Speaker 1: Everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcast for Dave Pash.
Speaker 1: My guest this week is simply one of the best
Speaker 1: in the business, one of the most talented guys on
Speaker 1: radio or television, the one, the only, Scott Van Pelt.
Speaker 1: If you have an opportunity and you're watching a game,
Speaker 1: you know that after the game's over, you want to
Speaker 1: stick around because not only are you going to hear
Speaker 1: from Scott on Sports Center with Scott Van Pelt, but
Speaker 1: you're going to hear from great guests. Oftentimes it's the
Speaker 1: players themselves that just played in the game, or it's
Speaker 1: another analyst from ESPN breaking down the game you just watched.
Speaker 1: It's one of the best shows on TV. Scott does
Speaker 1: a great job. Stanford Steve, who's part of the production team,
Speaker 1: does a great job. Scott's one of my favorites in
Speaker 1: this business. So talented, and it's great to catch up
Speaker 1: with Scott, and so many things like how did this
Speaker 1: come about in terms of Sports Center with Scott Van Pelt,
Speaker 1: how much being a radio talk show host prepared him
Speaker 1: for this role. Would you get to share there is
Speaker 1: who you are, what you think, what matters to you.
Speaker 1: I don't mind being vulnerable and sharing in part of
Speaker 1: my life. Then your audience gets to know you as
Speaker 1: a human, not just some person they see on television,
Speaker 1: and they care about your life. We also talk about
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals, the NFL His Team, the Washington Commanders,
Speaker 1: and much more. We are presented by bet MGM, the
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Speaker 1: called one eight hundred. Next step all right, time for
Speaker 1: our conversation with the Great Scott van pelt So Scott.
Speaker 1: You probably don't even remember, but we actually met in
Speaker 1: the nineties. Both of us had hair. I think you
Speaker 1: were at the Golf Channel and it was at a
Speaker 1: US Open and Mike Tarico introduced us. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've actually seen you in person, since we always
Speaker 1: see each other on TV when you know, we have
Speaker 1: a late game and we're throwing it too or whatever.
Speaker 1: But happier for your success. Man. It's it's been incredible
Speaker 1: to watch What year is this now? For Sports Center
Speaker 1: with SVP? Is it year eight? Did you guys start
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen? Yes, yes, we just began our eighth year.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny just to backpedal on just
Speaker 1: sort of how all of us in this goofy business
Speaker 1: sort of know each other. I feel like so many
Speaker 1: of us have done what you're explaining right. We've we've
Speaker 1: crossed paths somewhere. It's in a press room, it's on
Speaker 1: a field, it's buy an eighteenth green, it's whatever. And
Speaker 1: then you go do your thing and I go do mine,
Speaker 1: and we're certainly aware of and rooting for each other
Speaker 1: as we watch, and uh, you know, things evolved and
Speaker 1: you've obviously done great stuff as well and continue to
Speaker 1: get to do all of that. And I've been lucky too,
Speaker 1: and I just feel like I'm I really enjoy how
Speaker 1: how our fraternity of Slash sorority, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, it's it's it really is a fraternal thing.
Speaker 1: I find that mostly we root for each other. I
Speaker 1: don't know if people get that, um, but that's always
Speaker 1: how I feel people mostly, And then you know, every
Speaker 1: now and you meet people that just suck, but that's
Speaker 1: just life. I mean, that's not exclusive to any specific occupation.
Speaker 1: But mostly it's a really cool and supportive family because
Speaker 1: it's such it's such a weird gig to do where
Speaker 1: you're on the road and weekends aren't necessarily weekends, and
Speaker 1: holidays might not be holidays and all the rest of it. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, we we signed up to do this late
Speaker 1: night thing and it's been fun. It was a total
Speaker 1: like just a whiteboard, you know, empty do what you
Speaker 1: want with it, and they've let us kind of do
Speaker 1: our own thing, and some stuff has stuck and others didn't.
Speaker 1: And mostly we just come on after games because we
Speaker 1: like to watch sports and try to reflect that and
Speaker 1: how we cover it. But it's it's really been not
Speaker 1: anything I ever dreamt would happen, that's for sure. So Scotty,
Speaker 1: how did it go down with the approach? Who approached
Speaker 1: you at the ESPN about the idea? Was this something
Speaker 1: that you pitched them? How did it all come together?
Speaker 1: Because you were obviously doing a lot of different things
Speaker 1: at the time, including your radio show, and you were
Speaker 1: doing some Thursday college football pre and post and doing
Speaker 1: Sports Center. How did this show in particular come about?
Speaker 1: It was John Wildhack was in charge at the time.
Speaker 1: He's now at Syracuse as an a d and good
Speaker 1: for the Orange of having a nice year this fall,
Speaker 1: and frankly could have won on Saturday at Clemson. That's
Speaker 1: neither here nor there. John Skipper was our president at
Speaker 1: the time, and the conversation was just kind of an organic,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do sort of a thing,
Speaker 1: and I thought, I said, it'd be pretty cool to
Speaker 1: be able to take the idea of radio and bring
Speaker 1: it to Sports Center and have it a little bit
Speaker 1: less structured, but not just entirely abandoned the notion of
Speaker 1: who won the games and what were the cool things
Speaker 1: that happened, And so it was it was just out
Speaker 1: of that conversation. It was the type of thing where
Speaker 1: I never thought they do it. I mean, Sports Center
Speaker 1: orgy know, has always been this sacred sort of a brand,
Speaker 1: and the idea that they give me the keys to
Speaker 1: the car, so to speak, and let me go where
Speaker 1: I wanted. I just didn't think it had happened. But then,
Speaker 1: to John Wildhau's credit, he said, speak like to use
Speaker 1: the car analogy. He said, Look, I don't want you
Speaker 1: to stand in the middle lane. I mean treat it
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of a lot of lanes that
Speaker 1: you can explore and see what you want and see
Speaker 1: what works and what doesn't. And so that's that was it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just kind of born out of
Speaker 1: that idea that that maybe it would work, and it
Speaker 1: it was. It wasn't like it was a high stakes gamble.
Speaker 1: It was you know, it's midnight, you know, and the
Speaker 1: space after games matters. That real estate is important. But
Speaker 1: if it just didn't sort of take then we could
Speaker 1: have just punted. But you know, it worked well enough
Speaker 1: that we're continuing to do it. And you know, on
Speaker 1: a night like on Monday tonight, as you and I talk,
Speaker 1: we follow up the Bears and the Patriots, and then
Speaker 1: Tuesday we follow the NHL, then Wednesday we follow the NBA,
Speaker 1: and and I mean it's I still love games. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you do too. If you didn't, you wouldn't call right.
Speaker 1: I mean, the watching games is still endlessly interesting because
Speaker 1: things happen you just can't ever imagine, and greatness and
Speaker 1: happens and disappointment and all of it, and we get
Speaker 1: to document that. And that's sort of that's the space
Speaker 1: we've lived in since whatever it was twenty fifteen. I
Speaker 1: guess it wasn't that fall. And we will be throwing
Speaker 1: it to you Wednesday. I'm doing Lakers Denver. It's uh
Speaker 1: jj Reddick and Richard Jefferson. It's the first time that
Speaker 1: the two have worked a game together. So I'll actually
Speaker 1: be thrown at you after we're done. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen you in twenty five years, but we
Speaker 1: end up talking. That's the business in a nut job. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I think your show has worked
Speaker 1: is because you're so likable on the air. And I'm
Speaker 1: curious how much do you think the radio show helped
Speaker 1: in that regard. I had Golok on a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago and I got to do one college football season
Speaker 1: with Mike and just seeing the number of people that
Speaker 1: are just attracted him in his personality. And I feel
Speaker 1: like for a play by play announcer, for the most part,
Speaker 1: you're playing a role. You're calling a game. You're not
Speaker 1: really putting your personality out there. Although maybe it's different
Speaker 1: when I do college basketball with Bill Walton because you
Speaker 1: can't help, but you know, get into conversations outside of
Speaker 1: just calling the game. My jobs to document the games.
Speaker 1: As a talk show host on radio or doing Sports Center,
Speaker 1: you you're allowed to have your personality really out there
Speaker 1: and people gravitate to you. Scott, how much do you
Speaker 1: think doing the talk show, combine with all your history
Speaker 1: with Sports Center helped create what you've got going now
Speaker 1: enormously because what you learn in radio, which I've said
Speaker 1: and I'll say again, was the hardest thing that I did,
Speaker 1: And I don't know what else could be harder in
Speaker 1: this in this field because it requires hours and hours
Speaker 1: and hours of conversation and interesting conversation and it's every
Speaker 1: day and it's a lot, a whole lot, And Rissillo
Speaker 1: helped me massively just to know, you know, I've always
Speaker 1: credited him for saying, you know, okay, well we'll talk
Speaker 1: about the Bears and Patriots in a block of wait, wait,
Speaker 1: what's the topic? Right, just saying we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the game. Fine, Well what's the topic. What's interesting
Speaker 1: about the topic? Is it fields? Is it who's the
Speaker 1: quarterback in the indiand is it narrowing that down? But
Speaker 1: anyone can do that, anyone on radio can talk about sports.
Speaker 1: What you should get to share there is who you are,
Speaker 1: what you think, what matters to you. If I don't
Speaker 1: mind being, you know, vulnerable and sharing part of my life,
Speaker 1: the highs and the lows. Talking about losing our dog, Otis,
Speaker 1: our Wheredesian ridge back this past spring, I mean it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're gonna bear your soul. I sat on
Speaker 1: television and balled about my dog. I can't tell you, Dave,
Speaker 1: how many times. Just I was in a Maryland football
Speaker 1: game this weekend. It was homecoming. These strangers come up
Speaker 1: to me and they say, the thing you did about
Speaker 1: your dog, that thing you said about Otis. They know
Speaker 1: his name? I said, I tell my wife, like our
Speaker 1: dog became famous posthumously. You know, and when you share
Speaker 1: yourself and the way that Mike and Mike did in
Speaker 1: the mornings about their children and watching their kids grow
Speaker 1: up and sharing that part of their lives. If you're
Speaker 1: willing to, then your audience gets to know you as
Speaker 1: a human, not just some person they say on television,
Speaker 1: and they care about your life if you're willing to
Speaker 1: share it. And I've done that, and so undoubtedly that
Speaker 1: part has helped. I think people recognize that I like sports.
Speaker 1: I tell them while I'm from they know I'm a turp.
Speaker 1: When Marilyn gets, you know, beat, then I get I
Speaker 1: gotta wear it, I get heckled. But when they win,
Speaker 1: people know I'm psyched and they're psyched for me. So
Speaker 1: that coupled with having done sports in er for a
Speaker 1: long time, getting to sit alongside a guy like Neil
Speaker 1: Everett who we had a great relationship with, alongside Stuart Scott,
Speaker 1: who he and I had a great thing. You have
Speaker 1: all these different ways that you connect to an audience,
Speaker 1: and radio was the one that made it really personal.
Speaker 1: And so that's been a huge, huge help to connecting
Speaker 1: to an audience. Because now it's harder than everything, easier
Speaker 1: than ever to have a show, harder than ever to
Speaker 1: connect to people because there's so many of them to
Speaker 1: sort of choose from. Yeah, you mentioned Neil. I've gotten
Speaker 1: to know Neil a little bit through Bill Walton. Neil
Speaker 1: will come to some of the Oregon UCLA games and
Speaker 1: then we'll go out to dinner. I think they also
Speaker 1: have a tequila company to yeather. I don't know. Neil
Speaker 1: will shout out a zunia sometimes if people are watching
Speaker 1: Sports Center and they just hear Neil shout that out,
Speaker 1: or if you hear Bill shout that out. Apparently it's
Speaker 1: a tequila company that I think they Well, there you go.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't surprise me. It could be anything with those guys.
Speaker 1: As we know that Neil is one of the truly,
Speaker 1: he's my brother forever. I love him. He's such a
Speaker 1: such a gentle kind, unique soul man. I'm just so
Speaker 1: blessed that I got to know him. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you'd say the same of Bill. Watching you guys,
Speaker 1: I don't want to turn the tables on you, but
Speaker 1: I do. Can may I ask one question? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, that's whatever. Do whatever you want? How do
Speaker 1: you do it? Because we had Bill on once and
Speaker 1: he's such a joy, But it's like getting on a
Speaker 1: ride in an amusement park and not knowing where it ends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you probably are aware of this. It has been
Speaker 1: out It is out there that they're doing a thirty
Speaker 1: for thirty on Bill and his whole life and a
Speaker 1: big part of his obviously going to be his playing days.
Speaker 1: I mean the interviewed Kareem, Doctor, j ry Bird, Magic John,
Speaker 1: I mean, you name it, Michael Jordan, they interviewed, well,
Speaker 1: I met with them in March for about an hour
Speaker 1: because they want to do a piece on Bill with
Speaker 1: the broadcasting and they were they were asking the same
Speaker 1: questions and you know, how do you do it? And
Speaker 1: what's the key? And I think I've had other teammates
Speaker 1: of his, including Lionel Hollands, who is a teammate of
Speaker 1: his with the Blazers, tell me this that Bill views
Speaker 1: me as Kareem and that I'm kind of his rival,
Speaker 1: but I'm his teammate. So for the audience's sake, we're rivals.
Speaker 1: But when when the lights are not on and we're
Speaker 1: not on the air, we're teammates. Does does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Like I guess I grasped that and that helped me understand, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not personal. It's a game. This is part of
Speaker 1: the entertainment, and it allows him to feel like he's
Speaker 1: playing in Game seven of the NBA Finals against Kareem
Speaker 1: It makes sense. It's just it takes a rare talent
Speaker 1: to be able to do it so capably. I feel
Speaker 1: like you and and Benetti. I remember watching Benetti and
Speaker 1: Maui and just being blown away because I mean, it's
Speaker 1: Dayton's playing whomever at noon it's or something, and he's like,
Speaker 1: have you read on Fire the Vanities or something? And
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, oh, this poor guy, and Bannetti hits it
Speaker 1: back at him with pace, and then just for the
Speaker 1: next two hours, it's just this running who knows what.
Speaker 1: But the ability that you have to weave in the
Speaker 1: actual calling of the game, which matters to the two
Speaker 1: Oregon UCLA fans that are watching. They'd like to just
Speaker 1: have some sort of context of the play by play,
Speaker 1: but also never missing where the he's meandering. I just
Speaker 1: I'm marvel at it, and I just uh, but I
Speaker 1: also know, I mean, I don't do play by play,
Speaker 1: so I don't try to put myself in that seat.
Speaker 1: I just but I think it's it's a truly a
Speaker 1: rare man or a woman that could sit there and
Speaker 1: actually do it, and you're great at it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it too, is just we're
Speaker 1: very different, but we're both accepting of the other and
Speaker 1: our personalities and our beliefs and backgrounds. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest compliments I got, And this was
Speaker 1: very early on. This was twenty thirteen or fourteen. I
Speaker 1: had done the Pactol Championship game with Bill, and I
Speaker 1: had a Warrior's game. I think it was the next
Speaker 1: night or two nights later. I walk in at the time.
Speaker 1: First of all, Luke, Bill's son, is one of the
Speaker 1: assistant coaches. I walk in and Luke comes over to
Speaker 1: me and gives me a hug, like you look like
Speaker 1: you need a hug. And we're doing this and so,
Speaker 1: and then we go to a sit down with Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and we're about to start and Steph goes, why
Speaker 1: didn't you answer his question? I said, excuse me. He goes,
Speaker 1: you didn't answer Bill's question. And I'm like, Steph, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? He goes, Bill asked if you
Speaker 1: had ever been inside of a volcano while it's erupting,
Speaker 1: and you didn't answer it. I'm like, because I just
Speaker 1: kind of blew off the question, which I do a lot.
Speaker 1: I think actually people kind of enjoy that more than
Speaker 1: if you actually answer it. I don't know, right, but
Speaker 1: how cool is that? And you asked earlier about having
Speaker 1: a radio show, and am I said about sharing my life?
Speaker 1: I did a thing about my daughter on the show
Speaker 1: once in a segment we call one Big Thing. Then
Speaker 1: the night after I did it, it was her birthday.
Speaker 1: She was six, and Steph scores twenty three and the
Speaker 1: fourth they beat Houston in Houston to knock them out
Speaker 1: of the playoffs, and Steph Curry is on with us,
Speaker 1: and I'm he's always gracious, and I'm trying to let
Speaker 1: him go and I'm trying to say goodbye, and he says, no, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: hold on that thing you did last night about your daughter, man,
Speaker 1: And I mean, you just those things blow you away,
Speaker 1: don't say. I mean, you know someone's out there on
Speaker 1: the other side of the television, But when it's somebody
Speaker 1: that you're talking about on the television and they're consuming
Speaker 1: it actively, I think that's not that it's better or
Speaker 1: worse than anybody listening to you and me talk right now.
Speaker 1: But I just don't know that you're ever really prepared
Speaker 1: for that, right right, And it's affirmation that you're what
Speaker 1: you're doing is bringing joy to somebody else, right, you're
Speaker 1: in attaining which is in a way that you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, Steph, So how you you I assume who's
Speaker 1: who who among us has been inside of volcano when
Speaker 1: it's rupted, and now of course I have. But if
Speaker 1: you say that, it kind of you know, you're almost
Speaker 1: better off just kind of going back to the game exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing, I you, It's like having It's
Speaker 1: like my kid in the car in the back. I
Speaker 1: just I answer a lots of other stuff that's just
Speaker 1: non secutors. I just figured out he didn't really want
Speaker 1: to know that if he doesn't last again. Oh man,
Speaker 1: good stuff. Well let's um, let's talk a little football.
Speaker 1: I'm curious because you know, obviously you're watching games all
Speaker 1: the time, and you know you're on after the Thursday
Speaker 1: night game, so you watch the Cardinals beat the Saints
Speaker 1: last week. Give me your sense of what you think
Speaker 1: there are three and four? They are a game out
Speaker 1: of first place in the NFC West despite struggling mightily
Speaker 1: offensively for the most part this season, which is so
Speaker 1: weird because just to be honest with your listeners, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know Cliff a long time. I like him. He's
Speaker 1: an easy guy to like, right, fair enough, Yeah, great guy?
Speaker 1: Right right? So we I mean I go back to
Speaker 1: like the college days, and we had a moment you know,
Speaker 1: a lot during our Rascillo days on radio, and it's
Speaker 1: just like I didn't. I mean, I thought, like a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought he was going to be the
Speaker 1: sc you know, offensive coordinator, and then well it took
Speaker 1: a left and as he said a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: like this is new to me. I've never struggled with offense.
Speaker 1: When they went to Sea Allen scored nine points, I thought, whoa,
Speaker 1: what are we looking at here? Now we get a
Speaker 1: little more context with Sea Alle and you think, you know, like,
Speaker 1: good to Pete Carroll. Good for them, they're they're they're competitive,
Speaker 1: don't They're leading the West. Good for Gino Smith, good
Speaker 1: from the whole bunch of them. Um the way things
Speaker 1: have gone. But I have a friend that always say
Speaker 1: is if you say good for you, it sounds like
Speaker 1: it's it sounds patronizing, but I'm being sincere. I think
Speaker 1: it's great that they've done as well as they have
Speaker 1: when everyone thought they were just sort of punting on
Speaker 1: the present. Well, it doesn't look what they are. I
Speaker 1: think the good news for Arizona clearly is you're not
Speaker 1: in division with Philadelphia. You don't find yourself. I was
Speaker 1: behind the leader, um, and you get you need to
Speaker 1: be better at home. Obviously that's a secret. But you
Speaker 1: know what I looked at it. I looked at it
Speaker 1: was a schedule before they buy. And there's not a
Speaker 1: single game that is easy on that not long. And
Speaker 1: but there's also not a single game that I think
Speaker 1: isn't if they want it would surprise me because I
Speaker 1: think the NFL right now is as weird as I've
Speaker 1: ever remembered it, just in terms of how few teams
Speaker 1: I really accept as being excellent. I mean, Minnesota's records
Speaker 1: says they're really good. Are they I don't know. I
Speaker 1: watched how they beat Detroit it felt like they've stolen one. Um.
Speaker 1: I watched how they beat New Orleans the same thing
Speaker 1: kind and so I don't know that they're really good
Speaker 1: or not. And When I watch Arizona and I see
Speaker 1: new comeback, I think instantly, man, that's that's the difference
Speaker 1: a guy makes. Like when I watched Aaron Rodgers struggle,
Speaker 1: I think, how much of that's not having seventeen a
Speaker 1: guy he just trusts on third and five to get
Speaker 1: him a first time, to keep the ball, move the chains,
Speaker 1: I think a lot. Well, how many times the Hopkins
Speaker 1: get targeted in that Thursday It was like fourteen and
Speaker 1: you instantly see the connection that they have with one another,
Speaker 1: and how much of the differences that make to an
Speaker 1: offense A ton So I mean, I think they'll they're
Speaker 1: likely to be better. I think with the two bags
Speaker 1: that filled in for Connor last week, they both played well.
Speaker 1: It sucks that Hollywood Brown got hurt, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe more can stay healthy. You've got enough weapons out
Speaker 1: there that at some point I just have to believe
Speaker 1: the offense is going to look like it's capable of
Speaker 1: looking and what it does. Then there's no reason that
Speaker 1: Arizona can't win enough games to be in the mix
Speaker 1: for a playoff spot, particularly given what the West is.
Speaker 1: But if they want to mess around and play like
Speaker 1: they've played at home or they want to mess around
Speaker 1: and play like they played it, but up in Seattle.
Speaker 1: Then looking at these games before to buy, there's not
Speaker 1: one of them looks like an obvious win to me either.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that's reasonable, but from a
Speaker 1: long way away, that's that's what I've noticed when I
Speaker 1: watch it play. To your point, though the NFL, it's
Speaker 1: it is crazier than ever. Who saw Carolina pummeling Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay and Brady looking as pedestrian as he has And
Speaker 1: oh look that that was? That was that was? That
Speaker 1: was a string I said on the show in Sports
Speaker 1: Center like that. In the end of the year, like
Speaker 1: towards December, I'll I always sort of say this is
Speaker 1: the best one and the worst loss of the day,
Speaker 1: because the stakes are such that you know, if you're
Speaker 1: in the mix, you just can't afford this loss. It's
Speaker 1: premature to say that, you know, something's the worst loss
Speaker 1: of the day, but I didn't think it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: I think if you're Carolina and you've traded away your
Speaker 1: best player on Thursday night and you're on your third
Speaker 1: string quarterback and you're sort of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what are we going to be well, you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to be Tom Brady and Tampa Bay and tam Tampa.
Speaker 1: This Tampaga is awful on Sunday. Awful. Yeah, this were
Speaker 1: three points, and I wouldn't say they were lucky to
Speaker 1: do that because they got in the red zone. But
Speaker 1: Brady looks a mess, Rogers looks a mess. I'm here
Speaker 1: in Washington. I mean, Washington beat Green Bay. Those two together,
Speaker 1: keep we keep. I think we do this thing where
Speaker 1: we just presume good teams are good forever and then
Speaker 1: and then when they're not, you just sort of baffled
Speaker 1: by it. Well I'm baffled, but neither one of those
Speaker 1: teams looks like a good football team right now. You
Speaker 1: obviously have a close connection to Washington, and I'd love
Speaker 1: to know your thoughts there on the team, first of all.
Speaker 1: And then also you got Jim Mercy taken shots of
Speaker 1: Daniel Snyder trying to you force a sale of an ownership.
Speaker 1: You know, we have that here in Phoenix with Robert Sarvaen.
Speaker 1: To me, that was eye opening because again I keep
Speaker 1: referencing things I've said on Sports Center, but it's just
Speaker 1: obviously that was the topic of conversation and we had
Speaker 1: Dan Graziano one, and I said, I don't know this
Speaker 1: to be true, but I can't imagine that Jim is
Speaker 1: out there saying that on his own. I clearly think
Speaker 1: he would. I don't think Jim needs anyone's permission to
Speaker 1: say what he thinks. But I don't presume that he's
Speaker 1: out there saying that unless he believes that there are
Speaker 1: others in the room that feel the same. There's a
Speaker 1: significant hold on a second, hold on a second. We
Speaker 1: have we have to manage this. We have to manage
Speaker 1: the room. Fellas. I have two young kids, we have rustlemania.
Speaker 1: We can't have it. Answer ourselves, answer ourselves, okay, so forward.
Speaker 1: Failing as a dad. The amount of listening that's going
Speaker 1: on is minimal. I've been there, brother, I've been there. Man.
Speaker 1: I feel for you. Oh, this is what happens when
Speaker 1: you have kids, your forties and you're an old guy.
Speaker 1: You have you have three timeouts. If you need to
Speaker 1: use one, you can um so on the earth say bit.
Speaker 1: I don't presume that he speaks without feeling like there's
Speaker 1: some consensuses and overstanding that there's somebody else in the
Speaker 1: room that feels that way. And that's eye opening because
Speaker 1: typically these guys don't break lank and so in DC,
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, that plays really well because people
Speaker 1: here largely would love to see it something change in
Speaker 1: regards to ownership. Um, spend a long time. It's been
Speaker 1: a long time since they've been any good and if
Speaker 1: you're an older guy like me, you remember when they
Speaker 1: were great. So, um, it's it's just it's that they're
Speaker 1: just an energy around it. It's just such that they've
Speaker 1: lost a fan base. If you'd have told me when
Speaker 1: I was a young man that someday Washington would be
Speaker 1: last in the NFL and attendance, I would have just
Speaker 1: fought you on site, just on principle, because that's that's
Speaker 1: an impossibility that never could have happened, and it has.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, it's just it's I guess it
Speaker 1: speaks to that anything could happen. Um, if you think
Speaker 1: back to the RFKA days and what was and now
Speaker 1: to the FedEx days with you know, stadium largely is
Speaker 1: overtaken by whoever they're playing that week, and it's just sad.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's a it's an incredibly sad
Speaker 1: state of affairs. And you know, I think URSA is
Speaker 1: saying that had a lot of people here that are
Speaker 1: in that sort of sell the team camp, saying wow,
Speaker 1: what does this mean? Well, it hasn't been anything yet. Um,
Speaker 1: I just no idea what will happen next, But a
Speaker 1: lot of Washington fanciers are sort of waiting to see
Speaker 1: a couple more and then we'll let you go. So
Speaker 1: we kind of mentioned a second ago about the dog.
Speaker 1: So and I texted you you you had done the
Speaker 1: story the summer on Otis and I don't even have
Speaker 1: a dog, and I text you to tell you man,
Speaker 1: I was like, I was emotional watching it. I don't
Speaker 1: have a dog. I haven't had a dog since I
Speaker 1: was a kid, and I was emotional. So you get
Speaker 1: the new puppy and the puppy. Kevin Clark was on
Speaker 1: this pod. I think actually the week that happened, it
Speaker 1: might have been the week before what happened? And how
Speaker 1: did you guys survive to get through it given what
Speaker 1: was going on in the background. Well, it was kind
Speaker 1: of you. You were one of many people that reached
Speaker 1: out and showed, you know, your kindness after we lost
Speaker 1: our dog. It was it was off horribly sad, anyone
Speaker 1: that's ever had a dog. No, it's just how much
Speaker 1: they mean and how integral they are to the family.
Speaker 1: And we thought following the summer, when we were traveling
Speaker 1: so much, that maybe we'd have the time to actually
Speaker 1: pay attention and and correctly take care of a puppy,
Speaker 1: because it's a great deal of work. So um Otis
Speaker 1: was and our dog, Read is a Rhodesian ridge back,
Speaker 1: and there ended up being these big balls of muscling. Um.
Speaker 1: He's going to be a big, big guy eventually. At
Speaker 1: the moment he's little um. But what dogs and all
Speaker 1: living creatures do. Davis the poop And so he came
Speaker 1: walking in behind me as I looked into the zoom camera,
Speaker 1: and like a true star, he got right into the
Speaker 1: frame and he squared up his shoulders and he squatted
Speaker 1: and he took a big old dump, and so I
Speaker 1: took I took a twenty, and then we went ahead
Speaker 1: and made it a full and we cleaned up the
Speaker 1: mess and um, and we carried on, because what else
Speaker 1: are we to do. He's a puppy, He's gonna do
Speaker 1: puppy things. But those things continue, They're just not happening
Speaker 1: on podcasts. So it's just you're sort of scurrying around
Speaker 1: behind the guy making sure you can get outside. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, he's the new guy in town, and we're
Speaker 1: we're grateful to have the new puffed. And it's just
Speaker 1: very different because otis we got right after I got
Speaker 1: married and so it was just me and my bride
Speaker 1: at the time. We now introduce the new guy into
Speaker 1: this chaos, some of which you got a chance to hear.
Speaker 1: With three young kids and now a puppy, and so
Speaker 1: mostly I just try to survive until I get to
Speaker 1: leave for the sanctuary of work. What time do you
Speaker 1: normally go in? How long are the meetings and the
Speaker 1: prep to do a show? And what time do you
Speaker 1: get out of there? And then are you like you
Speaker 1: go to bed at four in the morning, wake up
Speaker 1: at noon type person. It's it's not so that we
Speaker 1: meet it like four to thirty Eastern. We do. We
Speaker 1: do a zoom. I think a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that sort of came out of COVID is that we
Speaker 1: realize we don't need to be in the office sitting
Speaker 1: there for that many hours. It's sort of counterproductive. So
Speaker 1: we meet via zoom because we can just as effectively
Speaker 1: do that. We probably meet for between half an hour,
Speaker 1: sometimes it could go as long as an hour. And
Speaker 1: when there's a lot going on, you're trying to sort
Speaker 1: out what's going to fit in what isn't, and I
Speaker 1: generally get I'll eat at home with our family and
Speaker 1: head in sometime in theres seven o'clock hour. And on
Speaker 1: a night like Monday, as you and I are talking,
Speaker 1: we'll do our pod, Steve and I'll do our pod tonight,
Speaker 1: we'll watch, we'll do the Monday Night game. We'll come
Speaker 1: on when it's over. Depending on when the game ends,
Speaker 1: we'll be live until maybe twelve thirty, sometimes one. And
Speaker 1: you know, Sunday night was chaos because the Yankee game
Speaker 1: got pushed back I should say the Astro as they
Speaker 1: won the Astro game got pushed back through the rain.
Speaker 1: So it ends as we come on live, which meant
Speaker 1: if in TV the first segments called the A Block,
Speaker 1: the A Block for the re air show was live
Speaker 1: at one thirty in the morning. That's not normally the
Speaker 1: way things go. So Sunday was a long night. Didn't
Speaker 1: get home till three well, I stilept till probably eleven today.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's just weird sort of third shift life,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like you operate um during
Speaker 1: a time frame where there's nobody on the roads coming
Speaker 1: home at night, which is great. Um, you're able to
Speaker 1: pick up your kids from school during the day. You're
Speaker 1: present for a lot of stuff that a lot of
Speaker 1: folks might miss, and then you miss some weird stuff
Speaker 1: that other people wouldn't you know. So, but this is
Speaker 1: sort of what we signed up for. But you know
Speaker 1: I'd be doing it anyway. I watched the games mostly
Speaker 1: when I'm off, just because they interest me. So you
Speaker 1: know that the schedule is different than most, but it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of the only thing I've done for twenty
Speaker 1: whatever years. So now it's just very like a very
Speaker 1: well worn in lane, you know what I mean. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I'll let you go because I know you got to
Speaker 1: get back to the fam. I could ask you about
Speaker 1: one hundred more questions. We're good, no one's bleeding, everyone's
Speaker 1: still upright. If you have I mean, if we could
Speaker 1: go rapid Fire, I'll just okay your questions. Sure, okay.
Speaker 1: Rapid Fire is favorite guest meaning favorite regular mine for
Speaker 1: your show is Tim Legler. Do you have a favorite,
Speaker 1: or I don't want you. I don't want you to
Speaker 1: get in trouble if you answer this, but do you
Speaker 1: have one? I see what you mean. Well, I mean no,
Speaker 1: I honestly don't, because when I'm talking to Damian Woody,
Speaker 1: I'm having a blast. When we have Ryan Clark on
Speaker 1: after Money and Night Football, I think, how does this
Speaker 1: man have the energy when he was on Get Up
Speaker 1: this Morning? When we have Legs on, I think nobody's
Speaker 1: smarter telling me about basketball than this guy. When we
Speaker 1: have people sort of you know, different athletes that I've
Speaker 1: had the chance to talk to through the years, I'd
Speaker 1: say Pat Beverley was always one I loved just because
Speaker 1: I thought he was just so himself, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: and now you know you're seeing him do some stuff
Speaker 1: in like a podcast space, which only makes sense, and
Speaker 1: you saw him do some media last year after they
Speaker 1: got the season ended. That didn't surprise me at all.
Speaker 1: I thought he'd always really kind of break, he'd cut
Speaker 1: through with people just because he doesn't give a crap.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I'm lucky to have so many people
Speaker 1: that whenever Tim Kirchin pops up, I think, oh, here's
Speaker 1: my guy. You know what I mean, it's so many
Speaker 1: of those Doris Burke talk at basketball with doors like
Speaker 1: I talked to dB until the cows come home. So
Speaker 1: I'm lucky in that sense that there's so many people
Speaker 1: I enjoy it. I hear from Stanford Steve often during
Speaker 1: college basketball season for obvious reasons because he's Stanford Steve
Speaker 1: and we're doing back twelve games. How long have you
Speaker 1: known and worked with Stanford Steve? He became our producer
Speaker 1: on radio a couple of years in with me and Ryan,
Speaker 1: and knowing him as you do, you can understand how
Speaker 1: easy it is to to just sort of latch onto
Speaker 1: the guy. He's he's a great company, he's funny, he's
Speaker 1: an incredible sports fan, knows more about more than anyone
Speaker 1: that I know, and it's it's blows my mind, Like
Speaker 1: I get I know why I remember my team's regional path,
Speaker 1: you know, because it was my team, But he remembers
Speaker 1: just I remember ninety two the West Regional is a phoenix.
Speaker 1: He's like what And he's never wrong. It's just us
Speaker 1: just one of those people in cyclopedic knowledge. And oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, he was the number one recruit in
Speaker 1: high school when he came out of high school. He
Speaker 1: was a five star guy, but he never big times.
Speaker 1: So we just sort of instantly hit it off because
Speaker 1: he was just such a great company and amazingly loyal friend.
Speaker 1: And I've told the story often, but for your listeners
Speaker 1: are just the cliffs notes. Was when we had that
Speaker 1: meeting with wild Hack and talked about doing the show.
Speaker 1: I said, look, Stanford Steve needs to be on. They're like,
Speaker 1: what is he going to do? I said, well, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be Stanford Steve And they said, well, what is that?
Speaker 1: And I said, I don't really know, but it's just
Speaker 1: trust me. He's just I need him to be there,
Speaker 1: otherwise I'll feel sort of, you know, I'll naked and alone. Well,
Speaker 1: you guys have great chemistry too. I feel much more
Speaker 1: comfortable with his presence and you guys have great chemistry.
Speaker 1: It's I enjoy when when you have him on. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, last one not the fake SVP is your
Speaker 1: Twitter handle at some point where you impersonated. Is that
Speaker 1: why you did that or were you just trying to
Speaker 1: be because it really like latched on because at the
Speaker 1: time I don't even know that the fake Twitter accounts
Speaker 1: were that big or if they were somebody somebody. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, it seemed like early in the Twitter days,
Speaker 1: at least early for me knowing about it, everyone was
Speaker 1: the real sell and sell. And then someone did pretend
Speaker 1: to be me and they were making all these ridiculous
Speaker 1: um you know, just saying things that I wouldn't have said.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I can't remember exactly all the
Speaker 1: different whatever whatever it was. I mean, it's just it
Speaker 1: was if anybody was pretending to be you and saying
Speaker 1: things that wasn't it wouldn't you. You wouldn't want that
Speaker 1: to be anyone to think it was you. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't the real me. I was just I was not
Speaker 1: the fake one, and that that was where we started.
Speaker 1: And however many years ago that was that was it
Speaker 1: in the Twitter space, which I was as anti as
Speaker 1: as a lot of people are sort of like this is, um,
Speaker 1: who cares if you're eating a sandwich? But you realize, oh,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily eating a sandwich. It's this is where
Speaker 1: we find out everything that's happening in real time. Right sure,
Speaker 1: all right? I lied last one? Um Live golf versus
Speaker 1: the PGA. Is this ultimately good or bad? For golf,
Speaker 1: good for the dudes, it got all the money. It's
Speaker 1: just I don't think it's I don't think it benefits
Speaker 1: people to like the game because you don't. You don't
Speaker 1: end up with him as any of the best people together.
Speaker 1: Um as you would hope, you'd you'd hope that these
Speaker 1: people are playing. I don't know, pick pick a PGA
Speaker 1: Tour event, you know, the memorial, you know, or some
Speaker 1: some tournament we've seen a lot through the years were
Speaker 1: you're just used to seeing all those all these people playing. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, not having them all together benefits nobody. And
Speaker 1: it's just it's a bummer. I get why they did it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a pot full of money. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know who among us if they were. I
Speaker 1: mean I get people saying that where the money comes from,
Speaker 1: and that doesn't you know, I understand that, but none
Speaker 1: of us are presented with that moral alema of one
Speaker 1: hundred million or not, right, Um, And so it's just
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know where it ends. I mean,
Speaker 1: at some point they will have had it, they will live, tour,
Speaker 1: will have as many people as they can get on it,
Speaker 1: and there won't be any more guys getting posted at
Speaker 1: least for the foreseeable future. But uh, certainly for the
Speaker 1: last year and a half. It's been an incredible amount
Speaker 1: of conversation. It's just I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: where to go with it anymore. Last week, one of
Speaker 1: our production folks, it's like, what do you think about?
Speaker 1: You know, Rory's talking about what Phil said, and I said,
Speaker 1: how how many weeks do you guys want to do this?
Speaker 1: You know, how many? How many times do you want
Speaker 1: me to do Rory responding to Phil who said this
Speaker 1: about Live, I mean, this is this is a dog
Speaker 1: chasing tale story. Nothing's advancing, We're just saying the same
Speaker 1: sorts of things where I just don't think every side's
Speaker 1: pretty well established. I know what the Live guys think,
Speaker 1: and I know what's the PGA two where people think,
Speaker 1: and that isn't going to suddenly change um, at least
Speaker 1: for the time being. So I don't think. I don't
Speaker 1: think it benefits anyone that loves golf to not have
Speaker 1: people playing together, because then you don't ever really know
Speaker 1: for sure, you know, outside of the majors, who who
Speaker 1: the best player in the world is that week? Scott
Speaker 1: you've been so gracious with your time. Go back to
Speaker 1: your family. My son, I'm late to pick him up also,
Speaker 1: so okay, Well, at least they didn't at least at
Speaker 1: least hopefully he didn't fall off the bed and injure
Speaker 1: himself in the middle, which hopefully we could carefully edit
Speaker 1: around the part where I I did the poor parents. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: well my son's almost seventeen. If he's still he's falling
Speaker 1: off the bed, then we get issues. But exactly, you
Speaker 1: didn't wait till you're an old, middle aged guy to
Speaker 1: start your family, so presumably exactly he's fine. Well, my
Speaker 1: best too of your family, and it's kind of you
Speaker 1: to spend the time with me. I thank you for
Speaker 1: asking Scott until we meet again twenty five years down
Speaker 1: the row. Yes, sir, you are the best. Thank you,
Speaker 1: my friend. I appreciate it all the best. Continued success, man,
Speaker 1: thank you too. Scott did a great job answering the
Speaker 1: rapid fire questions. I had about ten more, but I
Speaker 1: had to go. He clearly had to go. Hopefully his
Speaker 1: kids are okay. But man, what a great guy, what
Speaker 1: a great guest, so good You can see why he
Speaker 1: is loved by millions. When I tweeted out that he
Speaker 1: was the guest on this show. I got great response
Speaker 1: because of Scott's wonderful work on so many platforms, and
Speaker 1: like I said, I'll be throwing it to him Wednesday
Speaker 1: night when the Lakers Denver game is over right to Scott.
Speaker 1: But I literally have not seen him in person for
Speaker 1: two and a half decades. It's just a crazy aspect
Speaker 1: of this business. But thanks so much to Scott, and
Speaker 1: thanks to you again for listening as well. You can
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Pash Pod. We are presented
Speaker 1: by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals, and by Healer River Resorts and Casinos. I'm
Speaker 1: Dave Pash. Thanks again to Scott Van Pelt and to
Speaker 1: you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.