Speaker 1: Storytelling from a three decade friendship and television sports with
Speaker 1: the ultra talented, incredibly versatile Mike Tarrico of NBC. Our
Speaker 1: conversation was what you might call far flung. We had
Speaker 1: a lot to cover, We had a lot of laughs,
Speaker 1: and re vered way beyond the obvious. Football. Talked about
Speaker 1: the incredible breadth of unforgettable moments that Mike has broadcast,
Speaker 1: from maybe golf's ultimate mental meltdown, the craziest finish in
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby history, a total serena shocker, and the final
Speaker 1: game in the career of Kobe Bryant. God Rest his soul,
Speaker 1: Kobe's last game. It was a game that it was
Speaker 1: me Hub and Lisasualter's got to call in l A
Speaker 1: and Kobe sat with us for a half hour at
Speaker 1: five ashof as our producer Eddie had covered Kobe all
Speaker 1: went back in his early days. Uh. We sat with
Speaker 1: with Kobe for like twenty five to thirty minutes and
Speaker 1: talked about career, life, everything else. And he really he said,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I have in me tonight. I
Speaker 1: don't you know. And he ended up having an incredible
Speaker 1: game that you know, you were reminded the mentality of
Speaker 1: the athlete and their mental approach to He knew exactly
Speaker 1: how much he had in the tank, and if he
Speaker 1: got going, he could he could get or sixty in
Speaker 1: the tank. Right. What he did exactly exactly. You you
Speaker 1: be said, you know, I hadn't I had it. I
Speaker 1: had a dream. I was shaven, and I remembered my dream.
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought Kobe could have like a fifty
Speaker 1: sixty point kind of game. And he threw that out
Speaker 1: like in the first quarter, and Kobe is going there.
Speaker 1: I told you, I told you it was. It was
Speaker 1: one of those. But it's the athletes that the athletes
Speaker 1: who are so smart, and that's what I've learned to
Speaker 1: appreciate about Lebron. He talked to Lebron about basketball. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, it's a master class. He sees so much.
Speaker 1: That's why he's an unbelievable assist guy, rebounder, and he's
Speaker 1: made so many teams so much better over the years.
Speaker 1: And that's what I feel so fortunate, is not just
Speaker 1: being able to call the events that these folks have
Speaker 1: been involved with, but to hear what makes them so great.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more ahead and the privilege of covering
Speaker 1: some of the greatest sports legends of all the time. Also,
Speaker 1: there were some surprising turns in our conversation, like the
Speaker 1: search for killboard. We talked funny about our twenty five
Speaker 1: years working together at ESPN ABC, where of course Mike
Speaker 1: was the voice of Monday Night Football, covered college sports, golf, tennis,
Speaker 1: posted World Cups, and he reminded me we actually hosted
Speaker 1: Sports Center together a few times, and he's got a
Speaker 1: story he loves to tell about that. Of course, at
Speaker 1: NBC Sports, since two thousand six, Team Mike has done
Speaker 1: everything He's called NFL games, hosted Football Night in America,
Speaker 1: covered the Triple Crown, racist the Stanley Cup, among other things,
Speaker 1: and of course is now the prime time host for
Speaker 1: the Winter and Summer Olympics. This was great fun. We
Speaker 1: got to talk about why we're so grateful getting to
Speaker 1: do the thing we love to do. Caught up with
Speaker 1: Mike in America's most famous town for golf, and now
Speaker 1: Mike Terko reporting from Augusta, which is a fabled place
Speaker 1: for all who love and respect the sport of golf
Speaker 1: as you do. So thank you for taking time, my
Speaker 1: old friend and your master's prep to join us here.
Speaker 1: I guess maybe I'm doing you a favor because this
Speaker 1: is your quarantine day and Augustus, I'm giving you away
Speaker 1: to kill an hour as you as you sit in
Speaker 1: that lovely hotel room. Listen, this might seem remedial for you,
Speaker 1: But for someone that has a love and a passion
Speaker 1: and a tremendous feel for the sport of golf, doing
Speaker 1: what you've done so well for so many years, to
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't have that stuff, describe the magic of
Speaker 1: that place and the magic of the sport of golf
Speaker 1: from an announcer's perspective, Why does it stir your blood
Speaker 1: so deeply? Yeah? So, so let's just start with the
Speaker 1: basic separation the four majors. The other three have been
Speaker 1: in rotating locations, So the Open, the British Open, the
Speaker 1: Open Championship, however you want to refer to, rotates around
Speaker 1: what's called the ROTA nine different courses in the in
Speaker 1: the British Isles, the U S Openers. We know some
Speaker 1: years at Pebble Beach, some of your Shandekock, Bethpage, Black Oakmont,
Speaker 1: Oakland Hills, moves all over the country right Tory Pines.
Speaker 1: This year the PGA Championship scene, great courses around the US.
Speaker 1: This is the one of the four majors that comes
Speaker 1: back to the same place, so it starts there. Second,
Speaker 1: it's the timing of it. It is April, it's springtime
Speaker 1: in Georgia, and absent your pollen allergies, there's no place
Speaker 1: better to be. I mean, everything is Do you have allergies?
Speaker 1: Do you have allergies? Of the flowers there? I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit. I'm not bad. Some people really get
Speaker 1: knocked out with the oute. The pollen is so thick
Speaker 1: and heavy because the blooming, it just it just everything explodes. Uh.
Speaker 1: In this a couple of weeks stretch of early April.
Speaker 1: So what what you've set? And this is honestly it's
Speaker 1: pre climate change because now it's warmer in the Northeast
Speaker 1: and the Midwest in April and late March than it
Speaker 1: used to be. Uh. But in the days where you're
Speaker 1: used to cold weather this time of year, you're just
Speaker 1: getting that first fifty degree day, sixty degree day you
Speaker 1: turn on AUGUSTA, and it looks amazing. I always challenge
Speaker 1: people when they come here, if they're lucky enough to
Speaker 1: be a guest in any way, or a patron who
Speaker 1: comes to the event, go go find go find a cigarette,
Speaker 1: but go find a piece of trash, go find anything
Speaker 1: out of place, and you almost never can. It is
Speaker 1: the most pristine, beautifully landscaped and manicured property. So even
Speaker 1: if you're not a softie for just the visuals, this
Speaker 1: place is the most beautiful, breathtaking, captivating place. And I
Speaker 1: think the last part is the shots that happened here
Speaker 1: over and over. It's the first major of the year,
Speaker 1: so we've waited eight months usually since the end of
Speaker 1: the major championship golf season, so there's pressure on the players.
Speaker 1: It's your chance to make history. And the best players,
Speaker 1: Nicholas Palmer, player Woods Watson, they've all one here. They've
Speaker 1: all hit memorable shots going back to Sneed and Gene
Speaker 1: Sara's and so it's all of that in one big place.
Speaker 1: And when you come here, you enter through the gates
Speaker 1: and it just feels different. There is a reverence to
Speaker 1: the history for the history. Uh, there's an importance of
Speaker 1: what has happened here over time. Uh, there's the feeling
Speaker 1: that when you come here you have a chance to
Speaker 1: be remembered forever for what you do Bubba Watson hit
Speaker 1: a shot from way right of the tenth hole in
Speaker 1: a playoff that is forever talked about. So whenever anybody
Speaker 1: comes to the Mass they walked down by ten. I
Speaker 1: think Bubba hit it here. No, it was here. Now
Speaker 1: you hooked it around this tree. So those things last.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen to the other golf tournaments in the
Speaker 1: same way. So all of that together makes it special.
Speaker 1: And the thing I would say, Chris, for people, it's
Speaker 1: hard to get here as a player, a caddy, a
Speaker 1: member of the media, a member, or an invited guest.
Speaker 1: But once you get here, you're treated so well. There's
Speaker 1: no sporting event where the media is treated better the
Speaker 1: players anything else. And you come here, if you're lucky
Speaker 1: enough to come here as a guest of a member
Speaker 1: and play, you're not treated any better anywhere else in
Speaker 1: the world. So it really is the finest of everything
Speaker 1: when you get here. And that's why I think when
Speaker 1: we all get a chance to come back, you feel
Speaker 1: you feel like it's a special week. You really do.
Speaker 1: I've never been to the Master just the biggest sporting
Speaker 1: event in the world. I've never been, and I've had
Speaker 1: a chance. I won a charity silent auction a couple
Speaker 1: of times. I was all set up to go, couldn't
Speaker 1: make it one of these years. So I'll have to
Speaker 1: have to experience that, because even though I don't feel
Speaker 1: golf in that way, I will never feel the same
Speaker 1: about golf as I do about tennis or other sports.
Speaker 1: I think I would get drawn in by just the
Speaker 1: things that you described, and so I look forward to
Speaker 1: doing that at some point. And I won't drink a mint, Julia,
Speaker 1: because that's a waste of beautiful bourbon. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest of the whole Master's experience, so I will.
Speaker 1: I will say that right to your heart, and having
Speaker 1: covered it with you for five years, I know what
Speaker 1: what a what a fondness and affection you have for
Speaker 1: the All England Club for Wimbledon, very very similar to
Speaker 1: the point that they are private clubs that have a
Speaker 1: very special membership, and they open their doors for the
Speaker 1: fortnite for two weeks at Wimbledon for a week plus
Speaker 1: here now with the drive chip and putt for the
Speaker 1: kids and the women's amateur that happens this Saturday before
Speaker 1: the Masters. Now they open their doors for ten days
Speaker 1: in the in the Augustus case. Now for the rest
Speaker 1: of the world, and when somebody competes, it's a little different.
Speaker 1: As you know, the players have a different feel when
Speaker 1: they walk onto the grounds of the All England Club. Uh.
Speaker 1: They come out of that tunnel to the left that
Speaker 1: you're a great bunker and they walk onto center court.
Speaker 1: It's the same feeling when the players walk down from
Speaker 1: the clubhouse to the first tea in Augusta. And the
Speaker 1: clubs have actually shared uh practices, hosted each other uh
Speaker 1: during their events as well some members from the clubs,
Speaker 1: so they know and recognize each other's similarities. And I
Speaker 1: think if you got here you would feel those Wimbledon
Speaker 1: kind of vibes that you get when you go to
Speaker 1: the All England Club. I think you're right. The difference
Speaker 1: is one is tennis and one is golf, and golf
Speaker 1: for me as a love hate relationship, you know, I
Speaker 1: I play it badly. I think you have to be
Speaker 1: a decent or at least an enthusiastic golfer to announce it.
Speaker 1: It's not true of other sports. You don't have to
Speaker 1: have played competitive basketball to call a basketball game or
Speaker 1: football game. I think too too it helps in tennis
Speaker 1: for sure. That that I played tennis golf, I'm not
Speaker 1: nearly a good enough golfer or experience of golfer. I
Speaker 1: could never do what you do and the and the
Speaker 1: best golf announcers do, so I don't even try to
Speaker 1: venture into that world. In fact, I came across my
Speaker 1: golf bag here. It's in the laundry room. It's kind
Speaker 1: of touched behind the dryer. I saw it the other day.
Speaker 1: It's got an inch thick cake of dust on it.
Speaker 1: That's how long I've been retired from golf. I kind
Speaker 1: of I wrestle it. It weighs a hundred and fifty pounds. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I've got six or seven more clubs than you're allowed
Speaker 1: to have, three pairs of shoes, a thousand balls. Because
Speaker 1: I lose some money during a round, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: it out and and sort of like gently unretired on
Speaker 1: the driving range. But but we have never played golf together,
Speaker 1: which is your loss because you could have taken money
Speaker 1: from me. But but I've seen you play golf o No,
Speaker 1: not at the Jimmy V. Have you not at the
Speaker 1: Jimmy V, which I'm sure you did, But I remember.
Speaker 1: This is like one of those like why do you remember?
Speaker 1: That can make me look worse than I already made myself. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking unless, unless, I unless, I imagine this. Didn't
Speaker 1: you do a pie in Cincinnati playing golfic? Yes, but
Speaker 1: it only can I only had We didn't play a
Speaker 1: full round. We had some shots. He hit some drives
Speaker 1: and and I actually didn't choke. See at the Jimmy
Speaker 1: V which he played and enjoyed, Charles Barkley brought his
Speaker 1: entire gallery to my tea box off of their green
Speaker 1: when they were adjacent. I Mike, I melted down. I
Speaker 1: can now describe choking in a way that I never
Speaker 1: could have before, because it was the worst choking experience,
Speaker 1: athletic or otherwise, of my life. He falls on the ground,
Speaker 1: laughing with a thousand people because I Scottish a tea
Speaker 1: shot that gets a foot off the ground, hits off,
Speaker 1: bounces off, the ball, cleaner goes and and my group
Speaker 1: is mortified. I have to like try to play that off.
Speaker 1: You put on that brave face, but you're dying inside,
Speaker 1: dying so badly. I mean that event, that event, and
Speaker 1: it's heyday. It's funny because I was telling people about
Speaker 1: watching the NC Tournament, right, and uh, watching teams and
Speaker 1: Cinderella's and all that. And now my on twenty or daughters.
Speaker 1: You know, she's a teenager. She's in college now. So
Speaker 1: so I've got two kids who have experienced the tournament
Speaker 1: and loved the tournament for growing up with it, and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of taken them back to, well, when did
Speaker 1: the tournament really take off? Right? He started talking about
Speaker 1: the magic and Larry Bird game in seventy nine, realist,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, how long ago is that? And we
Speaker 1: started talking with the Jimmy v Game and the V
Speaker 1: Foundation and how all of us, uh really had a
Speaker 1: wonderful time. And I just started telling someone. I don't
Speaker 1: think it was the kids, just the stories about Jimmy
Speaker 1: V uh in his last couple of years working in Bristol.
Speaker 1: And you did a lot of those studio shows and
Speaker 1: John Saunders did. I was doing more radio. I was
Speaker 1: doing I'll Never Forget V's last night in Connecticut. He
Speaker 1: felt really good after the show came up to the
Speaker 1: news room hung in the back of the old news
Speaker 1: room at ESPN with when you stepped up to the
Speaker 1: news room, it was like on that one step up
Speaker 1: for all the cubicles. Right. V stood in the back
Speaker 1: and held court with Saunders, and I was doing the
Speaker 1: two thirty am I Sports Center with Chris Myers half
Speaker 1: hour at that time. Uh, it was it may be
Speaker 1: the worst show I've ever done, because all we did
Speaker 1: from twelve o'clock when when they came up until one
Speaker 1: thirty two was listening to V tells stories and of
Speaker 1: all the good people we've been around, Uh, nobody captivated
Speaker 1: the room and told stories like Valvano. And that's why
Speaker 1: the Jimmy V. Celebrity Golf Classic after he passed and
Speaker 1: Raleigh was one of the most enjoyable weekends because it truly, Chris,
Speaker 1: It's like one of those rare things that actually was
Speaker 1: in the spirit of the person. Somebody says, then let's
Speaker 1: do this in the spirit of so and so that
Speaker 1: weekend was in the spirit of Jimmy V. And that's
Speaker 1: some of them, some of my most enjoyable memories over time.
Speaker 1: Notwithstanding you Shank and went off the off the team
Speaker 1: with the job. You got me smiling and thinking about
Speaker 1: those memories. I mean, people will always remember the speech
Speaker 1: at the SPS. Don't give up don't ever give up.
Speaker 1: But we saw it on a nightly basis how inspiring
Speaker 1: Jimmy was. Because what you just described is a great memory.
Speaker 1: He was an agony as that was happening. You just
Speaker 1: know that he was. We saw it in Bristol. I
Speaker 1: saw it at the last final four sadly that he
Speaker 1: covered and the pain was unbelievable in his back, and
Speaker 1: he he was managing that and still being the life
Speaker 1: of the party, still bringing the great energy. And I
Speaker 1: think that that's what such a treasure Mike, about what'll
Speaker 1: you've been lucky enough to do for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I've known you for thirty years is working with
Speaker 1: these personalities, working with these analysts. I think you share
Speaker 1: my joy in working with those folks, building chemistry on
Speaker 1: and off the air, and and the characters that you've
Speaker 1: worked with the I'm just gonna throw a few names
Speaker 1: out there. This just scratches the surface. But not only
Speaker 1: are they great analysts, great at their job, but the
Speaker 1: characters as human beings, Lee Corso, he Be Brown, Doug Flutie,
Speaker 1: Nick Fouldo, Curtis Strange, all the golf guys, John Gruden,
Speaker 1: Johnny Mack and Tennis among others len Elmore, Tony Dungee.
Speaker 1: I mean we haven't. We'll get to the soccer guys
Speaker 1: at the World Cups. But that that roster of people
Speaker 1: that you've gotten a chance to work with, to bring
Speaker 1: out the best in and then just to to learn
Speaker 1: from them life lessons. I know you don't take that
Speaker 1: for granted. Not, not not at all. And I loved
Speaker 1: every second of it. Uh, it's so funny. So I
Speaker 1: was driving from Florida up to the up to Augusta,
Speaker 1: and I called Carl Rabbits because we're coming up an
Speaker 1: opening day baseball And you know, played hundreds of rounds
Speaker 1: of golf with Ravy over the years when we were
Speaker 1: living in Connecticut. He was working baseball tonight or in
Speaker 1: the late night sports center around the same time. Our
Speaker 1: kids were about the same age. So we get out
Speaker 1: and play golf at nine in the morning, off no sleep,
Speaker 1: and play in the afternoon. And so we played a
Speaker 1: ton of golf together. And all of the people at
Speaker 1: sports center, like you, like Saunders, like Linda, like Levy,
Speaker 1: Dan Patrick, Keith, Jack Edwards doing some hockey. I've I've
Speaker 1: run across Jack Edwards now more than a few times.
Speaker 1: Is now the TV voice of the Bruins, that it's
Speaker 1: like minds of the great story. Jack would always everybody
Speaker 1: had their quirks of what they did at Sports Center, right,
Speaker 1: Gary Miller would take seven seconds to put his makeup on.
Speaker 1: He would talk, he would tuck the tail of his
Speaker 1: earpiece into his pocket. He'd like walked down on the
Speaker 1: set with papers everywhere. By the way, look it looked
Speaker 1: like he took seven seconds to do it. He plug
Speaker 1: his I FP and do this with makeup real quick
Speaker 1: and do like a great baseball tonight by an hour
Speaker 1: with for an hour with Peter Gammett's. Jack would always
Speaker 1: bring a see through the clipboard to the set. He
Speaker 1: keep his rundown on there whatever nots. Jack was super organized.
Speaker 1: Jack brought that from local TV. And the earpiece that
Speaker 1: we all have is called an I F B. Right,
Speaker 1: So Jack had printed in large letters like on the
Speaker 1: back of it like this no I F B. And
Speaker 1: to this day, for some reason, I remember that. So
Speaker 1: I saw Jack, like, do you still have your No
Speaker 1: I FB clipboard? He's like, how do you remember that?
Speaker 1: But like all those characters and Sports Center, I think
Speaker 1: and I'm curious how you feel it prepared me for
Speaker 1: all the characters and all these other sports, you know,
Speaker 1: because you had the straight guy, the funny guy, the
Speaker 1: different person you were working with, their different sensibilities. Uh,
Speaker 1: we do an NB, we do a sports center. Chris
Speaker 1: Myers always wanted the NBA highlights. I wanted the NHL highlights.
Speaker 1: We would trade highlights like if if I had like
Speaker 1: the Lakers game for its, like, hey, what would you
Speaker 1: can I'll give you too, Like the Kings of the
Speaker 1: Canucks here and the Sharks if you want to slide
Speaker 1: me over, like the Sacramento Clickers guys were highlights there.
Speaker 1: We would swap highlights and like, hey, later in the show,
Speaker 1: when we get down to like the d s, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe we could just flew the director. You're gonna do this?
Speaker 1: We we we we did to the producer and the director.
Speaker 1: But like all all that stuff, everybody's different quirks, personalities.
Speaker 1: I think prepared both of us for the large group
Speaker 1: of people that we worked with as analysts. And it
Speaker 1: has been, like, like you said, one of the great
Speaker 1: thrills for me. Um like Hugh be the all time
Speaker 1: MultiMate teacher, Gruden the ultimate coach. John just wanted another
Speaker 1: team to coach and our Monday night football group from
Speaker 1: director of producer around down the production assistant. He coached
Speaker 1: all of us up and we all got a masters
Speaker 1: and football. Being around John Jaws the quarterback position, there
Speaker 1: are more things that I look at the quarterback position
Speaker 1: still today that have been just drilled into my head
Speaker 1: from Jaws. Doug Flutie, who wasn't by the numbers guy.
Speaker 1: He's just a field guy. You know. The way he played,
Speaker 1: ran around, made stuff happened. That's that's Doug. I love
Speaker 1: the fact that we've been able to get to be
Speaker 1: really close with all of those different types of people,
Speaker 1: and that's why we love sports. We love sports because
Speaker 1: of the great people. And usually the analysts are the
Speaker 1: really good or the best at what they do, and
Speaker 1: getting the chance to hear how they tick, to see
Speaker 1: what they do, and then to get them to trust
Speaker 1: us a little bit that we're not gonna bury them
Speaker 1: with something that's unfair. We're gonna ask him an honest question.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring out the best in them for the viewers. Uh.
Speaker 1: That to me, that's been the most fun of what
Speaker 1: we get the chance to do on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: All the analysts you work with in all the sports.
Speaker 1: I'd like to ask you to rank them first to
Speaker 1: worse now and I think the listeners would enjoy that.
Speaker 1: Uh No, I mean some of the stuff not everyone
Speaker 1: has been enjoyed to work with that. Everyone has been
Speaker 1: brilliant and wise and effective and efficient. We know that,
Speaker 1: but that's just part of the fun to you. Just
Speaker 1: roll with it. I mean, we're on this topic, so
Speaker 1: I'll jump uh to to the World Cup in South Africa,
Speaker 1: which for us we share the idea. This was a
Speaker 1: career highlight. I mean to be able to go be
Speaker 1: a part of hosting that event. That's a country. The
Speaker 1: mental lot to me, it's a sport. The meant a
Speaker 1: lot to me, and the coverage was just top shelf.
Speaker 1: Uh So, proud of everybody. But the characters, Mike, that
Speaker 1: we get to share the sever come to it. These
Speaker 1: are global rock stars, you know, Rude Hullett, Steve McManaman,
Speaker 1: Jurgen Klinsman. I mean, Alexei lalas the token American on
Speaker 1: that set, but all these guys who brought to the
Speaker 1: set a completely different sensibility on the global sport there.
Speaker 1: They're rock stars, rich people in their own right, and
Speaker 1: now you've gotta make it kind and by the way,
Speaker 1: language is sometimes it's not their first language English, so
Speaker 1: you can make it all kind of work. And you
Speaker 1: had no time before or between halves of a World Cup.
Speaker 1: But it's still that that sort of like tap dance
Speaker 1: on the high wire, was so much fun. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget kind of those moments on the set and off
Speaker 1: the set at the World Cup, from from the very
Speaker 1: beginning to the very end, that that is right up
Speaker 1: there for every part of it, with one of the
Speaker 1: best professional experiences that I have ever or will ever
Speaker 1: have um lifelong friendships out of the group. But you know,
Speaker 1: you you were far more versed in soccer, far more
Speaker 1: comfortab both with the sport. For me, it was somewhat
Speaker 1: new bobbly obviously with us has. You know, he carried
Speaker 1: the flag for soccer and ESPN for generations right going
Speaker 1: back to the very start and MLS things. So for
Speaker 1: me it certainly was kind of tiptoeing through doing something new.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. I mean to the people who become closest, true,
Speaker 1: close personal friends Julie Faudi and her husband Ian right,
Speaker 1: and we've vacationed with them. We we are in great
Speaker 1: touch with them. We're on the line after we arrive
Speaker 1: with our passports, getting our credentials, and Julie's in front
Speaker 1: of me, and I've been at like in a vent
Speaker 1: or two with her and it kind of knew her
Speaker 1: and she kind of knew me, but we really didn't
Speaker 1: know each other. So we're talking and Juliet had their
Speaker 1: second child a few years just maybe a year or
Speaker 1: so before that, So so we're just chatting and I said, so,
Speaker 1: what's your role and said, well, I'm doing a lot
Speaker 1: of hosting stuff here, which she had never done before, right,
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm the really first time for me
Speaker 1: doing soccer. Is like, okay, here's our pact. When you're
Speaker 1: gonna ask this up a question, we can ask each other, right,
Speaker 1: And so that that developed like a great friendship from
Speaker 1: the start there. And then I can't remember. I remember
Speaker 1: asking Julian like, boy, everybody's personality here seems really big, Like, no, no,
Speaker 1: they're they're if they walk through their country, if they
Speaker 1: walk in that stadium, you'll see people will flock to them.
Speaker 1: And it was true, and the band came together. I
Speaker 1: don't know how they shared the ball somehow all the time,
Speaker 1: they like they all bought into this is a big
Speaker 1: event and this is not about me. It's about all
Speaker 1: of us and in their own unique ways and personalities. Uh.
Speaker 1: They they made it an experience of a lifetime. They
Speaker 1: really really did. I I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you feel the same way about that, because
Speaker 1: I've got a bottled art down there. I've got a
Speaker 1: couple of pictures and I see those and I fondly
Speaker 1: remember thirty five, thirty six of the best days on
Speaker 1: the road covered sports that I will ever have no doubt.
Speaker 1: People who get surprised it's thirty seven days in one
Speaker 1: hotel room. So there's that, but you don't care because
Speaker 1: the momentum of the event builds. And I'd tell you,
Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough to do this for a long time,
Speaker 1: you can have a handful of out of body experiences.
Speaker 1: And for me, standing on a platform at the top
Speaker 1: of our scaffolding with this giant set, but we went
Speaker 1: outside of that building to to look across at the
Speaker 1: stadium and bring the World Cup Final on the air.
Speaker 1: I would never presume to call it. I don't feel
Speaker 1: soccer from birth in the way that are the veteran,
Speaker 1: legendary soccer match callers do. So that's not a job
Speaker 1: for me. I would always yield that, but to be
Speaker 1: able to be a part of the coverage and just
Speaker 1: to say at heart we are all Africans because that's
Speaker 1: where humanity was born, and just to kind of bring
Speaker 1: bring the event on the air and just to be
Speaker 1: a part of it. I'll never forget it now Brazil,
Speaker 1: to your point, right to your point that in Brazil, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a chance to do that. And it's funny
Speaker 1: that you said that, because it's not often that we
Speaker 1: were remember like one specific moment in uh a pregame
Speaker 1: show or a postgame show or things like that. It's
Speaker 1: the collective experience. But I do remember grinding, and I
Speaker 1: pay great respect to you, Like nobody gets a show
Speaker 1: on the air better than Chris Fowler. And I've learned
Speaker 1: so much from watching you over the years. Like you,
Speaker 1: you grind on every single word to get it just
Speaker 1: right to get on the air. And I remember grinding
Speaker 1: to just trying to figure out the right ways to
Speaker 1: phrase the words before throwing to Ian Dark for the
Speaker 1: start of World Cup Final, the final match and it
Speaker 1: was trying to encapsulate that you at home are joined
Speaker 1: by a couple of billion people or every corner of
Speaker 1: the world doing this right now, You're about to watch
Speaker 1: the World Cup final, And it was just one of
Speaker 1: those moments that I remember. I remember, hey, guys, look,
Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want time wise, just make
Speaker 1: sure I had fifteen seconds so I can kind of
Speaker 1: deliver this the right way because I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: it for a while and You're right, there was a
Speaker 1: power to that that was just different than the other
Speaker 1: stuff because Chris I didn't realize it until the World
Speaker 1: Cup was in the US and then especially South Africa
Speaker 1: that experience and then Rio, um, how no event stops
Speaker 1: the world like that. It stops the world. And you
Speaker 1: know from from Brazil when when Brazil played that that
Speaker 1: that ill faded game against Germany. I was in the
Speaker 1: stands man, I was a fan, you were there right right.
Speaker 1: I would go ahead, but I that that is one
Speaker 1: of those things that if I were to mind the
Speaker 1: memories and really think about things that I witnessed in person, um,
Speaker 1: the shocking way that game unfolded from the celebratory, euphoric pregame.
Speaker 1: I mean seventy thousand people and Belzon singing the national anthem,
Speaker 1: and then they got buried, the first buried in the
Speaker 1: first few minutes. I mean it was seven the fans
Speaker 1: from being shocked to outrage, just at the end just
Speaker 1: laughing and just cheering Germany because they recognized the greatness
Speaker 1: of that display. I still get chills thinking about it.
Speaker 1: But I didn't mean to cut you up that when
Speaker 1: you bought that up though. That's just that's it. It's
Speaker 1: an incredibly powerful memory, lucky enough to have as a
Speaker 1: fan because I wasn't able to cover that tournament because
Speaker 1: Wimbledon conflicted. I flew down there to be there as
Speaker 1: a fan and wow, unforgettable. So so because of that,
Speaker 1: and then I'm hosting. So we're sitting in our set
Speaker 1: uh Alvan in the Atlantica and Rio's right there, the
Speaker 1: oceans right there, there's boulevard that just become this incredible spot.
Speaker 1: Our kids came down for a few days. They still
Speaker 1: talked about watching the US play while sitting on the
Speaker 1: beach in Rio, being able to watch on the big
Speaker 1: screen because they set up a big screen on the
Speaker 1: beach and that became like the centerpiece for where everybody.
Speaker 1: That was like the identifying point for people of watching.
Speaker 1: It was like watching people in Times Square New Year's Eve,
Speaker 1: you tune in to watch people watching the match on
Speaker 1: the beach. Uh. So what struck me? And I'll never
Speaker 1: get this. The game started around five o'clock local time.
Speaker 1: I'm maybe missing by an hour. The whole country shutdown,
Speaker 1: and you know, we say, oh yeah, the whole city shutdown.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, the subway shop to two doors down,
Speaker 1: shut down, everything shutdown. This boulevard, one of the most
Speaker 1: busy thoroughfares in the country. Not a car. This unbelievable
Speaker 1: rainstorm came through in Rio. Game was not played and Rio,
Speaker 1: as you said, it was like the thunder from the gods,
Speaker 1: and it was pouring so much so that it knocked
Speaker 1: out the power in our studio. So Alexei Lawless was
Speaker 1: with me. We had to do halftime from the quote
Speaker 1: panic room from the Men and Blazers. That was the
Speaker 1: only place we could get a camera and lights. So
Speaker 1: the halftime of that happened on the team. It's me
Speaker 1: and Alexei seriously in the closets four room, right, I
Speaker 1: mean exactly. So it's one of those things you'll you'll
Speaker 1: never forget. But it was it was that true, like
Speaker 1: signed from above, that this was a moment that was
Speaker 1: different than all the others. But that's the power of
Speaker 1: the World Cup. I think that's that's our our point
Speaker 1: here and the shared experience the people. There's power in sports,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's different nations, different things bring that power
Speaker 1: and that was one of those moments that reminded me
Speaker 1: of the global power of the World Cup as an
Speaker 1: event of the Soccer is sport, beautifully said. Crushing blow
Speaker 1: to lose the rights to that, I have to say,
Speaker 1: although Cutter doesn't quite carry the magic of the places
Speaker 1: we talked about. Hey, the true highlight of the World
Speaker 1: Cup and Brazil, though, I think came when we were
Speaker 1: hanging out in the bar of one of the lobby
Speaker 1: hotels there the the complic amant of beach and my
Speaker 1: wife Jennifer had the idea, you brought back the old
Speaker 1: days of Sports Center, why not text her old friend,
Speaker 1: long lost Craig Kilborn because we had we had we
Speaker 1: weren't sure what happened to Craig. He kind of went
Speaker 1: away and went underground and we hadn't heard from him.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those after a couple of drinks
Speaker 1: and you're you're kind of euphoric to be there. She
Speaker 1: has the idea and lone both you do it, and
Speaker 1: he responds, I mean from the other world where he's
Speaker 1: been spending the last few years. And it follows with
Speaker 1: connect in touch, follow him now on Instagram and every day,
Speaker 1: every day there's something good. There's Craig enjoying, enjoying life.
Speaker 1: But the picture that he sent you, the picture that
Speaker 1: he take fright nally he takes. He texted you a
Speaker 1: picture which was a precursor of his genius Instagram feed
Speaker 1: where he's very much in character this kind of like
Speaker 1: cocktail swirling renaissance man. Here we are in freaking rio
Speaker 1: and and Craig Kilborne emerges from a secrecy to like
Speaker 1: send you this text of enjoying a cocktail and you
Speaker 1: you were, so you came and knocked We had we
Speaker 1: had parted way and night you came down the hallway
Speaker 1: knocked on the door. That's right, and that that was Uh.
Speaker 1: That's the funny part I think for all of us
Speaker 1: over time is we were we were there and you're
Speaker 1: still there at ESPN. Obviously we were there at such
Speaker 1: a really cool time because the talent of when you
Speaker 1: think about the talent of the people that were there,
Speaker 1: and I mentioned a bunch of names before, and you
Speaker 1: can go on and on. We just had so many
Speaker 1: really unique, cool, talented people. At the time when ESPN
Speaker 1: had the rights to all the major sports, and college
Speaker 1: sports were becoming a bigger deal, and ESPN was no
Speaker 1: longer nice to try the guys on cable compared to
Speaker 1: the network sports the network's covering sports. Excuse me, it
Speaker 1: became a real power in the industry, which it remained
Speaker 1: for quite some time. But to share those experiences with
Speaker 1: Craig and you look at rich Eyes and now and
Speaker 1: now a pop Baniborne America. You see where Bob and
Speaker 1: you're on your driving, your going around Sirius XM. And
Speaker 1: here Charlie Steiner doing the Dodgers games. It's like every
Speaker 1: everybody's everywhere, and it was. It was one of those
Speaker 1: step back moments. I text Chris Myers during the football
Speaker 1: season too. I'm sitting there watching the NFL games and
Speaker 1: here's Chris loved the NFL and was an exceptional reporter
Speaker 1: when he was in the l A Bureau, And uh,
Speaker 1: they came to Sports Center and uh, we did the
Speaker 1: two thirty am together. But did you know, I did
Speaker 1: not know the whole that is wild, wild and wacky stuff.
Speaker 1: And we got away with so much stuff. And I
Speaker 1: see I see Chris doing the NFL game. Speaking of
Speaker 1: getting away with so one of my all time favorite
Speaker 1: Sports Center memories includes you. So like in the summer,
Speaker 1: right in the summer, there was the rotation the six
Speaker 1: o'clock the early Sports Center was Bobbly and Charlie, Lee
Speaker 1: Steiner and Robin Roberts for the most part. In Dan
Speaker 1: and Keith would do the eleven so on. So both
Speaker 1: both Chris, Chris and I we we had moved on
Speaker 1: to do you know, you're doing game day. I'm doing
Speaker 1: some games, college football, studios and golf bunch, different stuff.
Speaker 1: But you had to fill out the schedule sometimes, right,
Speaker 1: So there were these it was Bristol days where show
Speaker 1: up in the building for a little bit maybe work
Speaker 1: sometimes you don't need to, but sometimes we'd end up
Speaker 1: on the air. So we end up on a six
Speaker 1: o'clock Sports Center it was seven o'clock, I don't know.
Speaker 1: In August it was goody. You can get away with stuff, right,
Speaker 1: because we're not on this show in a regular basis.
Speaker 1: We'll just kind of have some fun, and we we were.
Speaker 1: We were sarcastic, We were tongue in cheek for a
Speaker 1: majority of the insignificant dance sports, including Fowler getting the
Speaker 1: highlights of the Pirates playing the Cubs a very meaningless
Speaker 1: baseball game and just kind of giving you that Brian
Speaker 1: Williams side look shoulder into the camera, kind of like
Speaker 1: this hundred sixty two games on the baseball schedule, and
Speaker 1: the Pirates and Cubs played one of them too, and
Speaker 1: that was just like dead Pad. It was like it
Speaker 1: was in the spirit of the late great Tombies. It
Speaker 1: was like, I'd like to think that I was channeling
Speaker 1: one of the all time great anchors, and maybe I
Speaker 1: was just being lazier a total lack of inspiration. By
Speaker 1: the way, as we recorded, these Pirates and Cubs are
Speaker 1: playing opening days, so it's not not insignificant game today. No.
Speaker 1: You just had that feeling though, and you you're right,
Speaker 1: it was two things about that. One, you felt like
Speaker 1: you could get away with more because it was a
Speaker 1: less scrutiny, and and also what you describe is a
Speaker 1: different climb. I don't want to sound like two old
Speaker 1: guys sports center. There's only two buildings on the campus,
Speaker 1: and we didn't have electronic teleprompter. But it was different.
Speaker 1: So the personalities that you named, and the thing about
Speaker 1: the climate there. We both came in as very young guys.
Speaker 1: You're doing sports center. I mean a few years out
Speaker 1: of college. I had done a couple of things, Classic
Speaker 1: Sports America, some studio stuff. When I was drafted into
Speaker 1: the rotation. I think I did every sports center there
Speaker 1: was for a while. But I look to eleven years old.
Speaker 1: But still you know, you knew the rest of the anchors.
Speaker 1: You knew where they went to school, you knew about
Speaker 1: their families, you knew what sports they like best. I
Speaker 1: think now the sheer scope of the company, the fact
Speaker 1: that the sports Center is around the clock, it takes
Speaker 1: place in different buildings, different shifts. This this is pre
Speaker 1: COVID when they're no one sees anyone in Bristol now.
Speaker 1: But even then it had grown so big that you
Speaker 1: can't have what what existed when we were young. We
Speaker 1: were there, the camaraderie, the learning from the elder statesman.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it was tough love. I mean, you get the
Speaker 1: I mean the great Tommy's or Berman. I was in
Speaker 1: awe watching Chris Berman do Sports Center in person. If
Speaker 1: you think you saw something on your television, you had
Speaker 1: to see it in person. Stacks of wire copy when
Speaker 1: when such a thing existed, and shot sheets and scripts
Speaker 1: in total disarray, complete disarray of the floor space on
Speaker 1: the desk he had eighty person, you had twenty. You
Speaker 1: want you looked over at this How in the hell
Speaker 1: can he execute this show so beautiful? It's like Somemont
Speaker 1: type stuff. And that was a great way to learn
Speaker 1: and and and that's how that's how sports has passed along. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: you know Sterling Sharp who I worked with, another character
Speaker 1: who are working with for many years. Sterling was always
Speaker 1: fond of saying, look, just because you used a urinal
Speaker 1: in the San Francisco forty and offices doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you know the West Coast office, right. He dressed it
Speaker 1: up a little differently than there's only Sterling, yes, right,
Speaker 1: But like that was the point. Just because you came
Speaker 1: in to do Sports Center didn't mean that you could
Speaker 1: be Chris Berman. And the people who survived the people
Speaker 1: who thrived, and that's many talented people and credit to
Speaker 1: credits to people like Steve Anderson and John Walsh and
Speaker 1: Al Jaffee who people may have gotten to know through Uh,
Speaker 1: I just forget the name of the show. Where um
Speaker 1: the show where all the town fantasy show they try
Speaker 1: to get you. I forgot it too, But now you're
Speaker 1: talking about, Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just
Speaker 1: forgot Mike Hall, who is now a Big ten network
Speaker 1: for over a decade, Mike Hall was one of the
Speaker 1: winners of the show. It was it was American idol
Speaker 1: for sports center anchors. In any case, um Like, the
Speaker 1: talent that was found was truly unique and everybody couldn't
Speaker 1: be a Chris Burman copycat, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: figured out what their lane was with their personnelity. What
Speaker 1: Olberman and Patrick did was brilliant, was absolutely brilliant. There's
Speaker 1: no way though that Chris Myers and I could follow
Speaker 1: and pull that off. So you kind of did what
Speaker 1: was in your personality and what was different, and that
Speaker 1: that was I think I think it helped us all
Speaker 1: learn how you had to have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a little bit of every club in the bag that
Speaker 1: you could play, but you had to have your own
Speaker 1: swing You couldn't copy Burman swing, You couldn't be Olberman.
Speaker 1: You just can't. You just can't do that. And that,
Speaker 1: to me is what helped our whole generation succeed and throve.
Speaker 1: We We would be different people in different times like now,
Speaker 1: but for what it was back then, where I think
Speaker 1: we're all blessed that we not only had the place,
Speaker 1: but we all had each other to learn from, to
Speaker 1: push each other, to take the best of and put
Speaker 1: it in the way I do things. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why so many of us are lucky enough to
Speaker 1: still be doing this thirty years after we started, Because
Speaker 1: you do it a long time, your career can stretch
Speaker 1: back to an era where you have a chance to
Speaker 1: intersect with legends. You're you're gonna host the Olympics in Tokyo.
Speaker 1: It's a thrill. The thing that first attracted me to
Speaker 1: this business, or one of them. One of them was
Speaker 1: Jim McKay hosting the Olympics in nineteen seventy two when
Speaker 1: I was just almost ten years old. But I vividly
Speaker 1: remember the catastrophic events, what happened to these Raeli athletes, spits,
Speaker 1: the US basketball, all those things that he brought such
Speaker 1: humanity to it. But working with with Jim McKay later
Speaker 1: in life when he was near the end of his
Speaker 1: arc and he was covering the Triple Crown races, and
Speaker 1: Jack Whittaker, and in Dick Edinburgh, who I grew up
Speaker 1: watching cal Wimbledon, and everything about that place was filtered
Speaker 1: through Dick's sensibility his work. Getting to work with them,
Speaker 1: I mean, you mentioned some of the old sports, then
Speaker 1: the guys, but what's been an outer body experience for
Speaker 1: you or you someone that meant so much to you
Speaker 1: when you were a kid, and getting a chance to
Speaker 1: actually work with them, no doubt, two things come immediately
Speaker 1: to mind, and they're the two individuals who primarily have
Speaker 1: been the Olympic host for America for like you said,
Speaker 1: better part of fifty years now, and that's not including
Speaker 1: the years that CBS had the Olympics in a in
Speaker 1: a whicher spot a couple of times in the nineties.
Speaker 1: McKay at the end of his run also did a
Speaker 1: few British opens with us. And you know, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: the most famous ending of a major championship in the
Speaker 1: history of golf, or right up there with it, is
Speaker 1: what happened to Jean Vandervelt that with his triple bogey
Speaker 1: and all that stuff and those histrionics. So I'm on
Speaker 1: the air with Curtis Strange and we're facing this way
Speaker 1: with the eighteen hole out in front of us. Jim
Speaker 1: McKay is doing some essays and bring us on and
Speaker 1: off the air, and he is probably sitting behind us
Speaker 1: with a camera facing that way, and everybody in the
Speaker 1: booth there is watching, obviously, And now you're we're on
Speaker 1: the air for twenty seven minutes. I think it is NonStop,
Speaker 1: and you're just into this moment. You've never seen anything
Speaker 1: like it. The late great Bob Rossberg is on the
Speaker 1: golf course. Rossi and Curtis had exchanges between two golfers,
Speaker 1: the likes of which were just you couldn't script any better.
Speaker 1: And we get done and we go to break and
Speaker 1: it turns out we're gonna have a three man playoff
Speaker 1: with Paul Laurie and Justin Leonard and John van de Veldt,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back after this message from your ABC
Speaker 1: station And you just go, wow, what just happened? Right
Speaker 1: tap on the shoulder. It's McKay who was sitting back
Speaker 1: there behind us, and he says, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you'll ever see anything like that in your career, and
Speaker 1: you did a great job. I'll never forget that. Like
Speaker 1: the feeling that ran through my body was like, Okay, good, now,
Speaker 1: what's now? It's going to the playoffs. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: wait a minute. Jim McKay understood what I was going
Speaker 1: through at that moment and knew that that would matter
Speaker 1: to me, and all gives that gives me shivers to
Speaker 1: hear that second hand, man, because it's not about your preparation,
Speaker 1: not about the facts that you've called and spit it out,
Speaker 1: and it's about reacting in the moment. Is something that
Speaker 1: not only you haven't seen before, maybe it's never happened
Speaker 1: quite that way in the history of gold before. There
Speaker 1: is no script for it, there is no blueprint for it.
Speaker 1: And to handle it beautifully and then get that seal
Speaker 1: of approval from guy who brought more humanity to the
Speaker 1: job than anyone I've ever known. That That's what was
Speaker 1: so And I'll tell you, Mike, it's not all warm
Speaker 1: memories too. I Mean, we we saw these guys near
Speaker 1: the end of the career, as they were still bringing
Speaker 1: valuable things to the broad cast perspective, the gravitas, but
Speaker 1: there was appoints to watching Jim and Jack work as well,
Speaker 1: because there was Jim McKay doing some stand up on
Speaker 1: the backside of of of Churchill downs and wanting to
Speaker 1: have things sort of taped to the tripod so he
Speaker 1: wouldn't lose his way so he could naviget through that.
Speaker 1: And remember seeing that and filing that away, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was still a big part of the team. But
Speaker 1: it's like, wow, you know time time waits for no
Speaker 1: one and all of us have to cope with with
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. If we're lucky, you have to
Speaker 1: hang around and be asked to do this at that age, right,
Speaker 1: which I hope you just exactly because just his presence
Speaker 1: meant so much. And Jack with the the same way.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, we saw it with with dick Enberg.
Speaker 1: Just as you said at Wimbledon, he came back to
Speaker 1: Wimbledon as you as you know, he was invited back
Speaker 1: and got to sit in the Royal box and have
Speaker 1: a have a wonderful visit. So that morning, as you
Speaker 1: well know, there's a caden to Wimbledon and you get
Speaker 1: in early and you do the big production meeting with
Speaker 1: the entire group, which is a story meeting, which is
Speaker 1: which is that's a podcast all of its own that
Speaker 1: that that meeting is the Wimbledon meeting. If there's anything
Speaker 1: in this, if somebody asking name three things in the ESPN,
Speaker 1: you missed the meetings before the Grand Slam events in
Speaker 1: tennis the first week when everybody's in the room with
Speaker 1: their with their schedules, it's the best um in any case,
Speaker 1: I would like to take my my match notes, what
Speaker 1: you might do the matchup court to that you just
Speaker 1: got a sense maybe that will end up being part
Speaker 1: of your late afternoon. And I like to go downstairs
Speaker 1: and have a cup of coffee quietly, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if that area is still there where where the
Speaker 1: food was a broadcaster from around the world and just
Speaker 1: kind of highlight my notes in peace and just kind
Speaker 1: of organized. And that morning dick Enberg was there and
Speaker 1: Dick comes down. Do you mind if I sit with you,
Speaker 1: like you know what, I'll be okay if I don't
Speaker 1: have the start guests gay note for a we will
Speaker 1: then six years ago, I'll be fine. And I just
Speaker 1: said and he asked it. So how do you go
Speaker 1: about how do you go about preparing yourself in the day?
Speaker 1: And I was I felt like I was under exam.
Speaker 1: I felt like the professor was coming to check. Okay
Speaker 1: it was It was just really neat and it was
Speaker 1: a curiosity. And what struck me to you the point
Speaker 1: that you made for us. This is not for people
Speaker 1: who watch we talk on TV. It's for us. This
Speaker 1: is our life and our craft and our profession, and
Speaker 1: we're always trying to maximize it. And our preparation is
Speaker 1: what we feel gets us to the place where we
Speaker 1: can be comfortable on the air. We could be ourselves.
Speaker 1: We can get the most out of our analysts. And
Speaker 1: that's what made the greats great and they all did
Speaker 1: it in different ways. And to have dick Enberg asked me, how,
Speaker 1: let me see, how do you prepare? What? What do
Speaker 1: you go and do? And it was just reaffirming. He said, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a great idea, that that's that's neat the way
Speaker 1: you did this. How did you come up with this?
Speaker 1: And he probably didn't care, He probably could could have
Speaker 1: cared less. But the curiosity, the professional care, those are
Speaker 1: the people we grew up. Those are the people who
Speaker 1: inspired us to do this and to be able to
Speaker 1: share those things with them and then to see somebody
Speaker 1: like Dick Emberg who was there as a fan, but
Speaker 1: you know when he walked into that place, all he
Speaker 1: could think of at the times that he did Wimbledon
Speaker 1: over and over and over and just this much, just
Speaker 1: vicariously living through you. You know, I do that when
Speaker 1: when I watch you do the college football, when you're
Speaker 1: doing the championship game or or some big game. We
Speaker 1: all get our chances, but you all you're you're watching
Speaker 1: the person doing it. Um to learn to take away
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways because a whole bunch of us,
Speaker 1: now our friends, you're rooting for them to have a
Speaker 1: great game and just have this great open and just
Speaker 1: be in the perfect place. Uh. But you just know,
Speaker 1: like that's a part of you in that spot. I
Speaker 1: know exactly what Christmas feeling. And nobody's thinking. I know, Okay,
Speaker 1: like it it's hard. We're gonna get this, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get this. Is the right stuff gonna come U
Speaker 1: but they're gonna run out on time. We gotta hit
Speaker 1: this way. And it's like the eight things that are
Speaker 1: going there are very few of us who know what's
Speaker 1: going on. In your mind, and I sit there and
Speaker 1: you watch that and you're like, damn, this is fun,
Speaker 1: this is cool. And to sit with one of the
Speaker 1: greats as we were going through that process was something
Speaker 1: that I remember Veteran share a house with Dick and
Speaker 1: Woman a few times. They should have called it the
Speaker 1: odd Quartet. Cliff drives Dale, the elegant South African Better Dick,
Speaker 1: Brad Gilbert, I love him, dear friend, one of the
Speaker 1: crazy characters. Won't stop talking, and and and Berg and
Speaker 1: Gilbert in the same house where it was oil and water. Here,
Speaker 1: I am just trying to like you anyway. You brought
Speaker 1: up something that I wanted to talk about, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad you did, which is some behind the scenes stuff
Speaker 1: that listeners to this might be surprised about because people
Speaker 1: presume there are rivalries and competition, but the people who
Speaker 1: do this, there's a surprising level of of respect communication.
Speaker 1: I mean, you you'll be doing games, will sometimes text
Speaker 1: when we're gonna say how much during a game, but
Speaker 1: there are commercial breaks that are three minutes long, but
Speaker 1: certainly before a game, after a game, and I do
Speaker 1: this with you know, Joe Testa, tore Sean McDonough Steve
Speaker 1: Levy and I have had a thing going because we
Speaker 1: we called blowout after a blowout this past season, and
Speaker 1: was we were threatening the record that his crew had
Speaker 1: the average margin of victory in the games with twenty
Speaker 1: six points. We were right on that record all season long.
Speaker 1: So what's so neat, Mike, is that it's not just
Speaker 1: sometimes its producers, other people worked other networks. It's it's hey,
Speaker 1: have a great game. You did a great job with
Speaker 1: that call. Right, No, it's it's kind of it's really cool.
Speaker 1: I don't think that existed in other eras, maybe to
Speaker 1: degree that it does. Now. People talk about the late
Speaker 1: night wars most Letterman and Leno. Now the guys who
Speaker 1: do those shows late at night on the different our friends.
Speaker 1: They communicate, and that's it's neat that we have that
Speaker 1: kind of group in broadcasting now. I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1: And I think it's it's helped build in part because
Speaker 1: there are more jobs. There were only a few gigs
Speaker 1: when it was the three networks and no real ESPN presence, right,
Speaker 1: And let's just look at the volume of sports that's
Speaker 1: that are on TV now compared to them, right, So,
Speaker 1: whether it's no PAL or Jim Nance or um, Mike
Speaker 1: Breen that that whole, that whole, that whole group. Dan Hicks,
Speaker 1: you me like, you know, I consider I consider all
Speaker 1: all the people I just ain't friends. And you kind
Speaker 1: of communicate on a regular basis, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: a text on Christmas so you see it's their birthday,
Speaker 1: or a game or something or something like that. Um.
Speaker 1: I love that camaraderie and the fact that we help
Speaker 1: each other out of you you obviously do noted in games.
Speaker 1: We did a couple of this year and you were
Speaker 1: so generous with the information that you had on the Irish.
Speaker 1: There really only somebody that's around the team a lot
Speaker 1: can get me parachuting in a couple of times a year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have relationships, but not the same as when you're
Speaker 1: around the team. Incredibly helpful at happens from other networks
Speaker 1: within the network. It's so nice and and I think
Speaker 1: you're right, it used to be competitive and and it
Speaker 1: still is. We we want to have a better broadcast
Speaker 1: in our studio on Sunday nights, and we'll do Football
Speaker 1: Night in America than Fox did or CBS did. But
Speaker 1: there's there's a text that goes around the start of
Speaker 1: the year, before the first pregame show on Week one,
Speaker 1: I text Rich Eysen and j J. B It's CBS,
Speaker 1: and Kurt Menafe at Fox and Sam Ponder at ESPN,
Speaker 1: and we all text each other and we're on a
Speaker 1: text chain, And as Susie, I've included on the host
Speaker 1: in the Monday night countdown show and just like, hey,
Speaker 1: have a great season, and we'll check in during the year,
Speaker 1: and it's it's just fun, I think because we all
Speaker 1: appreciate um. The fans very often don't differentiate network to network.
Speaker 1: They're coming for the games. They may enjoy our studio shows,
Speaker 1: but we have a respect for what the business takes
Speaker 1: right now, the challenges that are out there, but also
Speaker 1: the support because there are not many people who understand
Speaker 1: what we do. Again, like I said before, we're not
Speaker 1: doing a lot. It's not very hard, but we are
Speaker 1: a few who understand the pressures, the difficulties, the challenges,
Speaker 1: and to have that support network of peers is kind
Speaker 1: of cool. I love and respect you, but I want
Speaker 1: you to have a terrible game when your head to head,
Speaker 1: you guys end up having an NBC the game of
Speaker 1: the college football season Clemson Notre Dame regular season game
Speaker 1: in South Band ends up being this overtime classic. We've
Speaker 1: got some pack twelve game head to head. So Kirk
Speaker 1: and I are basically watching your game and a monitor
Speaker 1: where we know what kind of what's going on in
Speaker 1: the field, but it's a way down on the significance meter.
Speaker 1: And so we were texting, you know, I mean, we're
Speaker 1: we're in a black hole where you guys are the
Speaker 1: world is watching this game. So you do wish that
Speaker 1: when your head to head you I wish your game
Speaker 1: was over in the first quarter. We we'd we'd send
Speaker 1: those kind of sex the same thing we do. Know,
Speaker 1: hey have to have a great, great game to the
Speaker 1: first quarter and hopefully think welcome you guys, come on over.
Speaker 1: I think I think it was a world series. He
Speaker 1: did a world series opposite of Monday Night Game. And uh,
Speaker 1: I remember joking with Joe Buck like, you know, should
Speaker 1: I say thanks, Joe? Or I think Joe said, should
Speaker 1: I say thanks? Mike? When your game gets to halftime,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna sit there and click over, click over,
Speaker 1: and look, we know the viewers patterns were viewers to god,
Speaker 1: we're not on the air we're home. We're home being
Speaker 1: fans just like everybody else. I wonder if you have
Speaker 1: a story. I'm not gonna bog this down and through
Speaker 1: a reread. Racing not as many listeners connect with that
Speaker 1: sport as others. But you were in that seat for
Speaker 1: derby a couple of years ago when something happened, working
Speaker 1: by the way with with good friends of mine, Jerry Bailey,
Speaker 1: Randy Moss, with whom I worked at ABC. I love
Speaker 1: those guys are They're truly and it's it's a good
Speaker 1: thing that they were great because you have to orchestrate
Speaker 1: one of the all time unscripted television tap dances. I
Speaker 1: want to say it went twenty one twenty two minutes
Speaker 1: from the time that Maxim Security crossed the line first
Speaker 1: and the stewards had their endless debate where they gonna
Speaker 1: make history and take down the horse that crossed the
Speaker 1: finish line first in the derby, which had never happened.
Speaker 1: Do you have a story from that? Because that was
Speaker 1: just that is that is like the Vandervelt situation. You
Speaker 1: will never see something quite like that again. And you're
Speaker 1: out there on on a very thin tight rope at
Speaker 1: that point. Yeah, the story the story from that that
Speaker 1: that sticks out, perhaps more than any other is the
Speaker 1: fact that it was raining. So in addition to everything else,
Speaker 1: like now you as you know, when you do these
Speaker 1: events outside the elements, you'll have a set and and
Speaker 1: now like the range dripping down on the side of
Speaker 1: the set, so your concentration is a is all over
Speaker 1: the map. But I would say the the on air part.
Speaker 1: Rob Highland is our producer and he lucky enough to
Speaker 1: work with Rob on our notreame football games and Football
Speaker 1: Night in America and the Triple Crown. So over my
Speaker 1: you know, five years now at NBC, we've gotten to
Speaker 1: know each other really well, and you know, the cadence
Speaker 1: of a producer it right. So we're in the interviews,
Speaker 1: and our interviews are kind of moving around. We've done
Speaker 1: one on horseback with Donna Brothers and then Kenny Rice
Speaker 1: is doing an interview. And as Kenny's doing the interview,
Speaker 1: the second question comes up, Rob. So I hear Rob,
Speaker 1: and when when the producer talks to you. Some folks
Speaker 1: think producers directors talk to us all the time. They don't,
Speaker 1: but the good ones don't, right, well said, you can
Speaker 1: onways sense when they open up their keys, so they
Speaker 1: have a button that they can hit and you can
Speaker 1: hear even just the little small difference in background noise
Speaker 1: in your ear. And I heard Rob's key open up
Speaker 1: and all he said was just hang with me for
Speaker 1: a minute. I'm like, Okay, something's going on, and then
Speaker 1: the cascade, the cascade begins, and um, I would I
Speaker 1: would say the conversation was interesting because we were trying
Speaker 1: to get to the right We couldn't find the right
Speaker 1: spot for where the inquiry essentially was going to and
Speaker 1: basically a stampede right exactly. And as you know, the
Speaker 1: Derby is, you know, a race on like any other
Speaker 1: because of the twenty horses and the stampede and there's
Speaker 1: always jostling and bumping, so it's it's figuring out all
Speaker 1: of that. And as you said, Jerry Bailey and Randy
Speaker 1: Monster is so good and Rob has done the Derby
Speaker 1: for over a decade. And there are other people who
Speaker 1: are in our production truck, like Amy Simmerman, who are
Speaker 1: around horse racing all the time. So everybody's got a sense,
Speaker 1: so they're all trying to get to the right spot.
Speaker 1: So in football we know right away catch no catch, Well,
Speaker 1: it's that foot right there. It takes us eight seconds.
Speaker 1: We know we're focusing on so as everyone's focusing, I
Speaker 1: know not everyone on our set is listening to what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So I'm trying to You're trying to get
Speaker 1: their attention. Are you hearing what I'm saying. I'm about
Speaker 1: to ask you a question? Stay with me here for
Speaker 1: a couple of seconds. There's a lot of I'd love
Speaker 1: to see the camera of all of our hand gestures
Speaker 1: and trying to get each other's attention through all of that,
Speaker 1: and then the weight. There's one point during the wait
Speaker 1: where I wasn't sure because I haven't done horse racing
Speaker 1: for thirty or forty years. I wasn't sure. And then
Speaker 1: I just kind of got to that point as I'm
Speaker 1: going through my mind, but there's never been anything like this,
Speaker 1: Like you you don't want to overstate this is landmark territory.
Speaker 1: But now I'm like, okay, this is, but you have
Speaker 1: to That's what are your obligations is to say, hey, folks,
Speaker 1: this is something you might never see again exactly. And
Speaker 1: the interesting part was when we went back and looked,
Speaker 1: viewership went up. And that's the power of social media,
Speaker 1: Like what the hell happened to the derby? What's going
Speaker 1: I don't know? And now people start turning it on.
Speaker 1: So now it's like at some point in the middle
Speaker 1: I would go back. Okay, for those of you just
Speaker 1: tuning in here, you're waiting for a hockey game and
Speaker 1: all all this stuff. So now now we're doing all that.
Speaker 1: It's like date line Mike, where they come out every
Speaker 1: break and they recap what's happened over the previous minutes.
Speaker 1: Here Like it's maddening, but you have to do it
Speaker 1: because you know the audience is growing. You you you do,
Speaker 1: and I just remember it ending and it just felt
Speaker 1: so empty. It was just it didn't it being the result,
Speaker 1: or for you, the experience of doing it felt the result.
Speaker 1: You have to do it. You have to express why
Speaker 1: country house a horse it was not at all affected
Speaker 1: by what maximums the Articane, Kentucky racing rules deemed that
Speaker 1: country house was not going to be the answer to
Speaker 1: how do you explain that to people? It's it's they don't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the odd thing because country houses right around the
Speaker 1: horses where the jostling happens, yet not affected, but ends
Speaker 1: up being the largest beneficiary and it gave it gave
Speaker 1: power to what Jerry kept saying, or I was Randy
Speaker 1: kept saying that, you know, really, maximum Security was the
Speaker 1: best horse. So do you go by the letter of
Speaker 1: the law and the rule and what you saw there,
Speaker 1: or does common sense go and go, you know what,
Speaker 1: maximum Security was the best horse. We should we shouldn't
Speaker 1: take him down here. It was. It was a fascinating
Speaker 1: experience capped by We didn't go back last year because
Speaker 1: the derby wasn't in May, was running the fall in September,
Speaker 1: i should say, And we did that from the studio.
Speaker 1: So I have not been back inside Churchill Downs since
Speaker 1: then until a month from now for the for the derby,
Speaker 1: which is may first Derby this year. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be weird going back there because that was one of
Speaker 1: those odd bizarre days that started in sunshine, ended in rain.
Speaker 1: We started out in paddock, you end up inside, you're
Speaker 1: sitting on the sets for six hours. Those are those
Speaker 1: are the cool days when you go back and think
Speaker 1: about them. Absolutely, yeah, that's great stuff. I mean you
Speaker 1: do leave Churchill Downs with the feeling you've seen a
Speaker 1: piece of history. But that was a year unlike any
Speaker 1: other and and and and hollow and empty. Those are
Speaker 1: good words speaking of shocking results. Jump back to tennis here.
Speaker 1: You you come from Queen so working in the US Open,
Speaker 1: I know it was a very special experience for you,
Speaker 1: and well, just to tell people what will document a
Speaker 1: match and maybe you know where I'm going with when
Speaker 1: you document a match, you've got to be right down
Speaker 1: the middle. You have to celebrate whatever happens. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: person who loses it is a bigger story, but you
Speaker 1: have to celebrate the winner. But when you're covering a
Speaker 1: tournament and you're not calling the match, you certainly are
Speaker 1: interested in getting the best storylines to play out for
Speaker 1: the biggest matches. The viewers want Serena to win. They
Speaker 1: want Roger Rafa to win so that they can be
Speaker 1: around for the end. We very much in two Pass
Speaker 1: and fifteen want of Serena Williams to be there in
Speaker 1: the final because she was going for the Calendar Grand Slam,
Speaker 1: which is truly all the things she's done. She hadn't
Speaker 1: done that. Nobody really had done that. Siphi Graph had
Speaker 1: done it, It's been a long long time. In the semifinal,
Speaker 1: she takes Underberda Venci, you're calling the match. Roberta. Evenci
Speaker 1: has booked a flight home to Italy. Burda. She has
Speaker 1: not been able to hang with Serena. She's basically a
Speaker 1: clay court specialist playing on a hard court. Serena wins.
Speaker 1: I think it was thirty three Grand Slam matches in
Speaker 1: a row, heavily favorite. All you've got to do, Tarico,
Speaker 1: is get Serena Passerberda Vinci so that the world can
Speaker 1: have a chance to watch your go for the Grand
Speaker 1: Slam on Saturday in New York. And you couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: Even though Serena won the first set six two, was
Speaker 1: up a break in the third, you couldn't get Serena
Speaker 1: over the finish line. So I can't believe. I remember
Speaker 1: you in the booth. Was was your semifinals after our
Speaker 1: after yeah? Right, So so just to set us Amona Halla,
Speaker 1: Flavia Panetta, Yes, just to set it for people. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got the booth and at the US Open, it
Speaker 1: truly is a hockey line change. It's okay, great, so
Speaker 1: so wins. That's great. They'll be out on the set
Speaker 1: with Christma Kenry right after this, and then you're taking
Speaker 1: your stuff and you're getting out because the next two
Speaker 1: are coming in to do the next match. So you
Speaker 1: and Chrissy are getting ready to do the next match.
Speaker 1: So one player wins the first set, Like, okay, this
Speaker 1: is probably gonna go in like four fifteen minutes. I
Speaker 1: need to kind of get my coffee, get my notes,
Speaker 1: get just be ready to jump in, right, and then
Speaker 1: report of it. She starts this, this comeback, this unbelievable comeback,
Speaker 1: and poor poor Chris, because you because your Look, we
Speaker 1: all love to be a part of history. That's one
Speaker 1: of the things because we talked about history and sports forever.
Speaker 1: So you've got a chance to call a piece of history.
Speaker 1: And it's not just your voice being a part of it,
Speaker 1: but it's you getting to be in the moment. It's
Speaker 1: the closest thing we have to competing. We get to
Speaker 1: be a part of something like this, right. I wanted
Speaker 1: to see her do it though, I mean, I listen,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're, you're, you're truthful. But I more
Speaker 1: wanted to see Serena do what she deserved to do
Speaker 1: it the tennis needed at the fans. I mean, in fairness,
Speaker 1: I mean whether I get to call it or not. Um, oh,
Speaker 1: no doubt, but no doubt. But Bomne, she's so close
Speaker 1: and it's up to her. Just don't don't succumb to
Speaker 1: the nerves. And you've got this. You know, this is
Speaker 1: your podcast. It's about you, so so so like now
Speaker 1: now this is going on. Now, it's getting real that
Speaker 1: Robertavinci's getting shot after shot passing shot and she is
Speaker 1: just to totally emotionally invested in this match. And it's
Speaker 1: a pro Serena crowd. But now you're getting some people
Speaker 1: who are like, wow, this is a pretty good match
Speaker 1: to get to a third set. Okay, And Mary Joe Fernandez,
Speaker 1: I'm working in the match with Mary Joe, and I
Speaker 1: just remember looking over at Mary Joe a couple of
Speaker 1: times because it was one of those matches where, uh,
Speaker 1: there was so much good ambiance and noise in the stadium.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to do much right And as things
Speaker 1: would get more tense and tight, Mary Joe's eyes would
Speaker 1: get bigger and bigger, and you'll go over Mary to
Speaker 1: like like she's in trouble. Now, this this is getting
Speaker 1: real here, and it was you could just feel the
Speaker 1: pressure of it, right, and it was one of the
Speaker 1: great upsets of all time. That felt like a lecta,
Speaker 1: you did a great job, Docu, you were very fair.
Speaker 1: I mean then she what was a interesting personality, as
Speaker 1: you said, even in a pro sermenic car. She was
Speaker 1: winning people over, putting her hand to her ear, asking
Speaker 1: for crowd support, and plus she was just running down
Speaker 1: every ball, so she was gutting it out. The New
Speaker 1: York audience appreciated it. But but still at the end
Speaker 1: you eleberate her win and you realize we're never going
Speaker 1: to get to see a calendar slam, are we? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: so and then she does an interview with Ronaldi on
Speaker 1: the court, which was it was like, here's Serena, she's lost,
Speaker 1: that opportunity is gone. Try to frame that moment now
Speaker 1: the winner, and here's Tom. And her interview with Tom
Speaker 1: was was roberta Vinci, It was personality, it was her
Speaker 1: Italian passion for life. It was it was great. It
Speaker 1: connected even the fans who were disappointed at what happened,
Speaker 1: couldn't help but like her when it was done right.
Speaker 1: The interview so we kind of great one a moment,
Speaker 1: this is great, and you'll hear from her on the set.
Speaker 1: And then the second semifinal, christ and Christy, you'll have
Speaker 1: that come up. We're gonna break and you're just like
Speaker 1: here over my shoulder, like, oh man, you gotta be
Speaker 1: kidding me. How could you not deliver? All I needed
Speaker 1: to do was close the match out, and then I
Speaker 1: had the joy of calling uh, Roberta Venci Flavia Panetta
Speaker 1: in the final, which is a tremendous match if you're
Speaker 1: in Italy, but uh not what we had expected. And
Speaker 1: now listen, I mean listen, I'm kidding. We celebrate it.
Speaker 1: It's you have to celebrate every championship moment you're lucky
Speaker 1: enough to call. Whatever the sport, it means so much
Speaker 1: to those involved, the joy, the cumbination of a dream,
Speaker 1: all the work they put into it. You try to
Speaker 1: get that across to the audience. And that's why we two.
Speaker 1: That's why I got choked up watching the Dodgers win
Speaker 1: the World Series and the weirdest of seasons. I don't
Speaker 1: like the Dodgers at all, but I respected what they
Speaker 1: had come through. I tuned in to watch the World
Speaker 1: Series and especially the clinching game, because we just celebrate
Speaker 1: kind of those championship moments, and when you're calling it.
Speaker 1: You can't quite allow yourself to feel that. You have
Speaker 1: to sort of you want, you wanted to come through right,
Speaker 1: but you gotta temper it. But that's why we love sports,
Speaker 1: as those moments real, real quick. One, the Red Wings
Speaker 1: are this close to winning the Stanley Cup against Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: We live in Michigan. My wife's from there. We've lived
Speaker 1: there since the late nineties. I've never seen the Cup
Speaker 1: skated in person, so I'm like, oh my gosh, it's
Speaker 1: here's the game five. The Wings are gonna close out
Speaker 1: the Penguins. There's three minutes left. The Wings are up
Speaker 1: one and we're fifth row behind the goal and with
Speaker 1: three buddies at the Joe the Old Joe Louis Arena,
Speaker 1: three minutes left. Everybody watches the whole third period on
Speaker 1: their feet. You know what those buildings are like. Nobody
Speaker 1: sits down there cheering. It's the Penguin score with a
Speaker 1: minute to left to send it to overtime. The game
Speaker 1: goes to multiple open overtimes as only the Old Joe
Speaker 1: Louis Arena ken. They've run out of all caffeine. There's
Speaker 1: no soda, there's no coffee available, but you can get
Speaker 1: a twenty four hours beer between the second and third overtime, like,
Speaker 1: come on, boys, there we go, because if they wait,
Speaker 1: will celebrate. It's like one in the morning, and the
Speaker 1: Wings will skate the Cup. Penguin score. Don't get to
Speaker 1: see the Cup skated. Wings win two nights later in
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh on a Friday night win the Cup. So I
Speaker 1: still haven't seen the Cup skated going around whatever. Now
Speaker 1: I'm working with NBC, I get to work on some
Speaker 1: of the pre in the post game for the Cup Final,
Speaker 1: a couple of couple of the games. So Game seven St.
Speaker 1: Louis Boston in Boston road team is won. Every game
Speaker 1: we're at Boston, the Blues win Game seven, shockingly, they
Speaker 1: win the Cup. Great. We're down in a green room
Speaker 1: as a spare locker room. We got to wait for
Speaker 1: the Bruins to come down because their locker rooms passed us.
Speaker 1: So I kind of cracked the door open to watch
Speaker 1: the Bruins off camera. Nobody sees this. Just watch the
Speaker 1: just devastation on their faces they just lost Game seven
Speaker 1: in the Cup Final at home, just to see what
Speaker 1: they look like and aw stunt they were walking through
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting. Then they clear out. The halways cleared,
Speaker 1: I'm not on the air. Doc eMates gonna take us
Speaker 1: off the air. Dr and Edzo will do the rest
Speaker 1: of NBC. Then they'll do the post game on NBCSN
Speaker 1: and everybody's escapes with the cup. I sneak out. I
Speaker 1: was standing on the Bruins bench, but not on the bench,
Speaker 1: but like the space where you walk onto the bench
Speaker 1: and got to watch the Blue skate the cup. And
Speaker 1: it was the coolest thing because, like you just said,
Speaker 1: and that's why I think why we still love doing this,
Speaker 1: the true passion the athletes. This is their moment. This
Speaker 1: is what these guys J Boy stirring all these kids,
Speaker 1: this is what they their whole lives wanted to do. Work, sacrifice,
Speaker 1: parents driving them to morning skates, cold rinks. This was
Speaker 1: the moment. And to see the guys their eyes as
Speaker 1: their hands got on the cup, that's the stuff that
Speaker 1: makes me love this job and love what I do
Speaker 1: so much and feel really like you do. So fortunate
Speaker 1: that we get to share those moments, sometimes frame those moments.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we are the narration for the visual of those
Speaker 1: moments that people will go back and watch ten or
Speaker 1: twenty years later and when when when Clemson, Obama or
Speaker 1: Ohio Standard handed the trophy, you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that in twenty years, when they go back and watch
Speaker 1: that tape, that your words fit the moment, and that
Speaker 1: is exactly what you're talking about. How that's something that
Speaker 1: just keeps us going and makes us work hard to
Speaker 1: do the right thing for the event and for the people,
Speaker 1: not necessarily for us. Beautifully said, we're both perfectionists, so
Speaker 1: sometimes what we do end up saying to match those
Speaker 1: amazing moments doesn't meet our own standards, and there's no
Speaker 1: taking it back. You just live with it. You move on.
Speaker 1: I don't beat myself up anymore. But but sometimes you
Speaker 1: you know, like another line, another word, would have made
Speaker 1: that better. But that's the nature of it. You get
Speaker 1: just like kind of when you're playing. You get one
Speaker 1: chance to do it right and to to to punctuate
Speaker 1: that moment um. If you had a chance to ever
Speaker 1: reflect what you've been able to do. You've been able
Speaker 1: to cover golf in the era of Tiger NFL, in
Speaker 1: the era of Brady and Manning and Breeze and so
Speaker 1: many others, Kobe and Lebron calling I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't think you were a little bit too late for Jordan.
Speaker 1: Jordan had retired by the time you got there. But
Speaker 1: actually got the back end of the back end of
Speaker 1: Jordan Jordan too in Washington. Okay, well, I consider his
Speaker 1: career end when he was a bull. But but we've
Speaker 1: talked about in Serena and Roger and Rafa in tennis.
Speaker 1: I mean the gratitude that I'm sure we share for
Speaker 1: being around and being able to see that and never
Speaker 1: taking that for granted for a day. You're right, Uh,
Speaker 1: do count myself lucky for you've done and there's other
Speaker 1: things you've done. I just named Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: And what it what it made me think of right
Speaker 1: away was I get asked often what players do you
Speaker 1: like to talk to or what players are the best
Speaker 1: in meetings? Right And I say to folks, my favorite
Speaker 1: meetings with players, that there's something that you enjoy, but
Speaker 1: the meetings that are the ones that you walk away
Speaker 1: and go okay, that that guy's wired differently, that woman
Speaker 1: is different than the others who I cover. Is that
Speaker 1: all these great athletes see sports to me differently than
Speaker 1: the others do. In addition to their physical abilities which
Speaker 1: are extraordinary, their minds are powerful, uh, very broad and
Speaker 1: wide in the scope of what they take in and
Speaker 1: their ability to take the mental and match it with
Speaker 1: the physical. Like if you if you ask me, what
Speaker 1: what football meetings do you look forward to? UH? For
Speaker 1: NFL games Peyton when he was playing Brady Rogers Breeze,
Speaker 1: Like those guys, you just have a different quality of
Speaker 1: meeting with them. It's because they mentally do it so well.
Speaker 1: And it was the same thing we uh, God rest
Speaker 1: his soul. Kobe's last game. It was a game that
Speaker 1: it was me huld Be and Lisa Psalters got to
Speaker 1: call in l A and Kobe sat with us for
Speaker 1: a half hour at five. Bishop was our producer and
Speaker 1: he had covered Kobe all went back in his early days. Uh.
Speaker 1: We sat with with Kobe for like twenty five to
Speaker 1: thirty minutes and talked about career, of life, everything else.
Speaker 1: And he really he said, I don't know what I
Speaker 1: have in me tonight. I don't you know. And he
Speaker 1: ended up having an incredible game that you know, we
Speaker 1: were reminded the mentality of the athlete and their mental
Speaker 1: approach to he knew exactly how much he had in
Speaker 1: the tank and if he got going, he could he
Speaker 1: could get to sixty in the tank. Right what he
Speaker 1: did exactly exactly. You you be said, you know, I
Speaker 1: had it. I had it. I had a dream. I
Speaker 1: was shaven, and I remembered my dream. I thought, I
Speaker 1: thought Kobe could have like a fifty sixty point kind
Speaker 1: of game. And he threw that out like in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, and Kobe is going there. I told you,
Speaker 1: I told you it was. It was one of those.
Speaker 1: But it's the athletes that the athletes who are so smart,
Speaker 1: And that's what I've learned to appreciate about Lebron. You
Speaker 1: talked to Lebron about basketball, Oh my gosh, it's a
Speaker 1: master class. He sees so much. That's why he's an
Speaker 1: unbelievable assist guy and rebounder, and he's made so many
Speaker 1: teams so much better over the years. And that's what
Speaker 1: I feel so fortunate, is not just being able to
Speaker 1: call the events that these folks have been involved with,
Speaker 1: but to hear what makes them so great. And it's
Speaker 1: an under standing. As the the axes crossed between ability
Speaker 1: and mental acuity, the greats are able to maximize it
Speaker 1: longer because they know how to get the most out
Speaker 1: of their body. They know how to handle situations like
Speaker 1: Tiger winning the Masters in at forty four forty three
Speaker 1: that at that time, excuse me, I mean that that
Speaker 1: was stunning given what he had gone through physically, but
Speaker 1: Tiger's mental approach around Augusta and on the second nine
Speaker 1: on Sunday when they got to the twelfth and all
Speaker 1: the other guys hit it in the water and Tiger
Speaker 1: ended up over the bunker middle of the green, made three,
Speaker 1: and he just played smart golf well everybody else to
Speaker 1: try to go win the Masters, and his mental abilities
Speaker 1: the reason he won that Masters, and just to be
Speaker 1: able to tap into that briefly every once in a
Speaker 1: while is what I take away from the best of
Speaker 1: the best in this era of great efforts, great point
Speaker 1: not just what happens on Mike, but what happens in
Speaker 1: the preparation that's priceless, that you can't you can't duplicate.
Speaker 1: Maybe because you're a great host, broadcaster, play by play guy,
Speaker 1: or maybe he was wired together. You brought it back
Speaker 1: to Tiger. You're sitting there in Augusta. I want to
Speaker 1: finish with the guy who will not be playing the Masters, obviously,
Speaker 1: but a guy who is fortunate to be alive after
Speaker 1: his car accident, and the question that's going to be
Speaker 1: on so many minds as the Masters unfolds. As we
Speaker 1: recorded this, the tournament hasn't happened yet. The back, the foot,
Speaker 1: the ankle, the things he's got to heal from to
Speaker 1: get back. Yes, Ben Hogan did it. It was a
Speaker 1: very different era. The competition around him was nowhere near
Speaker 1: what Tiger has to face. So Tiger getting back and
Speaker 1: being able to play golf at a high level and
Speaker 1: then trying to win another Masters and the Major. What
Speaker 1: do you think, Mike, I mean, it's gonna You asked
Speaker 1: this a lot, I'm sure, but people are interested in
Speaker 1: as we as we another Masters comes around, he will
Speaker 1: not be there, sadly, except in spirit. Yeah. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: we have been asked a lot. And your immediate thought
Speaker 1: connecting the dots is no, because of the age and
Speaker 1: the back, and it was a leg injury that was
Speaker 1: so severe it took weeks to get him back, even
Speaker 1: to the state of Florida, right, and we don't know
Speaker 1: all the details of it, Um that I do have
Speaker 1: this very cautionary light bulb that goes off every time
Speaker 1: this conversation comes up to never doubt him, because I
Speaker 1: think I have, I think other people have, and we've seen, uh,
Speaker 1: we've seen different results. He's been able to overcome so
Speaker 1: much on and off the course over the years. I
Speaker 1: do think it's selfish to even think that way right now,
Speaker 1: While it's a natural sports question, because he's given us
Speaker 1: as golf fans and the sport and the industry so much.
Speaker 1: I personally think a lot of my success professionally is
Speaker 1: thanks in part to Tiger's success because Tiger turns in
Speaker 1: the fall of ninety six. I got the job doing
Speaker 1: ABC's golf in January of the first tournament I did
Speaker 1: was Tiger winning what I believe was his third tournament
Speaker 1: of his career at that point, the Mercedes Championships at
Speaker 1: La Costa in San Diego, and then he goes to
Speaker 1: win the Masters that next April, Jim Mansw's great call
Speaker 1: went for the Ages, and then he wins his next
Speaker 1: start in Dallas, the Byron Nelson a month later, and
Speaker 1: we're on the call for that on ABC. So that's
Speaker 1: like the era where out of nowhere people are paying
Speaker 1: attention to golf and I had just gotten the job
Speaker 1: Brent was the lead voice for golf for ABC. They
Speaker 1: reworked the booth. Roger Twibel was there for a little
Speaker 1: bit as well. It became me. Curtis Strange, Ian Baker
Speaker 1: Finch joined us a few years later, Steve Melnick junior rankin,
Speaker 1: Bob Rossberg. Uh. It was just a time when, for
Speaker 1: some reason, so many more people and the reason was Tiger.
Speaker 1: So many more people were paying attention to golf, and
Speaker 1: I was lucky to be surrounded by great people on
Speaker 1: the air, a great production group led by Jack Graham
Speaker 1: and Jim Jeannett, veterans of the Olympic world over the years.
Speaker 1: In the truck, Mark Loomis, who went on to be
Speaker 1: a sensational producer at Fox doing the US Open, he
Speaker 1: was our He was one of our main main assistants
Speaker 1: in terms of production of the broadcast. I was just
Speaker 1: surrounded by people who didn't let me fail and kind
Speaker 1: of steered me in the right place. And I think
Speaker 1: any of us who were around golf at that point
Speaker 1: were elevated because of Tiger, and that went on for
Speaker 1: a while, so the association with the sport when it
Speaker 1: got big. I'm so appreciative of Tiger's dedication, his success,
Speaker 1: his beyond the sports world stardom that gave us the
Speaker 1: opportunity to be seen by so many more people that Chris.
Speaker 1: For me, I don't need to see Tiger hit another
Speaker 1: shot in competition again, but he's given me, as a
Speaker 1: sports fan and as a professional more opportunities, uh to
Speaker 1: help my life and help my family go forward. And um,
Speaker 1: I just want to see him enjoy his kids, be
Speaker 1: able to go out place golf with his son, uh,
Speaker 1: be able to watch his daughter play soccer, do whatever
Speaker 1: they're gonna do as teenagers and young adults, and to
Speaker 1: find some happiness and peace in his life. And for me,
Speaker 1: if I don't ever see him, you know, getting announced
Speaker 1: on the first team hit the team shot, I'm over
Speaker 1: overloaded with appreciation for what he's given us as an
Speaker 1: athlete over these years. Yeah, wonderfully said. If it's not
Speaker 1: important to him, if he's not driven to get back
Speaker 1: and try to do more, if he's quite content and
Speaker 1: satisfy with the aspects of your life that you talked about,
Speaker 1: then I hope that's okay. If that's not the case,
Speaker 1: you just don't want him to go out and not
Speaker 1: on his terms. You know what, any athlete has been
Speaker 1: as great as he has been, contributed, as much as
Speaker 1: he has built up the fan base to not be
Speaker 1: able to go out on their terms. So I hope
Speaker 1: if he wants to come back, if he's driven to
Speaker 1: do that and put in the hard work. And I'm
Speaker 1: told by people who are surgeon into physical therapist how
Speaker 1: much that's going to take to get back to that
Speaker 1: level of golf. It's it's an incredibly challenging thing ahead
Speaker 1: of him. If he wants to do it, I hope
Speaker 1: he gets a chance to do it, and he doesn't
Speaker 1: go out on terms that they're not his. So he's
Speaker 1: always he's always been the guy to do the work.
Speaker 1: And I've always said to folks that you know that
Speaker 1: when you get to the top of the mountain, the
Speaker 1: dismounts is never graceful, right, It's very hard for people
Speaker 1: to scale down the top of Look, we're seeing it
Speaker 1: with Serena, We'll see it with fed and with Nadal Djokovic.
Speaker 1: Eventually at some point all these grades will They're not
Speaker 1: what they were, They're still so darn close. They're they're
Speaker 1: gracefully coming down from the top of the mountain. About
Speaker 1: as well as any individual athletes ever do. It's just hard.
Speaker 1: It's just hard because in your mind, Tigers the best
Speaker 1: and what you see is not the best, and it
Speaker 1: would be hard to see him less of that. But
Speaker 1: as you said, if that's what he wants, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna drive him. I always tell people when they ask,
Speaker 1: but what do you want to do? What do you
Speaker 1: want to be? Like? What wakes you up? Right? Those
Speaker 1: those doing sports on TV? Wake you up? Do you
Speaker 1: do you want to get that? Didn't great? Go do
Speaker 1: it with Tiger if he wants to go through the rehab,
Speaker 1: to find a way to get out there and play
Speaker 1: one more Masters and two three or whatever it might be. Man,
Speaker 1: let's let's go. Let's let's go. I'll be privileged to
Speaker 1: be around to watch the ride and be rooting for
Speaker 1: him to do whatever he wants to do. There are
Speaker 1: limits to your time, even on a quarantine day, and
Speaker 1: august you've been very generous. We could go on for
Speaker 1: six hours and people will be listening or not listening,
Speaker 1: but we we'd have a great time doing it. I
Speaker 1: hope as Augustine moves past the calendar you get the
Speaker 1: triple crown. Uh, Stanley Cup coming up, and then of
Speaker 1: course the primetime host of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo,
Speaker 1: which will be quite unique and bizarre in their own way.
Speaker 1: I hope you have many more of those out of
Speaker 1: body experiences stopped the world and be grateful and then
Speaker 1: documented beautifully. I think you will, and I'll be watching
Speaker 1: and keep your phone open because you just might get
Speaker 1: a text when you don't expect it any any especially
Speaker 1: from you. Like one of the greatest of the greatest
Speaker 1: joys in my career in life has been being friends
Speaker 1: with you since n since I got to Bristol, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's just been really cool and fun to watch. It's
Speaker 1: nothing like I'm like seeing people who do it the
Speaker 1: right way and who you who you love dearly enjoy
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Mike Arico gracious as always. That sounded
Speaker 1: like an abrupt edit. By the way, it's because I
Speaker 1: typically like to cut out the over the top complimence.
Speaker 1: Not always so comfortable with that. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate our long friendship. I appreciate the example
Speaker 1: of Mike's excellence, and when I'm a viewer like you,
Speaker 1: I just appreciate the skills that he brings no matter
Speaker 1: what he's doing. As always grateful to my co executive
Speaker 1: producer Jennifer Dempster and producer Jason Whitekell. Invite you to
Speaker 1: subscribe and leave feedback on the podcast on my Instagram
Speaker 1: at Chris Fowler. I'll talk to you soon.