Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Official Jets podcast.
Speaker 1: Here in the play MGM studio. You can find us
Speaker 1: on New York Jets dot com, YouTube, Apple podcast, Google Play,
Speaker 1: and SoundCloud. Brian Baldinger in the house. Thank you very much, Baldi. Nice,
Speaker 1: nice to be here. Nice to be here on guys
Speaker 1: breakdowns right here. It's a movement, It's a worldwide movement.
Speaker 1: How can other people where the merch that? Baldi? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you can. You can get yourself. You can
Speaker 1: get yourself, you know, T shirts and headbands and coffee
Speaker 1: mugs right from Carsting Creation. Yeah. I mean there's some
Speaker 1: people like they just they just want to decorate their desk.
Speaker 1: I love the headband. Yeah, I'm with you. I like
Speaker 1: the headbands too. All right, Baldi, So you go inside
Speaker 1: the film, inside the game. I want to go inside
Speaker 1: the breakdown. So can you take us through your routine
Speaker 1: of how you watch the games and what plays you
Speaker 1: choose to put out there? If I can get the
Speaker 1: NFL films on Sunday night, I'll start Sunday night. But
Speaker 1: if I if I'm traveling back from San Francisco or
Speaker 1: l A or wherever, might not beat till money morning.
Speaker 1: But I start Monday morning at abound six in the morning,
Speaker 1: I just start going through games. Ethan, I just start
Speaker 1: watching games. What jumps out in really to look at statistics.
Speaker 1: I might know the final score, but I don't even
Speaker 1: look at the stats. I just wanna see who played well,
Speaker 1: white players work, why they didn't work, what impresses me
Speaker 1: about a team or doesn't impress me about a team.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get a feel by watching eleven guys
Speaker 1: unite on one side of the ball, how they compete,
Speaker 1: who's playing hard, who keeps showing up, and then kind
Speaker 1: of going from there and that that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I do it. And I'll start making some notes about
Speaker 1: a particular team, what I like, what I don't like,
Speaker 1: and uh And I'd literally try to go through as
Speaker 1: many games I can all day Money and all day Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I think what fans really appreciate air Greens is this
Speaker 1: guy has so much enthusiasm and past game, you truly
Speaker 1: enjoy getting into the film room. Because I don't even
Speaker 1: know if everybody knows this that on Sundays you're typically
Speaker 1: doing Nash doing national games every Sunday. I do college
Speaker 1: games on Saturday, right so so Monday morning you start off,
Speaker 1: how do you determine the order you're gonna go through? Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, Kansas City played Baltimore last week, a lot
Speaker 1: of people would say that was the marquee matchup. Maybe
Speaker 1: you go there for well, I mean, so I fell
Speaker 1: in love last year with Quentin Nelson, the left guard
Speaker 1: from Minnapolis Colts. I thought he was the best player
Speaker 1: in the NFL last year, so at any position, like
Speaker 1: he was just that dominant and as a twenty two
Speaker 1: year old rookie. But you know, and I got to
Speaker 1: know him, you know, at the Pro Bowl this year,
Speaker 1: and so like it started almost like that, like I
Speaker 1: gotta wat I gotta watch the Colts. I gotta watch
Speaker 1: I gotta watch the left guard because the game was
Speaker 1: like pancaking players. So then you know, I was having
Speaker 1: fun and it's entertainment, right, So I'm talking about man
Speaker 1: all he wanted some flapjacks for breakfast on Monday morning.
Speaker 1: I gotta watch Q to get my pancakes, you know.
Speaker 1: And then people, the fans started kind of buying it.
Speaker 1: So then like it became like this thing, I gotta
Speaker 1: watch Q, you know. And then I live in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: what are the Eagles doing when you're losing? How they're
Speaker 1: doing it? And so there is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a pecking order, but it could be like there's certain
Speaker 1: teams right now that I just am so like watching
Speaker 1: Let's say, Patrick Mahomes, Like you have to watch it,
Speaker 1: because are we watching like Willie Mays as a twenty
Speaker 1: three year old kid. Are we watching the best player
Speaker 1: in the league this early? You know, are we watching
Speaker 1: who are we watching here? Like there's nobody else that
Speaker 1: you there's no comps of what he's doing, and it's
Speaker 1: every week, it doesn't matter what the teams do. So
Speaker 1: then you go and you know, I did three years
Speaker 1: of Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. I did a lot
Speaker 1: of his games down there, so I kind of knew him,
Speaker 1: and now to see him just flourish like this, it's
Speaker 1: just so darn entertaining. When did you decide to take
Speaker 1: this social media with hashtag all these breakdowns? Because five
Speaker 1: years ago, I don't I don't know this phenomena was around. So, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been announcing games at Fox for twelve
Speaker 1: years on television. I started doing radio ten years ago,
Speaker 1: so almost twenty five years as an analyst every Sunday,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm I'm up there in the booth.
Speaker 1: If you're doing TV, you have maybe twelve seconds to
Speaker 1: describe a play, right, and typically it's either the quarterback
Speaker 1: or the receiver or the defensive back. It's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot. Maybe you can watch the offensive line on
Speaker 1: a replay or something, but like, there's just so many
Speaker 1: things going on, and so then you listen to the
Speaker 1: analysis and or the reporters or read the papers the
Speaker 1: next day, and I just felt like there was a
Speaker 1: big missing chunk of what fans weren't getting. So I
Speaker 1: just thought, so I'd be watching these games, you know,
Speaker 1: five o'clock in the morning, getting ready for different shows
Speaker 1: the NFL network, and I'm like, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to show I don't know, Jamal Adams blowing up
Speaker 1: this play. I'm not I'm not gonna be able to show, uh,
Speaker 1: you know how Colletchio assembly pulled and led Levy in
Speaker 1: bell through all, I'm not gonna be able to. So
Speaker 1: I thought, people need to see a lot of players
Speaker 1: that they never hear about on Sunday. Do you enjoy
Speaker 1: the player's reaction to this? Because once it started getting
Speaker 1: popular and taken off the guys. This new generation Greens,
Speaker 1: the generation who live and die by social media. They
Speaker 1: follow this stuff, they see all the retweets, and then
Speaker 1: you have picked up so much respect from the younger
Speaker 1: dudes in the NFL. I remember last year vividly, where
Speaker 1: in Chicago you're calling the game, You're like, where's Jamala.
Speaker 1: I gotta find Jamal because he would take a look
Speaker 1: at the way you put it's unbelievable. So so I
Speaker 1: I was told by a pretty prominent Fox director a
Speaker 1: long time ago when I first started. He told me, look,
Speaker 1: get to know the top ten players in every team,
Speaker 1: because that's who you're gonna spend most of Sunday talking about.
Speaker 1: And he was right. So I, you know, I always
Speaker 1: went to trainee camps and you know, got to meet
Speaker 1: players when you could. That was still limited by how
Speaker 1: many players you could meet. But through social media and
Speaker 1: through Twitter and some of the outlets that Baldy Breakdowns
Speaker 1: are on, you can meet a lot of these players
Speaker 1: that you've never met, Like I've never met Jamal Adams
Speaker 1: until that day in Chicago. Now I feel like we're
Speaker 1: best friends. He did film sessions with this issue. We
Speaker 1: couldn't kick him out of the room. You don't want
Speaker 1: to leave, but you do when you show players, especially
Speaker 1: once that maybe like a Quentin Nelson, who aren't left
Speaker 1: guards aren't on everybody's rollo dex as to who to watch.
Speaker 1: But if you can start making people watch the left
Speaker 1: guard and why he's so good like you, you sort
Speaker 1: of grow somebody's intelligence about the game and how they
Speaker 1: watch a game and so. And the players appreciate it,
Speaker 1: they really do. And if you look, if I say
Speaker 1: something about Luke Kickley good or bad, within I'm telling
Speaker 1: I'm telling you ten minutes, he's already watched it and
Speaker 1: retweeted and common. I think a lot of people respect
Speaker 1: somebody saying I know what I know, and I also
Speaker 1: know what I don't know. I think there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who watched the game on Sundays and
Speaker 1: say this guy should have done this, this guy should
Speaker 1: have done that. You go into the lab and you
Speaker 1: are a former player. You understand the schemes, you understand
Speaker 1: the concepts, You understand how coordinators are trying to attack
Speaker 1: and what is happening out there on the field in
Speaker 1: great detail. So I think that resonates with every player
Speaker 1: in the National Yeah, no, I mean, um, the game
Speaker 1: is is moves really fast, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: movie parts. And if you're just watching a game on television,
Speaker 1: the cart camera, the camera that typically shows a play,
Speaker 1: usually just follows the quarterback. So if you're a safety
Speaker 1: in the NFL, you only get talked about if you
Speaker 1: get beat or you have a great hit. But the
Speaker 1: majority of the time you're not even watched. Now that's
Speaker 1: just the way the game is shot. But if you
Speaker 1: you have to go back in the lab, I like
Speaker 1: the lab and and really show angles. Why a free
Speaker 1: safety like Earl Thomas, Why that guy covers so much ground?
Speaker 1: Why like Earl Thomas doesn't save lives but he saves touchdowns.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, like all the so like then
Speaker 1: you just you know, we're in the entertainment business, right Eric,
Speaker 1: So like you just you have to kind of define
Speaker 1: fun ways to describe stuff over over So that just
Speaker 1: comes naturally to me. That's fun. And when you put
Speaker 1: stuff on Twitter, let's say, is it a one take
Speaker 1: for you? Because some of the things you say you
Speaker 1: have me rolling on the floor in tears, Like I
Speaker 1: remember last year you're talking about Jamal Abram Adams. I
Speaker 1: almost said, Abrams Jamal Adams striking like a cobra. Like
Speaker 1: some people need a cup of coffee in the morning,
Speaker 1: not this guy. Boom all this time, you haven't crack
Speaker 1: it up. And just before you're talking about Quentin Nelson,
Speaker 1: how you need your flapjacks and you pop on film. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the stuff just comes. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: some weeks, Quentin Nelson was a plumber, right, like he
Speaker 1: had the plumber look, he was just fixing leaks wherever
Speaker 1: the offensive line was leaky. He was just there a
Speaker 1: plugg you know. And then some weeks he was the
Speaker 1: trash man. He was just throwing defensive lineman into the
Speaker 1: trash compactor. I mean, you know, like it's a different
Speaker 1: way of describing kind of the same type stuff. But
Speaker 1: I think players are entertained by it, like they like,
Speaker 1: I've these players come up to me now they know,
Speaker 1: like I I met Jenevan Clowney for the first time, um,
Speaker 1: two weeks ago in Pittsburgh. He was he's with Seattle now,
Speaker 1: and you know, and there was a time last year
Speaker 1: where like legitimately for the first twelve or thirteen weeks
Speaker 1: this season, he was an m v P candidate of
Speaker 1: the League. Defensively, he was playing at that level and
Speaker 1: I was just going like like this guy was just
Speaker 1: ruining the party, like he was just a wedding crasher,
Speaker 1: like like every play and so like I'm standing there
Speaker 1: and you know, he's coaches working with him, he's new
Speaker 1: to the team and all that. So he sees me
Speaker 1: though I'm in a student. He goes, I know who
Speaker 1: you are, Like he's Reknews. I'm waiting for him. I
Speaker 1: go so I started laughing, and he goes, dude, he goes,
Speaker 1: I know who you are. He goes, I know you
Speaker 1: want to talk to me, and I will, But he goes,
Speaker 1: he goes your stuff like I watch all of I
Speaker 1: watch all your videos. Man, I watch it. I'm like cool.
Speaker 1: Je like that's cool. You're also close buddies with the
Speaker 1: Jets GM Joe Doug. When did that a relationship originate?
Speaker 1: And you both share a healthy respect for each other.
Speaker 1: What can you tell the folks about Joe? Maybe they
Speaker 1: don't know. Well, I mean, Joe you know, started off,
Speaker 1: as you know, he played football Richmond. He got into
Speaker 1: the you know, the business pretty quick after he graduated school,
Speaker 1: and you know, Ozzy Knewsom was running the Ravens, they
Speaker 1: moved their nine. I remember I was so fascinated by
Speaker 1: their first draft in nineteen ninety six. They drafted Jonathan
Speaker 1: Ogden and ray Lewis in the first round. Okay, May two.
Speaker 1: Now nobody knew that they were gonna both be Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame players, right, But I remember, like I was
Speaker 1: just getting started nine, so remember so, but I mean,
Speaker 1: but what happened was I went down to Baltimore just
Speaker 1: to watch their mini camp, just to watch ray Lewis
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Ogden, like who are so I just wanted
Speaker 1: to get to know and then I did. I did
Speaker 1: the Tony Sea goose A show in n and then
Speaker 1: the Ravens hired me in like ninety eight, like to
Speaker 1: do the pregame show out of the pregame preseason games
Speaker 1: on TV. So I was like I always was kind
Speaker 1: of a part of the organization. So I knew Brian
Speaker 1: Billick and Ozzie and then you know, then you start
Speaker 1: to meet some of the scouts. So Joe's down there,
Speaker 1: and then my buddy Andy Wide went to work there,
Speaker 1: and so like you're in Baltimore preseason, regular season game,
Speaker 1: like they're your buddies, like you've known him since the beginning,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I just had this relationship with him,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's two thousand and twelve. They win
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and that's the it's the crowning jewel.
Speaker 1: You know, this entire industry to be a part of that,
Speaker 1: and you know, and see Joe how he worked up
Speaker 1: from the lowest level scout all right into scouting director
Speaker 1: to assist going to Chicago, assistant GM, coming to the Eagles,
Speaker 1: becoming the general manager, like all those just to see
Speaker 1: him climbed the steps and earn all of it, and
Speaker 1: then he gets the chance here, you know, and so
Speaker 1: you kind of know what he's about through all the
Speaker 1: how he's been trained, all the different stops, and all
Speaker 1: of the conversations that I've had with Joe over the
Speaker 1: years about personnel, both pro and kids coming out of
Speaker 1: college and just cross check. I mean, there was a time,
Speaker 1: you know, when he was with the Eagles. I mean
Speaker 1: I sat we sat in the backyard cooking steaks and
Speaker 1: smoke the cigars and literally doing nothing but just talking ball.
Speaker 1: Like not like he's got three kids and they're all
Speaker 1: growing up and all that stuff. But we sat in
Speaker 1: the backyard until late at night, turn the phones off
Speaker 1: and just talking football, you know, like we have that
Speaker 1: sort of you know, bond in respect both. When did
Speaker 1: you get involved in the communication industry. We talked about
Speaker 1: your career a little bit, but played collegionally a doo.
Speaker 1: You were not a fel for a little bit. And
Speaker 1: then when did you make the transition? So I was
Speaker 1: in my twelfth year. I was in Philly, and I
Speaker 1: had a former teammate of mine, this quarterback Tom Ramsey
Speaker 1: said that Craig James, who was at ESPN at the time,
Speaker 1: pretty big guy in the college game day for him.
Speaker 1: He was starting a broadcast school for active players. So
Speaker 1: I always go with the media. When I was good
Speaker 1: with the media, like I loved like I never I
Speaker 1: never win or lose, played well, played bad. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what I know. You know, I gotn't I wasn't
Speaker 1: shy about it. I enjoyed talking to the media. Um,
Speaker 1: and I had a Monday night show for a while,
Speaker 1: you know, from different couples, different cities, whatever. But so
Speaker 1: I went to this broadcast school and it was for
Speaker 1: current players. So I was still active, trying to play
Speaker 1: another year, and Mike Goldick was there and Merril Hodge
Speaker 1: was there, and think it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: all these guys that kind of we all started together
Speaker 1: and we went to school and like the light just
Speaker 1: went on. I didn't know how to really do it,
Speaker 1: but I mean I started my radio show, I started
Speaker 1: doing pregame shows in Philly, and then I but I
Speaker 1: wanted to do games, and I got a chance in
Speaker 1: with Fox to do games over in Europe NFL Europe.
Speaker 1: Me and Kurt Menifee started over there, and uh, and
Speaker 1: then they ended up. I did college football the first
Speaker 1: year and second year of me and Kurt menife You
Speaker 1: were the six crew at Fox. You know, we started
Speaker 1: doing games and worked up to Joe Buck and Dick
Speaker 1: Stockton and you know, Kenny Albert and all the guys
Speaker 1: there for a dozen years. It was great. You know what,
Speaker 1: I like a lot Baldy. I like, I don't know
Speaker 1: why you decided to do this, but when it's a
Speaker 1: Baldy breakdown off of football, because sometimes you're in somewhere
Speaker 1: extravagant and warm weather and you still do the Baldy
Speaker 1: breaks and I think it's hilarious. Yeah, well I do
Speaker 1: it's it's all tongue in cheek, right, and so it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I go to Costa Rica every year,
Speaker 1: to go to Hawaii every year, so um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a traveler. So I've been to sixty six countries,
Speaker 1: you know, on sixty six sixty six countries. I was
Speaker 1: in Poland the summer. So if you're you know, if
Speaker 1: you're looking, you know, if you're in Costa Rica and
Speaker 1: it's just a great surf day. People need to know
Speaker 1: the surf day, that the surf conditions and just how
Speaker 1: somebody's inside that barrel and coming out of it right here,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, people to see that there's a pointed
Speaker 1: stories to like yeah, you can't like you went to
Speaker 1: Poland and you're taking it to social media and telling
Speaker 1: people how impactful that is on you to see a
Speaker 1: concentration Yeah, oh yeah. I mean when you go when
Speaker 1: you see you know, all these what what happened and
Speaker 1: you see the level of evil like it, you know,
Speaker 1: people need to know just how evil it was and
Speaker 1: why there is still a reaction to that whole era
Speaker 1: of what happened there in you know, Germany and some
Speaker 1: of the other countries that were involved. I mean, like
Speaker 1: you go to Normandy and you see that those beachheads
Speaker 1: there at Point do Hawk and stuff. I mean, people
Speaker 1: need to know what what people sacrificed, you know, so
Speaker 1: you know it's I don't get political about things, but
Speaker 1: there's a history to certain things, and so, um, I
Speaker 1: think all that stuff is interesting because quite frankly, anybody
Speaker 1: could talk about cover too. Yeah, but like you know,
Speaker 1: can you talk about the Normandy invasion? Can you talk
Speaker 1: about what happened in some of these concentration games? Can
Speaker 1: you talk about the surf report in Costa Rica? At sunrise?
Speaker 1: Do you have time to read? Yeah? All the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm addicted. Yeah, I'm addicted to I have certain books
Speaker 1: and certain authors that um, well, like you know, like um,
Speaker 1: Vince Flynn. Vince Flynn has got this character named Mitch Rap.
Speaker 1: So Mitch Rap, he's wrote in sixteen books and you
Speaker 1: know he's a counter terror terrorist worker for the c
Speaker 1: i A. And there's nothing that Mitch Rap can't do.
Speaker 1: Like he's the greatest character in every book right now.
Speaker 1: And then Daniel Silvan's got a he he's a crime
Speaker 1: novelist and he has a character named Gabriel Alan Okay
Speaker 1: who works for UH Israeli's secret service, but he's also
Speaker 1: a art restorer by trade. And this guy is the
Speaker 1: most coveted yet most hunted person in the world, and
Speaker 1: he escapes danger everywhere in the world, and he takes
Speaker 1: you all of this. So I'm jumping on a plane
Speaker 1: and Greens and I are walking up past is Baldy
Speaker 1: watching film with the headphones? Or are you read a book?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm doing one or the other. Like I
Speaker 1: I did a game in San Francisco, San Francisco, Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: last week, and so I took the Red Eye back
Speaker 1: to Philly. So I was in the San Francisco airport
Speaker 1: and I got the NFL films to download or upload
Speaker 1: all the one o'clock games for me. So I literally
Speaker 1: watched five hours of film coming back to Philly. So
Speaker 1: you land at five thirty in the morning, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to take a nap, But if I take
Speaker 1: a nap, it's just gonna ruin what I got going
Speaker 1: on here. So I just went I just took a
Speaker 1: big pot of coffee and just went straight through the day.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, I mean, it depends on the day.
Speaker 1: But like you know, if I get if I get
Speaker 1: six or seven hours of sleep, I'm you know, two cups,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. But if you if you go with no set,
Speaker 1: like I can't sleep on a plane. So if you
Speaker 1: watch five hours, I gotta think weekends, you're going back
Speaker 1: and forth from l A to Philly all the time,
Speaker 1: going back out there to do the Rams game this weekend,
Speaker 1: and I'll go over to the NFL network after the game.
Speaker 1: I'll start watching the one o'clock game teams, and then
Speaker 1: I got a bunch of shows NFL Now and Total
Speaker 1: Access to do the money at the NFL Network. But
Speaker 1: those shows, I'm only good in those shows if I've
Speaker 1: really prepped and know what I'm talking about. Like I
Speaker 1: remember the first week of the season, green Bay beat
Speaker 1: Chicago on Thursday night, So Friday, I'm doing Total Access
Speaker 1: in l A. And I gotta get the Lubbock for
Speaker 1: Texas Tech home opener the next day. But um, but
Speaker 1: on that in that game, that the thing that stood
Speaker 1: out about Green Bays. They played a dime defense the
Speaker 1: whole day, so they had one linebacker, Blake Martinez, and
Speaker 1: they basically challenged Chicago to run them out of that
Speaker 1: dime defense, put another linebacker on the field, put another
Speaker 1: defensive linement on the field, and Chicago didn't do it.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, Chicago, shame on them, Like
Speaker 1: they should have pounded Green Bay that night and they didn't.
Speaker 1: They try to play all this perimeter offense and all
Speaker 1: these fancy plays and I'm like they played in a
Speaker 1: Green Bay's hands. That's why they couldn't score a touchdown.
Speaker 1: But like, if you could bring that and show that
Speaker 1: the NFL networth the next day that hey, look, I
Speaker 1: mean nobody really knows what he got. Time Defense says.
Speaker 1: If you could teach the time defense and then why
Speaker 1: they played it and why it benefited them, that's a
Speaker 1: good part of what the story was. But you only
Speaker 1: get that if you watch it. So I want to
Speaker 1: go back to the books from me here, because you
Speaker 1: like it seems to me like crime novels anything. I
Speaker 1: got hooked on that. But I mean, I'm I'm a reader,
Speaker 1: so so are you? Are you a movie person? If
Speaker 1: I have time, I know, I know people that can
Speaker 1: receive lines to every single dummer, Like I mean, I
Speaker 1: just like I can't do that. But like, do you
Speaker 1: enjoy movies similar to the books. But the books are
Speaker 1: always better, like if you take a John Grisham like tales. Right.
Speaker 1: So I've read almost all of John Grisham's books. But
Speaker 1: if you take say, um, a Pelican Brief and you
Speaker 1: you know, plug in and out like you can't. Those
Speaker 1: books never transcribe to a movie because they move so
Speaker 1: fast that the movie really can't show the speed. They can't.
Speaker 1: You know The Firm, right, The Firm was the great,
Speaker 1: first great book John, and they made it into a
Speaker 1: movie and it was a bad movie. I enjoyed the fir,
Speaker 1: but I didn't read the Funk. Yeah, see the book.
Speaker 1: There's very few there's very few movies that are better
Speaker 1: than the books, like Jaws. The movie is better than
Speaker 1: Peter Benchley's Jaws the book, but that's one of them.
Speaker 1: Somebody recently told me that American Psycho of the movie
Speaker 1: better than the book. But I've never read the book.
Speaker 1: Is the first time I've seen it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: if you've never seen the movie before and it's fresh
Speaker 1: in your mind, it's fresh in your mind. All right, So,
Speaker 1: folks to see you on TV, and you know, for
Speaker 1: those of watching at home. Everybody asked, but the Finger
Speaker 1: what's the story behind? Is there something wrong? We all
Speaker 1: got the same Yeah, I mean like some I still
Speaker 1: have ten fingers, you know. I mean this thing, the
Speaker 1: baldy is pinky. I mean, look it is, it is.
Speaker 1: It is world famous. People do want to see the pink.
Speaker 1: They want pictures with it, they want to see it.
Speaker 1: They want to try to exit. Um. It happened, uh
Speaker 1: in training camp when I was with the Cowboys, my
Speaker 1: second year with the Cowboys, so I've been on the team. Um,
Speaker 1: we were a team that was dominated by our defensive line,
Speaker 1: Randy White, two tall Jones, Harvey Martin. We were dominant
Speaker 1: by a defensive line. So in the locker room, they
Speaker 1: dominated the team. So I ran through them. So when
Speaker 1: you so when it got jerked, like I got this
Speaker 1: hand caught in Randy White's jersey and it got ripped
Speaker 1: out so that the finger was dangling and I was
Speaker 1: and I screamed like I mean, so the defensive line
Speaker 1: thought I I screamed like a little schoolgirl. You know,
Speaker 1: that got kicked. But I mean, you know that's that's fair.
Speaker 1: So um, anyways, but they they they went and they
Speaker 1: taped it together, you know, and I went back out
Speaker 1: to practice, and I taped it like that for the
Speaker 1: rest of my career. Now, when I walked into the
Speaker 1: cafeteria after practice, there was a defensive line the front
Speaker 1: row as you come down the steps to the cafeteria
Speaker 1: to get your food. And as they saw me, they
Speaker 1: stood up in unison and they all went wow wow,
Speaker 1: like they imitated beyond the field. And so I felt like,
Speaker 1: oh God, here I go. I'm getting abused. And then
Speaker 1: like in unison, they all held up their hands and
Speaker 1: they all had crooked fingers and they're like, Baldi was
Speaker 1: just gonna let you know, join the club, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, all right, I joined the club
Speaker 1: that day. I joined the fraternity. Just like that. You
Speaker 1: decided right there in Dallas that you were never gonna
Speaker 1: be saying this was part of who you were. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, look, you're a young guy. You're in your
Speaker 1: second year, you haven't really done anything, and uh and
Speaker 1: and the defensive line is sort of taking into their fraternity.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal for you. By now, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Now, there's a lot of hazing. Back then,
Speaker 1: it was like there was a rights to becoming a veteran,
Speaker 1: but no aspirations to try to fix it or it's
Speaker 1: just too too loss of a cause at this point.
Speaker 1: So eatan, here's the deal. It's like, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people like, for example, I used to play
Speaker 1: in this Uh, I was playing a winner basketball league
Speaker 1: with with Roger Stallballs. So I remember Roger had a finger.
Speaker 1: He has a finger just like mine, and so it's
Speaker 1: on his other hand, it wasn't on his throwing him.
Speaker 1: So Roger was a he was a great athlete. Um,
Speaker 1: but he loved basketball like he was. He was a ballhog,
Speaker 1: you know, quite frankly. So uh, you know, he loved
Speaker 1: to shoot. And so when one year we're you know,
Speaker 1: we were friends and we were teammates this basketball. It's
Speaker 1: a quarterback and I mean they're all the same. So, um,
Speaker 1: I remember one year we're like looking at each other's
Speaker 1: fingers and he goes, I'm getting mine fixed ball and
Speaker 1: I'm like, get out of here. You can't fix that.
Speaker 1: He goes, now, I'm going in there. I'm getting it fixed.
Speaker 1: My wife has like been on me about it, and
Speaker 1: you gotta get a fixed. You're a public figure, you
Speaker 1: wear these suits, you look stupid, like, So he goes
Speaker 1: to get this thing operated on and they put it
Speaker 1: in a splint, and they said, okay, nothing for six weeks.
Speaker 1: Well tell Roger to do nothing for six weeks. Impossible.
Speaker 1: So the next week, the week after, he's out there
Speaker 1: with the splint on his finger and the ball hits
Speaker 1: the split, The splint flies off, the finger goes back
Speaker 1: to where it was, and it was like, I knew
Speaker 1: it was a worthless cause. So I'm gonna saw a starbuck.
Speaker 1: He couldn't get his fix. I'm like, I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: get my So we started off talking about wardrobes. Here
Speaker 1: the Baldy Breakdown T shirt. But we've added uh Ethan
Speaker 1: Greenberg to the sex group. He's on Team Sex. Is
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah? Wow, no kidding. I'm going there for
Speaker 1: a fitting on Friday that. Like I'm telling you this,
Speaker 1: I I woarn a lot of tailored suits for a
Speaker 1: long time, even since I played, and all the way
Speaker 1: through my Intelligion career. And then I met Bill Winn
Speaker 1: at Sacks and Big Daddy in the whole group, and
Speaker 1: I wear these suits now. I swear it's the most
Speaker 1: unbelievable thing. Everywhere I go, I get stopped like I
Speaker 1: In fact, I went I ran into, um, well, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. At the NFL network, there's there's nobody
Speaker 1: that can come close to trusting like me. Nobody no good.
Speaker 1: And it's it's now the players on the field Sundays
Speaker 1: or Saturday's they come up and they're like, dude, like
Speaker 1: do you have any suits? That don't or they just
Speaker 1: aren't like you look great in every suit? Again when players?
Speaker 1: When players, because the players, every players a fashion police, right,
Speaker 1: I mean they get on a plane, you get on
Speaker 1: a plane with him, you're taking a trip, like if
Speaker 1: the fashion police are out. I mean you know there's guys,
Speaker 1: there's chicken wings, and there's fashion police on every flight
Speaker 1: I've ever been on it, right, So like everybody is
Speaker 1: looking at everybody and judge them. And you know, some
Speaker 1: guys can dress, and then some guys think they can dress,
Speaker 1: and you know they can't. So I don't have that
Speaker 1: worry at all anymore. I know that I look good.
Speaker 1: You're going out, no doubt about it. And you're right
Speaker 1: about that feeling that jumping on the plane because some
Speaker 1: guys you look at and say, is he just trying
Speaker 1: to make a statement and trying to be out or
Speaker 1: is that like a fashion forward because it's almost like
Speaker 1: a runway model sometimes where no pun intended. Literally, yeah,
Speaker 1: you you see these, you know, you see people on
Speaker 1: the runway sometimes in the way. The biggest clothes horse
Speaker 1: I've ever met in this whole industry was Irving Friar
Speaker 1: Early Friar. You know. It was the number one pick
Speaker 1: in the in the in the league, gout in Nebraska,
Speaker 1: you know. And he came to the Eagles in free
Speaker 1: agency and and I we were doing a show together,
Speaker 1: so that's how. And he never wore the same suit twice,
Speaker 1: which is almost impossible, but he did Larry Fitzgerald that
Speaker 1: he'd have one suit for travel, one sup per game day,
Speaker 1: and so two suits in every trip. Wow. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of suits. That's a lot of suits. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope so too. Yeah, that's a lot. All right. Well,
Speaker 1: before we let you go here, I want to know
Speaker 1: you said you've been the sixty six countries top and
Speaker 1: bottom of that list. Well, I mean I used to
Speaker 1: go to Brazil. I had of mine. He's still one
Speaker 1: of my best friends. But he was an exchange student
Speaker 1: in Brazil and he was in high school as a
Speaker 1: soccer player, so he lived with six families in Brazil.
Speaker 1: So I used to go down to Brazil with him
Speaker 1: all the time, and my brother was going down with me.
Speaker 1: I went down for Carnival. So I've been in Brazil
Speaker 1: nine times now. They like Brazil is sort of It's
Speaker 1: not a third world country by any stretch. But when
Speaker 1: I first started going there, it was it had a
Speaker 1: little of that element to it, and it was fun.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun. Like the stuff that
Speaker 1: we did and the trouble we got into, Like, he
Speaker 1: really can't do that anymore, but I was young and stupids.
Speaker 1: I always loved Brazil. I go to Coasta ric every year.
Speaker 1: I love Coasta Rica. I go to a certain section
Speaker 1: of Coasta Rica I really like. UM. I lived in Italy. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you can drop me into There's twenty three states,
Speaker 1: and it really put me in any of the states.
Speaker 1: Lazio doesn't matter. I Basilicata, Um, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: He put me anywhere in Italy. I'm fine, I can
Speaker 1: speak the language. I'm good. UM. I lived in London
Speaker 1: doing NFL Europe Games. I lived in Amsterdam, I lived
Speaker 1: in Barcelona. Um, all those places are fantastic. Go to
Speaker 1: any of those. Um, there's some hidden jewels out there.
Speaker 1: Like Scotland's just an awesome place. I'm just you can't
Speaker 1: have a bad time in Scotland. Everybody plays golf. Um,
Speaker 1: their courses are impeccable, and they like golf when the
Speaker 1: weather is at the worst because that's when they think
Speaker 1: that you really learn how to play. So you know,
Speaker 1: you could go east, you could go south, you could
Speaker 1: go west. I mean, I don't know. I've had a
Speaker 1: good time climbing Mount Killamgaro in Tanzania. You know, it's
Speaker 1: just great members all over. Well, there's so much we
Speaker 1: can talk to you. But if we should have you
Speaker 1: out later this year and we could just do a
Speaker 1: little travel podcast. Oh yeah, I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1: I love to do that. All right, that's next episode
Speaker 1: when you come back on promise you gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: request though we're all gonna wear sex, but I want
Speaker 1: a ball these you know, I had been and a sweatsher.
Speaker 1: Do you guys do a hood at sweatsher yet or not?
Speaker 1: We we we we we haven't done it yet, but
Speaker 1: we just got started last week. This is like a
Speaker 1: week old. Let's let's like girls want to v neck,
Speaker 1: you know, T shirt. I've got the hoodie coming. Like
Speaker 1: you know, we're just we're just taking this kind of
Speaker 1: slow here. He ate, but I would say that by
Speaker 1: the next time you have me on this podcast, that
Speaker 1: will all be in hoodie. Yeah yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: say hoodie is your headbands and travel a headband guy beginning,
Speaker 1: so it's just fissical. All right. Well that's all we
Speaker 1: got here on the Official Jet Podcast. Here in the
Speaker 1: play MGM Studios again, New York Jets dot com, YouTube,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, Google Play, and SoundCloud. Baldi, thanks a lot,
Speaker 1: and we'll see silver. Yeah. Well, I'm glad we talked
Speaker 1: so much about football. That was great.