Speaker 1: Hello, all sports fans, jets fans, anybody who's just tuning
Speaker 1: into the second episode of the New Yorker podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Olivia Land. Cannot tell you, guys, how absolutely
Speaker 1: honored I am to have today's guest, who is CBS
Speaker 1: analysts and panelist Amy Trask. Amy, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining me today. I can't even begin to tell
Speaker 1: you how excited I am to have you on this podcast.
Speaker 1: It is a privilege and a pleasure to join you.
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to have this opportunity. Thanks for having me
Speaker 1: on this past couple of days. When we decided that
Speaker 1: you were going to come onto the podcast, I started
Speaker 1: reading a lot of articles. That turns out there are
Speaker 1: a lot of articles on you, Amy Trask. Not sure
Speaker 1: if you were aware, but a lot of people have
Speaker 1: written some pretty amazing things about you out there. I
Speaker 1: I my My immediate reaction is, oh, a little worried
Speaker 1: what they might say, Uh, but no, I you know,
Speaker 1: earlier in my career, um when or I shouldn't say
Speaker 1: early in my career, but early um, in the moment
Speaker 1: of time, if you will. That I started getting a
Speaker 1: little bit more attention. My husband looked at me and
Speaker 1: very wisely said, never read the comments. And I followed
Speaker 1: that advice to this day. Just don't read the comments.
Speaker 1: It's true, It really is true, especially me thinking about
Speaker 1: the position I'm in being the team reporter for the
Speaker 1: New York Jets. You know a lot of times fan
Speaker 1: bases can be rough, just or people in general, especially
Speaker 1: on Twitter social media. So I think that's that's pretty
Speaker 1: wise advice from your husband. But what I wanted to
Speaker 1: jump into with you, Amy, is there was something that
Speaker 1: caught my eye on a certain article where you were
Speaker 1: talking about being a woman in the football industry. And
Speaker 1: for those of you who are listening that do not know,
Speaker 1: Amy was the first female CEO in the entire National
Speaker 1: Football League. She became the CEO of the then l
Speaker 1: A slash Oakland Raiders in n held that position for
Speaker 1: sixteen years. But something that was interesting. You were asked
Speaker 1: by the individual who wrote the article how you viewed
Speaker 1: yourself as a woman in a male dominated workplace, and
Speaker 1: you talked about how you never saw your gender in
Speaker 1: any room you walked into, any situation you did, or
Speaker 1: any time during your position. How did you establish that mindset?
Speaker 1: It's it's something that is so interesting to me because
Speaker 1: I think it's a very different and satisfying approach. Well,
Speaker 1: two points. The first is, I started my career in
Speaker 1: the National Football League in the mid eighties, and I
Speaker 1: am quite confident that many of your followers, and it
Speaker 1: pains me to say this, but the truth is they
Speaker 1: may not have even been alive then. So UM, when
Speaker 1: you mentioned that I was the only woman in the room,
Speaker 1: the only woman, UM in a position such as that
Speaker 1: within the National Football League. That was a long long
Speaker 1: time ago, and there are certainly more worthy women involved now.
Speaker 1: The other point I'll make is this, what I'm about
Speaker 1: to share with you is the way I conducted myself,
Speaker 1: and it is what worked for me. But I don't
Speaker 1: mean to suggest. I'm not suggesting. It's not my intent,
Speaker 1: my desire, or my wish to suggest that this is
Speaker 1: necessarily what will work for anyone else. What worked for
Speaker 1: me is paying absolutely no attention to my gender. It
Speaker 1: never made sense to me, and it still doesn't. That
Speaker 1: I would want to walk into a room with the
Speaker 1: expectation and the hope that no one in that room
Speaker 1: would be thinking about my gender. If I was thinking
Speaker 1: about my gender. In other words, if I walked into
Speaker 1: a meeting of NFL team owners or the the various
Speaker 1: owner of the Los Angeles and then Oakland Raiders of
Speaker 1: football meeting, a coaching meeting, a meeting with bankers or
Speaker 1: municipal leaders, or any meeting whatsoever, and I expected and
Speaker 1: hoped that no one in there would be interested or
Speaker 1: concerned or focused on my gender. It made no sense
Speaker 1: to me that I should be thinking about my gender,
Speaker 1: So I did proceed without regard to gender. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if other people wanted to waste their time
Speaker 1: thinking about my gender, will go ahead waste your time,
Speaker 1: because I wasn't going to waste my time thinking about it.
Speaker 1: That's such an incredible mindset. And actually, when I was
Speaker 1: reading some of these articles, it's funny because you you
Speaker 1: really re quoted some of the things that you had
Speaker 1: already mentioned. But what I really loved was the fact
Speaker 1: that you kind of told yourself, if this is how
Speaker 1: I want to be treated or how I want to
Speaker 1: be viewed, I'm going to do the same with myself,
Speaker 1: which is not look at my gender. How did you
Speaker 1: see that play out throughout your career in a male
Speaker 1: dominated industry, Boy, that's an interesting question, and one that
Speaker 1: is somewhat hard to answer because I can't control for
Speaker 1: the variable of what if I had comported myself in
Speaker 1: a different manner. And look, I'm going to be quick
Speaker 1: to note or state the obvious, really, but I want
Speaker 1: to make sure everyone understands I'm well aware of this.
Speaker 1: I had the tremendous fortune of working for a business
Speaker 1: owner who wasn't remotely concerned with my gender. He hired
Speaker 1: me without regard to gender. He advanced me without regard
Speaker 1: to gender. He customed me without regard to gender. He
Speaker 1: didn't care about my gender. And that sent a powerful
Speaker 1: message to many others. Not to everyone, but to many others.
Speaker 1: And I recognize that there are many women who don't
Speaker 1: have that good fortune. So I do understand that. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm asked quite often was I tested
Speaker 1: because I was a woman? And you know, my initial
Speaker 1: reaction was, I don't know, maybe I was, But you
Speaker 1: know what, let's assume I was tested because of my gender.
Speaker 1: We know what people are tested all the time. They're
Speaker 1: tested because of their race, their ethnicity, their religion, their gender,
Speaker 1: their educational background, their seniority, their age. And what I
Speaker 1: know is this the best thing to do when you're
Speaker 1: tested past the damn test, pass the damn test. What
Speaker 1: a What an incredible piece of advice. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go out on allege and say that you passed all
Speaker 1: of the damn tests that were handed your way because
Speaker 1: of how much success that you saw. Is that fair
Speaker 1: to say? I don't want to put words in your mouth,
Speaker 1: but is that fair to say? Well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that you're not putting words in my mouth.
Speaker 1: I appreciate what you said. Um look, I made a
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes. I made my share of mistakes. Did
Speaker 1: I ultimately pass the tests? Yes, I did, but not
Speaker 1: without stumbles and bumbles and fumbles on the way. And
Speaker 1: you know what, that's okay. You know I told people
Speaker 1: all the time. I still tell people all the time.
Speaker 1: In business, it's okay to make a mistake. Um look,
Speaker 1: there are certain industries, certain professions where you can't make
Speaker 1: a mistake. I had the privilege, and that just pleasure
Speaker 1: of flying with the Air Force in an F sixteen,
Speaker 1: and when that pilot was upside down, we were flying
Speaker 1: upside down, he had the plane upside down. He was
Speaker 1: going almost five miles an hour. That would be a
Speaker 1: really bad time to make a mistake. Yes, but in business,
Speaker 1: in business in general, it's okay to make a mistake.
Speaker 1: And I told staff that all the time, and I
Speaker 1: told them I would make mistakes, and I told them,
Speaker 1: when I make mistakes, I'm gonna account on you to
Speaker 1: help me fix them. And guess what, when you make mistakes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to help you fix yours. So yes, I
Speaker 1: do believe I ultimately passed the test. But to suggest,
Speaker 1: or to to hint or to intimate that I did
Speaker 1: so without mistakes would be silly. I made a lot
Speaker 1: of mistakes, and mistakes are a good thing to have
Speaker 1: because we're all human and in order to get where
Speaker 1: we need to go, everybody's going to make mistakes, I think,
Speaker 1: especially in the sports industry, and oftentimes I can't speak
Speaker 1: for all women, but oftentimes a lot of women feel
Speaker 1: like they can't make mistakes at all. They feel like
Speaker 1: I have to make half the amount of mistakes, no,
Speaker 1: twice as much, which I think sometimes is a pressure
Speaker 1: we often put on ourselves. But also again you know,
Speaker 1: just just the industry at times being male dominated. But
Speaker 1: like you said, making mistakes is part of the game plan.
Speaker 1: If you don't make mistakes, how are you going to learn? Well,
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. And again it's industry specific. My brother
Speaker 1: and his wife, my sister in law are doctors, and
Speaker 1: if one of them screams oh no in the middle
Speaker 1: of a procedure on a humans body, well that's a problem.
Speaker 1: But most mistakes in business can be corrected. And they
Speaker 1: may cost money, and they may cost time and effort
Speaker 1: and energy, but most of them can be corrected. And
Speaker 1: I would say one of the things that worked very
Speaker 1: very well from me, again noting that we're each different,
Speaker 1: is saying to staff, I'm gonna make mistakes and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna help I'm going to count on you to help
Speaker 1: me fix them. And you're gonna make mistakes and that's okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to help you fix them. And I'm
Speaker 1: teen times I would gather staff together and I would say,
Speaker 1: guess what, I made a mistake. I need you to
Speaker 1: help me fix it. And not only did they rally
Speaker 1: to do so, it made everybody feel more comfortable sharing
Speaker 1: when they had made a mistake. And the worst thing
Speaker 1: you can do when you make a mistake is trying
Speaker 1: to bury it or hide it and not address it
Speaker 1: head on. But I will also note that when I
Speaker 1: gathered everyone together to say I made a mistake, will
Speaker 1: you help me fix it? I always had an ice
Speaker 1: cream Sunday bar set up. I love that it was.
Speaker 1: Was that something you you wanted to implement? Was it new?
Speaker 1: Who's that doing? First of all, everything is better with
Speaker 1: ice cream. Agree, If you're going to be creative, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna problem solve, if you're going to fix a mistake,
Speaker 1: whatever you're gonna do, it's going to go better with
Speaker 1: ice cream. That's very true. I might have to I
Speaker 1: actually might have to patch that idea to my boss.
Speaker 1: If you don't mind some world wid you listen, Amy.
Speaker 1: I don't want to focus on just one aspect of
Speaker 1: your career because you have so many accomplishments that we
Speaker 1: can talk about. We could talk about you overcoming your
Speaker 1: fear of television and being on CBS as an analyst.
Speaker 1: We could talk about your time at the Oakland Raiders.
Speaker 1: We can talk about you publishing a book. There's so
Speaker 1: many things that we can talk about. But what I
Speaker 1: really want to dive into is how you got to
Speaker 1: where you're at today. What type of we already talked
Speaker 1: about the mindset you had on gender. But what type
Speaker 1: of mindset led you to the success that you've seen
Speaker 1: with both The Raiders and now on television. What was it,
Speaker 1: what ignited a passion inside of you? I don't know
Speaker 1: that I can attribute it to a mind set in particular.
Speaker 1: I will note that one of the things that I
Speaker 1: believe helped me was something my parents instilled in me.
Speaker 1: And I believe this just passionately to this day. Hard
Speaker 1: work matters. Hard work really, really really matters. Um. I
Speaker 1: tell people all the time, work as hard as you can,
Speaker 1: and if you think can't think, if you think you
Speaker 1: can't work any harder, find a way to work harder.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times, because I lost
Speaker 1: count of the number that people would walk into my office,
Speaker 1: either at the Raiders or they approach me now or
Speaker 1: in my role with the Big Three, or any number
Speaker 1: of contexts, and they'll say, how do we accomplish what
Speaker 1: you've accomplished? How do we put ourselves on a trajectory
Speaker 1: to do what you've done? And I look at them
Speaker 1: and I say, do you notice that when you get
Speaker 1: here in the morning, my car is already here. I
Speaker 1: was kind of met with a stare, and I'd say,
Speaker 1: and do you notice that when you go home at night,
Speaker 1: my car is still here? And look, that's not my
Speaker 1: way of looking for love. For working long hours, that's
Speaker 1: my way of explaining hard work is very, very, very important.
Speaker 1: So that's something my parents instilled in me, and I
Speaker 1: cherish that to this day and I share with people
Speaker 1: to this day. Whatever your passion is, whatever you're doing,
Speaker 1: whether you're passionate about it or not, if you wish
Speaker 1: to succeed, if you wish to advance, work as hard
Speaker 1: as you can. And if you think you can't work
Speaker 1: any harder, work harder. The other piece of advice that
Speaker 1: I received, and this was from my mom, not from
Speaker 1: both of my parents, was to thine own self be true.
Speaker 1: And my mom told me that from the time I
Speaker 1: was a little, little little girl, and like moms can do,
Speaker 1: she told that to me over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and like kids can do, I rolled my eyes when
Speaker 1: she did. But it's the best advice I've ever received.
Speaker 1: And the reason I share that now with you for
Speaker 1: purposes of this podcast is to underscore the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm sharing what worked for me, but just because it
Speaker 1: worked for me, to ignore my gender. Just because it
Speaker 1: worked for me to work like a little crazy person
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that's the right answer for everyone. To thine
Speaker 1: own self be true. And by the way, as a footnote,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I was well into my studies at
Speaker 1: cal Berkeley, maybe even close to graduation, that I learned
Speaker 1: my mom didn't invent that. That was Shakespeare. Well, it's okay,
Speaker 1: we can still look at our mother's as I'm superheroes,
Speaker 1: right there you go, I'm giving the credit to my mom.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Well, well we'll put it as as your mother.
Speaker 1: That's who we will credit too in the history books.
Speaker 1: Thank you, okay, thank you of course. So between all
Speaker 1: of the different accomplishments that you've had so far in
Speaker 1: your life, what would you say was one of the
Speaker 1: most challenging parts to balancing all of the different hills
Speaker 1: you climbed, Because, like, like I already mentioned, one of
Speaker 1: the articles I read, you talked about overcoming your fear
Speaker 1: of being on television and being on camera, and then
Speaker 1: you mentioned it, you know, being chairman of the board
Speaker 1: of the Big Three, and then you were CEO for
Speaker 1: a professional football team. What was one of the biggest challenges.
Speaker 1: I got it all excited about your question. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're excited. I'm going to address the challenge you reference
Speaker 1: because if it helps someone else overcome or stare down
Speaker 1: and fight their insecurity, well that would be really need O.
Speaker 1: My biggest insecurity my whole life, dating back to when
Speaker 1: I was a little kid, has been my physical appearance.
Speaker 1: And I've just always always always been very insecure about that.
Speaker 1: Right or wrong, smarter, dumb, it doesn't matter when we
Speaker 1: have an insecurity. We have an insecurity, and that was mine.
Speaker 1: So you know, even if you look back at my
Speaker 1: family's old home movies, UM, I'm not in them because
Speaker 1: someone would turn on a camera and I would run
Speaker 1: so fast in the other direction. Al would assign me
Speaker 1: to play corner or receiver. Uh. So, after I left
Speaker 1: the Raiders, I um was contacted by CBS Sports, and
Speaker 1: my immediate reaction was no, no, no, no no no, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing that. No no, no, no, no no. And
Speaker 1: I won't belabor the story. But it went on and
Speaker 1: on and and my reaction was very very strong, and
Speaker 1: one evening I was sharing that reaction and and and
Speaker 1: the opportunity and my response to it and my thoughts
Speaker 1: about it with a group of people, some of whom
Speaker 1: were closer friends, some of whom were friends, but not
Speaker 1: the closest friends I have. And one of the women
Speaker 1: there looked at me after I went on and on
Speaker 1: about why I wasn't going to do it and what
Speaker 1: my insecurities were, and how being on camera has always
Speaker 1: been my greatest fear, being on live camera. That is,
Speaker 1: whether it's a video or television. Look, there's a reason
Speaker 1: I'm not on video with you right now, and I'm
Speaker 1: just doing this by audio. Being on camera has always
Speaker 1: been my biggest fear. And she looked to me and
Speaker 1: in a very quiet voice, she said, let it go.
Speaker 1: And that resonated with me. It really did. Those three
Speaker 1: words were so powerful that they changed the trajectory and
Speaker 1: direction of my life. Because with that advice, which I
Speaker 1: as I said, it resonated. I said, what the heck?
Speaker 1: And I said yes to CBS Sports CBS Sports Network,
Speaker 1: and I jumped in and I could not be happier
Speaker 1: than I did. So if anyone listening to this um
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to do something which scares them, my
Speaker 1: suggestion is you might want to think about that, because
Speaker 1: sometimes doing something very scary can work out very well.
Speaker 1: I think that is a perfect note to end our
Speaker 1: very serious discussion on all things you've accomplished throughout your life. Amy,
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, we only have about a
Speaker 1: minute now. I want to do something fun with the
Speaker 1: remainder of your time. I want to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of rapid fire. Are you comfortable with that? I
Speaker 1: love rapid fire, Thank goodness, Finally somebody who enjoys rapid
Speaker 1: fire as much as I do. Every time I say that,
Speaker 1: people are like, all right, okay, you and I may
Speaker 1: you know, we may have a real relationship going here,
Speaker 1: because I absolutely love rapid fire. I mean I just
Speaker 1: got so excited I screamed in your ear. Let's go.
Speaker 1: That's okay, that's perfectly okay. That we got the rapid
Speaker 1: fire going, We've got the ice cream. I think we're
Speaker 1: off to a good start, agreed, all right, you ready?
Speaker 1: I am. These are gonna be all over the place
Speaker 1: a little bit. But and you're just gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: say something and you want my rapid fire response. Yep.
Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to mind. Even if after
Speaker 1: we listen back to this and you're like, it's not
Speaker 1: actually how I feel. It doesn't matter, rapid fire, got it? Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: go to midnight snack, ain't me? Ice cream? Favorite and
Speaker 1: and being more and being more direct, usually an ice
Speaker 1: cream Sunday, but at a minimum ice cream. And if
Speaker 1: it's very late at night, it's going to be ice cream,
Speaker 1: of course, straight from the tub with a spoon, but
Speaker 1: with sprinkles and whip cream dumped on top of it.
Speaker 1: Love it? What flavor of ice cream? Now I have
Speaker 1: to ask, honest to gosh, no favorite flavor. I I
Speaker 1: just can't pick. I like you. I love that. That's
Speaker 1: a great answer, all right. Number two favorite raider of
Speaker 1: all time? Well, I won't name him. I do have
Speaker 1: a favorite raider. I've never ever ever named him, and
Speaker 1: I won't name him. Early, early, early in my career.
Speaker 1: Long story, but I messed up a contract. It was
Speaker 1: the first contract I worked on. I got a phone
Speaker 1: call at home at the middle of the night from
Speaker 1: Al Again. I want to give it to you rapidly,
Speaker 1: so I won't give you the whole story, but I
Speaker 1: will say that this player, who was the last man
Speaker 1: on the roster, redid tore up his contract, redid it
Speaker 1: and save my job, but I'll never name him. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, as long as he knows he did
Speaker 1: you a solid I think that's all that matters. He
Speaker 1: did me a solid. Favorite movie genre oh um, I
Speaker 1: could do favorite movie easily. Favorite movie genre, m hmm,
Speaker 1: happy movies. I like feel good movies, me too. Last
Speaker 1: movie that made you cry? This one's tough because I
Speaker 1: can't even name this one. Oh, I'm not sure movies
Speaker 1: make me cry? Are we allowed to get one that
Speaker 1: we pass on because we just didn't know the answer? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: this is my past question because I don't know. I
Speaker 1: cry it. I cry it almost every movie. You know what,
Speaker 1: there's no shame in that. Don't have any shame in
Speaker 1: your game and just own up to that. I thank you.
Speaker 1: Off the activity something involving the beach, whether it's a
Speaker 1: walk on the beach, a swim at the beach, beach,
Speaker 1: oriented love, that celebrity crush. Oh oh, let me think
Speaker 1: I can honest, honest, honest answer. Honest, honest, honest answer
Speaker 1: is my husband. I only crushes my husband. That's sweet.
Speaker 1: You're gonna melt my heart. You didn't. It's not technically
Speaker 1: the right answer, but it's okay, because rapid fire and
Speaker 1: it's really sweet and it's and it's an honest answer.
Speaker 1: Yes all I can ask for. Okay, just two more
Speaker 1: most embarrassing moment while working for the Raiders, first of all,
Speaker 1: and I will give you one. But so you know,
Speaker 1: I could give you a list of embarrassing moments. I
Speaker 1: embarrassed myself so often it's hard to think of my
Speaker 1: most embarrassing one. Let me think of an embarrassing one. God,
Speaker 1: so many. Let me think I'm the same. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're like me, but I'm clumsy,
Speaker 1: so I trip a lot. Well, okay, here you go.
Speaker 1: This is not my most embarrassing one. But since you
Speaker 1: mentioned clumsy. First week or so in the Raiders, having
Speaker 1: a discussion with Al, I have a latte on my desk.
Speaker 1: I'm talking. I talked with my hands. I whacked the
Speaker 1: latte all over the room, all over everywhere. He stares
Speaker 1: at me, and I would say, I'm kind of proud
Speaker 1: that I didn't miss a beat. I just kept talking.
Speaker 1: You just kept talking, pretended like it didn't even happen. Exactly.
Speaker 1: I aspire to be like that. Okay, one last one
Speaker 1: for you, Amy, and then I'm gonna let you go
Speaker 1: your jack of all trades. You've done so many different
Speaker 1: things so far in your lifetime. But if there is
Speaker 1: one other job in the world where you could retire on,
Speaker 1: which would it be? You know, I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: that a lot lately. There is no particular job, but
Speaker 1: I would love to do something UM helpful in the
Speaker 1: education area and working to provide opportunities to kids that
Speaker 1: don't have the same resources as many kids. UM. I've
Speaker 1: talked to a couple of my girlfriends about maybe just
Speaker 1: taking a building somewhere in an area where there's not
Speaker 1: as much painting it bright yellow, bright orange, and writing
Speaker 1: hope on the front and welcoming kids in and doing
Speaker 1: all we can to help them. What an incredible What
Speaker 1: an incredible aspiration. I hope. I hope to see that
Speaker 1: played out someday. I really do. Well. If it happens,
Speaker 1: I'll invite you. Yes. Thank you so much, Amy Trask
Speaker 1: for joining me on an episode two of the New
Speaker 1: York per podcast. It was an absolute honor. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. It was absolutely positively my pleasure. Thank you
Speaker 1: for inviting me. I am honored to join us. M