Chris Berman is Still a Whalers Fan: McDavid's extension, season predictions and Panthers-Lightning beef.

With the 2025-26 NHL season finally here, Jason Demers and Adnan Virk wade into Connor McDavid's shocking contract extension, opening night action and their predictions for the season. Then legendary broadcaster Chris Berman discusses his passion for the Canadian Football League, his beloved Hartford Whalers and his favorite sports nicknames. Finally, the guys discuss Tim Robinson's Friendship and Boston's big Zdeno Chara announcement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
NHL Unscripted is a production of the NHL and iHeart podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's right, NHL Unscripted. The Puck has dropped. It's episode fifty.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is a big one for me and JD and
coming up with discussing lots of great tops including Sandano Chara.
Just how much of a psycho was he is? He'll
get his number retire for the Boston Bruins. Maddie Ice
has arrived and this is a huge gept for us.
Episode fifty tal getting it done. The incredible Chris Berman
will join us the ESPN Legend to tell stories about
being a harperd Whalers table, go oh the way, We'll

(00:47):
talk football cameras and all the best of this is
big j D.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
But the fact we got Boomer Today's mass Boomer.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Are you excited?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Are you kidding? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Boomer, I mean absolute ESPN legend. You know, I get
to work there nine years, spend him a few times.
It was awesome to this day when people say you
work to the spind you met Chris Berman, Like, that's
one of the first questions you get.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
He's such his gun.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, it's like I went to I was going to
sleep as a kid listening to his highlights, you know, like, yeah,
we all were. I just think it's like he's been
around for so long and so iconic, it's gonna be
cool to just pick his brain a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I completely agree. The longevity is amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Before we get into the hockey that took place last night,
the Return of the mac Connor, McDavid finally signed his
extension two years, twenty five million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I was off the prediction, JD. I thought two years
thirty five million dollars, so ten million dollars. I was
off by clearly taking a.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Bit of a hometown discount after Capriesof's eight year, one
thirty six McDavid. Now the fact he didn't get as
much as he could have got, they signed defenseman Jake
Wollman seven years, forty nine million dollars. Mcdane'll ba a
UFA again in three years when he's thirty one years
of age. You predicted this, you said, I'm thinking small term.
He'll get his money, maybe a littless money because he
wants up the team win.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
What do you make a two for twenty five for.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
McDavid, Jack Nicholson, I uh, I predicted I didn't predict
him to go that. I think short term, yeah, I
predicted the short term, I could not predict predicted. I
don't think anybody could have predicted the level of selflessness
that this guy showed taking that deal and for that

(02:17):
amount of money. I mean, this is going to go
down as I and I don't know if you guys
have that as well. We're talking about it on the
network last night. In recent memory or in your lifetime,
have you ever seen the best player at his position
in the NHL or any sport that took a team

(02:39):
friendly deal like this that's that significant, Like this is
again twelve and a half million people like, and we
had some sound from him his interview after he's like, listen,
my family's not going to go hungry from this, which
is right. It's twelve and a half million for two
years plus this year. But he could have easily taken
twenty two, could have easily taken eighteen. Caprice offset the

(03:02):
market at seventeen. I thought he was going to take
it to your eighteen year. This is gonna go down
as one of the all time great moves by a
player just being selfless. If Stan Bowman TikTok TikTok, Stan Bowman,
you're on the clock now, can get him a cup
and give him the ability to win a cup because man,

(03:25):
while like it's I've never seen that. I don't know
if you guys have seen that. We can kind of
we kind of were comparing the Crosby the eight point seven.
You know, Crosby could have kind of left some money
on the table, but this is like significant, this is
this is like one hundred million left on the table,
number one. If he went long term and short term
he left probably twenty million on you know, so it's

(03:48):
like maybe ten. I mean he could have went, he
could have went twenty two. Yeah, ten a year. It's
it's significant. So but you know, we all take a
deep exhale. The prodigal sun stays in Edmonton, but the
pressure now mounce because it's winning the cup, my friends.
And if you don't win the cup, he's fucking out

(04:10):
of there. So I think big time for them.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
To your point about it, you know, his family still
getting able to eat makes you think of two thousand
and four, Latreelle Spreeball famously declined a three year, twenty
one million dollar contract because quote, I have a family
to feed refuse to sign for minimum contract or five million,
seven million a year Sprady to get his money talented
to Jad's point, which is that the clock is now
ticking right three years and then McDavid's gone.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
The Oilers now have a sense of urgency.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yes, TikTok TikTok is right.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Uh yeah, it's you got three years to win a
cup and if you don't, that might be it. That
could be, that could be. That could be the story
of Connie Mack in Edmonton. I'm I mean I heard
two years twenty five is like good for him, He's
getting twenty five million year, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
And then thought he's getting half that unbelievable. I mean,
what can you even say.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
I mean, he had all the leverage, he could ask
for anything, and Edmonton probably would have given it to him.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I mean, in study says you.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Got three years, I'll take less, build the team around
me that will finally bring this thing home.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
And and as you see, I'm wearing my Royal Mayfair
hat from Edmonton.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Just wait till we get to support YouTube. Then everybody
else see that hat.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
One of these days. But here's the other thing with that,
Like you look at you know, because it's three years.
He's got this year and then two years you get
two years from now and Bowman hasn't figured it out.
That's also like I'm thinking, like how selfless this is.
That's also a great team friendly deal to trade in
two years if you need to trade and Connor's left

(05:44):
it on the table, like hey, if we're not good
enough and I need to get moved, I can still
go to a contender. They can eat some money and
I still have the opportunity to go and win win
a cup and also sign with the team, and Edmonton
will have the ability to get a I mean just
a haul back. So it's it is one of the

(06:07):
well designed contracts I've seen by an agent and player
jud Moldover and Connor McDavid. The fact they thought of this,
I think is covers all the bases for Connor so
I mean, and for the Vans and oiler. So but
once again you said it, TikTok, TikTok goes the Stanley

(06:28):
Cup clock.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Before we get to what happened last night, we'll do
our predictions here around the league. So kick it off
first d D in the East. I have the Maple
Leafs winning the division you.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
I concur I think the Maple Leafs have I'm gonna
go down a limb here and say, this is the
best Maple Leaf tea team in the last five years
on paper, fully depth wise, this is the best team
in the past five years, the Toronto Maypleafs.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
What's your biggest reason for believing that they're heavy?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
They're finally the team that Craig Berube wants for that system.
You got Dakota Joshua, you got Nick Whah. The back end,
which has had a lot of turnovers, stays the same.
You got two good goalies. I know there's a little
bit of injury problems with wool and Stilars, but Stolars
is the guy in the net and up front. Man,

(07:19):
I know Marner is gone. It's one hundred and two points,
but I think there might be a lower scoring team.
But they're gonna be very hard to play against. Matthew Nyes,
Dakota Joshua, you got a lot of heavy bodies on
this team, and they're not going to be pushed around.
They're built for the playoffs. So this is the to me,
the best team that gives them the best chance in

(07:41):
the past five years and I know we said it
all the time in Toronto and they're probably gonna shit
in my bowl of cereal or whatever we want to
call it. Whatever. Yeah, I just this is I'm having hope.
You got the Blue Jays playing some good ball.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
But it's Toronto. Come on, Canada, we need it, we
need something, we need it.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
But Toronto and the Metropolitan vision that Hurricanes have finished
first or second in the Metro five consecutive years, They've
reached the playoffs seven straight seasons, and they sign nikolaike
Eelers to me, I got the Hurricanes in the met Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think the Met's gonna be the worst division in hockey.
We saw that last night watching Rangers versus Penguins. I mean,
Penguins played a perfect road game, but that was some bad,
bad hockey.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Start for Mike Salvans team.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Oh tough start. I mean they all took ambient before
the game, sleeping or just you know, I don't want
to and it's only one game and it's the opener.
But you're at MSG opening night, Come on, give me something.
Piss the drop. Uh, but I'll go Hurricanes with you.
We're on the same page. I was kind of leading
the Capitals too, But.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Now, I'm gonna stay Hurricanes. I think Hurricanes they're on
a mission.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Okay, perfect, I saw it.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Next week, go Central Winnipeg Jackson. They lose Nikolai Eelers.
But to me, you've still got hellabuck, You've still got
tons of star power Stifley Connor Moore.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
I will go with the Winnipeg Jets. This is where
we did for my friend. The West is where Daddy eats,
and the West is where I live, and the West
is where I know the league. Uh not Winnipeg. Jonathan
Tave's already a little nicked up, missing Lowry, missing Purfetti,
got some injury troubles there. I don't know if they

(09:25):
can do it. They'll have a good year, they'll be
in the top three, but they will not be first.
I will give it to the team last night that
looked very stout, missing their top goalie, Mackenzie Blackwood. The
Colorado overlong, I'm gonna take it.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Adding your boy Brent Burns, some freegency and Brock Nelson.
Yeah to the deadline, So beefing up that team and
the Pacific.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Vegas Vegas running away with it. Vegas by Vegas by
a landslide, All right, landslide.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Which gets us to the Thumpert which is the hot take,
the Jason de Murz hot tag, what is something you're
gonna put your name off?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Pe'all gonna look back of man has nailed it?

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Uh Anaheim? Well I'll get two of them, Okay, Sure,
Anaheim Ducks will be in the top three in the Pacific.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I love it because you could have just said playoff team,
You're going top three?

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, I think after watching last night and again it's early,
but I think the La Kings, I'm not sure forward
group fantastic. The decor I don't know can move the
puck well enough to those forwards. I think they will
struggle a bit. I know duml en CC, but I
just think they might might have a little bit of trouble.

(10:41):
I think they'll still get in. But I think it
is Anaheim Ducks. They're gonna surprise a lot of people.
Then my other hot take, which is Overreaction Central. But
Marty Nachius unrestricted for you wins the rocket Rashard.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Wow, unbelieved.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So Colorado trades ransom for Natus and now he's gonna win.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
The Rocket scored.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Two last game, first game of the season, forty eight
away him and Justin Brazo clubhouse leaders for goals scored.
But I do believe that he is going to have
a big year. And you know, McKennon just seems to
find him. And the thing with Nate Dogg is if
he finds you and you score, you best believe you

(11:26):
getting that puck more and more so. He only gives
you a couple of chances, but if you score, he's
going to keep feeding you. Where's your hot take? We
need your hot take?

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well this could be listen the final month of an
h on the script. Who knows what the future could hold?
So I'm going to be for Canada. Okay, the top
three teams the Atlantic are all going to be Canadian. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal,
Florida and Tampa Bay will both be wild cards.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Whoa Canada? Not as crazy as you might think.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Look at the point, No, no, no, I'm respecting Florida
regression obviously without Ka Chuck and Barkoff.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, but did you watch him?

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Did you watch him last game?

Speaker 2 (12:03):
They listen?

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Unbelievable. They still got one of the best teams in
the league missing Barkoff and kud Chuck.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
But Monchwall could go back to back Calder winners if
Demodoff steps up the way I think he could.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
They haven't done that. I mean, no teams that since
the Bruins in the late sixties leaves we agree on.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Now, I just need Ottawa, who should be really good
again playoff team.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Well, I mean, let's throw another one out there. I
don't think Demooff wins the Calder. I think it's I
think Michael Misa can steal it or Matthew Schaeffer because
they think Demooff is not going to have He's not
going to be playing top power play at least to start,
and that's a lot of his point totals. So I

(12:41):
think there's the doors open for another rookie, maybe Brady Martin,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
According to betting odds right now, Demidoff is the favorite.
Tell what's your hot pick? You're fired up right now?

Speaker 3 (12:52):
We got him excited the Moose Stash. The Moose Stash
was wiggling getting worked out.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Boys.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
The season is finally here. It's a very exciting. Yeah, my,
we we've been talking about these the big one. I
like I like the Calgary Flames this season.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
I think they're going to make the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Wow, yeah, I'm taking it. I'm taking a swing.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
I'm taking a swing here. But yeah, swing.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
They've got the.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Goalie Morgan Frost had a fantastic preseason. I think they
got the the they signed their coach, your guy av
I I like like some I like coming in and
having a nice rookie season for them. I mean, I
think they looked like they could get it done. And

(13:38):
you mentioned Brady Martin j D.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
I like him.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
I mean he might not last.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
Nine games, but he's been playing with like Ryan O'Reilly
and Philip Forstburg a bit in the preseason.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Clearly very scaled at eighteen years old.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
He's a guy I'm looking out for for the the
Caulder this season. The the West is going to be
an absolute slog. You know, look at Nashville, Like Nashville
still has a great team. They bring in Nick Haig,
Hague Purbicks, like their decour is really really stout. Haigg's
hurt right now, but when he comes back, Uh, this
is a team that's like gonna have a little bite

(14:11):
to him. So it's gonna be tough. Like Minnesota is decent.
I have high hopes for Saint Louis. I think Utah's
I think Utah is gonna miss. Everybody's gonna get fired. Yeah,
I just think I I just don't like their team
makeup right now, and I just think it's it's gonna
be tough, sled and early there. I think Seattle is

(14:32):
gonna be horrid. I think Vancouver is not gonna be great.
So I have those three. I think Calgary, I don't
have Calgary anywhere near the playoffs, but I like that.
I like that pick. Though swing for defenses. I think
Dustin Wold progresses a bit sophomore slump. You know, goalies
aren't immune to it. It's when you have that good

(14:53):
of her first year. And you know my affinity and
my hatred for small goalies, I hate it. Give me
a big goalie any day, Give me a big Well.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
We're recording before Wednesday Night's game, still to go over
an exciting opening night, as JD alluded to the Panthers,
they raised the banner beat the Blackhawks three two. Penguins
ruined their former coach Mike Salvin's first game as head coach.
Penguins beat the Rangers three nothing at MSG and then
with this one thoy sixteenth career point, Nathan McKinnon passes
Joe Sakkeek, the Avalanche's all time leading scorer, and a
four to one win. I don't think the Penguins or

(15:28):
the Rangers or playoff teams, But how about Mike Salvin's debut.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Didn't guys advertise on MSG?

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, they're I mean, I don't know what that pregame
speech was, but they came out flat. They were flat
all game. I just they just looked disjointed, and uh, Pittsburgh,
I mean credit to Pittsburgh. Those young guys that came in,
Uh Brunick, Harrison Brunick on defense, great little player, and

(15:55):
then everybody was super high. And I wanted to watch
this Ben Kendall and this guy was poised, young kid like,
you know, playing on the biggest stage. And these guys
just played a perfect road game. And listen, I I
think you could say that Rangers were flat and they
looked they didn't look good. But I just thought they

(16:15):
got outclassed in every spot on the ice. Dan muse
is preached staying connected is their theme all camping, and
I think that's something that was done to perfection in
this game, and you can't ask as a coach. You're
going back in that locker room. You're sitting down and
you as you were as hard as a rock at

(16:35):
the perfection that game was. From goaltending to Archer Sea Lofts.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Coming over from the trade from Vancouver.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
You're like, wait, Archer Sea Lofts, A former number three
goalie low Is one of the playoffs, is now shutting
down the Rangers on Broadway.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I love it, love for Archers.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Do you want a funny story?

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (16:53):
I credit his success to myself. The last, the last
shot on net I had in my professional career was
on arch Your Sea Lofts. We were down one in
the Calder Cup playoffs, facing elimination in the opening round.
One of our one of my teammates, Mark uh Nima Linen,

(17:16):
just obliterates somebody by their bench. Now everybody there's a
huge brewj hob. But the puck's still there. Puck goes
to the corner. One of the guys in her team goes,
I'm gonna go get the puck. I sneak down all alone,
all alone, and the dying embers, the burning embers of
the game in Abbotsford in one of the shittiest rooms,

(17:37):
people yelling, oh just craziness, places going bananas. I get
the pass in the slot, I go. This is painted
archer Sea lofts, a young archer Sea lofts and net
slides stays compact. I try to go A little blocker
makes the save my hopes of continuing my career cast

(17:58):
asunder retirement, Yes.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Under crying, Yes, I love it, se love's oss, gretit JD.
That's saved, gave him the If I can stop Jason
de Murz, maybe one day I can shut down the
Rangers on. Speaking of crazy stats, you mentioned the fact
that you know McDavid taking less money. How about this
Malkin Crosby Latang first trio in the four major North
American men's professional sports leagues to play twenty seasons together

(18:23):
with the same team. That is a record that will
never be broken in salary cap era.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, that's I want to know if they actually like
each other in twenty years, Like do you still hang
because you know it's it happens in sports, Like you'll
play with somebody. I played with guys for six years.
I'd never stepped inside their house, and I played and
trained with guys in the NHL for six years market
door Vlassek, And I mean, I think we maybe if
we pass each other in the street, we might not

(18:49):
recognize each other. Great guy, I love them, but just
like one of those things in sports, once the season's over,
you go your separate ways, you go your own way,
And I think it'd be interesting to see. But I mean, what,
you know, Crosby, you see a.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Guy so much twenty years, Like, listen, what more do
I need? Like maybe you know Gino's just like how
much more said to I need in my life?

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Like we're good, yeah, please leave me alone. Exactly it's
ten months here. But I mean, though you know Crosby's
been it's just amazing and astounding at how long they've
been kind of the face of the league, Crosby, Malkin,
and they've carried the league with Ovechkin as well, and uh,
they just you know, Malkin doesn't get enough credit for
how great of a career he had. You know, he's

(19:31):
always kind of been a little bit chattowed by Crosby.
But and then you put Lttang in there as a defenseman,
and what he's overcame. And I mean, these are these
guys won cops together. I mean, this is a it's
gonna be a sad day when these guys leave you.
You kind of already seen the changing of the guard,
you know, co Patars last season, Crosby malkin Ov, you know,

(19:51):
Brent Burns. Like this is like the final little slog.
This is the final group of guys that are going
out and then it's the you know, then it's gonna
be the McKinnon's in, the McDavid's turn. You know, that's
like they've they've already been the face thing with these
older guys. This is kind of dowdy. It's kind of
the end of the road. So you know, it's uh,
it's it's it's very nostalgic.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
The last of the Mohicans, so to speak. And speaking
of youngs.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
What a fucking movie that is.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh, daniel lewis unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
I love Last Wens. I have that a VHS.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Stay alive no matter what happens.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
I will find Yeah, hot guy, Matty Ice has arrived.
Your boy, Matthew Schaeffer with the Andanders of the Age
of eighteen. Think about this list JD of Young defenseman
Phil Housley, Scott stevens.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Ally of Freddie Let's go how about that slap shot?

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Jacob Chickrin, as well as Rasmus Dalli and aaronek Blad,
Roman Hammerleck and Gord Kluzak, who likes Shaeffer Wall taking
first overall level of surprise that Schaeffer starts to the
big club.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
You thought maybe the miners for a little bit or.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
No, He's he's ready to go twenty minutes a night.
Here you come, Matthew, Matthiu Shaefer on Long Island, all
that trash on Long Island. He's gonna have him self
an absolute season. I think he's going to be good.
This is he's gonna learn some stuff. But this is
a kid that is very intelligent, very emotionally intelligent. I

(21:15):
think so many people are rooting for him, and I
just believe he's gonna, you know, he's going to be
a huge focal point of this this team for a
long time. So congrats to Matthew Schaeffer. A lot of
a lot of debuts this year, a lot of you
see the you see the youth coming up here. I
think this was there's five of the first round picks

(21:37):
are debuting this season. I think it's the first time
since twenty sixteen that's happened five first round picks, So
best draft class in the past nine years.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
We'll see youth has served. I guess we'll see these
teams looking one more top before we get to the
great Chris Berman. And this is great headline by tal
the Florida Project, with a nod to Shaun Baker.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Interstate beef started Thursday.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
AJ Green the Panthers SI's a cheap shot at Brandon Hagel.
Greer gets a fine. Two nights later, the Lightning call
up six players from the HL team for the rematch.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Scott Savroni is nineteen seconds goes after.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Aaron ak Plad four game suspension, JJ Moser two game suspension.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
The two teams.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Combined for three hundred and twenty two penalty minutes. The
NHL find the Lightning one hundred game rand and their
head coach John Coper twenty five thousand dollars. At one point,
Timpa Bay had three players in their bench, leading Coop
to say, I think we had more coaches than players
in the bench.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
At one point, Florida dominated tamp on the first run.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
In the past two seasons, they don't play a real
game until November fifteenth.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
How good is this rivalry?

Speaker 3 (22:41):
It's it's the rivalry.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
No, I don't know what would top it, right, Yeah,
it's not what it once was. And there was a
bad blood. These guys hate each other.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
I mean, you could argue the Canadians and Capitals that series,
but this is this is another level. This is hatred.
So I heard from inside the inside the belly of
the Beast that these guys. So after that game was
like the final cuts, and Tampa goes on like a
team bonding trip and they brought all of those guys

(23:12):
that would have been cut. They all the players banded
together and said, hey, these guys are coming with us
on this trip because of what they did standing up
for us, the Saburins and all that. And Julian Breesebaugh
said done. So they brought all these guys, so like
this is this is like this runs deep, Like you're
coming to that team and you have that hatred. I

(23:33):
mean I was in Florida for the year and I
mean there you got to think in terms of like
what other place closeness, you know, you have the Rangers,
the Islanders, and the Devils, and you know, you have
the Devil, probably Devil's. I'd probably see Devil's Rangers. But
when you're that close to another team, and I mean
there's only two teams in the state, and you're, you know,
right across the pond, so to speak, the Everglades, the swamp,

(23:56):
the shit soup, and you get through Alligator Alley and
you just got this other team on the other side.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
You know, Yeah, the most important thing is both things
have to be great. Like for years, you know, people
would say Yankees red Sox and Michael the Yankees kick
their ass, is not.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Really a rivalry. And you're what I said, the approximity
said big.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
You could legitimately see Tampa Bay finally beating Florida this
year the playoffs, or you can see Florida beating for
the third trade time.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Who do I man, I don't know. I the hot
take soup is I keep saying soup. I don't know why.
I must be hungry but rainy. Here's a little cold.
It's a little cold. Warm up the yeah, warm up
the bones. I don't know why I say that. Come on, Jay,
just expand your vernacular, Jay Jez.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Speaking of vernacular, he could go all the way. We're
going one on one with Chris Berman, the ESPN legend.
Right after this, our next guest, the broadcasting icon. He

(24:59):
started his career with the ESPN in nineteen seventy nine
remains an institution at the worldwide leader to the day.
He has anchored coverage of everything from the NFL to
the NHL, to golf to baseball, and his signature enthusiasm, catchphases,
and creative nicknames helped the revolutionize sports broadcasting. The one,
the only Chris Berman boomer and it's great to see
you again, my friend.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
Well you got my check, Thanks chaving that. Thanks for
the nice intro. I should have a nickname for you.
I don't know if I ever did. Burke. Yeah, I
don't think I had a home run for you, so
I didn't. I'll work on it while we talk.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
So nine years of ESPN twenty ten to twenty nineteen,
and the one question I always get ask on somebody said,
you work at the ESPN. G Ever meet Chris Berman
twenty thirteen World Series Red Sox Cardinals. Mike McQuaid of course,
overseeing things a lot of a lot of nicknames for
Q over the over the years.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
He goes, hey, he goes, you're riding with Boomer. I said,
are you kidding yours? Yeah, Chris Berman's here, I said.
He goes, hey, don't I know you're very enthusiastic.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
I'm sure you're a big fani. It's just leave alone.
R It's an early morning and no problem. So we
get the car Shure cans and I couldn't help myself.
I just started to asking you a questions. I got, Boom,
how did you be such a big CFL guy? You
know BK And he goes, oh, Bob accles BC lines.
You start telling me the whole story, Greg say, I said, bull,
it means so much to us when you do great
cup highlights on countdown on prime Time. I said to
Tony Corny, I just said, on peat tag was waving

(26:09):
a Canadian flag.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
You guys go nuts for that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
We start talking about our friend John Sonders, of course,
the late great John Saunders. And then I said, Boom,
I gotta ask you for some of these nicknames.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, sure, I go. Can I tell you my favorite one?

Speaker 5 (26:19):
You go sure? I said.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
It was on the NHL Highlight. You said, ron cough
please tug nut. You said, well with Disney.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Now I can't see these things as much as I
used to. I go fair enough. We get out of
the car, and I said, I asked him for a picture.
I gots a little embarrassing for collegues, like I know,
I got to I got boom. I'm sorry. I just
got one picture, of course, and.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
You put your arm on me to go hey on
the count of three, one, two, three.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
Ay, Well, well, uh, I like I like that. The
folks shop in Canada have liked me, and the and
the reason is and I appreciate it a or yeah.
I could go on and on and on, but it
said with love, you know that. And of course John,
God bless him, and my got a nine years for John,

(27:03):
by the way, passed. I want to say twenty sixteen.
But the thing for TSN picked up NFL primetime right
out of the gates. Okay, maybe not eighty seven, but
but I think SO didn't pick up I don't think

(27:24):
they had our morning show, which was then game Day
and not count out. They might have, but you know,
TSM was doing their own sports center spelled differently like
offenses and defense are spelled differently, you know, offense. But
I believe so in Canada, even late eighties, I was

(27:46):
seen and of course NFL primetime, not because I did it,
believe me. But you had to watch it if you
liked NFL football, I mean you you had to. And
so I would be surprised early nineties, for example, Blue
Jays World Series, okay two of them, and I would

(28:07):
be surprised that how many people knew me early nineties
in Canada, not Americans, you know around going to a
World Series game from Atlanta or you know whatever, but Philly.
But and I knew it was because of prime time.
It was because TSN picked it up. And then also

(28:27):
the Gray Cup highlights. And the background of that is
in the eighties if Bob Ackels wasn't friend obviously, but
in the eighties when we didn't have a lot, I
mean early eighties we had legitimate stuff, but it wasn't
Super Bowl, right, and then we had the CFL Games
of the Week two a week. And in the early

(28:49):
eighties there was Edmonton in the snow wearing uniforms looking
like the Green Bay Packers, with Warren Moon at quarterback
and Warren Moon in the same age as me. Bowl
we watched the CFL games and enjoyed them, and I

(29:10):
enjoyed the differences of them. And I didn't get all
the nuances obviously right away. I mean dead three downs,
I got it. And when they say go long in
the CFL, it's no, you go long right, like keep
going and like if you're playing in Hamilton, you know,
try to get the wins right. So so so was

(29:31):
the CFL. And of course my friend John Saunders and
always being a hockey fan, but the TSN picked us up.
That was a big part of it.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
To be honest with you, Boomer, I grew up listening
to you. You put me to sleep so many nights,
your highlights, And I just want to talk about those
early days at ESPN and now that espens this global
broadcasting giant. But how is it different in the early
days the wild West of sports? And how did you
find those early days compared to now?

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Well, I mean there's no comparison. Of course, I started
at twenty four. We were one month in. I mean
we were rebels without a clue, is what I like
to say. And they're like seventy or eighty of us.
I mean total, I don't mean to put I mean
the two people selling an ad, which was Budweiser and
whatever the hell else, you know, the two people programming us.

(30:28):
There'd be more than two, but not much more than four.
You get the point. Everybody knew everybody. Most of us
were young, of course, not all management, but most of
us were twenties and thirties. And it was, as I
look back at it, as far as the camaraderie, you
can't duplicate it, not because all we're too big now, No, no,

(30:51):
eighties and nineties. At the very beginning, we didn't know
we'd make it, but a lot of us didn't care.
Of course we cared, but are we going to be
here two or three years?

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Here?

Speaker 5 (30:59):
We're having a blast doing it. We're doing sports all
the time. Now. Admittedly some of the sports weren't what
you would think, but we were on Sports Center covering
all of them. And we didn't have to have the
rights to the NFL or MLB or NHL or although
we did have hockey and you know college who we
we reported all of them and rather than do for

(31:22):
me the three and you know, three minutes at six
and three at eleven, you're doing thirty minutes every night,
which is you're died and going to heaven. Frankly, now,
I mean compared to then and now, a lot of
it is the technology, but look, we were young. The

(31:43):
best thing is if we do it interviews from the
super Bowl early on, for example, we go to media
day on Tuesday and send the tapes three quarter a inch.
We go to the airport, put them on a plane.
If the plane landed in Hartford, we had stuff on

(32:05):
fresh for the two thirty. If not, you had it tomorrow. Okay,
but that's what we did. We didn't have trucks, we
didn't have I mean, we didn't send up stuff. This
is my end of it. And so to compare that
to no is unbelievable. But here's the same. Everybody in
the building was into it and maybe and you guys

(32:29):
are working at places that I'm sure are very similar
or were. Therefore they are one person doing four jobs,
not four doing one. We didn't have enough time to complain.
Yeah we complained, of course, but but we had stuff
to do and it was a great Without us knowing,
it taught us an unbelievable work ethic. I don't know

(32:51):
what to do about that. Yeah, but you're the only
one that could do so do something. And everybody was
the same. And I mean I could go on and
on and on, and I these folks are friends till now,
and unlike a COmON when you've been together four years
and then you're all off. We got to know each

(33:12):
other's girlfriend's wives, maybe little babies. So when we see
people that haven't been in the building for twenty thirty years,
we remember their wife or girl, you know, because we
were together in our twenties and early thirties, so it's
a different reunion. We were grown ups, not kids, and
so from the personal standpoint, I wouldn't trade a thing.

(33:34):
It was great. Now, the fact that they're stupid enough
to have me here at seventy when I was twenty
four and I'm still on, that's their problem.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
I remember, by the way, they did like a farewell
to boot when you were leaving Countdown and you said
to me, and you told Bevin Pell, I'm.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Not going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Like I appreciate that tribute, but like I'm still doing
the show. Me and Booger are gonna do shows. I'm
not going like you're not getting rid of me.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
And it's one of the things.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
I tell people about Chris burb And I said, listen,
don't get it confused. You look at the play on words,
levity and the sense of humor and the camaraderie. But
I said, this guy genuinely loves sports, period. And one
thing that you taught me was that no matter what
you do, if you deal with full enthusiasman love for forever.
You said to me before we even got on here,
how much you loved baseball. You've been a huge baseball guy.
You didn't expect to be well the face of the NFL. Right,

(34:19):
if there was a different career path, Chris Permer would
be the voice of the San Francisco Giants.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
True, Well, I you know, I don't love someone as
or you. You guys, why is somebody one? Why somebody
lost in a game, even if it's stuff. I don't
know that much about our teams. I don't know that
much about it. I'm interested just and not he's he
was great, he's stumped. Not that simple like sometimes it's different.

(34:44):
But here's I'm sure what I told you. When you're
an upbeat, you know, energetic person. Bobb Lee, for example,
is not. Bobby Lee is one of the best professionals
we've ever had or I've ever met. And forget our
network anywhere. Be yourself because if you're on every night,
you can be on on the weekends. And I'm not
implying that the network we're on on the weekends that

(35:05):
they're acting. But if you're doing a show every night,
whether it's NHL, MLB Sports Center, whatever it is, people
will see through that's not really who he is. He's
trying to make his voice a little more authoritative. Look,
my voice is just north of Rod Stewart in the rasp. Okay,
so I wish I could sing like him. But the

(35:29):
point is be yourself, and if you're excited about sports,
go ahead. However, give us the facts first before you
give us the nicknames. Or he could go all the way,
because otherwise you try to be noticed if that's part
of your persona and you're upbeat at that and you're
into it, and sometimes you and I both go a

(35:50):
little high on not only tone, but okay, tamp it
a little. Yeah, that's fair, but it's also bora also
being ourselves and anybody that we're not good enough to
be actors actresses, is what I would say. We might
as well do what the hell we do. So we're doing.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, Well that so well said about authenticity and I
feel you you said earlier like, oh why am I
still around at this time? Well, it's because you're authentic,
and I feel like it's come full circle in the
broadcasting world. That was a little button up and now
it's kind of getting back to being yourself. And you
mentioned something also about you know, you covered all sports.
Is there a sport that people wouldn't know that you know,

(36:32):
boomers are a big fan of that you still follow
today because of those early days of ESPN.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
Well, oh, because of ESPN. Now, most of it was
rooted in me a long time before, but they wouldn't
know other than some Sports Center stuff if I loved it.
So I used to do a lot of baseball games.
I don't Canada, you didn't see it. Not that I
was great at it, but I did four hundred, which
if you're the voice of the Blue Jays or were

(36:59):
the voice of the exposing.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Oh God, Todd, give me some expost Montreal boy here.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
I enjoyed. I I club when I did a rare
game of Montreal. I would I would do the home
run in French? Uh you know we uh you know
when I do the Gray Cup and to prevent that
likes because I French. But that's the other hit or
there so. But if you're a local announcer, you do

(37:26):
one hundred and sixty games a year anyway, a national guy,
I did four hundred, which doesn't make me great at it,
but it makes me I did it. So if you
were in the States, you knew I love baseball, even
though I don't really do it now. Football speaks for itself.
Hockey is one that you might that unless you saw

(37:49):
me on Sports Center. There were a few years John
and Barry Melrose and why don't you come do the
Stanley Cup finals with us on the road? I did
a few and there was a blast, but I was,
you know, I was just a third wheel. I wouldn't
try to take it over. My god. I mean, they
forgot more hockey than I'll ever know, but NHL, but

(38:10):
that was going young. Like I I was a hockey
fan at seven or eight. I grew up on the
Connecticut New York line, so in other words, we're about
an hour out of New York. I can tell you
that I've been to six seven games at the Old Garden.
Not many of you got it. Your I'm seventy year
a little younger than me, you can't say, including one

(38:33):
playoff game and the Rangers like never made it. So
I went to one. You know, the New Garden was
sixty seven or sixty eight, whatever the hell it was.
And all right, now true, I'm not trying to pander
to a Canadian audience. But Boster Hewitt Maple Leafs bombed
in on the radio, bombed in. It was in the

(38:56):
seven hundreds or upper six hundreds or seven thirty or seven,
I couldn't tell you, but he bombed in. And when
I was a little kid, the make beliefs are Wooding,
Stanley Concert, Dave Kean and Frank Mahovlich. And you can
also get not as strong the French. I didn't speak

(39:16):
French when I was ten, and even if you did,
you kind of had to figure it out, you know,
La Rondel rather than somebody that sixty All right, my god,
he's all over the ice. Yeah, no kidding, but but
so they bombed in. I remember sending away as a

(39:37):
kid for a Maple Leafs yearbook and Dave Keon was
on the cover, you know, and and and in sixty four,
sixty five, sixty six, whatever it was. So there are
only six teams then. So I like hockey and still do.
I don't keep up regular season. I look at standings.

(39:57):
I try to go to a few games a year,
but come playoffs, I mean, I'm right there, I'm not
going to be able to ex and ow it. Last year.
One of my tell I never saw Sydney Crossby play
live until last year that they played one game maybe
it was two, but one at Boston, and I went,
I'm going it might be his last year. Thank god

(40:18):
it's not. I love it. He's my modern day and
this is unheard of in Canada. I have a confession
to make. So I started maple leafs and still have
a soft spot for them, because how could you not.
I mean, it's like the ball, except they don't get
to the super Bowl. So I mean, well, in the

(40:39):
sixties they were great. I think they're great now. Yeah,
now we're Bob Bond, punch him black behind the bench.
Where do you want me to go? Carl Brewer? I
could you know? I could keep going. But in the
seventies and I went to Ranger games because they were
what we could go to a dad. I became a

(41:03):
huge fan, and in Canada you can't do this, So
as your regret. Actually for Toronto, I'm maya Colpa. I
fell in love with the Gala Flair Canadians. Okay, yeah,
let's kind of know it. Everybody can see that. Yeah,
they I just enjoyed watching them play. And I was

(41:26):
in college in New England, and boy, them playing the
Bruins was awesome and I got a little kick out
of quietly seeing Bruins fans suffer when Ken driving. God
bless him and we'll talk about him in a minute.
You'll kicked out all that. Well, that was seventy one
I was in high school. But the gal of Flair Canadians,

(41:47):
if you had to pick one team now that I
still root for the most, it's not sure all but
Toronto's not far behind, which I know is impossible. So
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
It's like for Red Sox and the Aches Boom. Somehow
you can right now.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
Because in the States I can root for both. They
don't get that there's a problem, you know what I mean.
And Van Oober looked like Darth Vaders. So I liked
him for a while too.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
You know, hundred percent you mentioned Ken Dryden.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Seventies goalies. Bernie Parant recently passed me. I remember the
great sign. Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parant
seventy four, seventy five all time. Grady carried that Flyers team.
We think of the broad Street Bullies. But Bernie was unbelievable,
and he mentioned Ryden. Al Michaels told some great stories about.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Kenny just how smart he was.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Right Ivy leaguer, you know, ran the Maple least well
could have been was a politician for a period of time.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
You can't find people like Ken Dryden, right.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
No, and Dan Shaughnessy, great sports writer Boston Globe put
it to try to explain, Hey, look I'm talking about
the Canadians. I write for Boston. But he was the
Bill Bradley, uh who became a US addition to being
a college I mean, unbelievable all American at Princeton and

(43:01):
was not the star of the Knicks, but played on
the champion ship Knicks teams of seventy seventy three and
with greaton and went on to quote more important things. Well,
Ken Dryden shat out like brought an agent in the
sham pollack And who's this? Why, I don't know he's
my agent. He's Ark Kaminski. He went to Cornell with me.

(43:21):
Well that was behind him. I'm gonna go to law school.
Then he'll never he'll never do that. He's getting paid
as a page. Whatever the hell it was, right, and
a couple of lootings. And but he did I mean
that was part to sit out of he did it.
These are the Canadians. This is an agent, the Canadian.

(43:43):
We're gonna pay you. Well, we're gonna pay you well,
nobody in hockey didn't. Right, He might have been the
first or just about the first that even did that
in hockey, let alone the players Association and the way
he played gold and stood straight up. You had him.
You mentioned Bernie Paromp with the great bumper stickers, which

(44:03):
reminds me of a bumper sticker in Boston. Have you
used to see instead of only Jesus says more than
Birdie paranh Jesus saves and Esposito scores on the rebound
like that was that was in Boston then? And then
of course the other name you're gonna bring up was
that Jackaman Because the Rangers were not good. He roamed

(44:27):
to the blue line, which goalies never did it dove
you know, like a soccer goalie maybe on a breakaway,
but the ball way ahead and get to you. Didn't
do that. And by the way, he started without a mask.
And so those three goalies we can name a few
others from the era, and Jacomin a little ahead of

(44:50):
the other two. And although we played into the seventies,
obviously those three guys, a little part of us passed
away when we lost the three of them.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Yeah, I was. It was sad with them and they're
gonna be missed. And I mean the other one I
want to I mean your knowledge of hockey just talking
to you now is a lot more than you let on.
Talk to me a little bit about the Whalers. I
heard you were a longtime support of the Whalers. I
was fond of that team. I had that jersey growing up.
Was so sad, you know, it's one of those things.
I lose the expos, I lose the Whalers. You know,

(45:22):
maybe the Canadians next up. It's sad days. But talk
to me some of your memories of the Whalers. And
is it true that you might have missed the last
game in Hartford?

Speaker 5 (45:31):
Why I did, because I'll tell you why in a minute.
That let me ask you. So you grew up Quebec
or Montreal is.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
So I grew up in Montrealia and then I've lived
in both.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
Why the Whalers, I mean we were in the same division,
you know, why the Whalers. But I have a great
Montreal story about someone else like you. But tell me
why the colors were cool? You got that?

Speaker 3 (45:56):
It was the colors in the Jersey, and I just
I was drawn to it as a young kid, and
it was just one of those things. I stuck with
it because of that, And then it hurt as much.
I was never I didn't grow up in nordiaks fan
those habs, I was. I get whipped if I didn't
root for the halbs that I always quietly had. You know,
underneath the habs Jersey, little Whaler's there, Little Whaler's color.

Speaker 5 (46:18):
Well, first of all, nobody wore those colors. Then you know,
now Vancouver's tried to copy it, and there's others. But second,
it's the best logo still. There's three things in it
the Whales teil the h of the w You didn't
even know that. Check it out, third third, do you know?
And I don't have last year's stature, but Hartford's last

(46:42):
game the Whalers in Hartford was ninety seven. Okay, so
that's almost thirty years. Right, they're still in the middle
of merchandise sold for NHL teams. They're like fifteenth sixteenth
because of the colors. It's not all of a sudden.
People in Connecticut realized we had a team once, so

(47:05):
I didn't. I had season tickets late because our kids,
you know, we couldn't go with them. But when they
were eight, nine, ten, last few years we had them.
Of course went the games before that, not in the
WHA days, but ESPN they were you know, there were
our teams. So eighties and then like I said, the nineties.

(47:27):
And the reason I missed the last Whaler game, the
second to last game, which only really hockey fans will
was the game in which the primost fought. Keith was
on Hartford and his brother was on Buffalo, right, Yeah,
that was right, And that was the second to last game,
and Hartford went at home. Then we played the two

(47:50):
worst teams in the league at the time, ottawat and
the Islanders, who I loved in the eighties too because
they couldn't play any style, but that's another discussion. So
I was like cold roof for only for winners. But
I love when hockey's played great. I mean that, that's
that tops a lot of things hockey fans. But and

(48:12):
by the time they came back on Sunday to the
last game, which against I think Tampa Bay, my kids
had a birthday party to go to. I was sure
we were gonna have one, you know, first round of
the playoffs, three out of five, we'd have one game
and then a looha. But but we didn't. We left

(48:33):
Buffalo Buffalo, we were like three up with three to go,
and in whaler fashion, we didn't make it. So that's
why it's like I was working the show. I committed
to do the show, like thirday, gonna do it or not. Yeah,
it ain't gonna be the last game, and so I'll
see them in the playoffs playing whoever they were going

(48:55):
to play for the Adams Division or by then nineties,
I don't know what they were still called. But that's
why now I only want to the forum once when
I took the family up with about the fourth to
last game, I said, we got to do this. And
the cab driver picked us up at the airport had

(49:16):
a Hartford Whalers hat on whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa, and he goes. I said, so, what's the story.
We've just landed from Hartford. We used to have a
little eighteen seater that was a Air Canada Jazz used
to have a yeah, yeah, nonsense. We had a fifty
seater every day in and out of Toronto, and am about

(49:38):
an eighteen seater in and out of Montreal. And he said,
I like the Canadians, but I'm a Whaler fan. I
love the Colors and we see them a lot. They're
in our division, and it's I'm the only one rooting
for him, and I kind of I like it. So

(49:58):
then that game, I think Montreal scored ten or eleven goals.
I'd have to look it up, and I forget who
had all the goals. But on a little flight back
the next day, sitting right behind me was general manager
of the Canadians, Bob Gaine, and or, as they used

(50:18):
to Friendchifies the dual language announcement. You know, Bob gave
me right. My favorite franchifies the names you know and
I don't. Of course you had to say it with
a French accent. Yeah, so there's my So you weren't alone.

(50:41):
There was a cab driver could have been you could have.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Been nineteen ninety four, He mentioned when the Rangers whin
the Stanley Cup, a crowning achievement for Neil Smith, but
also for our dear late friend John Saunders, and Neil
told the story at John's memorial.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
There at ESPM you hosted that. You know, he was
so close to John.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
He was when the Rangers when he looked up and
he saw John the booth, he was pumping his fist,
and Neil, through tears, is saying, I felt like when
I won John one two, like it was unbelievable, that
bond that they had and that moment. Specifically, Robin Roberts,
an old colleague and friend, told the story of seeing
hockey sticks in someone's car.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Who's that? Because that's sounderstick?

Speaker 1 (51:15):
What that brother gets stat with hockey like goh ahead,
John's playing hockey.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
After his hosting Sports Center.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
You've always been very generous in saying, hey, it's not
just being Bob Lee. It was John Saunders as well.
He was such a key element at Espin's early days.
A word or two about our dear friend.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
Well as you know and viewers know, and Toronto and
you know knew him on TV a long time before
he went to Baltimore, before he came to us. He
could do any sport and handle it. There was a grace.
Indignity is more of a word, but I not I'm

(51:52):
trying to be. He wouldn't try to be anybody. I mean,
he can very, you know very. This is who I
am And I'm not trying to be boisterous, but I'm
just trying to be was a presence of John, and
he didn't and I don't mean that he was second
fiddle to me when we would do sports and we

(52:13):
had we did at the time in the late eighties,
that was the only show of sports that there was
an hour at. I mean we didn't call it the
big show. That's no knock on where it when we
we thought it was the big show because it was
the only hour and John and that's not a knock
it just we call it Sports Shatter. The Sunday eleven,

(52:34):
and with such a good time doing it. He he
enjoyed laughing, but he was not a joke teller, you know.
He's one of those, you know. But so if you're
in a two shot of discussing a game, he could
get right down and dirty with analyze. But he also

(52:55):
had a sense of him his opinion didn't have to
be first. See a lot of us, probably myself included,
forget that everything. You know, we don't forget it, but
we younger. Yeah, you know, everybody on set here, let's
talk about it. So he it wasn't the last time

(53:16):
I saw him, but it was within the last because
later on he wouldn't in the building and that often
or was doing college football, but I wouldn't on whatever.
We wouldn't work together a lot. And although we did
that Sunday night thing when primetime was gone, and that

(53:37):
enabled the two of us to rebond professionally and personally.
You guys will get this. So it was I want
to say, ten years ago, which would be twenty fifteen.
In November it would have been the fortieth anniversary of
the wreck of the Edmit Fitzgerald. So you know where

(53:57):
I'm going By the way, It's fifty this November, sung
by Gordon Leefoot, who I loved and John loved. I
never met him by John may have. I never did,
but he was playing in the Ridgefield Playhouse like eight hundred.
But he's making a little tour that month of the
fortieth anniversary of the wreck of the Infant zero, and

(54:18):
I went with John and his brother Bernie played for Quebec,
of course, and it wasn't the last time we were together,
but it was one that Bernie and I will still
text and talk about because it was a Canadian evening,
if you will. But it was in Connecticut, a gourding life.
It was to everybody other than Huey Lewis, I've probably

(54:41):
saw Gordon Lifefoot more than anybody else. By the way,
if you're asking me my rock and roll, Huey Lewis
my buddy. But I think Gordy came through Connecticut every
late September because the air it was kind of a
semi outdoor theater and it was the air was getting
a little chilly. It was perfect for him, you know

(55:01):
what I mean. And right John was the ultimate professional.
I learned a lot by watching him. Ad Man guys
almost what he didn't do as much as he did,
if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Yeah, first, Voice of the Raptors worked at CITYTV forever,
very proud of his Cadien roots. And like you said,
look at the sports reporters, you go first, right, He
allowed those guys to have their voices and then he
supplemented them.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
So absolutely, yeah, we miss them.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
But before I let you go, and I wanted to ask,
I'm sure you had an amazing nickname for your dear
friend as well as many others, and I feel like
it's a rite of passage. Is that something that you
just always did and is there any nicknames that stick
out to you that you hold dear to your heart?

Speaker 5 (55:49):
Well, so the nicknames, and I could take a long
time explaining it. But when you do the overnight show
for the first four years, which I did with your
two thirty Easter in eleven thirty in San Francisco, in
nine thirty in Hawaii, but you're in Connecticut, it's January,
and you know you're driving home at three thirty in
the morning and it's snowing. By the way, the plows

(56:11):
don't come out till five. So which on the street,
which I learned. So we had done these nicknames just
fooling around at college, just so a couple of them
in the first full year I did in nineteen eighty baseball.
Whereas I try to explain it, a lot of the

(56:32):
games weren't on. So you had Seattle five, Kansas City
two on the screen for fifty seconds. Well, so we
had no highlights. We're telling So and So went to
for for George Brett blah blah blah, and a couple
of them in those days a quarter to three in
the morning, slipt out nothing. You know, none of them

(56:55):
are derogatory. I wouldn't do that. It was either John
Mayberry RFD or Frank Tanada was a really good pitcher,
Franka Dakker. Those are the first two that came out
by accident. And I didn't plan it because if you
plan a gig, it usually doesn't work. Okay, I mean
you can plan a story. I get it, but I'm

(57:17):
going to be known if I do this, and the no, no, no,
So it was organic and then everyone was laughing and
what the hell did you say? And I don't know.
It came out blah blah blah. And so we did
baseball every night, lo and behold. I probably had one
thousand before the eighties were over with. I'd get lists
of fifty from people, and frankly, if I read them

(57:38):
and laughed, I put them in and so and for me,
I didn't sleep with the rosters. That's our rumors start.
So I you might have had a beer, you know,
and look at a name for ten seconds, and if
you had one grade if not not, It wasn't like

(57:59):
I wrote it in the script or anything like that.
It just so best of all time. The ones that
were the best were either well, primarily that you didn't
have to know really who the player was, what he did,
what he who he played for, if it appealed to everything.

(58:22):
And sometimes I had, of course a ton of rock
and roll. Sometimes food George Taco Bell for example. You know,
I mean everybody knows what Taco Bell. You don't have
to know Blue Jays or he had a Burrito Supreme.
I would do when he hit a homer, right. But
but the best ones are ones that everybody can get.

(58:44):
So the best would be Bert blyleven, Bert beyond B eleven.
And the reason that's the best is every parent you
don't have to know that he won almost three hundred
games and had the best curveball in the business. Or Pittsford,
Pittsburgh or Minnesota or other. You had to know that.

(59:04):
Your parent told you that once, and as a parent,
you told your kid that one. So a lot of
them go back to are You don't have to be
Einstein to figure these out, you know, it's not the point.
Of course, they're rock and roll ones. I'm trying to
think of. Let me see the Blue Jays in those days.
Of course, dep Erbert amazing, No, that's the best one.

(59:28):
But roberta. I'm an American history major, all right, So
Roberto remember the Alamar. I mean, I could you not
have that the ease before you get so you guys
didn't see me up there then, I mean I was
doing just football, so I mean on TSNEA, so Blue
Jays Joe Carter was Stargeant Carter. That was okay. Oh

(59:53):
here's one. I love that. I'm doing a show primarily
for Canada, or I love it so that the Atlanta
Toronto Worlds. So the first World Churious game ever in
Canada obviously was Game three, and I finished. I did
the pregame and the post game on ESPN then and

(01:00:15):
I said, somehow, I find it very fit that the
battery tonight, the pitcher and catcher the Toronto Blue Jays
in the first game ever north of in Canada was
one Canadian Guzman pitching to Pat north of the Borders. Okay, now,

(01:00:38):
I can't do any better than that, right, I haven't
thought of that in a long time, by the way,
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
You think of a career, I think it out in
the playoffs that is absolutely perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Before we let the great Chris Berman go, I texted
our dear friend Rob Lemley, one of the great producers,
that he's I got Boom on and so lem text me.
He goes, Hey, tell Boom he's playing TPC with Boog
and Froday. Tell him, Bobby, zim said, hit him straight,
and then he added, he goes, you know Boom's a
huge Dylan fan. I said, no, I know, but he
would lose because no huge Dylan guy. So I have
to ask you, what did you think of Timid Tate's

(01:01:13):
Shallow May in the Dylan movie that came out last year?

Speaker 5 (01:01:15):
Awesome, didn't you? Awesome? Great Bob Dylan, Although you know
I could, I'm sure he has. I have no idea
who he is, babe, so so, I'm sure he doesn't
know who I am, but I don't care. But he's
Bob Dylan. I thought the movie was un believable. I

(01:01:36):
my favorite little part. It was a subtlety you wouldn't
even a spoken line because it's my all time favorite song.
Bobby zim is Robert Zimmerman, which is Bob Dylan's real name.
By the way, he grew up very close to where
the Edmund Fitzgerald set out on its final cruise, by
the way, on the Iron Range and Hibbing, Minnesota, very

(01:02:01):
very closer. Maybe it was where it's song, but what
I gotta look again? But what look up? Hibbing Minnesota,
and it's pretty close to it. I mean again Edmund Fitzgero,
but that's Gordon Leifoot. My favorite part was when he
decided to experiment with electric guitar and it was like

(01:02:23):
a rolling stone in the movie. Now maybe he in
real life played another one, but I mean, like a
rolling stone is I don't know if there's a better
song other than Beethoven's Ninth I haven't heard it, Okay,
so So and his his lyrics were more interesting than
Beethoven's you know. Oh yeah, so so at the end

(01:02:47):
of the set when these guys came in that he
didn't even know, Al Cooper, you know, they finished playing
like a Rolling Stone, and Bob Dylan never smiles, smile
for like five seconds. It's like he knew. I loved
the way this sounds. He didn't speak it. I got
it as a you know, old time rock and roller.

(01:03:11):
That's my favorite scene in the whole movie. And unspoken
five seconds like, yeah, like a rolling stone, that's a
pretty good sound that might work, and it did so
lem the best. Yeah, we we every time we talked.
Bobby z I used to use Robert Zimmerman, by the way,

(01:03:35):
as a back when hotels weren't smart enough. At Super Bowls,
the World Series. Oh it's Chris Berman there. Yeah, let
me put the call through at three in the morning,
like you know, it could be a radio show in Hawaii,
I mean, you know, or the first thing in the morning,
which would be in in Toronto's case much rougher. You know,
at six am, when somebody thinks you're awake and you

(01:03:59):
you know, found out that they had Mulson's and the
bats like down the street till two or three OCL
but whatever. So I used to use every now and
then as my fake name. I don't anymore Robert Zimmerman,
just just so you had to know who I was
or you wouldn't get up there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
So there you go, Willable alias Robert Zimmerman a kka
Chris Breman.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Boom.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
This is so much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
Last year there was an ESPN reunion, so Oberman texted me.
He goes, hey, there's a reading going on. I said,
I'm sure there's always arena. At some point He's like, no,
I'm going.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
And there was a fleeting thought to me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
I said, forty Ronzo Road and I checked the list
of who's there. I think you went and Bobbley and
I said, you know what, I might pull the driveway
just to see you. The General and KO together and
they go, okay, I'm out here.

Speaker 5 (01:04:43):
Well they you know, we had like four hundred and
fifty people there. I talked to two hundred and fifty
of them. I had something to say to all of them.
I can't remember probably one hundred and fifty to two hundred,
not who they were, but you know, well with so
and so there, boy, I don't know now Keith was

(01:05:04):
to my high school.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Do you know that you Overenman go way back?

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Which is incredible considering the influence both of you guys
have had on my life and everyone's life.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Was a sportscaster fan.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Both great, great broadcasters, but very different, but both huge
baseball guys.

Speaker 5 (01:05:16):
Yes, Keith, Keith is two years using my brother's class,
two years behind me in high school. He he was
interesting then and he's interesting now. I mean I say
that with love and respect obviously, but you should have
come the next one of that ILK would probably be
you know, the fiftieth. So well, we'll leave a light

(01:05:38):
on for you, we'll leave a bed made. Okay, Hey,
I applaud you on your success. You've always approached it
with the great attitude. And obviously this you guys here
doing this podcast, it's the same thing, and it's it's
I applaud you for being a man of all seasons,
a man you you know you you handle all of it.

(01:06:00):
Like our friend John Saunders were differently, we're all different.
But you can't tell that. Well, he did hockey last night,
be doing baseball tonight, so he might have missed like
some pitch at two and two that was a ball.
And why didn't he comment on that, Well, because he's
watching Opening Night of hockey, like you know, so you
can't what I found doing prime time when they're eight

(01:06:22):
games on at one o'clock. Anyone that says they're watching
eight games is lying or frost eye. Okay, nothing better.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
I get as somebody who deeply admires you and all
the work you put in being an observer Sundays, Fellas,
I'm telling you afternoons the boardroom, you Tom Jackson, moret
just watching the games.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Nothing better?

Speaker 5 (01:06:43):
Right from one to four, that was a funny room.
I remember Marty Schottenheimer worked with us one year. Marty
won two hundred games, and I mean, et cetera. And
it was the first week. We're not yelling at the coach,
but you know, five minutes in a game or two minutes,

(01:07:04):
what are you doing? What do you do? You know
nothing in particular. Marty turned to me away I knew forever,
he said, Did you do this to me too? He said, well,
of course, remember Kansas City had trouble beating Lway. I said,
only when you played Denver. Marty he lost it. He

(01:07:24):
thought that was funny. But now we took it easy
on you, Marty. What was I going to say? Yelled
at you all the time. So that's a fun room
because from one to four we've done the morning show.
We've been there since seven in the morning. Again, we're
not in a coal mine, none of us. Let's keep
it in mind, but one to four we're not worried

(01:07:44):
about you know, oh this highlight. We need more of that,
or that shouldn't have been a bit. That was the
time when we could watch football and the room was hysterical.
There are forty people in there. Everybody had a rooting
interest or an interest. It just you can't recreate the
characters in that room. I think, and I saw. I'll

(01:08:07):
give you a saying that somebody told me if and
when I well, I mean, I'll hang them up. I
don't know that many years left. But that's not the point.
The point is a real good friend of mine who
won championships as GM in baseball one it was different,
and all he goes, you know what, I don't miss

(01:08:31):
the circus, but I missed the clowns, and that room
at about fifty clowns. So I'm glad you brought that up.
Keep that in mind. Don't miss the circus, but I
missed the clowns.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
Oh the pearls of wisdom of Chris Breman. Boomber is well, I'll.

Speaker 5 (01:08:49):
Give Brian Saban credit for that one. I can't kill
it from him. He one of my best friends.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Snaves of course the architect. All those great San Francisco
Giants teams.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
You didn't get to see three World Series teams from
the twenty ten to twenty four team is amazing. Boomer serious,
I can't thank you enough your generosity, your mentorship to
guys like me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
I think you always had time for any of us.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Didn't matter who it was, what member of the crew,
you knew the impact you had on us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
I cannot thank you enough, my friend. This was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:09:14):
It's great to see both you guys. This is fun.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Well, I am not the only Cinophile on this podcast.
Cinefan sixty props to twel and JD. Both of you
guys said you got to see Friendship, so I took
your recommendation. I took it to the house, just like
you told me, GENI to watch Porno. Jillian Muller and
I watched it. I enjoyed it, and Friendship was very funny.
As you guys had talked with Tim Robinson's work, which
I was not familiar with, and now tal tells me
there's an HBO show. I think he's got developing gendy

(01:09:48):
as you called it, quirky, funny, absurdist. I mean, at
times when you think of Chris Frod of the way
he was just ranting and raving. I think it's hard
to laugh out loud these days. In the movie I
laughed a lot. Five times I watch the movie of
My Couch.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
I thought it was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Oh what the scene when he brings his wife in
the sewer and then just like and then just tell
that loses his phone trying to jump and they lost
his shoe. And then I mean the whole stolen valor
thing with the guy with the Vietnam hat. Oh that
that scene when he's playing drums, because.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
It seems like fairly, you know, in consequential, like, oh,
where's the bathroom? It's called you the guy whose.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
Wife was gone, and then just turns on him like,
oh my god, the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Zero sixty and then he then he does the speech
on the chair and then the guy gets up and
jumps in the chairs. He's just shitting on his wife.
It just it's so weird and it's so Tim Robinson
and uh yeah, I mean I loved it. I thought
it was great. I thought it was just it's out
there when they sing all together.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
Well, I was gonna say the early scene when he's
going to Paul Rud's house and he goes into the
screen door and they're like, oh my god, you okay,
and then the pregnant pods. Then it shatters, and then
afters he takes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
It way too seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
He just punches Paul and the guys guys, guys, and
he's like, okay, I'm in trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
He puts the bar soap in his mouth.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
And the look of just shocking disgust in their faces,
like what is this guy all about?

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
It was to talk about just getting so excited to
be in a group of friends and just making every
mistake possible.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I think it's a good topic though. Tell think about
you and I are both the same age at this point.
You have kids, You know, your social circle is what
it is. So if a new neighbor moves in goes, hey,
we've got to hang out. It is kind of a
big dealer. You're like, well, like I kind of already
have my friends, or I would like to expand my
horizons to new friends. So I could understand the adjective
that Tim Robinson has right his wife's very busy social circle.
He's looking to make some friends. He's so excited when
he's a guy like Paul running his life.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
I love the whole premise of middle aged men trying
to make friends when like most middle aged men probably
haven't made a new friend since like college, right correct,
And the awkwardness.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
It's an absolute cringe fest.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
I freaking love it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:55):
And Tim Robinson, I mean, let's give this guy some
snaps the run he's been on the last few years.
Detroit I know, av if you want to do a
deep dive, it's all all on Netflix. A lot of
it's on Detriyah, Detroiters, Detroiters. I think you should leave
and then friendship and now he has the Chair Company
coming out I think this weekend, which I'm all over.

(01:12:16):
I mean, I love that this guy was on SNL
for like two years and no one noticed him, and
now he's one of the funniest guys in the world.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
In my opinion, He's just like it's like that. It's
that awkward comedy of like these weird he takes these
like weird social It just these it's just these like
moments where you'd think about it, oh yeah, and he
takes it like to a whole nother level, like like
I mean and I think you should leave? What does
he do? The one when the guy doesn't wash his

(01:12:45):
hands in the bathroom and then says there's fecal matter
all over the house. But he like, you wouldn't expect
me to call you out because you didn't wash your
hands in the toilet. But he's like he took a
poop and then didn't wash it, and but like just
just expands on it for like twenty minutes, and you're like,
is this going to end right? And it's like it
just he's just you're gonna I think you should leave.

(01:13:05):
As some really good ones, some good skits you you
love av I.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Come calling up. I think you should leave. That will
be the next one on my list. In DeBie Will
squeezing Detroiters as well. Hardly surprising news to Bruin's announcing
long time captain zad Aino Charlow was number retired by
the team.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Jad.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
You saw it up close and personal. This guy is
whatever six', NINE i don't know how big he's, escaped.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Just an eb six one, hundred like.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
A seven foot man staring at.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
You just the nasty FIERCE i mean he, WAS i
mean literally a gigantic presence on the.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Ice. YEAH i know they were trying to get him
to kind of be part of the franchise for a little.
BIT i think like they would have done it right,
away and he wanted to just kind of do his,
thing run six million ultraman marathons and and do all
these crazy. Workouts BUT i think he's just a great
guy to have for work ethic and leadership on your
on your. Team and then obviously retiring his jersey is

(01:13:59):
it's a it's a no. Brainer you know they have
there's a lot of guys in that franchise that, retired you. Know,
sorry then you Got patty bergeron as well coming, up
SO i just, think, uh it's it's it's well. Deserved
he's a nut. JOB i got cross checked by him
as much AS i Did Chris pronger ANYTIME i went
around that. Area but he's one of those guys you

(01:14:21):
just don't touch you just don't don't look at, him
try to beat him one on, one but do not
get within his orbit because if he grabs, you it's gonna.
Hurt and if you piss him off, too like you,
know let him. Sleep so BUT i mean this guy
was like he, was he was, going you know you.
Can there's The tour De, france and then there's like
a whole another subset of people that follow The tour De.

(01:14:43):
France what is that what it's called the De. France,
yeah is that what it's really. Called, no but there's
a name for. It and he like does it where
they he follows the same. Root and there's like a
second race that's like people that like you and me
could go put on a leotard and a racing suit

(01:15:06):
and just ride our bike behind the turn. Fronts and
this guy does.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
It now he's A Verkin demers like leotard playing on
a little cycling.

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
For Social let's go do The tour de FRANZ i
like it took the junior.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
Circuit you can't do, obviously no one's an insane Person
litstenre on, Steroids so just do through the junior.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Circuits now they're all on. Steroids so it's, like do
the junior. One and he's, like but just think of
that human on a, Bike think of that body on a,
bike because like the structural integrity of that, bike like
that bike needs to be made out of adamantium or.
Vibranium trow, You marvel, FANS i love.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
It last, Thought Florida. Panthers nobody wants a three peat
unless you're From. Florida come, on it's better for hockey
when different teams. Win and, Yet jad you were pretty
impressed with what they did at opening night without arguably
the two best players and Get Choko.

Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
Barcuff, YEAH i. THINK i think the only thing that's
going to stop this team from a three peat is.
Injury so depending how healthy they can stay throughout the.
Year but this, team if they're, HEALTHY i don't see
a team in THE nhl touching. HIM i, mean they're just.
BUILT i think that fourth line With Luke connan now
it's looked. Fantastic you, know the third, line which you

(01:16:13):
know When barkoff at Could chuck come, back they'll probably
be Out Matki samuskovic and uh, yes Per. Boquist they
get they get on the. Board Evan rodriguez down the,
middle looked great third line. Center, uh it's gonna be
very very interesting to see how and When barkoff comes.
BACK i know for a fact that man is going

(01:16:34):
to beat the nine months timeline by three months at.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Least Eric spolsters when he said The Miami heat, coaches
being the hockey, insider he, goes, oh, yeah he told
me five to six, months which is as you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
Said we'll put it At march Or. April he'll be.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
Back he'll be back In march and At, march end Of,
march probably get the last two games of the season
and right into the. Playoffs Kad chuck will be back.
Healthy we'll see how healthy he. Is but just like,
this this team that was there can make a deep
run in the. Playoffs just THAT i asked.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
Them for The panthers, PEOPLE i, said, like who picks
up the slack That barkoff and Can. Chuck so, Honestly,
Bennett lindell And, mackie, like those are the three that
they relying that they think they can make that next
push and make things.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
Special so, Yeah Minnie, Barkie Anton, Lindel, yeah Los To
ryanan very good two way. Player then you Got, Bennett
you Got Ryan. Hart reinhart looked. Incredible i'm, like we
Forget ryanhart's, there and then it's Like, jesus these guys
go fuck right Off. Florida you know it's the it's
the scene From it's the scene FROM A Night's. Tale
remember A Night's? Tale oly Heath. Le, yeah when he,

(01:17:33):
goes how would you beat? Him he goes with a
stick in the night when he, sleeps but on a
horse with a. Lance that man is.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
UNBEATABLE i love, it just Like Chris berman. Unbeatable here
AN nhl.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
Descriptive thanks for checking us Out episode, fifty big milestone for.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Us we appreciate all of.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
YOU Nhl unscripted is a production of THE nhl And iHeart.
Podcasts for more podcasts From, iHeartRadio visit The iHeartRadio, App Apple,

(01:18:18):
podcasts or wherever you get your.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
Podcasts