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Speaker 2: All right, welcome in. I'm gonna do a solo podcast
Speaker 2: for about fifteen or twenty minutes. As you know, I
Speaker 2: took a long break for me, a long break, longest
Speaker 2: break of my career while I was under contract seventeen days.
Speaker 2: A lot of it was FS One. Management came to
Speaker 2: me about six months ago and said, there's going to
Speaker 2: be You're going to get knocked off the air because
Speaker 2: of the Euros and COPA about seventy five percent of
Speaker 2: your show, So go take fifteen days off, and I
Speaker 2: decided to. I have a place out in Rhode Island,
Speaker 2: hung out near the beach with my wife daughter. Was
Speaker 2: out there for a while. Good friends from Los Angeles
Speaker 2: stop by. We have really good friends out in Rhode Island,
Speaker 2: and it's my favorite little hiding place in America. Is
Speaker 2: in a small little town in Rhode Island, and I
Speaker 2: go on these long walks on the beach every day
Speaker 2: by myself. Sometimes I put in a podcast the earbuds,
Speaker 2: and sometimes I just talk to myself in the fog
Speaker 2: in the morning. Dogs everywhere. So it gave me a
Speaker 2: lot of time to think about a lot of things.
Speaker 2: First of all, I want to talk about Greg Burhalter
Speaker 2: just got relieved of his duties as the coach of
Speaker 2: the United States men's national team. You know, I've come
Speaker 2: to the realization two things about soccer fans in America.
Speaker 2: Number One, they have been ignored right compared to football, basketball,
Speaker 2: baseball for years, So they have a little bit of
Speaker 2: a chip on their shoulder. They're not really interested in
Speaker 2: you joining the club. And for guys like me who
Speaker 2: are traditionalists with the main sports, you know, it's very
Speaker 2: hard to get the VIP pass code to be let in.
Speaker 2: You're always having to prove your worth. Baseball fans become
Speaker 2: a little like this since baseball over the last twenty
Speaker 2: years has lost so much of its social currency, it's
Speaker 2: just not talked about like it used to be at
Speaker 2: the water cooler. And so if you ever have an
Speaker 2: opinion about soccer, you're an outsider unless you're going to
Speaker 2: the matches, and you know you have to prove your
Speaker 2: worth constantly. Here's all I know about Greg Burholter sixty
Speaker 2: nine percent winning percentage, which is the highest winning percentage
Speaker 2: of any United States men's nation team coach that has
Speaker 2: coached at least twenty twenty games. And remember, this is
Speaker 2: a guy that got a draw in the last World
Speaker 2: Cup to the final field of sixteen with none of
Speaker 2: his top players in their prime. None he had players
Speaker 2: getting close to their prime. Polistic now is just entering
Speaker 2: his prime. But people will say, well, he's got more
Speaker 2: talent than ever. If you look at every sport, including soccer,
Speaker 2: in the world, you win championships when you have an
Speaker 2: overwhelming majority of your best players in their prime. Chris Jones, Maholmes,
Speaker 2: Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelcey was middle to late prime when
Speaker 2: they started this run. That's the way it goes, right Like.
Speaker 2: That's not to say you can't have players like a
Speaker 2: Brady who is older, a Gronk who is older. They
Speaker 2: have playoff experience, but generally sports all work the same way.
Speaker 2: I mean the Boston Celtics Tatum and his prime, Jalen
Speaker 2: Brown in his prime, Derek White in his prime. Zingis
Speaker 2: actually in his prime, although he misses a lot of time,
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday out of his prime, Horford out of his prime,
Speaker 2: but their top three players are arguably all in their prime.
Speaker 2: You know when Denver won their championship. Jokich prime, Murray prime,
Speaker 2: Porter prime, Gordon prime, KCP a little out of his prime,
Speaker 2: a little older. So the United States men's national team
Speaker 2: is the most skillful we've ever had, but this World
Speaker 2: Cup will be the first World Cup where we have
Speaker 2: a majority of our best players at the beginning of
Speaker 2: their prime. It's still a really young team, So go ahead,
Speaker 2: get rid of Greg Berholter. But one of the reasons
Speaker 2: I've been critical of of the United States men's national
Speaker 2: team fans is because they always blame the coach. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter who it is, Jurgen Klansmen, Bruce Arena, It's
Speaker 2: always blamed the coach. It's always the coach's fault. And
Speaker 2: the reality is this country has played mostly defensive and
Speaker 2: safe soccer most of my life because we have to.
Speaker 2: If we're hyper aggressive against Argentina or A Germany, the Netherlands, England,
Speaker 2: we'd get roasted. I think for the first time ever,
Speaker 2: in the next two years, this World Cup team will
Speaker 2: have the ability to play top teams England and be
Speaker 2: equally aggressive. I think our skill is that good. The
Speaker 2: COPA performance was disappointing. I think we're better than most
Speaker 2: of the teams in COPA, So I understand the disillusion
Speaker 2: fan base. I get it, but just no sixty nine
Speaker 2: percent of the matches with a mostly overwhelmingly young roster
Speaker 2: just entering their prime, just over the next year to
Speaker 2: two entering their prime. I thought he was pretty good.
Speaker 2: I did think COPA was disappointing. Two things can be true.
Speaker 2: So Greg Burholter is gone. Something else I think about
Speaker 2: as the NBA has finalized their deal with ESBN NBC
Speaker 2: and Amazon to get seventy six million over eleven years
Speaker 2: and listen, it's like people that overreacted to Bronni James
Speaker 2: going to the Lakers. You don't like Lebron, I get it.
Speaker 2: I'm not looking for you, to be honest. TNT has
Speaker 2: five days to match. I think the most interesting part
Speaker 2: of the NBA deal is an ESBN, NBC or Amazon.
Speaker 2: It's TNT, who has again about a week to match
Speaker 2: or their forty year relationship is over. So let me
Speaker 2: tell you. Let's say you run TNT. I'm a consumer,
Speaker 2: and I think I'm your typical sports consumer. If you
Speaker 2: let the NBA go, I can just tell you I'll
Speaker 2: never watch TNT again. It'll just be one of those
Speaker 2: things I scroll past. That's the only reason I watch
Speaker 2: TNT and the Kenny Smith Barklay shack Ernie Show. I
Speaker 2: watch an hour before the game start and all off
Speaker 2: and stay thirty minutes after the games are over if
Speaker 2: I'm not doing a podcast. So no NBA. I'm not
Speaker 2: watching for the Western Conference finals of the NHL because
Speaker 2: the Stanley Cup. Ill watch ESPN's got that. I'm not
Speaker 2: watching for an occasional early round baseball playoff series. Fox
Speaker 2: has the World Series. I'm not watching TNT. So if
Speaker 2: you ran TNT, would you rather sign the deal keep
Speaker 2: me as a consumer, though you lose money on the deal,
Speaker 2: but you keep me watching your shoulder programming, your pregame show,
Speaker 2: your postgame show, seeing all sorts of ads promotions for
Speaker 2: other shows during your NBA coverage, or lose me completely
Speaker 2: as a consumer. That's the decision TNT has. They're not
Speaker 2: going to make money on this deal, but you sign
Speaker 2: the deal to be able to promote other shows. Try
Speaker 2: to expand how often I, as a consumer am watching
Speaker 2: because I don't. I'm not going to watch DNT, it's over.
Speaker 2: I'm not watching for Mountain West Football and Early Round
Speaker 2: Baseball playoff series. It's over. I'm done as a consumer.
Speaker 2: And so you know, it's very easy to say, well,
Speaker 2: they're going to lose money. All these networks are going
Speaker 2: to lose money on the NBA. ESPN because they're a
Speaker 2: current rights holder, doesn't have to market and promote the NBA.
Speaker 2: As a new rights holder, NBC and Amazon have to
Speaker 2: go out and spend so much money on marketing, promotion,
Speaker 2: hiring remote crews to ramp up like overspend early to
Speaker 2: pull in new audience. ESPN's got me. I know where
Speaker 2: the NBA is, so they have the benefit of being
Speaker 2: a current rights holder, an incumbent, if you will. In
Speaker 2: the political business, they're an incumbent, So I know what
Speaker 2: to expect. Don't have to love their coverage all the time,
Speaker 2: love Mike Brain, don't love most of the coverage. But
Speaker 2: I know what to expect, and I know where they're
Speaker 2: on my TV or my phone, right and so that's
Speaker 2: the decision. That's why it's difficult. So ESPN does it
Speaker 2: because it's tonnage. It fills space. They can promote other shows,
Speaker 2: other leagues, other whatever, and they can use NBA highlights
Speaker 2: and they can put it on Scott van Pelt after
Speaker 2: the games and it helps so many ancillary parts of
Speaker 2: the coverage. That's an easy one for ESPN, But for TNT,
Speaker 2: you know, they don't have me for anything other than that,
Speaker 2: and if they don't sign it, they lose me completely
Speaker 2: as a consumer. So I think these decisions are much
Speaker 2: more difficult than people think. Are you willing to sign
Speaker 2: up for something that you know is not going to
Speaker 2: be profitable? I at least keep you as a consumer
Speaker 2: and maybe over the course of time, I can move
Speaker 2: you into another show. I can move you into other
Speaker 2: platforms that I'm connected to. That's the trick in it. Listen,
Speaker 2: the NBA has challenges. It's getting very European, okay. And
Speaker 2: when you're international and you don't introduce consumers to players
Speaker 2: until they reach the professional level, it's a disadvantage and
Speaker 2: something I've been on for years. And you know this,
Speaker 2: if you're honest. I have been banging on Adam Silver
Speaker 2: for years, who considers college basketball the enemy The NFL
Speaker 2: understands the value of college football is that if you're
Speaker 2: only introducing fans to players new players once they arrive
Speaker 2: to the NBA, it's a huge, huge disadvantage. College football
Speaker 2: introduces you to an Ohio state wide receiver for three
Speaker 2: years minimum, Okay, so you have some sort of connection
Speaker 2: with the player, some emotional connection. By the time he's
Speaker 2: an NFL player, you're buying his jersey. I have never
Speaker 2: understood the dogma, the anti college basketball vibe I get
Speaker 2: from the NBA. Those of us with a social life
Speaker 2: don't watch the G League. We don't watch it. So
Speaker 2: the bottom line is like next year, Cooper Flag at Duke.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to watch him at Duke goes to
Speaker 2: the G League, I don't watch him, goes overseas, I
Speaker 2: don't watch him. Most of us have a life. We're
Speaker 2: not sitting going on YouTube to watch euro video or
Speaker 2: G League video. So Cooper Flag is going to go
Speaker 2: to Duke is going to get connected with one of
Speaker 2: these shoe companies and is absolutely going to move the
Speaker 2: television needle when he comes into the NBA. If he
Speaker 2: goes to a reasonable team, you know, like if remember
Speaker 2: the worst team in the NBA generally doesn't win the lottery,
Speaker 2: if he goes to a team with some promising stars.
Speaker 2: The one thing I like, really like about the NIL
Speaker 2: in college is that I think it'll help college basketball.
Speaker 2: It makes college football just more of a top heavy
Speaker 2: bidding war. It used to be a facilities issue. Now
Speaker 2: it's an NIL issue for the top teams. Not that
Speaker 2: many changes in the last twenty years in college football.
Speaker 2: You notice the Ohio States and the Georgia's and the
Speaker 2: Texas and the big school they have all the money
Speaker 2: to LSU is going to outbid people for top players.
Speaker 2: But I do think the NIL and college basketball will
Speaker 2: keep the Kansas guy around, the Yukon guy around some
Speaker 2: of them for another year, so I have a stronger
Speaker 2: emotional connection then going into the NBA. I think it's
Speaker 2: a real I mean, that's why Villanova guys are really
Speaker 2: may not be stars, but are really powerful in the
Speaker 2: NBA because I watched them for three years in college.
Speaker 2: I know who Michale Bridges is and Jalen Brunson is
Speaker 2: and Dante de Vincenzo. I watched them in college Josh
Speaker 2: Hart for years, so like I have a little bit
Speaker 2: of a relationship. They don't even have to be stars
Speaker 2: in the NBA. I'm familiar with them. So I do think.
Speaker 2: I do think that the NBA is going through a
Speaker 2: very challenging time with all the European escalation to just
Speaker 2: more great players globally. I mean, the draft now is
Speaker 2: virtually you know, it's a The w NBA draft has
Speaker 2: players that can immediately Caitlin Clark immediately come in and
Speaker 2: be productive culture changers. NBA has none of those. It's
Speaker 2: just it's crazy. I watched the NBA Draft for thirty minutes.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have no real opinion on any of
Speaker 2: these players outside of the Connecticut guys. So hopefully the
Speaker 2: NIL keeps a few a handful of five or six
Speaker 2: really high end players. I mean Zach Edie, I know
Speaker 2: who he is. I'm excited to watch him in the NBA.
Speaker 2: I don't know what he's gonna be, but I'll watch him.
Speaker 2: Football has always understood that, hopefully the NBA can figure
Speaker 2: it out.
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Speaker 2: Something else I thought about on the sports side. So
Speaker 2: I recently got an email from a friend who said,
Speaker 2: what do you make of Paul Finbaum. He's a radio
Speaker 2: broadcaster that covers mostly well the SEC, a lot of
Speaker 2: BAMA talk, bashing Lincoln Riley and USC. He said he
Speaker 2: doesn't believe that Lincoln Riley it's over, It's a sinking ship. Well,
Speaker 2: I think a lot of things about it. First of all,
Speaker 2: if I recall, Finebaum was anti Jim Harbaugh until the
Speaker 2: very very end. So what I mean, if you're really
Speaker 2: really don't think Jim Harbaugh, who had a successful NFL career,
Speaker 2: Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier in the SEC, did not
Speaker 2: If you don't think Jim Harbaugh can coach, what do
Speaker 2: you want me to say? I mean, sorry, he can.
Speaker 2: He's great everywhere San Diego, Niners, Stanford, Michigan. He's going
Speaker 2: to be great here. I think people forget it took
Speaker 2: Harball long time because he inherited such a mess. He
Speaker 2: had to change the culture of Brady Hoak. I mean
Speaker 2: that I can remember watching games at Michigan there were
Speaker 2: thirty thousand empty seats. People forget how bad USC was
Speaker 2: when Lincoln Riley took it over. They were foreign eight
Speaker 2: and Lincoln Riley told people, I mean it was understood
Speaker 2: forty to fifty of the eighty players couldn't play. The
Speaker 2: roster was terrible. Now he has the benefit of the
Speaker 2: transfer portal which has been energized. But you can't create
Speaker 2: chemistry in a year. So if they beat two lane
Speaker 2: and they led with about a minute to go, he
Speaker 2: would have gone from four and eight to twelve wins
Speaker 2: with a really bad defensive staff and a really bad
Speaker 2: defensive roster. Pretty impressive because his first two years in
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve have been the best the PAC twelve
Speaker 2: has been in twenty years, and Kayleb Williams and Lincoln
Speaker 2: Riley produced the number one offense in the country without
Speaker 2: outside of Kayleb Williams and Jordan Adison, any NFL guys
Speaker 2: of NOE like college guys. That's it. That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: But I think this year's fascinating for USC. They get
Speaker 2: a bit of a break. UCLA and Michigan are in
Speaker 2: total rebuilds. They don't play the best two teams Oregon
Speaker 2: in Ohio State. That's a huge break. LSU's probably a loss,
Speaker 2: but they have a capable defensive staff, upgrades in the secondary.
Speaker 2: Won't be as good at quarterback, but it'll be a
Speaker 2: more Lincoln Riley driven team, less of a Caleb Williams
Speaker 2: driven team, which is not all bad. Caleb sort of
Speaker 2: his last year morphed and it was a Caleb offense,
Speaker 2: not a Lincoln Riley offense. He'll kind of reclaim that.
Speaker 2: I think, much like Harbaugh, people didn't understand how big
Speaker 2: the rebuild was at Michigan. It took People don't know
Speaker 2: how big the rebuild was. For Brian Kelly. It wasn't
Speaker 2: until the last two games he played against Georgia. It
Speaker 2: wasn't that first time he got to the national championship.
Speaker 2: That was fools goal. It took in nine years, eight
Speaker 2: nine years. It took Harbaugh seven eight years to really
Speaker 2: get the quality of upper class talent where Michigan could
Speaker 2: go toe to toe with Ohio State and in Georgia
Speaker 2: and in Alabama. This is the beginning for Lincoln Riley,
Speaker 2: This is the beginning. We forget Dabo Sweeney at football
Speaker 2: Center at Clemson. He needed like three years to get
Speaker 2: it going. People forget go to Nick Saban at LSU.
Speaker 2: It wasn't They didn't hit it out of the park.
Speaker 2: Go to his fourth year at LSU. There are a
Speaker 2: lot of losses. Saban at Alabama, the number one football
Speaker 2: program in the country, made it look really easy. It's
Speaker 2: generally not. Even with the transfer portal, it takes a
Speaker 2: lot of time, and USC was a wreck. So I
Speaker 2: think Lincoln Riley's going to be fine. The other thing
Speaker 2: that doesn't get discussed a lot, and it's totally legal,
Speaker 2: is that Phil Knight has basically said, as he ages,
Speaker 2: what do you need and organ buys any Southern California
Speaker 2: player out of high school they really want they get,
Speaker 2: They just buy them. And it's a little icky, but
Speaker 2: it's the reality of what Oregon does.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I'm not criticizing him for it, but as Phil Knight
Speaker 2: has aged, it's become very clear that he's going to
Speaker 2: spend whatever it takes in NIL. And USC's NIL program
Speaker 2: is not terrible. They're collective is about twelve million dollars
Speaker 2: a year, but that's not what Oregon's spending, or Texas
Speaker 2: or Georgia or Ohio State. I don't know if USC
Speaker 2: or UCLA, but USC is the bigger brand has the
Speaker 2: stomach for the NIL. This is not Norman, Oklahoma, it's
Speaker 2: not Auburn Alabama. It doesn't drive discussion. People have lives.
Speaker 2: Even if you're a USC fan, you probably like the
Speaker 2: Rams and the Lakers and the Dodgers. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of options here. This is not a one horse town.
Speaker 2: So do you have the stomach? Do the boosters have
Speaker 2: the stomach to keep putting millions of dollars into a
Speaker 2: program that wins ten and not national championships? When Pete
Speaker 2: Carroll was winning Natty's at USC, no NFL. Now there's
Speaker 2: two teams. There was no Sofi Stadium. The Dodgers were good,
Speaker 2: they weren't this consistently good. The Clippers were a mess.
Speaker 2: Now they're viable. MLS is in town, Silicon Valley economy.
Speaker 2: People have more money, more options, they bail more quickly.
Speaker 2: So it's a different Los Angeles. Now. You not only
Speaker 2: until this year pre twelve team playoff. You've got to
Speaker 2: win more games to get to the national championship. The
Speaker 2: PAC twelve is better now, so it's a much different game.
Speaker 2: I think Lincoln Riley is going to be okay, but
Speaker 2: this is not an elite NIL program right now. They
Speaker 2: have the best athletic director and the best guidance Jen
Speaker 2: Cohen they've ever had. I think Lincoln Riley's really smart.
Speaker 2: But Oregon swooping in and buying the best players in
Speaker 2: the West Coast, not to mention Bam is still a
Speaker 2: big name Ohio State, Michigan now seeping in stealing top recruits.
Speaker 2: It's a big lift for USC, big lift. I think
Speaker 2: they'll be better than people think. But the idea that
Speaker 2: Lincoln was going to swoop in and they were going
Speaker 2: to win Natties, this program was a tire fire for
Speaker 2: an eight with really no great players. First year, the
Speaker 2: two best players Caleb Williams Jordan Addison, both transfers. That
Speaker 2: just was not anything of note here, battle lines, no interior,
Speaker 2: great defensive lineman. It was not USC. I will say this.
Speaker 2: I was when I have time to not be on
Speaker 2: the treadmill of sports. It gives me more time to read,
Speaker 2: which I love, and it gave me And there's something
Speaker 2: about baseball where I like reading about baseball more than
Speaker 2: I generally like watching baseball, the exception being a great
Speaker 2: postseason matchup. But you know, I'll go and get I'll
Speaker 2: deep dive on baseball stats and I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 2: And I used to be in My first job out
Speaker 2: of college was a baseball announcer, so you know, you
Speaker 2: just you kind of get into the statistical the math
Speaker 2: of baseball, and you know, I always kind of find
Speaker 2: it interesting is that baseball, because of its rich history,
Speaker 2: tends to be a little paralyzed by it, and they're
Speaker 2: slow to make moves. It is remarkable now to watch
Speaker 2: how few baseball players can hit. Only twelve current baseball
Speaker 2: players at last count, hit over three hundred in the
Speaker 2: whole sport. It's insane. It's Otani, it's Aaron Judge, it's
Speaker 2: Mokey Betts, you know, big names you'd expect. But I
Speaker 2: think there is a solve to the problem, because the
Speaker 2: game's faster now, the attendance is up, the ratings are
Speaker 2: slightly up, and I think the solve is to lower
Speaker 2: the mound, which baseball did in the late sixties, and
Speaker 2: that was sort of the Bob Gibson era. You just
Speaker 2: couldn't hit Gibson, so they lowered the mound like I
Speaker 2: think half a foot. And I think baseball's always been
Speaker 2: so reluctant, you know, it took them forever on replay
Speaker 2: or the pitch clock. It just takes them a long
Speaker 2: time because they're very much tied to their history. The
Speaker 2: mound six inches give batters a shot, because I will
Speaker 2: tell you, over the course of the seventeen days I
Speaker 2: was gone and I flipped on the TV, the game
Speaker 2: moves very swiftly, I remember. And this happened when I
Speaker 2: lived in Connecticut. So my wife built a workout room downstairs,
Speaker 2: and that's where I would go every day, and that's
Speaker 2: where I would watch baseball, usually Nessen or the YES Network,
Speaker 2: Red Sox or Yankees. I got both on my cable service.
Speaker 2: And there was a moment in time. I remember. It
Speaker 2: was the Red Sox playing the Blue Jays in Toronto,
Speaker 2: and it was like fifth or sixth inning, and I
Speaker 2: went down and I usually do about a forty five
Speaker 2: to fifty minute lift. That's it. Then I'm gone. And
Speaker 2: I remember this day particular. It was like the fifth
Speaker 2: or sixth inning and the Blue Jays I think, were
Speaker 2: at the plate and I did my workout forty five
Speaker 2: minutes and it was like the start of the fifth inning,
Speaker 2: and by the time I was done with my workout,
Speaker 2: it was just going to like the sixth. It'd been
Speaker 2: like an inning in one batter that had lasted like
Speaker 2: forty five minutes, and I wouldn't have watched the game
Speaker 2: had I not worked out. But I remember thinking at
Speaker 2: the time, God, this is agony, this is painful that
Speaker 2: you can't and hockey knows this. It's really hard to
Speaker 2: have a business with only diehards watching. You need casuals.
Speaker 2: I mean, my wife knows a little about the NFL.
Speaker 2: She's very much a sports casual, but she understands the NFL.
Speaker 2: She can name many of the teams and the star players.
Speaker 2: Is that baseball pre pitchclock had no casuals, very few casuals.
Speaker 2: It's actually pretty fun to watch now if you get
Speaker 2: the right teams in the right matchups. But there are
Speaker 2: I mean, the hitters are overwhelmed. There are a lot
Speaker 2: of quick at bats now. For me, I don't have
Speaker 2: the patience with my iPhone to sit and watch four
Speaker 2: hour games, but at the quality and the energy, if
Speaker 2: I'm getting action, I'll stick around. No matter how fast
Speaker 2: a sport is, there's to be action. You can go
Speaker 2: through three innings and see a hit a single. It's
Speaker 2: not enough action. And the way to solve it's pretty easy.
Speaker 2: Lower of the mound six eight inches. Give the batters
Speaker 2: a fighting chance and it won't just be shoheo Tani
Speaker 2: and Aaron Judge that can hit something else that jumped
Speaker 2: out to me. And I don't talk a ton of politics,
Speaker 2: but I mean, Jesus, when I was gone for seventeen days,
Speaker 2: all anybody talked about was the debate. You know, one
Speaker 2: of the things that is really interesting to me. And
Speaker 2: I've been offered political shows before on radio, and it
Speaker 2: just it's sort of a joy sapping experience. I like sports.
Speaker 2: I like the drama. I like waking up every day
Speaker 2: and there's a new game, a new drama, a new storyline,
Speaker 2: and you can build a new narrative. The idea of
Speaker 2: having to cover the same political story for six months
Speaker 2: on end, I just I think is just the thief
Speaker 2: of joy. I think it would just it'd be tedious.
Speaker 2: I don't want that life. But it was really interesting.
Speaker 2: I had this discussion with a friend and I said,
Speaker 2: you know, politics and sports and business are all very similar.
Speaker 2: I mean, a political race race, it's a business. It's
Speaker 2: the minute you're elected, you're raising funds. And in my business,
Speaker 2: sports has always been a little political, and it's absolutely
Speaker 2: a business. That's why the NFL has pulled away from
Speaker 2: the other leagues. It's just understands that is that it
Speaker 2: was fascinating to watch the coverage. We know Joe Biden
Speaker 2: has struggled, especially the last couple of years, with a
Speaker 2: lot of verbal gaffs, the staring, you know, the look
Speaker 2: we've seen from grandparents we love, but it's been fascinating
Speaker 2: to watch not only the coverage, which I think has
Speaker 2: been very fair and even handed, but the outrage by
Speaker 2: Democrats with the coverage of CNN, Jonathan Stewart and Brian
Speaker 2: Stetler and Chuck Todd and The New York Times. So
Speaker 2: my entire life, I've been sort of an independent that
Speaker 2: leans right on busines, business and left on social issues.
Speaker 2: But I've always understood that over seventy percent of people
Speaker 2: in the media are Democrats, and it absolutely bleeds into
Speaker 2: the coverage. I think, on average, Democrats get more favorable
Speaker 2: coverage than conservatives. Now some of that's earned, like climate
Speaker 2: change denial on the right is doing you no favors.
Speaker 2: Like every week there's a record in Palm Springs, Vegas. Everywhere,
Speaker 2: the storms are getting nasty, or the heat's getting more oppressive.
Speaker 2: So sometimes I do look at conservatives and roll my
Speaker 2: eyes when they come across often as anti science. Be
Speaker 2: that as it may. I do think Democrats get more
Speaker 2: favorable coverage, but you can't trust, you know, the White
Speaker 2: House doesn't have a lot of credibility right now anytime
Speaker 2: they talk about Biden. But what's fascinating has been to
Speaker 2: watch the Democrats, the liberal elites react to the coverage.
Speaker 2: Once you start complaining about the coverage and not the
Speaker 2: content of your politician, which conservatives do a lot of,
Speaker 2: you're cooked. And I'm telling you, as an independent, I've
Speaker 2: appreciated CNN's coverage, and Brian and Chuck Todd and Jonathan Stewart,
Speaker 2: I've actually I've actually appreciated it. I think it's been
Speaker 2: right down the middle. It has been appropriately harsh on
Speaker 2: Joe Biden. Listen, when you come out and you cover
Speaker 2: the White House and you say you're surprised by his
Speaker 2: mental lack of mental acuity, I can't take you seriously.
Speaker 2: Do you not have an iPhone? I can't take you seriously.
Speaker 2: And so watching kind of the liberal elites criticize the
Speaker 2: coverage is something that is painful and fatiguing. I've watched
Speaker 2: the right do for years, and it makes me think,
Speaker 2: as somebody who I view myself as an independent, I
Speaker 2: don't like Trump at all, but I view myself mostly
Speaker 2: as a political independent. It makes me think, when you
Speaker 2: get the favorable coverage, the favorable lean for years, you're overreacting.
Speaker 2: You're picking on the wrong people. The media is imperfect.
Speaker 2: We know that hasn't been a great year. I don't think,
Speaker 2: necessarily for the New York Times, it's not about the coverage.
Speaker 2: It's about the candidate and the problems. And listen, Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: If he refuses to step down, this is what you get.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's very promising. I don't think Donald
Speaker 2: Trump with more immunity from the Supreme Court is a
Speaker 2: great thing. But it's been fascinating to me to watch
Speaker 2: the attack of the coverage, which I view is incredibly
Speaker 2: fair given the current state of Joe Biden. It feels
Speaker 2: fair to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't feel
Speaker 2: as somebody in the media, and somebody who's mostly moderate
Speaker 2: left leaner, social right leaner, fiscal, I don't feel it's
Speaker 2: been outrageous. Jake tappers asked hard questions. I do think
Speaker 2: the media, feeling they've been lied to, has a little
Speaker 2: chip on their shoulder, But that's okay. I can deal
Speaker 2: with a little of that. Right. There's been a lot
Speaker 2: of chips on the shoulder of media for years. Sometimes
Speaker 2: they felt, in my opinion, a little dogmatic, a little
Speaker 2: unfair to the right. Now they're bringing the sledgehammer on Biden.
Speaker 2: It feels right to me, it feels appropriate. I think
Speaker 2: the simple explanation what has happened to the Democrats is
Speaker 2: that there is no more pressurized job in America than president.
Speaker 2: It ages you. And for an example, go look at
Speaker 2: President Barack Obama's inauguration and how youthful he looks, and
Speaker 2: look eight years later he has a head of gray hair,
Speaker 2: and he was in his prime politically. Joe Biden was always,
Speaker 2: by any reasonable measure, a one term president with some
Speaker 2: cognitive decline, a parent going in to that one term,
Speaker 2: and the Democrats got caught flat footed. You didn't really
Speaker 2: start to notice it until about late year two of
Speaker 2: his presidency, but the last two years it's ugly and
Speaker 2: it's sad, and we've all seen this before. And the
Speaker 2: Democrats come off as ill prepared and not prepared and
Speaker 2: getting caught flat footed. It's not about the coverage. It's
Speaker 2: not about CNN, it's not about Bill Maher, it's about
Speaker 2: Joe Bliden. It's a candidate issue, not a coverage issue.
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