April 18, 2024 • 42 mins
Future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said he always expected to be coached. Just not by a Wall Street banker. So when Frank Bisignano—then a senior JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and now CEO of Fiserv—pushed a twentysomething Fitzgerald to think about life beyond the National Football League, it changed his trajectory.
That led to a series of internships between football seasons, touching on everything from venture capital to real estate and mezzanine financing. Fitzgerald played football for more than a decade after his run-in with Bisignano, spending his entire pro career with the Arizona Cardinals. But thanks in part to that first internship (at JPMorgan), he’s since invested in more than 160 companies, ranging from tech firms to an Indian cricket team. One of his breakthrough business moments came in 2020, when he joined the board of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., a publicly traded retailer that now has a market capitalization of about $16 billion.
Arguably among Fitzgerald’s most interesting deals is one tied to his oldest passion: chess. He started playing as a kid, an effort by his parents to focus a restless young mind. His public affinity for the game led to a meeting with Danny Rensch, the “chief chess officer” of Chess.com. Fitzgerald invested in the company and played in a celebrity tournament. He even allowed Chess.com to create a bot trained on his previous matches.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
There's not many businesses where, you know, you go to
New York and it will be very difficult for a
financial advisor on the fifth floor to go upstairs and
talk to Jamie Diamond, right and have a conversation with him.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
But you can do that. In sports.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You can go talk to you know, Mark Lazar, you
can go talk to Mark Cubans. You know, some of
the most successful business people in the world. You have
direct access to them, and so why you would not
utilize those opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So, Larry Fitzgerald, this is another one we've really had
circled on the calendar seventeen years as an Arizona Cardinal
College Football Hall of Fame inductee this year, certain first
ballot Hall of Famer for the NFL, and an incredibly
successful businessman already.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
And everything you just said, Jason is the least impressive thing.
It's really who this person is as a human being,
a humanitarian right, what he does in philanthropy, his relationships,
his EQ.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Is off the chart.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
And this is a guy that in business has become
a titan. Larry and I have gotten to know each
other very well of the last dozen years or so,
and I think he's going to be even a more
successful businessman than he was Wide Receiver.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And that's saying a lot because he's payed the all
time greats.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
And one of the biggest choices he made was to
really root himself here in Arizona. He gets close with
the late John McCain and really truly embeds himself in
this community in a way that feels like has made
an exponential difference for his impact.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Yeah, and he's a believer of going narrow and deep. Yeah,
But the fact that he made a conscious decision to
stay right here, be loyal to one market, to one
team pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
So it's interesting because as he's built this portfolio, you know,
he's made some you know, venture type investments. He's on
several big boards Qual Tricks, He's on the board of
Dick's Sporting Goods. These are big public company boards that
he is really contributing to. He's invested in things like
Infinite Athlete, my Favorite Chess dot Com.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You played chess. I love chess, my favorite game.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And what's so fascinating about that is he's played since
he was seven years old, and then he sees the
business opportunity. He looks at this global potential for it.
And so it is this combination of his personal interest
but also very very sharp business document as well, so.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Many things that I'm really interested to unpack over the
next hour.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On this episode of The Deal.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Larry Fitzgerald, all right, well, let's start by having you
introduce yourself and what you do.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
My name is Larry Fitzgerald. And you know, I would
say I'm a serial entrepreneur. Say that's I don't like
to box myself in any any one way. I'm always
looking to grow and learn. I think I'm as a
student of life.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is that how you thought of yourself even as a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I would say that.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I don't know if I thought of myself like that
as a kid, but I would say I was described
that way as a kid.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I would even be reprimanded by my teachers for asking
too many questions often.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I was I was the kid that was that kid?
So how does it work? Again? Like so if you
did it this way, would it work that way? You know?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So I was I was always I was always that,
but I was never afraid to ask the questions. If
I didn't understand it, I want to understand it. Yeah,
and if I don't ask, I'm not going to get
the information I need.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, it's interesting Alex being here in Arizona. Like
your dad, I'm a journalist and so I have a
lot of respect for that. But you know, like you
love asking people questions. I know you do this too.
My favorite people to ask taxi drivers and Uber drivers.
So of course, the last couple of days here, I'm like,
Larry Fitzgerald, what do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
They're like, Oh, that's my guy.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I mean, but what's interesting is they say that's my guy,
and he is out everywhere. You're like deeply embedded in
this community. So I want to talk about Arizona. You
come to play here, but you really choose to make
it your place.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Why. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And I'm not saying this dispar as anybody else in
the way they go about their business, but I think
the younger generation are really shortsighted in how they look
at their careers, right. And I always wanted to kind
of think about a forty year plan as opposed to
a four year plan. Yeah, I could go over here
and chase a ring there, but there's no way I
would be able to have a deep, thoughtful relationship with
the city and the people there. You know, I can
(04:47):
go to the Boys and Girls Club here and I've
had a relationship with them for twenty years. Big brothers,
big sisters, you know, Zion Institute of Education, like I
can go on down the list that I've known the
CEOs board members for a decade and we have a
relationship that is it's not transactional, and they understand it.
They see me in the field, they seen me working,
you know, in terms of real estate development, you talk
(05:09):
about restaurants, government relations like all of those. I have
great relationships here. It's because I was I've been here
for twenty years and they've seen the good. They followed
me during the bad, and they see that I'm loyal
and they've shown me the same loyalty. And I just
don't think I would have been able to do that
if I would have bounced from city to city to city.
Arizona's given me everything seventeen years. They'd help me live
my dream. Now I almost spend the next fifty sixty
(05:32):
god willing years I'm here on this earth giving back
what I feel like I received and like, that was
my thought process at twenty years old, is my thought
process at forty, and hopefully it'll be my same process
thought process at sixty.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I was reading about the College Football Hall of Fame
and even the folks at Pitt were talking about this.
One thing just caught me with this idea that every
time you scored a touchdown, just handed the ball lead
to the official, Like there's this psych mindset that you
have always had that is even It feels like where
(06:04):
does that come from?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well? I was.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I come from a family of a bunch of educators,
and I'll take you back to a story from my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
My grandfather was one of.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The leaders of the of the Kappa's you know fraternity,
and I remember as I was probably my second or
third year, you know, a couple couple of years, I've
made all pro and I went back to Chicago to
see my grandfather. He was there with a bunch of
his friends. They were there doing a fundraiser for you
know something I can't remember, and Grandfather's I want you
guys to meet once you meet my grandson, and I
(06:32):
was like, yeah, yeah, okay. So he brings me over.
He's a bunch of like fifteen guys, and he's like,
this is my grandson, Larry. He's the only grandson that
I have that doesn't have his college degree.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's how he introduced me. No, seriously, that's how he
induced me.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So like, it didn't it didn't matter what I was doing,
how many touchdowns I called. You know, education is something
that's important to this family, and you're the only one
that doesn't have it out of your cousin.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So I need you. I need you to get that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They always had a way of like letting you know,
like sports is great, but you know you're gonna make
your greatest impact with your brain, and so like that
was always something that was kind of drilled into us
at a really young age. And so I really I
appreciate my career, don't. I don't want to take anything
away from it. I set out to do it, and
I was able to achieve great things. But sports was
(07:18):
just another chapter in the book.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Larry, let's talk a little bit about Minnesota. I about
a home there. I love it. Tell me about growing up.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I mean, who were some of your favorite sports teams,
some of the people you looked up to, And tell
me a little bit about the people of Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, Alice, you hit it on the head.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think you know you hear Minnesota nice quite often,
and you know, I don't really notice it until there's
like certain things. You know, you go to New York
and you go to California, the paces, it's like much faster.
You go home and you see a lady pushing their bags.
You know, she's walking out of you know, cub Foods.
You know it's a local grocery store, and like you
see people like rushing to her to help her put
(07:54):
her bags in the car. Yeah, growing up in Minnesota
was like truly a blessing for me and I have
so many fun men. Some of my mentors, like Kirby Pucket,
God rest his soul, Hall of Fame center fielder MVP,
Like he would invite us by the house for Thanksgiving.
You know, I would go to the park. You know
my dad. Media interviews were done before in baseball games,
(08:14):
very different from like basketball football would have happened after
They go and talk to me before the games. And
you know, I remember Kirby Pucket for a seven o'clock
game would be at the park at eleven. You know,
he'd be at the park at eleven taking pop flies
because the met you're dome probably played in the metric dome,
Like when you hit it up into the to the
roof the white ceiling, would you know, you know, cause
(08:34):
a lot of problems with You've seen it, and Kirby
would do it a hundred times before every game, you know,
twelve o'clock in the afternoon for a seven o'clock game.
You so, like, I just saw the dedication, the commitment
to excess. He's been playing ten plus years in his building,
but he never took it for granted. He worked on
it every single day. And like that attention to detail
really resonated with me. Chris Carter, who was, you know,
(08:55):
wildly known as the guy who had the best hands
of the National Football League, right and I was thinking
he had the best hands, and I would see after
practice he would catch two hundred balls every day, all
of these little you know, nuggets that I would see
that My dad was able to let me see. He
exposed me to these opportunities and it was great to
be ten, eleven, twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's a dream. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Why Kevin Garnett was different. Yeah, you know, practice starts
at nine and he's there at six and a full
sweat before practice starts, when these young guys are walking
in the gym, and his twelve year veteran. I mean,
like that type of commitment to excellence with things that
I saw.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Every day last week speaking of teachers, and you know,
one of the big themes is mentors. And I saw
your father just a couple of days ago. He was
at a Timboles game. Very respected mister Fitzgerald. He says,
tell my son, I say hello. I was like, yes, sir,
what impact did he have in your life?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I mean, my father and my mother were the catalyst,
you know, for everything. And my mom and dad they
worked two opposite end of the spectrum. My dad, you know,
sports journalists for forty four years now in the Twin
Cities area, and you know, you name it. You know,
I got a chance to be a around Magic Johnson,
Shaquille and Neil Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, Kirby Pucket,
(10:05):
Mark McGuire, you know, and then on the Vikings, Randy
Moss and Chris Carter and you like, the list goes
on and long. And then my mom was in the
nonprofit space and you know, she worked primarily in HIV
and age and breast cancer fields, and so there was
times it was really difficult to internalize some of the
things that I saw, you know, at a young age.
I mean from the age of probably seven to eighteen,
(10:26):
I probably saw, no exaggeration, thirty people lose their lives
to complications of HIV and age and also losing their
lives to cancer, and so it gave me a really
interesting perspective on life. I saw the balance. I saw
how great it can be if you work really hard
to achieve your goals. And then I saw also the
human side, where I mean, life can be very difficult
and it could be a lot of times things that
(10:48):
were out of your control and circumstances you couldn't control.
And so I think it helped me develop a really
strong empathy for people, understanding everybody, everybody's different walks of life,
and you know, I think it just made me a
more compassionate person.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Larry, So, I've talked to Jason a lot about this,
Like I'm a byproduct of some great mentors, Magic Johnson
being one of them. I remember twenty five years ago
he took me out to mastros in La and it
was supposed to be a thirty minute meeting. We sat
for like three and a half hours and he literally
gave me his playbook and I still have notes from
that mentors. We talked about your father and your mom,
(11:22):
obviously that's where it starts. Any others that you've tried
to resemble over the years, or people that have had
a big impact on you so many and I would
include you in that. Magic Johnson was similar to me.
I met him out at the Melcan Institute thirteen or so,
fourteen years ago. We were on a panel together about sports,
and after the panel, he spent thirty minutes with me
to so many people around him at the Melican Institute,
(11:43):
and he gave me his undivided attention. He told me, Larry,
you know, you have an opportunity right now when you're playing,
you know, to really maximize the relationships that you have.
And he pretty much told me every city I would
go to, I would reach out and have lunch.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I did the exact same thing.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I go to Dallas, and you know, I would sit
down with Mark Cuban, invite him down and try to
get as many teammates I could go to New York
and John Waldron from Gold and Sacks would come talk
to us. If I go back even further. You know,
in two thousand and seven, I was in New York,
just had a random New York Knicks basketball game, and
I'll never forget This guy came up to me, introduced himself.
He said, Hey, my name is Frank. I said, hey, Frank,
(12:18):
nice to meet you. So I've been following you for
a long time. I said, that's awesome. He said, my
daughter went to Syracuse while you were at Pitt and
I think you have a really bright future. I was like,
I'm thinking to myself, I'm twenty four years old. What
does he mean I have a bright future.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I just started my career. Is my fourth year.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
He's like, no, I think you have a bright future
after you get done playing. And I'm thinking, like, I
hope I play a lot longer. Like what is he
talking about? He said, I want to delve deeper into
this conversation with He gave me his business card. We
ended up staying in contact. His name is Frank bizig Nano.
He's now the CEO of Fisser, largest data processing company
credit card processing company in the country. He was a
(12:53):
CEO at the time at JP Morgan. He ended up
inviting me to do an internship in New York in
the middle of the football offseason, and I'm thinking, man,
it would be a lot more fun probably to go
train in La or Miami do something fun, right, and
you know, but then I started thinking, like, man, this
is a really unique opportunity. I'm in a classroom with
you know, Dartmouth and Harvard and Stanford and Yale and
(13:15):
Ross and you know, you name all the great schools.
These kids are all there. And I've never been as
intimidated as I was hitting that classroom because I wasn't
like formally trained like a lot of the kids. But
you know, after the week, I felt like I had
so much more confidence in myself because like, yeah, they
might be trained specifically be bankers, but like they were
kind of linear in how they thought. Yeah, when when
(13:36):
things kind of changed, you know, they didn't do a
great job of adjusting to certain things. And like, I
feel like that was kind of my strength, bringing people together, collaborating,
you know, helping people with their confidence, and those same
things I was applying as an athlete, I could do
that in the business world and so I think it
gave me, like a it gave me a real jolt
of confidence that I could I could venture off and
do some other things. And that's kind of where it started.
(13:57):
And I started doing internships every off season, you know,
real estate development, you know, venture capital, private equity, mezzanine funding,
philanthropy to learn about different foundations. And that would have
never happened if Frank never took me aside and challenged me,
you know, because nobody had ever challenged me from a
business perspective, like you need to start thinking about this,
You need to start thinking about it right now at
(14:19):
twenty four years old. And you know, I really appreciated
that because, like, fortunately enough, I was able to play
until I was thirty seven. But Alice, you know how
many great athletes come and they have all the promise
in the world, but one bad step, you know, blow
a knee out or a great picture that's god unbelievable
command and doesn't have Tommy Johnson never able to regain
(14:39):
what they had in the past. So like time is
of the essence if you think about it, because we're
on borrow time, Like you know, you can play twenty.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Two years if God blesses your life.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
But in reality, that's not going to happen for most right,
And so I think you just have to be proactive
and how you approach mentorship and you know, just be
open to it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Well, one mentor do I believe you know, was local
to you here and obviously he had a big impact
with John McCain. He spoke at his memorial in a
very moving way. I mean, tell us about him, because
that's not a match that necessarily people would wouldn't necessarily
come up with Arizona obviously in common, but tell us
(15:18):
about that relationship.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah, So I met him at a like a fundraising
cocktail receptionist. I'm not a political person. Do you want
to turn people off you start talking about politics? Yea
half the people they're gonna be walking out of the
room in a minute. And so like I met him
and yeah, he was so kind and generous with his
time when I met him the first time, and like,
I knew who he was, but I didn't really know
who he was. And you know, he was like, hey
(15:40):
are you are you busy? You know, In the next
couple of weeks, I ended up having a coffee with
him and we just started just building a relationship.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And he used to always try to get me to
get involved in politicians.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I was like, Sena, that's not my studies, that's not
much ease, but but I love getting to know you
and like his heart.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Man.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I remember coming back from DC one time and he
used to fly commercial like he wasn't right flying back
for on private jets, and every single person that walked
up to him, like, he made time for that person,
shook their hands, looked him in the eyes, asked him
how they're doing. Are you happy with your job? Is
there anything I can help you with? Literally, like I'm
I mean, it took us an hour to get from
(16:16):
the gate to the backage claim. And that was because
every single person he made time for. And I was like, man,
I'm twenty seven years old, I'm multiple all pros, Like
I need to start thinking the way he does. And
you know, then you look at some of the things
he did while he was running for president and how
genuinely thoughtful he was, and I just really admired the
way he went about his business and how authentic and
(16:38):
intentional he was about his relationships.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And so when you sort of weave all this together,
all these experiences, and I'm so fascinated by that Frank
Bysignano story. What does that sort of either unlock for
you or how does it help you kind of create
your for lack of a better term, sort of business mindset.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah, so my business mindset, I wouldn't say it is
like like this, this is what I'm going to focus on, right,
And there's things that I do spend more time on,
and you know, hopefully as I go further on into
my business career that I'll be able to focus even
more on some of the things that I'm like really
really passionate, like you know, angel investing in venture capital,
which I really feel like I can make a sizable
(17:19):
impact with the relationships and the people skills that are
required to build a company at scale. But like I
love multifamily, you know, similar to ales. I really enjoy
the restaurant space, which I've gotten involved in. You know,
I enjoy sports and sports tech. You know, there's a
lot of different buckets and things I really enjoy that
I feel like I can bring I can bring the
value to And you know, as an investor, I think
(17:41):
the biggest thing you can do besides writing a check
into something is to actually bring tangible qualities that actually
help people around you and your business grow, similar to
what Alex is doing in Minnesota. You know, like those
young carl Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and some man
of these young guys like they have somebody they can
just pick up the phone and call, Hey, I'm dealing
(18:02):
with this off the field, Like what would you do
with this? Like there's not many owners or our governors
excuse me, and in professional sports that have his type
of experience and so like like that's something that he's
involved in. He wrote a check to be involved in,
but he can actually bring, you know, great mentorship to
young people who needed.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah they're hitting you up. They should? They should? Should
they should? Yea, they should?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah did you did you do that as a player?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I mean were you always you know.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
You had that that sort of relationship here.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Michael bill Wells very good to me. Robert Sarver very
good to me. Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix
Suns and the Diamondbacks, very good to me. And I
would always try to find those those guys and be
able to talk to them and help understand like what
they saw in sports and you know where they see
sports going in the future and things that they would
(18:51):
do differently if they could, you know, turn back the clock.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
There's not many businesses where you know, you go, you
know to New York and you know, be very difficult
for a financial advisor on the fifth floor to go
upstairs and talk to Jamie Diamond and have a conversation
with him.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But you can do that in sports.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You can go talk to Mark Lazaru, you can go
talk to Mark Cuban. You know, some of the most
successful business people in the world. You have direct access
to him, and so why you would not utilize those
opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Coming up, we discussed Larry's transition from football to the
boardroom and his commitment to making an impact through philanthropy,
plus how his love of chess became an opportunity for investment.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Another thing we have in common is the NBA that
it is ironic, right because we've been talking about magic
both of our mentor and he played basketball and owns
the Dodgers. You played football and you're a part of
the Sons, and same with based on Timberwolves and links.
When an opportunity like that comes, How does it come?
And like, how do you think about the process of
like I got to write a big check and you
(20:09):
only have so much capital, walk us through that process.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
How do you think about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
So, I mean I never really like set out to
be in the NBA. That's not nothing I was ever
like really thinking about. But I just built a relationship
over ten years, you know, with the majority owner and
one day we were sitting at dinner and he was
just like, Hey, Larry, I would love to have you
a part of my group. You know, you're really thoughtful,
(20:34):
You're insightful. I mean you have great recommendations and this
and that. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. And
then he said, you know this is what is gone.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
And I said, I kind of gulf through my water.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm had to get back to you on that, you know,
but you know it's a decision I really am am
thankful that I made because, like I would say, as
a minority owner, like I was able to get kind
of behind it curtains.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
You know, I was a part of the draft process.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
You know, I understood open up the books for me,
this is this is what we spend money on, this
is what we try to cut costs on.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
This is every aspect of the business.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Like he was very open to you know, let me
learn and see it, and you know, it helped me
make a more informed decision on you know, the Rogerston
Rolls opportunity you know, in India in the Premier League
and cricket. It helped me make a better decision and
pick a ball right, helped me make you know, better
decisions and all of those type of opportunities that presented
themselves to me after.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
That pickleball fascinating. You know, you are a player, an
owner and an investor cricket. You mentioned as well. Let's
talk about cricket for a second, Like how does that
come to you and what's the process.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I have a friend here, Kolsumani here locally, big angel investor,
founded three companies that do you know, critical infrastructure work.
Then he's from India and you know, he was like, Larry,
there's an opportunity that you know, I really would like
you to look at. And so I was, I was like, cool,
because let's look at it. I didn't really understand cricket. Yeah,
I've been to cricket matches before in India. Still never
(22:08):
really could understand it. But what I did recognize when
I went was the fandom. And you think about teams
here in the United States that aren't very small market.
You think about you know, the Oakland A's, You think
about the Green Bay Packers, you think.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
About the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Still great organizations that are thriving in really small markets.
You think about that concept in India at scale. You know,
this lead could easily be forty teams. It would not
saturate the market. So just thinking about the exponential growth,
who's watching it, how much is followed, We're all, you know,
big components, And why I wanted to be involved.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Is there one or two in particular that you're really
excited about that you feel more connected one of these
companies you've invested.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
In, Yeah, a bunch of them. You have a bunch
of them.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
But if I had to pick one, and it's a
passion for me, like Chess dot Com. I mean, it's
unbelievable how fast the game has grown, and it very organic.
How I kind of got involved in the game. I
started playing when I was seven years old. I went
to the doctor. They said I had ADHD and before
you know, my parents allowed the doctors to put me
on any medication. They said, let's look at some other
(23:11):
pathways so we can we can explore. And one of
my after school counselors said, hey, look, chess is a
great game. It helps slowest thought press down and started
helping them be more of a strategic thinker, you know,
kind of help them, you know, really kind of like
just be thoughtful on how.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
We makes decisions. And I was like, Chess, Wow, how's
that going to help me?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
But I started playing, I fell in love with this,
started competing at a higher level. I started getting in
some of these city chess tournaments, and like I was,
I was hooked.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So, Larry, how does this passion kind of bridge into
an opportunity to invest in a company like this?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So it was a passion.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Initially, I was playing out in Long Island with a
friend of mine and one of his friends came by
and we were playing bliss chests. He was like, Larry,
I got introduced you to a friend of mine. His
name is Danny Rinch. He's one of the co founders
of chess dot com. And you know, I was like cool,
you know, and I, like everybody else during the pandemic,
you know, everybody's watching all these series around the club,
and Queen's Gammit, you know, was one of that that
(24:05):
that was like infatuated with, right, and so I saw
that there was really great opportunities, and I really like
the fact that it's an international game. I'd look at
games that are scalable, that people will enjoy and that
they will pay, they will pay a premium for.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
It is this amazing collision of both technology because I
mean you go on the app and you know, and
I know lots of people from CEOs to you know,
reporter colleagues who they'll go on and play these three
minute games like every day.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, they'll be.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
You know, on hold for something and they'll like pop
into a game. And yet it also is this very thoughtful,
almost analog type of game in a digital world. Yeah,
it's amazing. So with all the things that come across
your desk unity you talked about sort of bucketing things,
as I know Alex says too, are there any that
got away things you wish you had done?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think it's any regrets. Yeah, there's there's there's opportunities
that I that I decided not to go against. But
when I'm doing my diligence process on deals, Like I'm
me and my team were pretty convicted on the doing
why we do it. And sometimes there's there's good deals
that you pass on because they just don't fit right
in that particular time right, Not that they're a bad deal,
(25:20):
but they just do. Do I have the wherewithal to
really do it at the level that I want to
do it. Not every deals for everyone, you know, I
think people get formal a lot and make decisions like
this is hot and we need we need to do this,
and like that that's not for me right now. And
so I think we're really good at that as a team,
as we evaluate opportunities as they present themselves. And we
both come from teams, you know, baseball, football teams, And
(25:44):
like Alex, how often did you ever when you went
to when you went to the clubhouse, when you were
getting ready for the game, ever worry about your your
cleat's been in your locker, or the right bats being
you know, ready for you, or your glove being oiled
up the way you needed to make you know, throw
guys out at third base, or or any of those
type of things. When you performed, like you never thought
about that And they were just taken care of because
(26:06):
you know, the clubis were doing this, and never worried
about the spread after the game if you were going
to eat, because you knew the mills were gonna be there.
You never worried about the bustles to be on time
take you from the hotel. It was a coordination of
a lot of things. And I think when you leave
the game as an athlete, you forget how much teamwork
was required to allow you to be great at what
you did. You know, you just think, you know, I
ran the route, quarterback threw me the ball. Yeah that's
(26:28):
one thing. But you know, the coach had to design
the place for you. You know, that field had to
be manicured perfectly for you. Somebody had to make sure,
you know, your pads were taped down so guys couldn't
hold you and grab you throughout the game. You know,
like all of these things that you you never think about.
You know, the trainers that you get your hamstrings loose
and get you.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Ready to perform every day. And you know, I didn't really.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Appreciate that when I first walked away, and you know,
I struggled a bit kind of finding you know, my
groove initially, So.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Larry, I can relate with that because post retirement, the
first three years I really struggled trying to find my way,
and I gained a bunch of weight. I wasn't feeling
as good and I've been doing one thing for twenty
five years professionally, and then you're just like, it's like
those CEOs that retire from like Gomen Sacks with JP Morgan.
Once you leave that, you know you don't have credit
(27:17):
in that card anymore. You feel like a little bit
of an an item by yourself.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
I certainly did.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
And then I made a really big paradigm shift after
COVID with my schedule, how does your day look like
today obviously versus how it used to be for so
many years when I first got I would say the
first year it wasn't a lack of opportunities, it was
it was definitely a lack of structure.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
You know. I was very similar to you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I was customed to us to be a very structured schedule,
and I wouldn't say I love structure, but I thrived
with it, you know, And so like not waking up
in the morning and kind of like what am I
going to do? Today, Am I gonna you know, I
know I got to pick up the kids from school
at three, But am I going to play golf? I
was a ship in the ocean with no destination, and
like that was a very lonely feeling, and so like
(28:01):
I needed to get the structure.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And once I got the structure, like I developed the purpose.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
And then once I got the purpose, I feel like
I was able to find the things an outlets that
really like suited me and I wanted to be a
part of. And you know, you talk about being a
CEO like they have a natural off ramp though you know,
because you leave CEO, now you're the chairman, so you're
still working those business mindset and thought and processes.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
As an athlete, there is no off mp. There's the one.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Percent that gets into TV they can do it, that
has that ability, but that's for a very farm few
between Hall of Fame quality caliber player that has that opportunity,
and everybody else kind of has to figure it out.
I try to help a lot of guys they when
they do make that transition, like this is what you
need to be thinking, this is what you need to do,
and trying to just kind of give them the blueprint
as al as we say.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
And so how does it go forward? I mean, you're
a young guy at this point. You've been able to
have a number of different experiences from a Wall Street
you know, internships and team ownership, Like is there something
that's on the horizon for you? You know, do you
want to go back to team ownership? Is there a
(29:09):
big thing out there that that you're chasing or is
it one step at a time?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I literally take it one day at a time. My
accounting team always like, look, Larry, we got we got
one hundred and ninety one k ones last year. Like
we like, this is a lot to manage, you know
what I'm saying, Like, Okay, I get I hear what
you're saying. I hear what you're saying, you know, but
like it gets me so excited when new opportunities come along,
and you know, and it goes back to like my
first venture deal.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
In twenty thirteen, I was taking executive business courses at Stanford,
like I always in. I had like a two hour
window and I started walking around campus.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I just wanted I.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Went to the studient Union. I saw some kids over there.
They were like working on something together. I was like,
what y'all doing over here?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Man?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
My name was Larry. They didn't know who I was.
They didn't care who I was. And I was like,
what are you guys working on? They were telling me
what they're working on. It's like, so like, do you
guys have a space that you said? Oh, yeah, this
is a Stanford Up incubation lab. You know the former
students that are now on sand Hill Road, they're at
Investment and Drees and Horowitz.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And you name it.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
They come back in and they help the students and
you know, the idea is good enough they invested in it.
I was like, Wow, that's really cool. Then I met
a former student athlete. He was a kicker named Derek
Beltch and he had a company called Driver. It was
a VR company, and you know, his original thought process
for it was to be able to help athletes kind
of learn outside of what the traditional learning was. And
(30:27):
you just watch tape from a really far distance in practice,
right right, but you can't really see the angles, you know,
and so these they set up cameras around you to
watch you run arout so I can see, Hey, Larry,
you're dropping your at the waist too, much. You know,
you need to drop your hips as opposed to drop
in your waist and you can actually see it, you know,
from a three sixty degree angle as you watch it,
(30:48):
and so like it really helps you with the nuances
of route running and where your hands are. I saw
your eyes the ball was coming in. Your eyes were
already looking away, like that's going to come back to
bite you. Like, let's focus on that you can focus on,
like the minuscule details.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, And like I really liked that application.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And then I, you know, made introductions to him, and
I saw the business start growing. He got a relationship
with the Big ten and got on with the PAC
twelve and multiple NFL teams you know, used it, and
so like I saw that my ability was not only
just to like see a really interesting, cool deal, but
I could add value to the under right, And like
that's when I really started saying, like, man, this is
something I really enjoy. You get a snapshot at something
(31:27):
in its infancy state, and you get you get a
chance to kind of like help it scale r you know,
got me really geeked.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
You mentioned this sort of it passing that I want
to dig on it a little bit. You're on some boards.
What's the perspective that you bring?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yeah, So I mean when when I first was asked
to join the Border Dick's you know ed came to
me and he said, look, Larry, I'm not looking for
another retail person. Am I looking for a banker? I
know that's not what your expertise is, but we don't
have anybody who's coming.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
From your perspective. So I just want you to be authentic.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I want you to learn, like what I've done, you know, study,
go on diligence, take some classes to familiarize with board governance,
and like you're gonna get better and the other things.
But I need you and your inside as a former
athlete to give me that inside. And so like he's not,
they don't ask you to do things that you're not
capable of showing at the time. I'm not saying you
can't grow into him, but it really just takes somebody
(32:20):
like giving you a chance, you know, to be in
a space that you maybe thought that you would never
be able to be in. And now I sit in
the room and I'm a lot more comfortable. I have
a lot more insightful thoughts because I understand the business
now after three and a half four years.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah, it's funny that now I'm picturing like how you
described yourself as a as a kid, you know, raising
your hand and.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Being like, hold on a second, man, And I'll tell
you the first the first couple of board meetings, I
remember getting off and thinking.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
What are you doing? Like, why are you? Why are
you doing this?
Speaker 3 (32:51):
And it was during because it was during COVID, and
you've sitting on board meetings before watching the board. Doing
a board meeting on the Zoom is very different from
me sitting next to a programmer and saying, hey, Manny,
you know he's been the CEO of a retail business
for twenty five years. I can look at him and
ask him, I didn't really understand that. Can you can
(33:11):
you help me? Can you help me understand why we
while we're doing a convertable note, why do we need
to draw down our line of credit? I don't I
don't understand that, And he can literally tell me right
there in a zoom meeting. I can't ask these questions
because I would be disruptive to the meeting, and so,
like I needed to be in a more intimate setting
in a board room where I could do those and
have the side conversations after our committee meetings and so like,
(33:31):
once I started doing that, I felt like I was interesting.
I was actually you know, gaining process. W the first couple,
I was like, whoa, Yeah, you know you're sitting around
listening to conversation that people who have been doing this
for thirty forty years, and you know you're stepping into
that arena.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
As we start to wrap up, you know, come back
to the Arizona of it all, because you make this
very conscious decision that this is your place. I'm sure
you had chances to go elsewhere, and yet you stayed
here very sick testly. Obviously you talk about a forty
year plan, but it's one thing to make a plan,
and it's another thing to execute it and to really
(34:07):
stick and to stay here.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Why well, you know, for you to stay at a
place for a long time, there has to be a
joint effort, like the player has to want to stay
ownership and coaches have to.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Want you, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And there's times where they felt like they could have
got you know, value out of moving me, but they
decided not to. And there was times that I was
up for contract and I could have left, but I
didn't want to. And I think after a while, you know,
the organization and the player, you start to understand like
this is this is a marriage that we want to
make last. When we were in lockstep at that point,
(34:41):
you know, it became a relationship that wasn't just transactional.
And it sports, most relationships are transactional. You look at
the winds every day, you look at the losses, and
if the losses start adding up, then they make a move.
And I think we were able to move past that.
We were able to look at like, what do you
want to face it your franchise to look like? Do
you want it to be a consistent presence in the
(35:02):
community as a person that plays every game, that shows up,
gives great effort, is a good teammate that you can
build around, that's not a selfish person, you know, Like
that's one of the reasons that we were able to
have like a really good, good seventeen year run.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I mean you've seen that obviously in organizations and players,
you know, gelling with the organization, I dare say, we
don't see it as much anymore. And I mean, certainly
you see it from the NBA perspective where the movement
is unbelievable. I mean, I feel like your case is
increasingly rare. Does it feel like that to you guys?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
For sure? For sure?
Speaker 3 (35:40):
But I think as a player, I think it's changed
a lot, especially in the NBA. You know, guys have
come in one day like I'm not happy and I
want to move, and you have to do it because
if a guy has another year on his deal and
you know he's not going to resign, you have to
be able to get the value, like you have to
as a business. You have to do that. I think
(36:01):
you see that a lot more frequently in basketball than
you do. You know, in football and in baseball, the
players have a lot of power, and you know, I
think it's also a big way how the leagues differ.
You know, you think about the NBA, the NBA Marcus
the player first, then the league.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And then the teams.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Right in the NFL, it's the league, it's the team,
it's the player, and so like the league is always
going to do what's best to protect the shield. And
then the teams have the brand loyalty amongst the community,
and the players are kind of interchangeable, right, you know,
if you have a top ten player in the NBA.
That player can kind of determine.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Every much whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I'll play tonight, I'm not going to play tonight. You know,
I will play with this guy. You know, like even
if you trade another one of his teammates, like I
don't want to play with him, you can't make the
move because they're not going to jail.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
So, just to give you the whole scope of yourself,
you're a Minnesota Vikings ball boy, then you're going to
be in the College Football Hall of Fame. As of
this year, you are undoubtedly going to be a first
ballot NFL Hall of Famer. Did you imagine that was
going to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
I wouldn't say I imagined it. It was always a
hope and a dream. You know, I didn't. I didn't
start off thinking I wanted to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Just I want to. I want to be able to
have the opportunity to play.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
And I think, you know, as your ability grows and
your opportunities grow, I think your your vision and your
aspirations start to grow as well.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
And I think that kind of they went in sequence.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
You've sort of downplayed the Hall of Fame it feels
like over time.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean, is that just who you are? None of
that is in my control. Yeah, Like it's it's so subjective.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You know, you look out and you know there's guys
that you say, like they put together a Hall of
Fame career and they and they should be in and
they're not. And then there's guys who you know are
shoeings like. But it's it's media members that essentially are
are determining, you know, what they think your career. And
as a society, I think we've really kind of like
(38:05):
going away from like consistency is not something that people
value anymore. You know, it's just a Okay, he's a
he's a money manager and he did sixty percent last year.
Oh that's that's great. But we're in a bull market
and I would expect him to have success. Like the
guy that does, you know, loses two percent in a
bear market is a guy that you like That that's
the guy I won't manage my money. Yeah, you know,
(38:27):
you think about guys like Warren Buffett, who's a friend
of Alex's as well.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I mean, I mean.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
He's just been consistent for sixty years, and like people
don't people don't value that as much.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I mean, it's interesting to think about, especially where you
are now, where you were as an athlete. You know,
obviously you were in that miliu with your father, and
then you know, philanthropically, your foundation has done a tremendous amount,
and interestingly, I think in a very focused way.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
I mean, you were.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Locked in on cancer research and other elements. I mean
clearly there's a straight line from your mom there.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Right, Yeah, very very straight line.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
And also like as I've gotten older, I feel like
I've gotten better at kind of like being an inch wide.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And a mile deep with the foundation.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
I think it's really easy to kind of get sidetracked
because there's a lot of unbelievable foundations doing great work
in our world, right, and there's a lot of people
that need help. But in reality, you can't be you
can't be everything for everyone, right, And so I feel
like if I really narrow down an education and after
school activities and programs and bridging the technology gap and
(39:37):
underserved communities and schools, I feel like I can make
a tangible difference in that area, right. And if I
do the same thing in breast cancer, you know, with
our mobile mammograms and taking them in communities where historically
there has not been great dialogue and communications with healthcare,
being able to bridge that gap to help them understand
like these health professionals are here to help you. Let's
(39:59):
get you in for these mamagra as. You don't have
to come in, We'll come to you, you know. So
like doing those individual things I think has helped me,
you know, realize that you just need to focus in
on the things that you're really good and I'm saying
that they're not others share causes that are important, but
for you to be most effective and also be able
to galvanize your donor base, like when you show your
progress and your impact reports, like these are the things
(40:19):
that we did in the month of January. This was
what we had hoped to do. We achieved that, and
this is why we think, you know, we would be
a great candidate for another grant this year. You know,
it's like we need to show tangible impact results.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
So, Larry, you're one of the most iconic players of
your generation. What advice would you give to someone who
wants to excel at life the way you've been able.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
To How very easy I say, follow Alice Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
I mean, you've done an amazing job of obviously having
one of the best careers of all time, but you know,
being thoughtful and how you help people, the advice you
always make time, you know, I text you, call you,
you called me back, email like you're You're very kind,
and how you go about your way approachable and a
constant student of life.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
You know you want to get better and improve.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
And I think if you take a lot of what
Alex has done in terms of his mindset, I think
you will have a lot of success during your career
and also post career.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, I think a lot of people would say the
same thing about you. I think, oh, Yeda, yeah, that's
fair to say. We really enjoyed this.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Thank you, thank thank you, Thanks an pleasure, pleasure, thank you,
Thank you, brother Sir, always Always.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deals hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our
producers are Victor Eveas and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor
is Sidartha Mahonta. Our system producer is Stacy Wong. Blake
Maples is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our creative director.
(41:58):
Our direction is from jacklind Kessler. Original music by Blake Maples,
casting by Dave Warren. Our managing editor is David Ravella.
Our executive producers are Sage Bauman, Jason Kelly, Adam Kamiski,
Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Hoenig, Trey Shallowhorn, Kyle Kramer, and Andrew Bardon.
(42:20):
Additional support from Rachel Scarmeazino, Elena Los Angeles, Vanessa Perdomo,
Tom Connors, and Anna Maserakis. David Dominguez is our director
of photography. Our camera operators are Graham Merwin and Edward Hernandez.
Our gaffer is Craig Fleming, and our grip is Tim Knight.
Alex Diecannis is our video editor. You can also watch
(42:43):
The Deal on Bloomberg Originals YouTube and Bloomberg Television. Subscribe
to the Deal wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for
listening
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
There's not many businesses where, you know, you go to
New York and it will be very difficult for a
financial advisor on the fifth floor to go upstairs and
talk to Jamie Diamond, right and have a conversation with him.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
But you can do that. In sports.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You can go talk to you know, Mark Lazar, you
can go talk to Mark Cubans. You know, some of
the most successful business people in the world. You have
direct access to them, and so why you would not
utilize those opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So, Larry Fitzgerald, this is another one we've really had
circled on the calendar seventeen years as an Arizona Cardinal
College Football Hall of Fame inductee this year, certain first
ballot Hall of Famer for the NFL, and an incredibly
successful businessman already.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
And everything you just said, Jason is the least impressive thing.
It's really who this person is as a human being,
a humanitarian right, what he does in philanthropy, his relationships,
his EQ.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Is off the chart.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
And this is a guy that in business has become
a titan. Larry and I have gotten to know each
other very well of the last dozen years or so,
and I think he's going to be even a more
successful businessman than he was Wide Receiver.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And that's saying a lot because he's payed the all
time greats.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
And one of the biggest choices he made was to
really root himself here in Arizona. He gets close with
the late John McCain and really truly embeds himself in
this community in a way that feels like has made
an exponential difference for his impact.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Yeah, and he's a believer of going narrow and deep. Yeah,
But the fact that he made a conscious decision to
stay right here, be loyal to one market, to one
team pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
So it's interesting because as he's built this portfolio, you know,
he's made some you know, venture type investments. He's on
several big boards Qual Tricks, He's on the board of
Dick's Sporting Goods. These are big public company boards that
he is really contributing to. He's invested in things like
Infinite Athlete, my Favorite Chess dot Com.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You played chess. I love chess, my favorite game.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And what's so fascinating about that is he's played since
he was seven years old, and then he sees the
business opportunity. He looks at this global potential for it.
And so it is this combination of his personal interest
but also very very sharp business document as well, so.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Many things that I'm really interested to unpack over the
next hour.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
On this episode of The Deal.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Larry Fitzgerald, all right, well, let's start by having you
introduce yourself and what you do.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
My name is Larry Fitzgerald. And you know, I would
say I'm a serial entrepreneur. Say that's I don't like
to box myself in any any one way. I'm always
looking to grow and learn. I think I'm as a
student of life.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is that how you thought of yourself even as a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I would say that.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I don't know if I thought of myself like that
as a kid, but I would say I was described
that way as a kid.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I would even be reprimanded by my teachers for asking
too many questions often.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I was I was the kid that was that kid?
So how does it work? Again? Like so if you
did it this way, would it work that way? You know?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So I was I was always I was always that,
but I was never afraid to ask the questions. If
I didn't understand it, I want to understand it. Yeah,
and if I don't ask, I'm not going to get
the information I need.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, it's interesting Alex being here in Arizona. Like
your dad, I'm a journalist and so I have a
lot of respect for that. But you know, like you
love asking people questions. I know you do this too.
My favorite people to ask taxi drivers and Uber drivers.
So of course, the last couple of days here, I'm like,
Larry Fitzgerald, what do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
They're like, Oh, that's my guy.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
I mean, but what's interesting is they say that's my guy,
and he is out everywhere. You're like deeply embedded in
this community. So I want to talk about Arizona. You
come to play here, but you really choose to make
it your place.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Why. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And I'm not saying this dispar as anybody else in
the way they go about their business, but I think
the younger generation are really shortsighted in how they look
at their careers, right. And I always wanted to kind
of think about a forty year plan as opposed to
a four year plan. Yeah, I could go over here
and chase a ring there, but there's no way I
would be able to have a deep, thoughtful relationship with
the city and the people there. You know, I can
(04:47):
go to the Boys and Girls Club here and I've
had a relationship with them for twenty years. Big brothers,
big sisters, you know, Zion Institute of Education, like I
can go on down the list that I've known the
CEOs board members for a decade and we have a
relationship that is it's not transactional, and they understand it.
They see me in the field, they seen me working,
you know, in terms of real estate development, you talk
(05:09):
about restaurants, government relations like all of those. I have
great relationships here. It's because I was I've been here
for twenty years and they've seen the good. They followed
me during the bad, and they see that I'm loyal
and they've shown me the same loyalty. And I just
don't think I would have been able to do that
if I would have bounced from city to city to city.
Arizona's given me everything seventeen years. They'd help me live
my dream. Now I almost spend the next fifty sixty
(05:32):
god willing years I'm here on this earth giving back
what I feel like I received and like, that was
my thought process at twenty years old, is my thought
process at forty, and hopefully it'll be my same process
thought process at sixty.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I was reading about the College Football Hall of Fame
and even the folks at Pitt were talking about this.
One thing just caught me with this idea that every
time you scored a touchdown, just handed the ball lead
to the official, Like there's this psych mindset that you
have always had that is even It feels like where
(06:04):
does that come from?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well? I was.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I come from a family of a bunch of educators,
and I'll take you back to a story from my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
My grandfather was one of.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The leaders of the of the Kappa's you know fraternity,
and I remember as I was probably my second or
third year, you know, a couple couple of years, I've
made all pro and I went back to Chicago to
see my grandfather. He was there with a bunch of
his friends. They were there doing a fundraiser for you
know something I can't remember, and Grandfather's I want you
guys to meet once you meet my grandson, and I
(06:32):
was like, yeah, yeah, okay. So he brings me over.
He's a bunch of like fifteen guys, and he's like,
this is my grandson, Larry. He's the only grandson that
I have that doesn't have his college degree.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's how he introduced me. No, seriously, that's how he
induced me.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
So like, it didn't it didn't matter what I was doing,
how many touchdowns I called. You know, education is something
that's important to this family, and you're the only one
that doesn't have it out of your cousin.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So I need you. I need you to get that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They always had a way of like letting you know,
like sports is great, but you know you're gonna make
your greatest impact with your brain, and so like that
was always something that was kind of drilled into us
at a really young age. And so I really I
appreciate my career, don't. I don't want to take anything
away from it. I set out to do it, and
I was able to achieve great things. But sports was
(07:18):
just another chapter in the book.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Larry, let's talk a little bit about Minnesota. I about
a home there. I love it. Tell me about growing up.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I mean, who were some of your favorite sports teams,
some of the people you looked up to, And tell
me a little bit about the people of Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, Alice, you hit it on the head.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think you know you hear Minnesota nice quite often,
and you know, I don't really notice it until there's
like certain things. You know, you go to New York
and you go to California, the paces, it's like much faster.
You go home and you see a lady pushing their bags.
You know, she's walking out of you know, cub Foods.
You know it's a local grocery store, and like you
see people like rushing to her to help her put
(07:54):
her bags in the car. Yeah, growing up in Minnesota
was like truly a blessing for me and I have
so many fun men. Some of my mentors, like Kirby Pucket,
God rest his soul, Hall of Fame center fielder MVP,
Like he would invite us by the house for Thanksgiving.
You know, I would go to the park. You know
my dad. Media interviews were done before in baseball games,
(08:14):
very different from like basketball football would have happened after
They go and talk to me before the games. And
you know, I remember Kirby Pucket for a seven o'clock
game would be at the park at eleven. You know,
he'd be at the park at eleven taking pop flies
because the met you're dome probably played in the metric dome,
Like when you hit it up into the to the
roof the white ceiling, would you know, you know, cause
(08:34):
a lot of problems with You've seen it, and Kirby
would do it a hundred times before every game, you know,
twelve o'clock in the afternoon for a seven o'clock game.
You so, like, I just saw the dedication, the commitment
to excess. He's been playing ten plus years in his building,
but he never took it for granted. He worked on
it every single day. And like that attention to detail
really resonated with me. Chris Carter, who was, you know,
(08:55):
wildly known as the guy who had the best hands
of the National Football League, right and I was thinking
he had the best hands, and I would see after
practice he would catch two hundred balls every day, all
of these little you know, nuggets that I would see
that My dad was able to let me see. He
exposed me to these opportunities and it was great to
be ten, eleven, twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's a dream. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Why Kevin Garnett was different. Yeah, you know, practice starts
at nine and he's there at six and a full
sweat before practice starts, when these young guys are walking
in the gym, and his twelve year veteran. I mean,
like that type of commitment to excellence with things that
I saw.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Every day last week speaking of teachers, and you know,
one of the big themes is mentors. And I saw
your father just a couple of days ago. He was
at a Timboles game. Very respected mister Fitzgerald. He says,
tell my son, I say hello. I was like, yes, sir,
what impact did he have in your life?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I mean, my father and my mother were the catalyst,
you know, for everything. And my mom and dad they
worked two opposite end of the spectrum. My dad, you know,
sports journalists for forty four years now in the Twin
Cities area, and you know, you name it. You know,
I got a chance to be a around Magic Johnson,
Shaquille and Neil Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, Kirby Pucket,
(10:05):
Mark McGuire, you know, and then on the Vikings, Randy
Moss and Chris Carter and you like, the list goes
on and long. And then my mom was in the
nonprofit space and you know, she worked primarily in HIV
and age and breast cancer fields, and so there was
times it was really difficult to internalize some of the
things that I saw, you know, at a young age.
I mean from the age of probably seven to eighteen,
(10:26):
I probably saw, no exaggeration, thirty people lose their lives
to complications of HIV and age and also losing their
lives to cancer, and so it gave me a really
interesting perspective on life. I saw the balance. I saw
how great it can be if you work really hard
to achieve your goals. And then I saw also the
human side, where I mean, life can be very difficult
and it could be a lot of times things that
(10:48):
were out of your control and circumstances you couldn't control.
And so I think it helped me develop a really
strong empathy for people, understanding everybody, everybody's different walks of life,
and you know, I think it just made me a
more compassionate person.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Larry, So, I've talked to Jason a lot about this,
Like I'm a byproduct of some great mentors, Magic Johnson
being one of them. I remember twenty five years ago
he took me out to mastros in La and it
was supposed to be a thirty minute meeting. We sat
for like three and a half hours and he literally
gave me his playbook and I still have notes from
that mentors. We talked about your father and your mom,
(11:22):
obviously that's where it starts. Any others that you've tried
to resemble over the years, or people that have had
a big impact on you so many and I would
include you in that. Magic Johnson was similar to me.
I met him out at the Melcan Institute thirteen or so,
fourteen years ago. We were on a panel together about sports,
and after the panel, he spent thirty minutes with me
to so many people around him at the Melican Institute,
(11:43):
and he gave me his undivided attention. He told me, Larry,
you know, you have an opportunity right now when you're playing,
you know, to really maximize the relationships that you have.
And he pretty much told me every city I would
go to, I would reach out and have lunch.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I did the exact same thing.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I go to Dallas, and you know, I would sit
down with Mark Cuban, invite him down and try to
get as many teammates I could go to New York
and John Waldron from Gold and Sacks would come talk
to us. If I go back even further. You know,
in two thousand and seven, I was in New York,
just had a random New York Knicks basketball game, and
I'll never forget This guy came up to me, introduced himself.
He said, Hey, my name is Frank. I said, hey, Frank,
(12:18):
nice to meet you. So I've been following you for
a long time. I said, that's awesome. He said, my
daughter went to Syracuse while you were at Pitt and
I think you have a really bright future. I was like,
I'm thinking to myself, I'm twenty four years old. What
does he mean I have a bright future.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I just started my career. Is my fourth year.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
He's like, no, I think you have a bright future
after you get done playing. And I'm thinking, like, I
hope I play a lot longer. Like what is he
talking about? He said, I want to delve deeper into
this conversation with He gave me his business card. We
ended up staying in contact. His name is Frank bizig Nano.
He's now the CEO of Fisser, largest data processing company
credit card processing company in the country. He was a
(12:53):
CEO at the time at JP Morgan. He ended up
inviting me to do an internship in New York in
the middle of the football offseason, and I'm thinking, man,
it would be a lot more fun probably to go
train in La or Miami do something fun, right, and
you know, but then I started thinking, like, man, this
is a really unique opportunity. I'm in a classroom with
you know, Dartmouth and Harvard and Stanford and Yale and
(13:15):
Ross and you know, you name all the great schools.
These kids are all there. And I've never been as
intimidated as I was hitting that classroom because I wasn't
like formally trained like a lot of the kids. But
you know, after the week, I felt like I had
so much more confidence in myself because like, yeah, they
might be trained specifically be bankers, but like they were
kind of linear in how they thought. Yeah, when when
(13:36):
things kind of changed, you know, they didn't do a
great job of adjusting to certain things. And like, I
feel like that was kind of my strength, bringing people together, collaborating,
you know, helping people with their confidence, and those same
things I was applying as an athlete, I could do
that in the business world and so I think it
gave me, like a it gave me a real jolt
of confidence that I could I could venture off and
do some other things. And that's kind of where it started.
(13:57):
And I started doing internships every off season, you know,
real estate development, you know, venture capital, private equity, mezzanine funding,
philanthropy to learn about different foundations. And that would have
never happened if Frank never took me aside and challenged me,
you know, because nobody had ever challenged me from a
business perspective, like you need to start thinking about this,
You need to start thinking about it right now at
(14:19):
twenty four years old. And you know, I really appreciated
that because, like, fortunately enough, I was able to play
until I was thirty seven. But Alice, you know how
many great athletes come and they have all the promise
in the world, but one bad step, you know, blow
a knee out or a great picture that's god unbelievable
command and doesn't have Tommy Johnson never able to regain
(14:39):
what they had in the past. So like time is
of the essence if you think about it, because we're
on borrow time, Like you know, you can play twenty.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Two years if God blesses your life.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
But in reality, that's not going to happen for most right,
And so I think you just have to be proactive
and how you approach mentorship and you know, just be
open to it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Well, one mentor do I believe you know, was local
to you here and obviously he had a big impact
with John McCain. He spoke at his memorial in a
very moving way. I mean, tell us about him, because
that's not a match that necessarily people would wouldn't necessarily
come up with Arizona obviously in common, but tell us
(15:18):
about that relationship.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah, So I met him at a like a fundraising
cocktail receptionist. I'm not a political person. Do you want
to turn people off you start talking about politics? Yea
half the people they're gonna be walking out of the
room in a minute. And so like I met him
and yeah, he was so kind and generous with his
time when I met him the first time, and like,
I knew who he was, but I didn't really know
who he was. And you know, he was like, hey
(15:40):
are you are you busy? You know, In the next
couple of weeks, I ended up having a coffee with
him and we just started just building a relationship.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And he used to always try to get me to
get involved in politicians.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I was like, Sena, that's not my studies, that's not
much ease, but but I love getting to know you
and like his heart.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Man.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I remember coming back from DC one time and he
used to fly commercial like he wasn't right flying back
for on private jets, and every single person that walked
up to him, like, he made time for that person,
shook their hands, looked him in the eyes, asked him
how they're doing. Are you happy with your job? Is
there anything I can help you with? Literally, like I'm
I mean, it took us an hour to get from
(16:16):
the gate to the backage claim. And that was because
every single person he made time for. And I was like, man,
I'm twenty seven years old, I'm multiple all pros, Like
I need to start thinking the way he does. And
you know, then you look at some of the things
he did while he was running for president and how
genuinely thoughtful he was, and I just really admired the
way he went about his business and how authentic and
(16:38):
intentional he was about his relationships.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And so when you sort of weave all this together,
all these experiences, and I'm so fascinated by that Frank
Bysignano story. What does that sort of either unlock for
you or how does it help you kind of create
your for lack of a better term, sort of business mindset.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yeah, so my business mindset, I wouldn't say it is
like like this, this is what I'm going to focus on, right,
And there's things that I do spend more time on,
and you know, hopefully as I go further on into
my business career that I'll be able to focus even
more on some of the things that I'm like really
really passionate, like you know, angel investing in venture capital,
which I really feel like I can make a sizable
(17:19):
impact with the relationships and the people skills that are
required to build a company at scale. But like I
love multifamily, you know, similar to ales. I really enjoy
the restaurant space, which I've gotten involved in. You know,
I enjoy sports and sports tech. You know, there's a
lot of different buckets and things I really enjoy that
I feel like I can bring I can bring the
value to And you know, as an investor, I think
(17:41):
the biggest thing you can do besides writing a check
into something is to actually bring tangible qualities that actually
help people around you and your business grow, similar to
what Alex is doing in Minnesota. You know, like those
young carl Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and some man
of these young guys like they have somebody they can
just pick up the phone and call, Hey, I'm dealing
(18:02):
with this off the field, Like what would you do
with this? Like there's not many owners or our governors
excuse me, and in professional sports that have his type
of experience and so like like that's something that he's
involved in. He wrote a check to be involved in,
but he can actually bring, you know, great mentorship to
young people who needed.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah they're hitting you up. They should? They should? Should
they should? Yea, they should?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah did you did you do that as a player?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I mean were you always you know.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
You had that that sort of relationship here.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Michael bill Wells very good to me. Robert Sarver very
good to me. Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix
Suns and the Diamondbacks, very good to me. And I
would always try to find those those guys and be
able to talk to them and help understand like what
they saw in sports and you know where they see
sports going in the future and things that they would
(18:51):
do differently if they could, you know, turn back the clock.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
There's not many businesses where you know, you go, you
know to New York and you know, be very difficult
for a financial advisor on the fifth floor to go
upstairs and talk to Jamie Diamond and have a conversation
with him.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But you can do that in sports.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You can go talk to Mark Lazaru, you can go
talk to Mark Cuban. You know, some of the most
successful business people in the world. You have direct access
to him, and so why you would not utilize those
opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Coming up, we discussed Larry's transition from football to the
boardroom and his commitment to making an impact through philanthropy,
plus how his love of chess became an opportunity for investment.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Another thing we have in common is the NBA that
it is ironic, right because we've been talking about magic
both of our mentor and he played basketball and owns
the Dodgers. You played football and you're a part of
the Sons, and same with based on Timberwolves and links.
When an opportunity like that comes, How does it come?
And like, how do you think about the process of
like I got to write a big check and you
(20:09):
only have so much capital, walk us through that process.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
How do you think about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
So, I mean I never really like set out to
be in the NBA. That's not nothing I was ever
like really thinking about. But I just built a relationship
over ten years, you know, with the majority owner and
one day we were sitting at dinner and he was
just like, Hey, Larry, I would love to have you
a part of my group. You know, you're really thoughtful,
(20:34):
You're insightful. I mean you have great recommendations and this
and that. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. And
then he said, you know this is what is gone.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
And I said, I kind of gulf through my water.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I'm had to get back to you on that, you know,
but you know it's a decision I really am am
thankful that I made because, like I would say, as
a minority owner, like I was able to get kind
of behind it curtains.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
You know, I was a part of the draft process.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
You know, I understood open up the books for me,
this is this is what we spend money on, this
is what we try to cut costs on.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
This is every aspect of the business.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Like he was very open to you know, let me
learn and see it, and you know, it helped me
make a more informed decision on you know, the Rogerston
Rolls opportunity you know, in India in the Premier League
and cricket. It helped me make a better decision and
pick a ball right, helped me make you know, better
decisions and all of those type of opportunities that presented
themselves to me after.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
That pickleball fascinating. You know, you are a player, an
owner and an investor cricket. You mentioned as well. Let's
talk about cricket for a second, Like how does that
come to you and what's the process.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I have a friend here, Kolsumani here locally, big angel investor,
founded three companies that do you know, critical infrastructure work.
Then he's from India and you know, he was like, Larry,
there's an opportunity that you know, I really would like
you to look at. And so I was, I was like, cool,
because let's look at it. I didn't really understand cricket. Yeah,
I've been to cricket matches before in India. Still never
(22:08):
really could understand it. But what I did recognize when
I went was the fandom. And you think about teams
here in the United States that aren't very small market.
You think about you know, the Oakland A's, You think
about the Green Bay Packers, you think.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
About the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Still great organizations that are thriving in really small markets.
You think about that concept in India at scale. You know,
this lead could easily be forty teams. It would not
saturate the market. So just thinking about the exponential growth,
who's watching it, how much is followed, We're all, you know,
big components, And why I wanted to be involved.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Is there one or two in particular that you're really
excited about that you feel more connected one of these
companies you've invested.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
In, Yeah, a bunch of them. You have a bunch
of them.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
But if I had to pick one, and it's a
passion for me, like Chess dot Com. I mean, it's
unbelievable how fast the game has grown, and it very organic.
How I kind of got involved in the game. I
started playing when I was seven years old. I went
to the doctor. They said I had ADHD and before
you know, my parents allowed the doctors to put me
on any medication. They said, let's look at some other
(23:11):
pathways so we can we can explore. And one of
my after school counselors said, hey, look, chess is a
great game. It helps slowest thought press down and started
helping them be more of a strategic thinker, you know,
kind of help them, you know, really kind of like
just be thoughtful on how.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
We makes decisions. And I was like, Chess, Wow, how's
that going to help me?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
But I started playing, I fell in love with this,
started competing at a higher level. I started getting in
some of these city chess tournaments, and like I was,
I was hooked.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
So, Larry, how does this passion kind of bridge into
an opportunity to invest in a company like this?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So it was a passion.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Initially, I was playing out in Long Island with a
friend of mine and one of his friends came by
and we were playing bliss chests. He was like, Larry,
I got introduced you to a friend of mine. His
name is Danny Rinch. He's one of the co founders
of chess dot com. And you know, I was like cool,
you know, and I, like everybody else during the pandemic,
you know, everybody's watching all these series around the club,
and Queen's Gammit, you know, was one of that that
(24:05):
that was like infatuated with, right, and so I saw
that there was really great opportunities, and I really like
the fact that it's an international game. I'd look at
games that are scalable, that people will enjoy and that
they will pay, they will pay a premium for.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
It is this amazing collision of both technology because I
mean you go on the app and you know, and
I know lots of people from CEOs to you know,
reporter colleagues who they'll go on and play these three
minute games like every day.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, they'll be.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
You know, on hold for something and they'll like pop
into a game. And yet it also is this very thoughtful,
almost analog type of game in a digital world. Yeah,
it's amazing. So with all the things that come across
your desk unity you talked about sort of bucketing things,
as I know Alex says too, are there any that
got away things you wish you had done?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I think it's any regrets. Yeah, there's there's there's opportunities
that I that I decided not to go against. But
when I'm doing my diligence process on deals, Like I'm
me and my team were pretty convicted on the doing
why we do it. And sometimes there's there's good deals
that you pass on because they just don't fit right
in that particular time right, Not that they're a bad deal,
(25:20):
but they just do. Do I have the wherewithal to
really do it at the level that I want to
do it. Not every deals for everyone, you know, I
think people get formal a lot and make decisions like
this is hot and we need we need to do this,
and like that that's not for me right now. And
so I think we're really good at that as a team,
as we evaluate opportunities as they present themselves. And we
both come from teams, you know, baseball, football teams, And
(25:44):
like Alex, how often did you ever when you went
to when you went to the clubhouse, when you were
getting ready for the game, ever worry about your your
cleat's been in your locker, or the right bats being
you know, ready for you, or your glove being oiled
up the way you needed to make you know, throw
guys out at third base, or or any of those
type of things. When you performed, like you never thought
about that And they were just taken care of because
(26:06):
you know, the clubis were doing this, and never worried
about the spread after the game if you were going
to eat, because you knew the mills were gonna be there.
You never worried about the bustles to be on time
take you from the hotel. It was a coordination of
a lot of things. And I think when you leave
the game as an athlete, you forget how much teamwork
was required to allow you to be great at what
you did. You know, you just think, you know, I
ran the route, quarterback threw me the ball. Yeah that's
(26:28):
one thing. But you know, the coach had to design
the place for you. You know, that field had to
be manicured perfectly for you. Somebody had to make sure,
you know, your pads were taped down so guys couldn't
hold you and grab you throughout the game. You know,
like all of these things that you you never think about.
You know, the trainers that you get your hamstrings loose
and get you.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Ready to perform every day. And you know, I didn't really.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Appreciate that when I first walked away, and you know,
I struggled a bit kind of finding you know, my
groove initially, So.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Larry, I can relate with that because post retirement, the
first three years I really struggled trying to find my way,
and I gained a bunch of weight. I wasn't feeling
as good and I've been doing one thing for twenty
five years professionally, and then you're just like, it's like
those CEOs that retire from like Gomen Sacks with JP Morgan.
Once you leave that, you know you don't have credit
(27:17):
in that card anymore. You feel like a little bit
of an an item by yourself.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
I certainly did.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
And then I made a really big paradigm shift after
COVID with my schedule, how does your day look like
today obviously versus how it used to be for so
many years when I first got I would say the
first year it wasn't a lack of opportunities, it was
it was definitely a lack of structure.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
You know. I was very similar to you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I was customed to us to be a very structured schedule,
and I wouldn't say I love structure, but I thrived
with it, you know, And so like not waking up
in the morning and kind of like what am I
going to do? Today, Am I gonna you know, I
know I got to pick up the kids from school
at three, But am I going to play golf? I
was a ship in the ocean with no destination, and
like that was a very lonely feeling, and so like
(28:01):
I needed to get the structure.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And once I got the structure, like I developed the purpose.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
And then once I got the purpose, I feel like
I was able to find the things an outlets that
really like suited me and I wanted to be a
part of. And you know, you talk about being a
CEO like they have a natural off ramp though you know,
because you leave CEO, now you're the chairman, so you're
still working those business mindset and thought and processes.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
As an athlete, there is no off mp. There's the one.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Percent that gets into TV they can do it, that
has that ability, but that's for a very farm few
between Hall of Fame quality caliber player that has that opportunity,
and everybody else kind of has to figure it out.
I try to help a lot of guys they when
they do make that transition, like this is what you
need to be thinking, this is what you need to do,
and trying to just kind of give them the blueprint
as al as we say.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
And so how does it go forward? I mean, you're
a young guy at this point. You've been able to
have a number of different experiences from a Wall Street
you know, internships and team ownership, Like is there something
that's on the horizon for you? You know, do you
want to go back to team ownership? Is there a
(29:09):
big thing out there that that you're chasing or is
it one step at a time?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I literally take it one day at a time. My
accounting team always like, look, Larry, we got we got
one hundred and ninety one k ones last year. Like
we like, this is a lot to manage, you know
what I'm saying, Like, Okay, I get I hear what
you're saying. I hear what you're saying, you know, but
like it gets me so excited when new opportunities come along,
and you know, and it goes back to like my
first venture deal.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
In twenty thirteen, I was taking executive business courses at Stanford,
like I always in. I had like a two hour
window and I started walking around campus.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I just wanted I.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Went to the studient Union. I saw some kids over there.
They were like working on something together. I was like,
what y'all doing over here?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Man?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
My name was Larry. They didn't know who I was.
They didn't care who I was. And I was like,
what are you guys working on? They were telling me
what they're working on. It's like, so like, do you
guys have a space that you said? Oh, yeah, this
is a Stanford Up incubation lab. You know the former
students that are now on sand Hill Road, they're at
Investment and Drees and Horowitz.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And you name it.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
They come back in and they help the students and
you know, the idea is good enough they invested in it.
I was like, Wow, that's really cool. Then I met
a former student athlete. He was a kicker named Derek
Beltch and he had a company called Driver. It was
a VR company, and you know, his original thought process
for it was to be able to help athletes kind
of learn outside of what the traditional learning was. And
(30:27):
you just watch tape from a really far distance in practice,
right right, but you can't really see the angles, you know,
and so these they set up cameras around you to
watch you run arout so I can see, Hey, Larry,
you're dropping your at the waist too, much. You know,
you need to drop your hips as opposed to drop
in your waist and you can actually see it, you know,
from a three sixty degree angle as you watch it,
(30:48):
and so like it really helps you with the nuances
of route running and where your hands are. I saw
your eyes the ball was coming in. Your eyes were
already looking away, like that's going to come back to
bite you. Like, let's focus on that you can focus on,
like the minuscule details.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, And like I really liked that application.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And then I, you know, made introductions to him, and
I saw the business start growing. He got a relationship
with the Big ten and got on with the PAC
twelve and multiple NFL teams you know, used it, and
so like I saw that my ability was not only
just to like see a really interesting, cool deal, but
I could add value to the under right, And like
that's when I really started saying, like, man, this is
something I really enjoy. You get a snapshot at something
(31:27):
in its infancy state, and you get you get a
chance to kind of like help it scale r you know,
got me really geeked.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
You mentioned this sort of it passing that I want
to dig on it a little bit. You're on some boards.
What's the perspective that you bring?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yeah, So I mean when when I first was asked
to join the Border Dick's you know ed came to
me and he said, look, Larry, I'm not looking for
another retail person. Am I looking for a banker? I
know that's not what your expertise is, but we don't
have anybody who's coming.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
From your perspective. So I just want you to be authentic.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I want you to learn, like what I've done, you know, study,
go on diligence, take some classes to familiarize with board governance,
and like you're gonna get better and the other things.
But I need you and your inside as a former
athlete to give me that inside. And so like he's not,
they don't ask you to do things that you're not
capable of showing at the time. I'm not saying you
can't grow into him, but it really just takes somebody
(32:20):
like giving you a chance, you know, to be in
a space that you maybe thought that you would never
be able to be in. And now I sit in
the room and I'm a lot more comfortable. I have
a lot more insightful thoughts because I understand the business
now after three and a half four years.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah, it's funny that now I'm picturing like how you
described yourself as a as a kid, you know, raising
your hand and.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Being like, hold on a second, man, And I'll tell
you the first the first couple of board meetings, I
remember getting off and thinking.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
What are you doing? Like, why are you? Why are
you doing this?
Speaker 3 (32:51):
And it was during because it was during COVID, and
you've sitting on board meetings before watching the board. Doing
a board meeting on the Zoom is very different from
me sitting next to a programmer and saying, hey, Manny,
you know he's been the CEO of a retail business
for twenty five years. I can look at him and
ask him, I didn't really understand that. Can you can
(33:11):
you help me? Can you help me understand why we
while we're doing a convertable note, why do we need
to draw down our line of credit? I don't I
don't understand that, And he can literally tell me right
there in a zoom meeting. I can't ask these questions
because I would be disruptive to the meeting, and so,
like I needed to be in a more intimate setting
in a board room where I could do those and
have the side conversations after our committee meetings and so like,
(33:31):
once I started doing that, I felt like I was interesting.
I was actually you know, gaining process. W the first couple,
I was like, whoa, Yeah, you know you're sitting around
listening to conversation that people who have been doing this
for thirty forty years, and you know you're stepping into
that arena.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
As we start to wrap up, you know, come back
to the Arizona of it all, because you make this
very conscious decision that this is your place. I'm sure
you had chances to go elsewhere, and yet you stayed
here very sick testly. Obviously you talk about a forty
year plan, but it's one thing to make a plan,
and it's another thing to execute it and to really
(34:07):
stick and to stay here.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Why well, you know, for you to stay at a
place for a long time, there has to be a
joint effort, like the player has to want to stay
ownership and coaches have to.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Want you, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And there's times where they felt like they could have
got you know, value out of moving me, but they
decided not to. And there was times that I was
up for contract and I could have left, but I
didn't want to. And I think after a while, you know,
the organization and the player, you start to understand like
this is this is a marriage that we want to
make last. When we were in lockstep at that point,
(34:41):
you know, it became a relationship that wasn't just transactional.
And it sports, most relationships are transactional. You look at
the winds every day, you look at the losses, and
if the losses start adding up, then they make a move.
And I think we were able to move past that.
We were able to look at like, what do you
want to face it your franchise to look like? Do
you want it to be a consistent presence in the
(35:02):
community as a person that plays every game, that shows up,
gives great effort, is a good teammate that you can
build around, that's not a selfish person, you know, Like
that's one of the reasons that we were able to
have like a really good, good seventeen year run.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I mean you've seen that obviously in organizations and players,
you know, gelling with the organization, I dare say, we
don't see it as much anymore. And I mean, certainly
you see it from the NBA perspective where the movement
is unbelievable. I mean, I feel like your case is
increasingly rare. Does it feel like that to you guys?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
For sure? For sure?
Speaker 3 (35:40):
But I think as a player, I think it's changed
a lot, especially in the NBA. You know, guys have
come in one day like I'm not happy and I
want to move, and you have to do it because
if a guy has another year on his deal and
you know he's not going to resign, you have to
be able to get the value, like you have to
as a business. You have to do that. I think
(36:01):
you see that a lot more frequently in basketball than
you do. You know, in football and in baseball, the
players have a lot of power, and you know, I
think it's also a big way how the leagues differ.
You know, you think about the NBA, the NBA Marcus
the player first, then the league.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And then the teams.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Right in the NFL, it's the league, it's the team,
it's the player, and so like the league is always
going to do what's best to protect the shield. And
then the teams have the brand loyalty amongst the community,
and the players are kind of interchangeable, right, you know,
if you have a top ten player in the NBA.
That player can kind of determine.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Every much whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I'll play tonight, I'm not going to play tonight. You know,
I will play with this guy. You know, like even
if you trade another one of his teammates, like I
don't want to play with him, you can't make the
move because they're not going to jail.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
So, just to give you the whole scope of yourself,
you're a Minnesota Vikings ball boy, then you're going to
be in the College Football Hall of Fame. As of
this year, you are undoubtedly going to be a first
ballot NFL Hall of Famer. Did you imagine that was
going to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
I wouldn't say I imagined it. It was always a
hope and a dream. You know, I didn't. I didn't
start off thinking I wanted to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Just I want to. I want to be able to
have the opportunity to play.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
And I think, you know, as your ability grows and
your opportunities grow, I think your your vision and your
aspirations start to grow as well.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
And I think that kind of they went in sequence.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
You've sort of downplayed the Hall of Fame it feels
like over time.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean, is that just who you are? None of
that is in my control. Yeah, Like it's it's so subjective.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You know, you look out and you know there's guys
that you say, like they put together a Hall of
Fame career and they and they should be in and
they're not. And then there's guys who you know are
shoeings like. But it's it's media members that essentially are
are determining, you know, what they think your career. And
as a society, I think we've really kind of like
(38:05):
going away from like consistency is not something that people
value anymore. You know, it's just a Okay, he's a
he's a money manager and he did sixty percent last year.
Oh that's that's great. But we're in a bull market
and I would expect him to have success. Like the
guy that does, you know, loses two percent in a
bear market is a guy that you like That that's
the guy I won't manage my money. Yeah, you know,
(38:27):
you think about guys like Warren Buffett, who's a friend
of Alex's as well.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I mean, I mean.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
He's just been consistent for sixty years, and like people
don't people don't value that as much.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I mean, it's interesting to think about, especially where you
are now, where you were as an athlete. You know,
obviously you were in that miliu with your father, and
then you know, philanthropically, your foundation has done a tremendous amount,
and interestingly, I think in a very focused way.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
I mean, you were.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Locked in on cancer research and other elements. I mean
clearly there's a straight line from your mom there.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Right, Yeah, very very straight line.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
And also like as I've gotten older, I feel like
I've gotten better at kind of like being an inch wide.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
And a mile deep with the foundation.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
I think it's really easy to kind of get sidetracked
because there's a lot of unbelievable foundations doing great work
in our world, right, and there's a lot of people
that need help. But in reality, you can't be you
can't be everything for everyone, right, And so I feel
like if I really narrow down an education and after
school activities and programs and bridging the technology gap and
(39:37):
underserved communities and schools, I feel like I can make
a tangible difference in that area, right. And if I
do the same thing in breast cancer, you know, with
our mobile mammograms and taking them in communities where historically
there has not been great dialogue and communications with healthcare,
being able to bridge that gap to help them understand
like these health professionals are here to help you. Let's
(39:59):
get you in for these mamagra as. You don't have
to come in, We'll come to you, you know. So
like doing those individual things I think has helped me,
you know, realize that you just need to focus in
on the things that you're really good and I'm saying
that they're not others share causes that are important, but
for you to be most effective and also be able
to galvanize your donor base, like when you show your
progress and your impact reports, like these are the things
(40:19):
that we did in the month of January. This was
what we had hoped to do. We achieved that, and
this is why we think, you know, we would be
a great candidate for another grant this year. You know,
it's like we need to show tangible impact results.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:32):
So, Larry, you're one of the most iconic players of
your generation. What advice would you give to someone who
wants to excel at life the way you've been able.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
To How very easy I say, follow Alice Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
I mean, you've done an amazing job of obviously having
one of the best careers of all time, but you know,
being thoughtful and how you help people, the advice you
always make time, you know, I text you, call you,
you called me back, email like you're You're very kind,
and how you go about your way approachable and a
constant student of life.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
You know you want to get better and improve.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
And I think if you take a lot of what
Alex has done in terms of his mindset, I think
you will have a lot of success during your career
and also post career.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, I think a lot of people would say the
same thing about you. I think, oh, Yeda, yeah, that's
fair to say. We really enjoyed this.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Thank you, thank thank you, Thanks an pleasure, pleasure, thank you,
Thank you, brother Sir, always Always.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deals hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our
producers are Victor Eveas and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor
is Sidartha Mahonta. Our system producer is Stacy Wong. Blake
Maples is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our creative director.
(41:58):
Our direction is from jacklind Kessler. Original music by Blake Maples,
casting by Dave Warren. Our managing editor is David Ravella.
Our executive producers are Sage Bauman, Jason Kelly, Adam Kamiski,
Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Hoenig, Trey Shallowhorn, Kyle Kramer, and Andrew Bardon.
(42:20):
Additional support from Rachel Scarmeazino, Elena Los Angeles, Vanessa Perdomo,
Tom Connors, and Anna Maserakis. David Dominguez is our director
of photography. Our camera operators are Graham Merwin and Edward Hernandez.
Our gaffer is Craig Fleming, and our grip is Tim Knight.
Alex Diecannis is our video editor. You can also watch
(42:43):
The Deal on Bloomberg Originals YouTube and Bloomberg Television. Subscribe
to the Deal wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for
listening
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