6-14-24 Hour 1

Firebirds previewing game 1
Top 5 coaching jobs in sports 
Goz has a wedding issue that needs to be addressed

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Lovak and Guzz On ninety fivenine Fox Sports Radio Happy Friday. Everybody
from the Wooly Toys Studio GT ToysToys with a Z allegedly m yeah,
we're this is an odds show today, Levac, like, are we at
MVP Arena? Am I in Syracuse? Are you at the Capitol? I'm
using my presidential privilege to broadcast froman undisclosed location. But it's also the

(00:25):
GT Toy Studio Toys with a Zbecause of contractual obligations. Can you imagine
if like all those was it DickCheney was always in like an undisclosed location.
There was like, ah, yeahit's undisclosed, but uh, we
have a deal with Halliburton, soHalliburton undisclosed location. Did you ever watch

(00:47):
that movie? No, I've alwayswanted to. I've never gotten around to
it, though I saw the movieand people hyped it up. Ada McCay
was the director. I believe ChristianBales started Dick Cheney in that movie.
If you always wonder like Dick Cheneyman, Dick Cheney's kind of like boring,
like you know what really happened?Wasn't he really running the country instead
of Bush fell asleep in the movie. Well you're and you're still like like

(01:10):
you still like like you still getoff on politics, like politics is still
your like like sports is your jam. But like like dare I say family,
sports then politics, like you don'treally have those are those are like
the three things that motivate you themost money now, but yes, those
are the three. But you makeyou make a little bit of money talking
about sports and now running a politicstation. Look at you, you made

(01:34):
it, Guzi did it all right, let's let's call it. We all
made We all did what we didto do. That's out Friday show in
the summer. We're out. That'sall that's for me, you know,
just to me. It's just agood day to be alive. I'm glad
you're here because Friday's are stressful.We've got a lot coming up on today's
show, and I'm going to kindof read a menu here, which I
don't like to do. But we'vegot the four Horsemen I called them on

(01:55):
social media, the four Horsemen.We've got Michael track care Co joining us
at four forty five. So alittle programming note. The play that is
gonna get bumped up the four twentyand then it's a Firebird there. I
call it AFL takeover. In thefive o'clock hour, we're joined by the
voice Day, the voice of theFirebirds, Andrew Santillo. That's gonna be
very awkward and odd. Is theteam president's interviewing the broadcaster. I don't

(02:15):
know how I'm gonna believe, butI just you know, listen, Andrew
gets a break, Andrew gets break, Andrew gets love. Can you imagine
like Mark Cuban interviewing the Mavericks broadcaster. I don't even know what the best
comparison is Brian Cashman interviewing Michael kor Johnston. We could have that play
out the opposite direction at the fiveo'clock hour. Today it is, Yeah,

(02:38):
I guess, I guess it's kindof like that. I will I
will let you know again though thatBenny Ice very cross with you, maybe,
oh, very cross with you.I went like today, just you
know, do us the final stuffnext? Getting everything together in the office,
Ben's doing where everybody's if. Joe'sgetting tickets like clients last minute.

(02:59):
And oh, by the way,I changed the parking list. Tom Guy's
not coming put Brian Mariano in thatspot, and then we need a we
need a media pass for Brian Marianoand Ben Goes because God sucks. I
was like, wow, he Goes. Who chooses a wedding over undefeated Firebird
football. It's like, wow,get them. I've got a big question

(03:21):
about that wedding. By the way, I need some life advice for you,
Levac before this hour ends. Ihave a big coach, a big
If you were listening to our sisterstations this morning, WGY and The Legend
Jamie Roberts on ninety eight three,TROI the cats out of the bag already
about this question, but we needto get Levec's take on how I should
handle the situation. Coach Damon Warealso in the five o'clock hour, and

(03:44):
then one more to close out theshow. He heard AFL and assumed it
meant Arizona Fall League, so he'sa little confused. Justin Latta is going
to close out the show. Sothat's a pack show we've got today.
Somebody, I gotta get up tothe upper floors, get me a ladder.
I want a ladder, please,all right, listen, it's it's
a big weekend. Man, LikeI don't know I do we talk Firebirds?

(04:06):
Do we talk NBA Finals? Likethe top four? Four is gonna
be test because there's a lot,like you said, Levex Stanley Cup,
a lot I told you yesterday,I don't want to talk about the NBA
finals. There's none to talk about. The two things that we should talk
about that. I don't want totalk about NBA Finals and the Mets.
Those are the two things I don'twant to talk about. I don't want
to talk I think we covered it. I'm I'm team wind Horse. Okay,

(04:28):
go, big dudes, gotta sticktogether. Tell what tell you what
a piece of poop? Lucad Donkeyis? What's that? The one show
does Donkey of the day, that'sLucid Donchi every day every day it's you,
Luca, You suck, You're terrible. I'm I'm upset with you.
You're no joker. Did yesterday wellmaybe we should. You brought it up,

(04:49):
you brought it up now top four? But you know, I do
have a question about the Firebirds,So okay answered. Because there are people
who listen to this Friday show,you listening that maybe missed a little bit
of yesterday's show. It's a bigweekend. This is the last scheduled home
game for the fire Birds. Great, thank you very much. Because the
postseason, as we touched on alittle bit on the Thursday show, the

(05:11):
postseason format is now put out there. I asked this question to you,
and maybe you can't do it atthis point. Could you give yourself a
grade? Could you give the franchisea great already? Because you guys have
gone through a lot the last twelvemonths, and it's been the theme of
this season. Forged in fire.This home game in particular, if a
win happens, the team stays undefeated, the home record stays undefeated. The

(05:33):
top dog in Arena football is stillthe Almedy fire Birds Bird. Thank you,
top bird. And this team hasforged through fire. I don't want
to give it an out for thepostseason, but that's about as good as
you could hope for with great finishes, walk off wins. Leovac like the
expectations high again this weekend. Youguys continue to raise the bar overall and

(05:55):
other season is not over, butit feels like things have been going well.
You know. It's it's an interestingthe difference between last year and this
year. Like obviously last year Albanywas the epicenter of the issues with arena
sports, with football whatever like itwas, it was a problem, and
you know, we got clowned alot, people said a lot of things.

(06:17):
You know, Ultimately, I thinkI think we were able to get
our message out and show everybody that, like the mistakes that were made came
from a place of caring about theproduct, caring about football being here in
Albany, and and you know,for that reason, you know, you
feel bad it went the way itwent, but at the same time,
you know that you're doing what youcan do to make it right. Uh.

(06:38):
This year, I would I wouldput like, I don't really grade
myself because I'm I'm part of it. I'm not. It's not an individual
grade thing like when it comes tome, like you can't, I can't
get like an individual grade in myin my personal opinion. But like what
Damon Ware has done his first likefull season as a head coach in our
world, like his assistant head coach, he was the head coach, but

(07:00):
it was like to start to finishbasically the the last year ended and the
dude pointed North drove here and hasbeen building this team ever since. I
give like, regardless of whatever happensnext, I give him an aide because
I just this this group of guysthere, it's it's twenty four people you
would invite to your house and thenyou go watch them play football. I

(07:23):
give him an the ownership group,I give an aplause because when you when
you build this, you know there'sa chance you're gonna you know, you're
gonna put a little extra cash outmore than you wanted to. But when
you're building it and you're building itthe right way, and you you know
you're you're saying, hey, maybethe helmets aren't the quality of what we

(07:46):
like, and we're gonna buy otherones, and hey, the footballs aren't
are the quality that are players like, we're gonna buy other ones like the
like they there's never been a momentwhere they've let money get in the way
of what should be a good product. And because of the league, we
haven't been able to do like everyother Saturday night, every Saturday like we're
being able to build momentum the waythey should so so they get able and

(08:11):
the and the roster the guys,I mean, if you listened to Flock
University on Wednesday Live. If youcan hear it again tomorrow, yeah,
right here at nine am, you'llhear I jokingly say, oh, it's
a it's a ten game sprint.It's a ten because that's what everybody said
in the beginning. Not where,not like not like this, but it's
oh, it's listen, yeah,you don't need a buy week. It's

(08:31):
ten weeks. It'll be quick.It's not even three full months. And
it's like, dude, these guysare banged up and they're fighting, and
like I went to I went topractice yesterday. I didn't get a chance
to run in today, but yesterdayit just worked out where I got to
actually go watch them a practice.These guys like each other, like they

(08:52):
like each other. It's not justit's not like two or three guys clicking
up and whatever. These this isa this is a this is a band
of brothers. And it's so Ia plus for them too. I just
I haven't been around a group likethis before. And I think a lot
of us are like, I'm learning, I'm getting better at what I do.
You know, We're getting better attickets, we're getting better at events,
We're getting better at all that.But like, I like our group.

(09:16):
I like what has been built here. And you know, if I've
always been Mike Quarters like a I'veknown this a long he might as well
be a brother, except for thefact that we still speak. Andy Geltzer
from the day he got into theCapitol region when he's at Malakanda, he's
been a sounding board for me andhe's been like a mentor, you know.

(09:37):
And then Richie. The day Imet Richie says no, I was
like, that guy's just somebody thathe rolls. Man, the punch has
come. He just keeps rolling,Like there are three guys who if I
could pick the ownership group, youknow, knowing what I know now,
I'm picking that group every time.Well said by all the people from across
the board of how well it's turnedout in twenty and twenty four, was
still a lot of football still leftto be played. And now thinking back

(10:00):
to how framed that question, Ithink I could have done a better job
with that, because here's kind ofwhere yeah, oh, the broadcast team
is half good. The half thatshows up to every game. I like
them, not the half that aren'tgonna come to the final home game of
the regular season. That's an ffor me. That's that's definitely not for
me. Here's how I should haveset it up. You know the movie
Independence Day when the Aliens land andthey're fighting Earth and everything else. That's

(10:26):
kind of how I should have setup the question. Maybe more like this
lavic, because here's what's really happenedinvolving those group. A lot of those
people, including yourself, You andI watch Stranger Things. I think Stranger
Things is one of the rare showsin history that has never had a bad
episode. There are shows that aregreat television shows of all time, but
you might have one or two episodeslike, oh, that wasn't very good.

(10:48):
Because really, Stranger Things isn't atelevision show. It's a movie chopped
up at at ten different episodes andthey pull out your nostalgia strings and they
do like it. It's great storytelling. Everything is. There's a side of
this where like Stranger Things is sortof like what's happened with indoor or arena
football for Albany for the past thirteenmonths. What happened is people like Ulovac

(11:09):
and Mike Korda and coach Ware andDarius Prince and everybody else got out of
the upside down when everything was wrongand there were like alien demons going on.
They're like, what world am Iliving in? And you guys got
out spoiler alert for people who haven'tseen stranger things. They got out of
the upside out and they're cruising downa nice Indiana highway. Life is good.

(11:31):
Everything's gonna be fine. We're onto twenty twenty four. We've got
a new name, a new brandthanks to the elevation ten thousand. But
sort of people know that nostalgia feelof X talking about life will be good.
And then all of a sudden thatdema Gorgan's out. What I thought
we got out? What do youmean? Teams aren't doing things right?
What do you mean the national mediajust cares about TikTok videos? What do

(11:54):
you huh? You guys were forgedin fire, had another obstacle in the
way. You got through that again, and I know you're not ready for
The postseason press conference of WOW twentytwenty four was also kind of crazy,
but all of they's here. Therewere some people that thought this thing was
gonna shut down. There are alot of people are like, is the

(12:15):
league gonna finish? Is allbody gonnafinish. Those are real questions that you
were getting about a month ago.And now we sit here on a Friday
for the regular season finale home game, with a playoff formats set, with
Albody as the best team in theleague in a far better spot. I
think those things are really should bespots where you guys are proud of what's
happened because Albany has been the leaderin this. That is not a bias

(12:37):
take. That is not because weair Flock University on Fox Sports. That
is the truth of the situation.Then if you're a capital or region sports
fan, you could point to theAlbany Firebirds franchise and say this has been
the leader in a nationwide league onhow to do it the right way.
Now, Orlando, here's all thatand they don't care. They won't get
victory, and they want to makesure they're a playoff team, and they're

(12:58):
probably more motivated than Albody is rightnow. But first place is still on
the line in the neutral field.So I know that kind of ticks off
some Firebird fans, but that's beenthe talk. I don't know if you've
talked about demic gorgans or debit godsor whatever they're called in Stranger Things.
If I'm butchering the name on theevil person, but bring that up to
Andy and Richie and Mike next time. Gos has compared this season to the
end of every Stranger Thing season.Yeah, it's I mean, every year

(13:22):
is a new bad guy. That'sI've always said, it's like it's it's
like episodic TV, you know whatI mean, Like it's you know,
so twenty one we get in,we're fighting COVID. The season ends with
Tommy, Grady and Me and Oddsfinding out that like people put us at
odds, you know, we weren't. It wasn't really us at all.
Resolved by the way many times over, did you tell Daryl that on Twitter?

(13:46):
No, Daryl, Darryl finally blockedme back, thank god, Oh
you gotcha? Yeah yeah, ohand I only I don't even know it.
Somebody said that. Somebody said somethingto me like do you see this?
And they want to show and Ilike, I don't know how it
was. I clicked in. Itwas like ah ah, good h But
then it was twenty two. Comingout of COVID, we had all kinds
of weird like travel issues, likeJacksonville couldn't get here to play us.

(14:11):
We had trouble getting I literally burnedsage in the office to get the evil
spirits out, because there's like everyevery little thing, like credit the Yankee
Trails. There was like one daywhere like they put us on a brand
new bus and it broke down,like it was a there was no reason
to believe in the world this wouldhappen. And like Joel over in the
office there, I hear him like, hold on, if I do this,

(14:33):
I'm like, I'm like, allof a sudden, it's like it's
like that scene in Pushing ten withJohn Cusack where he's trying to get all
the planes landed and he's like,all right, if I move this bus
here, I do this, I'llhave somebody picking your guys up in fifteen
minutes. Have him have the bagsready. I'm like, okay. And
then obviously twenty three, all hellbreaks loose, and now here we are
twenty four. We've got it together. The league goes through a major transformation.

(14:54):
Yeah every year, and every yearwe go, hey, so things
happened twenty won't happens twenty two.We got a ton of time to get
ready for it. Hey, thethings that went wrong with twenty two,
we're ready for it. Twenty four, Hey we got It's like I'm like,
shoot, when many started saying it'slike you show your mouth, don't
you say it can't be it's gonnabe better. Don't you say a word.

(15:16):
And it's But I think I thinkit's sports to this level. Like
I think if you talk to MattCallahan from the Valley Cats or Sam Clifford
of the Patrunce, I think eachone will tell you like, at this
level, you're gonna run into randomthings. It's not you know, every
team isn't rolling with a couple ofhundred million like in the NFL, you
know, so just crazies. LikeI mean, there's just it's it's not.

(15:41):
I don't want to call it minorleague sports. I think that's an
insult to the guys who are playingit. But it's not. It's not
the it's not the the mountaintop,you know. It's it's you're you're halfway
up Everest and things go wrong halfwayup Everest. You hit at the peak
and you ain't at the base,you know. So I think it's it's
impressive watching like at a league level, watching Mike Quarter get in like dig

(16:03):
in rolls leaves up, you know, like one minute's over at belfour,
like going, oh, there's abuilding that's flooded. All right, I
need six guys here, four guysthere or whatever. And then two minutes
later he's on the phone with theyou know, Chris Chetti from the AFL,
Hey, did you consider this?This and this? It's like,
and then there's Gelcher. It's likeevery time there's a problem at locally,
you know, and he's there,and then then there's Richie. Every time

(16:25):
I'm I'm in, I need backup, Richie's right there. Like it's that
the leadership group, damon ware.It's just I believe I believe that group.
I'm the weak link of that group. And you know how I feel
about me. I love me someme, but of that group, I'm
the one that you could replace theeasiest. I would disagree with that,
but well, I don't have themoney that want three to do. Over

(16:48):
the years of business acumen, Ifeel like you've got a very you've got
a very good feel on the localmarket. You know what's going on.
Second of the year for a reason. Yeah, in twenty two, you
know, but no, I'm saying, like, yeah, I couldn't.
I couldn't do what Mike Quarda,Andy Gelcher Richie says that too. I
couldn't do it. I couldn't dowhat any one of those dudes do,
And I couldn't do what Damon waredoes. Like of that group, they

(17:11):
could, like like Matt Woods,who was the president before all hull broke
loose in twenty three, and noneof that was his fault. He could
do a lot of what I do, and I would still be here to
help with the with the you know, media and stuff. But like it's
take it for what I'm saying.Have you ever heard me say that I'm
the least valuable member of any team? No, And I'm thrown off.

(17:32):
And I actually think you're being toohumble because you're not giving yourself enough credit,
because I think what you just laidout there is somebody's good at quarterback,
running back, wide receiver, andyou're acting like the position need to
do doesn't exist. But I'm gonnastop you right there because I don't know
how to handle humble Lovak and becausefor the next two segments we got coming
up I'm gonna force you into somethingthat you don't like to do, but
I'm gonna enjoy it. And thenI need your advice on that wedding conversation

(17:52):
that we talked about. I needI need those. It's gonna feel like
a ask Levak and Gas hour.This is a very much like a life
hour of Levack and guys. Wewill talk sports coming up, but talk
about a partnership how to Express EmploymentProfessionals Levec speaking about this morning on wg
WY, Jordan Modiato came on andtalked about Express Employment Professionals and the partnership
that's going on with the Albany Firebirds. We're gonna touch on that about thirty

(18:15):
seconds, but first, but I'lltell you about Express Employment Professionals. If
you're looking for that new career opportunityhere in the Capital region. Expresspros dot
com is the website. They havethat scouting report they do for you and
say hey, this is a businessthat can work for you, and they
work with businesses as well. Heyhave you heard about so and so.
Look at their skill set. I'vegot an opportunity to meet them. They'd
be a perfect fit for your businessright here in the five to one eight.

(18:37):
If you're looking to grow your teamor your business, the place they
call is Express Employment Professionals in Levac. The connect with the Firebirds this weekend
absolutely, I mean he's he's helpedus in the past, like staffing our
office. And then this weekend whenyou go to the block party, the
I Love New York block Party startingfive o'clock on Saturday, you'll have a
chance to get your picture taken withand in his Firebirds race car. It's

(18:59):
cool, man, I'll tell you. He he brings that thing out,
it drives it around the corner.That's a showstopper right there, or party
starter. I mean, we'll seehow it goes. But yeah, Jordan's
been a big, big supporter ina lot of different ways for a lot
of different years. Expresspros dot comis the website check out Express Employment Professionals
on their social media channels. Sowe teased this earlier in the week.

(19:22):
I want to know what the bestcoaching jobs are in sports, not the
top four though, top five,But we'll do it next here on the
Voice of the Capitol Region Sportsman,Fox Sports ninety five to nine and nine
eighty Voice of the Capitol Regions SportsFan, Fox Sports ninety five, nine
and nine eighty. I don't havea lot of rules, okay, but

(19:45):
I try to avoid the hockey staplesof radio, the yeah p rowse,
shitty been of the house, outof that. Let's your Mountain Rushmore of
greatest all time Yankees and guys likejust the hack is strong with you?

(20:08):
Okay, you have, you have. You're dragging me into a top five,
which is basically Mount Rushmore. Uh, what is this? You want
to do the top five coaching jobsand sports? Here's okay, set up
to the second here. Okay,So here's the problem. We're not doing
to Mount Rushmore. We're not We'renot giving you the four best. The
Mount rushmorees has been retired. Iknow barstool sports still does mean everything else,

(20:30):
so we're not doing a top fourof But lists are still fun in
sports. I know you hate them, which is why in similar fashion,
and you're giving me power rankings,occasionally I will force you into a list.
This medium sports talk was built onthis stuff. Yes, it is
a little too old school, soI would I would say hacky, But
I think there is a portion ofthis audience that will enjoy this list,

(20:52):
and you can let us know yourlist across social media at the Jeff Leovaka
on Twitter at Tom Guys TMGs.He's thet WF X nine. I also
enjoyed that this could be evergreen content, so if we ever need to use
this for holiday shows, we canuse it. Okay, Juneteenth, if
you're listening at eye, Okay,these are the top five at coaching jobs

(21:12):
that I would want. Now Iwill count college. I will count college
for this gig. However, Ihave no colleges in my top five.
Let's say five. Let me seeslower. So this is like do you
think that anyone would want or thetop five you want if you could pick

(21:36):
a job in sports, Like ifyou were a coach in this field,
football, baseball, basketball, hockey, anything, Hey, this is the
best job. If I'm a headcoach and I want to be a football
coach, my dream job would bethis. If I'm a basketball coach,
my dream job baseball hockey. Ifyou think there's another team sport that I'm
missing, If you want to throwin some football clubs from across the pond,

(22:00):
if you want to do that,I'm probably not gonna push back on
you. Here's the one that's beenthrowing me off, and I'm trying to
find a better answer. I startoff my list with the fifth best coaching
job in sports as the Lakers.At one point, you probably could argued
this was the best coaching job insports Schenectady, his own pat Riley Bill
Jackson. You can run through thelist of legends who have coachedt Lakers.

(22:22):
However, what we've seen over thepast a few days is we've watched college
coaches pass on this job, whetherthat was to play by the agent of
Dan HURTLEEZ or not. It's stillthe Lakers. It's still one of the
most championship filled pro sports franchises ofall time. I would still have the
Lakers at five. The Lakers justbarely squeaked by the Dallas Cowboys. I

(22:45):
do not have the Cowboys on mylist. Okay, so I'll run through
the rest of my four here,and you can push back on any of
you who don't like I have theSaint Louis Cardinals at number four. The
Cardinals have been one of the mostsuccessful franchises in sports. They've continued to
win, They've had long sety tradition. I think one of the most amazing

(23:07):
parts about the Saint Louis Cardinals.And I'm not trying to shame anybody right
now with this statement, but theCardinals are consistently so good. Do you
even known the name of the managerright now? For the Cardinals? That
might not good right now? Exactlytraditionally they've been good. They're not great
right now, But the Cardinals havebeen so good that even in New York
and major markets, people might struggleto tell you the name of the manager

(23:29):
of the coach because they are firearmfire them, get them at they don't
have that type of coverage. Ohso I know you're number one? Is
that? So I have the Cardinalsat four, I've got the New York
Yankees at three, Levac and becauseof that, almost the backward scenario that
the Yankees are the most championship filledpro sports franchise of all time. The
New York Yankees continuing, however,in comparison to the Cardinals. Every single

(23:53):
day and a random Tuesday in June, on a random pitching decision in October,
the Yankee manager could lose their job. But it's Levac and guys on
ninety five nine Fox Sports Radio.You know you're lucky. I didn't just
go you know what, I gottago work. I got stuff to do
in the other job right now.Thank you for not lead. I need

(24:15):
I need your help, Levac,I need your help, all right.
I tease this off the top ofthe show, so I need some life
advice. You know, let's givecredit. I know you were being very
humble earlier in the show, butI feel like this has been a fun
I think even an enjoyable evolution foryou and your career. Because here iHeart
here, I heart a forced evolutionin my career. Let's be honest.

(24:36):
I would I have said it.I'll say it a million more times.
It is so much easier to talkcrap about running a football team than it
is to actually run one. WhatI was going to say was that you've
been a mentor to people here inthe building. I was going to say,
there have been people who have leanedon you for questions, and not
just on air, but promotions andsales. I think more and more people

(24:56):
are asking you questions about the business. So I feel like in the world
of football, I'm I do whatI can I help in the world of
radio. I'm the whole bleeping show. I mean, I know this is
there's no reason. There's no reasonthat jay A l Ever should have been
out. I never should have beenout. Now that I'm in, like

(25:18):
you know, one foot in,I do want to take the time.
I like to show. I liketo show everybody my value, you know,
yes, And I like to help. I like to help the young,
youngins. And I of course youknow this, but I'll say this
for the people who've just started listeningto this show. I know a lot
of rena A Football League fans knowthis. Levac has been obviously a mentor
to me, and Levac will tellyou this. As much as the advice

(25:38):
I asked him about the business,I don't take as much of his advice
as I've taken some but not allthat probably not most of what I should
have taken. But nonetheless I doask and the times that I go,
if you never listen to anything else, I say, please try. This
is the like just right it that'snever gonna happen. But I'm listening here.

(25:59):
I need your advice. And Iknow again you might have heard it
on our sister station. Try thismorning, we gave it. I talked
to Jimmy about it yesterday off theairge he took it. Gey did a
little bit on it today. Sohere's the situation I got going down.
So I'm going back to Syracuse fora wedding this week. My buddy Darren
is getting married. In my groupof friends from back home, he's basically
the last one. He's the lastone on the list here. So about

(26:22):
a year and a half ago,one of those guys who are our friends
set a group chat with everybody whohad gotten married in the past but left
Darren out. Now, Darren's beensingle, his soon to be wife has
never gone to any of these weddings, so we'll say it's Jimmy. Jimmy
sends a text and says, Hey, just checking with you guys, what
did Darren get you as a weddinggift? So you've been to weddings.

(26:42):
Wedding gift can be anything. Itcould be covering the plate is usually the
etiquette like, okay, how muchis a plate perper? Okay, I'm
gonna pay that. You could gethim booze, you could get him a
gift. They're gonna use the etiquetteof what you're getting somebody really doesn't better
if you get some sign of agift. Okay, the game of a
gift. Somebody writes back, says, hey, what'd you get them?
And then DJ writes, he didn'tgive me anything. He just gave me

(27:04):
a card with zero dollars. Andthen Mike wrote back, Darren also didn't
get me anything, and then Bertwrote back, Darren didn't get me anything.
We stumbled upon a secret that thisguy's been going to weddings for eight
years and has given nobody a gift. Nobody, well, that nobody in

(27:26):
eight years. Now here's a fewmore to this. His parents have gone
to a few weddings, they havegiven a gift. They now someone I
asked this question, what if hewas a member of the wedding party.
Did he think, Okay, Ibought my suit, I bought the bachelor
party. I didn't think that I'ddo a gift about half. I don't
know if that's an excuse, butsomebody asked that. So maybe he got
confused along the way. Is hefrom a different country or has a different

(27:47):
culture. No, so his weddinghas now arrived. He is still oblivious
to the fact that all of usnow know that he has never given a
gift to Eddie of r W wedeats. How do we handle this?
I have okay, because you can't. You can't not do a gift.
You're better than that. You can'tbe dragged down in the mud. You

(28:10):
bet you're better than that. However, I through years of living with my
brother Kevin, my mother, Iam a black belt and passive aggression.
You buy her a present, Youget something that's just for her, like

(28:33):
a gift certificate to a spa youget you get something. Whatever she likes,
that's the gift. Like if shelikes she likes to you know,
uh, cook Chinese food, youbuy a lock and you give her that.
If she likes long walks, youget her you get running shoes or
a gift certificate to a running whateveryou get. It's got to be so

(28:56):
obvious it's not for him, it'sjust for her. That he makes a
joke of it at some point andyou can go, well, that's funny
because you never gave me anything.And then you get to do the so
you've given a gift. Yeah,And usually what you want to do is
you want your gift to at leasteven out the dinner. Yes, So
if you figured the dinner's gonna befifty seventy five bucks, there's two of

(29:18):
you. You're a hunter, youknow, fifty bucks something like that at
least, but I would get Iwould get her a gift. I like
this a lot because you cast somethingvery quick here. By the way,
if you have it, a takeon what you want to offer up for
advice at tom guz comgozz on Twitter, at the Jeff Levac and wof X

(29:38):
nine eighty. If you're listening onthe app, maybe you're listening in Syracuse.
You can hit a microphone button rightin whatever you gos at iHeartMedia dot
com. I rarely give out theemail gos at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll
even give the email for this.So I like where you're going with this
because you quickly identified that the brideshould not be a victim here. Correct,
she's never gone to any of theweddings. They haven't traditionally, her

(30:00):
parents are probably footing a lot ofthe bill. Exactly right. You don't
want her to feel like Darren,what happened your friend suck? Yeah,
I can't believe you know he's nevergonna go. Yeah, you know he's
never gonna go to them, likehe's never gonna hurt, Like, oh,
honey, I've never bought them apresent, he's gonna go. I
just I don't know. The ideaof giving her just a gift is awesome.
And the idea of like maybe evenall of us getting together and getting
hurt over the top gift. Oh, he is also an idea I've heard

(30:23):
which is very funny and very good. See, I wanted to do this.
I wanted to give a gift,but it was so gimmicky, like
sixty nine dollars and sixty nine centsof ooh, that's odd. Why did
he? And then slowly each cardthey open, they realize something's not right,
like I do want there to bea moment and maybe Levic, you
were getting into this too, thathe realizes that he feels the need to

(30:47):
approach you about this situation. Wellthat and oh my gosh, what do
you mean people give gifts at weddingslike you almost want to see the realization
of Like, I've never given anybodya gift at their wedding. Was I
supposed to over the course of thelast ten years? Yes? Yes,
what do you think the box,You put your card in the box.
It's not like you didn't get acard. You actually had the card with

(31:08):
nothing in it, still dropped it. I want to see the moment where
he realized everyone realized he didn't givea gift that anybody's ready. So maybe
watching them open that we won't beable to do. You won't be there.
But I think he reaches out atthat point, like if you get
something like I don't know anything abouther, like whatever, whatever the running
shoes examples running running shoes, soyou get her like gifts your custom fitting

(31:33):
blah blah blah running shoes, andit's clear it's just for one pair of
women's shoes or whatever you like,you know, all running gear for her,
everything she needs whatever, pink apparellike her face purple. Hey girl,
we think you look amazing, butwe know you enjoy running here something
like literally like write it to herand then you have you can play it
two ways when he finally comes andgoes, what you know, what was

(31:56):
half the gift missing? Like werethere were their guy shoes? You go,
But the gift is she's going tolook great forever because she's running for
it. You're welcome but more importantly, you didn't get a gift because you've
never given us one. Now thereis a more aggressive, passive, aggressive
way to handle it. Each oneof you by yourself something. Put all

(32:16):
the thank you notes to him forthat item together in one box, and
when he opens it, you knowyou and and the lovely Jordan, Hey,
thanks, thanks for buying us thisPanini press. We really love it.
And then you know the other buddylike, hey, really appreciate this.
You know this bartender set, it'sgreat. And then when he goes,

(32:38):
what is it? Well for yourpresent? We make good. I
want you owe us. You sniffedsomething out real quick, Levic. I
want to go back to that.I want to go back to what you
just mentioned. One other thought.More than five people have told me this.
I don't want to do this,but I am giving the best man
speech. Oh no, some havesuggested this one hundred percent needs to be

(33:00):
in your speech. I don't thinkthis. I don't think that's a terrible
idea. Okay, here's what I'ma little nervous about. The best Man's
speech. You can bust on yourbuddy. You can embarrass him a little
bit. You can it's a right, like, you can do that at
that moment. But I wondered,like, is that too far? It's
like, what do you mean?He never gave a gift in a winding,

(33:21):
But it's like such an it's soeasy. Yeah, is that softball
over the plate material he just gaveyou for the speech and the So here's
the here I get to see themoment of him realizing it, and I
wanted So. Here's the thing though, by doing that, you feel as
though you're taking the low road,but your that forces you to take the
super high road of actually getting himgetting them a very nice wedding present,

(33:43):
because they like, now you've doneit, You've said what needs to be
said, and then you can alsogo. And by the way, you
know, half your half, yourregistry has been taken care of by your
boys from Salva Salvia. How youdoing, Hey, we got you a
wonderful wedding gift. By the way, we're still waiting on yours, and
so is Mike and Jimmy. Andyou know, I could do the least

(34:05):
like he who hasn't received a roarfrom the crowd. Yeah, you do
what I would. I mean,I'm like writing it in my head I
don't even know the guy. I'mjust like I would do the you know,
uh, anyone who knows Darren knowshe's not moved by material things.
At least he's not moved to givematerial things to people at their weddings.
Not one gift any of us ever. And then and then you go and

(34:29):
then you go like what yeah,and there's like, how do they know
they all got together? Yeah,we all got married. We had to
write it down. We all actuallyget together with our wives, Darren.
That's I mean, I mean,I've definitely like when I was younger,
I bet you I missed a few. I bet you like I probably,

(34:50):
like I tell you, my bigthing used to be to take people out
afterwards. Yes, when you getback, get some beers, get you
know, dinner, Yeah, andwhatever. That used to be because I
because that was my way of doingthat was also like hey, I enjoy
I enjoy your company. Here,let's do this. My cousin. I
married my cousin. I their weddinggift. I think I left him a

(35:12):
check. I'm not pol I don'teven remember, but I know like I
was supposed to be, like thegift was that I that I did the
wedding, but like that, thatwas That's one where I'm still like,
do I give a gift now?I mean normally people charge for this.
Hey, like the gesture of givingsomething it could be to me. Some
would argue, you know, gosh, it's got to cover the plate.
I had a buddy who gave usa bodily yeger in Johnson Family Vacation on

(35:36):
DVD. I was like, whatin the world he knew us? So
it was like a very themed giftbecause he knows for so long. Like,
hey, that's I actually remember that. Still, like shout out to
Casey if he's listening. That wasa really cool gift. But it wasn't
expensive. The wife is weighed in. Jordan has weighed in. She has
told me right now, this isthe plan. About twenty four hours away
from the wedding. Here's what sheis planned on doing. She is buying

(35:57):
a card for them. Yep,we are going to drop the hard into
the gift box. There will benothing in the car, and then at
a later date their gift will arrive. So it covers both grounds. Like
this is a statement. When you'veopened the card you realize nothing is in
there. Then he questions, whyis there nothing in there? From X
amount of people? A text maygo out say your gifts on the way,

(36:19):
We just wanted you to realize thisis so she didn't say this part.
But I wonder if that opens upa window for oh man, I
screwed up, guys. I oweyou big time, like drinks on me,
or I owe you guys. Youdon't even want the thing anymore.
I think at this point you justwant acknowledgement. I mean that Thursday bet
I lost on the Mavericks, wasn'tthis felt? I told you I ran

(36:40):
a ladder on that. That wasmaybe not my wife per se, but
I get I get your point.Like it's it's past now, it's usually
gone now. I like, Ilike putting in the best man speech,
and my like I said, myfear of not putting a gift in in
some way, shape or form,is he's never gonna even if he realizes

(37:01):
it, Like when she's looking atit and goes, that's that's nice.
Your friends gave us a card.The plate costs sixty seven dollars, but
they gave us a card. That'sthat's thought. That counts. I guess
we'll we'll pay the wedding bill withthoughts he's not gonna go sweet, that's
my fault. I did that becausehe's not gonna do that. He's gonna

(37:22):
be like, I don't know what'swrong with these guys, my friends forever,
and then maybe it's still dawns onthem. Yeah. The idea of
like her opening the card up,meaning like, oh, that's weird.
Gass didn't get you anything. Whatdid you get Gass for his wedding?
Oh you got a card here fromBert? Hey? What did you get
Bert for his The idea of itslowly peen right, Yes, but I
don't see it. It's not assatisfied, not as funny. But I

(37:45):
think I almost feel like there there'ssomething has to go on the speech that
like at least at least clues it. Yeah, drop some breadcrumbs for yeah,
I think so. Yeah, Ilike, I think I think there's
fun to be had with this.I do. I mean, there's the
ultra highroad just getting him a gift. There's also like, how well do
you know it? Is there somethingthat you know for a fact you could
get him that he's they're not goingto care about in any way, shape

(38:07):
or form, that you want,because you could always do that, like,
hey, look, gotcha, gotyou this this taco rack. There's
a new pair of radio headphones.What do you guys? That's odd.
I mean, I'll take him.If you don't want him, that's fine.
Now it's a wedding crab bucket hatsthe toaster, Will Ferrell rides the
handed. They're all excel. You'rekind of smaller. It's weird. It's

(38:28):
weird. I'm going to Syracuse,by the way, this weekend. Thanks
you. I know you're not doingthe whole U not doing the game,
doing the Firebirds game on Saturday.By the way, I gave you something
for your wedding thanks to Mohawk Hondellbe getting to Syracuse. Am I taking
the CRV AM, I taking theOdyssey. I don't know the answer to
that yet, but I know bothvehicles are for Mohawk. Shout out to

(38:49):
everybody over there. We were thereon Tuesday, great bumping into everybody from
John Lucas to Lindsay Harden. Wesaw everybody from the McKenna family of the
vip Man Morales, great Isel,everybody there. Hawk kind and wants to
make that process easy for you.To find the vehicle that you want to
get into. Think about this twotwenty twenty four rides now in the Gaulowski
Driveway. We did not hit thelottery, I did not hit a big
parlay nothing. We were able tosave money and find the prices that fit

(39:13):
our continuing changing budget. With babynumber three on the way, we're trying
to find the vehicles that can fitour lifestyle and you could do the same
that you could afford for twenty twentyfour and beyond. With the summer road
trips on the way, the vacationsand more. You want to make sure
you're safe. Don't forget about theev prologue as well. You're hearing our
friend Greg Johnson, the GM atMohawk, kind of talk about the ride
that you could get in for thefuture as well. There's so many great

(39:34):
options making a part of your summerplans before that road trip hits. It's
Mohawk Kanda where they always go outof their way to please you and they
bring us the top Foard four,the four biggest stories in the world of
the sports. It's our number two. On this Friday, it's leave Akan
guys on the Voice of the CapitolRegion, sports Man, Fox Sports ninety
five, nine and nine eighty