me? Not everybody beats you on
leash. I just want to make sure
everybody's done complaining. Has everybody gotten their
whining out of the way? Is everybody done complaining
about how bad the Super Bowl game was and it was awful and
the halftime show, which was obviously divisive for some?
Is everybody good? Is everybody OK?
Is everybody over their feelings and their emotions?
Everybody ready to talk about something that I think is pretty
important? Because I think what's happened
here, guys, right, is we have lost sight of one very, very
important thing. And it's a massive thing that
I'm going to bring to the table that that nobody really seems to
bring to the table. And it's a very simple concept.
I'm going to say it and I'm going to tell you why.
All right? And the concept is this.
The thought is this. My belief, my conviction is
this. Rodger Goodell has ruined the
NFL, period. There's nothing else to say.
Rodger Goodell has ruined the NFL.
Now, understand this, guys, that a commissioner's job is to
obviously make money. So I want to make sure that we
get clear and distinct separation between the two.
I'm not talking about the financial growth of the NFL.
It's through the roof. I mean, you look at all the new
stadiums, you look at all the different contracts and all the
different deals. You look about the OR you look
at the globalization of the game and you look at the valuations
of each franchise. Absolutely.
The man has done his job in that regard.
So when you are hired as a commissioner, you are beholden
to the owners and obviously, you know the gatekeeper for the
entire sport. So for the owners, Rodger
Goodell's Grand Slam, he's done his job about as well as you
could do it. I'm not talking about that.
That's a waste of time. All you have to do is a very
rudimentary search on the growth economically the NFL and you'll
understand the man's done his job there.
I'm talking about how it affects you and I'm talking about how it
impacts me. And I'm really talking about how
it has been ruined on a lot of levels for us.
Now also understand this. The NF LS got one built in
advantage. That's never going to go away.
That's gambling, right. So obviously you could gamble on
the other sports and I certainly haven't.
I do I've I've I've put some money down on, you know, majors,
U.S. Open, the British Open.
I bet some baseball, they'll run line, some overrun.
There's of course you can bet at hockey.
You want to bet the overrun there in hockey, go for it,
right. You want to do some prop stuff
pre season win totals, you know, get some odds on a team to get
to the championship. You can bet anything.
But, and this is not a byproduct of anybody doing anything.
Well, it's just more fun to bet on the NFL.
There really is. Now, I'm not saying that betting
on baseball's not profitable, but it's pretty freaking boring.
Like if you bet baseball, it's a slow, if you win a slow, gradual
reward. And contrast that, say you've
got the Yankees in Toronto or the Giants and the Dodgers or
the Mets in Philly, and the over under is 8 1/2 or 9, and you're
like, yeah, you know, you look at the pitching matchups to do
your homework, blah, blah, blah. You put yourself in the best
spot to win money and you put the bet in, you hit enter and
then you watch the game. Now, yeah, somebody cranks the
three run bomb in the first inning.
That's obviously pretty good. You know, you're you're you're
not quite halfway there, but you're certainly on the road to
winning the bet. But it's not as enjoyable.
It's not nearly as fun. Like if you have the over in the
NFL and you get a quick turnover or you know, a pick 6, like a
pick 6 or a 70 or touchdown or a 45 yard pass interference that
changes and flips the field. All of a sudden, you know, 345
plays later, your team scores or your team that you bet on.
It's a different energy. It's a different watch.
Rodger Goodell didn't create that.
So a lot of the energy, and I think it gets really lost in the
discussion, a lot of the positive energy about football
or about things that he had nothing to do with, whether it's
gambling, whether it's tailgating, you know, that
stuff's different. And also, you know, while, and
this is part of my complaint, which I'll get to in a moment,
it's been diluted a bit, but, you know, baseball and, you
know, I love baseball. Watch the Yanks and Mets every
night. Love baseball as much as
anything. It's my favorite sport.
But, you know, even I get it. There's a mundane feel to the
baseball season. It's arduous.
It's a long watch. It's just, you know, it's there
every night. And that's part of the beauty of
baseball. It's your, you know, forever
companion. But you don't watch a baseball
game the way you watch a football game.
It's totally different energy. Like, you know, I'm not saying
you're not going to throw on your your Aaron Judge jersey or
your Soto jersey if you go to the Bronx or Queens, but you're
really sitting on the couch. Seven O 5 first pitch Yankees,
Rays, you know, Mets, Padres, Mets, you know, Nationals.
Are you really jacked up the way you are for a football Sunday or
Thursday or Monday? And the answer is obviously no.
So before he getting and any further, I just want to make
sure that we understand that I'm not talking about the popularity
of sport in the financial sense. That is irrefutable.
And Rodger Goodell has done a phenomenal job with that.
Really all the commissioner. It's basically it's hard not to
make money at the unless you are complete dope.
Look at the different streaming services, all the different
platforms, the monetization on YouTube, all the other social
outlets there. Like if you're not making money,
if it if your sports become stagnant financially, you are
really beyond description bad at your job.
And even somebody like Gary Bettman, I know the hockey fans
can't stand Gary Bettman, but even in in like in in the money
aspect, Gary Bettman's doing a decent job.
So I was just sitting down and it and it really hit me right,
because everybody was complaining about the halftime
show. And I get it.
Some of you loved it, some of you didn't.
I really just could wait for it to end.
Like I just wanted to get back to the shit game that we were
watching. I don't know why I wanted to get
back to the game. It was as boring the Super Bowl
as I've ever watched here, but I just you know, it's getting
late. All right, come on, the Patriots
have no points. Maybe we'll get a decent
competitive second-half and we wound up getting some plays that
made it semi interesting, semi exciting, but the game was a
complete bore. And by the way, like if you and
this is my stance with everything, especially when
stuff that is laced with like there's an under score of
politics for some, you know, I don't really jump into those
waters. And I'll talk politics with
anybody, you know, in the privacy of my home at dinner.
I'm not afraid to do it. I'm educated.
You know, I follow this stuff every night.
I watch multiple cable outlets. I know what's going on in the
world, but I don't shove it down your throat like many of you do
and many people who are in my business do.
Everybody feels this incessant need to open up the phone and
tweet something about, you know, either pro Bad Bunny or pro
Trump or pro world or anti. It's just it's ridiculous
really, as I just watched so many people trip over
themselves. And by the way, the worst part
about some of these tweets and some of these opinions, they're
not real that that's one of my I'll get back to you down with
them. This is a little sideswipe here.
This bothers me more than anything.
If there's an issue that you are truly informed about and truly
passionate about and you want to jump in and you want to express
yourself, then you've clearly got the latitude and the freedom
to do that. That's what that's what
democracy is all about and that's what social media is all
about. I but I know a lot of people in
this business and I have talked to a lot of people in this
business, both on the air and specific to this conversation
off the air, which is more important.
And I would never name names, but I can't tell you how many
people that I know pretty well are tweeting out this nonsense,
not because they're both pro and and anti whatever went down at
halftime, right? Not because they really love it
or they, but because they want to make friends.
That's really what's happening here.
A lot of the tweets that use and a lot of the opinions that are
formed by a lot of people that you watch and that you respect
and that you listen to and that and that you are entertained by.
They don't even believe half the stuff that they're putting out
there. They're trying to be accepted.
They're trying to fit in. They're trying to get some
equity. I don't do that because I don't
do that because I don't need to do that.
And I don't need to do that because I don't have such a
rational takes on on, you know, either side of the aisle that I
feel compelled to go and make amends and try to get some
equity within the fan base. I'm a content producer.
I talk about sports. All right, I'll weigh into some
other stuff. You know, I enjoy doing that,
but I'm not going to shove it down your throat, unlike a lot
of people. And I thought Sunday, and I
didn't really say this on yesterday's show because the
carryover, I expected it's Sunday night during the game
with all the energy around the halftime show.
But the stuff that was coming out Monday, I mean, whether it's
a radio show, whether it's a tweet, whether it's an IG post,
whether it's a YouTube short. Good God.
Oh my. How important do you think that
you are that you've got to go out and let the whole world know
what you think about Bunny good, Bunny bad, Trump good, Trump
bad. Give me a break.
You're not that important, dude. And as I learned very quickly,
jobs can be taken away like that, like that.
So everybody who thinks they're holier than thou and they're
standing at their little pulpit of preaching, you know, let me
just throw this tweet out there to to either embolden people who
are aligned with my thinking or to knock people who don't agree
with what I espouse. Give me that is the thing that
drives me the most nuts about the the way the sports world
goes now and it seeps and it trickles into every single
demographic. It seeps that it trickles into
every every show on TV, every radio show.
Invariably you are going to get takes that really for many are
offensive and some of you will agree with it.
That's fine. That your prerogative.
I'm not going to tell you what to think.
I'm not going to tell you what to do.
You know, it's long. Listen, I long ago learned.
I long ago learned that as long as you're a good person, I don't
care who you vote for. I don't care what music you
like. I just don't care.
There's a lot of other stuff going on in the world.
If you think that I'm going to waste my time or I'm going to
waste your time shoving this stuff every way, every which way
sideways just to to look, get a few more followers or buy some
social media equity, get lost. You couldn't pay me to play that
game. That game is played out.
That game is weak. And I would like a lot of people
in my business to figure that out at some point.
You're not nearly as important as you think you are.
Nobody gives a shit about what you think about politically.
They really don't. I know that you think that they
do They don't. And just because you might get,
you know, 1700 likes and, you know, 397 retweets and some
people punctuating, which is, yeah, yeah, it is not
reflective. And then the rants over, we get
back to get down and then the rants really going to start.
It is not reflective of what most of our country thinks.
It's really not. I've said this.
Anytime something polarizing comes up that that kind of seeps
into the sports world, I got news for everybody.
All right, take the 10% lunatics on the right.
Take the 10% lunatics on the left.
If we could get rid of those people, just mute them and have
them go away and maybe start their own little planet and just
say whatever they want to do whatever they want, I got news
for everybody. We'd have a lot more harmony.
We'd have a lot more peace. We'd have a lot more
consistency. We'd have a lot more production
and we would have a whole hell of a lot less volatility in the
world and hate. All right.
So if the messaging and I saw the side, I thought that was
great. Something along the lines of
only thing strong with her and hate is love.
Like if you can't agree with that sentiment, then something's
wrong with you. This that that's a you problem.
That's not a me problem. That's not a Bunny problem.
That's not a Trump problem. That's not a left or right or
centrist problem. That is a you problem.
So get over yourself because the days of people caring what you
think about politics, if you're a sports guy, they are quickly
coming to an end under get that memo, understand that and just
incorporated an ounce of awareness and an ounce of
sensibility. So what you tweet, there's
repercussions that might not be immediate, but downstream that's
coming back to roost. And I can't tell you how
disenchanted I am and how disgusted I've become with so
many reckless opinions and the infighting.
It is a joke, absolute joke. So I had to get that off the
table today. You know, it just, it's crazy.
I read these tweets. I'm like, man, people.
I know people I call friends. Like, what the hell is wrong
with you? You really think that you matter
that much? You don't mean anything in the
grand scheme of the world. You don't mean anything in the
grand scheme of life. Platforms can be taken away.
Shows will move on. Stations and networks will move
on. Understand that, people, because
you are you're you're burying yourself.
You just don't know it. You're too dumb to know it.
You're too stuck into whatever you want to force down
somebody's throat to know it. All right, All right.
So I had to get that off the chest.
I had to get that off my chest. I absolutely had to.
I had to. Like I felt it Sunday.
I'm going to move on. I felt it Sunday night, but I
was at a party. Great people.
I told you we had both on. We had buddy on one tube and it
wasn't at my house. Then we had our friend's house.
They have ATV in the kitchen and they put on Turning Point and I
watched both. And my opinion during both was
when the hell does the game get back on?
Like can we crowd a champion? So anyway, Roger Goodell, he's a
great commissioner for the owners.
He's a horrendous commissioner for us.
So I started writing some things down and I'll expand on some of
these in a moment. I just want to want to rifle
through some things that that Rodger Goodell has fumble.
I think, I think unfortunately, guys, I think to the point where
it's it's irreversible, the damage.
I really do. All right, so #1 the officiating
week to week is a massive issue. I mean, and it's not like all
that, you know it, the league is fixed.
I, I don't subscribe to that thought.
If you believe the league is fixed, I don't know what to tell
you. I know there's been some wacky
occurrences. I get it.
There's been some things that have happened that you, that
kind of make you think, oh jeez, do they really want to get this
guy to the big game where they really want to penalize this
team? Or they will be thinking about
the ratings like you used to hear this in the NBA all the
time, like in a in a Eastern Conference semis or, or, or you
get to the fine, maybe not the first round, but you get deeper
in the NBA playoffs and there's a you you start hearing this
like, well, all right, let's at Oklahoma.
Let's take OK C like Oklahoma City versus I just thought the
box like, is that really good for ratings?
No, it's not because it's not a massive swath of of the of of
representation of the of the fans in in our country that root
for some bigger teams like the Lakers, like the Knicks,
etcetera. But I mean, this goes back to
like even Jordan, you know, or even the Knicks or the Lakers,
Kobe and Shaq and and some other and many other iterations I
don't need to run through. But there has been a prevailing
thought that all right, you'll pick up that bad phone.
Hey, listen, this team's down 2 to one.
Make sure they get the whistle tonight.
We got to make sure we extend this.
We got to make sure we get the extra game.
We got to make sure we make the extra money.
We got to make sure we put ourselves in a position to have
the absolute best ratings match up in the NBA Finals or whatever
it might be. So I get the complaints with the
officiating. It's madding.
I mean, you can't do anything. And the problem is, is that you
could be watching 1 channel, like you could be watching The
Jets game on CBS and there's one call that's made, It's one
interpretation of the rule. And then you're watching the
Giants against, I don't know, the Eagles if they happen to if
they happen to be playing at the same time.
And it's a very similar play, pass interference, whatever it
might be illegal contact 5 yards downfield past five yards, one
of those kind of calls. And it's like that, that referee
crew, that officiating crew interpreted completely
differently, much like a strike zone of all the strikes.
Those things are madding. They've forever been an issue.
I'm not dumping that all at Rodger Goodell's doorstep.
I don't think that that's fair. But the officiating week to week
is a massive issue #2 the constant rules changes, there is
always something new every year that it takes us forever to
understand what the hell they're looking for.
And then once we find out what they're looking for, this kind
of goes back to the the officiating, like the
interpretation of what they saw based on what they're looking
for. It just leaves you scratching
your head. And I think anytime the
conversation becomes more about those ancillary things, which
actually do become fairly big things because they determine
who wins and job security and legacies and all that stuff
downstream. But like, when you're talking
about a bad call and you're not talking about the game or a
great player or a great matchup or a great possibility, that's
not good for the sport. We know that #3 the overall,
this is a massive 1. And this is all on Rodger
Goodell. I cannot exonerate him.
Not that I'm looking to at all. All right?
The overall dilution of the product is absolutely
ridiculous. Now, what are the great
advantages about football is that we're wired in a way.
That's why I gave you like when you're watching baseball on a
Tuesday night against whomever a fairly benign game.
I don't mean Yanks, Red Sox, I don't mean Mets, Phillies,
something else right where you know, you want your team to win.
You want you got to hit a home run.
You want your pitcher to pitch well, whatever.
But it's it doesn't really have that that that midweek juice big
picture and the advantage with the NFL.
And it was it was a gift. It was handed to him just based
on the sheer physical violence of the sport.
You can't play everyday. You can't play three times a
week. Now we've seen that that time in
between games truncated, like you could play now sometimes a
Sunday night game and then be asked to play Thursday.
And players obviously protest against that.
And they're absolutely right because now the product is
diminished on Thursday. But the dilution of the game, it
was always all right. I got like you play on Sunday
and and, and, and, and you react right after the game, right?
And then like Monday, you unpack the game and then Tuesday maybe
you still unpack the game a little bit.
I'm talking about from my point of view on the air and and
obviously he's a fan. And on Wednesday you start
making that turn. All right, who's up next
storylines bench this quarterback?
Is this guy going to get whacked as a coach?
Like all that stuff? And it was a basically a week
long dance, like going through the labyrinth of emotions that
really, really made it fun. But when I talk about dilution,
there's just too many games and this like I I don't I don't
really need meaningful pre season games.
I get it. I don't need Patrick Mahomes to
play into the third quarter. You know, the third game, like
the like, you know, like they used to back in the day.
I mean it was a point Jets giants, that third game, Eli
Pennington, whomever they Patiki, they play into the third
quarter stray hand, you know, all those guys, Curtis Martin
and it represented a game. But it was fun because at least
you can glean something from that and get a sense of what the
team had, right? So, and it's just more fun than
watching backups, many of which we don't really know, like third
string tight ends, guys like that trying to make the roster.
It's important to them, but it's not incredibly appealing to us.
So. So now what's happened?
Because the Summer Games mean absolutely nothing.
Nobody plays. I mean, nobody, all right, I'm
not even going to fight that because I do get that.
But what's happened now with the extra game and the lengthening
of the season, September has now become less important.
You could start one and three. Hell, you can start O and four.
And if you've got the right team and the right quarterback and
the right coach, you can still climb your way back into it and
be a playoff team like when I was growing up.
You're owing 4, you're dead. It's over.
Man sees pull the plug. It's over.
It's nothing else to watch. You're going to watch, but
there's really nothing to hope for over.
Even one in three kind of over. So the urgency in September and
the feeling out process of guys getting their wind, guys getting
their legs, guys get getting used to getting hit, guys
getting used to hitting people again as though 2A days like
they used to be with Parcells. So you're not popping each other
in training camp really. It's all pads and it's all, you
know, controlled tackling, which I also understand.
But that should never bleed into September.
And it does. So now you talk about the
dilution overall of the product, right?
And long ago, this is #4 Rodger Goodell, more than any other
commissioner, was the first to succumb to corporate greed.
That's what he did. His hands were out Gimme, Gimme,
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.
And I get it while he's saying Gimme and he's getting guess
who's guess who's suffering? Not the owners, right?
Not the coaches, not the players who and they should make as much
money as they possibly could. Like I'll never especially
football non guaranteed contracts, but without the
guaranteed money like the the the the back end of contracts
restructure cut a guy, make as much money as you can.
I will never begrudge a football player for fighting for or
holding out and getting every penny that they can conceivably
get. But what I mean by succumbing to
corporate greed, everything around the game has has taken
less, feels less big. You know, again, it's hard for a
Tuesday night may match up between whomever and baseball to
feel big and maybe Sunday night. Yanks, Red Sox, the Dodgers,
Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Phillies, Braves.
Sure, that's got about as big as you can have for regular season
baseball game, but the corporate greed that has permeated the
sport, they've all gotten rich. And I don't begrudge them for
doing that either because they are owners and they've they've
and they're there whether it's been handed to them by their dad
or their uncle. They've got generational wealth.
And when you've got generational wealth, I'm not mad at you.
I just hope you're responsible and I hope that you get back to
the community a little bit. But the corporate greed has
destroyed the NFL overall. Fan alienation is now #5 I mean,
what do you really feel good as a football fan think about this.
Do you really feel good about the NFL?
Let me read this real quick at Matt Shevon yesterday.
The NFL wouldn't give a specific date for the 2028 Super Bowl in
Atlanta because they're adding an 18th game.
Exactly. So it'll push it back to
Presidents Day weekend. It just gets deeper and deeper
and deeper and deeper. We've got limits as to how much
we're going to watch you sport, bottom line.
And it's getting very expensive. So there's the investment of
time and then there's the investment of the dollar.
Now time is is all relative. If you're young, you know, and
you're 232425, just out of college, not married, no kids,
maybe you got your first apartment, couple of buddies,
couple of girlfriends, whatever it is you want to go to the bar,
you want to, you know, bet every game known to man like I've
done, you know, that's a, that's fun.
But eventually that expires that eventually, you know, even if
you don't get married and have kids, there's more real life
responsibility. So the, the, the desire is one
thing, but the, the ability to commit yourself to the sport, it
just evaporates compared to what it once was.
So fan alienation is a real, real problem.
It doesn't seem like they're serving us at all.
They don't care about us one bit.
And I've always known Matt, not on me when I was 12.
And I don't even think I really thought that when I was getting
into the business. But I long ago learned they
don't care about you. They don't care about me.
And even more sad, and this is a real important subset of fan
alienation, they don't really even care about America anymore.
We got a football game in Australia next year.
What the hell are we doing, Australia?
And I love Australia. I've got fans on this channel
from Australia. Beautiful country, a country
that I want to visit at some point when I can.
You know, it's just so far and it's, you know, it's, it's just
a lot of logistical things that I can't get there now.
Gorgeous land, gorgeous tradition, beautiful, beautiful
piece of that's God's country. It's God's earth.
It's beautiful, but I don't understand.
Well, I do that's let me say I do understand.
It's greed. Let me let me reframe it.
I I find it patently offensive, right, to take a game, whether
it's at Lambeau, whether it's in Baltimore, whether it's in
MetLife, which sucks, but that's not the point.
Whatever team that you watch to take one of those eight or nine,
depending upon the season, sacred home games and give it to
Australia or give it to London or give it to Mexico or give it
to Brazil. That is about making money
because that's not doing a damn thing for us.
It is it is taxing on the players, especially if you're
traveling to Australia, you know, it's just far away.
You know, it's it's the feel a lot of time the turf is like the
standards aren't the same. And please, this is this is not
a knock. I'm not trying to sound like
that territorial, you know, American, you know, whatever,
but it's OK to have American pride.
Like I'm, I'm never going to shy away for that's our sport.
That's our sport, all right. And the more we do that, we
become desensitized to it. And the more it's OK, and guess
what? The more it's OK, the more
they're going to take. They're more they're going to
keep grabbing. And instead of missing one game
at Lambeau watch in 10 years, it might be two.
So you are now taking tried and true traditions, generations of
football fans that help build up your sport.
And you know what you're doing, you give them the finger, that's
what you're doing. You don't care about them.
So somebody's got to say this because the NFL to me right now
is broken. It's absolutely broken.
So fan alienation is a massive problem.
Number six, and this is part they're all kind of woven
together on some level. Broadcast fragmentation.
What the hell does that mean? Yeah.
What channel is the game on? Is it on CBS?
Is it on Fox? Is it on Peacock?
Is it on Prime? Where's the game?
Is it on NFL? I don't know.
Do you have the now I have them all because what I do for a
living, etcetera. But do you have the game?
I know for a fact there's games. My dad can't find it.
Even if he could. I don't even know if he has it.
Like there are just certain games where the older generation
gets shut out. Nobody stands up for the older
generation. I do because they were the ones
who built the sport on their backs.
Just look at all and look at any old NFL Films video, right, And
you know you've got you've got the the stadiums full of working
class people, working class people.
They could afford it. They could go now.
And I don't go to as many games as I used to when I used to have
season tickets for The Jets, right, But I've so I'm not going
to get too deep into it. But I told you the story.
I went to the I went to two jets games this year.
Jets Browns was the first one. It was raining.
What else is new? Although The Jets did win.
So that was a big surprise at a welcome one.
It was it was fun. Anyway.
My father-in-law is from Ohio. He's in Texas now.
He's kind of become a Cowboys fan, but in his core, it is
blood. He's a Browns fan.
I remember when we were first dating, I got him a really cool
Browns hoodie, like a really good that he actually wore to
the game. So he's had it well over 10.
You're probably 15 years at this point anyway.
Grew up rooting for the Browns, watching every game, going to
the games. And they were coming in for
their anniversary and my wife said, hey, what, what do you
think about going to The Jets game?
I had already gotten the tickets because I'm that kind of, I'm
that kind of person. I got, I'm that kind of husband
and I got some, I got some points that week.
It was good, right? So I did it before she even
asked me and she was stunned. She like, you already got them?
Yeah, I got them. Anyway, it's me, it's her.
It's my two kids, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law.
Really good seats, access to the Corona Club.
So when it's raining, but you know, get you get dry, you want
to go to the bathroom, There's not a massive line.
You want to get all sorts of food.
It's fun. Like if you go to MetLife and
you have the money and the means to do it and you go to the
Corona Club or one of the other clubs, it's actually a pretty
good experience. It's not really an experience
that like compared to my experiences back in the day,
going with my buddies, hammering 9 beers in the parking lot and
not taking my eyes off the field unless I really, truly, truly
had to go to the bathroom because I already ate in the
parking lot. I'm not going to get food.
I'm just sneaking beers in and I'm watching The Jets with
Parcells, right? So I know people consume games
differently, right? But I remember pulling it to the
parking lot and I'm not cheap. I'm also not, you know,
generationally wealthy. So all right, 100 bucks for
parking. Wow, 100 bucks for parking.
My God, it's The Jets and the Browns. 100 bucks.
What are you going to do? No, I can't pay it.
I am going to stand my ground today and I'm going to be on
principle. I refuse to pay the 100 bucks.
All right, make AU turn, go back home.
Everybody's miserable. Of course you're going to pay
the 100 bucks like an idiot. They got you by the short ones.
They know it, we know it. So you pay it right.
And then the tickets were up the ass.
It was probably probably about a 14 or a little more, maybe about
a 15 or a $1600 day just for one day, you know, you know, shit,
if I knew I was going to lose my job, I don't know if I would
have done it. It was great.
We loved it and, and it's good for the family and all that
great stuff, but it is just ridiculously expensive to go.
And the more you look around the stadiums, the more empty seats
you see, the more you know, not to associate blue collar fans
with being better fans. But that's been stripped away
and it's just a a little bit of a different clientele because
the the the Arden football fans, those those fans who really help
support the sport and elevate it, they've been priced out and
the NFL just doesn't care about you.
So I know you have a choice. Nobody's holding the gun to you
had to go to the game. But I mean, jeez, you want to go
to a game once in a while. Crazy prices, right?
So, but that's what I mean when I talk about overall fan
alienation, and that goes into the broadcast fragmentation as
well, because if you want to watch certain games, you got to
have certain streaming systems. There was, what was it the
Dolphins game couple of years ago where, yeah, it was a wild
card game. I think it was not that.
I know it wasn't this year. It was two or three years ago, I
forget which one. I had to go to a boat, which I
don't mind doing. You know, I had a couple beers,
had some wings, a few buddies in town.
Not that I really care who won the game, but I wanted to watch
an NFL playoff game. I did.
I didn't have the streaming, so I think it was on Peacock before
I got it. Now I have it.
St. John's is on there, but I'm not
a big soccer fan. So that's more soccer oriented,
which is fine, but you got to jump through hoops just to watch
the game. And that's another anthem.
That's another, you know, hey, Exhibit 9000 as to how the NFL
and sports in general does not care for you.
Now, the other thing too, and that's one thing that bothers me
the most. It it just really does like the
fragmentation finding it. Do you have it, watching it, you
know, and then God forbid this drives me.
And this applies to baseball as well.
Yankees opening day is on Netflix.
What Yankees, Yankees opening day is on Netflix.
I remember when I was young and my mom knew what I was doing,
but she was cool about it. And what I mean, young, not not
high school. She I wouldn't get away with it
in high school. I didn't even try it.
But you know, first, second, third, maybe even 4th grade,
That's kind of what it fizzled out a little bit.
I would pretend I was sick on Opening Day so I could sit at
home. But I could watch Scooter, watch
Mattingly, watch the Yankees. Then, of course, whenever the
Mets were on, watch Connor watch the Mets, right, Channel 11,
Channel 9. I knew where the game was,
right. But now it is on Netflix.
I have Netflix. I'd love that.
It's it's tremendous. Most of us do.
What if you don't? What if you don't?
What if you are? What if you're, I mean, it's
going to, I don't mean to sound morbid here, but you know what
if you are a 79 year old married couple and like you're, you're
and, and you're the man, right? You're the husband and you like
your wife has all the subscriptions and you know, like
if my, I'm really talking about my like if my mom didn't sign up
for all this stuff, my dad, he would watch 5 channels.
He wouldn't know how to do this right.
So like in this, in this example, because unfortunately
this is real life. You know what happens when your
spouse passes away and you don't know how to do this stuff?
He's not watch the game. I mean, think about that.
You could be a 55 year Yankee fan.
I don't mean being 55 years of age.
I mean being a Yankee fan for 55 or 60 years.
You can't watch opening day. It's a sacred gift of baseball.
Opening day. You can't watch it, man, oh man.
And if you can, again, you got to jump through hoops to do it.
But these are all things that drive me nuts.
But I think the NFL by far is the worst at this.
Now, this one bothers me as well.
Part of it I get. Part of it I can't stand.
I'm going to push back the sanitization of the league.
It's been homogenized. There's no personalities
anymore. And I'm not talking about
vicious hits where you come in with your elbow when you take
somebody's head out across the middle.
I'm not talking about concussion and and protocol.
I don't mean that stuff. But celebrate you.
You celebrate too excessively. There's a 15 yard penalty.
Can't do that, can't have fun. So let me get this straight.
You are asking these grown men, these warriors who live in the
weight room and who every time they step on a field, literally,
this is not hyperbole, literally put their life on the line and
they celebrate and you're trying to take that out of the game.
Like these guys, they, they deserve that.
They've earned that right. And I don't mean demeaning the
other team. I'm not talking about that.
I'm not talking about being a bad sport.
I'm not talking about that. Like spiking the ball in
somebody's face when he's on the ground.
If you beat him on a 25 yard pass, I nobody wants that.
That's classless. I don't mean that.
But even if you like, you drop the ball in the direction, 15
yard penalty. I mean, come on, come on.
And then, and this is also a subset of many different things,
the expanded schedule, it's just going to keep coming.
It's going to keep coming. And the more games you get, the
less the quality of like the, the quality lessons.
I should say the quality lessons, because if there's 16
games, every game matters 116, you know, you've, you've got,
you've got an established parameter.
And generally, you know, going back in the day and there's a
couple of outliers, The Jets in 2015, but if you play 16 games
and you win 10, you go into the playoffs, You know, a lot of
times you could be, you know, nine and seven and you could
squeak in as a wild card. You can't really do it now, so
you the more games you have and the more real estate you have to
figure things out, the less urgency there is to the first
game and the second game and the third game and really into the
4th game, which encompasses obviously the entire month of
September. So now it bleeds in.
You get nothing during the summer except a bunch of names
you don't know and you get really September, which is
sloppy and just it it's a very different watch.
So by expanding the schedule, I mean the residually what they've
done, they've just gone for for quantity over quality.
They've increased injuries because based on the sheer odds,
the more times you step on a football field, the more chances
you have of getting hurt, period.
Just like the more times you get up to bat, the more times you
have of getting it out. You know, the averages kind of
remain the averages. So it is just one big mess now.
I can't stand it. Nobody's got the guts to say it
because half the people that you watch are on a network and all
they do is kiss the ass of the sport or the network that
they're on because they've got these monstrosity of broad
broadcasting rights. God forbid you say anything
about the commissioner. God forbid you have any sort of
real biting criticism. Instead, it's always about
legacies, and it's nonsensical regurgitation that is largely
boring and largely played out. I mean, really is like, this is
the stuff that matters because this is the stuff that impacts
you and this is the stuff that impacts me.
You got to have the guts to say it can't ignore it, you know,
and I, I get it, I guess if you're on TV and you're making
millions and you got this lavish lifestyle, like why would you
bite the hand that feed you? Like it takes a it takes a
strong broad set of shoulders to do that, to have the fortitude
and the guts to do that. But without name names, there's
been times over the years where somebody has taken that route.
Guess what? They weren't around very long
and their peers know there's a line.
If I cross that, I'm getting the call from the network executive
because that network executive is getting a call from somebody
from the NFL, from the NBA, from Major League Baseball.
It is what it is. Everybody's in cahoots.
And as time goes on, we become accepting of it and we
shouldn't. Now, I wish I had a great
solution. Why?
I mean, I do. You're not going to like it.
Don't watch. I mean, but why penalize
yourself here? And I really believe like, it
really should be boiled down to a simple question.
Do you? I don't want you guys to text
this. I want you to answer this.
You can expand on it a little bit.
Do you really feel about the like the way you used used to
feel about the NFL? Do you really, truly feel that
way now? Do you or do you maybe convince
yourself that you do because you were programmed to feel that way
for so long? And even if you were to look in
the mirror and, you know, be introspective, you know, you
know, the answer is not quite the same that it used to be, but
you just kind of you're along for the ride and you're a
sucker. All right, let me get this
subscription. Sure.
All right. Jerseys.
How much? 190 bucks now?
OK, Parking's 100 bucks. Sure.
A hot dog, A beer is 18 bucks. That's a little expensive, but
OK, I want a beer. Here you go.
Like if you don't resist it, you know they're just going to keep
doing it, keep bending everybody over.
That's it. That is it.
Now, I also understand that it's all relative.
That's why I said before about like where you are in life.
Like when I woke up, I had a tradition.
God, I love this too. This is how long ago it was.
Remember when I think it was edge, like the shaving cream
they used to come up with those seasoned in reviews like the VHS
tapes And the three years I had season tickets to The Jets
coincide with Parcells, right? I would wake up and I would slap
that in the VHS and I was still living at home two of those
years. And then I had my first
apartment out of college, right? And I would put it in and I
mean, I would have my Corbett jersey.
Like I felt like I was going to play a game.
Like I the energy that I had pulsating through my body.
Yeah, I was also a lot younger. I get it.
The Jets were good with parcel. I get it, but it just it felt
different. It wasn't divisive.
You know it it when it was polarizing, it was polarizing
for the right stuff, not all this other again, ancillary
stuff that just strips away at the enjoyment.
Like each year guy think about take a foot.
I wish I had a football. I'd actually grab it.
I have I got a basketball, take a football and put it on a
conveyor belt right. This is now the factory of the
NFL and conveyor belt, you know, just obviously just churns
along. And whatever product you're
making, you know as it gets to certain points, whether it's
stamping the logo, signing the commissioner's name, doing the
laces, putting the leather on whatever the conveyor belt's
doing along the conveyor belt route.
They are building the football. What the conveyor belt now
represents is the deconstruction of football for you and me, the
football fan. Because every year, right as
that football just slowly goes along that conveyor belt,
instead of adding something to the ball, just slicing off a
little piece of the ball before, you know, it's going to look
like a tennis ball, like a golf ball, because it's certainly not
the same size that it used to be.
You know, So think of, think about and when I tell you I did
not even give much of these read like the, you know, I love doing
research, but I didn't really have to do a ton for this.
I just sat in my office last night and I finished it this
morning and I constructed a list of things that Rodger Goodell
has done that has helped really destroy the sanctity of the game
of football. The officiating week to week
issue hasn't solved it yet. The constant rules changes
hasn't solved it yet. The overall dilution of the
product again, you know, into September, September largely
pretty much what August used to be succumbing to corporate
greed, overall fan alienation, broadcast fragmentation, the
sanitization and the homogenization words today and
homogenization of the of the league of the product.
That's very evident. I already laid it out for you.
The expanded schedule, more injuries, less importance.
Like they've just, they've, they've, they've basically done
something that I really thought was impossible to do and that is
make football less enjoyable. That's what they've done.
It's like a change. It's not going to reverse
itself. What do you think?
So if I paid 100 bucks, I think that was in November to park at
MetLife, what do you think it would have paid in in five years
or three years or, you know, I'm not going to pay 80.
It's not going to go backwards. Now it's 120.
Now it's 150. Before you know it, 200 is going
to represent 100 and all the other prices are going to keep
getting jacked up. The merch, the food, the beer,
you name it, the programs, whatever you want, up, up, up,
up, up. And it is.
It's less about, you know, I'm going to give you an example.
I don't know if it's going to make sense.
It just kind of popped into my mind.
I love, I think you guys are like this too, if you're a
wrestling fan. So when Vince McMahon bought out
the territories, right. And I love watching the stuff on
YouTube. I, I do it all the time,
probably too much. I love the when you have the
shoot interviews and the old school guys and when they really
lift up the curtain, you know, I started watching in the 80s, not
the 70s. So for me, the 80s, but even
just historically to kind of connect the dots before I
started watching like Bruno, Superstar, Billy Graham, Pedro
Morales, those guys back with of course, the champion for a long
time, they were largely house shows, right?
And you could actually go, I know that this isn't practical.
I'm not even I'm not clamoring for this.
I know it's ever going to happen.
But I want you to see where where we've gone and then
correlate it back to football in a moment.
So there was a point from about 70 whatever till right up till
WrestleMania, WrestleMania 1, where you go to any Catholic
parish in Brooklyn or Queens, right?
And Andre the Giant was showing up and Bruno was showing up and
Jimmy snooker was showing up And you know, all these guys were
showing up and they were right, John Studd, they were wrestling,
right? So to me, the the those small
shows, couple of 100 people, right?
And then eventually with Vince buying out the territories and
the N.W.A and the regional Memphis and the AWA, like, I do
love this stuff, love getting in the weeds on this, right?
That eventually went away. And look at the monstrosity that
WWE has become. Massive success.
And in a lot of ways, back in the day, whether it was at the
Meadowlands or Chase Stadium, obviously Yankee Stadium, Yale
Bowl, back and back, back, back in the day for the Giants, those
football crowds. I mean, same with the other
sports too, but I'm just going to stick with football here.
Those football crowds were kind of like the house shows, you
know, up in Poughkeepsie where they would film a lot, you know,
WWF back in the day, or, you know, Saint Rose CYO or Saint
Tom's and Bensonhurst or Saint Thomas Aquinas and Flatbush
playing a lot of basketball there too, you know.
So it's it. Think about the people that used
to go to those venues to support the product and elevate the
product and a lot of those people get chanted because they
just can't afford it anymore. And that's what's happened in
the NFL and all the sports here. So I firmly believe that the
only thing that's really saving the perception and like the need
for some people to still say all the NF LS king and and it is in
terms of money. I'm not saying it's not long ago
took over for Baseball America's pastime.
I get it. But like the only thing really
keeping people from I think checking out more is gambling.
Like, imagine if you couldn't gamble on football.
Would you really watch the Thursday night game between the
Titans and the Jaguars? Would you really watch that?
And you know, I mean gambling in the sense of, you know, whether
it's parlays reverses like real money, but also fantasy
football, all right, which is fun.
And I know other sports have fantasy fantasy leagues for
sure, day-to-day props and all that stuff, right.
But if you think about it, what's the most enjoyable
fantasy draft that you do with your buddies?
What's the football 1? It's got the most energy.
Now. I did a fantasy baseball one
with about 9 or 10 guys at to this day, some of my best
friends in the world. I mean, couple of guys at my
wedding, like my core, some of my real true core friends.
And then I just, you know what it was like and I would just go,
and I've said this before, baseball, right?
And we would do it, you know, right around Saint Patty's Day.
They would, I appreciate always work around my Saint John
schedule. And you'd go there and we'd have
the whole house to ourselves, you know, no wives, no kids,
everybody out. And you draft and, you know,
you, you bang back beers and you catch up because we've all been
holed up in the winter. And it was a chance.
For me, it was more of a social thing.
Like I took the baseball draft serious.
But once the season started, as much as I love baseball, I had
no interest in hitting waiver wires for relief pitchers.
And while like it's just. And every year choked like I was
the guy who did it for a living and who played baseball was the
worst fantasy baseball player in the entire group.
Like without I I want it one year, but that was pretty much
by accident. I mean, every year, last place,
second to last place just handed over money.
And then the entry fee, I got up to like 6-7 hundred bucks.
And and not that I'm cheap, but I'm like, I don't even really
enjoy doing it. But fantasy football's
different, you know. And yeah, you can have a fantasy
basketball draft, but you probably can do it online.
Like the thing about football that keeps football elevated
really is that it's a tight knit community and it's it's really,
it's best in groups. Goodell didn't create that.
Like that's not a Rodger Goodell thing.
So they're just kind of lucky at Fabian Concepts.
Shane, what's up? Shane, did you see this year's
new Super Bowl merch? That's just the tip of the
iceberg with corporate greed. Yeah, I so thank you for that,
Fabian. I appreciate it.
I saw some of that stuff on, well, all over social media and
I know that a lot of fans were pissed off.
I I guess it's Fanatics and I didn't, I think I saw some like
black jerseys and, and like white jerseys.
I, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I've been to a lot of
Super Bowls even before Fanatics took over.
And like a lot of the merch was kind of wack, kind of corny.
I don't know, like I would, I would and I would always come
home with something for my kids and my wife.
As a matter of fact, my daughter was wearing because I got it was
too big for years ago, less Super Bowl that I was at in
Miami. I brought her this.
It's like AI don't know. It's like a Super Bowl 90 and
she was probably 3 and now she's 9.
So it finally fits her and she still wears it.
I would get like my son a zip up, get something from my wife
and I would always come back that Saturday because I wanted
to watch the game here with my family.
I always come back so we could always wear some Super Bowl
merch, watching the game, eating pizza, whatever we're doing.
And I I'm like, I didn't really like the gear.
Maybe I'd get something for the golf course at some point, like
a zip up or a nice golf shirt that I thought I would want when
the weather, when the weather changed.
But yeah, I mean, for the most part, the the merchandise at the
Super Bowl is just corny. But I did see that.
I did see there was additional heat to stick with wrestling
towards some of the companies that produce that stuff.
But I I don't, I don't really know why.
I just don't think it looked good.
I think that's the general consensus from people who
complained about it at all. Right.
You know what? You going to read this one?
I told anytime there's a name and there's like, it's tough to
decipher. Boy Goodell, Come on.
A little soprano at Boy Goodell. Right, he's got the Annunciation
too. He's got the hands.
He's got the DeVito. Look at him come and correct
that. A boy.
Say it once more before I read. It go ahead.
Woof, nice. That is a classy young man right
there, folks. He's got some.
He's got some culture in them all right from New Haven.
Been scraping money for the G Men season tickets since 1974.
God bless you man. They built that new dump and and
the ticket wait list went from 30 years to zero.
They made us panic and shook me down for 40,000 and I still pay
the power of the NFL. All right, I get it.
The PS: LSI remember when that first dropped at MetLife Jet
fans, 'cause I was on 10:50 at that point.
Thank you. You can get rid of that, Jay,
because that dropped when the new stadium opened and like PS:
Li mean it was largely A curveball.
Like you own it and people like, oh, what an investment.
You owe nothing, right? So you basically own the right
to just hemorrhage Money is what you own.
You own a massive bill. Congrats, you are you are the
proud owner of $40,000 bill. Come on down.
What do you get to see? Awful football.
Cut that check. But I'll tell you, you don't
have to. You don't have to cut the check.
I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just merely pointing out if
you can't do it or you don't want to do it, or even if you
can do it and you don't feel like you're getting a return on
the investment, well, you could bail now.
The difference between the jet, the giant fan right now is that
the giant fans, they're energized.
You got John Horrible coming in. I mean, Lord knows what The Jets
are going to be. And you know, I like mood, you
know, I'm pumped up for the draft.
And I do think that, you know, Glenn could figure it out with
Reich and hopefully this works out, blah, blah, blah.
But like there's a little bit of a different, I would think
certainly energy and willingness to commit to the next 3-4 five
years to the Giants than there is for The Jets.
Now, let me also be clear about this.
I don't want you guys to think I do a lot of local content.
That's how that's how I really buttered a lot of my bread
professionally, But I've also worked in San Francisco, I've
worked in Detroit and I'm a national sports guy too.
I did a national show for 10 years.
So this is not just local content, but I want to make sure
that I'm not jaded here. All right, So outside of the
Harbaugh hire and outside of the, you know, nine wins and you
know, Danny Jones and the Giants winning a role playoff game in
Minnesota couple years. Brian Naples first year.
The the the word that I it's not even anger, really.
With The Jets and the Giants fans.
It's become largely apathetic. Now that apathy has obviously
eroded for the Giant fan. They're pumped up.
The Giants will be back. And with the Giants are good,
the NF LS better. Like, you know, trust me, as
much as I am a Jets fan, even I know like, the NFL doesn't need
The Jets for anything. They just need them to fill out
a schedule. Yeah, All right.
You want to tell me when The Jets are good?
Whenever the hell that is over my life, you're going to get a
higher rating, all right? But there's probably, you know,
6535% Giant fans anyway. So are you going to really get
that massive national pop, unlike the Yankees, who are
probably 6040 or or 6535 Yankee fans versus Mets fans?
Probably not. But I'm sure there's a bit of a
financial uptick when The Jets are good.
Like like any big market, of course.
However, I really think that this is not just a local,
regional thing. I think what I'm saying has
permeated every fan base in America.
Now, I also understand the timing matters here.
Like, think about the disgruntled, dischanted,
disenchanted Bears fans for years, right?
No good quarterbacks, you know, going through coaches fumbling
their way around getting their head kicked in, you know, by the
Vikings, by the Packers. Good division, All right, We
know that. Well, the Bears are going to be
good for a while. You would have Caleb.
Caleb Williams is a problem. I mean, he made some, he made
some of the best throws in the playoffs.
A couple rolled out to his left off 1 foot against the grain,
which I mean with three or four guys bracketing his intended
target that I don't even know if Mahomes is making that that
throw on his best day like that was a special unique throw.
So I'm not talking about the Bear fan now, I'm not talking
about the Lion fan pre renaissance.
I know they had a bad year this year, but you know, pre
renaissance with Campbell. I'm talking about the Lion fans
when I worked in Detroit and they drafted Joey Harrington a
million years ago and Marty Mortingwig was the coach and
Wayne Fonts and all the drops we play on the radio when they were
still at the Silverdome. Like Mayans fans were never
apathetic, but they're I think that their days were were their
days were still enjoyable because it was about football
still again, the tailgate and the tradition.
I think that even that's been stripped away.
And I'm going to ask you straight up, if you're not
gambling, if you're not gambling and you're not going to the
games, and very small percentage of viewers and consumers of the
sport actually go to the games, if you think about it.
I mean, I'll take MetLife, for example, but it's not empty,
let's say 80,000 potential seats.
I mean, you take any game for The Jets or the Giants,
Patriots, Bills, Dolphins, when The Jets are bad, there's 3040
thousand fans of the other team. Week one of the Aaron Glennier
of this year against the Steelers.
The Steelers had 40,000 fans and the Giants heard of you into
this either Dallas Cowboy fans infiltrate the building, take it
over. They don't Eagle fans make
themselves comfortable. Even the Commanders, not quite
as big as the other ones, but you know, they've got a, a, a
national brand that, that that's eroded a bit for sure over the
years. But still old Redskin fans
command their fans. They'll still go watch their
team play. So if there's just say 40,000
Jet fans at MetLife or 50,000 Giant fans at MetLife during
any, say, Week 7 game, how many people that are Jet fans or
Giant fans do you think are watching on TV?
Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands.
So it's really not about like the game experience impacts very
few of you. It's really about again, the
commercialization of the sport, the globalization of the sport,
which I understand pragmatically, it's business,
but I really push back on because I don't think it's fair
to us. I mean, I got a question for
everybody. Why don't other countries give
us their sports? I why I got news for you.
I don't want their sports and I don't need their sports.
Why do we feel this incessant need?
I understand the United States world power.
I understand our place in the world.
I always have and I always will and I respect that, right?
But it doesn't mean you just have to take what we've what we
built. And then here you go.
He and I love Australia. He go Australia, he go Brazil.
He go Germany. He go Mexico.
He go London. I I I really don't know what
we're doing anymore. I don't.
Hey, Jay, pop yourself in there.
J Rod, gotta ask you something. What's up?
So you're interesting. You're obviously a lot younger
than me. Do you the and you're just
starting up, so you're just, you're just getting a few bucks
in your pocket, I guess. So money matters like it did for
me when I was your age. And oh, I mean money always
matters, but especially when you're young and broke.
Do you feel whatever. And I don't mean just when the
Patriots were good, whatever the apex of your fandom, Like that
energy about the NFL, what you felt, maybe you still feel.
I'm not trying to convince you one way or the other.
Has it dissipated at all? Yeah, I mean, certainly since I
was a kid, maybe this is just moving out, being in less of
like a family environment where, you know, I'm around my dad, I'm
around my brother, we're all together, we're all watching the
games together, you know, on a weekly basis.
So I'd say it's certainly diminished since then.
But I guess I have, I have less of A and maybe this is just, you
know, my time is spread more in other things, you know, work,
doing other stuff like that. And so there's not that burning
desire to sit down on a Sunday and, you know, watch every game
unless you know, it's a great match up.
I'm not going to sit down every Sunday and watch every game.
But let's say I've got a buddy who's a Giants fan or a Jets
fan. OK, we're going to, you know,
sit down, watch that game. If there's a Eagles kind of
game, I'll watch, you know, Pat's Eagles.
So there's really got to be a storyline behind it to kind of
get me into it. I'm not just going to, you know,
every Sunday take a seat and and put it on.
I got you. So.
So you're not you're not a prisoner like you.
OK. I respect that.
Yeah. I mean, thank you for that, Jay.
Rod, I watch. I'll give you an example.
Like, let's say September, right?
Obviously September. I'm watching Yanks, I'm watching
Mets. And then something pops up and
it's a Thursday night game. And it's not, it's not an
incredibly marquee game, but it's on a streaming service now
for me to do the and the Yankees are on yes.
And and the Mets are on S&Y for me to do the dance of going back
and forth with different remotes.
I'm not doing it like that's my protest unless it's a unless
it's a game of massive magnitude like a Mahomes or a great
quarterback that I really want to watch or, you know, a fantasy
element. Maybe I'll go out of my way to
do it, but if if I have a a fairly benign level of interest
in the game, like if I'm not sucked in for a storyline, I'm
not putting the game on. Yeah, well, I mean, back and
forth what's and also for me now I just feel like, you know, I
mean, I've got a like if it's a choice between even an NBA game
on a Sunday night, it it could be a random NBA game.
It could be Hornets, Celtics, Hornets.
What? I don't care.
I might put that game on over the NFL just because I'm kind of
more drawn into that, more drawn into the storylines that are
going on into the NBA and the product that that's become.
Hey, by the way, Speaking of the NBA, did you see that fight last
night with the Pistons? And the we were watching the
game. It was crazy.
Oh my God. I mean, you know, Jalen Dern
kind of smushed Diabate's face right there.
He did. It was kind of.
I mean, he definitely did. My thing is, I don't tell me if
you've ever seen this, like in your, you know, kind of lifetime
watching the league. Have you ever seen a punch
connect in NBA history? Hell, yeah.
Really. I have.
Yeah.
Go. I've seen Larry Bird connect on
a few. I've seen.
What was his name? Reed.
Why am I forgetting his last name?
Jr. Reed.
Jr. Reed played in North Carolina
when he was with the Spurs. And I think you maybe you can
look this up real quick. There was he was under the boys.
He's like a forward, like a a burly.
Not a great play, good in college and first round pick for
sure good NBA player, but nothing more than that.
But strong and big and burly and tough, right?
And there was going for a rebound.
I mean, this was dirty as it gets.
This was in the 90s for sure. Just double check the details
when you can after. I mean.
He's boxing, he's boxing somebody out and and like he's
he's as he's boxing out, he just throws A vicious hook and he
clipped somebody like right in the face.
No, there's absolutely, Oh my gosh, see that?
Yeah, he clipped AC Green. I think he knocked his.
Tooth out. Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah. Yeah.
There, of course. Rudy.
Tom Jonovich. I read the book.
Yeah. That, that one's wild.
That was huge. I remember Chris Childs.
I remember I was on the air when this happened.
I was working at this a matter of fact.
It was just I'm going to get it back up on the screen.
One of my early jobs, I was at the Sports Fan Radio network,
right? It was national network and it
was my second job, all right. And like Scott Pharrell was
there, the fabulous sports babe, Jim Rome, Big names especially.
I mean huge names now but it mass the biggest names then.
And I'm doing like Saturday and Sunday show and I'm living in
Vegas, which was wild. My God.
And anyway, I'm doing updates during the week and I'm doing a
5 hour solo talk show on Saturday and Sunday.
Just carving, you know, carving out space and, and doing my
thing. And I'm on the air during an
update. And we probably had about 150
affiliates across the country. It's a pretty big network.
It's before ESPN Radio was born. So it was the preeminent
national network. So Long story short, I'm in the
middle of delivering this update.
Lord knows what I'm saying. And Chris Childs you can look
at. Look at this too.
Chris Childs and Kobe Bryant's a Sunday game on NBC.
Like Bill Walton, Snapper Jones, like that crew, they square up
and I don't think Kobe thought Chris was coming with the one
two piece. He clocked them twice.
Look it up on wow. And he got him clipped him on
the chin. Oh yeah, first child.
See that? Yeah.
It's a staple shop. It was in LA.
I feel like maybe I've seen like a highlight of that one before,
but Dang. Yeah, so the answer is yes.
Yes, the answer. Certainly has happened.
The answer, I mean, I don't know if you want to get to this now,
but there's some great WWE questions.
OK, do me a favor. I want to I want to do this
because I mentioned something about sports fan.
I want to read this and then just pop up a few in succession
about the WWE. We'll get to it.
Good job at Rod Power seven. Look, look at J Rod.
I mean, you train him for two or three days, you let him know
what we expect. You take the training wheels
off. He's a star at Rod Power 78 BT
We need some stories from your time with the Sports Fan Radio
Network. I remember listening to it late
at night back in the day. That's yeah.
Oh my God, it was great. I mean, it really, that was a
very important stop in my career.
Number one was the national network and I was 20, whatever
the heck. I was young and I was only on
the air about eight or nine months.
That was my second job, as I said.
So I started in Allentown, PA for this little teeny tiny
station doing a morning show, right?
And I think after us was Jim Rome there.
There was a while everywhere I went, Jim Rome was on where I
was, right where I was, where Jim was because he obviously,
you know, the star. Anyway, I'm doing like a morning
show from 6 to 10 and we're on the air about 8 months.
Team. We had one salesperson tiny,
tiny station and they wind up selling the station for about
$2,000,000. They reformat it to salsa music.
I'm out of a job right again, Long story short, I get hired in
Vegas and I go out to Las Vegas, right?
This is this will tell you that I'll never I can't believe that
I actually did this, but I did this So back then to listen to
it like there's no serious there's no apps.
So the way to listen to the sports fan Radio network was in
your town. And that's ultimately how I got
my Detroit because I went to Detroit after that.
So and I was on Detroit and Denver, LA, like really big
market Chicago. And I was I'm doing, I'm doing
the updates and the only way that you can listen to it was
like you had a like it was, I don't know, sportsradio.com.
I whatever the website was and you would listen to it on the
computer, right? So I had all my buddies back in
Brooklyn, of course, my mom and dad listening to it.
And my buddy Tommy, who was my best friend growing up, lived a
couple of houses down. Never forget this true story,
man. And I'm reading the golf
leaderboard and his name is, I'll call him his nickname was
Ratman, right? That was last name was sounding
like, like rat. So Ratman, great guy, good
athlete, great dude, great family, love him.
And he's listening. And he couldn't even text me.
So I think he called me or he emailed me.
He's like, dude, I'm listening, right?
I'm like, all right, I'm like, I'm going to mess around.
So I'm finishing up the update. You know, Knicks or Lakers,
blah, blah, blah. This guy signs free agency.
All right, take a look at the the Houston Shell Open.
Tiger Woods set the pace -17 fired a 63 today.
Phil Mickelson, BJ Singh, you know, David Duvall in the hunt,
blah, blah, blah. And then I throw him, I throw
his name onto the leaderboard. I'm like and Tommy Ratman making
a move as the as the rookie fires AA66 today to get the
first page of the leaderboard. I threw my I mean, he was my
best friend growing up. I threw in my friend's name on
the leaderboard like like he actually played the tournament.
What are you insane? Who the hell does that?
That was fun. All right, so that was that.
J Roddy got a couple of WWE ones for me.
This is always fun stuff. You know I love this man.
Let's see, where'd it go? Top five wrestlers of all time.
I think it'd be fun if you threw yours.
I'll throw mine. I'll throw some more modern
guys. You you can throw some.
Well, they're good at the Yeah, back of the day.
What dinosaurs? I I mean, I don't know, you
might, you might have some more not much they're.
Old. They're pretty much old.
OK, so let me just give, let me
connect some dots here. I love the wrestling.
Everybody knows that. But the thing of like the
wrestlers that drew me in were the guys that were the best on
this thing. You if you could cut a promo, I
was a fan. Now if you had that, then if you
had the in ring flair and all the other things which I'll get
into now. Now you you're in my top five.
So God, without really giving us an even though I thought about
this, you know, in the past, but as I construct my list, no order
in the list. OK, so I'm going to start no
order. But listen, even I mean, you got
Hulk Hogan was the man. I mean Hulk Hogan, especially
when he beat the Iron Cheek and you go back to where we were at
that point in in in our history and the volatility with with
that relationship, the hatred and the heat that, you know,
people like the Iron Cheek and Nikolai Volkov.
I mean, good God, Iran and and the USSR back then, like just
incalculable how real it felt. So you got a Hulk number 1.
He was all jacked. He had the best.
I love the song. I am a real American.
Come on, man. Now, he sucked as a wrestler.
All right, let me give you a couple of punches.
Let me throw you against the rope.
Let me hit you with that. Let me give you the late drop.
Let me pin you and then let me do this to the crowd.
Hulk Hogan's on the list for sure.
I loved, I absolutely love the Macho Man Randy Savage.
I loved him. And unlike Hulk, he was a
phenomenal worker. I love this.
Now, his song didn't have words, but when you heard Dan, Dan,
Dan, Dan, it was like, wow. Then he had the sick get up, the
shades, the wild hair. I didn't know this is a kid, but
he totally coked up. And you all right?
Yeah. Yeah, my phone.
Just fell totally coked up in every interview.
His eyes are bulging. Then of course, Miss Elizabeth
enters the frame and you're like, wow.
I mean, just absolutely stunning.
She would wear the silver sequin, sequin stuff, dresses
with heels. Just gorgeous.
And so Macho Man's on the list. Roddy Piper might actually be #1
because the thing about Roddy Piper and it all started with
Pipers Pit, obviously with snooker with the coconut.
But Roddy could fight too. Like so you had brawls that
styles make fights, but he was also pretty good technically,
like doing doing homework and catching up on this stuff later
on in life. Like I've watched some of his
matches in was it the AWA or the NWAI?
Think maybe both. But like the dog collar match
with Greg Valentine battles with Ric Flair, like tech, because he
was a boxer, he had some boxing experience so he could throw
hands. He was and then he got pretty
muscular when he started taking the juice.
But his the unpredictability with Roddy Piper, the smirk, the
look, the bodyguard. Oh my God, Roddy Piper on the
list. So I got Hulk, I got Macho Man,
I got Roddy Piper. Another guy that I loved and he
too was a pretty good wrestler. Didn't have a good body though
at all. Like he I think he got into the
juice at one point. Then he looked a little better,
but never had one of these kick ass bodies.
Jake the Snake Roberts. Yeah, See, his pro, his promos
were different in this regard. You got a Hulk.
What you going to do, Macho Man? Yeah, like you got these, these
high volume, eccentric and electric promos.
Roddy Piper yelling, then you got, then he got the snake
coming in sinister and he would bring it down.
Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
Hulk Hogan. Yeah, You know, as you got all
these Hulkamaniacs out there having your back, I got a little
something in the bag for you. That's right.
And when Damien latches around that, you know, it would be.
It was dark, it was harmonic, it was sinister, it felt real.
The DDT was a great finish. His dad was a wrestler, so he
could wrestle #5I really did love Jimmy Snooker for a minute
early. I'll tell you the guy.
I want to give you someone somewhat modern.
Jeez. I mean, The Rock was great, but
whatever, you know? Goldberg, a beast, you know?
I mean, so I thought when Shawn Michaels, even though he was a
pain in the ass in the locker room and everybody couldn't
stand them and he actually couldn't really fight.
Like he got his ass kicked all the time in backstage and in
bars. But in terms of the show and the
look and the arrogance and the technical like, to me, he was
kind of like a Ricky Steamboat who was a really great wrestler
but was boring, couldn't cut a promo, had no flair.
I would probably throw Shawn Michaels on there as well.
So I'd look at Hulk, Snake, Macho, Shawn, that's probably my
list. Who do you got?
Let me hear it #1 And what's interesting to me, I guess is
like, I feel like in the 20 tens WWE, they have like a shift in
characters where they kind of just started doing a lot of like
goofier. Oh.
God, like going, yeah, yeah. Like Santino, Horn, Swoggle,
those dudes. But I'm gonna go, all right.
The guy who kind of got me into wrestling, I was probably like
8-9 years old at my buddy's place, was playing Mysterio.
Wow. I loved, I loved Rey Mysterio.
I mean, I don't think he was the best talker, but I just think
the 619, the song, the moves, like it's just he was like the
perfect kid wrestler. Like he just he had you wanted
to jump off the couch on your hit some with a move.
So I love him. CM Punk is up there for me in my
top five. Yeah, I got.
I respect. I never liked CM Punk.
Go ahead. I I was in, I guess I kind of
got into him like that 2011 rivalry of him and Cena summer
slam love, like the cult of personality song.
I mean, I guess I didn't really. See.
Earlier Rear, but I just thought he was like, I don't know, he
was a good like a Punk outlier in WWE.
Gotta throw Cena in there, obviously.
I mean, yeah, every era, like I was.
I guess I just remember as a kid also just going back watching
like his rap era when he was like the whole thing.
But just great guy. And then my last.
No, my 4th, 4th. Yeah, 4th Mark Henry.
Like who the hell is Mark Henry? I don't even know what that is.
All of pain. Oh my God, it was I don't want.
How does themes? It was like break his neck,
break his neck, break his back. It was like kind of similar to
our theme song. OK, well I like him.
Then he would just go. In and slam you and there's like
1 WrestleMania Big Show. It was either him or Big Show or
vice versa. He like they did the suplex onto
the ring, the ring caved in and it kind of collapsed.
So that was like a Mark Henry moment.
And then you're. Like the undertaker?
Were you an undertaker? Guy I was an Undertaker guy but
I feel like I only saw maybe a few matches with him, like tag
team him and Kane and then the hell in a cell with.
A Triple H. And I think Triple H would
probably be my last guy would be my #5 I just think I kind of you
caught like a late, a late air of his wrestling career, but
also like earlier into like when he's really just doing the
management stuff so. Yeah, right, dude.
Guys. Not a bad list here.
I like that. This is a good question here at
James 555K no Flair short and sweet.
So to me and what what was Rick like an 18 or 19 time champion?
He always had the bell wherever he was amazing.
I mean his promos, that's another guy's promos were
insane. But I didn't really see Pete.
I know Ric Flair wrestle forever.
I didn't see Pete Ric Flair because he was down South.
He was in different federations, different groups there.
And and I know again, I know all the like his his battles with
Harley race and some of the things that he did.
I just, and he might very well be on the Rushmore if you
encompass everything like I mean, he'd he'd have to like
you'd have to put Vince there in terms of consideration like
Rushmore, Vince and Hulk and Flair.
I get it. You know, maybe the Undertaker,
like, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe a scene, maybe somebody
like that, right. But I did, I saw him when he
came to WWF. He was still good, but I didn't
watch him the way that I like. I kind of checked out of
wrestling a little bit. Like I went from being an
absolute nut ball from age 6 from my grandma's, I said the
other day to about 7th grade. And then it really started to
drop off. And you know, Saturday mornings
I've been practice. I'm doing, you know, I'm, I'm
not watching wrestling and unless it was like Saturday
night's made event, which was great too.
But I checked out and then I caught up on all this stuff and
it was, it's so much fun to do. And now that I think about it,
these guys aren't on my list. I'm going to give you 2 good
heels that to this day, they're both alive.
I love to hear him talk. 1 is disgruntled and miserable with
certain things. And one is, is, is still, you
know, I think a pretty good guy. Ted Dibiase and the honky tonk
and the honky tonk man. See to me like, I don't need to
heal to be, you know, jacked or whatever.
I think the most potent connection like that distaste
for somebody. That's why Piper was so good at
this. When you truly, if you're
watching at home or you're in the arena and you just want to
see your guy, get their hands on that guy and destroy him because
you can't stand that guy. And Ted Dibiase was slippery
with Virgil. You know, guys, you know, guys
slipping in their or or foreign object.
The Honky Tonk man had a great run with Macho Man and obviously
with Elizabeth there and George the animal Steele, even though
George was was way past his prime and both of those guys
could talk now. Dibiase was a really good worker
who could cut a massive promo. And then you have the
intimidating Virgil who's beyond Jack next to him, which was a
great contrast. Didn't say a word and then you
had. But he was really good in the
ring, very good technical rest, especially when he was younger.
And the Honky Tonk man can move a little bit as well.
And it was a unique gimmick. And and I do agree, like a lot
of those gimmicks. What was the thing that came out
of the egg? What was that one?
What what was that called? That just bombed.
They they they started getting too kid oriented and too corny
and too cartoonish. And that was you see this, I
know you're looking it up. That was.
Bobble D. Gooker WHAT?
The hell? Oh yeah, I guess a professional
wrestling Turkey mascot. And he comes out of the big
shell when they're interviewing him right on the stage.
Come on, man. But like, Honky Tonk was a guy
who had enough juice in the ring.
He had some good finishing moves.
He could punch, he could fight, he could promo.
And I, I needed the promo I need.
That's why, like Jimmy Snooker was a hell of a wrestler, but
with certain things. But he just couldn't he couldn't
talk. Like, if you couldn't
communicate to me, I I didn't feel you as much.
You know what I mean? I mean, 100, I feel like that's
why I definitely preferred like Monday Night Raw to Smack Down,
just because I feel like Raw had more of like the promo storyline
aspects and Smackdown would kind of just have like undercard
fights, maybe like a main one. But yeah, good times, good time.
What about this one here? City moons?
No love for the attitude era? I got into that after the fact,
and it seems like I missed a pretty good era.
Like the attitude era. Is that when they're doing all
this stuff like, right, the attitude era of those guys,
Michael? Hitman heart, Hitman heart.
Triple H like Degeneration X, Probably peak Undertaker, and
then Stone Cold was probably the main guy.
Rock was like the villain, I'd say at the time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Biscuits under score.
Chooch. What's going on here, Chooch?
Yeah. Now you had to remember this,
the The Rock and Wrestling connection with Cyndi Lauper and
Lou Albano. I actually interviewed Lou
Albano before he passed away. I had him on.
I had him on one of my early radio shows and he called up the
same way because it was in Allentown.
I just mentioned that was my first job and the way it was set
up, we had one phone line, right.
So, you know, I was doing. I was here and my partner was on
the other side. I told the story once, but not
about Captain Lew. But anytime the phone would ring
like a caller, I would have to basically excuse myself in the
conversation and answer the phone.
And I remember it was Captain Louie booked them and he goes,
hey, it's Captain Lou and I'm talking to you like the same
time. Like he was absolutely in
character and a great guy. But the rocking like you talk
about just to kind of circle all, everything together here
with my distaste for the way football's gone with, well, the
streaming and everything that Goodell's done.
And if you guys just tuned in, you're going to want to watch
that. I think it was, I think it was a
good one today for sure. I hope, I hope it was a good
one. And how the the globalization
and the monetization, the explosion financially of
football, the explosion financially of the WWF at that
point was rooted in what you're looking at on the screen once
Vince McMahon. And listen, we've all seen the
documentary. I've been in a few of the
documentaries where 1 is on A&E about WrestleMania.
If you guys want to check it out.
I'm actually, and I contributed quite a bit a few years ago.
And I guess it would have been like the anniversary, whatever
on 40 or 50 or 40 years. And once they made the decision,
Vince McMahon to start bringing in these people that were not
involved in wrestling, Cyndi Lauper.
Now you got MTV and I mean MTVII, like when I was young,
MTV, yeah. You had to watch it everyday.
It's how you watch the videos, man.
You had to watch it. And so you had that.
You had the musical element. Yeah.
Muhammad Ali, you had Liberace, who was a great pianist.
If you if you know about Liberace, you know what I'm
talking about. Billy Martin was the ring
announcer. Like he brought it all these pop
culture icons and just Bob Euchre was, was one of the
announcers for one of them. And it crossed over and the
money exploded and the interest exploded to the point where
wrestling went from those CYO gyms that were, were great, but
way too small and you're not going to make much money to a
mainstream cross section of, of, of, of nuttiness to the point
where Hulk Hogan was on the cover of SI.
Where it back in the day. Oh yeah.
You had to buy the wrestling magazines, which I used to love.
I remember. And my dad hated them.
Dude, I remember Jay going to like, you know, to get like
baseball weekly, whatever, but I always want to get a rest of it.
And he just, he just hated the sport.
And and I would see these very gory covers like Abdullah the
Butcher, Rick, they're all bloodied up.
I'm like, God, he would never buy it for me.
I always want then they would rank like WWF Champion Hulk
Hogan. Then they'd have like the top 10
contenders, AWA champion. It was fun.
But yeah, Cyndi Lauper, who I
mean, Cyndi Lauper was right there like for a minute with
Madonna. Like when you think about think
about Lady Gaga's popularity stemming from, you know, bad
Romance and, and those songs when she first burst on the
scene, her global appeal and what she sold Cyndi Lauper was
like she. Was right.
Time after. Time.
That's a good. Song Good song Time after time
girls just wanna have fun. Captain Captain lose in the
video. Oh of girls just want to have
fun. Yeah, I think really.
I heard that. Then that's funny.
Yeah. So it's funny how certain things
kind of explode and become bigger and you know, Vince
rolled the dice. He basically took all this money
and he said I'm going for it. And he bought out the
territories and then they dried up.
The couple was still around, but they just couldn't, they
couldn't function. Then they were all gone.
Then he took any wrestler he, like JYD coming from I think
Memphis and Harley Race and Rick Flair took everybody.
The road war, the road, the road warriors were good.
Those were guys. Did you ever see them coming
into the ring? Maybe like a couple just older
vids, they were like they were A tag team duo, right?
Yeah, animal and hawk. Yeah, of course.
And they had a manager who was a really good manager who was who
was really good for them. And they would come in like they
had like, mohawks and makeup and spiked shoulder pads and they
were absolutely yoked and they were nuts.
And they would come into to Iron Man.
They got like saw like a video of them like like powerbombing
like a female wrestler through like a table or something like
that. See that one?
They were like or something like that, something crazy.
Oh my God, I'm going to get a couple more.
Yeah, good. What do you?
Got do you remember recently, like on just the guest thing,
like the Cyndi Lauper, like when they had Lavar Ball in the WWE
like a couple times and like he cut a promo with Lonzo, Liangelo
and Lamello and it was just like the strangest thing ever.
Who Wait, who cut it? I I know the balls.
Who? Lavar Ball and it was like him
squaring up with The Miz. It was absurd.
I had remember when Lavar first burst on the scene.
The dad. Yeah, yeah, of course.
And the sneakers. Me and Tiki had him on the show.
Really. We had him on the show when he
was just like, it was a pretty big get and we had, he was cool
as shit, man. He was cool.
He was good, dude. We had him on for an hour to the
point where he, I remember we were doing the interview, we're
probably like 10-12 minutes in and he's like, oh man, I got to
take this call. It's business.
I'm like, what big ball of brand sneakers.
What are you doing? An interview?
You get back to him, you're you're on a national show.
He's like, yo-yo, I'll call you back.
I'm like that, right? So he just hung up and I'm, you
know, I I probably dissed him a little.
I'm like, yeah, who's he think he is?
Nothing crazy, but like, you know what you doing who you
think you are? He called back.
He's like, yo, sorry about that guys.
I really had to handle that. I'm like, dude, nice and we
talked for good. That's awesome.
And what? Was this before Lonzo got
drafted like in that kind of lead up here?
Wow, yes, yes. I mean, if I had a guess, what
year? When was Lonzo drafted?
2017. Oh my God, way before that.
Yeah. I'm talking like 20.
Let me see, I started the national show in 2013 with Tiki,
so it wasn't 13 or 14. I think it may have been about
15 or 16, probably 15 about. Like in peak Lavar ball Chino
Hills basketball era. That's so cool.
Brazen, loud, cocky, incredibly arrogant.
Oh, just a great interview and just real and transparent.
I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it there.
What else we got here? Yeah.
This was a guy. James, another James, 555K Dusty
Rhodes. Like Dusty again, Dusty.
I know when it came to the WWF with that cheesy gimmick, with
the black whatever the hell he was wearing and the yellow polka
dots. And a lot of people thought that
that was a rib, that Vince. That was Vince Flex and like,
all right, I know what you did there.
I know. And Dusty Rose, by the way, is
one of the greatest wrestles of all time.
He just had a horrendous body, Like bad body, but he could cut
a promo and he can move, he could take bumps, he can move,
he can punish you. He could he could brawl.
He was always bleeding champion like the real deal, but he just
didn't look. He didn't look good at all.
So when Dusty came to the WWF and they gave him that gimmick,
what was his what was the woman's name that he was with
for somebody who texted he he pulled her out of the crowd one
day and she became his manager. And a lot of people did think
that McMahon, that was him flexing like, all right, I know
what you were, but now you're going to wear this goofy, get up
and be a goofball and dance around to whatever you're
dancing around to just so I can show everybody that I basically
own you because I'm Vince Mcmahan.
But it really wasn't it was Vince.
I, I saw something with Cornet about this recently on one of
those, one of those interviews that like a shoot and he was
saying no, a lot of people did think it was a rib that he was
just trying to mock them. But most people or, or the
people that actually knew the decision makers of the WWF at
that point, it was Vince's way of recreating like Vince would
take people, right? That's why I made Harley Race
King, like King race. He would take people and he
didn't just want them to replicate what they were in the
AWA or the N.W.A, some other western territory or Memphis.
He wanted to take all right, people know who they are, so
they're going to sell tickets. But then he wanted to repackage
him and he was a mess. Now, I'm not saying everyone hit
a home run, but I mean, Vince was, you know, I mean,
incredibly interesting, incredibly interesting.
Do me a favor. Here's you got to do this right
now. I need you to to Google BT and
Sal Google this. I I want to make sure we don't
do any anything trademark wise. If there's if there's like a WFI
don't think there'll be a problem, but I just want to
avoid any issues. If there's a WFAN microphone
that don't use it try to find the picture when he and I
dressed up. Have you ever seen this?
When I was gold dusted he was doing.
Yeah, I have seen that. Let me try to find it.
I I saw it on Twitter before. Yeah, yeah.
Let's see. Oh my God.
I mean it's. It's got the mics in the frame.
Yeah, does it All right, See if you can get those out again.
I don't think it's the biggest deal.
I just want to I want to make sure we do this the.
Right way here. Wait, I got you.
Absolutely insane. We lost a football.
Bet it was me and Sal. Oh.
My gosh, didn't even recognize him.
And our is our old producer, right, Hoff and we did it for a
couple years. We were together, we would do on
foot on Friday, make pics, right?
The perfect parlay. And what happened was if you
finished first, there was three of us who did it, me, Sal and
Hoff, right? So if you finished first, Jesus
dude, I did my own make up there.
Really. I swear to God I'll never forget
a good like. Line on that on.
That well, what I did was I mean, I, I listen, you had to
lean into it. You lost it, but keep that up
there. Again, I want to show like you
had to lean into it. So I just ordered all this black
and yellow black and gold stuff from Amazon.
I got gold face paint. It's easy because I'm bald,
right? I shaved my face, I put it on
and I outlined that black. I don't know what that is.
I mean, I was obviously looking at an image of gold dust.
I outlined it with, like, my son's eye black just so I kind
of had the general shape. And then I shaded it in.
Yeah. Yeah.
But we, here's the thing about the bet.
You can get it off there. Here's the thing about.
That's wild, isn't it? Here's the thing about the bet.
Whoever won, whoever finished first place for the whole year
got to choose what the other two guys are getting dressed up as.
You had no say in the matter right now.
The only saving grace was if you finished second rather than
three out of three, you got to pick the lesser of the two
evils. All right.
So when Hoff won, I mean he did his dirty, but it was great for
the show. It was all right.
I finished second that year. Gold dust or doink, and I'm and
this was this was after our big flare up with Carl banks, who I
love and and Carl's I'm going to actually get Carl on the show.
Carl's been a friend forever. That just got off the rails and
it was what it was, whatever. And we made amends, all of us,
right? But that was right after the
Crawl Banks stuff. So we had to stick in the
wrestling, you know, vernacular. We had heat, man.
So everybody's called us clowns. And then of course, when we
leave, everybody loves us and they say we're the best midday
show in the history of the fan. Everybody loved us.
But when we were there early, clowns, jerks, idiots, clowns.
So because they called us clowns a lot, especially with the bank
stuff, I'm sitting there saying I, I can't I can't get dressed
up as a clown. I mean, I'll lean into it, but
that's just write the jokes for you, write the jokes for
everybody. So what happened was I, I'm
like, all right, this, I mean, this is not a not a real win
here. I don't need I still to this
day, and it's not a knock and I'm not not taking a shot at
all. I'll take it the wrong way.
I don't know what gold dust is. Is he a guy?
Is he a girl? Is he something in between?
I don't know what he is. I have no idea.
I don't know. So I'm like, all right, I'm
either going to be yeah, yeah, I'm going to be that, or I'm
going to be this clown. So I opted for gold dust.
And it's funny, there's video, it's out there and it's a split
screen Sal where Jay Rod is me where I am at this point.
And we're doing the show and we had to do the entire show in
that, get up the entire show for four hours dressed up like that.
So, you know, I forget what the topic was.
It wasn't about banks. Somebody calls us up and I I
think somebody called Sal a clown.
They were getting mad at Sal. And it's one of the funniest
freaking videos I've ever seen in my life.
I'm, I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying because here's Sal
dressed up as Doink. Can you find that picture?
Yeah. Without one, without any WFAN
stuff, Right. And Sal is in the middle and he,
oh, look at him, look at him, look at him.
I mean, how good is that, by the way?
I mean, that's phenomenal. And he's in the middle of
wearing that, in the middle of going back and forth with the
colder. And he goes like this.
He goes something like you, you might call me a clown.
I am not in fact, a clown. I am a talk show host.
So and and I'm just sitting there looking at this lunatic
who I love this deranged nut ball who is 10 levels more
deranged than he's ever been about a Yankee or a Med or some
argument that we're into. And he's telling everybody that
he's not a clown as he's dressed as well.
And I'm I'm dude, I'm Legera. I'm laughing so hard.
I have tears coming down my eyes.
I'm laughing and I just look at him.
I just said, dude, I really wish you didn't just say that.
And he's like, he's like, why? He's like now he's like calming
down. He's like, why what I go, you
just told everybody, not a clown.
Look at you. Look what you're wearing.
Oh my God. And then I lost.
I never won, but I never came in 3rd place.
And then the next year, and maybe you could find this one,
who was Sal this year? No, no Sal one again.
I finished in second, so I got the lesser of the two evils and
it was brother love. See if you could find me again.
No, no FAN stuff trademark stuff me as brother love now I didn't
do as good AI tried. I didn't do as good of a job
with the brother of love as I this is this is actually this is
horrendous as I did with gold gold dust number one.
I I don't have hair, so the wig was awful.
The color red was way too bright like I messed it.
I tried. I ordered like 8 rings from
Amazon. I had the white communion
jumpsuit on whatever the hell I was wearing.
I had some fake, you know, toupee.
I I I I plaster bright red all over my face.
Did you find that you had? Would it be on your Instagram by
any chance? I probably would be.
Did you just Did you just Google BTI?
Looked up BT brother love. It wasn't showing up.
Just Brother Love was showing up.
Are you serious? Yeah, what?
I mean, if it's on my Instagram page, it's really deep on my IG.
But it was two years ago. No, it was let.
When was it? I think I'm, I guess it was last
football season. Yeah, because we didn't finish
this football season. Good.
Who knows what I would have to dress up.
Although I was winning. I was winning this year before
they pulled the plug on the show.
Damn it. I would have gotten nasty on
that one. And who was Hoff?
Hoff looked great. Hoff was not mankind, but he
leaned into it as well. And I remember I'm like, man, I
don't know if I can do this, but I'm like a bets a bet.
And then the more I'll I'll let you know a little secret, the
more like after gold dust, I'm like, I don't even really care
if I lose. It's fun.
It's fun for the show. It's wacky.
Oh my God, I, you know, I got to get some wrestling guests on
here. What do you think?
That would be so fun. Yeah, I mean, we have to.
Yeah, this guy remembers this date and time, 2379 S saying I'm
not a clown, while dressed up as doing absolutely classic.
It really was one of the funniest things that I've that
I've seen. I gold, Gold dust is an enigma.
Yeah, I, I guess, yeah, I All right.
We got a lot of wrestling fans. That's true.
That is true. What is this one here at Rod
Power? BTU and Sal need to do right
with Carl to make amends for him and with him, I'm sure he'll
give you and Sal free starter jackets.
Well, number one, that's not why you make amends with somebody #1
#2 that's old news. But we already have made amends
#3 is how good a Carl is. Is how good a guy Carl Banks is?
Carl Banks, actually, I'll give him a shout out here.
He's got the, the starter business, you know, with all the
stuff they, the old school throwback satin jackets, right?
Biggie stuff with the biggie's patch.
And I used to rock one in real time in, you know, growing up I
had St. John's obviously and a couple of
people at Georgetown and like Saint John, God, we hated each
other. And he's got a really good
business, very successful. And he sent me a bag of I think
he sent 3 or 4 jackets, like the jackets like 350 each 2 for my
son, a red 1A blue 11 for me, one for my daughter, like just,
and it said nothing like Carl's just a great guy got away from
us. We apologize, whatever things
happen, but you know, listen to defend myself and us a little
bit. He kind of came at us a little
bit. Now I don't like the way it
ended there for us. Both of us were, were a little
guilty there. But you know, you come on our
show, you know, we we got to stand our ground here much like
and I got some heat for this as well.
Paul O'Neill wrote a book and I forget what the book was about.
And I love Paul. He's one of my all time favorite
baseball players behind Mattingly and a few others.
And we just when I was with Tiki in the mid days of the fan and
we had him booked right. And what the hell was it?
It was Josh Donaldson and who was the White Sox shortstop?
Oh my God, this is a big deal. He was a really good player for
a couple of years. Then he was awful.
He just fizzled out. And it was something about
Jackie Robinson that that was said.
And I think it was Jackie Robinson Day.
I forget the specifics. I don't want to misrepresent
something that's important, but Donaldson was involved and it
happened on a Sunday, I think. And like there was a a, a racial
undertone and it was a big story.
Now, Josh said he didn't mean anything racist by it and there
was almost a fight, Yankees, White Sox, whatever.
Not not a good look for anybody involved there.
Anyway, we have O'Neil coming up and O'Neil was doing the game
that weekend, as he often does. He's great.
I love them with K and Coney. I think it's the best broadcast
boot they have. So we have them coming on and we
have them coming on Zoom to talk about his book, which was
booked, which was booked for about two weeks.
And and I'm talking to Hoffman to talk back.
And I'm like, Hey, make sure you let Paul know.
I got to ask him about, you know, what went down with what
the hell is the guy's name? Jeez, I forget his name with
Josh Donaldson and and whomever and off doing his job told him.
And O'Neill's like, no, I'm not going to get into that.
Now understand the first hour of the show was exclusively on that
incident. That's how we started the show.
Me and T come out of 10 from 10:50.
It may have even been from 10:00 to 11:20 because we don't have
guests at the top of the hour. I don't like to do that.
I think we had about 11:20. So the first hour and 20 minutes
are all on the Donaldson flare up with the White Sox around
Jackie Robinson sensitive topic. We got to get to the bottom of
this. So I want to make sure that
O'Neill knows that I'm going to ask you about this because you
just have to be prepared to talk about it.
Otherwise you're you're a useless guest.
Like I'm not here to sell books for you and you not talk about
what is the most hurtin and topic in New York that day.
It's not happening. So again, Long story short, he
tells Hoff he's like, Nah, he's like, I can't get into that.
And I and then Hoff tells me and basically it's like, tell him we
can't have him on. Tell him I said I'm not trying
to be disrespectful. I I love him.
I'm one of he's one of my favorite players.
You know, I, I, I like to give his book a pop, but there's no
way I'm bringing him on my show as a vehicle to push out his
book to not talk about what what we're talking about when it's
something that sensitive and that important.
And he just, he got so pissed off, told me that because he was
still on Zoomed O'neal's like, mother fucker.
What the fuck are those guys doing?
Yeah, like, that's bullshit. So mad.
And it was in the New York Post and everybody wrote about, yeah,
that's some interesting flare ups.
But if you really think about it, that's my job.
I mean, imagine being such a weak host.
Oh, no, that's OK, Paul. You don't have to talk about it.
Again, this is not me knocking Paul.
I genuinely, and I've done events with Paul, not not since
then, but I love him. I love him on the air, loved him
as a player. Really, mate, he might be #2
behind Mattingly. And you know what Mattingly
means to me. And this guy, J Rod finally
learned and made amends. So he might be, he very well
might be #2 I love them that much.
But I'm not here to sell books for you, dude.
If you're not talking about what we're talking about, you're not
comfortable, that's fine. You're not coming on the show.
And it was a big story in the post.
Like, you know, tyranny, bands, O'Neil, whatever the hell
without Google Lit, it's out there.
And I'm, and I, and I even said when I came back, I said,
listen, I'm not trying to disrespect you, Paul.
I said my audience is number 1. I cannot in good faith.
And I went to try to be respectful, but let everybody
know where we're coming from. You know, Oh my God Almighty, I
was a little worried about St. John's last night.
Did now, have you watched any St.
John's yet? Be honest, but.
No, I mean just that UConn game. Just that UConn game, alright?
We're gonna have to change that. You want to go to a game?
I would love to.
That'd be so much fun. How about this?
I can get you pretty good seats at the garden.
You have anybody that you could ask on a date?
I'm not hooking you and your boys up.
Let's see, let's right now potentially not, but let me go
through the Rolodex real quick and let.
Me, look at the schedule. There's always potential.
Don't say what you should say is not now, but potentially yes.
Yes, you said it wrong. Not, not.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on.
Let me see. They've only got a couple more
home games left. Let's see.
So Monday, all right. And I think they're going up to
Providence this weekend. They'll be there.
Let's see here, I think there's like 5 or 6 games left.
It's crazy for the regular season.
All right, here's the schedule. So Dan, a couple are away.
Xavier last night they got the win there at at Providence
Saturday, then it's at Marquette.
So here's your options. All right, then it's a UConn and
they have to play at Seton Hall as well.
So the home games, there's 123 home games.
I'll shoot you this off the air. You kind of start looking at
stuff here, but it's one is Saturday, February 21st against
Creighton. That could be good.
And by the way, if you can't find the girl, you could you
could bring a buddy. I'm not gonna you could still
have some fun. Villanova.
That would be a tougher take, but I could probably make it
happen. Saturday, February 28th And then
if you want to go on a Tuesday night against Georgetown, March
3rd. Those are the three remaining
games that. Would be fun.
You've been to the garden before.
Right. Oh my God.
Yeah, a bunch of times. I mean, I was at I was at the
Knicks game when RJ Barrett hit the crazy buzzer beater into
Celtic. That was great.
And I was chirping with these dudes the whole time.
That was rough moment, rough moment.
I know that. I mean best buzzer beater I've.
Ever seen I? I thought that I thought not,
not well, that's the best one you've seen.
I was actually at the game when Trent Tucker hit the shot with
110th of a second left when that's that was the impetus to
change and, and it's called the Trent Tucker rule where you need
at least 3/10 of a second to catch and.
Shoot. Get a.
Shot off. Yeah, I was at that game.
That's crazy, J Rod J The crazy thing about that game is that I
actually had better seats than Spike.
That game. Yeah, I came.
I came from, I think it was high school basketball practice.
And I went with my cousin Chris. And I remember joking around
like I will he, I don't know how my dad got these tickets because
we weren't rolling the money, but he he got sick tickets.
We were like 7 or 8 rows behind the Nick bench.
And I remember seeing Spike probably like 20 rows behind me.
So I joke around. It's like the only time I had
the only time I had better seats than Spike.
For a great shot. I get Spike on I got a funny
Spike story for you. Then I'll then I'll I'll start
to wrap it up. Want to hear a good one about
Spike? Yeah, lay it, lay it down, all.
Right, All right, We're going to get Spike on the show.
It's funny, I was talking to Jen last night, you know, about the
guest list, like, you know, Alex and Boone and Pitino and Michael
Kay and La Greca. Obviously Stephen A once the I
know it's getting I'm I'm getting tired of saying it.
Once the studio set up. You guys know this feel.
So anyway, I'm doing a show at 10:50.
I forget the year and I'm doing a night show.
I think this was after I was done working.
Yes, I was no longer with Stephen and management comes to
me and they say, hey, listen, you know, it's always going to
be Steven's show because he's like, I get it, you know, I get
it. I understand they said, but we
think it's time for your own show.
So but we're going to give you the option.
Do you want to leave Steven and you know, still contribute to
the show, but the Steven A Smith show or do you want, you know,
BT show at night from like 7 to midnight?
And I remember I'm like, I want my own show.
But I remember talking to him about he's like, you have to
take your own show. And I was gonna do that anyway.
But I just wanted, you know, older, wiser, more entrenched in
the business. I wanted his opinion on it.
So I'm doing the night show and the Knicks are playing the
Cavaliers. And I was doing at this point
also doing pre post in half for the Knicks on the radio.
So I would do I would literally I would take the like game would
end. Gus Johnson and John Andreas,
rest in peace. John would do the would would
finish up. That's the final from the and
Knicks always lost every game from the Garden.
Knicks, Knicks lose by 13. Now coming up next Brandon, it's
here near the post game show. So then it would have to be like
this really quick hand off like Gus would take off his headsets.
I would put mine on. You'd hear bumper music and I'd
start the pre game or the post game that was.
But then something happened where this one particular night
there was some issue where I couldn't do it from the booth
and I had a run back up to the studio, which was A2 pen, which
is where the garden is. So my OK, so I run up right and
I get on the air and LeBron, I think LeBron may have scored 60.
Can you double check if he ever scored sixty?
I know Kobe did. Did he ever score 60 against the
Knicks? Can you just at the?
Garden. Yes, definitely at the Garden.
It was a massive LeBron. Prime LeBron.
Crazy explosion night. I thought he had 60.
It may be in the high 50s. Or something.
Let's see it. Just yeah. 52 points, 11
assists, 9 rebounds, 2009. OK, that makes sense.
That that makes sense. So anyway, I run up, start the
show, taking calls, you know, laying out the show, doing what
I'm doing. And after I finish up the post
game show, I would actually get into my show, right?
That's how it would work when the Knicks would play.
So I'm doing the night shows now.
So my producer, John, who now runs 880 ESPN, John Winthrop,
good guy, He was my producer at that point.
He goes in my ear, he goes, hey, he goes Spike Lee's on the
phone. He's like, he sounds pissed.
I go put him on. OK, whatever he was.
Yeah, but I don't really know if it's him I want.
I just put him on. Like in my mind, when somebody
calls up, that happens once in a while and like one of two things
is going to happen. It's either going to be the
person that they say they are and I'm going to have an A
Lister on my show. We're going to have a good
conversation, even if he's pissed, or it's going to be some
dope who's pretending to be somebody.
And it's hilarious and it's hilarious.
I'm going to eventually mock and eviscerate.
I'm going to turn it into a fun segment.
So whichever way it is, it's fine.
Get him on. So we put some on and he's not
yelling. But I guess evidently what I was
saying was I was pissed at Spike that night, I guess.
Do you have the final? Was it a close game?
I think it was close. It.
Was, I think it was a close game.
So I was worked up over it. It was O 9.
The Knicks were oh God, I thought it was a close game.
I could be off 1. O71-O2 Very.
Close. Thank you.
So I'm pissed off because the whole number one, the Knicks
lost and the whole game, Spike is woofing with LeBron just like
it would do with Kobe and Reggie.
And because I'm just a pissed off unhappy Knick fan, I'm
lacing into Spike because I'm blaming Spike for his theatrics.
It can't possibly be the fact, even though GOAT Jordan's the
GOAT and you know, LeBron can't shine his shoes, LeBron is
amazing, you know, So it can't possibly be the fact that LeBron
James is some basketball God. It's got to be I, I have to have
I. Riled him up.
You know, yeah, ride them up. I got to have some different
target. I got to I got to attack
somebody. So I start attacking Spike Lee,
right? And I just better Spike.
Enough for the like he couldn't curse, but like enough for the
nonsense. Stop making it about you.
You did it with Reggie. You did it with Kobe.
Enough for this stuff. We're not good enough.
Shut. I don't know if I said shut, but
I'm going. I'm going in pretty good.
Anyway, it was Spike. He comes on the air.
He's like, why are you blaming me, man?
So it was, it was kind of he doesn't have that real
aggressive, loud voice. It's more like when he's
unhappy, it'll be more. It'll be presented differently
than some lunatic. Yeah.
So it didn't get off the rails right away, but I held my
ground. Like, dude, you do this all the
time, Spike. And it's part of the reason why
we're losing, you know? You know, these guys are coming
into the garden to put on a show.
You're not making it better. Just stop.
You're destroying us. And I, you know, of course, I
had to back up my point. And then we talked for a while.
We flushed it out. And then ironically, you know, I
saw I saw them a few times after that.
Always cool. DAP them up.
So I'm of the St. John's game last year.
And then I saw them to the airport last year and he
actually, I didn't even recognize me.
He recognized me like I I was, I was doing something else.
And he comes over, I'm like, yo, what's up, Spike?
I introduced him to my son, my wife, my daughter.
They were getting the tickets or whatever they were doing.
Good guy. So I'm down to have Spike on the
show at some point. All right, let me wrap it up.
Cool wait also the spiky would be awesome.
I was I was like ATV film major in college so would love to also
just hear you and him get into the weeds on some movie stuff
too. I think that would be really
cool. Yeah, I know there's so much to
talk about with Spiky, but I've got a lot of respect for him.
And I actually read his book and there's years and years and
years ago books got to be 20 something years old.
And and I remember it was it was pretty cool.
You know, coming up Brownsville, you know, not having a lot like
when he made his first real dime, if you will, in the
industry, bought next season tickets.
Wow. He did like and you know, he
wasn't on the floor yet, but he got pretty good ones and then
eventually start cranking out these great movies and and he's
been sitting there forever. You have a favorite one.
Is it do the right thing? What do you got?
Do the right thing or he's got game.
He's got game was great. He's got game is so good really.
I agree. I I think that's my pick.
Obviously that's a great one. Can't argue with its objective
anyway. But to me, Do the Right Thing
was awesome because that's what 80s Brooklyn was like.
Like that. That's what that's what 80s New
York was like. The music.
It was kind of a Mets town at that point with Doc and that
team that won an 86. It was reflected in the jerseys
and the posters that they were. And that's the other thing that
spike, it's mad at me a little bit about like, you know, he's a
little front runner. I he's he's not with the Knicks.
See a Yankee fan. Yankees don't win a
championship. Suddenly he's sitting at the
home plate next to the former mayor Giuliani.
You know, is he a Jets fan? Rex Ryan, they're good.
He's got a jet starter jacket Giants and go like, I don't I
know the Knicks are legitimately his his team.
I would never knock him on that. The other teams I'm not sure
about. So maybe we'll flush that out on
the on the show as well. All right, man, All right.
Anything else you got to add before we bounce here?
A lot of good comments, a lot of good stuff today.
Nothing else but great stuff. Thank you Unleash fam for the
continued support. Hype the vid up if you've got
some hypes left this week and toss a like toss a sub.
Let's keep this train rolling. Yeah, no doubt.
I see a text about the the Bushwhackers, like see guys like
that. Those are the old wrestlers that
those guys were corny. I mean they come in like this,
like they're from the Outback and they got like 5 teeth and
they're all tatted up and they're just, I don't know.
There were so many tag teams. I was never a huge tag team fan
unless it was like a, you know, like a a match where you know,
you got like Orendorf and you know, Piper and Hogan and T like
when there's real friction. I don't know, the tag teams
always kind of bored me and there were some really good tag
teams out there. Didn't really get too excited.
But the Bushwhackers I thought were just corny and no
disrespect to the Bushwhackers. I just thought they were corny.
All right, let me let me roll. Got a lot to do here today.
Appreciate you guys. Hit me up on the text.
Thank you very much, J Rod, good work out of you.
Back tomorrow with 10. Probably find a little baseball
content for tomorrow. Get that appetite going.
Football's over, which means baseball is upon us here.
Anytime we can get some mix or some good NBA content in, we
will like it, subscribe it, get the word out there.
When I started doing as well, I started posting these to
Instagram. It's crazy too.
I just I just started doing this.
Let me give you a real, real quick.
I hit I hit J Rod up with this and give you a quick update.
So I'm like, yeah, you know what, I may as well start
bumping these out to to Instagram.
So the one about Belichick from yesterday.
I mean, come on, get a backbone, dude.
Tell your girl what she shouldn't wear when she's
wearing, you know, something about the prostitution ring
about craft. Give me a break 18,000 views.
I mean it's crazy. The Mets one got about 15 or
16,000 views. So we now put those up.
I upload them. J Rod sends me after he gets the
shorts up on YouTube and I get them to Instagram as well.
So I don't know that I'll do that on Facebook with any sort
of regularity. That's more, you know, private
stuff, more family friend stuff, but definitely on Instagram.
So have an awesome, awesome rest of your Tuesday tomorrow at 10.
Like it, hype it, sub it, send it out and I'll catch you guys
tomorrow right here on unleash. We'll see ya.