January 31, 2023 • 56 mins
Two-time Emmy Award winner and Chiefs season ticket holder since 1988, actor Eric Stonestreet takes us through his experience in Arrowhead during Kansas City’s AFC Championship win over Cincinnati. Stonestreet shares stories about his friendship with GM Brett Veach, what he’s learned from Andy Reid, and why he doesn’t take a single snap of the Mahomes Era for granted. He also discusses his career’s many hits, the lessons learned from coming close but not being cast in “The Office”, and how he’s become a fascinating footnote in American political history.
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 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreeger as a production of the
NFL in partnership with My Heart Radio. What's off everybody? Uh,
it's Peter Schreeger. This is the season with Peter Schreeger.
(00:27):
I am so thrilled to be hosting this podcast this week.
We just got through an incredible, incredible championship game between
the Bengals and the Chiefs, the Eagles and forty Niners.
Not so much. Nothing against the Eagles and what they
just accomplished. They dominated, but that game to me is
forever tainted by the quarterback situation with San Francisco. Um.
(00:48):
Nothing taking away from this NFC championship. They were the
number one seed, the Eagles and everything they possibly could
and did so uh in flying colors, and they have
just rolled into the Super Bowl. But gosh, that an
f C championship game was one of the classics. And uh,
I think our guest this week is gonna help us
relive it and give some thoughts and then go a
(01:08):
lot deeper in it. Our guest is a gentleman named
Eric stone Street. He played Cam on Modern Family. He
is an incredible, incredible dude. He is a friend of mine.
We've gotten to know each other through the Chiefs um
and his love for the Kansas City franchise. But over
the last few years we've become incredibly close and I'll
talk to him just about every other week about the
(01:29):
Chiefs and where they're at. And he joined on the
podcast today and is it is beautiful? He's wonderful and
he gives us stuff from not only his experience an
Arrowhead on Sunday Night, but also his career in Hollywood
and how it wasn't a meteoric rise to the top,
how they were setbacks and there was a difficult journey
(01:51):
and there was adversity, and there were people who took
shots on him, and gosh, it sang to me, and
I think it would sing to any football fan as
maybe Hollywood is as competitive as the NFL. And for
Eric stone Street to come out of it all with
two Emmy Awards for his role in Modern Family Um
is the stuff that we love talking about, and the
(02:12):
journey and the path and just having confidence in yourself
and trusting those who give you a shot. Real quick,
before we get to the interview, some top line stuff.
If you're listening when this thing posts coaching jobs right now,
there has been one that has been filled. That is
the Carolina Panthers gig and that is Frank Reich. If
you told me a month ago that Frank Wich would
(02:33):
be the first coach hired in the coaching hiring process,
I would have told you that's probably not going to
be the case. Well it was. It made a lot
of sense through Carolina side. Of course, there has been
some questions as to why Steve Wilkes did not keep
his job. Let's see where Wilkes. He ends up. A
fine coach in his own regard, a guy that we
almost had on the podcast one time. At the last
second he had to cancel because he had to prepare
(02:53):
for a game. I love Steve Wilkes. We'll see where
his career goes. But that job went to Frank Reich,
sixty one year old head coach now of the Carolina Panthers.
He was the head coach the Indianapolis Colts. Of course,
he was with the Eagles and the Chargers before that.
Reich as a leader, he's a gentleman. And if Doug
Peterson set the standard of hey fired from one place,
(03:14):
you know, hang your head in infamy. Be a shame. No, no, no,
get back on the horse and let me show you something. Carolina.
They hit it off. Of course you saw the numbers
and the stats there that he was the first Carolina
Panthers quarterback to ever throw a touchdown pass. He's on
the expansion Panthers and it all comes full circle. But
what about those other jobs. I'm hearing Damiko Ryan's to
Houston is almost a formality at this point, So put
(03:35):
that one there. That makes a lot of sense for
more second round pick, superstar player for them. He was
the captain of the Houston Texans for several seasons. Uh,
that would be a fit. That makes a lot of sense. Arizona,
they have They've had interview invites out for just about everybody,
and they added more today as we record this. On Tuesday,
um By Kafka, the Giants offensive coordinator, has been has
(03:57):
been interview. I reported on Monday that both Bengals defensive
coordinator Louana Rumo and offensive coordinator and former guests on
the season with Peter Trigger Brian Callahan both got interviews
with Arizona. They're both there today as we speak. Denver's
the interesting one. Denver has been quiet. I will say
this as Denver and Indie and Arizona are still kind
(04:21):
of jockeying, and I think Houston and Carolina are kind
of spoken for. I work with Sean Payton on Sunday's Guys.
There are a lot of reports this weekend that said
that Sean Payton had no seats for him. I would
say that Sean Payne had every opportunity to confirm that
on our show on Sunday. He could have confirmed that
to me. He could have confirmed that to America. He
(04:42):
could have gracefully said this wasn't the year and I'm
I'm moving on to other options as we record this
on Tuesday. I believe that if Sean Payton wanted to
bow out and wait for next year, he would have
said it by now, and he would have said, I
am happy to be coming back to Fox. He took
the opportunity to not say that. Said that this week
will tell a lot, which means he is still in
the conversations. Whether that's for Arizona or Denver, I cannot
(05:05):
report because I do not know at the moment, but
I will say that the fact he did not close
the door on either one of those jobs tells me
he is still very much in the conversation for both
of those jobs. Okay, onto football. A lot of stuff
going on around the league, but this is all about
the Super Bowl, and we now have a solid week
and a half to preview it, preview it, preview it. UM,
(05:28):
leave that in their errand I like what I just
randomly mispronounced words that I've been saying my entire life. Um,
And We're gonna do so. But I wouldn't be me
if I didn't have to go through what we just
saw this Bengals Chiefs game. I rewatched it on Monday night,
after already sitting through it and grinding my teeth on
a on a Jet Blue flight back watching it on
(05:51):
a little Jet Blue screen where they're like, actually there's
turbulence in the air and we have to leave you
for three minutes. I'm like, I get back and back.
It was incredibly, incredibly painful to watch a game that
was so close and be in and out and then
the whole fourth quarter. I got to watch the whole
way through, right through the rough in the past there
called you know, as we turned the page. It's games
like this that will always remember where we were when
(06:12):
we saw it, and you know who we were with.
I'll never forget. I'm on a plane and Severn Rose
ahead of me. Michael Irvin is also on the same plane.
I am flying back from l A where I did
the Fox pregame show, and I'm coming to New York
because I do Good Morning Football every morning Monday to Friday,
seven to ten am Eastern. We have to be here
by five am. So that game was late. But because
(06:33):
the championship games were staggered at different hours, I got
in really late. And I'm on that Lafe flight. Michael
Irvin gets on the plane. This is what I love
and picture this. He's up there in the front and
he's watching the game and he doesn't have his headphones in,
so he's just watching the game. I'm mute, and every play.
Michael Irvin, the guy that you see on TV on
NFL Network, but you also see on first take on
(06:53):
Monday mornings. It's really, oh the longest see that pass.
He's just talking to the entire cabin. He walks back
several rows and I'm not gonna say how many several
I don't want to talk about where we sat on
this plane, and uh he you know, in between dribes like, yore,
what did you think of that borrow? You know, what
do you think of that happened? What do you think
of that penalty? Did they explain the third down and
(07:15):
nine on? Just this is the life that I'm living.
I'm on the road a lot, but like I'll never
forget every commercial break, Michael Irvin coming back and talking
to me and us breaking down the game in real time.
This is a guy that I grew up watching, uh
make all the plays in the big championship games and
the Super Bowls for the Dallas Cowboys. But that's that's
the life we're at right now, and that's the season
(07:35):
with Peter Schrager. Um. But Michael Irvin and I take
a giant backseat to the chair that that one Eric
stone Street had Again. Eric stone Street, you know as
Cam for Modern Family. He was also in uh the
movie Almost Famous, and he has been on several different
shows and he has one Emmy's and he's just an
incredible dude. But he is a Kansas City native and
(07:56):
a die hard fan. And uh, my lengthy and I
think awesome interview with Eric stone Street is up and
as I mentioned in the monologue, he's one of my
favorite guys that I've met the last few years through
Good Morning Football. A die hard football fan and all
around great guy. And to me, truly, if you're trying
to find the heart and soul of like Okaya City
Chiefs fan, this is your your perfect ambassador, Mr Eric
(08:19):
stone Street. How are you, my Fred I'm very good.
My heart has finally calmed down a little bit and
my bones have stopped chattering from the cold of Arrowhead.
What about your heart, though, because the cold was one thing,
but the game itself and we're just gonna get right
into it, the a f C Championship game. It's still
too fresh to like kind of have a perspective on it.
But now that we're forty eight hours removed a recording
(08:41):
this I said to you over text last night. I
think it was probably the most satisfying win of Mahomes's career.
The first time I've ever seen this Chief's team openly doubted,
first time I've ever seen this Chiefs team get actually
talked at them. The first time I've seen this Chiefs
team actually lean into it. And they win. They win,
and and and it was different. This is a different
(09:03):
kind of game from the start of the Mahomes era.
You know, it was a different I think Patrick and
Travis said it best. You've got you know, the mayor
of the city that we're playing coming after, which I
know for a fact that Zach and the organization just
hated what. I mean, it's so against everything that I
feel like Zach is about, like as a coach and
(09:25):
a player. So you know, they hated that I had.
I couldn't leave it unaddressed and had to call him
a dork, which is what it was. I mean, it's
like for I wanted to say, first rule of being funny,
be funny. That's that's number one anyway, So all that
(09:47):
and and look then the Eli Apple stuff and the
players stuff and burrow Head. I mean I love it.
You know, as a fan, we love the bad guy,
We love all that stuff. But in this world today
where everybody thinks that or not everybody but the fringe
thinks that the NFL is rigged, it doesn't help that.
Somehow it became a little bit like in that way,
(10:11):
even though Travis's comments at the ends calling him to
GABBRONI was probably I mean, it's all over T shirts
already in Kansas City. Oh my gosh, yes everywhere. Uh
so that that was a great reference to the Rock.
But look here's the deal. Uh, the whole borrowhead thing.
You know, it just it motivated the guys more than
they were already motivated. They didn't address it. Um, I
(10:34):
was in my suite getting the arrowhead chance started, Uh,
trying my hardest to get the whole stadium doing that.
But it was a great game. The Cincinnati fan base
went from what seemingly seems to be the cockiest fan
base of all time to somewhat of the whiniest fan base.
We're doing a show up a voting football. We're just
(10:55):
giving credit to the Chiefs for overcoming injuries. And like
their comments are from Bengals fans telling us the refs,
the refs cosses cost them the game. Look, I've been
and we here's what I would say to Bengals fans.
It's like we all been there, Like we've all been
a look at the roughing the pastor call against Chris
Jones and Championship against Tom Well against Tom Brady, Uh,
(11:15):
like it didn't happen, he didn't hit him. This was
actually a roughing the pastor call that you can argue
the refs. You're like, oh, but look at the inverse
of that, had they not called it, what would that
have looked like? Right? And the whole third down thing
that's also uh or the do over play. Yeah, when
(11:36):
you see the whole picture in the referee running in
stopping the play, it looked bad. Optically it looked bad,
But look at the inverse of that had they not
called it. Then you say, well, the chief on the field. Yeah,
the chiefs were like, well, that guy's in my way.
So I get it. I get it. From the perspective
of it hurts, and I would just look to the
(11:59):
comments of your coach and Joe Burrow and the people
that actually step on the field to play that you
aren't find by one player. I've had to swallow that
pill myself. Andy Reid taught me to swallow that pill
of you play how many players in the game. There
were many opportunities for the Bengals to beat us. And
let me tell you, Cincinnati fans, I thought there was
(12:22):
a chance you were going to beat us. So I
get it, but move on. It will make you feel
better just to move on. I've had to do it
many times, heartbreaking losses for Chiefs fans. You grew up
a Chiefs fan, obviously, and you've been through it. Um,
you know, I've done this with Chiefs fans for years.
You start ranking them and there's Lynn Elliott and there's
d Ford and all this stuff. Is it crazy that
(12:43):
now you guys are the team that actually pulls these
wins out? Like have you co and accustomed to that?
That now we're the team that in the end of
the day, like we actually beat Buffalo after having to
do it in thirteen seconds, we actually do beat the
Houston Texans after being down twenty four nothing in a
playoff game. And now this game where you're down everyone,
there's no Juju, there's no Tony, there's no hard men,
(13:04):
there's none Willy Gate, and they find a way. Well,
that is a testament to our friend, our mutual friend,
Brett Veach, and Andy Reid gives him the credit rightfully.
So all the time of stacking that roster of nex
man up. I mean, that's the principle of football, right
And every NFL team reminds us each week that they
(13:27):
are professionals, that they are the best players on their
college teams that make it to the league, and at
any given time, credit to Cincinnati's offensive line against the Bills,
and credit Cincinnati's offensive line against us. I mean, yes,
we had our sacks, but they they slowed us down.
Their schemes slowed us down in the second half. I
truly thought the way we came out, there was a
(13:48):
chance that we could hang some points on him, and
we didn't. I mean, it was a tough game. That's
the other thing I would say. It's like criticizing Travis,
you know, in his passion or our passion of winning
by three points. I'm sorry, can we hit the rewind
button and see how many points the Bengals beat us
by the last three times you beat us? And you
did beat us. We you know, that's the That's another
(14:11):
thing I would say. There's so much about this that's
so um rewarding, right. I can't imagine how rewarding it
is for again, the people that actually strap up the
shoulder pads and get on the field. I'm just a
dumb fan, right, But those games were hard fought games
before and kudos to the Bengals winning them. It didn't
(14:32):
mean anything in the long run. They didn't end up
going on to win the Super Bowl and the games
that they beat us in the regular season. It's called
any given Sunday. We everybody beats everybody during the season.
It's when you beat them is what matters. And in
this time, in this opportunity agains the a f C.
In the a f C Championship, you lost. Uh. Fourth
(14:55):
quarter starts and there's a drum being banged on the
top of arrowhead and the fans are needing a pep talk.
Who is banging that drama? And how does that come about? Well,
you know, I been privileged to be able to bang
the drum when it was down on the field a
few times and up in the upper deck now a
few times. And Clark Hunt always does it at the
a f C Championship. And I was fortunate enough to
(15:16):
do it for the f C Championship when we beat Tennessee.
I didn't do it uh last year uh and uh
we lost. Uh. So I was back this year. When
do you Eric, When do you get that call? When
does Clark Hunt or Ted Cruzer, Ryan Pala who who
tits you up? And it's like, you know, we need
(15:37):
your fourth quarter. You're banging the drum. Yeah, So that's
a direct call to Veach and then Veach to me,
because if each knows my personality and he knows that, like, yes,
I love talking to Peter Schreeger about the Kansas City Chiefs,
but I also don't like it to seem like I'm
somehow at the forefront of Chief's kingdom all the time.
(15:57):
So I I do pick and choose what I do
and when I do it, and I hadn't done it
in two seasons, so it was time maybe for me
to show my face there again. You know, I'm at
every game, I'm in my suite. I don't want to
be on the JumboTron. I don't want to be around.
I just want to watch the game. But this seemed
like the moment I was caught up in the passion
(16:18):
as well with the mayor and all his comments, and
I just felt like, Okay, it's time to make a
return to the drum deck and let me go up
there in the arctic cold and beat the out of
that beg that droump baby, and you do. But for
the record, everybody was like, you turn us around Stowe
Street down on the field. I'm like, actually, it was
fourth and six right after that, and they picked it
(16:38):
up so that I don't think, Yes, um, I love
that you go to every game, and I think that's cool.
So you might think, all right, here's this guy, successful actor,
Hollywood all this stuff. You go to every Chief's home game. Dude,
you're legit, You're the real deal. Um. And and is
that from childhood? When did that really start? Well, we
got season tickets when I was in high school. My
(16:59):
uncle had season tickets at the old Stadium and would
give us his every once in a while. But in
nineteen eighty six or eighties seven, probably Todd Blackledge era.
Who are we talking about, Yeah, Todd Blackledge. Uh, you
know right at the end of the Bill Kinney era
is when I got season tickets. Steve de Bergh, those
(17:21):
guys were all there, and I had season tickets in
the no alcohol section. That was the way I got
my dad to let us get season tickets, because you know,
I was a kid, and I was and so we
were there. And now the suite that we have is
right above those seats, which is such a cool full
circle moment. But let me tell you the reason I
we got the suite, And again it comes back to
Brett Veach. All roads lead to Brett veach Um when
(17:44):
we started to become pals. He literally said, you're not
gonna want to miss games this season? And I said
for real? And he's like, dude, We're going to the
super Bowl and you don't want to miss this. So
I called Tyler, the then VP at Chiefs, and said,
what do you have available? This was the last season
of Modern Family, so I was making trip home every
(18:07):
week that the Chiefs were here. We signed up for
the suite, got the suite, and I didn't miss a
game because Brett Beach told me not to miss a game,
and he delivered on his promise. We went to the
super Bowl and won. It is that not amazing? And
and I know Brett for a long time. If you're listening,
is the GM of the Chiefs. Obviously there's been no
Burt person. And it's not a cockiness. It's not an
over confidence, not arrogance. The second he laid eyes on Mahomes,
(18:30):
he has been telling me that this this dude will
change our franchise and he will change lives in this market.
He's incredible and not enough is said about him. You know,
as a GM first, I don't think, but as a
person I think he's a quality human being. And I
tell people all the time that we are lucky to
have Brett Veach is our GM. But getting to know
(18:51):
him in his thought process and his care and concern
for the players, and thoughtfulness of the fans and everyone
in the organization, and how much he is involved in
the minutia in a good way, we are very, very
lucky to have him as a leader of our Chiefs.
It's great. And last year when you and I really
met in person, it was at the a f C
(19:13):
Championship game, maybe one of the lowest days of your
Chiefs fandom, but it was around halftime and I popped
my head into a box and the commissioner was there,
and Curtis Martin was there, and I think Willie Lanier
was there, and there's Eric stone Street, who i've to
crumbry wearing a cowboy hat and Bengal stuff talking smack too,
was talking smack. And you guys were up at a
(19:36):
half and you're like, and they scored a touchdown. You
looked at me and I saw this look in your
face that I know from all my Jets fan friends
and from all my you know, long suffering UH friends
who are Vikings fans? And you said, Okay, I have
to go back to my seat. I can't be sitting
here mingling. This is not lucky for me. And like
I know that superstition Juju thing and Eric I do
(19:56):
right that and there like this guy's hardcore. Well it's
not only it's it's different than like superstition. I get
to the game, but for the players get to the game.
I mean I've rolled into the stadium and been driving
alongside Travis Kelsey like telling him good game. That's when
I get to the game, right, because I'm not gonna
(20:19):
be out there, but I want, I want to breathe
it all in and I want to focus because my
attention is there. And I was in that suite and
I was out of my element. I wasn't myself at
that game. And I know I'm not stupid and think
that I really have anything to do with the outcome,
but my mind wasn't right and I needed to go
back to my suite and stop talking to people and
sit in my seat and get focused back on the game.
(20:41):
And I was nervous and worried because well what happened.
We lost? We got beat and I blame myself. I
blame myself. You're laughing, but like that's you know that
is a fan, because you know, I'll go back to
all my friends who are Red Sox fans in college
and they're like, we have to sit in this room
to watch this series otherwise it's real. And you start
(21:02):
blaming yourself for these losses because why was I hobnobbing
with Commissioner Goodell that that wasn't the time and place right.
I mean, you're the hardcore fan. You want to be
in the trenches, and I'm the same way with you know,
away games and televised I get invited all the time
to go to a bar or to go to a
friend's house and watch the game. And I always know
when people truly know me, uh, they don't call me
(21:25):
and they don't invite me anywhere on a Sunday at
noon or three thirty or whatever the game time is.
I don't watch football games with other people, or I
only watch people football games with people that are like
me and don't talk. Yes, look that's it. Um, you've
become such a piece of this this run obviously, and
I know Andy would have you in over the summers
(21:46):
that training can't you do the Randy Reid thing, which
was great. You've gotten a chance to get to know
Andy read it all, and like, what kind of guy
is See for those who don't know Andy the man,
they know him as just the figure on television. You know,
I have gotten a chance to get to know him.
I can't believe I'm saying that. I was always so
intimidated by Coach Read. And the first interaction we ever
had was it as San Diego away game when they
(22:07):
were the Sandy. But no, it was I guess it
would have been that last season they were San Diego
and I was standing at the top of the tunnel.
We had one in dramatic fashion at the end of
the game, and he comes to the top of the
ramp and he just sees me and he goes like
that on my chest and it was this one, not
this one, like right, and he just went like that.
(22:33):
No words were spoken, and I just was like, that
just happened to Coach We just acknowledged me. It's like
the song the Prince song. She spoke to me, she
spoke to me. Uh, Coach Red just uh. It was insane.
That was our first interaction. And then because of each
You know again, I've I've gotten a no coach, And
(22:57):
you know, we have a lot of references that are
the same, being a big kid, him growing up in
l A, me living in l A. He has friends
that work in the entertainment industry. One guy that was
cameraman on our show was a really close friend of his.
We have the same food references, the same love and
passion for for food, and the and the obviously football
(23:19):
and the Kansas City Chiefs. But he is a great person.
You want to talk about a guy. I always say this,
It's like I don't know how he does it, but
he seems to know everything that's going on around him.
And when I say that, I mean what TV shows
are on, what popular music is happening, what Lagarius need
(23:40):
has been up to, how the ankle is on Clyde
Edwards Hilaire, what his assistant needs to put on his desk.
I mean, from the smallest thing to the most ridiculous
pop culture thing. It seems like Coach Reid is right
there with it, which is a great gift but also
a tribute to what kind of human being he is,
which is an outward, upward life living person. Right and
(24:05):
I see why play yours love him because he's a
unique personality and a funny guy and he allows people
to be the greatest they want to be while having
fun doing it. Is my take on Coach read that's
that's awesome. And I work with you know, so many
of like former players and whether it be a Brian
Westbrook or a Michael Vick or uh you go right
down to Shady McCoy, Like the love that these guys
(24:27):
have for Andy Reid is forever. And that's even if
these guys were traded or cut or whatever, and it's
like that's a special human they love big red love well.
I think it all starts with honesty too. I think
Coach is an honest person. What would be my take
on Coach? Again, I'm not a player and don't have
that relationship with him, but listening to other people talk
about him, it's like you kind of know where you
(24:48):
stand with Coach, which is a great gift in life
when you're dealing with anyone in the leadership position, whether
it's good or bad, it's nice to know where what
they think about you, whether if they love you, which
they love you up, coach you up or mad at you,
disappointed in your whatever it is. And I've you know,
talked to a few friends of mine that have played
for Coach, and one thing that they always remind me
(25:10):
is enjoy these years because as Chiefs fans and football fans,
we're in rarefied air, like we are really truly in
this moment of He's a one of one. God broke
the mold when they made Coach read his attention to detail,
his attention to preparation and getting teams ready to scheme
and play and win when you have a quarterback with
(25:33):
one ankle, when you have no wide receivers other than
three left. Um. He's a unique individual and Kansas City
can never forget how lucky we are to have him.
Uh could do a quick bit of story time where
I just kind of throw on a topic and you
tell me stories about your career in your life, because
(25:54):
I think there's a lot of life lessons we can
all learn from you. I love you, I think you're awesome,
and I think some of the stuff that everyone sees
on televisions something, but you've got an amazing career and
I think would be kind of cool if I just
like throw questions at you and you answer them taken
wherever you want? Is that all right? Yeah? I'm usually
better at that, like being prompted and reminded of things. Um,
almost famous, you get casted into that film. Um, take
(26:17):
us to where you were in your life and your
career at that point and what that meant for you.
I had one credit on my resume. Uh. My agent
at the time sent me in to see Gail Levin,
the casting director for Cameron Crowe, and I read for
the Philip Seymour Hoffman role, Lester Bangs and she I finished,
and she looked over the paper and she was very sweet,
(26:38):
and she said where are you from? And I said
Kansas City. She's like, how long have you been in
l A. And I'm like twelve, twelve months or eleven months,
whatever it was at the time. She's like, well, you're
very good. You're not going to get this part, but
you're very good. And I said, I don't think I
should get this. I can't believe i'm here. I have
Darman Greg on my resume. Uh. And she said, but
(27:01):
I really want you to meet Cameron and I think
he would really like you. And I said, okay, sure,
and I leave and this was still at my career
when I shared things with people because I thought they
were actually gonna happen. So I called my parents and
I told my best friends. I'm like, I'm gonna meet
Cameron Crowe, uh, not knowing that most people in our
business don't follow through on what they say. In the moment,
(27:24):
she happened to be the person that followed through, and
a few weeks her name Gail Levin, Gail Leven. Every
person in our lives like in our career, it's like,
you'll never forget those people that help open doors. Gail Leven,
and she brought me back in and here I go
up into this loft in Santa Monica and Cameron Crowe
with his cam quarter following me around the room as
(27:46):
I'm saying these five lines, and he's like, now do
it this way, now do it that way. Like made
me feel like I was about to be the lead
in a movie. And I left there feeling so proud
and excited to be a performer and an actor. And
then a couple of weeks later, I got the part,
and then we shot the part and opened a lot
(28:07):
of doors for me. People always ask about that, you know,
it's uh five lines and a major motion picture mean
a tremendous amount to an actor at any time in
their career. But for me, it gave people permission to
think I was good, even if they thought maybe I
was good. Well, Cameron Crow cast him in a Steven
Spielberg movie cast by Gail Levin, so he must be good.
(28:29):
It's like, oh, yeah, he's great. That's yeah. Um, next name,
and the viewers and listeners might not know who it is,
but if hold on, he's calling. Look who's calling right now?
That's so funny Brett Veach Collin. Hopefully the number doesn't
reveal itself. Tell him we're doing this right now. I'd
love to hear his response. Um, I'm gonna give you
(28:50):
an I'm gonna take a picture and send it to
him real quick. Go ahead. The name is Joe Pitka.
Oh my god, who is Joe pitt Gun? Why is
he important in your life? Joe Pitca is the craziest,
best guy ever that intimidates, has intimidated so many people,
But for whatever reason, our personalities clicked. He called me,
(29:11):
uh what did he call me? Oh German, the German
from Kansas City. And I called him the pullock from
Pittsburgh and we just like clicked. But he's a commercial director,
probably one of the most famous commercial directors of all time.
Is the most famous commercial director of all time, probably,
I guess yes, for sure directed Space jam. Um, what
did he tell the pets? He adds of Michael Jackson,
(29:32):
like he's the big commercials of my generation, Bartles and
James and Hallmark commercials. And but he's got this reputation
of being like a tyrant and an angry man, yeller screamer.
He is. But I identified Joe Pitka as someone who
(29:54):
had created a character in Hollywood for himself, because what
I saw was a really nice person and a loyal person,
and a thoughtful person, an artistic person. But yet you
walk on stage and he screaming and yelling at people
and something. For some reason, I broke through that. Um.
First audition ever was for an American Express Tiger Woods
(30:14):
commercial where the ball was traveling around the world. And
I go in and I just stand there and he
looks at me up and down. Where are you from?
Like Kansas City, Kansas City, God forsaken place, shot up,
shot boos there. I'm like, yeah, you shouted at wind
out high school that's where my dad went to high school,
and we just clicked in this moment. And then I
(30:36):
get a call when I leave there from my agent
and she said, I just got a call from casting,
and I said, yes, I should say Peter. Before I
went into that audition, she had told me you're auditioning
for Joe Pitkin today, and I'm like, okay. She's like, no,
you're auditioning for Joe, you know. So then I was
immediately nervous and she's like, he's known for kind of
(30:57):
like being mean or rude to people or whatever. So
I go in. So I get this call and I'm like,
oh God, I screwed up because we did have banter
back and forth. I did not like run away from him,
and so I thought something was wrong and she said, um,
Casting called and they said you're not going to get
this commercial, but um, Joe said he wants to work
(31:18):
with you at some point. Well, true to his word.
A few weeks later, I get a call to show
up in Long Beach Harbor and I'm shooting an IBM
commercial And that was the first of probably thirty IBM
commercials I shot with Joe. Thirty commercials he did before
Modern Family, before all that stuff. You were doing commercials
with Joe. Yes, but that's just IBM commercials we did.
I did two campaigns of IBM commercials, totaling twenty some commercials,
(31:41):
and then I did Pepsi, diet, Pepsi, xerox, you name it.
I I don't know how many I ever ended up
doing with him, but that's him. He's a loyal guy.
He realized that I wasn't gonna screw around. I wasn't
gonna mess with him. I wasn't gonna embarrass him. He
could hire me. I would show up, be professional, entertain him,
you know, make him laugh. And um, we were known
(32:05):
as the pit could play years and I didn't know
that was a thing until I was one, and then
people would refer to people as the Pita players. But thankful,
and I still email with him and talk to him
and have dinner with him when I'm in l A.
He's a He's a great guy. He would like to
be called a great guy, though I'm sure he's got
an image still. Um, when you go to YouTube and
you want to type in blah blah blah commercial to
(32:27):
see a young Eric Stone Street in a pit at
what would be the one that would that would stand
out if you type in Pitca IBM commercials or Pitka Disney.
I was in a Disney commercial where I was Uncle Phil,
the crazy Uncle Phil dressed as a Laddin. But those
IBM commercials are quite a bit all over YouTube. I
love it. Um. Okay, next one, you've had a bit
(32:48):
of success in your career. You're building Greg Daniels, Michael Sure,
they're doing the the American version of the Office. You
go in for an audition for which role and how
far did you get in that process? Well, I went
in for again recurring theme here, going in for one thing,
(33:09):
being told I'm not going to get it, but come
back again, which I hope actors listen to that and
hear something there, which is you can't control what you
can't control. What I could control was doing a good job.
If I went into an audition and thought, well, I'm
not right for this. I know I'm not right for this,
and I take that attitude into an audition, then I'm
(33:33):
not right gonna be right for anything. But if I
go in as well prepared as I can be with
the best take on, and I can have who knows
what happens, other doors will open. So that's the message
there for anyone listening that wants to pursue this. I
think it's any career that honestly, if I'm I'm having
a meeting with someone at another network or whatever, and
then we don't have any room for you, but why
(33:54):
not make a great impression on them, because who knows,
you know, your first job in any interview process is
to somehow convey that you would be a good partner,
you would be a good person to be in a
room with them, Like your first job is to convey, Hey,
I'm not going to be a problem, right, You're gonna
like working with me. So I went in audition for
(34:15):
Steve Carrell's part. Alison Jones an amazing casting director, the
best of the best, legendary casting director, done freaks and geeks,
all the Apatow stuff. She's the legend. She gave me
a part on Spin City, saw me in an improv
show and gave me one line on Spin City when
I hadn't had any stuff really other than that darmand Greg,
(34:36):
and she said, probably not gonna work for this role,
but let's have you come back in for Kevin, which
is the great Brian bam Gardner's part. So I went
in and and read, and then they put our tapes
up against each other. It was me, Brian and Jorge Garcia. Yeah, hurly,
it's amazing. Yeah, testing for the office on tape for
(34:58):
the network. And of course Brian ended up getting it.
Brian gets it. And were you dejected or did you say, hey,
that's just that's were you devastated? Heartbroken? Heartbroken? You know again,
it took so long for me to get to a
place where you put everything you possibly have emotionally into something,
(35:21):
knowing that you're probably not going to get it, and
then being able to walk away from it. It's why
not in an aggressive way. But my technique for auditions
for TV shows and stuff is I would print out
the sides. I would walk in with the sides and
read off the paper, you know, for my audition, and
then I would wad that up and I would throw
(35:42):
it in the garbage can in the casting director's office
and just never think of it again. Yeah, And it
wasn't like this. But I can't. I can't hang onto this.
It's too emotional of a connection. I have to I
have to move on. And I was fortunate enough to
be in a place, you know, most of my career
close to leading up to modern Family, where I had,
(36:03):
you know, a couple auditions a day sometimes, So I
was doing that in a practical way too, of like
this one's done, now I have to drive to Venice
and do this again with different somebody else's words. So
I just didn't want a car full of paper. But
I also didn't want the baggage of not probably not
getting this. So I just moved on from it, and
(36:24):
then if I got called back, I'd reprint it out
and go back in. You know, Luis c K was
doing a podcast last weekend. I was listening to it
and he was the host's guy named Christa Stephano and
Chris is a comedian, and he was saying how he
got a CBS pilot and he told everybody, you know,
Chas Politary was casted as his father. They filmed that,
everyone loved it, and then it never saw the light
of day, and that was that it just is over.
(36:46):
And Louis c K said, I had ten of those.
You just have to appreciate the moment when you're in
it and enjoy that, and you can't start thinking ahead.
That's the training of an actor. There's so many almost
and it took me forever to you know, I finally
had to tell my parents, like, I'm not telling you
everything that I auditioned for. I'm not telling you everything
(37:06):
I get called back for. I'm going to tell you
the big stuff, which you know happened with Modern Family.
I was on the phone with them when I got
the job of the Modern Family. I had to say,
I'll call you guys back, Steve, my manager is calling.
But I would include them when it was that moment, yes,
(37:28):
because I always thought like, well, you didn't ask for
this emotional roller coaster that I'm chose as my vocation
to be on, right, So I'll just hopefully let you
experience the end part and the excitement. It's beautiful, but
you know, here, here's a good one. You'll enjoy this.
On the way to the Chiefs game the other day,
(37:50):
I was so anxious and so stressed out that I
had to put on music that was my stressed out
traffic audition testing nerve racking music. Can I ask what
it was? Yeah, it's Don Williams The General Giant twenty
Greatest Hits. Um It's very soothing. His voice is very relaxing. Lord,
(38:15):
I hope this day's good. Yeah, that's so great. So
I had to put on Don Williams, and then that
reminded me that I needed to put on the soundtrack
of the audition process of Modern Family, which is the
Curious George soundtrack by um Jack John Jack Johnson. Yeah,
the banana and apple. Yeah, it puts me in this
(38:37):
tranquil I got chills right now because that's what that's
what you drove to. That's what you're saying, Hawaii surf
Jack Johnson. So for those two two and a half
weeks of the process of the ups and downs of
testing for Modern Family, because I went in, was dismissed,
went back in, was dismissed, and then called back in
(39:00):
and then had to wait a couple of days and
then went to test. Right, it was a fourth step
over two and a half process. Well, as you know,
you're traveling all over l A and there's you're in traffic.
So that became my c D at the time, was
in my truck and I hit that and just drove
to my audition. So now whenever I hear that, it
(39:22):
both relaxes me and brings a tremendous amount of anxiety
to my life, but also reassures you that it's going
to work out. Yeah, that's true, that's great, that's true.
That's probably psychologically what it is. But those butterflies. I
always tell those butterflies. The calm anxiousness is when you
feel those butterflies. People are like, no, it's like, go
(39:44):
out there and feed those butterflies. Those butterflies are hungry,
so walk out there onto the stage. It's good to
be nervous, it's good to be anxious. It's how you
how you deal with it. And my technique was always
that you know, this means I'm alive. This means I
take it serious. So I always tell people it's it's
it's okay to be nervous, it's okay to be anxious.
(40:05):
It's just how you address it. And my technique was
always that I'm alive. This is good. Now, let's go
feed these hungry books and drive into the arrowhead. It's
different because I can't control the outcome. I have nothing
to do with it. And that's the thing I would
say to most fans, like we're fans, let's be fans.
We're not tying our shoelaces. We're not putting on our helmets.
(40:27):
These guys have sweat, they've bled, they've worked their whole
life for this moment. Let's be appropriate in our in
our cheering, and our fandom, and then let them be
the most excited, let them be the most disappointed. Whatever
the outcome of the game is. They deserve all that
emotion more than we do. It's beautiful. I have two more.
(40:49):
I'm getting emotional, and I think this next one is
gonna be get So. How many months after the office
of being told you're not on the office did you
walk into that Modern Family audition? I would have to
go online to see what that was, but I will
tep out a year. Less than a year, Oh no
more than that. More than that. The office was on
for a long time. But but what I will tell
(41:10):
you is had I got that part, I wouldn't have
been able to audition for Modern Family. No, of course not.
They would have had you, They would have had me,
and I wouldn't have been available, and I would have
been happy with that job. But that is really what
Brian and I have talked about. It It all worked
out for you know, he and I didn't work out
for the people other people, but maybe it did after that.
(41:33):
I'm sure there are people that auditioned for jam on
Modern Family that found their own success in other ways
in areas, but it was quite a while after the office. Okay,
so you get that job, you go on to win
multiple Emmy's, you get nominated for all sorts of People's Choice,
all that stuff. You have this great stardom. At the
end of the season, you look back and you know,
(41:55):
the kids on that show are now adults, and your
your colleagues are all ten years older, and Ed O'Neill,
who I'm sure you grew up watching, is now a
lifelong friend. Like when you think about team and football
and what you go through, did you ever know going
into that that you would walk away with a new
family and the cast and crew from that show and
still be a set with them as you are today. Well,
(42:17):
it's that's a good question, and give you an answer
that exposes a little bit about my dark, morbid humor.
I remember in season one me telling Jesse, I feel
like I just gained a lot more people to come
to my funeral, you know, which is a beautiful thing
a morbid thing? Yeah, it's morbid and awful, but it
did feel right from the beginning of like we're making
(42:40):
lifelong friendships here. And we were lucky because even though
you see us all on TV together, we weren't actually
around each other as much as people would think. We
were with each other every Wednesday for a table read,
and then Jesse and I were together in our scenes,
but unless it was a big family scene, we didn't
(43:00):
see each other. I wasn't having a lot of time
with Sophia or Tie or Julie. You know. It was
that winds day. So those Wednesdays became kind of like, Hey,
how's your week been, How did the scene go on Monday?
Or whatever it was. So we had this kind of
very close relationship, but also each of us were allowed
to have our own space more than people would think.
(43:23):
So I think that was one of the secret sauces
to our show, as we weren't on top of each
other it's all the time. But yeah, ed was one
of the first texts I got after the Chiefs one.
That's awesome really, Oh yeah, I put him in Kelsey
on a tech this is this is great. I put
him in Kelsey on a text thread together. So there's
a text thread in this world that is Ed O'Neil,
(43:45):
Travis Kelsey, and Eric stone Street all game. When Travis
Kelsey scores four touchdowns, does paul I get brought up?
Or is that just God? Yeah? I had so so
Uh after that happened, I called Ed and I said,
we gotta get a jersey. We gotta get it to Travis.
And then Travis was like, dude, I wish Ed could
(44:07):
come to a game because we could do a jersey
swap into the game. And yeah, but a percent Travis
got a Polkai jersey after that name, and uh, he
and Ed had some great because they're from the kind
of the same part of the country too. He's from
Youngstown and and Travis is from Cincinnati. Right is it
Northeast Ohio or yeah? I think so, yeah whatever they
(44:29):
call that area of Ohio. They both have relatable references
and are cut from the same cloth, so immediately fast friends,
and um, you know, Kelsey is such a such a
great guy and Ed is such a great guy. Uh.
It's it does my heart good to know that they're
each fans of each other and you connected them. That's awesome. Uh.
(44:49):
My last one is is a random story and it's uh,
our executive and producer here, Jason brought this to me.
Says he read a book and it was I'm gonna google,
I'm gonna look up in our document right here at
the book. It's from a gentleman named Mark Ambinder. Okay,
And there is a story to confirm or deny that
(45:10):
you were at the White House for the White House
Correspondence dinner and you were told that you were going
to be able to meet the president, President Barack Obama,
but it did not happen that evening and you were disappointed.
But take it from there, Eric, what was going on?
And take us from your shoes. Yeah, so this is
the first year of Modern Family's success. And so you
(45:34):
know the White House Correspondence that what they do is
they curate these tables at the Correspondence dinner where basically
on the clown at the table with all these serious
people dance for them. Right. They don't even let you
sit next to your partner at the table. You sit
across from them, so that it forces everybody to talk.
And you know, every news organization has bragging rights of
(45:56):
who they brought. Well, we were the hottest show US time.
So ABC was hosting, so we were all guests of ABC.
So here I am at the table with George Stephanopolis
and his wife, Okay, Ben Sherwood, the then head of
ABC News, Bill Daily, the chief of staff of the
White House, his wife, uh, and somebody else I can't remember,
(46:21):
and then all of our partners. Well, I was sitting
next to Bill Daly's wife and she was saying, what
are you doing while you're in Washington? And I said, well, actually,
tomorrow I'm going to the White House. We have a
very special tour at the White House that had been
set up for myself and my then girlfriend. She's like, oh,
that's exciting. And Bill, her husband, is sitting across and
(46:43):
she goes Bill, Eric, He's coming to the White House
tomorrow and he said, oh that's great, awesome, And I
said yeah, so if anything's you know, moved on your desk,
it was probably this guy. He's like, well, have a
good time. We continue the dinner. I had my BlackBerry.
I looked down and I had a flashing message and
(47:05):
I look and it said this is like twenty minutes
after this happened, and it said White House Tour canceled.
My White House tour was canceled from my publicist and
I look at it and I show it to her
and she goes, Bill, Bill, his white House tour just
got canceled. And he goes, oh, wow, sorry about that. Well,
(47:29):
here's my business card. If you're ever in Washington, d C. Again,
give me a call. I'll give you a personal tour.
And I'm thinking, Okay, the chief of staff just gave
me his card. That's pretty cool. But also, like, I
went my tour tomorrow, dude, I'm here. I'm here now,
Like I don't want it next month or whenever. So whatever,
(47:52):
it got canceled. And the next day we went to
the Smithsonian. We did this, We went to the Native
American Smithsonian. And then I was like, let's go to
a capital's game. So we went to a capital's game.
So we go back to the hotel in Georgetown. We
walk in to the bar to have a cocktail. All
(48:12):
the TVs are lit up breaking news Osama bin Laden
killed and I'm Michael, oh my god, this is why
our White House tour. Oh, And I think, well, that's
cool enough. Right there. I was gonna be there when
all this was going down, you know, tip of the spear,
(48:35):
tip of the sword, whatever the operation was called. So
that was that. Well, like four weeks later, Jake Tapper
hits me up on Twitter direct message and says, is
it true that you had a White House tour the
next morning, you know, of the White House Correspondence dinner,
And I said, yeah, percent true. And he said, well,
(48:57):
there's a story that you told Bill Daily that the
White House tour. You had a White House tour, And
that was the first he had heard that the tours
hadn't been canceled, and it was an oversight that people
were still coming to the White House. Oh my god,
you talking to his wife and and he was like,
wait a second, yeah, still on the books, still on
(49:17):
the books. And and so cut to then the six
months later, the deconstruction of the night, when we found
out that, uh yeah, it was all that was going on.
And here Bill Daily gives an interview that says, yeah,
I'm I'm sitting that the correspondence and earned some actor
from family guy tells me he's coming to coming to
(49:41):
the White House. And I was like, uh, no, you're not.
And he canceled the tours right there for me. And
then it pretended like come another time. Well here, So
then I learned from Ben Sherwood and George Stephanopolis, being
the savvy newsman they are, when she said, well, why
(50:03):
did his tour get canceled? Bill, and he said, quote,
maybe a leaky pipe or something. That those two went
and they came over and started. George and Ben they
already had something like their new synapses went off. Yes,
they knew. When I said my tour got canceled and
he said maybe a leaky pipe or something pipe, they
(50:27):
moved those people out of the way and sat next
to him, and I watched that happen. They got in there.
So then throughout the deconstruction of this process, hearing those
stories and George tells his story, Ben tells his story,
somebody writes an article about it. It's in a book
that your producer said, he he read. I know it's
documented on in a few different places. But yeah, I was.
(50:47):
I was sitting there and Eric all along. You're going
on a Vechan game the next night, not knowing a thing. Yeah,
I think he may have had a hat trick or
I know he scored a goal that night for sure,
But you don't think anything leaky pipe whatever. Uh So
that is my brush with history with that specific thing
(51:10):
and why the White House Correspondence dinner always became one
of my most favorite things to go. Would you go
every year after that? I went every year until he
stopped having it. Yeah. I loved going. I had so
many great experiences, met so many amazing, awesome people. I
was at the famous Italian restaurant in Georgetown. I can't
(51:32):
think of the name of it right now. It's where
everybody goes the night Daniel Snyder drafted uh r G three,
who was it, Yes, r G three, And we're standing
in there, and he walks in, and I walk over
and say hi to him. And then I see him
at the Italian Embassy later that night, and I was
talking to r G three and and Daniel Sneider came
(51:52):
over and like grabbed him and took him away, and
I remember like he just needed to go go for
him to meet somebody else, and I just remember thinking,
like that's exciting, and that also sucks that he just
got drug away from this conversation. UM, thank you for
this last forty five minutes. This made my day. This
is incredible. My last thing Chiefs Super Bowl. I assume
(52:12):
you're there. Do you have a bunch of plans? Are
excited to get to Arizona. I am excited. We're gonna
get in Friday. It's gonna be kind of a quick
trip of some obligations in l a before and then
after and hopefully we'll get a victory. I mean, I'm nervous, man.
I mean that offensive and defensive line of the Eagles
is absolutely no joke. And I told Lindsay last night,
(52:37):
I said, I kind of feel like I need to
be the canary in the cave because of my experience.
But Chiefs fans think they had their hands full with
since fans um they have no idea. We better strap
up for Philadelphia Eagles fans because they are no joke either.
And I'm telling you, I'm on the East Coast. I
live in Brooklyn. All Philly fans they're coming, like the
(53:00):
amount of ticket requests. I Chiefs fans, if you're taking
this for granted, you gotta represent this time. You do
not want this. If you see a green, I'll tell
you that, Oh yeah, it is no Philly fans or
no joke. I've I went to the first game ever
at the link he played a preseason game against the
New England Patriots. Yeah, I was in town shooting a
commercial with Donovan McNabb, a T and T commercial. You
(53:21):
can google that commercial, a T and T Donovan McNabb commercial.
But I got to go to a preseason game and
it was the first game at the link. But, um,
Philly fans or no joke. Andy Reid needs to let
everybody know that he knows they're no joke. Brett Beach
needs to let everybody know he knows they're no joke.
And I'm telling everybody, Chiefs fans, keep your cool. We're
(53:43):
a great team. Don't get engaged at all the other stuff.
Let the players play, let them talk the trash. I
think the Philly Mayor is smart enough now to know
not to to do what the sense mayor did. I
know our mayor won't U. Let's just have a good game.
Let's love each other. It's just like hitting mad at
each other. Let's enjoy the fact that we live in
(54:05):
a world where we get to go watch grown men
beat each other up on the field and have a
great time and don't engage in negativity with each other.
Just have fun. It's a beautiful message. That's kind of
the spirit of our podcast, My Friend the Season with
Peter Sugar Eric stone Street, way more time, hold on,
hold on. Beach said, thanks for calling him back last night.
So either you did call him back last night or
(54:26):
you didn't call him back last night. I didn't, do
you realize I texted him several times throughout the day
and he kept on saying he was in meetings, and
I go, hey, buddy, you've got a game. You're not
at the Senior Bowl. I was, yeah, we'll get in
touchy and I but you know what, I'd much rather
spend forty five minutes with you than just some general
manager talking about sizes, heights and weights. Anyway, you're the best.
I so appreciate you, guys. Eric stone Street. Awesome of
(54:48):
you to join us. And uh, I'll see you in
the Super Bowl. Hopefully I'll see on the field for
the game. See there, Peter, see you guys. Eric stone
Street's amazing. That's a true die hard fans season ticket
holder since nineteen with his family and then living in Hollywood. Says,
you know what, I don't want to miss a single
snap of the Mahomes Era goes and buys a suite
(55:10):
and he goes to every single home game. I love
the guy. I think he's beautiful. I think there were
life lessons in there, and I love his passion for
the Chiefs. And I love you guys for listening truly.
I want to thank Aaron Won Kaufman. I want to
thank Jason English there here every week with me as
we record these podcasts, which I'm having such a blast doing.
I want to thank you the listeners. I want to
thank Jason Kleinman, who does such a great job with
(55:32):
the clips that go up on social Matt Schneider, Meredith
Batt and everybody over at the NFL network who has
been supportive of this podcast. Uh. And I want to
thank the music man, a Chiefs fan, Mr Jack rud. Uh.
This has been a blast, and we have plenty more
content to come. Super Bowls coming, guys, and UH, let's
enjoy the next few weeks because it's it's alive and
(55:53):
well and the Chiefs and the Eagles are going at
it and we have plenty to discuss right here on
the Season with Peter Schueger. Yeah, The Season with Peter
(56:18):
Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with
i heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you
get your podcasts.
The Season with Peter Schreeger as a production of the
NFL in partnership with My Heart Radio. What's off everybody? Uh,
it's Peter Schreeger. This is the season with Peter Schreeger.
(00:27):
I am so thrilled to be hosting this podcast this week.
We just got through an incredible, incredible championship game between
the Bengals and the Chiefs, the Eagles and forty Niners.
Not so much. Nothing against the Eagles and what they
just accomplished. They dominated, but that game to me is
forever tainted by the quarterback situation with San Francisco. Um.
(00:48):
Nothing taking away from this NFC championship. They were the
number one seed, the Eagles and everything they possibly could
and did so uh in flying colors, and they have
just rolled into the Super Bowl. But gosh, that an
f C championship game was one of the classics. And uh,
I think our guest this week is gonna help us
relive it and give some thoughts and then go a
(01:08):
lot deeper in it. Our guest is a gentleman named
Eric stone Street. He played Cam on Modern Family. He
is an incredible, incredible dude. He is a friend of mine.
We've gotten to know each other through the Chiefs um
and his love for the Kansas City franchise. But over
the last few years we've become incredibly close and I'll
talk to him just about every other week about the
(01:29):
Chiefs and where they're at. And he joined on the
podcast today and is it is beautiful? He's wonderful and
he gives us stuff from not only his experience an
Arrowhead on Sunday Night, but also his career in Hollywood
and how it wasn't a meteoric rise to the top,
how they were setbacks and there was a difficult journey
(01:51):
and there was adversity, and there were people who took
shots on him, and gosh, it sang to me, and
I think it would sing to any football fan as
maybe Hollywood is as competitive as the NFL. And for
Eric stone Street to come out of it all with
two Emmy Awards for his role in Modern Family Um
is the stuff that we love talking about, and the
(02:12):
journey and the path and just having confidence in yourself
and trusting those who give you a shot. Real quick,
before we get to the interview, some top line stuff.
If you're listening when this thing posts coaching jobs right now,
there has been one that has been filled. That is
the Carolina Panthers gig and that is Frank Reich. If
you told me a month ago that Frank Wich would
(02:33):
be the first coach hired in the coaching hiring process,
I would have told you that's probably not going to
be the case. Well it was. It made a lot
of sense through Carolina side. Of course, there has been
some questions as to why Steve Wilkes did not keep
his job. Let's see where Wilkes. He ends up. A
fine coach in his own regard, a guy that we
almost had on the podcast one time. At the last
second he had to cancel because he had to prepare
(02:53):
for a game. I love Steve Wilkes. We'll see where
his career goes. But that job went to Frank Reich,
sixty one year old head coach now of the Carolina Panthers.
He was the head coach the Indianapolis Colts. Of course,
he was with the Eagles and the Chargers before that.
Reich as a leader, he's a gentleman. And if Doug
Peterson set the standard of hey fired from one place,
(03:14):
you know, hang your head in infamy. Be a shame. No, no, no,
get back on the horse and let me show you something. Carolina.
They hit it off. Of course you saw the numbers
and the stats there that he was the first Carolina
Panthers quarterback to ever throw a touchdown pass. He's on
the expansion Panthers and it all comes full circle. But
what about those other jobs. I'm hearing Damiko Ryan's to
Houston is almost a formality at this point, So put
(03:35):
that one there. That makes a lot of sense for
more second round pick, superstar player for them. He was
the captain of the Houston Texans for several seasons. Uh,
that would be a fit. That makes a lot of sense. Arizona,
they have They've had interview invites out for just about everybody,
and they added more today as we record this. On Tuesday,
um By Kafka, the Giants offensive coordinator, has been has
(03:57):
been interview. I reported on Monday that both Bengals defensive
coordinator Louana Rumo and offensive coordinator and former guests on
the season with Peter Trigger Brian Callahan both got interviews
with Arizona. They're both there today as we speak. Denver's
the interesting one. Denver has been quiet. I will say
this as Denver and Indie and Arizona are still kind
(04:21):
of jockeying, and I think Houston and Carolina are kind
of spoken for. I work with Sean Payton on Sunday's Guys.
There are a lot of reports this weekend that said
that Sean Payton had no seats for him. I would
say that Sean Payne had every opportunity to confirm that
on our show on Sunday. He could have confirmed that
to me. He could have confirmed that to America. He
(04:42):
could have gracefully said this wasn't the year and I'm
I'm moving on to other options as we record this
on Tuesday. I believe that if Sean Payton wanted to
bow out and wait for next year, he would have
said it by now, and he would have said, I
am happy to be coming back to Fox. He took
the opportunity to not say that. Said that this week
will tell a lot, which means he is still in
the conversations. Whether that's for Arizona or Denver, I cannot
(05:05):
report because I do not know at the moment, but
I will say that the fact he did not close
the door on either one of those jobs tells me
he is still very much in the conversation for both
of those jobs. Okay, onto football. A lot of stuff
going on around the league, but this is all about
the Super Bowl, and we now have a solid week
and a half to preview it, preview it, preview it. UM,
(05:28):
leave that in their errand I like what I just
randomly mispronounced words that I've been saying my entire life. Um,
And We're gonna do so. But I wouldn't be me
if I didn't have to go through what we just
saw this Bengals Chiefs game. I rewatched it on Monday night,
after already sitting through it and grinding my teeth on
a on a Jet Blue flight back watching it on
(05:51):
a little Jet Blue screen where they're like, actually there's
turbulence in the air and we have to leave you
for three minutes. I'm like, I get back and back.
It was incredibly, incredibly painful to watch a game that
was so close and be in and out and then
the whole fourth quarter. I got to watch the whole
way through, right through the rough in the past there
called you know, as we turned the page. It's games
like this that will always remember where we were when
(06:12):
we saw it, and you know who we were with.
I'll never forget. I'm on a plane and Severn Rose
ahead of me. Michael Irvin is also on the same plane.
I am flying back from l A where I did
the Fox pregame show, and I'm coming to New York
because I do Good Morning Football every morning Monday to Friday,
seven to ten am Eastern. We have to be here
by five am. So that game was late. But because
(06:33):
the championship games were staggered at different hours, I got
in really late. And I'm on that Lafe flight. Michael
Irvin gets on the plane. This is what I love
and picture this. He's up there in the front and
he's watching the game and he doesn't have his headphones in,
so he's just watching the game. I'm mute, and every play.
Michael Irvin, the guy that you see on TV on
NFL Network, but you also see on first take on
(06:53):
Monday mornings. It's really, oh the longest see that pass.
He's just talking to the entire cabin. He walks back
several rows and I'm not gonna say how many several
I don't want to talk about where we sat on
this plane, and uh he you know, in between dribes like, yore,
what did you think of that borrow? You know, what
do you think of that happened? What do you think
of that penalty? Did they explain the third down and
(07:15):
nine on? Just this is the life that I'm living.
I'm on the road a lot, but like I'll never
forget every commercial break, Michael Irvin coming back and talking
to me and us breaking down the game in real time.
This is a guy that I grew up watching, uh
make all the plays in the big championship games and
the Super Bowls for the Dallas Cowboys. But that's that's
the life we're at right now, and that's the season
(07:35):
with Peter Schrager. Um. But Michael Irvin and I take
a giant backseat to the chair that that one Eric
stone Street had Again. Eric stone Street, you know as
Cam for Modern Family. He was also in uh the
movie Almost Famous, and he has been on several different
shows and he has one Emmy's and he's just an
incredible dude. But he is a Kansas City native and
(07:56):
a die hard fan. And uh, my lengthy and I
think awesome interview with Eric stone Street is up and
as I mentioned in the monologue, he's one of my
favorite guys that I've met the last few years through
Good Morning Football. A die hard football fan and all
around great guy. And to me, truly, if you're trying
to find the heart and soul of like Okaya City
Chiefs fan, this is your your perfect ambassador, Mr Eric
(08:19):
stone Street. How are you, my Fred I'm very good.
My heart has finally calmed down a little bit and
my bones have stopped chattering from the cold of Arrowhead.
What about your heart, though, because the cold was one thing,
but the game itself and we're just gonna get right
into it, the a f C Championship game. It's still
too fresh to like kind of have a perspective on it.
But now that we're forty eight hours removed a recording
(08:41):
this I said to you over text last night. I
think it was probably the most satisfying win of Mahomes's career.
The first time I've ever seen this Chief's team openly doubted,
first time I've ever seen this Chiefs team get actually
talked at them. The first time I've seen this Chiefs
team actually lean into it. And they win. They win,
and and and it was different. This is a different
(09:03):
kind of game from the start of the Mahomes era.
You know, it was a different I think Patrick and
Travis said it best. You've got you know, the mayor
of the city that we're playing coming after, which I
know for a fact that Zach and the organization just
hated what. I mean, it's so against everything that I
feel like Zach is about, like as a coach and
(09:25):
a player. So you know, they hated that I had.
I couldn't leave it unaddressed and had to call him
a dork, which is what it was. I mean, it's
like for I wanted to say, first rule of being funny,
be funny. That's that's number one anyway, So all that
(09:47):
and and look then the Eli Apple stuff and the
players stuff and burrow Head. I mean I love it.
You know, as a fan, we love the bad guy,
We love all that stuff. But in this world today
where everybody thinks that or not everybody but the fringe
thinks that the NFL is rigged, it doesn't help that.
Somehow it became a little bit like in that way,
(10:11):
even though Travis's comments at the ends calling him to
GABBRONI was probably I mean, it's all over T shirts
already in Kansas City. Oh my gosh, yes everywhere. Uh
so that that was a great reference to the Rock.
But look here's the deal. Uh, the whole borrowhead thing.
You know, it just it motivated the guys more than
they were already motivated. They didn't address it. Um, I
(10:34):
was in my suite getting the arrowhead chance started, Uh,
trying my hardest to get the whole stadium doing that.
But it was a great game. The Cincinnati fan base
went from what seemingly seems to be the cockiest fan
base of all time to somewhat of the whiniest fan base.
We're doing a show up a voting football. We're just
(10:55):
giving credit to the Chiefs for overcoming injuries. And like
their comments are from Bengals fans telling us the refs,
the refs cosses cost them the game. Look, I've been
and we here's what I would say to Bengals fans.
It's like we all been there, Like we've all been
a look at the roughing the pastor call against Chris
Jones and Championship against Tom Well against Tom Brady, Uh,
(11:15):
like it didn't happen, he didn't hit him. This was
actually a roughing the pastor call that you can argue
the refs. You're like, oh, but look at the inverse
of that, had they not called it, what would that
have looked like? Right? And the whole third down thing
that's also uh or the do over play. Yeah, when
(11:36):
you see the whole picture in the referee running in
stopping the play, it looked bad. Optically it looked bad,
But look at the inverse of that had they not
called it. Then you say, well, the chief on the field. Yeah,
the chiefs were like, well, that guy's in my way.
So I get it. I get it. From the perspective
of it hurts, and I would just look to the
(11:59):
comments of your coach and Joe Burrow and the people
that actually step on the field to play that you
aren't find by one player. I've had to swallow that
pill myself. Andy Reid taught me to swallow that pill
of you play how many players in the game. There
were many opportunities for the Bengals to beat us. And
let me tell you, Cincinnati fans, I thought there was
(12:22):
a chance you were going to beat us. So I
get it, but move on. It will make you feel
better just to move on. I've had to do it
many times, heartbreaking losses for Chiefs fans. You grew up
a Chiefs fan, obviously, and you've been through it. Um,
you know, I've done this with Chiefs fans for years.
You start ranking them and there's Lynn Elliott and there's
d Ford and all this stuff. Is it crazy that
(12:43):
now you guys are the team that actually pulls these
wins out? Like have you co and accustomed to that?
That now we're the team that in the end of
the day, like we actually beat Buffalo after having to
do it in thirteen seconds, we actually do beat the
Houston Texans after being down twenty four nothing in a
playoff game. And now this game where you're down everyone,
there's no Juju, there's no Tony, there's no hard men,
(13:04):
there's none Willy Gate, and they find a way. Well,
that is a testament to our friend, our mutual friend,
Brett Veach, and Andy Reid gives him the credit rightfully.
So all the time of stacking that roster of nex
man up. I mean, that's the principle of football, right
And every NFL team reminds us each week that they
(13:27):
are professionals, that they are the best players on their
college teams that make it to the league, and at
any given time, credit to Cincinnati's offensive line against the Bills,
and credit Cincinnati's offensive line against us. I mean, yes,
we had our sacks, but they they slowed us down.
Their schemes slowed us down in the second half. I
truly thought the way we came out, there was a
(13:48):
chance that we could hang some points on him, and
we didn't. I mean, it was a tough game. That's
the other thing I would say. It's like criticizing Travis,
you know, in his passion or our passion of winning
by three points. I'm sorry, can we hit the rewind
button and see how many points the Bengals beat us
by the last three times you beat us? And you
did beat us. We you know, that's the That's another
(14:11):
thing I would say. There's so much about this that's
so um rewarding, right. I can't imagine how rewarding it
is for again, the people that actually strap up the
shoulder pads and get on the field. I'm just a
dumb fan, right, But those games were hard fought games
before and kudos to the Bengals winning them. It didn't
(14:32):
mean anything in the long run. They didn't end up
going on to win the Super Bowl and the games
that they beat us in the regular season. It's called
any given Sunday. We everybody beats everybody during the season.
It's when you beat them is what matters. And in
this time, in this opportunity agains the a f C.
In the a f C Championship, you lost. Uh. Fourth
(14:55):
quarter starts and there's a drum being banged on the
top of arrowhead and the fans are needing a pep talk.
Who is banging that drama? And how does that come about? Well,
you know, I been privileged to be able to bang
the drum when it was down on the field a
few times and up in the upper deck now a
few times. And Clark Hunt always does it at the
a f C Championship. And I was fortunate enough to
(15:16):
do it for the f C Championship when we beat Tennessee.
I didn't do it uh last year uh and uh
we lost. Uh. So I was back this year. When
do you Eric, When do you get that call? When
does Clark Hunt or Ted Cruzer, Ryan Pala who who
tits you up? And it's like, you know, we need
(15:37):
your fourth quarter. You're banging the drum. Yeah, So that's
a direct call to Veach and then Veach to me,
because if each knows my personality and he knows that, like, yes,
I love talking to Peter Schreeger about the Kansas City Chiefs,
but I also don't like it to seem like I'm
somehow at the forefront of Chief's kingdom all the time.
(15:57):
So I I do pick and choose what I do
and when I do it, and I hadn't done it
in two seasons, so it was time maybe for me
to show my face there again. You know, I'm at
every game, I'm in my suite. I don't want to
be on the JumboTron. I don't want to be around.
I just want to watch the game. But this seemed
like the moment I was caught up in the passion
(16:18):
as well with the mayor and all his comments, and
I just felt like, Okay, it's time to make a
return to the drum deck and let me go up
there in the arctic cold and beat the out of
that beg that droump baby, and you do. But for
the record, everybody was like, you turn us around Stowe
Street down on the field. I'm like, actually, it was
fourth and six right after that, and they picked it
(16:38):
up so that I don't think, Yes, um, I love
that you go to every game, and I think that's cool.
So you might think, all right, here's this guy, successful actor,
Hollywood all this stuff. You go to every Chief's home game. Dude,
you're legit, You're the real deal. Um. And and is
that from childhood? When did that really start? Well, we
got season tickets when I was in high school. My
(16:59):
uncle had season tickets at the old Stadium and would
give us his every once in a while. But in
nineteen eighty six or eighties seven, probably Todd Blackledge era.
Who are we talking about, Yeah, Todd Blackledge. Uh, you
know right at the end of the Bill Kinney era
is when I got season tickets. Steve de Bergh, those
(17:21):
guys were all there, and I had season tickets in
the no alcohol section. That was the way I got
my dad to let us get season tickets, because you know,
I was a kid, and I was and so we
were there. And now the suite that we have is
right above those seats, which is such a cool full
circle moment. But let me tell you the reason I
we got the suite, And again it comes back to
Brett Veach. All roads lead to Brett veach Um when
(17:44):
we started to become pals. He literally said, you're not
gonna want to miss games this season? And I said
for real? And he's like, dude, We're going to the
super Bowl and you don't want to miss this. So
I called Tyler, the then VP at Chiefs, and said,
what do you have available? This was the last season
of Modern Family, so I was making trip home every
(18:07):
week that the Chiefs were here. We signed up for
the suite, got the suite, and I didn't miss a
game because Brett Beach told me not to miss a game,
and he delivered on his promise. We went to the
super Bowl and won. It is that not amazing? And
and I know Brett for a long time. If you're listening,
is the GM of the Chiefs. Obviously there's been no
Burt person. And it's not a cockiness. It's not an
over confidence, not arrogance. The second he laid eyes on Mahomes,
(18:30):
he has been telling me that this this dude will
change our franchise and he will change lives in this market.
He's incredible and not enough is said about him. You know,
as a GM first, I don't think, but as a
person I think he's a quality human being. And I
tell people all the time that we are lucky to
have Brett Veach is our GM. But getting to know
(18:51):
him in his thought process and his care and concern
for the players, and thoughtfulness of the fans and everyone
in the organization, and how much he is involved in
the minutia in a good way, we are very, very
lucky to have him as a leader of our Chiefs.
It's great. And last year when you and I really
met in person, it was at the a f C
(19:13):
Championship game, maybe one of the lowest days of your
Chiefs fandom, but it was around halftime and I popped
my head into a box and the commissioner was there,
and Curtis Martin was there, and I think Willie Lanier
was there, and there's Eric stone Street, who i've to
crumbry wearing a cowboy hat and Bengal stuff talking smack too,
was talking smack. And you guys were up at a
(19:36):
half and you're like, and they scored a touchdown. You
looked at me and I saw this look in your
face that I know from all my Jets fan friends
and from all my you know, long suffering UH friends
who are Vikings fans? And you said, Okay, I have
to go back to my seat. I can't be sitting
here mingling. This is not lucky for me. And like
I know that superstition Juju thing and Eric I do
(19:56):
right that and there like this guy's hardcore. Well it's
not only it's it's different than like superstition. I get
to the game, but for the players get to the game.
I mean I've rolled into the stadium and been driving
alongside Travis Kelsey like telling him good game. That's when
I get to the game, right, because I'm not gonna
(20:19):
be out there, but I want, I want to breathe
it all in and I want to focus because my
attention is there. And I was in that suite and
I was out of my element. I wasn't myself at
that game. And I know I'm not stupid and think
that I really have anything to do with the outcome,
but my mind wasn't right and I needed to go
back to my suite and stop talking to people and
sit in my seat and get focused back on the game.
(20:41):
And I was nervous and worried because well what happened.
We lost? We got beat and I blame myself. I
blame myself. You're laughing, but like that's you know that
is a fan, because you know, I'll go back to
all my friends who are Red Sox fans in college
and they're like, we have to sit in this room
to watch this series otherwise it's real. And you start
(21:02):
blaming yourself for these losses because why was I hobnobbing
with Commissioner Goodell that that wasn't the time and place right.
I mean, you're the hardcore fan. You want to be
in the trenches, and I'm the same way with you know,
away games and televised I get invited all the time
to go to a bar or to go to a
friend's house and watch the game. And I always know
when people truly know me, uh, they don't call me
(21:25):
and they don't invite me anywhere on a Sunday at
noon or three thirty or whatever the game time is.
I don't watch football games with other people, or I
only watch people football games with people that are like
me and don't talk. Yes, look that's it. Um, you've
become such a piece of this this run obviously, and
I know Andy would have you in over the summers
(21:46):
that training can't you do the Randy Reid thing, which
was great. You've gotten a chance to get to know
Andy read it all, and like, what kind of guy
is See for those who don't know Andy the man,
they know him as just the figure on television. You know,
I have gotten a chance to get to know him.
I can't believe I'm saying that. I was always so
intimidated by Coach Read. And the first interaction we ever
had was it as San Diego away game when they
(22:07):
were the Sandy. But no, it was I guess it
would have been that last season they were San Diego
and I was standing at the top of the tunnel.
We had one in dramatic fashion at the end of
the game, and he comes to the top of the
ramp and he just sees me and he goes like
that on my chest and it was this one, not
this one, like right, and he just went like that.
(22:33):
No words were spoken, and I just was like, that
just happened to Coach We just acknowledged me. It's like
the song the Prince song. She spoke to me, she
spoke to me. Uh, Coach Red just uh. It was insane.
That was our first interaction. And then because of each
You know again, I've I've gotten a no coach, And
(22:57):
you know, we have a lot of references that are
the same, being a big kid, him growing up in
l A, me living in l A. He has friends
that work in the entertainment industry. One guy that was
cameraman on our show was a really close friend of his.
We have the same food references, the same love and
passion for for food, and the and the obviously football
(23:19):
and the Kansas City Chiefs. But he is a great person.
You want to talk about a guy. I always say this,
It's like I don't know how he does it, but
he seems to know everything that's going on around him.
And when I say that, I mean what TV shows
are on, what popular music is happening, what Lagarius need
(23:40):
has been up to, how the ankle is on Clyde
Edwards Hilaire, what his assistant needs to put on his desk.
I mean, from the smallest thing to the most ridiculous
pop culture thing. It seems like Coach Reid is right
there with it, which is a great gift but also
a tribute to what kind of human being he is,
which is an outward, upward life living person. Right and
(24:05):
I see why play yours love him because he's a
unique personality and a funny guy and he allows people
to be the greatest they want to be while having
fun doing it. Is my take on Coach read that's
that's awesome. And I work with you know, so many
of like former players and whether it be a Brian
Westbrook or a Michael Vick or uh you go right
down to Shady McCoy, Like the love that these guys
(24:27):
have for Andy Reid is forever. And that's even if
these guys were traded or cut or whatever, and it's
like that's a special human they love big red love well.
I think it all starts with honesty too. I think
Coach is an honest person. What would be my take
on Coach? Again, I'm not a player and don't have
that relationship with him, but listening to other people talk
about him, it's like you kind of know where you
(24:48):
stand with Coach, which is a great gift in life
when you're dealing with anyone in the leadership position, whether
it's good or bad, it's nice to know where what
they think about you, whether if they love you, which
they love you up, coach you up or mad at you,
disappointed in your whatever it is. And I've you know,
talked to a few friends of mine that have played
for Coach, and one thing that they always remind me
(25:10):
is enjoy these years because as Chiefs fans and football fans,
we're in rarefied air, like we are really truly in
this moment of He's a one of one. God broke
the mold when they made Coach read his attention to detail,
his attention to preparation and getting teams ready to scheme
and play and win when you have a quarterback with
(25:33):
one ankle, when you have no wide receivers other than
three left. Um. He's a unique individual and Kansas City
can never forget how lucky we are to have him.
Uh could do a quick bit of story time where
I just kind of throw on a topic and you
tell me stories about your career in your life, because
(25:54):
I think there's a lot of life lessons we can
all learn from you. I love you, I think you're awesome,
and I think some of the stuff that everyone sees
on televisions something, but you've got an amazing career and
I think would be kind of cool if I just
like throw questions at you and you answer them taken
wherever you want? Is that all right? Yeah? I'm usually
better at that, like being prompted and reminded of things. Um,
almost famous, you get casted into that film. Um, take
(26:17):
us to where you were in your life and your
career at that point and what that meant for you.
I had one credit on my resume. Uh. My agent
at the time sent me in to see Gail Levin,
the casting director for Cameron Crowe, and I read for
the Philip Seymour Hoffman role, Lester Bangs and she I finished,
and she looked over the paper and she was very sweet,
(26:38):
and she said where are you from? And I said
Kansas City. She's like, how long have you been in
l A. And I'm like twelve, twelve months or eleven months,
whatever it was at the time. She's like, well, you're
very good. You're not going to get this part, but
you're very good. And I said, I don't think I
should get this. I can't believe i'm here. I have
Darman Greg on my resume. Uh. And she said, but
(27:01):
I really want you to meet Cameron and I think
he would really like you. And I said, okay, sure,
and I leave and this was still at my career
when I shared things with people because I thought they
were actually gonna happen. So I called my parents and
I told my best friends. I'm like, I'm gonna meet
Cameron Crowe, uh, not knowing that most people in our
business don't follow through on what they say. In the moment,
(27:24):
she happened to be the person that followed through, and
a few weeks her name Gail Levin, Gail Leven. Every
person in our lives like in our career, it's like,
you'll never forget those people that help open doors. Gail Leven,
and she brought me back in and here I go
up into this loft in Santa Monica and Cameron Crowe
with his cam quarter following me around the room as
(27:46):
I'm saying these five lines, and he's like, now do
it this way, now do it that way. Like made
me feel like I was about to be the lead
in a movie. And I left there feeling so proud
and excited to be a performer and an actor. And
then a couple of weeks later, I got the part,
and then we shot the part and opened a lot
(28:07):
of doors for me. People always ask about that, you know,
it's uh five lines and a major motion picture mean
a tremendous amount to an actor at any time in
their career. But for me, it gave people permission to
think I was good, even if they thought maybe I
was good. Well, Cameron Crow cast him in a Steven
Spielberg movie cast by Gail Levin, so he must be good.
(28:29):
It's like, oh, yeah, he's great. That's yeah. Um, next name,
and the viewers and listeners might not know who it is,
but if hold on, he's calling. Look who's calling right now?
That's so funny Brett Veach Collin. Hopefully the number doesn't
reveal itself. Tell him we're doing this right now. I'd
love to hear his response. Um, I'm gonna give you
(28:50):
an I'm gonna take a picture and send it to
him real quick. Go ahead. The name is Joe Pitka.
Oh my god, who is Joe pitt Gun? Why is
he important in your life? Joe Pitca is the craziest,
best guy ever that intimidates, has intimidated so many people,
But for whatever reason, our personalities clicked. He called me,
(29:11):
uh what did he call me? Oh German, the German
from Kansas City. And I called him the pullock from
Pittsburgh and we just like clicked. But he's a commercial director,
probably one of the most famous commercial directors of all time.
Is the most famous commercial director of all time, probably,
I guess yes, for sure directed Space jam. Um, what
did he tell the pets? He adds of Michael Jackson,
(29:32):
like he's the big commercials of my generation, Bartles and
James and Hallmark commercials. And but he's got this reputation
of being like a tyrant and an angry man, yeller screamer.
He is. But I identified Joe Pitka as someone who
(29:54):
had created a character in Hollywood for himself, because what
I saw was a really nice person and a loyal person,
and a thoughtful person, an artistic person. But yet you
walk on stage and he screaming and yelling at people
and something. For some reason, I broke through that. Um.
First audition ever was for an American Express Tiger Woods
(30:14):
commercial where the ball was traveling around the world. And
I go in and I just stand there and he
looks at me up and down. Where are you from?
Like Kansas City, Kansas City, God forsaken place, shot up,
shot boos there. I'm like, yeah, you shouted at wind
out high school that's where my dad went to high school,
and we just clicked in this moment. And then I
(30:36):
get a call when I leave there from my agent
and she said, I just got a call from casting,
and I said, yes, I should say Peter. Before I
went into that audition, she had told me you're auditioning
for Joe Pitkin today, and I'm like, okay. She's like, no,
you're auditioning for Joe, you know. So then I was
immediately nervous and she's like, he's known for kind of
(30:57):
like being mean or rude to people or whatever. So
I go in. So I get this call and I'm like,
oh God, I screwed up because we did have banter
back and forth. I did not like run away from him,
and so I thought something was wrong and she said, um,
Casting called and they said you're not going to get
this commercial, but um, Joe said he wants to work
(31:18):
with you at some point. Well, true to his word.
A few weeks later, I get a call to show
up in Long Beach Harbor and I'm shooting an IBM
commercial And that was the first of probably thirty IBM
commercials I shot with Joe. Thirty commercials he did before
Modern Family, before all that stuff. You were doing commercials
with Joe. Yes, but that's just IBM commercials we did.
I did two campaigns of IBM commercials, totaling twenty some commercials,
(31:41):
and then I did Pepsi, diet, Pepsi, xerox, you name it.
I I don't know how many I ever ended up
doing with him, but that's him. He's a loyal guy.
He realized that I wasn't gonna screw around. I wasn't
gonna mess with him. I wasn't gonna embarrass him. He
could hire me. I would show up, be professional, entertain him,
you know, make him laugh. And um, we were known
(32:05):
as the pit could play years and I didn't know
that was a thing until I was one, and then
people would refer to people as the Pita players. But thankful,
and I still email with him and talk to him
and have dinner with him when I'm in l A.
He's a He's a great guy. He would like to
be called a great guy, though I'm sure he's got
an image still. Um, when you go to YouTube and
you want to type in blah blah blah commercial to
(32:27):
see a young Eric Stone Street in a pit at
what would be the one that would that would stand
out if you type in Pitca IBM commercials or Pitka Disney.
I was in a Disney commercial where I was Uncle Phil,
the crazy Uncle Phil dressed as a Laddin. But those
IBM commercials are quite a bit all over YouTube. I
love it. Um. Okay, next one, you've had a bit
(32:48):
of success in your career. You're building Greg Daniels, Michael Sure,
they're doing the the American version of the Office. You
go in for an audition for which role and how
far did you get in that process? Well, I went
in for again recurring theme here, going in for one thing,
(33:09):
being told I'm not going to get it, but come
back again, which I hope actors listen to that and
hear something there, which is you can't control what you
can't control. What I could control was doing a good job.
If I went into an audition and thought, well, I'm
not right for this. I know I'm not right for this,
and I take that attitude into an audition, then I'm
(33:33):
not right gonna be right for anything. But if I
go in as well prepared as I can be with
the best take on, and I can have who knows
what happens, other doors will open. So that's the message
there for anyone listening that wants to pursue this. I
think it's any career that honestly, if I'm I'm having
a meeting with someone at another network or whatever, and
then we don't have any room for you, but why
(33:54):
not make a great impression on them, because who knows,
you know, your first job in any interview process is
to somehow convey that you would be a good partner,
you would be a good person to be in a
room with them, Like your first job is to convey, Hey,
I'm not going to be a problem, right, You're gonna
like working with me. So I went in audition for
(34:15):
Steve Carrell's part. Alison Jones an amazing casting director, the
best of the best, legendary casting director, done freaks and geeks,
all the Apatow stuff. She's the legend. She gave me
a part on Spin City, saw me in an improv
show and gave me one line on Spin City when
I hadn't had any stuff really other than that darmand Greg,
(34:36):
and she said, probably not gonna work for this role,
but let's have you come back in for Kevin, which
is the great Brian bam Gardner's part. So I went
in and and read, and then they put our tapes
up against each other. It was me, Brian and Jorge Garcia. Yeah, hurly,
it's amazing. Yeah, testing for the office on tape for
(34:58):
the network. And of course Brian ended up getting it.
Brian gets it. And were you dejected or did you say, hey,
that's just that's were you devastated? Heartbroken? Heartbroken? You know again,
it took so long for me to get to a
place where you put everything you possibly have emotionally into something,
(35:21):
knowing that you're probably not going to get it, and
then being able to walk away from it. It's why
not in an aggressive way. But my technique for auditions
for TV shows and stuff is I would print out
the sides. I would walk in with the sides and
read off the paper, you know, for my audition, and
then I would wad that up and I would throw
(35:42):
it in the garbage can in the casting director's office
and just never think of it again. Yeah, And it
wasn't like this. But I can't. I can't hang onto this.
It's too emotional of a connection. I have to I
have to move on. And I was fortunate enough to
be in a place, you know, most of my career
close to leading up to modern Family, where I had,
(36:03):
you know, a couple auditions a day sometimes, So I
was doing that in a practical way too, of like
this one's done, now I have to drive to Venice
and do this again with different somebody else's words. So
I just didn't want a car full of paper. But
I also didn't want the baggage of not probably not
getting this. So I just moved on from it, and
(36:24):
then if I got called back, I'd reprint it out
and go back in. You know, Luis c K was
doing a podcast last weekend. I was listening to it
and he was the host's guy named Christa Stephano and
Chris is a comedian, and he was saying how he
got a CBS pilot and he told everybody, you know,
Chas Politary was casted as his father. They filmed that,
everyone loved it, and then it never saw the light
of day, and that was that it just is over.
(36:46):
And Louis c K said, I had ten of those.
You just have to appreciate the moment when you're in
it and enjoy that, and you can't start thinking ahead.
That's the training of an actor. There's so many almost
and it took me forever to you know, I finally
had to tell my parents, like, I'm not telling you
everything that I auditioned for. I'm not telling you everything
(37:06):
I get called back for. I'm going to tell you
the big stuff, which you know happened with Modern Family.
I was on the phone with them when I got
the job of the Modern Family. I had to say,
I'll call you guys back, Steve, my manager is calling.
But I would include them when it was that moment, yes,
(37:28):
because I always thought like, well, you didn't ask for
this emotional roller coaster that I'm chose as my vocation
to be on, right, So I'll just hopefully let you
experience the end part and the excitement. It's beautiful, but
you know, here, here's a good one. You'll enjoy this.
On the way to the Chiefs game the other day,
(37:50):
I was so anxious and so stressed out that I
had to put on music that was my stressed out
traffic audition testing nerve racking music. Can I ask what
it was? Yeah, it's Don Williams The General Giant twenty
Greatest Hits. Um It's very soothing. His voice is very relaxing. Lord,
(38:15):
I hope this day's good. Yeah, that's so great. So
I had to put on Don Williams, and then that
reminded me that I needed to put on the soundtrack
of the audition process of Modern Family, which is the
Curious George soundtrack by um Jack John Jack Johnson. Yeah,
the banana and apple. Yeah, it puts me in this
(38:37):
tranquil I got chills right now because that's what that's
what you drove to. That's what you're saying, Hawaii surf
Jack Johnson. So for those two two and a half
weeks of the process of the ups and downs of
testing for Modern Family, because I went in, was dismissed,
went back in, was dismissed, and then called back in
(39:00):
and then had to wait a couple of days and
then went to test. Right, it was a fourth step
over two and a half process. Well, as you know,
you're traveling all over l A and there's you're in traffic.
So that became my c D at the time, was
in my truck and I hit that and just drove
to my audition. So now whenever I hear that, it
(39:22):
both relaxes me and brings a tremendous amount of anxiety
to my life, but also reassures you that it's going
to work out. Yeah, that's true, that's great, that's true.
That's probably psychologically what it is. But those butterflies. I
always tell those butterflies. The calm anxiousness is when you
feel those butterflies. People are like, no, it's like, go
(39:44):
out there and feed those butterflies. Those butterflies are hungry,
so walk out there onto the stage. It's good to
be nervous, it's good to be anxious. It's how you
how you deal with it. And my technique was always
that you know, this means I'm alive. This means I
take it serious. So I always tell people it's it's
it's okay to be nervous, it's okay to be anxious.
(40:05):
It's just how you address it. And my technique was
always that I'm alive. This is good. Now, let's go
feed these hungry books and drive into the arrowhead. It's
different because I can't control the outcome. I have nothing
to do with it. And that's the thing I would
say to most fans, like we're fans, let's be fans.
We're not tying our shoelaces. We're not putting on our helmets.
(40:27):
These guys have sweat, they've bled, they've worked their whole
life for this moment. Let's be appropriate in our in
our cheering, and our fandom, and then let them be
the most excited, let them be the most disappointed. Whatever
the outcome of the game is. They deserve all that
emotion more than we do. It's beautiful. I have two more.
(40:49):
I'm getting emotional, and I think this next one is
gonna be get So. How many months after the office
of being told you're not on the office did you
walk into that Modern Family audition? I would have to
go online to see what that was, but I will
tep out a year. Less than a year, Oh no
more than that. More than that. The office was on
for a long time. But but what I will tell
(41:10):
you is had I got that part, I wouldn't have
been able to audition for Modern Family. No, of course not.
They would have had you, They would have had me,
and I wouldn't have been available, and I would have
been happy with that job. But that is really what
Brian and I have talked about. It It all worked
out for you know, he and I didn't work out
for the people other people, but maybe it did after that.
(41:33):
I'm sure there are people that auditioned for jam on
Modern Family that found their own success in other ways
in areas, but it was quite a while after the office. Okay,
so you get that job, you go on to win
multiple Emmy's, you get nominated for all sorts of People's Choice,
all that stuff. You have this great stardom. At the
end of the season, you look back and you know,
(41:55):
the kids on that show are now adults, and your
your colleagues are all ten years older, and Ed O'Neill,
who I'm sure you grew up watching, is now a
lifelong friend. Like when you think about team and football
and what you go through, did you ever know going
into that that you would walk away with a new
family and the cast and crew from that show and
still be a set with them as you are today. Well,
(42:17):
it's that's a good question, and give you an answer
that exposes a little bit about my dark, morbid humor.
I remember in season one me telling Jesse, I feel
like I just gained a lot more people to come
to my funeral, you know, which is a beautiful thing
a morbid thing? Yeah, it's morbid and awful, but it
did feel right from the beginning of like we're making
(42:40):
lifelong friendships here. And we were lucky because even though
you see us all on TV together, we weren't actually
around each other as much as people would think. We
were with each other every Wednesday for a table read,
and then Jesse and I were together in our scenes,
but unless it was a big family scene, we didn't
(43:00):
see each other. I wasn't having a lot of time
with Sophia or Tie or Julie. You know. It was
that winds day. So those Wednesdays became kind of like, Hey,
how's your week been, How did the scene go on Monday?
Or whatever it was. So we had this kind of
very close relationship, but also each of us were allowed
to have our own space more than people would think.
(43:23):
So I think that was one of the secret sauces
to our show, as we weren't on top of each
other it's all the time. But yeah, ed was one
of the first texts I got after the Chiefs one.
That's awesome really, Oh yeah, I put him in Kelsey
on a tech this is this is great. I put
him in Kelsey on a text thread together. So there's
a text thread in this world that is Ed O'Neil,
(43:45):
Travis Kelsey, and Eric stone Street all game. When Travis
Kelsey scores four touchdowns, does paul I get brought up?
Or is that just God? Yeah? I had so so
Uh after that happened, I called Ed and I said,
we gotta get a jersey. We gotta get it to Travis.
And then Travis was like, dude, I wish Ed could
(44:07):
come to a game because we could do a jersey
swap into the game. And yeah, but a percent Travis
got a Polkai jersey after that name, and uh, he
and Ed had some great because they're from the kind
of the same part of the country too. He's from
Youngstown and and Travis is from Cincinnati. Right is it
Northeast Ohio or yeah? I think so, yeah whatever they
(44:29):
call that area of Ohio. They both have relatable references
and are cut from the same cloth, so immediately fast friends,
and um, you know, Kelsey is such a such a
great guy and Ed is such a great guy. Uh.
It's it does my heart good to know that they're
each fans of each other and you connected them. That's awesome. Uh.
(44:49):
My last one is is a random story and it's uh,
our executive and producer here, Jason brought this to me.
Says he read a book and it was I'm gonna google,
I'm gonna look up in our document right here at
the book. It's from a gentleman named Mark Ambinder. Okay,
And there is a story to confirm or deny that
(45:10):
you were at the White House for the White House
Correspondence dinner and you were told that you were going
to be able to meet the president, President Barack Obama,
but it did not happen that evening and you were disappointed.
But take it from there, Eric, what was going on?
And take us from your shoes. Yeah, so this is
the first year of Modern Family's success. And so you
(45:34):
know the White House Correspondence that what they do is
they curate these tables at the Correspondence dinner where basically
on the clown at the table with all these serious
people dance for them. Right. They don't even let you
sit next to your partner at the table. You sit
across from them, so that it forces everybody to talk.
And you know, every news organization has bragging rights of
(45:56):
who they brought. Well, we were the hottest show US time.
So ABC was hosting, so we were all guests of ABC.
So here I am at the table with George Stephanopolis
and his wife, Okay, Ben Sherwood, the then head of
ABC News, Bill Daily, the chief of staff of the
White House, his wife, uh, and somebody else I can't remember,
(46:21):
and then all of our partners. Well, I was sitting
next to Bill Daly's wife and she was saying, what
are you doing while you're in Washington? And I said, well, actually,
tomorrow I'm going to the White House. We have a
very special tour at the White House that had been
set up for myself and my then girlfriend. She's like, oh,
that's exciting. And Bill, her husband, is sitting across and
(46:43):
she goes Bill, Eric, He's coming to the White House
tomorrow and he said, oh that's great, awesome, And I
said yeah, so if anything's you know, moved on your desk,
it was probably this guy. He's like, well, have a
good time. We continue the dinner. I had my BlackBerry.
I looked down and I had a flashing message and
(47:05):
I look and it said this is like twenty minutes
after this happened, and it said White House Tour canceled.
My White House tour was canceled from my publicist and
I look at it and I show it to her
and she goes, Bill, Bill, his white House tour just
got canceled. And he goes, oh, wow, sorry about that. Well,
(47:29):
here's my business card. If you're ever in Washington, d C. Again,
give me a call. I'll give you a personal tour.
And I'm thinking, Okay, the chief of staff just gave
me his card. That's pretty cool. But also, like, I
went my tour tomorrow, dude, I'm here. I'm here now,
Like I don't want it next month or whenever. So whatever,
(47:52):
it got canceled. And the next day we went to
the Smithsonian. We did this, We went to the Native
American Smithsonian. And then I was like, let's go to
a capital's game. So we went to a capital's game.
So we go back to the hotel in Georgetown. We
walk in to the bar to have a cocktail. All
(48:12):
the TVs are lit up breaking news Osama bin Laden
killed and I'm Michael, oh my god, this is why
our White House tour. Oh, And I think, well, that's
cool enough. Right there. I was gonna be there when
all this was going down, you know, tip of the spear,
(48:35):
tip of the sword, whatever the operation was called. So
that was that. Well, like four weeks later, Jake Tapper
hits me up on Twitter direct message and says, is
it true that you had a White House tour the
next morning, you know, of the White House Correspondence dinner,
And I said, yeah, percent true. And he said, well,
(48:57):
there's a story that you told Bill Daily that the
White House tour. You had a White House tour, And
that was the first he had heard that the tours
hadn't been canceled, and it was an oversight that people
were still coming to the White House. Oh my god,
you talking to his wife and and he was like,
wait a second, yeah, still on the books, still on
(49:17):
the books. And and so cut to then the six
months later, the deconstruction of the night, when we found
out that, uh yeah, it was all that was going on.
And here Bill Daily gives an interview that says, yeah,
I'm I'm sitting that the correspondence and earned some actor
from family guy tells me he's coming to coming to
(49:41):
the White House. And I was like, uh, no, you're not.
And he canceled the tours right there for me. And
then it pretended like come another time. Well here, So
then I learned from Ben Sherwood and George Stephanopolis, being
the savvy newsman they are, when she said, well, why
(50:03):
did his tour get canceled? Bill, and he said, quote,
maybe a leaky pipe or something. That those two went
and they came over and started. George and Ben they
already had something like their new synapses went off. Yes,
they knew. When I said my tour got canceled and
he said maybe a leaky pipe or something pipe, they
(50:27):
moved those people out of the way and sat next
to him, and I watched that happen. They got in there.
So then throughout the deconstruction of this process, hearing those
stories and George tells his story, Ben tells his story,
somebody writes an article about it. It's in a book
that your producer said, he he read. I know it's
documented on in a few different places. But yeah, I was.
(50:47):
I was sitting there and Eric all along. You're going
on a Vechan game the next night, not knowing a thing. Yeah,
I think he may have had a hat trick or
I know he scored a goal that night for sure,
But you don't think anything leaky pipe whatever. Uh So
that is my brush with history with that specific thing
(51:10):
and why the White House Correspondence dinner always became one
of my most favorite things to go. Would you go
every year after that? I went every year until he
stopped having it. Yeah. I loved going. I had so
many great experiences, met so many amazing, awesome people. I
was at the famous Italian restaurant in Georgetown. I can't
(51:32):
think of the name of it right now. It's where
everybody goes the night Daniel Snyder drafted uh r G three,
who was it, Yes, r G three, And we're standing
in there, and he walks in, and I walk over
and say hi to him. And then I see him
at the Italian Embassy later that night, and I was
talking to r G three and and Daniel Sneider came
(51:52):
over and like grabbed him and took him away, and
I remember like he just needed to go go for
him to meet somebody else, and I just remember thinking,
like that's exciting, and that also sucks that he just
got drug away from this conversation. UM, thank you for
this last forty five minutes. This made my day. This
is incredible. My last thing Chiefs Super Bowl. I assume
(52:12):
you're there. Do you have a bunch of plans? Are
excited to get to Arizona. I am excited. We're gonna
get in Friday. It's gonna be kind of a quick
trip of some obligations in l a before and then
after and hopefully we'll get a victory. I mean, I'm nervous, man.
I mean that offensive and defensive line of the Eagles
is absolutely no joke. And I told Lindsay last night,
(52:37):
I said, I kind of feel like I need to
be the canary in the cave because of my experience.
But Chiefs fans think they had their hands full with
since fans um they have no idea. We better strap
up for Philadelphia Eagles fans because they are no joke either.
And I'm telling you, I'm on the East Coast. I
live in Brooklyn. All Philly fans they're coming, like the
(53:00):
amount of ticket requests. I Chiefs fans, if you're taking
this for granted, you gotta represent this time. You do
not want this. If you see a green, I'll tell
you that, Oh yeah, it is no Philly fans or
no joke. I've I went to the first game ever
at the link he played a preseason game against the
New England Patriots. Yeah, I was in town shooting a
commercial with Donovan McNabb, a T and T commercial. You
(53:21):
can google that commercial, a T and T Donovan McNabb commercial.
But I got to go to a preseason game and
it was the first game at the link. But, um,
Philly fans or no joke. Andy Reid needs to let
everybody know that he knows they're no joke. Brett Beach
needs to let everybody know he knows they're no joke.
And I'm telling everybody, Chiefs fans, keep your cool. We're
(53:43):
a great team. Don't get engaged at all the other stuff.
Let the players play, let them talk the trash. I
think the Philly Mayor is smart enough now to know
not to to do what the sense mayor did. I
know our mayor won't U. Let's just have a good game.
Let's love each other. It's just like hitting mad at
each other. Let's enjoy the fact that we live in
(54:05):
a world where we get to go watch grown men
beat each other up on the field and have a
great time and don't engage in negativity with each other.
Just have fun. It's a beautiful message. That's kind of
the spirit of our podcast, My Friend the Season with
Peter Sugar Eric stone Street, way more time, hold on,
hold on. Beach said, thanks for calling him back last night.
So either you did call him back last night or
(54:26):
you didn't call him back last night. I didn't, do
you realize I texted him several times throughout the day
and he kept on saying he was in meetings, and
I go, hey, buddy, you've got a game. You're not
at the Senior Bowl. I was, yeah, we'll get in
touchy and I but you know what, I'd much rather
spend forty five minutes with you than just some general
manager talking about sizes, heights and weights. Anyway, you're the best.
I so appreciate you, guys. Eric stone Street. Awesome of
(54:48):
you to join us. And uh, I'll see you in
the Super Bowl. Hopefully I'll see on the field for
the game. See there, Peter, see you guys. Eric stone
Street's amazing. That's a true die hard fans season ticket
holder since nineteen with his family and then living in Hollywood. Says,
you know what, I don't want to miss a single
snap of the Mahomes Era goes and buys a suite
(55:10):
and he goes to every single home game. I love
the guy. I think he's beautiful. I think there were
life lessons in there, and I love his passion for
the Chiefs. And I love you guys for listening truly.
I want to thank Aaron Won Kaufman. I want to
thank Jason English there here every week with me as
we record these podcasts, which I'm having such a blast doing.
I want to thank you the listeners. I want to
thank Jason Kleinman, who does such a great job with
(55:32):
the clips that go up on social Matt Schneider, Meredith
Batt and everybody over at the NFL network who has
been supportive of this podcast. Uh. And I want to
thank the music man, a Chiefs fan, Mr Jack rud. Uh.
This has been a blast, and we have plenty more
content to come. Super Bowls coming, guys, and UH, let's
enjoy the next few weeks because it's it's alive and
(55:53):
well and the Chiefs and the Eagles are going at
it and we have plenty to discuss right here on
the Season with Peter Schueger. Yeah, The Season with Peter
(56:18):
Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with
i heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you
get your podcasts.
Host
Peter Schrager
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.