March 28, 2023 • 39 mins
EPISODE 163: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:41) The apparent final witness who could get Donald Trump arrested for paying off Stormy Daniels is named Pecker. DAVID Pecker, former publisher of the National Inquirer and the middleman in the Catch-and-Kill process by which Trump buried his infidelity problem before the 2016 election, returned to Alvin Bragg's Manhattan Grand Jury to confirm a) Trump paid her off and b) Trump knew it was done to influence the outcome of the election.
Silence out of the Special Counsel's office; Trump slammed on Fox and Fox Business for his Waco speech; and why Trump's history with Mike Tyson explains Trump's cult unshakable adherence to him even though he's such a putz.
B-Block (15:38) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Was turmoil in Israel quieted or worsened when the Prime Minister said he was staving off a "civil war"? The far right calls the Nashville shooting a false flag - until the shooter was ID'd as Trans and that became their only headline. (19:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD:
C-Block (26:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: The whole crowd at New York Bully Crew needs our donations - they're out of food (27:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Newly recovered from an archaeological dig in my storage unit: the ORIGINAL unedited copy of the greatest TV sports outtake of all time: Gary Miller's SOCCER BREAKDOWN.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
the final witness who could get Donald Trump arrested for
(00:24):
paying off Stormy Daniels to conceal their sex is named Pecker.
David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Inquirer, the
purchaser in the catch and kill scheme to bury the
Karen McDougall Trump story before the twenty sixteen election. In
the Man who has already acknowledged that in August twenty fifteen,
(00:45):
he and Michael Cohen and quoting a federal non prosecution
agreement quote, at least one other member of the campaign
met to discuss the parameters of buying and burying the
stories of all the women in Trump's life before the
twenty sixteen election. As Ryan Goodman from Just Security notes,
Guess who was that other member of the campaign answered
(01:07):
DJ sentencing memo quote individual one une parenthesis Donald Trump.
So Pecker appeared for the second time to detail for
the members of the Grand Jury his meeting with Michael
Cohen and reportedly with Trump as well, to buy off
the likes of Stormy Daniels. This is not hard to follow.
(01:29):
Last week, a Trump attorney Nobody had heard of named
Costello suddenly showed up and told the grand jury that
Michael Cohen was lying, and Trump had nothing to do
with the payoff, and it wasn't a campaign violation, and
it wasn't a payoff, and it wasn't a business violation,
and Cohen was lying. So they brought Pecker back in
so he could refute Costello, and for the second time
(01:50):
to this grand jury, and the third time at least
under oath, to swear that Trump was part of the
payoff negotiation process and the point of the payoffs were
to impact the election. In short, they brought Pecker to
stand up for the truth. If they follow the regular schedule,
(02:11):
Alvin Bragg's Manhattan brand jury is off today. It does
not appear to have heard any other witnesses yesterday. It
could have taken a vote yesterday on indicting Trump. But
if so, Trump's attorneys would already know, and thus Trump
would already know, and thus the world would already know,
because Trump would have cycled back past they dropped the case,
and I don't know what's happening to the case, and
(02:33):
he would have very loudly and very publicly returned to
I am going to be arrested, and I am the
greatest martyr since Christ. And he might have added, who
will rid me of this turbulent Pecker? I got Pecker
in the Stormy Daniel's case, and I got national security
levers in the Special Council's bid to charge Trump with
(02:53):
conspiracy to obstruct the congressional proceeding. And I mean, it's
almost more than my pun compulsion can handle. I mean,
Trump's lever already leaked. I'll be damned if I ask.
But what if anything came out of the Pecker testimony
after Sunday's CBS scoop about the Special Council and what
(03:15):
is clearly his attempts to build a case of conspiracy
against Trump and getting detailed testimony from the Mark Meadows
class Trump loyalists about what Trump wanted to know about
manipulating national security in the days before the certification of
Joe Biden's electoral college victory. That story Spigott got turned
off from DC but in a hurry yesterday. But there
(03:38):
were three very curious, very tangential comments about Trump and
January six that are worth noting. One was from Senator
John Cornyn, in whose state Trump gave his ninety minute
oh Woe is Me speech to a crowd in Waco
measuring between one half and one fifth of the audience
of this edition of this podcast you are listening to now.
(04:03):
Cornyan could not figure out why Trump was looking back
and not instead expressing his vision for the future. And
you wanted to shake corner and say, the name Trump
is somehow new to you, Senator, He has no vision
for the future. Looking back and complaining about it is
his vision for the future. Were he to be reelected,
(04:25):
he would whine about it in his inaugural address and
demand he get a free extra term as compensation, Senator.
More tellingly, Trump got criticized on both flavors of Fox
Fox Regular and Fox Business. In fact, he was savaged
by two of the most milktoast people in Rupert Murdoch's
(04:46):
employ Brian Kilmeade could not believe that in Waco Saturday,
Trump quote opened up with a January sixth video, which
is insane. He should be running from that period. And
then Stu Varney, who at CNN forty one years ago,
I think this month taught me how to use teleprompter,
slammed Trump for the terrorist language against Alvin Bragg quote,
(05:09):
I don't think America wants that kind of behavior in
a presidential candidate. I think they're tired of it. I
don't think they like to see him wielding a baseball bat,
but of course that's exactly what they like. Trump's base
is a party of hate, the party of hate. My
high school friend Will Bunch wrote at length on this
(05:31):
over the weekend, and I commend him to you, and
I will add, but not only is the Trump Party
based on the idea that they are unified in hating
people who disagree with Trump or with them, but they
are otherwise disconnected to America, or politics or just the
day's public events. It will not take you long scrolling
(05:54):
through social media or watching junk TV to recognize that
nearly all of them have concluded that since Trump said
he was going to be arrested last Tuesday, and he
told them to protest, and Trump then wasn't arrested last Tuesday,
that means Trump wasn't arrested because they personally protested. And moreover,
(06:16):
that because Trump wasn't arrested last Tuesday, he will never
be arrested and he now cannot be arrested. And since
he was not arrested over Stormy Daniels. He can never
be arrested over anything else ever between now and the
end of time. Yes, they are that stupid, which leads
(06:36):
to the now eight year old question of why Trump
supporters are that stupid, which is merely a refinement of
the centuries old question of why so many people are
that stupid and yet they survive in seeming disapproval of
Darwin's sub theory of survival of the fittest. I was
actually asked this recently about Trump and his people, and
(06:58):
I gave a two word answer, Mike Tyson. You may
recall that by marriage and adoption, Mike Tyson and I
are cousins. The boxing trainer Customato actually cared enough about
the troubled and even abandoned or orphaned kids he took
on as fighters. He became legal guardian for several of them,
(07:19):
including Mike Tyson, who once told me that Cuss really
was his father. Cuss's niece, Jerry married my uncle John.
She was my aunt Jerry. When I met him decades
ago in La Tyson's eyes lit up when I mentioned
Jerry Demato Olberman, you're her nephew. Cousin. It was Demato
(07:41):
and his associate Kevin Rooney who perfected managing Tyson's medications
in such a way that they could keep him stable
nearly all the time, but then gradually lower his dose
in the weeks and days before a fight so that
all his maniacal energy would appear in the ring. Customato
died in nineteen eighty five when Tyson was nineteen. He
left care of Mike both as a boxer and a person,
(08:04):
to Kevin Rooney, and then in nineteen eighty eight, two
other men stepped in to try to take over Mike
Tyson's contract and Mike Tyson's life, Don King and Donald Trump.
King said Tyson should be making millions more than he
did under Rooney and manager Bill Cayton, and Trump showed
Tyson the world of jet setters. When Tyson complained that
(08:26):
the drugs he needed to keep life manageable made him
sleepy and uncomfortable and unhappy, Trump told Tyson, why are
you taking these drugs? You are the youngest heavyweight champion
in history. You can do what you want. You tell
them what drugs you'll take. They don't know you, and
who knows if the drugs really do you any good.
You're not the troubled kid anymore. You're an adult man,
(08:47):
the champion a God. Work with me and Don King,
and we won't make you take those drugs. For a
long time, I thought this was just Trump's pitch to
get his fingers into cousin Mike Tyson's career. Now I
begin to think it actually Trump's philosophy of life, and
(09:08):
it applies perfectly to those people endlessly, desperately and permanently
supporting Trump no matter what he does, no matter what
he says, no matter how he lies, no matter how
he fails them. Trump gives his apocalyptic hellscape portion of
America the license to take the drugs or not take
(09:29):
the drugs, no doubt, literally in many occasions, but also metaphorically.
You hate black people or Gaze or whoever people named Fred.
This is America, the land of the free. They are
the ones getting special treatment, and you are the victim
of racism. You're uneducated, and even life's simplest tasks confuse
(09:53):
and scare and thwart you. Education is unnecessary. Your natural
common American good sense is more valuable than a thousand
degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
purchased after the fact by major donations by your father.
You are told you have failed in life, You're lazy,
you've underachieved, You've let people down. No, you are a victim.
(10:19):
They are out to get you. They have rigged the
system against you. Look at what they did to me,
the multi billionaire victim guy. You have to have self
discipline to get something out of your life. You have
to control your impulses. You have to listen to your boss,
to your wife, to your government, the hell you do.
(10:41):
You're not the troubled kid anymore. You're an adult man,
a champion of God. Work with me, and not only
won't I make you do anything you don't want to do,
I'll let you do whatever you want to do. And
we all know how that turned out. The next thing
you knew, Mike Tyson had a giant face tattoo that
(11:01):
looked like he'd had a really bad collision with a
rot iron bird feeder, and America got Trump still ahead
(11:25):
of us. In this edition of Countdown, the latest nightmare
in Nashville, and how quickly the right wing went from
the usual day dreams that it was a false flag
and child actors and meant to distract from this or
whatever to something far worse and far more evil. When
the shooter was revealed as trans that was Fox's only
headline last night. Chris Licht's last brilliant new idea for CNN.
(11:50):
The weekly series starring Bill Maher is down to thirty
five thousand viewers in the top demographic group. So Chris
Lichts next brilliant new idea for CNN another weekly series
starring Gail King and I have played for you before.
The Mona Lisa of TV Sports outtakes Gary Miller's soccer Breakdown.
(12:15):
But that wow, that was the edited version recently recovered
from the bottom of a box there medically sealed since
a preceding century. I have now found the original complete
soccer breakdown in three two one. That's next. This is countdown.
(12:39):
This is Countdown with Keith Overman. Postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some prediction. State line
tel Aviv, the Prime Minister of Israel and has proposed
judicial changes that have provoked months of protests in that country.
May have relieved tensions for the moment, but perhaps made
(13:01):
them worse for the long term. Benjamin Netan Yahoo post
pone the legislation, and the far right coalition that put
him back in office said the legislation will pass and
quote no one will scare us, and net and Yahoo
helpfully added as he postponed it in that he was
doing so in hopes of quote preventing a civil war.
A civil war. Hell of a thing for the sitting
(13:23):
leader of a democracy to invoke. Dateline Nashville, Three nine
year old kids are dead, and so is the head
of their school, and a substitute teacher and the custodian.
And there is a horrifying photo of a crying child
a hand pressed up against the inside of a school
bus window after the latest mass school shooting at a
Christian school in Tennessee. And the headline on the Fox
(13:46):
quote news unquote site reads Christian school massacre suspect identified
as transgender. Because that's clearly what matters, not the dead kids,
nor the fact that this is the thirty eighth mass
shooting in this country this month. Fox quote news quote
overflowed with brilliant excuses. Yesterday, not one but two supposed
(14:09):
experts explained that the shooter had gained access to the
school via an unlocked side door. Both said I told
you so. Then police revealed no, all the doors were locked,
and she simply shot her way through one of the doors,
which is another reason assault weapons must be banned. Dateline,
Washington House Republicans response to the nightmare. They were scheduled
(14:30):
today to mark up the seven percent budget increased proposal
from the Biden administration for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives, most of which was going to try to
combat mass shootings. Congressman Andy Clyde of Georgia, who was
a gun store owner and thus a man who profits
off the murdering of children and other Americans, said there
(14:52):
was no way President Biden would get that increase. Congressman
Andy Biggs of Arizona, who may or may not be
loyal to the United States of America, went a little further.
He proposed eliminating what he called, with no sense of
irony a quote woke weaponized agency. Then somebody in the
GOP finally realized this would be a bad look the
(15:13):
day after another school shooting, so that markup will be postponed.
They don't say till when, but the answer is until
people forget about Nashville and the Republican Death Cult can
resume houring itself out to the gun lobby. May they
all burn in Hell as soon as is convenient, still ahead.
(15:44):
Historical research takes many forms. You may study ancient Sanskrit
texts or look into the pyramids for ancient chewing gum.
I study great sportscasting bloopers and pre production catastrophes, And
there is an important new find in the latter. In
the story of soccer breakdown first time for the daily
(16:08):
roundup of the miscrants, morons and dunning Krueger effect specimens
who constitute today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze
Dan Bongino, the Fox weekend host who draws on his
own hair. Now, whatever you think of Antifa, whatever you
think it is, this much is clear. Antifa or antifa
(16:31):
is short for anti fascists. The faugh is for fascists.
Leave off the last ask for savings. So it takes
a particular kind of moron to write this sentence, and
Bongino is that kind of moron. Quote Antifa fascists are
so embarrassing to their I'll just read this again. Antifa
(16:53):
fascists are so embarrassing to their families. Blah blah blah blah.
That's right, Bongino believes there are anti fascist fascists. When
Rupert Murdoch finally fires Tucker Carlson, my money is on
this Bunghino as the new Weeknight guy. The runner up
Ilio Leubushkin of Hockey's Buffalo Sabers. I will give him
(17:14):
this much. Other Russian players have hidden behind the dictates
of their homophobic Russian Orthodox religion. Still more have hidden
behind their fear for themselves or their relatives back home,
who could be harris if the player participates in a
National Hockey League team's pride night. Leo Bushkin is at
least sort of putting his name to using the latter
(17:34):
excuse for begging off the Buffalo Sabers LGBTQ celebration last night,
in which he was asked to wear a uniform for
like ten minutes with some of the lettering and numerals
in a rainbow pattern. No patches, no banners, no statements,
just rainbows, And he said no one can empathize with
an athlete from a dictatorship who could face retribution. But
(17:55):
there is a larger point here. That is being missed.
Right now, Vladimir Putin gets to decide whether or not
American and Anadian private businesses are permitted to make a
public statement in the US or Canada about inclusivity and acceptance.
Vladimir Putin is deciding what we can and cannot do
(18:19):
at hockey games on this continent. Now, what if he
now announces that any Russian player on a team that
had a Ukraine Night or a pro Piece night or
whatever might be punished. Unfortunately, there is a simple fix here.
The National Hockey League needs to offer Russian players two choices.
Renounce their citizenships and move themselves, maybe their families here
(18:42):
or anywhere else that isn't Russia. We will welcome them
with open arms, or they should be banished from the NHL.
They should not be at risk because of Vladimir Putin.
And also we as Americans and Canadians should not be
dictated to buy Putin using them. But our winner, good
(19:03):
old Christ of CNN. You know, mister Paced, I told
you several weeks back that there was reporting by Puck
News that Lick's latest brainstorm to supposedly help CNN was
to give Gail King of CBS mornings a weekly primetime
show on CNN, even though a weekly shows on cable
(19:24):
news have never worked, ever, never, ever. B Chris Lick's
last idea, a weekly show with Bill Maher, is now
drawing half of what was previously on in that time slot.
It's down to forty five thousand viewers in the Key
twenty fifty four demo forty five thousand viewers. C Morning
(19:47):
television news and primetime television news are so different, with
such different audiences and tastes that they might as well
be different industries, and success in one is almost always
a guarantee of failure in the other. Ask Katie Kurrik
or ask Don Lemon at CNN right now and d success.
Gayl King's CBS show is in last place, but of
(20:11):
course Chris lickt used to supervise that show and having
no imagination where real understanding of the industry, just repeats
what he knows and says it's successful. The Wall Street
Journal reporting CNN is now quote finalizing a deal for
King to host a weekly primetime show, according to people
familiar with the journal, also says Licht is still talking
(20:33):
to Charles Barkley about a primetime show and Charles Barkley
has said his primetime show on CNN would be with
Gayl King bring your popcorn to use during the dumpster fire.
The journal also does not indicate which night Gayl King's
weekly show would be failing on Chris. Look, if I'm
(20:56):
right and they hired him to deliberately destroy CNN, exactly
what would have be done differently than he's doing now
licked two days worst person in the world still ahead
(21:18):
on Countdown. Some archaeologists hunt for ancient ruins. I hunt
for things I've preserved on cassette tapes in nineteen ninety four.
Well I found one of them, the original of the
infamous ESPN soccer breakdown. This is a saga I have
told before, but now it comes with this added historical artifact,
(21:41):
the uncut version. Next first, in each edition of Countdown,
we feature a dog in need you can help. Every
dog has its day into Patchog New York and Joey,
Maria Floyd, Tornado, Hope, Miracle Blade, Misha, Lacey, Chico, Pebbles,
and Nance. Those are the dogs whose medical needs were
treated and paid for by the New York Bully Crew Rescue.
(22:04):
Just in the last week, YEP pities and pibbles and mixes.
And at a time when donations are scarce everywhere, these
guys owe their meat supplier six thousand dollars and until
it's paid, the dogs are not getting any more food.
It's as dire as that. Check out their site ny
bullycrew dot org and donate if you can, or you
(22:25):
can find them on my Twitter feeds. I thank you,
and Joey and Maria and all the others thank you
as well. Gary Miller was one of the backbones of
Sports Center. I had worked with him at CNN. He
(22:46):
was strong, competent, very loud, forceful, He hated mascots, and
he had no filter. He and Dan Patrick were great
friends in Atlanta, and then Gary and Dan left four
ESPN within months of each other nineteen nineteen ninety. This
has been said of me, and so I say it
of Gary with affection. He suffered no fools gladly, and
(23:08):
though his elbows were always up, he made sure that
ninety nine percent of the time when they bumped into somebody,
that somebody had well deserved it. As near as I
can piece together, Gary was doing the eleven PM Sports
Center on Friday night, June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four. Typically,
Dan and I did the eleven Sunday through Thursday. The
(23:28):
story of soccer's nineteen ninety four World Cup. At least
in the first week, was a preponderance of player ejections
red cards handed them by the referee. In those days,
the eleven PM Sports Center included a feature two or
three minutes long on a story that had drummed up
a lot of interest during the first show planning meeting
around three thirty PM. It was a feature called Breakdown.
(23:50):
It provided long form analysis in today's when we didn't
have a lot of that could be a coach getting fired,
could be the relative credentials of Baseball Hall of Fame candidates,
could be one fantastic play in a game. Once we
did a deadpan, serious breakdown about injuries to mascots. A
producer or the anchor himself would write the script. They
(24:11):
would prerecord the narration, and then the producer would edit it.
This is pre digital. It was done tape to tape.
It could take hours to edit it, and the key
was to track it. To record that narration, which was
done in a tiny wood paneled room. Wreaking of mildew
that looked and smelled exactly like every suburban basement reck
(24:33):
room in America circa October nineteen sixty five. That's where
Gary Miller found himself on the night of Friday, June
twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four, reading a script about soccer
players from around the world, none of whose names he
had ever seen before, let alone tried to pronounce. It
was The Soccer Breakdown in all senses of the word.
(25:00):
The raw tape, the original version of his tracking session
for the sc for Soccer Breakdown, is easily the most
beloved bootleg in ESPN's history. In fact, it is so
popular that there are several different cuts of this bootleg.
People have sat down with the original tape, which runs
nearly twenty minutes, and edited it down to only the
(25:22):
best or worst parts. Now I'm not going to say
I have a copy of the original. I'm simply going
to note that Dan Patrick ran it on his radio
show in twenty seventeen and posted the whole segment to YouTube.
So yeah, that's where I got my copy of it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm going
(25:44):
to annotate for you what happened, So let me present
this to you in three segments. It did not start
well for Gary and it got worse from there, although
mister Miller gave it its eternal title and life by
going sibilant on the s. For the words soccer, I'll
note only one thing, the acronym of National Soccer's outfit
(26:06):
FIFA Gariot's pronounced FIFA soccer breakdown in three two one,
FIFA Soccer's governing barty three two one, FIFA Soccer's three
two one. The red card has become the calling card
for this year's tournament. Seven ejections for three two one
(26:33):
witness Romania's Ian Bladhu against the Swiss is or thrill Christ.
But that was the easy part. Now in the script
came the names of the World Cup stars who had
been given red card ejections in the first week of
the tournament. One was the seventeen year old star of
the Cameroon team, Riggerbert's Song, often referred to by his
(26:57):
full name, Riggerbert's Song bahan og or, as it was
said in the script, Riggerbird bahan a song three two
one Cameroons, Riggelberg bonom yag three two one Cameroons Riggelberg
(27:18):
Bayanan zan Za Da Da Byan Young song three two
one Cameroons Riggelberg Banyang zong bay On Young song three
two one three two one. By the way, Rigglebert's song
(27:41):
is now the manager of the Cameroon team. He's gone
from being the youngest player in the World Cup history
to get a red card to running his nation's team.
I'll interject here that at the start of this final
major clip, Gary Miller says to somebody who has clearly
entered that tracking room that smelled of mildew, get out
of here. Dan Patrick said that was him. I think
(28:02):
he's mistaken. It doesn't matter much, but there was no
reason for Dan to have been there on a Friday night,
especially if we were not doing the show. And also
there has never been a microphone ever that Dan has
not spoken into. Anyway. We have already met Riggerbert Bohanoc's song.
Now meet my guy, the Italian goalie John Luca Polyuka
(28:26):
two get out of here? Two is guilt through two?
How long is this tape? Three two one one one
Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyan song preventing a breakaway from Brazil's babbetto
a fah God Almighty, I hate soccer. Cameroon's Riggleberg bun
(28:49):
Yon Young song. I'm gonna try that one last millie
time two one, Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyonyong song, I hate this
chocop Bolivia's Luis Christaldo for both on three two one.
But the most notable red card of the tournament came
an Italian goaltender, Jean Luca Palyuka Paul Yuka, Paul Yuka
(29:14):
from the Mother three two one. But the flurry of
red cards thus far as Todd coaches and players alike
to control their play if they'd like to control their
fate in this tournament. Holy, that is all. The pronunciation
of Rigorbert's song's name is one thing. I was delighted
(29:36):
by how furious Gary got at Gianluca Pallyuka of the
Italian team, and the explative he used to describe him.
Richard may have just heard. In the days that followed.
In fact, the Italian goalies name became shorthand for me
four that expletive in question. So for the next three
years on Sports Center and after that on Fox Sports
News and then on My ESPN two show and on
(29:59):
Football Night in America, and then when I returned to
Sports Center in twenty eighteen, if you heard me say
John Luca Pallyuka while we were showing a player making
an error or arguing with an umpire or official, I
was actually implying that the player had just said John
Luca Pallyuka. There's another punchline to this story, of course,
(30:21):
the idea to do this soccer breakdown that so bedeviled
Gary Miller, the story of red cards in the first
week of the nineteen ninety four World Cup. The idea
to do that came from Gary Miller, never volunteer. I've
never been convinced that Gary was really happy about his immortality,
(30:42):
certainly not in the way my ESPN pal Steve Levy
not so secretly glories in the day. He once tried
to say that a New England Patriots player had a
bulging disc, but didn't quite get disc right. But Gary
Miller has been a good sport about this through the
end of his ESPN career in two thousand and four
and afterwards, in his days at Channel two and Channel
(31:03):
nine in Los Angeles and most recent a Channel Too
in Cincinnati. It isn't hard to understand why this tape
is so famous and the pleasure derived from it so enduring.
As John Cleese once said about the real life hotel
manager on whom he based his character from Faulty Towers,
he had this wonderful bad temper. But there are two
(31:23):
more things. One, this occurred exactly a week to the
day after the O. J. Simpson car chase, and people
forget now just how disturbing that was in an America,
especially sports America, like at ESPN, that with the exception
of a few of us who knew, nobody knew how
rotten a human being OJ Simpson was, So even a
(31:46):
week later, we all needed this laugh, and Gary gave
it to us and even larger. The essence of soccer
in every country in which it is played is that
it always allows and encourages and even demands that its
fans complain about it. And so while we cherish soccer
(32:08):
breakdown and three two one and Rigobert Bahanong Song and
Babetto and John Luca Baluka, to me, it is really
about five words that anybody who hates the game will say.
But there are also five words that any fan of
the sport will certainly use at some point in his life,
(32:29):
possibly at some point today. A bah, God Almighty, I
hate soccer. Since I first told you this story, I have,
as I mentioned, rediscovered an artifact that I thought was
gone forever. Right after the soccer breakdown saga unfolded, an
ESPN colleague made me a copy of the original raw
(32:52):
tape of Gary and we put it on a cassette
and I couldn't find it. There were things on it
that were somehow lost from all subsequent copies of Soccer
or Breakdown. So this is not as high death, but
I think it's even more high comedy. Soccer breakdown in
(33:12):
three two one after a nineteen ninety World Cup marked
by physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's three two
one After a nineteen ninety World Cup marked by three
two one. After a nineteen ninety World Cup marked by
physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's governing body send
(33:34):
out a decree for the nineteen ninety four Cup to
be better police the result. The red card has become
the calling card for this year's tournament. Seven ejections for
three two one after a nineteen ninety World Cup marked
by physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's governing body
sent out the decree for the nineteen ninety four Cup
(33:57):
to be better police. The result, the red card has
become the calling card for this year's tournament. Seven ejections
through the first twenty rematches and a direct message that
rough play will not be tolerated and more teams will
be playing a man down if it continues. The goal
more goals and a more palatable sell to the American
public three two one. The results just over two and
(34:22):
a half goals of contest compared to two point two
per game at the nineteen ninety Cup in Italy. Why
does the red card come out? A Fight For rule
book states a players shall be sent off the field
of play and shown the red card if, in the
opinion of the referee he won is guilty of violent
conduct witness romanias Ian Bladu against the Swiss is or
(34:43):
through christ three two one. Why does the red card
come out? The Fight For rule book states that players
should be said off the field of play and shown
the red card if, in the opinion of the referee
he won is guilty of violent conduct. Witness romanias Ian
Bladu against the Swiss two is guilty of serious foul play.
(35:04):
Cameroons Riggelberg Bonum Yag bonon Yang song preventing a breakaway
from the babetto three two one two is guilty of
serious foul play. Cameroons Riggleberg Bayanan zhang Za Da Da
(35:26):
Bayanyan song three two one two is guilty of serious
foul play. Cameroon's Rigglberg Banyang Zong Bayanyan song three two
one two Get out of here two is guilty through
(35:51):
it two? How long is this tape? Two is guilty
of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggleberg Banyang song preventing a
breakaway from Brazil's babetto a ba Ah God Almighty, I
Hate Soccer two is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's
(36:12):
Riggleberg Bunyan Young song provided a breakaway from Brazil's babetto
a play both sirious and foul, deserving of a red card.
I'm better try that one last time two one two
is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggelberg bun Yon
Young's song prevented a breakaway from Brazil's babetto a play
(36:34):
both sirious and foul and deserving of a red card.
Three uses foul or abusive language, can't show you that,
and four is guilty of a second cautionable I hate this.
Three uses foul or abusive language, and four is guilty
of a second cautionable offense after having received a caution.
(36:55):
Chalcop Bolivia is Luis Cristaldo for both on three two one.
Chalcop Bolivia is Luis Cristaldo for both. On this case,
as he was, he was a yellow card and then
he uses on a foul or abusive language to draw
a second yellow and be ejected against South Korea. A
tone was set in the first match of the tournament
when Bolivia's Marco Antonio Etcheveri was ejected for this illegal
(37:18):
kick against the Germans. But the most notable red card
of the tournament came an Italian goaltender Jean Luca Paulyuka
the Mother three two one. But the most notable red
card of the tournament came when Italian goaltender John Luca
Polyuka was ejected against Norway for a handball outside the
goal where the game was still schooreless. Three two one,
(37:42):
but the most notable red card of the tournament came
an Italian go toender John Luca Polyuka was ejected against
Norway for a handball outside the goal area with the
game still schooreless down a man a team's first instinct
as defense, and injured Roberto Baggio, who is now a
liability even if he is one of the world's most
talented offensive players. The gamble paid off Italy stive in
(38:05):
this year's World Cup, but the flurry of red cars
thus far has taught coaches and players alike to control
their play if they'd like to. I've done all the
(38:27):
damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Here
the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced, and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Channel, who are
the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John
Philip Channel, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced
by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
(38:50):
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two and it was
written by Mitch Warren Davis. Courtesy of ESPN inc musical
comments by Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announce here today was Stevie Band's ant and everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the eight hundred and twelfth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(39:13):
Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow, So until then, I'm Keith Oldreman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(39:37):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. So
the final witness who could get Donald Trump arrested for
(00:24):
paying off Stormy Daniels to conceal their sex is named Pecker.
David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Inquirer, the
purchaser in the catch and kill scheme to bury the
Karen McDougall Trump story before the twenty sixteen election. In
the Man who has already acknowledged that in August twenty fifteen,
(00:45):
he and Michael Cohen and quoting a federal non prosecution
agreement quote, at least one other member of the campaign
met to discuss the parameters of buying and burying the
stories of all the women in Trump's life before the
twenty sixteen election. As Ryan Goodman from Just Security notes,
Guess who was that other member of the campaign answered
(01:07):
DJ sentencing memo quote individual one une parenthesis Donald Trump.
So Pecker appeared for the second time to detail for
the members of the Grand Jury his meeting with Michael
Cohen and reportedly with Trump as well, to buy off
the likes of Stormy Daniels. This is not hard to follow.
(01:29):
Last week, a Trump attorney Nobody had heard of named
Costello suddenly showed up and told the grand jury that
Michael Cohen was lying, and Trump had nothing to do
with the payoff, and it wasn't a campaign violation, and
it wasn't a payoff, and it wasn't a business violation,
and Cohen was lying. So they brought Pecker back in
so he could refute Costello, and for the second time
(01:50):
to this grand jury, and the third time at least
under oath, to swear that Trump was part of the
payoff negotiation process and the point of the payoffs were
to impact the election. In short, they brought Pecker to
stand up for the truth. If they follow the regular schedule,
(02:11):
Alvin Bragg's Manhattan brand jury is off today. It does
not appear to have heard any other witnesses yesterday. It
could have taken a vote yesterday on indicting Trump. But
if so, Trump's attorneys would already know, and thus Trump
would already know, and thus the world would already know,
because Trump would have cycled back past they dropped the case,
and I don't know what's happening to the case, and
(02:33):
he would have very loudly and very publicly returned to
I am going to be arrested, and I am the
greatest martyr since Christ. And he might have added, who
will rid me of this turbulent Pecker? I got Pecker
in the Stormy Daniel's case, and I got national security
levers in the Special Council's bid to charge Trump with
(02:53):
conspiracy to obstruct the congressional proceeding. And I mean, it's
almost more than my pun compulsion can handle. I mean,
Trump's lever already leaked. I'll be damned if I ask.
But what if anything came out of the Pecker testimony
after Sunday's CBS scoop about the Special Council and what
(03:15):
is clearly his attempts to build a case of conspiracy
against Trump and getting detailed testimony from the Mark Meadows
class Trump loyalists about what Trump wanted to know about
manipulating national security in the days before the certification of
Joe Biden's electoral college victory. That story Spigott got turned
off from DC but in a hurry yesterday. But there
(03:38):
were three very curious, very tangential comments about Trump and
January six that are worth noting. One was from Senator
John Cornyn, in whose state Trump gave his ninety minute
oh Woe is Me speech to a crowd in Waco
measuring between one half and one fifth of the audience
of this edition of this podcast you are listening to now.
(04:03):
Cornyan could not figure out why Trump was looking back
and not instead expressing his vision for the future. And
you wanted to shake corner and say, the name Trump
is somehow new to you, Senator, He has no vision
for the future. Looking back and complaining about it is
his vision for the future. Were he to be reelected,
(04:25):
he would whine about it in his inaugural address and
demand he get a free extra term as compensation, Senator.
More tellingly, Trump got criticized on both flavors of Fox
Fox Regular and Fox Business. In fact, he was savaged
by two of the most milktoast people in Rupert Murdoch's
(04:46):
employ Brian Kilmeade could not believe that in Waco Saturday,
Trump quote opened up with a January sixth video, which
is insane. He should be running from that period. And
then Stu Varney, who at CNN forty one years ago,
I think this month taught me how to use teleprompter,
slammed Trump for the terrorist language against Alvin Bragg quote,
(05:09):
I don't think America wants that kind of behavior in
a presidential candidate. I think they're tired of it. I
don't think they like to see him wielding a baseball bat,
but of course that's exactly what they like. Trump's base
is a party of hate, the party of hate. My
high school friend Will Bunch wrote at length on this
(05:31):
over the weekend, and I commend him to you, and
I will add, but not only is the Trump Party
based on the idea that they are unified in hating
people who disagree with Trump or with them, but they
are otherwise disconnected to America, or politics or just the
day's public events. It will not take you long scrolling
(05:54):
through social media or watching junk TV to recognize that
nearly all of them have concluded that since Trump said
he was going to be arrested last Tuesday, and he
told them to protest, and Trump then wasn't arrested last Tuesday,
that means Trump wasn't arrested because they personally protested. And moreover,
(06:16):
that because Trump wasn't arrested last Tuesday, he will never
be arrested and he now cannot be arrested. And since
he was not arrested over Stormy Daniels. He can never
be arrested over anything else ever between now and the
end of time. Yes, they are that stupid, which leads
(06:36):
to the now eight year old question of why Trump
supporters are that stupid, which is merely a refinement of
the centuries old question of why so many people are
that stupid and yet they survive in seeming disapproval of
Darwin's sub theory of survival of the fittest. I was
actually asked this recently about Trump and his people, and
(06:58):
I gave a two word answer, Mike Tyson. You may
recall that by marriage and adoption, Mike Tyson and I
are cousins. The boxing trainer Customato actually cared enough about
the troubled and even abandoned or orphaned kids he took
on as fighters. He became legal guardian for several of them,
(07:19):
including Mike Tyson, who once told me that Cuss really
was his father. Cuss's niece, Jerry married my uncle John.
She was my aunt Jerry. When I met him decades
ago in La Tyson's eyes lit up when I mentioned
Jerry Demato Olberman, you're her nephew. Cousin. It was Demato
(07:41):
and his associate Kevin Rooney who perfected managing Tyson's medications
in such a way that they could keep him stable
nearly all the time, but then gradually lower his dose
in the weeks and days before a fight so that
all his maniacal energy would appear in the ring. Customato
died in nineteen eighty five when Tyson was nineteen. He
left care of Mike both as a boxer and a person,
(08:04):
to Kevin Rooney, and then in nineteen eighty eight, two
other men stepped in to try to take over Mike
Tyson's contract and Mike Tyson's life, Don King and Donald Trump.
King said Tyson should be making millions more than he
did under Rooney and manager Bill Cayton, and Trump showed
Tyson the world of jet setters. When Tyson complained that
(08:26):
the drugs he needed to keep life manageable made him
sleepy and uncomfortable and unhappy, Trump told Tyson, why are
you taking these drugs? You are the youngest heavyweight champion
in history. You can do what you want. You tell
them what drugs you'll take. They don't know you, and
who knows if the drugs really do you any good.
You're not the troubled kid anymore. You're an adult man,
(08:47):
the champion a God. Work with me and Don King,
and we won't make you take those drugs. For a
long time, I thought this was just Trump's pitch to
get his fingers into cousin Mike Tyson's career. Now I
begin to think it actually Trump's philosophy of life, and
(09:08):
it applies perfectly to those people endlessly, desperately and permanently
supporting Trump no matter what he does, no matter what
he says, no matter how he lies, no matter how
he fails them. Trump gives his apocalyptic hellscape portion of
America the license to take the drugs or not take
(09:29):
the drugs, no doubt, literally in many occasions, but also metaphorically.
You hate black people or Gaze or whoever people named Fred.
This is America, the land of the free. They are
the ones getting special treatment, and you are the victim
of racism. You're uneducated, and even life's simplest tasks confuse
(09:53):
and scare and thwart you. Education is unnecessary. Your natural
common American good sense is more valuable than a thousand
degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
purchased after the fact by major donations by your father.
You are told you have failed in life, You're lazy,
you've underachieved, You've let people down. No, you are a victim.
(10:19):
They are out to get you. They have rigged the
system against you. Look at what they did to me,
the multi billionaire victim guy. You have to have self
discipline to get something out of your life. You have
to control your impulses. You have to listen to your boss,
to your wife, to your government, the hell you do.
(10:41):
You're not the troubled kid anymore. You're an adult man,
a champion of God. Work with me, and not only
won't I make you do anything you don't want to do,
I'll let you do whatever you want to do. And
we all know how that turned out. The next thing
you knew, Mike Tyson had a giant face tattoo that
(11:01):
looked like he'd had a really bad collision with a
rot iron bird feeder, and America got Trump still ahead
(11:25):
of us. In this edition of Countdown, the latest nightmare
in Nashville, and how quickly the right wing went from
the usual day dreams that it was a false flag
and child actors and meant to distract from this or
whatever to something far worse and far more evil. When
the shooter was revealed as trans that was Fox's only
headline last night. Chris Licht's last brilliant new idea for CNN.
(11:50):
The weekly series starring Bill Maher is down to thirty
five thousand viewers in the top demographic group. So Chris
Lichts next brilliant new idea for CNN another weekly series
starring Gail King and I have played for you before.
The Mona Lisa of TV Sports outtakes Gary Miller's soccer Breakdown.
(12:15):
But that wow, that was the edited version recently recovered
from the bottom of a box there medically sealed since
a preceding century. I have now found the original complete
soccer breakdown in three two one. That's next. This is countdown.
(12:39):
This is Countdown with Keith Overman. Postscripts to the news,
some headlines, some updates, some snarks, some prediction. State line
tel Aviv, the Prime Minister of Israel and has proposed
judicial changes that have provoked months of protests in that country.
May have relieved tensions for the moment, but perhaps made
(13:01):
them worse for the long term. Benjamin Netan Yahoo post
pone the legislation, and the far right coalition that put
him back in office said the legislation will pass and
quote no one will scare us, and net and Yahoo
helpfully added as he postponed it in that he was
doing so in hopes of quote preventing a civil war.
A civil war. Hell of a thing for the sitting
(13:23):
leader of a democracy to invoke. Dateline Nashville, Three nine
year old kids are dead, and so is the head
of their school, and a substitute teacher and the custodian.
And there is a horrifying photo of a crying child
a hand pressed up against the inside of a school
bus window after the latest mass school shooting at a
Christian school in Tennessee. And the headline on the Fox
(13:46):
quote news unquote site reads Christian school massacre suspect identified
as transgender. Because that's clearly what matters, not the dead kids,
nor the fact that this is the thirty eighth mass
shooting in this country this month. Fox quote news quote
overflowed with brilliant excuses. Yesterday, not one but two supposed
(14:09):
experts explained that the shooter had gained access to the
school via an unlocked side door. Both said I told
you so. Then police revealed no, all the doors were locked,
and she simply shot her way through one of the doors,
which is another reason assault weapons must be banned. Dateline,
Washington House Republicans response to the nightmare. They were scheduled
(14:30):
today to mark up the seven percent budget increased proposal
from the Biden administration for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives, most of which was going to try to
combat mass shootings. Congressman Andy Clyde of Georgia, who was
a gun store owner and thus a man who profits
off the murdering of children and other Americans, said there
(14:52):
was no way President Biden would get that increase. Congressman
Andy Biggs of Arizona, who may or may not be
loyal to the United States of America, went a little further.
He proposed eliminating what he called, with no sense of
irony a quote woke weaponized agency. Then somebody in the
GOP finally realized this would be a bad look the
(15:13):
day after another school shooting, so that markup will be postponed.
They don't say till when, but the answer is until
people forget about Nashville and the Republican Death Cult can
resume houring itself out to the gun lobby. May they
all burn in Hell as soon as is convenient, still ahead.
(15:44):
Historical research takes many forms. You may study ancient Sanskrit
texts or look into the pyramids for ancient chewing gum.
I study great sportscasting bloopers and pre production catastrophes, And
there is an important new find in the latter. In
the story of soccer breakdown first time for the daily
(16:08):
roundup of the miscrants, morons and dunning Krueger effect specimens
who constitute today's worst persons in the world. The Bronze
Dan Bongino, the Fox weekend host who draws on his
own hair. Now, whatever you think of Antifa, whatever you
think it is, this much is clear. Antifa or antifa
(16:31):
is short for anti fascists. The faugh is for fascists.
Leave off the last ask for savings. So it takes
a particular kind of moron to write this sentence, and
Bongino is that kind of moron. Quote Antifa fascists are
so embarrassing to their I'll just read this again. Antifa
(16:53):
fascists are so embarrassing to their families. Blah blah blah blah.
That's right, Bongino believes there are anti fascist fascists. When
Rupert Murdoch finally fires Tucker Carlson, my money is on
this Bunghino as the new Weeknight guy. The runner up
Ilio Leubushkin of Hockey's Buffalo Sabers. I will give him
(17:14):
this much. Other Russian players have hidden behind the dictates
of their homophobic Russian Orthodox religion. Still more have hidden
behind their fear for themselves or their relatives back home,
who could be harris if the player participates in a
National Hockey League team's pride night. Leo Bushkin is at
least sort of putting his name to using the latter
(17:34):
excuse for begging off the Buffalo Sabers LGBTQ celebration last night,
in which he was asked to wear a uniform for
like ten minutes with some of the lettering and numerals
in a rainbow pattern. No patches, no banners, no statements,
just rainbows, And he said no one can empathize with
an athlete from a dictatorship who could face retribution. But
(17:55):
there is a larger point here. That is being missed.
Right now, Vladimir Putin gets to decide whether or not
American and Anadian private businesses are permitted to make a
public statement in the US or Canada about inclusivity and acceptance.
Vladimir Putin is deciding what we can and cannot do
(18:19):
at hockey games on this continent. Now, what if he
now announces that any Russian player on a team that
had a Ukraine Night or a pro Piece night or
whatever might be punished. Unfortunately, there is a simple fix here.
The National Hockey League needs to offer Russian players two choices.
Renounce their citizenships and move themselves, maybe their families here
(18:42):
or anywhere else that isn't Russia. We will welcome them
with open arms, or they should be banished from the NHL.
They should not be at risk because of Vladimir Putin.
And also we as Americans and Canadians should not be
dictated to buy Putin using them. But our winner, good
(19:03):
old Christ of CNN. You know, mister Paced, I told
you several weeks back that there was reporting by Puck
News that Lick's latest brainstorm to supposedly help CNN was
to give Gail King of CBS mornings a weekly primetime
show on CNN, even though a weekly shows on cable
(19:24):
news have never worked, ever, never, ever. B Chris Lick's
last idea, a weekly show with Bill Maher, is now
drawing half of what was previously on in that time slot.
It's down to forty five thousand viewers in the Key
twenty fifty four demo forty five thousand viewers. C Morning
(19:47):
television news and primetime television news are so different, with
such different audiences and tastes that they might as well
be different industries, and success in one is almost always
a guarantee of failure in the other. Ask Katie Kurrik
or ask Don Lemon at CNN right now and d success.
Gayl King's CBS show is in last place, but of
(20:11):
course Chris lickt used to supervise that show and having
no imagination where real understanding of the industry, just repeats
what he knows and says it's successful. The Wall Street
Journal reporting CNN is now quote finalizing a deal for
King to host a weekly primetime show, according to people
familiar with the journal, also says Licht is still talking
(20:33):
to Charles Barkley about a primetime show and Charles Barkley
has said his primetime show on CNN would be with
Gayl King bring your popcorn to use during the dumpster fire.
The journal also does not indicate which night Gayl King's
weekly show would be failing on Chris. Look, if I'm
(20:56):
right and they hired him to deliberately destroy CNN, exactly
what would have be done differently than he's doing now
licked two days worst person in the world still ahead
(21:18):
on Countdown. Some archaeologists hunt for ancient ruins. I hunt
for things I've preserved on cassette tapes in nineteen ninety four.
Well I found one of them, the original of the
infamous ESPN soccer breakdown. This is a saga I have
told before, but now it comes with this added historical artifact,
(21:41):
the uncut version. Next first, in each edition of Countdown,
we feature a dog in need you can help. Every
dog has its day into Patchog New York and Joey,
Maria Floyd, Tornado, Hope, Miracle Blade, Misha, Lacey, Chico, Pebbles,
and Nance. Those are the dogs whose medical needs were
treated and paid for by the New York Bully Crew Rescue.
(22:04):
Just in the last week, YEP pities and pibbles and mixes.
And at a time when donations are scarce everywhere, these
guys owe their meat supplier six thousand dollars and until
it's paid, the dogs are not getting any more food.
It's as dire as that. Check out their site ny
bullycrew dot org and donate if you can, or you
(22:25):
can find them on my Twitter feeds. I thank you,
and Joey and Maria and all the others thank you
as well. Gary Miller was one of the backbones of
Sports Center. I had worked with him at CNN. He
(22:46):
was strong, competent, very loud, forceful, He hated mascots, and
he had no filter. He and Dan Patrick were great
friends in Atlanta, and then Gary and Dan left four
ESPN within months of each other nineteen nineteen ninety. This
has been said of me, and so I say it
of Gary with affection. He suffered no fools gladly, and
(23:08):
though his elbows were always up, he made sure that
ninety nine percent of the time when they bumped into somebody,
that somebody had well deserved it. As near as I
can piece together, Gary was doing the eleven PM Sports
Center on Friday night, June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four. Typically,
Dan and I did the eleven Sunday through Thursday. The
(23:28):
story of soccer's nineteen ninety four World Cup. At least
in the first week, was a preponderance of player ejections
red cards handed them by the referee. In those days,
the eleven PM Sports Center included a feature two or
three minutes long on a story that had drummed up
a lot of interest during the first show planning meeting
around three thirty PM. It was a feature called Breakdown.
(23:50):
It provided long form analysis in today's when we didn't
have a lot of that could be a coach getting fired,
could be the relative credentials of Baseball Hall of Fame candidates,
could be one fantastic play in a game. Once we
did a deadpan, serious breakdown about injuries to mascots. A
producer or the anchor himself would write the script. They
(24:11):
would prerecord the narration, and then the producer would edit it.
This is pre digital. It was done tape to tape.
It could take hours to edit it, and the key
was to track it. To record that narration, which was
done in a tiny wood paneled room. Wreaking of mildew
that looked and smelled exactly like every suburban basement reck
(24:33):
room in America circa October nineteen sixty five. That's where
Gary Miller found himself on the night of Friday, June
twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four, reading a script about soccer
players from around the world, none of whose names he
had ever seen before, let alone tried to pronounce. It
was The Soccer Breakdown in all senses of the word.
(25:00):
The raw tape, the original version of his tracking session
for the sc for Soccer Breakdown, is easily the most
beloved bootleg in ESPN's history. In fact, it is so
popular that there are several different cuts of this bootleg.
People have sat down with the original tape, which runs
nearly twenty minutes, and edited it down to only the
(25:22):
best or worst parts. Now I'm not going to say
I have a copy of the original. I'm simply going
to note that Dan Patrick ran it on his radio
show in twenty seventeen and posted the whole segment to YouTube.
So yeah, that's where I got my copy of it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm going
(25:44):
to annotate for you what happened, So let me present
this to you in three segments. It did not start
well for Gary and it got worse from there, although
mister Miller gave it its eternal title and life by
going sibilant on the s. For the words soccer, I'll
note only one thing, the acronym of National Soccer's outfit
(26:06):
FIFA Gariot's pronounced FIFA soccer breakdown in three two one,
FIFA Soccer's governing barty three two one, FIFA Soccer's three
two one. The red card has become the calling card
for this year's tournament. Seven ejections for three two one
(26:33):
witness Romania's Ian Bladhu against the Swiss is or thrill Christ.
But that was the easy part. Now in the script
came the names of the World Cup stars who had
been given red card ejections in the first week of
the tournament. One was the seventeen year old star of
the Cameroon team, Riggerbert's Song, often referred to by his
(26:57):
full name, Riggerbert's Song bahan og or, as it was
said in the script, Riggerbird bahan a song three two
one Cameroons, Riggelberg bonom yag three two one Cameroons Riggelberg
(27:18):
Bayanan zan Za Da Da Byan Young song three two
one Cameroons Riggelberg Banyang zong bay On Young song three
two one three two one. By the way, Rigglebert's song
(27:41):
is now the manager of the Cameroon team. He's gone
from being the youngest player in the World Cup history
to get a red card to running his nation's team.
I'll interject here that at the start of this final
major clip, Gary Miller says to somebody who has clearly
entered that tracking room that smelled of mildew, get out
of here. Dan Patrick said that was him. I think
(28:02):
he's mistaken. It doesn't matter much, but there was no
reason for Dan to have been there on a Friday night,
especially if we were not doing the show. And also
there has never been a microphone ever that Dan has
not spoken into. Anyway. We have already met Riggerbert Bohanoc's song.
Now meet my guy, the Italian goalie John Luca Polyuka
(28:26):
two get out of here? Two is guilt through two?
How long is this tape? Three two one one one
Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyan song preventing a breakaway from Brazil's babbetto
a fah God Almighty, I hate soccer. Cameroon's Riggleberg bun
(28:49):
Yon Young song. I'm gonna try that one last millie
time two one, Cameroon's Riggleberg Bunyonyong song, I hate this
chocop Bolivia's Luis Christaldo for both on three two one.
But the most notable red card of the tournament came
an Italian goaltender, Jean Luca Palyuka Paul Yuka, Paul Yuka
(29:14):
from the Mother three two one. But the flurry of
red cards thus far as Todd coaches and players alike
to control their play if they'd like to control their
fate in this tournament. Holy, that is all. The pronunciation
of Rigorbert's song's name is one thing. I was delighted
(29:36):
by how furious Gary got at Gianluca Pallyuka of the
Italian team, and the explative he used to describe him.
Richard may have just heard. In the days that followed.
In fact, the Italian goalies name became shorthand for me
four that expletive in question. So for the next three
years on Sports Center and after that on Fox Sports
News and then on My ESPN two show and on
(29:59):
Football Night in America, and then when I returned to
Sports Center in twenty eighteen, if you heard me say
John Luca Pallyuka while we were showing a player making
an error or arguing with an umpire or official, I
was actually implying that the player had just said John
Luca Pallyuka. There's another punchline to this story, of course,
(30:21):
the idea to do this soccer breakdown that so bedeviled
Gary Miller, the story of red cards in the first
week of the nineteen ninety four World Cup. The idea
to do that came from Gary Miller, never volunteer. I've
never been convinced that Gary was really happy about his immortality,
(30:42):
certainly not in the way my ESPN pal Steve Levy
not so secretly glories in the day. He once tried
to say that a New England Patriots player had a
bulging disc, but didn't quite get disc right. But Gary
Miller has been a good sport about this through the
end of his ESPN career in two thousand and four
and afterwards, in his days at Channel two and Channel
(31:03):
nine in Los Angeles and most recent a Channel Too
in Cincinnati. It isn't hard to understand why this tape
is so famous and the pleasure derived from it so enduring.
As John Cleese once said about the real life hotel
manager on whom he based his character from Faulty Towers,
he had this wonderful bad temper. But there are two
(31:23):
more things. One, this occurred exactly a week to the
day after the O. J. Simpson car chase, and people
forget now just how disturbing that was in an America,
especially sports America, like at ESPN, that with the exception
of a few of us who knew, nobody knew how
rotten a human being OJ Simpson was, So even a
(31:46):
week later, we all needed this laugh, and Gary gave
it to us and even larger. The essence of soccer
in every country in which it is played is that
it always allows and encourages and even demands that its
fans complain about it. And so while we cherish soccer
(32:08):
breakdown and three two one and Rigobert Bahanong Song and
Babetto and John Luca Baluka, to me, it is really
about five words that anybody who hates the game will say.
But there are also five words that any fan of
the sport will certainly use at some point in his life,
(32:29):
possibly at some point today. A bah, God Almighty, I
hate soccer. Since I first told you this story, I have,
as I mentioned, rediscovered an artifact that I thought was
gone forever. Right after the soccer breakdown saga unfolded, an
ESPN colleague made me a copy of the original raw
(32:52):
tape of Gary and we put it on a cassette
and I couldn't find it. There were things on it
that were somehow lost from all subsequent copies of Soccer
or Breakdown. So this is not as high death, but
I think it's even more high comedy. Soccer breakdown in
(33:12):
three two one after a nineteen ninety World Cup marked
by physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's three two
one After a nineteen ninety World Cup marked by three
two one. After a nineteen ninety World Cup marked by
physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's governing body send
(33:34):
out a decree for the nineteen ninety four Cup to
be better police the result. The red card has become
the calling card for this year's tournament. Seven ejections for
three two one after a nineteen ninety World Cup marked
by physical play and low scores, FIFA Soccer's governing body
sent out the decree for the nineteen ninety four Cup
(33:57):
to be better police. The result, the red card has
become the calling card for this year's tournament. Seven ejections
through the first twenty rematches and a direct message that
rough play will not be tolerated and more teams will
be playing a man down if it continues. The goal
more goals and a more palatable sell to the American
public three two one. The results just over two and
(34:22):
a half goals of contest compared to two point two
per game at the nineteen ninety Cup in Italy. Why
does the red card come out? A Fight For rule
book states a players shall be sent off the field
of play and shown the red card if, in the
opinion of the referee he won is guilty of violent
conduct witness romanias Ian Bladu against the Swiss is or
(34:43):
through christ three two one. Why does the red card
come out? The Fight For rule book states that players
should be said off the field of play and shown
the red card if, in the opinion of the referee
he won is guilty of violent conduct. Witness romanias Ian
Bladu against the Swiss two is guilty of serious foul play.
(35:04):
Cameroons Riggelberg Bonum Yag bonon Yang song preventing a breakaway
from the babetto three two one two is guilty of
serious foul play. Cameroons Riggleberg Bayanan zhang Za Da Da
(35:26):
Bayanyan song three two one two is guilty of serious
foul play. Cameroon's Rigglberg Banyang Zong Bayanyan song three two
one two Get out of here two is guilty through
(35:51):
it two? How long is this tape? Two is guilty
of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggleberg Banyang song preventing a
breakaway from Brazil's babetto a ba Ah God Almighty, I
Hate Soccer two is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's
(36:12):
Riggleberg Bunyan Young song provided a breakaway from Brazil's babetto
a play both sirious and foul, deserving of a red card.
I'm better try that one last time two one two
is guilty of serious foul play. Cameroon's Riggelberg bun Yon
Young's song prevented a breakaway from Brazil's babetto a play
(36:34):
both sirious and foul and deserving of a red card.
Three uses foul or abusive language, can't show you that,
and four is guilty of a second cautionable I hate this.
Three uses foul or abusive language, and four is guilty
of a second cautionable offense after having received a caution.
(36:55):
Chalcop Bolivia is Luis Cristaldo for both on three two one.
Chalcop Bolivia is Luis Cristaldo for both. On this case,
as he was, he was a yellow card and then
he uses on a foul or abusive language to draw
a second yellow and be ejected against South Korea. A
tone was set in the first match of the tournament
when Bolivia's Marco Antonio Etcheveri was ejected for this illegal
(37:18):
kick against the Germans. But the most notable red card
of the tournament came an Italian goaltender Jean Luca Paulyuka
the Mother three two one. But the most notable red
card of the tournament came when Italian goaltender John Luca
Polyuka was ejected against Norway for a handball outside the
goal where the game was still schooreless. Three two one,
(37:42):
but the most notable red card of the tournament came
an Italian go toender John Luca Polyuka was ejected against
Norway for a handball outside the goal area with the
game still schooreless down a man a team's first instinct
as defense, and injured Roberto Baggio, who is now a
liability even if he is one of the world's most
talented offensive players. The gamble paid off Italy stive in
(38:05):
this year's World Cup, but the flurry of red cars
thus far has taught coaches and players alike to control
their play if they'd like to. I've done all the
(38:27):
damage I can do here. Thank you for listening. Here
the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced, and
performed by Brian Ray and John Philip Channel, who are
the Countdown musical directors. All orchestration and keyboards by John
Philip Channel, guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced
by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and
performed by the group No Horns Allowed. The sports music
(38:50):
is the Olberman theme from ESPN two and it was
written by Mitch Warren Davis. Courtesy of ESPN inc musical
comments by Nancy Faust, the best baseball stadium organist ever.
Our announce here today was Stevie Band's ant and everything
else is pretty much my fault. So that's countdown for this,
the eight hundred and twelfth day since Donald Trump's first
attempted coup against the democratically elected government of the United States.
(39:13):
Arrest him now while we still can. The next scheduled
countdown is tomorrow, So until then, I'm Keith Oldreman. Good morning,
good afternoon, goodnight, and good luck. Countdown with Keith Olderman
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(39:37):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
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