Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1: If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
Speaker 1: was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the Ghetto Cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse the clearing House of Hot
Speaker 1: takes break free for something special. The fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Maller starts right now that it does. The weekend
Speaker 1: is here. We are eating the air everywhere coast to coast,
Speaker 1: border to border and beyond the power of podcasting eight
Speaker 1: days a week now because four hours or not enough
Speaker 1: on the overnight. And this is a special, not interview,
Speaker 1: but we like having people we we somewhat know or
Speaker 1: fans of on the podcast. And so I am joined
Speaker 1: yet again by David gascon West of the four oh five.
Speaker 1: He's right over there and he's with this again as
Speaker 1: he is most weekends. Almost every weekend. I don't think
Speaker 1: you've missed a show, so that would be every weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'd like to to give a special shout out to
Speaker 1: UH to myself. Uh, it's my anniversary, right, it's Uh.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you were married. Yeah, no idea. I
Speaker 1: wasn't invited to the wedding. You know what, Uh, you
Speaker 1: were on the record this time last year when you
Speaker 1: said that David Gascon will be the Andrew Luck of
Speaker 1: this podcast. I will abruptly just quit and leave in
Speaker 1: the middle of the year. And I have now made
Speaker 1: it one year graduation podcast. Give me another fucking round
Speaker 1: of applause. Wow, what a deuce. Tend you the deuces
Speaker 1: right there? Let me do you know what. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a golden ticket. Congratulations, you get it all
Speaker 1: the ticket, And I'm gonna give you a lifetime supply
Speaker 1: of nothing, which I think this podcast is providing you.
Speaker 1: So you gotta lifetime supply of nothing and a trip
Speaker 1: to nowhere round trip to nowhere, and that is void
Speaker 1: is long. It's only eligible until Nowhere, Oklahoma opens up
Speaker 1: an airport, and then it's no longer, no longer available. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to report though, that when I go on
Speaker 1: this trip to nowhere, I'm gonna bring three suits with me.
Speaker 1: My my regular three piece suit, my hazmat suit, and
Speaker 1: now because of California. I will also bring my fire suits. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, as a little kid, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: Like every little kid, you want to be a police officer,
Speaker 1: and then you want to be a fireman and vice
Speaker 1: versa and when you're a little kid, and so I
Speaker 1: want to be a fireman at one point. And now
Speaker 1: like I'm surrounded by fire. I am surrounded. It is
Speaker 1: raining ash from the heavens. The sky is orange. It
Speaker 1: looks like we've moved to Mars. It is it is wild.
Speaker 1: Is crazy living in California these days, and the you
Speaker 1: can't go anywhere, everything's burning. It's you pay outrageous taxes.
Speaker 1: It's really paradise, it really is. It's just the greatest
Speaker 1: place on earth, California. We get buildings on fire because
Speaker 1: of protests, peaceful protests. We have city is on fire
Speaker 1: because of gender reveals. Um, like, what else could go
Speaker 1: wrong in this fucking aar Uh. We don't ask gascon
Speaker 1: don't ask, because we can get that that that could
Speaker 1: that could come here soon. Uh yeah, all those your pills, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got your pills. There you go, you're you're ready
Speaker 1: to go. Wow. All right, So before we get to
Speaker 1: the man of the hour here that's in the center square.
Speaker 1: We're excited about this. I am really fired up because
Speaker 1: one of my my, my favorite people in radio and
Speaker 1: a former colleague of mine. I'm so happy that I
Speaker 1: know him as a friend. Uh And so we'll have
Speaker 1: Tony Bruno on in a minute. But Cameo dot com,
Speaker 1: gascon Cameo dot com, you want a personal shout out.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. One of the coolest things
Speaker 1: happened to me in the last week. And I've not
Speaker 1: talked about this at all. I didn't mention it on
Speaker 1: the radio show and all that. Uh. So on Cameo,
Speaker 1: I got a very special cameo request. It's about ten
Speaker 1: days ago or so now, and I didn't bring it up. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it was from from Jason and Morgan. And Morgan
Speaker 1: Jason is a big fan of show, and Morgan's like,
Speaker 1: you know, she puts up with it. Uh And then Jason,
Speaker 1: I guess they have a They have a baby coming,
Speaker 1: a miracle baby, a girl. And I got to give
Speaker 1: Jason the news via cameo. How cool is this? That was?
Speaker 1: That's like a great honor, that's a tremendous honor to
Speaker 1: have that that that that Morgan would would pick me
Speaker 1: and it was really cool. I I really didn't want
Speaker 1: to funk that one up because that's a big one. Um,
Speaker 1: when you find out you're gonna have a dot and
Speaker 1: I'll be a girl dad and all that is so cool.
Speaker 1: So I was really that was that was like the
Speaker 1: neatest thing that I've been able to do with Cameo
Speaker 1: was really neat. Now you should temper your excitement because
Speaker 1: now that you've done that, you're probably gonna get someone
Speaker 1: from the Mallard Militia that's ready to have a baby
Speaker 1: and they'll probably call you while giving birth. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: there you go. Well that see that I can only
Speaker 1: do on the radio. You can do that. I have
Speaker 1: had guys over the years that have called up and uh,
Speaker 1: you know and announced while smoking the cigar that they
Speaker 1: their child has arrived, which is which is neat. And
Speaker 1: it's this guy in Phoenix that's been listening a long
Speaker 1: time and I remember when he called that I was
Speaker 1: gonna show with Jason Smith on the weekends in the
Speaker 1: early days of Fox Sports Radio, and he had his
Speaker 1: first child was born and the kids now, like you know,
Speaker 1: nineteen or eighteen or nineteen years old. I'm like, holy crap,
Speaker 1: kids out of high school and I'm like, wow, that
Speaker 1: is that? Yeah, but cameo dot com Ben Mally, you
Speaker 1: want to personalized video shout out? I would love to
Speaker 1: do it and it'd be great. We also have as well,
Speaker 1: guessing before we bring Tony in here. Uh, the Benny
Speaker 1: Versus the Penny has moved over to YouTube and yeah,
Speaker 1: we will put that on Facebook. It should be on there.
Speaker 1: If it's not, we'll make sure it's on there. And
Speaker 1: and Twitter, and there's two ways. This is a test
Speaker 1: guest count right because it it makes me so. So
Speaker 1: the deal with this is a lot of you guys
Speaker 1: have been saying I want to watch some video, and
Speaker 1: I put out these little video vignettes for the radio show.
Speaker 1: But this is something different. This is a live video
Speaker 1: like a television broadcast on the internet. To what you
Speaker 1: two is and uh and so Benny versus the Penny,
Speaker 1: we're gonna test this out. We we had it on
Speaker 1: the radio for years. I did it on the radio
Speaker 1: for years. Last year we did it on the podcast
Speaker 1: and we did very good numbers on the podcast. A
Speaker 1: lot of people loved Benny Versus the Penny, So we
Speaker 1: want to see how it'll do on the video format,
Speaker 1: and we'll it's a test, and you guys have been
Speaker 1: a lot of you have been saying you wanted to
Speaker 1: see some video stuff, So we're gonna test it out. Obviously,
Speaker 1: today's the maiden voyage here on nine eleven of this
Speaker 1: for week one, the Sunday Monday card in the NFL.
Speaker 1: But I'm excited. I want to see how this goes.
Speaker 1: And I gotta I got some new equipment in here
Speaker 1: to to make it look good. So we'll see what works. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and don't forget last season to the first three weeks
Speaker 1: you actually you would scorched earth no pun intendant, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you went eleven and five I think the first two,
Speaker 1: two or three weeks. Yeah, I did very well. This
Speaker 1: is the hardest year, though, to handicap the NFL with
Speaker 1: no real read on any just have the depth chart.
Speaker 1: You have no field exhibition and no home field advantage
Speaker 1: at all. That's right, you can take you throw that out.
Speaker 1: So this is gonna be the hardest year ever. Hopefully
Speaker 1: I will not drown. But could you imagine we finally
Speaker 1: do the video thing and then I I go like
Speaker 1: one one win for the weekend and something that's my nightmare.
Speaker 1: But we will see what happens. But enough about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not about us. Yeah, it's not about us, guestcan
Speaker 1: It is about the man of the hour, A legend,
Speaker 1: one of the forefathers of modern sports radio. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan of sports talk radio, whether it's Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio where I do, where I do my business, or
Speaker 1: any of these networks, Tony Bruno is an o G.
Speaker 1: This guy started ESPN Radio when that network launched, and
Speaker 1: then started Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports Radio took off. Now,
Speaker 1: we had Tony on a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: that was not it was a month ago, it was
Speaker 1: a while, it was it was not that long ago.
Speaker 1: We had Tony on and he had launched he was
Speaker 1: about to launch his serious XM radio show and it
Speaker 1: was Tony Bruno Show with Harry May's a couple of
Speaker 1: Philadelphia guys and they'd worked together in the past local
Speaker 1: radio in Philadelphia and they do a good show together.
Speaker 1: And so, uh, Tony was excited about that. We were
Speaker 1: excited for Tony. He's a friend, uh and we're very
Speaker 1: happy for him. Well, Uh, Tony had his show pulled
Speaker 1: from from satellite radio and also something called sports Map Radio,
Speaker 1: where his show was on. He had made some comments
Speaker 1: about Lebron James that were then reported in a hatchet
Speaker 1: job by dead Spin takedown peace on on Tony Bruno,
Speaker 1: and that that ended everything. Uh, Tony has been in
Speaker 1: the business my entire life, ton He's been. I grew
Speaker 1: up listening to Tony on the radio, and I was
Speaker 1: a huge fan when I first heard Tony, and you know,
Speaker 1: with miss Robbin has been with him for a long
Speaker 1: time now, uh and all that. So I really wanted
Speaker 1: to get Tony on it. And many of you have
Speaker 1: reached out and said, hey, give me the inside, Skinny.
Speaker 1: I gotta get Tony on. We gotta find out what's
Speaker 1: going on here with Tony. I want to I'm upset.
Speaker 1: You know you love Tony as well, and I love
Speaker 1: Tony and I I like listening to So uh, let's
Speaker 1: bring in now from the main streets of Philadelphia, one
Speaker 1: of the legends of talk radio. Tony Bruno joins us
Speaker 1: here on the fifth hour, So Tony kind of For
Speaker 1: those that are I gave a brief synopsis, but for
Speaker 1: those that are not up to speed, I I just
Speaker 1: gave a little bit kind of walk us through exactly
Speaker 1: how this all went down. Well, I was goofing off
Speaker 1: on the air like I always do, and people have
Speaker 1: listened to me for fifty years on the radio th
Speaker 1: that I approached sports with fun. I deal with things
Speaker 1: that are important when they are like nine eleven, which
Speaker 1: were celebrating the adversary I've I was on the air
Speaker 1: when the worst thing in our lifetime happened, and I
Speaker 1: know how to transition from serious stuff to fun stuff.
Speaker 1: And that's what I've always done. And you know this, Ben,
Speaker 1: because we go way back, and so always gorooping off
Speaker 1: talking about the NBA and talking about Lebron James and
Speaker 1: the one picture of him where he's reading the Malcolm
Speaker 1: X book and then there was a collage of four
Speaker 1: pictures of Lebron reading four different books and they were
Speaker 1: all open to the first page. So I was gorooping
Speaker 1: off about you know, Lebron James is lecturing everybody on
Speaker 1: why we should worry about this and that, but he
Speaker 1: ignores China and the whole weaker Muslims who are making
Speaker 1: shoes for him. And I don't like to get into politics,
Speaker 1: but I was just talking about the hypocrisy of athletes
Speaker 1: that you can't criticize, and Lebard is one of those guys.
Speaker 1: He's a great player. I never criticized his game or
Speaker 1: whether he should win a championship. That's what he us.
Speaker 1: He's a basketball player, and he has every single right
Speaker 1: then every single right to give opinions. But guess what,
Speaker 1: so do I, as an American, have a right to
Speaker 1: give an opinion just because he has a lot of
Speaker 1: high powered henchmen out there who make sure that anybody
Speaker 1: who criticized and must be brought to justice. He got
Speaker 1: a couple of his hacks at dead Spin, which I
Speaker 1: didn't even know was still around, to do a hit
Speaker 1: piece on me because I was groofing off about Lebron
Speaker 1: James and then reading books, and then I jokingly said
Speaker 1: which was which in hindsight, was dumb. What people know
Speaker 1: that I was. I would never said the NBA players
Speaker 1: can't lead, and that's the quote that was attributed to
Speaker 1: me in quotation marks NBA players can't read. I would
Speaker 1: never say something like that. I was talking about Lebron
Speaker 1: James and pretending that he was a learned scholar because
Speaker 1: he has pictures taken out of me got the media
Speaker 1: taking pictures of him reading books, which all are on
Speaker 1: the first page. And I don't know about you, Ben,
Speaker 1: but then when I sat down and I'm reading a book,
Speaker 1: I tend to get by pass to first page. But
Speaker 1: I don't care. If he doesn't want to do it,
Speaker 1: that's fine. But this whole they gotta put Lebron on
Speaker 1: the pedestal stuff. I was never a part of that.
Speaker 1: I don't rip the guy personally. I don't care what
Speaker 1: he does with his life. I'm not a Laker fan
Speaker 1: or a Laker hater. I was there in La were
Speaker 1: all wacobean shack Era, So anyway, that became a we
Speaker 1: gotta get Tony Bruno. When I said it on my
Speaker 1: show two mondays ago, I didn't even realize it. The
Speaker 1: people in the studio didn't realize it. The people listening
Speaker 1: on Serious XM and sports map Radio, nobody called, nobody
Speaker 1: on Twitch where there's live audience interaction, said oh my god,
Speaker 1: did you hear what Tony said? Two days later, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, dead spin out of nowhere puts out
Speaker 1: the hit piece on me. And that's what happens when
Speaker 1: you put out a hit piece and people don't know you.
Speaker 1: The people that don't know you are the first to
Speaker 1: jump on board. And then the book. Disappointing thing to
Speaker 1: me Ben was people in the media. There are people
Speaker 1: in the media. When Serious and and sports Map Radio,
Speaker 1: he immediately took me off the air and said that
Speaker 1: they weren't gonna put me back on. And so I
Speaker 1: was surprised because I thought Serious would have my back
Speaker 1: and look into it, or sports Map would have my
Speaker 1: back and look into it before making a decision. But
Speaker 1: they made a new jerk decision. And that's the that's
Speaker 1: their call. I'm not saying that they didn't they they
Speaker 1: don't have a right to do what they want. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's a toxic world. Somebody thinks that, you know, advertisers.
Speaker 1: I lost Draft Kings and all of my sponsorships. I'm
Speaker 1: not crying as a victim here. I just think that
Speaker 1: we live in the world where only certain people can
Speaker 1: get away with stuff. And the whole white privilege thing,
Speaker 1: I guess that. I guess my white privileged card must
Speaker 1: have been burned in one of the riots out there.
Speaker 1: So tell me that that's that's amazing. So you did
Speaker 1: this show, you said what you said nobody listening, nobody complained,
Speaker 1: and then days later this guy, some bozo a dead
Speaker 1: Spin writes a story and then that's that's all it took. No,
Speaker 1: you'd think it would work the other way, right, if
Speaker 1: people were you were complaining right away, you got no
Speaker 1: negative feedback at all. Right, No, I wasn't even aware
Speaker 1: that there was a controverscial statement. Now you go back
Speaker 1: in the of course the deaths been guy post the
Speaker 1: whole thing without context. And again what I said was
Speaker 1: not smart, but it's not It's hardly a condemnation of
Speaker 1: being called a racist. And that's the one word then
Speaker 1: that everybody knows if you throw the racist word out there,
Speaker 1: especially against the white guy who has no history of
Speaker 1: racism other than a stupid tweet that I never even
Speaker 1: said on the air, but it's been attributed to me
Speaker 1: as something that I said when I never did. When
Speaker 1: you do spoken word, as you know, for a decade
Speaker 1: after decade, you know, I know what I am, and
Speaker 1: everybody who knows me knows who I am. But being
Speaker 1: called a racist is one thing that you can never
Speaker 1: ever disprove or prove. So the illness is on me
Speaker 1: and the people who don't know and read these stories
Speaker 1: and come after me. And as imagine, there's some prominent
Speaker 1: media people in sports who are dancing on my grave.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. I can get idiots on Twitter and
Speaker 1: Facebook and all these people who don't know and that's
Speaker 1: all they do. They go on there because it's a
Speaker 1: tess pool. And I don't care about being criticized that
Speaker 1: people disagreeing with me. But when you got media people
Speaker 1: who are out there like happy and media people by
Speaker 1: the way, and I'm not gonna name them, who have
Speaker 1: had their own issues and keep getting jobs and then
Speaker 1: jump on my grade when I have a dow job
Speaker 1: cantle from me, that's the ultimate and hypocrisy in this industry. No,
Speaker 1: I agree to listen. I love you, man, and I
Speaker 1: and I've known you for years and everyone that's worked
Speaker 1: with you, and I've talked to people. We've talked about this,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's obviously been a big story in
Speaker 1: the radio business and everyone's like Tony is the greatest
Speaker 1: kind of the world. This is such it's so ridiculous,
Speaker 1: as you know better than me, Tony. You do a
Speaker 1: three or four hour show a day, and you know
Speaker 1: you're just you're just rifting you know, every once in
Speaker 1: a while you're gonna say something maybe you shouldn't say
Speaker 1: or whatever. But the Lebron thing, the thing that puzzles me, Tony,
Speaker 1: is this, Like I believe Lebron was asked about the book, right,
Speaker 1: wasn't he? And he he said he hadn't read it yet. Right,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that thing? And then and then I remember
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago in the playoffs with Cleveland,
Speaker 1: Lebron had said that he he watched like The Godfather
Speaker 1: movies to get ready for the playoffs, remember the Playoffs series,
Speaker 1: And then when a reporter asked him his favorite scene
Speaker 1: in The Godfather, he he couldn't remember one like this.
Speaker 1: So it's not it's that it's not outrageous stuff but
Speaker 1: yet but yet, you know, you say it and it's
Speaker 1: like we're off to the races. It's just it's just crazy.
Speaker 1: And as far as the media people, Tony, I agree
Speaker 1: that it's it's the grave Dancing's that mob mentality, and
Speaker 1: these guys are in the media. You'd think you'd advocate
Speaker 1: for other media people and support other media people. It's absurd,
Speaker 1: but at least you now know who the who the
Speaker 1: phonies are Tony. That's a good thing, right, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not even when people get fired in any business, whether
Speaker 1: it's at the restaurant, who business down, you know, But
Speaker 1: I'm really not because of what happened to me. But
Speaker 1: you know, we went through a year now where obviously
Speaker 1: we've never gone for anything like this before, you know.
Speaker 1: And I went back on the air when the pandemic started,
Speaker 1: when there was no sports to talk about, and that's
Speaker 1: why Sirius hired me and said, hey, if there's anybody
Speaker 1: who can put on the air to talk about sports
Speaker 1: when there's no sports to talk about, you know, you're
Speaker 1: the guy. So Steve Colin, I don't have any problems
Speaker 1: with with with the people that serious Jeff, you know,
Speaker 1: the guys Steve Calling and all the people at the
Speaker 1: Sailors have been great to me. So I'm not a guy.
Speaker 1: I don't tell people I go out there and canceled,
Speaker 1: cancel your eyes. I don't do that. I don't tell people.
Speaker 1: People make their own decisions. I don't say, hey, look
Speaker 1: what they've done to me. I'm not bad mouthing the companies.
Speaker 1: Companies do what they have to do. They have to
Speaker 1: protect their you know, they have to protect the NBA.
Speaker 1: They have to protect Lebron James, and I get it,
Speaker 1: that's the way the corporate world works. But the instantaneous,
Speaker 1: knee jerk decision to destroy someone's career, Uh, that's a
Speaker 1: lot that's disappointing because I don't want to end on
Speaker 1: well Tony Bruno went out and about time you got fired.
Speaker 1: That guy's out racist. You know, that's the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff that disappoints me more than anything else. Then, and Tony,
Speaker 1: how fast you said right away that once the story
Speaker 1: on Deadspin went you were off the air, Like was
Speaker 1: there any negotiation or like, how does that work? Like
Speaker 1: did they call you, did they send an email? Or
Speaker 1: they just they just pulled the plug? How exactly did
Speaker 1: that all go down? So it happened, I guess on
Speaker 1: a Monday show, and then Wednesday the dead Spin thing
Speaker 1: appears out of nowhere. I had no idea, and then
Speaker 1: people I start sawing my Twitter feed and people are like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Tony Burrow the braces fire him. And
Speaker 1: so obviously, when when you get the whole uproar of
Speaker 1: people reading dead Spin and people in the media obviously
Speaker 1: see it first, and then people on Twitter read dead
Speaker 1: Spin and Deadspin kept retweeting the story like every three
Speaker 1: hours to make sure that everybody saw it. And that's why.
Speaker 1: I that's their business. You know, they're trying to get clicks.
Speaker 1: But if you read it, you'll see the guy who
Speaker 1: wrote it. The first words out of it, Well, the
Speaker 1: first thing is a court tweet that I said NBA
Speaker 1: players can't read, and he quits that in quotations, which
Speaker 1: is obviously fraud. And then he starts off as column
Speaker 1: with a few in the entire words, not just f you.
Speaker 1: The first two words are few Tony Bruno, and then
Speaker 1: he goes in and does a hacky job. I don't
Speaker 1: even know the guy, and I don't care about the guy,
Speaker 1: but the bottom line is that just shows you right there.
Speaker 1: But this is this with a concerted effort to bury someone.
Speaker 1: So that was on Wednesday, and so I see the
Speaker 1: story in our ripped bed Spin on the air. The
Speaker 1: next day, Thursday, I come there, I come down into
Speaker 1: my basement. I got a studio here to get ready
Speaker 1: for the Thursday show. I get a call saying that
Speaker 1: we're not gonna do a show today. We're taking you
Speaker 1: off the air. We're not covered. I didn't even know.
Speaker 1: We'd actually started doing the show on Twitch, and then
Speaker 1: people were calling and saying, hey, you're not on Serious today.
Speaker 1: You're not on Serious, and I didn't even realize that.
Speaker 1: So I did my show as normal on Twitch and
Speaker 1: then found out after the show that they wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to me on Friday. Now be setting this up.
Speaker 1: I had planned a vacation back in June on the Saturday,
Speaker 1: UH to go to Florida for a week with MS Robin,
Speaker 1: so obviously, so then on Friday morning, we get a
Speaker 1: call and saying, hey, you know what, from from Serious,
Speaker 1: We're not going to carry the show anymore. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna say anything about it. Sports map UH didn't say
Speaker 1: anything about it. So I went on vacation. No one
Speaker 1: knew it because the following Monday, when I wasn't supposed
Speaker 1: to be on the air anyway, because I was on vacation,
Speaker 1: my show wasn't on, and nobody said anything. So I
Speaker 1: was away on vacation and speculations saw you go, oh
Speaker 1: Breuer gon fire and he took off and now he's
Speaker 1: not coming back. My vacation was planned, so it's not
Speaker 1: one of those They fired me on a Friday that
Speaker 1: I wasn't back on Monday kind of deal. So anyway,
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, I'm not them, not crying the victim.
Speaker 1: I'm not angry. I don't have any bad things to
Speaker 1: say about Debt's well, DEA's been his garbage. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's what our question. In fact, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know they came back into business. But if you read
Speaker 1: that's good. It's just a bunch of a bunch at
Speaker 1: strapper writers, bitter broken guys trying to make a name
Speaker 1: for themselves, going after people and trying to destroy careers.
Speaker 1: If that's what their job is and they're happy doing that,
Speaker 1: God bless him. But I'm not gonna let them determine
Speaker 1: and just determine what my career is and when my
Speaker 1: life has been all about fifty years in this business
Speaker 1: until you speaking of that? So now, what are you
Speaker 1: doing after this all went down and you go from
Speaker 1: serious exam and twitch to to what now? The nothing?
Speaker 1: Right now? You know? Da, I'm not, I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm I told you, I stared on I'm not
Speaker 1: soured on sports because I'm I was was fired from
Speaker 1: two jobs. I just think that the way sports has
Speaker 1: conducted itself this year and again they can do whatever
Speaker 1: they want. I don't care if they want to protest.
Speaker 1: I don't care if they want to kneel. It's not
Speaker 1: about that stuff they want to Neil, Neil. I just
Speaker 1: think that the way the sports had now become. Go
Speaker 1: back to nine eleven and you guys were around, andrews
Speaker 1: Ceciliano and I were doing the morning show with Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio, and you know, we were goofing off and
Speaker 1: then we got serious because the world was coming going crazy.
Speaker 1: So I don't how to deal with tragedy. I know
Speaker 1: how to deal with things that are important, to get
Speaker 1: serious when it's time. But now we was here about
Speaker 1: fast for in almost twenty years, nineteen years exactly later,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, sports which was the break divide,
Speaker 1: which was the great thing that brought us back. Remember
Speaker 1: nine eleven happens. People are all in sports shows and
Speaker 1: we wanted to find out what was going on. Is
Speaker 1: it's still safe to fly? Is it's still safe to
Speaker 1: do this? And then what was the one thing people
Speaker 1: were waiting to come back? Sports? We wanted sports to
Speaker 1: come back so we can escape the world of politics
Speaker 1: and wars and all this other stuff. Now you're fast
Speaker 1: forward because the political world has gone crazy and everybody's
Speaker 1: gonna take a side now all of a sudden, sports
Speaker 1: is dividing us. Sports is not the place we go
Speaker 1: to to feel good about ourselves. The only people watching
Speaker 1: sports that are gambling degenerous. And that's fine, and you're
Speaker 1: rooting for your teams, that's all good. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is sports was a way to get away from
Speaker 1: the noise. Comedy shows were a way to get away
Speaker 1: from the real world. Now you put on a comedy
Speaker 1: show and you put on sports and you can't get
Speaker 1: away from this stuff. That's the thing to me that's
Speaker 1: the most disappointing, and it's sort of soured me. I
Speaker 1: don't hate sports, I just don't. I don't feel as
Speaker 1: excited as I did. And this is way prior to
Speaker 1: this incident. It's just that I think sports and everybody
Speaker 1: is so obsessed with politics, and you know, we've got
Speaker 1: to root for well Off, We've got a room for
Speaker 1: Biden that they're getting away from the purpose of what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They're playing games to entertain us, and when
Speaker 1: people aren't entertained, and you see the ratings that I
Speaker 1: don't tell people not to watch. I don't tell people
Speaker 1: don't watch sports, don't support the NFL, hate Lebron. I
Speaker 1: just give my own opinions. And the problem now, as
Speaker 1: you guys know, when you give your own opinion, you
Speaker 1: can't give an opinion if the majority of people don't
Speaker 1: agree with it. That's the amazing part of the so
Speaker 1: called free speech era, when we should have more free
Speaker 1: speech than ever, and now we have less free speech
Speaker 1: than ever. So what do you think happens after November
Speaker 1: the third? I have no idea. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's gonna be riots. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Trump wins are gonna be riots, if Biden wins,
Speaker 1: things calmed down. I have no idea. I just know
Speaker 1: that I can't wait till listen so hard, and if
Speaker 1: our politics a long time, I'm there to do five presidents.
Speaker 1: So and I used to do local reporting on covered elections,
Speaker 1: so I was a political science major. That doesn't make
Speaker 1: me a political expert. I would consider myself a little
Speaker 1: more political savvy than a lot of people who yell
Speaker 1: at me on Twitter because they don't agree with my
Speaker 1: political views. I mean, even now people say, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't agree with you politically, Tony, but I think
Speaker 1: they did. I don't care if you agree with the politically.
Speaker 1: I'm not a political guy. I don't make a dime
Speaker 1: from politics. I don't represent any political party. You've never
Speaker 1: been a Republican and I've been a Democrat, but I
Speaker 1: don't care about either party. So it's if everybody has
Speaker 1: to pigeon tell you into being you're a guy, and
Speaker 1: you're a Trumpster, Oh my god, you're a right wing
Speaker 1: How can you be on the radio that kind of
Speaker 1: idiotic mindset that's out there where it doesn't matter anymore
Speaker 1: what you think, and and they you may just won't
Speaker 1: be in the k k K. The way people treat
Speaker 1: somebody that they disagree with anymore, it's absolutely absurd. Well
Speaker 1: and Tony to spin off that, and and obviously everyone
Speaker 1: is doing sports radio as you happen about what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen with sports? You know, when when with the ratings
Speaker 1: and all that, what is your gut? You've been around
Speaker 1: a long time, you're like, what's the end game on?
Speaker 1: This is my theory to and I want to run
Speaker 1: this bace. So my theory is that the real litmus
Speaker 1: tests is gonna be when fans are allowed back in
Speaker 1: the stadiums, because I have a feeling that the players
Speaker 1: kneeling and all the activism fans in in the stadium
Speaker 1: are not gonna be receptive for this. In certain cities,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be there's gonna be blowback, And to me,
Speaker 1: that's the ultimate test on how long this continues, because
Speaker 1: it's one thing to kneel if you're in an empty
Speaker 1: arena and no one's booing you. But it's gonna be
Speaker 1: different once you have the stadiums opened up again after
Speaker 1: the pandemic and people are there and can react to it.
Speaker 1: And and we saw with the Kaepernick thing in twos
Speaker 1: sixteen that there were booze reigning down for NFL players.
Speaker 1: What do you do you think that's gonna happen? Number one?
Speaker 1: And number two, how will the sports world react to it? Well?
Speaker 1: I think the sports world. I mean, people will come
Speaker 1: back once once the pandemics run, hopefully at will once
Speaker 1: they start. But they're gonna put people in the stands
Speaker 1: in some of these games. And it seems like everybody's
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. The first couple of home games
Speaker 1: in the NFL and particular you know, they're they're not
Speaker 1: gonna allow fans in most cities, and then they're gonna
Speaker 1: start bringing fans in and that's you know, It's like
Speaker 1: everything else will eventually get back to normal. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the new normal is, because we did on
Speaker 1: nine eleven. Everything changed to the way we get on airplanes,
Speaker 1: the way we travel, where we go. So the world
Speaker 1: is always changing. So I don't have a problem with change.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna happen. Do I think people
Speaker 1: will still be upset if if guys neil, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: people who are upset with that, do I care whether
Speaker 1: they kneel or not know. I have a flag of
Speaker 1: my dad sitting right in front of me that was
Speaker 1: handed to me when he was buried as a military
Speaker 1: veteran who served in World War Two and jumped out
Speaker 1: of airplanes. So I don't want any lectures from NBA
Speaker 1: players or hockey players, or football players or baseball players
Speaker 1: on about what it means to be an American and
Speaker 1: what the flag means to me. But I don't put
Speaker 1: that out there and tell everybody you don't have a
Speaker 1: right to your opinion. You can disagree, you can hate
Speaker 1: the flag, you can hate the country. I just love
Speaker 1: the country. My mom's an immigrant. She's still alive. God
Speaker 1: bless her at she knows what she's been through more
Speaker 1: than any book you can ever imagine when you think
Speaker 1: about things going through time and all the changes in
Speaker 1: the world. So do I fans will go back. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: don't think fans will still watch sports. Absolutely, as long
Speaker 1: as they're gambling, as long as they're fans who whose
Speaker 1: teams are doing well, because it still will be an escape.
Speaker 1: We'll get through all this nonsense and then people will
Speaker 1: get back to normal. Hopefully, that's what I want. I
Speaker 1: don't want sports to go out of business. I don't
Speaker 1: want the NBA to fold. I just know that there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people suffering out there, and the
Speaker 1: people were suffering are not the athletes who are still
Speaker 1: signing gazillion dollar contracts every day and complaining about what
Speaker 1: their hotel accommodations are in Orlando. Those are the people
Speaker 1: that don't get it when you're complaining about your room
Speaker 1: in Orlando. When people have no businesses, that have lost
Speaker 1: their rightlihood and are depressed and are killing themselves and
Speaker 1: taking drugs to try to get through life, nobody wants
Speaker 1: to hear athletes complaining about hotel A combinations. That's just
Speaker 1: normal common sense that has nothing to do with politics
Speaker 1: and has to do with human nature. I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't realize people suffering. I don't. You know they're
Speaker 1: joking around about the cowboys losing, and you say, yeah,
Speaker 1: the cowboys, Well, that's not the kind of victory all
Speaker 1: we're seeing. We're seeing. Yeah, your business went out, and
Speaker 1: you're a bad guy. I hope you brought up business.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come down there and beat you up. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna burn down your business because I'm mad at something.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of lunacy I never thought we'd see
Speaker 1: in this country. Yeah, I'm right there with you. Tone,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and and and the other you
Speaker 1: were it was speaking over Orlando. You were there? What
Speaker 1: was it like traveling during the I guess it's still
Speaker 1: the pandemic, right, it's still going on. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: I mean the plane was empty and everybody, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? You crazy? You're going to a Lando, Florida.
Speaker 1: Do you realize you're gonna die? How are you gonna
Speaker 1: get on an airplane? You know? I got on an
Speaker 1: airplane safe. I had a mask, I had everything. I
Speaker 1: had an aseptic, I had everything else that I needed.
Speaker 1: I got on a plane, the plane was half empty.
Speaker 1: We landed, I got into a rental car, was all sanitized.
Speaker 1: I went to Disney, got into a hotel. It was
Speaker 1: all plane. Everything's marked off six ft apart all the
Speaker 1: and you know, Disney is gonna do it right. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna put people in danger. So it was absolutely great.
Speaker 1: And it was the aerie, but there was nobody there.
Speaker 1: I'm walking down Main Street, USA and those a Disney World,
Speaker 1: not in disney Land, which I love too when I
Speaker 1: lived in l A. But I thought it was one
Speaker 1: of those rare instances we get to go to a
Speaker 1: place and and actually go on the line, do not
Speaker 1: have to stand in line for two hours. So while
Speaker 1: it was weird, it was also one of those wild
Speaker 1: I'll never be able to do this again. Go to
Speaker 1: a vacation and you know, people, what do you go
Speaker 1: to the I love Disney. I love going to Disney.
Speaker 1: Plus I love getting away from stuff and love seeing
Speaker 1: people happy in families. I don't I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: get my joys watching people suffer. So it was really
Speaker 1: interesting and it was a great week. The weather was hot,
Speaker 1: went to Universal and did the kind of things that
Speaker 1: I like to do as a sixty year old kid
Speaker 1: at heart, and so I thought it was very safe.
Speaker 1: I thought, I feel good. I know nothing happened. I
Speaker 1: know everything was clean, everything was sanitized, and they would
Speaker 1: give you a little squirt in your hands when you're
Speaker 1: getting on a ride. When you got off, you got
Speaker 1: another square to sanitizer. You had to wear a mask.
Speaker 1: So you do the right things and you live your life.
Speaker 1: And the people who were freed are the ones who
Speaker 1: were making the world words of me, like, you can
Speaker 1: be afraid, you can be afraid. You don't have to travel.
Speaker 1: Nobody's telling you to do you know, I know in
Speaker 1: California they're talking about that. They talked about there's not
Speaker 1: gonna be any trick or treating in l A. And
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden I saw earlier, Oh, now
Speaker 1: they reversed it. We're not gonna tell people they can't
Speaker 1: trick or treat, but if they want to, we don't
Speaker 1: recommend it. So at words, politicians are forcing people to
Speaker 1: do what they think they should do, and people that
Speaker 1: don't want that, well, we don't really, because you know
Speaker 1: these people selling costumes, there's store selling candies. You know
Speaker 1: this is a kids thing and the adults like it too.
Speaker 1: So when we get into a world where politicians tell
Speaker 1: us one that you characters, people are go crazy. What
Speaker 1: is it we tell you that the dovers wanted to
Speaker 1: tell us what to do? You want to think we
Speaker 1: know what's says. Some people are irresponsible for the majority aren't.
Speaker 1: So the majority should be the ones who tell these
Speaker 1: idiots who run cities and states stop concerning our lives.
Speaker 1: Let us be safe, let us be that's becally was
Speaker 1: possible with one another. I think it's I think people
Speaker 1: can do things safely, and I think our country is
Speaker 1: being wrecked by just a power hungry people who are
Speaker 1: just trying to tell everybody to stay home, not watch sports,
Speaker 1: not going to games. These conferences like the Big Tent,
Speaker 1: who had to be ashamed, had to be shamed into
Speaker 1: doing the right thing when they realized that they were
Speaker 1: a bunch of idiots. And you guys know the Pact
Speaker 1: well have been bought bunch of idiots all long before
Speaker 1: the Big Ted was Tony, are you getting much or
Speaker 1: do you see much engagement at least in your local community.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's one thing for the sports teams to
Speaker 1: take their initiatives and whatnot. We're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: their social injustice causes or what's going on with COVID,
Speaker 1: But do you have people that are actually engaged in
Speaker 1: your local area talking about, hey, we need to push
Speaker 1: back a little bit against our local government to make
Speaker 1: sure that we do get our businesses back up and running.
Speaker 1: When you get people out and open and engaged again,
Speaker 1: or is it are people just know? I think they
Speaker 1: I think they are there. I obviously that you know.
Speaker 1: Mind if I live in that neighborhood with there's a
Speaker 1: lot of restaurants and stuff, and a a lot of them
Speaker 1: are going out of business that won't come back. They
Speaker 1: want to reopen safely, and some of them have and
Speaker 1: when the city tells them here in Philly, the city
Speaker 1: tells him you can't have outdoor dining. You know, those
Speaker 1: people now what we're trying to do outdoor dining in
Speaker 1: the summer. And then they finally took it upon themselves
Speaker 1: and said, we're gonna take spots in the street and
Speaker 1: we're gonna open up outside and everybody's gonna wear a
Speaker 1: mask and then the city backed down. Now the city
Speaker 1: is saying, you know you can't. We're not gonna open
Speaker 1: up restaurants until the end of September now for indoor dining.
Speaker 1: Yet there are other cities the mayor went to Merryland
Speaker 1: to go to a restaurant. Any crowd cakes the mayor
Speaker 1: of our city here and think somebody took a picture
Speaker 1: of him, and now all of a sudden he's yelling
Speaker 1: at them, just like Nancy Pelosi did yell at the
Speaker 1: the stylist where she went in and got her hair done,
Speaker 1: when everybody is supposed to be wearing masks of the
Speaker 1: hypocrisy of politicians is a joke. And we have a
Speaker 1: governor and a and a mayor here in Philly who
Speaker 1: basically are telling people what they can and can't do.
Speaker 1: And most people are reasonable. But when you start destroying
Speaker 1: people's lives and livelihoods and you pay no consequences as
Speaker 1: a result, they get angry. But the problem in Philly
Speaker 1: is people worried about getting shot a night. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the big cities. There's mostly protest uh for whatever
Speaker 1: else they think it is. But nobody's out there saying
Speaker 1: we want our jobs back, or we want to open
Speaker 1: our businesses, those protests are out allowed. But if you
Speaker 1: want to go out there and loot and burn stuff
Speaker 1: up because you're mad, Uh, you can do that a
Speaker 1: party that doesn't spread any COVID or any of that
Speaker 1: stuff in this town. And it's like that's in a
Speaker 1: lot of cities, it's not just here. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: wanna go back to your your situation. So legally, I
Speaker 1: don't know how much you can say and how much
Speaker 1: you can't say. Uh, are you pursuing that Avenue Tony
Speaker 1: as far as you know, trying to get something, uh
Speaker 1: something back? I don't know what. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to describe it. But is there a legal action pending
Speaker 1: regarding your situation? Well, not against I mean, I I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not a lawsuit crazy guy, but I've
Speaker 1: got deep I've had lawyers contact me and say, you know,
Speaker 1: what dead Spin did was not just journalism. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just pointing out an injustice. I mean when they call
Speaker 1: you a racist and they have the whole world coming out.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's any litigation to pursue, it
Speaker 1: would definitely be against dead Spin, But I have lawyers
Speaker 1: looking at it as far as Serious and you know
Speaker 1: Serious in sports Map Radio, which used to be sp Nation,
Speaker 1: you know, they did what they had to do. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's about you can't you gotta do a knee jerk thing,
Speaker 1: you know, because you're worried about you know, Serious has
Speaker 1: a lot of different programming and they've got the NBA,
Speaker 1: so they got to protect the n b A. I
Speaker 1: understand that. So I'm not mad at Serious. I'm not
Speaker 1: mad at Sports Map. That's the world we live in
Speaker 1: right now. But you know, I know again I'm not
Speaker 1: doing one about it. And but I know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are on the air. We've had
Speaker 1: multiple chances that have done far more heinous things than
Speaker 1: I've ever done, and so I just worked there. It's
Speaker 1: only justice for all, you know, everybody's called about everybody's
Speaker 1: gonna be equal. I want to quality. Well, there isn't
Speaker 1: justice for all. And again I accept the consequences of
Speaker 1: my actions and I lost my job. But as far
Speaker 1: as people being accountable for the kind of hit jobs
Speaker 1: and the kind of things that the dead spins of
Speaker 1: the world do, I don't think they should get away
Speaker 1: with it. And we'll see what happens, Tony. We're gonna
Speaker 1: wrap this up, but I gotta tell you, I mean,
Speaker 1: I we have a lot of a lot of my
Speaker 1: guys listen to you, and they loved your show on
Speaker 1: seriously've listened to you over the years, and they've been
Speaker 1: reaching out to me and they'd be like, Hey, you
Speaker 1: gotta get Tony on. I'm so glad you did this
Speaker 1: Number one, number two. I hope that you can come
Speaker 1: back at some point, you take a break and recharge
Speaker 1: and do something down the line. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: a chance that you will come back, maybe in a
Speaker 1: couple of months or in a year from now, that
Speaker 1: you'll do something in the radio or podcasting world. I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I had a tres still have a
Speaker 1: twist chattle, but I haven't going on the air because
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go back on this week and
Speaker 1: just go on the air and start crazy, going crazy
Speaker 1: and having people call me and and you know, and
Speaker 1: have a pity party. I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to bash serious or bashed sports map radio.
Speaker 1: That's not what I want to do. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not a guy who's I appreciate every opportunity I've ever had,
Speaker 1: so I figured it was better not to not to
Speaker 1: do a show and have people call in and you know,
Speaker 1: and just rip everybody. And you know, it's not my
Speaker 1: style of criticized bat it's top sports. You know, we
Speaker 1: talked about sports and stuff. We always do that because
Speaker 1: that's fun. That's the fun part of what we do.
Speaker 1: But the Malla Miller, you know, you've got a couple
Speaker 1: of guys in there to come after me every once
Speaker 1: in a while. Well, I think for the most part
Speaker 1: they're good people. But I don't know. You've got a
Speaker 1: couple of them, Ben that don't seem to like my
Speaker 1: my style, and uh, you know that's the way it is.
Speaker 1: They're allowed they're not like me. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: who those people are. I love you, Tony, and uh,
Speaker 1: you you're the You're the o G, the patriarch. You
Speaker 1: started ESB at radio Fox Sports Radio. That is an
Speaker 1: unbelievable resume. Man. Listen, good luck, Tony. I hope you
Speaker 1: if you if you decide to sue, I hope you'll win.
Speaker 1: And you should write a book. Also, you should do that.
Speaker 1: But get back on the podcast, get on that Twitch channel, Tony.
Speaker 1: The people want to hear you. Get back and talk.
Speaker 1: Do your thing, man. I don't care right now. Let's
Speaker 1: just start watching sports. Let's get the NFL season going,
Speaker 1: Let's get some college games going. Let's try to find
Speaker 1: something that we can, you know, come together about it
Speaker 1: sports and have fun and laugh and enjoy life. You
Speaker 1: got to enjoy life, man. If you can't enjoy it,
Speaker 1: you know, then that's sitting around being miserable every day.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make you feel good, you want. I always
Speaker 1: try to find things that make me happy and laugh.
Speaker 1: I don't look for negatives stuff. Negative stuff finds me.
Speaker 1: That's the problem. All right, Thank you Tony, say Adam,
Speaker 1: miss Robin for me to take care alright, Ben, love
Speaker 1: you man, Dave, thank you so much. Guys, thank for
Speaker 1: having my back. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: The Ben Miller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
Speaker 1: pm Pacific