Rece Davis - ESPN Host of College Football Gameday and College Basketball Gameday

Rece Davis is the host of ESPN's College Football and College Basketball Gameday shows. We will talk to him about his career path, the state of college football during the pandemic, and we'll throw in some pop culture and TV trivia for good measure. He'll take us behind the scenes at Gameday with info about how they select which campus they choose to visit each week, what his normal show prep work requires, and just how he and his on-air teammates get along. For added measure, we'll get his thoughts on the Sportscenter franchise at ESPN, and who he considers to be the greatest Sportscenter anchor of all time.

Episode Transcript

Rece Davis (00:00):
Hi there.
I'm Roger Manis.
Welcome to the boss podcast.
If you're looking for BruceSpringsteen, this is not the
show for you even though we lovehim too, but this is the
Business of Southern sports.
The boss is an acronym.
Our guest today will be ReceDavis, the host of ESPN college
football game day.
Now you might feel like you arelistening into a personal phone

(00:21):
conversation because Rece and Iare old friends.
I've known him over 30 years.
I was in his wedding.
We started our careers togetherin small market television.
We're former roommates way backwhen, so while we are discussing
serious things, we willsometimes delve into the silly,
you'll hear pop culturereferences from the TV show, the
black list to the fame recordingstudios and Rece's hometown of

(00:44):
muscle Shoals, Alabama.
We'll discuss Rece's love life,how he met his wife, but we will
also discuss the serious whodoes Rece think is the greatest
sports center anchor of alltime.
We will touch on that.
We will chart his career path.
How did he find his way to beingthe host of ESPN college
football game day.

(01:04):
And later on we'll even do sometelevision trivia.
Rece is a huge fan as am I ofthe Andy Griffith show.
I think you will be impressed byRece's volume of knowledge for
that show in particular.
So please bear with us.
Enjoy the show.
It's a great conversationbetween two old friends, but uh,
you'll also learn a lot becausethere's a lot going on in his

(01:25):
ESPN conversations and collegefootball game day about how they
select the, the city, thecampus, they want to go to his,
his weekly preparation.
That's where we will bediscussing the Business of
Southern sports.
But we're also having a lot offun along the way.
So thanks for tuning in.
It's time for the show.
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Broadcasting from our studios in Atlanta, Georgia,
it's time for the Business ofSouthern sports or as we like to
call it, the Boss.
The boss is presented by dirtygirl mixers.
Get your mix fix and by Rec Tecgrills, join the rec tech
lifestyle.
Now here's the host of the Boss,Roger Manis.

Rece Davis (02:15):
How about a big round of applause for our
fictional house band that'sHerschel and the Heisman that
comes in under budget becausethat has royalty free music here
on the boss podcast or theBusiness of Southern sports.
And our guest today really needsno introduction.
Uh, he is a very well knowntalent at the worldwide leader
in sports, ESPN and it's ReceDavis.

(02:36):
How are you doing race?
I'm doing great buddy.
How are you?
I am fantastic.
Just trying to do like everybodyelse.
Stay safe through the pandemic.
Uh, you are coming to us fromyour house in Connecticut via
zoom.
So the connection here isthrough the interwebs as we say.
How are you and your familydoing through this, uh, unusual
worldwide situation?

(02:56):
We're doing great.
We feel very blessed andfortunate.
Both of my kids are home andfinishing up their semesters in
college online as everyone elsein college in the country's
doing.
But everybody's healthy.
And, uh, you know, we would, wewould like to have a little more
normalcy, but at the same timewhen, uh, you know, my kids are

(03:17):
22 and 19 to be able to havethem at home in this setting,
uh, we don't wish that on thembecause I know that's not the
way life is supposed to go rightnow.
But at the same time we countedas a blessing because this is
time that we have together as afamily unit that is unusual and
we're trying to try and to enjoyit and appreciate that aspect of

(03:40):
it as best we can while stilltrying to stay safe and, and, um
, help out people who might needit as a, as those opportunities
come along based on their ages.
You are not involved in anyhomeschooling, I would assume?
No, not at all.
Uh, my, my lack of academicexpertise would keep me from

(04:03):
doing, doing anything withPrinceton university or New York
university.
I think they would run me out onrails.
They don't even allow me in thesame room and not, not the kids.
They'd be happy with it.
The two universities have askedthat I not even get close to the
zoom computer because for fearthat I will, well, I do want to
tell our listeners that, uh,this may seem like a very

(04:26):
informal conversation as opposedto a traditional Q and a podcast
that seems, uh, almost like aninterview.
It's very conversational.
Recent.
I have known each other 30years.
Rece is, yeah, a little bit morebecause I moved to, I moved to
Columbus, Georgia in August of1988 and so I would say, well,
we met each other then and thenprobably what we were roommates

(04:49):
probably year and a half afterthat.
A year, year and a half,something like that.
Maybe not even that long.
Yeah.
We, we, I often tell people, um,we were roommates in small
market television together rightout of college.
Um, and it was a great town.
We were in Columbus, Georgia.
I loved Columbus.
It was great people to workwith.
We worked at a station that didnot have a lot of resources, but

(05:10):
we were, we were, we were ontelevision every night having
fun.
Um, kind of going down memorylane, but because of that, you
may hear me refer to recess RDbecause that has been his, I've
had that nickname for himforever and sometimes I hear
Desmond Howard use it or KirkHerbstreit and I'm like, they
got it f rom me.
It's so, it's so clever andinsightful.
However, did you think of it a sw hen you c an't, you can't, you

(05:34):
can't have i t c an have a partywithout R D or whatever.
But I often tell people, becauseI've known you so long, I'll say
I've known Rece D avis since hewas making$10,000 a year and
he's not making that anymore.
You know, as, as the greatRaymond Reddington says, I never
tire of being correct.

(05:55):
Raymond Reddington blacklist.
Oh, absolutely.
Well, we may go into some TBtrivia here later, but, but
first I want to, because thepremise of the podcast here is
Business of Southern sports, butBusiness to me can be the
dollars.
It can be the deals, it can bethe draft picks, but it can also
be what play some offensivecoordinator calls on third and
seven because it's all Business.

(06:15):
Tell us, tell folks a little bitabout your background, uh, up in
the muscle Shoals area ofAlabama.
Uh, you know, I mean, it's agreat place to grow up, Raj.
I mean, it's a, it's a placethat's important to me and, but
we live in several small townsand Northwest Alabama, my
parents were from there, eventhough I was born in Chicago.
My dad was a machinist and hewas working, uh, in Chicago

(06:38):
because at that time in the midsixties, you know, people had to
go North many times to find workand they would kind of going
back and forth.
So when I was, uh, you know, andthat was probably four or five
years old, we moved back Southfor good.
And, uh, so I grew up in threesmall towns in gewen and
Hamilton and then in a muscleShoals.

(06:59):
And you know, just sort of alongthe way fell in love, not only
with sports, I tell people,people ask me because of what I
do.
Did you, you know, do you playin college?
And I said, no.
I always thought that mybroadcasting career would come
at the end of a long andillustrious playing career that
didn't work out because mytalent ran out after high
school, although all of my highschool teammates would tell you

(07:20):
that it ran out of Hong Kongbefore then.
So, you know, but it's, it was,um, I have sort of a traditional
probably traditional Southernbackground in terms of that,
like you were saying, uh, youknow, church on Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night,and then close knit communities
and people who, um, who, youknow, cared a lot about each

(07:41):
other and the place where theylive.
So it's a, you know, it'ssomething that I'm proud of and
I think has helped mold me intothe type of person that I try to
be.
Well, two things strike me fromthat comment.
Um, and another thing aboutrecent, I, you will find us
getting off on tangent sometimesto drop in a pop culture
reference because as we allknow, race, muscle Shoals has
got the Swampers, they've beenknown to pick a song or two or

(08:05):
they get so much pick me up whenI'm feeling blue.
Everybody's seen all of thepeople listen to your podcasts.
They need, they need to see thedocumentary muscle Shoals.
It's the hip recording capitalof the world.
And I don't say that with oneounce of sarcasm or
facetiousness, it's, uh, it isvitally important in the history
of music and it's still thrivingtoday.

(08:27):
In fact, one of my high schoolteammates and classmates is a
man named Rodney hall.
And Rodney is the legendary RickHall's son.
And Rodney now runs famerecording studios and we stay in
touch.
And, um, you know, so that's, ifyou like music and you know, I
think the biggest misconceptionis a lot of people that I've
worked with watch thedocumentary, I press sort of,

(08:49):
you know, pushed it, you know,you should watch this.
They all expected to see countrymusic.
There's no country music,there's no country music and
muscle children.
Not that they couldn't have doneit, but it's all, it's a
different genre is more, youknow, rhythm and blues and um,
and early rock and roll.
And then one of the otherstudios branched off and did
some Southern rock.
So the first word is cloaking onthe documentary if memory serves

(09:12):
by bond.
Right.
I think that's, well I have seenthe documentary.
I do not recall that.
But, uh, what strikes me is likewhen a man loves a woman by
Percy sledge was recorded there,Duane Allman was there.
The Swampers of course refers tothe house band.
Uh, and the, the line that Recejust quoted is from sweet home
Alabama by Leonard Skinner.
Um, they've been known to pick asong or two, but uh, this is

(09:33):
where if we had a budget, wewould insert clips from that
song.
But again, this is, this is aroyalty free podcast.
Can we just say the slopperswere a group of studio musicians
in muscle show, right?
It's a, there was a famous storythat I think is covered in the
documentary and perhaps in myhearing and memory and retelling

(09:55):
of it, perhaps I'm embellishingto some degree, but, um, you
know, it was just normal lookingguys and read the Franklin was
in muscle Shoals to record andshe didn't think that they would
work.
And she said to Rick hall, shesaid, I don't think I can work
with those musicians.
And he, and I hope I'm nottelling the story wrong by him,
just roll with it and find outthe real one by Google or

(10:15):
something.
But, uh, you know, as I recallthe story, he said, recall, said
to her, we'll just listen.
If you're not pleased, we'll getyou any you want.
And she listened for about twominutes and said, let's roll.
Let's make a record.
And they, and they did.
So it was pretty cool.
Yeah.
It's, uh, it's just known forits sound and some of that is
just, uh, you know, you know mewell.

(10:37):
I'm a big Elvis Presley fan andSouthern music.
It's just the crossroads ofgospel and rhythm and blues and
country and Western and rock andsome studios kind of captured
that magic and Memphis muscleShoals, um, you know, all, all
sorts of genres of music comeout of the South and, uh, the
fame recording studios.
Yeah.
W I didn't even mean to get upon that tangent, discuss that

(10:58):
studio, but that's where you'refrom.
And it's like the music, themusic is in the earth.
It's like just seeps into thecommunities and people's souls
and manifest itself in greatlittle holes in the wall like
that.
And uh, but yeah, it's um, soyou had an appreciation for
music and sports growing upbased on where you were off to
the university of Alabamabecause of your position on game
day.

(11:19):
I would imagine you get a littlebit of blow back every now and
then.
Um, when y'all are commenting onthis program or that program
because of Alabama's incrediblesuccess over the last, well all
time technically, but specific,specific, clearly under Saban
here we know what kind ofnegativity do you get from
people who might question yourobjectivity.
At this point you, you get itevery now and then.

(11:43):
Um, you know, it's, it's kind offunny, right?
You get it both ways.
You can't, you might as well behonest because I will get a lot
of how come you don't rep us theway this broadcaster that
broadcaster might rep hisschool, you know, giving them
shout outs and you know, sayingroll tide all the time, let it
be known that you're, you know,a big fan of whatever.

(12:04):
And then the other side, if youever do say anything good, which
you know, is pretty easy to dowith the success they've had,
then it's what you're referringto.
You're a Homer, you know, youdon't like this school, you
don't like that school, whateverit might be.
But you know, probably probablyJoe Buck has it best and I think
he still has it in his Twitterbio, you know?
Yes, I hate your team.

(12:28):
But the thing I've come torealize Raj and I try not to let
it bother me.
I think it used to a little bitmore when I was younger.
By the time I got the game day,I'd sort of gotten over it.
Um, I came to the realization afew years ago that nobody is
without a background.
Nobody is without a connectionto a team or a school or a city.

(12:50):
Depending on what you cover,everyone has a connection.
But if you do what we do for aliving, you are called upon to
be fair.
You're not called upon to be, Iam a robot.
I have forgotten all thathappened in my past that you
know, you're not calling them todo that.
You're called on to beat fare.
Fans are only called on toevaluate what you say through

(13:14):
the prism of how does that lineup with the way that I think
about my team and how does thatline up with the way that I
think everybody ought to abovemy school or my team?
Well, that's inherently going toclash from time to time.
So, you know, I'm not saying Iignore all of it because I
probably have a little bit of atendency to want everybody to

(13:35):
like me if possible.
That's impossible.
But you know, we all, we allwant that.
I think most of us do.
Who wouldn't like you race?
Well, I'll just check my Twitterfeed after game day.
You'll find a few.
Uh, but, um, you know, I thinkthe thing is, is you try to be
fair and as long as you can comeout of a show or out of a game
that you call it the end, you'relike, I was fair.

(13:56):
I was fair to the best of myability.
That's, that's it.
And the other thing is, unlikeDesmond or Kirk or David or, uh,
someone who, you know, you go,let's, uh, we'll find a Wella,
someone who had a great rear, um, and has an obvious attachment
to a school from a performancestandpoint, people do care about

(14:18):
their backgrounds.
I don't think people care whereI went to school that now maybe
they care enough to be able toget mad at me if I say things
like, I'd say like, I believethis dynasty that Saban has
established as the greatest inthe history of the sport.
You know people that you know,if they're not Alabama people,
they get mad about that.
But I think that's fair andhonest.

(14:38):
I wasn't explaining why theyshould be winning games from my
childhood.
It was the head coach, you know?
I think I was pretty fair thento tell people what you did.
So out of college, first job wasColumbus, Georgia, which is
where we met a CBS affiliate.
You worked there for a fewyears.
Where was your next stop?
How did you, how did you, howdid you get to where you are?

(14:59):
I had one before that I wasworking in Tuscaloosa.
That's right.
But I was, they had given me achoice.
I was doing sports and news andTuscaloosa my senior year of
college and they gave me achoice.
General manager called me in andsaid, we like your work, but
here's the deal.
Because it was, you know, it wasAlabama.

(15:19):
They already had three full timesports guys and I was kind of
backing in the fourth.
He goes, you can continue towork sports.
Do you know Alabama games onSaturday, maybe Friday night,
high school football.
We're gonna limit you to about,um, five, five to 10 hours a
week max.
And some weeks we'll try not toget you any or you can work 40

(15:43):
hours a week with the potentialfor overtime, but you're going
to be a neutral court.
So I did, I did that.
And the move to Columbus was anopportunity to do some sports.
As you remember when we started,I wasn't even anchoring the
weekend shows you and Mikesalmon, uh, had those on
lockdown.
Um, so I was doing sports andnews.
I was doing I think three days aweek of news and weekend.
I was helping you guys withsports.

(16:06):
So after I left Columbus, um, Iwent to Flint, Michigan man
named Jim Blicher, who was thegeneral manager of the ABC
affiliate in Flint.
I refer to him as the man whosaved my career.
My career was going nowhere inColumbus.
Um, you were far too kind aboutthe conditions under which we
worked.
We worked with wonderful people,um, and, and some talented

(16:28):
people and now our newsroom forsure.
But there were some, uh, as, asthe great George Clooney, you
Ulysses Everett McGill, um,says, yeah, we said we had
straightened circumstances thatwas about to lead us on a life
of aimless wandering, uh,before, you know, it was, it was

(16:50):
a place to do news and, um, butI, I had a becomes forced
director there after you twoguys have moved on and I was
sending out tape after tapeafter tape and finally Jim hired
me in Flint, Michigan.
And it was, it was the biggest,I guess the biggest break would
have to be when ESPN hired mefrom Flint.
But I'll tell you what, that wasa close second because I think

(17:12):
if that didn't happen, uh, Idon't think that any of the
other things would havehappened.
So I was only in Flint for 16months.
And I know people know Roger andme and the Netflix documentary,
Flint town maybe, and they knowhow, uh, difficult times are
there and how desolate it is.
And it's tough and it's, andthere's a lot of crime and all
those things are true.

(17:33):
But, uh, I have a great and deepaffinity for that city and for
those people there because I, asI said, I think Jim saved my
career and so I'm eternallygrateful to him for that.
Uh, where is Jim these days?
Have you stayed in touch withhim?
Yeah, yeah, he's, uh, he'sretired.
He, um, he worked at and infact, right and not to bore you

(17:55):
with all this health is not tooboring for your listeners, but
right as I was only in flightfor 16 months, got the job at
ESPN and just as I was, Iremember I'd already turned in
my notice.
I was on my way and they had abig station meeting to say it
kept cities had bought ourstation WJ RT, which means that
subsequently within a year ortwo, Disney also owned the

(18:17):
station where I've workedpreviously and it had Palm DSPs.
Um, so until Disney sold thatstation, Jim worked there and he
worked for a little while inSouth Carolina, but he's moved
back to MidMichigan.
He's retired, probably doingsome consulting work.
And whenever game day goes toMichigan or Michigan state, even
though he's in Indiana alum, heand a couple of the couple of
the fellows from the station areusually come to the show and I

(18:40):
get to get to visit with them.
It's always bright.
So they're there.
They're great friends.
And I may, I'll tell you theother people I keep in touch
with them.
They're high school basketball.
Think about this right area.
Huge.
When I was there, FlintNorthern, who eventually won the
state championship a month or soafter I left Mateen cleaves,
Roberto bear Smith who played meNFL, Antonio Smith, who was also

(19:02):
a starter on Michigan state'snational championship team all
on Flint Northern.
And they had another great scorethat no one will remember.
But, um, he played college balland he was tremendous score.
He had, he, he ran into someissues but named Beyonce Harvey
over at Flint, Northwestern, Mo,Pete Southwestern, Charlie bell.
I mean some ball being playedthere.

(19:25):
And I've maintained contact withthose guys.
In fact, I saw Morris, um, justa few months ago when we were at
Michigan state with this dudefor a while.
And it's a, uh, it's been, it's,it's, uh, like I said for such a
short period of time, I sort ofa chuckle at myself sometimes
the affinity that I have forthat 16 month period in my life.
Well some of it just outsidelooking in, being your friend

(19:46):
all these years, it was a freshstart.
You had some resources aroundyou, you were polishing your
craft, you were getting reps asyou know, you're on the air
every night and getting reps.
Um, cause we both grew up.
Uh, you know, we had Southernaccents.
I still do, but you have reallypolished yours.
Um, I don't, I don't, it's to mewhen I watch you on TV now it's,
you have a non discernibleaccent.

(20:06):
Um, and, and so some of that isjust the craft of polishing who
you were.
Um, one of the most impressivethings you were able to do was
you had just gotten married to aColombia and she followed you to
Flint, Michigan.
God bless her.
You want to know what true loveis?
I'd say about six weeks beforethe wedding that you're leaving
your hometown.

(20:27):
And even though I sort of took acouple of jabs and fun ones
about the straightenedcircumstances under what you and
I were, Oh, I'm sorry.
I need to go back and re andreference credit.
Everything that was from Ohbrother.
Oh brother.
Where art thou starring GeorgeClooney.
Because as I mentioned, recent,I will digress into pop culture.
So go ahead.
I forgot to reference that aminute ago.
Go ahead.

(20:47):
Um, but my wife was the topsalesperson at channel three in
Columbus.
Georgia was probably the bestjob she ever had.
She was so good at her job.
She was making more money thanthe general manager.
I mean, she kept the whole placeafloat.
We had after you left, this istrue.
We ran out of news cards.
We were all taking our own cars,no insurance, no nothing other

(21:09):
than our personal, whichprobably wouldn't have covered
it if there had been an issue.
You know, we were, it was adisaster.
And she fixed that.
She was able to get a deal toget it.
She's believable there and sheshould have been.
But um, you know, it was a greatjob for her.
It was her hometown, her familywas there, her dad had Business

(21:30):
there, you know, that's what sheknew.
And so six weeks unlike, I'vegot to do this, you know, will
you come with me?
And she thankfully, luckily forme, um, she did and she, she's
been, um, unbelievablethroughout.
So it's been been great.
She keeps me, he keeps megrounded, keeps me in line,
keeps my head from getting toofat, all that kind of all these

(21:52):
years later, two kids later,she's still right there with
you.
God bless her.
Okay.
And I remember when you w as Irecall when you met Lee, there
was a little bit of subterfugeregarding the fax machine to
foster foster an introduction,correct?
I did.
I pretended I had to fax somecredential request, our great
friend David House over atAuburn for a game.

(22:15):
And so she was the new new salesperson in the office.
And I've really thought she wasbeautiful because she is, I
wanted to meet her and uh, Iknow that comes as a big
surprise to you Raj.
So I pretended, I pretended notto know how to use it.
You're just lucky I backed offand let you have.
So I uh, I want, I waited untilI knew she was still there but

(22:39):
nobody else could be around tohelp me.
So I went to the fax machine,Hey, do you know how I can't
quite figure this out.
And she came over and uh, showedme how to use back machine and,
and what I was going to say.
So all your kids out therelistening that want to get to
ESPN.
We're, we're trying to kind oftrack Rece's career here, a
little bit of bouncing aroundfrom local market to local
market, but if you want to getmarried, I was going to say you

(23:01):
some fax machines, subterfuge,but they don't know what fax
machines are.
You're doing all of these thingswith the pop culture represent
wait a minute, that's the mybrother where art though, you
really should stop and have adefinition of a fax machine here
depending on how old youraudience.
Uh, well, um, that's true.
Interesting times.
We had so much fun there.
And as I recall, I was alsoinstrumental in your

(23:23):
relationship building because atthe time, as a side little gig,
I used to perform at a localwatering hole called Muldoon's
with the Sandy Creek band.
Um, and, and uh, do a littleElvis do a little van Morrison.
And as I recall, the spark ofromance happened while the Sandy
Creek band and Roger wereperforming and, and recently
might've been an attendance.

(23:44):
I, I don't know that.
Uh, and then she's gonna walk byin a minute.
I don't know if I've ever toldthis story publicly because I
was not aware of it.
Maybe, maybe until after we weremarried.
I don't know.
But you were singing.
So when I finished my show orwhatever, however the schedule
was, I came to see you sing,right?

(24:04):
So you were there singing and Ifinished the show or whatever
and I was coming to see yousing, you know, hanging out and
then we, you know, go grab abite to eat or whatever.
So apparently I find out yearslater that Lee was on a date
there.
She sees, she sees me, she seesme come in, but I don't see her.
So she tells, she tells humpingthe calm person, whoever it was

(24:27):
she was on the date with theloser.
Loser.
Yeah, exactly.
She tells him she's not feelingwell and needs to go home.
So she leaves ditches hen andthen comes back.
Oh Chelsea, can she come back tosee you or did she come back for
our final set?
Uh, she was unaware.
You were seeing, she came backto see me cause we used to rock

(24:53):
the house at Muldoon's target.
Are we right, but, well let's,let's do, get back to the
Business of Southern sports.
You are, but I wouldn't say yourregular Dan Lebatard because
that was on Dan Lebatard show.
And somehow one day I startedtalking about, uh, I wound up
talking about crawling under myhouse as a kid and spraying Cora

(25:15):
Dane, which is now illegal tokill all the bugs and snakes
won't cross the line and someand some brain cells and some
brain cells probably with allthe bugs we have in Connecticut.
I wish somebody got somecoordinating they could send me
the spray of, I wouldn't get introuble with Johnny law.
I'd like to spray some kill someof these bumps.
Well, it is funny getting backon track here.
So after Flint, Michigan, Iremember again, you were

(25:37):
starting to get some interestfrom other, you know, major pro
pro sports markets as I recall,Cincinnati was interested in you
and, and uh, Andrea Kramer, uh,gave you some advice that helped
you with ESPN.
Is this correct?
Yeah.
Andrea Kirby.
Uh, Andrea.
Yeah, Andrea Kirby, um, was usedto being on air person, ABC, uh,

(26:00):
for many years.
She's an alumnus at Alabama.
Um, she and my wife actuallywere instrumental in getting me
there because, you know, likeyou mentioned, there were
several other markets, had someopportunities.
Um, and you know, Lee said, mywife said to him, where do you
want to go?
So we want to go to ESPN?
And she said, well, let's try todo that.
So in the meantime, I ran acrossAndrew's name and an alumni

(26:22):
publication.
I reached out to her because sheat the time was a talent coach
and consultant for ESPN.
And so I reached out to her andshe looked at my tape basically
as a favor since I went toAlabama.
She did and said, um, she callsme and said, why haven't you
sent this?
And I said, well, you know, I'min market, you know, 58 or

(26:45):
whatever.
We were in Flint right now.
I assumed that, you know, I hadto get to Atlanta or Chicago or
Boston or something, no forESPN, take notes.
And she said, you have thisscrewed up beyond imagination.
And I said, what do you mean?
And remember when this was, thiswas 1990, I guess 94 cause I
started in 95, so it was late94.

(27:06):
And she said, if you ever get toBoston or LA or Miami or Atlanta
or someplace, she said, you'llnever go to ESPN.
I said, why not?
And she said, you won't take thepay cut, you know, so at the
time, you know, at the time,local was where it was at in
terms of financially and shesaid, send the tape.

(27:26):
So I sent it and it, uh, itworked out.
So both of them wereinstrumental in sort of, um,
guiding me.
And it's one of the reasons Itry to, if people reach out to
me and you can't always hitevery one of them, I'm no doc
Emrick who seems to be able torespond to everybody that
reaches out.
But the people who want to makeit, I try to guide them because
I felt like that I was, youknow, just kind of reaching in

(27:48):
the dark and, you know, tryingto run into some thing and
figure out how to do it.
And, uh, I was probablyfortunate that it worked out the
way it did, but um, certainlyAndrea, Andrea w and her advice
was huge and I think, uh, leadjust encouraging me to, to focus
on what I wanted and instead of,you know, bouncing gear in there
and you know, where it might beand trying to hopscotch your way

(28:09):
up the ladder.
And one of the things that'sinteresting to me, again from my
recollection, so I'll ask you tomake sure I'm corroborating this
correctly, is when ESPN hygiene,because it's been 25 years ago
now, people may not rememberthis.
I distinctly remember ESPN twowas launched with a totally
separate and distinct brand andvibe and they wanted to keep the
two brands separate.

(28:31):
In fact, as I recall, ESPNsports center was supposed to be
a little more straight lacedsuit and ties.
But you guys on ESPN too, we'renot supposed to wear jackets.
Your shirts were supposed to becolorful, that type of vibe.
Am I remembering that correctly?
And then after a few months theyjust realized, well, we've got
too many live events.
The brand is going to be thebrand and everything just

(28:51):
started cross pollinization andthey just just ran with it.
Yeah, it, I mean that, this isone of the things Roger, that I
listened to closely when I washired, I was told do not come in
asking to do sports center.
Uh, because we are doing, justas you said, trying to create
these different brands.
If you, you know, the, thewhole, it's sort of silly to

(29:13):
think about it now, but if youwore a jacket, don't wear a tie.
If you wear a tie, don't wear ajacket and denim is good,
weather's better.
You know, I never went fullKeith Olbermann leather jacket,
but you know, there was somedenim involved.
Um, so we got to a point wherethe show that I started doing
the sports smash on sports smashupdates at the top and the
bottom of the hour as part ofthe old sports night show that

(29:34):
Stuart Scott and Suzy Kolber,uh, hosted.
Kenny Mayne was a part of thesports smashed with me and we,
the two of us, a couple otherswould, would do bits and pieces
and features and differentthings for sports.
Now they took that show off theair because of what you're
saying.
But I was still following myinstructions of don't ask, you

(29:54):
know, don't, don't go out to dosports center.
And to make a very long storyshort, it almost got me bounced
out of there before I started.
I finally had to go to basicallyevery executive in the building
and find out why they werequestioning whether to pick up
the option of my contract afterone year.
And there's a, well, we justdon't know what to do with you.

(30:16):
I said to our president, HowardKatz, who's now in the NFL, he
said, well, you know, when Ieventually got to him, because
you know, the show's not thereand we don't know if we're gonna
do the smash.
And I said, uh, I said, Howard,I said, I want to do sports
center.
I said, but I was told not toask to do sport center.

(30:36):
And he said, well, you know, ifthey want to give you shots for
fortunate, that'd be great withme.
And I said, well, nobody comeshere to do the sports smash.
You're just hoping to keep yourhead down and keep grinding and
get noticed.
And it didn't work out that way.
And then fortunately for me,they gave me a shot to do sports
center and it went well for acouple of times and uh, and they
gave me a chance.

(30:56):
And it's, um, you know, a storythat I like to tell because I, I
, I think the best, the best guyall told all facets.
There are a lot of great sportsin our anchors, a lot of
influential ones.
I think the guy who did itbetter in all facets was Keith
Olbermann.
Um, and after my first sportscenter, 2:00 AM sports center on

(31:18):
a Saturday night, I came back upto my desk and, you know, the
message light was on, you know,I had a message from somebody
and, uh, remember I had norelationship whatsoever with
Keith.
I'd met him, uh, and I'd seenhim around.
I talked to him the day I washired when the lady was taking,
taken around, showing me wherewe got our mail.
She introduced me and Keithlooked at me and said, Ron,

(31:40):
there's still time to save yourcareer.
And turned and walked away.
That was like, I hadn't said onemore on ESPN.
So, you know, fast forward nine,10 months later, I get a chance
to do sports center and themessage lights on.
I figure it's, you know, my wifeor my mom or my sister or
whatever.
And I pick up both messages fromki.
And, uh, he said, uh, he said, Iwatched your show.

(32:02):
I assume that you want to bepart of this rotation.
I'll make sure they know that onMonday morning.
Oh, this is K O quick.
I've never had a conversationwith him and that I had such
respect for his ability, Roger,that that validation, uh, gave
me a little more confidence.
And then it were, I, I don'tknow, to this day, I've never

(32:23):
asked Keith if he actually didgo in and say, Hey, he needs to
be in the rotation.
And if he, you know, becauseKeith sometimes as you might
have read, can get a littlecontentious with management.
So I don't know that that wouldhave helped her.
It would have hurt.
But, um, I don't know to thisday if he did it or, but the
fact that that was way hereacted, uh, meant a lot to me.

(32:43):
And I'm happy to still call,call Keith the friend after all
of these years.
And I do, and I'm not saying itbecause he was kind to me.
There've been, I've worked with,you know, unbelievable guys
anchoring that show.
Dan Patrick boomer, Scott vanpelt, Stewart, all magnificent,
all magnificent in their ownway.

(33:04):
And you're splitting hairs.
But to me, from my taste andjust funny, insightful ad-lib
pick up on anything, capture amoment.
You know, riding isunbelievable.
You know, a key I think is, isthe guy to me that I would, you
know, certainly I hate the MountRushmore thing, but if you put

(33:26):
him out there, he is, his faceis right up there at the top.
Was that it dawned on you thatif he was leaving you a message
at two or three in the morningon a Saturday night, he was
probably drinking.
And that might have been most asopinion of your performance job.
And what's interesting, again,for anybody that's too young to
remember this, the sports centeris still a key franchise for

(33:50):
ESPN, but in the, since theinternet of the last 1520 years,
you know, so so much informationgets to people so quickly now,
sports center used to be, mustsee TV.
It was huge.
A big franchise obviously stillis, but much bigger in the
nineties simply because of itwas the source of information.
It's where we had to go to seehighlights and it's where we had

(34:11):
to go to get breaking news andthings like that.
So I understand, just to put itin perspective, the desire for
every ESPN talent to want to geton a sports center was big back
then.
Um, but you are now the face ofarguably their biggest franchise
in, in my humble opinion, beingfrom college football country,
the game day shows bothbasketball and football.

(34:32):
Um, and I know you bouncedaround inside ESPN doing some
NASCAR things NASCAR tonight andyou did the late night, uh,
college football show withMartin Mae and Lou Holtz and,
and just, you know, was a solidstar in the making all this
time.
Um, how did the game daysituation unfold, uh, to come

(34:53):
into you to come your way?
Um, you know, I think I'destablished my place in the
sport through that time in thestudio.
Um, I was there, I kind of losecount that, I mean full time.
Uh, I was probably the studiosort of in the nerve center
command central for collegefootball for about 16 years I

(35:13):
think, uh, prior to, um, priorto taking game day 10 of those
with Mark and Lou for the last10.
And, you know, Mark and I wereworking 14 years together in the
studio.
Um, so I thought I hadestablished a place in the
sport, Roger.
And, uh, you know, it was what Iwanted, you know, um, wanting to

(35:35):
be at one of the most prominentpossible that was available in
the sport when it came time tonegotiate a new deal.
And, um, uh, it was a situationwhere I think timing aligned in
a lot of ways.
Um, and I had unbelievablerepresentation and a guy who is

(35:59):
not only my agent but a veryclose friend and Nick Khan and
he helped guide me through theprocess.
And, you know, we, we got to apoint where, you know, okay, you
need, you need to lay out a planfor Rece.
And, uh, and they did.
And that was, uh, that was kindahow it came about the game, the

(36:19):
game day aspect of it.
Because, you know, there was oneyear where Chris did both game
day in the game on a Saturdaynight.
And that was when I was in thelast few months of my deal.
We were negotiating.
And, um, you know, there are alot of factors that had to come
together for it to go in thatdirection and, you know,
whatever, um, offer and, andsituation they could present.

(36:41):
And they were, uh, they wereeverything they told me, which I
know you don't hear this a lotin television.
Every time they told meeverything they told me that
last year during the negotiationcame to be and it couldn't have,
uh, I couldn't have had anegotiation that was handled in
a more forthright manner.

(37:01):
I credit, uh, credit them forthat.
Uh, ESPN management, certainlycredit Nick for that.
Uh, so, you know, it worked out.
Um, you know, it worked outreally well.
Well, and it's, it's a dreamchair again, cause I know you so
well.
You know, growing up lovingcollege football just in our DNA
, uh, in fact, as I recallgrowing up in Northwest Alabama,
one of your big heroes was, uh,was Archie Manning.

(37:25):
Uh, among others.
Uh, you know, we all have theSouthern football lower that,
you know, listening to radiobefore our childhoods, you know,
listening to the radio of otherteams.
Not even our team, just tolisten to the games before every
game was televised.
But now you're in the chair.
Um, and I know, uh, I know oneof your pet peeves is when
people call you a traffic cop asthe host of that show, you're

(37:47):
not a traffic cop.
I tell people, you tell me ifI'm right or wrong or if this is
your pet peeve.
I equate your job to that as a,as a basketball point guard, you
bring the ball up, you run theoffense, you distribute it.
But you can take a shot too.
Cause you're the point guard andyou run the offense and you can
throw it the Kirk, you can throwit pilot, coach Corso, Dez,
whomever.
But you can take a shot causeyou're the point guard.

(38:09):
Absolutely.
It's a point guard quarterbackand you understand it Roger,
because you're really good atit.
You, you know how to do it too.
And it's, um, I think the peoplewho are most successful in this
role, and it's, you know, it'sup to the audience whether they
deem you or meet successful,whether they enjoy it, but where

(38:29):
my sensibilities, the people whodo it well are involved in the
conversation, but have a goodsensibility of when to, when to
take that shot or when to, youknow, if you want to keep the
football analogy, when to dumpit off and when and when to
throw and when to throw theskinny post and when to pull it

(38:51):
down and run.
You know, it's the, it's thatsensibility.
I think that, look, you're not ahundred percent throw pick
sometimes strip sack, fumbleturnovers, you know, air balls,
whatever metaphor you want touse, it's going to happen from
time to time.
But it's that sensibility ofknowing how to weave all of your

(39:11):
guys, all of your peopletogether and to allow them to
disagree.
Um, no, when, no how to handlethe conversation and know when
to make those types of pointsthat you're talking about.
Um, you know, I'm not gonnaargue with David Pollack about
proper, uh, proper handplacement swim technique.

(39:34):
That's, that's out of my mind.
But David and I can argueforever about whether, um, you
know, Jake Fromm or JustinFields should have been in the
starting quarterback or whetherKirby should have gone forward
on third down or we wouldprobably both agree that he
shouldn't have faked uponagainst Alabama.
But other than that, you know,you can argue about things like
that for ever.

(39:56):
And um, you know, and, and myopinion is just as valid as his
and, and those types, that'swhere you pick your spots, I
think.
But you do it respectfully.
And you also know that in yourrole as the, as the host, you
have to know when, when'senough.
You know, you have to know whenyou take those shots, when do

(40:18):
you let it stand, what you said.
And that's enough, you know, andmaybe sometimes it might appear
that you're letting the otherguy get the last word in.
And maybe that's true sometimes,but I think there's a
sensibility that makes itcomfortable for people at home.
At least, at least that's thegoal.
Well, and also what the vieweris not aware of.
While that's all going on,you've also got producers in

(40:40):
your ear telling you that thenext story, because you're heavy
and time is killed, or we've gotto go to this person or that
person.
You've got 5,000 people behindyou yelling and screaming the
fans.
You've got a variety of weatherconditions.
And so you've got all this goingon, but yet trying to maintain
the cohesion and the chemistryon set and you do it flawlessly.
That's why you are aware youare.

(41:01):
And I'm where I am.
You have 10,000 people at yourshow and I'm sitting in my
office here at home doing thisshit.
I don't say this just becauseyou're my friend.
You, you, you could do this.
You're, you.
You've always been an immenselytalented guy on air.
And you know, there, there aresome aspects of it that
repetition helps.
But I've also been fortunate inthat, um, I, I've had really,

(41:26):
really good producers on a gameday football and basketball.
You know, a guy who's now anexecutive who's not in the
charity more, but did thetransition year.
And he and I worked together inbasketball for a number of years
too, was Lee fitting, who withall due respect to all of the
producers we've had who arephenomenal now, he was masterful
in doing the things that you'vetalked about.

(41:48):
And you know that that helpswhen you, you know this too,
when you have completeconfidence, which I also do in
our producer now, Jim guy Aero,who's terrific, um, when you
have complete confidence in whatthat guy's telling you, you
know, in terms of we gotta killthis, we gotta not kill this.
And sometimes Jim and I willargue, you're in the show, you
know, Kirk, we'll be talking,he's like, I've got to kill the

(42:10):
Oklahoma discussion.
And I'm like, no, you can't killthat.
You know, and we'll be goingback and forth and we can come
to an agreement sometimes duringthe show, you know, and
sometimes you have to trust, youknow, if he pushes back and
says, I can't, you have to getme to break.
You know, we're getting close tothe top of that.
We're going to cross the top.
We can't be in breath.
You've got, you can't pay me outto like this, then you got to

(42:32):
trust him.
You know, and, and you alsosometimes if there's a breaking
story, um, I remember when JTBarrett got in trouble, uh, you
know, he went to pick up ateammate or something.
He, they were all Ohio state wasoff that week.
He'd had a couple of drinks andhe, you know, he got, uh, he got
caught at, uh, at uh, one ofthose check plate checkpoint
things or something that broke,like as we were coming on the

(42:55):
air and fitting Lee fitting wasin the chair then.
So I had complete trust in him,our new, uh, complete trust in
our news department and theywere getting the information to
Lee.
And this rarely happens,surprisingly rarely happens in
sports television.
The way we, you see it on theold movie broadcast news where
they're telling you and then youhave to, you don't just
regurgitate it, but they'retelling you the information you

(43:17):
have to get it out in a coherentmanner.
That case it was, you know, afew minutes before that JT had
gotten, you know, that there'vebeen some issues, Kirk and I had
found out from some connections,but we didn't have the tales.
I was getting the details in myyear as I was saying.
And you have to have completetrust in those folks.
And I've been very fortunatethat I've got great people with

(43:38):
me to do that.
Well, when all, all while the,the, the zoo of the show is
going on around you, the, thenoise in the weather and all of
that.
The, the team of Kurt as Pollock, coach Maria and whomever.
It seems like a really goodteam.
So this is just me and youtalking.
Who's a jerk?

(44:02):
We don't, we don't really haveany, uh, no, I'm teasing.
I know you are, but I thinkthat's one of the things,
getting aside this might work.
I mean you, you include Rinaldiand Jean Moja housekeeper and
Jen Latta and you know, all ofthe people that are part of the
people behind the scenes, wejust, if people on the air or

(44:23):
off are jerks, they're notlasting on that show.
Uh, you know, they will, we'llhave a move of off.
And so that, that's a, that'svery fortunate, right?
I'm sure.
I mean, it's a fluid situationwith the pandemic and um, thanks
for getting canceled and they'retrying to figure out a way to
reschedule.
Who knows what college footballwill look like, but what kind of

(44:45):
plans are y'all making?
Because your show requires live,live crowd.
They're typically for the energyand the enthusiasm and the
passion to represent the sport.
Are y'all having plans a, B, C,D, E F G being developed right
now based on whatever might ormight not happen?
I'm sure that the executivesare, but it hasn't, we've done

(45:05):
nothing more than sort of talkabout it as a group.
What if, and I think where wewent and the only correct answer
to this, Raj, is, I don't know.
You know, that's the only thingbecause no one does right now.
But here's how we've alwayslooked at it is great to have an
awesome crowd.
I mean it, the energy and theadrenaline that you get from
that is second to none and wealways want that, but it is not

(45:30):
necessary to have a good show,you know, and we, you know,
every year we do, um, I think wehave to call it something else
because of sponsorship deals,speaking of Business of sports.
But we do a basically a game dayshow, new year's morning from
inside the Rose bowl.
There's nobody there.
And a lot of times that thoseshows foster a lot of great

(45:52):
discussion.
Now you do, to be fair, you havetangible playoff things to
discuss and the Rosevillecompany, so that lends itself to
it.
Um, but you know, I think we canstill put on a great show if
there are games play, ourpreference would obviously be to
have that type of atmospherebecause it's, uh, it's great for

(46:13):
the show.
It's part of the fabric of thesport and we don't want to lose
that.
But obviously that comessecondary behind the health and
welfare of people.
Speaking of the Business and howyou take care of your Business,
just run us through, forgetpandemic.
What's a normal routine game dayweek for you, of your
preparation, your travel, whereare you on, what days are you

(46:35):
home, when do you get to thecity of choice and how are, how
are the, how are the locationsselected?
Um, you know, a week or two out.
Okay.
It's only, we might have a goodidea, but it's never announced
until, um, at best Saturdaynight.

(46:55):
Um, you know, before thefollowing week it has pushed in.
There've been a couple that havepushed into Monday.
I think one, one year, maybe theyear we went to Philadelphia to,
um, independence hall for NotreDame temple.
That might've pushed intoTuesday because we were figuring
things out.
But typically it's announced onand decided Saturday night,

(47:15):
Sunday morning, sometimes it's areally easy thing to do and a
lot of times we're all up and on, uh, usually not a conference
call.
Sometimes there might be someindividual calls, um, among some
people, um, management's greatabout soliciting our input on
it, but more times than not,it's a text chain going on.

(47:36):
People, you know, a small groupof us, uh, presenting our
position on it, what we think,um, and then the decision is
made and the decision is notalways, which do teams are the
two highest ranked, the highestranked matchup.
Uh, you try not to look too fardown the road, but you can look

(47:58):
at something and say, you know,for instance, well, Florida
Auburn is a, is a great match upthis week, but it looks, you
know, we've got Georgia atAuburn in two weeks and this
week we probably had somethingelse that's similar.
If you know, if it's close, youprobably will look ahead a

(48:21):
little bit.
Not that we're averse to you.
We've gone same place twice in ayear before we can, we can do
that.
That's not a big deal, but you,it's sort of a balance of
everything.
It's a balance of not just thehighest ranked teams, but it can
be the best story of the week.
You know, sometimes a story orsomething, a story that needs to
be told at some point in theseason.
Like when we'd gone to JamesMadison, which I've gone to a

(48:45):
couple of times, we went toSouth Dakota state, uh,
therefore, um, the North Dakotastate game, you know, there are
stories like that that you findopportunities to tell the, kind
of, break it up a little bitevery now and then.
Some you try.
It's a little bit of a feelthing.
Um, and I know some people thinkit's driven by what network the

(49:05):
games are on.
It's not, um, you know, from aBusiness standpoint, if you
have, it just makes sense.
It's obvious if you have twogreat games, both are equal,
both be great atmospheres andones on ESPN, rabies, and the
other one's not.
Well, obviously you're gonnalean to the one that's on your
network, but if there's a gamethat it's this level and you

(49:26):
know, and it's on anothernetwork, we've shown time and
time again, we'll go there.
So it's, it's a combination ofbest story.
How's a, as a season layout,where have we been already,
where do we think we're likelyto be in the next two, three
weeks after that?
All of those things factor inwhen we're making the decision
on Saturday and understandingmore.
And what is your personal weeklyroutine?

(49:49):
The beauty of football is it,with the exception of the
Thursday night game, but theSaturday schedule is, there's,
there's a consistency to it.
A weekend week out.
What is your normal routine forpreparation and when do you
arrive and things like that.
Well, will you, in terms ofpreparation, uh, usually the
first conversation is about thenext week or some brief ones on
Saturday after the show at somepoint in the afternoon.

(50:12):
But usually we spend, you know,watching games.
I almost always stick around, uh, for the game where we are.
Um, by Sunday, you know, we'llstart, there will be a, there'll
be a pretty good email chainamong, uh, the producers, me and
Chris Philipa usually Kirk'svery involved in that.

(50:33):
Also a producer and I willusually have a lengthy
conversation on Monday morning,just the two of us kind of
laying out what we think thingsought to look like.
One of the things that I do onMonday morning, sometimes I do
it on Sunday night, is I go andreview the show, uh, the entire

(50:53):
three hours, take notesthroughout and send out notes to
the group things I liked, thingsI didn't like, things I think we
ought to do better.
Um, you know, where we missedthe Mark, where we didn't, uh,
try to be encouraging why thishappened, why did that not
happen?
Uh, should we think aboutwhatever it could be?
Well, there's a, I would sayjust sort of my nature, there's

(51:13):
a lot of attaboys and uh, in mynote, but I also, if I don't
like something I try to say soand you know, so I send that out
usually on Monday morning andthen by then everybody reads it.
Maybe somebody responds and thenby noon on Monday we've kind of
moved.
We've moved on and um, Idescribe it, Raj, I don't have a
set number of hours or schedule.

(51:34):
I just describe it as alifestyle.
You're, you're, you're sort ofimmersed and engrossed in
college football all week, youknow, and there'll be, we'll
have a conference call onTuesday among a few of us.
Uh, Jim and I have gym guy withproducer that we are in constant
communication, email, texts,calls, you know, you name it,

(51:55):
where we're constantly um,communicating about this.
Um, um, I'm talking to the guysa lot, talk to Kirk a lot
because Kirk is, Kirk is such agood partner.
I'm, I'm very fortunate to haveKirk and bill us and my two
shows because they, there'snothing in the sport that will

(52:16):
throw them and they're so, uh,they're so good on TV.
They're very differentpersonality standpoints and just
, uh, the way they view life.
But both are, are brilliant guysand tremendous communicators in
different ways and great guys,you know, so I'm lucky to have
them.
And you know, Kirk has a greatsensibility because of the years

(52:36):
on show and his passion for thesport.
So I spent a lot of time inaddition to, you know, the
producers and for Leeka who's,you know, like an encyclopedia
of stuff and it's sort of morethat knowledge into his on-air
role, which is, you know, reallya huge part of our show.
So I spent a lot of time, uh, Idon't, it's funny, I

(52:57):
communicate, it's weird, youknow, you find different things
that you communicate withdifferent people in different
ways.
For weekend night email.
We don't talk on the phone veryoften, you know, and usually if
we text it's like some kind ofjoke.
Uh, you know, like we're textingjokes but we email about the
show.
Kirk and I will be text or phonecall almost always, you know,
and Jim and I are like, I don'tknow how you'd describe it.

(53:19):
It's all of it.
So it's kinda all the same.
So I'll leave on Thursday,usually Thursday morning, try to
get there and do some work onThursday afternoon, uh, go
experience a little bit of whatthe vibe.
So I can town on uh, Thursdaynights.
Then Friday we'll have aproduction meeting, usually at
nine or nine 30 local time.
I spend an hour, an hour and ahalf.

(53:40):
Kirk and I usually have somesegments that we have to record
for ABC affiliates and forsports center.
And then I'd go back and grind.
And then usually, um, you know,I don't, I don't go out on
Friday nights hardly ever,unless there's some type of
appearances or event and it'susually short.
And I usually stay in my roomand do door dash or room service

(54:00):
and, and just kind of go overstuff and watch all, watch every
frame of video that's going tobe on the show and prepare.
We don't do a prompter oranything like that, but I still
ride out, um, leads to storiesand different things and I don't
memorize them, I just write themout.
So I kind of have gone throughthe show and what I'd like to

(54:20):
say in my head.
And then when the time, when thetime comes, then, you know,
unless it's particularlysensitive, I know what I want to
talk about and then I just tryto say it and then, then you
just try to capture the energyin the moment, uh, when the
shows go well.
And that's another impressivething about this show that
people may not know.
No teleprompter, no problem.
There's no stink inteleprompter.
Rece Davis doesn't need nostinking teleprompter.

(54:43):
No.
The funny thing is, is I think alot of people in our Business
look at that as some type ofbadge of honor.
I look at it more as a practicalthing because what I've found
over the years is that, youknow, analysts rarely use tele,
maybe some other networks andESPN analysts don't use
telephones of course, becauseit's supposed to be off the
cuff.
Right?

(55:04):
And they're talking about whatthey see in the video and all
that kind of stuff.
I've found that when analysts,when analysts are in a position
where there's something on thescreen up there, like a
prompter, they're wondering, amI supposed to talk?
You know, and it creates alittle hesitancy.
What's, I think it just makes itmore, it just makes it more
conversational.
So, you know, we, there aretimes when you'd love to have

(55:27):
one man.
When it's, when it's a NCAA, um,you know, NCAA case or a legal
issue or you know, somethingvery serious.
You like to be extraordinarilyprecise and do it.
But, and I think it's, I thinkit's a fair trade off.
Most of us can, can handle it.
Well, you, you mentioned some ofyour preparation.
I would encourage people to gofollow your social media because

(55:49):
occasionally during the seasonyou will post some of that
behind the scenes stuff thatyou're doing that is compelling
to the fan of that show and tocollege football, whether it's
your preparation or a segmentcoming up in the show or just
the behind the scenes of thecrowds and the security or
whatever it is, you know, yourgolf cart ride to the set,
things like that.
But that, that's, that'scompelling content.

(56:10):
Uh, so I would encourage peopleto go follow you on social
media.
Well, people also may not knowabout you as, as we come down,
the stretch here is, uh, you're,you're quite an officio natto of
some television trivia.
Do you recall what we used callwhen we were rooming together 30
years ago?
What we used to call the besthour on television for sure.
It was, uh, it was the AndyGriffith show, I think at two

(56:33):
Eastern on WGN from Chicago,followed by the Dick van Dyke
show, the Dick van Dyke showwhile good was sort of riding
the coattails of the indie group.
And as I recall, either beforeor after it, uh, sometimes if we
would, if we had a two hour gap,uh, this might've been more me,

(56:53):
but they would also rerun theCharlie's angels.
So it was kind of, it was that,well Cheryl ad I was going to
watch it.
If it was a Sheryl ed episode,who was, who was the best
Charlie's angel?
I don't mean most attractive.
I mean like who is the best Luke?

(57:13):
Oh, I think the brains of theoutfit was Kate Jackson.
The Sabrina Duncan.
Yeah.
I think, I think he's a productof a, the great state of
Alabama.
I give it the TV tray.
But you mentioned Andy Griffith.
So, um, I, I do have, uh, someAndy Griffith trivia that I have
looked up here.
Some of it.
I was doing it off my head andthen I went to look it up to

(57:33):
confirm it.
Um, but, but a recent, I share alove of the Andy Griffith show,
uh, in addition to lots of popculture, you know, race quotes.
Oh, brother, where art thou allthe time?
Cause eight this place.
Just a geographical oddity.
Exactly.
Two weeks from everywhere.
You don't, you don't want myson, you want, my son is a
history major and it Princetonto finish, you have to write a

(57:53):
thesis and it, you know, hewrote his on the political
influence of w Lee O'Donnell,who was a Texas governor and uh,
and United States Senator fromthe state of Texas.
Fascinating.
And it was amazing as he did hisresearch in a different thing
for this paper that I can't waitto read the whole thing.

(58:14):
The real, it's the real lifePapillon happier battle for a
mobile other brother Arthur.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It really was.
But I digress.
You're, you're gonna, you'regonna stump me with Andy
Griffith.
I actually am not.
I tried to go easy on you here,like, uh, and I may not know all
the answer to this, but given meand Andy Griffith fans hope
you'll know these as well.
Give me three of Andy'sgirlfriends.

(58:37):
[inaudible] girlfriends.
There was the, I'm going to bevery controversial here.
There was the, there was theworst girlfriend, which was
Helen.
Uh, there was, there was the,uh, uh, best girlfriend, which
was, uh, Ellie and then, um, uh,peg was also an excellent

(58:57):
girlfriend.
He probably should have stayedwith peg because he and Nellie
fought a lot and peg peg camefrom money.
So he made it, he made a diremistake because Helen, I never
quite understood.
Helen.
Helen seemed a little cold to meand uh, but he eventually the

(59:17):
character ended up marryingHelen, um, and nurse Peggy nurse
Peggy, by the way, he was playedby Joanna Moore, who is a native
of Georgia, I believe, who isthe mother of in real life.
Tatum O'Neal.
She was, she was married to RyanO'Neil.
I'm going deep down to thetrivia here.

(59:38):
Give me a, through the course ofthe show, Barney Fife had ref
that they weren't thinking aboutreruns at the time, so sometimes
their scripts were not, youknow, they didn't go back and
reference an old script.
If you're going to ask, I'mtrying to make, go ahead.
What are, what are threereferences to Barney's middle
name?
Sometimes it was a name.
Sometimes it was initial.

(59:58):
Well, I know of Bernard[inaudible].
That's one.
Yes.
Ah, you got me on that.
I can't remember.
I know.
I'm going to know when you sayit, but I don't, I don't know
him.
Bernard, Milton Fife and BrandonBernard.
Oliver Fife.
I remember that.
Bernard Oliver five.
I didn't remember Milton, butBernard.
Pete five I think.
Was that the most common?
Probably, yeah.

(01:00:19):
When he, when they went to theepisode where they went out of
town and they checked in at thehotel, Barney registered as
Barney Fife MD.
Andy looked over his shoulderand saw it and said that the
desk clerk said, okay, here'syour key.
Dr Fife and Andy was takenaback.
W M.
D what did, what did it standfor?
According to Barney, maybe ourdeputy, but I mean you can't

(01:00:41):
write that any better.
What were the names of the twofun girls from Mount pilot?
Uh, Daphne and script had a boy.
Uh, what was the name ofBarney's landlady?
Before or after he was drunk.
This is Mendel bright when hewas sober, but then after he'd

(01:01:02):
gotten into the hard side or Hey, ranger comes into town.
I thought you were going to tryto ask me a tribute question
there.
Um, what was the name of the manin a hurry?
Malcolm Tucker.

(01:01:23):
Boom.
You were Excel at this.
Did you have a favorite episodeor anything?
A man.
So many great ones.
I think the, I think the popularone to say is something that had
a secondary meaning like Opie,the Birdman.
But basically I think I'll haveto take, uh, I'll have to take

(01:01:46):
mountain wedding because Ibelieve that was the first
earnesty bass episode, wasn'tit?
Oh, that's a good question.
Um, probably, yeah.
A while before we go here.
Go out in the woods to look forhis tea basket.
The festival is fine.
You.
Um, he's a nut.

(01:02:07):
Um, don't you do an Ernest Timpression?
Oh no.
You know, on an, on an earlydate.
My wife convinced me to do thatin the waffle house in some, and
by some miracle she decided tostay with me.
Anyway, it's me.

(01:02:27):
It's me.
It's Ernest T.
I, I, I ain't talking, I ain'ttalking more.
You asking more on Balkan, theAndy Griffith show, man, if you
haven't checked it out, check itout.
It's awesome.
Um, well res, thanks for joiningus.
I've taken up far too much ofyour time and hopefully we can
have you back on later.

(01:02:48):
Um, any, any parting thoughtsfrom Connecticut?
Um, any hopes for footballseason?
Uh, hopeful and optimistic, butyou don't know yet, so we'll,
we'll just wait and see.
So hopefully we'll be able toplay at some point.
It might be modified.
Maybe, maybe the crowds will bemodified.
Maybe the calendar will bemodified.
But you know, I'm still hopefulthat something will allow us to

(01:03:13):
have some type of season thisfall.
Um, and that's, that's just myhope.
I'm not giving you any insidescoop or anything like that.
And I don't think anyone knows.
But fortunately broadcasters andfootball coaches won't have a
lot to say about that.
Went back and we won't haveneither group will I have
anything to say about it.
It'll be leaders and medicalprofessionals and, and doing

(01:03:34):
what's best for the safety ofthe people.
It is, it is interesting to makeone final point to have to watch
college football coaches not bein total control.
Cause you know, they love beingin total control of their
programs.
I mean it's, it's a, it's a newworld for them, uh, because
they, and I think they exist ina bubble that, you know, we as,

(01:03:54):
as fans and just the wholeenterprise and the industry of
college football is created and,and it's probably a good object
lesson for them and us thatwhile they're great at what they
do and they've had tremendousinfluence on, on many young
people in their lives, theydon't need to control
everything.
You know, they're not rightabout everything, you know, so

(01:04:17):
they're not, they're not themoral arbiters.
And you know, the decisionmakers for all of it's wrong and
rights.
So it's probably a goodrecalibration in that respect.
But, uh, uh, you know, certainlywe're hopeful that they can get
back to doing what they do bestand if they're back that means
you guys will be back andhopefully the crowds will be
back by that time cause it's agreat show and I'm, uh, you're

(01:04:39):
just a part of the fabric ofAmerican culture hosting that
show because college football isso deeply ingrained in, in, uh,
in sports fandom across thiscountry.
So thank you for your time Rece.
Um, hopefully we can have youback on, um, sometime later on.
I do appreciate it.
It's good to always good to seeold friends.
You bet.
Roger, always great to see youbuddy.

(01:04:59):
Tell the, tell the wife andkids, rod says, Hey, and I'm
going to have Herschel and theHeisman play us out again.
That is our fictional house,man.
It's just, it's just royaltyfree because the budget is so
low, ladies and gentlemen.
Again, that would, that's themoney would go to the van
Morrison estate if I tried tosing some of that.

(01:05:20):
Uh, but I did sing it atMuldoon's bar 30 years ago,
many, many nights.
Uh, so again, thanks forlistening, RD.
Thanks for your time.
Appreciate it.
And we're going to have Hersheland the Heisman play us out.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
[inaudible]

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