Colin Cowherd Podcast - Scottie Scheffler Dominates The Open Championship! Scottie vs. Tiger? Nick Saban Comeback? Barstool + FOX Sports

Colin is joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” and “Go Low” to break down Scottie Scheffler’s win at the Open Championship!

They begin by comparing Scheffler to Tiger Woods and Colin argues that if they played in the same era, Scottie would be Mickelson and not Tiger (3:30). They dissect Scottie’s rant from earlier in the week about not being fulfilled by winning and explain why he’s more about the process rather than the result (7:00).

They discuss why Scheffler isn’t comfortable with the celebrity that comes with his #1 status vs. Bryson DeChambeau who seeks the spotlight (11:30). They debate whether we’ve officially entered the “Scheffler” era of golf and whether other top golfers like Rory McIlroy and Dechambeau can elevate to match him (19:30).  They break down the economics of modern golf vs. earlier eras and why golfers will age better than in prior eras (23:00). 

They pivot to football and discuss the rumors that Nick Saban may return to coaching but why it will be the NFL, and debate the best potential landing spots for Saban (31:30. They also examine the SEC quarterback landscape and Arch Manning’s prospects(36:00). 

The move to the WNBA players making their  CBA negotiation a public dispute with their t-shirts and debate whether the players have the leverage to demand a raise (42:00).  They discuss the pairing of FOX Sports and Barstool, why the partnership makes perfect sense, and why FOX needs to let Barstool be Barstool (1:01:00). 

Finally, they discuss the cancellation of Late Night with Stephen Colbert and why the injection of partisan politics into media has been bad for content and the country (1:14:00).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
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All right, John and I are doing it's one o'clock
central right now. We do our podcast as Scotty Scheffler
just won the Open and really just he started playing

(01:04):
well early in the day and it was over. Yeah,
I want to I want to start with this because
we know he's great. It's it's so funny. Bryson de
Shambo said, I played with this guy in college. He
wasn't nearly this good. This guy has really changed the
projectory of his career. But I was thinking about this.
People are saying, is this like Tiger because he is

(01:25):
the most dominant golfer in terms of leading pulling away
at majors. But I think people forget this. Tiger was
about forty yards longer minimum off the tea. Scheffler's born
in the three three ten. Tiger was three forty to
three sixty. Tiger's the best iron player in my life.
Now you're you could ask experts. They may pilled him
third fourth, but I thought in his prime he was

(01:47):
as good to iron player as the world have. And
Tiger was the not only the best big pott long
pot putter, but he was a great lag putter as well.
He could set up Potts if he missed, he had
a short put from there. Whereas Scheffler, to me, the
weakness has been putting. He's better now than he used
to be, but I've always felt with his putting, if

(02:08):
he's making putts, he's unbeatable. But he's not always making
his putts. So my take is, I know we want
to crown the hot new guy Tiger. I've never seen
anything like Tiger in his prime. I think if Scheffer
was at his prime with Tiger, he would be like Mickelson,
he'd be on him, he'd win majors. But I don't

(02:29):
think you can compare anything to Tiger.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I think one element of Scottie that differs from
most superstar athletes, and that's I mean, truly, today was
the icing on the cake of this guy is a
complete rocket ship, way more accomplished at the same age
than Phil Mickelson, who's easily the second best player of
the last thirty plus years. Is typically right quarterbacks now,

(02:52):
but NBA superstars definitely individual athletes, right tennis stars and
golfers become a business in themselves. The f one drivers
the Scotty. Jordan Speith mentioned this today, He's like, you know,
what makes Scotty a lot different than anyone I've seen
out here is we all do these corporate events and
kind of hustle and love that aspect. Not love it,
but it's a huge part of our world. Scotty's not

(03:14):
into that at all. You know, Tiger, let's face it.
Phil Knight followed him. You know, if you read Shoe Dog,
I think the last like three or four rounds in
Tiger's final US Amateur victory, and he turned pro immediately
after winning it for the third straight time. I mean,
Tiger Woods was a business honestly before he became a
major champion, and then they just kind of colluded together.

(03:36):
Scotty Scheffler's just a great golfer, who said before this
week started, did you see him go on the ramp
for about five six minutes about yea. Honestly, a lot
of people had a bunch of different opinions. It reminded
me a lot of football coaches. It's like, you know,
we grind, we grind, we grind, we win, and then
we're just on to the next one. Belichick did this
for twenty five years, right you interview him, We're just

(03:57):
on to the next team. Because everyone's like, oh, Scotty
doesn't like go no, no, Scotty doesn't find that much value.
Like holding up the trophy. It doesn't do much for him,
but you don't become this good. He likes the grind.
He wants no one to watch him and just be
by himself and play golf, which I respect.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Listen, Philip Rivers told me one time, and I was
surprised he said it. He goes I like the process
better than the games. He goes building a and Philip
was the total trash talking grinder, one of the great
guys that ever played in the NFL. Philip Rivers is like,
I love building a game plan. I love it. That's
how I feel. Scotti Scheffler is he loves the process

(04:35):
of it, but once he wins, it's like okay one.
But it's really about family in the process. Nick Saban
talked about this forever, and you've been in my process.
What we do a radio show. I love walking in
for two hours and building a show. Once I've done that,
I know this show is going to be fine. There
is something and I think there's a lot of people
like this. I think there are lawyers like this who

(04:57):
the courtroom's fine, but it's building the case to defend
your client. And I think that's that's a common thread
with greatness. You really like sitting on the range for
three hours working on your seven and eight iron, your
rescue club, whatever it is. And so everybody's kind of
like whoa, whoa, whoa, Scotti, Scheffler, buzzkill. Now he's telling

(05:20):
you that the process, his love affair is with a family,
and the process more than holding up a trophy on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I also think it would be a turn off, right
if he wasn't literally winning every time he played. So
he's essentially showing you like, I'm grinding as hard, if
not harder than everyone out here. I love doing this aspect.
I just hate everything, especially in twenty twenty five that
comes along with this. You know who didn't like that
as much. Tiger Woods Stevie Williams, his former caddy. They
broke up after Tiger had the incident in eight. Talked

(05:50):
about this forever. Tiger would win a tournament and he'd
tell him maybe an hour after winning and doing the
press conferences, like see on the range tomorrow eight, Stevie Williams.
You know, after a while, it's like, Tiger, what what
are we talking about? Like you're not playing for a
couple more weeks in tournament. Enjoy the week, Enjoy tomorrow.
Nick Saban Lane Kiffin's told the story forever Jim Macka went,
they would win a national championship, and Saban's like, see

(06:12):
guys tomorrow a thirty in the morning recruiting meeting. It's like, Nick,
we just won the national championship. He's like, actually, it's
a seven forty five. We'll meet tomorrow in the conference.
You're like, what you need to do? Tiger was notorious
for that right and being on the range the next day.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, And in retrospect it's easy to say, but the
truth is, because of the torque in which Tiger Woods
played with, he would have been much better served to
take time off. He's like cy On Williamson, like his
torqu I can remember when Tiger was in his prime.
And you know how a guy will take a shot
and then the analysts will look at it in slow motion,

(06:49):
the golf experts, and they'll break it down. Nothing Tiger
was doing a golf coach would tell you to do.
I mean, he was coming out of his shoes, his
torque was in. But it worked for Tiger. He would
have been much better served more than any golfer in
my lifetime to actually take Monday off because it literally

(07:10):
big down.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think he went the opposite, right, he started lifting harder,
you know, I think, uh I listened to Hank Haney's
book within the last couple of years, and he thought,
you know, Tiger a little like Jordan, almost became bored
because I'm like, I'm winning every tournament, started doing the
Navy Seals training, like chasing his dad. Right, it was
like a part of his life. Like at one point
in time, I think he he believed, I don't know

(07:32):
if it was actually gonna happen, he could be a
Navy Seal. Started training with them in San Diego and
like messed up his knee and that's what happened. A
couple of years later in eight. This was in like
five six seven. He's going on these long runs with
the Seals and boots. I mean, these guys now are
doing cold tubs. They obviously treat their bodies. I would
say golf has mirrored all these other sports in terms

(07:53):
of all these guys, you know, the lifting, the recovery,
the eating. Uh, you know, it used to be let's
face it. Even when Tiger or early on in Tiger
changed by the last fifteen years when the money got
so big. Kind of a beer drinking you can eat
cheeseburgers at the turn. I mean that's all these guys.
Look who their friends are, right, justin Thomas hangs out
with Michael Jordan, right hangs out with football player. I

(08:14):
mean they are all kind of interconnected. Now. In that circle,
Tiger made golf cool. But that's where Scotty feels much
more like a sixty seventies golfer, Like he just wants
to go home and be left alone, does not want
the cameras to follow him. But Colin last year he
made sixty five million dollars on the course, and this
year he's won two major I don't think he's gonna
make the same amount of money potentially, but he's gonna
accumulate in a twenty four month span, probably on and

(08:38):
off the course. When you factor in Nike bonuses, being
the number one player, I mean you're talking one hundred
and fifty million dollars. I mean, he's gonna be paid
like he's an NBA or football star playing golf. And
I think the one thing with his words, he's uncomfortable
with it a little bit. He's not. He doesn't like
that world. He doesn't want to be a celebrity.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, there's a lot of these guys at the top
of US golf right now, or Southern guys, you know,
they go to Okam, they go they're from Georgia. A
lot of these guys grow up in smaller towns. In
my lifetime of working with people from the South, it's
a more laid back approach, it is. And I see
this a lot with golf. Like a lot of these
guys that come on the tour, man, they just love

(09:18):
the golf. Their dad was a good golfer. Scheffler's dad,
I think was a good in New Jersey. His dad
is a real good golfer. They moved when he was young,
you know, when he was young. A lot of these
guys grow up and it's just they just they're just chill.
They're not they're not you know. And it's also I mean,
if you look at like a lot of baseball players

(09:38):
are like this. There is no great big city high
school baseball team. They're mostly like suburbs and they're mostly rural.
And you and you play youth baseball, you live in
a baseball world from the time you're nine to twelve
years old on. And a lot of these guys come
from small towns or burbs, and then they get they
go to the minor leagues and play in Appleton, wiscon

(10:00):
in small towns, and then they get to the bigs
and they become stars. And they're just not necessarily comfortable,
Like I mean, they live in Chicago or live in Detroit,
but they just they just got their wife and their
kids and the backyard and when the off season hits, man,
they disappear. And so I've always thought in the medium,
my job is to figure out who I'm interviewing and

(10:23):
how comfortable they are with certain questions. Like Bobby Knight,
when I interviewed him, I knew it was combative. Charles Barkley,
he was going to be really playful. But there are
a lot of athletes that you interview that they're they're
not necessarily comfortable with the spotlight. They've never had it.
They just it's not like they're actors or comedians where
they sought validation or even in my space. Opinion is

(10:49):
a lot of these guys are just golfers. They played
with their dad. They become stars and are not comfortable
with all of that it encompasses.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, I'll give you an example of a guy who's
leaned into it, who shots seventy eight and after the
first round shot sixteen under the next three days. Is Bryce.
He was crazy. Yeah, Bryson wants to be a celebrity.
He wants to be famous, and he's leans into it.
He wants to be like Arnold Palmer or Phil Mickelson,
waven segining autographs, being a huge star. He's not only

(11:17):
embraced it, he's seeking it out and he's good at it,
and he's comfortable in it, and like you said, he's
seeking validation. He did not like when everyone was ripping
him right, Remember there was keep gun him drama or
no question. It did not go well for him, and
he kind of flipped the script. And now he's become
It's kind of sad because how cool would it have
been if he just would have shot like a couple

(11:38):
over it and would have been in the mix of
day with Scotty. Now it's also it's easier to fire
at pins when you shoot seven eight under the first day.
He's got nothing to lose. But yeah, I mean, and
I think that's really been good for his brand. He's
become a YouTube star. He's become I would say, as famous,
and he backs up because he's an elite player, right
you would say him. Rory and Scotty are the clear

(12:00):
top three dogs, which is cool. They're all a little different, right,
you get this international star. I watched a lot of
Golf Channel this week and because they were in Ireland,
they're like, no doubt about it. Rory McElroy is our
biggest star in the history of this place, and he is.
If he goes on to even have more success, it
won't even be close. Scotty's gonna go on to be
one of the great American golfers. And Bryson. Bryson is

(12:21):
what you know, Andre Agassi or Fetterer, Nadal or Lewis Hamilton.
Most individual stars become, they become a business, right Tiger Phil,
And that's what Scotty. Just just let me play golf.
I don't need to be a business because I'm making
so much money, so it's it's easier to have that mindset.
But man, is it's crazy how good he is Scott
I mean Colin, I mean he he beat the crap

(12:42):
out of basically everybody with the ease. It doesn't even look.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I mean, I thought Rory played mostly well. I thought
I thought Rory played really really well. And yeah, I
think I think Scheffler. You know, when I watch him play,
he just very rare. First of all, again, if he
makes his putts, it's over. If he's putting well, it's over.

(13:08):
But he's just a guy to me that there's a
certain calm when I watch him play. He doesn't you
tell me, he doesn't get himself into trouble. He's on
the fair way. He kind of masters all of his clubs.
Is his weakness putting? Is that a fair cris It was?

Speaker 1 (13:25):
And last year Rory made a comment of like, why
doesn't he just change to the mallet putter, which are
those square putters that most guys historically putted with a
blade putter. Well, nowadays they're way harder to put with.
It's a no brainer to put with it. He listened.
I think the next week or two weeks later putted
with that. I think this year he's been a top
ten putter on the PGA Tour. Well, no wonder he's winning.

(13:47):
I think this is his fourth win multiple majors. It
hasn't really been a fair fight since. I mean Colin
he's won. He's won three of the last eight majors,
and he probably would have gone back to back two
years ago if he didn't get arrested in Louisville, right,
Remember he shot five now, I know, so it's I mean,
you're watching a guy that is just you know the
thing with Patrick Mahomes where people nitpicks, like look at

(14:10):
his numbers, they're not as good, yet win the biggest games.
He's just in complete control. There's an element like that
with Scotty where it's it's easy in golf to kind
of get sometimes Rory a little less now that he's
like thirty four to thirty five, but I would say
four or five years ago could get really amped up.
And even he's talked about this in golf, like it's
it's very key to breathe through your close your mouth,
breathe through your nose. It slows you down, you know, quarterbacks,

(14:32):
I think kickers, baseball players talk a lot about their breathing.
It slows them down. And it doesn't even look like
Scotty has to think about it. It's like his natural personality,
you know, Phil battled this. You know, Phil's a type
a always going going, like you got to settle down
in golf. Golf one of those sports too, Like in football,
if George Kittle tries a little harder, maybe he'll break

(14:53):
an extra tackle. You know, Golf's not one of those
sports where you just like try harder and have more
success or I really need to hit this fair way.
Like the more tensor you are, the harder it becomes.
So you have to balance, like staying focused, but also
like kind of keeping your body loose, especially in the
arms right which then connect to the rest of your body.
So he like the way his feet work. I mean,

(15:16):
he's just he's kind of an artist as a player
who has become so good that you know, we like
our majors to be us Open. Last year Rory versus
Bryson on the edge of our seat when he's on
it makes it, you know, from a golf standpoint, a
little boring.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
You know, It's interesting. We often judge our golfers in
Ryder Cup competition if we get beat by the Euros,
you know, we feel like they're catching up. But there
was on the screen today there was a stat about
the dominance of American golfers, even at the British or
the Open. And it's interesting when you think about I

(15:52):
grew up, it was Jack Nicholas, the bear. Arnold Palmer
was more likable. And then there were guys like Tom
wa Watson who was great overseas, like he was always
really great overseas. Then there were guys like Tom Kite
that never felt like they want a lot but finished
second and third all the time.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
And you had personalities Lee Trevino, Sevi Ballistos. And then
we go into the Tiger Micholson era and it's mostly
Tiger and everybody chasing him. Okay, now we're in a
different era where there's you know, there's there's Dustin and
Brooks and Deshambo a big fit like physically like real athletes,

(16:30):
and Rory's got that feel like Rory's put together. He's
got as like Christian McCaffrey, like you know, he's got
that short, stocky build. Where do you think golf is
in terms of I mean, could I make the argument
there's three golfers in my lifetime, Jack, Tiger and Scheffler,

(16:52):
and it's their era. When they're playing well, they dominate
for about eventually a ten year stretch.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, I mean Tiger had Phil, but Phil and him
actually didn't pair up that often. You know, Phil's peak
came a little like in his mid to late thirties.
Phil didn't win a major un till he was thirty four.
The one thing that would be nice is over the
next couple of years, because obviously Scotty's in the peak
of his powers. Is Rory still as an elite player,
and obviously Bryson is in his prime too. Hopefully we

(17:21):
get an opportunity to see those three guys and some
We got to see Rory and Bryson a couple of
years ago, so I think, you know, Rory's one of
the greatest players. He's probably a top ten player of
all time. Now, is Scotty gonna pass him? But can
we get those guys to match up? Like it was
clear Tiger was better than Phil right just in terms

(17:41):
of right when he got there started winning majors. It
wasn't really a fair fight. And even when their careers
are basically both over, one guy is fifteen, the other
guy is six. Tiger is whatever eighty five victories, Phil
is forty five. Like Scotty's still chasing Rory in terms
of you know, Rory winning the Masters this year, that five, Well,
I mean he has a lot more wins. So it's like,

(18:03):
can those guys match up a little bit and can
Rory matchhim? Can this raise Rory's game and be you know,
Roy already said I get kind of bored. This is
the one motivator, like kind of going at it with him.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Well, go back five years. What had Scotty Scheffler done.
I mean it feels like nothing. It feels like it's
been this four and a half year run. And that's
why when Bryson de Shambo said, I played with this
guy in college, this is not what he played like.
This guy's improved a lot. His putting really was an
issue and now it's not. But it's it's it's not

(18:35):
like Scheffler came out of nowhere, but he wasn't a prodigy.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Now, I mean Bryson was more of a prodigy, won
the US Amateur, was more dominant college player. Yes, obviously
Tiger phil prodigies. Now Scotty was played at Texas, was
a big time player. But you know, I always like
to put this in football terms. You know, maybe like
a twenty fourth pick in the draft, right fifteenth pick
in the draft. When you start talking some you know

(19:01):
Rory mclory, Jordan Speith, who went to Texas number one
overall pick, Tiger Woods, the greatest prospect of all time.
You know, Scotty would not have been viewed at that level,
and even early on in his career was clear he
was talented, but didn't start winning I think till like
three four years ago. And obviously what he's done in
the last two years, he's won like fifteen times and
three majors in I mean it's July. We're talking eighteen months.

(19:24):
We're not even talking two four years. So yeah, I
mean they're still he has a lot more to accomplish.
The thing with golf, probably more than other sports, maybe
a little football. With quarterback, you can really improve most
other positions in football or basketball, you kind of your
talents are pretty well established early you could get better
at I mean, Rory's thirty five, thirty six years old,

(19:44):
still playing at a really really high level. You know,
Xander's thirty thirty one. He's gotten way better over the
last couple of years. He won two majors last year,
So you could argue why couldn't Scotty even just his
incremental improvements. That's what they always said about Tiger. It's
like the scary part about Tiger is like he would
kind of just keep creeping getting a little bit better,
and he was already better than all of us. So

(20:05):
Scotty just keeps getting better and I'm just talking like
half a percent. He's already better than everyone else.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Well, the oir thing with Scotty Scheffler is he doesn't
play every tournament. He doesn't he could age very well.
It's like Steph Curry. He'll be able to shoot like
that when he's fifty. Yeah, right, like certain play Russell Westbrook,
who's hyper athletic. You can see a real drop off, right,
The hyper athletic basketball player ages much more quickly. Cam

(20:30):
aged very quickly. Brady did not. Scotty is not gonna
play every week. Golfers now pick their spots, so golf
it's not literally. I mean, people forget how little money
golfer's made. Like Arnold Palmer's winnings on the tour. I
think we're dwarfed by his Pennzoil contract and is his

(20:53):
like indoors.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Consent wasn't even close. Jack too. I honestly, through like
Faldo and Norman up through the the Internet era, it
wasn't close.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
So my point is most of these guys like Rory
should age well, Scheffler should age well. The grind isn't
the same as it used to be. That I mean,
I remember reading an article it must have been fifteen
years ago about how little Arnold Palmer made on the
tour winnings, and I was like, the hell Tiger is
the one that exploded, Like Michael Jordan made the NBA

(21:21):
global magic and Bird made it popular. Michael made it global.
Tiger made golf lucrative. Just on the tour. You could
be top eight and you were making a fortune, private
jet everything.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
You know. A lot of times I think Billy Walters,
you know, Phil's gambling guy in that book, and other
people have talked about this. Definitely in the fifties and sixties,
but even through the seventies and eighties. The Jacks, the Lee, Trevino's,
Arnold was a little older than them, but the Raymond
Floyd's they would do two things. They would play in
these huge money games on Monday after an event that

(21:56):
paid more than if they just won a PGA tour event. Wow.
And also these corporate outings that they would be paid
because you know, the PGA Tour at their tax status,
they always like they couldn't just pay Jack one hundred
grand to show up an event, right you. That's what
always made golf unique. It's why they had problems over
the last the split because unlike basketball, I could just
pay Lebron James fifty million dollars and I know every

(22:18):
single game Lebron's obligated to play for me. Golf's not
like that. So Rory's like, I don't have to play
this week, right, But all the corporations, it's why if
you go to YouTube, you can watch Tiger do clinic
after clinic after clinic for Nike, for Buick. That's what
he did on Monday to earn the twenty thirty million
dollars those corporations are paying him, which even at the

(22:39):
time with Tiger in the late nineties early two thousands,
paid more than the tour. That's where it's changed. Scotty
Sheffler made sixty million dollars playing golf. Yeah, he makes
a lot of money. Nike. He doesn't need Nike if
he just wore like the Tony Romo outfit that was
emblem lists. He would be financially fine. So they've gotten
so big. Rory's same thing. They make a lot of money,
they don't need they don't need anything. They could just

(23:01):
be completely blank and just play for the check and
be fine. Where golf was never like I would say,
tennis is the same thing too. These guys now are
making so much money on the court, let alone off
the court that they are just they're in a different stratosphere,
so it definitely gives them more flexibility. Like Tiger didn't
want to do all those corporate events, but he had to.

(23:22):
He was because they were paying him for it. That's
where I think Scotty if you notice, I don't think
his bag has a lot of emblems, like he's not
in business with all these people. All these guys are,
you know, you look at Jordan's speacebag or Ricky Fowler's bag.
They just because they've been taught from a young age,
from the older generation, this is what you do. This
is more like Nascar, you know, on grass, put as

(23:43):
much stuff and you answer to these guys. They'll pay
you more than you could ever win.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
All right, So good round up, with John Middlecoff, who
also go Low has a golf podcast with us. So
there is something about and I think a lot of
this is as I've gotten older, I golf a lot
more now than I used to do, especially in the
summer spring in the summer, that to watch a major
when you've got I mean, I was so happy that

(24:09):
Rory went into Sunday with a shot that was pretty
clear after about four holes that Scotty was not surrendering anything.
He was on his game. And now for our next segment,
Whiskey Business. Yes, Whiskey Business, brought to you by Green
River Whiskey, the official whiskey of the Colin Coward Podcast.

(24:30):
Do you want to talk about a couple of football things?
And then I want to talk about a WNBA thing,
which I think is interesting, So I had said it
this week. Is that a lot of times when there's
a rumor, John who starts the rumor. So Greg McElroy,
a guy who I respect greatly, does a great job
on I think it's w JOX Radio in Alabama. Former
BAMA quarterback. Greg's really smart, really works hard. He s

(24:54):
as good at college football analyst. I'm talking TV networks.
He's a good at anybody out there. I bring him
on their show The Volume a couple times a year.
He's just sensational. And he said, there's a lot of
talk about Nick and coaching. So that's, in my opinion,
I'm guessing here that's coming from his Alabama sources.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Well, they'll play with in the same circles at this point,
don't they.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Then Lane Kiffin says, and Lane's one of his closer
is close to Nick, more more close than many other assistants.
He's like, yeah, I think my guess is he may
miss you know, developing young people. He really he loves that.
So my take is, okay, this is his story. So
I brought Urban Meyer on this week, who is friends

(25:37):
with Nick, and he said, I don't think he's going
back to college, but he's gonna He would take NFL calls.
And this is one of those things where and I
told Urban this and Urban hadn't thought about it a lot.
But what the NIL has done. Coaches thought the NFL,
the NIL was trouble. I gotta pay my players. Dabo
Sweeney's like, I'm not paying my players. That's not college football.

(25:59):
It's actually been beneficial, additive for coaches. You can't fire
Brian Kelly or Lincoln Riley if you wanted to, because
USC just built three hundred million in facilities. They got
that from the donors. They raised eighteen million dollars a
year nil, they got it from the donors. To buy
out Lincoln would be eighty million, and then you'd have

(26:19):
to pay sixty million to eighty million to get the
new coach. USC in southern California, the biggest economy in
the country, they can't afford it. The idea that Alabama,
who is struggling to raise fifteen million a year nil,
could buy out Kalin for seventy and then bring Nick
back for one hundred million, six year deal. They don't

(26:39):
have close to that money. Auburn now is raising more money.
And so my take is with Nick, he's not going
to college because nobody's buying out their coaches anymore. Nick's
not coming back for twelve million two years. Nick's coming back.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
I want.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
I want four years guaranteed, okay, and I want thirteen
million per year. That's fifty minimum, Jimmy Sexton fifty minimum. Well,
then you have to buy out your coach. It's not happening.
But Nick like Harbaugh. Harbaugh had Kaepernick and Alex Smith,
and it nod at him. He's like, if I can

(27:15):
get the quarterback right, And the owner is paying for
a staff, which the Spanos family finally opened up checkbook
for the staff. Big you know, jesse mentor Greg Roman.
That's expensive.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
They're paying a lot.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah, at and the Spanhos. The knocking the Spanos, it
was fair. I don't think it's fair anymore, but it
was fair for a long time. They're cheap. They're not anymore.
They pay Herbert, they pay the staff. They they built
a gorgeous new facility in else Gout. Oh it's gorgeous.
Like they spend money. That's an unfair criticism anymore. I
thought it was fair until about three four years ago.
The SOFI ideal is great for them. They're spending money.

(27:50):
But I think Sabin looks around and I'll throw this
at you. Jimmy has them, loves publicity. They're probably the
worst team in the league. Arch Manning goes to Cleveland.
Manning's no Saban. He coached in Cleveland before. They would
be the most interesting team in the league. He would
give him a five year what's fifteen times five seventy

(28:11):
five million dollar deal. Yeah, I think Nick would do it.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Well, here's the thing. Belichick is a good example of right.
The NFL kind of turned on him, and he was
open to college. He claims the nil. Obviously that's an
aspect they're comfortable, but no one tells you what to
do in college. When you become the football coach you have,
you're basically the owner. If it was the equivalent of
the NFL. Right, Nick Saban is answered to nobody for

(28:38):
fifteen plus years. I mean by the time year two
or three at Alabama when he won, he answered to
nobody in the NFL. You know, the ad in recruiting
is not sitting behind you on a chair looking over
your shoulder. What did we talk about with Shador? It
was Andrew Berry, Stefanski and then Haslam kind of right
there in the middle. Now, Haslam has spent more actual

(28:59):
cash that any owner in the league in the last
four years in terms of signing bonus, so financially, he
would be the equivalent of like University of Texas in
terms of the pros. Right, he is spending an ungodly
amount of money, so people would be attracted to his
willingness to kind of he'll manipulate the salary cap for you.
But he's extremely involved. And Nick has had I mean

(29:22):
his nickname, right, I mean Nick Tator like he answers
to nobody, and in fairness, his decisions are usually correct.
I think I saw that you talked to Breer about Dallas.
I'm not saying that some of these owners would not
sniff around. Probably already have made some contact. Hey, just
big picture, it's called business. I just wonder, like, would

(29:42):
he answer to Jimmy Haslam or Jerry giving him constant
football ideas? Remember Belichick. Probably it might have been the
year he was off started listing off stories. I think
to like McAfee about different times owners storm in and
give different ideas like hey, yeah, are we sure defense?
He used to talk about the Cleveland experience, like we
know what we're doing on defense, and Bill would be like,

(30:04):
Nick Saban's are defensive coordinator, you idiot? You know? So
I just love these guys. It's unlike any business where
a family like the Haslans, who are clearly successful or
Jerry or whoever, in whatever industry they're in, even if
they are football people and love the sport, you can't
speak the language in terms of like football language, which

(30:25):
is extremely complicated, especially once you get in season with
schematic stuff. I just think it becomes really complicated for
a guy like Nick, who's you know, I don't know,
made hundreds of millions of dollars to then answer to someone,
and I don't care who you are in the NFL,
you still somewhat have to answer. I mean, you talk
to all these gms a lot. I'm sure what they
bitch to you about is like God, the owner, he's

(30:47):
in my ass about this and this, And it's not
always just like the star quarterback. He could be the
stupidest stuff. And they spend a lot of their time.
It's when gms go on and interview and they say,
you know, you have to realize that you can't just
sit in a room and watch film. What they're essentially
saying is I'm getting pulled in a bunch of different directions,
and whenever that call or that guy walks in, you

(31:08):
don't have a choice. You drop everything you're doing for
the owner. So and that Jimmy has them is extremely involved.
But I'm with you, Nick Saban. Jimmy has them in
two thousand and what year are we in twenty five?
That's so that would be like January of twenty twenty six,
signed me up. Now we got a long way to go.
I think saving it would be more realistic then. Like
arch Manning, I'm excited as anybody, but like he's played

(31:31):
two games, so you know, is he gonna be a
great player? I don't know. It's the SEC is really hard.
They're stomping up with Ohio State. He has an insane
amount of pressure. And it's not his fault. He's saying
all the right things. Stark's saying all the right things,
but it's everyone else. It's gonna be pretty intense. And
the other thing, this quarterback class like good players at

(31:51):
that position, even in his own conference, that are pretty
well established, that have been starting for a couple of years.
Let's just see, like is he does he throw thirty
five touchdowns? Or is this year work in progress? He
doesn't need the money, so even if he is really good,
he's on a lock to go. Bro Peyton Manninghell went
back to school in the late nineties, he easily could

(32:13):
after nil. So I think he would have to have
like one of the great seasons in college football history
for me to feel comfortable like he would be a
lock to come out if you just tell me, hey,
they're in the final four. He has a good season,
He's like second team All SEC. I could one hundred
percent see him coming back to school. His two uncles
did it like college football to that family. For a

(32:34):
family that's obviously known for NFL stuff and financially really successful,
means a lot to that family, right It's I mean
it meant a lot to Eli goes back to Ole
Miss all the time. His Dad's a huge part of
All Miss. Peyton's constantly in Tennessee. I think I just
saw a story his son is that Marshall is Trent.
I thought he lived in Denver. It's gonna play high
school football in Tennessee. I don't a lot of They

(32:56):
have a lot of passion for college football. And I
don't care who you are. When you're around your uncles
and your dad, like stuff rubs off on you, and
I can imagine it means a lot. Listen, to be
a multi year starter at Texas is a lot. Do
you won and done not? That's not special, But I
think playing for two or three years is a really
big deal. Look at Matt Leiner and you're you know,
in LA like, he's still a huge part of that program.

(33:16):
He's parlayed it even though his NFL career didn't go great.
So I don't think Arch is some lock even if
it goes well to go pro. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
The one guy, I said, Drew Aller's the one guy
at Penn State where I watched him a couple of
years ago and I'm like, he's just not He's not
buttoned up, he's loose, he's not accurate. And then I
watched him last year and I was like, oh, that's
a first round quarterback. If he makes the same jump
this year and gets to like sixty eight percent completion
percentage with his size, that is a big time player.

(33:46):
He You know, we forget this all the time. These
guys are like twenty one, you know, like and now
they're in an NIL world where there's a little bit
of pressure, like they're buying pizza, right, guys, I got
all the money. So and Penn State's got an NIL
that's you know, reasonably noteworthy.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
So no, I think I think Oklahoma feels that that
Washington State. John Mattier, I mean, I would say they're
very bullish on his prospects. I know NFL people are
very very excited, and obviously Oklahoma I think they think
they're gonna be a lot better. They paid for a
lot of money and transfer portal. They bring in this quarterback.
So you start comparing Matier in Arch, and Materier already

(34:21):
has a year starting at Washington State, so he's played
a lot, and I understand Washington State in twenty twenty
four is not what it used to be, but still
he's played like Arch hasn't really played. He played the
two games against Nobody's and thrown in against Georgia, which
is not his fault. They just went with Quinn yours.
But you know that the conference in the SEC, which
I would say over the last fifteen years, has been
more a positional conference. They've had a couple good quarterbacks

(34:45):
this year. From a quarterback standpoint, Florida's got a quarterback,
South Carolina's got a quarterback, Oklahoma's got a quarterback. Obviously,
Texas has a quarterbacks. It's it's gonna be a pretty
fascinating kind of little quarterback group. And then well you
know Alabama, Georgia and one of those teams at NUSS
Meyer at LSU, you know, is viewed as a potential, yes,
top twenty pick. So it's it's a pretty good quarterback

(35:06):
conference this year. And we know they always got defensive
linemen skill guys dbs. I think the SEC is going
to be pretty interesting from a quarterback standpoint, because you know,
you look at the big ten. I don't Ohio State
their quarterback. You know, it's pretty big shoes to fill.
I mean, will power down the stretch look like Peyton Manning.
Obviously Michigan paid the kid twenty million dollars or whatever.

(35:30):
It's difficult. So it's it's gonna be fascinating to see.
Now their talent on those teams will be able to
be Okay.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
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dot com and discover a legend in a bottle today. Okay,
So this is a big broad topic about the WNBA.

(35:58):
So the WNBA was basically subsidized, not basically it was
by the NBA for twenty five years, it made no money.
They started in big arenas, they moved to smaller arenas.
They were on commercial flights. And then I've used the
example that Caitlin Clark has become like a black light
in a hotel room. Like you know, you use a
black light in a hotel room and you're like, oh

(36:20):
my god, this is filthy in here. She's basically exposed
how bad the marketing was, how disorganized and unprepared the
executive suites were, how bad the travel was, Now how
bad the officiating is. She's a black light on the league.
It was just not buttoned up, but now it's red hot.

(36:41):
And because of Kitlin Clark. And so here we go
the CBA, they're negotiating a new contract and they came
out wearing shirts and people were really bothered by this
on the internet, like, hey, you owe us the money.
I don't think it's the greatest self awareness. I wouldn't
go public with it. Don't think that's brilliant. And I

(37:01):
think the I think this the league has just had again,
Caitlin Clark has put a microscope on the league and
it's it's it's got a lot of faults. I mean,
officiating marketing. They could, they couldn't figure out women's basketball
to put her on the Olympic team. It's like, hello,
what are we doing? But it is interesting, here's roll
side with the players. If let's see at the volume.

(37:25):
I hired a podcast and I had to subsidize it
for five years and it didn't make any money. There
was talent, but it didn't make any money. And then
all of a sudden, with four months to go or
six months to go before the contract ends, it hits
a Zeit gest it gets culturally relevant, it gets really popular.

(37:47):
It doesn't matter that it's lost me money. I have
to pay it. So first of all, I'll always defend
anybody asking for a raise. I'll always defend any employee
doing that. Most people just don't want to. It's uncomfortable,
but it doesn't matter if you've lost money forever. If
you are coming up on a negotiation and you are
suddenly these people that own the organizam think about people

(38:09):
that owned the teams, they're hemorrhaging money forever. Finally, it's like, oh, crap,
our merchandise, our tickets, our TV ratings, we're gonna make
money on this. The truth is the women have a
lot of they have a lot of leverage. Is that
this investment took forever to pay off, but you can't

(38:32):
sell it now. You can't have a work stoppage now
because it's finally making money.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Well, I agree with you, and you know, being from
Davis Sacramentos separated by a causeway, I remember when the
Sacramento I think monarchs were developed and they put them
in Arco Arena where the King's play and they were
like ten people going to the game. It was like,
this is a bad business. Like this, it looks awful.
And for a long time, that to me defined the
WNBA is that no one watched. And I would say

(38:58):
that defining line for most people over the course of
the last twenty years was well, the NBA just pays
for everything. The guys, they take their money and pay
for something that not only doesn't make money, I mean
loses a lot. I think what confuses people and I
don't know the answer to this. Are they still losing
a lot of money because it's convoluted right there in

(39:19):
the NBA's television deal. But they view them as a
mass loser. That's where I'm confused, because if they are
losing money. I do understand everyone going pay us more
and you're part of a operation that's losing money. And
the other thing is.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
If I remove Caitlin Clark and I've always laughed at
like it's just a bunch of racist route for this
white girl. There's been a lot of good white girls
playing in the WNBA over the past twenty five and
no one cared. You couldn't pay me to pay attention.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
And she has brought I would say a obviously they
watch her to play, but she's brought a relevance to
the league that it's impossible to quantify. It is well.
I've always used title Woods and I think there are
some similarities there.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, Steph Curry's more popular than Lebron. Lebron is the
better player, but Steph Curry totally Yeah, Lebron, Steph Curry,
who is the comfort Caitlin. Because of his style, he's
more popular. Everybody loves Steph Curry. Lebron's polarizing. I think
I think Steph Curry moves a number better than Lebron. Now,
I think we have Lebron fatigue. So you don't have

(40:18):
to be the best player in the league. You have
to be really good like Steph's really, but you don't
have to be the best player to be the most popular.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
So my thing is when they ask for more money,
are they part of the league that is losing money
because you're gonna lose everyone there, like you're getting no
one to defend you. People have defended athletes fighting for
when people are like this guy's getting screwed, especially individuals.
I think as a whole a common sports fan would
just go, this league loses money. Now if you said, hey,

(40:46):
we're making fifty x what we not only used to make,
but in terms of a profit, because all I see
is like, well, these franchises are worth and one from
fifty million to worth maybe a couple hundred million dollars,
So the equity of a franchise, the owner, you're getting
rich and all these other sports will the owners and
the players sharing this? My whole take is like, if
I remove Caitlin, is this league actually that important and popular?

(41:09):
Obviously it has improved in terms of its relevance college
basketball in women's college basketball hasn't had her consistently now
for a couple of years, and still does really well
on television.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
This is a great question in Tiger's prime, it didn't
matter if any other golfer was popular. If I'm CBS,
I'm upping my contract with the Masters because Tiger's gonna
play in it, it doesn't matter, how like one of
the WNBA's. So this is why I think the players
have power.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Where are they gonna go to Russia?

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Well well, well, but what they're gonna do is like
they have a work stoppage. Well, the owners are like, okay,
we've lost money forever. This is just the beginning of
probably a decade of momentum and merchandise sales with Caitlin.
So I'll give you an example, the late night shows.
Co Beart is going away in May, right, So that

(42:05):
was a great business forever, and then kind of pre
COVID COVID and after COVID last six seven years, they've
lost fifty percent of their AD revenue for a lot
of reasons. YouTube TV young viewers don't watch late The
average cobear viewer is sixty eight years old. Even, I mean,
that's insane, right, they thought he was going to get younger.
He talks politics. Young people don't want to talk politics.
It's almost seventy So that's part of the reason that's dying.

(42:28):
So my point is, even though that business was great forever,
it's been on a losing streak for several years, and
CBS is like, we're just out of the business. WNBA
is the opposite. It's been a loser forever, but the
next ten years look great. I would have to give
them the money.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Who's giving them the money? Like it's the NBA giving
them more, because that's my thing. If I'm the WNBA
in any other business, like you use the podcast example,
I've subsidized you for twenty five years. I don't know.
I don't have the contract in front of me, but
I get a piece of the pie if things go well.
I have a huge, huge interest of like okay, time

(43:05):
to pay me back, right, or time for me to
get my claws into this new money. So the pie
that they think is just between us and the owner.
If I'm Adam Silver, I go, hey, hey, we've been
involved in this, and we did it for quote unquote
the right reasons. We were fine with losing money. We
were trying to help out, we were trying to grow
the game, trying to expand our female presence for guys.

(43:30):
But we have funded this thing for two and a
half because when of the leagues start late nineties like
ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine, I feels like for
a long long time, so it's time for us to
get That's how business works. If I funded you for
a long time and you hit it big like Google, Apple, whoever,
remember when I gave you the five hundred grand in
the garage? So I get paid now too. Now, maybe

(43:51):
they're making so much it's not even worth the PR
battle because that's what this would become, because they would
come at them like screw you, and that's what they're
trying to do. Make this a PR battle. Do you
think it's a hard PR battle when listen, you don't
know the facts that we do have the contracts. The
average sports fan is going to go, this thing's been
a loser, These girls don't deserve it, and there's something
real and like you remove Caitlin Golston, individual sport basketball

(44:14):
is not.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, no, no, Where you're absolutely right is the public's
not going to side with the w NBA players because
how they've treated it, how they've treated Caitlin, how like
parochial and silly they've been. I mean, they've really not.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
It's been embarrassed. Well, I mean, it really has no.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Question my I guess my point is I'm not wildly
supporting the WNBA. I'm saying is if I was an
investor and I'd lost for nine years, and I'm like, guys,
it took forever, but holy shit, we got about ten
year runway here. Let's not I mean, we waited this long,

(44:53):
we invested this long totally.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Let's that's where you That's where there's a lot of
validity and substance behind that. Okay, let's just pivot. Who
cares about two thousand and six. It's twenty twenty six
and this thing is going to become a cash cow.
But it's where the girls feel like. It feels like
they're negotiating from a point where they all view themselves
like Lebron's Steph or Kaitlyn, and they're just not And

(45:16):
that's where I think people have a hard time with
and Caitlyn, let's face, it is kind of the least
visible and definitely the least talkative when it comes to
these issues. It's some of the other quote unquote star
players who are leading the charge. It's why typically right
CBA negotiations and football. Kaitlyn's gonna make so much money.

(45:37):
Whether this works out or not, it doesn't matter. It's
typically not Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers.
And just like the next CBA won't beat Josh Allen
and Patrick Mahomes beating the drum, it's usually Jeff Saturday
right up there. So it's some of these and it's
that's where it's it's hard to get the public because
I do think if they could get the public on
their side, then you know, typically the basketball has been

(45:57):
in I would say the sport that it typically gives
in to some pr pressure. But it's just it doesn't
feel like they have them.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
No, no, And this that's very important is that corporations.
It could be Fox, it could be the NBA. They
don't like. They don't like skirmishes. It hurts their stock price.
They I mean, I I could argue that if I
if there were if I got into a battle with
a corporation and I have a line, it helps my brand,

(46:24):
It makes me look more like a rebel, totally right.
A corporation doesn't you know, the upfronts are coming our
stock price. They don't want to get involved with any
of that stuff. They want everything. They don't want to
get into battles. Stephen A's talking about his contractor stuff.
ESBN doesn't want to, you know, want that. It's good
for Steve and A, it's not good for the corporation,
right so, And I don't blame anybody for doing it

(46:46):
if you're an individual. But the truth is the WWA
players have not done a great job to ingratiate themselves
to the average consumer, where they've really come off as
sort of anti Caitlin. I will say though, in the
latest poll who's the face of the league going forward
next five years, the WNBA players overwhelmingly voted Caitlin Clark.
So they are coming around. It's an aircraft carrier, it's

(47:09):
not a sale boat. It's not a quick pivot. It
has taken a while, but I do think they're coming
to terms with she's making us a bunch of money here, people,
let's not be ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
You do not look, you know, look at the gift
court in the mouth and kick it to the side.
Here ride this rocket ship to the moon. And it
does feel like I would bet against them just fully
embracing it, at least for the foreseeable future. I think
it's going to be a little rocky. It still feels rocky,
you know, the way she's treated and listen when she

(47:38):
doesn't play. I'm a good example. I've been watching sports,
all sports my entire life. I have never ever paid
attention to women's basketball, let alone the WNBA to the
last several years. And because of her, it brings light
on the other players, Like I mean, I know so
much about Angela Reese, Angela Reisa.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
I can't even see Cunningham was in the league seven
years totally. I didn't know who she wasn' until four
months ago.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
So it's like she Tiger dealt with a little bit
of this too, right. People don't like the difference is
you know, golf it became way more successful post Tiger,
but these guys were still doing well, right, they were
living in This has been I mean, these girls are
making what seventy five sixty thousand, They're not making much
relative you know, to other professional athletes. So it's yeah,

(48:29):
I just I think it's going to be a little rocky,
and it'll be fascinating to watch Adam Silver in the
WNB or in the NBA, Like how they approached this
because are they gonna want to get made whole or
a huge part of this moving forward? Like if there's
gonna be a lot more money, we need to be
involved here. I was texting our buddy Ethan Strauss the
other day, and do you think it's been one of

(48:51):
the faster cultural shifts definitely in my life, in American history.
I mean last week it was announced. I personally, you know,
I think journalists love to say Dave Portnoy's really polarizing.
People in my life just are entertained by Dave. He's not,
He's just an entertaining figure. But Shane Gillis's monologue is
a good example of a couple of years ago, ESPN
would have probably had a boycott and would had to

(49:12):
an issue an apology, I would say, less than twelve
hours later, and not only did it not matter, it's
like everyone was just laughing, right, It's like everyone just
relaxed a little bit, take a deep breath, like, don't
you don't have to get offended at every single little
thing in life? And obviously now Barstool and Dave and
those guys are going to I think lead into your show, right, Yeah,
moving forward, starting I.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Think any time there's a strong action the country went
very left and the term used was woke, there's going
to be an equally strong reaction where moderates and people
on the right said no, that shit, don't play. Florida
got it right with COVID, not California. So there was
a very strong cultural shift left during COVID, and I think,

(49:59):
like I like Musk buying Twitter, not because I think
it's a better product, but I did think it got
really weird and like people were just outraged by everything,
and I don't like that. I'm a moderate. I want
both sides uncomfortable. So yeah, I mean, first of all,
I've never thought Barstool was a good fit with ESPN.

(50:22):
I just never thought it was a good fit. I
didn't think that show was going to last fifteen minutes.
I think it works at Fox because Fox News is
sort of the example of I mean, the New York
Post and Fox News are owned by the Murdoch family.
They have strong convictions on the right, and you can
call them whatever you want, they don't care. And so

(50:45):
Fox Sports is under although it's all a silo business
to some degree is not protected, but we're under sort
of the umbrella of like Fox News and The New
York Post that the Murdoch family is very comfortable with
you having lots of opinions. I mean, I know Sage
Steel and I don't know Sam Ponder, but there are

(51:08):
points that Sage Steel makes that are very legitimate. And
I say that as somebody who leans left socially and
is a moderate. So I think Barstool works at Fox.
This is my take on it. So I think they
were brought in for digital. I think they have power,

(51:28):
prowess and a footprint on digital. If I could say this,
even if it offended my bosses, I don't think Fox
is necessarily that's not our strength, our digital presence. Barstool's
great at it.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Second you could argue the best and when it comes
to sports, they've been Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
So they solve a Fox Frap Fox sports problem. Secondly,
I think our management looks at our college game day
is having more juice and energy, and Portnoy is going
to bring some of that young, youthful shit stirring energy.
I think he absolutely does. Then I think the third
most important thing after digital and a big Neon kickoff

(52:08):
is FS one. And my take is, you know they're
going to do a two hour show and then the
replay of it's going to be in front of me.
So replays don't necessarily do that well. The show may
do well, it's replay, which is right in front of me,
probably won't. Portnoy is going to be on it, I
think Monday, but not that often. Big Catt'll be on it,

(52:29):
but maybe not that often. According to him, there's a
lot of stuff that's not being talked about that I'm
not aware of. They're not, you know. So my take
is of the three things they were brought into Fox for,
I think Big Noon and Digital were the most important.
My guess is based on what I'm hearing about Portnoy.

(52:51):
Pardon my take. Guys. They'll do a two hour show
and then they'll run it again as a replay. So
that's not necessarily a you know, a dynamic lead in,
but I think it is a cost effective measure and
it makes us younger on FS one, which I'm for.
I'm four. In fact, I think I can tell this story.

(53:11):
So six months ago, an executive a suit a big
dog upstairs called me into his office and said, Hey,
what do you think about Portnoy on our College Football show.
And I said, well, he's not a traditional broadcaster, so
I don't think it's fair for Fox to hold him
to that. Let him be a personality, let him be
a social influencer. Don't hold him to Rob Stone or

(53:34):
Tom Ronaldi. I don't think that's fair. I think you
get in trouble when you asked Dave to be something
he's not. Dave is a shitster, a social influencer, very nimble,
very funny. You know, it's like you're getting kind of
this running stand up comedy thing. It's very effective, especially
virally trending.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
He's great at it.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
He's absolutely phenomenal at it. Let him be that, don't
turn him into something. Let him do that, and I
think it will yet big additive.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
That was my take.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I don't know Dave at all, but we all know Dave.
And then and then I said, and they asked me
about some content stuff, and I said, listen, I don't
want to be culpable for anything that goes on beyond
my show. I do my show. I'm good friends with
Nick Wright. I care about him. I don't want to
be culpable for any of this stuff. But I said,
if you're asking me what I would do if I

(54:24):
ran FS one. I said, if if Portnoy's you're interested in,
I would go hire Pardon my take, I think Big
Cat is a lead on TV. I would hire him
as a lead, and then you know his partner, and
then whoever he and his partner are comfortable with. That's
a TV show. So that's what I said six months ago.

(54:46):
Now it was a ten minute meeting. It's not like
FS one needs me to, you know, diagram their playbook.
And that was the last I talked about it, and
so it was pretty interesting when the story broke, I'm like, oh, okay, well,
well that kind of is what we were talking about.
But I just didn't want to be culpable. I didn't
want other shows, you know, I don't want people to

(55:06):
get lose their jobs. I'm not into that stuff. But
I do think it's a really good fit. I think
Fox allows you to have opinions from whatever angle you want.
You don't have to be partisan. I mean, I would
say I think Nick Wright would be the he said
it on this podcast. He leans more left. They don't care,
and Jesse Walter is more right. It doesn't matter like

(55:30):
they just Fox has never once come to me in hey,
slow down on that they don't care. Where ESPN there
is proof, it is documented they do care. I think
they've improved over the last couple of years. But it
was pretty it was pretty strident, stridently left for several
years there, and it made a lot of people uncomfortable.

(55:52):
And I think that's fair. I don't think companies should
be telling you what to say about your politics. Now,
if you want to tell your talk show host on
ESPN or fought in a sports show, don't talk politics,
that's fine, but don't tell him what side of politics
they have to go and and you know, bang the
table on. If you're gonna allow political talk, then allow
all of it. That's my take. Yeah, so I think

(56:15):
bars still works at Fox.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
I think there's obviously just a rawness. And this is
why a lot of people have success on the internet,
is you know, anything flies in the consumer then dictates
whether you're successful or not. You know, when I was
a kid, if you got a job at the San
Fransco Chronicle, you're gonna be pretty successful because the newspaper
controlled a lot right or on one of the local stations.

(56:37):
Now it's like you can create it yourself, and no
one's done a better job from the jump for the
last couple decades, the Dave building it from scratch. But
you know, whenever I, like I said, I see people
calling him polarizing, I just know a lot of people
to just like view him as entertaining, and I think
that's where he fits in on Fox. I think, actually
that's kind of overblown and that's what everyone's take. It's like, yeah,

(56:58):
this twenty twenty five, maybe if it was ten years ago,
but we live in a completely different climate. One and
two Fox. You know you, guys, I would say, obviously
a broadcast, like if you're doing a football game or
baseball game, it's fair series so different than anything else.
But just in terms of regular programming, like you said,
there aren't as many guardrails like be Yourself or ESPN,

(57:19):
I would say definitely, even past you leaving leaned even
more into like this is what we do. Stick into
this and you're only allowed to be on one side,
which is obviously bad business. Who do you think is
watching football? Have you, guys seen the demos of the
football watching audience? Like where the men lean in this country? Like, guys,

(57:39):
this isn't just a math problem, and you lean away
with it, you lean away from it, you deserve to
fail because it's just it's pretty basic at this point
in time. Who stands where?

Speaker 2 (57:50):
I think you have to be fair to barstool. If
you bring barstool in, let them be barstool. I think
when when when ESPN brought in Arstool and after a show,
they're like, WHOA, well did you watch? Did you consume
their content? Give me a break. It's like to me,
if you're gonna bring him in and I and this

(58:10):
is what I told the executive upstairs, just you know,
you have to understand he's not a Dave's not a
classic broadcaster, So don't hold him to that. Like like
like I'm not Tom Ronaldy or Joe Buck. I'm an opinionist.
I am going to You're gonna get a lot of
hate mail and a lot of pushback on my opinions.
Don't hold me to Joe Davis's brilliant doing baseball Like

(58:34):
where if you're getting massive criticism, maybe you'd be concerned.
If you're a generalist, that's the name of the game.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
When do we get the pardon my take? Colin Coward collaboration.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Well, whenever they want, I'm available. I don't think they've.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Ever Yeah, I mean you're in Chicago. They're in Chicago.
Now we have the synergy with Fox. I mean it's
I they're football guys, you're football guys. It's it's time Colin.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Is you know what I don't. Yeah, well, I mean
obviously I know who everybody is. They do they do?
They have really they really do the podcast game right.
They're smart, they're funny. They make news and that's a
big part of it. Part of what barstool does very
well is they make news like that's important. They know,

(59:20):
they know the touchstones, they know the things people are
talking about. And so, you know, traditional media has done
themselves no favors over the last ten years. They have
a lower approval rating than Congress. Like there's there is
a And I'm in the media, I don't I read

(59:41):
I'm a subscriber to The New York Times, the Atlantic,
but I read stuff cynically, like I know, I don't
read it and just think I'll take their word for it.
I don't think I read it like that ten years ago.
I read it like that now that Joe, that Joe
Biden stuff. I'm sorry. That's as bad as the media

(01:00:02):
has ever done in my lifetime, where just basically it's
pretty clear now they were covering up for him, like
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
I watched your you. I think it was a yesterday
on Saturday. You put the you put out a little
video on the Colbert canceling, and I was thinking back,
I love Letterman as a kid and anytime, especially when
I was young, could stay up late my parents, and
as you get older, you stay up as late as
you want. You always went to those I was a
little too young for Johnny Carson, but Peacock put out

(01:00:31):
a bunch of stuff, and I've watched them on YouTube.
It was an easy watch. So whether you were a
huge liberal, whether you're a bit conservative, whether you don't
care about politics, it had nothing to do with that.
And I honestly society shifts. I grew up in a
very liberal down I am not a liberal, and everyone
just kind of got along. You didn't even talk about
it that often in now society, and I think sometimes
the media they live even more in this kind of

(01:00:54):
insulated bubble and they think it's like, you don't have
to talk about this, like I'm coming to you to
just laugh, to enjoy myself. And that's where sports when
they shifted it away from that. I would say over
the last decade, a lot of people in the sports media,
it's like, Guys, this guy has a hard job, he's
got two kids, his life stressful. When he turns on
a sports program, definitely a game, he's just trying to relax.

(01:01:16):
He does not need to get lectured. And one, you
don't even know how he thinks. And two to tell
him that he's on the wrong side of history about something.
He's going to turn you off. It's not what he's
coming for. And the lecture element of so many people,
I think in newspapers, on traditional you know, political shows,
is just not what a human being life stressful. I

(01:01:38):
got a baby on the way. You know, you got
a mortgage, you got you just got your parents are
getting older. He's got stresses in life. You don't always
need to be lectured.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
A lot of people, and this is my take. The
traditional media, whether they admit it or not, are often
writing and broadcasting to other media for the approval of
other media. Podcasters aren't. No podcasters are talking to the consumer.
There Joe Rogan is trying to create the most interesting

(01:02:09):
show to the consumer. He does not give two shits
about what other podcasters think of him. Traditional media is
writing a column that deep down they're seeking the approval
of their industry. And it's and I've said this about
late night TV over the last eight to ten years.
Sometimes Carson did a show for the country, Letterman did

(01:02:30):
it for the inside joke. Letterman didn't care about critics. Carson,
I read his books, didn't either. I feel like today's
hosts and producers on that late night stuff want to
make sure the New Yorker accepts them. They're looking for
the article. And I think, why would they.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Have two hundred people working on a show. I mean,
I've been a part of your operation. Could you imagine
having one hundred people working? I mean, how could you
possibly on a one hour show have that many people involved?
How many writers do you need? I can't comprehend that,
let alone from and I understand when you're in it,
you know, you might not see that the balance sheet

(01:03:08):
of like, Okay, we're losing fifty million dollars. The company
has a better feel for that than maybe the people
working on it. But it'd have to have some feel
for like, is this really adding up what we're doing here?
And the conduct yourself the way they are to lose
fifty million dollars a year, that's insane.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
I think late night shows ate themselves alive by talking politics.
They turned off younger viewers. Colbert's average audience is sixty eight.
He talks politics, so they ate themselves alive. That they
were getting critical approval, but Colbert's show got older, it
turned off young people. It turned off advertisers. Last six years,

(01:03:43):
fifty percent of ad revenue. Late shows too political gone.
The second thing is is the only time that Jimmy
Kimmel or a Colbert or a Seth Meyers knows his
show is going to be great when he wakes up
in the morning is if he has another great comedian
on it. If Seinfeld's going on Seth Myers, if the
late Norm MacDonald was going on Conan, if Kimmel has

(01:04:05):
Bill Burr, Jimmy wakes up knowing it's a great show.
The rest of the time, all those shows have to
bring on Hollywood people that they don't really watch or
care about their show. You rely on skits or a
monologue to hit and the truth is, Hollywood now is
so terrified of saying something that will alienate people within

(01:04:29):
Hollywood that it's fluff. They don't say anything. You go
back and watch Letterman actors and actresses. Actresses came on
and took their tops off. They didn't care. Letterman's people
were dancing on the set. It was sexual, it was inappropriate.
Nobody cares. The only time you get that now on

(01:04:50):
the late night shows is if Bill Burr, Ricky Gervais,
you know, John Mulaney, any comedian comes on. That's when
the Kimmels wake up in the morning, going Burr's on
a n Eye, Chappell's on Tonight. You rely on other
comedians who are unfiltered. If you're relying on a Hollywood
it is so pressurized not to offend somebody. Yeah, I

(01:05:12):
mean whatever you think of Rob Schneider. Like when Rob
went right with his politics, it's like career over right,
Like that's I have a really good I have like
two friends in Hollywood. I don't plan in the game
at all, but they're like listen, it's you can feel it.
They are conversations and opinions you're not going to have
in these rooms pitching a project like and so I

(01:05:35):
think they ate themselves, Late night TV ate themselves. They
got too political, they got two partisan And the truth
is the only time that I really want to watch
Late night now is if the host who's a comedian
has another brilliant comedian and you get this moment with
fifteen minutes of two really funny guys shooting the shit
making each other laugh. Conan and Norm MacDonald rest in peace.

(01:05:58):
You know, Seinfelder said Myers fallon or like Kimmel gets
one of his guys on. You know, that's fifteen minutes
a great TV.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Do you think podcasts wipe them out? Though, a little bit,
because Conan can create a podcast and you can listen
to that and it's a well easy listen.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Podcasts are more authentic, more raw, more real. When I
watch late night TV, it feels neutered, sanitized and edited.
And again, the only time it doesn't is when when
the host who's a funny guy, comedian, stand up guy,
gets another comedian. Then I got fifteen minutes of great TV.
Other than that, the Hollywood stuff not remotely interested.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Yeah, totally agree, All right, buddy, have a good Sunday.
The vo