June 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Action Network hosts Chad Millman and Simon Hunter are joined by producer Matt Mitchell for a very special salute to fathers episode of the show. The trio share stories about their respective fathers, and remember a very memorable Father's Day 61 years ago at Shea Stadium. #Herd
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 (00:08):
Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
Podcast Network. I am Chad Moment of the Action Network today.
I'm joined as always by Michael Is, my companion, Mike
cam Padre my BFF, professional better Simon Hunter, ed osim
in Chad.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are we doing?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Before we came on the air, you said something that
was concerning to me, also interesting, kind of funny imagining it.
But you are going on vacation a couple of weeks.
You're from England, You're going to visit your family in
northern England.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
How are you preparing to go visit your family?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're putting this on air.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I'm preparing in many ways, but the main way is
I've been drinking before going and I'm not, you know,
chat out the biggest drinker. Obviously, there's other things I
like more than drinking. And for this trip though, I
know I'm going to be drinking, so I have been
preparing my body with you know, beers and a little
bit of whiskey because where I'm going is basically that's
(01:09):
what I'm gonna be drinking. So yeah, I am getting
ready to head up to Edinburgh, and basically Edinburgh is
one hundred bars on one street and I'm going to
be seen around half of those, god willing, and I
don't know three day times. So I'm looking forward to
visiting Edinburgh, the history of Edinburgh, and drinking my way
down one street again. One hundred bars on one street
(01:32):
in Edinburgh. It doesn't even sound real.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And how did you feel for your preparations when you
woke up this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I did the I did a puke and rally puked
and then had a beer with eggs. So I'm telling you, Chad,
I am I'm getting right back into it. Kegs and eggs.
It's the simple man's version. Just a couple of beers
and eggs.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
How much did you drink yesterday? And when did you
stop to the point that you were puking this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Not a lot?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Like it, like ten beers over the course of eight hours,
So it's not crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's not crazy. Like Chad, I'm a big guy.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Like in my prime, like the college late high school days,
I would split a thirty pack with a buddy and
we would both kill it in two to three hours.
And like again, that's fifteen beers apiece in two to
three hours, So ten beers in ten hours.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I feel like that's not I don't have a problem yet,
but I told you it's.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Different like in England. Even my cousins who don't really
drink much. My one cousin, she's probably you know, she's.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Twenty eight now.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
By the time, she was probably early twenties. We buy
a giant pint of beer and I'm chatting with her,
and she finishes the entire beer. When I have I
have just taken two SIPs. Within like two minutes, I'm
already buying her another beer. It's just a different culture
over there where they they put it back like water.
And I don't represent Americans well at all. I am
soft when it comes to drinking. I can last, but
(02:57):
I cannot throw them back like that. So I'm just
my body ready for what's coming.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's kind of like I like that you're in training
and you take this seriously and you're a professional in
everything you do. It's kind of like when we had
cheese steaks together and I crushed mine and you could
barely get through yours.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
It's just how I know you don't have many brothers,
and no point that we mentioned this was a race.
These cheese steaks and Chad goes, I finished mine before you.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I go, what's your point? Who cares?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Go?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Well, I ate it faster than you did. I go,
Is it a competition? It's just you never mentioned it
was a race. But it finishes. It goes, Look I'm done,
You're not. It's like, what are wrong with this guy?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Everything is a competition, Simon, It's always a competition. We
got a fun show today because this Sunday is Father's
Day and we're going to do something brand new here
on the show.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We're doing our salute to.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Fathers who, by the way, obviously influenced us in tremendous
ways that led to how we do this show, why
we do this show, what we're interested in. You're going
to tell some stories. Matt Mitchell is going to tell
some stories. Part of me feels like this was just
an excuse by Matt Mitchell to get Matt Mitchell on
(04:14):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
But at the end of the day, these are.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
The men who molded us into the thriving titans of
industry we've all become. I feel like, Matt Mitchell, I
want you to kick it off because more than anyone,
I feel like you've been thinking about.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
This, thanks Chren.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, I for sure I've been thinking about Father's Day
a lot, because this will be the first Father's Day
since I was since it applied to me personally, that
I'll be able to enjoy it, or I can be
the centerpiece of the day and not my own father
or my father in law or a sick child of
(04:57):
some kind. It's really going to be all about me
on Father's Day, and I'll be doing the you know,
the thing that I want to do, almost as much
as I actually want to do. Obviously number one would
be something that involves no children in sight. But short
of that, it'll be making my children do stuff that
only I want to do, the ultimate kind of Father's
(05:18):
Day salute.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I'm not sure what that entails like.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You can't get them into the casino in in Milwaukee.
You can't get them on the apps to start making
bets for you. You can't take them to the bar where
you're gonna drink all day and eat wings all day.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm not even sure what that looks like.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And by the way, I'm saying this from the perspective
of someone who whose son graduated from high school yesterday,
who walked into the house I saw the clock at
five twenty four am this morning, who is still sleeping.
And another son who is living in Philadelpha, his best
life away from me. So I'm barely parenting at this
(06:07):
point my fathering duties. I got three months until my
kids out of the house. I'm basically done. Father's Day
is a symbol for me.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Now, Yeah, your fatherhood approach is the same as your
managerial approach. You're just you're barely there, but you maintained
some of the title. So no, I can appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And I like to think of it as I like
to think of it as hiring really great people, siring
really great people, giving them the general direction and vision
of where I think we should collectively go as a unit,
as a family unit, whether that be at work or
(06:48):
at home, and then I like to let them make
their own choices and come to.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Me with the hard problems.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Is Barack Obama once said, you know, years ago, ansored
the Sloan Sports Analytics conference Action Network did. It was
our first full year as a company. It was March
of twenty eighteen, and we sponsored the main room at
the conference. It happened to be when Barack Obama was
(07:16):
speaking speaking of fathers, this is a great father story.
I met Barack Obama. There's like a procession line to
meet him, right, there's probably about fifty of us who
got to go before he went on stage and spend
thirty seconds with him and get our picture taken. And
(07:37):
I thought so much about what I was going to
say before I went on stay, before I met him,
and Peter Ernan, who knows Barack Obama, I was thinking
about mentioning him because at the time we had just
launched the action part of the Churning Group. I decided
I wanted to go a different route. I was going
to be hey, I'm from Chicago, but I felt like
(08:00):
that wasn't going to be sort of good enough. And
so then I told him a story about how I
was driving my kid, my older kid, home from something,
and we were talking about where I was going to
be the following day, and I said, oh, by the way,
I'm meeting Barack Obama. I'm meeting President Obama. He goes, wow,
(08:22):
that's cool. And I said to him, Wow, you think
I'm cool because I'm meeting Barack Obama. And he says no,
I said, it's cool that you're meeting Barack Obama. I
didn't say that you're cool because you're meeting Barack Obama.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So that's the story I decided to go with.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And so I've got thirty seconds to convey this to
Barack Obama. And he looks at me and he's got like,
at this point, he's got his hand on his chin
and he's sort of like finger on his lips, and
he's he's thinking, he's processing, he's consternating, and he looks
at me and he goes, so, your kid is saying,
(09:05):
the transitive property does not exist here. And I go,
that's what he's saying.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
And he looks at me. He goes, he's wrong. Let's
take a.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Picture, grabs me by the shoulder, turns me around, big smile.
It was the smoothest fucking move you've ever seen in
your entire life.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It was glorious. And I went back home and I
told my kid that story.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I would send you straight to Guantanamo Bay for wasting
my time with that story if I was the president
of the United States. So but hey, somebody arrests this
cool cat. Hey snoopy with the sunglasses, Joe cool over here,
straight to.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Guantanamo Anyways, anyways, Matt, you had a story to tell.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Well three things. One, it's a shame Brian Wilson died
before you could hear somebody rhyme, hires and sires, so
congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Thank you. Two, I do what are the most illiterate Yeah, podcast,
gambling podcast, hiring the.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Best in siring the best is going to absolutely haunt me,
so thank you for that. Two, I do want to
point out on behalf of the great state of Wisconsin.
You absolutely can bring children into any bar if they're
escorted by a grown up, and they can stay as
long as they like, and legally speaking, they can be
served alcohol. It's the only state that that is legal.
(10:26):
It's a great state. And finally, I do want to
provide a very very belated Happy Father's Day to a
great moment in sports history. Sixty one fathers days ago,
future Hall of Famer and US Senator Jim Bunning of
the Philadelphia Phillies goes into a sweltering Shay Stadium in
(10:47):
New York with his wife and the eldest of his
seven children, and he throws the first regular season perfect
game in forty two years in Major League Baseball. Here's
to you, Jim Budding. I also want to point out,
in true Father's Day style, his Father's Day, he pitches
a perfect game. It was the first game of a doubleheader.
(11:09):
Making these boys work a double on their own day unbelievable.
But here's the U Philadelphia, Philly's legend.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Jim Budding, Well done. Did you have anything else you
want to say? You want Simon to go to his story?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
You know what, I'll tell one real quick to start
things off, because I want to point out that my dad,
who's lovely and still with us and who I love dearly,
I got my dad into sports, not the other way around.
My dad hated sports, had no He's one of those
guys just had no interest in sports at all. The
only thing he hated more was gambling. That did not
(11:45):
work on me anyway. So sorry, dad. But when I
was a kid and I realized my dad wasn't like
built to be a fan, was when I started playing sports,
and he would just get so consumed by anxiety if
a game was close that he couldn't like, he couldn't
stand it. It would feel like he was getting squeezed
to death. So when I started playing basketball as a
(12:08):
middle schooler. I was total dog shit. The teams were
total dog shit. I was tall, but I was totally useless,
and we'd lose every game. But if it was ever close,
i'd look over into the stands in the gym or whatever,
and my dad would be getting up to leave. He
would just extricate himself from the situation. And our home
gym had a little had a door at one end
(12:32):
that led to a like the school kitchen and had
a little window in it. But he would just leave
if it was close. He would just bounce and go
pace around in the dark in this in this kitchen.
But he could still see the scoreboard from that little window,
so he'd know when the game kind of was wrapping up.
And one game, it was really close late, which was
unusual for us, and I get fouled and I have
(12:54):
a chance to tie the game late, and I was
really nervous because again I wasn't very good. And I
look over and my dad's obviously gone, and I'm like
sad because like, oh, this could be my big moment.
My Dad's not gonna see it. That's too bad. And
I'm lining up to shoot the free throws. I look
over and I see my dad's head pop into that
little window in the door, and I felt such an
(13:16):
incredible wave of relief that like, there's my old man,
he's gonna see me. I'm here. I was so relaxed,
and because of that, I was able to absolutely brick
the shit out of both of those free throws in
humiliating fashion. And we lost the game by two points.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So that story had ended earnestly with you making the
free throws, I would have been so incredibly disappointed.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I could have shot fucking twenty five free throws. There's
no way I was making two of those in that scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Simon, Please share with us the story about your loving father,
who Matt Mitchell and I adore, who's our biggest supporter,
who shows up and shows out at all of our
live events, who I text with independent of you.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Just the lovely, lovely man.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, great man. Yeah, he's a great man and very lucky.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
You know, I even I know at a young age,
I'll go to a man my dad was where it's
just you know, it is like you you go and
you spend time with your friends or just see how
their family dynamic works. And I'm just like, holy shit,
I didn't realize how good I got it right. There's
just some dads who are just assholes or they're not
involved in their kids' lives. And you know, my dad,
every sporting events I had, he was there, and you know,
(14:40):
he coached me in soccer from fourth grade to eighth
grade travel soccer.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So like before I.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Was really into football, you know, being a little British boy,
you know my dad coached and you know.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It just stort popped in my head.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
My dad when he coached me, he would yell at
me talking about other players because you couldn't yell. You know,
people didn't want their he had yelled out by a coach,
so you just hear him yelling at me. But I'd
be really talking about other guys on the team. I
thought that was always really funny, just always yelling Simon
get to the ball and get running, and he'd be talking.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Abou other people.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Obviously because I was always I was mental, especially back then,
I was all over the place.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
But yeah, my funny.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Stories with my dad are always me just just pissing
them off. Like I really love to poke the bear,
especially as a young kid. I just got great joy
out of getting my dad rought up because you've met him.
My dad such a nice, friendly guy. But if you
got him, especially me, I knew what ticked him. You
get him going, he gets going. And my favorite one
was I used to call him Cookie Junior, which is
(15:39):
the most random nickname ever. But every little thing he
would do, I would say, okay, Cookie Junior, and I'll
never get there's one piece of bread left or something
like this on the dinner table and he goes to
grab and I go too slow, Cookie Junior, and I
grabbed it now and he goes stop calling me Cookie Junior,
like lost to his shit, And I suddenly make it
more funny getting upset being called Cookie Junior. So that nickname,
(16:04):
you know, from sixth grade ive to eighth grade, I
really calling him Cookie Jr. But you gradually I just
started calling him Tom, which again in England culture, calling
your your parents by their first name is very sacrilege.
So I never forget the first time we go back
home and I started I'd been calling him Tom. I
say Tom in front of my like cousins, my family
(16:25):
were there. It was like a screeching hole to the
record player, like everyone just stopped talking.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
What you say you called him by his first name.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Like they gave my dad a look like are you
gonna smack this kid? And like they didn't realize, Like
my dad again, good man.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
He didn't care. I can call him Tom Wow. So
that's another just funny memory. But yeah, I just he's
a big guy too.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, especially again back then obviously I wasn't six two
sixty three then, so like, you know, my dad to
me looked seven feet tall. You remember you were a kid.
Everyone's so big. Even now, you know, my dad's way
past his proba. I still like I'm around Him'm like
this guy could still probably kick my ass. Just the
old man's strength. It's it's not gone yet. So yeah,
(17:08):
my dad, man, he's he's a great man.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
People. There are fans of the show. They've met my dad.
You know, he loved coming up to our North Jersey shows.
He's been to our Philly show. So yeah, great, great
supporter of my life is my father. For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You could put the Milmans inside Simon's family like little
nesting dolls.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, we are Putians compared to that's what.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
British people are that we're huge, 're giant like vikings,
you know what I mean. It's our ancestors are big, big,
big people. So yeah, I would say, well, my mom
is what do you think you had? My mom's five ten,
five nine. Yeah, my dad was probably six too, so yeah,
I mean you met my brother.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
My brother's probably six four. Definitely a very tall family.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Your dad has an elite nineties dad five, which I
can only is my too. I don't have My wrists
aren't thick enough to achieve dad nineties dad peak. But like,
huge guy like you, big asshead like you, and shaking
hands with him is like grabbing a bunch of bananas
like you. So like, yeah, he's he's got it all
(18:16):
as far as I'm concerned from a dad's strength, he's
like a spring that's pushed down. You know that he
could working out. I'll spring out at any moment. If
you call him. I can't wait to never call him
cookie Junior. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And he's very good. I would say, he's very like
man's man. So he eily hit the jack.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Butod he had three sons.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
My mom, God bless her, is the most curly girl ever,
just dying to have a daughter. Couldn't have anyone further
away from like I have zero fashion sense seeing with
my brothers.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That woman loves shopping.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
So my dad basically doesn't drink, never smoke, like, doesn't
do drugs, none of that stuff. His vice was sports,
like watching us play sports growing up. So like, even
thinking back, I'd play stupid ass street hockey, like a
little street hockey league. It'd be like sleeting thirty degrees out.
I would just see him in his trench coat behind
the net watching the game. It's just like that man
(19:08):
went to everything I played. So yeah, once again, very lucky.
And you know, it's it's one of those things you
get older, you kind of get it where it's like
I didn't get as a kid, like I alf the time,
I didn't want to be out there. It's like why
the fuck am I out here playing? And this man
would be there in the freezing cold, always watching, And
when you get older, it's like, oh, those those are
great days man, watching your kids, especially if your kids
(19:29):
are good at sports.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
People tell me all the time, it's like.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
The best you know enjoyment ever if you love sports
and your kids have somewhat semi talented at those said sports.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So yeah, my dad was very lucky.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
My oldest brother played varsity soccer, my middle brother played rugby,
and ifoc.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I played all the sports. I loved sports growing up,
so yeah, he got it all.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
And then, unfortunately, I think only one of us played
in college. My oldest brother played soccer, so it pretty
much ended after high school.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
For my dad was sports.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Matt, It's interesting to me that your dad was not
into sport because my dad was not into sports at all,
but he understood how much I loved sports and was
crazy supportive of it in ways. That translated to me
(20:19):
with my kid because my dad like took me to
the Saint Louis Cardinals Kansas City Royals World Series because
my grandmother, who lived in Saint Louis, got tickets.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
He didn't give a shit about that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
My first job at Pro Football Weekly, I was an
intern literally filing old clips into folders so they had
access to all of them, and would I would plan
to do a lot of the filing when they were
having their big editorial meeting inside the editor in chief's office,
(20:59):
and the file cabinets were outside the office, so I
would go to the filing there and I could hear
what they were planning, to see what they were doing
and if there was anything I could do, and they
were planning out the issue that was going to cover
the Hall of Fame inductions. And when the meeting ended,
I told one of the editors, Hey, you know, I'm
(21:20):
going away to the Hall of Fame with my dad
on a father son trip in Canton. If you guys
need a story from the Hall of Fame, I'm happy
to do it. And so they assigned me the story,
except I wasn't going to the Hall of Fame. My
dad and I weren't going away together that weekend. And
(21:41):
so I went home and told my dad, I'm like,
so good news, I got this assignment. I'm so excited
about it. I kind of need you to take me
and pay for the trip at the Hall of Fame
because I was eighteen years old at the time and
couldn't like really get there myself.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
The guy did it. The guy did it. He did it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
When like every summer job, when you work in media,
you don't get paid so over the summer, like you
can either get the experience in media, or you can
get a job working somewhere like at the shoe store
or the pharmacy and get paid. Always understood I was
driven about sports and wanted to do it, always paid
for it. Cut to you know, twenty years later, I've
(22:25):
got a kid, my older son, not into sports at all,
loves magic gathering, loves dungeons and dragons, doesn't want to
do after school sports. This is what he wants to do.
And all of a sudden, my wife and I are
driving around every weekend at different tournaments, different events, all
these things, and we're both starting to complain about it
(22:46):
a little bit because it's not like the mainstream sports thing.
And then my wife looks at me one day and
one day and goes, oh my god, this is his
soccer like, we have to do it even though there's
nothinganctioned and it's not official, because it's no different than
if we spent every weekend going to fucking Freehold, New
(23:06):
Jersey for lacrosse tournaments.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
That's right, oh.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Father, that your stuff. Also, Canton's like four hundred miles
away from your house. And he was just like regulators,
mound up. I'm in, Yeah, sounds good like good for him.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We went. We totally just went. Didn't even question it.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Uh. I think I did the story about Franco Harris,
Good days, Good Days, good, dads.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I'll do one game story because this is like, to me,
the biggest one that changed my life in many ways.
Where it's my earliest memory of sports betting. So it's
Super Bowl and two.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Thousand, I believe. So it's the Titans Rams.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
And again I knew nothing about sports betting, never never
never seen it before.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I never heard about it.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
And my dad said to be my brother, do you
guys want to pick a side for this game? And
there's a spread, so everyone knew the Rams were the
better team. And I was a big, big Steve McNair fan.
So my brother was like, yeah, I like the Rams.
And I said, well, I'll take Steve McNair like I
love the Titans. And my dad said, well, there's a spread,
so you get seven and a half points to start
(24:14):
the game. And again as a little kid, I could
not wrap my head around it where it's like so
I'm already up a touchdown and a half.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I don't. I couldn't get it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
So again, if anyone remembers that game, it's I think
twenty three seventeen. Again, I have the Titans. They get
tackled at the one by the Rams. My brother starts
going absolutely crazy, and my dad basically pulled the not
so fast league Corso said, Simon here won the bet.
The spread was seven and a half and gave me
the one dollar and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Chat.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I literally got the itch from that day forward. And
even I remember being, you know, in middle school and
the Lakers and the Sixers in the finals. I made
a bet with a buddy who's a diehard this biggest
scumback guy was.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
He was diehard Sixers fan. Six Ers win Game one.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I said, all right, if I'm right the Lakers win
this series, you buy me cookies every day for the
rest of the week. Again living the dream at that age.
And yeah, just a little things like that. That's how
I got a sports better And again, like we're talking
about Chad, very supportive parents, Like I told my parents.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I was gonna work in TV. They support it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
I told them that I was gonna be a sports
better runner and working you know, a weird life.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Supportive. It's been very, very.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Lucky, and obviously you know that's that's what I kind
of I feel like Chad's in the same spot here
where it's like, you know, our parents who love us
and support us. It is a really big blessing in life,
and I actually, un fortunately I've been in a life
to have that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Matt Mitchell told his dad, I'm going to grow a
mustache when Kren goes away for ten days, I'm going
to grow a mustache. And he goes son, I'm not
really thinking that's a great idea, but it's your life.
I want you to make your choices. It's your body.
You do what you think is best.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Oh my god, that just reminded me of a story
he'd actually love. Coming back from the University of Missouri,
home the alma mater of Mike Jones who made that
year two thousand Super Bowl tackle to clinch the Tramants
Go Mike Jones coming back from college. My dad had
booked me a flight to come back from Columbia to Rochester,
(26:18):
A terrible kind of situation to try to figure out.
So I'd fly, say Lewis to you know, have a
layover or whatever. But this one he's like, Hey, remember
this flight, you actually have to go to baggage. I
booked it on two airlines, that's two one way tickets,
so you have to go get your bag, bring it over,
and then check back into this other flight. Okay, this
is an unusual situation, like, yeah, it sounds good. I
(26:40):
obviously forget all about that and leave my luggage in
a you know, at wherever, like bwi whatever fucking layover
I had and get home and there's no bag. I
had also grown, because I was like I was nineteen
or whatever. I grew like a little go tea soul
patch situation and looked embarrassingly bad, which made him real mad.
(27:03):
But I was. I thought that was It was a
hoot that he that he hated it. And when I
told him I missed that back, he was like, I'm
gonna have to call the air I gotta get this
bag on its own flight. He was like, god damn it.
And I remember being like mm hmm, I'll be right
back and going into the bathroom and shaving it off,
and his anger going down by like ninety percent.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Because he knew I could.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
I was trying to meet him halfway, and that was uh.
I remember that that him his face being like all right,
all right, at least I don't have to help out
a guy who looks like a complete asshole. So that
was that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
I do feel like.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
The signs of a good dad are they are angriest
about the stupidest stuff and least angry about the big stuff.
You know, Like when I get into college, my senior year,
me and my closest friend went to we were at
(28:00):
like another buddy's house, and this was the house where
this was the drinking guy's house.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Right, there was a group of us who were.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Like not big drinkers in a group that were big drinkers,
and like we thought they were cool and they were
like practiced drinkers, right, And so he broke out the
Jack Daniels, and me and my buddy each did like
an unhealthy dangerous amount of shots in a very short
amount of time, to the point where when we ended
up at the local Denny's that night where we always
(28:28):
ended up where half of my high school ended up,
I puked all over the table. To bring it back
around to the beginning, right, they had to drag me out.
They take me to my house, and as you guys know,
I have to wear very specific contact lenses that required
a plunger to be removed because I have a degenerative
I disease. Okay, so my friends have me sitting upright
(28:54):
in the bathroom, unlike the toilet that is, you know,
the seat is down. They're trying to get my content
out with the plunger, except they keep missing and they're
pulling my eye likely you can see it, right. So
then they let go and meet and I fall face forward.
My head hits the porcelain sink. They can't get the
contact lenses out, and I've got puke all over my pants.
(29:18):
And so they get me into my bedroom and they're
standing around me in a circle, and they're trying to
get me to get my pants off, and I won't
do it, and I keep yelling, I'm not taking my
pants off until you take your pants off. And when
they're standing around me about seven eight nine dudes with
their pants off in the circle, Me in the center.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
With my pants off.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That's when my parents get home and my mom looks
at my dad and she goes, I think this is
on you. Everybody leaves. My dad gets me in bed.
I'm puking until about four in the morning. In my
by the way Simon Philadelphia, seventy six ers garbage can.
(30:04):
My dad is sitting with me the entire night. I
finally pass out, except I have the seven am shift
at Parkway Drugs Pharmacy in Glencoe. The next day, it's
a Saturday, six about six forty. My dad gets me up,
(30:24):
drives me because I'm still a little bit out of it,
drives me to the pharmacy. He's like, if you're gonna
go out, you're still gonna have to go to work.
And I did that shift for about five hours until
the pharmacist stating home and he's like, you're of no
use to me. But I did also once see my
(30:45):
dad while he was driving to work, driving me downtown.
He was going to work, I had to go to
an appointment, pulled over to the side of the road,
didn't even step out of the car, pute leaned over,
he wasn't feeling well, puked, got back in the car,
drove downtown and went back to work.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Now that's that's real dad behavior, That silver back dad behavior.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, that's silverback dad strength.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
I like the idea of your dad coming home to
that scene and and right away being like, oh, I
better get these pants off. You gotta gotta fit in,
gotta gotta let's uh, let's get these pants off so
we can we can talk some sense into my son Yeah, incredible.
I do want to share that my speaking of just
getting into whatever your kids are getting into, my dad
(31:35):
did eventually become a big sports fan. I was able
to drag him into into becoming a fan. One of
the ways I did that was becoming just a massive
Buffalo Bills fan growing up in Rochester until he eventually
was like, wow, shit, as long as he's super into it,
I'm gonna get super into it. But the NFL had
blackout restrictions from nineteen seventy three to twenty fourteen, where
(31:57):
if a game didn't sell out, it was blacked out
with seventy five miles to the stadium. That really impacted
Buffalo a lot one because it was, you know, an
economically depressed area that wasn't particularly packed with people. They
had the second or third largest stadium in terms of
the number of seats they'd have to sell for a
long time, and then they changed a bunch of the
rules that it was pretty dreadful. So we had three choices.
(32:21):
We could listen to the game and the immortal Van
Miller on the radio, which was great because of the
timeless and evocative nature of audio, which which definitely gave
me a love affair with the radio.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Good afternoon everyone. This is Van Miller, and the road.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
To the Super Bowl goes through Orchard Park, New York.
Or for a little while, there was a loophole where
some bars had satellite feeds, so there was a couple
of bars across town that you could go and get
like essentially a legal stream of the game and watch it.
But it was hard to like it. It's not going
to go and have fifteen La bat blues with his
fucking son and drive them home, So it was hard
(32:56):
to find a reason to take a tween to a
bar and kill all that time. But he would do it.
And then the third option was, which he would do
quite often, if I really wanted to go, he'd drive
me in like an hour plus across the county line.
He'd drive due east into Wayne County until we crossed
over into the area of the Syracuse affiliates, which would
(33:16):
then play it. But there's so much nothing in between
that he would just go up to one of these
shitty roadside like motels, talk to the guy in the
front and basically convince him that him and him and
his team are trying to watch the Bills game. Can
we just get the hotel him for three and a
half hours, and those guys didn't ask a lot of questions.
(33:37):
And we would go in and we'd watch the game
on top of the duvet, and we'd bring in like
a picnic. We'd eat the you know, we'd eat the food,
watch the game, and then drive home. And during one
of those games, I'll never forget it. September twenty first,
nineteen ninety seven, the Bills are down twenty six to
nothing in the first half to Jim Harbaugh's Indianapolis called
(34:01):
and it was notable because it was to me it
was the first game that Jim Kelly, who just retired
was going to go back to Buffalo as an announcer
for NBC and looking at him and being like, this
guy is so fucking old and used up. This is
like the oldest guy I've ever seen on TV. Jim
Caller was thirty seven years old at the time. Like really,
I'm like so much older than he was at the time.
(34:23):
So there was that the Bills come all the way
back and they win this game, the third largest regular
season comeback in NFL history, and Ton Smith hursting Fune
and Ton Smith racing from the end zone and scores
that touching touchdown.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Like guy said, e Com never cut the buffalo bills up.
He never could count him up.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Game absolutely ruled. Then we smoothed out the duvets and
swept all the crumbs away and checked out, and he
drove all the way home. Just so I can make
sure that you know I would catch all these games.
It's hard for me to imagine doing that for my
own sun or some similar effort, but that's just the
stuff you do for your kids. It was incredible.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
That is great, dadding.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's fun to tell all those dad stories to all
the dads, to the people with dads, to anyone who
looks up to anyone.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
As a dad or is looked up to as a dad.
Happy Father's Day to everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
the Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Jown
lead us some Spotify Apple Pods, where ever get your pods,
rate reviews, subscribe, leaves five stars, say whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Feedback is given till next time. Call your dads.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Love you.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly if you or
someone you care about has a gambling problem. Help is
available twenty four to seven at one eight hundred gambler
Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
Podcast Network. I am Chad Moment of the Action Network today.
I'm joined as always by Michael Is, my companion, Mike
cam Padre my BFF, professional better Simon Hunter, ed osim
in Chad.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are we doing?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Listen?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Before we came on the air, you said something that
was concerning to me, also interesting, kind of funny imagining it.
But you are going on vacation a couple of weeks.
You're from England, You're going to visit your family in
northern England.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
How are you preparing to go visit your family?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're putting this on air.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
I'm preparing in many ways, but the main way is
I've been drinking before going and I'm not, you know,
chat out the biggest drinker. Obviously, there's other things I
like more than drinking. And for this trip though, I
know I'm going to be drinking, so I have been
preparing my body with you know, beers and a little
bit of whiskey because where I'm going is basically that's
(01:09):
what I'm gonna be drinking. So yeah, I am getting
ready to head up to Edinburgh, and basically Edinburgh is
one hundred bars on one street and I'm going to
be seen around half of those, god willing, and I
don't know three day times. So I'm looking forward to
visiting Edinburgh, the history of Edinburgh, and drinking my way
down one street again. One hundred bars on one street
(01:32):
in Edinburgh. It doesn't even sound real.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And how did you feel for your preparations when you
woke up this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I did the I did a puke and rally puked
and then had a beer with eggs. So I'm telling you, Chad,
I am I'm getting right back into it. Kegs and eggs.
It's the simple man's version. Just a couple of beers
and eggs.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
How much did you drink yesterday? And when did you
stop to the point that you were puking this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Not a lot?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Like it, like ten beers over the course of eight hours,
So it's not crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's not crazy. Like Chad, I'm a big guy.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Like in my prime, like the college late high school days,
I would split a thirty pack with a buddy and
we would both kill it in two to three hours.
And like again, that's fifteen beers apiece in two to
three hours, So ten beers in ten hours.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I feel like that's not I don't have a problem yet,
but I told you it's.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Different like in England. Even my cousins who don't really
drink much. My one cousin, she's probably you know, she's.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Twenty eight now.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
By the time, she was probably early twenties. We buy
a giant pint of beer and I'm chatting with her,
and she finishes the entire beer. When I have I
have just taken two SIPs. Within like two minutes, I'm
already buying her another beer. It's just a different culture
over there where they they put it back like water.
And I don't represent Americans well at all. I am
soft when it comes to drinking. I can last, but
(02:57):
I cannot throw them back like that. So I'm just
my body ready for what's coming.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's kind of like I like that you're in training
and you take this seriously and you're a professional in
everything you do. It's kind of like when we had
cheese steaks together and I crushed mine and you could
barely get through yours.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
It's just how I know you don't have many brothers,
and no point that we mentioned this was a race.
These cheese steaks and Chad goes, I finished mine before you.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I go, what's your point? Who cares?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Go?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Well, I ate it faster than you did. I go,
Is it a competition? It's just you never mentioned it
was a race. But it finishes. It goes, Look I'm done,
You're not. It's like, what are wrong with this guy?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Everything is a competition, Simon, It's always a competition. We
got a fun show today because this Sunday is Father's
Day and we're going to do something brand new here
on the show.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
We're doing our salute to.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Fathers who, by the way, obviously influenced us in tremendous
ways that led to how we do this show, why
we do this show, what we're interested in. You're going
to tell some stories. Matt Mitchell is going to tell
some stories. Part of me feels like this was just
an excuse by Matt Mitchell to get Matt Mitchell on
(04:14):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
But at the end of the day, these are.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
The men who molded us into the thriving titans of
industry we've all become. I feel like, Matt Mitchell, I
want you to kick it off because more than anyone,
I feel like you've been thinking about.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
This, thanks Chren.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, I for sure I've been thinking about Father's Day
a lot, because this will be the first Father's Day
since I was since it applied to me personally, that
I'll be able to enjoy it, or I can be
the centerpiece of the day and not my own father
or my father in law or a sick child of
(04:57):
some kind. It's really going to be all about me
on Father's Day, and I'll be doing the you know,
the thing that I want to do, almost as much
as I actually want to do. Obviously number one would
be something that involves no children in sight. But short
of that, it'll be making my children do stuff that
only I want to do, the ultimate kind of Father's
(05:18):
Day salute.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I'm not sure what that entails like.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You can't get them into the casino in in Milwaukee.
You can't get them on the apps to start making
bets for you. You can't take them to the bar where
you're gonna drink all day and eat wings all day.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm not even sure what that looks like.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And by the way, I'm saying this from the perspective
of someone who whose son graduated from high school yesterday,
who walked into the house I saw the clock at
five twenty four am this morning, who is still sleeping.
And another son who is living in Philadelpha, his best
life away from me. So I'm barely parenting at this
(06:07):
point my fathering duties. I got three months until my
kids out of the house. I'm basically done. Father's Day
is a symbol for me.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Now, Yeah, your fatherhood approach is the same as your
managerial approach. You're just you're barely there, but you maintained
some of the title. So no, I can appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And I like to think of it as I like
to think of it as hiring really great people, siring
really great people, giving them the general direction and vision
of where I think we should collectively go as a unit,
as a family unit, whether that be at work or
(06:48):
at home, and then I like to let them make
their own choices and come to.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Me with the hard problems.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Is Barack Obama once said, you know, years ago, ansored
the Sloan Sports Analytics conference Action Network did. It was
our first full year as a company. It was March
of twenty eighteen, and we sponsored the main room at
the conference. It happened to be when Barack Obama was
(07:16):
speaking speaking of fathers, this is a great father story.
I met Barack Obama. There's like a procession line to
meet him, right, there's probably about fifty of us who
got to go before he went on stage and spend
thirty seconds with him and get our picture taken. And
(07:37):
I thought so much about what I was going to
say before I went on stay, before I met him,
and Peter Ernan, who knows Barack Obama, I was thinking
about mentioning him because at the time we had just
launched the action part of the Churning Group. I decided
I wanted to go a different route. I was going
to be hey, I'm from Chicago, but I felt like
(08:00):
that wasn't going to be sort of good enough. And
so then I told him a story about how I
was driving my kid, my older kid, home from something,
and we were talking about where I was going to
be the following day, and I said, oh, by the way,
I'm meeting Barack Obama. I'm meeting President Obama. He goes, wow,
(08:22):
that's cool. And I said to him, Wow, you think
I'm cool because I'm meeting Barack Obama. And he says no,
I said, it's cool that you're meeting Barack Obama. I
didn't say that you're cool because you're meeting Barack Obama.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So that's the story I decided to go with.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And so I've got thirty seconds to convey this to
Barack Obama. And he looks at me and he's got like,
at this point, he's got his hand on his chin
and he's sort of like finger on his lips, and
he's he's thinking, he's processing, he's consternating, and he looks
at me and he goes, so, your kid is saying,
(09:05):
the transitive property does not exist here. And I go,
that's what he's saying.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
And he looks at me. He goes, he's wrong. Let's
take a.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Picture, grabs me by the shoulder, turns me around, big smile.
It was the smoothest fucking move you've ever seen in
your entire life.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It was glorious. And I went back home and I
told my kid that story.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I would send you straight to Guantanamo Bay for wasting
my time with that story if I was the president
of the United States. So but hey, somebody arrests this
cool cat. Hey snoopy with the sunglasses, Joe cool over here,
straight to.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Guantanamo Anyways, anyways, Matt, you had a story to tell.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Well three things. One, it's a shame Brian Wilson died
before you could hear somebody rhyme, hires and sires, so
congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Thank you. Two, I do what are the most illiterate Yeah, podcast,
gambling podcast, hiring the.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Best in siring the best is going to absolutely haunt me,
so thank you for that. Two, I do want to
point out on behalf of the great state of Wisconsin.
You absolutely can bring children into any bar if they're
escorted by a grown up, and they can stay as
long as they like, and legally speaking, they can be
served alcohol. It's the only state that that is legal.
(10:26):
It's a great state. And finally, I do want to
provide a very very belated Happy Father's Day to a
great moment in sports history. Sixty one fathers days ago,
future Hall of Famer and US Senator Jim Bunning of
the Philadelphia Phillies goes into a sweltering Shay Stadium in
(10:47):
New York with his wife and the eldest of his
seven children, and he throws the first regular season perfect
game in forty two years in Major League Baseball. Here's
to you, Jim Budding. I also want to point out,
in true Father's Day style, his Father's Day, he pitches
a perfect game. It was the first game of a doubleheader.
(11:09):
Making these boys work a double on their own day unbelievable.
But here's the U Philadelphia, Philly's legend.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Jim Budding, Well done. Did you have anything else you
want to say? You want Simon to go to his story?
Speaker 5 (11:23):
You know what, I'll tell one real quick to start
things off, because I want to point out that my dad,
who's lovely and still with us and who I love dearly,
I got my dad into sports, not the other way around.
My dad hated sports, had no He's one of those
guys just had no interest in sports at all. The
only thing he hated more was gambling. That did not
(11:45):
work on me anyway. So sorry, dad. But when I
was a kid and I realized my dad wasn't like
built to be a fan, was when I started playing sports,
and he would just get so consumed by anxiety if
a game was close that he couldn't like, he couldn't
stand it. It would feel like he was getting squeezed
to death. So when I started playing basketball as a
(12:08):
middle schooler. I was total dog shit. The teams were
total dog shit. I was tall, but I was totally useless,
and we'd lose every game. But if it was ever close,
i'd look over into the stands in the gym or whatever,
and my dad would be getting up to leave. He
would just extricate himself from the situation. And our home
gym had a little had a door at one end
(12:32):
that led to a like the school kitchen and had
a little window in it. But he would just leave
if it was close. He would just bounce and go
pace around in the dark in this in this kitchen.
But he could still see the scoreboard from that little window,
so he'd know when the game kind of was wrapping up.
And one game, it was really close late, which was
unusual for us, and I get fouled and I have
(12:54):
a chance to tie the game late, and I was
really nervous because again I wasn't very good. And I
look over and my dad's obviously gone, and I'm like
sad because like, oh, this could be my big moment.
My Dad's not gonna see it. That's too bad. And
I'm lining up to shoot the free throws. I look
over and I see my dad's head pop into that
little window in the door, and I felt such an
(13:16):
incredible wave of relief that like, there's my old man,
he's gonna see me. I'm here. I was so relaxed,
and because of that, I was able to absolutely brick
the shit out of both of those free throws in
humiliating fashion. And we lost the game by two points.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So that story had ended earnestly with you making the
free throws, I would have been so incredibly disappointed.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I could have shot fucking twenty five free throws. There's
no way I was making two of those in that scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Simon, Please share with us the story about your loving father,
who Matt Mitchell and I adore, who's our biggest supporter,
who shows up and shows out at all of our
live events, who I text with independent of you.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Just the lovely, lovely man.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, great man. Yeah, he's a great man and very lucky.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
You know, I even I know at a young age,
I'll go to a man my dad was where it's
just you know, it is like you you go and
you spend time with your friends or just see how
their family dynamic works. And I'm just like, holy shit,
I didn't realize how good I got it right. There's
just some dads who are just assholes or they're not
involved in their kids' lives. And you know, my dad,
every sporting events I had, he was there, and you know,
(14:40):
he coached me in soccer from fourth grade to eighth
grade travel soccer.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So like before I.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Was really into football, you know, being a little British boy,
you know my dad coached and you know.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It just stort popped in my head.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
My dad when he coached me, he would yell at
me talking about other players because you couldn't yell. You know,
people didn't want their he had yelled out by a coach,
so you just hear him yelling at me. But I'd
be really talking about other guys on the team. I
thought that was always really funny, just always yelling Simon
get to the ball and get running, and he'd be talking.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Abou other people.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Obviously because I was always I was mental, especially back then,
I was all over the place.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
But yeah, my funny.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Stories with my dad are always me just just pissing
them off. Like I really love to poke the bear,
especially as a young kid. I just got great joy
out of getting my dad rought up because you've met him.
My dad such a nice, friendly guy. But if you
got him, especially me, I knew what ticked him. You
get him going, he gets going. And my favorite one
was I used to call him Cookie Junior, which is
(15:39):
the most random nickname ever. But every little thing he
would do, I would say, okay, Cookie Junior, and I'll
never get there's one piece of bread left or something
like this on the dinner table and he goes to
grab and I go too slow, Cookie Junior, and I
grabbed it now and he goes stop calling me Cookie Junior,
like lost to his shit, And I suddenly make it
more funny getting upset being called Cookie Junior. So that nickname,
(16:04):
you know, from sixth grade ive to eighth grade, I
really calling him Cookie Jr. But you gradually I just
started calling him Tom, which again in England culture, calling
your your parents by their first name is very sacrilege.
So I never forget the first time we go back
home and I started I'd been calling him Tom. I
say Tom in front of my like cousins, my family
(16:25):
were there. It was like a screeching hole to the
record player, like everyone just stopped talking.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
What you say you called him by his first name.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Like they gave my dad a look like are you
gonna smack this kid? And like they didn't realize, Like
my dad again, good man.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
He didn't care. I can call him Tom Wow. So
that's another just funny memory. But yeah, I just he's
a big guy too.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, especially again back then obviously I wasn't six two
sixty three then, so like, you know, my dad to
me looked seven feet tall. You remember you were a kid.
Everyone's so big. Even now, you know, my dad's way
past his proba. I still like I'm around Him'm like
this guy could still probably kick my ass. Just the
old man's strength. It's it's not gone yet. So yeah,
(17:08):
my dad, man, he's he's a great man.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
People. There are fans of the show. They've met my dad.
You know, he loved coming up to our North Jersey shows.
He's been to our Philly show. So yeah, great, great
supporter of my life is my father. For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You could put the Milmans inside Simon's family like little
nesting dolls.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, we are Putians compared to that's what.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
British people are that we're huge, 're giant like vikings,
you know what I mean. It's our ancestors are big, big,
big people. So yeah, I would say, well, my mom
is what do you think you had? My mom's five ten,
five nine. Yeah, my dad was probably six too, so yeah,
I mean you met my brother.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
My brother's probably six four. Definitely a very tall family.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Your dad has an elite nineties dad five, which I
can only is my too. I don't have My wrists
aren't thick enough to achieve dad nineties dad peak. But like,
huge guy like you, big asshead like you, and shaking
hands with him is like grabbing a bunch of bananas
like you. So like, yeah, he's he's got it all
(18:16):
as far as I'm concerned from a dad's strength, he's
like a spring that's pushed down. You know that he
could working out. I'll spring out at any moment. If
you call him. I can't wait to never call him
cookie Junior. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
And he's very good. I would say, he's very like
man's man. So he eily hit the jack.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Butod he had three sons.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
My mom, God bless her, is the most curly girl ever,
just dying to have a daughter. Couldn't have anyone further
away from like I have zero fashion sense seeing with
my brothers.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That woman loves shopping.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
So my dad basically doesn't drink, never smoke, like, doesn't
do drugs, none of that stuff. His vice was sports,
like watching us play sports growing up. So like, even
thinking back, I'd play stupid ass street hockey, like a
little street hockey league. It'd be like sleeting thirty degrees out.
I would just see him in his trench coat behind
the net watching the game. It's just like that man
(19:08):
went to everything I played. So yeah, once again, very lucky.
And you know, it's it's one of those things you
get older, you kind of get it where it's like
I didn't get as a kid, like I alf the time,
I didn't want to be out there. It's like why
the fuck am I out here playing? And this man
would be there in the freezing cold, always watching, And
when you get older, it's like, oh, those those are
great days man, watching your kids, especially if your kids
(19:29):
are good at sports.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
People tell me all the time, it's like.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
The best you know enjoyment ever if you love sports
and your kids have somewhat semi talented at those said sports.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So yeah, my dad was very lucky.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
My oldest brother played varsity soccer, my middle brother played rugby,
and ifoc.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I played all the sports. I loved sports growing up,
so yeah, he got it all.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
And then, unfortunately, I think only one of us played
in college. My oldest brother played soccer, so it pretty
much ended after high school.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
For my dad was sports.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Matt, It's interesting to me that your dad was not
into sport because my dad was not into sports at all,
but he understood how much I loved sports and was
crazy supportive of it in ways. That translated to me
(20:19):
with my kid because my dad like took me to
the Saint Louis Cardinals Kansas City Royals World Series because
my grandmother, who lived in Saint Louis, got tickets.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
He didn't give a shit about that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
My first job at Pro Football Weekly, I was an
intern literally filing old clips into folders so they had
access to all of them, and would I would plan
to do a lot of the filing when they were
having their big editorial meeting inside the editor in chief's office,
(20:59):
and the file cabinets were outside the office, so I
would go to the filing there and I could hear
what they were planning, to see what they were doing
and if there was anything I could do, and they
were planning out the issue that was going to cover
the Hall of Fame inductions. And when the meeting ended,
I told one of the editors, Hey, you know, I'm
(21:20):
going away to the Hall of Fame with my dad
on a father son trip in Canton. If you guys
need a story from the Hall of Fame, I'm happy
to do it. And so they assigned me the story,
except I wasn't going to the Hall of Fame. My
dad and I weren't going away together that weekend. And
(21:41):
so I went home and told my dad, I'm like,
so good news, I got this assignment. I'm so excited
about it. I kind of need you to take me
and pay for the trip at the Hall of Fame
because I was eighteen years old at the time and
couldn't like really get there myself.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
The guy did it. The guy did it. He did it.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
When like every summer job, when you work in media,
you don't get paid so over the summer, like you
can either get the experience in media, or you can
get a job working somewhere like at the shoe store
or the pharmacy and get paid. Always understood I was
driven about sports and wanted to do it, always paid
for it. Cut to you know, twenty years later, I've
(22:25):
got a kid, my older son, not into sports at all,
loves magic gathering, loves dungeons and dragons, doesn't want to
do after school sports. This is what he wants to do.
And all of a sudden, my wife and I are
driving around every weekend at different tournaments, different events, all
these things, and we're both starting to complain about it
(22:46):
a little bit because it's not like the mainstream sports thing.
And then my wife looks at me one day and
one day and goes, oh my god, this is his
soccer like, we have to do it even though there's
nothinganctioned and it's not official, because it's no different than
if we spent every weekend going to fucking Freehold, New
(23:06):
Jersey for lacrosse tournaments.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
That's right, oh.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Father, that your stuff. Also, Canton's like four hundred miles
away from your house. And he was just like regulators,
mound up. I'm in, Yeah, sounds good like good for him.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We went. We totally just went. Didn't even question it.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Uh. I think I did the story about Franco Harris,
Good days, Good Days, good, dads.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I'll do one game story because this is like, to me,
the biggest one that changed my life in many ways.
Where it's my earliest memory of sports betting. So it's
Super Bowl and two.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Thousand, I believe. So it's the Titans Rams.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
And again I knew nothing about sports betting, never never
never seen it before.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I never heard about it.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
And my dad said to be my brother, do you
guys want to pick a side for this game? And
there's a spread, so everyone knew the Rams were the
better team. And I was a big, big Steve McNair fan.
So my brother was like, yeah, I like the Rams.
And I said, well, I'll take Steve McNair like I
love the Titans. And my dad said, well, there's a spread,
so you get seven and a half points to start
(24:14):
the game. And again as a little kid, I could
not wrap my head around it where it's like so
I'm already up a touchdown and a half.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I don't. I couldn't get it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
So again, if anyone remembers that game, it's I think
twenty three seventeen. Again, I have the Titans. They get
tackled at the one by the Rams. My brother starts
going absolutely crazy, and my dad basically pulled the not
so fast league Corso said, Simon here won the bet.
The spread was seven and a half and gave me
the one dollar and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Chat.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I literally got the itch from that day forward. And
even I remember being, you know, in middle school and
the Lakers and the Sixers in the finals. I made
a bet with a buddy who's a diehard this biggest
scumback guy was.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
He was diehard Sixers fan. Six Ers win Game one.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I said, all right, if I'm right the Lakers win
this series, you buy me cookies every day for the
rest of the week. Again living the dream at that age.
And yeah, just a little things like that. That's how
I got a sports better And again, like we're talking
about Chad, very supportive parents, Like I told my parents.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I was gonna work in TV. They support it.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
I told them that I was gonna be a sports
better runner and working you know, a weird life.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Supportive. It's been very, very.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Lucky, and obviously you know that's that's what I kind
of I feel like Chad's in the same spot here
where it's like, you know, our parents who love us
and support us. It is a really big blessing in life,
and I actually, un fortunately I've been in a life
to have that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Matt Mitchell told his dad, I'm going to grow a
mustache when Kren goes away for ten days, I'm going
to grow a mustache. And he goes son, I'm not
really thinking that's a great idea, but it's your life.
I want you to make your choices. It's your body.
You do what you think is best.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Oh my god, that just reminded me of a story
he'd actually love. Coming back from the University of Missouri,
home the alma mater of Mike Jones who made that
year two thousand Super Bowl tackle to clinch the Tramants
Go Mike Jones coming back from college. My dad had
booked me a flight to come back from Columbia to Rochester,
(26:18):
A terrible kind of situation to try to figure out.
So I'd fly, say Lewis to you know, have a
layover or whatever. But this one he's like, Hey, remember
this flight, you actually have to go to baggage. I
booked it on two airlines, that's two one way tickets,
so you have to go get your bag, bring it over,
and then check back into this other flight. Okay, this
is an unusual situation, like, yeah, it sounds good. I
(26:40):
obviously forget all about that and leave my luggage in
a you know, at wherever, like bwi whatever fucking layover
I had and get home and there's no bag. I
had also grown, because I was like I was nineteen
or whatever. I grew like a little go tea soul
patch situation and looked embarrassingly bad, which made him real mad.
(27:03):
But I was. I thought that was It was a
hoot that he that he hated it. And when I
told him I missed that back, he was like, I'm
gonna have to call the air I gotta get this
bag on its own flight. He was like, god damn it.
And I remember being like mm hmm, I'll be right
back and going into the bathroom and shaving it off,
and his anger going down by like ninety percent.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Because he knew I could.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
I was trying to meet him halfway, and that was uh.
I remember that that him his face being like all right,
all right, at least I don't have to help out
a guy who looks like a complete asshole. So that
was that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
I do feel like.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
The signs of a good dad are they are angriest
about the stupidest stuff and least angry about the big stuff.
You know, Like when I get into college, my senior year,
me and my closest friend went to we were at
(28:00):
like another buddy's house, and this was the house where
this was the drinking guy's house.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Right, there was a group of us who were.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Like not big drinkers in a group that were big drinkers,
and like we thought they were cool and they were
like practiced drinkers, right, And so he broke out the
Jack Daniels, and me and my buddy each did like
an unhealthy dangerous amount of shots in a very short
amount of time, to the point where when we ended
up at the local Denny's that night where we always
(28:28):
ended up where half of my high school ended up,
I puked all over the table. To bring it back
around to the beginning, right, they had to drag me out.
They take me to my house, and as you guys know,
I have to wear very specific contact lenses that required
a plunger to be removed because I have a degenerative
I disease. Okay, so my friends have me sitting upright
(28:54):
in the bathroom, unlike the toilet that is, you know,
the seat is down. They're trying to get my content
out with the plunger, except they keep missing and they're
pulling my eye likely you can see it, right. So
then they let go and meet and I fall face forward.
My head hits the porcelain sink. They can't get the
contact lenses out, and I've got puke all over my pants.
(29:18):
And so they get me into my bedroom and they're
standing around me in a circle, and they're trying to
get me to get my pants off, and I won't
do it, and I keep yelling, I'm not taking my
pants off until you take your pants off. And when
they're standing around me about seven eight nine dudes with
their pants off in the circle, Me in the center.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
With my pants off.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That's when my parents get home and my mom looks
at my dad and she goes, I think this is
on you. Everybody leaves. My dad gets me in bed.
I'm puking until about four in the morning. In my
by the way Simon Philadelphia, seventy six ers garbage can.
(30:04):
My dad is sitting with me the entire night. I
finally pass out, except I have the seven am shift
at Parkway Drugs Pharmacy in Glencoe. The next day, it's
a Saturday, six about six forty. My dad gets me up,
(30:24):
drives me because I'm still a little bit out of it,
drives me to the pharmacy. He's like, if you're gonna
go out, you're still gonna have to go to work.
And I did that shift for about five hours until
the pharmacist stating home and he's like, you're of no
use to me. But I did also once see my
(30:45):
dad while he was driving to work, driving me downtown.
He was going to work, I had to go to
an appointment, pulled over to the side of the road,
didn't even step out of the car, pute leaned over,
he wasn't feeling well, puked, got back in the car,
drove downtown and went back to work.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Now that's that's real dad behavior, That silver back dad behavior.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, that's silverback dad strength.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
I like the idea of your dad coming home to
that scene and and right away being like, oh, I
better get these pants off. You gotta gotta fit in,
gotta gotta let's uh, let's get these pants off so
we can we can talk some sense into my son Yeah, incredible.
I do want to share that my speaking of just
getting into whatever your kids are getting into, my dad
(31:35):
did eventually become a big sports fan. I was able
to drag him into into becoming a fan. One of
the ways I did that was becoming just a massive
Buffalo Bills fan growing up in Rochester until he eventually
was like, wow, shit, as long as he's super into it,
I'm gonna get super into it. But the NFL had
blackout restrictions from nineteen seventy three to twenty fourteen, where
(31:57):
if a game didn't sell out, it was blacked out
with seventy five miles to the stadium. That really impacted
Buffalo a lot one because it was, you know, an
economically depressed area that wasn't particularly packed with people. They
had the second or third largest stadium in terms of
the number of seats they'd have to sell for a
long time, and then they changed a bunch of the
rules that it was pretty dreadful. So we had three choices.
(32:21):
We could listen to the game and the immortal Van
Miller on the radio, which was great because of the
timeless and evocative nature of audio, which which definitely gave
me a love affair with the radio.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Good afternoon everyone. This is Van Miller, and the road.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
To the Super Bowl goes through Orchard Park, New York.
Or for a little while, there was a loophole where
some bars had satellite feeds, so there was a couple
of bars across town that you could go and get
like essentially a legal stream of the game and watch it.
But it was hard to like it. It's not going
to go and have fifteen La bat blues with his
fucking son and drive them home, So it was hard
(32:56):
to find a reason to take a tween to a
bar and kill all that time. But he would do it.
And then the third option was, which he would do
quite often, if I really wanted to go, he'd drive
me in like an hour plus across the county line.
He'd drive due east into Wayne County until we crossed
over into the area of the Syracuse affiliates, which would
(33:16):
then play it. But there's so much nothing in between
that he would just go up to one of these
shitty roadside like motels, talk to the guy in the
front and basically convince him that him and him and
his team are trying to watch the Bills game. Can
we just get the hotel him for three and a
half hours, and those guys didn't ask a lot of questions.
(33:37):
And we would go in and we'd watch the game
on top of the duvet, and we'd bring in like
a picnic. We'd eat the you know, we'd eat the food,
watch the game, and then drive home. And during one
of those games, I'll never forget it. September twenty first,
nineteen ninety seven, the Bills are down twenty six to
nothing in the first half to Jim Harbaugh's Indianapolis called
(34:01):
and it was notable because it was to me it
was the first game that Jim Kelly, who just retired
was going to go back to Buffalo as an announcer
for NBC and looking at him and being like, this
guy is so fucking old and used up. This is
like the oldest guy I've ever seen on TV. Jim
Caller was thirty seven years old at the time. Like really,
I'm like so much older than he was at the time.
(34:23):
So there was that the Bills come all the way
back and they win this game, the third largest regular
season comeback in NFL history, and Ton Smith hursting Fune
and Ton Smith racing from the end zone and scores
that touching touchdown.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Like guy said, e Com never cut the buffalo bills up.
He never could count him up.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Game absolutely ruled. Then we smoothed out the duvets and
swept all the crumbs away and checked out, and he
drove all the way home. Just so I can make
sure that you know I would catch all these games.
It's hard for me to imagine doing that for my
own sun or some similar effort, but that's just the
stuff you do for your kids. It was incredible.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
That is great, dadding.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's fun to tell all those dad stories to all
the dads, to the people with dads, to anyone who
looks up to anyone.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
As a dad or is looked up to as a dad.
Happy Father's Day to everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
the Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Jown
lead us some Spotify Apple Pods, where ever get your pods,
rate reviews, subscribe, leaves five stars, say whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Feedback is given till next time. Call your dads.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Love you.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly if you or
someone you care about has a gambling problem. Help is
available twenty four to seven at one eight hundred gambler
Hosts And Creators
Chad Millman
Simon Hunter
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.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.