John Rhadigan – Longtime Sports Broadcaster & New Co-Host

Summer break is officially over, and Luds is back with a bang! Get ready for a brand-new season filled with exciting surprises, including a fresh face in the mix! Joining Luds from time to time is the one and only John Rhadigan, a longtime friend and sports aficionado.

They're diving deep into the ever-evolving world of sports, sharing their witty takes and hilarious anecdotes that will have you in stitches! Tune in for the latest game analysis, fan rants, and some offbeat adventures that only Luds and John can cook up.

It's all things sports, sprinkled with laughter - because when these two get together, you know it's going to be a wild ride! Buckle up and hit that play button; the fun's just getting started!

–––––––––––

A special thanks to our sponsor Herman Marshall Whiskey. Built from the grain up. Just like good whiskey should be.
www.hmwhiskey.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Do you. Here's what I'm thinkingat some point after you kind of introduce
me into the thing, right,I was gonna pull out a beer.
Hang on, I'm gonna get mybeer. Yeah, okay, okay,
good Well, welcome into another episodeof SuDS with Luds. We're officially back

(00:28):
off of vacation. I've been workingall summer and so I got a lot
of catching up to do, andthere's probably nobody better to catch up with
than an icon in the sports industry. Here in the Metroplex. John Ratigan
rads, how you doing. Yougot a big smile on your face.

(00:49):
Things must be going good. Yeah. Well, when when you started talking
about the icon, I was startingto look around, like who you're talking
about? But yeah, it's it'sgreat, you know, Luds. It's
great to see you again and tochat with you again, and I'm anxious,
you know, we'll have a chancehere to talk a little hockey.
I mean, I haven't been onany of the hockey shows, as I

(01:10):
know you haven't for a while overat Bally, so I've definitely missed that
and missed hanging out with you.So yeah, thanks for having me on
Belts. It wasn't called Bally's whenI was there, so I was all
confused when it did start switching.I thought, jeezus, everything's gone out
of Texas and stuff like that.So, uh, yeah, there's been
some changes, and I'm super happyto have you on. I'm I'm a

(01:30):
little disappointed though. You made yourdebut on the dub network all of our
podcast here and not with me,but with Nate and Izaiah, and so
I was like, well, whatthe hell is shown on me? But
you guys go way back, don'tyou. Yeah, we go way back
too, not a hell of alot farther than you and I go back,

(01:52):
because you know, we go backto when the Stars arrived in town.
So I'd probably go a little furtherback with Nate. But look,
look, you know, I'm freakingbandwagon guy, and it looks like the
Cowboys are going to be pretty good. So I thought, well, let
me jump on this damn bandwagon early. So I got on there before well,
good thing, I got on therebefore that that first game, because
I promise you that thing's full.Now. Well, speaking of good teams,

(02:15):
you know again, well we'll getinto some Dallas Stars stuff, So
I think you're going to be ableto jump on their bandwagon too. I
mean, we know they're an exciting, real exciting team, and you know
how the sports fans are here asfar as the Dallas Stars goes, so
I think they're going to be excited. I guess in a way, I
was kind of I was expecting maybea little bit more movement or changes in

(02:37):
the off season, but that justtells you that management are very happy and
comfortable for what they have. Butanyway, let's start with your your ballets.
You mentioned ballets earlier, so canyou give us an update. I
have no idea, maybe you know, I mean, what's going on and
what do you think's going to happenwith the Dallas Stars because they were I
mean, is that thing cool?Is that thing working? Or how much

(02:57):
do you know about all that?Yeah? Yeah, I believe, and
it is. They're in bankruptcy cotValley is and it's actually their parent company,
not Balles, but it's their parentcompany that's in bankruptcy court, and
they're fighting through it every day withevery intention of making it through bankruptcy court
and continuing this network in the sameway that it has always been. In

(03:23):
the short term, they're doing everythingthey can to do that as well,
and that will include Dallas Stars hockeygames this season and for that matter,
Dallas Mavericks games this season. Theyhave, you know, assured the teams
they have enough money through the bankruptcyprocess to pay for all of the team's

(03:43):
rights that Bally owes them on aperiodic basis. I know with the Rangers
there are four payments throughout the courseof a season, probably about the same
with the Stars, So they knowthey have enough money to do that,
and they're going to continue to dothat with the whole that they'll emerge from
bankruptcy a much stronger company financially andthey will be able to then probably make

(04:08):
it a much more certain right thingin the future as Bally's slash Fox always
was in the past. So twothings on that has ever every team,
every sports team that is involved withBalle's, are they all in the same
situation? Are They're just only certainclubs and certain demographics that are in this

(04:28):
situation. Every ballet team is anda few of them kind of lost their
fight with Bally, And you know, I don't understand bankruptcy, so I
don't know how, but like theSan Diego Padres, for example, we're
on Bally and then in the middleof the summer it went away and now
MLB does their broadcasts, so I'mnot really sure what happened there, But

(04:55):
but all the everybody that ever wasBalley pretty much still is and they're all
in the same boat right now untilbankruptcy is settled. Do you trust that?
And the reason I ask you that, if you're an owner of a
club that's in this situation, wouldyou have a backup plan? Because no
reason I asked that is I hadthought I had heard last year after the

(05:15):
hockey season was over that Dallas wasmaybe looking at having their own station or
looking around for other stations. Doyou think they need a backup plan or
not? Before I get into allthis heavy stuff, looks, I was
told this was so my god,So I didn't want to be the first
one. You see, we justgot to get your drink on the road
brand there you go, Well thisis a good Canadian beer. We're talking

(05:39):
hockey. I got a Canadian beerhere. But anyway, happy to have
you on the show. Rads.Yeah, great to be here. We've
been one. Saw you drink thesixteen answers? Yeah like that surprises me.
Yeah. So so anyway, Yeah, to answer that question, I
believe all teams have a backup plan, and I mean, obviously it is

(06:03):
only wise too. But here's whatI tell everybody next, you know,
because I'm assuming Valley is going tocarry the Stars all season long. That
is every indication I'm getting from thepeople at Valley and the few that I've
talked to at the Stars for asa matter of fact. So but next
year, I don't know what's goingto happen after this bankruptcy is settled,

(06:24):
right, But I do know this, somebody will be broadcasting Dallas Stars Hockey
next season, right, Somebody willbe broadcasting Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks next
season, and I hope it's Valley. I think that I think that the
crew that is trying to get themthrough bankruptcy they have it together. The

(06:47):
crew that owned them before, theone that owned us between you know,
Fox and This was not quite astogether. But this crew, I think
knows what they're doing. They're sportspep and they know that this kind of
regional sports network is a viable thing. And I believe they will, you
know, if they if they're ableto emerge from bankruptcy, uh, you

(07:10):
know, financially sound. I believethey'll make this thing very similar to what
it was before. So does adoes a hockey fan have to worry about
it being if it went someplace else? So they have to worry being one
of these app based kind of thingsare on their provider, because that seems
to be where a lot of thingsare going. What's your thoughts on all
that? Yeah, I don't knowa ton about that aspect of it,

(07:34):
but I do know that everybody wantsto have the ability to what they say,
let's stream these games, right everybodyit Vally wants that too. They're
working hard to make it what theycall direct to consumer, so they want
it to be something that the consumercan buy the game any you know,

(07:57):
if you just like the Stars,man, you can just subscription to the
Stars and the Mavericks same way,Rangers, same way, whatever. So
that's what everybody wants. That's certainlywhat Bally wants. So I'll say this,
I don't think the streaming only optionis extremely viable at this point for

(08:20):
any of the pro teams. AndI think all you need to look at
is the PAC twelve and how thatthing, you know, just plummeted because
they were going to go with moreof a streaming based network for the PAC
twelve instead of games over the year, and you just it's just it's at
this point, it's not viable.That's not to say it won't be at

(08:41):
some point in the future, butat this point, I think the Stars
will be on some network. Ihope it's bally in the future, and
there will be the option of streamingit, but there will also be the
option of watching it, you know. I mean, I've watched and everybody
complains about Ballet and all that stuff. I have it every day after TV.
I'm out in the country anyway,so that's about the best service I

(09:03):
can get because there's no cable outhere or anything. But uh, I
have direct TV. Ballet's there,So get your direct TV and you're gonna
always have Ballet. You know.We're kind of similar, We're different on
different sides of Texas. But I'min I'm out in the hood here,
so I'm I am out on LakeLasville, and I'm not really I don't
get to watch a ton of tonof TV. And unfortunately for me,

(09:24):
if I'm watch it, it's aboutone o'clock in the morning. Some things
don't change. Yeah, you mentionedPeck. Well, I want to get
before we get into what you're doingand how you're handling this whole thing,
your thoughts on Dion Sanders in Colorado, his football club. I mean it
is I got I got hooked.One day, I was on I don't

(09:45):
know Apple TV or whatever it was, and I watched his little I think
it was called Prime. Is thatwhat it was called? I got,
I got hooked. I mean,I've always been a fan of his.
I think he may be that everybodytalks about Bo Jackson and guys like that.
I think he may just be oneof the best athletes on the planet.
But anyway, I love his motivationalstuff. He seemed to speak from

(10:05):
the heart. He seems to andI'm sure you've done things with him.
Your thoughts on Dion and what he'swhat he's bring doing with the Colorado football
team. Funny you mentioned that becausemy son in law, you know,
has only been around us for afew really not even two full years yet.
But good, good young man who'sa huge sports fan, huge Dallas

(10:26):
Stars fan. Anyway, we're watchingColorado's first game. He just says to
me, Hey, do you knowDion. I go, oh, yeah,
yeah, and I just I waslooking through my phone a few minutes
later. There's a picture of youand me and Dion all arm in arm
and I think we might have beenat Nancy Lieberman's event one year together.

(10:46):
But anyway, I am, likeyou, a huge fan of Dion and
a huge fan of what he's doing. And I got to be honest with
you. I figured it would work. You know, there were so many
sayers when he was you know,basically eighty six in the entire team.
Hey, not to say I didn'tfeel bad for those kids, right they

(11:07):
come to Colorado like, yeah,we're in Boulder, and Jan come in
and said, yeah, none ofyou are good enough for me. Get
that, you know. But heknew what he needed, he knew what
he wanted, and then he wentand got it. And it is pretty
amazing that you can bring in.I think it's fifty eighteen. I thought
it was eighty one season about hereeighty three or did he cut eighty three
or I don't know what. Iknow that only only nine stayed, only

(11:31):
nine scholarship and his son was oneof them. Yeah, well, I
mean technically his son wasn't there lastyear. He wasn't a scholarship athlete there
last year. So uh he youknow, he was one of the new
that had to come in through thetransfer portal or whatever. What a player
it is holy and held it up. So you mentioned the transport portal.

(11:52):
I was talking to a couple ofguys this weekend. Are you eighteen team?
We had a we had a tournament, we started our season off what
do you want to call it?In Omaha this weekend and so I'm talking
one of the coaches, and thatportal came up, and what are your
thoughts on that? I mean,these anybody can just get up and take
off. Now it's weird. Ifirst of all, I was always a

(12:18):
guy and you were a scholarship athlete. You may agree with me on this.
I was always a guy that thoughtthere should be some way to pay
college athletes, because again, yesyou get a scholarship, yes you get
a free education, but so manycome from, you know, not wealthy
backgrounds, Whereas the demographics at mostuniversities are such that the kids who are

(12:41):
there, their parents have a lotof money, and these young guys are
out there busting their butt playing hockeyor football or basketball or baseball, track
whatever, and they can't afford togo get a pizza because they're not allowed
to work through the NCAA and theycan't have an extra job. And yeah,
they got no money. So Ialways thought that the athlete should at

(13:01):
least get some sort of stipend.So now you've got nil. Holy crap,
I didn't. I wasn't looking forhim to get two three, four
million dollars a year. But youknow, good, good for them,
I mean, good for them ifthey can. The transfer portal thing,
I think is also a much morefair to the athlete, right the athlete

(13:22):
was always in a situation unlike thecoaches, where the athlete had to sit
out at least a year if hetransferred, whereas the coach could leave tomorrow
and you know, he could coachthe next year in a new, new
school for a much better deal.So I think the transfer portal is a
good thing in that it allows athletesan opportunity to get to the next school

(13:43):
and play. But it is itdoes make it confusing. And I will
say this, I admire people whodon't just because they didn't start their first
year don't just immediately get in thetransfer port right, stick it out,
man, fide it out and andand earn your spot on the team.

(14:03):
Everybody, so many of them areso entitled now fight for it. Have
you had an opportunity to talk tocoaches what they feel about with the with
the portal as far as having,you know, having a good player,
a young player maybe coming up,and or players that you know they're they're
they're in the middle of the pack, but they have a place for him
in the following season to just takeoff. Have you had a chance to

(14:24):
talk to any of the coach downtheir thoughts about it. Yeah. I
actually talked to Sonny Dike's about this, and you know, he's used it
expertly at TCU. Obviously they hadthat great year last year and took it
all the way to the National Championshipgame, and then he was very active
in the transfer portal again this year. And he believes it is just an

(14:46):
absolute uh you know, I don'twant to say a godsend, but he
likes it because when when you areweak in an area, right through graduation
or through injury, you can addressthat area. You don't have to necessarily
wait for this eighteen year old kidto put his his man weight on and
get in the weight room and eatthe right foods and all that and be

(15:09):
ready to play. So it's definitelygiven coaches an option too, as they
always say, lads, reload,right, you want to reload, you
don't want to rebuild if you canhelp it. Yeah, it's the the
word now. I think in theNHL is retool. So you know they're
trying not to right to talk aboutand say we're stripping it down, we're

(15:31):
starting all over fans. And youknow the other thing is, at least
in the NHL one of the worstplaces to be I think for clubs,
there's that mushy middle because you're you'renot getting early draft picks. You know,
you're getting mid mid round picks,and I think that's where a lot
of clubs are going, well,here we are, we're at that point.
And you know, talking about team, I mean, I think Dallas

(15:52):
is they're looking at their window.You know, they're in that that window
where you know, like a yearago, I think they felt that they
were where they were at and theyhad a really good opportunity to get to
the finals. It didn't work.Out and they're probably in that area.
And it comes down to Jamie benTyler, Sagan suitor. You know,
these guys that are you know,they're they're a little bit older and they're
not the same as the twenty sixyear olds, and so you know,

(16:15):
they didn't get any high round picksunless there were some moves and things like
that made. But but anyway,you're you're so, what what how was
the situation with you now? Sowhat do you do now to keep yourself
busy while this is all going on? Yeah, it's been a weird a
few months because what you know what, Valley, and again the bankruptcy dictated

(16:38):
that they basically had to transition me, uh and some of the other full
time on air people, most ofour watchers of this, no, Daniel
Larson and Aaron Hart again, andthen there were a few producers and they
basically needed time to transition us fromfull time employees to freelance employees. And

(17:00):
so there was a period there.Now from July August September, we're still
in it where we can't be onthe air. So it's just like,
especially the way the Rangers are playing, you know, I'm always involved when
the Ranger with the Rangers in theother season, right, and the way
they've been playing, although not lately, but it looks like they're trending back
in the direction. But anyway,after the season they've been having, it

(17:22):
killed me. It killed me notto be on their games all the time,
you know, because that's what weall really enjoy. You remember from
our Stars days, when the teamis doing well, it's just so much
fun to come to the you know, the studio, or to the rink,
or to the or to the stadium. There globe life. So anyway,
it's been tough. But then I'min the fall. Since I left

(17:45):
Stars, I have been a partof the Oklahoma City Thunder pre and postgame
show, and I'll be back onthe Thunder pre and post game show in
the fall. And then, youknow, I know Bally plans and I
hope you know that it'll all happen, that I'll be back on the the
Rangers, I should say, inthe spring. Again, it depends on

(18:07):
bankruptcy, but over which none ofmy bosses at BALLY have any control.
I certainly have no control. Sobut that's the that's the plan going forward,
and so it won't you know,to a viewer. It won't look
any different. To my bank account, it'll look a little different because I
gotta I gotta pay for my ownhealth benefits for the first time in four

(18:30):
years. But that's fine. Butyou're working out every day. You're fine.
You're you're I could say, you'reworking out right now. You're working
in your left arm alt right nowto talk. Got the twelve ounce curls
going. But next time, maybeI'll need to get the sixteen ouncers.
Yeah, I wanted to. Iwanted to go Canadian this time. I
had to go Canadian for the firstyou know, I'm into some Canadian beers,

(18:52):
mostly all the molsten products, sococony some of those. So you
got some free time on your hands, at a little bit more than you
like, but you have some freetime. I have, Yeah, And
that's one of the things that inspiredme to, you know, jump in
with the dub network. When youguys first started, you know, whenever
that was, eight months, ayear ago, whatever that was. I

(19:15):
looked over there and I thought,oh, good god, Lud's you know
Nate. I've worked with both ofthem on on pre and postgame shows forever.
Derek Harper I basically helped to trainhim when he was coming in and
now he's you know, killing itas a broadcaster. And and I was
like, you know Menschi too.I mean, Menshi, I've known forever
and I've I've always tried to talkMenchi into coming over to Rangers Live.

(19:38):
He's funny. He's like, man, I don't want to have to sit
and watch the whole game. Andwhen the screen though, now that's the
thing in his head might explode ifhe has to watch all that, you
know. So so anyway, butI love I love everybody on the on
the dub network. And I thought, well, dang, I ought to

(19:59):
I had a lot that. SoNate's got a partner, he's got Isaiah
mentioned men She's head only fits intoone screen, so he can't get a
partner. Harp has got plenty options. And you have some free time,
So why aren't you just doing thiswith me every time we're doing a podcast?
Then well, I'd love to dothat. Let's do it. Let's
make let's make that a date wherewe can have some sudge again like we

(20:23):
always used to. There you go, So this is kind of like breaking
news right now, so we cantune you can tune it now and you
don't have to listen to me.We got John Radigant on here. Each
time we do something, he'll actuallyask some good questions and so and then
we can get we can do somecrossover things. I'd love to see you
get some kind of speaking, acrossover things. I was gonna. I
was thinking about this as you weretalking. I mean, you're good friends

(20:44):
with Dion. You know, Idon't know why you couldn't put a little
call into da. It might bea little busy right now, but yeah,
yeah, yeah, he may betough to give, but what not,
why not? Hey, I'll sumhim the picture and I'll say you
got we got to reunite here onthe SuDS with lads, give us ten
minutes. I mean if five toten minutes with Dion Sanders would be gold

(21:07):
to be worth anything else that we'redoing here, so well, that that's
I promise you that great. Yeah, I love it. I think that'd
be great. Lads. I'm excitedto talk a bunch of hockey with you.
I am excited to talk hockey againand uh, and then of course
just hanging out with you, andI like, I love I love the

(21:30):
camaraderie that we always had, Likenot when we're together doing all those games,
we're doing eighty games a year,we'll talked a lot of stuff besides
hockey, and I know, Iknow, in a forum like this,
that is something that's very possible.And in fact, here's what I wanted
to bounce off you, because thisis somebody we talked about even back when
we were together. And your thoughtsabout him, you being a Wisconsin guy

(21:55):
originally, what are your thoughts aboutwhat happened to Aaron Rodgers? Well,
talk about bad timing. I wasable to get dialed in to Hard Knocks
and so I watched that, andI can tell you from being from Wisconsin,

(22:17):
and obviously all my friends are packer. I mean it's hard not to
be. Most of them all haveat the Packer tattoo on their ass someplace,
but so that you know they're diehards. But there seemed to be
when you talk to some of thefans, my buddies, they were I
think they were getting a little wardout by Again, I don't pay attention
to what most players say and whatthey what little clips and sound bites they

(22:38):
use all the time, because younever know you know how those can be
manipulated. But they were getting alittle war out with maybe some of the
comments that he made at times.And I know that he wasn't happy something
about during the draft, maybe whenthey didn't they didn't draft a receiver that
he was looking for and some ofthe guys that didn't come back. But

(23:00):
when I when I went through thathard Knocks thing, and again, I
think we all know that Aaron Rodgersknows that he was on a very big
show, and you know, sohe was probably on his best behavior things
like that, but it sure lookedlike he was trying to help and teach
and everything that I saw and bea good teammate at that time. And

(23:21):
the hype in New York was deservedlyunbelievable because he still is a great quarterback.
But what happened the other night,I mean could from here you could
feel the wind just go out ofevery New York Jet fan, you know.
And did you see the did yousee the I'm sure you have,
you're a sports guy. You sawthat where they highlighted his his calf with

(23:44):
the circle around it, and yousee it pop, And what happens when
you tear your Achilles, it rollsup and and but anyway, you when
you watch that in slow mo,immediately you know. And I think he
knew when he kind of started toget up and sat down and rolled over.
So I think it's devastating to thosefans and all the work. And
I saw their owner on one ofthe episodes and he was all hyped up

(24:07):
and all this other kind of stuff. So I feel for him. But
since we're here in Texas, Idon't. I don't think that's a general
sentiment around around the DFW market.No, no, no, of course
not now again, No, howold were you were you thirties eight when
when you got yeah? Yeah,yeah, So that's right at his eight,

(24:30):
right, he's gonna be he'll beforty in December. And I was
thinking about that. It's just likethat's because you know, we've seen so
many hits in football and certainly hockeytoo, but so many hits in football
so much worse than that. Imean, it didn't you know, it
didn't look like the kind of hitthat would yeah, end a season.
But at some point, man,the body starts to give out. Well,

(24:53):
I think you're and it sounds like, well, didn't he have a
shaman and he was doing something goingfor the Iahwaska on all this other kind
of stuff that I heard him talkingabout. He should maybe should have been
working the other end of his body. The head space is cleared up,
I guess. But but but youknow, the other thing is it's like,
I don't know again that he couldbe walking down the street and have

(25:15):
that happened to his achilles. Right. He could step off a curb and
that would happen there too, Soyou know, I don't know if it's
a fluke thing, but you canjust tell the way that his toe went
down and it got stretched out.So I don't know if that's an age
thing, if it matters how oldyou are, because we know guys and
you know they're younger guys that havehad that same thing happen. So I
just think it was it was partof being an NFL player. But I'm

(25:41):
sure when he goes to bed atnight, he'll take a peek at his
bank account and his paycheck and youknow it's it's gonna be okay, Yeah,
you're gonna make fifty million so torehab his achilles. So you know,
it's funny, like I've been textingback and forth a couple of times
now with Joe Pavelski, and soI think Joe's going to come on if

(26:03):
he's got some time to do it. And I look at those kind of
players, and speaking talking about thestars, I look at Joe and I
think the great players in any sportare so committed taking care of their bodies
and very unlike what we probably werewere. I know we were when we
played. We found different ways toget around it, and I don't think
we you know, with all thenutrition and all that kind of stuff.

(26:26):
And it reminds me of Joe.And Joe's is going to be forty years
old and so he's in that samething, but he takes care of himself.
You know, these guys play thegame. At least Joda. I
mean, he plays the game withhis head. I mean he's such a
smart the hockey sense. From Pavelski, I'm really excited to see where he
is this year. He's a bigpivotal piece to that, to that number

(26:48):
one line, which I'm sure they'llbe together again. But I look at
those guys and I have such admirationfor him, the way that they take
care of themselves. Because I cantell you and I've told this story before.
I know if you've heard it.But I remember three four five years
ago whatever it was, and wewere getting off the plane in Anaheim and
there's a bunch of the younger guysand they were they were down by the
concierge. You know, you getyour keys when you come in. And

(27:11):
I had run upstairs and change,you put your jeans on and stuff,
and was hoping to meet Grazer fora couple of beers or something like that.
You know, you land four o'clock, Lets who have a couple of
beers and we'll have dinner. Andthen when I anyway, I came back
downstairs and they were still standing aroundthe concierge, and I walked up to
and said, hey, you guyswant to know where to go? I
mean, what are you looking for? You want a couple of beers?
Like this kind of place you wantto? This kind of place you want?

(27:33):
You want some entertainment. And theykind of looked at each other.
They didn't say nothing to me.They looked at each other and they turned
around and said, no, we'relooking for the closest whole foods. And
I was like, what we're lookingfor. The closest I've never heard of
that bar, but it must bea good bar. But but it just
it just told me at the time. I'm like, yeah, that's who
they are though. I mean,they take care of themselves. They put
good things in their body and allthat, and that's why they play so

(27:56):
long. I mean, God blessthem, and they deserve the money that
they're getting because they put a lotof time in and work and train and
everything. I'm sure they take careof themselves in the summer better than we
ever did. And I'm sure AaronRodgers is that kind of guy too.
I think all these athletes, Imean you you you know more of the
cowboys, and so I'm I'm assumingthese guys are not the same guys.
They aren't the Nate Newton's of theof the nineties today. Nope, nope,

(28:21):
not not at all. That youryour hockey guys. They were looking
beer. We're going to get somepomegranate juice and some grains. So yeah,
it's a different it's a different animal. And I always love your stories
about you know, like a Zubie, you know, Zoobob who you have
the time, he's got a cigaretteand they say the bus is leaving right
now, So we just sucked thewhole thing down, like probably you know.

(28:42):
You know what's funny about Juba.I'll tell you what it was funny
about Zubie is he always denied smoking. Like he denied it. I mean
his teeth looked like a yellow crayonfirst of all, our brown crayon,
Like to Jesus, I can spellyou sitting next to year, my partner.
But it was funny like after games, he'd be the first guy undressed,
first guy undressed, right to theshower, and and he go in

(29:06):
there and have a couple of darts. First he had a beer in there.
The trainers had a beer in theirform, you know, to height
it and stuff like that of abeer. But he come out of the
shower and I'm like, zue,Jesus if you can't even wait to get
outside to him saying I wasn't spoken. I said, yeah you were.
He go, no, Luds,I was not smoking, I said,
Zubie. We're all sitting in hereand it looks like there's a three alarmed
fire coming out of the out ofthe shower. The smoke is just rolling

(29:27):
out of there and we can allsmell it. But when you watch him,
when you watch the way the guyplayed, he never got tired.
He seemed to go faster east westwas the way his stride was, and
just patient. Come. I wouldoffer him in the morning and Zubie,
you want me to go get youa couple of pack of cigarrettes for the
game tonight. I was offering togo buy him Sicker's. It was like

(29:48):
an oxygen tank to him, youknow. And but you know, those
are those are just special people thatI don't know training. And I don't
think anybody ever gave him enough credithow strong he actually was, because he
did he didn't necessarily play the game. He didn't have to play the game
with strength all the time and knockguys off the puck and fight in front
of the net and in the cornersbecause he always had the puck for the

(30:08):
most part. But when he didgo into the corner, some people they
didn't come out. He usually cameout of there with the puck. So
those are special athletes. And again, I know you've you've seen a lot
of those guys, you know,through your thing. Thank you to Herman
Marshall Whiskey for sponsoring another episode ofSuDS with bloods. Herman Marshall produced a
small batch, handcrafted and award winningwhiskey patiently aged in new white oak barrels.

(30:33):
Whether it's their Texas Bourbon, TexasRye Texas Single Malt, or they're
blended bourbon whiskey, all are builtfrom the grain up, just like good
whiskey should be. Make sure youask for it by name. Thank you
again, Herman Marshall Whiskey. Somy first gig the first day I came
into Fox Sports Southwest and we weregoing to do I was going to do

(30:56):
an intermission thing, and I believeit was More I think at the time,
had called me up in the morningand he said, hey, let's
can you can you run over toFox and do the pregame show. And
I think it was yourself and Danaand I got over there. I said,
yeah, sure, I'll go overthere. So we get in there
and then you guys wanted to doa dry run kind of thing to start

(31:17):
with, and said, okay,so we do the little dry run thing.
And you guys made a comment tome and anyway, go on the
air. We you know, wedo the first the first hit there and
it's over, and I looked andI said thanks, and I stood up
and I took my mic off,and I was getting ready to go,
and I remember who said something whowanted you to like, where's he going?

(31:37):
And I think it was you.I said, what are you doing?
I said, well, I'm gettingout of here. He goes,
what do you mean you're getting outof here? I said, I'm taking
off. He says, well,no, you're doing the show. I
said, oh, I didn't knowthat. He I said, he just
came over and I thought I wasjust doing the first intermission with you guys,
or you know, the opening ofthe show, whatever it was.
And he goes, what did theytell you? I said nothing. They
just asked if I come over andyou know, do the Fox thing tonight,

(32:00):
said Dudge, you're our analysis here. I'm like, what are you
talking about? No, you're hereall year long. I had no clue.
Like Jeff didn't say anything to me. He just said, you know,
can you tonight? You got timeto go over there and do it.
And so I had no idea.And to be honest with you,
I absolutely loved it. I justthought to be able to sit there,
and what people don't see a lotof times is the guys that work behind

(32:21):
the scenes during the period that cutthe clips for you. It's so different,
I mean, what it really does. And having to had dip my
toe in the water a little bitwith Razor and to see how those guys
work and study and the knowledge thatthey have and how it happens right now.
And so you know, I thought, well, this is ain't going

(32:43):
to be that hard. I mean, and I was only going to do
I think road games and to startwith. But but anyway, but my
problem was when when I was doingit, I'm like, oh, yeah,
well, I know everybody in theleague. Well let me tell you
when when all of a sudden youhave to start talking about number twenty three
from Anaheim and I'm like, Idon't know who number twenty three is.

(33:04):
It was just an eye opener forme and I had to start. When
one game was over with, Iwould write down every number and every name
of the upcoming game that we weregoing to do, and I carried it
in my car. I carried iteverywhere I went to be able to study
the name and number. That wasmy hardest part about that whole thing is
always feeling. But I just,I mean, I knew Razors the best

(33:27):
in the business, but I didn'tunderstand it until you start working with a
guy. And he was so goodwith me. But but to be able
to and we all know he's he'sa wordsmith, and but to be able
to pull that stuff off and thetiming, and I don't think he I
mean, I think he sleeps wellat night. I couldn't sleep. I
just I was scared shitless every timeI had to do the thing. I
was scared the morning, all daylong. I was scared. It was

(33:49):
worse than when I played. Well, yeah, it's because it's it's just
all that preparation. You know,Razor has been doing that prep for years
and years and years, and it'sjust second nature. But when you're doing
that prep, and it got me. Same thing when I was doing play
by play for the Rangers. Man. You know, I had done broadcasting
for twenty five thirty years at thatpoint, and I started doing play by

(34:13):
play for the Rangers, and likeyou, I was having trouble sleeping.
I'm getting up in the middle ofthe night writing down names and stats about
guys. So I always have enoughto say and the right thing to say.
And yeah, it's a it's abigger animal than people think to be
a part of the actual live broadcastof a professional sporting event. But I
thought you and Razor together, youguys sounded great. You guys did an

(34:37):
excellent job together. And you know, that's a tall order for Razor to
switch from analysts to play by play, but but you filled in beautifully doing
that, doing that animis. Therewas a couple of times Razor would,
you know, he'd be calling theplay and then he'd kind of continue on
talking, and you know, Razor, he can he can go, and
I'm like, yeah, okay,I was getting ready to say something,

(34:59):
and I just kind of sit backand I just sit back in the chair
and I just listened to him,and he'd he'd get done and we'd go
to break and he'd go to breakingand go, oh shit, list I'm
sorry, I just gotten on aroll, I said. I said,
no, I love listen. I'vealways loved listen. No, because my
biggest thing was well I had afew big things, obviously, but I
always was thinking about what would Razorsay, how would he describe the play,

(35:22):
And you know, and because I'mlike, I can't do that,
you know, I just so anyway, So what tell me, uh,
let's get away from this this clubthey haven't started yet. I think their
training camp starts on the twenty firstof Dallas Stars too, and I think
I saw the other day they gota game down in Austin on the twenty
third. What what are your feelingson Dallas Cowboys? I mean, do
they Is this the year that dothey have the parts and can dact you

(35:45):
know, get there? I knowthe coaches now running the offense, and
so everybody seems to be pretty pumpedup about that. Your feelings, I
feel like that this is the year, and I feel it for a lot
of reasons. Let's first of all, that offensive philosophy change, right that

(36:06):
West Coast offense is in. They'recalling at the Texas Coast offense. But
whichever that is so suited to someonelike that Prescott right where it's just a
quick decision and go and it's notwaiting to try and throw a deep ball
and all these checkdowns and all thatstuff. You know, you've got ten
seconds less, way less to justgo by here it is ball, you

(36:27):
know, And I love that Theother reason I think that it's it's going
to work is that that defense isso good and whenever the Cowboys have been
really good, it has really startedwith defense. You go back to the
seventies, it was the doomsday defense. You go back to the nineties,
Jerry Jones had that famous quote wherehe said, Jerry said, we couldn't

(36:47):
even spell super Bowl around here untilwe got Charles Hayley right. That was
a defensive presence right on that defensiveline. And then this defense with Micah
Parsons leading the way and all ofthe work that he has done to get
to where he is, it's anunbelievable unit. And they like that nineties
group. They'll rotate a defensive linemanin and out of there with with regularity,

(37:13):
which keeps everybody fresh. I thinkthey've got a and beyond all that,
Dak's got more weapons are relative tothe number of receivers that are out
there and able to you know,able to make a good catch for him.
So I think this might be theyear. You always hesitant to say
that they're going to make the SuperBowl, but I think they're definitely going

(37:35):
to be in the hunt for asuper Bowl until the end of the season.
I was so fired up just nowwhen you mentioned Charles Haley's name because
they went, oh wait a second. So I just pulled up was you
were speaking. I pulled up atext I got from Charles about a month
ago, and he's he has agolf tournament today that goes on over at
the Texas what's called Texas Star orno, not Star, what's what the

(37:58):
Cowboys Cowboys Country Club over there?Oh yeah, and it says luds,
I need you at my golf tournament. And I just looked it up just
now and it says September thirteenth,So so obviously, sorry, Charles.
I was just gonna say, weneed to get Charles on the show here
now, so i'd better send hima texts. I was in Wisconsin when
I got it. I forgot aboutit till just now, So Chuck,

(38:21):
I just want to apologize here rightnow. I missed your golf tournament.
But well, that's good to hear. I'm sure. I'm sure. Well
the Cowboy fans that regardless of theteam, they seem to think they're going
to win a Super Bowl every year, but I would think they would be
getting used to right so yes,yeah, And you know what, that's
one of the that's one of thething that's different, lads, is that,
like, you know, I wasI was on the Cowboys beat for

(38:42):
ten or twelve years and then youknow, I've covered them somewhat. Uh,
you know, ever since, I'venever ever seen beat writers for the
Cowboys. Until this year, I'veheard beat writers actually saying I think this
team could go to the Super Bowl. Beat writers never say that, but
that's how good they think this teamis, at least in the construction of

(39:04):
the team at this point. Andcertainly Week one did nothing to dispel that.
But you know that sometimes that's like, you know, that's like a
seven nothing game in hockey. Sometimesyou go, we just got rolling,
you know, we just got Yeah, we used to when we first got
to Dallas, when we first whenthe team were located here. You know,
we were over there at Valley Ranch. And ironically right now our room

(39:24):
that with our U eighteen team isour same locker room that we had when
we moved in there. So I'min there. Yeah, I'm in there
every day now. So I stillget haunted by Hitchcock and I think he's
still walking around and there, butwe went always after practices and we were
like, well, where the hellare we going to go? Went up
the street Cowboys Cafe, and that'swhere they all were all the time also,
so we got to know a bunchof the guys and got to hang

(39:44):
out with them and then you know, back and forth to different games and
things like that. I remember thereearly. We were sitting there and step
Setinowsky was there. I think twoand A was there, Daryl Johnson was
there, and we were having afew beers and having lunch and stuff like
that, and a couple of guyscame in and they were huge, I
mean just huge and ripped and huge. And I looked at the guys and

(40:04):
I said, who is that?And you know, they walked kind of
over in the corner. We weresitting in front. They walked over in
the corner. I saw the threeof them look at each other and they
say, is that? No?Is that? And I'm thinking, wait
a second, you guys don't knowwho they are. And they're like,
now they're on the defense. Wedon't know who they are. And it
was my first time and I playedball and stuff like that, and I'm
thinking, how do you guys.Not know what your teammates are the fifty
three guys right or fifty two whateverit is, But I think you could.

(40:27):
You kind of saw that there wasa the offense does their thing,
and you know, the defense doestheir thing, and I was kind of
shocked that they didn't. It wasfunny, all three of them were asking
each other. We used to goover to Troy shouse and play blackjack on
I think was Tuesday or Wednesday nightsover there Troice, So it was yeah,
it was nice rest Cardinal and Turlaand myself, and but I'll tell
you what try. I never hadany popcorn or peanuts or beer or nothing.

(40:50):
We had to keep going back toour place to get peer and stuff
and bring it back to Troy cells. So that's why he's as good as
he is. Like nowadays, he'dgive you his own berry. I heard
it's really good too. I triedto get it over here at the Kroger
store, but I think it's theother one. I don't know. He
must have a deal that only certainstores, because I tried finding it at
Kroger a couple of months ago.So Troy, if you're listening, she's

(41:12):
not John. You know, we'dlike to get Aman sponsor. Will get
him to yeah, get to sponsorand all those contacts, all the people
that have beer and booze hooked upto him, and uh, you know
you got to get on that.You want to be part of this gig.
You know, you know what makesit. You know, we need
some gas to run this show.Yeah, okay, how about the Rangers,

(41:35):
Texas Rangers give me that? Well, I mean, what the hell?
They started out on fire? Iadd Gavin Spittle got us the suite.
Kim and I went over there fora ballgame. And speaking of Gavin,
I'm gonna apparently Kim was texting him, so we're going he got us
into a suite for the Pink concert. So I'm exactly That's what I said

(41:55):
when she told me. But anyway, what a beautiful building we were in
there. It's incredible. But theystarted out hot, didn't they? And
Nick put some runs up. Ohyeah, they really can. They've got
a great offense right now. Youknow, it's missing two key cogs in
that. You know, the RBIleader in the in the American League.

(42:16):
When he went out, you know, Adolis Garcia got hurt with his knee
last week and see astros and JoshYoung has been out for a month or
more with that with that wrist andthumb injury. So you know they'll get
those two back, they'll be evenbetter offensively. But you know, jonah
Heim is back. It appears heyou know, struggled for his first month

(42:38):
off of that wrist injury and heappears to be back, which really helps
that offense. So you know,I think the offense is going to remain
good and maintain what it is.The Only concern, you know, and
again it's not like I'm breaking newshere. The only concern you have as
as they head down this stretch thefinal three weeks is just and the pitching

(43:00):
hold up. Last night it lookedvery bad with Max Sures or going out
of the game with h you know, forearm or triceps or forearm, uh
spasms, right, And he evensaid after the game, it feels like
when something's acting up in your forearm. You know your body is all connected,

(43:22):
and he fears it's the elbow,right, I mean, and if
it's the elbow, you know thatcould mean Tommy John surgery and all of
it. So you don't want toget ahead of yourself on that stuff.
But that's that's what he's implying,that's what he fears. So you hate
that they got an ace. Theydid the front office did such a great
job. They got an ace inthe offseason. Jacob deGrom. He goes

(43:42):
out with an elbow, they wentup the trade deadline and they get another
race ensures or I just hope hedoesn't. I hope there's some other way
to avoid that. But obviously downthe stretch that's what they're gonna need is
pitching, and they're gonna need,you know, help in the bullpen.
The deeper the roation is, thebetter the bullpen is. So hopefully,
you know, if they can keepthese guys healthy and keep that pitching going,

(44:06):
I think the offense is coming back. It'll be back to what it
was. Now. Do you doyou do much with the MAVs? I
mean, are you? I meanyou in tune with the MAVs like you
wouldn't be for the Cowboys and Rangers. Typically I haven't been quite as much,
but I have been very interested inthis offseason again with a little more
time and stuff. I mean,this is what I love. This is

(44:28):
what I do as all the sportsyou know, so not not quite as
in tune, but I'm very interestedto see And I love Jason Kidd.
I mean I was. I wason that beat when when he got here
as a player, and uh,and I've talked to Jason several times since
he's been the coach. I lovethat team. And look, when you
start with Luca don Chich, youknow you're starting with a lot right there.

(44:49):
And now Kyrie Irving has signed up. I think the Mavericks did a
great job in the offseason by youknow, they didn't have to give him
a max contract, right they wereable to sign him up with less.
Uh, you know, commitment ifyou will, without you know, sort
of mortgaging the future. And nowyou've got three years to figure out if

(45:10):
he and Luca can you know,can work together. It's a difficult task
when you have superstars, more thanone superstar on a team. You know,
your team had two, it hadMadonnell and Hall and that that worked,
you know, but it's tough tohave superstars coexists. So well,

(45:32):
you know what I think left forus, And I would not not disagree
with you, but I would throwin a couple more names. Zubov was
a superstar. Joe Newendek was asuperstar at bell for and it's it's crazy
to think that at that time,you know, but again, the seal,
the salary cap wasn't the same,and so you know, mister Hicks
could go in there and negotiate withBrett Hall and you know, they can

(45:55):
hear what do you need and walkover there with a blank check for the
most part. But yeah, butwhat we what we had, I think
what we had at that time,and I've talked about this so many times.
We had a general manager by thename of Bob Gainey that that knew
the personalities, knew the kind ofpersonnel is that he played with with an
iconic organization like Montreal Canadians, andhe knew the chemistry that was important.

(46:16):
Everything off the ice was probably moreimportant than what was going on the ice,
you know, because they got toget along. When you bring in
those kind of personalities, you haveto find guys that were the the ultimate
goal is more important than the personalone. And it was about the chemistry
and we're all in it for thesame the same reason, and you know,
and then you start bringing in guyslike Mike Keane and Brian Skrudlin,

(46:37):
Geek, Carboneau guys at all teamguys, right, and so we were
able to I think what our strengthwas in the room was we had a
group of us that were able topull everybody for the common the common goal
kind of thing. So that workedout the well. I would say that
if there's anybody that can pull offthat kind of stuff, it's having an
owner like Mark Cuban. Yeah,I agree, I agree. I think

(46:59):
he's at that together and I thinkthat that at some point everybody realizes that.
You know. Obviously, Holly andMo were absolutely pulling on the rope
in the same direction as was Nuiyou mentioned NEWI. I mean, my
gosh, you're right, there's anotherthere's offensive superstars three on the same team,

(47:20):
right, and then you've got Zubiewho you mentioned, you know,
that defensive superstar, and you can'tdo any of it amazingly without Eddie you
know, at the back there.So it's it's an amazing thing when you
can get that many Hall of famers. They're superstars for a reason, right,
they're Hall of famers, and theycan all uhet get kind of get
rid of the ego, you know, for the for the whole season and

(47:42):
then certainly for the long playoff run. It's not about me, right,
it's about us. And if youget to that point, man, that's
that's when you can have some tremendousteam success with multiple superstars. Well,
rats, you've got anything you wantto talk about? Like who who are
the guys you're bringing it out to? Now? You know what, we're
gonna change this name. It's notgonna be Sud SuDS with luds. I

(48:04):
think it's gonna be Rads. Itshould be Rats and SuDS with luds because
you've got the pole to bring insome just as long as you can do
this every single time, as longas you get some kind of booze guy
or or you know, some beer, some beer guys in here. How
about golf? How about golf?Are you golfing yet all the time.
You're a big golfer. So youknow, it was so yeah, but

(48:24):
it was so hot in this summer, Luds. I just I played a
little, but gosh, it wasso Now the weather's turning, so I
may I may have to sneak backout there. But it wasn't It just
wasn't fun, you know, toget out there and sweat so bad,
and everything's you know, you know, everything's dry, and if you get
it off the fair way at all, it's gone, you know. So,

(48:46):
uh, I did not play nearlyas much as I would have liked,
given that I had more time thanI've ever had, but it was
it was just a bad summer forthat, you know. But h but
I still love it. You know, I played, you know, all
last road trip I was on withthe Rangers. I played. We were
in Tampa and we played there,Me and you know, you know,

(49:07):
Veto and then UH and Dave Raymondto play by play guy for the Rangers.
We went out and played and ofcourse had a few beers and had
a good time. So yeah,imagine, you know, we've we've talked
amongst ourselves and as you're talking,I'm thinking, because you're sold versed obviously
and everything. And we've got Nateand Isaiah football players, and you got

(49:29):
Harp at the NBA, you mentionwith the the MLB, and we've talked
about taking this show on the road. I just think this would be something
and you can, like you cantalk to all of us, and we
could, I'm sure we could,and I think you'd have the ability to
pull out a couple of stories outof some of these guys. And now
I'll tell you one thing though,you wouldn't have to work very hard because

(49:50):
because some of the stories that cameout and one of the things that we
did earlier last year, I thinkit was right when we all first got
together, we kind of did athing where we're going to kick this whole
thing off, like there are alot of things it needed to be taken
out of that show because the storieswere coming out, but they were good
stories. So I really really lookforth. I mean, as much as
I know we all want Ballots toget us straightened out, you're able to
do this. I'm like, let'skick the can down the road for a

(50:12):
few months and so, but itwould be awesome, No, And I
you know what I think, Ithink, luds, that what this has
done for me has opened a dooron because look, I'm gonna be freelance
for Ballet now, right instead ofa full time employee. So yeah,
let's put it this way, Iwon't feel quite as beholding right to an
employer there. Right, I'm afree agent. I'm a freelancer, and

(50:34):
so I love doing stuff like this, This to me is fantastic. This
is what we did for ten yearsor however many we did it where we
were sitting there watching hockey games everynight at the you know, when we
were watching them at the American AirlineCenter up in a suite there with Tommy
coming by and all that, andCandice you know of us, Yeah,

(50:54):
yeah, take care of us,and then uh so, but anyway,
these are the kind of conversation wehad. Then. This is what I
love, you know, and Ithink I think that you know, the
viewers are going to love this kindof talk to and especially your stories and
to your point, all of themMenschi stories, uh you know, harp
stories and obviously Nates. I meanthere's a lot there and uh I'd love

(51:19):
to I'd love to be a partof that deal like you were talking about
that. Well, let's just beclear. They don't get you. I
get you. You're with me.We'll let them go. They can go
ahead and find their own John radagain, I want this one, Ratt.
I am super excited. I appreciateyou jumping on today. And you
got all your your set up overthere, you got there. Are you
doing this by your iPhone or you'vegot your lights and cameras. Yeah,

(51:43):
this this just this is my phone. This is my phone. Year.
Well, maybe next time you'll bebetter. We'll get if when you get
all the professional stuff, you'll bebetter. You gotta get you gotta get
more polished up. You're not verypolished right now. You don't know enough
about everything of sporting ballace So well, Ratt, I'm super happy. Like
I said, I am really reallylooking forward to this. I think I

(52:04):
think people will enjoy your wealth ofknowledge and everything and they don't always have
to listen to me go on andon and on about the stars and living
in the past all the time withme. So uh, it's it's awesome
and here's our here's our comeback episode. I believe for uh, it's no
longer SuDS with luds. It's gonnabe rats and SuDS with luds. And

(52:25):
we will, I promise you,we will live up to the name.
So if there's anybody out there whowants to have a show on the road,
we're available. We'll do all right. We love it. Thanks rats,
super thanks everybody.