February 6, 2025 • 16 mins
Brian T. Smith of talkSPORT in London joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" live from Radio Row in New Orleans to preview Super Bowl LIX and discuss the possibility of future NFL championships being played overseas.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say hello to our friend. We have not talked
to him in a long time, and it's frankly my
fault because I'm just a bad friend.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
But Brian T.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Smith, I think I don't know. Did you get rid
of the Brian? And see if he got rid of
the t His Twitter account is definitely different than it
used to be. Longtime columnist for the Houston Chronicle, beat
writer for many many teams, and joins us from the
Big Easy where that is his hometown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Brian, how the hell are you, Matt?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's been too long, man. I'm great and it's good
to hear you and Ross together and talk to everyone
in Houston's from New Orleans at the super Bowl where
I'm covering it every second for talkSPORT. You can find
us at talkSPORT dot com. Find me on Twitter at
Btsmith UK. End of self promotion, Let's get and the
fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
How the hell are you guys doing? We're doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
First of all, you've left for your wife, got an
amazing opportunity for work, and congratulations see you into her.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What has it been like being there?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And when you got there you said, look, I'm gonna
get into the business. You have been, and I've been
looking at your tweets for many many months now. When
there's something US sports related, they go to you. So
how has that been? How much explaining do you have
to do? Or can you get right into the x's
and o's in the analytics of talking about United States
sports in London?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I appreciate it, Matt.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, it's safe to say it was a huge transition.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You might have heard of this.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
You know, England is very into hierarchy and kings and
queens and poshness and you know all the great wonderful
things about England. The move's been incredible. It was a transition.
It was a life transition. It was a work transition,
you know, in a good way. You have to earn
it there, right, just like Carls Dickens did two hundred
(01:47):
years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So you know, you got to put in your time.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You got to come in with letters of recommendation, just
like Ben Franklin did.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
And it's work. It takes time.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But I'm having a blast, man and being able to
be in New Orleans. I was just literally just interviewing
Patrick Mahomes and asking him, uh, you know about MJ
and the Bulls and the and the you know, could
they ever have a even imagine having two three peaks,
let alone one which obviously the Chiefs are going for
on Sunday against the Eagles and having fun too and
(02:16):
asking about you know, what the heck do you think about?
You know, mass fantasy and Luka Doncic and a crazy
Lakers uniform. So doing that all for Talk Sport, it's
been has been great, Uh London. I mean, I loved Houston,
you know, it was so hard to leave, but it's
just been an incredible experience living over there, working over there,
and as you said, I'm able to do a lot
(02:36):
of the same stuff still right columns and actually, you know,
I love Houston sports. It's great to take a little
bit of a life break and do more of the
national stuff. But yeah, they're so heavy Premier League over there. Obviously,
the Tark Sport does an incredible job of covering the
hell out of the Premier League. They have two point
three million followers on Twitter. Everyone in I imagine a
(03:00):
lot of you know, English football, Wrexham, Chelsea, Man City fans.
Obviously no Arsenal fans in Houston, but you know that
they follow Talk Sport and so Talk Sport is covering
the heck out of US sports and I'm trying to
help them do that.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All right, last question about overseas there before we get
to what you're doing in New Orleans. Obviously the NFL
goes to Europe quite a bit. How many of the
games did you get to go to in England this year?
What was it like being there for those games? And
the bigger question is do you really ultimately envision a
a full time NFL team there and do you believe
(03:36):
that at some point Roger Goodell's going to bring the
Super Bowl to the London area.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It has been one of the super cool things for
me is being able to live over there and now
doing you know, more of the United Kingdom, obviously London
and England, but but doing Europe. So it's not just
about personal travel, it's about work travel. I'm honestly, I'm
going to be at the super Bowl much longer than
I ever would have been for the Chronicle, you know,
(04:04):
and the Chronicle is a fantastic place to work and
was tremendous for me. But you know, Talk Sport understands
that the NFL is going global and that is the
push and I've been writing about this and covering a
lot of that. You know, they're going to Australia, They're
going to you know, Spain, in Brazil, Mexico City, the
London game. So I was at done NFL UK at
(04:27):
Tottenham Hotsp Stadium. I've done it at Wembley and matt
It's just getting bigger over there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And I mean, I always have to caution it right
it it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Is just ninety five percent Premier League there, but London
is such an international city. What it does is that
becomes their leap frog everywhere else. And Roger Goodell mentioned
during his press conference to really kick off Super Bowl Week,
you know, he brought back the idea that he wants
to one day have an international team that had really
fallen by the wayside after the Jacksonville Jaguars had received
(04:58):
the one point four billion dollar approval to renovate their stadium.
So whether that's expansion, you know, they add two teams
down the road, whether that's they eventually move somebody. I mean,
you know, the Cleveland Browns are jacking around with their
fans right now. Could you imagine if the Browns threatened
to move to London, but they have the stadium, they
have the infrastructure, and I do think I do think
(05:20):
that two things will eventually happen. The NFL is obviously
going to get its eighteenth game. I just asked Patrick
Mahomes about that. You can see my tweets about that.
But Goodell gets what he wants, right, So the NFL
will get its eighteenth game. And everything that I've heard
is that the hope for the NFL is that that
eighteenth game becomes an international game, and so every team
will play either a home international game or in a
(05:42):
way international game.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And Matt All it is for the NFL, it's two things.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's more money, it's more billions in their coffers, and
it's more exposure. The NFL has completely saturated the US market.
It really can't get any bigger, but it can easily
expand overseas. And once you do that, Matt, they will
eventually have an overseas Super Bowl. It might not be
for ten more years, but it is going to happen.
(06:08):
And that's what's cool about doing, you know, covering everything
for Talk Sport in London, is that, you know, as
big as it is in the United States of America,
it's really starting to kick over internationally, and we're at
the center of that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, Brian, I get very few things right when it
comes to my analysis of sports, as you know. But
I have said for months that when the NFL goes
to an eighteenth game, it's going to be that everybody
has to play overseas one time, because, as you said
just about them to go there's I mean they, Brian,
(06:40):
they got one hundred and fifty million dollars from Netflix
to put on two games. Okay, so they're always trying
to find new ways to make television money. But they're
they're being under potentially tapped out here in the United States.
They've got to go somewhere. Hell, they announced yesterday that
the NFL is going to play a game in Australia
in twenty twenty six. They the international waters is where
the next source of revenue is. And that's why I
(07:02):
firmly believe went just like you do, that when an
eighteenth game comes into play, everybody's gonna have to go
overseas for at least one week.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
As far as the game itself, you've covered super Bowls before.
Give me the sense of how much three peat talk
there has been and how much it is referees are
giving phil Kansas City the advantage, and there's been stupid
media questions about that and how has Philadelphia taken all
this in with obviously much of the attention this week
(07:31):
around the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, you know a few things. Number One, the city
is really starting the buzz. I mean, I'm from New
Orleans originally, my parents.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Still live here.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Greatest for me, the greatest American city in the world.
So the city is starting the buzz. Number One, everything's
really picking up right now. Number Two, this is definitely
East week because of Travis Kelsey and someone named Taylor
Swift and the three peat and Patrick Mahomes. So there's
an interesting thing going on, and it almost feels to
(08:04):
me like a college football playoff championship where you would
have Alabama. Let's say, yeah, you know, five ten years ago,
and obviously that would BCS, but you know where Alabama
you just go into it and they're the dominant force
and there's another good team that you think could win,
but everybody wants to talk about Nick Saban and Alabama
and you know, adding another ring to the dynasty. However,
(08:26):
I've been saying for weeks now and writing it's a
talk sport, Matt that you start doing the matchups you
look at, you know, whether it's you know, super advance
statistics or just jayalenk Harder blowing against the Chiefs offensive line.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You start running through all that stuff. Almost everything favors
the Eagles.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I mean, they put up fifty five points, and then's
the championship game against a very hot Washington Commander's team
and Dan Quinn's defense and ruin the Jayden Daniels story.
So you know, with Skon Barkley, with Nick Sirianni needing
revenge against Andy Reid, people have already forgotten. I think
that two years ago they play and the Eagles were
the better team for three plus quarters. I think it
really comes down to in Jalen Pert's channel view, shout out,
(09:07):
by the way, can Jalen Hurts be good enough? He
has the talent, but it was a very up and
down season. If they can get the NFC championship version
of Jalen Hurts and you can stretch the field, he's
using aj Brown and Devonte Smith, it's not all Secon Barkley.
If you have that one two tanem going on the
Chiefs can't really answer for that. I mean, Brandon, they
have Steve Spagnola. But right now, in terms of the media,
(09:30):
in terms of the presence, it feels very heavy Chiefs.
And I will say they were super, super confident on
media night, like felt like you know, mid eighties Bears,
Mike Dick, Walter Payton, Jim McMahon. They have that swagger
because they have been here before. But on paper, the
Eagles win this game. I just it always comes down
(09:51):
to and Texans fans know that's painfully well. Matt Patrick, Mahomes,
ball in hand, Andy Reid, ah, maybe the Reft. You know,
see things a little differently than everyone on TV and
in the stadium. It's really hard to knock off the Chiefs,
and they're they're going for true NFL history.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Unfortunately, your city went through some devastation with the attack
in the Bourbon Street. Security already is tight for the game,
regardless of what had happened before. Have you heard anything
about extra additional security what to worry about, because again
of what just happened a few weeks ago in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I'm getting the solgic talking on the radio because we
always have such in depth conversations. You're you're such a
good radio host and reporter.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I missed this man. No, so this is actually very
interesting to me. So I've been to the French Quarter
ten thousand times. Okay, I've never ever ever seen it
like it is right now, and I'm out in modern
history it's ever been like this, and it's not a
bad thing. But when I got here on Sunday night
and walking around at seven am Monday morning, it was
(10:58):
startling to see pretty, you know, empty quarter streets right
they were, they were being cleaned. You're getting all the
vomit off, you know, moving, moving the rats and making
it look pretty again for twenty four hours. So there's
nothing on the streets except for street cleaners and military personnel.
Military personnel carrying weapons, you know, carrying rifles. They're nice,
(11:19):
they're friendly, but they're doing their job. They have roadblocks,
real roadblocks everywhere. It's hard as heck to actually actually
get a car through the French Quarter, the main part
of the French Quarter right now, and then two days ago.
I've never had this happen in the Quarter. I'm just
walking to the convention Center for you know, radio row
and a military member very nicely just asked if he
(11:40):
could check my bag, you know, in public, which does
not happen in the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm safety first.
He was. He was very polite. That is how intense
they are.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They are safeguarding this obviously in relation to what happened
that was so tragic, you know, on New Year's Eve.
So it is a very very heavy security presence. Police
officers everywhere, bomb sniffing, you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Know, dogs everywhere.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I've never seen security this heavy four days, three days
before the Super Bowl. But I give a tip of
the cap to New Orleans. They have to take this seriously.
You have to be able to come here and have.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Safe feel safe. The flip side is it is.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
New Orleans and people were having a really good time
last night already, so I don't think anything can ever
stop real partying in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
BTS, it's great to hear your voice. We must end
this conversation by having our good friend Rosfildreale bring in
some Premier League conversation to wrap this bad boy up.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
They don't need any Premier League conversation against Scots. Never
asked me a question. Ever, whenever we were on the air,
you know, that was my time to kick my feet
up Brian. That's why. Oh that's terrible. You know, I
was just curious about Brian, like you.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
You you have a unique perspective and just maybe from
the business side of sports things. Premier League to Americans
worse now. Relegation to me is something that's cool, but
it would never happen in America. But have you seen
anything over there that you're like, you know, what they
need to do this in American sports or or maybe
vice versa.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Man, I could talk about that forever.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
So very very shortly, I have gotten so into Premier
Bay cover there in the EFL and and the pyramid
and everything that you see. If you obviously watched Therectsmum
documentary and I'm going to championship matches and you know
League one matches on and on, it's incredible. Uh, this
is what this is the biggest thing. I'm not even
(13:32):
going to get into the rules or whatever. Everything that
you would see on documentaries or you know, YouTube or whatever.
Everything you would watch on the stadiums, the supporters, the fans,
it's one thousand times better in person when you actually
live there, and there is so much that I think,
(13:54):
not even just the NFL that really like the NBA.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
The NBA.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Kudos to the Rockets for being a good team again
and someone for Tita forgetting that right. But the NBA
overall is struggling with fan you know, involvement and interest
in baseball. You know, not the Astros, but baseball overall
is struggling. And the fact that you know, in many ways,
the EFL, the English Football League, the Premier.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
League, hasn't changed.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
They're doing a lot of the same things they've done
for the last fifty seventy eighty years, one hundred years.
I actually think that a lot of these gazillionaires in
the United States of America, if they're not buying English
football teams, which so many of them are, there's so
much they could learn about fan engagement, keeping prices lower,
roarting your supporters, building loyalty the players changed. Just like
(14:44):
in the United States with free agency, that's not the thing.
But having loyalty to the brand, loyalty to the shirt,
loyalty to the franchise, all those things they take it
so seriously over there, and that is really real, really
missing from American sports. You get it in college, you
don't get in the pros anymore. And I just think
(15:05):
there's really something missing in the US. And you can
learn a lot from England about how passionately people support
their teams but literally liver or die. Comparing like a
you know, Liverpool to Atlanta with how they treat the
Falcons and the Hawks and all of their teams that
(15:26):
nobody cares about.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
It's really really laughable. All right, I got ten seconds.
What food have you enjoyed back being in the States
that you can't get in London?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right now? What have you missed and that you're now
able to do? Yeah? Really quick?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So I actually love English food, like real English food
is amazing, not the cheap, bad pub food. Like the
real English food. It's amazing that you cannot be a
shrimp an oyster poh boy with a cup of gumbo
and then a beata beer. I don't care where you're
at in the world. That is the best food in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
All right, Next time Pearl Jam gets back on touring
the States, come hang out with us and you use
some of my friend great to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Your voice with it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Hello and uh en your time in New Orleans and
look forward to reading more of your stuff on on
on Fox Sport.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Thanks for having me on. I miss you guys. Take
care and hide everyone in Houston. There you go.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Brian T. Smith with us here on the program.
Let's say hello to our friend. We have not talked
to him in a long time, and it's frankly my
fault because I'm just a bad friend.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
But Brian T.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Smith, I think I don't know. Did you get rid
of the Brian? And see if he got rid of
the t His Twitter account is definitely different than it
used to be. Longtime columnist for the Houston Chronicle, beat
writer for many many teams, and joins us from the
Big Easy where that is his hometown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Brian, how the hell are you, Matt?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's been too long, man. I'm great and it's good
to hear you and Ross together and talk to everyone
in Houston's from New Orleans at the super Bowl where
I'm covering it every second for talkSPORT. You can find
us at talkSPORT dot com. Find me on Twitter at
Btsmith UK. End of self promotion, Let's get and the
fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
How the hell are you guys doing? We're doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
First of all, you've left for your wife, got an
amazing opportunity for work, and congratulations see you into her.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What has it been like being there?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And when you got there you said, look, I'm gonna
get into the business. You have been, and I've been
looking at your tweets for many many months now. When
there's something US sports related, they go to you. So
how has that been? How much explaining do you have
to do? Or can you get right into the x's
and o's in the analytics of talking about United States
sports in London?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I appreciate it, Matt.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, it's safe to say it was a huge transition.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You might have heard of this.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
You know, England is very into hierarchy and kings and
queens and poshness and you know all the great wonderful
things about England. The move's been incredible. It was a transition.
It was a life transition. It was a work transition,
you know, in a good way. You have to earn
it there, right, just like Carls Dickens did two hundred
(01:47):
years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So you know, you got to put in your time.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You got to come in with letters of recommendation, just
like Ben Franklin did.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
And it's work. It takes time.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But I'm having a blast, man and being able to
be in New Orleans. I was just literally just interviewing
Patrick Mahomes and asking him, uh, you know about MJ
and the Bulls and the and the you know, could
they ever have a even imagine having two three peaks,
let alone one which obviously the Chiefs are going for
on Sunday against the Eagles and having fun too and
(02:16):
asking about you know, what the heck do you think about?
You know, mass fantasy and Luka Doncic and a crazy
Lakers uniform. So doing that all for Talk Sport, it's
been has been great, Uh London. I mean, I loved Houston,
you know, it was so hard to leave, but it's
just been an incredible experience living over there, working over there,
and as you said, I'm able to do a lot
(02:36):
of the same stuff still right columns and actually, you know,
I love Houston sports. It's great to take a little
bit of a life break and do more of the
national stuff. But yeah, they're so heavy Premier League over there. Obviously,
the Tark Sport does an incredible job of covering the
hell out of the Premier League. They have two point
three million followers on Twitter. Everyone in I imagine a
(03:00):
lot of you know, English football, Wrexham, Chelsea, Man City fans.
Obviously no Arsenal fans in Houston, but you know that
they follow Talk Sport and so Talk Sport is covering
the heck out of US sports and I'm trying to
help them do that.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
All right, last question about overseas there before we get
to what you're doing in New Orleans. Obviously the NFL
goes to Europe quite a bit. How many of the
games did you get to go to in England this year?
What was it like being there for those games? And
the bigger question is do you really ultimately envision a
a full time NFL team there and do you believe
(03:36):
that at some point Roger Goodell's going to bring the
Super Bowl to the London area.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It has been one of the super cool things for
me is being able to live over there and now
doing you know, more of the United Kingdom, obviously London
and England, but but doing Europe. So it's not just
about personal travel, it's about work travel. I'm honestly, I'm
going to be at the super Bowl much longer than
I ever would have been for the Chronicle, you know,
(04:04):
and the Chronicle is a fantastic place to work and
was tremendous for me. But you know, Talk Sport understands
that the NFL is going global and that is the
push and I've been writing about this and covering a
lot of that. You know, they're going to Australia, They're
going to you know, Spain, in Brazil, Mexico City, the
London game. So I was at done NFL UK at
(04:27):
Tottenham Hotsp Stadium. I've done it at Wembley and matt
It's just getting bigger over there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And I mean, I always have to caution it right
it it.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Is just ninety five percent Premier League there, but London
is such an international city. What it does is that
becomes their leap frog everywhere else. And Roger Goodell mentioned
during his press conference to really kick off Super Bowl Week,
you know, he brought back the idea that he wants
to one day have an international team that had really
fallen by the wayside after the Jacksonville Jaguars had received
(04:58):
the one point four billion dollar approval to renovate their stadium.
So whether that's expansion, you know, they add two teams
down the road, whether that's they eventually move somebody. I mean,
you know, the Cleveland Browns are jacking around with their
fans right now. Could you imagine if the Browns threatened
to move to London, but they have the stadium, they
have the infrastructure, and I do think I do think
(05:20):
that two things will eventually happen. The NFL is obviously
going to get its eighteenth game. I just asked Patrick
Mahomes about that. You can see my tweets about that.
But Goodell gets what he wants, right, So the NFL
will get its eighteenth game. And everything that I've heard
is that the hope for the NFL is that that
eighteenth game becomes an international game, and so every team
will play either a home international game or in a
(05:42):
way international game.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And Matt All it is for the NFL, it's two things.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's more money, it's more billions in their coffers, and
it's more exposure. The NFL has completely saturated the US market.
It really can't get any bigger, but it can easily
expand overseas. And once you do that, Matt, they will
eventually have an overseas Super Bowl. It might not be
for ten more years, but it is going to happen.
(06:08):
And that's what's cool about doing, you know, covering everything
for Talk Sport in London, is that, you know, as
big as it is in the United States of America,
it's really starting to kick over internationally, and we're at
the center of that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, Brian, I get very few things right when it
comes to my analysis of sports, as you know. But
I have said for months that when the NFL goes
to an eighteenth game, it's going to be that everybody
has to play overseas one time, because, as you said
just about them to go there's I mean they, Brian,
(06:40):
they got one hundred and fifty million dollars from Netflix
to put on two games. Okay, so they're always trying
to find new ways to make television money. But they're
they're being under potentially tapped out here in the United States.
They've got to go somewhere. Hell, they announced yesterday that
the NFL is going to play a game in Australia
in twenty twenty six. They the international waters is where
the next source of revenue is. And that's why I
(07:02):
firmly believe went just like you do, that when an
eighteenth game comes into play, everybody's gonna have to go
overseas for at least one week.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
As far as the game itself, you've covered super Bowls before.
Give me the sense of how much three peat talk
there has been and how much it is referees are
giving phil Kansas City the advantage, and there's been stupid
media questions about that and how has Philadelphia taken all
this in with obviously much of the attention this week
(07:31):
around the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, you know a few things. Number One, the city
is really starting the buzz. I mean, I'm from New
Orleans originally, my parents.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Still live here.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Greatest for me, the greatest American city in the world.
So the city is starting the buzz. Number One, everything's
really picking up right now. Number Two, this is definitely
East week because of Travis Kelsey and someone named Taylor
Swift and the three peat and Patrick Mahomes. So there's
an interesting thing going on, and it almost feels to
(08:04):
me like a college football playoff championship where you would
have Alabama. Let's say, yeah, you know, five ten years ago,
and obviously that would BCS, but you know where Alabama
you just go into it and they're the dominant force
and there's another good team that you think could win,
but everybody wants to talk about Nick Saban and Alabama
and you know, adding another ring to the dynasty. However,
(08:26):
I've been saying for weeks now and writing it's a
talk sport, Matt that you start doing the matchups you
look at, you know, whether it's you know, super advance
statistics or just jayalenk Harder blowing against the Chiefs offensive line.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You start running through all that stuff. Almost everything favors
the Eagles.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I mean, they put up fifty five points, and then's
the championship game against a very hot Washington Commander's team
and Dan Quinn's defense and ruin the Jayden Daniels story.
So you know, with Skon Barkley, with Nick Sirianni needing
revenge against Andy Reid, people have already forgotten. I think
that two years ago they play and the Eagles were
the better team for three plus quarters. I think it
really comes down to in Jalen Pert's channel view, shout out,
(09:07):
by the way, can Jalen Hurts be good enough? He
has the talent, but it was a very up and
down season. If they can get the NFC championship version
of Jalen Hurts and you can stretch the field, he's
using aj Brown and Devonte Smith, it's not all Secon Barkley.
If you have that one two tanem going on the
Chiefs can't really answer for that. I mean, Brandon, they
have Steve Spagnola. But right now, in terms of the media,
(09:30):
in terms of the presence, it feels very heavy Chiefs.
And I will say they were super, super confident on
media night, like felt like you know, mid eighties Bears,
Mike Dick, Walter Payton, Jim McMahon. They have that swagger
because they have been here before. But on paper, the
Eagles win this game. I just it always comes down
(09:51):
to and Texans fans know that's painfully well. Matt Patrick, Mahomes,
ball in hand, Andy Reid, ah, maybe the Reft. You know,
see things a little differently than everyone on TV and
in the stadium. It's really hard to knock off the Chiefs,
and they're they're going for true NFL history.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Unfortunately, your city went through some devastation with the attack
in the Bourbon Street. Security already is tight for the game,
regardless of what had happened before. Have you heard anything
about extra additional security what to worry about, because again
of what just happened a few weeks ago in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I'm getting the solgic talking on the radio because we
always have such in depth conversations. You're you're such a
good radio host and reporter.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I missed this man. No, so this is actually very
interesting to me. So I've been to the French Quarter
ten thousand times. Okay, I've never ever ever seen it
like it is right now, and I'm out in modern
history it's ever been like this, and it's not a
bad thing. But when I got here on Sunday night
and walking around at seven am Monday morning, it was
(10:58):
startling to see pretty, you know, empty quarter streets right
they were, they were being cleaned. You're getting all the
vomit off, you know, moving, moving the rats and making
it look pretty again for twenty four hours. So there's
nothing on the streets except for street cleaners and military personnel.
Military personnel carrying weapons, you know, carrying rifles. They're nice,
(11:19):
they're friendly, but they're doing their job. They have roadblocks,
real roadblocks everywhere. It's hard as heck to actually actually
get a car through the French Quarter, the main part
of the French Quarter right now, and then two days ago.
I've never had this happen in the Quarter. I'm just
walking to the convention Center for you know, radio row
and a military member very nicely just asked if he
(11:40):
could check my bag, you know, in public, which does
not happen in the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm safety first.
He was. He was very polite. That is how intense
they are.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They are safeguarding this obviously in relation to what happened
that was so tragic, you know, on New Year's Eve.
So it is a very very heavy security presence. Police
officers everywhere, bomb sniffing, you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Know, dogs everywhere.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I've never seen security this heavy four days, three days
before the Super Bowl. But I give a tip of
the cap to New Orleans. They have to take this seriously.
You have to be able to come here and have.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Safe feel safe. The flip side is it is.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
New Orleans and people were having a really good time
last night already, so I don't think anything can ever
stop real partying in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
BTS, it's great to hear your voice. We must end
this conversation by having our good friend Rosfildreale bring in
some Premier League conversation to wrap this bad boy up.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
They don't need any Premier League conversation against Scots. Never
asked me a question. Ever, whenever we were on the air,
you know, that was my time to kick my feet
up Brian. That's why. Oh that's terrible. You know, I
was just curious about Brian, like you.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
You you have a unique perspective and just maybe from
the business side of sports things. Premier League to Americans
worse now. Relegation to me is something that's cool, but
it would never happen in America. But have you seen
anything over there that you're like, you know, what they
need to do this in American sports or or maybe
vice versa.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Man, I could talk about that forever.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
So very very shortly, I have gotten so into Premier
Bay cover there in the EFL and and the pyramid
and everything that you see. If you obviously watched Therectsmum
documentary and I'm going to championship matches and you know
League one matches on and on, it's incredible. Uh, this
is what this is the biggest thing. I'm not even
(13:32):
going to get into the rules or whatever. Everything that
you would see on documentaries or you know, YouTube or whatever.
Everything you would watch on the stadiums, the supporters, the fans,
it's one thousand times better in person when you actually
live there, and there is so much that I think,
(13:54):
not even just the NFL that really like the NBA.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
The NBA.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Kudos to the Rockets for being a good team again
and someone for Tita forgetting that right. But the NBA
overall is struggling with fan you know, involvement and interest
in baseball. You know, not the Astros, but baseball overall
is struggling. And the fact that you know, in many ways,
the EFL, the English Football League, the Premier.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
League, hasn't changed.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
They're doing a lot of the same things they've done
for the last fifty seventy eighty years, one hundred years.
I actually think that a lot of these gazillionaires in
the United States of America, if they're not buying English
football teams, which so many of them are, there's so
much they could learn about fan engagement, keeping prices lower,
roarting your supporters, building loyalty the players changed. Just like
(14:44):
in the United States with free agency, that's not the thing.
But having loyalty to the brand, loyalty to the shirt,
loyalty to the franchise, all those things they take it
so seriously over there, and that is really real, really
missing from American sports. You get it in college, you
don't get in the pros anymore. And I just think
(15:05):
there's really something missing in the US. And you can
learn a lot from England about how passionately people support
their teams but literally liver or die. Comparing like a
you know, Liverpool to Atlanta with how they treat the
Falcons and the Hawks and all of their teams that
(15:26):
nobody cares about.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
It's really really laughable. All right, I got ten seconds.
What food have you enjoyed back being in the States
that you can't get in London?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right now? What have you missed and that you're now
able to do? Yeah? Really quick?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So I actually love English food, like real English food
is amazing, not the cheap, bad pub food. Like the
real English food. It's amazing that you cannot be a
shrimp an oyster poh boy with a cup of gumbo
and then a beata beer. I don't care where you're
at in the world. That is the best food in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
All right, Next time Pearl Jam gets back on touring
the States, come hang out with us and you use
some of my friend great to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Your voice with it.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Hello and uh en your time in New Orleans and
look forward to reading more of your stuff on on
on Fox Sport.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Thanks for having me on. I miss you guys. Take
care and hide everyone in Houston. There you go.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Brian T. Smith with us here on the program.
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