Speaker 1: sort of wrap them around and strap them onto your body,
Speaker 1: like a grill pan against your butt to protect it
Speaker 1: from shots. And the funny part about that is you
Speaker 1: can't really sneak up on people because it clinks and
Speaker 1: clinks when you sort of run, so you have to
Speaker 1: sort of understand that that's part of the game. It's
Speaker 1: very fluid, great online play. It's graphics are way more
Speaker 1: impressive than Fortnite or any of the other things. But yes,
Speaker 1: you do have to keep in mind that the pots
Speaker 1: and pans make noise when you're running up a Cuisine
Speaker 1: Royale Royal. Alright, I didn't I didn't get the enthusiasm
Speaker 1: I wanted, but at least you wrote it down My
Speaker 1: second one. No, I'm actually looking it up. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: it's free. It's you know, it's like those those games
Speaker 1: that everyone loves, the p U, B G and whatever.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, Quisine Royal is the one that
Speaker 1: got me. Alright, alright, alright, I'm giving myself a strong
Speaker 1: C minus on that when here comes a B in
Speaker 1: my opinion or maybe even in a I think for
Speaker 1: television on Netflix, the show Cheer is for you. Do
Speaker 1: you know about Cheer? I heard about it, and I
Speaker 1: don't think that. I'm telling you. I didn't think so either.
Speaker 1: I thought I'm not going to be into this. This
Speaker 1: is stupid. And I started hearing from people it's a
Speaker 1: show about the Navro uh or Navarro, it said both ways.
Speaker 1: It's a college nationally ranked for competitive cheerleading as they
Speaker 1: get ready for the championships in Florida. Uh. Great character
Speaker 1: development and you'd be shocked how much athleticism and like
Speaker 1: focus these people need to do dances that I thought
Speaker 1: were kind of trivial, but they're definitely not. And it's
Speaker 1: super emotional, very fun. U h. We'll see. I need
Speaker 1: to I need to finish Tiger King first, definitely a
Speaker 1: different vibe, and then say I need to watch Park yet,
Speaker 1: both different vibes and cheer, but if you want to
Speaker 1: be raised back up, it's very spiritual, very positive from
Speaker 1: both of those very dark places of Tiger King and Ozark.
Speaker 1: I have. I have the more, the more uplifting version
Speaker 1: for Netflix. All right, cheer, Okay, you know I'll give it.
Speaker 1: I'll give it one episode and then I'll let you
Speaker 1: know how how I feel about it. Perfect. I'm definitely
Speaker 1: writing on mediocrity here. My third one is very easy.
Speaker 1: This is so simple. You have friends in two sons.
Speaker 1: Still you need your first bison witches sandwich while in quarantine. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know how I'm gonna be able
Speaker 1: to do that. Okay, I have an idea, all right,
Speaker 1: dry ice in a cooler and they just put a
Speaker 1: couple of sandwiches inside the cooler and then they mail
Speaker 1: it to you. It can't be that long to Buffalo.
Speaker 1: Probably two days, you know what. I'm gonna try it out.
Speaker 1: You know, have you have you been to No? Where's that?
Speaker 1: No where where near the university. Man, there's is only
Speaker 1: in Tucson. They have everywhere. Well, maybe I have to
Speaker 1: have something sent in a cooler now, Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: you have to try. It's literally what Tuson is famous for.
Speaker 1: Oh I thought it was famous for the few months
Speaker 1: I went there. Uh. LEVI thank you so much for
Speaker 1: talking to me, and I want you to stay safe
Speaker 1: and healthy. And I'm very impressed by how you're able
Speaker 1: to go through quarantine by yourself. It's very cool, and
Speaker 1: I guarantee you're coming out of this thing even it
Speaker 1: sounds like even a stronger dude. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: No worries, man, stay safe after this. In another installment
Speaker 1: of Pandemic, we'll check in with comedian and host of
Speaker 1: My Heart's the Greatest podcast c J Toldano. Right now,
Speaker 1: Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations,
Speaker 1: like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals
Speaker 1: whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to
Speaker 1: have access to food and other needed resources during the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is
Speaker 1: committed to serving communities and people saying hunger in America
Speaker 1: and their greatest need is donations and support of local
Speaker 1: food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion
Speaker 1: of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and
Speaker 1: we hope that you can join us in this effort
Speaker 1: to find out how you can help. But Feeding America
Speaker 1: dot org backslash COVID nineteen. Now My chat with c J. Toladano,
Speaker 1: co host of iHeart Radios podcast, The Greatest, and the
Speaker 1: only personnel allowed to say Reggie Miller's name on our show.
Speaker 1: It's the latest installment of pandemic. Hello, c J. It's Jensen.
Speaker 1: I'm doing as well as I can. I'm I'm calling
Speaker 1: a bunch of the funny people I know in sports
Speaker 1: for the podcast and trying to figure out first how
Speaker 1: they're surviving without sports in general, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Your job revolves around basketball mostly, how are you surviving this? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, like everyone else were just scrolling Twitter endlessly
Speaker 1: looking for any sort of story that would distract us.
Speaker 1: But then luckily, you know, I think a few big
Speaker 1: athletes and in some other people they petitioned for this
Speaker 1: Jordan's Dock to come out, and it has created the
Speaker 1: most bizarre reality where the biggest story in sports right
Speaker 1: now are the nineties bulls. And so I'd like, for oddly,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of my friends, I mean, I
Speaker 1: work in sports, but still like I was still like
Speaker 1: an outcast, especially with like young social media people. I
Speaker 1: used to be based one of my coworkers for having
Speaker 1: seen Jordan's Live and now everyone is asking me about
Speaker 1: my Jordan's stories and I don't know the guy. I
Speaker 1: was just a fan growing up with my men effluence,
Speaker 1: Like give me your Jordan's inside. I'm like, it's been
Speaker 1: on YouTube for decades, like go find it. And so
Speaker 1: you know, this Jordan Dock has just been such a
Speaker 1: talking point and it's just crazy to me. My wife
Speaker 1: hates Jordan or hated Jordan's and because you know her
Speaker 1: being big sportsman, because it's the only sort of newish
Speaker 1: thing that we have to accord to every week. She's
Speaker 1: now like in love with the Bulls, which is bizarre. Again,
Speaker 1: I guess to like with the House of Highlights, which
Speaker 1: is where you work and bleach your report and such.
Speaker 1: So did you would you have ever predicted that Scottie
Speaker 1: Pippen would come off as such sort of a good dude.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that one coming. No, not at all,
Speaker 1: I mean, and that's why people were like, no, you're
Speaker 1: gonna love the doc. I had a few friends at
Speaker 1: yestern I was like, is there anything new and it
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, maybe not for you, but like
Speaker 1: there's some definitely interesting light put on on you know,
Speaker 1: specific people. And I did not see episode two where
Speaker 1: Scotty was just you know, we all like Scotty was
Speaker 1: the number one thing we're talking about on Sunday of
Speaker 1: like sixth highest player on the Bulls at the time.
Speaker 1: You're and you're you know as kids were like he's
Speaker 1: the second best player in the NBA. You know even
Speaker 1: then that was not true. But it's just like I
Speaker 1: think a hundred and second, you know, highest player player
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and you're like, wow, things just didn't
Speaker 1: like you know, we're all so naive or just didn't
Speaker 1: care about that stuff. But truly injustice that you know
Speaker 1: he was gonna pay that and that Jordan treated him
Speaker 1: that way. I know, and I remember It's so funny.
Speaker 1: I remember middle school there was a Sports Illustrated that
Speaker 1: came out and it was talking about salaries and and
Speaker 1: I do remember seeing a salary from the Calves on
Speaker 1: hot Rod Williams. Do you remember hot Rod? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had he had some ridiculous he was like the
Speaker 1: second highest player in the NBA at one point. I
Speaker 1: think the eighties and nineties just had some strange contracts
Speaker 1: going around. Yeah, And I would love to see what
Speaker 1: happened with some of these agents in the conversations and
Speaker 1: like the reasons why. But I think, you know, and
Speaker 1: I think it we'll finding out a lot about these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, their demeanor and their personas. Just like I
Speaker 1: just think Scotty didn't know, like he didn't know how
Speaker 1: good he was yet and how important he was for
Speaker 1: that team's chemistry, that he didn't really value himself. But
Speaker 1: I love did you see his wife then tweeted out
Speaker 1: like he's doing fine, and then then his salary for
Speaker 1: the rest of his NBA career. No, I mean, I
Speaker 1: know she's quite outspoken for how quiet Scotty is. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he he was standing up for him and that obviously
Speaker 1: that relation ship was always like making you know, the tabloids.
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, this is like truly waking up
Speaker 1: the weirdest sports timeline I've I've ever been, you know,
Speaker 1: witnessed to another question about Pippen. So you know, we
Speaker 1: watched Oklahoma City. We want we watched like the thunder
Speaker 1: kind of dissipate in a sense, we had three great
Speaker 1: players kind of work for and then they and then
Speaker 1: hardened leaves. And then would that have happened to Scotty
Speaker 1: in twenty you know, in the odds like or or
Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen, would he have left and went to another
Speaker 1: team if it wasn't the eighties and nineties, I really
Speaker 1: think yes, I mean, waste the money or just you
Speaker 1: know the way and you know, hang back and somehow
Speaker 1: these guys hang out with each other because like that
Speaker 1: story about Gage going golfing with Jordan's eighties six before
Speaker 1: the playoff game, like the conversations that some of these
Speaker 1: guys had. I think after seeing Lebron goo to Miami,
Speaker 1: I think that just open up the floodgates for all
Speaker 1: these guys going. You know, there's nothing off limits. You know,
Speaker 1: we can play here, like Katie going to the Warriors.
Speaker 1: I totally think Pitpan could have got swayed to go
Speaker 1: somewhere else and be like, hey, you're a number one
Speaker 1: guy and who else do you want? And we can
Speaker 1: build around that. You know, if this happened today. It's
Speaker 1: so funny too, because we're coming off this tragic obviously
Speaker 1: Kobe bryant death and Jordan's was such an enigma at
Speaker 1: that funeral. I was baffled to see one, you know,
Speaker 1: he was so active with helping Vanessa off the stage
Speaker 1: and sort of and then to see how emotional and
Speaker 1: how close he was with Kobe Bryant. No one knew
Speaker 1: at all their relationship. I mean, he is just he's
Speaker 1: sort of just wrapped in layers, and obviously this documentary
Speaker 1: is showing more of that. Well, so one day I
Speaker 1: called out for and I totally will admit it is
Speaker 1: like being sort of a front runner, Like I love
Speaker 1: Lebron and the Lakers. Like I tell everyone, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just love players, you know, I grew up loving
Speaker 1: nineties balls in Jordan, obviously, and when Julian retired the
Speaker 1: first time, I found a hard time for in the NBA,
Speaker 1: Like I could not watch they were just so bad.
Speaker 1: And so then I started watching back, you know, other
Speaker 1: players in in like no to saying, you're just like
Speaker 1: looking back on careers of like Reggie and and um
Speaker 1: the Jazz and and some of these other guys, and
Speaker 1: I forgot, you know, and I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I really robbed myself as a basketball fan of loving
Speaker 1: other players. And then yeah, with this Kobe stuff, his
Speaker 1: speech for you know, after the fifteen the fifteen time
Speaker 1: I had cried after Cope's death, of all the things happening,
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm done. And then when Jordan spoke,
Speaker 1: I was like, like, the like an event to make German,
Speaker 1: you know, look like a human. This document this documentary
Speaker 1: is doing, is furthering that even more. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like you can't learn more. But I didn't think,
Speaker 1: I know her learn any more about this team and
Speaker 1: some of these players. So some crazy and the odd
Speaker 1: reveal of a sense of humor that with with the
Speaker 1: meme joke. I mean, I was like talking about a
Speaker 1: guy who hasn't had a sense of humor about himself ever.
Speaker 1: NBA players always age a little weird. Let's be honest here,
Speaker 1: but this one has been quite a year for him
Speaker 1: to Who would have thought out of all of this,
Speaker 1: we get we get more. Michael Jordan's Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's helping me out. People want to talk to me more.
Speaker 1: I don't look like a freak in conversations, but yeah,
Speaker 1: who yeah, just acknowledge that mean midway through just the
Speaker 1: circumstances around it was just like, wow, it's incredible. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a wild moment. So House of Highlights has
Speaker 1: so much to do with humor, and you're you're the
Speaker 1: head writer there and do a lot of their funny things.
Speaker 1: What you said, You've been scrolling Basketball Twitter of the players.
Speaker 1: What's the funniest stuff that's been coming out of this
Speaker 1: time off for beball dudes? I mean, honestly, it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's what are what are players doing in their quarantine?
Speaker 1: I think, um, you know, it's funny seeing Lebron's struggle
Speaker 1: a little bit again it's like, you know, these are giants,
Speaker 1: these are gods if you look up too. But then
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, without their barber, they feel you know,
Speaker 1: they're having the same sort of their their wives cutting
Speaker 1: their own hair, and they again, these guys are looking
Speaker 1: more like people. It's like Star Wars are just like us.
Speaker 1: We're seeing a lot of that. And that's that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think we're prepared for. I think
Speaker 1: in the first few days as house of highlights for
Speaker 1: anyone's not familiar, like, we curate a lot of the
Speaker 1: kind of the funny, like the the unusual, over the
Speaker 1: fun like church shots or whatever. We thought, oh no,
Speaker 1: we're going to run out of content. But players just
Speaker 1: just their lives are so entertaining. And again it's that
Speaker 1: resonation of like players are dealing with it the same
Speaker 1: way we are. Everyone's trapped in their house, Like none
Speaker 1: of these guys have a home gym, so everyone's ordering
Speaker 1: off the same target dot Com trying to get equipment
Speaker 1: and people are just like doing squats with rice bags. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, it's the organ trail of gym's right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I also want to ask about Horse. Did you watch
Speaker 1: it were you were you invested. Yes, we again, my
Speaker 1: wife and I watched it because we're just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember when Horse was an
Speaker 1: All Star event um in the I think that two
Speaker 1: thousand's and Kevin Durant one and even me, they knew
Speaker 1: how silly it was because the trophy was a diorama
Speaker 1: of a horse toy um And I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: we're really in the thick of this. If this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing. We're sending you know, we're having zoom
Speaker 1: calls of Horse and airing it on ESPN Maine, and
Speaker 1: you know, we watched it. It wasn't great. It was
Speaker 1: just it was nice to see that the players doing
Speaker 1: well and talk about the current situation. Um. But also
Speaker 1: it highlighted the disparity between NBA and w NBA salaries.
Speaker 1: Like to show Mike Conley's high school Jim, which was
Speaker 1: his house, and to make catching is just playing in
Speaker 1: her driveway and her son is in the background freezing,
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, and it's a house that
Speaker 1: my parents like living. You know, like these are pro players,
Speaker 1: Like we got like we we got to use this
Speaker 1: as an exhibit for getting w m A players paid more.
Speaker 1: I know. I talked to Ian Carmel about that as well.
Speaker 1: I had brought it up when we spoke. I felt
Speaker 1: like some of the w n b A players that
Speaker 1: were on like a flip phone, and I was like,
Speaker 1: we have to we have to normalize their salaries best
Speaker 1: TikTok and n b A. We obviously put Jordan Clark's
Speaker 1: in up top. We put Lebron up top. Am I
Speaker 1: missing anyone? Matisse thy bowled the young guy on the Sixers.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, there's some of the guys who
Speaker 1: just have like fascinating lives and just like silly friends
Speaker 1: around them, so like maybe see their social media is
Speaker 1: gonna be fun. But I think this young kid in
Speaker 1: tease on the Sixers, he kind of knows like sketch
Speaker 1: comedy um or like beats, And I think TikTok is
Speaker 1: kind of teaching some of these kids that, like they're like,
Speaker 1: all right, you get this joke off on this one
Speaker 1: shot and then we once in the night, like you
Speaker 1: cut there. So like he has a little bit of that,
Speaker 1: and I've been really enjoying his stuff. I gotta follow him.
Speaker 1: If we do not go back to playoff basketball, which
Speaker 1: at this point, I just don't see it. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna happen. Do the Lakers deserve to win this?
Speaker 1: I know there's some weird by law that gives him
Speaker 1: the championship doesn't mean anything. I just I they're my
Speaker 1: number one team. I don't think they deserve to just
Speaker 1: be handed it, you know, and and maybe I think
Speaker 1: it it's a little bit more you like, you know,
Speaker 1: they beat the Clippers and the Bucks, but Bucks had
Speaker 1: the best record. It's just there's so many factors involved
Speaker 1: in to just give the championship to somebody. I though,
Speaker 1: if the season must end now, it just doesn't seem fair.
Speaker 1: I would just rather it be an asterix and you know,
Speaker 1: next season, whenever it comes back, they you know, everyone
Speaker 1: just starts at the zero again. But yeah, hearing Adam
Speaker 1: Silver say that they know nothing, there's been no new information,
Speaker 1: they don't know what to do. But I'm also you know,
Speaker 1: when people go, you know, the cases are following, or
Speaker 1: like the hospitals better equipment. Now, like we just have
Speaker 1: the NBA on an island, and it's just like you've
Speaker 1: got to realize. I think we all started taking this
Speaker 1: pandemic or you know, this whole thing a lot more
Speaker 1: seriously when the NBA shut down, because they have such
Speaker 1: a big platform and those certain people we actually listened to.
Speaker 1: I listened to the NBA, listen at them silver more
Speaker 1: than I do the President. So for them to shut down,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, this is for real. And so the
Speaker 1: same thing is if they go back, you know, and
Speaker 1: they can go back under such strict testing um through
Speaker 1: containment of like hotels and gyms, but people will take
Speaker 1: that sort of vibe, that mood as oh, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is over, Let's go out in the streets and celebrate.
Speaker 1: So I think Silber and these guys know exactly that.
Speaker 1: And you've seen that with the NBA because they have
Speaker 1: set the tone and mood for so many things politically,
Speaker 1: from Donald Sterling and Black Lives Matter and all these
Speaker 1: different things. I do think the NBA, and I've talked
Speaker 1: about it before on this podcast, sets a serious tone
Speaker 1: for our nation pop culturally. It is the most relevant
Speaker 1: sport and has been for the past few years. And
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we talked to Jay Williams on
Speaker 1: the podcast about that weird cruise idea that he's sort
Speaker 1: of backed off now. But I just think it should
Speaker 1: it should be the easy. It should just be Oh,
Speaker 1: everyone's ready to go back out and work. Great. The
Speaker 1: NBA's back. I think that would that would do a
Speaker 1: really good service for our country. Uh. You brought up
Speaker 1: your wife, you are newly married. How has been quarantined
Speaker 1: with Megan? Who's hilarious? I wrote with her at the
Speaker 1: SPS one year. What happened? What has it been like
Speaker 1: being with a new wife, with her twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: can't get out of the house. I think it really
Speaker 1: is solidified and confirmed ours. I know people probably want
Speaker 1: to hear that it's been horrible. Uh, you know, it's great.
Speaker 1: Were It's so funny to me because you know, we
Speaker 1: have a podcast together and people are like, are you
Speaker 1: guys scared to be working on something together because like
Speaker 1: her manager and like people we look up to, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: don't rush into working together, and like, of course we're
Speaker 1: friends for eight years. We dated for three before we
Speaker 1: got married, like when something comes naturally, it'll happen. And
Speaker 1: then because this podcast, and it was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can see what they're saying, but you know, we figured
Speaker 1: it out, you know, and then we got married and
Speaker 1: now we've been in quarantine from over thin the third
Speaker 1: of our marriage, and you know, it's learning on the fly,
Speaker 1: it's zooming out and looking at the bigger picture of everything.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like, yeah, maybe we don't hate each other.
Speaker 1: Maybe we just need to be in a separate room
Speaker 1: for a couple hours. Maybe I am picking too many
Speaker 1: of the movies every night. It's really confirmed the decision
Speaker 1: that you know, I'm glad I married her and married
Speaker 1: to someone who loves sports and we can talk to
Speaker 1: her about that stuff. Well, she rules question. Also, any
Speaker 1: new hobbies between you two, anything you've taken up that
Speaker 1: is new to you? How happy? Let's see. I mean
Speaker 1: I mentioned I mentioned her watching more other movies that
Speaker 1: I picked, which, again I'm trying to be mindful. So
Speaker 1: I've been showing her like a lot of eighties and
Speaker 1: nineties action movies, um, and she's been like really into them.
Speaker 1: We watched, uh, Sudden Death, John Kon Van Damn uh classic,
Speaker 1: such a class. If you watched Long Kiss Good Night,
Speaker 1: we watched. But we have over the Top on deck soon,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Arm wrestling. Yeah, so she's been doing
Speaker 1: that and we've just been, you know, like everyone else
Speaker 1: has been cooking a lot, like some of the best
Speaker 1: meals I've ever had, like sort of god Like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I hope this does not go away. You guys, wait
Speaker 1: you you guys went to a drive through a movie. Yes,
Speaker 1: we went until we went to the drive in the
Speaker 1: other night. Oh my god, I even called I just
Speaker 1: called it a drive through. That's how unattached I am.
Speaker 1: I forgot to even exist before this. But I saw
Speaker 1: you posted it on social media and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's right. Drive ins exist, Yeah, and it's been open
Speaker 1: for years. It's not like just like a pop up thing.
Speaker 1: And we went and it was such a seamless experience.
Speaker 1: They had the system down. Um, you know, it was awesome.
Speaker 1: We saw raiders at the Lost Arm and it was
Speaker 1: just like I felt guilty. I was like, why did
Speaker 1: we turn our backs on these things? Like these are
Speaker 1: gonna come back so hard now and it's like just
Speaker 1: such and maybe you know I'm speaking as you know,
Speaker 1: we live in California. We have such a luxury of
Speaker 1: you know, there's other cities just like snow and you
Speaker 1: can't go outside, but like if your town can do this,
Speaker 1: it's it's awesome. Like you can talk in the car,
Speaker 1: you can be on your phone, you can lay down.
Speaker 1: It's just it's such a great experience. I love that.
Speaker 1: That's so great. Uh So you kind of mentioned it
Speaker 1: a little bit the podcast you have with Megan your wife,
Speaker 1: tell us a little about it. Yeah, I heard had
Speaker 1: this premise. You know, the big thing in sports is
Speaker 1: debating the greatest of all time the goats. I think
Speaker 1: sports media in the last few years really figured out,
Speaker 1: like people just love to debate. Give him a platform
Speaker 1: for that. And so they were looking for a couple
Speaker 1: of hosts and someone recommended Megan and I separately, and
Speaker 1: then they're like, oh man, there are a cup bowl,
Speaker 1: let's get them. And I don't think what I heart
Speaker 1: realized they were getting was this newly wet dynamic of
Speaker 1: you know, sort of the husband and wife pickering. And
Speaker 1: you know, she grew up a pacer, Sana grew a
Speaker 1: bowls fan, and so yeah, there's a lot of disagreeing.
Speaker 1: But then also we invite our friends on and we
Speaker 1: just debate who we think the goats are of certain
Speaker 1: sports categories we do like greatest comeback, greatest athlete cameos
Speaker 1: and the tving film and stuff. Like that. And so
Speaker 1: just this past week you got Reggie Miller on, which
Speaker 1: was you know he is just like he was such
Speaker 1: an instrumental guy and and Megan a nice relationship in
Speaker 1: a weird way. I propose to make an in front
Speaker 1: of Reggie miller mural in Indianapolis a year and a
Speaker 1: half ago. So yeah, it's just again like people are
Speaker 1: warning us of working again, and I know you and
Speaker 1: your wife worked together, and I think anyone who had
Speaker 1: learned us had their own experience because it's been really great.
Speaker 1: You know, I tell Megan, I'm like, even though she
Speaker 1: gets more than teen percent on a lot of the
Speaker 1: projects I do, Um, she's it's be on paper. I
Speaker 1: really I feel bad saying this is essentially putting it
Speaker 1: on paper by saying on this podcast, But like, Megan
Speaker 1: helped my career and I owe a lot to her,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know I shower her with gifts because
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, well she deserves it. My wife and
Speaker 1: I have been working together, even on things that haven't
Speaker 1: been yet announced, and I think the way we've been
Speaker 1: able to kind of get through it is you just
Speaker 1: know what roles you have. I mean, it started as
Speaker 1: soon as you start stepping on each other's roles. I
Speaker 1: think then you're just like you start to resent. But
Speaker 1: if you know what you're supposed to do, this is
Speaker 1: what I bring to the table, this is what he
Speaker 1: or she brings the table. I think I think everything
Speaker 1: is workable totally because it's like if I have feel
Speaker 1: if there's like a lag in the podcast of the interview,
Speaker 1: should be like, this is my time to step and
Speaker 1: then really keep this going. So um yes, those roles
Speaker 1: the true star Megan Listen, c J. Thank you for
Speaker 1: talking to me. Please send my love to the wife
Speaker 1: and stay safe. And I'm excited for you to get
Speaker 1: back the highlights in h O H soon. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: good talking to you. Take care. The No Sports Report
Speaker 1: is produced and distributed by Tree Fort Media. The show
Speaker 1: is executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, and me
Speaker 1: Jensen Cark. Our series producer is Matthew Coogler. Tom Monahan
Speaker 1: is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with additional
Speaker 1: production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Haley Mandelburg,
Speaker 1: with production and editing by Jasper Leak. Our theme music
Speaker 1: is composed by spielkis If you've enjoyed what you've heard,
Speaker 1: please subscribe, rate us, and review us on Apple Podcast.
Speaker 1: You have nothing else to do, send it to your friends, tweet, share,
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Speaker 1: their website. For more information on the No Sports Report,
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