Best of Outkick the Coverage 07/16/2018

Clay Travis is joined by FOX broadcaster Stu Holden and tennis player John Isner

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of out kicked the coverage with
Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio We Go Live. I
believe to Paris, where he has already moved from Russia.
He is Stu Holden. He called the game yesterday many
of you were watching as France took down Croatia. Stu,

(00:21):
First of all, was this the best World Cup ever? Yes?
And and first of all, I came to Paris anticipating
a couple of days relaxing with my life after a
long month. And we have found out that the parade
tonight for the World Cup trophy is about three blocks
from our hotel, So that's going to be very quiet. Uh.

(00:44):
You obviously you called the game yesterday. You did a
fantastic job. What was your favorite match that you either
watched or called throughout the entirety of the World Cup?
You know, it's hard to pin one because I mean,
for me personally, into terms of a career milestone, calling
the World Cup final is about as as big as
that gets, so that carries, you know, significant meaning. But

(01:07):
I think, um, it feels like about three months ago now.
But the first game that we did was Christian Ronaldo
and Portugal against Spain. In a three three game in Sochi,
and that was kind of I think that was the
best game that I did because it was a back
and forth game and then you have Ronaldo. Everybody was
talking about what could he deliver for Portugal and then

(01:29):
the guy scores a hat drake along with a free
kick and like the ninety minute to tie it, and
just the energy in that stadium just really kicked the
kick the whole thing off for me. How nervous were
you before this game started yesterday? Um, I definitely had
the butterflies kind of similar to what I had as
a player. And a lot of people have asked me

(01:51):
what calling a World Cup felt like compared to playing
in it, and and playing in it for me was
the best, you know, best achievement in in my entire career,
and it was something I worked my whole life for
and nothing will ever stack up to that, honestly in
terms of what that felt like playing and competing in
that environment. But yesterday I woke up with those kind
of those little butterflies in my stomach and those those

(02:12):
kind of nerves. As I was going to the stadium,
I was thinking, this is a great feeling, because it
felt like a big game to me and everything that
was on it. And I had a couple of texts
from friends after that, you know, they were like, dude,
you just called the f and World Cup finals and
which is pretty cool, which, by the way, at thirty
two years old, you know, I mean like that, that's

(02:33):
what's remarkable about this, Like when the US hosts the
World Cup in you will just be forty you know,
I mean, like that is uh to be breaking this down.
All right, let's go to the game yesterday, So France wins.
I imagine you would agree that France was probably the
best team throughout the totality of the tournament. I don't

(02:55):
remember them really having any deficit other than in the
Argentina game the round of sixteen, they were down for
a very short amount of time. Was France the best
team throughout the World Cup in your opinion? It's hard
to say no, because they're the champions at the end
of it. But I don't remember a game where they
were playing this beautiful soccer that we you know, we

(03:17):
had come to learn from this team. Um. But what's
interesting is that they've found the right recipe and to
find the right balance that works for them, and a
lot of times in these tournaments it's it's who's harder
to beat as opposed to who's the best team in
terms of like stylists. Because still yesterday I thought Croatia
probably were the better team on the day. But you know,

(03:38):
France get a penalty, they get a set piece, uh
and then you have Embopa and Pagba who produced these
two wonder goals, and that ends up being the difference.
So I think at this level, when when the margins
are so small and you have guys that can can
create differences like that, and a guy like in Bofe
is going to be a world superstar uh at lo,
he already is coming into this and now everybody knows

(03:59):
his name. I just think that was a difference in
France top to bottom. I think we're the best team.
So the penalty kick, the penalty kick obviously had the
the the own goal by Croatia off the set piece,
and then you had the goal that came back on
the other side to tie it at one. If you
were the lead official in that game, would you have
called a penalty kick there? I would have. I'm interested

(04:21):
in your take too, because this is a this is
a new thing for soccer, that's the video review, and
and a lot of people have had nixed feelings on it.
And you know, I'm curious from your perspective of what
that was like from you know, from a viewer, of
of kind of the drama of waiting for that penalty
to be called. Yeah. Well, first of all, you have
that incredible signal where the guy like makes the television
screen to let everybody know that he's yeah, like to

(04:43):
let everybody know that he's gonna go over there. And
then so much of watching his reaction to me, is
waiting to see the players react because they're gonna hear
his call when he says, Okay, we're gonna have a
penalty kick or we're not. And you either see the
French team in that situation react with you know, joy,
or you see the Croatian team react with joy because
they're like, Okay, let's get on with the game. So

(05:05):
I think this is and and you're a sports fan
in general, but what I would equate this too is
to me, the awarding of a penalty kick is so
incredibly significant from an officiating perspective that there is nothing
else like it in sports, Right, I mean, and the
closest thing I could say in American sports would be
a past interference penalty. That's like sixty yards down the

(05:27):
field in the NFL, where you get a spot of
the foul call and it kind of set you up
for a scoring opportunity or not based on whether or
not that judgment call is made. But for people out
there who were watching this this uh, this final, you
said you thought it was the right call. Why was
it the right call there in your mind? Well, and
this is actually why the reviews is coming to play.

(05:48):
And first of all, I hate that t I flag
sixty yards down the field. Yeah, right on the goal line. Um.
But you know because it was a handball and and
the guy moves his hand towards the bullmost a deliberate
attemptive actually missed by the referee. So you think so
that that's important. You think he was doing that intentionally
to stop the ball from going in. Yeah, it was

(06:08):
more of an instinctive thing. I think it's a very
tough one because the ball comes so fast and the
guy misses the head in front of him, so he
can't he I think just instinctively his his emotion to
then put his hand out and and that to me
was the rule of soccer. Is is it a natural
position or not. You can argue that all day. It's
very subjective about you know, what you need to jump
and et cetera. But you know that for me though,

(06:30):
was the one that the referee missed. He had the
chance to go over and look, and it became a
very significant moment because then France get another penalty, and
Greensman doesn't really miss many of those. So you know,
it's interesting about this video review though, but this being
the first time, it's the first tournament in the World
Cup history, I think that had no red cards for
serious foul play, no fouls and you'd go back to

(06:51):
the other World Cups, there was tons of them. I
mean there was, I think there was. I'm not quoting
the numbers for sure, but I remember reading it was
like ten or four in the last couple of World
This World Cup is zero, and I think players were
aware that video review would be picking up stuff like that.
Oh that's a really good point because one of the
most famous world red flag red cards of all time
obviously is Inadine Sadan In the finale. I guess was

(07:12):
that the two thousand. What year was that? Yeah, exactly,
and you're in Paris right now where they probably still
haven't forgiven him even though he was a luminescent star.
Um so uh a lot of people out there. Okay,
let's turn the page a little bit. We're talking to
Stu Holding. He just called the World Cup final yesterday
for to France wins over Croatia. Uh. I asked the

(07:34):
question starting off the show today, eight years from now,
the US is hosting the World Cup along with Canada
and with Mexico. I think a lot of people the
two and Qatar is not going to get the same
level of attention because they're doing it in November and
December during football season here in America. But in America,
what is a reasonable goal as we looked four years

(07:57):
in the future and eight years in the future for
the U s and men's team. If you were sitting there,
like we just said, you're thirty two now, you'll be
forty when that is happening in the US, what is
a reasonable goal for us? Knowing how difficult it is
to predict four years, much less eight, but what in
your mind should happen and needs to happen in order
for US to be competitive at high levels internationally by

(08:18):
the time we host in Yeah, it's a great question,
and trying to predict the future, I mean without I
gotta put this in context a little bit, but the
US men's national team had really carington and tried to
play some of these exciting young players we have. And
right before the World Cup we played France, the winning
team of the World Cup with a team average of

(08:39):
twenty two years old to the United States, and we
tied that French team with I think it was nine
of the eleven starters that started in the final and
we tied them one one. So I mean that that's
a good sign. It's also a French team that was
cruising a little bit to get into the World Cup,
and you know they're not going to be trying to
injure themselves and going a hundred miles per hour. But

(08:59):
still that was a good French team on that day
in the United States stood up and some of these
youngsters had some great games. So I think by our
minimum goal should be the semifinals, and uh, you know,
that should be the greatest season I think, at least
in the modern to the US. Ever, Yes, yeah, are

(09:19):
our high our furthest right now is in the quarterfinals
and that and then we lost UM to Germany on
a kind of a shady handball that was missed, and
we can get into the weeds there. But but I
think we absolutely with it being in the United States,
Canada and Mexico and on home soil and seeing what
happened with Russia and the way that a very really
average team for Russia just you know, road the wave

(09:43):
of momentum and they got a good group and a
couple of things fell in their favor and they beat
Spain on penalties. I mean, we should absolutely be shooting
for the semifinals and I think by that point, if
not UM, then it is a total disaster and we
need to again look at what we're doing. So I
think what happened this year with us not qualit saying
uh in many ways could help us for eight years
from now because all the stuff and the inquest that's

(10:05):
gone on and all the changes to youth development and
things that have been happening which will help us in
the future. I started off the show also, and I've
said this last week as well, that to me, this
World Cup represented the death of America doesn't care about soccer, guy,
And you've probably heard that guy your whole life growing
up in in the US where you played soccer, and

(10:25):
people say, oh, people don't like soccer, people don't care
about the soccer in the United States. The US is
not in this World Cup at all. And the stats
out there for a couple of people, more people watched
the sweet sixteen round of the World Cup then watched
the sweet sixteen round of the n C Double A tournament.
More people in America watched the final eight of the
World Cup than watched the final eight of the NBA.

(10:49):
So to kind of put that into perspective, did you
feel that even though you were in Europe calling the
games through social media, through the interaction that you were getting,
that there was still a great deal of enture because
I'm sure when you saw the US wasn't gonna make it,
your first thought was, oh, my god, I can't believe
I'm going to Russia for over a month and the
US is not even going to be involved. Uh. The

(11:10):
end result ended up being, I think pretty good in
terms of the amount of attention that this thing got
even without the US involved. Yeah, and I think that
secretly was our home. But you're right. When the US
didn't make it, I had a pick in my stomach.
I felt like I wanted to throw up, But you know,
it was it was a disaster moment, honestly even for
for Fox Sports, but the way that everybody had kind
of recovered from that and then realized that, hey, this

(11:32):
is gonna be a kick ass tournament regardless, and people
are gonna tune in, people are gonna watch, people are
gonna cast the fever. And my biggest indicator is a
couple of my friends that you know, were casual sports
fans and became soccer fans of me. Uh when when
I was playing. Now seem like the cool kids at
the bars because everybody wants to turn on soccer and
everybody wants to talk soccer with them. They have the

(11:52):
slightest idea, so it's good. We like to welcome people
in it. And quite frankly, I get tired of snobby
soccer guy that said, hey, we've you know, it's it's
almost like taking ownership over our sport, and if people
don't talk about the sport in the right way, they
get all mad at other fans. I'm tired of that.
I think that, you know, it's time for people to
bring soccer into the main conversation is you know, whether

(12:15):
it's college I'm a big college football fan. You know that,
and I'm a big Clemson guy. I love watching that,
and I don't ever get the feeling that I'm watching
somebody else's sports sometimes with soccer, I think we have
a tendency to be you know, this is the world game.
How can you not like it? As opposed to being like, hey,
come watch these games. These are awesome. Come to the bar.
Let's watch Croatia against France, and you're gonna have a
great time. For a lot of that, it's goal scored, right.

(12:38):
The American anti soccer guy is like, oh man, we're
gonna have a zero zero or nil nil score. Uh,
there's a lot of goal scoring in the most recent
World Cup that just finished. Is that something that is
a trajectory that you think will continue because the video
replay and the way they were awarding penalty kicks and
everything else. Or was that an aberration and you think
will return to more statistically normal rates of goals where

(13:00):
there might not be as many scored. Obviously, six goals
in the final was an incredible explosion of goals. What
do you think the trajectory of soccer going forward looks like? Well,
I hope it continues to go out for everyone's sake.
I mean, I was looking at John Strong in the
final and I you know, I thought that one would
be a one, one nil to one type of game,

(13:21):
and and we got more goals. And I think that
the way that the scoring was going in at this
tournament at an unprecedented rate. The Champions League the goals
were up. This year. In Major League Soccer, the goals
are up. So you know, maybe it's something it'll be
interesting once you know, you get a full year under
your belt with video review. I think we saw a
lot of goals scored on set pieces. And I was
thinking about this yesterday and and talking to a number

(13:43):
of people. I think that, you know, players are getting
more open on these set plays now because everyone's aware
that there's video review, and they're not pulling and tugging
shirts and pushing guys in the box, which is actually
creating more goal scoring opportunities and actually valuing the set
piece that much more. So, know, how much more stock
do you see players taking in that? And I really

(14:03):
think that will kind of change the game a little bit.
So if there's more scoring, I'm all for it because
and then the other, the other option we have is
just to throw like six six points for a score
like they do in football, and then everybody will say, oh,
that's that gave us twenty four. It was amazing. Um.
I know your wife is probably like, Hey, you've done
enough soccer talk. Let's go hang out in Paris. What

(14:25):
will you do in Paris now? And thank you for
joining us the day after the World Cup? Like what's
your plan for the day. So our executive producer from
Fox actually set me up so we we were doing
the Women's World Cup next year here in in Paris,
and he sent me up in a restaurant tonight with
my wife a five star looking at the Eiffel Tower.
So I'm beyond excited for that. And uh, other than that,

(14:47):
I think I'm gonna go check out this parade today.
I feel like I have to being in France and
it's two blocks from my hotel and I might just
mix in with the with the French fans for a
minute and just enjoy it and then back to my
daughter and just off the grid for about three weeks
after this, by the way, when the rain hit and
Putin got the first umbrella. Like, how unbelievable of an

(15:07):
ending was that for the rain to like literally just
open up and then he's not wet at all and
they've got an umbrella for him. The president of Croatian
and the president of France are both just standing there
getting drenched. That had to be a pretty amazing look
to to see from your perspective. Oh, it was incredible
because the whole game we were seeing this lightning storm
and we weren't sure if it was going to rain,
and then of course there's a long delay then for

(15:28):
the World Cup trophy, and then you know, it just
started pumping down and people were scattering to find umbrellas
to cover President Prutent and the Croatian president. She was
fantastic just standing there in the rain. And then I
don't know if you saw the moment when the World
Cup trophy went by, she reached over and kissed it
and wanted to make sure she's be able to grab
it at least at some point. So that's about as

(15:50):
close as they got to the trophy this year. Awesome stuff.
As always, do have a good time. Good to enjoy
the five star dinner tonight. Thank your wife for letting
letting you talk a little bit more Socker and enjoy
diving off the grid. Great job the past month. Be
sure to catch live editions. I would kick the coverage
with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am

(16:11):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Just talked with Stu Holden live in Paris. I'm not
sure where John Isner is now back from London after
an epic semifinal five center against Kevin Anderson. I was
watching it on Friday. I'm sure a lot of you
are as well. I believe we're joined now by John Isner.
Can follow him on Twitter at John Isner spelled like

(16:31):
it would sound. Are you still sore? Uh? You know what,
First of all, thanks for having I'm actually not not
too bad. I think you know I have. I have
experience with these long matches. I think more than anything,
it's it's mentally taxing as opposed to physical. So of
course I was a little bit sore the day after it.

(16:53):
Right now I feel fine, but it's got to I
gotta be able to mentally regroup and get ready for
my tournament to upcoming, So where are you now, Like,
so you finish that five setter For people out there
who were watching on Friday, it goes all the way
to So I want to start actually with that. What
is it like in your head? Like, at what point
do you think do you think over in your head? Oh,

(17:17):
this could go again like the Mahoot match. I think
that went to seventy eight or whatever, Like are you
pacing yourself at that point? Like how mentally as you're
going through each of these games and you can kind
of see, okay, we're going into this tie break, you
gotta win by two games. What are you thinking as
the game as the match continues, Yeah, well it's very

(17:37):
possible because there's a matchup of of two big servers
and two big servers serving well. On top of that,
I think of my opponent was in the fifth set
alone was first served, so he, you know, Kevin, to
his credit, was serving better than the fifth set than
he was all match, which is which is pretty impressive.

(17:58):
And it was it was disappointing. Is I think I had,
you know, a good shot to finish that match in
four sets, and it just wasn't to be. And then
the fifth set got going and we got trapped into
this you know, hold, hold, hold, hold pattern, and it
just kept going and going. It was a pretty surreal match,

(18:18):
not as surreal as the one in two thousand and ten,
but the fact that this was a semifinal on center
court as opposed to a first round on some outer court,
you know, it just made it uh a little bit
more unique. I would say, when you get broken and
it goes to what do you think? Well, I actually

(18:40):
thought that it was enough at the times that he
had broken me prior in in in the match, I
ended up bringing him right back the very next game.
Tennis is a funny, funny game like that you could
hold serve ten twelve times in a row each each
player and then to three breaks in a row just
like that. So I was still I was still holding faith,
but um, I knew it was gonna be. It was

(19:01):
gonna be a tough time. It's uh wanted to be
when you want we're talking to John Isner, epic semifinal match.
When you walk off the court and you're out of
public view for the first time, what's the first thing
that you want to do when you're not on that
stage for the first time in six and a half hours. Like,
I don't I can't even imagine what that experience is. Like,

(19:22):
I do three hours of radio every day and we're
on public stage a lot. But you're right there and
everybody's looking at you, like, what's the first thing you think?
Do you ex hell? I mean, what's that feeling like
when you walk off the quarter You're a little bit
in shock that it's over. I'm just kind of curious
what that experience is like. No, no, So that's a
very hutul It is a little bit of shock. It's
a little bit of disappointment because I was pretty close

(19:45):
to playing in in the Wingbland final and so for me,
the first thing I did, I just sat down in
front of my walker. I mean, had I won the match,
I would have gone at the gym and properly cooled
down and started getting myself right in to the finals.
But now that the tournament was over, I just sort
of sat there in in in a disbelief. I also
had a chaperone, a drug testing chaperone with me, which

(20:07):
was which was lovely, someone who of course had to
watch me shower after work and had to be with
me at all times to take my urine and my blood.
So how did do it? I did do a drug
test after after a seven hour match? Was that a random?
Was that was that random? Or do you think? You know?
I think what they're after each there as a tournament

(20:28):
progress that each person that lost in the first round,
there's sixty four people. All sixty four people how to
do a drug testing. So I sort of knew it
was coming because you can see them in the in
the locker room, he signed the sheet. Um, but the
fact that I just played for seven hours of brutal
and I I couldn't go to the bathroom because it
was pretty dehydrated. So it it took it took a
little bit longer. Mean, I wanted to get out of

(20:48):
get out a dodge with with with with within an hour,
but it took probably two hours, fe hours and a half.
So how awkward is it to have somebody just standing
around watching you naked? Like that's got a weird how
it's super awkward, but I'm so used to it. How
old is the guy that happened? How old is the
guy who's in charge of like watching up and like
a naked guy? Well, they're all different this guy, I

(21:12):
would say it was probably in his tw and you know,
I feel I feel like he didn't want to watching
me take a shower, just doing his job, more than
mad at him, but by any means. But it's just
the part of the game. It's actually a good thing
that that we get. We get checked up, checked up
on a lot. So you want to you want to
keep the game clean as that as they could to sleep.

(21:34):
You're six ten and I'm sure you get asked all
the time. If people recognize you, they probably think that
you're a big white guy who plays basketball. You also
grew up in North Carolina. You're athletic because you move
around well on the tennis court. Do you ever see
the contracts that these NBA guys are making, And I
think to yourself, my god, I could have played in
the NBA too. You know what I did. I did

(21:56):
grow up in North Carolina and at four team on
fifteen years old, that was and I decided to go
with tennis. And I was actually a pretty somewhat it
was a little bit taller, but I was somewhat of
a normal height. And I grew when I was eighteen
years old like a lot six seven inches in one year,
So I shot past both my order brothers. I'm way

(22:17):
taller than them. I'm a foot taller than my dad.
So I didn't expect that I was. I didn't see
myself gonna I was that I was gonna be. I
think someone would have told me and the team fourteen
that I was gonna be this tall. I might have
I might have stuck with basketball that was having success
in basketball and a lot of success in tennis. But
I went to tennis route, and I do think I
chose the right sport. But it would have been interesting

(22:38):
to see if I would have kept honing my basketball skills.
What what what could have come of it. So you
went to Georgia and you grew up in North Carolina,
and I don't know a lot about your you know,
kind of becoming a high level tennis player, But it
seems like tennis kind of I always say, like some guys,
like when they're thirteen or fourteen, they're already in a
tennis academy working to where is the fact that they're

(23:01):
going to be a professional. You seem to have had
a fairly normal upbringing, at least in a sense that
you went to a regular high school. I mean just
looking at your bio and stuff like that. When did
you start to realize, Man, I'm really good at tennis.
Did it kind of come at fast? I mean, how
how did this process play itself out? No, it's a
it's a good question. It actually came much later. That

(23:22):
I took to professional tennis is very unorthodox. I would
say at thirteen fourteen years old, I did not want
to leave, and I wanted to stay here. I had
a few coaches, there was a few players that I
could practice with, but the thought of going through any
sort of tennis academy anything like that, or even the

(23:42):
state North Carolina never entered my mind. I wanted to
stay home and and that goal in high school was
simply just to play college tennis. And I was able
to do that at the University of grig an incredible program.
Arealized that I was good at tennis when I was
twenty one, So that was my junior year in college
when I be in the number one player in college tennis,
and I thought, at that point, a number one player

(24:04):
in college tennis, there's a good chance I can do
some pretty good things on the pro tour. So I
owed it to myself to to at least give myself
a shot. What years were you at Georgia two thousand
three to two thousand seven? I went all four years,
which is also very very unorthodox. I mean, so there
are some players that go to college but they don't
go all four years. I went to all four years

(24:25):
at mainly, but I mean I could have turned pro
after my junior year. I was good enough, but I
didn't want to leave Athens. It was, yeah, just still
like my favorite place on Earth. It's the most fun
place you could have you could ever be at So
I wanted to If I had a fifth year, I
would have stayed. So I think that's the early the
ending of the David Green era right at Georgia exactly.

(24:48):
It was like Green Pollock guys in those guys yeah, okay,
and Matt Stafford sort of came in at the very
at the very end of that. So how does Georgia
tennis player girl attract and compared to Georgia football player
girl attraction? Like on campus? Did people know who you're
six tens? So you stand out? But did people? Actually

(25:09):
wasn't too bad, I mean because fortunately our teams were
really good, especially in my junior and senior years, we
were the dominant team in the country. We won the
national championship my my senior year. So we're getting a
lot of publicity and we for college tennis, we we
draw more fans than than most programs. It's a very
story program. That's he's amazing. So you know, we're drawing

(25:31):
at a regular season match with dred people, which I
think is which I think is pretty cool. And the
n C Double a tournament itself. My senior year was
in Athens, the final sixteen, and funny enough, the guy
that I lost to, Kevin, we played his team, University
of Illinois in the finals, and we had six thousand
fans at that match, barking and drink people drinking beer.

(25:52):
It felt like a football atmosphere. So Georgia tennis, um,
it is pretty big on campus, not obviously not nearly
as big as football. Farms a girl attraction goes. I wouldn't,
I wouldn't put it right up there with football, but
it's just not too far behind. We're talking to John,
isn't or so I went to For people who haven't
been to Athens, I was down there for the years
that you were there. I went to the Tennessee Georgia

(26:13):
game in OH four Georgia one uh. In oh six,
Tennessee came in and came back from like a twenty
four to seven deficit, if I'm not mistaken, and one
fifty one thirty three. It was an amazing, you know
game if you were a Tennessee fan that was back
with Tennessee actually could win some games. Um, what would
you sell? What would you tell people who haven't been
to Athens about why they need to go? I started

(26:34):
off the show today saying that college football, in my opinion,
is what America does better than any other sport, and
southern college football for the experience of a Saturday on
campus is the best for people who haven't been. How
would you sell Athens? Oh, it's just the town is amazing,
and the town the town selling itself town. And you
get on doors campus, you get on broad streets are happening.

(26:58):
There's people all over the if you and the weather
is perfect, I mean a football game, you know, just
just as it is in Knoxville. I mean, Knoxevill's absolutely utiful.
So has happened in the football game in October? You're
gonna have perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold.
There's there's just a great energy in the town. I mean,
it's sec college football, and especially now that Kirby Smart

(27:19):
is at the Helm and the Georgia program is really
really on the rise right now. So I think it's
just I mean, it's my family. I tried to go
back at least one time a year for for a
home football game. I've done that, have been managed to
do that the last four or five years, and it's
just still my favorite thing in the world to do.
It's and for me it's a nice break from tennis.
But anyone, even even if you're not a college football

(27:41):
fan or a football fan in general, go into a game,
a big game, and Athens Georgias is something special. Where
were you for George Obama the National title game? Well, see,
I was at the baseball I went to the rooms.
It actually worked out perfect for for uh in my
schedule because the Australian Opening was is upcoming, so I
went to l A and I think I left for

(28:04):
a tournament in New Zealand on January three or something,
so I went to the roost experience there because I
mean that game against Oklahoma was phenomenal, the greatest game
I'll ever see, maybe the greatest sporting event I'll ever
go to. And I actually was not disappointed at all
that I was missing missing the National Championship game because
I knew that Georgia want nothing to top that Rose

(28:26):
bol game. So but I actually had business to take
care of him. So I was in Auckland, New Zealand,
watching the National Championship game, and so that that's where
the actually the time change wasn't even that it was kame.
The game came on at like the morning afternoon or
something like that, so I wasn't up in some weird
hour watching it. But that was a pretty devastating game
to watch. But the fact that I was at the

(28:47):
Rose Bowl and saw that game, uh, it was absolutely incredible.
That I mean that place, if you if anyone's never
been to the Rose Bowls that try to try to
check off the bucket list. Because I had never been
there before. Obviously Georgia never ever plays there. The fact
that I got to see that game and go to
that historic stadium and see that ridiculous um gamgast Oklahoma

(29:07):
was amazing. So in Auckland in New Zealand, where Are
you watching the game? Are you streaming it somewhere? Do
they have it on in a ball a hotel down
down under in in in New Zealand And? And I'll
show you. They show football. They show NFL every single
NFL playoff game to show the college football playoffs. So
it's just I was just in my in my room,

(29:27):
in my hotel room watching it. I'm not a big
going to bars and watching games, especially games that I'm
really really invested in. Because I said that exact thing
on the show earlier today. Yeah, it's the most overrated
thing in the world being in a crowded bar drinking
beer and you end up not even watching the game
because people are talking to your It's it's miserable. Actually.

(29:48):
So Georgia football in the Carolina Panthers are my my
two loves. And so when I'm watching those, when I'm
watching those, when when I watching my two teams playing
that most a couple of friends in front of my
own TV. We're talking to John isner Um. He was
obviously in the epic five set match in Wimbledon. What
comes now? Like, so you are back, You're around the

(30:09):
tenth in the world. You've had a lot of success
obviously at Wimbledon. You've had a great deal of success
at the Australian Open. I think is well combined. Uh,
can you win the US Open? How do you prepare
to try to be able to do that? Yeah, I
mean I don't think I can win it. I mean,
if I'm doing the right things, if I'm on the
court plane the right way, I'm very very destructive. I think.

(30:31):
I think I shot at Windleden and actually as well
as I did women and Grant is not my super service,
my favorite service. He's a hardcourt. Um. The last time
I played on hardcourt was in Miami in late March,
and I won that tournament, which which was a very
very big tournament, which at that time was still the
biggest tournament I've ever won in my career. So well,

(30:54):
ain't at home in the States is really my bread
and butter, and the next four tournaments I have prior
to the US Open or at home in the States
on hardcourt. So historically for me, it's always been a
good part in a good part of the season. So
play it right, do my schedule right, not not overplay.

(31:14):
Need to be fresh for the US Open, and give
myself the best chance to do well there. So last
question for you. I saw you made a stir in
in Europe because or in England because you said, Hey,
if Trump wants to come watch me play at Wimbledon,
I would be happy to have him there. Now this
was crazy to me because, uh, you know, like to me,
if the President wanted to come see me do anything,

(31:36):
I'd be like ecstatic. If if the White House called
they're like, hey, Trump's a big fan, will you do
your show? Or Obama was a fan or anybody else,
I'd be at the White House like a minute, right.
So were you surprised that that turned into a story, No,
not at all. I knew it was going to turn
and do a story. And I knew when the reporter
asked that question, I knew I took his bait willingly.

(31:56):
So and what what I didn't say if it was
becausident Henry Kenton love have her come watch me play?
But I knew because I said President Trump. It was
all the people on Twitter and all of the tennis
tutor and people. People. People don't like that. People don't
like that you have Trump come watch me play? And
I knew that was gonna happen I don't really care
because I think people have been crazy. So as you

(32:19):
well know, I follow you, I follow you Twitter account.
Do you feel that as an athlete that like sports
used to be this place where you could go and
kind of chill and everybody could escape the craziness And
now you guys have gotten swept up in the craziness
as much as everybody else where. When you say yeah,
i'd be fine for the President to watch me, it's like,
oh my god, I can't believe he said that. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's incredible. I mean I got so much heat

(32:43):
on Twitter for saying that. I mean, I said all
the mentions I got when I said that, I'd say
every ten mentioned Adam, We're bad. You know, if people
are people breathing me, calling me this and that, isn't
that it's actually it's pretty funny to read. I know
you get all the time. So when you when you
see people write you, the only thing I can do
is ruff home. That's just how it is. That's just
how it is nowadays. Against We need to get you

(33:05):
on again as the US Open gets closer. Outstanding stuff,
John Isner. Go follow him on Twitter John at John Isner.
Good stuff. My man. We'll talk to you again soon.
All right here, Thanks, thanks for having