October 25, 2022 • 37 mins
This week, play-by-play announcer Adam Amin joins The Bag! One of the voices of Fox Sports NFL & MLB coverage, as well as the former voice of the Chicago Bulls, Amin shares his own personal story, never-before-told tales from the announcers booth, and explores the secret of what makes Tony Romo such a great announcer. From calling Aaron Judge's (almost) 62nd home-run, to figuring out how to keep fans engaged during a blowout, Amin brings a unique perspective to the poetry that is announcing live sports.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Never No, Never good Big. Hey guys, welcome to another
episode of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio is The
(00:21):
Bag With myself, Lindsy McCormick, and my amazing co host
Sean Jennings. The Bag delves into the day's top headlines
at the intersection of sports and business, and today we
have an amazing guest, my friend Adam Amen, who has
been play calling for the NFL and Top MLB in
college basketball games for Fox Sports. He's also hosted select
(00:43):
editions of Baseball Tonight and even Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
So we will have that amazing interview for you later,
but Rashan first, there's something I wanted to pick your brain.
On a recent headline, Tyreek Hill was asked how close
he was to finishing the deal to end up with
the New York Jets, and his response was it was
(01:05):
very close to happening. Just those state taxes, man, I
had to make a grown up decision that was end quote.
And my question to you is someone who personally has
lived in between Texas and California, with obviously being in
Texas at least one more day than I was in
(01:25):
California too, not have to pay those California state taxes
and Texas has zero state tax. I know how important
this is and how much money you can save by
doing this, But as an athlete, rashad, how often do
athletes take this into consideration when deciding who to play for? UM?
(01:47):
I think is quite often. Actually, uh, you know you
you're you're playing in the National Football League one because
UM you love the game, you love the sport, UM
as an opportunity to make money and the combination. So
if you're not making and maximizing your money, you start
the question why are you still playing? Every single athlete
(02:08):
wants to maximize and yes, taxes to especially the business
have a guys, and especially those that are UM talented
athletes that have leveraged. Not every single athlete can pick
and choose which team he wants to play for where
he wants to go. But if you do have your druthers,
you want to be in the state that you save
the most money. So by Tarik Hill decided to go
(02:30):
to Florida instead of New Jersey, I mean the tax
state taxes what ten ten point six percent? So you
do the math if he goes down to Florida, was
warm and it's uh no state income right taxes there,
So he is Actually if you take a contract of
forty if you take a forty million dollar contract and
(02:53):
you have to pay an additional ten percent, that's four
million dollars loss just because you're sleep being in a
different state. Right, His work doesn't change here, the way
you take care of his body doesn't change. It's just
simply where he's sleeping at. So he'd rather sleep in Florida.
Ward was warm and actually say four million dollars with
With four million dollars, I mean he could go ahead
(03:14):
and start a couple other businesses. So if I'm him
and I have leverage, I don't blame him. Actually, I
mean the reason most athletes are savvy enough to think
about longevity of their career and longevity of life. I too.
I chose personally to go to New York um with
my options just simply because I knew it was a
larger market and I would be able to set myself
(03:36):
up for long term gevity outside of the sport of football,
which being in New York I believe aid it a
reason why I was gonna Dancing with the Star. So
I was thinking futuristically I wasn't thinking about going to
play football at that point. Um only I was about
to call you out for that. I was about to say,
but you went to New York. Yeah. See, I went
to New York because I knew my leverage. If I
(04:00):
at Tree Hills leverage with his bank account, I might
have been thinking differently. My bank account was a little
bit smaller. So I had to think, how do I
make my money off the field, because I'm not gonna
be able to maximize as much on. My job is
to make more money off the field than I ever
could on. And so I understead I wasn't gonna wear
a gold jacket. I knew I wasn't the top running
back in the league. I knew I was a player,
(04:20):
and so I went I thought, how do I maximize this?
And that's exactly what I did, And that's why I
went to New York. I was gonna say, it worked
out for you. Yeah. And so for Tyree, he he
he's a superstar no matter where he goes, right, And
so this is this is how teams can build dynasty's
um in the National Football League. You have to either
(04:41):
have tax breaks or great quarterback for athletes to think
winning super Bowl. Why is um you take uh, you
take Miller von Miller? Right? Think about this, Why is
von Miller bouncing around collecting checks all different states. Well,
for him, he's thinking, I'm gonna go to the best
(05:02):
team that has the best chance to win a super Bowl.
So if you don't have a chance to win a
super Bowl, or if you're a receiver, right and you
don't have a franchise quarterback on your team, then they're
gonna think, okay, let me just go to where the
money is. So this so if so, that's why the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers it's easy to go there while they
got a franchise quarterback. And you're in Florida, right, So
(05:24):
imagine if Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback in Miami, they
could build a dynasty down there. So each team with
a tax, if if I'm an owner, I'm going to
find and if I was in Florida, I would find
the best quarterback, put him on my roster, and I
will watch everybody else come. So, how do teams I'm
trying to think the highest state taxes obviously California and
(05:46):
New York. How how do teams like the Chargers get
decent players. I mean, this is one of those things
where everyone wants to be in l A because of
the quality of life, and so you're I mean, now
we're full in l A. So it's like, Okay, we'll
buy the bullet and pay these high taxes because of
the quality of life which we perceive as ideal for us.
(06:09):
Is that the advantage of playing for a team like that. Sure,
athlete is gonna think through a lot of things. If
he has a family, if he's from that state, like
so California for example, talking about the Chargers in San Diego. Um,
if A players from there and went to u C.
L A or one of the schools in California nearby, sure,
(06:30):
it's like I'm going back home. I'm gonna spend more
time with family. I will say there by house, I
will settle whatever it may be. UM, unless they have
a franchise quarterback, which your job as a organization is
to bring in a franchise quarterback that is going to
(06:51):
make players want to come play because they believe they
have a chance to win a Super Bowl. If now
you're either gonna win a Super Bowl, the players are
playing for a reasons win a Super Bowl make money
or market which marketability actually turns into money. So this
is why teams like the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, um,
(07:11):
you know, Pittsburgh Stellers, They're always gonna be able to
get players. They are good because their market is insane
to make money outside of the game itself. So until
a player become Once a player becomes a franchise guy, right,
you're Davante Adams, you know you're Lamar Jackson's. Once he
(07:33):
becomes that player, he has levers to go where he wants.
So he either is gonna get need to get paid
a lot of money to hold still well, he's gonna
go somewhere that he can save the most money, or
he's gonna go somewhere he can win a super Bowl.
Those are his three choices. So you're saying for teams
with the higher taxes like l A and New York,
(07:54):
the key is bringing in a great quarterback where players
feel like they could win there. It's the only chance
draft well, draft well, and draft well, because nobody's gonna
come to you, Uh nobody. Who Who's going to go
to Chicago with the big name. When's the last time
we've seen a star athlete Come O'Dell is not going
(08:17):
to Chicago. He wasn't when he was getting his when
he was getting paid. Uh. Tarikill is not considering Chicago.
Davante Adams is not going to consider consider Chicago unless
that athlete literally grew up with the idea of I
wouldn't be in Chicago. Bear he has family there or
is some kind of emotional tie. But when it comes
to a financial decision, nobody in their right mind is
(08:37):
going to Chicago. Yeah. Well, the organizations, I hope they're
listening because that's truly the key to success that you
just laid out for our audience. But speaking of success,
today we have such a special guest, my friend Adam,
I mean, who I worked on with on a broadcas
(09:00):
us called ESPNS the Basketball Tournament. Adam, it's been so fun.
This was so many years ago, and it's been so
fun to watch your career since then. You've just skyrocketed.
And I know that the result of so many hours
of hard work and preparation, and that this just didn't
happen for you overnight, and that you've been working at
(09:20):
this for years more so than I mean, you're still
so young too. I think we're both the same age,
we're both thirty five, and to see what you've been
able to accomplish at such a young age is just
astounding to me. I mean, you've called NFL and MLB
and college basketball games for Fox Sports, play by play
announcing for the Chicago Bulls. You started your career at
(09:41):
ESPN in two thousand eleven, calling college football and NBA
playoffs for ESPN and ABC and select editions of Baseball
Tonight and even Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. So how
did you start and how do you become successful in broadcasting?
It's a it's a wide question. I'm sure there's no
(10:03):
right answer, So I'll give you my answer. How it
seemingly worked out. Okay, Well, it has been a long time,
my friend. It's been gosh, almost maybe ten years something
like that. It was the first time that ESPN I
think I had the basketball tournament. It was the first
time they had this tournament giving away a million dollar
prize at the end of it. And now it's developed
into like this this entity of its own where it
(10:26):
has like slight influence on like the NBA G League
and what they might want to do in the future.
In the NBA, like it's it's kind of cool that
we got a chance to be a part of that
and we got to become friends of that, and that's great. Um.
That was earlier in my career when when I first
got hired and within the first couple of years of
getting hired at ESPN, and I was twenty four when
I originally got hired, I was it was two thousand eleven.
(10:50):
I had been a couple of years out of school.
I had been kind of grinding away at a at
a very very much an entry level job, a couple
of them in fact. So I don't want to make
it sound like it's strictly just my own doing. There's
a lot of you know, karmic balance. I'm sure that
goes into it. You know, whatever serendipity you wanna, you
wanna label it as, uh, there's stuff that's out of
(11:12):
your control as well. So you know, I'm sure I'm
not the first person to say this, and I wouldn't
won't be the last. But whatever you can control, you
want to make sure your output is you know, of
a high quality. And my goal was to anytime I
did a broadcast of any sort, I wanted to have
it at a certain level of quality so that people
(11:33):
could trust me. You know that that seems the big thing.
The big seems to be the big thing I tell
younger broadcasters now, is all these TV executives, anybody who's
making a hire, anybody who works for a team, who's
looking for somebody, and I imagine this is probably the
same case in just about any other industry. They're looking
for someone they can trust. If I put you on television,
(11:55):
if I put you on the radio, if I put
you on this project, if I put you on this assignment,
if I put you with this client, I'm trusting that
you are going to make it work. You are going
to do a good job with it. You are going
to make sure that everybody comes out feeling good about
what just took place. And the way you get people
to trust you is by turning out a high quality
product every single time. And the only way for me
(12:18):
to do that was to have done it over and
over and over and over and over again. I have
a lot of friends, I'm sure you guys do too,
that are just naturally gifted at whatever it is they do.
And I wasn't one of those people. I very much
had to do something, figure out what was good about it,
what was bad about it, adjusted the next time I
did it, reevaluated, and then do it again, do it again,
(12:40):
do it again the right way, whatever that way might be,
and kind of nail that, drill that into my head
so that every time I did it, just about every
time I did it, there'll be a certain baseline level
of quality. So for me, that meant doing broadcasts across
the country, then and driving around thousands of miles across
the country to get too different aims. Low level assignments,
(13:01):
lower level assignments, division to basketball, Division two tennis, UH
doing college volleyball tournaments for three camera internet broadcast. It
was like years of doing that type of stuff and
making good connections and making good impressions on people, and
then hoping the stuff that's out of your control, how
people perceive you, what opportunities they have, what needs they
(13:25):
need filled, and they happen to meet you or you
make a good impression at the right time, that stuff
is a little bit out of your own control. So
you try to control the stuff that you can, and
you try to have it to be of a high quality.
And that's a very broad answer. To what I think
is a question that probably has as many many different
correct responses. Is there a way? So you mentioned people
(13:46):
that are naturally gifted at stuff and then people that
need repetition. I I definitely identified with that. I've never
been somebody too for things to just come easy to
But is it possible in Rashan and I've talked a
lot about this with you see these bigger contracts now
that they're handing out to Tom Brady for after he retires.
Is it possible to just be naturally gifted at play
(14:09):
by play? Because to me, it seems like that's a
skill that you really have to work at and it
wouldn't come natural to anyone. It feels like to do
the job well. I think it takes a long time
of cultivating a certain style and more importantly, I think
a certain level of mechanics to it. And again, I
(14:29):
may just be seeing this because I am a repetition
type of person and I did it over and over
again and and really thought about it. I tried to
be very conscientious about what I was doing, how I
was doing it. So maybe that's just me, or maybe
that's just a certain portion of people who do this.
But I do feel like it takes a certain amount
of cultivating and curating adjusting. So to me, I feel
(14:54):
like to do this job really, really well, you have
to do it for a long time, and the parts
that you can't recreate even by like practicing in your
living room or something like that, which a lot of
people did. I did that when I was in my
twenties and watching games, going all right, how do I
get better at this? The only way I know how
is to try it. So, you know, alone in my
parents house, in my bedroom that I that I was,
(15:16):
you know that I slept in in high school, um sitting,
They're practicing, and I'm sure a lot of people do that,
but you can't recreate the feel of the actual environment.
And I think that's the part, lindsay that that made
it feel like I had to do this a whole
lot of times. You can't just walk in and do
it at the highest level. I think it's a job
you can do well without an incredible amount of experience.
(15:36):
I think it's an incredibly hard job to be great
at unless you have a feel for the environment, the
sport itself, the up and down nature of sports in general,
and to be in the arena or the stadium or
sitting next to the court to have a real genuine idea,
uh and feel for how this game is going to
go and how you're going to respond to it through
your voice and through your inflection and your intonation and
(16:00):
when you come on camera to discuss the game. Like,
I think, all those things have to get cultivated over
a long period of time. So I think it's an
easy job to do adequately. I think it's a really, really,
really hard job to do extremely well. Yeah, Adam, so
I have I have two questions, um here. But the
first one I want to ask is how does one
(16:20):
get involved as in the business of commentating Because you know,
as a professional athlete, I understand and I can see
her from a distance, high school, college, NFL draft, combine
all of these things that will lend you to an
opportunity to get picked and selected. Um. But when it
comes to commentating, where is the path that I can
(16:42):
follow that instantaneously puts me in a position where I
can be pulled from a pool of people or is
it really just an entrepreneur route. I think it can
be a little bit of both, and I think it's
depending on the position that you're looking in, like you
know I for me as a play by play announcer, specifically,
the path used to be you start at the radio
(17:05):
station in the small town and you work up to
a bigger market and a bigger market and a bigger market.
That can still be the case if you really want
to be a sports talk show host, right if you
want to work your way up and be like somebody
like in Chicago, we have a lot of talents to
be a Mark Silverman and Tom Waddle. That's a very
popular show in Chicago. Tom Waddle's a former Chicago Bears
(17:25):
receiver who got an opportunity and got thrust in to
do radio in Chicago. Why because he had a requisite
understanding and requisite essentially education as an NFL football player
to have to be able to talk about the sport itself.
And he proved to be an articulate, intelligent, eloquent person
who could contextualize these things, simplify things for people who
(17:47):
don't have the same experience that he does. That's a
lot of what this job is in terms of commentating, communicating.
You're trying to contextualize and simplify very specific, high minded
ideas and Richard, You know this being having study your
playbook for how many years? Right? Like, this is complex
stuff for you, guys. It's a very specific code. It's
a very specific sequence of numbers and names and words
(18:09):
that mean very specific things that lead to success on
the field. And your job, as let's say, an analyst,
is to contextualize those things and simplify them as far
down as you can so that the average person like
me sitting on my couch has an understanding of what
I'm seeing. And if you're watching a play by play announcer,
it's a little bit different because you don't necessarily need
(18:31):
that same prerequisite playing experience to be able to describe
the game, to be able to set up the person
next to you, the analyst, and have both of you
essentially walk an audience through a broadcast. My job as
a play by play announcer in general is the who
and the what. The analysts job is the how and
the why. Those lines are certainly allowed to blur a
(18:53):
little bit, especially if the two people in the booth
have a good relationship. Oftentimes those things will blur. Uh,
those things a blur if both partners have an intelligence
about each other's jobs, and have a skill set that
maybe dips into the other person's job a little bit.
My job is supposed to be storytelling, but my analyst
does a good job. But that too, he can tell
a good story. My analyst knows the game better than
(19:15):
I ever will. But I know a lot of things
about it, and I can set him up to try
to to to talk about things intelligently or maybe point
the conversation in a certain direction. So those are the
skill sets that it takes to do that, and for
play by play announcers, you have to cultivate that over
a long period of time. I started at a small
town radio station in northwest Iowa. Town at three thousand people,
(19:36):
it's two thousand nine white people, and I was one
of ten minorities in that town. It was a culture shot.
Coming from Chicago. I had to learn the area. I
had to learn the culture there, I had to learn
the job there, and I had to learn how to
get better at it. That was a year of my life,
and I went to New Jersey and did minor league
baseball for a team for two years. That was two seasons.
In the off season, I went back to Chicago and
(19:58):
did freelance work for every company that I had met
representative that I had met in my college career in
the year prior to that, saying will you do you
have anything? Do you need somebody? I'll do it. I
can travel, I can I can go to this game,
I can cover this event. Whatever you need from me,
I'll do And that's how I have a chance to
cultivate my personal experiences through that. That's how I got
(20:19):
better at this, and that's how I finally got noticed
over a period of time to be able to do
this job at a higher and higher level. Got you.
And so with that my next question that I have
to know, and I'm bear with me. I'm gonna try
to set this up so it can't be taken out
of context. So, um, Steve Jobs learned coding, right, Um,
(20:41):
I have a friend that currently right now is learning coding.
So if I use them to in a sentence in
a scenario, trust me, I'm not comparing the two. So
the same thing with this, I'm not comparing the two
athletes at all. But I'm curious about Tom Brady's contract
for a total three seventy five million dollars to commentate
(21:04):
after his career has done thirty seven point five million
dollars a year. He hasn't commentated one tom um. However,
I watched Tony Romo. Tony Romo came right into the business.
I think his was like four million dollars a year
and now he's up to to seventeen. Tony Romo to
me is amazing. And so the money seventeen million dollars
(21:28):
a year for Tony Romo and Tom Brady thirty seven one.
Do you think we'll see a discrepancy uh in skill
sets and talents that much? Or is that the business
side of it? Because of the appeal, um, you know
you have, you have, you have athlete in Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow was selected about the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't
(21:51):
even think actually to play football, but he was a
buy in that sold tickets, jerseys, et cetera. And it
was a business move. So curious, as much as you
can speak to this, is it a business move or
is it a skill set move? Um? With with Tom
Brady being paid thirty seven point five million dollars a
year already, I think it's a great question. I think
(22:12):
a lot of people will be curious when they see
such a large figure right. I think it's a combination
of both things. I think that it is a business
decision in the sense that you want to make splashy
hires in this business that seems to be the trend
at least right now, where you want to be able
to get somebody that has a big name. That and
and getting to to get a big name. Being you know,
(22:34):
bestowed with a big name means you've done something significant.
You can't just you're not just given that. You have
to be a Tony Romo is the quarterback of the
Dallas Cowboys. You have to be Tom Brady who has
seven Super Bowl rings and has the name recognition across
the across the spectrum of people who like entertainment and
sports or some combination of the two. I think skill
(22:57):
set wise, you're banking on a lot there too, and
that is a risk I think that any network takes
when they're starting to look at people they want to
bring in. You can argue with the philosophy of it,
because to me, I don't find that much of a
difference in my enjoyment of a broadcast depending on the
analyst or the play by playing ouncer. I think they
(23:18):
need to be good You certainly have to be at
a certain level and know the game and have a
feel for it, and and certainly have the understanding as
to how to communicate to an audience on how you
know on what is happening in a football game, And
you have to do that at a as we talked
about baseline quality for me to at least not be
(23:38):
not feel like you're intruding on my Sunday when I'm
watching football. To me, I don't think there's that much
of a difference or that much of a gap between A,
B and C. I do think there is a gap,
but I don't think there's that much of a gap.
And I do feel like when Tony Romo shows up,
shows some exuber and show some energy and it sounds fresh.
(23:59):
And part of the reason it sounded fresh is because
he was fresh out of the league, so he knew
these defenses, he knew these coaches, he knew these teams
like the back of his hands. So that translated in
a new and exciting way. So I think CBS did
what I think any person or a company or corporation
would do in that situation. We have something that people like,
(24:22):
we should make sure that we hold onto it. That
was the first domino. Then the Aikman domino fell, and
then the Brady domino fell, and I think that's where
we see the numbers continue to rise. But I do
feel like Richelle, you're not far off. I think it's
a combination of a business decision because of the flash name,
because of the high quality name, the recognizable name, and
(24:43):
the banking on somebody having that skill set. Because when
we sit down in meetings with Tom Brady or Matt
Ryan or Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray and they give
us insight as to what they're thinking about that week
for that particular game, and you hear them Artik late it,
you're you walk away impressed and go, maybe that person
(25:03):
has a future in this. And Tom is always impressed
people in meetings the same way Tony did. Tony wouldn't
have this job if a CBS person sitting in a
meeting somewhere while he was playing didn't hear him and go,
I think he could do that on TV and I
think he'd be really good at What advice would you
give to athletes who are looking to expand their brand,
maybe even still while playing, like JJ Reddick with the
(25:26):
old Man in the three and Pat McAfee. I know,
their type of broadcast is is slightly different than play
by play, but it's still the same industry it is.
And I've worked with Pat and and I got to
see firsthand how intelligent and savvy he was business wise.
You know, It's it's easy to kind of get caught
up in his personality and he's kind of a world
(25:46):
win as a human being. But he's truly one of
the smartest people I've ever met in terms of recognizing
what people like, how to bring that to them, how
to expand on that, how to use his connections to
make his product more fun and aging and intriguing to people.
I think savvy is really really important. First and foremost,
you have to understand how to talk to people, and
(26:08):
that's not an easy thing to do. I think we
see so much of it now. Everybody's got a podcast. No,
I'm not accusing you guys of anything. I'm saying every exactly, Yeah,
what do you know? What do you mean? You know?
Everybody tries it, and not everybody can do it, and
a lot of people can do it okay, but not
everybody can do it well right, And that's the things
that we just talked about. There are there are levels
(26:29):
to this in terms of being able to communicate clearly,
concisely and an entertaining fashion. You don't have to be
perfect all the time as a broadcaster, but I think
you need to be accurate, entertaining and palatable, right, Like
palatability is really important when you're talking to people for
hours at a time. Can what can I stand to
listen to you and watch you for three hours during
(26:52):
a football game? Can I stand to listen to you
or watch you for an hour on your podcast while
you're doing interviews or joking with your with your co host,
and like, can you entertained me? Can you keep me engaged?
And you don't have to be perfect, but you have
to be engaging, And that's always the first thing we
we look for that when we're I'm not saying I
got go into every meeting room with a quarterback or
a linebacker or a defensive coordinator or a coach, and
(27:15):
I'm looking to see if they're going to be good
enough to be a broadcaster. They want to be in
their sport, they want to do what they do. But
we're definitely looking at people like I like mentioned Matt Ryan.
We have the Colts game on Sunday, and I sat
down in the room with him, and I didn't talked
to him in a couple of years since he was
in Atlanta, so it was good to catch up with him.
And I remember I was just sitting there listening to
him talk about his offense and he's in a new
(27:36):
system and it's his fourth game in this new system,
and I'm like, this guy can articulate this in such
a simple way. What's hard about it? What's easy about it?
How do you translate it down to the field. You
have to be able to do that first and foremost.
Can you communicate that? And you're always being judged, You're
always being watched those postgame interviews, if you do a
(27:57):
press conference, if you happen to be in a situation
where you're in a meeting room with producers and directors
who do these broadcasts and play by play announcers and
analysts who do that job, and they hear something in you,
You're on your You're auditioning almost at all time. So
I would always tell an athlete who's in a spotlight
to remember that these are auditions if you want them
(28:19):
to be if you want this to be a moment
where you you have people look at you and say, oh,
he's good at this or she's good at this, that's
gonna be there. That opportunity will be there. People notice
these things, And I think the second part that's kind
of expanding it is be curious about it. Be a
student of it. You know. I think one thing we
do in in a bad fashion in broadcasting is we
(28:40):
don't we just kind of throw people into the fire
and go all right, go do it. And there are
things like a broadcast boot camp for x NFL players
and they kind of get a feel for how to
do this. But whether it's in the booth or in studio,
but we do a terrible job of coaching, terrible job.
And these are athletes. Rieshote, you've been coached since you
were six until the time you were in your thirties.
(29:01):
All you know is how to be coached. You learn
how to accept coaching. You We have coaches all the
time who rave about players, go that guy takes coaching
so well, he's so coachable. That's a real compliment that
we give to people. And yet when we have this
opportunity to put them into a situation where they can
explain the game and be communicative. We just tell them,
all right, go try it, instead of giving them a
(29:22):
structure and coaching them up on it. I think we
can do a better job of that. So if you're
a student of it already, and you pay attention to
what's good what's bad, you listen and watch with a
critical ear, and I you're already going to be ahead
of the game because you're gonna have an understanding as
to how to communicate with people. So, Linz, I think
that's how you you That's how athletes can start to
take those steps. If that's something that they're curious about,
(29:43):
you can do it. Now. It's easier than than it
ever has been, and there's more connectivity with people than
there ever has been. Absolutely, if I was if I'm
to reach out on a limb a little bit here
and compare commentationtion to real estate. Right, let's say you're
a relator, right, you're you're you're showing me around a
house that has already built, is already decorated, it is
(30:06):
prime for sale, and what you're doing is is waving
me through the rooms and allowing me to experience it
in a better way than other relators. Right, You're you're
trying to win me over as a favorite. So as
a relator of the game, right, which is the hardest
room to sell? What is the hardest play to sell?
(30:26):
What are the moments that you get the most nervous
of walking into this room? Fourth and one? Is that
a hell? Mary? Like? What what is the moment as
a relator, if you will, that gets you the most nervous.
I love your analogies. That was a great analogy. I
really enjoyed that. I don't think the cell of the
If it's a nice house, if it's already set up,
if it fits you know, you know the motif that
(30:49):
that person is looking for, it's an easy sell. Right.
So that for me is you know, if you're doing
the Sunday night game and you got Brady and Mahomes,
that's an easy sell. You don't have to tell that
too hard, Right, You go, look at how nice this
house is, Look at how talented these people are. Come
enjoy this with us. The harder cells are the games
that aren't as good, and everybody gets them once in
(31:10):
a while. Right, you get a blowout game, it's to
three in the third quarter and it's and I know
for you know, I know we've been talking about Brady,
so that's a different score for a lot of people.
But like, if you get to blow out game and
the field isn't good and it's unesthetically pleasing, and that's
the hard sell. That's when you have to walk into
the basement that has some mold in the corner and
(31:31):
be like, listen, I know what you're thinking. This doesn't
look great. Here's let me. Let me try to sell
you on this. That's when all of our preparation, the
hours of prep and research and learning about stories and
learning about the rest of the league so we can
talk intelligently about it if the possibility came up that
our game wasn't as good. We do all these hours
(31:51):
of preparation for stuff we never talk about, and frankly,
we hope we never have to talk about. Because the
game is so compelling that we don't have to sell
the other parts of it to kind of enhance your experience.
We don't have to sell the backstory of a player,
even though I enjoy doing that. I love telling stories
about athletes and how they got to where they're at
and what they're working on now or the community stuff
(32:12):
they do. It's wonderful to be able to share nice
stories about people who are talented. I enjoy that part
of it. But my hope is that the game is
so compelling that we don't have to. So that's the
room of the house that I get not nervous in.
But it's the one that you prepare for. You prepare
for the bad game, the blowout game, the uninteresting, unesthetically
pleasing game, so that you can keep people engaged. It's
(32:34):
the same way when you have to show that one
room in the house that you don't love. How do
I sell this to somebody? How do I say, Hey,
here's what's here's what's happening right now. But we maybe
we can make it better, and that's how we try
to enhance what's going on. I think that's the closest
I can get to a really good analogy or shot.
I think I try to match it as best as
I could. I appreciate it, man, And so lindsay, I
think what I heard him say is the hardest home
(32:55):
to sell is the one that the Jets and the
Texans are selling together. Maybe I'm hearing it wrong, man,
They're kind of your your ability to connect these tissue
these tissues is perfect. Man. I think you nailed it. Legitimately,
I think you nailed it. I wanted to end with
rapid fire because I'm curious today your favorites on a
(33:17):
few different topics. Okay, so if you're ready, we'll we'll
go with the rapid fire questions. Then all right. The
best play call of all time? Uh, in the Fiesta
Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma, the Statue of Liberty
two point conversion to win the Fiesta Bole. I still
think it's one of the greatest, most gutsy play calls
(33:38):
I've ever seen it. Favorite play call, favorite play callers
growing up. I grew up in Chicago, so we listened
to Jim Durham. They one of the greatest basketball voices
in the history of the medium, especially on radio. UH.
And the people that I look up to the most
have been like Tariko and Iron Eagle, and I would
(34:01):
say Dan Shulman probably the three national guys I listened
to the most. Oh. I love that answer. Uh. Favorite
games you personally have ever called? Very very, very fortunate. UH.
If you have a long enough career, you hope that
you run into a few cool moments. I've been very
fortunate to call the kick six game in the Iron Bowl,
the famous Chris Davis return. I did that on national radio.
(34:24):
Uh Lebron James with a buzzer beater in Game three
of the playoffs to beat the Toronto Raptors in Cleveland
a few years back. And uh maybe to this day,
Uh man, maybe you want to look, you know, basically
encompass my entire career as a Riqueo gimbawally in the
Final four, hitting the game winner in the Semis against Huicon,
and then bigger was the National Championship against Mississippi State. Wow. Wow,
(34:46):
what a career. Uh. What's the hardest play or moment
to call in sports history? I think it is the
home run that doesn't necessarily look like a no doubter
that could be a record breaker. And and I got
the chance to experience this recently when Aaron Judge was
sitting at sixty home runs, he came five ft from
(35:09):
tying the all time American League home run record. We
were so close. Uh, And and I know how difficult
that can be to have to call those moments. That's
why Joe Buck's call of Mark McGuire's sixty second home
run was so impressive because it wasn't It was not
a no doubt or there was a lot of question
as to whether or not it was going to go out.
Joe nailed the call and then he complimented the picture
(35:29):
of Mark McGuire kind of stumbling at first base as well.
Those are hard to do and if you pull them off,
it's it's really satisfying to be able to do it. Well,
that's all I have for rapid fire Rashand if you
have any now, man, listen, I appreciate you coming on
landsome jewels on us and uh sticking with my analogies. Man,
I can't help myself to speak. Oh man, these are
(35:52):
these are questions that I know a lot of athletes have.
They they're curious about this because they want to set
it up for for life. After you know it's to you.
You're almost get you. You're almost required to have two
careers as an athlete unless you're one of the elite
of the elite of the elite of the elite that's
going to get that that massive bag and be be
set for life and your generations after we'll be set.
(36:12):
There are plenty of those people, but it's still a
small percentage. So I know athletes want to set up
for the true second career that they have to have
for those other twenty years before they you know, like
the rest of us, rall trying to retire at the
right age, and I know a lot of people have
a lot of questions about this. I'm glad you guys
are asking them. Thank you for thank you for coming on,
for sharing your knowledge with us, no worries nor thank
(36:34):
you guys for listening to another episode of I Heart
Radio and Sports Illustrates The Bag and the special thanks
to our guest today, Adam Amine. You could listen to
The Bag on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you guys for
tuning in and we'll see you next time.
Never No, Never good Big. Hey guys, welcome to another
episode of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio is The
(00:21):
Bag With myself, Lindsy McCormick, and my amazing co host
Sean Jennings. The Bag delves into the day's top headlines
at the intersection of sports and business, and today we
have an amazing guest, my friend Adam Amen, who has
been play calling for the NFL and Top MLB in
college basketball games for Fox Sports. He's also hosted select
(00:43):
editions of Baseball Tonight and even Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
So we will have that amazing interview for you later,
but Rashan first, there's something I wanted to pick your brain.
On a recent headline, Tyreek Hill was asked how close
he was to finishing the deal to end up with
the New York Jets, and his response was it was
(01:05):
very close to happening. Just those state taxes, man, I
had to make a grown up decision that was end quote.
And my question to you is someone who personally has
lived in between Texas and California, with obviously being in
Texas at least one more day than I was in
(01:25):
California too, not have to pay those California state taxes
and Texas has zero state tax. I know how important
this is and how much money you can save by
doing this, But as an athlete, rashad, how often do
athletes take this into consideration when deciding who to play for? UM?
(01:47):
I think is quite often. Actually, uh, you know you
you're you're playing in the National Football League one because
UM you love the game, you love the sport, UM
as an opportunity to make money and the combination. So
if you're not making and maximizing your money, you start
the question why are you still playing? Every single athlete
(02:08):
wants to maximize and yes, taxes to especially the business
have a guys, and especially those that are UM talented
athletes that have leveraged. Not every single athlete can pick
and choose which team he wants to play for where
he wants to go. But if you do have your druthers,
you want to be in the state that you save
the most money. So by Tarik Hill decided to go
(02:30):
to Florida instead of New Jersey, I mean the tax
state taxes what ten ten point six percent? So you
do the math if he goes down to Florida, was
warm and it's uh no state income right taxes there,
So he is Actually if you take a contract of
forty if you take a forty million dollar contract and
(02:53):
you have to pay an additional ten percent, that's four
million dollars loss just because you're sleep being in a
different state. Right, His work doesn't change here, the way
you take care of his body doesn't change. It's just
simply where he's sleeping at. So he'd rather sleep in Florida.
Ward was warm and actually say four million dollars with
With four million dollars, I mean he could go ahead
(03:14):
and start a couple other businesses. So if I'm him
and I have leverage, I don't blame him. Actually, I
mean the reason most athletes are savvy enough to think
about longevity of their career and longevity of life. I too.
I chose personally to go to New York um with
my options just simply because I knew it was a
larger market and I would be able to set myself
(03:36):
up for long term gevity outside of the sport of football,
which being in New York I believe aid it a
reason why I was gonna Dancing with the Star. So
I was thinking futuristically I wasn't thinking about going to
play football at that point. Um only I was about
to call you out for that. I was about to say,
but you went to New York. Yeah. See, I went
to New York because I knew my leverage. If I
(04:00):
at Tree Hills leverage with his bank account, I might
have been thinking differently. My bank account was a little
bit smaller. So I had to think, how do I
make my money off the field, because I'm not gonna
be able to maximize as much on. My job is
to make more money off the field than I ever
could on. And so I understead I wasn't gonna wear
a gold jacket. I knew I wasn't the top running
back in the league. I knew I was a player,
(04:20):
and so I went I thought, how do I maximize this?
And that's exactly what I did, And that's why I
went to New York. I was gonna say, it worked
out for you. Yeah. And so for Tyree, he he
he's a superstar no matter where he goes, right, And
so this is this is how teams can build dynasty's
um in the National Football League. You have to either
(04:41):
have tax breaks or great quarterback for athletes to think
winning super Bowl. Why is um you take uh, you
take Miller von Miller? Right? Think about this, Why is
von Miller bouncing around collecting checks all different states. Well,
for him, he's thinking, I'm gonna go to the best
(05:02):
team that has the best chance to win a super Bowl.
So if you don't have a chance to win a
super Bowl, or if you're a receiver, right and you
don't have a franchise quarterback on your team, then they're
gonna think, okay, let me just go to where the
money is. So this so if so, that's why the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers it's easy to go there while they
got a franchise quarterback. And you're in Florida, right, So
(05:24):
imagine if Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback in Miami, they
could build a dynasty down there. So each team with
a tax, if if I'm an owner, I'm going to
find and if I was in Florida, I would find
the best quarterback, put him on my roster, and I
will watch everybody else come. So, how do teams I'm
trying to think the highest state taxes obviously California and
(05:46):
New York. How how do teams like the Chargers get
decent players. I mean, this is one of those things
where everyone wants to be in l A because of
the quality of life, and so you're I mean, now
we're full in l A. So it's like, Okay, we'll
buy the bullet and pay these high taxes because of
the quality of life which we perceive as ideal for us.
(06:09):
Is that the advantage of playing for a team like that. Sure,
athlete is gonna think through a lot of things. If
he has a family, if he's from that state, like
so California for example, talking about the Chargers in San Diego. Um,
if A players from there and went to u C.
L A or one of the schools in California nearby, sure,
(06:30):
it's like I'm going back home. I'm gonna spend more
time with family. I will say there by house, I
will settle whatever it may be. UM, unless they have
a franchise quarterback, which your job as a organization is
to bring in a franchise quarterback that is going to
(06:51):
make players want to come play because they believe they
have a chance to win a Super Bowl. If now
you're either gonna win a Super Bowl, the players are
playing for a reasons win a Super Bowl make money
or market which marketability actually turns into money. So this
is why teams like the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, um,
(07:11):
you know, Pittsburgh Stellers, They're always gonna be able to
get players. They are good because their market is insane
to make money outside of the game itself. So until
a player become Once a player becomes a franchise guy, right,
you're Davante Adams, you know you're Lamar Jackson's. Once he
(07:33):
becomes that player, he has levers to go where he wants.
So he either is gonna get need to get paid
a lot of money to hold still well, he's gonna
go somewhere that he can save the most money, or
he's gonna go somewhere he can win a super Bowl.
Those are his three choices. So you're saying for teams
with the higher taxes like l A and New York,
(07:54):
the key is bringing in a great quarterback where players
feel like they could win there. It's the only chance
draft well, draft well, and draft well, because nobody's gonna
come to you, Uh nobody. Who Who's going to go
to Chicago with the big name. When's the last time
we've seen a star athlete Come O'Dell is not going
(08:17):
to Chicago. He wasn't when he was getting his when
he was getting paid. Uh. Tarikill is not considering Chicago.
Davante Adams is not going to consider consider Chicago unless
that athlete literally grew up with the idea of I
wouldn't be in Chicago. Bear he has family there or
is some kind of emotional tie. But when it comes
to a financial decision, nobody in their right mind is
(08:37):
going to Chicago. Yeah. Well, the organizations, I hope they're
listening because that's truly the key to success that you
just laid out for our audience. But speaking of success,
today we have such a special guest, my friend Adam,
I mean, who I worked on with on a broadcas
(09:00):
us called ESPNS the Basketball Tournament. Adam, it's been so fun.
This was so many years ago, and it's been so
fun to watch your career since then. You've just skyrocketed.
And I know that the result of so many hours
of hard work and preparation, and that this just didn't
happen for you overnight, and that you've been working at
(09:20):
this for years more so than I mean, you're still
so young too. I think we're both the same age,
we're both thirty five, and to see what you've been
able to accomplish at such a young age is just
astounding to me. I mean, you've called NFL and MLB
and college basketball games for Fox Sports, play by play
announcing for the Chicago Bulls. You started your career at
(09:41):
ESPN in two thousand eleven, calling college football and NBA
playoffs for ESPN and ABC and select editions of Baseball
Tonight and even Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. So how
did you start and how do you become successful in broadcasting?
It's a it's a wide question. I'm sure there's no
(10:03):
right answer, So I'll give you my answer. How it
seemingly worked out. Okay, Well, it has been a long time,
my friend. It's been gosh, almost maybe ten years something
like that. It was the first time that ESPN I
think I had the basketball tournament. It was the first
time they had this tournament giving away a million dollar
prize at the end of it. And now it's developed
into like this this entity of its own where it
(10:26):
has like slight influence on like the NBA G League
and what they might want to do in the future.
In the NBA, like it's it's kind of cool that
we got a chance to be a part of that
and we got to become friends of that, and that's great. Um.
That was earlier in my career when when I first
got hired and within the first couple of years of
getting hired at ESPN, and I was twenty four when
I originally got hired, I was it was two thousand eleven.
(10:50):
I had been a couple of years out of school.
I had been kind of grinding away at a at
a very very much an entry level job, a couple
of them in fact. So I don't want to make
it sound like it's strictly just my own doing. There's
a lot of you know, karmic balance. I'm sure that
goes into it. You know, whatever serendipity you wanna, you
wanna label it as, uh, there's stuff that's out of
(11:12):
your control as well. So you know, I'm sure I'm
not the first person to say this, and I wouldn't
won't be the last. But whatever you can control, you
want to make sure your output is you know, of
a high quality. And my goal was to anytime I
did a broadcast of any sort, I wanted to have
it at a certain level of quality so that people
(11:33):
could trust me. You know that that seems the big thing.
The big seems to be the big thing I tell
younger broadcasters now, is all these TV executives, anybody who's
making a hire, anybody who works for a team, who's
looking for somebody, and I imagine this is probably the
same case in just about any other industry. They're looking
for someone they can trust. If I put you on television,
(11:55):
if I put you on the radio, if I put
you on this project, if I put you on this assignment,
if I put you with this client, I'm trusting that
you are going to make it work. You are going
to do a good job with it. You are going
to make sure that everybody comes out feeling good about
what just took place. And the way you get people
to trust you is by turning out a high quality
product every single time. And the only way for me
(12:18):
to do that was to have done it over and
over and over and over and over again. I have
a lot of friends, I'm sure you guys do too,
that are just naturally gifted at whatever it is they do.
And I wasn't one of those people. I very much
had to do something, figure out what was good about it,
what was bad about it, adjusted the next time I
did it, reevaluated, and then do it again, do it again,
(12:40):
do it again the right way, whatever that way might be,
and kind of nail that, drill that into my head
so that every time I did it, just about every
time I did it, there'll be a certain baseline level
of quality. So for me, that meant doing broadcasts across
the country, then and driving around thousands of miles across
the country to get too different aims. Low level assignments,
(13:01):
lower level assignments, division to basketball, Division two tennis, UH
doing college volleyball tournaments for three camera internet broadcast. It
was like years of doing that type of stuff and
making good connections and making good impressions on people, and
then hoping the stuff that's out of your control, how
people perceive you, what opportunities they have, what needs they
(13:25):
need filled, and they happen to meet you or you
make a good impression at the right time, that stuff
is a little bit out of your own control. So
you try to control the stuff that you can, and
you try to have it to be of a high quality.
And that's a very broad answer. To what I think
is a question that probably has as many many different
correct responses. Is there a way? So you mentioned people
(13:46):
that are naturally gifted at stuff and then people that
need repetition. I I definitely identified with that. I've never
been somebody too for things to just come easy to
But is it possible in Rashan and I've talked a
lot about this with you see these bigger contracts now
that they're handing out to Tom Brady for after he retires.
Is it possible to just be naturally gifted at play
(14:09):
by play? Because to me, it seems like that's a
skill that you really have to work at and it
wouldn't come natural to anyone. It feels like to do
the job well. I think it takes a long time
of cultivating a certain style and more importantly, I think
a certain level of mechanics to it. And again, I
(14:29):
may just be seeing this because I am a repetition
type of person and I did it over and over
again and and really thought about it. I tried to
be very conscientious about what I was doing, how I
was doing it. So maybe that's just me, or maybe
that's just a certain portion of people who do this.
But I do feel like it takes a certain amount
of cultivating and curating adjusting. So to me, I feel
(14:54):
like to do this job really, really well, you have
to do it for a long time, and the parts
that you can't recreate even by like practicing in your
living room or something like that, which a lot of
people did. I did that when I was in my
twenties and watching games, going all right, how do I
get better at this? The only way I know how
is to try it. So, you know, alone in my
parents house, in my bedroom that I that I was,
(15:16):
you know that I slept in in high school, um sitting,
They're practicing, and I'm sure a lot of people do that,
but you can't recreate the feel of the actual environment.
And I think that's the part, lindsay that that made
it feel like I had to do this a whole
lot of times. You can't just walk in and do
it at the highest level. I think it's a job
you can do well without an incredible amount of experience.
(15:36):
I think it's an incredibly hard job to be great
at unless you have a feel for the environment, the
sport itself, the up and down nature of sports in general,
and to be in the arena or the stadium or
sitting next to the court to have a real genuine idea,
uh and feel for how this game is going to
go and how you're going to respond to it through
your voice and through your inflection and your intonation and
(16:00):
when you come on camera to discuss the game. Like,
I think, all those things have to get cultivated over
a long period of time. So I think it's an
easy job to do adequately. I think it's a really, really,
really hard job to do extremely well. Yeah, Adam, so
I have I have two questions, um here. But the
first one I want to ask is how does one
(16:20):
get involved as in the business of commentating Because you know,
as a professional athlete, I understand and I can see
her from a distance, high school, college, NFL draft, combine
all of these things that will lend you to an
opportunity to get picked and selected. Um. But when it
comes to commentating, where is the path that I can
(16:42):
follow that instantaneously puts me in a position where I
can be pulled from a pool of people or is
it really just an entrepreneur route. I think it can
be a little bit of both, and I think it's
depending on the position that you're looking in, like you
know I for me as a play by play announcer, specifically,
the path used to be you start at the radio
(17:05):
station in the small town and you work up to
a bigger market and a bigger market and a bigger market.
That can still be the case if you really want
to be a sports talk show host, right if you
want to work your way up and be like somebody
like in Chicago, we have a lot of talents to
be a Mark Silverman and Tom Waddle. That's a very
popular show in Chicago. Tom Waddle's a former Chicago Bears
(17:25):
receiver who got an opportunity and got thrust in to
do radio in Chicago. Why because he had a requisite
understanding and requisite essentially education as an NFL football player
to have to be able to talk about the sport itself.
And he proved to be an articulate, intelligent, eloquent person
who could contextualize these things, simplify things for people who
(17:47):
don't have the same experience that he does. That's a
lot of what this job is in terms of commentating, communicating.
You're trying to contextualize and simplify very specific, high minded
ideas and Richard, You know this being having study your
playbook for how many years? Right? Like, this is complex
stuff for you, guys. It's a very specific code. It's
a very specific sequence of numbers and names and words
(18:09):
that mean very specific things that lead to success on
the field. And your job, as let's say, an analyst,
is to contextualize those things and simplify them as far
down as you can so that the average person like
me sitting on my couch has an understanding of what
I'm seeing. And if you're watching a play by play announcer,
it's a little bit different because you don't necessarily need
(18:31):
that same prerequisite playing experience to be able to describe
the game, to be able to set up the person
next to you, the analyst, and have both of you
essentially walk an audience through a broadcast. My job as
a play by play announcer in general is the who
and the what. The analysts job is the how and
the why. Those lines are certainly allowed to blur a
(18:53):
little bit, especially if the two people in the booth
have a good relationship. Oftentimes those things will blur. Uh,
those things a blur if both partners have an intelligence
about each other's jobs, and have a skill set that
maybe dips into the other person's job a little bit.
My job is supposed to be storytelling, but my analyst
does a good job. But that too, he can tell
a good story. My analyst knows the game better than
(19:15):
I ever will. But I know a lot of things
about it, and I can set him up to try
to to to talk about things intelligently or maybe point
the conversation in a certain direction. So those are the
skill sets that it takes to do that, and for
play by play announcers, you have to cultivate that over
a long period of time. I started at a small
town radio station in northwest Iowa. Town at three thousand people,
(19:36):
it's two thousand nine white people, and I was one
of ten minorities in that town. It was a culture shot.
Coming from Chicago. I had to learn the area. I
had to learn the culture there, I had to learn
the job there, and I had to learn how to
get better at it. That was a year of my life,
and I went to New Jersey and did minor league
baseball for a team for two years. That was two seasons.
In the off season, I went back to Chicago and
(19:58):
did freelance work for every company that I had met
representative that I had met in my college career in
the year prior to that, saying will you do you
have anything? Do you need somebody? I'll do it. I
can travel, I can I can go to this game,
I can cover this event. Whatever you need from me,
I'll do And that's how I have a chance to
cultivate my personal experiences through that. That's how I got
(20:19):
better at this, and that's how I finally got noticed
over a period of time to be able to do
this job at a higher and higher level. Got you.
And so with that my next question that I have
to know, and I'm bear with me. I'm gonna try
to set this up so it can't be taken out
of context. So, um, Steve Jobs learned coding, right, Um,
(20:41):
I have a friend that currently right now is learning coding.
So if I use them to in a sentence in
a scenario, trust me, I'm not comparing the two. So
the same thing with this, I'm not comparing the two
athletes at all. But I'm curious about Tom Brady's contract
for a total three seventy five million dollars to commentate
(21:04):
after his career has done thirty seven point five million
dollars a year. He hasn't commentated one tom um. However,
I watched Tony Romo. Tony Romo came right into the business.
I think his was like four million dollars a year
and now he's up to to seventeen. Tony Romo to
me is amazing. And so the money seventeen million dollars
(21:28):
a year for Tony Romo and Tom Brady thirty seven one.
Do you think we'll see a discrepancy uh in skill
sets and talents that much? Or is that the business
side of it? Because of the appeal, um, you know
you have, you have, you have athlete in Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow was selected about the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't
(21:51):
even think actually to play football, but he was a
buy in that sold tickets, jerseys, et cetera. And it
was a business move. So curious, as much as you
can speak to this, is it a business move or
is it a skill set move? Um? With with Tom
Brady being paid thirty seven point five million dollars a
year already, I think it's a great question. I think
(22:12):
a lot of people will be curious when they see
such a large figure right. I think it's a combination
of both things. I think that it is a business
decision in the sense that you want to make splashy
hires in this business that seems to be the trend
at least right now, where you want to be able
to get somebody that has a big name. That and
and getting to to get a big name. Being you know,
(22:34):
bestowed with a big name means you've done something significant.
You can't just you're not just given that. You have
to be a Tony Romo is the quarterback of the
Dallas Cowboys. You have to be Tom Brady who has
seven Super Bowl rings and has the name recognition across
the across the spectrum of people who like entertainment and
sports or some combination of the two. I think skill
(22:57):
set wise, you're banking on a lot there too, and
that is a risk I think that any network takes
when they're starting to look at people they want to
bring in. You can argue with the philosophy of it,
because to me, I don't find that much of a
difference in my enjoyment of a broadcast depending on the
analyst or the play by playing ouncer. I think they
(23:18):
need to be good You certainly have to be at
a certain level and know the game and have a
feel for it, and and certainly have the understanding as
to how to communicate to an audience on how you
know on what is happening in a football game, And
you have to do that at a as we talked
about baseline quality for me to at least not be
(23:38):
not feel like you're intruding on my Sunday when I'm
watching football. To me, I don't think there's that much
of a difference or that much of a gap between A,
B and C. I do think there is a gap,
but I don't think there's that much of a gap.
And I do feel like when Tony Romo shows up,
shows some exuber and show some energy and it sounds fresh.
(23:59):
And part of the reason it sounded fresh is because
he was fresh out of the league, so he knew
these defenses, he knew these coaches, he knew these teams
like the back of his hands. So that translated in
a new and exciting way. So I think CBS did
what I think any person or a company or corporation
would do in that situation. We have something that people like,
(24:22):
we should make sure that we hold onto it. That
was the first domino. Then the Aikman domino fell, and
then the Brady domino fell, and I think that's where
we see the numbers continue to rise. But I do
feel like Richelle, you're not far off. I think it's
a combination of a business decision because of the flash name,
because of the high quality name, the recognizable name, and
(24:43):
the banking on somebody having that skill set. Because when
we sit down in meetings with Tom Brady or Matt
Ryan or Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray and they give
us insight as to what they're thinking about that week
for that particular game, and you hear them Artik late it,
you're you walk away impressed and go, maybe that person
(25:03):
has a future in this. And Tom is always impressed
people in meetings the same way Tony did. Tony wouldn't
have this job if a CBS person sitting in a
meeting somewhere while he was playing didn't hear him and go,
I think he could do that on TV and I
think he'd be really good at What advice would you
give to athletes who are looking to expand their brand,
maybe even still while playing, like JJ Reddick with the
(25:26):
old Man in the three and Pat McAfee. I know,
their type of broadcast is is slightly different than play
by play, but it's still the same industry it is.
And I've worked with Pat and and I got to
see firsthand how intelligent and savvy he was business wise.
You know, It's it's easy to kind of get caught
up in his personality and he's kind of a world
(25:46):
win as a human being. But he's truly one of
the smartest people I've ever met in terms of recognizing
what people like, how to bring that to them, how
to expand on that, how to use his connections to
make his product more fun and aging and intriguing to people.
I think savvy is really really important. First and foremost,
you have to understand how to talk to people, and
(26:08):
that's not an easy thing to do. I think we
see so much of it now. Everybody's got a podcast. No,
I'm not accusing you guys of anything. I'm saying every exactly, Yeah,
what do you know? What do you mean? You know?
Everybody tries it, and not everybody can do it, and
a lot of people can do it okay, but not
everybody can do it well right, And that's the things
that we just talked about. There are there are levels
(26:29):
to this in terms of being able to communicate clearly,
concisely and an entertaining fashion. You don't have to be
perfect all the time as a broadcaster, but I think
you need to be accurate, entertaining and palatable, right, Like
palatability is really important when you're talking to people for
hours at a time. Can what can I stand to
listen to you and watch you for three hours during
(26:52):
a football game? Can I stand to listen to you
or watch you for an hour on your podcast while
you're doing interviews or joking with your with your co host,
and like, can you entertained me? Can you keep me engaged?
And you don't have to be perfect, but you have
to be engaging, And that's always the first thing we
we look for that when we're I'm not saying I
got go into every meeting room with a quarterback or
a linebacker or a defensive coordinator or a coach, and
(27:15):
I'm looking to see if they're going to be good
enough to be a broadcaster. They want to be in
their sport, they want to do what they do. But
we're definitely looking at people like I like mentioned Matt Ryan.
We have the Colts game on Sunday, and I sat
down in the room with him, and I didn't talked
to him in a couple of years since he was
in Atlanta, so it was good to catch up with him.
And I remember I was just sitting there listening to
him talk about his offense and he's in a new
(27:36):
system and it's his fourth game in this new system,
and I'm like, this guy can articulate this in such
a simple way. What's hard about it? What's easy about it?
How do you translate it down to the field. You
have to be able to do that first and foremost.
Can you communicate that? And you're always being judged, You're
always being watched those postgame interviews, if you do a
(27:57):
press conference, if you happen to be in a situation
where you're in a meeting room with producers and directors
who do these broadcasts and play by play announcers and
analysts who do that job, and they hear something in you,
You're on your You're auditioning almost at all time. So
I would always tell an athlete who's in a spotlight
to remember that these are auditions if you want them
(28:19):
to be if you want this to be a moment
where you you have people look at you and say, oh,
he's good at this or she's good at this, that's
gonna be there. That opportunity will be there. People notice
these things, And I think the second part that's kind
of expanding it is be curious about it. Be a
student of it. You know. I think one thing we
do in in a bad fashion in broadcasting is we
(28:40):
don't we just kind of throw people into the fire
and go all right, go do it. And there are
things like a broadcast boot camp for x NFL players
and they kind of get a feel for how to
do this. But whether it's in the booth or in studio,
but we do a terrible job of coaching, terrible job.
And these are athletes. Rieshote, you've been coached since you
were six until the time you were in your thirties.
(29:01):
All you know is how to be coached. You learn
how to accept coaching. You We have coaches all the
time who rave about players, go that guy takes coaching
so well, he's so coachable. That's a real compliment that
we give to people. And yet when we have this
opportunity to put them into a situation where they can
explain the game and be communicative. We just tell them,
all right, go try it, instead of giving them a
(29:22):
structure and coaching them up on it. I think we
can do a better job of that. So if you're
a student of it already, and you pay attention to
what's good what's bad, you listen and watch with a
critical ear, and I you're already going to be ahead
of the game because you're gonna have an understanding as
to how to communicate with people. So, Linz, I think
that's how you you That's how athletes can start to
take those steps. If that's something that they're curious about,
(29:43):
you can do it. Now. It's easier than than it
ever has been, and there's more connectivity with people than
there ever has been. Absolutely, if I was if I'm
to reach out on a limb a little bit here
and compare commentationtion to real estate. Right, let's say you're
a relator, right, you're you're you're showing me around a
house that has already built, is already decorated, it is
(30:06):
prime for sale, and what you're doing is is waving
me through the rooms and allowing me to experience it
in a better way than other relators. Right, You're you're
trying to win me over as a favorite. So as
a relator of the game, right, which is the hardest
room to sell? What is the hardest play to sell?
(30:26):
What are the moments that you get the most nervous
of walking into this room? Fourth and one? Is that
a hell? Mary? Like? What what is the moment as
a relator, if you will, that gets you the most nervous.
I love your analogies. That was a great analogy. I
really enjoyed that. I don't think the cell of the
If it's a nice house, if it's already set up,
if it fits you know, you know the motif that
(30:49):
that person is looking for, it's an easy sell. Right.
So that for me is you know, if you're doing
the Sunday night game and you got Brady and Mahomes,
that's an easy sell. You don't have to tell that
too hard, Right, You go, look at how nice this
house is, Look at how talented these people are. Come
enjoy this with us. The harder cells are the games
that aren't as good, and everybody gets them once in
(31:10):
a while. Right, you get a blowout game, it's to
three in the third quarter and it's and I know
for you know, I know we've been talking about Brady,
so that's a different score for a lot of people.
But like, if you get to blow out game and
the field isn't good and it's unesthetically pleasing, and that's
the hard sell. That's when you have to walk into
the basement that has some mold in the corner and
(31:31):
be like, listen, I know what you're thinking. This doesn't
look great. Here's let me. Let me try to sell
you on this. That's when all of our preparation, the
hours of prep and research and learning about stories and
learning about the rest of the league so we can
talk intelligently about it if the possibility came up that
our game wasn't as good. We do all these hours
(31:51):
of preparation for stuff we never talk about, and frankly,
we hope we never have to talk about. Because the
game is so compelling that we don't have to sell
the other parts of it to kind of enhance your experience.
We don't have to sell the backstory of a player,
even though I enjoy doing that. I love telling stories
about athletes and how they got to where they're at
and what they're working on now or the community stuff
(32:12):
they do. It's wonderful to be able to share nice
stories about people who are talented. I enjoy that part
of it. But my hope is that the game is
so compelling that we don't have to. So that's the
room of the house that I get not nervous in.
But it's the one that you prepare for. You prepare
for the bad game, the blowout game, the uninteresting, unesthetically
pleasing game, so that you can keep people engaged. It's
(32:34):
the same way when you have to show that one
room in the house that you don't love. How do
I sell this to somebody? How do I say, Hey,
here's what's here's what's happening right now. But we maybe
we can make it better, and that's how we try
to enhance what's going on. I think that's the closest
I can get to a really good analogy or shot.
I think I try to match it as best as
I could. I appreciate it, man, And so lindsay, I
think what I heard him say is the hardest home
(32:55):
to sell is the one that the Jets and the
Texans are selling together. Maybe I'm hearing it wrong, man,
They're kind of your your ability to connect these tissue
these tissues is perfect. Man. I think you nailed it. Legitimately,
I think you nailed it. I wanted to end with
rapid fire because I'm curious today your favorites on a
(33:17):
few different topics. Okay, so if you're ready, we'll we'll
go with the rapid fire questions. Then all right. The
best play call of all time? Uh, in the Fiesta
Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma, the Statue of Liberty
two point conversion to win the Fiesta Bole. I still
think it's one of the greatest, most gutsy play calls
(33:38):
I've ever seen it. Favorite play call, favorite play callers
growing up. I grew up in Chicago, so we listened
to Jim Durham. They one of the greatest basketball voices
in the history of the medium, especially on radio. UH.
And the people that I look up to the most
have been like Tariko and Iron Eagle, and I would
(34:01):
say Dan Shulman probably the three national guys I listened
to the most. Oh. I love that answer. Uh. Favorite
games you personally have ever called? Very very, very fortunate. UH.
If you have a long enough career, you hope that
you run into a few cool moments. I've been very
fortunate to call the kick six game in the Iron Bowl,
the famous Chris Davis return. I did that on national radio.
(34:24):
Uh Lebron James with a buzzer beater in Game three
of the playoffs to beat the Toronto Raptors in Cleveland
a few years back. And uh maybe to this day,
Uh man, maybe you want to look, you know, basically
encompass my entire career as a Riqueo gimbawally in the
Final four, hitting the game winner in the Semis against Huicon,
and then bigger was the National Championship against Mississippi State. Wow. Wow,
(34:46):
what a career. Uh. What's the hardest play or moment
to call in sports history? I think it is the
home run that doesn't necessarily look like a no doubter
that could be a record breaker. And and I got
the chance to experience this recently when Aaron Judge was
sitting at sixty home runs, he came five ft from
(35:09):
tying the all time American League home run record. We
were so close. Uh, And and I know how difficult
that can be to have to call those moments. That's
why Joe Buck's call of Mark McGuire's sixty second home
run was so impressive because it wasn't It was not
a no doubt or there was a lot of question
as to whether or not it was going to go out.
Joe nailed the call and then he complimented the picture
(35:29):
of Mark McGuire kind of stumbling at first base as well.
Those are hard to do and if you pull them off,
it's it's really satisfying to be able to do it. Well,
that's all I have for rapid fire Rashand if you
have any now, man, listen, I appreciate you coming on
landsome jewels on us and uh sticking with my analogies. Man,
I can't help myself to speak. Oh man, these are
(35:52):
these are questions that I know a lot of athletes have.
They they're curious about this because they want to set
it up for for life. After you know it's to you.
You're almost get you. You're almost required to have two
careers as an athlete unless you're one of the elite
of the elite of the elite of the elite that's
going to get that that massive bag and be be
set for life and your generations after we'll be set.
(36:12):
There are plenty of those people, but it's still a
small percentage. So I know athletes want to set up
for the true second career that they have to have
for those other twenty years before they you know, like
the rest of us, rall trying to retire at the
right age, and I know a lot of people have
a lot of questions about this. I'm glad you guys
are asking them. Thank you for thank you for coming on,
for sharing your knowledge with us, no worries nor thank
(36:34):
you guys for listening to another episode of I Heart
Radio and Sports Illustrates The Bag and the special thanks
to our guest today, Adam Amine. You could listen to
The Bag on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you guys for
tuning in and we'll see you next time.
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