On today’s episode, Front Office Sports media and entertainment reporter Ryan Glasspiegel swings by to discuss the new ESPN-NFL partnership, the narrative that this merger could be a conflict of interest for investigative reporters, why so many investors are pushing all-in on the WNBA, how the upcoming LeBron James and Maverick Carter-backed basketball league could shake up the NBA, and much more!
Follow Jason on Twitter and Instagram. Click here to subscribe, rate and review all of the latest Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcasts!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Straight Fire. It's me Jason McIntyre here
on Straight Fire. August seventh, Thursday. The year is twenty
twenty five. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a little excited. Guys.
It's a big, big week. Got my boy Ryan Glaspiegel
on the pod today. He here's our quick backstory. He
(00:34):
was freelancing at Sports Illustrated back in like two thousand
and six. I was looking to hire somebody who was
a go getter, just aggressive, relentless, and he, you know,
he starts emailing me. He says he's interested. He ends
up coming over and as a machine. He just tireless worker,
one of these guys who just grinds and grinds. Got
(00:56):
a couple of big spook goops. We've been friends for
a long time and Rob G had the good idea.
He was like, listen, this NFL, E ESPN things kind
of big. Should we bring on glass Peagle. I was like, yeah,
so we brought on Glass Pegel. He's bounced around New
York Post. He was at out Kick with Klay Travis
and now he's at Front Office Sports kind of crushing it.
And yeah, we talk about NFL, WNBA. It's a lot
(01:21):
interesting media talk if you guys, excuse me, are into that.
Quick side note. So I think I've been talking about
that Mecca League where they pay fifty K to the winner.
So we made the playoffs. We're only five and four,
but it's tough because I'll just say this. So, I've
been in basketball leagues out here in LA since like
(01:43):
twenty two, and we usually dominate. Right, I'm used to
getting good players. I was like, the GM or what
have you, and then making sure that they're not only
good like team players, but they actually freaking show up
for games, okay, and it hasn't been problem. And then
we get to this team in this Mecca League and
it's like seven levels above what I'm used to. I mean,
(02:05):
I would say half the league has played internationally or
Division one or Division two or high level JUCO. I
mean like maybe more than half the league. Man, it's
crazy anyways, So pretty early on, I was like, all right,
we're gonna need to find some more guys. So I started,
you know, hitting the transfer portal hard, and I start
(02:26):
finding these guys. You know, I have a big network,
and fortunately I'm going to position it with work where
I can kind of reach out to people. They're like, oh,
the guy from Fox. So I'm able to get guys.
But what I'm finding is these guys who have played basketball,
you know, at high levels and have been professionals, they
don't often want to just slum it in a league
(02:47):
on a weekend. But my thought is, I just got
to get them in the door. Let me get them
on the team. They'll see how much fun it is.
We're good, we're cool guys, and they're gonna want to
play and then help us in the playoffs and we'll
go win the fifth k Man. I will say, I'm
not gonna name the guys here, but two guys who
live in Los Angeles here who I've never actually, I'm sorry.
(03:09):
One of them I did run into at the gym.
The other I've never met. I just heard him. You
got to hit up this guy. He's amazing. One guy
is playing in Russia and he was like the Dunk
Contest champion and he's like one of the leading scores
in the league. He's like, you know, twenty eight. Now,
he's not huge, but he's just an unbelievable athletic guard
who's just ridiculous. It's some dunks that he posts on
(03:31):
his ig. You're just like, holy s Nikes and this
guy tells me to They say, yeah, yeah, I'm interested. Sure, yeah,
I give you a couple of weeks and he says
he'll be there for the game. I'm like, all right, great,
we got him. He showed up. And then it's just
no shows, no no text, no heads up, and I'm like,
are you what? Who does that? Where I'm from, If you,
you know, if you commit to something, say you're gonna
(03:53):
be there, you at least say, oh, man, sorry. So
then the next time he tells us the day before,
oh something came up. Turns out he posts on his
IG that he got invited to a Drew League game
and played. The Drew League is a little more prestigious
than Mecca has been around longer whatever, but there's no
fifty K on the line, dude. So then he plays
pick up ball invite only run with a couple guys
(04:16):
on our team and they were like, listen, man, he's
a scoring machine, but I don't think he's going to
be a good fit. He's jacking every time he gets
the ball, and you know that's not how you would
in this league. The other guy really hurt because he
was the IVY League Player of the Year. I'm not
going to say what year. Super talented player still plays professionally.
He's in his early thirties. Has told us twice, oh
(04:39):
I'm in and literally no show both times. I cannot
personally deal with that. So I had been following them
on ig We communicated, they followed me. I had to
unfollow them just for not showing up. And I know
that sounds petty and losory, like I'm not asking you
for the world. If you say you're going to show
up with to play, then show up. But it's always disappointing. Anyways,
(05:01):
We've got the playoffs this weekend. We're rematch with a
team that basically like half their team won the championship
last year. They're good. We led them for like three
quarters in our second game of the season and then
we ran out of bench players and just fatigue caught
up with us. We will have our bench, We got everybody.
I am so excited about this game. I don't think
(05:21):
I will play personally. Maybe a for up ten with
like thirty seconds. I mean again, one of their guards
was the MVP of the league last year. You know
he was in that TBT tournament. I mean yeah, averaging
like twenty two points a game. You know, these guys
are all nice, they something not all some of them
recognize me and they'll be like, oh yeah, seeing you
on that show. Now, they might be bullshitting just to
(05:44):
say that, but man, I'm so fired up. So anyways,
playoffs this well, obviously, getting we were in the there's
two divisions. We're in the tougher division. Somehow we had
the two Three of the four best overall teams in
the league are in our so we have a brutal
path to the championship. But if all our guys show,
I think we win this weekend and we'll I don't
(06:06):
even know who will play next, but it's gonna be
exciting Monday. I will have a recap obviously, because I
know you care deeply. Anyway, without further ado, let's get
to today's guest, Ryan Glassbiegel of Front Office Sports.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I know what sports fans want.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But for everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy. All right, let's welcome into
straight fire. A guy I've known for I don't know,
ten fifteen years. Maybe he is a media guru. Cond
we call him that sports media. He's covering sports media dominating.
He's at Front Office Sports, and he's here to talk
(06:50):
a little NFL after this big seismic NFL network ESPN merger?
Is that what we're calling it? Ryan Glassy goal Glass,
How you doing, man, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We've known each other for almost thirteen years. At the
end of this year, it'll be thirteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Somebody has a better memory than me, but I have.
I have age on him and my kids.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I just know when we met and then I did
the Mass So it's not like I just been thinking, Okay,
I've known j Mass for the most thirteen years. At
the top of my consciousness, I just know we met
at the end of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Now you've been if you were at the New York
Post covering media, now front office sports, you guys have
a pretty robust team. It's essentially, you know, there was
an era where bloggers were all over sports media, but
now it's kind of shifted back toward the legacy media.
I guess you guys realized, Oh, there's a lot of
clicks in this stuff. I'm curious, how has the clicks been?
(07:50):
How have the clicks been for this ESPN NFL merger?
Do fans seem to care?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You know what's funny is I actually don't know my
clicks for the first time in my career. They tell
us like the top ten stories of the month, and
I've done pretty well in that regard since I joined
Front Office Sports in January, But for like individual stories
like I have no idea how well the NFL media
(08:19):
esc and stuff is clicking. But I do know that,
like a lot of people are hitting me up by
tests or whatever, what does this mean? And there's lots
of questions about it. So I think it's getting like
a big reaction in terms of how many people are
wondering what this means for them.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So I guess my thing is, before we get to
NFL ESPN, you said something interesting. They don't tell you
your clicks, I don't write. Is that smart business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I mean, well, you know, front office has so many
like you know, when we were at the big lead,
our whole thing was you've got to get this many quicks,
and that's what our business was. But Front office has
enormous followings on every social platform. We've got live of them.
We have several different news letters where the main one
(09:10):
goes to almost a million describers every day. So web
traffic is just like you know, it's important and we
want to make sure that our website matters. But it's
not a d all and all, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, yeah, okay, I asked that because we know NFL
is in American sports number one for clicks. I guess
you could argue, like you know, Caitlin Clark is up
there in certain individual staff Lebron blah blah blah, NFL
is dominant. But I don't know if this merger does much.
I know mostly people are nervous about red zone, right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, so first of all, the idea that the ESPN
is going to like kick out got Hanson and put
Stephen a in charge of a red zone. You know,
it seems like a lot of memes along that line.
That's not gonna happen. Hanson signed a new multi year
deal with NFL. NFL Media is continuing to produce this show.
(10:04):
ESPN is licensing it for linear and like licensing the branding,
so that's put a pin in the licensing and the brandings.
It means that there could be like a college football
red zone channel called red Zone on ESPN in the
coming years. But as far as like a ruining red zone,
that's not going to happen. But if your definition of
(10:25):
ruining it is that ads are going to continue to
creep in more and more and more. You know, we
had seven hours of commercial free football and now it's
going to be seven hours of mostly commercial free football,
and eventually they're going to creep in and creep in
and creep in. But as far as changing the underlying content,
(10:48):
I think, for as far as the eye can see,
it's going to be what we've loved.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, the idea of no commercials, red zone top priority
for every football fan, a gambling survi fantasy, you need it,
and all of a sudden going commercials. It kind of
feel it harkens back a little too, maybe Napster, where
music was free for a while and then they started
suing people and you were like, oh no, now you've
got to subscribe and do with ads. I don't personally
(11:16):
even subscribe to Spotify just because I don't want ads.
I just I'll I'll go Amazon Music. I don't know
if anybody does that, but I'm on Amazon Music no ads.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, I mean I do that with YouTube. But same
kind of concept because the YouTube paying for no ads
to across all videos and music. I found it be
a great value at sixteen dollars a month. But like
back to the nature at hand, it's just like the
biggest deal in the world. No, I don't think that
like the average person is necessarily going to see any changes. Basically,
(11:47):
the bones of the transaction is that ESPN is purchasing
the NFL network. They get the linear distribution rights for
red Zone. Now, if you play Santas on NFL dot Com,
you might notice changes to ESPN acquired that asset and
it's going to be integrating it, and so I imagine
(12:08):
eventually you're going to have if you play on NFL Fantasy,
it's going to be the ESPN formatting eventually. But that's
at least a year or two away. And that's another
thing that people have to remember is this deal still
has to cross Donald Trump's desk, and I mean he
didn't let skidm CBS paramount go through easily. So we'll
(12:32):
see if there's like a pound of flesh or whatever
that he commands to bless this deal.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Well, I don't understand that. Why does he have to
get involved in this crap.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Because it goes through the Anti Trust Department? Do you
remember like five years ago when Disney and ESPN but
all of those assets from Fox, the Justice Department did
not let ESPN acquire the Fox Sports Region Sports Networks
so they said that this violates monopoly concerns, and those
(13:06):
rsns kind of just got cast off the ce and
they're really just recovering now.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So I mean, is there a world where all of
a sudden the Department of Justice says, yeah, this is
a monopoly. I don't I don't see how I think.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Well, well it is. I don't know there is a
world where it happens, because they've done that before. I mean,
it's structurally, isn't that much different than the idea of
ESPN blombing onto the rsns, ESPN clombing on the NFL network,
So it is kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
But well, aren't there the rsns are independent. The NFL
televises on Fox, CBS, Amazon, I think Netflix, like they're
they're spreading the wealth everywhere, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
But I mean baseball broadcasts on ESPN off TBS, Roku, Apple.
I mean, it wasn't on Roku and Apple at the time,
but I mean it's the same. It's the same type
of idea with as like this dominant sports TV player
getting bigger and what does that mean for competition and
so on? Now you're right, and like there is a
(14:19):
lot of competition now these big streamers have entered the marketplace,
and I don't think ESPN is this mighty warship that
it was when you and I started covering sports media.
They've had the more pick and cheese their battles now.
But the factory means that if like Donald Trump, for
(14:39):
whatever reasons, wants to hold this up, you can. And
it's just kind of like the way of the world
with how murders and acquisitions go, is the presidential administration
can bless them or curse them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
It seems like a no brainer. You don't want to
piss off the football fan base, the number one sport
in America, But you're right, there's a world where wealth.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Fan doesn't care if ESPN owns NFL networks. Now, it's
not like NFL Network and red zat are going to
go away if Trump blocks it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, I'm sure that you know they have in their
back pocket a card to play should he block it
or attempt to.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Say.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I don't think he's going to block it, but I
think that they're probably going to have to make concession
somewhere along the way. Well, if i'd guessed, I mean,
that's the thing. This thing is probably going to close.
If i'd have bet on it right now, I would
bet that it will. But I wouldn't bet my life
that it will. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I thought we wanted less government, Ryan, I thought we
want to know, Now we got more the governments getting
involved in this crap.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
We don't know. It's a it's a possibility, we don't
if it happened, Whether the government is going to get
involved in this or not, has not manifested yet. But
it takes head all right.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Now, I do want to ask, does this mean a
lot of people are gonna lose their job? Is the
ESPN people who I don't know cover the NFL closely.
If all of a sudden, the league owns ten percent
of ESPN and someone's doing a deep penetrating dive into
I don't know, some Roger Goodell's find whatever it is. Kenny, Yeah,
(16:14):
I would say, hey, Dan.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Patrick made the point today that ship has sailed in
the sense that, like, you know, this isn't the ESPN
where they were interrogating Roger Goodell over concussions and Ray
Rice and Colin Kaepernick. As you remember when I used
to work for you, those were all very big stories.
You remember ESPN pulled out of a PDS Frontline documentary,
(16:42):
so that there's been already this question of like conflict
of interest between the ESPN and the leagues that it
broadcasts for like a very long time. And I don't
you know, if you want to do investigative journalism, I
don't know if ESPN is the right place for you
right now. Like maybe you should go to the New
(17:04):
York Times, Athletic Washington Posts at Landed. It's not like
there's any shortage of outlets that can be critical of
the NFL. But I don't think you're going to see
the type of aggressive coming after the commissioner that we
used to see. And by the way, you know you
ask can people lose their jobs? Do you remember in
(17:25):
the year like twenty fifteen when ESPN was starting to
cut back, and three of the first people who got
cut or not renewed at that time were Bill Simmons,
Keith Oberman, and Jason Whitlock, and all of them had
been especially critical of Roger Goodell and called for his job. So,
I mean, I think if you want to be speaking
(17:46):
real truth to power, ESPN's probably not the right employer.
In twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Five, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox
Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
fs R to listen live.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's interesting because you know, you you've done stuff to
piss people off. I've done some stuff in my past
writing wise that people didn't like. But the idea of
burying a story it almost feels movie ish, does it?
Not like it's it's something you'd see in a movie
as opposed to in real life.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, but I think that they there are lots of
stories they buried that we don't necessarily know about over
the years. I don't know, it would be very interesting
to be It's not like I've ever worked at ESPN
and had been in the meetings where something gets chilled.
But I've you know, we talked to people who have
(18:43):
had that happen to them, haven't you?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, I have. It is interesting. Here's my thing. Does
the dude does the you you know fans and you
used to at the New York Posts see what people
click on? Do you think the fans care about It's
like Pablo Tori did this big podcast about something going
on in the NFL and I got to plead ignorance.
It's a summer. I haven't listened to it. I haven't really.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It was like it's very deep in the weeds union
stuff that Pablo and Mike Florio are collaborating on. And
the answer your question, no, I don't think the average
fan cares. I mean, you know, they're we're always kind
of told by the sports media that we have to
take up solidarity with players against like the ultra rich owners.
(19:36):
But you know, these these NFL players, even on the fringe,
are making a million dollars a year at this point.
I get it they have short careers, but if they
if they have a three year career, think about how
long that takes the average Joe X to accumulate that
much income and just the public is not very sensitive
(19:59):
about player labor issues. They're just it just doesn't rise
to the level of something they care about.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, it's like even and then shifting topics a little
bit like WNBA. You've got these players wearing T shirts
all Star weekend. They're lobbying for more money, but weirdly
the fans seem to be like, these women deserve more money,
and you know.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
They do though they're you know, the w onlya that's
a different situation than even like rank and file bottom
of a barrow NFL or NBA player. I mean, the
WNBA max contract is two hundred and fifty grand. We
just had three expansion franchises go for two hundred and
fifty million. We're talking about the Connecticut Sun getting sold
(20:44):
for three hundred and twenty five million dollars. So, like
the player, there's clearly some belief that the economics of
the WNBA are going to be more attractive in the
future than they have been in the past, and the
players do deserve some type of peace. But I don't
think even even with like yeah, the w the core
w NBA fan, though Jason is really rooted in advocacy,
(21:09):
that has been a big part of the identity of
the league, Cree, Caitlin Clark especially, and so the people
who have been tuned in for the w n b
A for a long time. Those are the type of
people who are going to take up an athlete cause.
But as far as the NFL is concerned, the fans
just don't really care about it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They don't care. Yeah, give me my stats, get me
a Super Bowl. I want to win my fantasy league.
I want to win my bets. But to go to
the w NBA, like those franchises have been hemorrhaging money
for years. They've been propped up by the NBA.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You know it just true.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But the thoughts that they're going, I go.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Ahead, Well, so the Kinetics Sun go for three hundred million. Again,
that's not what they're worth. Now, that's a theoretical value
based on if this trajectory, this massive rise keeps going. Yeah,
I would be willing to pay that. It's simply it's
like a shopping for a house, right, Is that house
worth five hundred thousand? No, But guess what, there's nothing
(22:05):
else in the market near it, and they can ask
for that because it's a desiraled the neighborhood. Isn't that
the situation? Like, I don't think the Connecticuts don't.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
He's a pretty sophisticated buyers. I mean the owners that
came in in Detroit, Golden State, Philadelphia, Toronto. These of
the people that already own the NBA teams in that city.
Nobody knows the economics of these teams and the WNBA
more than those people do. And they start they see
(22:34):
these financial synergies where they can, you know, drum up
sponsorship sales. And the TV deal is not going to
increase so much right now, but there is like a
lot of money coming into the league that I think
the fact that the NBA propped it up for nearly
thirty years, I don't know why. That's like Caitlin Clark's problem.
(22:55):
You know, she's making like seventy five grand a year
for the Indiana Fever and there are like NBA mascots
that make significantly more than that.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Oh stop it. A mascot makes more than the thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yes, there's ones make like mid six figures.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
They are like attractions, Okay, But just to be clear,
Caitlin Clark with Gatorade and Wilson and all these she's
cleaning up on the basketball court.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, but I think about what she's driving for the
fever in that league and then what she's getting in
compensation in return. Now, are they owe more money? Like
they wrote on their shirts that they all start owed
is a strange word, but I think that they have
a case for it. And by the way, I've said
this in multiple places, but they could all just secede
(23:45):
from the league and start.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Their own thing if the w NBA and NBA played
too much hardball with them, Like there are deep pocketed
investors who can make it worth their while to just
start something up completely new.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
They got that on I Will be off the ground
and got media distribution for it for three on three
in their off season. And you know, three on three basketball,
if you saw during the Olympics, isn't really that attractive
of a sport to watch. But it was just kind
of showing like, Hey, if you guys mess with us
too much, we have other options.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I mean, I like that sounds great. Like you said,
this is a league built on advocacy of a fan
base that loves that stuff. The reality is sure you
could do a quick three on three thing and pump
it up for a little bit and you know, mess
with the lighting to make it not that big of
an issue if there weren't that many people there. But
I'm talking about long term, creating something sustainable that fans
(24:45):
want to keep coming to. I don't think it's anyway
Labrick Carter.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Have you have you read about this this like upstart
saying that Lebron and Maverick are kind of angling for
Have you read up on it?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh, I haven't first ever heard.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Really, so you should read into this. It happened when
you were on vacation. But they're putting like deep consideration
into basically starting an international basketball league with men's and
women's teams and like making it kind of like an
F one X exposition where you go to like the
(25:21):
fancy cities all over the world and it's like a
traveling circus. But the like, look, there's a good chance
for lebron Is playing in it. And they did this
like cryptic photo with Nicola Jokich's agent on a boat
in Europe like last week, and everyone's like, oh boy,
are they going to poach Yokis from the NBA for
(25:43):
this week? And so if they're doing if they got
like Keithwyn Clark and you know, eight other WNDA stars,
they could totally disrupt the WNBA. And they have the
financial backing to set these people up on very critic Yo.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I don't you know what this seems like almost like
the gambling gold Rush from like five six years ago,
where everybody's like, how do I get paid? And everybody
sees Kaitlin Clark WNBA undervalued and everybody's just pulling at them. Hey,
let's start this unrival league. Hey it's Lebron and Maverick Carter.
I mean, you're gonna listen to Lebron and Maverick Carter.
I don't. I don't love it. M yeah, I mean
(26:26):
there are some big stars. Paige Becker's juju once she
gets healthy. Like you've got a good foundation, but can
you keep it?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
There's about eight to ten pretty bankable w NBA test.
It's the problem is you need like they can't just
they need other people on their level to play with.
You can't just take those eight people and like fill
them with like surround them with like a bunch of
like you know, replacement level or worse talent. But I'm
(26:54):
telling you like it wouldn't cost that much in the
grand scheme of things. For so want to buy off
the top eight to ten WNBA stars, and they like
until that there's a new collective bargaining agreement. I would
be concerned about that before like buying into the WNBA.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right now, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You know what is starting to remind me of and
I just thought of this as hearing you remember the
nineteen ninety nine Women's World Cup, Brandy Chastain, you know,
rips off the jersey they win in PK remember that.
I think it was ninety yes, okay, yeah. So after that,
of course, it's like, oh my gosh, look at the ratings,
look at the interest. Holy smoked, we've got a league here.
(27:45):
And they started the women's League in the US and
they were building it largely around the great US players
who were on that team. I don't know if they
went maybe they went undefeated, but and had that work
out ry like they had like maybe ten women who
were had some name recognition, probab closure to five with
like a Hope Solos of the World or whatever, and
(28:08):
it just kind of struggle. It's it's easier said than done,
as is normally the case.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Telling you pay attention to these Lebron and Maverick maneuvers,
ask people about them. And because I don't know that
necessarily what they're doing is going to work, and they're
definitely going to do it, and if it's some like
type of three D chess game to try to leverage
(28:34):
the MDA into giving them a Vegas franchise when the
NBA has thus far been reluctant to do so. But
just like, I'm not saying what they're doing is going
to work or even get off the ground, but they
have a real chance to be disruptive with what they're trying.
So I would say, don't dismiss that notion as much
(28:56):
out of hand before you make some calls about it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, all right, I guess we could wrap up. You
were obviously a weirdo who lives in Chicago with roots
for the Packers. Do you want to try to explain that.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, my dad grew up in Milwaukee, I grew up
in Connecticut, but especially when FARV came along, We used
to go to Jim Calhoun's Coaches Sports Bar and grow
to watch the Packers almost every week. And then you know,
when I was in like seventh or eighth grade, my
parents got direct TV and Sunday Ticket, So I have
(29:35):
they passed that fan hood down to me.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Mmm. Okay. So we had a guy on yesterday, t
A who has been on the pod dating back to
my radio show Good Gambler. He likes the Packers as
a Super Bowl team. He broke it down. Sounded pretty logical.
Were you on the Packers in the Super Bowl? Like
I mean, coming out of the Nfcok, the.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Eagles have to be the prohibited seed risks, but after
the I can see why to make a case for
the Packers. You know, the Packers played the Eagles pretty
tough twice last year. Week one when in Brazil, that
Peacos game where Jordan Love got clobbered at the end
and had to miss a couple of games because of
a knee injury. And then in the playoffs the Packers,
(30:19):
you know, in the third quarter, it was like, Okay,
the Packers could steal this game if everything goes right now.
They didn't, But there there is a case for them now,
Jordan Love has to have his mobility back. If you
look at his staff in his rookie year versus last year,
(30:40):
he was much more successful at picking up first downs
with his legs as a rookie. Now, it might have
been that he was just battling lingering injuries the whole
year last year, dating back to that aforementioned Week one hit,
But it's like, the thing is is that when he
stayed in the pocket, he's susceptible to some bad decisions,
(31:04):
and so you need the quarterback in the modern NFL
like the days of like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady
who never scrambled you. Brady could pick up quarterback sneaks,
but he wasn't like a threat to take off. But
now you look at Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar
Jackson and Jalen Hurst, and it's really hard to win
(31:25):
in this league if you don't have a quarterback who's
stealing first downs with his legs. Honestly, once a quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Oh, Matt Stafford scoffs at that, and Jared Goff and
his how many games will That's the under on the
Lions this year because I'm already on it.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
You know, Yeah, Jared goff scoffs at that, but like
what I know, he did win a Super Bowl, but or.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Get to know, he he went to one, he didn't
win one.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
But yeah, that's rare. Though it's rare now and I
think it's becoming it's increasingly difficult.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, no, I would agree. I'm just pulling your chain, buddy.
All right, Ryan glassbiego front off of sports all over
the media. So this is the lebron thing. I guess
I got to monitor that. Huh geez, read up on it.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I'm not declaring that it's going to be a problem yet,
but I think, like you know, of those old eighty movies,
when a threat is like on like the furthest level
of the radar and it's starting to beat, That's where
I am with that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Hmm. Okay, good stuff, buddy, and good luck to your
packers this year, all
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Right, Thanks, have a good one.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Straight Fire. It's me Jason McIntyre here
on Straight Fire. August seventh, Thursday. The year is twenty
twenty five. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a little excited. Guys.
It's a big, big week. Got my boy Ryan Glaspiegel
on the pod today. He here's our quick backstory. He
(00:34):
was freelancing at Sports Illustrated back in like two thousand
and six. I was looking to hire somebody who was
a go getter, just aggressive, relentless, and he, you know,
he starts emailing me. He says he's interested. He ends
up coming over and as a machine. He just tireless worker,
one of these guys who just grinds and grinds. Got
(00:56):
a couple of big spook goops. We've been friends for
a long time and Rob G had the good idea.
He was like, listen, this NFL, E ESPN things kind
of big. Should we bring on glass Peagle. I was like, yeah,
so we brought on Glass Pegel. He's bounced around New
York Post. He was at out Kick with Klay Travis
and now he's at Front Office Sports kind of crushing it.
And yeah, we talk about NFL, WNBA. It's a lot
(01:21):
interesting media talk if you guys, excuse me, are into that.
Quick side note. So I think I've been talking about
that Mecca League where they pay fifty K to the winner.
So we made the playoffs. We're only five and four,
but it's tough because I'll just say this. So, I've
been in basketball leagues out here in LA since like
(01:43):
twenty two, and we usually dominate. Right, I'm used to
getting good players. I was like, the GM or what
have you, and then making sure that they're not only
good like team players, but they actually freaking show up
for games, okay, and it hasn't been problem. And then
we get to this team in this Mecca League and
it's like seven levels above what I'm used to. I mean,
(02:05):
I would say half the league has played internationally or
Division one or Division two or high level JUCO. I
mean like maybe more than half the league. Man, it's
crazy anyways, So pretty early on, I was like, all right,
we're gonna need to find some more guys. So I started,
you know, hitting the transfer portal hard, and I start
(02:26):
finding these guys. You know, I have a big network,
and fortunately I'm going to position it with work where
I can kind of reach out to people. They're like, oh,
the guy from Fox. So I'm able to get guys.
But what I'm finding is these guys who have played basketball,
you know, at high levels and have been professionals, they
don't often want to just slum it in a league
(02:47):
on a weekend. But my thought is, I just got
to get them in the door. Let me get them
on the team. They'll see how much fun it is.
We're good, we're cool guys, and they're gonna want to
play and then help us in the playoffs and we'll
go win the fifth k Man. I will say, I'm
not gonna name the guys here, but two guys who
live in Los Angeles here who I've never actually, I'm sorry.
(03:09):
One of them I did run into at the gym.
The other I've never met. I just heard him. You
got to hit up this guy. He's amazing. One guy
is playing in Russia and he was like the Dunk
Contest champion and he's like one of the leading scores
in the league. He's like, you know, twenty eight. Now,
he's not huge, but he's just an unbelievable athletic guard
who's just ridiculous. It's some dunks that he posts on
(03:31):
his ig. You're just like, holy s Nikes and this
guy tells me to They say, yeah, yeah, I'm interested. Sure, yeah,
I give you a couple of weeks and he says
he'll be there for the game. I'm like, all right, great,
we got him. He showed up. And then it's just
no shows, no no text, no heads up, and I'm like,
are you what? Who does that? Where I'm from, If you,
you know, if you commit to something, say you're gonna
(03:53):
be there, you at least say, oh, man, sorry. So
then the next time he tells us the day before,
oh something came up. Turns out he posts on his
IG that he got invited to a Drew League game
and played. The Drew League is a little more prestigious
than Mecca has been around longer whatever, but there's no
fifty K on the line, dude. So then he plays
pick up ball invite only run with a couple guys
(04:16):
on our team and they were like, listen, man, he's
a scoring machine, but I don't think he's going to
be a good fit. He's jacking every time he gets
the ball, and you know that's not how you would
in this league. The other guy really hurt because he
was the IVY League Player of the Year. I'm not
going to say what year. Super talented player still plays professionally.
He's in his early thirties. Has told us twice, oh
(04:39):
I'm in and literally no show both times. I cannot
personally deal with that. So I had been following them
on ig We communicated, they followed me. I had to
unfollow them just for not showing up. And I know
that sounds petty and losory, like I'm not asking you
for the world. If you say you're going to show
up with to play, then show up. But it's always disappointing. Anyways,
(05:01):
We've got the playoffs this weekend. We're rematch with a
team that basically like half their team won the championship
last year. They're good. We led them for like three
quarters in our second game of the season and then
we ran out of bench players and just fatigue caught
up with us. We will have our bench, We got everybody.
I am so excited about this game. I don't think
(05:21):
I will play personally. Maybe a for up ten with
like thirty seconds. I mean again, one of their guards
was the MVP of the league last year. You know
he was in that TBT tournament. I mean yeah, averaging
like twenty two points a game. You know, these guys
are all nice, they something not all some of them
recognize me and they'll be like, oh yeah, seeing you
on that show. Now, they might be bullshitting just to
(05:44):
say that, but man, I'm so fired up. So anyways,
playoffs this well, obviously, getting we were in the there's
two divisions. We're in the tougher division. Somehow we had
the two Three of the four best overall teams in
the league are in our so we have a brutal
path to the championship. But if all our guys show,
I think we win this weekend and we'll I don't
(06:06):
even know who will play next, but it's gonna be
exciting Monday. I will have a recap obviously, because I
know you care deeply. Anyway, without further ado, let's get
to today's guest, Ryan Glassbiegel of Front Office Sports.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I know what sports fans want.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
But for everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy. All right, let's welcome into
straight fire. A guy I've known for I don't know,
ten fifteen years. Maybe he is a media guru. Cond
we call him that sports media. He's covering sports media dominating.
He's at Front Office Sports, and he's here to talk
(06:50):
a little NFL after this big seismic NFL network ESPN merger?
Is that what we're calling it? Ryan Glassy goal Glass,
How you doing, man, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
We've known each other for almost thirteen years. At the
end of this year, it'll be thirteen years.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Somebody has a better memory than me, but I have.
I have age on him and my kids.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I just know when we met and then I did
the Mass So it's not like I just been thinking, Okay,
I've known j Mass for the most thirteen years. At
the top of my consciousness, I just know we met
at the end of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Now you've been if you were at the New York
Post covering media, now front office sports, you guys have
a pretty robust team. It's essentially, you know, there was
an era where bloggers were all over sports media, but
now it's kind of shifted back toward the legacy media.
I guess you guys realized, Oh, there's a lot of
clicks in this stuff. I'm curious, how has the clicks been?
(07:50):
How have the clicks been for this ESPN NFL merger?
Do fans seem to care?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You know what's funny is I actually don't know my
clicks for the first time in my career. They tell
us like the top ten stories of the month, and
I've done pretty well in that regard since I joined
Front Office Sports in January, But for like individual stories
like I have no idea how well the NFL media
(08:19):
esc and stuff is clicking. But I do know that,
like a lot of people are hitting me up by
tests or whatever, what does this mean? And there's lots
of questions about it. So I think it's getting like
a big reaction in terms of how many people are
wondering what this means for them.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So I guess my thing is, before we get to
NFL ESPN, you said something interesting. They don't tell you
your clicks, I don't write. Is that smart business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I mean, well, you know, front office has so many
like you know, when we were at the big lead,
our whole thing was you've got to get this many quicks,
and that's what our business was. But Front office has
enormous followings on every social platform. We've got live of them.
We have several different news letters where the main one
(09:10):
goes to almost a million describers every day. So web
traffic is just like you know, it's important and we
want to make sure that our website matters. But it's
not a d all and all, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, yeah, okay, I asked that because we know NFL
is in American sports number one for clicks. I guess
you could argue, like you know, Caitlin Clark is up
there in certain individual staff Lebron blah blah blah, NFL
is dominant. But I don't know if this merger does much.
I know mostly people are nervous about red zone, right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, so first of all, the idea that the ESPN
is going to like kick out got Hanson and put
Stephen a in charge of a red zone. You know,
it seems like a lot of memes along that line.
That's not gonna happen. Hanson signed a new multi year
deal with NFL. NFL Media is continuing to produce this show.
(10:04):
ESPN is licensing it for linear and like licensing the branding,
so that's put a pin in the licensing and the brandings.
It means that there could be like a college football
red zone channel called red Zone on ESPN in the
coming years. But as far as like a ruining red zone,
that's not going to happen. But if your definition of
(10:25):
ruining it is that ads are going to continue to
creep in more and more and more. You know, we
had seven hours of commercial free football and now it's
going to be seven hours of mostly commercial free football,
and eventually they're going to creep in and creep in
and creep in. But as far as changing the underlying content,
(10:48):
I think, for as far as the eye can see,
it's going to be what we've loved.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, the idea of no commercials, red zone top priority
for every football fan, a gambling survi fantasy, you need it,
and all of a sudden going commercials. It kind of
feel it harkens back a little too, maybe Napster, where
music was free for a while and then they started
suing people and you were like, oh no, now you've
got to subscribe and do with ads. I don't personally
(11:16):
even subscribe to Spotify just because I don't want ads.
I just I'll I'll go Amazon Music. I don't know
if anybody does that, but I'm on Amazon Music no ads.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, I mean I do that with YouTube. But same
kind of concept because the YouTube paying for no ads
to across all videos and music. I found it be
a great value at sixteen dollars a month. But like
back to the nature at hand, it's just like the
biggest deal in the world. No, I don't think that
like the average person is necessarily going to see any changes. Basically,
(11:47):
the bones of the transaction is that ESPN is purchasing
the NFL network. They get the linear distribution rights for
red Zone. Now, if you play Santas on NFL dot Com,
you might notice changes to ESPN acquired that asset and
it's going to be integrating it, and so I imagine
(12:08):
eventually you're going to have if you play on NFL Fantasy,
it's going to be the ESPN formatting eventually. But that's
at least a year or two away. And that's another
thing that people have to remember is this deal still
has to cross Donald Trump's desk, and I mean he
didn't let skidm CBS paramount go through easily. So we'll
(12:32):
see if there's like a pound of flesh or whatever
that he commands to bless this deal.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Well, I don't understand that. Why does he have to
get involved in this crap.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Because it goes through the Anti Trust Department? Do you
remember like five years ago when Disney and ESPN but
all of those assets from Fox, the Justice Department did
not let ESPN acquire the Fox Sports Region Sports Networks
so they said that this violates monopoly concerns, and those
(13:06):
rsns kind of just got cast off the ce and
they're really just recovering now.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So I mean, is there a world where all of
a sudden the Department of Justice says, yeah, this is
a monopoly. I don't I don't see how I think.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Well, well it is. I don't know there is a
world where it happens, because they've done that before. I mean,
it's structurally, isn't that much different than the idea of
ESPN blombing onto the rsns, ESPN clombing on the NFL network,
So it is kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
But well, aren't there the rsns are independent. The NFL
televises on Fox, CBS, Amazon, I think Netflix, like they're
they're spreading the wealth everywhere, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
But I mean baseball broadcasts on ESPN off TBS, Roku, Apple.
I mean, it wasn't on Roku and Apple at the time,
but I mean it's the same. It's the same type
of idea with as like this dominant sports TV player
getting bigger and what does that mean for competition and
so on? Now you're right, and like there is a
(14:19):
lot of competition now these big streamers have entered the marketplace,
and I don't think ESPN is this mighty warship that
it was when you and I started covering sports media.
They've had the more pick and cheese their battles now.
But the factory means that if like Donald Trump, for
(14:39):
whatever reasons, wants to hold this up, you can. And
it's just kind of like the way of the world
with how murders and acquisitions go, is the presidential administration
can bless them or curse them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
It seems like a no brainer. You don't want to
piss off the football fan base, the number one sport
in America, But you're right, there's a world where wealth.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Fan doesn't care if ESPN owns NFL networks. Now, it's
not like NFL Network and red zat are going to
go away if Trump blocks it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, I'm sure that you know they have in their
back pocket a card to play should he block it
or attempt to.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Say.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I don't think he's going to block it, but I
think that they're probably going to have to make concession
somewhere along the way. Well, if i'd guessed, I mean,
that's the thing. This thing is probably going to close.
If i'd have bet on it right now, I would
bet that it will. But I wouldn't bet my life
that it will. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I thought we wanted less government, Ryan, I thought we
want to know, Now we got more the governments getting
involved in this crap.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
We don't know. It's a it's a possibility, we don't
if it happened, Whether the government is going to get
involved in this or not, has not manifested yet. But
it takes head all right.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Now, I do want to ask, does this mean a
lot of people are gonna lose their job? Is the
ESPN people who I don't know cover the NFL closely.
If all of a sudden, the league owns ten percent
of ESPN and someone's doing a deep penetrating dive into
I don't know, some Roger Goodell's find whatever it is. Kenny, Yeah,
(16:14):
I would say, hey, Dan.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Patrick made the point today that ship has sailed in
the sense that, like, you know, this isn't the ESPN
where they were interrogating Roger Goodell over concussions and Ray
Rice and Colin Kaepernick. As you remember when I used
to work for you, those were all very big stories.
You remember ESPN pulled out of a PDS Frontline documentary,
(16:42):
so that there's been already this question of like conflict
of interest between the ESPN and the leagues that it
broadcasts for like a very long time. And I don't
you know, if you want to do investigative journalism, I
don't know if ESPN is the right place for you
right now. Like maybe you should go to the New
(17:04):
York Times, Athletic Washington Posts at Landed. It's not like
there's any shortage of outlets that can be critical of
the NFL. But I don't think you're going to see
the type of aggressive coming after the commissioner that we
used to see. And by the way, you know you
ask can people lose their jobs? Do you remember in
(17:25):
the year like twenty fifteen when ESPN was starting to
cut back, and three of the first people who got
cut or not renewed at that time were Bill Simmons,
Keith Oberman, and Jason Whitlock, and all of them had
been especially critical of Roger Goodell and called for his job. So,
I mean, I think if you want to be speaking
(17:46):
real truth to power, ESPN's probably not the right employer.
In twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Five, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox
Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
fs R to listen live.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's interesting because you know, you you've done stuff to
piss people off. I've done some stuff in my past
writing wise that people didn't like. But the idea of
burying a story it almost feels movie ish, does it?
Not like it's it's something you'd see in a movie
as opposed to in real life.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, but I think that they there are lots of
stories they buried that we don't necessarily know about over
the years. I don't know, it would be very interesting
to be It's not like I've ever worked at ESPN
and had been in the meetings where something gets chilled.
But I've you know, we talked to people who have
(18:43):
had that happen to them, haven't you?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, I have. It is interesting. Here's my thing. Does
the dude does the you you know fans and you
used to at the New York Posts see what people
click on? Do you think the fans care about It's
like Pablo Tori did this big podcast about something going
on in the NFL and I got to plead ignorance.
It's a summer. I haven't listened to it. I haven't really.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
It was like it's very deep in the weeds union
stuff that Pablo and Mike Florio are collaborating on. And
the answer your question, no, I don't think the average
fan cares. I mean, you know, they're we're always kind
of told by the sports media that we have to
take up solidarity with players against like the ultra rich owners.
(19:36):
But you know, these these NFL players, even on the fringe,
are making a million dollars a year at this point.
I get it they have short careers, but if they
if they have a three year career, think about how
long that takes the average Joe X to accumulate that
much income and just the public is not very sensitive
(19:59):
about player labor issues. They're just it just doesn't rise
to the level of something they care about.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, it's like even and then shifting topics a little
bit like WNBA. You've got these players wearing T shirts
all Star weekend. They're lobbying for more money, but weirdly
the fans seem to be like, these women deserve more money,
and you know.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
They do though they're you know, the w onlya that's
a different situation than even like rank and file bottom
of a barrow NFL or NBA player. I mean, the
WNBA max contract is two hundred and fifty grand. We
just had three expansion franchises go for two hundred and
fifty million. We're talking about the Connecticut Sun getting sold
(20:44):
for three hundred and twenty five million dollars. So, like
the player, there's clearly some belief that the economics of
the WNBA are going to be more attractive in the
future than they have been in the past, and the
players do deserve some type of peace. But I don't
think even even with like yeah, the w the core
w NBA fan, though Jason is really rooted in advocacy,
(21:09):
that has been a big part of the identity of
the league, Cree, Caitlin Clark especially, and so the people
who have been tuned in for the w n b
A for a long time. Those are the type of
people who are going to take up an athlete cause.
But as far as the NFL is concerned, the fans
just don't really care about it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They don't care. Yeah, give me my stats, get me
a Super Bowl. I want to win my fantasy league.
I want to win my bets. But to go to
the w NBA, like those franchises have been hemorrhaging money
for years. They've been propped up by the NBA.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
You know it just true.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But the thoughts that they're going, I go.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Ahead, Well, so the Kinetics Sun go for three hundred million. Again,
that's not what they're worth. Now, that's a theoretical value
based on if this trajectory, this massive rise keeps going. Yeah,
I would be willing to pay that. It's simply it's
like a shopping for a house, right, Is that house
worth five hundred thousand? No, But guess what, there's nothing
(22:05):
else in the market near it, and they can ask
for that because it's a desiraled the neighborhood. Isn't that
the situation? Like, I don't think the Connecticuts don't.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
He's a pretty sophisticated buyers. I mean the owners that
came in in Detroit, Golden State, Philadelphia, Toronto. These of
the people that already own the NBA teams in that city.
Nobody knows the economics of these teams and the WNBA
more than those people do. And they start they see
(22:34):
these financial synergies where they can, you know, drum up
sponsorship sales. And the TV deal is not going to
increase so much right now, but there is like a
lot of money coming into the league that I think
the fact that the NBA propped it up for nearly
thirty years, I don't know why. That's like Caitlin Clark's problem.
(22:55):
You know, she's making like seventy five grand a year
for the Indiana Fever and there are like NBA mascots
that make significantly more than that.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Oh stop it. A mascot makes more than the thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yes, there's ones make like mid six figures.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
They are like attractions, Okay, But just to be clear,
Caitlin Clark with Gatorade and Wilson and all these she's
cleaning up on the basketball court.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, but I think about what she's driving for the
fever in that league and then what she's getting in
compensation in return. Now, are they owe more money? Like
they wrote on their shirts that they all start owed
is a strange word, but I think that they have
a case for it. And by the way, I've said
this in multiple places, but they could all just secede
(23:45):
from the league and start.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Their own thing if the w NBA and NBA played
too much hardball with them, Like there are deep pocketed
investors who can make it worth their while to just
start something up completely new.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
They got that on I Will be off the ground
and got media distribution for it for three on three
in their off season. And you know, three on three basketball,
if you saw during the Olympics, isn't really that attractive
of a sport to watch. But it was just kind
of showing like, Hey, if you guys mess with us
too much, we have other options.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I mean, I like that sounds great. Like you said,
this is a league built on advocacy of a fan
base that loves that stuff. The reality is sure you
could do a quick three on three thing and pump
it up for a little bit and you know, mess
with the lighting to make it not that big of
an issue if there weren't that many people there. But
I'm talking about long term, creating something sustainable that fans
(24:45):
want to keep coming to. I don't think it's anyway
Labrick Carter.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Have you have you read about this this like upstart
saying that Lebron and Maverick are kind of angling for
Have you read up on it?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh, I haven't first ever heard.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Really, so you should read into this. It happened when
you were on vacation. But they're putting like deep consideration
into basically starting an international basketball league with men's and
women's teams and like making it kind of like an
F one X exposition where you go to like the
(25:21):
fancy cities all over the world and it's like a
traveling circus. But the like, look, there's a good chance
for lebron Is playing in it. And they did this
like cryptic photo with Nicola Jokich's agent on a boat
in Europe like last week, and everyone's like, oh boy,
are they going to poach Yokis from the NBA for
(25:43):
this week? And so if they're doing if they got
like Keithwyn Clark and you know, eight other WNDA stars,
they could totally disrupt the WNBA. And they have the
financial backing to set these people up on very critic Yo.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I don't you know what this seems like almost like
the gambling gold Rush from like five six years ago,
where everybody's like, how do I get paid? And everybody
sees Kaitlin Clark WNBA undervalued and everybody's just pulling at them. Hey,
let's start this unrival league. Hey it's Lebron and Maverick Carter.
I mean, you're gonna listen to Lebron and Maverick Carter.
I don't. I don't love it. M yeah, I mean
(26:26):
there are some big stars. Paige Becker's juju once she
gets healthy. Like you've got a good foundation, but can
you keep it?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
There's about eight to ten pretty bankable w NBA test.
It's the problem is you need like they can't just
they need other people on their level to play with.
You can't just take those eight people and like fill
them with like surround them with like a bunch of
like you know, replacement level or worse talent. But I'm
(26:54):
telling you like it wouldn't cost that much in the
grand scheme of things. For so want to buy off
the top eight to ten WNBA stars, and they like
until that there's a new collective bargaining agreement. I would
be concerned about that before like buying into the WNBA.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right now, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You know what is starting to remind me of and
I just thought of this as hearing you remember the
nineteen ninety nine Women's World Cup, Brandy Chastain, you know,
rips off the jersey they win in PK remember that.
I think it was ninety yes, okay, yeah. So after that,
of course, it's like, oh my gosh, look at the ratings,
look at the interest. Holy smoked, we've got a league here.
(27:45):
And they started the women's League in the US and
they were building it largely around the great US players
who were on that team. I don't know if they
went maybe they went undefeated, but and had that work
out ry like they had like maybe ten women who
were had some name recognition, probab closure to five with
like a Hope Solos of the World or whatever, and
(28:08):
it just kind of struggle. It's it's easier said than done,
as is normally the case.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Telling you pay attention to these Lebron and Maverick maneuvers,
ask people about them. And because I don't know that
necessarily what they're doing is going to work, and they're
definitely going to do it, and if it's some like
type of three D chess game to try to leverage
(28:34):
the MDA into giving them a Vegas franchise when the
NBA has thus far been reluctant to do so. But
just like, I'm not saying what they're doing is going
to work or even get off the ground, but they
have a real chance to be disruptive with what they're trying.
So I would say, don't dismiss that notion as much
(28:56):
out of hand before you make some calls about it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, all right, I guess we could wrap up. You
were obviously a weirdo who lives in Chicago with roots
for the Packers. Do you want to try to explain that.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, my dad grew up in Milwaukee, I grew up
in Connecticut, but especially when FARV came along, We used
to go to Jim Calhoun's Coaches Sports Bar and grow
to watch the Packers almost every week. And then you know,
when I was in like seventh or eighth grade, my
parents got direct TV and Sunday Ticket, So I have
(29:35):
they passed that fan hood down to me.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Mmm. Okay. So we had a guy on yesterday, t
A who has been on the pod dating back to
my radio show Good Gambler. He likes the Packers as
a Super Bowl team. He broke it down. Sounded pretty logical.
Were you on the Packers in the Super Bowl? Like
I mean, coming out of the Nfcok, the.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Eagles have to be the prohibited seed risks, but after
the I can see why to make a case for
the Packers. You know, the Packers played the Eagles pretty
tough twice last year. Week one when in Brazil, that
Peacos game where Jordan Love got clobbered at the end
and had to miss a couple of games because of
a knee injury. And then in the playoffs the Packers,
(30:19):
you know, in the third quarter, it was like, Okay,
the Packers could steal this game if everything goes right now.
They didn't, But there there is a case for them now,
Jordan Love has to have his mobility back. If you
look at his staff in his rookie year versus last year,
(30:40):
he was much more successful at picking up first downs
with his legs as a rookie. Now, it might have
been that he was just battling lingering injuries the whole
year last year, dating back to that aforementioned Week one hit,
But it's like, the thing is is that when he
stayed in the pocket, he's susceptible to some bad decisions,
(31:04):
and so you need the quarterback in the modern NFL
like the days of like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady
who never scrambled you. Brady could pick up quarterback sneaks,
but he wasn't like a threat to take off. But
now you look at Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar
Jackson and Jalen Hurst, and it's really hard to win
(31:25):
in this league if you don't have a quarterback who's
stealing first downs with his legs. Honestly, once a quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Oh, Matt Stafford scoffs at that, and Jared Goff and
his how many games will That's the under on the
Lions this year because I'm already on it.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
You know, Yeah, Jared goff scoffs at that, but like
what I know, he did win a Super Bowl, but or.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Get to know, he he went to one, he didn't
win one.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
But yeah, that's rare. Though it's rare now and I
think it's becoming it's increasingly difficult.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, no, I would agree. I'm just pulling your chain, buddy.
All right, Ryan glassbiego front off of sports all over
the media. So this is the lebron thing. I guess
I got to monitor that. Huh geez, read up on it.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I'm not declaring that it's going to be a problem yet,
but I think, like you know, of those old eighty movies,
when a threat is like on like the furthest level
of the radar and it's starting to beat, That's where
I am with that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Hmm. Okay, good stuff, buddy, and good luck to your
packers this year, all
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Right, Thanks, have a good one.
Host
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!