The Season with Peter Schrager: Peter’s Big Slick KC Weekend Recap and Greg Olsen

Peter details his weekend with Paul Rudd, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and more, as a participant at the Big Slick Weekend in Kansas City. Then Greg Olsen joins the show to discuss winning his second Sports Emmy Award, his passion and vision for youth sports, and his upcoming schedule in Nashville and South Carolina.

Greg Olsen's charity golf tournament, HEARTest Yard: https://receptionsforresearch.org/events/heartest-yard-golf-classic-in-charlotte/

Tight End University: https://www.te-university.com/

Learn more about the Big Slick: https://bigslickkc.org/

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, Thanks for
listening to another episode of the Season with Peter Schrager.

(00:27):
I'm Peter Schrager. June has begun, Minatory camps have begun.
Certain players are in camp getting deals. Certain players are
not in camp and waiting for those deals that would
be like cde Lamb. We're gonna get to the football
in a little bit. Aaron wan Kaufman is with me. Aaron,
what's up? My friend? Not too much?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I want to hear. Maybe I'm jumping the gun here,
but do you do anything fun this weekend?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Peter, Yeah, let's let's get right into it. So this
is one of my favorite episodes annually, and we did
it last year the Big Slick Weekend in Kansas City.
Three years ago, Paul Rudd invited me to be a
quote unquote soelebrity guests at the Big Slick Weekend. I
had no idea what it was, but he's like, come
for a weekend in Kansas City. We're gonna, you know,

(01:14):
raise money for a children's hospital and we're also going
to have a softball game on Kaufman Field. You're gonna
play on the field where the Royals played before the game,
and there's a big event at night. Just come have
fun and hang I'm like all right. Since then, in
three years, this has become one of the most anticipated

(01:35):
events I'm my ear, but also one of the most rewarding.
And this year was insane. Where do I want to start? Cut?
Should we go through just a little, like, you know,
some of the highlights and is that what you think?
Just run it down because I'll tell you there are
some really cool moments that I wanted to spotlight and
also some really cool people. So yeah, get it, Like, yeah,
your travel day to day, let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I fly in on Friday from Lakewardia easy flight. Last
year flight wasn't as easy. It was delayed, then it
was diverted to Detroit. It was a whole mess. This
year cleaning easy. Get into Kansas City and I get
off the plane and get to the car, go to
the hotel, and the first person I see is Sean
Evans from Hot Ones, the host who I have become

(02:18):
very good friends with through this big slick event. And
two of us are chopping it up and He's like,
I've got an amazing guest on this week, and I'm
stealing good coming off my recent podcast with Justin Reid
of the Kansas City Chiefs two type super Bowl champion
who won a chess tournament, and I'm looking at Sean
and I'm like, who you got this week? And he's
like Lewis Hamilton F one champion and a partial owner

(02:41):
of the Denver Broncos. I'm like, pretty good, that's pretty good.
Sean was going through his schedule of the Hot Ones
guests that they have. It's pretty impressive, it really is.
But the two of us are laughing right away. And
as we're laughing and having a good time, we get
tapped on the back and it's weird Al Yankovic who's
just arrived. What's some weird Al no accordion? And he

(03:03):
was there last year too, So the three of us
are talking like this is what big Slick Weekend has become.
Just like you don't know who's going to walk through
that door, and then they're gonna walk through. So we
get out, we get to like a meeting spot, get
on the van and it's Paul Rudd, It's Jason Sadekas,
it's Tidy Gardner, who's amazing from SNL and brought literally
like ten SNL colleagues with year, so I gotta shout

(03:27):
them out. This, Devin Walker, who is one of the
new cast mates, is fantastic. Punky Johnson is out of
her mind and is fantastic. James Austin Johnson who does
both Trump and Biden pretty quiet, and then he gets
into the character and he's incredible. Molly Kearney fantastic, And

(03:50):
there were a few others that we got to know
and they were all awesome, So we got the whole
SNL crew. I get on there, it's Rudd, it's Sadakas
we get to the game, and the first person to
tap me on the shoulder and you're like, what's up
man is Adam Scott, who I think is one of
the great actors of our generation. Party Down one of
my favorite TV show of all so underrated, and I
was telling him, I'm like, the clip of you singing
sweet Child of Mine with the family and step brothers

(04:13):
was recently making the rounds again and I'm like, it's
maybe the perfect comedic scene. And Adam was telling me
he's got a fifteen year old kid and a seventeen
year old kid, and of course Adam Scott, you're not
sure who parks and recreation and party down and all
the Appatow movies. And he's like, I got a fifteen
year old and a seventeen year old and he's like,
I hadn't seen step Brothers in ten years. He's like,
I typically do not watch my own shows. I put

(04:35):
it on. He's like, we're laughing hysterically. He's like, I'm
so proud of that movie and my kids loved it.
I'm like, that's great. So we have this softball game
and it's the Impractical Jokers are all there and Tech nine,
the rapper from the from the Kansas City area. It's fantastic.
He's there, Al Roker, George Went, Jeffrey Ross, the Roastmaster,

(05:00):
Robert Smigel. You go down the list of just people
that I've just long revered softball game. It's incredible. What
the coolest part though, is at night we go back
to the hotel and you get back to the hotel
and they rent out one of the floors of the
hotel and there's a suite and the sweet is from
like nineteen seventy five, and it's this giant, like four

(05:22):
thousand square foot suite and there's there's karaoke, there's a bar.
There's a magician, Blake Vote, who's fantastic and he's doing
magic tricks, and it's it's literally like, you know, I'm
not gonna say it's I'd never been to a Hollywood party,
but like, this is what I imagine them being in
the nineteen eighties, when it's like there's Magic Johnson, there's

(05:44):
Patrick Swayze, there's Eddie Murphy, there's Kurry Abdul Jabbar, you know,
like and oh there's Steve Sachs from the Dodgers. Like
just sports world combining with pop culture, combining with comedy,
like real hardcore comedy. Chops. Smigel's like carrying around Triumph
at this thing, so he's got Triumph the insult Tom

(06:05):
mcdonal like around like is he like interacting with people
as trying Yeah? Wow, And it's amazing. But then there's
karaoke and Paul Rudd gets up there on karaoke after
like everyone's doing like the practical jokers are saying like
Billy Joel, and then you've got some of the Sturday
Live folks they're singing Journey. Then Paul Rudd gets up

(06:27):
there and sings Lady in Red, Lad, I don't know
if you know, Lady and Red. Yeah, so earnest about
it and so like just like heartfelt that. Yeah, it was.
It's it's incredible. So we're up and people are drinking,
and it's like it's it's getting to be midnight. It's
getting to be one o'clock, it's getting to be two o'clock.

(06:48):
I'm hanging out with Will Forte, who I think mcgruber
is the funniest dude alive, and we're having it's two thirty,
it's three o'clock and now here's the crux of it.
At seven am, I agree to run a five K,
so I'm looking at the clock. Sean Evans also signed
up for it. We're like we're doing this. I'm like,
we're doing this. So at some point between Lady in

(07:09):
Red and then RTT Veach to General Manager of the
Chiefs nearly losing his mind over a magic trick involving,
you know, a dec of playing cards, I'm like, this
is all like in my head. The night comes to
an end and I have to wake up and run
this five K. So the alarm goes off at six am.
Right outside the hotel is the starting line, and I
look at it and I hear people getting ready. I'm like,

(07:30):
am I gonna do this? Am I not gonna do this?
And I thought back to what happened the night before.
I told my son Mel that I was gonna run
a five k, and I thought, I can't go back
home and say I had this amazing weekend. He asked me, well,
would you run the five k in? And me say, well,
I slept through it like it's just bad parenting her.
I can't do that. So I got out there. My

(07:53):
good buddy Brad g from the Chiefs, got my little
penny and my number, gave it to me. And then
sure enough, at six point fifty nine, I get a
text the thing is starting at seven Sean Evans, host
of hot Ones. It's like, I'm right here by the
porta pot If you want to run with me. I'm like,
he's up to and we do it. We run it.
I ran it in about thirty minutes. I think I

(08:14):
ran it in like twenty nine minutes. Was feeling grate.
Finished up the five K, and I'm like, all right,
I'm ready. This is the greatest you know, twenty four
hours ever. I'm hanging out with weird Al, I'm cutting
it up with Tech nine and I'm running a five
k like well, but the best part is still coming.
It's the trip to the hospital. And I know it

(08:34):
sounds really like heavy, and it sounds like such a
difficult thing, but we go and we visit in groups
at the bedside all of the patients who are staying
at Children's Mercy Hospital. It's an amazing place. It's it's
strictly pediatric cancer and it's kids and families from all

(08:56):
over who come in and try to get the best
treatment possible. And this event. Every proceed every dollar they make,
whether it be selling extra tickets for the softball game
or the event they do on Saturday night, it all
goes to Children's Mercy. And this year they opened the
Big Slick Auditorium, which is like a new addition in
a wing to the hospital that was named in honor

(09:17):
of a Big Slick For all the money that they've put
in and their contributions. And I'm not kidding, Aaron, it's
like selfishly, it's one of the greatest therapeutic things you
could possibly do is go visit a children's hospital, and
especially if you're someone who can potentially make a connection
with a kid, and whether you're volunteering or whatever. For us,

(09:39):
my group was Sean weird Al, who a lot of
the parents knew, but not many of the kids. And
then the magician Blake and you know, they come in.
They don't the kids seven eight years old. He might
know me from Good Morning Football, he might not. He
might know my voice whatever weird Al. The parents know
Sean Evans, they probably don't know from Hot Ones. But like,

(10:00):
if you tell him this is he does a show
with whatever. The magician Blake against Blake Vogt. Like I've
never seen a child light up the way they light
up from a magician's craftsmanship. He's doing card tricks that

(10:20):
I blow me away. But the kids are over the
moon and they love it. And it's just the feelings
I had in there. And I have a seven year
old son obviously, who knock on Wood is in great health.
You can't help as a parent or as anyone. Just
like put yourself in the shoes of the other parents,
or put yourself in the shoes of the kid and

(10:40):
realize for those few hours. Aunt Man is coming through
and is hanging with them. Been and Gayton from Stranger
Things are with us. They're coming through, and the kids
they love that show Robert Smigel's The Voice of Leo,
which is a huge hit movie on Netflix that all
the kids are watching animated. He's coming through and then

(11:03):
you've got musicians, You've got me and like these kids
they light up, and I just I get so emotional
thinking about it. But it's like the highlight of the
year for me, like to be able to co in
and make these kids and make these families days a
little better, which leads to the following few hours. I know,

(11:24):
it sounds like a travel log, like I'm Anthony Bourdain here.
One of Paul Rudd's college roommates is a guy named James,
and James owns a restaurant called Charbar, and it's one
of these hot barbecue spots in Kansas City and Charbar
has the best burn ends in Kansas City. It's one
of these places you wait online and all this stuff.

(11:45):
He threw out the offer, you know, if anyone wants
to go and have barbecue for lunch after the children's hospital,
Like we're getting a group together. We had the most random,
most hilarious crew. Richard Christy from The Howard Stern Show.
I don't know if you're a Stern listener, Aaron, but
Richard Christy is one of my favorite people on the show.
And he is an incredible human being with a his

(12:08):
sense of humor and his print calls and be his
knowledge of death metal, like he goes deep on death
metal and it's a drummer. So he's incredible. Richard Christy,
Jeff Ross, the roast Master, and then like the cast
and crew of Saturday Night Live, and then Blake who
he and I became fast friends, the magician. We all
go and we're eating barbecue and we got the meat
sweats and it's incredible and people are coming over and

(12:30):
they're saying hello, we're taking photos. But the evening is
where it all goes down. So they rent out the
t Mobile Center, they sell tickets and it's it's I
got to like witness, like incredible comedy moment. And this
was George Went who played Norm on Cheers. Okay, George Went,

(12:53):
Robert Smigel, all right, and then Jason Sudeikis, who was
playing Chris Farley's character, on Ozempic doing the Bears skit
from Saturday Night Live and O guess who joined them
Kelsey and Mahomes And it was hilarious, like you'd hear
that and you'd be like, why ruin that that bit.

(13:15):
It's the first time they've all done it together since
Farley's passing, and they were amazing in character, not on
startin Night Live, in front of this and the jokes
were hilarious, like they were people Magazine picked it up
out of context, but like sadekas As, Farley's character on
Ozempic is asking, is asking Travis Kelsey when he's gonna

(13:35):
make an honest woman out of Taylor Swift and I'm dying.
I'm like, it's tremendous, like this is great, and he's like,
you know, he's like, I know your kicker would approof
of that question, like hilarious jokes, like it was great,
and then Mahomes comes in and he's fantastic and they're
talking about how, you know, the sphere in Las Vegas
is great, but you know, Chicago's working on the quaff

(13:56):
and it's because thick as hair and there's gonna be
right in the middle of town and there's gonna be
concerts on it. They're awesome. Mahomes and Kelsey come roaring
out and like at this event, here's who we have.
We have stand up from Kumail help me with the
last night. Yeah, he was incredible and he's cool ash
like he's quiet, humble, awesome, all right, Kumail Fortune Feinster,

(14:21):
who's big on Netflix if you see any of this stuff,
like hilarious. Jeffrey Ross did an absolutely hilarious slash filthy
stand up routine in front of a crowd of Aaron's
and children. Pat is like, so Jeffrey Ross and amazing

(14:42):
three of them do stand up comedy. David Cook from
American Idol performs. Kevin Morby, I don't know his work before,
this incredible musician from Kansas City. He performs, and then
Cheryl Crowe performs as well, and she was unbelievable. Cheryl
crow who was leaving here then going and doing a
concert in Hawaii immediately after, like the life that she's

(15:02):
living still as a rock and Roll Hall of Famer
is the rock star line if it's so cool? But
then it comes to my moment in the show and
they asked us if we want to submit auction items
because these auction items can go for real money. There's
some big, big money people involved with this hospital, and
you know who am I. You know, a couple of
years ago, I submitted a cool one that you know,

(15:25):
you could pay to announce the Chief's Day three draft pick,
whether it be fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh round at
the draft when it was in Kansas City. And I
did that with the NFL Events team and it was great.
The guy who won it, they said, Okay, you're gonna
do the seventh round pick. Well, Kansas City trades their
seventh round picks. She never got to do it, but
he got to hang backstage and got to be a

(15:45):
part of it and was like so happy that he
won that auction item. Great. Took a year off last
year because I was like, I have nothing. I don't know.
This year, I got ahead of it. I want to
thank Peter O'Reilly and Matt Shapiro, who work in the
NFL Events team. I reached out to them early on
and I'm like, guys, what can we provide that is
a really cool, unique experience that someone can't just buy.

(16:09):
And every year before Week one, you know, the Chiefs
already we know are hosting the Ravens. Every year before
Week one, they do a VIP tailgate. Now, it used
to be a concert, like Ed Sheeran did a concert
one year. I want to say the Chainsmokers might have
done a concert one year. They do this concert. Well,
this year they're not doing a concert, and I think

(16:29):
part of it is because there's also a game in
Brazil on Friday, and it's like, we're gonna make it
like tailgate week or kickoff week. But they're doing a
VIP dinner which is not open to the public. It's
like to certain you know, people that are partners with
the league and of course some league executives and I'm
sure people that are local to Kansas City and maybe Baltimore.
So we got tickets to that. We also got four

(16:51):
tickets to the Pro Bowl games, which sounds like it's
very cool. Now that alone is a nice item. It's
not going to blow anyone away, you know, but it's
it's pretty cool. It's there two really cool experiences, and
I'm so appreciative for that. I then went to Brett Veach,
the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, and I said, hey, look,
it's like, you know what this means to the town
and to the children's Marcy, what can you do, feachays,
how about I give my four seats in my suite

(17:14):
for week one where we're raising the banners. I'll give
those four tickets, so you get those four tickets, And
how abould I also give four pregame passes where you
can walk up and down the chief sideline as they're
raising the banners before week one. I'm like, that's amazing.
So now we've got this awesome item, this awesome item,
come to it. They're like, Peter, why don't you present
it on Saturday night? Like you could be the one

(17:35):
with the microphone. Great, so cool. As we're doing all that,
Veach the night before after a few drinks, you know,
comes up to me, He's like, I feel like I
can offer more. I'm like, Brett, you've done enough, Like
we're good. He's like, I feel like I can offer more.
He's like he had just flown in, like they flew
to the White House. They then flew back from the
White House, and Brett came immediately to like go drink

(17:57):
with Paul Rudd and Sidekis and be like up in
this like suite. So Veach is like, what if like
Travis and Patrick did something, And I'm like, no, totally,
that's great, like anything with those guys, like all right,
let me work on it. So then the night of
this bag appears in the green room and it's handed
to me and it's a game worn Kelsey jersey and

(18:18):
a game warn Mahomes jersey and I'm like what do
I do with these? And they're like, well, Brett said
to like get the guys to sign this and it'll
be part of the auction. And I'm like, all right,
that's cool. So we're doing the auction item and it's
like we're in it and stone Street's great and Wriggles great,
We're they're getting the crowd going and it kind of
lattaus out where the auctioneer is like, all right, for
fifty grand, you get this great package that the seats

(18:38):
and I'm looking into the crowd and it's kind of
tapering off, and then like out of like the heavens,
Mahomes and Kelsey come from backstage and like walk on
with me, and Mahomes and Kelsey are like, come on,
we could do better than this. We could do better this.
They're getting the crowd going and everyone's like, all right,
seventy five grand, eighty grand. And then I'm like, I'm like,

(18:59):
all right, the Pro Bowl guys, you know, thirty one
other teams, their best players are going to be there.
And then like Mahomes grabs the microphone, are like, we're
not going to the Pro Bowl, We're going to the
Super Bowl. Like it's like completely going, and everyone's like yeah,
So it's getting crazy. Then Stone Street has the idea of, hey,
let's break out these jerseys. Let's have the guys put
them on, and then let's have them personally sign them

(19:23):
for the winners. So we then, like a NASCAR team,
put the jerseys on Mahomes and Kelsey and they're up
there and they're getting the crowd going and the bidding
starts going nuts, and they're gonna sign it personally. Game
warn jerseys from the season before, and they're both in them,
and Mahomes is hilarious. He's like, you know, this is
my dad bod because it's so tight and his belly's

(19:43):
like hanging out, and then Kelsey's like it's I'm not
a dad, but this is my thirty five year old
bod and it's the same thing, and it's like snug whatever.
So it starts going and it's like seventy five hundred,
one hundred and twenty one aaron. The item goes for
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Quarter of a million dollars.
This thing goes for and the guy who wins it,

(20:05):
we bring the family right up there. They're posing for
photos with Kelsey and Mahomes. Kumel is right after me
and is like, I'm from Chicago. I've never been to
Kansas City, but apparently you pay a quarter million dollars
for shirts. It's like dying laughing, great tremendous night, and

(20:25):
we wrap it up. There's barbecue afterwards. So like my
stomach was in shambles the next morning. But I do
want to give you one last little nugget of maybe
the funniest thing I've ever seen in person and the
funniest clip I've ever seen on a phone. So we're
at a hotel and there's an indoor fountain in the
hotel and it's attached to a shopping mall in Kansas City.

(20:46):
So this mall and this thing is from the seventies,
like some of the guys who volunteer were like, I
had my prom photos there in the eighties, Like, that's
that fountain. It's probably disgusting. People put coins in it.
Who knows what fluids are in there. Jake Tapper from
CNN is part of the Weekend and he challenges Will Forte,

(21:07):
the comedian, one thousand dollars donation. He's I'll put one
thousand dollars donation to Big Slick if you swan dive
into that disgusting fountain. Will Forte proceeds to remove his shirt,
remove his shoes, go in with his shorts and socks
into a fountain that has probably not been washed in many,

(21:30):
many years. He not only goes underneath the water, he
takes and starts swimming laps, and then he sings James
Ingram's just Once while the fountain is drizzling water over
his head. I have this all on my phone. It's
the funniest two minutes you'll ever see. And it is
absolutely insane, And that is Big Slick in a nutshell.

(21:52):
You get the singing of just Once, Lady in Red
and then also you're raising four million dollars for a
hospital in Kansas City. I love the weekend. I'm so
honored to be a part of it, and I hope
I can continue to be a part of it. Thank
you to everyone who's involved. And Aaron, that was my weekend.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Sounds pretty good. I saw furiosa, but you know.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Also great, also great.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
I spent the first six years out of college working
at a Schulden's hospital, and I know how yep, and
I know how important that is, especially working with I
was at Children's cancer center actually, and oh my god,
a lot of time I did a bunch of like
going to patient rooms playing music and like how important

(22:40):
that is to them, and like also shout out to
all the child life specialists and then nurses and doctors
everyone who works with.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Us, talking about just a noble work. Yeah, and it's
so heavy, and like I was talking to one of
the nurses and I'm like in my head, I'm like,
she puts her head down at night and goes to
sleep knowing she made a difference every single day. Like
that's the ultimate gift, you know.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, Yeah, but yeah, I mean some awesome work that
they've done and amazing raising so much money for those kids.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
And it's been a pipeline for this podcast. We've had
stone Street, We've had Rudd, We've had Sean Evans, we've
had Plenny and maybe we'll get Kelsey in my home.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Seems like this season we're going to need to do
a musical episode where like we just have a bunch
of guests.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Kevin Murby, does that name anything to you, Kevin, I've
heard the name. I don't know any of his music,
but my god, so he's an awesome dude, great musician.
And then I started going into a wormhole of his
music since I've been back, and it's like incredible. So
that's it. Picked that up, all right. So going from
tight end Travis Kelsey to another great tight end and

(23:46):
a friend of mine. Our guest this week is the
great Greg Olsen. Let's bring him on our guests this week.
Is one of my favorite people, not only in sports
media but just in general. We have the best time
when we talk, and we haven't in a while. We
had him on during the season, and since then he

(24:08):
has won Best Analyst at the Sports Ed means we're
not going to harp on that too much. He's too
humble for that. But let's bring in Greg Olsen, former
Carolina Panthers Legend, Chicago Bear Legend, and now TV Superstar.
W what's up Greg?

Speaker 3 (24:20):
Somebody? How are you?

Speaker 1 (24:22):
I'm doing awesome? I real quick on the Emmy. Just congratulations, man.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Like it's I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
It's one of those deals where you don't you tell
yourself you don't need validation, and then I'm sure you
hear your name called and you look at your peers
and you say, for a second, I can appreciate us.
How cool it is it was.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
I mean, anytime you're nominated, right, Chris collins Worth, Troy
aik Man, I mean John Smoltz, I mean Bill Raftury.
I mean, these guys are legends. They've been doing this
for a long time, and especially obviously in the NFL
circles with Troy and Chris. I mean they they called
my games when I was a rookie, you know, twenty
years ago.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
So it's it's pretty cool, and listen it.

Speaker 4 (24:58):
I had a guy to a teammate tell me this
a long time ago. He says, no matter how old
you get, you're never too cool for a pat, you know,
for an atta boy, you know, a pat on the back.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Or everyone likes to be told good job.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
Everyone likes to have, you know, confirmation that the hard
work is paying off, whether you're a high school kid
or a forty year old adult. I think everyone likes it,
so listen. It was cool, it was fun, It was
a great experience. I had never been to the Emmys before.
I didn't go last year and told myself, you know,
the next time I was nominated, I would go. Me
and my wife had a great couple of days in
the city enjoying that, and.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Who is the coolest person you met that you'd never
met before at the sportsmes?

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Oh, that's a great question, you know, I met, you know,
it's it's super cool because you walk into the room obviously,
I'm sure you know, like you walk into the room.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
The cocktail hour before.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Cocktail hour was great. My big regret is that we
didn't get to the cocktail hour early enough. We went,
we went for dinner at the hotel, and it always
takes longer to get everywhere in New York than you plan,
and I wish I would have had like another thirty
forty minutes of the cocktailer because you're just getting going,
you have a cocktail, you're shaking hands, you're seeing people
that you've either you've met before but you haven't seen

(26:05):
him in a while, or just people you've watched on TV. Right,
Ernie Johnson, Right, I've seen him a thousand times doing
NBA games, obviously college basketball and everything they do, and
that show's awesome, and yeah, you have a chance to
shake his hand and ask him how he was doing
and learn. So, you know, just people that you see
on TV all the time, you feel like you know them,
but you never have actually been in the same room

(26:27):
as them. So it was a lot of really cool,
interesting people there. Some I had met a bunch and others,
you know, like Ernie for the first time, so it
was it was super cool.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
I'll never forget. We got nominated for Good Morning Football
couple of years in a row, so I got to
go to a few and we're in the cocktailer and
it's actually the year we ended up winning, and we're
staying there and I get a tap on the shoulder
from this really tall guy and at first it's jarring
because I did not know how tall he was in person.
And he's like, hey, I know, we're competition and we're nominated,
and you guys are nominated, but I am just such
a huge fan of your work. And I looked up
and it was Scott Van Pelt. So for all the

(26:58):
years that we've been doing this, I'd never seen him
in person, and I'd never worked with him, and I'd
never actually been in the room with him. So I
was I mean, even me who's been in this for
a while, like to see one of these guys in
persons like, Oh, you're like a real life person, You're
not just on my TV.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, well it's funny along those lines. I'm in the
bathroom like they're they're whisking all of us like out
of the cocktail hour and trying to get us into
the auditorium the you know, the theater or whatever. And
I'm coming out of the bathroom. There's like a line
of a handful of guys and I thankfully wash my
hands or everybody's watching you, so you wash your hands.
And as I'm walking out, I see Jay Wright. And

(27:33):
I had never met Jay Wright before, but he was there.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
But now you're like.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
In the bathroom, so like the most like it is
it weird for anyone who has ever met someone or
like had someone say hello to them in the bathroom,
like you just got done taking a leak.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, and you know you're meeting Jay.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Wright in like an auditorium bathroom as a bunch of
guys who are taking a leak before the show starts.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
So it's it's you know, all that stuff is very unpredictable.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Did you have any say in what they submitted? Like
Good Morning Football gets a submission, but I didn't see
what like the final cut was, Like I am a
control freak with my own stuff. This is your nay,
like I was as an individual. I had nothing to
do with it, but like, do you have final cut
of like what they submit to the Emmys?

Speaker 4 (28:18):
They did, So it's it's funny you asked that because
my first year I did not, right. So you know
when Jacob Olman, who kind of heads up a lot
of the production teams or whatnot, he called me two
years ago, you know I, well, I guess my first
year was like emerging break out Star, emerging whatever it's called.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
I didn't win.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Then my year two, same category, emerging break you know
whatever did win. This never had seen my reels for
those I had no idea what they what they submitted
or anything. But then this year it was a new category.
You know, this is like no more like emerging, like
you have to be in with all the big boys.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Now this is the emerged.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, yeah, you've already have the merged. And and I
did actually see it. So Jacob was cool enough. He shared,
they have a whole team at Fox. They do an
unbelievable days. They are incredible, and I I watched it
and I was like, if I was watching that, that guy's pretty, you.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Know, like that guy's good.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
You know, he does a great job putting that together.
So it was cool, and so I did see it.
I don't think I gave them any feedback. I don't
think I said do this that I don't Sometimes I
don't remember.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
What I said.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
If you told me what was the best thing you
said in the NFC Championship game, I'd be like, I
don't remember who played, you know what?

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I like, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I just make it up as they go. But they
obviously did a good job and very fortunate to uh
let me hear your name called.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Does the last year's Super Bowl? Did that qualify for
this year's tape?

Speaker 4 (29:44):
That's a really good question. My assumption is it ends
this season, So my guests would be the playoffs of
this past season, probably the Packers versus I think.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
My Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Yeah, my super Bowl I called went into like when
I was like emerging, like the two years ago.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah ago, you were awesome in that Niners Lions game.
But I remember the Packers Niners game, right, you were
on that call, alls.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, we had Packers Niners in the divisional round.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
And Party made all those big clutch plays and you
were you were fantastic in that final drive. And I'm
assuming that's probably what Jacob was baking of.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah. I think it was a lot of playoff stuff.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
And you know, those are the moments, right, those are
the moments everybody wants you.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Well, you guys didn't have a good game the first
ten weeks of the season. You guys had blowout each
every week.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
We have this funny like group like group text thread
of you know, production guys and Aaron and Tom and
Kevin and myself and the guys in the truck and
researchers and is like this big group chain. And every
week Jarrett, the research guy at Fox who's unbelievable what
he does. Jarrett would send hey, just updating America's game

(30:55):
of the week. Average margin of victories twenty two point
three points. We have not We've had one game within
fourteen points in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
We're like, thanks, Jarrett, We're well you know, we're well aware.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
You know.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
It was just blowout after blowout after blowout, and then
playoffs came and it caught fire and we just had
game after game after game. The NFC Championship was awesome.
So the playoffs made up for what was a very
weird regular season because we didn't have a ton of
like thrillers.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
We had won early.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
We had Detroit lost to Seattle in Week two in
an overtime game that was awesome, and we had a
couple here and there. We just didn't have a lot
of drama at the end. So the playoffs definitely made
up for it.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
McCaffrey got this new deal. I saw you liked his
video on Instagram. Now I'm a new Instagram user. I
can see who likes what. You were his teammate. What
was your best McCaffrey story when he first walked through
those doors.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
McCaffrey's the best. I'm going to his wedding here in
a couple of weeks, I texted him last night.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
I texted him last night after I saw the deal
come through, and I was like, dude, I don't know
if you know what you're in store for, but your
bar bill totally just don't even look at it because
we're about to blow your wedding. This tab we're going
to run up on you. All the guys are coming
to town for It is gonna be.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
An a f So it's not gonna be one of
those weddings where they give you out a coupon and
you get one free drink.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
I'm just assuming it's not gonna be I think everything
him and Olivia are gonna do.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Is pretty high, high high brow.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
But even if it's not, we're opening up the bar
like this is non negotiable, and McCaffrey's getting the bill.
So we got like all of our old teammates, a
bunch of our buddies. We're all going out there, both
the Niners guys and Panther guys. So we're gonna get together.
We haven't been together in you know, probably a couple
of years, you know, since we've all kind of gone
our separate ways.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
We're in a million you.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Know, who's the crew, like, I love this, So it's
it's obviously yes.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, Keithley's flying up, Ryan Khalil, Jonathan Stewart, I'm talking
like Panther guys, Jonathan Sue.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Who else is in our group?

Speaker 4 (32:53):
J J.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Janssen who's still playing, and you're.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Like a long snapper.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Greg Van Roten we call him g VR is a
really good buddy of oys offensive line and played for
the Raiders last year.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
So and then I think like Kittle and Uscheck and
you know, all the forty nine er guys. So it's
kind of a cross between the old Panther guys when
Christian was young and now just guys throughout the league,
and it's we are we are much looking. It's it's
here in like three weeks, so it's the end of
the month, so we're we're pretty excited about it.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
What's your memory of when it collected that? Like, oh,
this guy's for real.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
So my first ever interaction with McCaffrey. You're gonna love this.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
So he was not allowed to come to our off
season training because certain colleges that aren't on semesters, they're
on like yes, Northwest, it's like super super smart schools
trimester or quarters or system or whatever they call it.
And I don't know if the rule is still the same.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
I haven't followed it.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
But when I was playing schools that were on the
quarters or the trimester system, because school at those universities
was still in session in the summer, even if those
kids were done with school, graduate, whatever it was, you
were not allowed to be at the NFL practices. It
was like a super obscure situation. So McCaffrey was losing

(34:12):
his mind. He couldn't come to like a mini camp.
He couldn't come to the first maybe couple weeks of OTAs.
But I met him for the first time at Ron
Rivera's charity event he ran, like a bowling event that
Christian was in town for. And I'll never forget, Like
I'm just over there and we're just shooting the catching
up And obviously I'd watched him play in college and
knew what a study was. He He did not throw

(34:35):
one ball, he did not hit a pin. He sat
next to me and was like, how do you guys
do pass protection? How do you guys do the and
like he was Me and him had like an hour
long conversation on past protection, our formation, our route tree.
He's like, it's killing me that I'm not at you know, spring.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Ot everything is a veteran you want to hear right,
Like that's I'm like.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
I'm like this guy. I knew he was a stud.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
I watched him obviously at eleven o'clock Eastern every weekend
when Stanford was when he was running all over everybody,
and he wanted nothing to do with the event.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
He wanted nothing to do with bowling, he wanted nothing.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
To do with walking around shaking hands as our top
ten first round pick. Like he was killing me about
just what is he missing? Installs? What should I know?
How do we do protections? How do we set the mics?
Where do I scan a lot formation alignments? And I
was like, this dude's just different. Like there's a lot
of guys like, hey, he's a ballplayer. Like this guy

(35:31):
just truly loves ball. He's like in the dictionary, you
look that up is McCaffrey, Like he is wired, very different,
he is all in.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
He's just a very he acted as a rookie.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
How most guys don't figure out taking care of their body, training, nutrition, diet,
all that he was doing that as an incoming rookie.
You know, takes some guys eight ten years to really
figure out what that means to be a pro. So
he was wise beyond his years. Obviously physically talented, but
just his approach and mindset and everything he does is
what makes him him. And then he happens to also

(36:07):
be fast and strong and all that, but that's all
secondary for him.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
You know. It's it's amazing this forty nine ers team
in that era, and you've called so many big games
over the last few years, including an NFC Championship game
that was cut short, including a NFC Championship game where
they did get over the hump and get back to
the super Bowl. It's one of these deals where like,
I have to think those guys to go through another offseason,
and you know Kittle so well from tight End University,
and obviously yust Check has been the legal is sounding

(36:33):
like it has to just kill these guys that they
haven't gotten a chip yet.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
Oh, I mean I lost one, so I kind of
know what it's like walking out as the confetti falls
and the other team's colors and you go back into
the reality of the locker room that it's over. Right,
there's no best of three, best of five, will go
get him next time like it is over the finality
of the end of a postseason in the NFL is
unlike any.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Other sport because you get one shot. Right.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
So, I've lost an NFC championship game, won an NFC
championship game, lost to Super Bowl, never got back to
win another Super Bowl like it just so for these
guys in this core, well, Christian making it for the
first time, but you know Kittle and those guys made it,
you know, just a few years ago. And to get
there twice and come up short twice, especially this year,

(37:20):
obviously it was a tough ending. Like it's hard, man.
I think it just shows how many things have to
go your way to not only make a Super Bowl,
but the chips to fall your way and the breaks
to go your way to win a game, especially in
an era where Mahomes and Kelsey and Andy Reid. You know,
that's a that's a history. You know, that's like winning
when Brady and the Patriots like to steal one out

(37:42):
of that era. You got to have a lot of
things go your way. Yeah, maybe Brady got knocked out
in the AFC championship. That's what happened our year, and
we couldn't take advantage of it against Denver. But like
that's kind of what Kansas City is now. And you know,
San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan might have two Super Bowls if
it wasn't for Andy Reid, hadn't Patrick Mahomes and vice versas.
So sometimes you're the You're the product of your era

(38:03):
and your time. But I think those guys still have
a long run way. They got a cheap quarterback.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah no, I mean like.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Payment wise obviously, but I'm saying they got a ride.
They got another year. Maybe they can continue to pay
All these guys on defense take advantage of party, playing
for free in essence, and take advantage of this window.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
One of the things I love about you. We'll get
together at like a Fox event, and we'll talk NFL
for about three seconds, like we just did, and then
we'll get right into youth sports. I've got a seven
year old son we're just starting. He's hardcore basketball. This
thing is called the Brooklyn Basketball Academy, and it is
like there's eight teams in the league. We have practices
like I don't coach because they have they don't have

(38:49):
bother coaches. They have like actual guys who are like
recent you know, college basketball players and when they coach,
and JJ Reddick overseas a lot of the league. And
then there's like random, yeah, random Brooklyn dads you'd love,
like Brian Westbrook's kids in the league. Like I see
him at the games. Like it's just it's random. It's good,
it's awesome, And my son loves it. And I could

(39:10):
see myself jumping in head first and diving in. And
I know how passionate you are and you've taken it
to the next level talk about youth sports and like
where you see this thing going?

Speaker 4 (39:21):
Yeah, I mean, and it's easy, right, especially when you
see your kids. It's easy as a parent when you
see your kid, your son or daughter really fall into something.
In your case, it's basketball or baseball. And my daughter's recently,
just within the last six to ten months, gotten into
you girls basketball, and she's like really embracing it and

(39:42):
wanting to improve and practicing. Like as a parent, it's
very easy to see once the light goes on for
them and it clicks, it's easy to find yourself saying okay,
there's never enough we need more practices, we need more games,
we need more scrimmages, we need more training. Who's the
best trainer, who's your kid working with? Like it's easy
once you see it for them to just like I

(40:03):
will give you every resource, every possible going on.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I want you to be your bestball whenever you want
to be.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Yeah, of course, And again I think it's in we
We're all doing it out of good intentions. So your
child tells you they really want to pursue something, you
can see them actively enjoying it, pursuing it, like improving,
like they're not just saying it. Like you can tell
a kid who's in there or who just got dropped
off by his parents from practice, Like you can tell

(40:29):
the difference. And then as a parent, your first instinct is,
I will get you every bit of support, training, lessons,
team whatever to say what you want to do. And
it's a very fine line. And some of that I've
learned the hard way, right I've I was the dad
was eight year old baseball and I'm like, this is
this is our life. We're not going on family vacations.

(40:49):
We got to get ready for the North Carolina cal
Ripkens State championship. And by the way, they're eight, Yeah,
they're rising third graders whatever its second grade. So like
when you go through it, it's just so easy to
get caught up in it. And I've again learned some
lessons the hard way. Something's good, something's bad, and really

(41:11):
look at it. Now that we approach youth sports as
one simple goal in our house, I should say two
separate goals in our house. A. In my opinion, there
is no greater vehicle for young children to learn real
life experiences than youth sports. Playing with kids you might
not come from the same backgrounds coaches you may or
may not just agree with a coach is really hard

(41:33):
on you. You don't play a lot, you lost playing time,
you're on the depth chart, you're coming off the bench,
you're the sixth man whatever.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
That is that same that's.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Not just your friends from class, kids from other schools.

Speaker 4 (41:46):
Yeah, yeah, maybe you're a little uncomfortable in the beginning.
You got to come out of your shell. Like there's
so many great life lessons that you can create through
youth sports, and to me, that's number one.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Across the board.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
And then the second part of that approach is can
you go one day play for your middle school, and
then one day your high school and have a really
fun school experience on at least one, if not multiple teams.
If you check those boxes, your sports journey is.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
A success in my book, Like, that's how.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
We approach it. That's what we harp on our kids.
Anything beyond that is gravy.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
I love this, love this. And how did you I mean,
because you said you originally were traveling the East coast
and did you have a moment or did you have
a governor in your Like wait a second, we're let's
let's take it take a step back. Is that because
to me, I don't know where the gay I know myself.
If my son wants to do it, all go to
all ends to be like, do you want to go

(42:43):
to New Jersey and play in a tournament for an
half hour? We'll drive four hours. I could see that happening.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
Oh, and don't get me wrong, we still do it
right So my older son, We're for both my sons,
my twelve year old and my eleven year old, both
of their teams. I coach my eleven year old. My
my other son plays for a different organization. Both their teams.
We're going to spend a week in Myrtle Beach from
Tuesday to Sunday next week, and we'll play between the
two of them. They'll play sixteen seventeen baseball games between

(43:13):
two separate teams, I mean two boys, two separate teams,
Like we're in. Then a week after that, we're going
down to East Cobb, which is down outside of Atlanta.
We're going to play in a five day National Perfect
Game Baseball tournament with my older son, and we're going
to Mississippi. My daughter's basketball team went to Greensboro. My son,
my younger son's baseball team is going to play a
tournament in Charleston in July. Like, it's all I sitting

(43:35):
here saying, like, oh, we just take it easy. I mean,
we try to match the enthusiasm of the kid. We
try to match it. If the kids really in and
the parents are dragging them back, that's probably not fair.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
If the kid's half ass in it and the parents
are all in, that's also a bad scenario.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Totally.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
It's like, we try our best to match our enthusiasm.
Are we will drive to the ends of the earth.
We tell our kids all the time, we will do
whatever you want. To do, but you to do it,
and you've got to do it with everything in your power.
You've got to be willing to go to every practice,
every game. I don't want the second this looks like
we're doing it against your will.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
We're done.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, I love it, And.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
It's easier said than done. It's east said than done.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
I watched some of your stuff. You were at the
Johns Hopkins University last month at the Project Play summit,
and you were discussing this. And that's why I'm ring
because you had you know, parents, coaches, olympians, medical and
health experts, and you're doing this and now you've taken
it to like the media thing, talk about your youth
inc podcasts and what you're working on, because I think

(44:43):
there's an untapped market for parents like me who are
going into this thing blind, and then also parents like
you who you're looking for maybe peers and others that
you can kind of bounce ideas off of. In a
sea of all of these private coaches and all of
these travel teams and all of the money that is
out there of people trying to suck you dry for
these youth sports.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Yeah, no question, So exactly right.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
So to years ago, I was out dinner with a
couple of my buddies, Ryan Khalil, Vince Vaughn, Humblebragg, both
those guys are really good buddies of mine, and I
was pitching them this idea.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
I was like, Hey, we've been.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
Approached by a couple of different podcast platforms and they're like,
what ideas does Greg want to talk about?

Speaker 3 (45:22):
And I was like, I don't know. I don't know
if I want.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
To just like break down Sunday's game or totally how
to run routes is a tight end, Like there's more
to it, right, I want to do something I'm really into,
And I'm like, well, the thing I do the most
is coach and be a youth sports parent, Like I
do it before I came into this. I'm in my
Charlotte Christian which is where my kids go to school

(45:44):
T shirt because we have eight to eleven am middle
school football workouts Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all summer, all summer long.
Like we're living this youth sports world. So anyway, so
I'm like, the thing I do the most is youth sports.
The thing that my wife and I stress the most
about is are we doing it correctly. Every dinner we
go to with friends, after five seconds, it's the kid play.

(46:07):
Everyone has the same conversation across the whole country. So
I'm like, if I'm a guy who's lived in his
whole life, I grew up the son of a high
school football coach, I played and made a career out
of it, and now it's come full circle that I'm
the dad slash youth coach. And there's a lot of
times that I'm doing it wrong. There's a lot of
times that I look back on a game or a
practice and saying I needed to be better. I needed
to handle that situation better. My kid, your kid, whatever.

(46:30):
There's a pod here, there's an idea. So that is
the birth of you Think. So it was originally a
standalone podcast and we had forty five episodes of conversations
with Olympians, coaches, mental health experts, sports performance name it
across the spectrum, current former professional athletes and everybody, and
really about the best practices of what their lessons were

(46:51):
growing up in sport, how they apply it now going forward,
and really some cool conversations.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
From there.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
We said, okay, hold on, this is bigger than just
me hosting a singular podcast. So we have now launched
you Think Reimagined, which is a two prong to two
different sides of the company. One is a content platform
we are in We have talks and contracts with all
different types of like they're going to head up their
vertical football, basketball, girl soccer, volleyball, softball, and they're going

(47:20):
to be like their ambassadors for their vertical their sport
and they're going to produce content from how to make
practice plans to how to teach a girl how to
feel the ground ball to shoot a basket, and.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Not just like House of Highlights videos of these kids like.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Grass roots foundational. I got to take over my kids
eight year old basketball practice? How do I get started?
I want to teach my seven year old kid how
to make a lefty layup. But I also want to
be able to drive home in the car with my
kid after he goes over three with three strikeouts and
not really blow this as a dad, which we've all
had our moments that we're probably not our most proud of,
right and all of those conversations are going to live.

(47:58):
All of this information that the education, the coaching, the
mental health, the sports performance, everything around the atmosphere of
youth sports is going to live on a singular platform
called youth Youth dot Inc. Is going to be the site,
and then on the other side of that, there's going
to be a commercial e commerce platform. We have a
really cool partner, Ryan Bass, who's a partner of ours

(48:19):
founding this, who came from fanatics, who really understands the
e commerce retail idea, and he understands how bad that
landscape looks right now. To get this T shirt made
by your kids team takes six months. So there's going
to be e commerce play that's only going to serve
the youth sports performance, the youth sports environment, and then
also the media content company which will serve boys, girls

(48:43):
across the landscape of all things youth sports, and just
continue to further conversations we're having right now, which are
going on all around the country.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
All the time. It's every conversation. Like my buddy Adam,
he played lacrosse in high school and then didn't play
in college. His son is I think third grade and
is like one of the best lacrosse players in all
of Long Island, and that sounds like a pipeline to Harvard.
John's topkin but like, how do you keep the love

(49:12):
for the like there's all these different hurdles, Like, Okay,
so he's an outstanding player in third grade, what do
you do from here to that college scholarship offer? That's
the question. That's the bridge, right.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Well, that's and that's and I think that the cart
before the horse is what's happening in a lot of
different families and households. And I don't blame people, right,
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of
having the best fourth grader, the best fifth grader, the
best eighth grader, whatever that timeline is. But the thing
everyone has to remember, if the only goal of your

(49:42):
kid waking up at seven am on Saturday mornings and
driving an hour for a soccer tournament or a cross
tournament or a football game or whatever it is. If
the only reason we're taking our kids and doing all
of this rat race every single week is so that
they play beyond the high school level, every family should
quit doing.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
It right now. It's not worth it good, it's.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Not worth it the seventy variables.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
If that's the only objective, you should just save your time,
save your energy, and go on summer vacation because the
odds of it happening there's one school on average. Now,
back to what we said earlier, if the idea is
to get the journey, yeahs.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
And that's where my friend's coming from, Like he's like,
I'll do anything. I'll drive it at Philadelphia for a
tournament because the kid loves it and he's making great
monks like it's awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
And if that kid never plays a minute of college lacrosse,
but he has a great high school and junior high
and high school career.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
That's not a failure.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
That's the dream. The dream is the journey.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
And if you maximize that journey and you put in
the work and you don't miss a practice, and you
grind and you deal with failure, adversity, make the team
get cut, whatever that ups and downs roller coaster of
your childhood is to begin with. If it's the same
in sports, and you come out as a high school senior,
confident and strong, and you know, hey, I've been through
a lot in these last five years.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Through sports through school.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
I'm prepared now to go to college and just be
a normal citizen and a normal contributor to society.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Mission accomplished and those.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Lessons will carry with you throughout your life.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
The problem is that is not how most I don't
want to say most. That is not how all families
view the youth sports path.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
And that's why it's getting very scary interesting.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
We could do we could do a whole podcast platform
based on this, and you are all right, I want
to hit before we go to really cool things. The
first thing is tight End University. You guys have been
doing this for years. You've got sponsors attached to it,
and I truly think it's one of the coolest things
that we have in our off season schedule. It's become
one of those milestones. It's like Combine Pro Days, free Agency,

(51:53):
Draft schedule, release, tight End University. When is it this week?

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Year?

Speaker 1 (51:57):
It is in Nashville again. Are we going back to
Nashville and tearing up Broadway like we do every year?

Speaker 3 (52:02):
We are?

Speaker 4 (52:03):
We're going back to Nashville again. That's where that's where
it started. That's we're Kittle, who really was like the
brain behind the whole thing. It really started very casually.
I had just retired that spring. Kittle sent me a text.
We had gotten to know each other. We have the
same marketing group, you know, the guys at Rubicon that
you know Raskin and those guys.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
So I'd gotten to you.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Know, George, just my last couple of years in the league,
and he texted me, hey, man, congrats, great career. Enjoy retirement.
If by any chance you ever come down to Nashville,
there's like five or six tight Ends. You know, Hockinson's
down there and you know a bunch of guys if
you ever come down, we'd love to pick your brain,
come work out with us and just have like a day.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
And I was like, yeah, it sounds great. And then
like we're like, let's build this.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
And it got to like ten guys twenty and we're like, okay,
this is now bigger than just like a bunch of
guys come in, work out in the morning, and then
go drink beers on Broadway and have a great time.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Like there's more to this, right.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
So we're now in year four and last year we
had like eighty eighty five.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Guys and that oh yeah, grow a great tight Ends
or what or college.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Only only professional only professional guys?

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Oh my god, yeah, we had yeah, so we had
you know, so so Kelsey Travis Kelcey, Kittle and myself.
The three of us kind of own and operate the
whole kind of entity of TU. But yeah, we had
we had over eighty guys last year, and we do
it at Vanderbilt. They give us great access to their
team meeting rooms, their facilities, their turf, their indoor outdoor
grass turf, whatever we need. And yeah, it's you know,

(53:36):
it's it's a fun mixture. The guys are just off
of Ota, so there's just enough work. Right, there's classroom,
there's work, there's field. You know, we're getting real work.
And then there's also a lot of like fellowship and camaraderie.
On Monday night when we get there, there's a welcome party.
We're having beers, we hang out.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Welcome everybody, Welcome the new guys.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Right, So I'm a young undrafted or maybe I was
a young first round pick, fifth round pick, whoever I am,
I'm Brock Bowers or I'm an undrafted free agent that
I'm hoping to make the roster in two months.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
I walk into this hotel.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
I walk in and I got Kittle, Kelsey, Darren Waller,
Mark Andrews.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
I got the best.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Guys you've watched in the last couple of years with
open arms. We're taking you know, and and the camaraderie
of the position and the ability.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
I love this.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
It's super cool. Right.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
So that's Monday night. Then Tuesday is our workday. Tuesday
we're at the We're at the facility. We do a
couple hours of indoor classroom. There's presentations. Kelsey's given presentations
with film clips on route running, and we had undressed coverages,
and Kittle's talking run game, and we've had Dallas Clark
coming years past. Gronkowski did a you know, run after
catch tape about mentality. I mean, over the years, we've

(54:47):
had some really cool presenters and then we go out
on the field and we do like actual routes. Last
year Zach Wilson came as a quarterback, Josh Allen, Trey Lance.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
I mean, we got some we got some quarterbacks that
come and throw it around.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
So and then that night this year we have like
a big concert a bit, you know, obviously we're in
we got some live music and a concert. So it's
a it's a perfect balance of fun and fellowship. But
also when it's time to work, we work, like we
always tell the guys, you're not coming in for a
three day trip to Nashville. We're coming into work and
get better and then we're also going to have a
lot of fun when the work is over. But it's

(55:22):
got to be in that order to make the event work,
and so far it's been very successful.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I love that. Is there a text chain with all
that tight ends in the league that just is like
an ongoing inside jokes and like all.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
You know that there's not Well, if there is, I'm
not on it. If there is, I'm not on it.
They call me Dad.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
They call me Dad because I'm the one that's like
pulling everyone like okay.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Like come on, get this guy, this guy, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Come over here, like stay on track, thank our sponsors.
Kelsey's on top of the bar. We're like you got
to thank but like, you know, come on. But it's
awesome man. But you know what, I think the coolest
part of all of it is, it doesn't matter what
the next step of your career is. Right, you've got
undrafted rookies that are just hoping to make a practice

(56:07):
squad or an active roster. You've got practice squad guys
coming back for year two or three who are hoping
to make the opening day fifty three. You got backups
that want to be starters, starters that want to be
Pro bowlers, guys that want whatever that next tier is.
But when these young guys come in and they line
up the run routes on Tuesday day one of field work,
the guy at the front of the line is Travis

(56:27):
Kelcey and George Kittle and last year Darren Waller and
Mark Andrews and down the line, and they are full
speed running routes. They could big time everyone and be like,
I'm Travis Kelcey, I don't need to run routes, you're
seventeen fat. But they're the front of the line demonstrating
full sweat, full sweat lather, working like they're not just

(56:49):
there to check the box. They're there setting the standard.
And if those guys can do it, nobody else in
the place has an excuse that they're not full speed,
that they're not taking this as a real practice.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
So when those guys set.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
The tone the way they do, it's just easy to
control everybody else. Because you say you want to be
then you're getting a front row seat. Just do do
that and go that hard, that fast, anything less than that,
you've got no shot. You're getting a look at what
the best practice, like firsthand.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
I would I would like to your thoughts on this.
So I've known Kelsey for years in a media way
and then more personally through this big slick event that
I do in Kansas City that I just got done with. Now,
I had known Kelsey for years. We've always had great interactions.
He I've done multiple interviews on Fox for him for
you know, the pregame show. All this stuff starts dating
Taylor Swift. And obviously I haven't seen him since I

(57:40):
did a couple of their games. At their games, he says,
what's up? Like I said the AFC Championship game, we
talked at midfield, but like I didn't know. I was
with him this past weekend in Kansas City. He's the
same Travis Kelcey as he was before dating Taylor Swift.
And I mean, so cool, so good to everybody looks
you in the eye, asks how your family's doing. Like
I was so happy to see that all of this

(58:02):
super stardom for the past twelve months has not changed
him one bit.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
Well you want you want to hear It's so funny
that you say that because you're spot on, and Travis
is one of my favorite dudes and one.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
I would think that maybe this is the year. He says,
you know what, I love tight End University. But like
I've got to be or I got to.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
Be in I'm in Tokyo wherever. No, he he made
it a point. Hey, I'm committed to this. I mean,
he's obviously a key draw, key role. He's one of
the you know, the three of us kind of control
it and run it, and you know, obviously his involvement
goes a long way, and the credibility and whatnot. But
just more back to you just talking about him as
like a person and just staying kind of He's always

(58:41):
been who he is. He's the most fun guy to
be around when it's time to have fun. He's the
hardest running routes, the fastest, sweating cleed dirt when it's
time to work. But the coolest thing about him is
And it's so funny you say that, because yesterday I
posted an Instagram pick my my. My younger son celebrated
his three years of his heart transplant. They called him Heartniversaries,

(59:03):
so like kids that have transplants, in his case heart transplant.
They celebrate those kind of like a second birthday kind
of thing. It's like a tradition in the transplant world.
So we celebrated that. So June fourth was his three
year anniversary of his transplant. First comment on I showed
my kid, I screenshoted it. First comment on my Instagram

(59:23):
post Travis Kelcey, way to go TJ. You're the man
or you know whatever he said. I mean he could
have double clicked it and just kept swipe in. But
like three years ago, we had TEU right the day
when TJ got out of the hospital, so he had
his June fourth, he had his heart transplant, and then
like two weeks later was the inaugural TEU.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Kelsey's there.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
All the tight ends are there are little saying that
summer that everybody in town wore was play for TJ.
And that was like the saying and the kids that bracelets.
I got pictures of Travis kelce running around at TEU,
George Kittle, all these guys play for TJ t shirts
on and now three years later he's the first one.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Way to go TJ. My man. Hope to see it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
You know, he didn't have to do that and when
I show your when you show your eleven year old
kid that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
It's been, it's highlighted, highlighted life.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Hey, speaking of TJ, I know you've got a really
special weekend up ahead. What do you got going on
in the Carolina?

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Yeah, so yeah, it's super cool. I can't wait to
get you down dude, Trays you got to come to this.
So we have a place outside of Charleston called in
called Key Island. They've played the PGA Championship there a
couple of times at the Ocean Course, like a real
prominent course down there. So we spend a lot of
our summer, a lot of our holidays. It's about four
hours from Charlotte, and so we are our foundation called

(01:00:42):
the Hardest Jar. We'd always served the Charlotte Community Levine
Children's Hospital, where TJ got all of his care. We
fortunately have been able to grow and really build our
program here in Charlotte. And for a second location, we
now have partnered and brought our program to MUSC Children's Hospital,
which is the largest children's hospital in South Carolina. So
Levine Children's in North Carolina, MUSC Children's in South Carolina.

(01:01:05):
They're the two bigs like cardiac trauma centers that unfortunately,
if your kid ever needed like serious serious medical care,
those are the centers that you would go to in
this Carolina region. So we were having our third annual
Pewa Island Hardest Yard Golf event. Guys flying from all
over the country. It's it's this upcoming Sunday and Monday,

(01:01:25):
so June ninth and tenth, and we play golf, we
have dinners, we have a welcome concert. You know a
couple of last year, you love this shrakes last year.
After golf on Monday, we go back to my house.
A bunch of the musicians and the players and guests
who come. They kind of come back to our house
just to hang after golf. And Jamie Johnson, the country
singer you know, sings in color and he whips out

(01:01:47):
his guitar and he's sitting on my back patio and
he's playing acoustic of you know, in color and sitting
around drinking beers. It's just it's a really cool event.
I got I'm going to get you the date you're
in next year. All the money goes to again MEOC
Children's Hospital and our Hardest Yard program there in Charleston,
and we just look for more centers that we can
kind of bring what.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
We do too.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
And it's just a it's a fun weekend and you
get a lot of our family and friends from around
the country together for it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
So it's super cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
You're the best. I'll come next year. I feel like
I need to zoom in or something. It sounds amazing
and there's no one better on a patio to do
a sing along with country music than Peter Schreger from
New York City. So just just put that in the books. Olsen,
You're the best. Greg Olsen, awesome as always.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Thanks dude, You're the best.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Another great episode. You never know where it's gonna go.
It goes from Will Forte in a fountain of Filth
singing James Ingram's just Once, and it ends with incredible
details on the Christian McCaffrey bowling non bowling event at
the first time he met Greg Olsen. I love that stuff.
It's the season with Peter Schreger. Thanks for listening. We'll

(01:02:58):
have plenty more episodes in the coming weeks. Aaron, always
great talking with you, and many thanks to Jason English
and Jason Clemen. Over there in LA and all the
folks who help put this thing together. Let's keep on rocking.
See you next week, everybody. The Season with Peter Schrager

(01:03:21):
is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
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