Bryan Curtis on the Latest Sports Media News

Episode 487 of "SI Media with Jimmy Traina" features a conversation with The Ringer's Editor-At-Large and host of the "Press Box Podcast," Bryan Curtis about all the latest sports media news.
Among the topics covered with Curtis: Is Stephen A. Smith a $25-million man?; How is Pat McAfee factoring into Stephen A. Smith's desire for a massive pay day?; The ESPN-Aaron Rodgers headache; Excitement for Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery to call the Final Four for CBS/Turner; LeBron James getting into the podcast game; The networks reliance on live sports growing more and more; The backlash against AppleTV+'s series on the Patriots dynasty and much more.
Following Curtis, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins Jimmy for the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week's topics include Major League Baseball botching Opening Day in a massive way, whether Jimmy is justified in muting certain people on Twitter, NCAA Tournament snubs, the latest episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm and more

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome everyone to SI Media with Jimmy Traina. Thank you
so much for listening. We have an excellent show this week.
Brian Curtis from The Ringer joins me for his regular
spot to talk all things sports media. Several things going on.
I actually you're interested in the Sports Illustrated News that
came out this week. I discussed that right at the
top with Brian Curtis. Get into Stephen A. Smith possibly

(00:26):
replacing Jimmy Kimmel. We get into the NCAA Tournament first
year with Iron Eagle as the lead voice, replacing jim
Nance who stepped down from doing the tournament. So it'll
be Ian, Bill Rafter and Grant Hill for those of
you getting ready for the big tournament. Discuss the controversy
surrounding the Patriots series on Apple. Get into college Football ESPN.

(00:47):
We'll be partners with college football for a very long time.
Title game going to ABC in a couple of years,
which was interesting. Some stuff on McAfee, Aaron Rodgers, Lebron
James hosting a podcast. Get into all of that with
Brian kurtr Is from The Ringer, and then my buddy
Salakata joins me for our weekly Train of Thoughts segment
where we talk about baseball batching opening day as usual,

(01:09):
college basketball tournament, whether we're doing polls or not. This
week's Curb Your Enthusiasm so with an update on his move.
So a big show for all of you out there
this week. Before we get to it. If you've missed
any recent episodes, going to the archives check them out.
We've had a nice little run of guests. Dan Orlowski
from ESPN was on the show last week, ESPN Legend

(01:29):
Bob Lee two weeks ago, and Greg Gianatti from WFAN
and CBS Sports Network of The Boomer and Geo Show
three weeks ago. So if you miss any of those,
going to the archives check him out, subscribe to the pod.
I believe Jeff Passing from ESPN will be on next
week and we roll on. All right, let's get to
it now, Brian Curtis from The Ringer on all things

(01:50):
sports media, followed by Salakata and Train of Thoughts all
right here right now, HSI Media with Jimmy Trann all
right joining me now Media podcast, regular editor at Large
at The Ringer, also host of The press Box podcast
and always a great guest. You guys, enjoy hearing from
Brian Curtis. Brian, how are you.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Proud to be a regular Jimmy, I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I always happy to have you. There's so many media
topics to discuss, have a long list here. It's weird
when this happens when SI is a media topic, because
I have to thread the needle, as they say. But
we got news earlier this week that we're going to
be operated by Minute Media going forward. So what's interesting

(02:40):
is in January when there were the reports that the
whole staff was getting laid off and the future was murky.
You know, it was twenty four hours on Twitter of
RIPSI and after that, whenever I put out the podcast
or my people like I thought you were out of business,

(03:02):
And it was like, so now we have the flip
side of it, and I feel like it's not getting
the attention the other side got. But we're here. We
don't know the details of I don't know if I'm
going to still be there. I don't know what's going on,
but we we have a new operator and it seems
to be good news. So everyone should know that. Right now,

(03:24):
we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I should almost be
asking questions to you, mister Trena.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, you can ask and I'll see what I can answer.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, I think so the big question for me is
this Minute Media. They are the operators of players should Une.
They are the operators of fan side it, which is
a very different business than s I, or at least
you're part of SI. So do you feel they will
be custodians of publishers of what we've come to know

(03:55):
as good Sports Illustrated.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah. Well, the honest answer is I know nothing right now.
This happened on Monday morning. We're taping on Wednesday, and
there's a lot obviously to figure out, just logistical stuff,
you know, CMS and server and email and payroll and
photo rights. You know, there's a lot of all of
that stuff, let alone the staffing issues. So I can't

(04:22):
answer anything based on knowledge. What I can tell you
is I'm happy that Minute Media is a media company.
They're not some someone just trying to get in the
game here. They are a media company, and I think
if you're going to make the effort to partner up
with Sports Illustrated operate Sports Illustrated, I don't think you

(04:45):
do that. And then right away, tear it down. I
think I think we're going to get back to a
little bit of what we should be doing. What might
be hard for people to understand because it's a very
confusing setup, is we're owned by a company called ABG,
Authentic Brands Group. They license it out to Minute Media.

(05:06):
And the one positive I can say is Authentic Brands
Group has been very consistent from day one when they
bought Sports Illustrated that they want the magazine, they want
Sports Illustrated, they want the company to exist. So I
think I'm very optimistic that this can work out.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
My big issue now is we find out what's going
to go on with the staff and listen, in January,
eighty people are getting laid off. So if that can
be avoided, if you know, you know, so that, I
think it can only be good. So yeah, I'm excited.
I'm excited. I was happy.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
So that's what I mean. It feels like, first of all,
it's a not bad news cycle for SI. It's a
cautious optimism time. Right. It's not yes, everybody's getting laid off.
It's not the print issues being killed and all these
other stories percolated up. Sid Over the last couple of weeks,
and I would say, you know, the question going forward
is what the question was before. It's there will be
something called SI out in the world.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
It will exist.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
We both know that media brands, media companies never die now,
and the question will be what percentage of that is
good SI, or maybe set a different way, sets out
to try to be good s I. It is a
good intentioned effort to make a good product. And the
CEO said in The New York Times the other day, Look,
this is a different business for us. It's a little

(06:31):
bit different than what we've done. You mentioned trying to
hire some people back that were laid off in that
round now is a couple months ago. All good news,
at least notionally.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, I mean, I think this is where I'm gonna
try to be careful. I think we can do. I
think s I can do a lot better in terms
of video and audio. So I think MINUTE can be
a big asset there. I think hopefully they let the
magazine people and the writers do their thing. I think
you could really work out well. I'm not trying to

(07:08):
like a be evasive, but like I said, we found
out Monday at nine am and it's Wednesday at one
thirty pm, so there hasn't been an overflow of information yet.
I think there's a lot of things being worked out.
I'll probably know more in a couple of weeks, hopefully
I go over, and you know, there's I'm trying. You know,

(07:28):
I'd like to know obviously if I'm going over, because
if I do go over, then I'm partners with Derek Jeter,
and I feel like I have some things I can
say about that, but I'm gonna hold off until i know.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's the big thing.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well, first of all, here's I got so many tweets
about that.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's here's a vote on your podcast for you to
go over. Anybody would be stupid not to keep you.
And I also think we should just have a low
right now, here's some things we need from the new bosses.
Jimmy needs to be on Radio Row every year at
the Super Bowl. Jimmy needs to be at wrestle here
in a couple of weeks, I'm already putting together my
list of demands on.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Your behalf my own, my own, my only. It's not
I just want to be brought over and we'll figure
everything else out. And if I do get brought over.
We'll we'll we'll start with we'll start with maybe a booker.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
But we'll on my list is we'll deal with that. Yeah,
we can go there.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Like I said, I I hope
I'm brought over. I hope. I hope everyone's brought over.
I hope as many people as possible can. I have
to say. What what I wish people would understand is
the staff, my coworkers, my colleagues. I'm in awe of
them and the credit they deserve, because in January we

(08:40):
find out we have ninety days and then we're getting
laid off, and everyone continued to work. I mean, outside
of the complete anarchy on Twitter where everyone thought as
I was going out of business and it wasn't. You
wouldn't have known what was going on because everyone kept
turning out their content. I mean, we put out a
magazine I think it was yesterday with sho Hey Otani
on the cover. So the staff here has been tremendous.

(09:03):
I hope that's recognized and it all works out.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
So imagine doing a journalism with a shot clock over
your head that you're waiting to see if it expires.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
There were some rough days, I will say in the
last couple of months, but I think I think, I
hope for the best. I think it'll be good and
was this was nothing but a good move. I think,
all right, now, let's switch gears. There's a lot of
news that came out in the last couple of days
in the sports media world. I just want to start
with something though from last week, which I found humorous.

(09:37):
And I know you and I have discussed this so
many times. We've discussed often what is Stephen A doing?
Like what is the game plan? He so clearly is
trying to expand his brand, change his brand, whatever it is,
for a monumental payday. It seems like that's what the

(09:57):
plan is. I think everyone would agree about that. But
there are two things that came out, one about him
possibly replacing Jimmy Kimmel, and then about him wanting twenty
five million a year or could he be the twenty
five million dollar a year man? And I like Steven
A and I say everybody get as much as you
can get. This is not me saying he shouldn't get that.

(10:18):
If he can get it, he should. Jimmy Kimmel makes
fifteen million dollars a year. I don't think stephen A.
Smith is gonna get twenty five million. So it's a
late night show when late night is like basically there
now to make YouTube videos and social media videos. I
had to chuckle when if he wants to make twenty
five million, maybe doing like one hundred jobs for ESPN. Maybe,

(10:41):
but he's not replacing Jimmy Kimmel a making twenty five
million dollars a year? Can we just can we.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Stop with that? Do we at least just separately the
idea of him replacing Jimmy Kimmel, first of all, because
I think a few years ago I would have looked
at that and been like, Okay, sure, yeah, I don't know.
I mean, that is that completely crazy? Now? Given the
way stephen A has ESPN and Disney by the tail,

(11:08):
and given the things that stephen A has sort of accomplished,
are we are we totally sure? That's out of the question.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
I think what would only make it crazy is I
don't know how much a network wants to invest in
that time slot anymore. I mean, look at CBS when
James Gordon left, They're using what's that show from Comedy Central?
Now is like the replacement. I forgot the name of
the dam right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't. That's not

(11:38):
if kim A left, I don't know if they're going
to go like big name route to replace him. I
don't know the economicy. I think the economics now of
Late Night are so different the days of maybe giving
someone all that money. Like I said, kim On makes
fifteen million and he's been there forever, so I don't

(11:59):
think ABC's gonna pay someone more upon me.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do you do you think twenty million is a crazy
number free for steven A to get from ESPN because.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
I don't not the way they use him. They use
him everywhere. He's on First Take, he's on their NBA coverage.
I think what's what I find interesting is all the
outside stuff he does. You would think ESPN, well, you
would think ESPN would want his podcast in house so
they can make money off of it. But the topics

(12:31):
he does, they probably don't want it in house.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
They did not want the block episode in house. Let's
put that out.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah I would, I would guess not. And you know,
tell me about the best music to have sex too.
My guess is they don't want that. But if you're
paying him twenty million dollars a year. You don't want
him doing stuff outside of ESPN.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
You don't, But is this the way the world works anymore?
It sure doesn't seem like it. I mean it seems
like me. They want him for First Take, they want
him for Countdown, they want him for just other stuff.
I could see a scenario where he pitches them another
show that he owns, because clearly he has looked over
at the example of Pat McAfee and being like, I

(13:14):
want to own my thing in addition to a talker
on your airwaves. So I could see that happening. And
then I could also see him just keeping the outside
podcast because this is what we do now, right. We
look at talent and we go, oh, you want to
do this for us? And then also something else sounds great.

(13:36):
That's what ESPN's done. That's what everybody does now.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Since you mentioned it, how much of a factor do
you think McAfee has been in stephen a trying to
quote unquote get his now because I would imagine too
he sees what Pat does and he must really envy
the leeway that Pat has.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
I think sometimes it's as simple as somebody in the
position that they're in and that's a very very tiny
club in television looking over at the other guy and
going I want that. He got that. I want that,
and in fact, I want that to be the starting
bid for me. I don't just want that. I mean,

(14:20):
we saw that with the Romo money. We've seen that
with so many things in this business. You just look
over and go, Okay, that's the new standard. I want that.
I'm not going to settle for less than that. I
don't know. It feels to me much of the time
that it is absolutely that simple.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Absolutely Who do you think is more valuable mcafe or
steven A.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
It's an interesting question going into the future if we're
thinking of ESPN, you know, walking away from the cable
bundle and being a different kind of media company. But
I think today, if I had to pick for them,
I probably picked Steven Ay.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Interesting at this moment, and I don't know what that's
based on, but he just feels to me more core
to them and what they do in a lot of
ways than Max.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
If they don't own McAfee, yeah, they don't own McAfee show,
they owned Steve, they own First Take. But I think
College Game Day is way more important than NBA Countdown,
but I could. But I guess you could pull Pat
from college game day. He probably wouldn't miss. I don't know.
It depends who the replacement is. But as much as

(15:36):
they try, and it doesn't matter, you know, the show
could be great and the NBA account just doesn't make
a dent, whereas game day is still game day.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think, yeah, no, that's that's totally true.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, and Pat's doing outside stuff because he does Monday
Night Raw now every Monday.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes, he's got he's back on wrestling.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
I'm crazy again.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
This is what talent is. And you know, I think
I called one time, I called Jimmy Patara players coach
in print, and I stand by that description, like, and
that's how the job is, right. You were not telling
talent what to do in the old John Skipper way
or the way his predecessors did, or the old network
sports chiefs that you and I grew up with. You
were saying, okay a lot of the time, uh huh

(16:16):
uh huh okay, and to a certain extent, to a
very large extent, they are doing what they wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Speaking of McAfee, do you think are you surprised we
haven't heard from Rogers yet on McAfee.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh my god. I my first thought, after, you know,
staring at the ground for twenty minutes, after hearing what
Aaron Rodgers allegedly said about Sandy Hook and the conspiracy
theories there was I can't imagine anybody at ESPN wanting
to have him on the air ever again, just because

(16:55):
not only is that a red line that is separate,
perhaps even from all the red lines that he's already
crossed on their airwaves, and this is a Connecticut based company,
and if that ever came up in any way on
the air at all, even perhaps in the I completely
didn't say that and rejected and da da da da.

(17:16):
I just I just I just cannot imagine. I mean,
we've already had moments where you're like, I can't believe
he's talking about vaccines for twenty minutes on sports television
and for something like that, just think, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Now, so it's a really fascinating take by you, because yeah,
you I don't let's go in the premise he didn't
say it. Let's just even go on that premise. ESPN
doesn't even want him defending that on their air. Probably
they don't want Sandy Hook discussed in any way, shape

(17:48):
or form, and listen, he could even who knows that,
you know he could he could say listen, I never
said it. I had never felt this way. I feel
for the victims. It was a tragedy. And then he
could immediately under say but you know, the government you
can have at You don't know where he's gonna go.
So I think ESPN's more than happy that not have
him discuss that in any way, shape or from. I
think they could have had a lot of fun with
the VP stuff, but obviously that's that ship has sailed.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
M I just but you know, if you're asking me
for like, what is my prediction, will Aaron Rodgers to
be back on the air yet? If Pat McAfee wants
him to be back on the air.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
I think he'll be back on the air, right, I
think right, well, because at the end of the day,
no matter what the headache is, when all is said
and done, they love having him there every week. I mean,
the guy's given them an hour every week. And I think, listen,
last year, it's a little he doesn't playing, and I
think that makes it weird when someone's not playing for

(18:44):
the entire season and you hear from them every week.
Of course they're going to get into areas they can't
break down the game. The Jets a lot of good moves.
Maybe they'll be decent. He plays, he's on every week.
That's still at the end of the day, will win
for ESPN in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, I mean that's by the way, didn't you feel
like it's had this weird feeling that you've been lured
into another Aaron Rodgers news cycle when this wall VP
stuff started. The weird once when the VP stuff Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
When the VP stuff started, I was giddy because I thought,
this is like phenomenal content right here, Like wait a second, well,
a current active NFL player, Like there are all these
discussions like can he play and be vice president at
the same time? Would he have to leave the Jets
to go campaign? It was like that to me was great.

(19:37):
I was enjoying that. And then obviously things got ugly
a couple of days later. And you know, I'm just thinking, too,
if if Rogers returns to McAfee for the season, and
I think he will, I think Brian just said he
thinks he will. I just realized we have an election
in November, so maybe his piano. Maybe ESPN I'll chat

(20:01):
with Pat and say, you know what, maybe we give
this a pause for a year. You know, you know
there's a shit storm coming if he's going to be
on every week during the election, there's no two ways
about that.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yep. I think that's one hundred.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Percent one hour interview about RFK Junior every Tuesday on ESPN.
That's what you're going to get. All right, let's switch
to some other things. Well, speaking of ESPN, they I
find this just amazing. All you hear about when it
comes to college football is how much trouble it's in

(20:35):
with nils and the payers get players getting paid. Nick
Saban leaves, he's complaining, and all you hear about is
how much trouble the sport is in, in the future
of the sport. And then ESPN extends their rights through
twenty thirty one thirty two for billions. Isn't that all

(20:56):
that matters? At the end of the day, they get
their money.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
The money is distributed in an uneven way, right. This
is this is where when people talk about the fault lines,
you're seeing college football not only the issues with players
and paying players in an IL and all these other
and realignment, but then also this idea of uneven revenue
between different players in the game and the FOX Conference
and the ESPN conferences, and you know, there's a lot

(21:21):
of fault lines, but look, this is beyond all that.
Your point is right. College football is giving ESPN and
fans to a large extent, what they've wanted forever, which
is a big, giant college football playoff at the end
of the season. You know, this is this is what
people want, and this is ESPN has said, we want

(21:43):
the whole thing. And I guess there's there's a chance
that they could then take some of those first round
games and sell them to Fox or sell them to
somebody else. But this is really, this is really the
thing people want it So there is a little bit
of cognitive disiness there.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I'm a little tired of hearing about how the
sport's gonna die because of the NIL and the transfer
portal and all that, and it just keeps rolling on.
And this is the part of that story I love
the most. The national title game in a couple of
years is going to go back from ESPN to ABC
broadcast the broadcast TV is going to be nothing but sports,

(22:22):
and like what two years, three years, where it's getting
We're getting close. We're getting close, yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
To a degree that would have been unimaginable even when
we were kids, because it was it was entertainment news
and sports, and I don't in that order kind of changed,
but sports didn't feel like number one most of the time,
and all of a sudden, it's sports, you know, the

(22:48):
entertainment news.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
You just made me think of a moment as soon
as you said that. I don't know why this popped
into my head, but you want to talk about one day,
I'm going to do this. One day I will do
a column I'm gonna put together like all the imagine
if Twitter was around moments like everyone we know the
obvious ones like the OJ Chase and a couple others.
But I just thought of that story because I don't
I don't know if I remember it when it happened.

(23:12):
But there's that famous story about the US Open ran
long on CBS and bumped the CBS News and then
Dan Rather just left and they had darkness for eleven
minutes on the air or something like that. Imagine that story,
to imagine that story today.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
It just walked away and it was a huge deal.
With the time. You can just imagine what Twitter would
have been like during But I think.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
I got to invest I have to investigate that story
because if I remember correctly, they said it was like
he left for eleven minutes, like that's our super long
time to go dark.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
M And again, it was illustrative because it goes to
what we're talking about. These parts that were team we
were fighting, and the idea that Tennis was going to
go into the time of the CBS Evening News was
that was beyond the panel for him. He walked the
set and now we think, oh god, they'd be like, hey,
can Tennis run another hour and a half and maybe

(24:07):
we'll just forget to show the news tonight.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Because they're dead without Yeah, they're dead without without the
live sports. It's it's unbelievable to see this happen. That
was something. Oh yeah, because I also saw so this.
You know, CBS and TBS alternate years for the Final Four,
and this is a TBS year. And when I saw that,

(24:29):
I said, I bet college basketball is given the way
things are going now, I'm sure they would love to
get that game on CBS every years. You know, go
back to the old way. I just did a complete
one eighty.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
It's unbelievable, it is, and and you know this is
I've always said, this is part of the secret of
the NFL's success. It's not only that people love pro football,
but the games are primarily on free television, and your
local teams games are all on free television always. And
so you know, we've seen that, right, all these leagues
that did fine is basically being cable products. The NBA

(25:06):
has been that largely since the NBC days with Turner in.
ESPN has largely been a cable product. College football putting
their championship on cable. They have a lot of free
games too, obviously. But you know, all of a sudden,
you're like, no, no, no, we're going back to the eighties,
like we want we want everything on a single digit
network because in this time where things are so weird

(25:29):
and your attention is so spread out, that's where we
think we can find the big audience.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yep, yep, it's a complete flip. I don't know if
anyone saw coming tournament. I'm very excited to hear I
in with Bill Raftery Jim No Jim Nantz this year.
If you're from the Tri State area here, you have
history with Iron and rafter because they used to do
the nets together. And I know they've called games already

(25:58):
for CBS, but no one's paying attention to College bat
before this week. Everyone's in for a treat Iron and Raftery.
Grant Hill is there as well. They have chemistry as
good as any duo you'll hear. And I understand the
adage that no one's watching a game for the announcers.
I will be watching for the announcer. I'm watching more

(26:19):
to hear Iron and Raftery than the game. I can
tell you that I'm one of those people. I'm excited
for Iron and Raftery and I'm excited for people to
hear them together because they are phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
And it's amazing that his come around, because this is
something that was happening initially at the Nets in the
mid nineties. So you're talking about a thirty year time
span where all of a sudden, this is coming all
the way around and here's Raf eighty years old, sitting
next to Iron Eagle and call in the final four together.

(26:49):
You know, it's awesome. First of all, it was always
kind of an awesome miracle that Raff was on number
one team, you know, with like he always felt like
the number two guy, number three you look forward to
hearing because he was so funny and so different than
everybody else. To now have him to get it, no,
I agree.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
It's awesome, Thank you, Greg, Anthony and.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
All.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's how it happened. That's how it happened. And I
give I give CBS credit because I got nervous when
Nance stepped down from the tournament. They elevated Ion, which
was the only move, and I said, you know, usually
when someone leaves a booth, they like to do a
full shake up, get a new crew, fresh crew. Seeing

(27:33):
that with NBC they got rid of al And and
I thought, because of Raftery's age, they might try to
pump him. So if we can just get like two
three years out of Iron and Raftery, that would be great.
I'm glad CBS didn't try to change anything more with
that with with Nance going because I really do think
people are just gonna love the combination of Iron and

(27:56):
Raftery together.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
CBS is very conservative. That's part of what is you know,
makes you WinCE about CBS sometimes because everything moves, so
everything is very succession is very orderly. Things take a
while to change. But this is one case where I'm
glad it did.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
A couple of the topics here. What did you make
of Lebron getting into the podcast business.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well, everybody's in the podcast business, Jimmy, but very much included.
I'm fascinated. There's so there's I think there's a ton
to talk about here because various points of it here,
starting with the idea that JJ Reddick has floated out
with the aforementioned stephen A right that, Okay, I want

(28:40):
to talk about basketball in a certain way. That way
doesn't rate as well as a hot take about basketball,
which will almost certainly be about the Lakers or Warriors,
who are who are in the A block every single time.
So now I'm going to go get a guy who
happens to be with the Lakers, Lebron James, and I'm
going to attempt to talk about basketball in a different

(29:03):
way on this podcast with him. That's kind of.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Fascinating, absolutely, And I listened to the first episode and
I thought Lebron was unnatural. I think Lebron can't be
it can't be super serious. People are not gonna I
know JJ might want it to be that way, and
I don't think JJ is super serious. I like JJ.

(29:27):
I think I don't know why, but I don't think
he's as arrogant as people think. I think, you know,
he's confident and he's got his takes, but you can't
do that without having the courage of your conviction. So
I'm not I'm a JJ fan, but you know, Lebron,
you know, he had the comment about I thought, let

(29:47):
me say this way, if they're going to get into
the x's and o's so deep where they're talking about
the left elbow ninety degree angle baseline screen and you
get the guy to shoot from his left like that,
no one's gonna work. But like they had a discussion
of about how games now you can't bench your starters
at the end of games that are even blowouts, and
how Steph Curry changed that because of the three, and

(30:09):
Lebron called him like some light, light skinned fucker or
something like it was he had some humor and he
had some personality with the deep dive into the basketball.
So that's why I think it's gonna work. Yes, Lebron's
Got Personality a podcast at its best.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I think it's something that people like you and me
and lots of fans just want, which is, I would
love to be a fly on the wall when two
people are talking, two people that know a ton about
basketball and that, And I thought the show captured that
really well. I thought I had that feeling. You know,
We've a lot of podcasts and shows start out to
be like that and then it turns out to be

(30:50):
a little bit too formal or just a little bit
too awkward somehow. But this did feel I don't know
if it was the glasses of wine on the table there,
the fact that it looks like they were talking in
a construction site, but it did feel like you were
just sat down with a couple of people. They're having
this long conversation, some of which is X's and ozy,
some of which is just like, hey, what about Jason
Tatum this year? And they show some video and illustrate

(31:13):
some points.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
And that was cool, Yeah, very cool. And I couldn't
help but wonder how much of the Kelsey brothers were
a factor in this way. We've seen now for a
few years, we've seen current athletes do podcasts in season.
But I thought the Kelsey one was the first where
the athletes were of a certain elite level. Kelsey's the

(31:36):
best tight end in the game. Take out the tele
Swiss stuff, but you have the best tight end of
the game, best center in the game, doing an in
season podcast every single week. And I wonder if Lebron
saw that and thought to himself, Okay, I could do
this in season because I remember, I don't know, maybe

(31:57):
because I was a New Yorker and they had crazy
coaches like Pat Riley, and you would never have a
player talking to you know, Parcells. A player doing a
one hour show in season would have been blasphemous to
those guys. Obviously everything's changed, it's a whole new generation.
But if you're of Lebron's level, you don't need to
do a podcast. What do you need that aggravation for.

(32:18):
But I wonder if the Kelsey's or a factor in
that at all.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
It might have been. I mean, I think, look, I
think Aaron Rodgers, though that thing is very, very different,
is probably a data point in here. I'd also put
the pods my boss did with Kevin Durant a couple
of years ago. Those were for their time, really embracing,
and you were like, whoa, Katie's just and I believe
also drinking wine if I remember quickly during those Yeah.

(32:46):
But so look, it goes back to what we said about, Oh,
that person has that thing, why can't I have a
thing like that? And we know Lebron's tried all these experiments.
This is cool to me because it's somebody like JJ
getting stuff out of him and directing him and kind
of pulling him in different directions, which is really the
key with somebody like that, because Lebron's not going to
do show prep in the way you and I are
going to do show prep, right, Like Lebron's right. The

(33:08):
thing you're gonna get with Lebron is he's sitting there,
and if you have the right person and if he's
willing to do it, which he clearly is and is
game to go different places, you just have to have
a person pulling the pulling interesting things out of him
and leading him in different directions. And I thought that
was cool. Also, by the way, do you remember that
old John Favreau show called Dinner for.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Five that was on if side I do, Yes, Jennifer.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Five become the esthetic that all of podcasting and television
is now where there's glasses of wine on the table
and oh, we're just having a casual conversation here, and.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Somehow that I think.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
I think COVID started it all with the casualness of
and then it sort of took on, you know, a
different life. But yeah, it's uh. I've always wanted to
do a podcast like I want to do a podcast
like in a barca lounge. I think that's the only
thing that hasn't been done yet, where you just sitting
in two parking loungers.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
With all Bundy style there.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yes, let me before we wrap up. Have you watched
the Patriots series on Apple TV plus just a smidge?
I'm I haven't watched it yet. I thought maybe i'd
get into it when there's it's all done, but now
I'm intrigued by all these Patriot people being so pissed
off about it. I guess people feel like they were duped.

(34:25):
There was a Devin mccordy Rodney Harrison interview, and they
feel like they were duped. They feel like all the
negative stuff got in, all the positive stuff got out.
I feel bad. I haven't watched it. To comment, just
wondering where we are with that.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, I watched the I read the book that it
was sort of based on, you know, which was an
interesting right because with the Patriots. I think what makes
that story so fascinating is there were three distinct power
centers Belichick, Kraft, and Brady, and three distinct points of view.
And one of the things when Belichick left the PA,
I was always like, are we ever gonna hear the

(35:03):
Bill Belichick point of view of this whole story? Feeling
like we've gotten a lot of craft, We've gotten some Brady,
and maybe some of that will dribble out as he
goes to Fox and becomes more of a full time
media person, though he's very careful about what he says.
You have that are we ever gonna get the Belichick
version of the story? Because if Belichick wrote a book

(35:23):
or god knows where to do any kind of series
where he actually talked about what happened in New England,
it would be fascinating.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Absolutely would want that. I also think, again I haven't
watched it, but I don't understand how it can be
spun as this negative hit job on Belichick. I mean,
that's what everyone's saying they want a million Super Bowls?
How can it be anything but positive? Like they want
a million Super Bowls? And how could everyone be so?
So it makes me wonder about the editing and what

(35:51):
sort of the the game plan was going into it.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
As a Cowboys fan, I'm I'm used to now that
all the good times were also the bad times, right right, Well,
we don't actually separate those things. It's just one weird
port history.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Oh they patch things up with Jimmy Johnson.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah, and then and then it kind of falls apart again.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, all right, Brian, appreciate it. It was great, A
lot of stuff to cover, and I always love having
you on. Everyone checked Brian out at the Ringer press
Box podcast and we will be hearing from him again soon.
I am sure. Thanks man, you got Jimmy, thanks for
having me as always, take care all right, joining me
now as he does every week for our Traine of

(36:36):
Thoughts segment, the oh so popular Train of Thoughts segment,
My buddy from WFA on the radio in New York
s and y TV in New York. Salakata sal how
are we doing great?

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Is this segment still popular? Because I figured once my
move saga has come to an end, like I found
the house that was going to be the end of
me on this show.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Well, see what happens. Maybe the you don't no matter what,
we'll see. We'll see.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
That's a good point I forgot.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
We will see. We will see. Where do I want
to begin? Where do I want to begin? Good?

Speaker 3 (37:13):
As long as you're here, I would say that in
some capacity, you and I will.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
You know, as long as I'm here. We don't know
where I'll be. Hopefully i'll be here. We hopefully I'll be.
We're coming up on the five hundredth episode too.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
So we wow, Yeah, when is that?

Speaker 1 (37:35):
I think this is? This is episode like for eighty seven.
I believe it's.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Gonna be gonna be shaky.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah, this is episode four eighty seven. Well we make
it to five.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Hundred, Push to five hundred, I like it, s Mark.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Now watch, I'll get to five hundred and then I
won't be able to book anyone. That's gonna happen. No,
we'll see what happens. So many places to go. First
of all, Okay, so let's start with this. I wake
up this morning, slept a little later than usual, and

(38:15):
finally pick up the phone at about eight am, and
I start scrolling through Twitter, and I'm seeing all these
tweets about the Dodgers and the Padres. I'm like, why
is people getting all wrapped up in some exhibition. I
didn't know what was going on, and then I find
out it was the first game of the MLB season.
Now I understand they've done this before where they've I

(38:39):
hate baseball so much when they do things like this.
I want to love this sport. Can we have some tradition?
Can we have some common sense? The first game of
the season cannot be played at six o'clock in the
morning Eastern. It cannot involve two teams from the West
coast whose fans have to watch the game at three am.

(39:00):
And it's March twentieth. The rest of the league doesn't
start until March twenty eighth. What is that sport? Also,
they can go play in Soul, Korea. Who cares?

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Yeah, there's many layers to why I have an issue
with this. I do a radio show five days a
week on Sports. I host a baseball show five days
a week on TV. I had no fucking idea that
this season started today. They have none.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
They have no idea how to market anything none.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
Although I knew about the issues the infighting that they
had somehow I got win to that yesterday about Boris
and in the league meeting have said whatever and stuff
I don't even care about. I knew about that, but
I didn't really know the season actually started when it did.
The other part is if it is going to if
they are going to play games there, they can't do

(39:57):
it a week before the season starts like some day,
So you did it way too early. And then the
other thing is if you're going to do it, they
should do it in the middle of the season, like
the Mets play in London. Okay, we'll get in the
middle of the season. No big deal. You're going to
open your season with games that are taking place at
three six am, a week before the season starts. To

(40:19):
put on so many loves.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Major League Baseball doesn't get many days at all where
they're the top story, where they have some juice, where
they have some interest, where people make If you put
opening day every team one o'clock, four o'clock, get every
team going on it. You can do that six o'clock

(40:44):
in the morning East Coast, three o'clock in the morning
a week plus before the season starts is so dumb
on so many levels. Then you have the marketing issue
where Okay, so I texted you, I said, I have
no idea it opening that you said you rolling back,
you said you had no idea either. Then I texted
my group chat, which we'll get into when we discuss curb.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
And.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Two of the three people responded that they had no
idea either. And these are people who work in sports.
These are people who work in sports.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Right, Oh, oh, no idea.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
It's so depressing. It's depressing. I find it. I want
baseball to thrive. I want people to be into baseball.
I hate that they do this dumb shit.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Right, then, how did how is it possible that we
didn't know that opening day was actually today? Like it's
just so ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Well so then, all right, so two things. I go
on Twitter and I did a poll. Did you know
the Padres and Dodgers were playing the first game of
the regular season before this morning? Now, right now, the
poll has twelve hundred votes, So take that sample size
as you will. Twelve hundred votes, fifty five percent of
the people say no, Right, that sport has a problem.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Right, it should be one hundred send the people saying yes,
they knew. There's no advantage or bugs about it, right,
I've known when the Mets and Yankees open. I've known
that date for months. I assume that it was opening
day for everybody.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
But if I knew it was opening day, even if
I didn't care about the game to get I would
at least bet it and watch it and have some interest.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, I get it. It would be now if it
were on in a decent hour. I mean at six am.
I don't know about you, but I'm watching that game.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
I would watch it. I'm mark you you travel, I'm
working from home. I'll put it on in the morning.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Right, If I were home, I would do it, and
I'll tell you it is Yamamoto's pitching tomorrow. I want
to see Yamamoto in a game that actually matters. All
the hype with the Mets and Yankees missing out on him.
He's pitching tomorrow's game.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Or is it six o'clock in the morning, Yes, same thing. Yeah,
I mean when I wake up, I'll put it on.
I'm not going to wake up to watch it.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Well, I'm just saying I would at least have interest
on that. I gotta wake up and go to work
like other many Americans do. We have to get up
and go to work at six am. So I don't
know not watching the baseball game.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Well, now that I know this, I know that tomorrow
morning when I wake up, I'll put on what is
it on MLB network?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Is?

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Whatever it is, I'll put it on. Now here's a
funny story. Remember a couple of weeks ago I talked
about how I basically mute everyone on Twitter these days.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Yes, yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Funny because I've gotten a lot of tweets from then
since then, from people saying, I just want to know
if you see this, I just don't know if I'm muted,
which is funny. So I tweeted at eight sixteen this morning,
I had absolutely no idea what'sever that the MLB season
started today until about five minutes ago. And that makes
me say it's say it because the season shouldnt started
six I am say it because opening day is a
big deal anymore, said because I couldn't bet it. So

(43:37):
I'm looking at this tweet now on Twitter on the web,
and I see a million this post is from an
account you muted, So I thought, as an experiment. I'll
read the muted replies and we'll see if I'm justified
in muting. These are people I've muted already.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Oh I like this game.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Okay, so wait, so let me see here. So all right,
let's see so this. Okay, So this person said hashtag
fire manfred MLB. Now, okay, so that's whatever. He's still muted.
But that's not that bad. Okay, Okay. So this guy
here at spit in facts forty rights, Bro, that's on you.

(44:21):
It's also not actually opening day. So I'm gonna mute
him right now because he called me bro and he
said it's on me. Okay, in America's favorite first game
needs to be in Cincinnati. I can. Let's see.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
They opened the season what he called?

Speaker 1 (44:37):
That's why he got muted. This guy wrote, hold up,
this game counts.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
All right.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Here's one from account I muted, so let me do view.
MLS has surpassed MLB. Okay, so I'm glad I muted
that guy because he's dumb. Let's see, this post is
from an account you muted, pay attention, So that's a
guy who deserves to be muted. That's it right there.
His reply was pay attention.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
Muted, I would block and report that guy.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
That's my just a mute because all right, Otani's first
game as a Dodger and you have no idea sounds
like East coast problems. That was someone who is muted,
and now I ain't justified in muting. Yeah, because you
want to be a you want to be a jerk face,
I'm gonna mute you. Let's see.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
And it's not, by the way, it's not East coast problems.
On the West coast. The game is at three am.
That's a West coast problem. On the East coast. Guy,
we don't give a shit. We's getting up on the
East coast to watch the Dodgers Padres. I don't care
If Otani, I don't care Fernando bell as Well comes back.
Nobody's watching Dodgers Padres on the East coast at six am.
That's a West coast problem.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
And that's why I muted the guy, because, like you said,
you hit the nail on the head common sense. All right, Uh,
this guy said a reasonable reply. Maybe I'll on mute him.
I ge't want to grow your audience across the globe,
but doing this at the expense of the us FAM
seems rather short sighted than again, so much of what
MLB does. That guy maybe doesn't deserve to be muted.
Maybe I'll un mute him.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Let's redsquad.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Let's be honest. You don't care about MLB. All you
care about is the NFL. So the record opening day
is three twenty eight. Well, you deserve to be muted,
and you will stay muted because you're a jerk. Uh
but your company, aren't you some kind of sports reporter.
Maybe pay a little more attention, mister reporter. And that
guy is muted for so basically as you can see,
all those people I have muted, only one seems like

(46:25):
maybe he shouldn't be muted, and you unmuted him, right,
I unmuted one of those people.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
The others were justifiable mutes. If not, I would block,
I would block and report.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Nah, I disputed.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
No, But I'm telling you I tried this move, and
then I got a little notification today. It came up, oh,
your report has been finalized or whatever, and we kicked
this person off and great satisfaction.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Now wait the second, Wait a second? Yeah, oh god,
not you know, but all Pandora's box, Yeah, what exactly
are you reporting if they get is there a line
that gets crossed for the report harass?

Speaker 3 (47:00):
I just whatever you like you could. First of all,
for the record, I let this one guy go. I
don't read all my comments anymore, but this guy was
so he like is in everything, and it's always negative,
and usually I just don't even do anything with it.
I mute it whatever. And then I saw one and
it started with stal I know you're gonna read this.

(47:20):
And once I saw that, once he said I know
you're gonna see this, I blocked immediately, didn't read the
rest of it, reported harassment. Came back that like they
closed his account. He's not gonna be able to start
another count. So to that guy, fu and I win.
It made me feel good that he got blocked and reported.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
See we're on you're losing it. You're losing it. We're
on different we're on different levels here because I don't
get harassed, I get stupidity, right, or or even a
little if he if there's even a tounch of nastiness,
all right, you are getting harassed.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Right.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
This guy was relentless nasty, stupid, and harassing.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
So what is the topic he's mad about? Let me
see what.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
I honestly don't even know. I'm telling you, dude, I
didn't read it. It's always something like he just doesn't
like me for whatever reason. Because I'm on the I
don't know what it is. But I don't even read
all stuff. I just like, you know how sometimes they're
the same people in your timeline or replying, and I'm like, like, enough,
I let it go. When is this guy gonna understand
that I muted him and don't even read his stuff?

(48:31):
And then eventually I see it and I'm.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Like, well, that's if you muted him, you shouldn't be
seeing it, but you saw it. That's the end.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
But like, so, what happens is sometimes i'll post something
and or like a podcast that i'm doing, like WFA
and daily podcast, so there aren't many comments under it,
there's one or two, so I'll see the comments and
then one comes up muted and then I'm like, oh,
let me click like you just did. And then I
see it's this guy and he goes, I know you're
gonna see this, and I was like, no, I'm not wrong.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Again, Well you did though, Well he was right.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
No, because he wanted me to read it. He wanted
me to read whatever he's going to say. I know
you're going to read this, and Nope, I'm not reading it.
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
You know, I love you, but I think you I
think you look to get pissed off at these people.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
I mean, I could show you that this guy was avientual. Yeah,
harassment like he should be thrown in jail, maybe full life.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Actually, oh but how many people? How many? How many
people have you gotten kicked off?

Speaker 3 (49:29):
I don't know. That was one that definitely came back
and did it.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Well, it's interesting to me that Twitter I must have
seen harassment.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Then that's what I'm saying. The guy was There's no joke.
He was actually harassing by the definition of the word.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
All right, let's switch topics. How many brackets have you
filled that? How many polls are you going to be in?

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Zero?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Zero?

Speaker 3 (49:52):
I delete the email the second I see them. Hey,
sign up for my pool. Hey sign up for the
work pool. No, no, no, no, ignore. Delete They send
it again. Hey, just in case there's a reminder. Nope,
not doing it. Zero cools.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Proud of your discipline. You let me. Well, I don't
do polls, but I'll bet the games you're not going
to bet the games, so you're not doing any polls
and you're not going to bet the game. So does
that mean you won't watch any of the tournament?

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Maybe background noise at best. I mean I have I'm interested.
I'll root for Kentuck. I might fill out one bracket
when we get oh, I guess it's Wednesday. I ready
to shit. If I get to do it, I gotta
do it. I'll root for Kentucky because I like coach
cal I'll follow along to see how the Big East
does because of all the complaining about it. But I
really don't have an interest.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I don't. I don't follow the sport to know like
about who. But the thing about the Big East I
don't understand, like the snubs every year, Why is why
are we acting like this is so different.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Because it was Saint John's.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
I mean, huh, yeah, but nobody cares about Saint John's
outside of New York.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
They only got The Big East is supposedly one of
the best basketball conferences it'll you know, in the country,
and they only got three teams in. That's the big deal.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Yeah no, no, that's the part I know. But like,
doesn't this happen every year.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
I don't know to that level, I really I don't know.
I'm not equipped.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
To me either, But I just feel like every year
there's always outrage about who gets snubbed, and like this year,
I feel like I heard about it more because it
happened in New York.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
But and.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
I don't know enough. I would have thought they'd want
more teams in there from a TV perspective, because you
would get good Like New York's the number one market
in the country, so you have Saint John's in there,
it's better for them for ratings.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
So like, well, Rick Patino, even big name coach.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
I mean, right, yeah, right, all right, we got to
do about Kurve. Before I do that real quick, I
just want to address something. So so as I we
got bought, well, we're going to be operated by this
company called Minute Media, who also operates the Player's Tribune,
and Derek Jeter went on Instagram and put out a
nice post on Instagram saying, like Sports Illustrated, welcome to
the family. And I put that on my Instagram story

(52:05):
and then I after that, I posted a picture of
me and Jeter together and someone on Instagram, Noah Benjamin,
who's a loyal listener, said I need the backstory of
this photo with you and Jeter, and it's a there's
no real interesting story. A friend of mine, my friend Darren,
worked for a sporting goods company at one point, and
he was able, like it was a Saturday afternoon, he

(52:26):
was able to get us in the dugout before a game,
to sit in the dugout during batting practice. This is nothing.
They had nothing to do with Sports Illustrated Hot Klicks training.
It was way before then. So we got to sit
in the dugout for batting practice, and I will I
will never forget it for this reason. So we're sitting
in the dugout and every player this is the old

(52:47):
Yankee Stadium, not that dump there. And now, so every
player comes up those steps to the field, only two
players on the entire team stopped and said to us,
Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter. And I got the picture
with Jeter.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Now here's why I'm telling you how the picture get
fucked up, because that's even worse than my Larry David
won with you.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Oh that's why I brought this up once again. I'm
a victim of having shitty friends. This is that was
the first time I got was a victim of a
shitty friend. You were the second time. So I get
the picture with Jeter and my friend takes a crap
picture where Jeter's looking down. I look like a complete
full blown stalker. And I take the picture of my

(53:34):
friend with Cheater and it looks like it was done
by Walter Yost from the legendary sports illustrative of Typher.
A few years later, we get Larry David, you'd take
a picture. It's the worst picture I've ever taken my life.
I take one of you. It's great. So I don't
know I'm a victim, all right, you.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Speaking, I will say them. I didn't know that backstory.
I've known about the photo, and you might have told
me the story a little bit, but I didn't realize.
And maybe because I'm going based off the picture, world clicks.
He's just as interested and not wanting to talk.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
He was signing. He was signing something for me when
that picture is taken, so that's why his head was down.
Sign he signed the MAGA Sports. I think he signed
an issue of SI for me. You still have it, yeah, somewhere.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
And you you were working at SI at the time.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, but this was I think even maybe before Hot Clicks. Yeah,
so it was a long time. And I don't say
I don't say the thing about the players didn't say
loll as a knock because they were going to batting practice.
They didn't have to. It was more about the point
that those two took the time out to say hello
and sign some stuff. That's like, yeah, all right. So,

(54:38):
speaking of the Harbor, Larry David picture, I thought this
was the funniest episode of Curb this season. The first
scene of that episode when he gets to call at
three am about the stroke to someone he's not close with.
I don't know why I lost it. I was laughing
so hard. And then that entire thing with the text

(54:58):
chain was not like entirely creative, because I think we've
all gone I know you have definitely gone on text
chain rants to me many times. You hate them, so
but again, the way he did it, the way it
was done, was so god damn funny. I laughed more
in that episode than any other episode of this season.

(55:20):
And that conversation when the guy says you're too good
for the text chain, he goes, yes, I am, Yeah,
I don't need anything else. The rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Well, first of all, I think because I'm now finally
caught up. I thought the last two were very good.
The one where they draw the you know.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
On uh oh, the penis on Susie.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
Oh my god, dude. I was dying laughing at that episode,
the way him and Jeff were laughing and Elara was
explaining it. But then the scene where he was making
the emojis with his faith right, you know, making the
smile and them yes, Oh my god, that was so
it was. It was a great episode. I love the
last two episodes.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
And there was some good Susie in that too. If
him and Susie had a good tiff about something, oh
he was like, what do you know about fashion? And this?
And oh god, it was so good. It was so
good that episode. And Vince Vaughna is great on that show.
Fantastic that him and Vince Vaughan going back and forth
about who's gonna fuck who and who's good. Vince Vaughan
was great in that episode. He's been great the whole time,

(56:21):
but he was really good on that episode.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
Did you rewatch it already? That's one that I would
rewatch immediately.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
I have not. I rewatched the one scene. It's a
three minute scene where the guy says, you're too good
for the text chain. He goes, yes, I am, and
then he's doing the emoment because I have been accused. Yeah,
I have been accused by my family of being too
good for the text shanin.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
I'm like, yes, I hate the text change, I want
no part of it.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Well, I think too. There's a difference, Like I'm in
like a couple of group chats with like three or
four friends, but the family is like a chain where
it's way too many. Like if you go more than
three people, you're asking for trouble. Like the one I'm
in the most it's me and three other guys. That's four.
That's maximum. You go over four, you're in trouble. And

(57:06):
there's been family ones. I just mute the notificaate, I
mute it, and I'm done. I can't.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Yeah, but they still pop up, which is annoying to me.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
No, not if you mute it, like you just go like.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
No, but then you look at the phone and you
see it.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
You still keep Oh you'll see a number, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you'll see a number.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Yeah. I can't. I Can't'm a delet text read de leader.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
I can't even show the group chat name because I'm like, yeah,
I don't delete texts usually, but yeah, I just mute
and whatever.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
I had to bow out. And by the way, the
worst part about the text change you can't get out
of one with only three people?

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I don't know. I can't do it. I'm in one
with three people. I want out and I can't get
out of it.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Would you like to name the three people?

Speaker 3 (57:56):
Well, I mean, I could you care?

Speaker 2 (57:59):
You know?

Speaker 3 (57:59):
I don't think you know them? Oh, okay, personal it's nothing.
I mean you might have met them in your life
actually being one of my family parties or whatever.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
And I wanted to make sure it was like Andy Martine,
no tyranny.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
No two friends, and you don't have.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
To wait let me it says, here, leave the conversation.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
And you're in one with three people three others? Yeah, no,
three others.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
It's me and three others, so four to or you're
saying three total.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Me, me and two others. Do you have one of
you and two others?

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Yeah? Let me say, Oh, you can't leave the conversation.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
Now what type of bullshit?

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Is that that's fascinating? I'm blown away?

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Why can't you leave a conversation? It is a group chat,
it's me and two others, and I can't leave. There
was one that wasn't and I left. I've been a
leaving before. I was like, guys, sorry, I can't do
this time. I gotta leave.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
You know what I'm gonna do now, No, you, I'm
gonna start like ten different two person group chats. You, me,
who want to go? I'm gonna do like you and me,
I'll start texting a bunch of people.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
That's the one thing about you and I where we
do have thumb mutual friends. It's not enough to start
a group chat my friends. I know friends. We don't
have one. That could be the triangle and I don't
want it.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
If anybody wants to be in a group chat with
me and sal no, no, because no, I need it
to be two people. So you can't leave. That's what
I want to do to get you can't leave. That's
I never knew that. That's a great nugget. You just
dropped on us.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
Yeah, because times I'm like, is fucking phone broken? How
come I can't get out of this?

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Thing.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
I love it, all right, anything else we need to discuss.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
I don't think. So we're gonna the big move coming
up next week?

Speaker 1 (59:44):
What day? Give me a day.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
Friday next week?

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Okay? So opening day is Thursday.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
I know it's it's a ship show, that's all.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Met's Homer Road.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Mets are home.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
So you are you are you going?

Speaker 3 (59:59):
No? But I'm working. We got like an hour long
baseball night and year it's a big day. So I
can't take off opening day, can't take off the day before,
can't take off the day after. So I got to
get stuff done this weekend, and then my wife is
going to be the last one behind making sure everything
gets out with the movers there. I'll be at work
for then.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
All right. So next Friday is the second day of
the MLB season. You can't take what you can't take
off because you got to break down opening it's baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Yeah, I mean we're in baseball season.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
So you so your family is officially moving on Friday,
but you yourself won't start doing any work until Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
No, we we're moved out, like everything's got to be
packed up out on Friday. Them from Friday out. It's
a two day move. I've never heard of such a thing,
but they say it's a two day move. So then
Saturday moving in. So Friday we're kind of in limbo.
We may stay at my mother's house, we may stay
at our house with nothing yet maybe you know, air mattress, whatever.

(01:00:57):
But out Friday I'll be at work and then in
the new house Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
My favorite thing about this is, I know how much
you love opening Day the Mets. They're at home, and
that's Thursday you move from. Oh you're gonna be so
stressed out.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Well, I tried to. I wanted to move this coming weekend,
knowing that opening day was the next week. But my
wife is like, we're not going to be ready to move, which,
to her credit, we're not when I packed up, and
also because of the work being done in the house,
gives them an extra week before we move in. By
the way, we should close with this. Off of that,

(01:01:38):
I had to turn down your invite to go to
Madison Square Garden to watch my Rangers and Islanders at
the garden on Sunday in eighth week that you invited
me to, and instead I'm picking up dog shit and
moving my backyard, getting ready to you know have this?

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Why are you picking up dog shit? What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Haen?

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Because I haven't done it in weeks. I can't leave
that for the neighbors.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
If you leave the dog shit on the lawn.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Well what are you supposed to know? You got to
pick it up. But I haven't done it in week,
so I haven't had time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
You don't pick it up each time it happens.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
No, we let him out, he goes and does whatever
you can them up, following him out there or walking
him out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
So your backyard is filled with dog shit?

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Well it was. That's why I spend two hours cleaning
it up on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
I don't even know what to say right now. Is
this No I don't have a dog? Is this normal?

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
I mean we both put that dogs in the backyard.
Let him shit all over and just leave it. And
if you walk in the backyard, you should step all
over the ship.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Well you're supposed to pick it up. That's the thing.
Maybe not right at the moment, but every every couple
of days, whatever I had, I actually had a service
that was coming to do it. They called it were
called hoop patrol, and they pick it up every every
couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
I cannot believe this is the normal standard practice that
people do with dogs. I do you pick it up
every single time?

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
No? No, because you let him go out at night.
You're not following him every Now, maybe every couple of days.
You want to go out there and see what that
or if he has a dedicated area that makes it easier,
you go out there and you clean up. But he
just ships over.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
I would not be able to go to sleep at night.
No one, there's a pilot dog shit in my backyard
on the grass.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Well, I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
The tweets are gonna get on this. You're gonna be
blocking people left and right telling.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
You what do you think. There's no way people go
outside if they unless they're walking their dog every day
to let the dog go to the bathroom then, which
is fine. If I walk him, I pick it up
and throw it out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
But when we just let him go out in the
morning in the backyard or at night, he's doing whatever
he's gotta do. I'll worry about it later.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
This is disgusting.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
It's not disgusting if you say you're coming over for
a barbecause I'm gonna go pick up the ship now
or if like my daughters claimed the backyard, like whenever
I have time before we go outside. It's tostal the
winter summer. I'm out there a little more often playing
with him. I'll pick it up.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
It's been weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
I don't know about this, but we'll anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
People going to tweet at the garden. That's what I
was doing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
I just are you, like, what percentage of packed? Are you?

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Are you even ten percent packed at this point? Fifty percent?

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
We better be. I'm hoping we're at least sixty percent packed,
maybe seventy right now?

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Yes, okay, so you got to bang out thirty percent
around opening day and then move your asses out of
the house.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
No, No, it's got to be done this week because
I'm working all week. So we need to do we
need to get to ninety five percent by this coming Tuesday. Well,
now I know whyday Monday, we'll now get back to work.
Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
Now? I know why you didn't fill out any brackets
or bet any of the games because you will not
be watching one second of the tournament this weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Correct, I'll have it on as unpacking. Yeah that's it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Yeah, all right, Well next week next week. Well, we'll
tape next week, so well, it'll be two weeks our
first taping, when you're in the new house. We'll get
the full report. Then it'll be this doesn't work, that
doesn't work, this that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
You'll you'll like this, Moving out twenty nine, moving in
thirtyth cable coming on the thirty. Guys have already been
lined up for a month. They're coming on the thirty.
So it should have no issues that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
That's that's the most important thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
But yeah, get me my WiFi on the internet.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
All right, Well we'll do. We'll have to talk about
baseball over onders next week.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
All right, all right, take it easy, talk to you later.

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
All right, all right, my many thanks to Brian Curtis
and Salakata. Hopefully you enjoyed it. If you're not a
subscriber to Simdia, hit that subscribe button. Make sure you
listen to any past episodes you may have missed. ESPN's
Dan Alafsky was on the show last week. Retired at
ESPN Legend Bob Lee two weeks ago, Greg Gianotti from
WFAN and CBS Sports Network of The Boomer and Gier

(01:05:43):
Show three weeks ago. So if you missed any of those,
give them a listen. And again, if you're not a subscriber,
hit that subscribe button. And if you leave a review
on Apple, that helps us tremendously. And like I said,
we'll expected that. We'll have Jeff Passing on the podcast
next week from ESPN Talks on Baseball. All right, that
wraps it up. Appreciate you guys listening, Stay safe and
take care