Speaker 1: I was at the local coffee shop.
Speaker 2: There's a coffee shop called Joe Coffee which is in
Speaker 2: our hood, and like everyone goes through there, and Matt
Speaker 2: Damon was in there and he had a Boston Red
Speaker 2: Sox hat. And I'm like, all right, do you say
Speaker 2: something to Matt Damon or you just let Matt Damon be?
Speaker 2: Of course, as a fellow celebrity, I'm joking. I know
Speaker 2: you don't bother him.
Speaker 1: You let him be.
Speaker 2: But then Damon looked at me and gave me the nod,
Speaker 2: and I think he knew who I was, and I
Speaker 2: was about to engage, and then he was gone out
Speaker 2: of my life forever.
Speaker 1: That friendship never materialized either.
Speaker 2: Hi. My name is Peter Schrager and I am so
Speaker 2: juiced every day I get to wake up.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody, and welcome to Off the Beat. Get it.
Speaker 3: I just said it, Off the Beat. It is me
Speaker 3: as always your host, Brian I. Gartner, and today football
Speaker 3: fans rejoice, but also fans of really good, interesting people.
Speaker 3: You rejoice as well, because we have a spectacular guest
Speaker 3: who knows just about everything and everybody involved with the NFL.
Speaker 3: Peter Schrager, NFL Insider joins us on the podcast Today.
Speaker 3: He is a brilliant analyst and a sideline reporter. He's
Speaker 3: also a podcast host. He's a best selling author, he's
Speaker 3: an Emmy winner, and well, I'm proud to say a
Speaker 3: friend of mine. His show Good Morning Football, three hours
Speaker 3: of live television every single weekday of the year. It's
Speaker 3: the best if you want to keep up with NFL news.
Speaker 3: You can also see him on Fox NFL Kickoff on
Speaker 3: the Sidelines at times for Fox Sports, and he's a
Speaker 3: regular on The Heard with Colin Cowherd and The Dan
Speaker 3: Patrick Show. Basically, anywhere there's football, there is Peter. And
Speaker 3: anywhere there's Peter, you know it's going to be gold.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to keep you waiting any longer. One
Speaker 3: of my favorite people in the business. Peter Schrigger, everyone.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak. I love it.
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeakna.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 2: I cook it every month, left over.
Speaker 1: From the night before.
Speaker 3: Peter. Yes, yes, what is happening?
Speaker 1: Oh man, you look great? How are you on the course?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 3: Where are you? I'm not on the course, but you
Speaker 3: are definitely getting vacation. Brian It I am here from
Speaker 3: beautiful hilton Head Island.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so good. So much miniature and the regular kind.
Speaker 3: That's right. I think we're doing miniature golf this afternoon.
Speaker 3: Big family reunion. It sounds like I'm doing a commercial
Speaker 3: for it. My parents live here in hilton Head Island.
Speaker 3: My parents retired down here.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we we are doing our I think it's our
Speaker 3: first actual like an official family reunion. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know the family reunion people. That's not what
Speaker 1: we do. So I love doing it like.
Speaker 3: We've never done it. We got a huge house. We're
Speaker 3: all staying under one roof.
Speaker 1: There could be a show about that.
Speaker 3: It's uh yeah, it's very entertaining last night. Now, I
Speaker 3: was not up this morning, but my sister, this is
Speaker 3: unbelievably cool. In hilton Head Island. At this time of year,
Speaker 3: the sea turtle's nest and you have to turn your
Speaker 3: lights off if you're near the water so that the
Speaker 3: babies don't get confused, and they go they follow the
Speaker 3: moon back into the water. Well, this morning they had hatched,
Speaker 3: and my sister walked down. They saw the tracks of
Speaker 3: the little baby sea turtles going back into the sea,
Speaker 3: and about this time they have people who go up
Speaker 3: and down the beach and they're helping the sea turtles
Speaker 3: or whatever. They show up and they know to like
Speaker 3: look around and make sure there are no stragglers. And
Speaker 3: there was a straggler.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: They crawled into a crab hole and they got it
Speaker 3: out and they saw slash held the volunteer held it.
Speaker 3: But they got to see the baby sea turtle and
Speaker 3: watch it take its first steps into the ocean.
Speaker 1: That's the most amazing thing. I love that.
Speaker 2: And you know that in about six months or a
Speaker 2: year from now, there's gonna be like a giant raising
Speaker 2: canes and that exact spot that's built.
Speaker 1: Or there's gonna be a TD bank there instead. So
Speaker 1: enjoy that. That's beautiful. That sounds awesome.
Speaker 3: We saw the last of the turtles. Yes, exactly right,
Speaker 3: you got it. I'm so excited to be talking to you.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is hot. I mean this this constitutes
Speaker 3: is our official NFL pre season episode. For sure. We're
Speaker 3: going to talk about that, but I want to talk
Speaker 3: about you first. I know you grew up in New Jersey.
Speaker 3: Tell me about little Peter.
Speaker 1: Okay, little Peter.
Speaker 3: Was not little Peter. No, tell me about little Peter.
Speaker 1: That conversation would be quite short.
Speaker 3: Brun were sports? Were you into sports?
Speaker 2: I was diehard, Like I was the kid that would
Speaker 2: memorize the baseball cards and know every factoid on the back.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Freehold, New Jersey, which is a
Speaker 2: town in central Jersey. It's not quite Jersey short, it's
Speaker 2: not quite North Jersey. We're kind of our own little world.
Speaker 2: It's Springsteen Country. So if you want to think like
Speaker 2: blue collar this is, you know, we're going to make
Speaker 2: it out of here someday and get to the big
Speaker 2: city about an hour away.
Speaker 1: That that's where it was.
Speaker 2: And my childhood was getting a pack of tops cards,
Speaker 2: watching Sports Center in the morning, memorizing statistics, waking up
Speaker 2: every morning and getting the newspaper and checking the box scores.
Speaker 2: And I could tell you basically every player where they
Speaker 2: went to college from the age of ten years old,
Speaker 2: probably now, because my mind works that way and I
Speaker 2: just was lucky enough to fall in love with sports,
Speaker 2: realize at a young enough age I'm not going to
Speaker 2: play sports professionally, kind of pivot into being a sports
Speaker 2: media guy, first a writer and then eventually on television.
Speaker 3: Now well, so okay, well, a couple of things. One,
Speaker 3: you're from you're from You're from Mid Jersey. Now are you?
Speaker 3: Are you Philly? Are you New York? What are you?
Speaker 3: And what are the people around you?
Speaker 2: Where Mammoth County is, which is like Freehold, manelopin more
Speaker 2: Bro Howell. I'm sure you're very well versed on your
Speaker 2: Central Jersey geography, but in those towns.
Speaker 3: I know, northeastern Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: How about it? It is split three ways.
Speaker 2: You're either Eagles fans, right Jets fans, or Giants fans.
Speaker 2: I so happened to be very fortunate as a kid
Speaker 2: to watch the eighty six Giants, to watch the ninety Giants,
Speaker 2: and then to also get another bite at the apple
Speaker 2: with Eli Manning and seven to twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: I grew up a Giants fan.
Speaker 2: On the Good Morning Football Show, I say I'm objective,
Speaker 2: I don't, but I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: With all my family and all my friends, we come from.
Speaker 3: Giants Country, Giants Country. Okay, what about baseball and hockey
Speaker 3: and stuff? Are you are you in New York? Then?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: It's it's funny because the Devils came around when I
Speaker 2: was a kid and all that, but it was I
Speaker 2: was Giants, I was New York Rangers, I was New
Speaker 2: York Yankees. And in hockey, it was a New York
Speaker 2: Rangers in the New York Nicks.
Speaker 1: So those are the teams. I was in New York.
Speaker 3: You were in New York all the way. So you
Speaker 3: said you realized at an early age you weren't going
Speaker 3: to play professionally, But I mean, did you play as
Speaker 3: a kid.
Speaker 1: I played basketball and soccer as a kid.
Speaker 2: Football oddly enough, like it wasn't Pop Warner at the time,
Speaker 2: isn't what it is now. We didn't have flag football
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, so I basically played in
Speaker 2: like my street with the kids from the block. And yeah,
Speaker 2: and the thought of playing high school football. I went
Speaker 2: to a big high school and there was kids who
Speaker 2: were playing like I just wasn't in the cards for me.
Speaker 2: So I would go to all the games on Friday
Speaker 2: nights and I'd get into it and I would know
Speaker 2: everything about it, but never thought to actually play actual football.
Speaker 3: But you early on you thought you were going to
Speaker 3: be involved in sports.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be as a kid, Yeah, I really
Speaker 2: wanted to be like I did everything you can imagine
Speaker 2: and took every angle. Like when I was in college.
Speaker 2: I went to Emory in Atlanta, which I've told you before,
Speaker 2: not a football program. They don't have a football program,
Speaker 2: not a huge sports media department. And all these kids
Speaker 2: were going to like ESPN. All these guys and gals.
Speaker 2: They were from Syracuse, where you go to New House
Speaker 2: or Northwestern, you go to Medill or USC, you go
Speaker 2: to Annaberg, Like there's like a factory where you can
Speaker 2: go and become a sports center anchor, you know, Like.
Speaker 1: That's what I was.
Speaker 2: I went to a school to have So I showed
Speaker 2: up at the ESPN Sports Zone in Buckhead in Atlanta
Speaker 2: on a one hundred degree day in I think two
Speaker 2: thousand and two, dressed in a shirt and tie, and
Speaker 2: I tried out for an ESPN reality show called ESPN
Speaker 2: Dream Job Okay, which was like the American idol to
Speaker 2: be on sports center.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I didn't make it, but I made an impression with
Speaker 2: some of the people who were there from ESPN. They
Speaker 2: thought I was funny, charismatic, high energy out to junior
Speaker 2: in college and they said, here's our card.
Speaker 1: When you're done with college, let us know.
Speaker 2: And my first job out of college was writing for
Speaker 2: ESPN dot Com as a freelance writer, and it's because
Speaker 2: of that venture to the Buckhead ESPN sport Zone, trying
Speaker 2: to make an impression on them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Wow, Now I can't remember if I've told you this
Speaker 3: or not. My father, who was again is staying in
Speaker 3: the same house with me forty two years. He spent
Speaker 3: at Emory University. My sister went there. I didn't know this, yes,
Speaker 3: and quite frankly, that's where I should have gone, because
Speaker 3: when when you're at a big research hospital like Emory
Speaker 3: is show me, it's world renown. You're also a teacher, right,
Speaker 3: so you're teaching residents. You're teaching and actually was the
Speaker 3: head of the residency program and was very interested in that.
Speaker 3: And your kids get free tuition, is that right? So
Speaker 3: I was going to go to Emory. That was what
Speaker 3: I was going to do. And then at a certain
Speaker 3: point when I decided what I wanted to do, they
Speaker 3: didn't have a huge theater trade program, they didn't have
Speaker 3: a conservatory program, and so you know, I made the
Speaker 3: decision to go to SMU. Hail to the Red and
Speaker 3: the Blue, the Mustangs of SMU. And my dad was,
Speaker 3: I mean, was very practical about it. It was like, okay, great,
Speaker 3: how are you going to pay for it?
Speaker 2: I mean, how cool is your dad for understanding that?
Speaker 2: But wouldn't he just say, like Emory is a top
Speaker 2: fifty university, it's free to it, like don't do don't
Speaker 2: don't go out one of the lines here. What a
Speaker 2: cool dad for letting you pursue your dreams?
Speaker 3: Right? One, yes, and two. It then meant and I
Speaker 3: was fortunate in a way. I was recruited SMU, and
Speaker 3: so I was very transparent with them, even as whenever
Speaker 3: I was eighteen year old, I said, guys, I want
Speaker 3: to come here too, but you've got to give me
Speaker 3: some money, because otherwise.
Speaker 2: In SMU at the time, this is pony Express, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking football.
Speaker 1: This is Eric Dickerson and.
Speaker 3: All that is a little after that.
Speaker 1: But they had they had a great theater department.
Speaker 3: Great theater department.
Speaker 1: So give me some I like going through the history
Speaker 1: of the football. Give me the history of the theater
Speaker 1: department at SMU. Who the Mustangs? Who they have?
Speaker 3: Well, Kathy Bates, okay me.
Speaker 2: So when Kathy Bates goes to the office, are you like, hey,
Speaker 2: we're fellow SMU?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, In.
Speaker 3: Fact, I'll tell you this. We opened a theater when
Speaker 3: I was at SMU. We opened up it was a
Speaker 3: thrust stage. That's not a joke, this is what it's called.
Speaker 3: And to open up this theater, they invited back a
Speaker 3: lot of old prestigious alumni, alumnuses, alumni, and Kathy Bates
Speaker 3: was one, and my mom, unbeknownst to me, I guess,
Speaker 3: got Kathy Bates's agent's information. I don't know how people
Speaker 3: even do this and sent her a book and Kathy
Speaker 3: Bates and signed the book said pursue your dreams. And
Speaker 3: I still have it to this day. And so in
Speaker 3: the makeup trailer, it wasn't the first day Kathy. I
Speaker 3: knew she was going to be around a little bit,
Speaker 3: but I brought in the book and I told her
Speaker 3: the story and no.
Speaker 1: But what a cool story. And you still had the.
Speaker 3: Book and I still had the book and uh yeah.
Speaker 1: And she was coming off Misery and Fry Green to
Speaker 1: May like this, Yeah.
Speaker 3: This is yeah. She had won the Academy Award for
Speaker 3: sure for misery. I'm not going to remember right now
Speaker 3: what year that was, but she had she had already
Speaker 3: won when she came back. So yeah, that was that
Speaker 3: was that's pretty cool. So I went there and it
Speaker 3: all worked out. I didn't. I didn't go for free.
Speaker 3: Dad did supplement slightly, but but very slightly. And that
Speaker 3: was the deal because of of Emory.
Speaker 2: For me, it was Emory, which I wanted to go
Speaker 2: to a school that did have sports. So I applied
Speaker 2: to Duke and to Carolina and to Northwestern and to Wake.
Speaker 1: And I got into Emory. So that's where I went.
Speaker 3: Really really, that's surprise. I mean Emory. Emory is a
Speaker 3: good school. That's surprising that you got in. If you
Speaker 3: got not in there, especially North Carolina. A'll take anybody
Speaker 3: and he come on, you start their writing and you
Speaker 3: have a little radio show there as well. Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: That was the sports.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was in a fraternity shocker, and we were
Speaker 2: in the Pike House and my roommate was a guy
Speaker 2: Aaron Luber, who I still think to this day is
Speaker 2: the funniest person to walk the earth. You know, you've
Speaker 2: got your college friends that you're like, I know you
Speaker 2: didn't go into entertainment, but had you have done that,
Speaker 2: you would be bigger.
Speaker 1: Than Jim Carrey right now.
Speaker 2: You know, Like he was that guy and the two
Speaker 2: of us loved doing prank calls, and this was like
Speaker 2: the height of Howard Stern and the whack Pack and
Speaker 2: that they would have their salon Richard Frank and I'm like,
Speaker 2: we would do print calls. And then the Emery radio station.
Speaker 2: It was like very early on where you can It
Speaker 2: wasn't streaming, but there was a cable access channel that
Speaker 2: was just seen in the dorms and it became a
Speaker 2: thing where once a week on Tuesday nights. We called
Speaker 2: it the Old Crow Show because we would drink Old
Speaker 2: Crow whiskey when we were you know, when we were
Speaker 2: doing the show, and we would prank other people on
Speaker 2: campus and we would do funny, cool voices and characters,
Speaker 2: and eventually it got a little bit of a following
Speaker 2: and it would be on TV too, so people would
Speaker 2: tune in, and you know, it was my first brush
Speaker 2: with like, Okay, this isn't just in my imagination that
Speaker 2: this could happen, Like it is possible, and we do
Speaker 2: have something going here. So I got into radio. I
Speaker 2: never called any sporting events. I had a stupid comedy
Speaker 2: sketch show for three hours once a week, but I
Speaker 2: had the bug.
Speaker 1: I loved entertaining. I loved it.
Speaker 3: You loved it well. And it sounds like by going
Speaker 3: to the ESPN Zone when you were a junior, like
Speaker 3: you have already started thinking about it. So when you graduate,
Speaker 3: that's your first call is you have the card of
Speaker 3: the people at ESPN and you call them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an amazing you know for all these I get,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you do too. I get hundreds of emails
Speaker 2: from prospective college students. Here are my clips, what do
Speaker 2: you think? And it's like, you just gotta do it.
Speaker 2: You gotta do it. You go out there and fail
Speaker 2: and do it. And my story is not glamorous because
Speaker 2: in the One Breath, Yes, I got a look from
Speaker 2: ESPN and it was page two at the time, which
Speaker 2: was like where Bill Simmons was writing and Ralph Wiley
Speaker 2: was writing, and it was this really big site. And
Speaker 2: it was one of the editors who gave me a
Speaker 2: couple of things. But it was freelance and I probably
Speaker 2: wrote one article a month for six months, and those
Speaker 2: articles paid six hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: So you better believe.
Speaker 2: I was living in my parents' house right after college,
Speaker 2: and I'm back in Freehold, New Jersey after my dad
Speaker 2: dropped how much money on my college education?
Speaker 1: Who knows to go to Emirate Tratuta School And.
Speaker 2: I'm right back where I was senior year of high school,
Speaker 2: in my same high school bed, going to the same
Speaker 2: you know, college bars I was going.
Speaker 1: To in my hometown.
Speaker 2: And that was really the time where it's like do
Speaker 2: I want to do this or not? Because I'm sure
Speaker 2: I could take the LSATs and put that together. I'm
Speaker 2: sure I could work in marketing somewhere. And I also
Speaker 2: had friends from Emory who are making real money in
Speaker 2: finance and doing some things in the city. So it
Speaker 2: was like this very humbling thing and I would just
Speaker 2: tell anyone you have to stick with it, because I
Speaker 2: wrote those freelance articles and I kept with it and
Speaker 2: it felt like there wasn't going to happen. And then
Speaker 2: eventually Foxsports dot Com reached out to me and it
Speaker 2: was like, we do a full time position years later,
Speaker 2: I mean years later. So it was a lot of
Speaker 2: putting together clips and writing for publications. Freelance went off,
Speaker 2: but as you know in your in your field, the
Speaker 2: Timothy Shamalays are one in a million, you got to
Speaker 2: put the work in like before you become the big star.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying he didn't put the work in, but
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, like, yeah, very few of
Speaker 2: us are going to be stars at twenty two, So
Speaker 2: you got to put the work in during those years.
Speaker 3: Right at this point in time, you know, having the
Speaker 3: radio show and people laughing, having your improv group. Well,
Speaker 3: and you could talk to now too. You consider yourself
Speaker 3: a journalist or an entertainer?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Wow, Ryan, Because I think I fancy myself a journalist
Speaker 2: because that's where I grew up, and I had the
Speaker 2: different websites I wrote for and the different publications, and
Speaker 2: you had to go through the fact. And my role
Speaker 2: on Good Morning Football and on Fox is that I'm
Speaker 2: the NFL insider, right, so I'm the one giving you
Speaker 2: all the information, who's playing, who's not playing, what's happening
Speaker 2: in this free agent contract, who's this team going to draft?
Speaker 2: And I play the role of journalist. But if I'm
Speaker 2: being honest with you, I didn't go through the journalism
Speaker 2: chops of working at the Washington Post and having to
Speaker 2: go investigate local school districts at a small paper.
Speaker 1: I didn't go down that road.
Speaker 2: I came from an outside road where I was going
Speaker 2: to put it together and get to where I was
Speaker 2: going to be.
Speaker 1: So I yes.
Speaker 2: Journalists, but gosh, good Morning football. If you watch our show,
Speaker 2: I would say it's far more entertainment than necessarily journalism.
Speaker 3: Right early on you start working for Fox Sports and
Speaker 3: covering stories on Fox News in those early days, was
Speaker 3: there anyone coach player that you met where you were starstruck?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean some of my early interviews on camera,
Speaker 2: it's like watching Chris Farley and the old SNL skits
Speaker 2: talking to McCartney.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, what was it Like?
Speaker 3: That was awesome.
Speaker 2: That's a great, great one to go because like it
Speaker 2: was one of those deals where I also wrote for
Speaker 2: GQ magazine. I would do a lot of the player
Speaker 2: profiles and Okay, one of my favorite gigs because you'd
Speaker 2: get a budget, you were allowed to take the player
Speaker 2: out in New York and then you can write what
Speaker 2: And I remember I went out with DeMarcus Ware who
Speaker 2: was a fantastic linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3: I just hung out with him, did you.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's seen not the nicest guy in the world.
Speaker 3: He's the nicest guy in the world. And now a
Speaker 3: Hall of famer. I just played with him at the
Speaker 3: American Center. Oh that's so cool, me and DeMarcus and
Speaker 3: Charles Barkley.
Speaker 1: Come on, Brian, do you pinch yourself like this?
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. Yeah. DeMarcus super nice guy. Sorry to interrupt you,
Speaker 3: but anyway, and.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing for the listeners. He's the most one
Speaker 2: of the most ferocious players in the history of the sport.
Speaker 2: Absolutely menacing outside linebacker. His job was to tackle and
Speaker 2: hurt quarterbacks and then off the field. Is a true
Speaker 2: renaissance man. So he and I we have a date
Speaker 2: to meet at the Soho Grand and this is like
Speaker 2: two thousand and five, two thousand and six for breakfast,
Speaker 2: and then I have a assignment for my editor. The
Speaker 2: guy's name was Devin Gordon from GQ, and he's like,
Speaker 2: here's your budget. Do what you want to do with
Speaker 2: DeMarcus and come back with a great, great article for
Speaker 2: the for the fall issue of g Q magazine. And
Speaker 2: DeMarcus ware says, you know what I'd like to do.
Speaker 2: I'd like to go antique shopping. I go You couldn't that, Yes, Yes,
Speaker 2: let's go antique shopping. And we spent the day going
Speaker 2: to different antique shops in the village in New York City,
Speaker 2: and along the way, I'm asking him questions about football.
Speaker 2: But I'm really getting to know this guy, and I
Speaker 2: remember at the end of it just being like, gosh,
Speaker 2: I just want to be your friend, Like can I
Speaker 2: have your number?
Speaker 1: Can we keep in touch?
Speaker 2: Like this guy is like so unique and so one
Speaker 2: of one and such a special person. And then time
Speaker 2: after time I would meet these guys who are in
Speaker 2: the top one percent of the world at what they do,
Speaker 2: and it's hard not just being so in awe of them.
Speaker 2: But the really first few times that I got liked
Speaker 2: is that was when I was on TV and Fox
Speaker 2: Sports was launching a network called Fox Sports One, and
Speaker 2: it was their cable network and it's still around, but
Speaker 2: at the time, it was twenty thirteen, and it was
Speaker 2: like this big moment, and I, at just the same time,
Speaker 2: was just starting to do a lot of TV stuff,
Speaker 2: so I was aside. I went from being a writer
Speaker 2: to a sideline report to kind of a guy who's
Speaker 2: in the studios. And one of my first days on air,
Speaker 2: I'm on set and on the set with me, the
Speaker 2: other three people on there are Randy Moss, Brian Urlacker,
Speaker 2: and Rendez Barber, and I swear my hit must have
Speaker 2: been like when they went to me like, so, Peter,
Speaker 2: what do you think I abdo bab bit of abitah
Speaker 2: bit of about and in the green room, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm like, so, Randy, do you remember when like you
Speaker 2: like faked, pulled down your pants and like Joe Buck
Speaker 2: went nuts and like Randy Moss is like yes, So anyway,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff never gets old. But now I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I speak to Mahomes now or I speak
Speaker 2: to Josh Allen.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm fifteen years older than these guys.
Speaker 2: Not the same as it was maybe ten fifteen years
Speaker 2: ago from me when I was talking to the guys
Speaker 2: that that I just wasn't of right.
Speaker 3: You have said before, speaking of Randy Moss, that your
Speaker 3: most unusual job related incident was fishing with Randy for
Speaker 3: three days on Big Bear Lake.
Speaker 1: The greatest assignment ever in the history of sports.
Speaker 3: So this was what were you filming this?
Speaker 2: Yes, this is The producer's name was Michael Bloom. And
Speaker 2: Michael had this idea and said, Okay, we've got this
Speaker 2: new football studio crew. We're going to be unrolling, and
Speaker 2: they don't know each other that well. Obviously Moss and
Speaker 2: Erlacker probably know each other.
Speaker 1: Ronde knows it.
Speaker 2: The other guy was Joel Clatt, who now calls college football.
Speaker 2: Let's do a preview show. But Randy's greatest passion is
Speaker 2: not football. Randy Moss's greatest passion is fishing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna play to Randy and say, okay, right, So we
Speaker 2: went to Big Bear Lake. I consider myself Northeast city
Speaker 2: guy everything I had never fished in my life. And
Speaker 2: the show was and I think it was like an
Speaker 2: hour long NFL football preview that might have ran once
Speaker 2: on FS one at three am in the morning, you know,
Speaker 2: one of those deals. But if you find the footage,
Speaker 2: probably the greatest piece of footage ever out there Randy Moss, myself,
Speaker 2: Brian r Lacker, and Joel Clatt on a boat fishing,
Speaker 2: talking about football, and Randy's hauling in huge fish. I mean,
Speaker 2: Randy casts out a line, reels it in and it's
Speaker 2: like bringing back like you know, twenty eight inch this
Speaker 2: and and this and he you know, this is the
Speaker 2: kind of fish that it is.
Speaker 1: And then and what's the word like a magledon. You
Speaker 1: ever heard of a magledon? Is that the word? Like,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like monster from the sea. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's his shark. That's his shark. Right, is a
Speaker 3: real shark?
Speaker 1: I don't even know.
Speaker 2: I asked Randy because I was like, I'm gonna jump
Speaker 2: in the water, and this big bear like I don't
Speaker 2: give a crap, I'm gonna go jump. So I dive
Speaker 2: in and I'm like, Randy, come in and this I
Speaker 2: just met Randy Moss and he's like, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2: I saw a documentary on the what is the word
Speaker 2: a magledon? Is that what it's called?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's the movie with the make right the
Speaker 3: Man with Ray Wilson by the Shark, Right, That's all
Speaker 3: I can think of, Is that what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Randy's just refusing to go in. We'll not go in
Speaker 1: the water, and I'm like, you know, He's like, I
Speaker 1: know how to swim. I just thought that I don
Speaker 1: want want to swim. I just I'm not gonna know.
Speaker 1: The Magledon's are out there and I'm like this is
Speaker 1: all on film. I'm like, this is incredible. Randy Moss
Speaker 1: refusing to jump out of the boat.
Speaker 2: But it's experiences like that where I'm like, that's the
Speaker 2: greatest I would That's like, you know, you pay he
Speaker 2: guy's paying auctions crazy money to have a dinner with
Speaker 2: Randy Moss. I got to go fishing for three days
Speaker 2: with them, and Randy was incredible and we've been good
Speaker 2: friends ever since.
Speaker 3: Twenty thirteen, same year, you win your first Sports Emmy
Speaker 3: for Inside the NFL on Showtime. What was the story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was again young but coming up in the business,
Speaker 2: and I hit it off with a guy named Pete Radovich,
Speaker 2: who at the time was at CBS, but also was
Speaker 2: bringing NFL's Greatest show, Inside the NFL from HBO to Showtime,
Speaker 2: and they rebooted it with a new crew and it
Speaker 2: was James Brown, Chris Collinsworth, Phil Simms, and they brought
Speaker 2: me on as what was known as an editorial contributor,
Speaker 2: so very little airtime, but if Sims needed, Hey, Schreker,
Speaker 2: what's the latest with Cam Newton and Carolina? Like, what's
Speaker 2: going on over there? I was filling him in off camera,
Speaker 2: or if it was the Packers are playing the Saints
Speaker 2: this week? Can someone you know tell me what Brett
Speaker 2: Farre's record was against the Saints when he played there,
Speaker 2: Like that kind of stuff, right, But that season in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen was the start of like social media really
Speaker 2: taking a big role. And I wasn't a huge social
Speaker 2: media guy, but they would bring me on for a
Speaker 2: for a segment and I would read tweets about the show,
Speaker 2: kind of like Jimmy Kimmel's mean two yeah tweets, and
Speaker 2: it was always just shitting on collins Worth and Sims
Speaker 2: and like those guys would respond and we had such
Speaker 2: a good time. And then sure enough I get this
Speaker 2: invite to go to the Emmys as part of the crew.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, like you know again, this has
Speaker 2: pinched me stuff. We go and we win Best Weekly Show,
Speaker 2: and to this day it's one of the coolest moments
Speaker 2: I got to be there. We won, We were freaking out,
Speaker 2: and then like six months later, a trophy shows up
Speaker 2: at my studio apartment or one bedroom apartment, and it's
Speaker 2: the biggest thing in my apartment. It's like that in
Speaker 2: a you know, empty gallon of milk and some beer cans,
Speaker 2: and my wife's like, who are.
Speaker 1: We gonna put that thing?
Speaker 3: I'm like I don't know, but we're we're outing it,
Speaker 3: we're keeping it, We're keeping it. Also in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 3: you put on your writers hat Strength of a Champion
Speaker 3: with O Jay Brigatt's tell me a little bit about
Speaker 3: one why that story needed to be told and why
Speaker 3: you I.
Speaker 2: Wrote a book in twenty eleven with Victor Cruz from
Speaker 2: the Giants. Now, Victor Cruz had this big breakout season,
Speaker 2: won a Super Bowl. So local kid from Patterson, New Jersey.
Speaker 2: I spent three months kind of with Victor with an
Speaker 2: open recorder, and I just like, tell me your life story.
Speaker 2: And it was incredible. And this book came on the
Speaker 2: heels of the Giants winning a Super Bowl, Victor Cruz
Speaker 2: being the hottest guy in sports, right, and it's sort
Speaker 2: of number like something on the best seller's list. We
Speaker 2: had a New York Times bestseller And that was my
Speaker 2: first book out of the gates. And I wrote it
Speaker 2: with Victor and I was like, so, so at that point,
Speaker 2: I've got this publishing company and want you to write
Speaker 2: what do you want to write?
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, what do you want to write?
Speaker 1: Go write a book on whatever, Like let's go.
Speaker 2: And I had been really touched by a story from
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl Ravens the following year, and the story
Speaker 2: was they had this player who used to play for
Speaker 2: the Ravens back in the early two thousands who was
Speaker 2: suffering from als and his name was Oj Brigance, and
Speaker 2: Oj was working for the Ravens when the diagnosis came
Speaker 2: in and obviously it rocked his world, it rocked his
Speaker 2: wife Chandra's world, it rocked everyone's world, and in a
Speaker 2: lot of situations you'd imagine, Okay, he's gonna take some
Speaker 2: time away. But the Ravens continued to employ Oj, and
Speaker 2: as his diagnosis would go from one year to two
Speaker 2: years to three years, he would eventually lose the ability
Speaker 2: to speak, he'd eventually be able to lose.
Speaker 1: The ability to walk. And Oj would have this motorized
Speaker 1: vehicle that he would take to the building every single
Speaker 1: day with assistants from nurses, and he was able to
Speaker 1: talk to the players through a machine where he would
Speaker 1: use his eyes to type out words on a machine
Speaker 1: and then an automated voice would go to them, well,
Speaker 1: sure enough, OJ is in the building and he's you know.
Speaker 1: Ray Lewis would talk to him for hours.
Speaker 2: Every day, and Ed Reid would rally around him, and
Speaker 2: the Ravens go on this incredible miracle super Bowl run
Speaker 2: where Joe Flacco goes into Indian Apple Or goes into
Speaker 2: New England and beats Tom Brady, goes into Denver and
Speaker 2: beats Peyton Manning and they go on this great super
Speaker 2: Bowl run and the story of the season is incredible.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to tell the story from OJ's eyes,
Speaker 2: so we wrote this book and it's it's with Oj
Speaker 2: Bergants And although the Victor Cruz one is the best seller,
Speaker 2: the OJ book is truly one of my most I
Speaker 2: guess my gift, like to his family and to him,
Speaker 2: but also what was something I'm most proud of. And
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's sold many copies, to be honest,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't a bestseller. It didn't get a ton
Speaker 2: of you know, love on the list and all that stuff,
Speaker 2: but that book meant everything to me and Oj to
Speaker 2: this day in twenty twenty three, that was ten years.
Speaker 1: Ago, is still alive, Jesus.
Speaker 2: Suffering from als and I still correspond with him and
Speaker 2: his wife Chandra, and it's and he still goes to
Speaker 2: the Ravens facility.
Speaker 1: It's incredible stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, I tell you something, Uh, you're going to sell
Speaker 3: another copy. I you know, in doing this research talking
Speaker 3: to you, I just found out about this book and
Speaker 3: looked into him a little bit. You know. It's weird,
Speaker 3: you know, the relationships that you have through this business,
Speaker 3: you know, and as you know, I have similar relationships
Speaker 3: with weird people that you would never expect. If there
Speaker 3: is a team still currently and I used to tell
Speaker 3: him all the time that I hate more than any
Speaker 3: team in the world, it's the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 3: I mean, I just but I had a relationship with
Speaker 3: Dwight Clark, who also suffered from ALS and unfortunately succumbed
Speaker 3: to it. And watching that happen, that disease, it's just horrible.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's just no other word to say, just horrible.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to ask you, because I'm ignorant, is
Speaker 3: there a connection? Do you think?
Speaker 1: I don't know the scientifically, they haven't put the connection together.
Speaker 1: And there's between football obviously, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 2: Millions of people who suffer from ALS that didn't play football.
Speaker 2: If anything, these gentlemen Steve Gleeson, Dwight Clark, O J. Brigance,
Speaker 2: the fact they have these platforms to write books. Gleason
Speaker 2: wrote an amazing book. Dwight Clark was maybe the greatest
Speaker 2: ambassador for you know, what could possibly be done towards research.
Speaker 2: The fact that they have these platforms and these fan
Speaker 2: bases and these teams, it could be, you know, a blessing.
Speaker 2: And they're truly the ones who are serving raising awareness
Speaker 2: around ALS because I didn't know much about the disease.
Speaker 2: It's the strength that these families have, especially when these
Speaker 2: men are in their thirties and forties and these women
Speaker 2: are going through it.
Speaker 1: I know I don't and you and I have a
Speaker 1: lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Together, but this is like a very serious topic to
Speaker 2: me and thinking I'm very passionate about and having written
Speaker 2: this book, it changed me in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: And watching OJ's strength, you put it in perspective what
Speaker 2: they're going through when I start complaining about whatever I
Speaker 2: got in my day to day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, strength of a champion. I am going out myself
Speaker 3: and read it and I encourage anyone who doesn't know
Speaker 3: about ALS. It sounds like an amazing story check that
Speaker 3: out as well. In twenty sixteen August the first of
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, Oh, We're like this is the anniversary right
Speaker 3: right now when we're recording this. Good Morning Football premieres
Speaker 3: on the NFL network. You have been on Good Morning
Speaker 3: Football since its inception. How do you deal with the schedule?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so our show air seven to ten am every
Speaker 2: day during football season, not during football season, when the
Speaker 2: furthest thing you're thinking about is football season. We are
Speaker 2: on the NFL network every morning and they I think
Speaker 2: a fellow actor friend of yours, Paul Rudd, said it
Speaker 2: best he was on our show. I like your show
Speaker 2: because it's not the news in the morning, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: thank you, because that's it's just light, it's fun and
Speaker 2: it's football. And Brian, we have been so blessed and
Speaker 2: fortunate to have you not only on as a guest,
Speaker 2: but you served as a host for several days on
Speaker 2: our show and did an outstanding job.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Peter. I have to tell you, and this
Speaker 3: is not this is not a joke. I've said this
Speaker 3: to other people, not publicly. If it wasn't for the schedule,
Speaker 3: I might try to come for your job.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I get it to come for your job.
Speaker 3: I love doing it. It's so much fun. But guys,
Speaker 3: this is not so. I mean part of it is
Speaker 3: admittedly that I'm West Coast, so my body and my
Speaker 3: brain is on the West Coast. It's hard to to
Speaker 3: change that. But it's like four thirty or five in
Speaker 3: the morning, you're on before in the coast, you're up
Speaker 3: at four in the morning, and while you're doing I'll
Speaker 3: just put it this way, while you're doing your morning routine,
Speaker 3: whatever that may be, filling the blank in your head,
Speaker 3: whatever your morning routine is, you are on a conference
Speaker 3: call where the entire show is being talked about the
Speaker 3: first day when I was hosting it, I was afraid
Speaker 3: of getting in the elevator. Now, I guess the elevators
Speaker 3: work really well there in New York and you don't
Speaker 3: have to get off the phone. And I mean like
Speaker 3: you are on the phone on a conference call, walking
Speaker 3: through every segment of the show as you're getting ready,
Speaker 3: as you're coming down the elevator. And again the first
Speaker 3: day that the drivers know it, they they pick you
Speaker 3: up in the morning because it's really early and you
Speaker 3: got to go through the thing. It's down World Trade Center.
Speaker 3: They like know what I'm They open the car door.
Speaker 3: They don't say a word. They know that you're on
Speaker 3: this conference call. It's the call, it's our Bible and
Speaker 3: you and you, And basically what happens to give you
Speaker 3: a perspective is they're like, okay, everybody, that's it. We'll
Speaker 3: see you guys soon. And start at seven and you
Speaker 3: hang up and remarkably, you're outside of the building and
Speaker 3: then you you walk in the building and go up
Speaker 3: and you know, get a little makeup.
Speaker 1: It's a wild routine.
Speaker 3: It's up before you're.
Speaker 2: Up before thirty in the morning. You're on this call
Speaker 2: at five thirty in the morning, you're in makeup chair.
Speaker 2: By six thirty in the morning, you're getting dressed, and
Speaker 2: all the while you got to think of someone to
Speaker 2: say for three hours. But Brian, I don't I imagine
Speaker 2: a lot of the listeners of this podcast probably aren't.
Speaker 1: Everyday Good morning football.
Speaker 2: My biggest thing that I preach people because I meet
Speaker 2: people all the time and they're like, we do I do, Oh,
Speaker 2: I do the football show on NFL Network, the morning Show,
Speaker 2: And they go, oh, I'm not a football fan. You don't
Speaker 2: have to be a football You do our show, our
Speaker 2: show with entertainment. So my colleague Kyle Brandt is hysterical.
Speaker 2: Jamie Erdall, our host is wonderful. Jason mccordy, a former player,
Speaker 2: has more pop culture references than any of us.
Speaker 1: Like it is, it is about what's like we've spent
Speaker 1: so much time time.
Speaker 2: I interviewed Aaron Rodgers this past weekend and I asked
Speaker 2: him about Oppenheimer, and he had seen it and he
Speaker 2: had thoughts. We spent more time talking about that than
Speaker 2: Rogers and the Jets, Like Rogers' thoughts on Oppenheimer is
Speaker 2: where we focus. So it is a fun show. There's trivia,
Speaker 2: there's games, there's all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1: So it gets tough.
Speaker 2: In May and June, and again it's all relative. It's
Speaker 2: my dream job, so I'm happy. But when there's literally
Speaker 2: no football news and they're like, all right, for three hours,
Speaker 2: go fill the air with hypathetically, you have to just
Speaker 2: realize that, Okay, you're putting the work in now, this
Speaker 2: is why they pay it. And then once football season comes,
Speaker 2: the stories are kind of easier to talk about.
Speaker 3: What do you think is changed the most in the
Speaker 3: NFL in your time? Let's just say on Good Morning Football. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the last decade.
Speaker 2: I think the players have a lot more power even
Speaker 2: in the last decade than they did in the previous one.
Speaker 2: And it's not because of the collective bargaining agreement. I
Speaker 2: think it's because of the rise of a the way
Speaker 2: society is moving towards maybe some marginalized voices more than
Speaker 2: it's been in decades past, but more so the free
Speaker 2: access at they have to social media, to Instagram, to
Speaker 2: a platform where if a player has something he wants
Speaker 2: to voice about his team, or about the league, or
Speaker 2: about society in general, they don't need to call a
Speaker 2: press conference and invite reporters, they don't need a podium.
Speaker 2: They can go on TikTok and do it and it's
Speaker 2: gonna have the same exact impact. So I think the
Speaker 2: player of voice has gotten a lot louder, And whether
Speaker 2: that's a threat to the NFL or not, it's the
Speaker 2: way that things are going in the world, and we
Speaker 2: have to listen to those voices because they have a platform,
Speaker 2: just as the league does and the owners who put
Speaker 2: together the game.
Speaker 3: Do you still love the sport as much as you
Speaker 3: did when you were a kid.
Speaker 2: My gosh, dude, I get jaded a lot. And when
Speaker 2: you find me Week eleven, Week twelve, and I've been.
Speaker 2: I fly to la every weekend for Fox and I
Speaker 2: do their studio show from New York, and it's brutal,
Speaker 2: and I'll I'll sometimes be in a miserable mood and
Speaker 2: it's cold in New York and someone spits on me
Speaker 2: on the subway and you know, a car drives by
Speaker 2: and there's a subway puddle or does a big puddle
Speaker 2: of ring. But I was at Jets camp over the weekend.
Speaker 2: It was the first time I've been at a football
Speaker 2: event since probably the combine of the draft whatever it is.
Speaker 2: And I was on the field and this sounds so cheesy,
Speaker 2: so you know, roll your eyes whatever. I've been doing
Speaker 2: this twenty years. But the grass was just freshly cut.
Speaker 2: The guys are coming out, everyone's got their the best
Speaker 2: shape that they've been in a year. And Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: comes out, and the Jets fans, who are drunk with
Speaker 2: optimism right now, are chanting Aaron Rogers and I look
Speaker 2: to my producer, Christine, and I'm like, it's not the
Speaker 2: best job in the world. I get to do this
Speaker 2: for a living, so yes, I love it. Everyone always
Speaker 2: asks me, like, what's your favorite? The Super Bowl? To me,
Speaker 2: once a year. If you can go at any time,
Speaker 2: you must go. It's the greatest spectacle and it never
Speaker 2: gets old. During the national anthem this year, I was
Speaker 2: ten feet behind Chris Stapleton and I shed a tear
Speaker 2: because I was like, this is the most beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: I'm here for it.
Speaker 2: Somehow, in my amazing dreams, I am on the field
Speaker 2: for the Super Bowl National Anthem and I get to
Speaker 2: talk about the game, and at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: that's my job as providing for my family. So yes,
Speaker 2: I love it so much and I love the stories,
Speaker 2: and it hasn't gotten old.
Speaker 3: Before we dive into football a little more. You also
Speaker 3: do cover some other sports from time to time, the
Speaker 3: NBA Olympics. What's your favorite thing to cover besides the NFL.
Speaker 2: I love the NBA playoffs and I love the NBA
Speaker 2: playoffs when the Knicks are like a team that's willing
Speaker 2: to be talked about on television, like it's been dead
Speaker 2: for twenty years in New York with basketball nets haven't
Speaker 2: been good. This past spring was really cool. I got
Speaker 2: to go to a few games. I am not a
Speaker 2: celebrity so on celebrity row, but you better believe my
Speaker 2: eyes are like, wait a second, that's Hanka's area. Okay,
Speaker 2: wait Saron Rodgers, Oh wait, that's Jessica Alba.
Speaker 1: Oh is that turtle from Entourage? Yes? It is, like
Speaker 1: it's so cool.
Speaker 2: When New York is alive and it brings out the
Speaker 2: audience because I missed that in my twenties and thirties.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a thing. But it's like the Laker games,
Speaker 2: like it feels like an event.
Speaker 1: So I love that. I love when the Knicks are relevant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's so funny. There was a period
Speaker 3: of time where I was in New York a lot, yeah,
Speaker 3: and the people at MSG were just really big fans
Speaker 3: of the office. And I met a person I'm not
Speaker 3: going to give his name out, I want that name
Speaker 3: came out up to me and was like, whenever you
Speaker 3: want to come now. Sometimes people say this as how yeah, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 3: but I that's you know, I was there a lot,
Speaker 3: so I was like, yeah, I would, you know, love
Speaker 3: to go to a Knicks game and went and yet
Speaker 3: there is kind of that MSG down there. Find a
Speaker 3: Yankees hat and put on the Yankees hat and it's like,
Speaker 3: suddenly you are New York. I don't know, it's a
Speaker 3: weird I can't even describe mysteria. Oh bizarre.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like it's the only show in town.
Speaker 2: It's a Broadway adjacent building, it's the Madison Square Guard
Speaker 2: and you know, Spike Lee is still there, and like
Speaker 2: for years it was Woody Allen and Matthew Modine and
Speaker 2: like you had like just institutions at these Knicks games.
Speaker 2: And then to think, okay, it's coming back with today's
Speaker 2: like today's guys and today's gals that are relevant.
Speaker 1: It's cool. It felt like an event.
Speaker 2: So from a basketball standpoint, yeah, I love covering the
Speaker 2: NBA playoffs, but to me, going to the NBA playoffs
Speaker 2: this past spring, that had a really cool feel. And
Speaker 2: if you want to pass along that guy's name after
Speaker 2: the podcast, that's great because I'm the schmuck buying tickets
Speaker 2: for three hundred dollars and sitting in the rafters and
Speaker 2: screaming on the top of my lungside.
Speaker 1: That's Emily Radakowski down there.
Speaker 3: I've kind of asked this once, but I'm going to
Speaker 3: ask it in a different way. I mean, look, you've
Speaker 3: written for tons of publications ESPN, Fox, Sports, GQ, Esquire,
Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Are you a
Speaker 3: writer or do you prefer broadcast?
Speaker 2: I am a writer, that is where because everything that
Speaker 2: I'm doing on the show, it comes from my writing skills.
Speaker 2: Am I writing background? And how I'm presenting things and
Speaker 2: how I'm interviewing people. It's the writing side of it. Broadcaster, sure,
Speaker 2: But to me writer first, second, third, fourth, TV Guy fifth.
Speaker 3: Your conversation with Aaron Rodgers got quite a bit of
Speaker 3: press the last few days. Tell me about that. How
Speaker 3: was he? Does it seem like in a good mood?
Speaker 1: Can I show you something? I know this isn't on
Speaker 1: video for some of but I want to show you this.
Speaker 3: No, that's all right. Oh this is a jersey, a
Speaker 3: Rogers eight jersey. Did he give it to your Jubi? Oh?
Speaker 2: We didn't give it to me. A purchase was made.
Speaker 2: That's a gift I'm going to give to my friend
Speaker 2: for his birthday. But I'll tell you what. I have
Speaker 2: the Rogers Jets jersey in my hand. Here's the deal.
Speaker 2: I'll give you the longest short of it. Sean Payton
Speaker 2: is a friend of mine and a former Fox Sports colleague,
Speaker 2: but a long time renegated of the league who was
Speaker 2: coach of the Saints, And he came out a couple
Speaker 2: of days earlier and in so many words, said, the
Speaker 2: previous coach of the Denver Broncos is named Nathaniel Hackett,
Speaker 2: and he says, I don't know Nathaniel Hackett, but this
Speaker 2: coaching job that he did was an embarrassment. And to
Speaker 2: sum it up, he really aired it out on the
Speaker 2: former coach of the Broncos. As Sean Payton is starting
Speaker 2: a second chapter with the Broncos, Nathaniel Hackett is one
Speaker 2: of Aaron Rodgers' closest friends and is now the offensive
Speaker 2: coordinator for the New York Jets. So Rogers hadn't spoken
Speaker 2: since Sean Payton made his comments. And you know, Aaron
Speaker 2: Rodgers doesn't do interviews with everybody. He'll do them with you,
Speaker 2: He'll do him with Pat McAfee. I think in the
Speaker 2: past he's done stuff with the guys at Barstool. And
Speaker 2: part of my take, Pete Holmes did a very famous
Speaker 2: interview with him once and Rodgers, as you know, is
Speaker 2: one of the most authentic, curious, intelligent athletes he will
Speaker 2: ever come across. But he isn't fans of everybody, and
Speaker 2: if he ain't a fan of yours, he ain't given
Speaker 2: me the time of day. I didn't know where I
Speaker 2: stood with Rodgers. I'm on the show every single day.
Speaker 2: I give objective analysis. I think he's one of the
Speaker 2: greatest players of all time.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever talked to.
Speaker 2: Anything negative about But I didn't know if He's gonna
Speaker 2: grant me an interview. But I've always appreciated his independence
Speaker 2: and his curiosity about the world. So the practice ends,
Speaker 2: he's not any interviews, and I'm on the NFL network
Speaker 2: from there, and I give him that look and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: do you think maybe, and he's giving me the nod,
Speaker 2: like all right, I'm gonna come over.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, this is the interview. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get it. I'm gonna get it.
Speaker 2: And then Jason Garrett, the former coach of the Cowboys,
Speaker 2: literally from Mars. I didn't see him coming from anywhere.
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was at practice, walks right in
Speaker 2: front of me and starts talking to Rogers and they
Speaker 2: have like a twenty minute conversation, and.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, there goes my interview with Rodgers.
Speaker 2: There's no way he's gonna do a twenty minute conversation
Speaker 2: with Jason Garrett, fellow quarterback, fellow guy who played in
Speaker 2: the league for twenty years coaching the league.
Speaker 1: They went through each other, they had great battles against Outher.
Speaker 2: There's no way Rogers is gonna finish that and then
Speaker 2: give me the time day Still, sure enough, finishes with Garrett,
Speaker 2: comes over, taps me up. And I did something that Brian,
Speaker 2: I think you'd appreciate. When I interviewed Aaron Rodgers. I
Speaker 2: didn't come right away and say, all right, so, what
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on the Sean Payton comments.
Speaker 3: Yes, I saw by the way.
Speaker 1: I started off with how you like in New York.
Speaker 2: I saw you at the Tony's Broadway and he said,
Speaker 2: I've seen Wicked and I saw Back to the Future
Speaker 2: and he said it's a mussy and I'm like, this
Speaker 2: isn't the We're not talking about parade or you know,
Speaker 2: Sydney Bluestein's window here, We're talking about Back to the Future,
Speaker 2: the musical, and I'm all right. And then we talked
Speaker 2: about Oppenheimer a little bit. He gives me his favorite
Speaker 2: Christopher Nolan movie, which is prestige. Now you can tell you, Rogers,
Speaker 2: you know this. He could hang in any crew, any
Speaker 2: Hollywood crew, any New York crew, and talk movies.
Speaker 1: He's a cinephile. The guy loves film.
Speaker 2: He shows up to the Tony's not to be seen,
Speaker 2: but because he loves live musical theater. Like this is
Speaker 2: that kind of guy. And then I ease into football.
Speaker 2: And then I just said this, and I think this
Speaker 2: is a good question for any journalist out there. You
Speaker 2: don't just give him a yes or no, and you
Speaker 2: don't say talk about I said, we saw the Sean
Speaker 2: Payton comments. Those are in the past. Why don't you
Speaker 2: tell the audience about your coach, Nathaniel Hackett, And Rogers
Speaker 2: started off talking about how Hackett is arguably the greatest
Speaker 2: coach he's ever had. He's one of his dearest friends,
Speaker 2: he's a family man, he is a lifelong coach, and
Speaker 2: then he took it himself and gave the quote of
Speaker 2: the summer and basically said, Sean Payton should keep my
Speaker 2: coach's name out of his mouth.
Speaker 1: And that's like Will Smith talking. I'll like, keep my
Speaker 1: coach's name out of your mouth. And that went crazy
Speaker 1: and viral.
Speaker 2: And you know, fortunate enough for my vanity and my ego,
Speaker 2: I'm in the shot when he says it, I'm the
Speaker 2: one asking him. So ESPN had to show my mug
Speaker 2: for two days, and I take that.
Speaker 1: That's free publicity for me.
Speaker 2: But we finished it up and Rogers and I tapped
Speaker 2: it up and I'm like, gosh, that was that was awesome.
Speaker 2: That's awesome when you get a guy like that and
Speaker 2: he's candid and he can talk as much as he
Speaker 2: wants or as little as he wants, but he gives
Speaker 2: you the time and the effort and defends his guy
Speaker 2: and I loved it.
Speaker 3: Well. You know, he and I have spent quite a
Speaker 3: bit of time together. He seems to me to be
Speaker 3: in a very good mood. He seems to be very happy,
Speaker 3: very positive. I believe he said I don't have to
Speaker 3: pretend to be a journalist, so don't quote me on this.
Speaker 3: I believe he was at every but two of the
Speaker 3: off season practices and seems to be enjoying his new teammates. One, two,
Speaker 3: three or four. Where do the Jets finish this year?
Speaker 2: I don't want to spoil it. I'm feeling I'm feeling
Speaker 2: really bullish on the Jets.
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 2: I gotta do all sorts of predictions and we're coming
Speaker 2: up with that. Yeah, I don't know if they win
Speaker 2: the regular season title of the division. The Buccaneers didn't
Speaker 2: win the regular season crown in the NFC South the
Speaker 2: year that they won the Super Bowl. It happens time
Speaker 2: and time again. It just he had to get the time.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's gonna be a long adjustment period
Speaker 2: for Rogers. And if you're listening at home, you're like, well,
Speaker 2: didn't Brady go to a new team and win right away?
Speaker 2: And didn't Matthew Stafford. They both did, and they were
Speaker 2: playing with coaches they'd never met before. He and Hackett,
Speaker 2: this coach that he's with, He's won two MVPs with
Speaker 2: this guy. He and Allen Lazard, they have a long history.
Speaker 2: Randall Cobb was there when I was there on Sunday
Speaker 2: and Brian, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, Coby's on this team.
Speaker 2: I've almost forgot that Cobby's on this team. Like Rogers
Speaker 2: not only is coming, he's coming with his boys and
Speaker 2: with his coach. I don't think it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: long adjustment period. The schedule is tough, and it's questions
Speaker 2: about the offensive line, and their defense is untested. But
Speaker 2: I'm not counting out an angry, angry Aaron Rodgers. And
Speaker 2: when I say angry, I don't mean he's got a
Speaker 2: bad soul right now. I just think he's got a
Speaker 2: chip on his shoulder. He wants to prove some things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know the last time something like this happened,
Speaker 3: I think he won two MVPs in a row.
Speaker 1: Yep, and they drafted Jordan Love.
Speaker 3: You said it, not me. Yeah, it'd be very interesting.
Speaker 3: Your favorite team in the NFC this year. I know
Speaker 3: you're still putting it together or for your exclusive announcements
Speaker 3: on Good Morning Football, but.
Speaker 1: The world is waiting.
Speaker 2: But NFC, I'm going to go to I don't I
Speaker 2: don't know where your loyalties lie with the Packers without
Speaker 2: Rogers there, but I'm gonna go with one of their rivals.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say the Detroit Lions of the team,
Speaker 2: and I know everyone's hot on them right now on
Speaker 2: a title since fifty seven. They got a really good
Speaker 2: young team, a really good offensive coordinator and Ben Johnson.
Speaker 2: I always here's if you want to get the keys
Speaker 2: to the puzzle here. I always the last five years,
Speaker 2: I very humbly have predicted the right Superworld champion for
Speaker 2: the season. I'm not saying the Lions are gonna win.
Speaker 2: I always look at offensive teams and offensive coaches and
Speaker 2: I think this Ben Johnson, who's the offensive coordinator of
Speaker 2: the Lions, is a whiz kid. He's thirty seven years old,
Speaker 2: and what they were doing at the end of season
Speaker 2: last year was revolutionary stuff. I think they pick up
Speaker 2: right where they left off. I think the Lions are
Speaker 2: going to be significantly better than they've ever been before.
Speaker 2: And I think they might be talking you know NFC title.
Speaker 1: That good interesting.
Speaker 3: So you're a believer even though they start. I mean,
Speaker 3: I have to tell you, I was shocked that they
Speaker 3: open the season at Kansas City.
Speaker 1: It's the ultimate honor, right, it is the league. The
Speaker 1: league could pick any team.
Speaker 2: To play the Chiefs, and they chose the Detroit Lions,
Speaker 2: the team that everyone on Thanksgiving is like, oh, really,
Speaker 2: we got to watch the Lions.
Speaker 1: The League chose them this year.
Speaker 3: In the morning game, the morning game when you're ever
Speaker 3: one on, no one's too drunk yet, the game is
Speaker 3: coming on and it's the Lions. And against the Bears
Speaker 3: or somebody.
Speaker 1: Mitchell Trubisky versus the Lions thirteen years in a row.
Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting anybody else?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Niners and Eagles are step ahead
Speaker 2: of everybody and they're going to bring it right back.
Speaker 2: I think those are the three power teams of the
Speaker 2: NFC and the rest is a wide open. I really
Speaker 2: do see the Lions in that conversation.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting. The forty nine ers just called
Speaker 3: me yesterday about trying out for their quarterback position.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you might be the healthiest.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I don't know if you heard
Speaker 3: they were, They've been.
Speaker 1: They've been right now, they say block.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're doing this on August August first, whatever
Speaker 2: we're doing. This rock party is apparently healthy. But if
Speaker 2: you watched football, the Niners quarterback position is as cursed
Speaker 2: as any position in sports.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting year. AFC teams, other
Speaker 3: AFC teams.
Speaker 2: Gosh, isn't it great this year? So the NFC is
Speaker 2: kind of weird this year. There's not a lot of
Speaker 2: power teams. It could be anybody's. The AFC is so loaded.
Speaker 2: There's three heavies obviously the Bengals, the Bills, and the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl champion Chiefs. I'm gonna put two more teams
Speaker 2: that I think are going to be really good this year.
Speaker 2: I think the Jets are gonna be really good this year.
Speaker 2: And then the other team that I think is going
Speaker 2: to be excellent that I haven't heard a lot of
Speaker 2: buzz on is the LA Chargers, and every year we
Speaker 2: hear that. But I think Justin Herbert this is his
Speaker 2: coming out party. I love again the Keys to the
Speaker 2: Puzzle offensive coaches. They just hired Kellen Moore from the Cowboys,
Speaker 2: who was there the last few years. He's the offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be working with Justin Herbert, and they've got
Speaker 2: a bunch of skyscrapers at receiver. I think the Chargers
Speaker 2: are going to be really good this year, might actually
Speaker 2: be better.
Speaker 1: Than the Chiefs in the AFC West. Wow, I'm talking.
Speaker 2: Look, you don't get paid like I get paid the
Speaker 2: big bucks without making a big.
Speaker 3: Are you pick? Are you picking the Chargers to win
Speaker 3: the West?
Speaker 1: I might? I might? Interesting?
Speaker 3: Wow? Uh you mentioned it before? You do your five
Speaker 3: mornings at Good Morning Football in New York. You get
Speaker 3: on a plane every week to go to l A
Speaker 3: want Why do they need you in LA.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. That's a great question.
Speaker 2: I just signed an extension, so I'm not going anytime
Speaker 2: soon where I'm not but there. Look you're hearing me
Speaker 2: on this podcast. You're like, this guy must have a
Speaker 2: lot of caffeine. The argument is that my presence in studio. Uh,
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a catalyst. I bring energy, I bring uh,
Speaker 2: I bring juice. So I love doing it and that
Speaker 2: show is a really fun crew. And you know it's
Speaker 2: Carisa Thompson who does the Amazon show as well the
Speaker 2: pregame show, but Michael Vick, Charles Woods, and we had
Speaker 2: Sean Payton for years and we're going to be adding
Speaker 2: someone new. It hasn't been announced yet.
Speaker 1: But like, I love it when I'm there and I
Speaker 1: love doing.
Speaker 2: It and my job is to kind of give you
Speaker 2: the insights but also bus chops a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you're right in a in a zoom world.
Speaker 2: It was one year COVID where I was doing it remotely,
Speaker 2: and I'll be honest, I wasn't as good as I
Speaker 2: am when I'm in studio, Like I was like doing
Speaker 2: it from like outer space. The producers are like, you're
Speaker 2: much better in studiom, Like I get it, and I
Speaker 2: understand it. And yet, gosh, when I'm sitting there at
Speaker 2: the Delta gate and they're like it's actually a ninety
Speaker 2: minute delay, and I'm looking around and someone's asking me
Speaker 2: who they should start on their fantasy team, There's nothing
Speaker 2: I would love more than seeing my catch.
Speaker 3: Oh well, the new season is coming. Your time is
Speaker 3: heating up. The busiest man in football is I mean,
Speaker 3: the Giants are going to be good. The Giants are
Speaker 3: going to be.
Speaker 1: Interesting, relevant, relevant, if nothing else.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited. I can't wait to come back on
Speaker 3: your program at some point.
Speaker 2: Can I also plug my podcast, which, Oh you gotta
Speaker 2: have you on. It's called It's really Good, and it's
Speaker 2: called The Season, and I'm so proud of it, and
Speaker 2: I want you on soon.
Speaker 3: The Season, I hear it is very very successful. Now,
Speaker 3: you had Flying Coach with Sean McVay that was also
Speaker 3: very successful, talking about your relationship with Sean McVay. But yes,
Speaker 3: now the season, how do you find the time?
Speaker 1: That one is like that one?
Speaker 2: So I'm not a part of an ensemble crew on
Speaker 2: two different shows, but that one is like my deal.
Speaker 2: So it's like my chance to do my own thing.
Speaker 2: And I think you could probably appreciate that. Where hey,
Speaker 2: I'm not just NFL and Center. I also haven't I listen.
Speaker 2: I look at your podcast guests, and you know I've
Speaker 2: been listening to your podcast Back to the Office ones, yes,
Speaker 2: And it's you bring in everybody, and you connect with everybody,
Speaker 2: and you and I are kindred spirits in that way,
Speaker 2: and that I'm not just talking to football players and gms.
Speaker 2: I'm talking to actors, comedians and talking to people who
Speaker 2: are difference makers.
Speaker 1: And it's had a lot.
Speaker 2: Of success and some of the most highest listened episodes
Speaker 2: are from people who aren't necessarily in the football world.
Speaker 2: So right, really proud of it. And where do I
Speaker 2: find the time? You find the time?
Speaker 3: You know that you find the time the season Peter
Speaker 3: Scheger available wherever you hear your podcast. You're also you
Speaker 3: have another job.
Speaker 1: By the way, do you like this, I'm just showing
Speaker 1: it your book and.
Speaker 3: You've got my book right there. Welcome to Dunner mifflind
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: It's a coffee table.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, although I think I gave it to you,
Speaker 3: so I didn't that was free. You also you have
Speaker 3: another job, John Krasinski stalker. Now you and John are neighbors.
Speaker 2: I I live a block away from the dude, and
Speaker 2: I know him as Jim from the office.
Speaker 1: Obviously, this is pre Jack Ryan, this is pre everything.
Speaker 2: And I and I run sometimes when you know, I'm
Speaker 2: after the show and ever, and I've seen him walking
Speaker 2: his dog and I want to go up to him
Speaker 2: and not fanboycause I have no interest in being a fan.
Speaker 2: I just want to be like I'm Brian's boy, like
Speaker 2: Brian's my guy, like we have a connection. But I've
Speaker 2: got too much respect for him. And you know, he's
Speaker 2: a Brooklyn Heights resident, and we don't mess with Brooklyn
Speaker 2: Heights residence like Vegas you don't, or whatever, fight club like,
Speaker 2: we don't.
Speaker 1: You don't do that.
Speaker 2: It's just it's understood. When Daniel Craig walks by, you
Speaker 2: don't say, oh my god, I love you. And James
Speaker 2: Bond like you just kind of let him buy and
Speaker 2: you not. So we are quote unquote neighbors. I don't
Speaker 2: think he knows how exist well.
Speaker 3: He is a sports fan, so you might be surprised
Speaker 3: about that. You have my permission to go tell him.
Speaker 1: I'll give you.
Speaker 2: I'll give you a good one there for me. I
Speaker 2: wanted to, but I didn't want to go off to
Speaker 2: him at all. I felt like it was weird by
Speaker 2: the way he's jacked. He's a great looking guy, Like
Speaker 2: there is nothing that's very plastic looking. Man.
Speaker 3: He is very sexy.
Speaker 1: I was at the local coffee shop.
Speaker 2: There's a coffee shop called Joe Coffee which is in
Speaker 2: our hood, and like everyone goes through there, and Matt
Speaker 2: Damon was in there and he had a Boston Red
Speaker 2: Sox hat and I'm like, all right, do you say
Speaker 2: something to Matt Damon or you just let Matt Damon be.
Speaker 2: Of course, as a fellow celebrity, I'm joking. I know,
Speaker 2: you don't bother him. You let him be. But then
Speaker 2: Damon looked at me and gave me the nod, and
Speaker 2: I think he knew who I was and I was
Speaker 2: about to engage, and then he was gone out of
Speaker 2: my life forever.
Speaker 1: So that friendship never materialized either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he gave you the nod, like like you know
Speaker 2: who you are?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what that's what you do. You
Speaker 3: just not you just do the nod.
Speaker 1: I loved you in I love you in rounders like
Speaker 1: I was given a real good reference.
Speaker 3: Goodwill Hunting. Yeah, I have loved you since Goodwill Hunting. Listen.
Speaker 3: It's so great to see you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: We're gonna I'm gonna be on the podcast. I'm also
Speaker 3: gonna come back at Are.
Speaker 1: You in New York any tom soon? Are you in
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that I am so I will uh, I
Speaker 3: will let you know and to be continued, congratulations on
Speaker 3: all the success and uh yeah, I look, by the way,
Speaker 3: don't be don't be afraid to text when you have
Speaker 3: that insider information. It makes me look smart, you know.
Speaker 1: I will.
Speaker 2: Jamiir Gibbs, that's your fantasy sleeper of the year. He's
Speaker 2: a first round pick from the Detroit Lions. They're gonna
Speaker 2: use him like Deebo Samuel's used in San Francisco. That
Speaker 2: is a That is your fantasy tip, Jamiir Gibbs. And
Speaker 2: on that note, Brian, I'll say farewell. Look, honestly, you're
Speaker 2: one of my favorite guys. You've been so kind to
Speaker 2: me and I'm so honored to be on the podcast.
Speaker 2: I listen every week so means a lot.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you. Thank you so much, Jamiir Gibbs, all
Speaker 3: of you listening, this is going to help me win
Speaker 3: the Office Fantasy League. All right, thank you, my friend,
Speaker 3: Thank you, buddy, Peter as always great talking to you
Speaker 3: on my show this time. I'll see you on yours
Speaker 3: very soon. And I hope at maybe a game or
Speaker 3: five this season, maybe up in Green Bay, who knows,
Speaker 3: maybe New York, Vegas, LA. The choices are limitless. And
Speaker 3: to everyone listening, thank you. If you like what you hear,
Speaker 3: would you please do me a favor and review us
Speaker 3: on the Old Apple Podcasts and follow us on Instagram
Speaker 3: at Off the Beat. And if you want to hear more,
Speaker 3: well just come back next week because I'll be here
Speaker 3: I hope you will as well. Until then, everybody, have
Speaker 3: a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive
Speaker 3: produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Ling Lee.
Speaker 3: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,
Speaker 3: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 3: Papa Zachary, and our intern is Thomas Olsen. Our theme
Speaker 3: song Bubble and Squeak. Performed by the one and only
Speaker 3: creed brat