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Speaker 1: Welcome in outkicked the coverage, wins and lost his podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Clay Travis. We've now done thirty seven of these

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Speaker 1: long form conversations and I appreciate all of you who've

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Speaker 1: been listening to them. A lot of great ones to

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Speaker 1: go listen to. Uh, this one going out as we

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Speaker 1: get close to Christmas twenty the end of what has

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Speaker 1: been an unbelievably challenging and difficult year for many of

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Speaker 1: you out there. Certainly the sports world has not been

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Speaker 1: immune from those challenges, and we bring in now the

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Speaker 1: commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, Kevin Warren, who has

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Speaker 1: dealt with a lot of those challenges himself. You haven't

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Speaker 1: been a commissioner very long, and I'm sure there was

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Speaker 1: no handbook to handle what was going on in t

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Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us, Commissioner Warren. Uh, Mary Christmas, Happy

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Speaker 1: holidays in advance. He appreciate you joining us on Christmas Eve.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you're ready to turn the page into one

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Speaker 1: like a lot of people out there. Uh, you know play.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I just thank you for having me

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Speaker 1: on for your your show, and you know had had

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Speaker 1: some challenges I think for all of us, but I

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Speaker 1: think as you turn around and look back, I mean,

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Speaker 1: we we've been blessed um um um to be able

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Speaker 1: to work through some of the issues that we have,

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Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to a really positive and productive one.

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Speaker 1: But but uh, you know, anytime we faced the challenges

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Speaker 1: like we did, um, but we're able to come through

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Speaker 1: them and stay together. I know we in the Big

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Speaker 1: Ten are stronger um then we were probably a year

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Speaker 1: ago at this time, because we've had to face some adversity,

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Speaker 1: and so I'm just I'm glad to be with you

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Speaker 1: here today, look forward to a great conversation, looking forward

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Speaker 1: to finishing up strong, but also looking forward to a

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Speaker 1: great all Right, We've got a lot that I want

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Speaker 1: to get into. But for people who listened to wins

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Speaker 1: and losses, we try to get to the background of

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Speaker 1: the person that we're talking about and talking with. And

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Speaker 1: I haven't read a ton about you, know you as

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Speaker 1: a young guy and how you ended up being big

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Speaker 1: and commissioner, And I think there's probably a lot of

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Speaker 1: people out there who have those questions. So we're gonna

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Speaker 1: start off right at the beginning, if if, if you're

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Speaker 1: cool with that, and roll through in this way where

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Speaker 1: did you grow up? What was your childhood like? How

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Speaker 1: would you describe it? Yeah, so I I graduated. Uh,

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Speaker 1: I'll go back even third that I was born in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Speaker 1: Both of my parents were educators. My father, uh Morrison Warren,

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Speaker 1: was a football student athlete at Arizona State University in

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Speaker 1: the mid forties. He went and fought in the war

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Speaker 1: for a couple of years and and and took a

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Speaker 1: leave from college, came back and finished up his college

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Speaker 1: career and was voted a couple of years ago and

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Speaker 1: one of the fifty greatest football players and Arizona State

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Speaker 1: football history. But he was an educator. He came back

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Speaker 1: graduator from college, got his master's from Arizona State, and

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Speaker 1: got his doctor from Arizona State, and then was the

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Speaker 1: elementary school principal for many many years, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: in Phoenix before later in his life he finally got

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to be a professor at Arizona States. I've

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Speaker 1: grown up around university campuses. My mother, who was really

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Speaker 1: the kind of the backbone of our family, also was

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Speaker 1: an educated educator. She didn't get her college degree until

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Speaker 1: she had me at forty years old, and went back

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Speaker 1: to college after that and graduated and earned her um masters.

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Speaker 1: She loved to read, she was a librarian. So I

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Speaker 1: grew up in the house of two educators and the

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Speaker 1: youngest of seven kids. My oldest brother played football at

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Speaker 1: Stanford in the in the sixties and so other. Athletics

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Speaker 1: was incredibly important in my family. But as you can imagine,

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Speaker 1: academics was number one, and you we didn't get a

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Speaker 1: chance to play sports until we proved that we did

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Speaker 1: our best in the classroom. So grew up in an

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Speaker 1: Enclaven Phoenix called South Phoenix UM and then probably in

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Speaker 1: around full fifth grade, moved to Tempe, Arizona. I said.

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Speaker 1: My dad was a professor, uh, then at Arizona State.

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Speaker 1: So grew up in in South Tempie, a nice um,

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Speaker 1: you know, simple neighborhood, and it was a student athlete

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Speaker 1: myself at at Michael's Deniza High School in Timti, Arizona.

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Speaker 1: Was a recruited basketball student athlete, more of a mid

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Speaker 1: major type player, and chose to go to the University

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Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania and played there and as a true freshman,

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Speaker 1: and Bob weinhowerd recruited me there, who I still stay

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Speaker 1: in touch with today. And then after my freshman year,

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Speaker 1: he came and took a job at Arizona State and

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Speaker 1: which was only five outs from my house, so actually

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Speaker 1: transferred back to Arizona State for a short period of time.

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Speaker 1: And then I finished up at Grand Kanya University and

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Speaker 1: Phoenix Arizona UH and I was very fortunate to have

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Speaker 1: a very strong college basketball career and and and eventually

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Speaker 1: went into their College Basketball Hall of Fame. But after

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Speaker 1: I graduated from UM from Grand King University, I did

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Speaker 1: go to Arizona State to get my m b A.

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Speaker 1: And then I had a sister who became sick who

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Speaker 1: was living in South ben at the time, and that's

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Speaker 1: how I ended up at at Notre Dame Law School.

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Speaker 1: So that was my educational background. And then got a

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Speaker 1: call one day from a friend who connected me with

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Speaker 1: a man by the name of Mike's Live who I

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Speaker 1: interviewed with who became like a father figure to me

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Speaker 1: and he hired me right out of law school. So

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Speaker 1: I got a chance with to work with Mike's Live

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Speaker 1: to do n c A investigations that we defended colleges

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Speaker 1: and universities UM. Mike went on to be the iconic

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Speaker 1: commissioner of the SEC and he told me eventually I

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Speaker 1: would be in college athletics one day, and and uh

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Speaker 1: he was he was right. But I went from working

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Speaker 1: with Slive to starting my own um sports and entertainment

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Speaker 1: representation firm, and then after that got a job with

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Speaker 1: the St. Louis Rams, again from another father figure, Dick Vermill,

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Speaker 1: and spent four years at the Rams, won a Super

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Speaker 1: Bowl with the greatest show on turf, had a stop

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Speaker 1: with the Lions as an executive position, and then went

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Speaker 1: back into private practice and worked on the deal to

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Speaker 1: help the Will family acquire the Vikings. And then we

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Speaker 1: moved to Minnesota in two thousand and five, thinking we'd

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Speaker 1: be there maybe for a year or so, and ended

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Speaker 1: up being in Minnesota for fifteen years and then which

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Speaker 1: subsequently led to me being contacted to have an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to meet with the Big Ten, and then I was

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Speaker 1: hired in nineteen as a commissioner. Had been a Big Ten,

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Speaker 1: had been here ever since. All right, I want to

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Speaker 1: unpack a little bit of that. That's a great run through.

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Speaker 1: We're talking to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. You said

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Speaker 1: your dad fought in World War Two? What did he

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Speaker 1: do and what did he tell you about that experience?

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the things my dad taught me,

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Speaker 1: and I really appreciate my my parents. You know, they

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Speaker 1: raised all of us, but especially me, and I was

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Speaker 1: the us to stay younger to seven kids is to

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Speaker 1: never make excuses, uh, to stand tall um, you know um,

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Speaker 1: and keep your shoulders back, keep your chin tight, to

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Speaker 1: stand tall and work through you know, issues, and to

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Speaker 1: always remember to account your blessings. That they would always

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Speaker 1: say that there's so many people in the world who

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Speaker 1: would love to be in a position to you're in

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Speaker 1: right now, regardless of that. And they've said that to

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Speaker 1: the from the day that I can remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: have fondest memories. But he fought World War two. He

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Speaker 1: was stationed in Germany, and he spent more time talking

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Speaker 1: to me about the Holocaust, uh than he did slavery.

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Speaker 1: And I think he felt that that you know, I

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Speaker 1: would I would learn about slavery by being a black man,

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Speaker 1: you know in America and you know, just understanding here

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Speaker 1: and people talk about it. But he said, I want

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Speaker 1: you to understand, just speak certain charcities that have occurred.

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Speaker 1: And he talked to me about Auschwitz and Lukinvall and

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Speaker 1: and and and the horrors of the Holocaust and said,

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Speaker 1: whatever you do, Kevin, make sure that you never let

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Speaker 1: either slavery or the Holocaust ever happened again. So those

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Speaker 1: are many of the lessons he had. Pictures, um you

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Speaker 1: know that he showed me from that we're taking into

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Speaker 1: concentration camps, and I just remember seeing the the you know,

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Speaker 1: many bodies stacked there. And so, you know, I just

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Speaker 1: appreciate both of my parents always being transparent, candid and

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Speaker 1: sharing with me, you know, things about life and and

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Speaker 1: challenging us to try to make sure that we have

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Speaker 1: the world and make the world a better place. What

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Speaker 1: was his experience like in the service? Obviously there was

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Speaker 1: a segregated army at that time. What was his role

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Speaker 1: Obviously I can't imagine, I mean, for any of those kids.

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Speaker 1: I'm fascinating about World War two history in general because

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Speaker 1: so many people and one of my favorite stories to

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Speaker 1: tell is I was reading about the hundred and first

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Speaker 1: Airborne and the then the toughness of those guys, uh

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Speaker 1: and what they did. But one of the stats, one

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Speaker 1: of the data points that stuck out stuck out to

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Speaker 1: me is the vast majority of people who were in

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Speaker 1: that airborne battalion, the hundred and first, the first time

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Speaker 1: they ever went up in an airplane, Kevin, they jumped

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Speaker 1: out of it. And to think about the bravery of that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, anybody who's ever been in an airplane. Most

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Speaker 1: of those guys had never been in an airplane before.

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Speaker 1: But think about how nervous you are the first time

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Speaker 1: you step on an airplane, at whatever age you are,

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Speaker 1: to be willing to jump out of an airplane the

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Speaker 1: first time you ever go up into it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: those guys were a different breed. And I mean and

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Speaker 1: most of them. You know, again, because of the parochial

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Speaker 1: nature of America at the time, the idea of going

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Speaker 1: to Europe, the vast majority of people would have never

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Speaker 1: gone to Europe, much less go to Europe fight Nazis

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Speaker 1: and end up in a world war. It's really remarkable

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Speaker 1: to think about all these nine year old kids and

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Speaker 1: what they did. And it was the Clay You're right

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Speaker 1: exactly on point. I mean, it's one of the things

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Speaker 1: that I just read. Um, you know, as I got older,

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Speaker 1: I started to recognize, you know, just data points in

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Speaker 1: people's age. I mean, you think about him I did

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Speaker 1: spent you know, the first two years in college, and

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Speaker 1: so you know, when he went to the wars, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're probably probably twenty years old. And and to think

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Speaker 1: that that, uh, to to go and serve for our country,

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Speaker 1: and to be proud to serve, you know, for our country.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the things that they did been we're

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Speaker 1: still benefiting, you know, from now. And so when you

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Speaker 1: put it in perspective, you know, at that age, and

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Speaker 1: and and and then and I even look at my

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Speaker 1: brother who's a hero of mine, you know, Morrison Warren,

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Speaker 1: who played it. You know, Stanford was a phenomenal student

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Speaker 1: athlete and ended up hurting his knee, but he never transferred.

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Speaker 1: He stayed there, graduated, but he volunteered to go to

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Speaker 1: He wasn't even drafted him, but he volunteered to go

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Speaker 1: find Vietnam. And so whether people agree with you know,

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Speaker 1: whether Vietnam shoot or shouldn't have to learn all those

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Speaker 1: you know, from a political standpoint, but it's just more

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Speaker 1: the moxie of the people that fought in World War

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Speaker 1: Two and the people that fought in all of our

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Speaker 1: wars to be able to go to to protect this

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Speaker 1: you know country. I just I mean I I as

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Speaker 1: I've gotten older and learned things about, you know, my dad,

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Speaker 1: things that he did, and most of the things that

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Speaker 1: he did were not told to me. A lot of

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Speaker 1: them were told to me by him, but were told

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Speaker 1: by others. And whether it was even at his funeral

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Speaker 1: that people who would say things that I didn't even

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Speaker 1: know about. And um, but I was just proud to

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Speaker 1: be a son and to see what he's he's done

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Speaker 1: for for the United States of America. How much age

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Speaker 1: rage was there between you and your oldest brother that

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Speaker 1: you were just talking about, because I think you said

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Speaker 1: you have the youngest of seven twenty years, Yeah, twenty years.

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Speaker 1: So he was actually a junior in college when I

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Speaker 1: was born. So my father, my mom and dad. My

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Speaker 1: parents were more like my grandparents. My grandparents were more

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Speaker 1: like my great grandparents. My brother Morrison, it was more

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Speaker 1: like my dad. So that's why he actually I have

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Speaker 1: a brother. My father's name is Morrison. My brother's name

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Speaker 1: is Morrison, and I have a nephew who's also names Morrison.

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Speaker 1: He's a We went to Notre Dame Law School together,

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Speaker 1: with high school together. He's a lawyer in Chicago now

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Speaker 1: for for a Chapman and cuddler, phenomenal lawyer, but he's

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Speaker 1: more like a brother to me because we're only two

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Speaker 1: years apart, and um and so yeah, but it's a

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Speaker 1: twenty year differential. So how do you think your childhood

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Speaker 1: compared to your older brothers and sisters if you're the youngest,

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Speaker 1: do you think because I kind of think about the

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Speaker 1: family dynamic aspect, I've got three sons myself there twelve there, twelve,

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Speaker 1: ten and six, and there's obviously, even though there's only

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Speaker 1: six years that separate my my you know, oldest and

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Speaker 1: my youngest, there's a big difference there between the oldest

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Speaker 1: and the youngest. I can't imagine twenty years it is,

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Speaker 1: you know, my and my siblings older siblings used to

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Speaker 1: tease me about it when I was younger. How much

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Speaker 1: how much more um, you know, harder and demanding my

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Speaker 1: parents were on them, you know than me. But then

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Speaker 1: they also told me, you know, I had different pressures

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Speaker 1: you know on me that they didn't you know have

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Speaker 1: because we had you know, there was a pier there

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Speaker 1: where we probably had three kids and you know, in diapers. Um,

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Speaker 1: So although there was a twenty year gap, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm grateful for it because they gave me much more

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Speaker 1: time with my parents and my sister Maryland, who actually

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Speaker 1: was married to John Shoemate, who was a great basketball

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Speaker 1: player Notre Dame and played in the NBA for many years.

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Speaker 1: She she got married, I think it like nineteen or twenty,

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Speaker 1: so I was, I was a young teenager, so for

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Speaker 1: the majority of my life I was I was, you know,

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Speaker 1: almost like an only child. That's why I got close

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Speaker 1: to my nephew Morrison. But I had an older sister, Caroline,

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Speaker 1: who's the one who died of brain cancer. That my

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Speaker 1: wife and I started Caroline's Comfort you know, the scholarship

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Speaker 1: and uh foundation in honor of her. But she actually

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Speaker 1: went through a divorce, so she moved back into my

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Speaker 1: parents house and so she was there. So it was

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Speaker 1: good to have my older sister back in the house.

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Speaker 1: But but I just think, you know, my parents were

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Speaker 1: We were always fair with us. They did a good

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Speaker 1: job of knowing, um, you know, kind of the different

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Speaker 1: things that because all kids, you've got three, I have

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Speaker 1: to they're different. You know, they're saying similar in a

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Speaker 1: lot of areas, but they're different. But they always did

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Speaker 1: a good job of really understanding what we needed from

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Speaker 1: a you know, physical, emotional, you know, spiritual and mental standpoint.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm grateful to uh to to have grown

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Speaker 1: up in their house. How did your family end up

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Speaker 1: in Arizona? Uh? You know, interesting enough? My my my

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Speaker 1: mother was born in Douglas, Arizona, mining town, uh, in Arizona,

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Speaker 1: and her father was a soldier who station in Watchooka, Arizona.

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Speaker 1: And her mom um was a piece from Galaharajlisico, Mexico,

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Speaker 1: and he was a maid um and and so they

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Speaker 1: ended up Um. I think my grandmother met my grandfather

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Speaker 1: at the at the army base, and she was, like

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Speaker 1: I said, from Mexico, and they ended up getting married.

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Speaker 1: And my mom was born in Douglas and ended up

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Speaker 1: migrating up to Phoenix. UH. And my dad was he's

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Speaker 1: from errors, I mean, he's from Texas and so from Alan, Texas,

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Speaker 1: which ironically I believe is the hometown of Ladanian Tomlinson,

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Speaker 1: and my parents were there. My my grandfather was a

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Speaker 1: black male man from Marlin, Texas. My grandmother was predominantly

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Speaker 1: you know, African American and Choctar Indian, and they met

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Speaker 1: and had my dad and I think he had about

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Speaker 1: six or seven other siblings, and my dad moved to

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Speaker 1: Phoenix and um and um when he was about eighteen

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Speaker 1: months old. And and and so my grandfather although really

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Speaker 1: not not educated at all, um and and but he

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Speaker 1: was an entrepreneur and ended up I think only probably

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Speaker 1: the first black drudge store in Phoenix and uh and

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Speaker 1: then he was a porter at the Lure's Hotel in Phoenix, um,

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Speaker 1: Arizona for many years, so I ended up working uh.

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Speaker 1: You know. The story is that he worked I think

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Speaker 1: seventeen years, seven days a week and never missed a

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Speaker 1: uh day of work, you know, battle within Phanseema. He

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Speaker 1: was a no nonsense guy, Fred Hubbard Warren. And so

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Speaker 1: every time I'm in Phoenix, I really make it a

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Speaker 1: point to drive by. The Lures Hotel is still still

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Speaker 1: there because he was trihim to be a porter there,

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Speaker 1: for him to be able to go from being a

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Speaker 1: porter to uh to raise a family, you know, like

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Speaker 1: he did and because you know, I'm grateful for it.

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Speaker 1: And then my grandfather on my mom's side, her her dad,

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Speaker 1: he actually left home when my mom was in eighth

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Speaker 1: grade and never came back. They'd never seen him, so

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Speaker 1: I never got a chance to. So I have fond

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Speaker 1: memories of my grandmother, my maternal and paternal grand mothers,

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Speaker 1: and then of my uh um my grandfather on my

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Speaker 1: uh dad side, remember him. But but my grand grandfather

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Speaker 1: on my mom's side, I never met him, and because

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Speaker 1: he left home and my mom was in eighth grade

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Speaker 1: and the family has never seen him, you know, since then.

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Speaker 1: And so that was something that my mom always kind

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Speaker 1: of carried with her as a burden, as a kind

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Speaker 1: of empty place in her heart. And that's why family

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Speaker 1: was so important to her half family round because of

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Speaker 1: her father abandoned the family and not only impacted her,

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Speaker 1: but they, you know, kind of carried it down through generations.

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Speaker 1: With us, be sure to catch live editions about Kicked

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Speaker 1: the coverage with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern,

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Speaker 1: three am Pacific. We're talking to Big ten Commissioner Kevin Warren.

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Speaker 1: You said your dad was a PhD professor at Arizona State.

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Speaker 1: He had to be, I would think, just based on

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Speaker 1: the timeline to go to World War Two and then

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Speaker 1: end up a PhD professor, one of the first I

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Speaker 1: would imagine black pessors in Arizona State, Right, Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: was he was one of the early ones. What was

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Speaker 1: he a professor of in an education, administrative education he

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Speaker 1: taught you, of course, called the principal ship and interesting

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Speaker 1: of play. On my my office desk, I keep his

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Speaker 1: dissertation and uh and I'm just as literally on my

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Speaker 1: desk right now, and it's called the value of selected

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Speaker 1: public relations practices of building goodwill between school and community.

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Speaker 1: So he was he was really he read a laboratory

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Speaker 1: there that did a lot of research, the I D.

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Speaker 1: Pain Laboratory at Arizona State. And uh, but I keep

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Speaker 1: his dissertation on my desk just as a reminder of

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Speaker 1: kind of the work that he put in. And he

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Speaker 1: did so much for the community. He was vice mayor

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Speaker 1: in Arizona and sixty nine when you think about in

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, just right up there right now, almost in

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Speaker 1: the midst of civil rights movement. But to be vice

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Speaker 1: mayor in Arizona. He was very instrumental, um in in

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Speaker 1: in launching the Fiesta Bowl. You know, he loved love football,

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Speaker 1: love college sports. You know, loved the kind of the

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Speaker 1: bowl game and actual was the first I think African American,

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Speaker 1: you know, president of the Fiesta Bowl. When he when

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Speaker 1: he became president, but he volunteered so much time from

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Speaker 1: a political standpoint and educational didn't make a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: That was not his focus. But he told us, you know,

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Speaker 1: the importance. So he wanted to make sure he's sacrificed

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Speaker 1: to provide us an opportunity to have a great education

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Speaker 1: and exposure. He did that, you know with me, I

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Speaker 1: mean my parents interestingly enough, after forty nine years and

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Speaker 1: nine months of marriage ended up getting divorced, which is

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Speaker 1: the craziest thing. They made it forty nine years and

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Speaker 1: nine months and maybe got divorced divorced. And so I

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Speaker 1: tell people, you know, all the time that even Gret

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Speaker 1: and I are you know, will be coming up on

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Speaker 1: thirtieth wedding anniversary here in in uh in In in

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Speaker 1: about a year and a half. But I always stay

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Speaker 1: focused and you know, stay focused on you know, on

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Speaker 1: our marriage because you know, to see my parents go

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Speaker 1: through that. But because of that, um um and you know,

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Speaker 1: them having the cultis my dad ended up. I became

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Speaker 1: my dad's date for a lot of these events. I

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Speaker 1: remember him getting me uh sport code slacks and teaching

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Speaker 1: me how to tie a tie it, you know, ten

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Speaker 1: years old and so all of these you know events,

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Speaker 1: you know, his big board meetings and she has the

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Speaker 1: bold events. Me as a young teenager, I would go

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Speaker 1: with my dad, which which really helped me to kind

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Speaker 1: of understand and build relationships with with people and learn

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Speaker 1: how to sit at a dinner and hold conversation. And

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Speaker 1: so I'm grateful for that because that's been a big

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Speaker 1: part of my life. So I understand, I was reading

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Speaker 1: and doing some research when you were ten years old

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Speaker 1: you got hit by a by a car. I believe

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Speaker 1: it was right. Uh, what happened? What do you remember

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Speaker 1: about that day? And what was the impact on your

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Speaker 1: life of that event? Yeah, I mean it was. It was.

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Speaker 1: It was the most impactful event of my life ever,

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Speaker 1: because I think, you know, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I recognized now, you know, as being a parent and

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Speaker 1: getting older in life, you you know, you recognize that. Um.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes people, you know, many times well into

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Speaker 1: their thirties or forties to understand how fragile life is

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Speaker 1: and how special life is. And and I think that's

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Speaker 1: part of the reason why there's so much unhappiness in

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Speaker 1: life is people don't really realize, um, what a blessing

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Speaker 1: is to be alive. And so fortunately I was blessed

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Speaker 1: that you know, attend and a half years old. Uh.

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Speaker 1: To to understand that I was fortunate to be living,

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Speaker 1: I should have died that day in June. And uh

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Speaker 1: And as you said, I was riding my bike, you know,

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Speaker 1: minding my business. I was going up to the local

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Speaker 1: high school to play sports with friends. And you know

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Speaker 1: how how we were raised as uh. You know, both

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Speaker 1: of my parents worked. You know, you got up, you

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Speaker 1: made your bed up immediately, you said your prayers, you

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Speaker 1: take a shower, you brush your teeth. You know, you

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Speaker 1: did your chores. We all had, you know, a list

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Speaker 1: of chores. But because I was home other than you know,

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Speaker 1: with my sister, I had the most of them. But

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Speaker 1: you know, we did our chores and then you could

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Speaker 1: go play in the summer. And so I was going

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Speaker 1: up to play and then you heard a loud you know,

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Speaker 1: tire screeching, and uh, I was thinking, boy, that sounds

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Speaker 1: a little bit closer than it should be. And then

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Speaker 1: I just took a quick look from my peripheral vision

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Speaker 1: that could see the car, you know, hit me. And

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Speaker 1: that's the last thing I remember, but flew thirty ft

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Speaker 1: in the air. There were a couple of witnesses and

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Speaker 1: by the grace of God, landed on a plot of

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Speaker 1: grass and a little small you know grass you know area,

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Speaker 1: And and I remember, you know, being being knocked knocked

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Speaker 1: out and then you know, coming to and saying I

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Speaker 1: could get up. I vividly remember that. And the neighbor

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Speaker 1: um who lived in our neighborhood, I didn't know him,

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Speaker 1: but came running across the street and held me down.

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Speaker 1: I remember looking at my leg and I had a

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Speaker 1: compound fracture of my right steamer and uh, some other

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Speaker 1: you know injuries. But but just you know that that

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Speaker 1: whole journey getting in that ambulance and wondering you know,

431
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,479
Speaker 1: what was going to happen, and and and just tasting

432
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,840
Speaker 1: blood in my mouth and throat and and then going

433
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: to hospital and all of that. And for anyone who's

434
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,919
Speaker 1: been you know, through those kind of medical you know

435
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,800
Speaker 1: issues you don't you don't know until you know. And uh,

436
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: but then they're going to traction to be in the hospital. Um.

437
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,439
Speaker 1: And you know, there are many nights looking over and

438
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 1: seeing my mom sleep on a on literally in a chair,

439
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,159
Speaker 1: and uh and then my sister Marylyn Um you know,

440
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:29,639
Speaker 1: sleeping there, they would they would rotate and take times.

441
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,360
Speaker 1: But going through all of the you know, the the

442
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 1: drama there, and and then getting to the point when

443
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 1: they told me they were gonna take me out of

444
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:42,719
Speaker 1: traction and get the pins out of my leg I

445
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:44,800
Speaker 1: was so happy. I was thinking, boy, I get able

446
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 1: to go home. But then they said, you know, this

447
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 1: is when your fund really begins. We got to put

448
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 1: you in a body cast. So attraction was just to

449
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 1: to reset the leg um. But now we got to

450
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: put you in the body cast. And I'm telling you

451
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 1: what play that day. I remember that day vividly, and

452
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: still to this day I can't drink out of a

453
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 1: straw because when it touches my lips the memories that

454
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: brings back because they put me in this flat body

455
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,200
Speaker 1: cast when all the way down to my toes of

456
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 1: my right foot, up to my chests right below my throat,

457
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:14,960
Speaker 1: and then down three quarters on my left leg and

458
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: had a pole in between it. I have pictures that

459
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 1: I keep on my desk and me and Traction, but

460
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to find the picture of me and

461
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:24,880
Speaker 1: the body cast. And then for them to take me home.

462
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 1: And I spent months in that home by myself. Um

463
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 1: and uh, and just going through that issue, going to

464
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,440
Speaker 1: the bathroom and a bed tan you know, drinking out

465
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,679
Speaker 1: of straws. You know, that's when that's when there were

466
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 1: three or four channels, there was no cable, there was

467
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: no video game, there was no matten and then just

468
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: trying to read and and really just protect my mind

469
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: and to have to work through that. But you know,

470
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: I just recognized that life is truly a gift from God.

471
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,439
Speaker 1: You gotta take advantage of it every day that you

472
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: have your health and you upright, you better do the

473
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: best you can. And so that's why I don't get

474
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,919
Speaker 1: distracted on a lot of the issues that you know,

475
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,680
Speaker 1: I say some of on a daily basis, because I'm

476
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: I'm for that should have been that, would that should

477
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 1: have been it for me and for for for my

478
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,639
Speaker 1: life to be spared. I promised myself that day that

479
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 1: they cut that cast off to me, I was gonna

480
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 1: do everything I possibly could to make the world a

481
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,640
Speaker 1: better place. So let's let's go into that. How many

482
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: bones did you end up breaking when you were hit

483
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,679
Speaker 1: by the car? I broke the one I learned that

484
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: the hardest. Uh and and largest bone in your body

485
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: is your femur, which is in your thigh bone. Um

486
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: and uh, and it takes so much force to to

487
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: break it. So I broke my right femur and still

488
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 1: to this day, you know, I get a lot of

489
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,480
Speaker 1: deep tissue massages on a weekly basis because still to

490
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: this day, um, you know, it's it gets sore. And

491
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 1: and then my right leg is a little bit shorter

492
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: than my left leg. So I broke broke one. But

493
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: it was the largest bone in my body, which is

494
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,159
Speaker 1: I was fortunate, I mean to not have that, but

495
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: from you know, internal injuries, I actually, how funny you

496
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 1: say that actually broke my wrist, my left wrist on it.

497
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 1: But you know, just like most things in life, sometimes

498
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: we just focus on the really the big things. And

499
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: but but my left wrist was was kind of so

500
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:16,160
Speaker 1: secondary there to my right femur. Is that was kind

501
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: of like, oh, yeah, you broke your wrist, but you know,

502
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:19,880
Speaker 1: put a little put a little cast on that or

503
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 1: wrapped that up. That will be, that will be fine.

504
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: So you know, for me to to think that that,

505
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 1: you know, seven years later that I was able to

506
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: walk on a court, basketball court, and you know, at

507
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: the University of Pennsylvania and play college basketball. Is you know,

508
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: it was a grift. So how long were you actually

509
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 1: in the cast and in the traction? How long did

510
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: you have to spend in a bed recovering? You know?

511
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: This was this is the it was. I didn't go

512
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: back to school until um, like, I missed that first

513
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 1: semester of my of my um uh that school year.

514
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 1: So the accident happened in June. I didn't go back

515
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: to school until after the first year. So I was

516
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: out for you know, out through the summer and the

517
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: six months. Uh yeah, and and uh and then it

518
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,119
Speaker 1: wasn't right after that, I mean, because you know it

519
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,879
Speaker 1: was it was my leg literally was sore for years.

520
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I was on crutches after that.

521
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 1: It was on sore. But they got a chance to

522
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 1: uh you know, started doing a lot of water you know,

523
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: water aerobics and um you know, my my I had

524
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 1: a doctor who um, you know, and I appreciate doctors

525
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: being direct because they're they're not there just to make

526
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 1: people feel good. But he was really, you know direct.

527
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 1: I was accustomed to it at the time. My parents

528
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: raised us. They didn't filter any words, and he didn't

529
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 1: give me much of a chance to to to really

530
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: be able to play sports at a high high level. Again,

531
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 1: I was a sports fanatic you know, as a kid,

532
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 1: and it changed the whole structure of my body. I

533
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 1: went to being a very wiry, you know, finn young

534
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 1: kid to you know, gained a lot of weight, uh,

535
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 1: convening in the body cast because I was just dormant

536
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 1: for so long. But but he, you know, he did.

537
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: I kept asking him, you know, what can I do

538
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,439
Speaker 1: to start walking out because I wanted to too. I

539
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,119
Speaker 1: was so active, and he said, you in best thing

540
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: to do it swim and that you can do it

541
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 1: as um, you know, swim. And so I did end

542
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: up getting a legal settlement, not much, I think was

543
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: around thirty thousand dollars and and approach my parents said,

544
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: you know, to build a pool in our backyard, and

545
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 1: which they didn't have the financial resources to do it

546
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 1: at the time. And we had I remember temp High

547
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,800
Speaker 1: school had a pool that would be open because this

548
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 1: is pre you know, this is pre help clubs and

549
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 1: pre lifetime fitness and all these different things and um,

550
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: and none of our family members had pools. And so

551
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: my parents reluctantly and I say reluctantly allowed me to

552
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: take a portion of my settlement to pay for a

553
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 1: pool that we built in our in our backyard, and uh,

554
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: you know, which was great because as a young person,

555
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: I started to understand the importance of having financial resources

556
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: and to make decisions. And when you make a decision

557
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: that you know the ride to check at that age

558
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:57,880
Speaker 1: and basically, you know, ten and a half eleven years

559
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,040
Speaker 1: old to build this pool, which I did, and it it

560
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: also taught me the importance of taking care of it.

561
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 1: So I got the leaves out of it. I learned

562
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 1: how to backwash the pool and the chlorine you know

563
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 1: that they didn't have. We didn't have a spa boy

564
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: that you know that the bill that floats around. We

565
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: did it all by hand. And I was really particular

566
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: about when people swam that they weren't doing things in

567
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: the pool that they should be in it. But I

568
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: really just just really started to grind out, you know,

569
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 1: my own workout, swimming um um and uh and a

570
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: lot of exercises and uh. And it took the weight

571
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 1: off my body because I wasn't able to run her

572
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,679
Speaker 1: her jog right away, and and it it built me

573
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 1: back to the road to recovery. That's why I love

574
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,719
Speaker 1: the water so much. Now I love to swim. And

575
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,960
Speaker 1: interesting little enough, my dad I had to get odd

576
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: jobs because he didn't get his professorship at Arizona State

577
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,720
Speaker 1: until later in life for various reasons. So in the

578
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: summer he was always a lifeguard, and so we grew

579
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: up around pools in the summer and learned how to swim.

580
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: And if you people read one thing they remember about

581
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: my dad if you came to our house other than

582
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: eating some really really good you know Mexican Mexican food

583
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 1: that my mom would make from scratch, and and and

584
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: learning how to dance and us play music, and you

585
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: know him telling stories, is that if you didn't know

586
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: how to swim, he would demand that he taught to

587
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: you how to swim. So I've seen him teach so

588
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: many people how to swim, and that he would he

589
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 1: would be able to do it. So I love I

590
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: grew up loving the water. I love the water now.

591
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: I love water and I love to swim. But it

592
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: was through all that exercise it got me back to

593
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: the point where I could, you know, start getting some

594
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: training in on the ground. But I continued my aerobic

595
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: exercises and and it nursed me back. So I'll tell

596
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: you what, when I got a chance to be able

597
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: to play um basketball again and all the other sports football, um,

598
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: But then it was just such an emotional day when

599
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: I was able to, uh to to really lace my

600
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: shoes up and be able to actually play college basketball.

601
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: How did you pass the time? You said, you're at

602
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 1: home sometimes by yourself. Your parents are both working, you know,

603
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 1: from June until let's say the end of the year

604
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: before you can go back to school. I mean that

605
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: that that image of not wanting to drink out of

606
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: a straw even now, because it reminds you of what

607
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: that experience was like a ten years old. I mean,

608
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: that's a lot of time to just lay in bed

609
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,479
Speaker 1: and think and and have your I mean, I know

610
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: you said you had two re or four stations to

611
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: watch on television maybe, but that's a wild that that's

612
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 1: a wild experience, right, I mean, it's a it's a

613
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: profound experience for anybody, but especially for a young kid. Yeah,

614
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: it was. You know, I have a fortunately, you know,

615
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: my my oldest brother, Morrison, it was twenty years older

616
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: than me. His wife, Dorry Warrene was a nurse and

617
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:41,280
Speaker 1: um and so she would come by and check the

618
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: me and she cared for me. I owe so much

619
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: to her. So it's my nephews Morrison's mom, but she

620
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: would come by and care for me, and she would play.

621
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: She was so positive. I mean, like that's why I

622
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: really recognized the importance of like words. You know. Both

623
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 1: of my parents were loving people, but they weren't like

624
00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't go out of their way to say,

625
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 1: you know, positive affirmation. I guess my mom did more

626
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: than my dad. My dad was just he was old school.

627
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 1: But Dory was so positive. She would tell me that

628
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: I was going to heal, my leg would get stronger,

629
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 1: and she gave me massages like on my um my

630
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: left foot and the tiptoes on my right and you know,

631
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: you know, scratching the top part of my back. And

632
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 1: I mean she was just so encouraging, uh to tell

633
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: me how I was gonna you know, be you know,

634
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: do be be able to live and and and be well.

635
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the reasons why I'm

636
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: comfortable in being a loner. Like I loved people, but

637
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time, you know, really alone

638
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: because that's what I learned. I'm not a much of

639
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: a TV watcher, never have been. I loved life sports

640
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: on TV. But I remember after the first couple of weeks,

641
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 1: I didn't I never even turned the TV on. It

642
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 1: was a little small black and white TV they they

643
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: put in my room. But I read UM and I

644
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: just kind of thought a lot. I mean I cried

645
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: a lot. I prayed and the Norman in order an amount,

646
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: but I really thought and that that's when I would

647
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: really have, you know, dreams and UM. And it was interesting.

648
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: I'm writing a book called Build your Own Pool, just

649
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: about the the journey that I went through with that.

650
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 1: And and I was talking to my sister. I was

651
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 1: I asked my sister a couple of months ago, I said, hey,

652
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: what do you remember about staying in the hospital with me?

653
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 1: And she goes, Kevin, I never told you, but she

654
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 1: said there were times that you would absolutely scream at

655
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: the top of your lungs um in the middle of

656
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: the night. I was like when And she says, you know,

657
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: so much more more so much mom. And I would

658
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 1: go to the doctor and say, and nurses, is everything okay?

659
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: And they told him no, he's having with these they

660
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: call night terrors. And when you've been through a traumatic

661
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: experience during the day, you can mask it and cover it.

662
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: But at night, when you enter into a certain level

663
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 1: of rem sleep, you know, you have what they call

664
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: these night terrors. And that's what I was going through.

665
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: She goes, that's what I remember. So I started to

666
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: research and and and and understand it. So I just

667
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 1: remember just praying a lot. I remember reading a lot.

668
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: That's when really fell in love with with reading. And

669
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I remember, you know, dreaming a lot

670
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 1: that cladies were some long days, especially in the summer

671
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 1: in Arizona. It gets light early and it stayed light late.

672
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: I could hear the kids playing outdoors. Um, and I

673
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 1: remember one day vividly when I was probably at my

674
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 1: lowest moment. You know, it was in the dead of summer.

675
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: Uh you know, kids were playing. They would I would.

676
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: I would ask my parents that when they leave in

677
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: the morning, to at least open up changes. As I

678
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: started feeling a little bit better, I love the you know,

679
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: the sunlight looking outside, and I remember I was at

680
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: one of my lowest moments, like, am I gonna make

681
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 1: it through this? And I remember seeing a bird um,

682
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of land almost like at the

683
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,560
Speaker 1: at the tree right outside my window, and was staring

684
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: at me, and it was it was almost like God

685
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: was speaking to me. It was almost like nature saying

686
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: And that was that. That was my lowest moment. Every

687
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: day from then I just kind of got a little

688
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: bit closer, a little bit you know, closer. And then

689
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: I remember bread I would go get these checkups that

690
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: have to barb our our neighbor's station wagon. They would

691
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: put me in the back of the station hagging no

692
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:11,920
Speaker 1: seat belts and drive from Tempe the Phoenix. I'd be

693
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:15,480
Speaker 1: sliding around in this cast um and then they would

694
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,399
Speaker 1: carry me out. Two people would grab my legs and

695
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 1: carry me in there. But I remember when I went

696
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 1: in the day that I went in and get that

697
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 1: cast off um. And you're talking about the static. So

698
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: I have I don't have many regrets, but too regrets

699
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:31,279
Speaker 1: I had when they cut it off. They asked me

700
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:33,719
Speaker 1: if I wanted to keep it, and uh, you know,

701
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: I said absolutely not. I wish I would have kept

702
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,959
Speaker 1: it um. And then the other thing, I saved my

703
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 1: bike for my accident. For probably thirty five years, I

704
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: had it in my parents shed in the backyard right

705
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: by the pool I built. And when my my dad,

706
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 1: my parents were divorces, I said, And when my dad died, um,

707
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: they hired a company to come over and clear clean

708
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: up everything, and you know, having the state cell. And

709
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: they threw my bike away because I would living in

710
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: Detroit and working at the lines at the time, and

711
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:04,879
Speaker 1: they threw you know, my bike away, and I would

712
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 1: have loved to have just you know, had that. But

713
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 1: uh so, yeah, I just I thought a lot, and

714
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 1: I prayed a lot. I made my mind up. I

715
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: would come up with what I call these dream lists

716
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: of things that I was going to accomplish. You know,

717
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,920
Speaker 1: my mom being around a librarian. I love globes, and

718
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 1: I would dream of what I wanted to travel to,

719
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: you know, in the world, what I was gonna really do.

720
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 1: And I knew that I would. I wanted to become

721
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:30,439
Speaker 1: a doctor to help people, or a lawyer, and and

722
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 1: and so it was a great time. But what it did,

723
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: it gave me really just kind of great level of

724
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 1: mental toughness and and and and I just made my

725
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: mind up if I could get out of this bed

726
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: and walk again, and I would never complain about anything.

727
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,359
Speaker 1: I would embrace every workout, I would embrace every day.

728
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:49,320
Speaker 1: I would help as many people as I possibly could.

729
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,799
Speaker 1: I would count my blessings, and I would spend the

730
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 1: rest of the days on on on the earth trying

731
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: to make a you know, make the world a better place.

732
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,279
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in

733
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,320
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports

734
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app

735
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 1: search f s are to listen live. We're talking to

736
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. I'm Clay Travis. This is

737
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: the Wins and Losses Podcast. What did you read? What?

738
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:16,800
Speaker 1: What was when you're ten years old and you're locked

739
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: in that bed? Like? What was the what? What was like?

740
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,360
Speaker 1: I grew up. I loved the hardy boys, right Like

741
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,880
Speaker 1: I would read every little mystery, Like what were you

742
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 1: reading at that point in time? You know a lot

743
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,879
Speaker 1: of the stuff that I I read because my my

744
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: mother was a librarian is uh, you know, did did

745
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: magazines and I just read whatever I got my you know,

746
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: hands um, you know, hands on and she would, you know,

747
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:44,279
Speaker 1: she quite naturally give me give me books. Uh. My

748
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: parents were big into encyclopedias, and I remember a lot

749
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 1: of the reading that I did. I know this sounds

750
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: crazy and I'm embarrassing even say it from a nerdy standpoint.

751
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 1: Is uh, my dad would always challenge us like just

752
00:36:55,719 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 1: go grabbing encyclopedia, loving encyclopedia and just you know, open

753
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,040
Speaker 1: it up and just to just to to read. I

754
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,279
Speaker 1: remember when the Encyclopedia Britanica. I tell my kids to say,

755
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: look at me, like, what are you talking about? You know,

756
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: salesperson would come by the house and my dad we

757
00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: always had those in my in my parents family room

758
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: growing up. That he would be that was a big

759
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,719
Speaker 1: deal for people, for people who don't know, like if

760
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: you remember my parents buying the encyclopedia, because that was

761
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:25,919
Speaker 1: the internet before you had the internet, right, Like any

762
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: question you had, Mom and dad would say, hey, go look,

763
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,919
Speaker 1: I remember we had the World Book Encyclopedia in the house.

764
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,560
Speaker 1: They weren't right, but if your parents value learning that

765
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: you had an encyclopedia set, that was a big deal

766
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:39,879
Speaker 1: and you go look it up because you know, there

767
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:42,320
Speaker 1: wasn't any Mom and dad didn't know the answer to everything,

768
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 1: but they're like, that's all the encyclopedia. Go look it up,

769
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: go read it, go look it up. So my parents

770
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: and my mom would would leave some of those by

771
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: my bed in the morning and I would. I That's

772
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: what I really ended up reading most of and I

773
00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: just I just love to learn, and you know, but whatever, whatever,

774
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,320
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, I got our through. I got a

775
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,640
Speaker 1: heart through yesterday. And uh, you just flip through and

776
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,760
Speaker 1: you start reading about you know, famous people in the world.

777
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:10,000
Speaker 1: You read about, you know, different countries, and you know

778
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: you learned. I learned. I learned so much. And I

779
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: just really gave me my institiable desire just to to

780
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: kind of learn and know. And I'm constantly if I

781
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,280
Speaker 1: hear one thing, you know, I just don't take the answer.

782
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,280
Speaker 1: I'll go look and and and you know, learn about.

783
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,240
Speaker 1: Like I said, I love reading biography biographical material about

784
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: people because one thing I found out, Clay, whoever it is,

785
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,919
Speaker 1: you know, most people, especially who have kind of made

786
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:39,520
Speaker 1: it to the top of the proverbial mountain, that you know,

787
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 1: people recognize that it gets windy. I mean, you know,

788
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,640
Speaker 1: you can stand on the ground and wind can blow

789
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: and it won't knock you over. But the higher you

790
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:50,000
Speaker 1: go up a mountain is that the wind blows. I mean,

791
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 1: you know, it gets it's it's it's it's hard to

792
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: stand up. So I recognize that, and so I love

793
00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:58,319
Speaker 1: reading the struggle and the journey about people. And so

794
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: regardless of it is, I don't care for some athlete

795
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,799
Speaker 1: and entertainer someone like you to do what you do.

796
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: We all have those times in our lives when we

797
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:08,239
Speaker 1: were we were worried about how we were going to

798
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:09,960
Speaker 1: get to the next day. And I love I love

799
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: reading about people's kind of struggle and then for them

800
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:13,879
Speaker 1: to be able to make through it. So that's why

801
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: I love the encyclopedia. We're talking to Kevin Warren big Ten, Commissioner.

802
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: So I want to jump ahead because you went to

803
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:23,319
Speaker 1: law school, and I'm fascinated by people who what their

804
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:27,840
Speaker 1: experience in law school? Was your lawyer? Yeah, yeah, I

805
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:29,959
Speaker 1: went to Vanderbilt for a law school, ended up doing

806
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,399
Speaker 1: what I do. Now, what was your experience like at

807
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. How did you find your first year of

808
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 1: law school? How did you like law school in general

809
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,879
Speaker 1: during that process? That's a great question. I'll tell you

810
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,399
Speaker 1: mine was a little different than most people because one

811
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: I had gone to NBA school, front I was a

812
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: little bit older than some of my classmates, and I

813
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 1: went to Notre Dame. I got admitted to the NBA

814
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,360
Speaker 1: j D program at Arizona State. But I got a

815
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:58,359
Speaker 1: call from my sistem, the one who cared for me,

816
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: you know, is like call it spiritual synchron spiritual synchronicity, um.

817
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 1: And she was the one who cared for me in

818
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 1: the hospital of what I had my accident. She was

819
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: really struggling and I had two little kids. They were

820
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: living in South in Indiana, and so she asked me

821
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 1: to come care for her. And so I finished my

822
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 1: NBA at Arizona State went to Notre Dame. So when

823
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 1: I went to Notre Dame, I went there with a purpose,

824
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: you know. I went there to to one My number

825
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:27,560
Speaker 1: one goal was to get my sister back to being

826
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 1: healthy and cared for her two kids. And so I

827
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:35,000
Speaker 1: was incredibly early in the morning. Um, however were the kids.

828
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 1: I They were young, they were like four and six,

829
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 1: and you're at you're at this point, like, how old

830
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:46,959
Speaker 1: are you at this point? I'm twenty three years old

831
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 1: and you got no kids yourself, not married, like you're

832
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:54,359
Speaker 1: otherwise single guy, Yeah, single guy. And lived in her

833
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,040
Speaker 1: basement and cared for the kids. Ironically, both of our

834
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 1: lawyers now John Athony is a lawyer in greenberch Charge

835
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 1: and Phoenix, and my niece but D is a lawyer

836
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,160
Speaker 1: in d C. To the family law. So it was interesting.

837
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,360
Speaker 1: So I cared for them. My brother in law was,

838
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:12,840
Speaker 1: as I said, John Schoemate. He was on Bigger Phelps

839
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:14,840
Speaker 1: the staff at the time, so he was out recruiting.

840
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: So I was I was doing you know, doing what

841
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 1: what what you're supposed to do. So by the time

842
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: I went to class in the morning, I had already

843
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 1: had a full day my you know, my run in

844
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 1: and my push ups and sit ups, got two kids,

845
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,440
Speaker 1: you know ready, uh, you know for school, did my

846
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 1: my homework readings, helped my sister. So when I went

847
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: to school, I was there on a mission and I

848
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: was not fooling around. I was not you know, focused

849
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 1: on who could drink the most beer and um and

850
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:43,320
Speaker 1: I loved Notre Dame. It was a great law stuel

851
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,480
Speaker 1: was smaller, we had a smaller class and um. And

852
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 1: so I actually loved law school because back to my

853
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:51,919
Speaker 1: days of reading, like I love to read, I love

854
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 1: to learn. Um. It was really hard. I mean I

855
00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:57,240
Speaker 1: did well in school. But I was one of those

856
00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 1: people that had to spend a lot of time and

857
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 1: did not come you know, naturally, and so I had

858
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:06,319
Speaker 1: to really really read and brief my cases and took

859
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,240
Speaker 1: you know, great notes, and um had my my nephew Morrison,

860
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:12,920
Speaker 1: you know, teases me. He said, Kevin, you were you know,

861
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: your notes were legendary. But as he actually was in

862
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: the law school class right behind me. He came to

863
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:21,480
Speaker 1: law school, so he took all the classes I took

864
00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: and and you know used my he got the benefit

865
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: of all your hard work. Yeah, I enjoyed law school

866
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: crust of learning. It was really hard, you know for me,

867
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,200
Speaker 1: by by, I enjoyed it. And because of what and

868
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:35,880
Speaker 1: I tell people, I tell my kids, even if you

869
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:38,919
Speaker 1: don't plan on practicing, go go to law school, because

870
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 1: you get a chance to learn how all this in

871
00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:44,280
Speaker 1: the world fits together. There's nothing you can do without

872
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: you know, without a lawyer. You can't buy a house,

873
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: you can buy a car. You can't you know, you

874
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: can't go to college, every all the legal documents. So

875
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. And uh and the thing that also

876
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: helped me enjoy it is for my nephew to encourage

877
00:42:58,120 --> 00:42:59,839
Speaker 1: him because he didn't know what he wanted to do,

878
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:02,279
Speaker 1: to encourage him to come to law school, and then

879
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,359
Speaker 1: to help um facilitate him coming to Notre Dame Law

880
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,760
Speaker 1: School of anavisy how well he's doing in his legal career.

881
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: You know, it was great, But I I enjoyed it.

882
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 1: I was one of those nerds that you know, love

883
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,919
Speaker 1: to read and and and love to write, um and learned.

884
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 1: We had phenomenal you know professors and and some of

885
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 1: our text uh books were written by them. But like

886
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:27,240
Speaker 1: even our criminal law criminal procedure professor was Robert Blakeley,

887
00:43:27,239 --> 00:43:29,959
Speaker 1: who was you know, one of the founders and originators

888
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 1: of who you know who wrote the reco law laws

889
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,400
Speaker 1: and and he would tell us stories um, you know

890
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 1: that were amazing. Charles Rice, you know Professor Rice who

891
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: was our torts teacher, and and and Professor Murphy, you

892
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:44,839
Speaker 1: know who wrote the contracts book so to be at

893
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. And then our deep dean was iconic Dean

894
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:51,759
Speaker 1: David Lincoln. I remember our night before law school. I

895
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,640
Speaker 1: go to Notre Dame. I finished my NBA first of all,

896
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,319
Speaker 1: like three or four days before class starts. I get

897
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,920
Speaker 1: across country get to South Bend and uh get you know,

898
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 1: scored away the basement of my sister's better laws Holmes

899
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: and we go to a picnic a Deanling's house and

900
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 1: and then he takes us over to the law school

901
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 1: that same weekend, and we watched To Kill a Mockingbird

902
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 1: and and this you know, they'll watch that movie without

903
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: a ascense and and to sit there. And I remember

904
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 1: at the end of the movie, we were in the

905
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:25,840
Speaker 1: courtroom at Notre Dame and he looked at us and

906
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,960
Speaker 1: he said, you're here. Became the Notre Dame. And our

907
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:31,480
Speaker 1: goal for for you and for all of us is

908
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: to build a different kind of lawyer. We don't want

909
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,239
Speaker 1: you to be a lawyer, uh just any lawyer. We

910
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:38,879
Speaker 1: want you to be different. And I remember what he'll

911
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. He said, we're here to basically if

912
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:44,279
Speaker 1: we if we were a car factory, we would be

913
00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:47,760
Speaker 1: we would be producing Miserati's We want to be really unique.

914
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,359
Speaker 1: When you see him, you say, Okay, that's a Notre

915
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:52,799
Speaker 1: Dame lawyer, and that that movie every time I watched

916
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: To Kill a mocking Bird and brings back memories and

917
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 1: I'm I'm so grateful for Notre Dame. I love Notre Dame.

918
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:00,120
Speaker 1: I love the education that I received their on the

919
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 1: law school standpoint, and it was it was a blessing

920
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: to to be able to get a law degree from

921
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. How do you end up working with Mike's

922
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,800
Speaker 1: life when you graduated? So yeah, so go to Notre Dame.

923
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 1: Quite naturally, Arizona State has a strong Notre Dame uh footprint.

924
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:20,719
Speaker 1: So I interview end up getting the job at O'Connor Kavanaugh,

925
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: which ended up getting a morphing into Greenberg Truary, but

926
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 1: at O'Connor Kavanaugh, So I worked there my first summer.

927
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: Second summer, I go back to Phoenix and work as

928
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,919
Speaker 1: a firm cost Fanella Wilmer. So I had still both

929
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:35,239
Speaker 1: both big big, big big law for people out there

930
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:37,960
Speaker 1: who are not familiar. Those are big law firms, corporate

931
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: law firms, and a lot of top law kids are

932
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,080
Speaker 1: graduates would go into So you have those options that

933
00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 1: are out there. I got those options. I had options

934
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,040
Speaker 1: in New York because I interviewed everywhere, you know, the

935
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:51,239
Speaker 1: New York and l A. I had some opportunities to

936
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: go to l A and then but I made in

937
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: my mind I was going back home to be a

938
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 1: you know, a lawyer in Phoenix, and especially with my

939
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: you know, family's name. Like I said, not out of

940
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,400
Speaker 1: financial resources, but out of access. I was gonna build

941
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: a great, great practice there. And then literally on the

942
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: way back to Notre Dame for my last semester, and

943
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:14,640
Speaker 1: I was always you know, focused on having financial resources.

944
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: And my parents, you know, from the from the literally

945
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:20,279
Speaker 1: from my accident on, I never got a dollar from

946
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: my parents. I mean, you know, his scholarships paid for college,

947
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 1: and and you know, I was, I was self sufficient,

948
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 1: you know, financially. So I would always work during that

949
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: month off that we would get over the Christmas holidays.

950
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: And so I worked that month off. I was going

951
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 1: back to Notre Dame, had the last semester to do

952
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 1: before I graduated, and had actually accepted a job to

953
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: go work at O'Connor Kavanaugh. So I was going back

954
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:46,000
Speaker 1: finishing my classes and graduate and come back home and

955
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 1: take the bar study for the bar. And I spoke

956
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: with the individual by the name of Bill Jones, who

957
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:54,479
Speaker 1: is just an incredible lawyer in Phoenix. He is firm

958
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 1: ironically it's called Jones, Skelton and Hockey league, and it

959
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:01,359
Speaker 1: was his partner was in hockey league, you know. Yeah,

960
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: And so I talked to Bill Jones. He goes, Kevin,

961
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,680
Speaker 1: I know you love sports, He goes, I got a

962
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,240
Speaker 1: dear friend who's a lawyer in Chicago and they might slide.

963
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,000
Speaker 1: And he and I worked together on you know, one

964
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:14,239
Speaker 1: of the n c A investigations. You should call him

965
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:16,600
Speaker 1: and go see him. And I know you're coming back

966
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,320
Speaker 1: to Phoenix to work, but he'd be a good person,

967
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 1: just to know. He's a he's a really good guy

968
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: in sports, a great So I called Mike. I had

969
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:27,320
Speaker 1: a little small Toyota Corolla, but the over a hundred

970
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,359
Speaker 1: thousand miles on it. And uh, Mike said, hey, I'm

971
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: in the middle of an investigation, but I can meet

972
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: you for breakfast at downtown Chicago on Saturday at like

973
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 1: seven o'clock. So I remember getting in my because I

974
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:41,239
Speaker 1: didn't want to be late. I remember getting in my car, uh,

975
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:43,200
Speaker 1: because I didn't know, you know, the car would totally

976
00:47:43,280 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: make it there like four in the morning, and driving

977
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 1: from Southden to Chicago. I wanted to be I said,

978
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:49,160
Speaker 1: I want to be like an hour and a half

979
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 1: early because I don't want to Uh, you know, miss

980
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:53,840
Speaker 1: this meeting. There's no cell phones and all that stuff.

981
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:55,520
Speaker 1: You had to be there. So I drove this album

982
00:47:55,680 --> 00:48:00,160
Speaker 1: from South Den in Chicago, meeting downtown and uh um,

983
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 1: and had had an early breakfast with him because he

984
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,919
Speaker 1: was an early riser and just really connected. I felt

985
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: like this guy's special and really connected with him. Ironically,

986
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: the place we met is it was right near the

987
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: Palmer House, which is where the Big Tin was founded. Um,

988
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:16,040
Speaker 1: but met with him and no sooner than I made

989
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 1: it back to South Then he had left a voicemail

990
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: on my answering machine. UM say, yeah, he'd loved her

991
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: to offer me a job, and so I called my firm.

992
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,560
Speaker 1: Then I got a chance of work in sports and

993
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,719
Speaker 1: they say, Kevin, no problem. Well we'll just defer your

994
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 1: acceptance here. So I called Mike back, accepted the job.

995
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:36,239
Speaker 1: And then he calls me a month later and go,

996
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 1: we've got a little change. We're moving our firm from

997
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: Chicago to Overland Park, Kansas because that's where the n

998
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:44,880
Speaker 1: c A was headquartered. Will that affect your decision? I

999
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: said no, and so we moved there. So instead of

1000
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:51,040
Speaker 1: me going to Chicago, I go to Overland Park Kansas,

1001
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,040
Speaker 1: and thank god that happened, because that's how I met

1002
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 1: my wife, you know, grant Us. So that's how I

1003
00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,080
Speaker 1: met Mike Slide, worked with him, and then he left.

1004
00:48:57,520 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: Actually that's why it gets interesting to go to the

1005
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:02,799
Speaker 1: Great to start the Great mid West Conference at the time,

1006
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 1: you know, if he launched it and UH offered me

1007
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:08,879
Speaker 1: to go with him, and which I didn't, and he's

1008
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:10,480
Speaker 1: and that's when he told me, you eventually will be

1009
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 1: in college sports, you know, one day did your heart

1010
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 1: your passion for the love of the student athletes. And

1011
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: stayed in touch with him still to this day, I

1012
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: keep in contact with his wife, Liz and UH and

1013
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:24,799
Speaker 1: his daughter Anna, and UH went to Mike's funeral. UH

1014
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 1: and one of the most emotional days is that UH,

1015
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:31,160
Speaker 1: Liz and and Anna actually gave me one of the

1016
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:33,440
Speaker 1: kind of the boxes that he had on his desk

1017
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,840
Speaker 1: that he got as an award that I keep on

1018
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: my desk of the Big ten office. And they gave

1019
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:42,399
Speaker 1: me one cigar from him. He loved cigars, and UH

1020
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:44,200
Speaker 1: and a note from them that I keep it right

1021
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:47,800
Speaker 1: behind me, you know always. So I I deeply deeply

1022
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,360
Speaker 1: loved Mike' slide I'm so grateful to him and for

1023
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 1: him because as a young black student coming out of

1024
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,680
Speaker 1: law school, he took me everywhere with him. He took

1025
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 1: me to come to many on attractions, hearings, he took

1026
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 1: me on road trips to watch him, you know, interview witnesses.

1027
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 1: And so for someone to do that, you know, for

1028
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: me and with me, Um, I will always carry his

1029
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:12,920
Speaker 1: legacy forward. How did you meet your wife? Yeah, so

1030
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 1: we go to Mike moves the firm. Um, I go

1031
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: to UH the firm, and then and and I end

1032
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:26,240
Speaker 1: up meeting her at UH at church, which is amazing,

1033
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: how all these things UH come come full circle. So

1034
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 1: there was a church called St. James United Methodist Church

1035
00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:38,439
Speaker 1: and the pastor was Emmanuel Cleaver, who is now, UM,

1036
00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:41,839
Speaker 1: you know, a politician in Washington, d C. Emmanuel Cleaver

1037
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: who has one of the n I L Bills that

1038
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:49,959
Speaker 1: he's put together with UH Anthony Gonzalez. So we were

1039
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 1: both visiting the weekend met and UM and I knew

1040
00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 1: right away. I knew. I met her then and I

1041
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 1: had to go out on the road and Mike to

1042
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,399
Speaker 1: do it an interview. But came back and we had

1043
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 1: dinner together and I called my mom that night. I said,

1044
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:04,800
Speaker 1: you know, I went from someone you know, never talked

1045
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:06,920
Speaker 1: like that to say, MoMA met at dinner with some

1046
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 1: one the nights I'm gonna marry her. My mom was

1047
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:11,879
Speaker 1: like watch, I'm like, yeah, I mean really, I just

1048
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:14,000
Speaker 1: this is the right person. So we met in March,

1049
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 1: and I had a date in March, and got engaged

1050
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 1: in October ironically at the Grotto uh and Notre Dame

1051
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 1: we're back on campus, and then got married to following June,

1052
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 1: June ninety two. And so I'm just grateful. Gretta is,

1053
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:31,320
Speaker 1: you know, smart, She's a brilliant woman. Um, she is

1054
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,520
Speaker 1: tough as as nails and steady and sturdy and has

1055
00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 1: done an incredible job one with with you know, just

1056
00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,200
Speaker 1: shepharding my career and being there, but then also raising

1057
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 1: our kids, and and just then she she's as solid

1058
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 1: as they come. And I just, oh, I mean, I

1059
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:51,399
Speaker 1: owe really my career to her. I'm appreciative of her

1060
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:53,680
Speaker 1: each and every day, and and then she's been it's

1061
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,560
Speaker 1: been a's been a blessing too, for her to for

1062
00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:58,360
Speaker 1: her to be my wife and me to be her husband,

1063
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 1: and for her to be the parents of our h kids.

1064
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:03,399
Speaker 1: So she's uh, she's, she's, she's she's a great woman.

1065
00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:05,120
Speaker 1: I look forward to the day that you can meet her.

1066
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,719
Speaker 1: We're talking to Big ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. Uh, this

1067
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,239
Speaker 1: is Winston Losses. I'm Clay Travis. All right, So you

1068
00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:18,759
Speaker 1: leave the MIC's live relationship and what do you do then? So, yeah,

1069
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:21,640
Speaker 1: Mike to Mike leaves actually to take the job of

1070
00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 1: the great New Glass which now I worked in the

1071
00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 1: conference USA. I don't go with him. I stayed with Glazier.

1072
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:31,960
Speaker 1: And was that a tough decision with Glazier, Yeah, so's

1073
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 1: he stayed. I keep doing the work that they're doing,

1074
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 1: the investigations. And then all of a sudden, one of

1075
00:52:35,880 --> 00:52:40,239
Speaker 1: my professors from Notre Dame, uh, professor Hair Patricial Hair,

1076
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:42,680
Speaker 1: calls me and says, hey, I just got promoted to

1077
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,759
Speaker 1: vice president student Affairs. Will you come back? I said sure.

1078
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:47,520
Speaker 1: So I went back to Notre Dame, taught a sports

1079
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 1: law class in the law school, worked in administration an

1080
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:54,160
Speaker 1: assistant vice president student affairs for a year, and then

1081
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 1: um and while I was there, ended up somebody introduced

1082
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 1: me to Chris George, who was a rookie on the

1083
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 1: Bears at the time, you know, Hayle had lost his

1084
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,759
Speaker 1: mom and just wanted some help. And so after I

1085
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:08,640
Speaker 1: left Notre Dame to go back to Kansas City to

1086
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:11,280
Speaker 1: get married to Grado, started my own you know, sports

1087
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 1: practice and start representing you know, Chris and the end

1088
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:18,880
Speaker 1: up working with Leg Dawson and and and UH Will

1089
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 1: Shield and even your great partner Jason whitlock Um and

1090
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:27,239
Speaker 1: so built a built a business and and UH representation

1091
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:31,799
Speaker 1: business and Kansas City and and then just like Bill

1092
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:34,799
Speaker 1: Jones did with with Mike's Live, I got had a

1093
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:37,239
Speaker 1: friend who connected me with Dig Vermil who had just

1094
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: got hired at the Rams and ninety seven. And someone said, um,

1095
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:42,839
Speaker 1: you know, you guys would really like each other. It's

1096
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: the same way that Bill Jones said with Mike's Lives.

1097
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:47,719
Speaker 1: So something you'd really like, Uh coach Vermil and same

1098
00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:51,319
Speaker 1: type deal. Flew to St. Louis um and sat down

1099
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:53,879
Speaker 1: with Culture for mal almost very similar to the way

1100
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:57,200
Speaker 1: that Mike flid meeting went, and uh and then all

1101
00:53:57,239 --> 00:53:59,360
Speaker 1: of the seven Culture Mills like, I'd love to have

1102
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:01,800
Speaker 1: you and work with me. And it was just something

1103
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:03,799
Speaker 1: about him, just like with my slide that I knew

1104
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:05,840
Speaker 1: this is a person that I would love to follow

1105
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 1: when you're when you're teaching at Notre Dame. Did you

1106
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,759
Speaker 1: like teaching sports law at Notre Dame? What was that

1107
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 1: experience like, because you're a young guy teaching. And by

1108
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:18,720
Speaker 1: the way, did you did you ever meet Amy Coney Barrett,

1109
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 1: who now is on the Supreme Court and it's probably

1110
00:54:20,719 --> 00:54:23,920
Speaker 1: the most famous Notre Dame law grad, I would imagine

1111
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,759
Speaker 1: right now in the country. She was. Yeah, so, I'm

1112
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:31,160
Speaker 1: I was a ninety grad. I think she's like, I mean,

1113
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:33,480
Speaker 1: quite naturally. I know because I've seen in contact with

1114
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. I go back on camp as every so

1115
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:37,440
Speaker 1: often to speak to law schools. I don't know why

1116
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 1: I thought she's like a grass. She was after me,

1117
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 1: um there and and yes she is famous and um

1118
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:48,279
Speaker 1: well everybody on campus evidently you loved her as a

1119
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:50,840
Speaker 1: professor to write like the students and they loved her.

1120
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:53,239
Speaker 1: People do love her. I mean they really did did

1121
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,480
Speaker 1: love hers. Um and um. So I just wish her

1122
00:54:57,880 --> 00:54:59,719
Speaker 1: well to be on the Supreme Court. Are you talking

1123
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:05,759
Speaker 1: about the amazing achieve expands? Uh so, I'm I'm looking

1124
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,840
Speaker 1: looking forward to to uh having a chance to hopefully

1125
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:12,600
Speaker 1: sit down and talk with her one day, but she's

1126
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 1: in a Notre Dame family. But yeah, I enjoyed teaching.

1127
00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:16,839
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, teaching in my blood, like I said,

1128
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:19,000
Speaker 1: my mom being an educator, my dad being an educator.

1129
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:21,399
Speaker 1: I enjoyed. I was young, and you know a lot

1130
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:25,120
Speaker 1: of the students I was teaching that they weren't they

1131
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 1: were some of them quite actually were older than me.

1132
00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:30,399
Speaker 1: So I enjoyed it. And I think that's something later

1133
00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:33,200
Speaker 1: in my life and my career. But I'll go back to,

1134
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 1: you know, be an adjunct, you know, professor at some

1135
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:37,799
Speaker 1: point in time, in a couple of years from now,

1136
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:39,960
Speaker 1: because I really enjoyed it. Back to me loving to

1137
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:44,160
Speaker 1: you know, to read and to write and communicate, and

1138
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,240
Speaker 1: hopefully I'll have some knowledge to share with some students

1139
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: here at some point in time, you know, in the

1140
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: in the future. But I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed that.

1141
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:54,920
Speaker 1: We're talking to Big Tech Commissioner Vin Warren. So you

1142
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 1: work at at at the RAMS, you can find a

1143
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:59,720
Speaker 1: guy named Kurt Warner who has a little bit of success.

1144
00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:02,880
Speaker 1: I'm Titans fans, so so you end up beating the

1145
00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:06,320
Speaker 1: Titans in that very memorable Super Bowl and you start

1146
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 1: to work inside of an NFL franchise, what's that like

1147
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:13,160
Speaker 1: and what stick for meal? Like, yeah, it was you know,

1148
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,719
Speaker 1: it was interesting. And we were you know, we were

1149
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:18,680
Speaker 1: the losingest franchise in the nineties up until ninety seven.

1150
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 1: I think we were tied with the Cincinnati Bengals. So

1151
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:23,000
Speaker 1: we go in there. I mean, we go five and

1152
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 1: eleven the first year, and then we go four and twelve.

1153
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: So people are looking at me like, okay, you had

1154
00:56:28,560 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 1: a really good business and you win nine games and

1155
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 1: two years were nine games and two years and there

1156
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 1: you know, we all had three year contracts, So that's

1157
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:37,520
Speaker 1: not good going in the third year of the contract

1158
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:40,960
Speaker 1: with nine wins and two years, and I think ownership

1159
00:56:40,960 --> 00:56:44,000
Speaker 1: had clearly made a plan to terminate the coach of

1160
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:46,480
Speaker 1: Mail at the end of the end of that season.

1161
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:49,960
Speaker 1: And I remember he in training camp, he showed a

1162
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:54,960
Speaker 1: clip from this movie Amistade, and uh it was like basically,

1163
00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:58,439
Speaker 1: you know, if if uh, if not, now we're I mean,

1164
00:56:58,560 --> 00:57:00,920
Speaker 1: you know, this is our year. We all of us

1165
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:02,560
Speaker 1: there are probably all of us are gonna be gone.

1166
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,200
Speaker 1: And things fell into place, and like I said, Kurt

1167
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:09,360
Speaker 1: was there Trent Green. That's right. That's a huge story,

1168
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:11,759
Speaker 1: right because Trent Green, the expectation was that he was

1169
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:14,879
Speaker 1: going to be great. And Dick cried, I think after

1170
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:17,520
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, in a press conference after Trent

1171
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,920
Speaker 1: hurt his knee. Yeah, you're right, great memory, that's what

1172
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:24,520
Speaker 1: he said, we will play good football and uh um

1173
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 1: and uh so yeah. I mean Trent where we had

1174
00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:29,720
Speaker 1: signed him, I believe from Washington and because he had

1175
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:31,840
Speaker 1: worked with Mike Marts who was an offensive coordinator who

1176
00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: had worked at the Rams previously, who became the head coach,

1177
00:57:34,600 --> 00:57:37,360
Speaker 1: and I think third preseason game against San Diego, Rodney

1178
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,400
Speaker 1: Harrison stumbled into Trent's knee towards a c I remember

1179
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: I went down to the locker room and was there

1180
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:45,040
Speaker 1: with Trent in the locker room, you know, when he

1181
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:47,880
Speaker 1: was hurt. You know, Kurt comes in and and um,

1182
00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:50,440
Speaker 1: we end up not signing. So many people were leaning

1183
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 1: and that's what I really learned. You got to just

1184
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:54,560
Speaker 1: stick with what's in your spirit and hard to do

1185
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:57,160
Speaker 1: the right thing. And coach knew Kirt Wanna was a

1186
00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:59,400
Speaker 1: great player. And I remember going to practices. I've seen

1187
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:02,720
Speaker 1: Kurt have a full practice and and and not one

1188
00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: ball hit the ground zero I mean, and so that

1189
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: was my standard of like that's like a legitimate quarterback

1190
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:11,120
Speaker 1: right there. There was none of this throwing it over

1191
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:12,720
Speaker 1: the head and the dirt. I mean. He was so

1192
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:16,080
Speaker 1: focused and to see him, you know, elevate and he

1193
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:18,440
Speaker 1: has the same initials and I so when his when

1194
00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 1: he started his his crazy rise to to start them U.

1195
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:24,760
Speaker 1: These people would try to go through our voicemail at

1196
00:58:24,800 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: the Rams Park to leave a message for him, and

1197
00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 1: they would end up hitting k W you know, backing

1198
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: into it, especially w A, so I would get more

1199
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 1: messages from fans. It was, you know, such a steady

1200
00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:39,800
Speaker 1: I stayed in close contact with him. So yeah, Dick

1201
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:43,400
Speaker 1: was coach. Romil was special. I stay in close contact

1202
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:47,200
Speaker 1: with him. His birthday was a couple of months ago,

1203
00:58:47,600 --> 00:58:51,040
Speaker 1: and uh I talked with he and his wife Carol regularly.

1204
00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 1: I stayed in touch with him. As soon as we

1205
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:55,920
Speaker 1: get through this pandemic, I'll go and have dinner with him.

1206
00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:58,600
Speaker 1: We share the same level of wine and and he's

1207
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: a father to me and I can halt with him

1208
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 1: all the time. So he was spectacular. I learned so

1209
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:06,440
Speaker 1: many lessons from him. And then so we we just

1210
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 1: went went forward. We had currently drafted Tory Holt, we

1211
00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:14,000
Speaker 1: had drafted Orlando Pace two years earlier than Grant Whistram.

1212
00:59:14,080 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: And then we traded from Marshall Falk and we had

1213
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:19,360
Speaker 1: great coaches. I mean, so I learned about having good

1214
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:21,840
Speaker 1: people around you, so many lessons from Kadrabille. I think

1215
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:25,040
Speaker 1: we had eight former NFL head coaches on our staff

1216
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 1: and and just just and they built it and we

1217
00:59:29,560 --> 00:59:32,400
Speaker 1: we we played with no fear and and I'm convinced

1218
00:59:32,480 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 1: kadro Mill doesn't retire. At the end of the year,

1219
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:36,760
Speaker 1: we probably probably have instead of one Super Bowl ring

1220
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:38,600
Speaker 1: and one Super Bowl Trophy, I've probably have three or

1221
00:59:38,640 --> 00:59:41,520
Speaker 1: four because we had great players and great system and

1222
00:59:41,560 --> 00:59:44,360
Speaker 1: a great staff and and and that was that was

1223
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:47,720
Speaker 1: that was really fun. That was a really fun year.

1224
00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:50,640
Speaker 1: And although I've never used the word fair or fun,

1225
00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:52,240
Speaker 1: but that's one of the times I will say that

1226
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,920
Speaker 1: was a fun year. So you go back, you didn't

1227
00:59:54,920 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 1: go to the Lions, and then you go to Greenberg

1228
00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:01,200
Speaker 1: trou big international law firm, and you start working. If

1229
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 1: I'm if I'm not mistaken for the Will family uh

1230
01:00:04,680 --> 01:00:08,160
Speaker 1: in their attempt to buy the Minnesota Vikings, and that

1231
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 1: puts you back into the scope of the NFL. What

1232
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:14,360
Speaker 1: was that relationship like and how did it grow to

1233
01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:17,680
Speaker 1: the point as initially your lawyer to then going in

1234
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 1: house and and basically moving to Minnesota and spending fifteen

1235
01:00:20,760 --> 01:00:24,160
Speaker 1: years of your life there. Yeah, so, like you said,

1236
01:00:24,160 --> 01:00:26,480
Speaker 1: we're leaving around. You had a great run, had a

1237
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:30,520
Speaker 1: great chance to go to the Lions. Um, you know,

1238
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 1: we didn't have much success in two years there are

1239
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:35,520
Speaker 1: going back to Greenberg, Charlie, and back to the kind

1240
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:38,520
Speaker 1: Kavanaugh said they would defer my acceptance. Well they deferred

1241
01:00:38,520 --> 01:00:44,160
Speaker 1: it for thirteen years years after you said, yeah, had

1242
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:46,800
Speaker 1: the job and in ninety and I said, remember you

1243
01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:49,080
Speaker 1: guys said you would defer my accepting. They said yeah,

1244
01:00:49,080 --> 01:00:52,560
Speaker 1: because the same people were there. Jeh Bourbon was there.

1245
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:55,840
Speaker 1: And uh, I said, well, I always always keep my words.

1246
01:00:55,880 --> 01:01:00,280
Speaker 1: So thirteen years later, I'm ready to accept that offer.

1247
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 1: He said, it's still here. So that's I ended up

1248
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:04,520
Speaker 1: at Greenberg, Charwick. So I go back there and and

1249
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:07,000
Speaker 1: crazy as it would be, I ended up. So I

1250
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:10,080
Speaker 1: go back to Greenberg and and pretty much uh, you know,

1251
01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:14,520
Speaker 1: July of that year of uh of two thousand and

1252
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 1: three and uh, and I'm working there and then the

1253
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:23,960
Speaker 1: next probably March or April April of two thousand and four,

1254
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:26,560
Speaker 1: I get a call one day from Denny Green and

1255
01:01:26,600 --> 01:01:28,920
Speaker 1: the late great coach, and he says, hey, you know,

1256
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 1: I hear the Vikings are for sale and love to

1257
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:34,440
Speaker 1: try to put together a group, and I'm gonna be

1258
01:01:34,680 --> 01:01:37,560
Speaker 1: in town and will you will you come to a

1259
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:40,040
Speaker 1: kind of reception. There's gonna be about forty or fifty

1260
01:01:40,040 --> 01:01:42,560
Speaker 1: people to get together in Phoenix and I'd love for

1261
01:01:42,600 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 1: you to come in and ten, I said, great, So

1262
01:01:44,480 --> 01:01:46,200
Speaker 1: I showed up that I went and saw the Sacramento

1263
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 1: Kings play the Phoenix suns Um and it was you know,

1264
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 1: that was really early though, because I saw I think

1265
01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 1: Lebron's first probably preseason game that's that same year. But

1266
01:01:57,240 --> 01:01:59,360
Speaker 1: I go to this deal at the Phoenician and Phoenix

1267
01:02:00,240 --> 01:02:02,640
Speaker 1: and what Coach Green failed to tell me that he

1268
01:02:02,720 --> 01:02:04,840
Speaker 1: was gonna ask me to make the presentation to the

1269
01:02:04,880 --> 01:02:08,040
Speaker 1: group about acquiring the NFL club. So I just I

1270
01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:10,760
Speaker 1: go there with my notebook and my pen ready to

1271
01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:13,000
Speaker 1: take some notes, and he says, yeah, I'm glad you

1272
01:02:13,040 --> 01:02:17,040
Speaker 1: all came. Now this meeting starting at about eleven o'clock now,

1273
01:02:17,120 --> 01:02:19,360
Speaker 1: because it was after the games. Glad you all came.

1274
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:21,800
Speaker 1: We wanted to get people together explore about buying the

1275
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 1: Viking gun, and uh invited Kevin Warren, who had six

1276
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:27,600
Speaker 1: years in the NFL, to be here and kind of

1277
01:02:27,640 --> 01:02:32,800
Speaker 1: walk us through the process banks coach. So I got

1278
01:02:32,880 --> 01:02:35,880
Speaker 1: up and Uh. I remember telling my wife, you know, Gret,

1279
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 1: because we went to the game together. She went home.

1280
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:40,200
Speaker 1: We didn't live far from the Phoenicia. I said, look,

1281
01:02:40,240 --> 01:02:41,960
Speaker 1: if I'm not here, I know Coach Green, I don't

1282
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:44,080
Speaker 1: know these other people, but I'm not here by like

1283
01:02:44,080 --> 01:02:46,160
Speaker 1: two in the morning, come look for me. So I

1284
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:48,520
Speaker 1: ended up getting home part about three because we were

1285
01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:51,640
Speaker 1: there meeting for about four hours and um grat a

1286
01:02:51,720 --> 01:02:54,680
Speaker 1: sound asleep and I and I said, I said to

1287
01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:57,919
Speaker 1: her that, uh. Um, I said to her that that

1288
01:02:58,480 --> 01:02:59,840
Speaker 1: why didn't you come and give me? Said, I knew

1289
01:02:59,840 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: you fine. But so the meeting went well. Morphed in there.

1290
01:03:02,880 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 1: One of the people who ironically was the meeting UH

1291
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:10,000
Speaker 1: in the meeting was what uh what was uh was

1292
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:13,480
Speaker 1: was was Reggie Fowler and um and so I ended

1293
01:03:13,560 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: up meeting you know Reggie there. I didn't I didn't know,

1294
01:03:16,520 --> 01:03:19,280
Speaker 1: I didn't know Reggie, but end up meeting there and

1295
01:03:19,320 --> 01:03:21,600
Speaker 1: that's how it kind of started. But you know, when

1296
01:03:21,600 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 1: we started talking with Reggie, he needed partners. And so

1297
01:03:25,080 --> 01:03:27,880
Speaker 1: I had a dear friend, Jim Stapleton, who's still a

1298
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,440
Speaker 1: dear friend. He went to college in Michigan with a

1299
01:03:30,480 --> 01:03:32,880
Speaker 1: guy by the name of Ray Owens who had done

1300
01:03:32,920 --> 01:03:35,360
Speaker 1: some real estate work with Alan Landis. And that's why

1301
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:37,080
Speaker 1: I said, Clay, when these things and he looked back

1302
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:39,640
Speaker 1: over my life and all the different things that had

1303
01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:42,760
Speaker 1: to fall into place, you know, to happen. Uh. So,

1304
01:03:43,040 --> 01:03:45,440
Speaker 1: Jim had a friend in Michigan who who did some

1305
01:03:45,560 --> 01:03:48,160
Speaker 1: work with Alan Landis and real estate named Ray Owens

1306
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:51,000
Speaker 1: um that said, Hey, there may be a family in

1307
01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 1: New York who also is interested in in in being

1308
01:03:54,240 --> 01:03:56,880
Speaker 1: an owner in the NFL. And he said it's the

1309
01:03:56,960 --> 01:04:00,040
Speaker 1: Landis family, the Mandelbald family, and the Wolf family. And

1310
01:04:00,120 --> 01:04:01,600
Speaker 1: I said great, And you know, all you have to

1311
01:04:01,600 --> 01:04:03,600
Speaker 1: do is tell me some one time. And I was

1312
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:08,200
Speaker 1: on a plane within probably forty eight hours going back

1313
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:11,600
Speaker 1: to see the will family, Mandebaum family, Lander's family to

1314
01:04:11,680 --> 01:04:14,720
Speaker 1: present in front of them and uh, telling them about

1315
01:04:14,720 --> 01:04:17,880
Speaker 1: the deal. And I remember after about a two hour

1316
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:22,000
Speaker 1: presentation to them, barely taking a breath or or drink

1317
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:24,880
Speaker 1: of water. They convened the back conference room and they

1318
01:04:24,920 --> 01:04:27,560
Speaker 1: came out and said, yeah, we're in as limited partners.

1319
01:04:27,680 --> 01:04:30,560
Speaker 1: And then as the deal start going back and forth,

1320
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:33,640
Speaker 1: I was flying red eye flights from from the Phoenix

1321
01:04:33,640 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 1: to New York to meet with them, start working on

1322
01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:40,400
Speaker 1: the deal. And then when Reggie didn't have the financial

1323
01:04:40,440 --> 01:04:44,960
Speaker 1: wherewithal to be the general partner UM. I remember like

1324
01:04:45,040 --> 01:04:47,480
Speaker 1: it was yesterday standing to my closet and Phoenix of

1325
01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:51,200
Speaker 1: Ziggy's birthdache um that I that I had to call

1326
01:04:51,320 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 1: him and say, you know, hey, we we need an

1327
01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:56,080
Speaker 1: opum We're gonna need and I'm gonna need to have

1328
01:04:57,440 --> 01:05:02,360
Speaker 1: h an opportunity um to uh to to become general

1329
01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:06,520
Speaker 1: partner and and so he That's when we did it,

1330
01:05:06,720 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 1: and we really had to put the pedal to the

1331
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:12,000
Speaker 1: metal and uh get the deal done. And we did

1332
01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:16,040
Speaker 1: did did get it um uh closed and uh and

1333
01:05:16,080 --> 01:05:19,520
Speaker 1: when it closed, I remember we had the closing had

1334
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:22,120
Speaker 1: scadd ARBs in New York. You know, yeah, I mean

1335
01:05:22,120 --> 01:05:23,760
Speaker 1: you've been in these big deals and this is one

1336
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:25,880
Speaker 1: of the ones where every conference room was taken. I

1337
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,960
Speaker 1: mean we must have signed you know, a hundred pieces,

1338
01:05:29,080 --> 01:05:32,720
Speaker 1: hundred documents. And so we finished the closing went a

1339
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:36,080
Speaker 1: couple of hours, and after we finished that, Will set

1340
01:05:36,080 --> 01:05:38,400
Speaker 1: down and say, okay, what happens now, like is you

1341
01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:40,520
Speaker 1: know Red McCombs and his group gonna meet us in

1342
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:43,440
Speaker 1: Minnesota and the transition I was like, the when that

1343
01:05:43,560 --> 01:05:47,800
Speaker 1: wire hit Mr McCombs account today, you will you you

1344
01:05:47,840 --> 01:05:50,680
Speaker 1: won't be hearing much from him. They're just to confirm

1345
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:52,720
Speaker 1: that he gets, you know, super Bowl tickets every year

1346
01:05:52,760 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 1: going forward. No, there's not going to be anyone there.

1347
01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:57,120
Speaker 1: He goes, what do you mean? I said, no, He goes, well,

1348
01:05:57,160 --> 01:05:58,520
Speaker 1: what happens? I said, you guys got to go to

1349
01:05:58,560 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 1: Minnesota meet with the staff and introduce yourselves and and

1350
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:05,240
Speaker 1: tell them what's gonna happen. And and uh He's like,

1351
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:08,400
Speaker 1: can you go with us? Team? Meet us there? And

1352
01:06:08,440 --> 01:06:10,840
Speaker 1: so that's what happened. So we went. I went from

1353
01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:12,760
Speaker 1: literally didn't go back to Thieds. I went straight to

1354
01:06:12,840 --> 01:06:16,880
Speaker 1: Minnesota and and you know, met there. I remember actually

1355
01:06:16,960 --> 01:06:19,680
Speaker 1: meeting Mike Stolack is his name from US Bank, meeting

1356
01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:22,600
Speaker 1: him downtown at the hotel to sign the like the

1357
01:06:22,640 --> 01:06:26,040
Speaker 1: signature cards for the bank accounts. You know, it's just

1358
01:06:26,080 --> 01:06:29,080
Speaker 1: could like literally open up the accounts. And we had

1359
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:31,880
Speaker 1: to form all new ll c s and and we

1360
01:06:31,920 --> 01:06:35,320
Speaker 1: started from scratch, you know, with the Metrodome UH and

1361
01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:39,360
Speaker 1: the Winter Park facility and and then to be able

1362
01:06:39,400 --> 01:06:41,120
Speaker 1: to look back and so proud of I worked there

1363
01:06:41,120 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 1: fifteen years later to build a best stadium and all

1364
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:45,920
Speaker 1: the pro football and US Banks Stadium and the best

1365
01:06:45,960 --> 01:06:49,840
Speaker 1: practice facility in twin cities, Authentedics Performance Center UM, and

1366
01:06:49,920 --> 01:06:52,000
Speaker 1: to host the super Bowl in the cold Weather City.

1367
01:06:52,040 --> 01:06:55,240
Speaker 1: To build a world class you know, franchise. And I

1368
01:06:55,280 --> 01:06:58,960
Speaker 1: know eventually they'll get there, TOPHI UM, you know. Also,

1369
01:06:59,120 --> 01:07:00,800
Speaker 1: but to be a to do that, put in the

1370
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:03,760
Speaker 1: work in Minnesota, to raise our kids here, for our

1371
01:07:03,800 --> 01:07:07,160
Speaker 1: kids to get incredible educations h here, and just for

1372
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:10,840
Speaker 1: me to recognize dream. And I say it every time

1373
01:07:10,840 --> 01:07:13,160
Speaker 1: I get a chance for a group like the Will

1374
01:07:13,240 --> 01:07:16,320
Speaker 1: family and the Landis family and man the bat family,

1375
01:07:16,320 --> 01:07:18,959
Speaker 1: but primarily the Will family, Mark Lenny's, bigg and John

1376
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:22,880
Speaker 1: to afford a black man like me and their forties

1377
01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:26,960
Speaker 1: to turn the keys over UH to an NFL franchise.

1378
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:30,080
Speaker 1: From a business standpoint, to say you know, just go,

1379
01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:32,800
Speaker 1: we trust you to be able to do. That is

1380
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:36,640
Speaker 1: I will forever ever be grateful to them and just

1381
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:40,000
Speaker 1: owe them so much of a better gratitude and and

1382
01:07:40,160 --> 01:07:42,520
Speaker 1: I just appreciated the opportunity that afforded me to be

1383
01:07:42,560 --> 01:07:46,240
Speaker 1: able to do. We're talking to Kevin Warren, Big Ten Commissioner.

1384
01:07:46,800 --> 01:07:49,960
Speaker 1: So you're there. You have a tremendous success with the Vikings,

1385
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:53,040
Speaker 1: and then you get the opportunity to go to the

1386
01:07:53,080 --> 01:07:55,480
Speaker 1: Big Ten. You've been there for a year. I want

1387
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:57,760
Speaker 1: to ask this question before I ask about the Big Ten,

1388
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:00,240
Speaker 1: and are you okay time wise? I know we're rolling

1389
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:02,959
Speaker 1: here and it's Christmas Eve, but I got I gotta

1390
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:06,280
Speaker 1: have I have a actually ironically have a hockey call

1391
01:08:06,320 --> 01:08:09,560
Speaker 1: it in about fifteen minutes with the Red Barrenson. So yeah,

1392
01:08:09,600 --> 01:08:12,160
Speaker 1: I'm good for another fifteen minutes. Yeah, perfect, all right.

1393
01:08:12,400 --> 01:08:15,480
Speaker 1: First question, A lot of people say N, B, A

1394
01:08:15,840 --> 01:08:18,040
Speaker 1: or J D. A lot of people out there listening

1395
01:08:18,160 --> 01:08:21,320
Speaker 1: right now, which do you think is more valuable? How

1396
01:08:21,360 --> 01:08:24,920
Speaker 1: have they intertwined together? Because obviously you are doing a

1397
01:08:24,920 --> 01:08:27,799
Speaker 1: lot on both sides, both the business and the legal.

1398
01:08:28,240 --> 01:08:30,720
Speaker 1: How important was it for you to have both? What

1399
01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:33,560
Speaker 1: would you say to people out there considering the decision

1400
01:08:33,720 --> 01:08:37,600
Speaker 1: of an NBA or a j D, this is my recommendation.

1401
01:08:37,680 --> 01:08:40,479
Speaker 1: And I get that asked a lot. I tell them both. Yeah,

1402
01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:44,120
Speaker 1: I could not have done my job at the Vikings

1403
01:08:44,280 --> 01:08:47,679
Speaker 1: with either either or definitely if I didn't have either

1404
01:08:47,720 --> 01:08:50,640
Speaker 1: one of no way, but either or uh. And I

1405
01:08:50,920 --> 01:08:52,720
Speaker 1: don't think I could do this job at the Big ten.

1406
01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:54,800
Speaker 1: But you know, if I just had an NBA or

1407
01:08:54,840 --> 01:08:57,400
Speaker 1: just a law degree, just these jobs now are so

1408
01:08:57,520 --> 01:09:02,839
Speaker 1: complex and it ranges from business is to legal to financial, um,

1409
01:09:02,880 --> 01:09:05,479
Speaker 1: you know, to everything. And I tell people, if you're

1410
01:09:05,479 --> 01:09:07,040
Speaker 1: gonna get one, you might as well get the other.

1411
01:09:08,320 --> 01:09:10,599
Speaker 1: It's it's a fascinating idea because I wish I had

1412
01:09:10,640 --> 01:09:13,640
Speaker 1: more business learning in my background. I never did it.

1413
01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:15,360
Speaker 1: I've had to kind of learn it running my own

1414
01:09:15,360 --> 01:09:17,960
Speaker 1: business from the seat of my pants. You know you've

1415
01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:20,600
Speaker 1: done well, You've done well. But but I agree with it.

1416
01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:22,639
Speaker 1: I mean, just the stuff. I mean, I just look

1417
01:09:22,680 --> 01:09:24,559
Speaker 1: at the things on my desk right now, sitting on

1418
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:28,720
Speaker 1: my desk right now. It ranges from you know, television

1419
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:32,720
Speaker 1: you know issues, to financial issues, to spreadsheets you know,

1420
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:37,240
Speaker 1: to counting, uh, to finance, to sales to marketing to legal,

1421
01:09:37,320 --> 01:09:41,080
Speaker 1: to litigation, to corporate to real estate. I mean all

1422
01:09:41,080 --> 01:09:43,439
Speaker 1: of these different things. And so there's no way and

1423
01:09:43,439 --> 01:09:46,040
Speaker 1: the reason why I did it, and my parents, you know,

1424
01:09:46,120 --> 01:09:47,840
Speaker 1: I was, I was. I went to NBA school first,

1425
01:09:47,880 --> 01:09:49,200
Speaker 1: and I was gonna be done. I was ready to

1426
01:09:49,240 --> 01:09:51,720
Speaker 1: go work. It's early nineties. I was ready to go.

1427
01:09:51,800 --> 01:09:55,599
Speaker 1: And my I remember my both mom and dad told me.

1428
01:09:55,640 --> 01:09:57,519
Speaker 1: They said, you never want to be in a meeting

1429
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:02,519
Speaker 1: um down the road, Kevin. You have to rely on

1430
01:10:02,640 --> 01:10:05,720
Speaker 1: an expert, you know, in either business at law. You

1431
01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:07,760
Speaker 1: want to make sure you understand it. You gotta have

1432
01:10:07,840 --> 01:10:09,439
Speaker 1: experts in there, but you need to make sure you

1433
01:10:09,479 --> 01:10:12,080
Speaker 1: understand the language. And I said, Okay, you're right, that's it.

1434
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:14,679
Speaker 1: I'm going We're talking talking to a Big ten commissioner,

1435
01:10:14,760 --> 01:10:16,599
Speaker 1: Vin Warren. Alright, so let's get to the Big Ten.

1436
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:19,880
Speaker 1: You take over. Uh was it a tough decision to

1437
01:10:20,120 --> 01:10:23,240
Speaker 1: leave Minnesota and take and take the Big ten job?

1438
01:10:23,600 --> 01:10:28,120
Speaker 1: Or was it an easy decision? It was easy. It

1439
01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:34,400
Speaker 1: was it was time. Um, you know, spend spending fifteen

1440
01:10:34,479 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 1: years here. Every single goal I'm a goal writer, goal setter,

1441
01:10:38,720 --> 01:10:40,320
Speaker 1: you know, every single goal I had written down, when

1442
01:10:40,520 --> 01:10:43,960
Speaker 1: written down, when I went to be um um um

1443
01:10:44,040 --> 01:10:47,360
Speaker 1: has has uh come to fruition At the Vike tings.

1444
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:50,560
Speaker 1: It was to you know, build a new practice uh

1445
01:10:50,680 --> 01:10:55,400
Speaker 1: facility and build a new stadium, hosts the Super Bowl,

1446
01:10:56,240 --> 01:10:59,160
Speaker 1: build a world class organization and then win a Super Bowl.

1447
01:10:59,200 --> 01:11:00,720
Speaker 1: We want to four out of eyes. I mean we

1448
01:11:00,720 --> 01:11:03,519
Speaker 1: we accomplished of five. It was time. It was time

1449
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:05,439
Speaker 1: for me. I had done everything that I could do

1450
01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:08,599
Speaker 1: from a career standpoint there and I think the biggest

1451
01:11:08,600 --> 01:11:10,919
Speaker 1: thing back in my life. I mean my love and

1452
01:11:10,920 --> 01:11:16,240
Speaker 1: and and passion for young people, UM for student athletes

1453
01:11:17,360 --> 01:11:19,759
Speaker 1: is high. And I lived that I was a student athlete.

1454
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:23,240
Speaker 1: I know what college athletics did too to uh to

1455
01:11:23,439 --> 01:11:25,880
Speaker 1: to my life. You know what it did and in

1456
01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:28,639
Speaker 1: my life, and that the chance he gave for me.

1457
01:11:28,920 --> 01:11:31,479
Speaker 1: I mean to come from a family with no money,

1458
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:34,120
Speaker 1: no resources, but to be able to go. I even

1459
01:11:34,120 --> 01:11:37,839
Speaker 1: know the desire play for me to become a student athlete.

1460
01:11:37,840 --> 01:11:39,719
Speaker 1: What it did. That's why I built my own pool

1461
01:11:39,800 --> 01:11:42,040
Speaker 1: because I had a goal. My dad did it, my

1462
01:11:42,080 --> 01:11:44,679
Speaker 1: brother did it, others did it from my neighborhood who

1463
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:47,080
Speaker 1: went and played college sports. So I had a goal

1464
01:11:47,120 --> 01:11:49,400
Speaker 1: to play d Wana Athletic so that was the reason

1465
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:51,960
Speaker 1: why I built the pool to recover. Never knew I

1466
01:11:52,000 --> 01:11:53,640
Speaker 1: could do it, so I knew the importance of it,

1467
01:11:53,720 --> 01:11:56,760
Speaker 1: so that any time that you have a chance, I said,

1468
01:11:56,800 --> 01:11:59,920
Speaker 1: to go to be able to positively influence. We had

1469
01:12:00,160 --> 01:12:03,479
Speaker 1: ten thousand student athletes almost in the Big ten. So

1470
01:12:03,600 --> 01:12:07,799
Speaker 1: the positive influenced ten thousand student athletes across fourteen different

1471
01:12:07,800 --> 01:12:11,120
Speaker 1: schools across the eleven states. UH to be able to

1472
01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:13,400
Speaker 1: do it, then that that's really the whole you know,

1473
01:12:13,439 --> 01:12:14,960
Speaker 1: that was the whole essence for me. So it was

1474
01:12:14,960 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 1: a very easy decision. So you're there for a year

1475
01:12:18,479 --> 01:12:22,160
Speaker 1: and then basically less than a year and suddenly this

1476
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:25,080
Speaker 1: crazy pandemic hits. I think you took over in September

1477
01:12:25,080 --> 01:12:28,200
Speaker 1: of nineteen if I'm not mistaken, and then in March

1478
01:12:28,439 --> 01:12:30,920
Speaker 1: and September, you know, and so a stick went there.

1479
01:12:30,920 --> 01:12:34,439
Speaker 1: In September's commissioner left, the Delaney spent the last three

1480
01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:37,320
Speaker 1: months with me. I actually took over January two, so

1481
01:12:37,360 --> 01:12:40,360
Speaker 1: it was like seventy days when the pandemic hit for

1482
01:12:40,479 --> 01:12:42,960
Speaker 1: me actually being a commissioner. You know, you're right. So

1483
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:45,960
Speaker 1: one of the things that's interesting to me is what's

1484
01:12:46,000 --> 01:12:49,080
Speaker 1: the job of a commissioner in the broad sense, is

1485
01:12:49,080 --> 01:12:53,760
Speaker 1: it your job to influence the presidents and chancellors or

1486
01:12:54,000 --> 01:12:57,679
Speaker 1: to execute their vision or is it a balancing act

1487
01:12:57,760 --> 01:13:01,320
Speaker 1: between the two. Because the reason why I ask it is, uh,

1488
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:04,240
Speaker 1: you took a lot of bullets when the Big ten

1489
01:13:04,400 --> 01:13:08,679
Speaker 1: starts to make its decisions. Much like Roger Goodell often

1490
01:13:08,960 --> 01:13:12,320
Speaker 1: trots out in front of the you know, the media,

1491
01:13:12,680 --> 01:13:15,479
Speaker 1: and they just use him for target practice. He's trying

1492
01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:18,120
Speaker 1: to implement it seems to me very often the vision

1493
01:13:18,160 --> 01:13:22,920
Speaker 1: of whatever the owners have. What exactly is that relationship

1494
01:13:23,040 --> 01:13:26,080
Speaker 1: like for the Big ten, the presidents and chancellors, And

1495
01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:29,280
Speaker 1: how do you see your role? Is it advocate where

1496
01:13:29,320 --> 01:13:31,000
Speaker 1: you're like a lawyer, you know, for he bought there

1497
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:34,479
Speaker 1: listening like you advocate for your client, or you trying

1498
01:13:34,520 --> 01:13:36,800
Speaker 1: to steer the ship? What is the role? What's the

1499
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:39,559
Speaker 1: right role for a commissioner? Yeah, I think it's a

1500
01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:42,000
Speaker 1: combination of it. I mean, because like you said, you

1501
01:13:42,040 --> 01:13:45,240
Speaker 1: have a delicate balance of ten thousand student athletes, you know,

1502
01:13:45,560 --> 01:13:49,439
Speaker 1: and um, you know three hundred and fifty you know

1503
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:52,960
Speaker 1: what a head coaches. You have your athletic administrators, you

1504
01:13:53,040 --> 01:13:56,799
Speaker 1: have your senior woman administrators, you have your faculty, athletic reps.

1505
01:13:56,880 --> 01:13:59,840
Speaker 1: You have your chancers and presidents, you have your athletic directors,

1506
01:14:00,280 --> 01:14:02,800
Speaker 1: you have your families. So it's this is this is

1507
01:14:02,840 --> 01:14:06,240
Speaker 1: a whole amalgamation of people that come together who really

1508
01:14:06,280 --> 01:14:08,720
Speaker 1: do you know, want to come and go everyone or

1509
01:14:08,760 --> 01:14:10,960
Speaker 1: in the Big ten, all those groups that are listed

1510
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:15,040
Speaker 1: have the focus of making sure their sons or daughters

1511
01:14:15,040 --> 01:14:18,919
Speaker 1: receive a world class education. Uh, they have positive experience,

1512
01:14:19,000 --> 01:14:22,479
Speaker 1: learning experience both in the classroom and in life, and

1513
01:14:22,560 --> 01:14:25,080
Speaker 1: they get a chance to compete at the highest possible level.

1514
01:14:25,120 --> 01:14:26,680
Speaker 1: And then if they're good enough, either they get a

1515
01:14:26,760 --> 01:14:28,679
Speaker 1: chance to go on and compete for a gold medal

1516
01:14:28,720 --> 01:14:31,759
Speaker 1: in Olympics or to have a chance to play professional athletes,

1517
01:14:31,960 --> 01:14:35,160
Speaker 1: I mean professional athletics. So it's a balance of all

1518
01:14:35,200 --> 01:14:38,040
Speaker 1: of those different you know factors. Then you throw on

1519
01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:40,559
Speaker 1: top of it the political climate because we you know,

1520
01:14:40,640 --> 01:14:42,800
Speaker 1: we were we're in eleven different states, so we have,

1521
01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:45,200
Speaker 1: you know, four team mayors of our cities where our

1522
01:14:45,240 --> 01:14:48,160
Speaker 1: schools are located, but eleven governors that we're dealing with,

1523
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:49,880
Speaker 1: and then even all the way that's from the national

1524
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:52,760
Speaker 1: political land sting. So it's a balance. So I think

1525
01:14:52,760 --> 01:14:56,400
Speaker 1: the you know, Commissioner UM, you know, is responsible for

1526
01:14:56,479 --> 01:15:00,120
Speaker 1: making sure that all of these different groups are you

1527
01:15:00,160 --> 01:15:05,479
Speaker 1: know heard, are are are are listened to excuse n

1528
01:15:05,520 --> 01:15:10,479
Speaker 1: Clary listened to excuse me and UM and and to

1529
01:15:10,600 --> 01:15:14,320
Speaker 1: make sure just but from a global standpoint, that the

1530
01:15:14,360 --> 01:15:17,599
Speaker 1: whole purpose uh and the structure of the Big Ten

1531
01:15:18,280 --> 01:15:24,200
Speaker 1: is one never forgotten and too really you know, empowered.

1532
01:15:24,720 --> 01:15:27,040
Speaker 1: And so my focus of coming here was to make

1533
01:15:27,080 --> 01:15:29,559
Speaker 1: sure that our student athletes kept in mind, you know,

1534
01:15:29,600 --> 01:15:31,760
Speaker 1: first and foremost, we need to provide an environment for get,

1535
01:15:32,080 --> 01:15:33,760
Speaker 1: for them to get a world class of education that

1536
01:15:33,800 --> 01:15:36,960
Speaker 1: they can compete in a safe and healthy manner. But

1537
01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:39,080
Speaker 1: then also that the Big ten remains the Big ten.

1538
01:15:39,160 --> 01:15:41,639
Speaker 1: What are the cornerstones and why wire? Why are? Why

1539
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:43,760
Speaker 1: is the Big ten in business? And that that we

1540
01:15:43,920 --> 01:15:47,240
Speaker 1: keep those but then the elevate you know, the conference

1541
01:15:47,280 --> 01:15:50,280
Speaker 1: from a business standpoint, from a long term standpoint, and

1542
01:15:50,280 --> 01:15:53,000
Speaker 1: and I know, you know, there were some days that

1543
01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:56,160
Speaker 1: I was thinking roll, you know, coming in here and

1544
01:15:56,200 --> 01:15:59,479
Speaker 1: then having a pandemic hit seventy days after I'm in

1545
01:15:59,800 --> 01:16:02,519
Speaker 1: on a job that's you know, complicated, you know, even

1546
01:16:02,560 --> 01:16:05,120
Speaker 1: in a normal time. But I'm almost grateful that it

1547
01:16:05,240 --> 01:16:09,560
Speaker 1: happened because what it did is it helped to expedite

1548
01:16:09,600 --> 01:16:13,880
Speaker 1: the importance of us communicating, working in a collaborative manner,

1549
01:16:14,479 --> 01:16:17,000
Speaker 1: being focused, doing what's right, and so a lot of

1550
01:16:17,000 --> 01:16:19,639
Speaker 1: these issues that were eventually going to come out. Now

1551
01:16:19,960 --> 01:16:22,120
Speaker 1: I'll say this, it was interesting that they came out,

1552
01:16:22,439 --> 01:16:24,920
Speaker 1: you know, all in the last ten months. But you know,

1553
01:16:24,960 --> 01:16:27,400
Speaker 1: maybe it would have taken five, six, seventeen years for

1554
01:16:27,439 --> 01:16:29,160
Speaker 1: them to come out. Then evctually would have come out.

1555
01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:33,400
Speaker 1: But I feel now more prepared going into to be

1556
01:16:33,439 --> 01:16:36,240
Speaker 1: able to deal with an image and likeness and all

1557
01:16:36,280 --> 01:16:39,280
Speaker 1: the business issues and you know, dealing with our TV

1558
01:16:39,360 --> 01:16:42,160
Speaker 1: and network partners because we were forced. It was almost

1559
01:16:42,400 --> 01:16:44,760
Speaker 1: what I call taken like a J term class. You know,

1560
01:16:44,800 --> 01:16:46,680
Speaker 1: instead of doing it, you know, over a course of

1561
01:16:46,680 --> 01:16:49,040
Speaker 1: a year or semester, you do it in two or

1562
01:16:49,080 --> 01:16:50,720
Speaker 1: three weeks. And the way you do it is you

1563
01:16:50,760 --> 01:16:52,880
Speaker 1: have to go to class longer, you have to study,

1564
01:16:52,920 --> 01:16:54,759
Speaker 1: you have to pull together, you have to be focused.

1565
01:16:54,800 --> 01:16:58,960
Speaker 1: And I think this year allowed us that opportunity. So

1566
01:16:59,040 --> 01:17:05,040
Speaker 1: I am courage, I'm positive, I'm excited about finishing, but

1567
01:17:05,160 --> 01:17:08,640
Speaker 1: also really looking at a lot of the issues that

1568
01:17:08,800 --> 01:17:12,200
Speaker 1: business and people, especially new new to each other need

1569
01:17:12,280 --> 01:17:14,600
Speaker 1: to get out of the way to work through you know,

1570
01:17:14,680 --> 01:17:16,479
Speaker 1: we were forced to work through them this year, and

1571
01:17:16,479 --> 01:17:19,080
Speaker 1: I feel like we're strong group going forward. Be sure

1572
01:17:19,120 --> 01:17:21,759
Speaker 1: to catch live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay

1573
01:17:21,760 --> 01:17:25,599
Speaker 1: Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific. Do

1574
01:17:25,640 --> 01:17:28,800
Speaker 1: you wish looking back now? You've got Ohio State in

1575
01:17:28,840 --> 01:17:32,559
Speaker 1: the playoff? The Big ten Bowl games are out there,

1576
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:34,720
Speaker 1: There's still games to be played this year, but the

1577
01:17:34,800 --> 01:17:38,360
Speaker 1: regular season is over. Do you wish now that you

1578
01:17:38,400 --> 01:17:42,799
Speaker 1: could go back to July in August and start play

1579
01:17:42,960 --> 01:17:49,160
Speaker 1: in September in retrospect, and obviously retrospect vision is always better.

1580
01:17:49,680 --> 01:17:51,680
Speaker 1: Do you think that would have been the right decision?

1581
01:17:52,080 --> 01:17:55,880
Speaker 1: And if so, could you have convinced the presidents and

1582
01:17:55,960 --> 01:17:59,880
Speaker 1: chancellors to make that choice? How aggressively is it you

1583
01:18:00,120 --> 01:18:01,960
Speaker 1: or job to to to try to make that case?

1584
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:04,920
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Oh? Yeah, know, that makes sense.

1585
01:18:05,120 --> 01:18:08,920
Speaker 1: That's a great question, I believe, and I still feel

1586
01:18:08,960 --> 01:18:13,280
Speaker 1: strongly about it, you know today, Um is the fact

1587
01:18:13,320 --> 01:18:16,000
Speaker 1: that the thing I'm most proud of is that we

1588
01:18:16,200 --> 01:18:22,120
Speaker 1: followed the medical advice of our medical personnel, and and

1589
01:18:22,120 --> 01:18:24,840
Speaker 1: and and that's what I'm I'm I'm probably most proud

1590
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:27,400
Speaker 1: of trust me play. As you said, it was not easy.

1591
01:18:27,520 --> 01:18:31,080
Speaker 1: It wasn't easy on us as a conference. It wasn't

1592
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:33,680
Speaker 1: easy on me personally. But this has never been about me.

1593
01:18:33,760 --> 01:18:36,599
Speaker 1: So all these jobs, this is not about me. This

1594
01:18:36,640 --> 01:18:38,759
Speaker 1: is about the Big Ten, This is about our student athletes,

1595
01:18:38,840 --> 01:18:41,519
Speaker 1: is about our coaches. Uh, this is about our brand.

1596
01:18:41,920 --> 01:18:44,160
Speaker 1: And so that's why I was okay to to deal

1597
01:18:44,200 --> 01:18:47,559
Speaker 1: with it one all those nights and spending the hospital

1598
01:18:47,600 --> 01:18:50,200
Speaker 1: and traction, all those nights spending the body cast. I'm

1599
01:18:50,240 --> 01:18:54,080
Speaker 1: comfortable with being alone. Um, I'm you know, mentally tough,

1600
01:18:54,120 --> 01:18:57,760
Speaker 1: I'm physically tough. I'm comfortable with not being popular. I

1601
01:18:57,880 --> 01:19:00,479
Speaker 1: was not a popular kid when I went back to

1602
01:19:00,520 --> 01:19:03,760
Speaker 1: school after my accent. My nickname even became not It

1603
01:19:03,840 --> 01:19:07,040
Speaker 1: went from being at first making fun of me to endearing.

1604
01:19:07,439 --> 01:19:09,280
Speaker 1: But if you talked to my high school teammates, my

1605
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:12,080
Speaker 1: nickname was Fatty. Now you know that's me. You know,

1606
01:19:12,200 --> 01:19:15,439
Speaker 1: as the kids are brutal, but that's what it was. Weight.

1607
01:19:15,520 --> 01:19:18,800
Speaker 1: After you were in, you were in the body has

1608
01:19:19,479 --> 01:19:21,360
Speaker 1: Now when I when I man, I went and when

1609
01:19:21,360 --> 01:19:22,960
Speaker 1: I the day I got hit by a car, I

1610
01:19:23,040 --> 01:19:25,599
Speaker 1: was my body fat was you know, probably as low

1611
01:19:25,600 --> 01:19:27,280
Speaker 1: as it could be for a ten year old kid,

1612
01:19:27,760 --> 01:19:29,240
Speaker 1: and then when I came out, it was as high

1613
01:19:29,280 --> 01:19:31,639
Speaker 1: as it could be. And so that was my nickname

1614
01:19:31,720 --> 01:19:33,439
Speaker 1: all the way until the time I went to college.

1615
01:19:33,560 --> 01:19:36,080
Speaker 1: Was was Fatty, and that's always been there. So I'm

1616
01:19:36,080 --> 01:19:39,080
Speaker 1: accustomed to to, you know, dealing with you know, those

1617
01:19:39,160 --> 01:19:42,840
Speaker 1: kind of issues. So I wouldn't change anything. Was it rough, Yes,

1618
01:19:43,120 --> 01:19:45,599
Speaker 1: it was rough, But the thing that gave me solace

1619
01:19:45,640 --> 01:19:48,559
Speaker 1: and strength was the fact we made the right decision.

1620
01:19:48,600 --> 01:19:51,000
Speaker 1: Why because we did it for the health and safety

1621
01:19:51,000 --> 01:19:54,880
Speaker 1: of our student athletes, and I was concerned about mile kardiitis.

1622
01:19:55,000 --> 01:19:58,800
Speaker 1: I was concerned about making sure we did everything, you know,

1623
01:19:58,840 --> 01:20:01,000
Speaker 1: for the health and safety the at our student athletes.

1624
01:20:01,120 --> 01:20:03,719
Speaker 1: Number One. I don't expect for it to make sense

1625
01:20:03,760 --> 01:20:06,120
Speaker 1: to everyone, you know, this soon. There's still a lot

1626
01:20:06,160 --> 01:20:09,000
Speaker 1: of like kind of raw emotions. But I'm confident, whether

1627
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:11,320
Speaker 1: it's a year from now, three, five, seven, ten, that

1628
01:20:11,360 --> 01:20:13,880
Speaker 1: when we turn around look back, people will say, you

1629
01:20:13,920 --> 01:20:16,080
Speaker 1: know what, the pig didn't did the right thing in

1630
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:18,640
Speaker 1: a pandemic. We can't forget we were playing sports in

1631
01:20:18,680 --> 01:20:22,560
Speaker 1: a global pandemic. Our focus always we we took the

1632
01:20:22,640 --> 01:20:25,000
Speaker 1: hard road The easy road would have been for us

1633
01:20:25,040 --> 01:20:27,200
Speaker 1: just to go and play and kind of cross our

1634
01:20:27,240 --> 01:20:29,160
Speaker 1: fingers and totes and hopes it works out. But we

1635
01:20:29,240 --> 01:20:30,800
Speaker 1: took the hard road of trying to put in our

1636
01:20:30,880 --> 01:20:35,080
Speaker 1: daily testing in uh, to keep our student athletes healthy

1637
01:20:35,080 --> 01:20:37,920
Speaker 1: and safe. That is my number one priority in the story.

1638
01:20:37,960 --> 01:20:40,479
Speaker 1: They need to get a world class education. They need

1639
01:20:40,479 --> 01:20:42,519
Speaker 1: to be healthy and safe, and they need to be

1640
01:20:42,560 --> 01:20:45,600
Speaker 1: able to participate at a high level everything else, you know,

1641
01:20:45,640 --> 01:20:49,040
Speaker 1: a secondary um and and and I'm just you know,

1642
01:20:49,400 --> 01:20:53,120
Speaker 1: uh proud that our medical uh you know, doctors and

1643
01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:56,439
Speaker 1: trainers really designed the program. Is it perfect? No, nothing

1644
01:20:56,479 --> 01:21:00,800
Speaker 1: about is perfect. If anything, this is the year of

1645
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:03,920
Speaker 1: being fluid. But but I'm but I'm confident that we

1646
01:21:04,000 --> 01:21:06,280
Speaker 1: made the right decision because while we've put the health

1647
01:21:06,280 --> 01:21:08,600
Speaker 1: and safety of our student athlete at the top of

1648
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:11,920
Speaker 1: our this even if you're tough, it's still had to

1649
01:21:11,960 --> 01:21:14,840
Speaker 1: be tough to be the guy taken all of the

1650
01:21:14,920 --> 01:21:18,320
Speaker 1: slings and arrows. Right, nobody knows who the president. Uh,

1651
01:21:18,439 --> 01:21:21,519
Speaker 1: most people out there don't know who the president of

1652
01:21:21,760 --> 01:21:25,280
Speaker 1: insert school is, right unless you're a student on campus

1653
01:21:25,360 --> 01:21:30,000
Speaker 1: or a professor. Everybody knew Kevin Warren fire, Kevin Warren,

1654
01:21:30,200 --> 01:21:32,160
Speaker 1: you're not. I don't even know if you ever just

1655
01:21:32,360 --> 01:21:35,639
Speaker 1: got on Twitter and typed in your name to see

1656
01:21:35,680 --> 01:21:39,040
Speaker 1: what people were saying about you. But even if you

1657
01:21:39,120 --> 01:21:41,519
Speaker 1: say you're tough and I'm tough, you're tough anybody who

1658
01:21:41,600 --> 01:21:43,600
Speaker 1: you talked about earlier. In order to make it to

1659
01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:45,559
Speaker 1: the top of any kind of flagpole, you gotta be

1660
01:21:45,640 --> 01:21:47,439
Speaker 1: tough and people are going to take shots at you.

1661
01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:50,360
Speaker 1: That had to be tougher than anything you've ever gone

1662
01:21:50,360 --> 01:21:54,080
Speaker 1: through in your career, though, right, I agree, Yeah, I agree,

1663
01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:56,240
Speaker 1: and that you know what it is. And I interesting,

1664
01:21:56,240 --> 01:21:58,479
Speaker 1: I always try to I try to keep things real

1665
01:21:58,640 --> 01:22:00,760
Speaker 1: simple and it's a lot of love my wife's among

1666
01:22:00,880 --> 01:22:03,720
Speaker 1: other things. But she she that's how she operates. And

1667
01:22:03,800 --> 01:22:06,240
Speaker 1: really I called kind of sound bites. And I always

1668
01:22:06,240 --> 01:22:10,240
Speaker 1: try to have one prayer going into every New Year.

1669
01:22:10,280 --> 01:22:12,240
Speaker 1: I'll do it this year, so over the next week

1670
01:22:12,640 --> 01:22:14,719
Speaker 1: I'll come up with like one, folks. And my focal

1671
01:22:14,760 --> 01:22:19,920
Speaker 1: point last year for going into was to basically for

1672
01:22:20,040 --> 01:22:24,160
Speaker 1: me to although my faith has always been strong, but

1673
01:22:24,280 --> 01:22:27,360
Speaker 1: for me to even the last part of any journey

1674
01:22:27,439 --> 01:22:29,320
Speaker 1: is the most difficult part. I said, I wanted to

1675
01:22:29,400 --> 01:22:32,160
Speaker 1: my faith to even go stronger so I my prayer

1676
01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:34,479
Speaker 1: on New Year's Eve last year was God, even though

1677
01:22:34,520 --> 01:22:36,280
Speaker 1: my faith is a strong and I don't know if

1678
01:22:36,280 --> 01:22:39,400
Speaker 1: he can grow stronger, but if they can, please make

1679
01:22:39,439 --> 01:22:41,240
Speaker 1: it happen. And I didn't know it was gonna be

1680
01:22:41,640 --> 01:22:44,400
Speaker 1: what I went through last year. But as I look back,

1681
01:22:44,680 --> 01:22:47,639
Speaker 1: the reason, like the reason why I'm okay with what happened,

1682
01:22:48,520 --> 01:22:51,519
Speaker 1: is all at all aside from work. It was tough.

1683
01:22:51,600 --> 01:22:53,720
Speaker 1: You're right, it was tough, but my faith grew even

1684
01:22:53,760 --> 01:22:56,519
Speaker 1: stronger even when I didn't think it could, it did.

1685
01:22:56,960 --> 01:22:59,120
Speaker 1: And so when I asked myself was it worth it?

1686
01:22:59,439 --> 01:23:01,759
Speaker 1: Absolute it was worth it because I tried to always

1687
01:23:01,800 --> 01:23:04,160
Speaker 1: back to my accent, look at everything kind of from

1688
01:23:04,160 --> 01:23:07,400
Speaker 1: a spiritual landscape, and it was, and it was, you know,

1689
01:23:07,479 --> 01:23:10,640
Speaker 1: it was worth it. And uh, it's not for the

1690
01:23:10,680 --> 01:23:12,600
Speaker 1: faint of heart. It's not something I can say I

1691
01:23:13,160 --> 01:23:16,680
Speaker 1: want to go through. But we did, you know, we survived.

1692
01:23:17,320 --> 01:23:19,960
Speaker 1: We actually did better to survive. We actually were able

1693
01:23:19,960 --> 01:23:23,639
Speaker 1: to thrive. And we have four teams and great goals.

1694
01:23:24,640 --> 01:23:27,320
Speaker 1: Um we have the Ohio State University and the College

1695
01:23:27,320 --> 01:23:31,400
Speaker 1: Football Playoff. We've we've forted some strong relationship, our relationship

1696
01:23:31,400 --> 01:23:35,360
Speaker 1: with our network partners, at Fox and ESPN, ABC and

1697
01:23:35,400 --> 01:23:39,479
Speaker 1: CBS is strong um and uh, and We've all learned

1698
01:23:39,520 --> 01:23:42,360
Speaker 1: and and and grown. And I'm looking you know, forward

1699
01:23:42,400 --> 01:23:45,960
Speaker 1: to continually building this relationship with our chanson and presidents

1700
01:23:45,960 --> 01:23:48,639
Speaker 1: are athletic directors, are coaches, but most of all, I'm

1701
01:23:48,640 --> 01:23:51,120
Speaker 1: looking forward to to watching our our student athletes and

1702
01:23:51,120 --> 01:23:54,360
Speaker 1: their families grow and um, and for us to continually

1703
01:23:54,360 --> 01:23:56,920
Speaker 1: win championships in the Big Ten and and continually be

1704
01:23:57,040 --> 01:23:59,559
Speaker 1: the Big Ten. And so I'm just you know, even

1705
01:23:59,600 --> 01:24:01,840
Speaker 1: this really sho show, I'm grateful that that that we're

1706
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:04,439
Speaker 1: able to spend the time that we have together, and

1707
01:24:04,479 --> 01:24:06,320
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for everything that you do. So I just

1708
01:24:06,360 --> 01:24:09,639
Speaker 1: have a hearty gratitude as we go into this holiday season,

1709
01:24:09,720 --> 01:24:14,120
Speaker 1: and I just hope you know, everyone had Aprihanka and

1710
01:24:14,120 --> 01:24:16,960
Speaker 1: and Merry Christmas and and and really that we go

1711
01:24:17,000 --> 01:24:20,840
Speaker 1: into one as stronger together as a country. One couple

1712
01:24:20,920 --> 01:24:22,599
Speaker 1: of questions here to finish up with. You were talking

1713
01:24:22,600 --> 01:24:25,559
Speaker 1: to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. Your son plays at

1714
01:24:25,560 --> 01:24:27,559
Speaker 1: Mississippi State. I think he still had a couple of

1715
01:24:27,640 --> 01:24:31,639
Speaker 1: years left. Yeah, from your perspective. I just mentioned earlier

1716
01:24:31,680 --> 01:24:34,040
Speaker 1: in the conversation I've got three kids. You've got to

1717
01:24:34,760 --> 01:24:37,840
Speaker 1: how difficult was it to be the Big Ten commissioner

1718
01:24:38,280 --> 01:24:41,840
Speaker 1: with your team not your team's not scheduled to be

1719
01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:45,400
Speaker 1: playing and your son is going to be playing at

1720
01:24:45,400 --> 01:24:48,679
Speaker 1: Mississippi State. You talked about medical professionals and everything else,

1721
01:24:48,680 --> 01:24:51,640
Speaker 1: but he's grown. How do you balance the role of

1722
01:24:51,720 --> 01:24:54,960
Speaker 1: a parent with a son in a different conference when

1723
01:24:55,000 --> 01:24:57,080
Speaker 1: you are the commissioner of the Big Ten? To me,

1724
01:24:57,240 --> 01:25:01,800
Speaker 1: that's one of the most challenging aspects, probably both professionally

1725
01:25:01,840 --> 01:25:05,599
Speaker 1: and personally for you. How did you handle that? You know, Clay,

1726
01:25:05,640 --> 01:25:07,800
Speaker 1: You're exactly right, that was you know, I'm one of

1727
01:25:07,840 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 1: those folks I can I can, I can handle it,

1728
01:25:10,040 --> 01:25:12,559
Speaker 1: and I'm a grown man. But you know, the people

1729
01:25:12,600 --> 01:25:14,879
Speaker 1: I feel the most for my wife, grat and my

1730
01:25:15,000 --> 01:25:17,040
Speaker 1: kids because they didn't sign up for it, and so

1731
01:25:17,080 --> 01:25:21,000
Speaker 1: I felt I felt primarily you know, uh mad for powers.

1732
01:25:21,040 --> 01:25:24,320
Speaker 1: But it allowed him to grow and so he did

1733
01:25:24,360 --> 01:25:26,400
Speaker 1: what he was supposed to do. Is you know, he

1734
01:25:26,439 --> 01:25:29,200
Speaker 1: went to Mississippi State. He had three head coaches in

1735
01:25:29,240 --> 01:25:31,439
Speaker 1: three years, he got his degree in three and a

1736
01:25:31,520 --> 01:25:34,920
Speaker 1: half years. Um, you know, he was he was very

1737
01:25:34,960 --> 01:25:38,400
Speaker 1: focused and that he worked hard and so he graduated

1738
01:25:38,479 --> 01:25:41,719
Speaker 1: though about a month ago, got his degree, you know early,

1739
01:25:41,800 --> 01:25:44,559
Speaker 1: and he still has two years of eligibility remaining, so

1740
01:25:44,640 --> 01:25:46,680
Speaker 1: he knowned it into the transfer port portal. He has

1741
01:25:46,760 --> 01:25:49,920
Speaker 1: some opportunities now that he's evaluating, and I'm sure he'll

1742
01:25:49,920 --> 01:25:52,200
Speaker 1: make a decision here in the next couple of days

1743
01:25:52,280 --> 01:25:55,160
Speaker 1: to decide where he's gonna go and play his last

1744
01:25:55,160 --> 01:25:57,120
Speaker 1: two years and he can work on his master. So

1745
01:25:57,200 --> 01:25:59,800
Speaker 1: he's he's uh, he's done. You know, he's done. Well.

1746
01:25:59,840 --> 01:26:02,920
Speaker 1: I'm proud of him. He's he's he's tough as um

1747
01:26:03,479 --> 01:26:06,240
Speaker 1: also mentally tough, and he's continually grown. And I think

1748
01:26:06,280 --> 01:26:09,400
Speaker 1: he realizes now he's said to me before, you know,

1749
01:26:09,439 --> 01:26:11,719
Speaker 1: he realizes if I don't use the word fair, because

1750
01:26:11,760 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 1: this life is not fair, and if you're looking for fairness,

1751
01:26:14,560 --> 01:26:18,320
Speaker 1: you're you're probably gonna be frustrated. So I'm grateful for him.

1752
01:26:18,360 --> 01:26:20,799
Speaker 1: And our daughter Perry just got admitted to Northwestern School

1753
01:26:20,800 --> 01:26:23,120
Speaker 1: that she'll be starting her master her masters in the

1754
01:26:23,240 --> 01:26:26,320
Speaker 1: in the fall and business communications. So as you know,

1755
01:26:26,439 --> 01:26:28,920
Speaker 1: Clay with three sons, you know, anytime you can wake

1756
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:31,760
Speaker 1: up in the morning and say your prayers and you

1757
01:26:31,840 --> 01:26:34,080
Speaker 1: know that your wife is healthy and your kids are healthy,

1758
01:26:34,160 --> 01:26:36,040
Speaker 1: then then you know you've got a chance for a

1759
01:26:36,120 --> 01:26:38,559
Speaker 1: great day. So I'm again, I just have a hearted

1760
01:26:38,600 --> 01:26:41,760
Speaker 1: gratitude and it starts with my family and we've had

1761
01:26:41,920 --> 01:26:43,760
Speaker 1: we've had a great run together, and I hope that

1762
01:26:43,840 --> 01:26:46,519
Speaker 1: we can I hope we can live together. Did you

1763
01:26:46,560 --> 01:26:48,800
Speaker 1: talk to for it to see our kids? Did you

1764
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:50,920
Speaker 1: talk to him about that decision he was going to

1765
01:26:51,000 --> 01:26:54,439
Speaker 1: play at Mississippi State or because I'll tell you this,

1766
01:26:54,920 --> 01:26:57,240
Speaker 1: if I tell my kids that I suggest something, by

1767
01:26:57,240 --> 01:26:59,920
Speaker 1: the time, they're already don't don't want to do whatever

1768
01:27:00,080 --> 01:27:01,680
Speaker 1: dad says. Right, I mean, I think there's a lot

1769
01:27:01,760 --> 01:27:04,160
Speaker 1: of kids that got of parents out there listening. Who

1770
01:27:04,160 --> 01:27:06,320
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. My oldest or twelve and ten,

1771
01:27:06,800 --> 01:27:09,160
Speaker 1: they're not yet eighteen, but once they get to be eighteen,

1772
01:27:09,200 --> 01:27:11,200
Speaker 1: Like if you said, hey, son, I don't think it's

1773
01:27:11,200 --> 01:27:13,120
Speaker 1: safe enough for you to be playing football, and oh,

1774
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:14,720
Speaker 1: by the way, we're not playing in the Big ten,

1775
01:27:15,360 --> 01:27:17,240
Speaker 1: he just might turn to you and say, peace out, Dad,

1776
01:27:17,320 --> 01:27:20,040
Speaker 1: I'm I'm playing right, Like I mean, right, I mean,

1777
01:27:20,040 --> 01:27:24,360
Speaker 1: did you ever have that conversation with him as a parent? Yeah,

1778
01:27:24,360 --> 01:27:25,800
Speaker 1: I did, We did, Gret and I had it with

1779
01:27:25,880 --> 01:27:27,600
Speaker 1: him and will we raise our kids similar to it

1780
01:27:27,640 --> 01:27:30,200
Speaker 1: as gret and I were raised. Our parents treated us

1781
01:27:30,280 --> 01:27:33,040
Speaker 1: like adults, you know, really are to make decisions and

1782
01:27:33,080 --> 01:27:36,120
Speaker 1: make decisions live with the consequences. So all I did

1783
01:27:36,200 --> 01:27:38,240
Speaker 1: is I laid out to him here, the here, the

1784
01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:41,439
Speaker 1: um you know, here the medical concerns that I have

1785
01:27:41,960 --> 01:27:44,479
Speaker 1: as a parent, you know, as a father, as a

1786
01:27:44,479 --> 01:27:47,320
Speaker 1: commissioner for all of our student Atala's. But I'm talking

1787
01:27:47,320 --> 01:27:49,080
Speaker 1: with you, but this year, you know, you're you're you're

1788
01:27:49,080 --> 01:27:52,880
Speaker 1: an adult and uh um, and I know you'll do

1789
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:55,439
Speaker 1: you know, do what's right and and and so that's

1790
01:27:55,439 --> 01:27:58,160
Speaker 1: why he made the decision to to be able to

1791
01:27:58,160 --> 01:28:00,519
Speaker 1: go forward. And he understood all the ramma vacations. And

1792
01:28:00,560 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 1: I've just found in life is that the more you

1793
01:28:02,720 --> 01:28:05,800
Speaker 1: can allow people chance to own their you know, decisions,

1794
01:28:06,080 --> 01:28:08,360
Speaker 1: the better officer they you know, they you know they

1795
01:28:08,400 --> 01:28:11,720
Speaker 1: can be. Um. And so he, you know, he was

1796
01:28:11,720 --> 01:28:14,000
Speaker 1: comfortable and playing and doing what he is, just like

1797
01:28:14,040 --> 01:28:16,760
Speaker 1: when he graduated and wanted to enter in to the

1798
01:28:17,280 --> 01:28:19,680
Speaker 1: transfer for he has two years left to play, and

1799
01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:22,040
Speaker 1: so he'll make his decision where he goes to school.

1800
01:28:22,080 --> 01:28:24,680
Speaker 1: I'm just here as a you know, I always take

1801
01:28:24,720 --> 01:28:27,160
Speaker 1: my commissioner ad off at home because I'm just you know,

1802
01:28:27,200 --> 01:28:30,760
Speaker 1: dead and husband, and I'll give them, you know, advice

1803
01:28:30,840 --> 01:28:32,479
Speaker 1: on things that he comes to me, but I don't

1804
01:28:32,520 --> 01:28:35,960
Speaker 1: I won't get involved in any recruiting or anything of

1805
01:28:35,960 --> 01:28:38,719
Speaker 1: that nature. So wherever he decides to go, I'll support

1806
01:28:38,800 --> 01:28:41,559
Speaker 1: him and um and be there for him like always

1807
01:28:41,640 --> 01:28:43,519
Speaker 1: and just you know, just tell him just own it,

1808
01:28:43,600 --> 01:28:45,160
Speaker 1: you know, own the decision and kind of live with

1809
01:28:45,160 --> 01:28:48,479
Speaker 1: the consequences. What was it like to be called by

1810
01:28:48,520 --> 01:28:52,000
Speaker 1: the White House in the middle of all of this process?

1811
01:28:52,120 --> 01:28:54,760
Speaker 1: And on top of that, you don't control headlines that

1812
01:28:54,760 --> 01:28:57,599
Speaker 1: are written. But one headline that got a ton of attention.

1813
01:28:57,920 --> 01:29:01,000
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it right now from Yahoo. It said,

1814
01:29:01,120 --> 01:29:04,720
Speaker 1: can the Big ten swing the next presidential election? It's

1815
01:29:04,760 --> 01:29:08,400
Speaker 1: an interview with you from June, which sets the perception

1816
01:29:08,479 --> 01:29:12,519
Speaker 1: out there that your decision was political in nature as

1817
01:29:12,560 --> 01:29:15,280
Speaker 1: opposed to medical in nature. I don't know that you've

1818
01:29:15,280 --> 01:29:17,639
Speaker 1: gotten a chance to really talk about that very much.

1819
01:29:17,680 --> 01:29:20,639
Speaker 1: But what was that experience like, interacting with the White

1820
01:29:20,640 --> 01:29:24,080
Speaker 1: House with the President, and what was the experience like

1821
01:29:24,280 --> 01:29:29,680
Speaker 1: as this being seen as a political situation for you? Yeah?

1822
01:29:29,760 --> 01:29:33,760
Speaker 1: That was you know, that was I was Um, that

1823
01:29:33,880 --> 01:29:36,679
Speaker 1: was that was demanding for me to deal with because again,

1824
01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:39,760
Speaker 1: people who know me, you know, I believe so much

1825
01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:42,880
Speaker 1: in this country. I believe in our political process. I vote.

1826
01:29:43,360 --> 01:29:45,800
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about it. You know that it was hard

1827
01:29:45,840 --> 01:29:48,840
Speaker 1: for especially black people to have a chance to vote.

1828
01:29:48,880 --> 01:29:52,120
Speaker 1: So I don't take that lightly, but I am you know,

1829
01:29:52,200 --> 01:29:55,040
Speaker 1: when we set up our our voter registration initiative at

1830
01:29:55,040 --> 01:29:56,639
Speaker 1: the Big Ten. If I said it once, I've said

1831
01:29:56,680 --> 01:29:59,559
Speaker 1: it a hundred times. It's nonpartisan. And I really mean

1832
01:29:59,640 --> 01:30:01,920
Speaker 1: that because I you know, I vote, you know, I

1833
01:30:02,040 --> 01:30:04,840
Speaker 1: vote for candidates and and I voted, you know, I

1834
01:30:05,000 --> 01:30:08,519
Speaker 1: vote for different people from different political back you voted

1835
01:30:08,560 --> 01:30:15,000
Speaker 1: for Democrats and Republicans in your life as a person. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely,

1836
01:30:15,040 --> 01:30:16,400
Speaker 1: So I'm not just one of these people that goes

1837
01:30:16,439 --> 01:30:18,920
Speaker 1: in the booth and puts a blindfold on and you know,

1838
01:30:19,000 --> 01:30:21,000
Speaker 1: swipes either on one side or the other. And that's

1839
01:30:21,000 --> 01:30:23,840
Speaker 1: not I'm I'm hopefully you know, I'm very thoughtful and

1840
01:30:23,880 --> 01:30:27,040
Speaker 1: so I study. I mean I studied the candidates and

1841
01:30:27,080 --> 01:30:30,120
Speaker 1: then go into in their background, even for local politics,

1842
01:30:30,120 --> 01:30:33,000
Speaker 1: I go into it. And uh so that that part,

1843
01:30:33,080 --> 01:30:35,080
Speaker 1: like you said, not writing the headlines and I think

1844
01:30:35,080 --> 01:30:38,439
Speaker 1: that's where a lot of this started. Um, you know

1845
01:30:38,520 --> 01:30:40,559
Speaker 1: from the just seeing kind of that I was trying

1846
01:30:40,560 --> 01:30:42,960
Speaker 1: to swing in an election is just the opposite. But

1847
01:30:43,720 --> 01:30:46,800
Speaker 1: you know, any time, I always you know, I grew

1848
01:30:46,880 --> 01:30:49,920
Speaker 1: up to the date that my parents died, and still

1849
01:30:49,960 --> 01:30:52,160
Speaker 1: my in laws are both living in their mid eighties,

1850
01:30:52,200 --> 01:30:55,400
Speaker 1: Heyward and had the spears. They're my parents, gret us

1851
01:30:55,720 --> 01:30:58,439
Speaker 1: greatest parents, were like parents to me. Still to this day,

1852
01:30:58,439 --> 01:31:01,439
Speaker 1: I still they'll dry them as yes, ma'mman, yes sir,

1853
01:31:01,560 --> 01:31:03,720
Speaker 1: to this day, to the day my parents died, it

1854
01:31:03,800 --> 01:31:06,320
Speaker 1: was yes, ma'ammy, yes sir. That's I was raised. And

1855
01:31:06,360 --> 01:31:10,519
Speaker 1: so I respect the office of of the president. I mean,

1856
01:31:10,560 --> 01:31:14,000
Speaker 1: that's the president of the United States of America. And

1857
01:31:14,240 --> 01:31:17,400
Speaker 1: regardless of what people in the political views they have

1858
01:31:17,680 --> 01:31:19,880
Speaker 1: right longer and different, I respect that office and I

1859
01:31:20,000 --> 01:31:22,920
Speaker 1: respect the person in the office. And so when the

1860
01:31:22,920 --> 01:31:26,360
Speaker 1: White House called, you know, I took it as I

1861
01:31:26,400 --> 01:31:29,840
Speaker 1: think everything is face value, that that that they were

1862
01:31:29,840 --> 01:31:32,400
Speaker 1: willing to help the president Trump was was was willing

1863
01:31:32,400 --> 01:31:35,719
Speaker 1: to help an offer from a medical standpoint, and uh

1864
01:31:35,800 --> 01:31:38,000
Speaker 1: and and I think that many people. I got many

1865
01:31:38,040 --> 01:31:41,000
Speaker 1: calls from people local, nationally and around the world who

1866
01:31:41,040 --> 01:31:44,200
Speaker 1: offered to help. So, UM, I say that from a

1867
01:31:44,200 --> 01:31:47,400
Speaker 1: from a respect standpoint, and I'm grateful that we were

1868
01:31:47,439 --> 01:31:50,759
Speaker 1: able to to work through, you know, our issues and

1869
01:31:50,760 --> 01:31:53,040
Speaker 1: and then put a program in place that we thought

1870
01:31:53,080 --> 01:31:55,720
Speaker 1: this is in the best seat of our of our

1871
01:31:55,760 --> 01:31:59,640
Speaker 1: student athletes. And and but I'll say this class, you

1872
01:31:59,680 --> 01:32:01,559
Speaker 1: said only twenty will be a year that that I

1873
01:32:01,560 --> 01:32:04,920
Speaker 1: will probably be telling, um, you know my grandkids about

1874
01:32:05,040 --> 01:32:07,160
Speaker 1: that once we have them for for many years in

1875
01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:09,760
Speaker 1: the future. Last question for you, and it's probably a

1876
01:32:09,800 --> 01:32:12,080
Speaker 1: tough one, but I appreciate all your time, and I

1877
01:32:12,080 --> 01:32:15,880
Speaker 1: know how busy you are. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, Um,

1878
01:32:15,920 --> 01:32:18,240
Speaker 1: there's a perception out there that the Big Ten has

1879
01:32:18,240 --> 01:32:22,120
Speaker 1: been bending over backwards for Ohio State. Uh, you know,

1880
01:32:22,240 --> 01:32:24,439
Speaker 1: changing the rules to allow them into the Big Ten

1881
01:32:24,520 --> 01:32:29,120
Speaker 1: title game, the medical recommendations as it pertains to to

1882
01:32:29,120 --> 01:32:32,559
Speaker 1: to positive tests in quarantining being adjusted. I think after

1883
01:32:32,600 --> 01:32:35,400
Speaker 1: the first of the year, how would you respond to

1884
01:32:35,560 --> 01:32:38,400
Speaker 1: critics out there who say that the Big Ten is

1885
01:32:38,439 --> 01:32:43,479
Speaker 1: bending over backwards for Ohio State compared to other schools. Yeah,

1886
01:32:43,520 --> 01:32:45,640
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the response is is, you know,

1887
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:47,920
Speaker 1: my focus is to make sure I do everything I

1888
01:32:47,960 --> 01:32:50,920
Speaker 1: can to keep the Big ten conference. All of our

1889
01:32:50,960 --> 01:32:55,000
Speaker 1: fourteen schools um to to have the equality, to fairness

1890
01:32:55,120 --> 01:32:59,200
Speaker 1: and to to to to to protect the conference. So

1891
01:32:59,520 --> 01:33:01,920
Speaker 1: you know, when we make changes on rules or whatever,

1892
01:33:02,040 --> 01:33:04,120
Speaker 1: we're not singling out you know a school in a

1893
01:33:04,120 --> 01:33:06,800
Speaker 1: good way or in a bad way. Is that we're

1894
01:33:06,800 --> 01:33:09,680
Speaker 1: doing what we feel is in the best interesting of

1895
01:33:09,720 --> 01:33:12,479
Speaker 1: the conference. And I've said it, you know this year

1896
01:33:12,920 --> 01:33:16,880
Speaker 1: is one thing I've learned is alignment is critical. And

1897
01:33:16,880 --> 01:33:19,840
Speaker 1: then secondly, you've got to remain nimble and fluid. We

1898
01:33:19,840 --> 01:33:22,760
Speaker 1: we have to, I mean, things change, we get more information,

1899
01:33:23,160 --> 01:33:26,040
Speaker 1: you know, every single day. This has been a complicated,

1900
01:33:26,240 --> 01:33:28,960
Speaker 1: you know situation. And so when I sit here, I

1901
01:33:29,000 --> 01:33:31,519
Speaker 1: just you know, we feel that what we feel is

1902
01:33:31,560 --> 01:33:34,080
Speaker 1: in the best interests of all of our schools and

1903
01:33:35,320 --> 01:33:37,559
Speaker 1: and all of our student athletes. And you know, we

1904
01:33:37,600 --> 01:33:39,600
Speaker 1: have to be mindful. It's just like with the with

1905
01:33:39,760 --> 01:33:43,000
Speaker 1: the with the UH, with the with the fact of

1906
01:33:43,000 --> 01:33:46,040
Speaker 1: of making the adjustment from twenty one days and seventeen

1907
01:33:46,160 --> 01:33:49,000
Speaker 1: days is you know, that's we follow a lot of

1908
01:33:49,000 --> 01:33:51,439
Speaker 1: the CDC requirements. So this is not you know, me

1909
01:33:51,600 --> 01:33:53,280
Speaker 1: or us sitting here and saying, okay, what can we

1910
01:33:53,320 --> 01:33:56,360
Speaker 1: do the you know, to Tike, this is just the opposite.

1911
01:33:56,400 --> 01:33:58,120
Speaker 1: We have to do what's best to afford our student

1912
01:33:58,120 --> 01:34:00,320
Speaker 1: athletes a chance to play. This will be the last

1913
01:34:00,400 --> 01:34:02,680
Speaker 1: year that a lot of our student athletes can have

1914
01:34:02,760 --> 01:34:05,160
Speaker 1: a chance to play. And if there's something and again

1915
01:34:05,200 --> 01:34:07,400
Speaker 1: it goes back, if it fits into the health and

1916
01:34:07,479 --> 01:34:10,479
Speaker 1: safety and they're still healthy and safe, then we have

1917
01:34:10,600 --> 01:34:14,200
Speaker 1: to explore what we can do and to remain fluid

1918
01:34:14,280 --> 01:34:17,320
Speaker 1: and remain nimble, but also just to keep our integrity

1919
01:34:17,320 --> 01:34:20,519
Speaker 1: as a conference. And and that's what we'll continue to do.

1920
01:34:21,600 --> 01:34:25,000
Speaker 1: Kevin Warren, I appreciate the time, look forward to chatting

1921
01:34:25,000 --> 01:34:27,040
Speaker 1: and down again sometime down the line. I think people

1922
01:34:27,040 --> 01:34:29,000
Speaker 1: will enjoy your story and I hope you and your

1923
01:34:29,000 --> 01:34:33,280
Speaker 1: family have a good Christmas. ME to Clay, thank you

1924
01:34:33,520 --> 01:34:37,640
Speaker 1: for everything. Appreciate what you're stand, uh how how you

1925
01:34:37,680 --> 01:34:41,040
Speaker 1: stand tall and um and I just appreciate. I love,

1926
01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:44,040
Speaker 1: I love your work, and just thank you for for

1927
01:34:44,080 --> 01:34:46,800
Speaker 1: who you are and what you do. And and have

1928
01:34:46,920 --> 01:34:50,559
Speaker 1: a very merry Christmas, happy New Year, the healthy and

1929
01:34:50,560 --> 01:34:54,320
Speaker 1: stakes and I just continually pray God's blessings over you

1930
01:34:54,360 --> 01:34:55,960
Speaker 1: and your family. So thank you for your time and

1931
01:34:56,000 --> 01:34:58,559
Speaker 1: I'm here have a great day. I appreciate it. That's

1932
01:34:58,560 --> 01:35:02,120
Speaker 1: Commissioner Kevin Warren. I'm Clay Travis. This is Wins and Losses.

1933
01:35:02,240 --> 01:35:04,000
Speaker 1: Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Have a

1934
01:35:04,080 --> 01:35:06,400
Speaker 1: great New Year and a great Christmas and Holidays for

1935
01:35:06,400 --> 01:35:07,439
Speaker 1: everybody out there as well.