Speaker 1: Welcome to the No Sports Report, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio entry Fork Media. Small note. This episode was
Speaker 1: recorded prior to the murder of George Floyd and the
Speaker 1: resulting global reaction in protests, which is the only reason
Speaker 1: it's not mentioned. Something to keep in mind while listening.
Speaker 1: My name is Jensen Carp and I'm a sports fan.
Speaker 1: But I'm also hesitant. Hesitant to really admit that sports
Speaker 1: is back, because even though we're seeing some of our
Speaker 1: favorites return to the field or racetrack or possibly even court,
Speaker 1: I won't really believe until I see it. Sure, the
Speaker 1: NBA says they'll be at Disney World, but then you
Speaker 1: hear about a dozen players questioning how safe they'll be,
Speaker 1: Which makes sense because I won't be going to see
Speaker 1: Crude two or a shirtless Fete Davidson or whatever showing
Speaker 1: in the theater until I know it's safe. I don't
Speaker 1: expect the guy on the Brooklyn Nets to feel any differently.
Speaker 1: Life is scary, man, I don't blame you for being nervous.
Speaker 1: So to learn more, I'm talking to athletes and sports
Speaker 1: industry professionals about what they're doing during this crazy time,
Speaker 1: hoping to figure out a thing is competing as much
Speaker 1: as I missed watching it. This is the no sports
Speaker 1: report with some sports now. COVID nineteen caused a ripple
Speaker 1: effect in sports broadcasting like we've never seen before, and
Speaker 1: producer Molly Solomon was front and center to experience the damage.
Speaker 1: The eleven time Emmy winner not only is the current
Speaker 1: Executive VP of Content and executive producer for the Golf Channel,
Speaker 1: which saw the sport in its name completely shut down,
Speaker 1: but boy did she sign up for quite a gig.
Speaker 1: As the president of NBC's presentation of Tokyo Olympics. She
Speaker 1: had already helped push the coverage to its highest ratings
Speaker 1: in twenty three years, leading Beijing and O eight, Vancouver
Speaker 1: in two thousand ten, and London in two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: but nothing could have prepared her for a global audible.
Speaker 1: We talked about what changes she'll have to implement with
Speaker 1: the delay, how golf will be without people yelling, Howard
Speaker 1: Stern catchphrases during tea off, and another challenge she's facing
Speaker 1: raising sixteen year old triplets in a quarantine. And I
Speaker 1: check in with actor Luca Jones from People of Earth
Speaker 1: and Shrill to talk about missing seeing k you possibly
Speaker 1: win it all, and we ramble about Andrew Wiggins a
Speaker 1: bunch for another installment of Pandemic. It's all inching back, baby,
Speaker 1: but I'm scared as hell. It's the no Sports Report
Speaker 1: with some sports now. Molly Solomon, Hello, Well, I wanted
Speaker 1: to start off by asking you where you are quarantining
Speaker 1: and how you have been doing well. I am quarantining
Speaker 1: in winter Park, Florida, which is um just outside of Orlando.
Speaker 1: UM and Golf Channel is based in Orlando, so my
Speaker 1: family and I've been living down here for eight years,
Speaker 1: so UM when the pandemic hit, I was actually upstate
Speaker 1: at the Players Championship in Jacksonville, but of course, you know,
Speaker 1: they canceled the second round. We came back down here
Speaker 1: and we've been here. Are we on week twelve or
Speaker 1: week thirteen of quarantine. But I feel really lucky to
Speaker 1: be quarantined in Florida with my family because you know,
Speaker 1: I talked to my friends that are in New York City,
Speaker 1: and you know, to be stuck in the studio apartment
Speaker 1: would just be really, really tough. So we don't have
Speaker 1: it tough. In the golf clubs are open down here. Well.
Speaker 1: Number one you do have it tough. Do not let
Speaker 1: people who are listening think you have it easy. You
Speaker 1: are the mother of triplets sixteen year olds. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think my my triplets hit the they hit the quarantine
Speaker 1: wall this week. They're like, I gotta get out, I
Speaker 1: gotta go to the gym, I gotta get my nails done,
Speaker 1: I gotta see my friends. And and you know, living
Speaker 1: in home with them because my son goes to boarding school,
Speaker 1: but he's home. The other two girls are here, and
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, they're up to like three o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning. I forgot the circadian rhythms, change routines, Like
Speaker 1: they are up so late, and they're they're just like
Speaker 1: stocking each other and fighting, and it's it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a zoo here. I have to tell you.
Speaker 1: Jensen's Yeah, I mean, how do you lock down a
Speaker 1: sixteen year old, let let alone three of them? Are
Speaker 1: you home schooling them? No? No, but I listen, we've
Speaker 1: got an easing computer. I mean, all those parents out
Speaker 1: there that have preschoolers and first graders and even third
Speaker 1: graders in the middle, you know, in the northeast, or
Speaker 1: you know, with bad weather and stuff, now they're good.
Speaker 1: They're virtual learning. Although the irony of all this is right,
Speaker 1: you've always tried for sixteen years to control the number
Speaker 1: of hours they're on their phones. They're on their iPads,
Speaker 1: and they we're like, go to it to get a
Speaker 1: night at six for dinner. I have I have a
Speaker 1: friend who had no computer rule for his I think
Speaker 1: seven year old's a true no computer, no screens rule,
Speaker 1: and it was completely thrown out the window. They now
Speaker 1: have screens. That's how they learned. I mean, and they've
Speaker 1: they've said they were pleasantly surprised by it. Uh yes,
Speaker 1: And you know what my kids at times, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a different generation in that even their interaction
Speaker 1: and they you know, they Google hang out all the time,
Speaker 1: and that's how even when they're doing homework, they're talking
Speaker 1: their friends. They're doing homework together via group chat um.
Speaker 1: But it's all before they're not cheating. But you know,
Speaker 1: even like the stress of my kids taking their Advanced
Speaker 1: Placement u S History tests, you know, we had to
Speaker 1: go through this whole rigamarole. Okay, how do you upload
Speaker 1: your test? And you have to upload starting at this
Speaker 1: time and then you know two percent of the kids
Speaker 1: there four percent weren't able to upload their tests and
Speaker 1: have to take it again in June. Like, there's also
Speaker 1: stress associate with all this, But then there's also been
Speaker 1: the times when UM, I rushed into the room and
Speaker 1: UM kind of zoom bombed their classes by accident, and
Speaker 1: they're just mortified because you know, sixteen year olds are
Speaker 1: mortified by their parents anyway, So then you know I zoomed,
Speaker 1: I zoom bombed their classes, and it's just awful. They're like, Mom,
Speaker 1: now you're supposed to drop them off three blocks away.
Speaker 1: You're not supposed to walk into the zoom no no,
Speaker 1: and not wearing your your spandex from working on on
Speaker 1: the peloton either not cool. Not cool for me, not
Speaker 1: cool for them. Uh. Well, you make television, specifically live sports,
Speaker 1: so consistently when the world is fully functional, that's what
Speaker 1: you do. But what happens when everything you do professionally
Speaker 1: just off. It's been fascinating, and you know when the
Speaker 1: innovation that's happened at NBC Sports and all the networks
Speaker 1: and what what we've done. I'll just putting the Olympics aside.
Speaker 1: I'll talk about my job at Golf Channel, and you
Speaker 1: know the first few weeks, we kind of went dormant
Speaker 1: in that we immediately put replays on the air, and
Speaker 1: then the second week we're like, wait a second, Um,
Speaker 1: we coined a new phrase, watch along. Now let's enhance
Speaker 1: the replays because there's no tournament, so let's have the
Speaker 1: defending champion call in and let's incorporate that into the broadcast.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure some of your listeners, you know, watched
Speaker 1: UM The Masters with you know, Tiger calling in, or
Speaker 1: we did the Augusta National Women'sameter where we had Maria
Speaker 1: Fassi and Jennifer up Chow. And every week on the
Speaker 1: PG tour, we're doing that. So every week we we
Speaker 1: got creative. But the but the bigger point was that
Speaker 1: we're doing this all from home because we immediately shut
Speaker 1: down the facility because one, you know, we wanted it
Speaker 1: to be pristine and ready and clean and quotes when
Speaker 1: we did come back to work, But we also wanted
Speaker 1: to protect the employees most of all, so we shut
Speaker 1: down all production except for essential UM engineering folks that
Speaker 1: need to go into the building, and our engineering team
Speaker 1: built virtual control rooms UM and equally, so you know,
Speaker 1: at NBC Sports, we're you know, we're editing features for
Speaker 1: sports were editing shows from home, and everything takes a
Speaker 1: lot longer. So all of our patients has been tested.
Speaker 1: But I'm so darn proud of what everyone has done
Speaker 1: in terms of leaning in, doing their job, working harder,
Speaker 1: and also, you know, we've learned so many lessons about
Speaker 1: producing content during the pandemic. Yeah, well, I mean, you
Speaker 1: guys have done a great job. And truthfully, golf is
Speaker 1: one of the few sports that is built for social distancing.
Speaker 1: The PGA is set to return on June eleven. Are
Speaker 1: you confident with the regulations that are being set for
Speaker 1: this comeback? Like you're obviously very connected to it. Have
Speaker 1: you felt pretty stable with the with the concepts golf
Speaker 1: by nature can be socially distant. So you think about
Speaker 1: the competition itself, is it's it's not a big pull
Speaker 1: for any of us to figure out how to do that.
Speaker 1: But I would say the harder part of all this
Speaker 1: is UM golf production because we always say it's not
Speaker 1: following one basketball or one hockey puck. Right, You have
Speaker 1: um eighteen holes at times that are all ongoing and
Speaker 1: have players on them. So how are you going to
Speaker 1: cover that? Because the average PG tour. UM production and
Speaker 1: engineering crew is closed to a hundred and forty people.
Speaker 1: You can't have that many people together, not at this
Speaker 1: stage of of what we're fighting. You've probably seen pictures
Speaker 1: of all these packed production trucks. You've got to space
Speaker 1: everybody out. You can't have that producer leaning into the
Speaker 1: director and you know, talking about where they're going next
Speaker 1: and what they're gonna do. You've got to space everybody out.
Speaker 1: And so um, there there's a lot of planning that's
Speaker 1: gonna go on. We're gonna learn a lot the first week. UM.
Speaker 1: Golf Channel also has in June a developmental tour called
Speaker 1: the corn Ferry Tour, which um, you know, we'll just
Speaker 1: use eight cameras, but have to have a whole different
Speaker 1: production plan, and you've got to be thermal screening everybody
Speaker 1: that comes into that compound. And then you've got to
Speaker 1: have a plan if someone gets ill. Um and I
Speaker 1: think we're you know, a great part about being part
Speaker 1: of the NBC Sports group is that you're learning from
Speaker 1: every single sport as we go, Like they're doing the
Speaker 1: Belmont in the coming weeks. We'll have learnings from this
Speaker 1: so we can all lean in on on what everybody's doing.
Speaker 1: But it's darn complicated. But um, you know, we've got
Speaker 1: to get sports back on TV and we're all excited
Speaker 1: to get back to work. And what difference is will
Speaker 1: we see if you're just a golf watcher, not knowing
Speaker 1: any of the production, do you know anything that we'll see?
Speaker 1: Sort of just as viewers, that will seem different in
Speaker 1: a post pandemic world. I think it's not what you're
Speaker 1: gonna see, But what are you going to hear? Or
Speaker 1: what are you not going to hear? Because without fans,
Speaker 1: think about it, you're not going to hear the applause
Speaker 1: when a puck goes in. How is a player going
Speaker 1: to react? Um, without that, you know, goosing of the
Speaker 1: applause of the fans as they walk up the eighteenth pole,
Speaker 1: And so that's going to deal different, be different. You
Speaker 1: know what audio can we hear from the players? Can
Speaker 1: we the players who all those plans are being made?
Speaker 1: How can we enhance and innovate the broadcast to make
Speaker 1: up for the fact that it's going to sound different? Um,
Speaker 1: but it just exactly we may have to pipe in
Speaker 1: those birth sounds shows. But well, I'm I'm just happy
Speaker 1: I'm just happy we're not going to hear people yelling
Speaker 1: ba ba booe on drives. No mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes exactly.
Speaker 1: But then the question is do you want to have
Speaker 1: a Rider Cup without fans because there's such an integral
Speaker 1: part of all this. So um, it's to be determined.
Speaker 1: But I think we all want to see our favorite
Speaker 1: players in all sports get back. Well, that's true. People
Speaker 1: are clearly feeding for golf and the two charity events
Speaker 1: that we've had, the match with Peyton and Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: and Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson was the most watch
Speaker 1: golfing event and cable history. If you're listening to Turner,
Speaker 1: they said about six million viewers live. The tailor made
Speaker 1: Driving Relief brought in more than ten million for charity. Uh,
Speaker 1: it seems like this is a sport that's going to
Speaker 1: lead the way. Uh did you see that happening? Did
Speaker 1: you ever think you're of like, wow, we really will
Speaker 1: see a bump here. I I think you're seeing it. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, part of Golf Channel is golf Now, which
Speaker 1: is a digital teatime service, and they're finding that their
Speaker 1: numbers are through the roof that people want to get
Speaker 1: outside after they've been cooped up for the last few
Speaker 1: weeks and maybe you know, fingers class that colflight even
Speaker 1: see resurgeons and participation because of this, because it's as
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, it's the perfect social distancing sport.
Speaker 1: Were quarantine with your family and then go out as
Speaker 1: a force and to get out and walk all those
Speaker 1: things we haven't been able to do so um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think golf with this new generation of stars has
Speaker 1: been on the precipice of you know, really resonating and
Speaker 1: Tiger coming back and playing well. It's been a shot
Speaker 1: in the arm. And now we get this. I think
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of interest in in golf
Speaker 1: this summer when it comes back. But also think about
Speaker 1: this fall. You're gonna have this cluster of the FedEx
Speaker 1: Playoffs and the major championships, So we're gonna also have
Speaker 1: this goose in the fall, and then we're gonna come
Speaker 1: right back out in the spring and how the Masters
Speaker 1: both in November and April. So it's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 1: So you're also going to get all the great players
Speaker 1: playing a concentrated schedule. So that's what you always want
Speaker 1: to see. You know, your favorite golfers playing every week,
Speaker 1: and I think we're going to get more of that
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic. Well, on the on the less
Speaker 1: positive side for the pandemic, two very important women in
Speaker 1: sports broadcasting passed away Phyllis, George Brown and more A Manned.
Speaker 1: Two incredible people who really pioneered uh kind of women
Speaker 1: in this sports journalism and broadcast world. I was wondering
Speaker 1: if you could explain what either of these two women
Speaker 1: meant to you or your dealings with either. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: never knew more Um she worked at Yes Fan, but
Speaker 1: I knew all of her friends, and I was a
Speaker 1: big fan of her work and always heard about her
Speaker 1: leadership on the SPS and just how passionate she was.
Speaker 1: And when she passed away, I wanted to know more
Speaker 1: about her. So I called a number of friends just
Speaker 1: to tell me more about her, because I just wanted
Speaker 1: to pay tribute to to what she had achieved, but
Speaker 1: also what she meant to all these people and her
Speaker 1: her pursuit of excellence. That was my takeaway, and her
Speaker 1: passion was just unparalleled. And then on the Phillis George
Speaker 1: Front never got to meet her, but she was the
Speaker 1: reason I dreamed big. I remember in the seventies I
Speaker 1: would sit down with my dad and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: in the NFL today there was this woman. I'd never
Speaker 1: seen a woman covering sports before, and as we like
Speaker 1: to say, if you can see it, you can be it.
Speaker 1: And and all of a sudden, I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: maybe I could have a career in sports. So um,
Speaker 1: I look at her as as my first role model.
Speaker 1: So um. I only wish I could have told her
Speaker 1: that and I should have reached out. But um, Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: I love all the tributes that have poured in for her.
Speaker 1: That's great. After this more with the executive producer and
Speaker 1: President of NBC Olympics and the Golf Channel, Molly Solomon.
Speaker 1: Now let's get back to Molly. You were to be
Speaker 1: the EP and president of NBC's Olympic presentation of Tokyo Games,
Speaker 1: which is an incredible honor. It's now been postponed. We
Speaker 1: can get into details in a second, but I figured
Speaker 1: a large scale here one firework canon to a thousand
Speaker 1: firework canons. How far were you into pre production at
Speaker 1: that point? Very much so. I think when you get
Speaker 1: into the spring before a summer Olympics you're probably you
Speaker 1: know there, maybe even there, so we were ready to go,
Speaker 1: and it was it was incredibly disappointing but understandable, and
Speaker 1: it just seemed to happen so very fast. But when
Speaker 1: you look at what's happened throughout the world, you know
Speaker 1: how the athletes could have been ready. It just it
Speaker 1: was inevitable. So disappointed, um disappointed for the athletes and
Speaker 1: and for all the Olympics fans around the world. And
Speaker 1: what was the timeline for you finding out things would
Speaker 1: be pushed back? Because now it's very obvious, I think,
Speaker 1: but at one time the Olympics were truly on the fence.
Speaker 1: It was it was a almost a poll of emergency.
Speaker 1: Oh you know, it's it's a it's a worldwide organization,
Speaker 1: the IOC, so they're taking into account, you know, all
Speaker 1: the athletes throughout the world, all the different countries, and
Speaker 1: if you remember in March, what was happening was just
Speaker 1: happening so fast. I remember being up at the Players Championship.
Speaker 1: One day we're playing golf and then next day we've
Speaker 1: we've canceled, you know, for the foreseeable future. So you know,
Speaker 1: the i was taking all that into consideration. But once
Speaker 1: you saw, once you saw what was happening in the
Speaker 1: world over, it really was inevitable. And now I assume
Speaker 1: you are deep in the adjusting phase, uh in what
Speaker 1: has to be the most challenging part for you? What
Speaker 1: is the thing that's the hardest, I mean, just the
Speaker 1: easy question. What's the hardest for you? Now? The hardest
Speaker 1: part is the weight. But I do think the anticipation
Speaker 1: now for the Olympics UM is gonna is gonna be
Speaker 1: even greater. I mean, the Summer Olympics is it's the
Speaker 1: greatest event I think in sports. And now we're going
Speaker 1: to have the world coming together next July for the
Speaker 1: first time, you know, since the since this pandemic. So
Speaker 1: really it's the re emergence of this global community together
Speaker 1: in Tokyo. So I think the anticipation is going to
Speaker 1: be incredible. UM on a on an NBC scale, I
Speaker 1: find it exciting, energizing and terrifying the fact that we're
Speaker 1: going to be producing two Olympics within UM within six months.
Speaker 1: Because when we close UM the Tokyo Olympics, we have
Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty days until the Beijing Winter and
Speaker 1: we have a super Bowl in there. The first weekend
Speaker 1: on NBC, so you can see where, um, this is
Speaker 1: something we haven't done. NBC. ABC used to do UM
Speaker 1: to Olympics every year, but it wasn't quite on this
Speaker 1: man at the scale as we do these days with
Speaker 1: cable television. But there's something kind of fun in parallel path.
Speaker 1: One day, you know, from one meeting, I'll be going
Speaker 1: through the Beijing you know, minute by minute schedule, and
Speaker 1: then we turned to you know, um, the Tokyo venue plan.
Speaker 1: So in the course of the day, you never know
Speaker 1: what you're gonna be doing. UM. So to me, that's
Speaker 1: that's energizing. But um, also we got a lot going
Speaker 1: on between now and uh now in February. Well, is
Speaker 1: this starting from scratch in certain certain cases or or
Speaker 1: did the pre prep help you for this new date?
Speaker 1: I mean that's what I was wondering. Yeah, definitely. You
Speaker 1: know the first thing I said to to our team
Speaker 1: when we finished and said, you know, we had everything
Speaker 1: in place. We could have done this and we would
Speaker 1: have done gangbusters. But now you've got the gift of time.
Speaker 1: So when you look back at all your preparations, there
Speaker 1: had to be a decision or two where you're like,
Speaker 1: that's good enough, but could it be better? So we've
Speaker 1: really taken that and you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: spoil a surprise, but we've got you know, I think
Speaker 1: we've got some new and innovoidive ways to energize the
Speaker 1: coverage and we can pull it off, but you know,
Speaker 1: use the gift of time. And frankly, you know, the
Speaker 1: world's changed the way we we just talked about production
Speaker 1: and how we produce things, so that's going to influence
Speaker 1: the way we produced the Tokyo Games and the stories
Speaker 1: of the Tokyo Games, and so much of your success
Speaker 1: in your entire career has been with telling these athletes stories.
Speaker 1: And I wonder are you going to be keeping in
Speaker 1: touch with them throughout this pause in creating content with
Speaker 1: them in quarantine or with them sort of building a
Speaker 1: new schedule to get it done in one You know,
Speaker 1: I assume someone who is clearly not very athletic. I
Speaker 1: assume that these people who are Olympic athletes, you know,
Speaker 1: these are incredible talents with a schedule that they were
Speaker 1: sticking to. I mean, it has to be weird for them.
Speaker 1: And I assume you're going to be, you know, following
Speaker 1: them in that they're trying to stay in shape, because
Speaker 1: it depending on who you are and what sport you're doing.
Speaker 1: Like a new sport in Tokyo is called sport climbing,
Speaker 1: and I was watching some of these videos of the
Speaker 1: US sport climbers trying to stay in shape, climbing all
Speaker 1: over you know, their staircases and things like that, and
Speaker 1: other swimmers have created, you know, um pooled in their
Speaker 1: backyard to to stay in shape. So there's been so
Speaker 1: many things I'm sure you've seen with some mobile video videos.
Speaker 1: So if it's part of their if it's part of
Speaker 1: their story and overcoming adversity to get back there, um,
Speaker 1: it sure is going to be part of our coverage.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting about another year, It's gonna affect different
Speaker 1: people in different ways. Right, You're gonna have these these
Speaker 1: teenagers that may not have been there, they get the
Speaker 1: gift of time, they get another year that are going
Speaker 1: to show up at trials and make that team. And
Speaker 1: there's others that are fighting against father time and will
Speaker 1: they make the team. So everybody's gonna have it's gonna
Speaker 1: be it'll be interesting to see if it's helping, is
Speaker 1: it hurting. But it's definitely gonna affect the teams. And
Speaker 1: you know, I say um a prayer every night per
Speaker 1: Simone Biles, hamstrings obliques everything that she can. She can
Speaker 1: keep it together for one more year. I feel really
Speaker 1: confident in her, in Katie Lideckie. But you know, you
Speaker 1: just you just hope for the best for all these
Speaker 1: people that we're peaking at just the right time in
Speaker 1: and can they be at their best in With Olympic covered,
Speaker 1: you guys spend so much time and resources and money
Speaker 1: knowing who the stars are going to be, even ahead
Speaker 1: of time. Obviously there's always there's always some underdogs that
Speaker 1: pop up. But are you concerned at losing stars? You
Speaker 1: know in the way that you guys have set up coverage, Like,
Speaker 1: is that is that a concern for you? You know,
Speaker 1: you always you always lose somebody during the Olympic trial,
Speaker 1: somebody that was supposed to make the team has a
Speaker 1: bad day or has a bad week. Um, you just
Speaker 1: have to you have to hope for the best. But
Speaker 1: you know there's a number of stories going into the
Speaker 1: Olympics and it's going to be okay. But remember is
Speaker 1: this too old for you? Dan and David? I think
Speaker 1: By the way, I think I still have a Dan
Speaker 1: and Dave Nike shirt somewhere, right. I mean, so those
Speaker 1: are the kind of things that happened. But that's also
Speaker 1: the beauty of the trials, right that someone known has
Speaker 1: this amazing race and gets to go to the Olympics
Speaker 1: and and you know, fulfills the lifelong dream. But sure
Speaker 1: that's the problem. But like I said, you you hope
Speaker 1: for the best for some of these really terrific stories,
Speaker 1: these people that are kind of finishing their career, and
Speaker 1: you want them to go up out on top. I know,
Speaker 1: I want Alison Felix, the the sprinter, to make the
Speaker 1: team and compete in front of her child and see
Speaker 1: if she can she can win some more metals. So
Speaker 1: there's so many great stories. And now as a mom,
Speaker 1: you know, there's so many moms like a Carrie carry Jennings,
Speaker 1: you know, go back again and see what they can
Speaker 1: do in their in their forties. It's amazing. Well, as
Speaker 1: we start wrapping up, we like to end these podcasts
Speaker 1: with something positive and then some dumb suggestions I have
Speaker 1: for you. But first, is there is there anything that
Speaker 1: you feel that we've adapted to during the pandemic that
Speaker 1: you know, you hope we take with us once everything
Speaker 1: is clear, something that we found in a crisis, but
Speaker 1: we should have forever. No, I want to go back
Speaker 1: to phone calls, Jensen, what's with all the zoom in
Speaker 1: the team calls. I don't want to be seen on
Speaker 1: all these calls. I want to go back to old
Speaker 1: fashioned phone calls. I agree with you. I read an
Speaker 1: article about how plastic surgeons are getting more requests through email,
Speaker 1: and they think it's because we're seeing ourselves in the zooms.
Speaker 1: I mean, right, don't you not want to look at
Speaker 1: yourself in the corner like you want to look at
Speaker 1: everybody and then you look at yourself and like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I forgot to but makeup on. And then
Speaker 1: you go back and then you realize you forgot to
Speaker 1: put on pants, but thank god they can't see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole the whole thing is messed up. I love
Speaker 1: that answer. Okay, so we will wrap it up with
Speaker 1: some suggestions. I know you don't need any help at
Speaker 1: the golf channel, come on one of my thinking here,
Speaker 1: but I did think, who knows, maybe I'll say something
Speaker 1: and it can stick with you. So I had three ideas,
Speaker 1: maybe Golf Channel moving forward if you want to hear them, yes, sir, alright, great,
Speaker 1: no fans. Maybe some people are gonna miss the hooting
Speaker 1: and hollering from the gallery. I'm not sure I will,
Speaker 1: but I want to suggest you that if you're looking
Speaker 1: for sounds, I want you to incorporate one guy. He
Speaker 1: can obviously stay very far away from any players or
Speaker 1: any cameraman or whatever, and he'll still get his yells heard.
Speaker 1: It's character actor Joe Flaherty. Do you know him? Okay,
Speaker 1: Joe Flairty, best known as the guy who yells you're
Speaker 1: not going to sink that? Put Jackass and Happy Gilmore
Speaker 1: and you can employ him. He's he's obviously very open.
Speaker 1: You know, he'll take work. It's it's a great pop
Speaker 1: culture little wink. I mean it might get annoying after one.
Speaker 1: We could just have him standing unlike the tense hole
Speaker 1: and he could say that, what do you think that's
Speaker 1: a great idea. It's kind of like a cameo. It
Speaker 1: came right, Joe flat Okay, that's okay, Joe Clarity, thank you.
Speaker 1: I didn't know his name. After first one, let's say
Speaker 1: a second wave hits God forbid, god forbid a second
Speaker 1: wave hits. We don't even want to think about it,
Speaker 1: but it's something that's been thrown out there, and we
Speaker 1: have sports canceling all over again. I'm thinking, would you
Speaker 1: televise golfers playing a golf video game? We we actually
Speaker 1: have thought about that, and and there's if you go online,
Speaker 1: it's actually been happening. The LPGA has been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of it, and they've had their you know, it's
Speaker 1: a very international tour and they've had you know, players
Speaker 1: on four continents playing video games. So yes, and in
Speaker 1: simulators were also working on a simulator game even better,
Speaker 1: see I see like Jordan's Speef and Justin Rose. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe Adam Scott like a Buffalo wild Wings with a
Speaker 1: company credit card. Let him go with Golden Tea. I'm
Speaker 1: on board, all right, good, I'm two for two. Here's
Speaker 1: the last one. A lot of attention on ESPN is
Speaker 1: the Last Dance, and for good reason, six million people
Speaker 1: watching it live or whatever. I think a second screen
Speaker 1: experience for the PGA and Golf Channel could really capitalize
Speaker 1: on the popularity ring tournaments or really any round of
Speaker 1: golf that you're televising live. Right, you can have a
Speaker 1: small screen pop up in the corner and it's modern
Speaker 1: day Michael Jordan's and he's just actively making bets on
Speaker 1: every hole. You know what, somebody said he should be
Speaker 1: the next the next match guest, right, he should play
Speaker 1: with Tiger and maybe Berkeley's with you know now where
Speaker 1: you are and I'm talking about Buffalo wild Wings with
Speaker 1: golf video, Molly. Thank you so much for talking to me,
Speaker 1: and be safe and healthy and can't wait to see
Speaker 1: your work in both golf and the Olympics when we're
Speaker 1: all safe and ready. Thanks for the invitation, gents, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. After this break in the latest installment
Speaker 1: of Pandemic, will check in with Jayhawk's Diehard and fellow
Speaker 1: Clipper's head Luca Jones from Hulu's Shrill Right now. Feeding
Speaker 1: 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 facing 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 check in with
Speaker 1: Luca Jones from Hulu Shrill and die Hard Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Hello, Luca,
Speaker 1: I'm doing I guess as well as I can. I
Speaker 1: have been doing this podcast mostly about the pandemic, but
Speaker 1: we now seem to be facing even larger global problems.
Speaker 1: It truly has become that part at the end of
Speaker 1: some city where like it's an earthquake and a tornado
Speaker 1: and Godzilla and all the things at once. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what it fails like, right, It's brutal. But I wanted
Speaker 1: first to check in with you see how your quarantine
Speaker 1: has been going and what it's like for you, because you,
Speaker 1: like I sports fan in comedy and acting, we don't
Speaker 1: have sports to to even look at what has it
Speaker 1: been like for you. It's just been a little bit
Speaker 1: of a different life temporarily, and not that it's the
Speaker 1: most important thing in the world. But like it's really
Speaker 1: shown me how oddly dependent on sports watching I am.
Speaker 1: When they canceled the seasons at Posit the season that
Speaker 1: was like that, really that's when quarantine really And I
Speaker 1: do feel too like it does, especially the NBA season,
Speaker 1: which I know you and I were both uber fans of,
Speaker 1: but like it's like if I picked up a book
Speaker 1: and got to like the eighth chapter and there were
Speaker 1: twelve of them, and I just went, can you burn this?
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to know how it ends at all? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I guess to. Like there's these
Speaker 1: rumors flying around the city that like the Clippers are
Speaker 1: practicing and that the Lakers are practicing, you know, like
Speaker 1: sort of secretly, and I just it was supposed to be,
Speaker 1: especially as an l A guy myself, it's like it
Speaker 1: was supposed to be really this huge Western Conference battle
Speaker 1: and I don't even know if they come back, will
Speaker 1: it mean anything to me. I think it'll mean something
Speaker 1: to me, but it'll be more like something that's comforting, right, Um,
Speaker 1: that's all, Whereas like before it would have been something
Speaker 1: like you could project out like oh yeah, we can
Speaker 1: have the Western conference finals all on Staples Center, And
Speaker 1: so for that to like keep looking like it's probably
Speaker 1: going to happen up until the suspension of the season,
Speaker 1: it was like really exciting and it would have been
Speaker 1: like such a fun l a thing. And if they
Speaker 1: play against each other in Orlando or whatever happens, if
Speaker 1: anything happens, like obviously, that's like just not as interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Clippers with Kauai trying to break the curse, the
Speaker 1: Lakers with Lebron in the season where Kobe Bryant passes
Speaker 1: away will be in Orlando with no fans. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: as cool, not as cool at all. And you went
Speaker 1: to a big sports college, right. I went the University
Speaker 1: of Kansas for college. That was a big basketball fan.
Speaker 1: I mean we went to the football games. It was
Speaker 1: all about basketball there. And then I went to grad
Speaker 1: school at USC, and even though grad school is not
Speaker 1: the same as college, I did go to like a
Speaker 1: bunch of USC football games, but mostly I'm like a
Speaker 1: Kansas basketball game like that. That was like a religion there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now and now with no March madness, I mean
Speaker 1: that is still to me, that feels honest. That's actually
Speaker 1: the worst thing because as excited as I was to
Speaker 1: have like the Clippers. I think definitely go to the
Speaker 1: conference finals. Not that it matters. Again, I can keep
Speaker 1: saying that it doesn't matter compared to everything that's happening.
Speaker 1: It feels silly to act like it matters. You know,
Speaker 1: you just remind yourself like whenever something actually big and
Speaker 1: important and horrible or whatever is happening. But they're different.
Speaker 1: But I wonder, I wonder, not not the Devil's advocated,
Speaker 1: but it is something that I thought about a few times. Right,
Speaker 1: So I thought about this a lot, and we've looked
Speaker 1: to right. So we obviously why everyone watched the last dance,
Speaker 1: and we were a lot of dumbfounded reaction from people
Speaker 1: who didn't know how Michael Jordan had said the Republicans
Speaker 1: buy shoes and didn't want to put himself on the
Speaker 1: front line of social justice. And you know, having Lebron
Speaker 1: not have the kind of eyes on him that we
Speaker 1: would have near the finals or playoffs when this whole
Speaker 1: thing is going down. And I mean we look to
Speaker 1: athletes nowadays and and and it used to be kind
Speaker 1: of like, oh, don't do that. Now I feel like
Speaker 1: I need Lebron, like I need you know, I need
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and these guys who have who have become
Speaker 1: very vocal. I almost feel like pulling athletes out of
Speaker 1: this equation has actually affected us when dealing with these
Speaker 1: race issues. That's a good point. And one of the
Speaker 1: things I've learned from doing the podcast too is like
Speaker 1: talking to athletes and then also just sort of like
Speaker 1: talking to people about what I'm doing in the last
Speaker 1: you know, a few months and talking to everybody is
Speaker 1: it has become. And I know you and I both
Speaker 1: have watched you know, sports since we were kids, and
Speaker 1: and I was a huge Mets guy and a Dodgers
Speaker 1: guy growing up, and especially with the Mets he years,
Speaker 1: my parents were like scared that Dwight Gooden and Darryl
Speaker 1: Strawberry We're going to become role models of mine, and
Speaker 1: not because of their race, but because we kept being
Speaker 1: told like those athletes are addicts or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And then even even in cases like players that I
Speaker 1: really like, like Will Clark, seemed like a real kind
Speaker 1: of douche bag, and my parents were like, oh, don't
Speaker 1: don't love Will Clark, And so I wonder now, I mean,
Speaker 1: I would love my son's turning one. I would love
Speaker 1: if he looked to Lebron James as as an idol
Speaker 1: or or you know any of these basketball players who
Speaker 1: who have been incredible role models. Who were your guys
Speaker 1: growing up? Did you have athletes that you were like
Speaker 1: your favorites? I did. I mean, I've always been like
Speaker 1: a Canvas fan because my parents went there, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, like the cancelation of the n C
Speaker 1: Double A tournament was like we were number one with
Speaker 1: the animous number one, we were gonna win the national
Speaker 1: championship and it's over now, So I still think we
Speaker 1: should get a banner, but whatever. So uh, like Danny
Speaker 1: Manning was this guy that like, I know he's not superstar,
Speaker 1: but like he was a superstar to me in college
Speaker 1: in nineteen National championship with Kambas and happened to play
Speaker 1: for the Clippers, who I ended up, you know, being
Speaker 1: a fian of after moving year. When I was a
Speaker 1: little kid, I was in Chicago and the suburbs and
Speaker 1: like I was a Cubs fan. My dad would bring
Speaker 1: me there and like I was like Ryan Singenberg guy,
Speaker 1: and then a bunch of people Rick Sutcliffe and Leon
Speaker 1: Durham and the Bowl or whatever, and that I was
Speaker 1: a Shawn and Dunstan guy. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: love them at short Stunt, Yeah right, yeah, he was
Speaker 1: a baller. Between him and Mark Grace, there was like
Speaker 1: a great late eighties kind of connection in the infield.
Speaker 1: And that connects with like the two teams you're talking about,
Speaker 1: like the Mats. I obviously hated of that era and
Speaker 1: that was like the mid eighties, and like the and
Speaker 1: also the Giants with Little Clark beat them in the
Speaker 1: eighty nine Division series. I love those guys. I mean
Speaker 1: I was a big Jordans fan because I was from
Speaker 1: Chicago originally before we had to move to Denver. You
Speaker 1: brought up Makoda Roof. I was a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Chris Jackson, and I remember like getting pretty fired up
Speaker 1: for him when there was a controversy over whether or
Speaker 1: not he was about of prey during the national anthem.
Speaker 1: But also he was just like a beautiful shooter and
Speaker 1: a beautiful player. Yeah, I've been vocal because he was.
Speaker 1: And it's so weird what you pick up on as
Speaker 1: a kid, but like I had even heard, you know,
Speaker 1: during the Chris Jackson days that he suffered from obsessive
Speaker 1: compulsive disorder and I had it, and I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's the only person in sports. There was a couple
Speaker 1: of guys like I think maybe Jim Eisenright had some
Speaker 1: sort of tick or something, and I remember them saying
Speaker 1: it was tight end O c D. And I was like,
Speaker 1: tell me more like screaming from my seat. But mac
Speaker 1: mood for some reason was very open, and he would
Speaker 1: like it would take like thirty minutes from the tie
Speaker 1: shoes and like you heard that he couldn't leave the
Speaker 1: gym until it left his fingertips perfectly. So sometimes he
Speaker 1: was there to like two am, and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's why I love him. He's I'm actually relating
Speaker 1: to him. And when he was a kid, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I most certainly had O c D tendencies.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I had the disorders like clinically defined,
Speaker 1: but I had like a lot of things I had
Speaker 1: to like touch them a certain amount of times or
Speaker 1: like you know, evans or odds, and that was you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't like talk to people about that. But like
Speaker 1: when I read his story, like he'd sometimes decrying when
Speaker 1: he was growing up, like just trying to make a
Speaker 1: certain amount of like swishes right like, and he like
Speaker 1: he couldn't leave the psychologically, like couldn't leave the court
Speaker 1: and go home until he got it right. And I
Speaker 1: definitely related to that, and I thought, it's not quite
Speaker 1: that extreme to the sort of like compulsion. And it's
Speaker 1: too bad that we weren't able to talk more about
Speaker 1: that then, not that they didn't cover it in some
Speaker 1: of the stories about him. And then he found some
Speaker 1: peace with religion and that was interesting too, But I
Speaker 1: just realized as a Kansas fan, that means you had
Speaker 1: an embiede fandom in college. Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: so lucky. And the indeed Wiggins year, because they both
Speaker 1: only played their freshman year, that was like definitely a
Speaker 1: possible national championship team and like the main reason they
Speaker 1: didn't get to the final four was because Impeed already
Speaker 1: had back problems and he very understandably sat the tournament out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's why I didn't really know him that well,
Speaker 1: because I depend on the tournament to sort of get
Speaker 1: me up on at least the top ten picks. If
Speaker 1: it's not you know, if it's not Wiggins or you know,
Speaker 1: obviously like a Zion or something I have to the
Speaker 1: guy from Cameroon isn't necessarily on my radar as much
Speaker 1: as it should be. So he grew so much in
Speaker 1: his freshman year. He was like all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you saw like, oh, this guy, he would have been
Speaker 1: the number one pick if his back wasn't, you know,
Speaker 1: instead of Wiggans not that Wiggins, And I mean maybe
Speaker 1: he didn't. I don't know, but like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like I think I think the right people
Speaker 1: knew how good he could be even back then, and
Speaker 1: it was just about like, but is he going to
Speaker 1: stay healthy? Like you know, like it is now kind
Speaker 1: of he's amazing. Oh, he's amazing Wiggins. It's so funny
Speaker 1: too because we because Clippers fans Olover Candy was always
Speaker 1: right up top for everyone being like for the worst
Speaker 1: first pick. It's like Wiggins truly may have taken I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess Bend it also, but like Bennett was so
Speaker 1: bad and Wiggins obviously hasn't lived up to his potential
Speaker 1: as much as he should. But I don't think Wiggins
Speaker 1: is all I mean, I don't like to talk too
Speaker 1: much about people. Maybe just me being a like a whim,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm happy for my goal of Candy
Speaker 1: that he got to like to be the first thing.
Speaker 1: And like I I get you know, and Greg Odin
Speaker 1: and all that, you know, and I'm glad they got
Speaker 1: their money and everything's fine. But like I think Wiggins
Speaker 1: is better than both of those guys. But he's definitely
Speaker 1: didn't live up to the number one pick. I'm glad
Speaker 1: for him that he's I think on the Warriors now, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's currently on Golden State. Yeah yeah, And so
Speaker 1: like I think once they get their team back and
Speaker 1: they've got like Curry back, and you know, I mean
Speaker 1: he's just gonna be the second, third, third option, third option, yeah, third, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's like a better place for him. And under
Speaker 1: cur I think he could still have a Like there's
Speaker 1: there's this guy that I really loved. This guy. That's
Speaker 1: a weird way to start this. Like Chauncey Billips I
Speaker 1: really loved as a kid because he grew up in Denver,
Speaker 1: where again like I partially grew up and I saw
Speaker 1: him playing at high school and then I saw him
Speaker 1: playing college when he played for Colorado and came to
Speaker 1: Kansas and and then like he got picked really hot
Speaker 1: by the Celtics with Patino and I just didn't like
Speaker 1: to work out. And then he bounced around a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think he went to Denver for a second, but
Speaker 1: then he ended up in Detroit. It was like three
Speaker 1: places though it looked like his career might not work out,
Speaker 1: and then he ended up in Detroit. Was Larry Brown,
Speaker 1: who I love Kansas and he you know, he was
Speaker 1: the Finals MVP when they did the Lakers and then
Speaker 1: I had like a great run there and then had
Speaker 1: a great like a couple of years or whatever with Mellow,
Speaker 1: very good couple of years with Mellow in Denver when
Speaker 1: he replaced Iverson and brought them to the Western Conference final.
Speaker 1: He uh, He's an example of somebody in my mind,
Speaker 1: it was like a really good college player like Wiggins
Speaker 1: was and have like a little bit of trouble at
Speaker 1: the beginning of his career because he just for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: And I hope that Wiggans is like that in this
Speaker 1: new situation. I think sometimes we forget, I mean, what
Speaker 1: chanced out will Candy have not not that he was
Speaker 1: doing great somewhere else, but you know what I mean, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wasn't in the greatest organization and I love the Clippers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love the Clippers, but he wasn't. Yeah, And at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I think Wiggans still averages
Speaker 1: like just under twenty points. I think it just people
Speaker 1: have such high expectations for him, and you know, he
Speaker 1: was the number one pig. He was the number one
Speaker 1: thing I mean, but people also have to like remember
Speaker 1: Ordon was the third thing, I mean, the number one
Speaker 1: picking the number like three picks. They're like, I think
Speaker 1: I don't want to draft anywhere. Basically it's all uh,
Speaker 1: crazy achievements. I always that's the thing during draft days
Speaker 1: and like that guy got picked number eight in the
Speaker 1: world for his class. Yeah, still congratulation no matter what. Well, dude,
Speaker 1: I hope to see you at a Clippers game soon.
Speaker 1: I don't know when in life will all be back
Speaker 1: at at actual stadium or arena watching something, But I dude,
Speaker 1: stay healthy and and uh and keep your eye out
Speaker 1: for sports. Thank you you too, and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: The No Sports Report is produced and distributed by Treeport Media.
Speaker 1: The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman,
Speaker 1: Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Cart Tom Monahan is our
Speaker 1: senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production and editing
Speaker 1: by Jasper Leak. Additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen,
Speaker 1: and Hayley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by s Focus.
Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe, rate us
Speaker 1: and review us on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
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Speaker 1: The No Sports Report is a production of I Heart
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