Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Deal. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Jason Kelly here with Alex Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: Well sort of here.
Speaker 2: We're going to get to an interview with your good
Speaker 2: buddy Alex Kevin Burkhardt, your partner at Fox Sports. That's
Speaker 2: coming up later in the episode, but first our listeners
Speaker 2: are going to be so excited. One of the things
Speaker 2: we love about this format that we're doing is it's
Speaker 2: wherever we are at any given moment. I happen to
Speaker 2: be in New York, You're in Paris, and you are,
Speaker 2: at least based on Instagram, having the time of your
Speaker 2: life seeing everybody who seems to be there. I've got
Speaker 2: a lot of fomo. So I want to talk to
Speaker 2: you about it before we get to KB. I mean,
Speaker 2: tell me what it's like on the ground. It it
Speaker 2: feels like as the kids would say, it feels like
Speaker 2: a vibe.
Speaker 4: Jason, you would have loved it. I thought about you
Speaker 4: a lot if you think about Paris. Look, he needed
Speaker 4: a big comeback. Let's be clear, Brazil was a little
Speaker 4: bit of a flop. Japan obviously you have the building
Speaker 4: excuse with COVID in twenty twenty. But this is a
Speaker 4: perfect storm and you need a big numbers and his
Speaker 4: hats delivered an enormous, enormous way.
Speaker 5: But just walking.
Speaker 4: Around even last night, Jason in Paris, what a perfect canvas.
Speaker 4: I mean, on one end you have it anchored by
Speaker 4: the Eiffel Tower. The other one you have the love.
Speaker 4: You have all the arches, the shopping entertainment district and
Speaker 4: his high fashion capital of the world right and then
Speaker 4: the sports.
Speaker 5: It was just it was awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean money and sports colliding in a really
Speaker 2: massive way. As you say, all the luxury brands are
Speaker 2: very much on display. The city has put on quite
Speaker 2: a show by all accounts, and I don't want to
Speaker 2: get too far past your point and really underscore it.
Speaker 2: The Olympics needed this. It was really on the downslope.
Speaker 2: I think people are now looking ahead to La and
Speaker 2: I think you would agree LA's got some big shoes
Speaker 2: to fill coming off of Paris.
Speaker 5: In Paris to me is one of the big winners here.
Speaker 4: I mean, they did an outstanding job of being gracious
Speaker 4: hostess all the French people. They made you feel at home.
Speaker 4: If you look at some of the revenue numbers, one
Speaker 4: point two billion for Comcast and Peacock, who absolutely crushed it.
Speaker 4: And you have forty one million people watching the opening
Speaker 4: night where Lebron had the big flag, the US flag.
Speaker 4: Look in a time where the world is so divided,
Speaker 4: our country so divided, you can actually have a flag
Speaker 4: and be non controversial, which is really nice by people
Speaker 4: around the world were very respectful to each other.
Speaker 5: And that's the special place that we have in sports.
Speaker 4: That's why we do our podcast because we do like
Speaker 4: to educate, share our experiences, but also bring people together.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm really glad you said that. As you say,
Speaker 2: you know, sports is this commonality, and it's fascinating to
Speaker 2: me to look at those numbers that you mentioned, the
Speaker 2: viewership numbers. I have to think as someone who is
Speaker 2: an owner of a couple of basketball teams, it's very
Speaker 2: reinforcing to you to see live sports still rates. I mean,
Speaker 2: people have been tuning in at work, they've been tuning
Speaker 2: you know, the afternoon, like you walk around I won't
Speaker 2: say Bloomberg, but you walk around another office and you
Speaker 2: see people like they're watching the Olympics and then they're
Speaker 2: watching it again at night. So the pull of live
Speaker 2: sports is very real when it comes to actually keeping
Speaker 2: people watching. So I want to ask you what did
Speaker 2: you watch? What have you been to Sea? I know
Speaker 2: you've seen you know, some of the players who play
Speaker 2: for the Wolves and the Lynx. Tell me what you've
Speaker 2: been looking at.
Speaker 4: I mean, the big time game was Frans beating Canada
Speaker 4: and a huge upset right before US beat Brazil, which
Speaker 4: was a bit of a dut It was over probably
Speaker 4: in the middle of the first quarter. But you think
Speaker 4: about it, in what other than the Olympics, can you
Speaker 4: have the best players in the world in basketball have
Speaker 4: four games in one venue and you clear out and
Speaker 4: you come back in and you know what, Jason just
Speaker 4: pivoting to US basketball.
Speaker 5: This is probably the best.
Speaker 4: Team since ninety two, the original Dream Team, but they
Speaker 4: have the whole trifecta're working when you look at talent, coaching,
Speaker 4: and chemistry. Steve Current is staff or just doing a
Speaker 4: fantastic job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great moment for the business of basketball,
Speaker 2: it seems because to your point, I'm glad we're talking
Speaker 2: about this because what you're seeing is that obviously the
Speaker 2: NBA via Team USA is a massive business. But then
Speaker 2: you look around there are a bunch of NBA superstars
Speaker 2: playing for their home countries, and so you're getting these amazing,
Speaker 2: you know, rivalries that you normally only see in the
Speaker 2: NBA season on the world's biggest stage. And that is
Speaker 2: just a testament to how fast this game is growing,
Speaker 2: owing to the efforts of Adam Silver and others who
Speaker 2: see this global growth as the real future of the NBA.
Speaker 4: You know, I had a chance to see three of
Speaker 4: our players yesterday. We had Rudy Gobert playing for the France,
Speaker 4: who's got a little bit of a jam finger, Nikole
Speaker 4: Alexander Walker playing for Canada, and of course Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 5: But there's a look in their face.
Speaker 4: That usually you only get to see either in the
Speaker 4: finals or a Game seven or a super Bowl. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there is an important there's a pride, there's an electricity
Speaker 4: in the building that you see no other place but
Speaker 4: the Olympics.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you're there in a number of different
Speaker 2: capacities in addition to all the other business interests you have.
Speaker 2: I mean, does it feel like deals are getting done
Speaker 2: on the sidelines. I mean, obviously we're gonna have some
Speaker 2: stars come out of this who we're going to get
Speaker 2: big endorsements, But is there a feel of like there
Speaker 2: is a a super Bowl or a US Open or
Speaker 2: an NBA Finals that like the big hitters are there
Speaker 2: and they're talking shop.
Speaker 4: Absolutely everybody's there. I mean, you name it, they're there. Obviously,
Speaker 4: the King of France. When you think about LVMH and
Speaker 4: Bernard Arnault, I mean they run that town. Think about
Speaker 4: him as you think of Steve Jobs back in the day,
Speaker 4: or even an Ela Musk today, Mark Zuckerberg. The way
Speaker 4: they imprint their power of that brand. And obviously they're
Speaker 4: a very global brand. But the other thing that I
Speaker 4: saw the big winners for me in one kind of
Speaker 4: semi loser, the big winner was NBC Comcast.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they've had an incredible quarter.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you think about just what happens over
Speaker 4: the last few months, telecast is the British Open, obviously,
Speaker 4: the big announcement on an eleven year deal where they'll
Speaker 4: be paying the NBA two point five billion according to
Speaker 4: you know, public reports. And then these Olympics they put
Speaker 4: on a masterclass. Peacock has really showed off the way
Speaker 4: they've telecasted has just been really great. And the numbers
Speaker 4: again forty one million people watching, already one point two
Speaker 4: billion in AD sales, and I think now is poison
Speaker 4: set up for the next Olympics in LA. There's a
Speaker 4: lot of chatter on tnt NBC Nike, they're a big sponsor.
Speaker 4: The word on the street was how heavy handed Nike was.
Speaker 4: And disclaimer, I wore Nike my whole career. I did
Speaker 4: my deal with full Knight. I love Nike. But look,
Speaker 4: they're at an inflection point right They're now into their
Speaker 4: fourth CEO. Their stock is down seventy percent from the
Speaker 4: all time high, They've cut marketing by seventy.
Speaker 5: Percent, and they're still doing four billion in marketing.
Speaker 4: But the silver lining for them is they made a big,
Speaker 4: big bet in this Olympics. They are hoping that next
Speaker 4: quarter things start trending in the right direction.
Speaker 5: Again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure, Like as an athlete, you're like so
Speaker 2: jazzed up seeing these people at their absolute peak and
Speaker 2: relating to that. But as a business person, what are
Speaker 2: you taking away? Like, what are the things you and
Speaker 2: I are going to be talking about when you get
Speaker 2: back to the US as we continue the show.
Speaker 3: Who are the people?
Speaker 2: What are the interesting trends that you're seeing that we
Speaker 2: should be thinking about.
Speaker 4: I think that sports is here to stay if you
Speaker 4: think about adjacent sports and live sports is the only
Speaker 4: thing that alter human behavior as far as scheduling. People
Speaker 4: will schedule their day around their big game, their team playing.
Speaker 4: There's no other thing that does that besides live music
Speaker 4: or live sports.
Speaker 2: All Right, has there been a surprising sport that you watch?
Speaker 2: You're like, I hadn't really seen this before, but just
Speaker 2: like lit you up.
Speaker 4: The most impressive venue for me was beach volleyball, which
Speaker 4: the backdrop was the Eiffel Tower. It was one of
Speaker 4: the most incredible scenes and hottest tickets.
Speaker 5: I thought the three on three is.
Speaker 4: A pretty cool concept because it's a little bit like
Speaker 4: pick upball is to tennis. Three on three ists to
Speaker 4: basketball for older guys like me. I actually like half
Speaker 4: court and I also like pick a ball. That was
Speaker 4: interesting to me. Jason, the biggest loss opportunity was Major
Speaker 4: League Baseball not being here. And if you think about it,
Speaker 4: if the goal is to get younger, get more global,
Speaker 4: show off your biggest and shiny stars like Aaron Judge, Shoheil, Tani,
Speaker 4: Juan Soto, Garrett Cole, these guys should be here.
Speaker 5: And if you think about it, what a great.
Speaker 4: Time in twenty four and twenty eight Paris in La
Speaker 4: to pilot.
Speaker 5: Maybe you shorten the season to one hundred and ten games.
Speaker 4: You take a page out of the WNBA, have your
Speaker 4: US Olympic team go up against the rest of the
Speaker 4: stars that should have been then also game just a
Speaker 4: month ago.
Speaker 5: And then if you fast forward to La do it again.
Speaker 4: Let's see how the season looks for one hundred and
Speaker 4: ten games, make it four months, prolong the postseason from
Speaker 4: one month to two much like the NBA, and give
Speaker 4: it a rip and it only happens, you know, once
Speaker 4: every four years. Imagine a home run derby kind of
Speaker 4: going into the tower. It was just perfect, and it
Speaker 4: made me really sad with all these sports that my
Speaker 4: favorite sport is now represented in the biggest venue in
Speaker 4: the world.
Speaker 2: All right, well, I am so excited for you to
Speaker 2: come back, tell me more stories.
Speaker 3: Thank you for taking some time to weigh in on this.
Speaker 2: It's the perfect segue, especially talking about all this media
Speaker 2: into our interview with Kevin Burkhart.
Speaker 5: Thanks partner, you got.
Speaker 2: It all right, Alex. We've got a special guest this week.
Speaker 2: You know him very well. It's Kevin Burkhart. He's a
Speaker 2: sportscaster of course for Fox Sports. It's the lead NFL
Speaker 2: played by play announcer MLB studio host Kevin. Psyched to
Speaker 2: have you on the show. How you doing, I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to be with you guys. Jason, nice to
Speaker 2: meet you. And yeah, Alex, we've known each other a
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 5: I do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's actually crazy.
Speaker 6: When you think how long we've been together, it feels
Speaker 6: like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: So I'm just thrilled to be here. Guys.
Speaker 3: That's where I want to start.
Speaker 2: Act you went there because I want to ask you,
Speaker 2: and then I'm going to ask Alex the same question,
Speaker 2: like do you remember the first time you met and
Speaker 2: when you started working together? Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I'm not counting the times like we
Speaker 6: met when he was playing. I'm just talking you know,
Speaker 6: television stuff. Yeah, I remember the first time we met
Speaker 6: for sure, because before he started we talked and Alex
Speaker 6: fazed out to me and said, Hey, anystance we could
Speaker 6: go in earlier and just kind of go over some
Speaker 6: basics of television and kind of and I was like, sure.
Speaker 4: You know, he's being very humble because I actually said,
Speaker 4: do you mind coming into the studio with me and
Speaker 4: actually doing like a dry rehearsal, and he was kind
Speaker 4: of did a double take. He's like, really, what, of course, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'll come in, so on his day off, so generous.
Speaker 4: He comes in. We literally are sitting in his chair
Speaker 4: and I'm sitting on my chair, except my knees were trembling,
Speaker 4: and I think he felt my energy. And I was
Speaker 4: really nervous because I'm one that likes to be prepared.
Speaker 4: And we went through it, and He's taught me so
Speaker 4: much about the business, Jason, even as far as like
Speaker 4: we were doing a game with the Mets and Jose
Speaker 4: Reyes got a big hit and he kind of hit
Speaker 4: his mute button and said, let's lay out here. And
Speaker 4: I said, Kevin, what's laying out mean? Right, I'm just
Speaker 4: a baseball player. I'm not a broadcaster. And he says,
Speaker 4: like that just means we lay out. We can't do
Speaker 4: anything better than the moment, the sound of the game,
Speaker 4: the sound of the crowd. And I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's kind of cool. That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4: And so many little things like that. I remember a
Speaker 4: few weeks ago at the Allstar Game. I wanted to
Speaker 4: land a point about the Yankees, and he actually helped
Speaker 4: me kind of have my first sentence. So what Kevin does,
Speaker 4: both what he's going to do for Tom Brady and
Speaker 4: what he's done for myself, Derek Jeter and Big Poppy,
Speaker 4: I can't even describe it. Because he's great at what
Speaker 4: he does. He might be even a better leader in
Speaker 4: that clubhouse for us.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that, brother, So how do you develop that skilled Kevin?
Speaker 2: You know, is this something that you felt like you
Speaker 2: had from the beginning or is it a matter of reps,
Speaker 2: because like sort of tending to these guys is a
Speaker 2: very specific skill.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you.
Speaker 6: Know, I'll use Alex's references, right, I mean, I think
Speaker 6: the role of a host should be point guard or quarterback,
Speaker 6: whoever you want to look at it, right, you want
Speaker 6: to distribute the ball? I mean, like, you know, the
Speaker 6: reality is no one cares what I think? You know,
Speaker 6: I mean, I have three of the all time players
Speaker 6: ever in the sports sitting next to me.
Speaker 1: What are they going to care what I have to say?
Speaker 6: So you know, whether I'm doing studio with you know,
Speaker 6: Alex and the crew, or whether I'm doing play by play,
Speaker 6: and I've had multiple partners, you know, the play by
Speaker 6: play booth in my career, and you know, this year'll
Speaker 6: be Tom Brady, and you know, my goal is to
Speaker 6: make the analysts be comfortable and look and feel good.
Speaker 1: Like that's the whole goal of my role. And I
Speaker 1: enjoy that role, like, yeah.
Speaker 6: I'm totally content throwing up the lob and having someone
Speaker 6: reverse dunk it. You know, I think, to me, that's
Speaker 6: a great day. So the biggest thing is always Jason,
Speaker 6: it's trust. Right in this industry especially, it's trust. And
Speaker 6: so I want whoever I'm working with understand that I've
Speaker 6: got their back and I'm not going to let them
Speaker 6: fall and you know, if they forget something, I'll pick
Speaker 6: them up. And also knowing that I have their best interests,
Speaker 6: I'm not going to intentionally lead them into a bad spot.
Speaker 6: So I think that's always the mindset, you know, and
Speaker 6: then you get past that, and you know, you get
Speaker 6: comfortable and then you start busting shops and then it's
Speaker 6: just like old friends hanging out. So I don't know,
Speaker 6: I just think to be in this role, I think
Speaker 6: you have to have some level of unselfishness and hopefully
Speaker 6: I have that.
Speaker 1: I've had that for my partners.
Speaker 2: So before we get too far away from it, I
Speaker 2: do want to make one sort of historical note, which is,
Speaker 2: before you guys were in the booth together, you called
Speaker 2: Alex's last game, right the last time he trots off
Speaker 2: the field.
Speaker 3: What do you remember like about that?
Speaker 2: And then I'm going to flip it to Alex as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it was actually it was an honor
Speaker 6: and you know, Eric Shanks are CEO and President Fox
Speaker 6: said hey, KB, You're going to go call Alex's last game.
Speaker 1: I was like, great, So I just remember it was cool,
Speaker 1: you know, text and Alex is going to do it, and.
Speaker 6: Then being there in the hole, I saw him, you know,
Speaker 6: in the tunnel and just gave him a hug and
Speaker 6: he was so supportive, like, I'm so glad you're here
Speaker 6: doing this, and you know, it made me feel good
Speaker 6: and just the whole night, I honestly, one of the
Speaker 6: big things I remember that I felt so terrible for him
Speaker 6: because we're there, we have this whole pregame show, and
Speaker 6: we have the whole ceremony and then it starts downpouring,
Speaker 6: like as he brings his family out of the field,
Speaker 6: I'm like, come on, you'll wait a.
Speaker 1: Little bit longer.
Speaker 6: So we had a little bit of a rain delay,
Speaker 6: but I just think I felt onnored and it was
Speaker 6: enjoyable the fact that, you know, in my crazy head,
Speaker 6: it was like, okay, kind of helping transition him from
Speaker 6: the field to us, you know. So that's the way
Speaker 6: I looked at it. It was cool to be a part.
Speaker 2: Of because you had done your deal before that game,
Speaker 2: you knew you were going to work together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because the prior year, we did the World Series
Speaker 4: while I was playing, which was an incredible training ground
Speaker 4: for me actually, and helped me understand the media a
Speaker 4: lot more. I've often told people that I wish I
Speaker 4: did an interim with Fox when I was a teenager
Speaker 4: because it really helped me understand that there's a lot
Speaker 4: of good people in media that they have a job
Speaker 4: to do. That their job is not to just go
Speaker 4: get you. Their job is to tell a story, and
Speaker 4: if you can help them tell that story, it could
Speaker 4: be more of a.
Speaker 5: Win win situation.
Speaker 4: So the year before, we had done the World Series
Speaker 4: with the Mets, Kansas City already friends. We're obviously much
Speaker 4: much better friends today, but I felt really honored and
Speaker 4: grateful and happy that it was Kevin's voice that one
Speaker 4: day I can share it with my kids or my
Speaker 4: great grandkids. If you think about the Gibson home run
Speaker 4: by Vin Scully or a lot of the big moments,
Speaker 4: touch them all, Joe. We have all these moments that
Speaker 4: connect the great moments, the great players with the great voices,
Speaker 4: And in our generation has been Bob Costas has been
Speaker 4: Ben Scully, has been Harry Carey. In this next generation,
Speaker 4: I believe Kevin Burkard is gonna have a big dent
Speaker 4: in American sports history, obviously with Super Bowls and World
Speaker 4: Series's and all these things.
Speaker 5: So I was very happy.
Speaker 2: All right, So Alice teed it up perfectly.
Speaker 3: He's learning from you, KB. This is great.
Speaker 2: You know, He's like leading into the next subject seamlessly.
Speaker 2: Come on, now the new guys come in, and he's like, cut,
Speaker 2: come here, Derek, come on, let me tell you. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you how this goes. So how did you
Speaker 2: get into this business? I mean you're working at a
Speaker 2: car dealership at some point, Like, how does this all happen?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 6: I always wanted to do it because I really wasn't
Speaker 6: very good at playing anything as much as I love sports.
Speaker 6: So I was like, Okay, how can I be involved
Speaker 6: in something that I love? And so really, as a kid,
Speaker 6: I wanted to be an announcer.
Speaker 1: You know, I had so many.
Speaker 6: Idols, and I just always love the art of calling
Speaker 6: a game, and you know, listen to everything. I could
Speaker 6: listen to sports radio and pre and post game shows.
Speaker 5: And all that.
Speaker 1: I was just so into it.
Speaker 6: So longer story short, you know, I would practice on
Speaker 6: Nintendo games as a kid. I would play games that
Speaker 6: I would announce them into a tape recorder. That's how
Speaker 6: I got, I guess my start. How I practiced, and
Speaker 6: I did it with like my best friend and my
Speaker 6: brother and we would just sit there into a tape
Speaker 6: recorder and called the play by play and play the
Speaker 6: video game. And it actually was good practice. And so
Speaker 6: did that. And then in high school we had like
Speaker 6: a one camera situation. We went to the football games
Speaker 6: and announced on like a local cable access.
Speaker 1: And then I took it to college and.
Speaker 6: I was serious about it, and we had a good
Speaker 6: program at William Patterson where you know, we did a
Speaker 6: lot of games and learned how to do games and
Speaker 6: what a television broadcast was all about and then just
Speaker 6: you know, kind of a winding pass station, right, like
Speaker 6: I have a fun journey. As you mentioned, I kind
Speaker 6: of quit to sell cars for a while because I
Speaker 6: was frustrated, and it ended up being one of the
Speaker 6: best things I ever did. So, yeah, you know, from
Speaker 6: selling Chevy Tahos they calling super Bowls in the World Series.
Speaker 1: Who knew, right? Just wild?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So Kevin talking about inspiration before you came on,
Speaker 4: I was telling Jason to some of my inspirational people
Speaker 4: were Magic Johnson, a man of color that was great
Speaker 4: in sports, and then you know Parlay that's a great
Speaker 4: business obviously, Keith Hernandez Strawberry, Doc. Those were my guys
Speaker 4: growing up. Who were some of the voices that really
Speaker 4: inspired you.
Speaker 6: I think the answer to that question is there's a lot, right,
Speaker 6: kind of like you alously have a few different ones
Speaker 6: and for different reasons. I think, for in terms of
Speaker 6: actual announcers, I had a lot of different ones. I
Speaker 6: mean for football, it was always summer all in Matt
Speaker 6: and I just I got the chills when they came
Speaker 6: on because it just signified a big game. And even
Speaker 6: to this day, I'm always like thinking, like Okay, what
Speaker 6: would Pat Summer all do in this situation? I just
Speaker 6: admired him and so I love that and they were
Speaker 6: big in our house, you know, our household. We grew
Speaker 6: up Mets fans, and so Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner
Speaker 6: and you know a little later Gary Cohen, who we
Speaker 6: got to work with, who's still doing the medsine, who's
Speaker 6: just fantastic, and we've become close friends over the years.
Speaker 6: I just tried to pay attention now and just realize, okay,
Speaker 6: like what kind of styles or what who does this
Speaker 6: differently and what I liked and then kind of try
Speaker 6: to form some version of me out of all that
Speaker 6: without you know, not copying, but just kind of taking
Speaker 6: bits and pieces I liked and trying to find my
Speaker 6: own style.
Speaker 4: I think I often get asked what's been the biggest
Speaker 4: jump in your career, and everyone thinks is like, you know,
Speaker 4: the big leagues, right, And for me, it was from
Speaker 4: a ball to double A because I thought double A
Speaker 4: you have the best arms.
Speaker 5: They're effectively wild.
Speaker 4: You don't know if it's going to be a strike
Speaker 4: on the corner or someone's going to throw one out
Speaker 4: of your head, and that's usually where our best prospects went.
Speaker 4: And I thought that jump to the big leagues was
Speaker 4: the easiest because you had better stadiums, pitchers through more
Speaker 4: better control, they were more in the zone. Umpire is
Speaker 4: called better strikes, but the lights were really a big
Speaker 4: difference to see the ball better. I'm going to ask
Speaker 4: you the same question, like you covered the Mets, you
Speaker 4: covered the Jets. Is it going to Fox or is
Speaker 4: it going from tier two NFL coverage to the top
Speaker 4: team now? Now with Tom Brady and Greg Olsen in
Speaker 4: the past, what's been the biggest jump and why for you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a really good question, and I think your
Speaker 6: analogy is similar. Look, I'm not going to say that
Speaker 6: going to Fox on a national gig wasn't a big jump,
Speaker 6: but I think I kind of agree with you.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I was ready for it.
Speaker 6: Like it wasn't like I was going into it and
Speaker 6: nervous or I didn't think I could handle it, you know,
Speaker 6: And I was older. I didn't get a break when
Speaker 6: I was twenty five years old. I mean, I'm fifty
Speaker 6: years old now. This will be what my twelve year
Speaker 6: at Fox. So I was comfortable with who I was
Speaker 6: at that time, and I was not nervous about it.
Speaker 1: At all, even though it was a big career jump obviously.
Speaker 6: You know, I started out doing high school sports and
Speaker 6: then you know, I was doing minor league baseball Alex
Speaker 6: for you know, twenty five bucks a game, and you're
Speaker 6: going to these random places with ten people in the stands,
Speaker 6: and you know, you're doing a game by yourself, like
Speaker 6: you know, I had a couple of games, like everybody
Speaker 6: in my position that's done this, right, you're doing these
Speaker 6: games by yourself and you've gone extra innings. It's a
Speaker 6: five hour game and you're having Peede in seven hours,
Speaker 6: and you know, you're just you're just trying to survive.
Speaker 1: Man, you know, it's it's crazy. So I think going
Speaker 1: from that, and you know, it wasn't like.
Speaker 6: The next day, but going from that, and then you know,
Speaker 6: kind of jumping into my.
Speaker 1: First foray into New York, which was w CBS radio.
Speaker 6: That was the biggest deal because I went from doing
Speaker 6: minor league baseball that nobody listened to by myself, you know,
Speaker 6: on these random radio stations to w CBSAM in New York,
Speaker 6: which that was a big jump, and that was like,
Speaker 6: oh okay, this is a little different here. But at
Speaker 6: the same time, I always felt like if I could
Speaker 6: handle that, doing five hours of radio by myself, I
Speaker 6: felt like I could handle it. But I think just
Speaker 6: in class, I think that was probably the biggest lead.
Speaker 6: Going from you know, the minor league ball to New
Speaker 6: York is pretty big.
Speaker 2: And so along the way, Kevin like, you're having to
Speaker 2: make decisions about your career, You're having to negotiate. You know,
Speaker 2: this show is called The Deal after all, Like how
Speaker 2: did you handle your various deals? What were the negotiations?
Speaker 2: Like how do you approach that? Because, as Alex likes
Speaker 2: to say on this show, there are a lot of
Speaker 2: people out there listening who are doing whatever. The twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four version of what you did is, you know,
Speaker 2: calling games into their phone or you know, watching the
Speaker 2: sound down as you guys do your thing. How would
Speaker 2: you advise them or what did you learn about sort
Speaker 2: of negotiating for yourself? And what do you remember about
Speaker 2: those talks?
Speaker 6: The biggest thing about negotiating I actually learned when I
Speaker 6: sold cars.
Speaker 1: That's why it was the most important thing that I
Speaker 1: ever did.
Speaker 6: Because I like the thing of myself as a pretty
Speaker 6: easygoing guy and I'm usually not a rock the boat
Speaker 6: guy unless I get to the point where I'm really angry,
Speaker 6: which doesn't happen very often. And so I think I
Speaker 6: was apprehensive, maybe even afraid to ask for things that
Speaker 6: I wanted. You know, I was afraid of hearing the
Speaker 6: word no. And when you sold cars, you either asked
Speaker 6: for what you wanted or you didn't eat. That's the
Speaker 6: bottom line, right, And so I got this great lesson,
Speaker 6: you know, when I sold cars from my general manager,
Speaker 6: who became a great friend and a great enabler to
Speaker 6: help me get back in the industry. Actually, he just
Speaker 6: was like, listen, you have to go out and find
Speaker 6: out what the customers want, but then ask for what
Speaker 6: you want, otherwise you're not going to get any deals.
Speaker 1: Like that's the way it works.
Speaker 6: And so I worked on negotiating, and really I just
Speaker 6: worked on asking for you know, what was right. And
Speaker 6: I wasn't the best salesman in the place, but I
Speaker 6: had the top customer service in the place, and I
Speaker 6: learned how to negotiate, and I had never had that
Speaker 6: skill before. And so after that, I just said to myself,
Speaker 6: in this industry, no matter what happens, I'm going to
Speaker 6: ask for what I want and if it don't get it,
Speaker 6: that's fine, But I'm not going to go down and
Speaker 6: be like I regret that I didn't ask for this,
Speaker 6: or regret that I didn't inquire about this.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I did.
Speaker 6: And honestly, when I was trying to get into you know,
Speaker 6: the next step, I called a friend of mine at
Speaker 6: WFIN contact him who actually was a boss at one point,
Speaker 6: Eric Spitz, and he was the program director there at
Speaker 6: the time, and I said, Eric, I think I'm good
Speaker 6: enough to work at a fan like I would love
Speaker 6: to come in in audition for you. And he said, okay,
Speaker 6: how about Friday. And I was like, wow, you know,
Speaker 6: it was really the first time after selling cars that
Speaker 6: I asked for something that I wanted and it was
Speaker 6: just a great lesson. And then I think from then
Speaker 6: it's just, you know, I think there's a fine line,
Speaker 6: especially in this business of not being in pain in
Speaker 6: the butt too, Like you don't want to annoy people,
Speaker 6: you don't want to be that person where you're a diva.
Speaker 6: But I think if you don't have a goal and
Speaker 6: ask for things you want and request things you want,
Speaker 6: well you're never going to get it.
Speaker 1: So that's been my personal life lesson KB.
Speaker 4: I love that concept about asking for what you want
Speaker 4: a little bit about that process. I mean, what kind
Speaker 4: of metrics are you looking at? Are you looking at? Well,
Speaker 4: the NFL package is one hundred and ten billion over
Speaker 4: eleven years, is it? You're looking at your contemporaries and say, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm just as good as that guy and I make
Speaker 4: similar Walk me a little bit through that process on
Speaker 4: how you talk about it, maybe with your wife, or
Speaker 4: maybe how you talk about it with your agent, or
Speaker 4: at least just internally.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: I think there's two things to it. So I certainly
Speaker 6: know my worth and I know what my talent is.
Speaker 6: Think you could get in trouble to a degree in
Speaker 6: comparing yourself to others, Like I always felt like, oh
Speaker 6: he's making this and she's making that, and if I'm
Speaker 6: making this, I'm pissed off.
Speaker 1: Well, I just don't think that's the way to go.
Speaker 6: I think the difference for me is knowing what my
Speaker 6: value is and knowing what my worth is and conveying that,
Speaker 6: you know, to my agent, and then you know, having
Speaker 6: goals and setting my goals, like you know, I'm also
Speaker 6: a guy that I think there are deals to be
Speaker 6: had right, whether I'm, you know, signing a contract with
Speaker 6: Fox or whether I'm buying a new refrigerator, I feel
Speaker 6: like there's a deal to be had right that probably
Speaker 6: makes both parties happy, and so that is usually my approach.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'll look at others to.
Speaker 6: See the market. I'm not saying that we don't. I'm
Speaker 6: not saying my agent doesn't. But I'm not a guy
Speaker 6: that takes my contract to put sit up against the
Speaker 6: wall against somebody else. I just feel like that's a
Speaker 6: recipe for disaster for me personally.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Let's talk about sort of where we are in
Speaker 2: this landscape. Because you mentioned you're fifty years old, we're
Speaker 2: all about the same age. We have seen one of
Speaker 2: the biggest upheavals in the world of media, certainly in
Speaker 2: our lifetimes. And yet everyone will tell you, whether it's
Speaker 2: you know, your boss at Fox, whether it's Jimmy Pataro
Speaker 2: at ESPN, whether it's my boss is at Bloomberg Live
Speaker 2: Sports are one of the most valuable assets out there.
Speaker 2: With all this turmoil that has gone on, or at
Speaker 2: least all this change, does it affect how you think
Speaker 2: about doing your job, not even just as it relates
Speaker 2: to contracts, but more does it change the way you
Speaker 2: approach it knowing that the media landscape is so different.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I'm very lucky and fortunate that I'm
Speaker 6: in the live sports space.
Speaker 1: I think live sports and live news.
Speaker 6: No matter how much change we are enduring and probably
Speaker 6: will endure for the next you know, two, three, five,
Speaker 6: ten years, I just don't see that changing and so
Speaker 6: I think it's a great space to be. Now that
Speaker 6: being said, I have a lot of friends who are
Speaker 6: on you know, the regional levels, and there's been so
Speaker 6: much upheaval in that time in that space.
Speaker 1: How do you navigate it?
Speaker 6: You know, I've been asked for advice, and honestly, it's
Speaker 6: really hard to give because I feel like every six
Speaker 6: months it changes, you know, where friends don't even know
Speaker 6: where the next paycheck's coming from. Is it coming from
Speaker 6: a team, is it coming from a league, is it
Speaker 6: coming from a network, a streamer.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a very rocky time in terms
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 6: I'm fortunate to be on a national level and it's
Speaker 6: a little bit different, and I know I'm fortunate, but
Speaker 6: I do think that just overall, it will settle and
Speaker 6: find itself that I just can't see a way that
Speaker 6: live sports and live news is not the most important thing,
Speaker 6: no matter how much streaming, no matter how much the
Speaker 6: industry changes, whether we're packaging things together, whether we have
Speaker 6: cable or where we cut the cord, those things are
Speaker 6: what people want to watch. There's always going to be
Speaker 6: a demand for it. And just look at the ratings.
Speaker 6: They tell you that's the case.
Speaker 2: Sort of pivoting a little bit to sort of your
Speaker 2: day to day. You know, obviously it's baseball season as
Speaker 2: we speak, but very soon it will be football season.
Speaker 2: It always sneaks up on you. How do you juggle it?
Speaker 2: You know, how do you think about it in your mind?
Speaker 2: You've got to be hyper prepared on arguably the two
Speaker 2: most popular sports. Alex is involved in one of the
Speaker 2: three most popular as an owner, But like, how do
Speaker 2: you juggle that and how do you stay current and
Speaker 2: keep your mind right?
Speaker 6: I guess I always look at it, Jason, like a midterm.
Speaker 6: You know, I think that the game or the show,
Speaker 6: what we're doing is the test. And if you study
Speaker 6: for the test, you feel pretty darn good going into it.
Speaker 6: It's not going to say it's going to be perfect
Speaker 6: and you're going to get one hundred every time, but
Speaker 6: you feel good going in and you feel like you
Speaker 6: can adapt to things that happen in front of you
Speaker 6: because you're prepared. And the simple answer, without breaking down
Speaker 6: my exact routine every day is I just read and
Speaker 6: watch a lot. I read and watch a lot. I
Speaker 6: don't think there's any substitute for that. And then I
Speaker 6: take a lot of notes. I have my own database
Speaker 6: that I have in my laptop that I take notes
Speaker 6: in there, and I save, and I go back and
Speaker 6: reference and my own thoughts in there. That's the most
Speaker 6: simplistic way I get answered. I don't know a shortcut.
Speaker 6: I just don't know a shortcut. How you can possibly
Speaker 6: do this job without being on top of all that,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 4: I think Kevin, our listeners are probably intrigued. I certainly am,
Speaker 4: and I know Jason is too. There's so much information.
Speaker 4: We're in the generation of, like data crazy, right, It
Speaker 4: just comes at you from every angle.
Speaker 5: What are some of the.
Speaker 4: Publications you read and what do you listen to in
Speaker 4: preparation to be up to date?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question, you know, I think for
Speaker 1: the most part, al. I try to read everything.
Speaker 6: You know, there's so much out there, right, so you know,
Speaker 6: I'll have my favorites. You know, I really enjoy it.
Speaker 6: For sports, I enjoy the athletic a lot. I think
Speaker 6: that's a great psyche. They have some in depth articles.
Speaker 6: They give you some perspective and human nature a little
Speaker 6: bit that's in there, and I really like that. So
Speaker 6: I'm not a big stack guy. I like it for
Speaker 6: content text, but I'm not in my broadcasting. I'm not
Speaker 6: a guy that recites stats off the top of my head.
Speaker 6: That I just not the way. It's not how I
Speaker 6: believe it should be done. And you know, again, we're
Speaker 6: in a stylistic business. Everybody's different. And my brain also
Speaker 6: doesn't work like that.
Speaker 1: I have a creative brain, So I am not a
Speaker 1: guy that could see a spreadsheet and go boom.
Speaker 6: I'm a guy that give me a blank canvas and
Speaker 6: I'll fill it in. So the way I study is
Speaker 6: also different. I read everything I can get my hands on,
Speaker 6: you know, I watch everything I can get my hands on,
Speaker 6: and I try not to get too deep into the
Speaker 6: woods of some of the number stuff and getting lost
Speaker 6: in there. I'm looking really just for context. Because I
Speaker 6: think it's all about this alt and you know you
Speaker 6: know this. We sit next to a trail all the time.
Speaker 6: But our audience could be a diehard fan who knows
Speaker 6: everything about the team for the last forty five years,
Speaker 6: a pretty big fan who.
Speaker 1: Watches a lot and knows enough, a casual fan who will.
Speaker 6: Flip it on, you know, once every two weeks, or
Speaker 6: someone who has never seen a game all year or
Speaker 6: in their lifetime. Doing the Super Bowl especially, we have
Speaker 6: people who never watch football, So how do you talk
Speaker 6: to all of those same people at the same time.
Speaker 6: I think that's the key, So finding the information there
Speaker 6: and finding the right way to have it presented where
Speaker 6: you're not offending the people who are diehards, but also
Speaker 6: making it understandable for the people who really don't know
Speaker 6: exactly what they're watching.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting segue into a question I know we
Speaker 2: both want to ask you, which is about the state
Speaker 2: of baseball, because it feels like the story of baseball
Speaker 2: is trending upward right now. Part of it, I think, Alex,
Speaker 2: I've talked about this on this show. You've got this
Speaker 2: sort of big brand name teams doing well. That always
Speaker 2: breeds a certain amount of excitement, you know, when the
Speaker 2: Dodgers and the Yankees and others are doing quite well.
Speaker 2: It also feels like these rule changes, everybody's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: speeding up the game is really smart and even and
Speaker 2: Alex and I have talked about this, you know, even
Speaker 2: taking my family to a game.
Speaker 3: It's so much more enjoyable.
Speaker 2: You know, to go down to Yankee Stadium a when
Speaker 2: they're winning, but be also when you're not going to
Speaker 2: be there.
Speaker 3: For four and a half hours.
Speaker 2: With apologies to Yankee Stadium, But how does it feel
Speaker 2: to you knowing the game as well as you do,
Speaker 2: sitting alongside Alex and Big Poppy and Derek and sort
Speaker 2: of taking this all in. How does baseball feel to
Speaker 2: you right now?
Speaker 6: It feels better. It feels better, no question. I think
Speaker 6: a lot of the rules changes that they made were
Speaker 6: his success. I mean, I think the game didn't need
Speaker 6: to speed up, and I think that it certainly achieved that, right,
Speaker 6: And you're right, it does make a difference when you're watching.
Speaker 6: I think that I think they've involved the base running
Speaker 6: more with what they did to the bases of the
Speaker 6: stolen base game going first to third. I think that
Speaker 6: part's been great.
Speaker 5: Tap it into your creative side.
Speaker 4: If you were the commissioner for twenty four hours, what
Speaker 4: are be two or three changes that you make to
Speaker 4: continue to grow the game?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 6: I do think that they have to continue to work
Speaker 6: to market people and market players more Alex because, as
Speaker 6: you all know, could sit down and you're an owner,
Speaker 6: but you could sit down and most people could sit
Speaker 6: down and you could present I don't know, let's say
Speaker 6: twenty five NBA players in front of them. Let's say
Speaker 6: the top twenty five NBA players. You could put them
Speaker 6: on a piece of paper and you could take an
Speaker 6: average fan and they would name every single one of
Speaker 6: them top twenty five NFL players.
Speaker 1: Easy.
Speaker 6: Everyone would be able to name them top twenty five
Speaker 6: Major League Baseball players. If you did the same thing,
Speaker 6: would people be able to name who they are?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure they would not close. I think that's
Speaker 1: something that's got to change.
Speaker 6: I think it's got to be more accessible, Like you know,
Speaker 6: we're trying, and I know, like you know, we had
Speaker 6: the All Star Game a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 6: you know, Fox is micing all these guys and it's great,
Speaker 6: You're getting them to see their personality. But I think
Speaker 6: the point is when you watch the NBA Finals and
Speaker 6: Jason Tatum is interviewing in the middle of the game,
Speaker 6: and baseball has been averse to that, Well, there's the
Speaker 6: reason why that's a good thing, because people understand who
Speaker 6: these players are, they get to know them, they feel
Speaker 6: connected to them, and without that it hurts the game.
Speaker 6: So I think you need the connectivity to the game
Speaker 6: there for sure. And then I get why we've gotten
Speaker 6: to where we've gotten with the lack of action with
Speaker 6: the three true outcomes, which is homer, walk, strikeout. I
Speaker 6: understand it's because what the numbers have said and we're
Speaker 6: following the math, which I get, But I would find
Speaker 6: some way to penalize a.
Speaker 1: Strikeout more than just ins and out.
Speaker 6: There needs to be some way, and I'm not sure,
Speaker 6: just off the top of my head answering your question
Speaker 6: what it would be. But the strikeout has become all
Speaker 6: too commonplace. You know when you played, I mean, you've
Speaker 6: told me this, you were embarrassed to strikeout. You talk
Speaker 6: to all the greats that they were embarrassed to strikeout.
Speaker 6: Doesn't matter anymore, And I think we've got to find
Speaker 6: a way to make that a penalty to increase contact.
Speaker 2: All right, So we do have to talk football for
Speaker 2: just a second, in part because this is going to
Speaker 2: be a very big fall for us as viewers and
Speaker 2: for you in the booth. Working with Tom Brady. It's
Speaker 2: probably the most heralded arrival of a commentator that we've
Speaker 2: seen in quite some time, you know, not since Alex
Speaker 2: Rodriguez took the booth. I mean, have we seen such anticipation.
Speaker 2: How do you prep for something like that or is
Speaker 2: it just sort of business as usual for you?
Speaker 6: I prep like and yeah, I mean it's slightly anticipated,
Speaker 6: and you know, it's the greatest football player ever.
Speaker 1: But I prep the same way that I prep with anybody.
Speaker 1: I've had multiple.
Speaker 6: Partners in different sports, and I always feel like it
Speaker 6: starts with building trust and building chemistry. So the first
Speaker 6: thing that Tom and I did was simply get to
Speaker 6: know each other, you know, spend time together, go to
Speaker 6: dinner and go golfing, that type of thing, and then
Speaker 6: you build it all from there.
Speaker 1: That's where the trust comes from.
Speaker 6: And that's also where I understand, like how he works
Speaker 6: and how he thinks. That doesn't matter who you are,
Speaker 6: and then you know, Jason, just you know, We've had
Speaker 6: you know, a bunch of practices and talks and rehearsals,
Speaker 6: and it's just you want to get to the point
Speaker 6: where I don't even have to look at him anymore.
Speaker 1: I understand, like exactly where he's going.
Speaker 6: Like I've worked with Alex long enough, I know exactly
Speaker 6: what he wants to do, and I generally know like
Speaker 6: what he feels about something. And that's simply time on
Speaker 6: task for the most part, right, And that's my job.
Speaker 6: You know, my actual play by play chops are not
Speaker 6: going to change. I'm going to call the game the
Speaker 6: way I always call the game. Now, it's just incorporating
Speaker 6: him the way he's most comfortable.
Speaker 1: And that part changes depending on the analyst.
Speaker 6: I've had, you know, different analysts with completely different styles
Speaker 6: in my time, even at Fox, and I enjoy that process.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 5: keV.
Speaker 4: I'm wondering, you know, you did your first Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: You're about to do your second one, this time with
Speaker 4: Tom Brady. You were fantastic in the first one.
Speaker 1: Thanks man.
Speaker 4: I'm wondering how you think about performing and being the
Speaker 4: voice to almost one hundred and fifty million people here.
Speaker 4: Do you have to be careful with the temptation of
Speaker 4: overloading your preparation versus a first game.
Speaker 5: That you're doing early in the season.
Speaker 4: What lessons did you learn from the first Super Bowl
Speaker 4: that you're going to take and apply to this Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 6: So I obviously I had no idea what to expect,
Speaker 6: and you know, I talked to a lot of people
Speaker 6: getting advice, and I had a good approach. I did
Speaker 6: a ton of my prep the week before because it
Speaker 6: was a two week break, So the week before I
Speaker 6: did a ton of prep as if the game was
Speaker 6: on the first Sunday, and I could have done the
Speaker 6: game that Sunday, which is what I wanted to do,
Speaker 6: because then Monday we leave for the Super Bowl, and
Speaker 6: we've got all kinds of commitments and media and different
Speaker 6: meetings and different things that go on through the week.
Speaker 6: And so I kind of was prepared for that, But
Speaker 6: it doesn't really prepare you for it. I imagine it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, you prepare, you know, your whole career for
Speaker 6: trying to win a World Series, but then when you're
Speaker 6: at bat in Game seven, you know, it's still overwhelming, right,
Speaker 6: so that week it was just so much.
Speaker 1: I was just anxious to get to the game, you know.
Speaker 6: Worried about staying healthy and making sure like I had
Speaker 6: my voice, and you know, it's obviously the biggest day
Speaker 6: of my career, so you just want to get there.
Speaker 6: And then when I woke up Sunday morning, I just
Speaker 6: felt normal because I was like, I can do this.
Speaker 6: I know how to do games. And it really didn't
Speaker 6: bother me Sunday at all. I embraced it, and I
Speaker 6: told myself that too. I said, Hey, if you don't
Speaker 6: have fun doing this, then you're never going to have fun, right,
Speaker 6: this is what you dreamed of as a kid. And
Speaker 6: so truly, Sunday I had the best time. So whether
Speaker 6: it's two hundred people watching or one hundred and twenty
Speaker 6: million people watching, I don't really that part doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1: That part's never bothered me.
Speaker 6: But until you actually go through it, you just can't
Speaker 6: fully comprehend, like how many ways you get pulled that
Speaker 6: particular week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so it's time for the lightning round.
Speaker 2: So this is where Alex Cann to ask you a
Speaker 2: number of questions. When to hear your quick response is
Speaker 2: just off the top of your head.
Speaker 3: So are you ready for this?
Speaker 2: Let's go, Jason, all right, what's the best piece of
Speaker 2: advice you've ever been given on deal making or business?
Speaker 6: Just trust yourself, be you, and it'll work itself out.
Speaker 6: And that kind of lets everybody kind of calm down.
Speaker 6: And I've gone by that.
Speaker 5: What's the worst advice you've ever been given.
Speaker 1: In regards to deals or anything at all?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you call it.
Speaker 1: I was told that.
Speaker 6: I didn't have the skill to be a play by
Speaker 6: play guy. That has been motivating my entire career. I've
Speaker 6: used that one as fuel.
Speaker 2: So you've worked with Alex Derek, Big Poppy, You've worked
Speaker 2: with any number of analysts. You're about to work with
Speaker 2: Tom Brady. Aside from those guys, who's your dream partner?
Speaker 2: You can take it from any moment in history. If
Speaker 2: you could just like snap your fingers, who would you
Speaker 2: be in the boothbom Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'll give you, I'll give you two answers,
Speaker 1: try and keep it quick.
Speaker 6: I can name a million people, I mean, but for one,
Speaker 6: it would be John Madden just because I grew up
Speaker 6: idolizing the guy and that would be so fun to
Speaker 6: sit next to him while he was doing his thing.
Speaker 6: And then you know, I'm so lucky to work with
Speaker 6: who I work with. But it would be cool to
Speaker 6: do a show with Charles Barkley. I think he's the best.
Speaker 6: I've only met him one time, but yeah, I think
Speaker 6: that would be a hell of a lot of fun.
Speaker 6: I think he fits in with a lot of the
Speaker 6: stuff that we do.
Speaker 5: What's your hype song before a big game on TV?
Speaker 1: Oh? Well, here we go.
Speaker 6: I'm going to tell you this is I got to
Speaker 6: go back to my roots. I'm a Jersey kid. So
Speaker 6: if you're giving me like one song to play, I'm
Speaker 6: going to pump on a little Bond jovie like a
Speaker 6: living out a prayer.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm going to go.
Speaker 2: Oh that's amazing, love it is.
Speaker 3: You could take the boy out of Jersey.
Speaker 1: Some things don't ever change, all right.
Speaker 2: So finally, what's your advice for non athletes or you know,
Speaker 2: aspiring people who want to work in the sports world.
Speaker 6: This is what I truly believe in. It's two simple things.
Speaker 6: It's follow your dreams because you're going to regret if
Speaker 6: you don't. Right, and you don't know where it's getting up.
Speaker 6: But I always say that it's so important because people
Speaker 6: will get dreams, get squashed and they don't ever really
Speaker 6: follow through and what they want to do. And then
Speaker 6: the other thing is I think set goals, but I'm
Speaker 6: just not a believer in saying, where do you want
Speaker 6: to be in ten years?
Speaker 1: I want to do the world's here is in ten years.
Speaker 6: And the reason I don't believe that is because I
Speaker 6: feel like if you do that and you're not there,
Speaker 6: then you look at yourself as a failure. So the
Speaker 6: goals that I like to set are improvements, things that
Speaker 6: make you better. How can you be better? How can
Speaker 6: you improve your life, improve your career. I don't like
Speaker 6: to say, you know, in five years, I'm going to
Speaker 6: be making X, because I feel like if you're not,
Speaker 6: it's a failure. That's at least from my personality. So
Speaker 6: I always find when I talk to his students and like, wow,
Speaker 6: I want to call the super Bowl too, and I
Speaker 6: hope to be there by thirty. Well, let's just puts
Speaker 6: thing on the table that's achievable and then when you
Speaker 6: get there, you check it off and now you're on
Speaker 6: to the next goal. That's the way I view goals.
Speaker 6: That's what I tell young people. Whether it's right, I
Speaker 6: have no idea, but that's how I feel.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: It seems to have worked very well for you. You're
Speaker 2: a good partner to my partner. This has been fun
Speaker 2: to sort of compare to us. We're going to have
Speaker 2: to maybe have like a session just the two of
Speaker 2: us about Alex when he's not there. But you've been
Speaker 2: very kind with your time, and everything that Alex has
Speaker 2: said about you is true. You're clearly a great and
Speaker 2: thoughtful guy.
Speaker 3: So we really appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 4: Kevin, Kevin, thank you so much. There's been so much fun.
Speaker 5: Brother. Then I'll see you soon.
Speaker 2: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: This episod was made by Stacy Wong, Annamazarakus, Lizzie Phillip,
Speaker 2: and Victor Eveyez. Our theme music was made by Blake Maples.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Honig, and Brendan Newnham.
Speaker 2: Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Additional support
Speaker 2: from Rachel Scaramzzino and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks for listening
Speaker 2: to the Deal. If you have a minute, please subscribe, rate,
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Speaker 5: All you need to do is.
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Speaker 3: I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: See you next week.