WEBVTT - Rich Eisen 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.679 So I really, you know, studied those tapes. I would 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:04.640 take them out of the bin, put them in the 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:07.280 machine and just stare and you know, write notes and whatever. 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:09.160 And I'm in my own little world. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.039 And then one time I'm looking at, you know, the screen, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:13.760 and the tapes come out and they pop them in, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:15.560 and all of a sudden, I just felt this presence 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.720 to my left and I look up and it's Dan Patrick. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:43.120 He goes, so you're nervous. Hello, my favorite listeners. This 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.880 is the podcast we like to call Off the Beat, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.120 and I am the host that I like to call 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:55.680 Brian bombcart nerd Listen. Some people may say the holidays 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.200 end right after New Year, but those people are very 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:05.600 very wrong. True believers celebrate the real holiday season all 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.560 January long, straight through until the second Sunday in February. 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.520 That's right. I am talking about the holy days of 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:19.880 the NFL playoffs. And my guest today is, well, he's 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:24.000 a holy man. Rich Eisen one of my favorite fellas 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:29.520 in the business. He was a renowned sports reporter partnered 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.800 with Stuart Scott on Sports Center on ESPN for many 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.880 many years. He then was the first hire and is 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.600 now the face of the NFL Network. He's also hosted 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.000 his Emmy nominated talk show, The Rich Eisen Show for 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.760 almost a decade now, where I am a frequent contributor. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.280 We have to celebrate a victory today as well, because 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:57.400 Rich is a proud alumnus of the University of Michigan, 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.080 and just a few hours before we recorded this, the 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:07.160 Michigan Wolverines won the Division one twenty twenty three college 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:13.240 football Playoff championship. Go Blue, as Rich would say, So 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.000 we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.000 about his career in journalism, and of course wild Card Weekend. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.440 Let's see how right or wrong Rich was, and then 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.400 of course everything leading up to the big game next month. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.680 Here he is one of my favorite people on the planet, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:41.919 Rich Eisen. Bubble and squeak, I love it. Bubble and 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:48.240 Squeakna bubble and squeak. I could get every mon left 0:02:48.520 --> 0:03:03.640 over from the ninety before. Well, hail to the victor. 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.480 That is correct. I appreciate you referring to me as 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:06.919 a victor. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:15.040 Brian, have you slept it's Monday like a baby. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.840 Like a Yeah, you've slept really well, except I'm sure 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.200 your phone's going off every forty five minutes as you're 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.560 sleeping with all the news pouring in. I know, it's 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.679 been insane, brother, it's been insane. Today we're recording this 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:34.960 January the eleventh. Bill Belichick is no longer the coach 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:40.760 of the Patriots. Yesterday, Nick Saban no longer the coach 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.240 at Alabama. Your thoughts, It's been totally insane, man. I 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.360 you know, I've been fortunate to do what I do 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:53.760 for a long time since ninety six nationally and never 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.320 seen it like this. Never never had the modern day 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.880 Lombardi and the modern day Paul bear Bryant retire within 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:08.280 a span of fifteen hours before the other one mutually 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:13.880 parted ways with his longtime employer. And you know Belichick 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.240 twenty four years at New England, seventeen years for Saban 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.599 in Alabama, and to have them both leave their current 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:27.200 positions within that time period, preceded by Pete Carroll after 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:32.000 fourteen years in Seattle, I don't recall a quarterback a 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:37.200 coaching carousel spinning off its axis like this one. Well, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:42.600 and also vray Ball leaving Tennessee, which I think most 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:45.919 thought was unexpected. 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:50.480 Yes, and then about to cannonball into this coaching carousel 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.720 or pool is Jim Harbaugh, my guy from Michigan. So 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.400 it's nuts man. So you've got a six time Super 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:05.560 Bowl champion head coach and a seven time national champion 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:10.039 head coach in Saban departing the current national champion head 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.920 coach potentially entering the twenty twenty one Coach of the 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.680 Year in vrabel switching jobs as well. And Pete Carroll, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.840 who like what Jim Harball wants to be is a 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.200 super Bowl winning head coach with a national championship in 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.200 his trophy case as well from college. It's nuts man, 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:32.359 It's totally crazy. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:34.200 I want to talk a little bit more about your 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.120 time at Michigan, but before I transition into your life, 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.320 I just I have to ask you one question. Is 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.480 that a Packers gay? I can't know you. I know 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.040 where you're going. That's the other g I know you're 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.720 going with this. Well, first off, should Georgia have been 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.800 given the opportunity to play Michigan? No? Why should they have? Why? 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.560 Four best teams? Okay for market one of the four 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:00.599 best teams. Let me ask you this, QUOESU and Brian. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.560 In nineteen ninety seven, Michigan won a National Championship and 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.800 had to share it with Nebraska, right, because they had 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:14.200 the misfortune of playing the last I guess one would 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:19.400 say a college football season before the BCS was born. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.440 Where had the BCS taken place in nineteen ninety seven, 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.800 Michigan and Nebraska would have faced off the next week 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.479 against one another, and that didn't happen. So I have 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.560 spent nineteen ninety seven to the present day having to 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:40.560 push back at Nebraska Cornhusker fans, Well, you know, I know, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.320 you know you had well, I guess Tommy Fraser at 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:45.920 the time, I don't know who the hell it was. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.279 You know, we had, you know, Charles Woodson patrolling the 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.160 secondary and you know Tom Brady on our sideline. He 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.359 wasn't playing. It was Brian Greasy. But I think you 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.599 get to see where I'm going this whole argument. I'm 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.760 not going to have it with you about Michigan. What 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.159 would happened had Georgia taken on Michigan. I'm just not 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.280 going to countless it because the bottom line is for 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:12.040 Georgia to have made it, they needed to beat Alabama, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:17.280 which it did not do, right, And then Michigan took 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.440 on Alabama the next week and retired Nick Saban. So 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.800 you know, obviously you could sit here and say Georgia's 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:30.000 better than Texas and Georgia is better than Washington. But 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.760 Washington went through its season and a conference undefeated and 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:36.160 won it. 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:36.960 Absolutely. 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:41.200 Texas went through its conference season and won it. Didn't 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:45.640 go undefeated, but they did beat Alabama, which beat Georgia. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:49.880 So you couldn't put Alabama in over Georgia, and you 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.760 couldn't put Alabama in over Texas either, because Texas had 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.280 beaten Alabama heads up. So for Georgia to have just 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.040 avoided this whole conversation and they just needed to beat 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.680 Alabama and didn't know that would have been interesting. Had 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.000 they made it. They would have taken on Florida State 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.480 in the Rose Bowl, and Michigan would have faced Washington 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.720 one week earlier, and then we'll see what had happened. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.200 I don't know, but I get what you're saying now. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.640 I know it is interesting. I talked to Josh Brooks, 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.120 the athletic director at the University of Georgia, the week before, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.640 and I asked him what happens if Alabama wins? You know, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.679 Georgia was hurt. Bowers was hurt. Conkey was hurt, and 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.439 he wouldn't he said, well, I always have to win. Yeah, 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:39.360 that was it. That was it, you know. 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.800 But I'll tell you what it would have been an 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:47.920 interesting battle because Michigan was way better and deeper this 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.199 year than the time the two of our schools faced 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.319 each other in the Orange Bowl two years ago, where 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.760 Michigan wasn't ready for that. This year, I think Michigan 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.240 would have been a bit more ready for it. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:05.199 Now you deserve of all kudos, congratulations and and yeah 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.719 you did it, and now I did it. Yes, you 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.000 did well. You you would part well if you have 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.520 Portnoy did it right, you you should have as much 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:17.319 say as him, right. 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.319 I was just down the road from him at the 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.960 Rose Bowl. Yes, as a matter of fact, And you know, 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.559 my twelve year old son was sitting next to my nephew, 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:30.920 who's a senior in Syracuse and is well versed on 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:36.400 the travails of the stool Presidente and his seven figure 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:37.560 bet on Michigan. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:39.280 At the Rose Bowl. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.200 My twelve year old son turns to me in no 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.160 fewer than about eight times during the game, he goes, Dad, 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.360 is that guy over there really betting a million dollars 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.440 on this game, and I'm like, I believe, so, I 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.160 believe so that you should ever do such a thing. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.439 But yeah, yeah, so I hear you. You grew up 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:08.080 in Stayland, Yeah yeah, and Wagner High School there. When 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.760 did you get an idea? I always liked talking to 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.200 people about you know, when you're a kid, you have 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.199 a dream of being a fireman or being a quarterback 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.640 of the Patriots or whatever. When for you did you 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.720 start thinking that that journalism at least was something that 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:28.200 you wanted to do well. 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.959 It was basically when I realized I couldn't hit the curveball, 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:37.600 make the jump shot, throw the perfect spiral, run very fast. 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.720 And I did love sports, and I always did love 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.960 the idea of being a sportscaster. You know, I learned 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.000 early on that if I ever wanted to reach a 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:51.640 certain level within the sports world, it wasn't going to 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.320 be through the athletic part of it. It was going 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.079 to be through the verbal part of it. So I 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:03.760 grew up having emulate Marv Albert was the NBC local 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.560 sportscaster at night, also called Knicks Games and Ranger games, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.400 And I grew up listening to Marv and watching him 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.520 Howard Cosell on Monday Night football was somebody who I emulated, 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.880 and so I always thought to myself, that's something I'd 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.920 want to do and found my way into it through 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:29.640 just a long journey from college into working for a 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.800 local newspaper in my hometown as an intern working for 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.640 the student newspaper at Michigan and Sports Center came into 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.440 the world in nineteen seventy nine, and then while I 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.760 was in college from eighty six to ninety that's really 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.760 when it began to explode and was kind of put 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.280 on my radar screen as a goal of wanting to 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:58.480 do that. Oh you were thinking about it then in college? Hell, yeah, absolutely, Well. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.840 I did a couple of things extracurricular in college. One 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.160 was work for the Michigan Daily and I covered beaucham 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:09.240 Beckler's final season as the football coach there and covered 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.040 the Rose Bowl that year actually, and that's what's kind 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.240 of emotional for me to see Michigan with Harbaugh win 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.920 the Rose Bowl this year and bring my wife and 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.960 kids and nephew to the game, and so you know, 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.040 kind of point like that press box right there is 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.080 where I sat in that in nineteen ninety and now 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.480 here I was in January first of twenty twenty four 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.880 with the you know, my whole family watching Michigan Win. 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.640 It was really emotional for me. And the other thing 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.040 I did was stand up comedy. That was when stand 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.560 up really exploded in the mid to late eighties, when 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:47.240 they made Tom Hanks Sally Fields movie out of you know, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.440 stand up comedy, and people were waiting around the block 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.000 to get in, and the student union was having a 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.959 comedy night once a month, and I did comedy there 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.600 probably once every other month. Sometimes I did it one 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:06.040 month after another, and I loved it. I loved the feedback. 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.560 I loved trying to figure out what a crowd was 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:13.040 into making jokes and having a set and doing that. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.320 And it was the toughest thing to date, Brian, that 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.079 I've ever had to do is stand up which is 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.320 another reason why I love to have funny people on 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.160 my show every day, and comedians. You know, not only 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.559 because I grew up also watching Johnny Carson and Letterman 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.360 and that's the lifeblood of talk shows, are comedians coming 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.040 in and you playing straight man to him or her. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.800 But I also just really respect the craft. Those are 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.400 the two things I did in college. Who do you 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.440 remember like loving or you know, kind of following in 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.880 terms of stand up as you were doing it, or 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.680 was there anybody you emulated or well, I mean, I 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.720 don't know if I really was into that, I mean 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.840 about getting into who I emulated. I just loved going 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:03.880 and doing something and the immediate feedback of performing in 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.280 front of a crowd. I've always never really had a 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.680 problem with that. And at this point, you know, in 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.439 time in my life and my career, I'll make a 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:17.280 joke on NFL Network or my Daily show, or I'll 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.240 have done it on Sports Center, which is again in college, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.720 it kind of mixed all the dreams together of comedy 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.680 and performing art and sportscasting, which is what Sports Center 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:31.040 really was at the time. And so I really didn't 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.200 have one comic that I was trying to emulate. I 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.560 was just being myself and having a good time. And 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:39.680 I loved it. I just like I said, I really 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:41.480 loved it to the point where now I'll make a 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.880 joke on any of those sets, and it's not the 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.160 job of the you know, the folks behind the cameras 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.840 on the floor to laugh at my stuff. But if 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:51.920 I don't get an immediate feedback to a joke I 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.760 make on the air, I'll think it's fallen flat. So 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.320 I do miss the feedback. I do miss all of that, 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.960 and it was amazing, man. I I loved doing it, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:01.960 loved it. 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:04.560 Well. You know, another thing that was happening at this 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:11.280 time was the huge comedy Second City that was birthing 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.400 out of Chicago. I know you spent some time in 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:17.600 Chicago before moving on to ESPN. You got a job 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.000 of the Chicago Tribune. Were you covering sports there? Jeez? 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.720 Was I covering in Chicago? I'm not really. I went. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.760 I went there for a hot minute, really for graduate school, 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:34.520 and that's where I really had hoped to move into 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.160 the TV world in Chicago, because I after graduating Michigan, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.400 I went back to my hometown newspaper for three years 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:46.040 and worked there for a while and had a great time, 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.840 but realized that wasn't really what I wanted to do. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:50.760 I really wanted to try sports casting. We really wanted 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.840 to get into TV. So I went back to Northwestern 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.880 lived there for about six months, I you know, just 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.320 to pay some bills. I did some stringing for the 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.240 Chicago Tribune, where I would, you know, go out to 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:08.600 Wheeling or Schomberg and and and get the stats from 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.440 the coaches of the high school games and call them 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.440 in to the sports desk. You know, like that's what 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.320 I did, right, But I also had a great time 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.840 covering sports for the school you know, or I guess 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.720 for my school work. And that's when Jordan retired for 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.240 the first time. Okay, that was wild. Was there met 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.240 Harry Carrey as the Cubs once I think it was 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.760 they named Tom Treblelhorn their new manager. So I met 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:37.920 Carrie Carrey before the press conference. 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.200 It was noon. He was already into a couple bloody Mary's. 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:42.160 I'll never forget that. 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.840 So that's what I basically did in Chicago while I 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.680 was there trying to get my degree, my master's degree. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.520 Right, you know. One of the other things that I 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.480 like to touch on our people that others don't know about, 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.040 who have sort of a profound impact on you. I 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:04.440 read Mike Mangus, yea there in Northern California, read and reading, Yes, 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:10.040 you worked at k r c R there. Yeah, did 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.520 he have a specific he was a sports director, have 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.360 a specific idea? Was in your director. 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.040 Yeah, I got my first job in Reading California after 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.320 I was done with Medill at the School of Journalism 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.120 There I graduated, and I got a call from one 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:29.439 of my fellow classmates who got a job in Reading California, 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.320 and she told me, you know, the sports casting job 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:33.280 is open here. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:35.760 You should apply for it. And I did. 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.359 And it took really I had to really, you know, 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.880 twist the arm of the news director to let him 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.879 know that this kid from New York City was really 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:50.479 serious about coming to his hamlet in northern California and 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.879 treating a job with seriousness, but also bringing my brand 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.119 of sports center isms to local sports casting. And I 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:03.120 did that. And Mike was the main sports anchor there. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.480 He had been there for a long time and he's 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.760 still there now. And there were four sports casts there 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:14.280 that per day, at five o'clock, five thirty, six thirty, 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.320 and eleven. So I did the five and the eleven, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.280 and so it was a long day. But I just 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.159 remember a lot of the stuff that I did was 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.040 just off the wall. I brought a sports center style 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.399 to local TV. And you know, there was a big 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.800 wrestling match that was going on in the high school 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.200 prep sports world there Anderson High School. Their school's nickname 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.320 were the Cubs, and they were going against another local 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.680 high school and a big, you know, real wrestling competition, 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.800 and I decided to make like a wrestling promo out 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:55.479 of it and turn myself into the junkyard Cub, you know. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.920 And I enlisted Mike in to be the straight man, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.919 like the mean gene of it, you know. And there 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:03.639 were a lot of people there and reading who were like, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.359 you know, what is wrong with this person, you know, 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:08.920 like and they'd call up and they'd complain, like he's 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.200 not taking this seriously. My son is trying to get 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.639 a wrestling scholarship, or my son, this is really important. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.000 I used to wrestle for Anderson, and my kid is 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.679 now wrestling because it's a legacy, and he's treating it 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.680 like it's it's the WWF because I believe it predated 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.280 the WWE. And Mike, I mean, I don't think he 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.480 ever told me, but I'm sure you saved my job 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:37.000 a couple of times, you know, where he took the 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.440 figure it a bullet for me and the complaint department 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.200 and the general manager of the station at the time, 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.719 who was very you know, matrician and buttoned up and 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.679 probably was wondering, why did we hire this person who's 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.560 creating so much of a ruckus that we're getting calls 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.080 at nights. Then we never got calls from people over 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.280 twenty o'clock sports cast, like what the hell is happening? 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:00.720 You know? So Mike. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.560 Mike was always awesome to me and gave me the space, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.560 knowing that I wasn't planning on being there to make 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.480 a career out of being and reading. My goal was 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.080 to get to Sports Center, and remarkably I got there 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.960 from reading, Like I really like won the lottery by 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:26.200 being discovered by ESPN while I was at KARCRTV, and 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.120 I went from there to Sports Center at age twenty six. 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:31.679 It was like getting struck by lightning. 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:37.080 But what an incredible gift, though, to have the experience 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.760 before being thrown in there, to be able to do, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.760 you know, some different ideas, to allow you to explore 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.679 your own brand of humor, and to have that experience 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.600 in front of a camera with a crew around. You know, 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.560 it's not just in your basement, but having that on 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.320 air experience that seems like a great gift. 0:20:57.520 --> 0:20:59.639 Well it was, and you know, I mean, when I 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.000 walked into Sports Center for the first time, Brian, there 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:04.919 were more people in the newsroom than were in the 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:10.359 entire employee list of KRCR, you know, and then you 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.680 look around the newsroom and it was everybody that I 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.720 was dreaming of becoming a colleague of, or had been 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.680 emulating or ripping off in my sports casts. And suddenly 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.359 I was thrown into that world. And it was the 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.600 golden age of Sports Center nineteen ninety six. When I 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.800 strolled in there, it was Dan Patrick, Dan and Keith. 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.200 At night the big show, the six o'clock Eastern Sports 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:38.160 Center with Bob Lee and Robin Roberts and Charlie Steiner, 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:43.760 and then the overnight show was Craig Kilbourne and Linda Cone, 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.160 and you know, a whole host of others. Mike Tarrico 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.160 is occasionally doing it still, like Kenny Maine. Kenny Maine obviously. 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:51.400 Yeah. 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.119 And then you know, the ultimate obvious one is Stuart Scott, 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.080 who I was connected with more often than not for 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:58.800 about a seven year period after that. 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.760 Were you intimidated walking in, Oh hell ya. 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.120 Of course, you know. I mean I remember trying out. 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:06.800 I mean, they flew me all the way across the 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.840 country from Reading to Connecticut, and unbelievably, there was a 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.440 snowstorm on the East coast. The first time I attempted, 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:15.199 it couldn't get as far as Chicago. Had to go 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.200 back to Redding without telling anybody there where I was going. 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:22.040 And I was just like broken hearted that I had 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.359 to go back because I'm dreaming as I'm flying east 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.280 and then I'd never get there and turn around. I'm like, 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:28.520 maybe this is a sign that's never going to happen. 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.119 But two weeks later I went back and I remember 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.880 staying in the hotel across the street on the Sunday 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:40.760 night before the Monday, I was auditioning, and I just 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:44.600 couldn't sleep, just not only because I was so hyped up, 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:47.440 but it was one of those hotels where you could 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.439 hear this stream of water above you and you realize 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:52.760 it was the person urinating in the room above you. 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.720 So I couldn't get any sleep, and I'm like, you 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.359 know what, let me just turn on Sports Center now 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.760 and get in the mode. And I'm watching the Dan 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.520 and Keith Big Show, and as they're going through their highlights, 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.119 I thought to myself, I would have done it this 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.600 way I would have used that line. My thought would 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.359 have been that not this or that was a great line, 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:16.159 but I would have tried it this way. That's how 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:18.600 I was going, just to keep my mind as an 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:22.840 exercise going through it. Next day, go in, it's now 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:27.040 time and they give me the rundown, you know, piece 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:29.800 of paper with the list of the highlights that I 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.720 would be calling and the you know, hey, write us 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.600 in on camera, lead in into this highlight, and then 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.320 you'll do three three highlights, and then you'll do this 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:41.679 on camera, lead into those highlights. And the highlights that 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.880 they gave me were the exact tapes from the Dan 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:50.200 and Keith show the night before. So I was unwittingly 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:55.320 preparing exactly for the audition I was going to have 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:58.600 the next day. And so I crushed it. Man, I 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:01.560 knew exactly what I was going to say, all the stuff. 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:02.960 If I would have done it this way, I then 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.080 did that, did that right, And I nailed it. I 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:11.479 mean I crushed the audition, crushed it. And I remember 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:13.960 Al Jaffy was the VP of Talent at the time, 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.920 coming out and he was elated because, you know me, 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.600 he's flying some kid, twenty six year old kid from 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:24.600 reading California across the country. I'm sure there were some 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:27.400