June 16, 2025 • 52 mins
Monday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, the NBA blows a golden opportunity to play Game 5 of the Finals on Father’s Day. Dak Prescott wants a Super Bowl over legacy, but he’s already won in life. And Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin joins the guys to talk about FanaticsFest 2025 in NYC this week!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is the best of two pros and a couple Joe
with LaVar Aarings and rating Win and Jonas Knox on radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's good to be back with my guy, LeVar Arrington,
one half of the hottest tag team in.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
All the land, Black and Drag again. Yeah, baby, last
Lad's back.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Dang, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So I have a question for you about the program? Okay,
do you think that AI was used to do the
scene where they spit in each other's mouth in the
locker room? Do you think that was that was available
back then?
Speaker 5 (00:51):
You can think that was a real scene. Bro, Damn,
I think it was a real scene.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I swear to got him. I was reading for that.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm like, I'm out see you guys. Find somebody else
on the gas.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Hey man, you know that it was the love of
the game. And I had never heard or seen of
anything so stupid, just so stupid. I had never heard
or seen anything like that. I was in the ninth grade.
I was going into my ninth grade freshman year of
high school when that, uh, when that came came out,
(01:27):
and I was just like, you know, I thought the
whole movie was super cool, and so that was one
of those signature moments. I don't know why. And the
craziest thing is is when you're younger, you're so influenced
by things like we really was like trying to do everything.
Now we never spit in each other's mouths. But I
(01:49):
did paint. I did paint a skull on my face,
and I did paint. We weren't you know, they were
the North Hills Indian. So I did paint an Indian
Indian face was pretty good too.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Only problem is the thing that they don't, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Make very clear to you, Jonas, is that that paint
runs when you're in a real game and it's not
a movie like when it's the real thing, that paint runs.
So by the third play, I was like, you know,
rubbing my eyes like profusely to get the like my
(02:27):
eyes was just getting irritated, is all get out from
the paint, you know. So that was short lived. Had
to wash the paint off of my face and then
we were good to go.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So yeah, I remember a junior year going into the
senior We were doing Hell Week back then, and I
remember one of the seniors as we were breaking because
back then it was the first three days we're just
conditioning shorts and T shirts. And then the third day
or the fourth day on Thursday is when you put
(02:58):
all the pads on you at hitting. And I remember,
we're doing we're getting ready to break on Wednesday, knowing
that Thursday is going to be the hitting day for
the first time. And I remember one of the seniors,
guy was such a douche. He just says, hey man,
little peace of advice for all you juniors. Better go home,
watch the program later tonight, and you show up tomorrow, you're.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Gonna get fed up. Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So I didn't watch the program the night before, so
I didn't watch that. I still remember to this day.
So I remember I was like, what's he talking about?
So I didn't watch the program the night before, and
guess what showed up Thursday?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And I got fed up.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I got I got destroyed, absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So maybe what did they do?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
They just like they were seniors, they were we were juniors,
and it was they were just teeing off. Man. They
were not they were not kind. So you know, it
wasn't like I was gonna do anything. I was tiny
back then. So what you know is what is what
it is. By the way, happy Father's Day.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
How was the happy Father's Day to all the fathers
out there?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
How was it? Had a really good time.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Man was was in Pittsburgh, Uh, doing the Carly Short Foundation.
Carly Short Foundation fun a guy left to raise money.
It raises awareness for gun violence and raises scholarships for
kids to go to school and and get educated. It
(04:32):
was really good. I was the MC of it. Jonas, Oh, yeah,
you know, it's it's crazy. I get horrible anxiety. I
have horrible social anxiety. And I was scared to death
standing up there. But I thought I did pretty good.
I pulled it off pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Damn, who are you? And how did you get over it?
How did you get over Uh?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You know, it's interesting my mom.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I didn't speak very well growing up, as some people
may allude to when they comment on how the show goes.
But if you could hear how I sounded when I
first started speaking to the media, I always tell the
story my mother. My mother took a interview that I did,
(05:17):
and we watched it and she said, do you like
the way you sound? And I said no, I don't.
I say, you know, And I had so many crutch words.
That was most of my language was crutch words, and
clearly I had a way heavier Pittsburgh accent back then.
(05:38):
I know people hear it now and say he says
words funny and different. Well, it's just a dialect. I
worked to get through it. But what happened was is
my mom said, every morning before I go to school,
come meet me, and while you're brushing your teeth and
stuff like that, instead of going to the other, you know,
the restroom that me and my brothers use, come to
(05:59):
my room, and when you're brushing your teeth, I'm gonna
I'm gonna ask you questions, you know. So my mom
used to make me look in the mirror. She would
ask me questions, and she would always say, if you
say or well you know, or any crutch words, practice stopping.
(06:20):
Like every time she'd ask me, she said, how'd you
feel about the game today? Or how do you feel
about going into the game this week? And anytime I
would say a crutch word, I'd have to stop. And
that process went on for like years. My mom would
ask me questions, I would look in the mirror to
see how I looked, and that was how I learned
(06:41):
to speak better. And so as I learned to speak better.
It made me more confident to be able to you know,
I grew up in the church, so you understand that
in the church. You know, my father was a deacon,
ended up becoming an ordained minister, so he's a social
anxiety dude too, but he would be able to get
up in front of the congregation and deliver good sermons.
(07:03):
And I asked him what worked for him, and he
basically just said, be yourself, you know, find a way
to be so authentically yourself that you don't feel as though,
you know, the things that you're doing or the things
that you are saying aren't hitting home with the people.
He's like, it's not about if it's hitting home with
the people, it's about how you feel about the things
(07:25):
that you're saying and not really resonated with me. And
that was how I started to be, you know, beginning
to have the confidence to be able to do radio
or do television or mc an event, even though it
scares the death out of me. It scares me to death,
but it's still it's still fun to take on the
challenge of being able to do it, even just talking
to people on the street, you know, going back home
(07:47):
going back to Pittsburgh. I didn't think so many people
would remember, you know, who I am. I guess I
got a distinct look to me, you know, I got
that big windshield wipe or forehead. So I think people
actually recognize, you know, maybe they don't remember the name
so to speak. At least this is in my mind,
But a lot of people recognize me, and I always
(08:09):
make it a point to have a conversation with anyone
who recognizes me. Like, if you recognize me and you
want to have a conversation, I don't do the whole
you know, hey, good to meet you and keep moving,
or you know, okay, thanks, all right, goodbye. You know,
I want to have an experience, just like they want
to have an experience, because it's always a kick in
(08:31):
the head when somebody recognizes you. It's like I was
so good at something that people chose to acknowledge me
or commit me to memory. Where if they actually see
me out, it's like, oh that's LeVar Arrington, which is
pretty cool to me. So I be wanting to hear
what they have to say as well, more so than
what they want to hear me say to them. I
(08:51):
be wanting to hear it, because I feel like it's
pretty cool when people become a fan of you or
actually thought so much of you that they remember who
you are for good things, not bad things. So that
was how I learned how to talk and speak much
better than what I did, and it gave me the
confidence my mommy. My mom gave me the confidence to
(09:13):
be able to stand up in front of people and talk,
and so I do pretty well.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's awesome. That's actually a good, good method method.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
When you get broken in the.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Year and every time you go and do a crutch
for it.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Just stop.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
It's crazy because what you don't realize is using crutch
words takes the same amount of time that it does
to just stop and think about what you want to
say next. It feels like an eternity right you say
you know or like or these certain things, because you
feel as though the amount of time from your last
(09:48):
word to the next word you're going to say is
so long, But it's really not. Once you realize that,
it's not a whole lot of time that lapses. Which,
by the way, if you're speaking and you're being interviewed,
they want to hear what you have to say, so
they'll wait, you know, if you take a little bit
of time, they'll wait. I'd rather you say I answered,
(10:09):
I speak slowly versus say I speak fast and say
like you know, in so many different crutch words during
the time that I'm speaking.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
So it was it was super effective. It did, it did.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
My mom did an excellent job, and she was an educator.
Three degree educator, you know, degrees from Central State, degrees
from Duquesne University, very well educated and very very very
skilled at teaching. And she did a great job with
teaching me how to speak. Because if you would have
hurt me in the eighth from from third grade to
(10:43):
eighth grade, ninth grade, if you'd have hurt me speak,
you'd have been like, dude, I had as much Pittsburgh
slang as you could possibly have in terms of speaking.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So also, something your dad mentioned about the be yourself.
If you're yourself, you got nothing to worry about as
far as having stage fright or public speaking or anything
like that. It's the same thing as tying your shoes.
If it's natural, you don't remember doing it. If you've
done it so much that just becomes part of the
(11:17):
day and it becomes natural. You don't remember. Oh you
tire your shoes yesterday. Yeah, but I don't remember. I
just did it. Like, once you learn it, it becomes a
natural action.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
And so when you're.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Talking about such an exhilarating experience when you first learned, to.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Tell you, I got arrogant about it too. I went
double knots. I still go double knots just to show people. Okay,
it's the bunny ere wrap it around. Just my ass.
I'm doing it twice. I just learned this. Yeah, it's
like learning how to cook. What are you gonna make
grilled cheese? Grilled cheese? My ass?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Watch this, I'm doing double please.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Man.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Once you learn how to do it, you just let
it fly.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
But yeah, to his point, if it's natural, you don't
think about it and you're not worried about what the
reaction is going to be, you just do it because
that's just your natural action at that best.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
So that's right, big mic, big mic, big mic shots out,
the big mic.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
It is two pros and a cup of Joey or
Fox Sports Radio. By the way, if you're wondering, hey,
guys gonna talk about the NBA Finals, No, there was none. Yeah,
they wanted to wait an extra day. Yeah, we got
to wait another day. Yeah, and to get a to
get a game five in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So that was a tremendous miss.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
By the way, I can't like in my mind, I'm
looking at all the people that are out looking at
televisions and sitting around and celebrating dance like that is
the perfect time. That's the perfect holiday to have a
sports event. You're celebrating men, They're going to want to
do what they want to do. Most men want to
(12:54):
watch sports even if they're out to eat.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So which about a way.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
I had a burger from UH the Fieldhouse yesterday here
at Top Trees and State College, PA. They say it's
like the most legendary signature type of burger you could
get in and around these parts. At least it did
not disappoint.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
It did.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
And I mean, when I tell you, it blows away
that sandwich we had in UH in Arizona.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Is it a smash burger?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
It was not a smash burger.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
But they take they take like they take chuck, they
take surline, they take uh what.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Else is it?
Speaker 5 (13:31):
There's there's like three different types of meat that they
take and they they press them, they escape, process them,
they press them and put them together in the morning
hand prepare bro bro. And then they had these these
sweet potato fries. I don't know, it's the devil whatever
it is they put on.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
You, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Man?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Look here, I felt myself go up five pounds yesterday.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, and I knew. I knew it was going to
be a long week. It's going to be a long
week for me.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well listen, it's going to be a fun show here
as we guide you all the way up until nine
am Eastern time, six o'clock Pacific, we are going to
have the usual.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yes here, the NBA missed Jonas. Yeah, they should have
been a game yesterday.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Like you had an opportunity. Man, to your point, everybody's
watching or everybody's hanging out. They're looking for something to
sink their teeth into, and instead they decide, now we.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Need watch powerlifting. Yeah, we were sitting there watching powerlifting
take place.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
They got into it too, like.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Dangcause you're looking for anything to watch.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So yeah, we was married to her. How many kilograms?
Four hundred and fifty kilograms.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yes, be sure to catch live editions of two pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Lee've got issues?
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Oh geez, I don't even ask about that. I don't
even play around with that that stuff no more. I'm
not playing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Save that one for today. I didn't want to send
that on a Father's day. Check what Lee found him?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I don't know if this I don't know if this
woman was on the the S S two C with
Stefan Diggs. But uh, Lee found found a woman dancing
on a boat somewhere on the water. And I just
felt like there was a couple of things missing from
the from the video that we saw. Come on, what
(15:51):
do you not?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Hear me out? I don't see this. I don't see
that after Jonas's now hear me out. I don't see
what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Here. I'll help you out, yeah, Lee, So so what
what do you what do you want to hear out?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Lee?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
How do you want to explain this whole new uh
meaning to the word spinner? Yep, good call, that's a
good call. I will figure out a way to get
a get LeVar up on game. When it comes to Uh,
comes to the lease. Uh, Lee's late is fine, But
(16:31):
we'll just put it this way. Social media is a
wild place at times. The things that you see with
the invention of the camera phone and the camera video.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Completely over. It's a scary place, bro, it is.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
It's a scary place because people are really people are
really out here.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
To get you.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
You know, I'll talking to my son like these younger dudes,
dudes and younger people out here, they're understanding it. They're
starting to understand it more now as well. It's like
you can't. It's so interesting. It's like, Wow, technology opens
you up to this brave, new, interesting world of entertainment
(17:18):
and education. You have so many things right at your fingertips,
like immediately, like things that that you would have never
dreamed of or imagined of when we were growing up.
And for all of the positives that are connected to
all of this this technology, I mean, the the scary
things of it, the scary parts of it are crazy
(17:42):
because you know, I did this thing on on and
just to test my theory, I did this. I did
these social media posts same days they were, they were
weeks apart, same exact content, same exact pictures, same exact
It's the same exact thing with the same message on
(18:02):
both of them, except one.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Starts with.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
It starts with a very very dark type of narrative.
The other one goes straight into positivity right from the
jump it's positive. From the other jump it's negative. I
got almost seven hundred thousand views. I got crazy, crazy
(18:29):
amounts of comments on the one that starts off dark
and not positive before it gets to the positive, and
people are like, not even putting in context, you know.
So both had the same message, but the context was
maybe it was taken out of context because of the
(18:53):
way one of them started. It's the same thing with
everything that's going on with all of this technology, right,
context can be lost so quickly, and to think if
that context catches on, you could get canceled, like and
I don't know then you don't know if there's any
(19:15):
coming back from that, because companies aren't going to invest
in somebody that's uninvestable, and so you put yourself in
so many like there's there's so many things that you
have to be aware of in today's technology, in this culture,
because people be really out here to get you, Like
(19:35):
they'll see something and they'll take that and they'll use
that and they'll try to use it against you, which
is pretty evil. Like, I feel like social media has
truly exposed how evil people truly are. Like you don't
have to be a flat out like criminal to be
an evil person, like some of you people out there,
(19:56):
y'all are some evil hearted people.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Men or it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's the old adage. Yeah, there's a hammer. It can
be used as a tool or a weapon. How do
you choose you go? How do you choose? Like, which
which end do you want to go with? I mean,
that's that's just that's that's the way it's turned into.
So yeah, it's uh, it is a wild place, especially
right now in today's climate with all the other stuff
(20:20):
going on, So tread carefully.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Hey, but with that being said, But with that being said,
lead the Lap definitely needs to stay the hell away
from from anything that could be taken out of context,
because it really is within context. No, I haven't, I don't.
I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Just click the link.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I don't see it. Just nothing came through.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
You're talking about what you sent with the line on
the top of the cocktail.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
No, not that, dear old, and I want to make
sure this.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, that's all I see. We just will take care
of time, make sure I see it. Yeah, I did
get it. I can't see it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Well, I do know this. It is two pros and
a cup of Joe. Here on Fox Sports Radio. It
is black and Drag. Here Jonas Knox Arrington taking you
all the way up until nine am Eastern time, six
o'clock Pacific. Now, somebody who's always in the news because
he's a member of the Dallas Cowboys. He's a quarterback
for the Dallas Cowboys is one Dak Prescott. And Dak
(21:30):
Prescott was asked over the weekend. Hey, listen, what about
winning a Super Bowl? What about winning a Super Bowl?
How would you feel about that? Let's take a listen.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I want to win a championship.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
The legacy, the things, whatever comes after I've finished plan,
we'll take care of itself.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Be damned.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
If it's just for my legacy or for it's for
this teams, for my personal being, for my sanity. Yeah,
the legacy will take care of itself. I have to
stay with my feet.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
On, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I'd like to defend Dak Prescott here just for well,
and I want to just be clear about something. He's
never gonna win a Super Bowl, Like that's that's not happening. Okay,
So look, but well I'm just I just want to.
(22:15):
I just I just want to. I just want to
make this point. Like listen, He's like, so those dreams
are done. It's like I really wanted to play in
the NBA when I was a kid, and then I realized.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I was white.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, you know what I mean. Like then all of
a sudden, I cleaned my mirror with some windex and
I was like, oh damn, I got no shot.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
It's like, although you got a white boys ball, like
you guys a white boys.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, so I can assure you there was no white
boy ball in my backyard.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
That happened at your house.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So I just sort of realized, Okay, well is what
it is. So let's try and find the positives. So
Dad Prescott's never going to win a Super Bowl with
the Cowboys. It's never going to happen. And I say,
this is somebody who is actually in recent memory picked
the Cowboys to win a Super Bowl. It's over. That
ship has sailed. You can't even that ship is so
far gone. You can't even see it if you look
(23:12):
out far enough, binoculars, whatever you want to use, it's over.
But there is a positive to all this, all right,
because I feel like their best chance to win a
super Bowl is twenty sixteen. That was his rookie year.
That was Zeke's rookie year. Everything was set up for him.
They had a home game in the playoffs, they had
the Packers, and Mason Crosby and Aaron Rodgers and Mike
(23:34):
McCarthy ruined all that, and that was really their best
chance to win a super Bowl. And we've seen what's
happened since. But here's the good thing, legacy or not.
If Dak Prescott plays out the remainder of his deal
with the Dallas Cowboys by thirty five years old, he
will have earned around four hundred and thirty six million
(23:58):
dollars in his career. The Super Bowl can kiss my ass, goog.
Look the Lombardi Trophy. Hey, you guys have fun with that.
I'll take my near half billion dollars in earnings as
a Dallas Cowboys quarterback, and I'm good with my legacy. Like,
forget about super Bowls. The guy's already won. He is
already one. He is good to go. Deal with the criticism.
(24:20):
He's just gonna keep cashing checks for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
You know, I think once people comprehend and realize and
I listen, I understand this.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Whole fear market value deal.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
We had the conversation about Hendrickson and him getting compensated
more but based upon his ability to get to the
quarterback and lead in the league in sacks. But just
like in this scenario here what you're talking about, you
start to realize when you're not playing the game of football,
there's very few of us that transition into another gig
(24:56):
that pays the amount of money you make playing the game.
And I mean, like you could be you could be
making really really good money in your post career life
and it doesn't compare to what you were making when
you were playing playing the game of football. And so
(25:17):
to me, it's like when all else fails, I'm not
wasting a year. It's just me just just on the
other side of knowing that. And listen, I like to work,
So it's not that I need to. It's like I
just like to work and I like doing media. But
still the idea of being able to generate, make a
(25:39):
lot of money, do well for yourself, and and a
profession that you're in.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Man, the lowest.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Paid cats in the league are highest paid cats in
regular society. The lowest paids, you know, the minimum wage guys,
they are They are pretty well compensated. It's not crazy money.
But when you hear money like this, what Dak Prescott
has made and has been able to be able.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
To earn, you know, it's just.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You're proud of the fact that athletic ability can actually
lead to you generating that type of income. And I
take that at face value. I say, when somebody's able
to get to a contract like that, it would be
nice to have a legacy where you're remembered as a
Hall of Famer or one of the greatest ever. But
(26:34):
make no mistake about it, Like you said, Jonas, I'll
be just fine hanging out poolside beachside with my toes
in the sand, doing what I want to do, if
that's what I so choose want to do, you know,
in my post career or even during my career. So
you know, it's a lot of money, and there's a
(26:56):
lot of reasons to be happy even if you don't
get to the pinnacle of the sport.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Like, think about it this way. So he's thirty five,
We'll just fast forward. He's thirty five years old and
some Jay Off and a Cowboys jersey starts, you know,
giving him the business talking about, oh, you never won
a Super Bowl. You were disappointment, We should have done more, this, this, this,
(27:22):
and this. Like if you're Dak Prescott, you just look
at this guy and go, dude, I'm not even forty
yet and I've literally got four hundred plus million dollars
in the bank. By the way, that's just careering, salary wise, endorsements, marketing.
And he's a Cowboys quarterback. You know what that means
on the back end of his career. We've seen what's
(27:44):
happened with Cowboys quarterbacks going into broadcasting, former Cowboys players
going into broadcasting. So this idea of well, you know,
his legacy and what does this mean for Dak moving forward?
The reality is they're not winning a Super Bowl while
he's there, And I don't put that necessarily all on him.
(28:05):
There's a lot going on. There's always chaos. It seems
like there's always dysfunction. The way they handle the McCarthy
stuff the way they handle some of their other contracts.
If you're Dak Prescott, okay, sweet, I didn't want a
super Bowl. Okay, you know what A so so Nick
Foles has won a super Bowl. All these other guys
that want a super Bowl. I've never been to a
super Bowl. Okay, cool, I'm fine. If I want to,
(28:28):
I'll just go buy a super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Look, maybe I'll never go to the Hall of Fame.
I could probably buy the Hall of Fame if I
wanted to, I could probably buy.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I can't your point, to your point, there's probably more
than enough dude you could shake a stick at and
they would trade the Hall of Fame for Dak Prescott's
earning one hundred Hey, do you still want to be
in the Hall of Fame or would you trade it
(28:59):
for four hundred mili? I mean, how many of them
dudes you think are in the Hall of Fame. That'd
be like, uh, take that bus, melt it down, shove
it up your you know what, I'm taking the money,
you know. And there's some guys, now, listen, there are
some guys that are truly prideful. And there's not a
(29:20):
price tag. You can't put a price tag on accomplishment.
You you really can't, especially when it's it's something that
you've done in your past. So there's something to be
said about living in a place. And I know this
because I'm in the College Football Hall of Fame. There's
something to be said about creating a legacy, creating memories
(29:44):
that your family that you will never meet in the future.
You'll never meet them. You will be long gone, you'll
be far gone from here, but somebody will be saying,
that's your great great great great granddad. You know that
that was he did. He did that, So to me,
there's value there. But damn four hundred million.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Listen, I got news for you.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I'm gonna have to think about it. I'm gonna have
to think about it.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
Like, hey, great great great great great great unborn grandchild.
Just know, great great great great great great granddad was
really good at football. And if you don't, don't worry
about it. But you know that that car that you're driving,
that Tonka truck that you have, that came from the
trust fund from your great great great great great great
(30:31):
great granddad that set it up for somebody that was
along the way along the line to getting to you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Listen. I don't look. I don't know my great great
great granddad. I never met him. He might have been
an alcoholic. I have no idea, but I know this,
but if he was a Hall of Famer, I'd be like, man,
that's awesome. Can I get a hundred bucks? I mean,
can I get some cash please? You know, I'd like
to pay my bills, Like, can I get some money?
(30:57):
So yeah, I just I think sometimes sometimes and to
your point on this, I think sometimes we get lost
in this. Well, he's got to he's got to win this.
He's got to do that first. It's like, no man
like the idea that you can play a kid's game
and walk away from it, hopefully with all your faculties
(31:18):
and with the amount of comfort that you're able to
live with not only for you, but all the people
everybody in your orbit, all the family members, the people
that struggled with you coming up. That's a win, man, Like,
that's your super Bowl in reality. As much as people
don't like it, that's what it is. In my mind.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
You start to realize that when you're not making it anymore.
Every once in a while, I'll be looking at my
my like my check stubs and stuff like that. I'd
be like, WTF. I remember a time I looked at
that stub and I just kept going zero zero zero
(31:57):
zero zero. Now it's like there, Damn, that's it.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
That was it. That was it.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Hey, this printer run at ink O.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Heay be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We are going to catch up with Michael Rubin, the
Fanatics CEO, who's going to be joining us here in
just a couple of moments from now. Lots to talk
to him about, including Fanatics Fest, which is a giant
event that is taking place. We'll give you all the
details and all the information on that. But anybody who's
shopped for sports apparel online over the last X amount
(32:52):
of years, you've probably done it on Fanatics. I mean,
like their growth and their reach is incredible, what they've
done and what they've been able to do. And right
now joining us here is Michael Rubin, the Fanatic CEO. Michael,
thanks so much for the time. Good morning to you.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Absolutely, what's happening, guys?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
How you doing good? We are good.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I wanted to ask you this because I was just
mentioning anybody who's bought you know, sports apparel or anything
over the last X amount of years has probably done
it through fanatics. The reach, the growth that you guys
have seen is amazing. But going back to the early days,
because you've been successful with a lot of things that
you've done throughout the course of your career, and we're
going to touch on fanatics vests as well too, but
(33:32):
what did the early struggles look like for you when
you were trying to build something and get to this point?
What was what were those days like for you?
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Well, first, I want to say, I feel like I'm
still building a startup even though today we're twenty two
thousand people in a pretty global business. We kind of
act on the start. We stay paranoid, we stay hungry,
we stay humble. But for me, like I'm fifty two now,
I've been at this since I've been eight years old,
so forty four years. I mean, I've had a thousand
epic failures. You know, That's part of life, man, that's
(34:02):
part of going different When you play sports, you know, Yeah,
you run into a wall. Things don't go the way
you want to. And that's been my journey. Man. I
almost went bankrupted sixteen hundreds of thousands of dollars, had
creditors shown up at my house every day, and you know,
to me, each one of those, you know, kind of
near death experiences that you know, I think I've had
(34:24):
up until maybe fifteen years ago, all night to the
next the next success.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Hey, what's up, Mike gets LeVar here man first and foremost,
crazy crazy man happy, Uh, excited to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I'm doing real well. Uh.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
First and foremost, I'm hurt that I haven't received the
invite to one of them white parties. By the way,
I have such a white suit that is very nice.
Uh shameless plug on on getting an invite.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Uh. Second of all, I had a few of those
during this process. But you know, you got to really
be in training for that, Like you've got to be
strong and high, great endurance, the thirteen hour party with realcy.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
What you're made of.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
I mean, I don't know you well enough to know
whether you're built for that party.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yes, dang well, I'll say this.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
You do know Michael Parsons and and well, I played up,
played a pretty good played a pretty good role and
making sure that he was in good enough condition when
when y'all ended up finally uh meeting and making acquaintance,
you know, you know, the whole Stick City family. You know,
I'll come bring the Stick City to the Sticks party,
(35:32):
you know, with the Ruben deal.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
But anyways, that was a personal moment.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
I just wanted to talk to Mike Rubin and say that,
you know, it felt kind of good actually, but uh,
talk to me about what what you got going on.
I mean, you have been able to really kind of
diversify and what it is that you're doing from content.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Offerings to the apparel.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
It's like you have figured out how to to really
be able to capture different categories and different silos of
you know, revenue streams. Just talk a little bit about
what went into the thought process and the evolution of
what Fanatics has represented.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Sure, well, I think really what we desire to do
is take care of the sports fan with everything they
need digitally. And that's you know, we've really spent the
first decade focused on our fanguar business. We call it
finax commerce. It's what a lot of people know it's
the you know, we own fourteen hundred lid stores with
the flagship Fanatics website, we operate you know, many of
(36:38):
the leagues and teams, individual e commerce businesses and when
we've still got a lot to go there, I think
four or five years ago we realized that we could
really really re imagine the company's and digital sports platform.
And since then we've launched our entire collectibles and trading
card business, and we've launched our betting and gaming business.
And I think in everything we do, we start with
(36:58):
the fan and say how do we make to better
for the fan. Now, that doesn't mean we've always got
it right. Sometimes we've now that we've knocked out of
the park. At other times, you know that we've got
to keep working to be better and better, you know,
in the bet in the gaming business. As an example,
when we launched we launched a better value proposition, we said,
how do we make this better for a fan? And
you know example that was like we went out and said, look,
(37:20):
we're going to give fan cash, which is basically free
money back and every time you bet. So next year
we're going to grant about more than a billion dollars
of fan cash, and you can use that to make
other bets, to buy merchandise, to buy cards, to buy tickets,
to go to lids, to go to tops, and so
that was really popular, and we said that wasn't enough.
Just that alone wasn't enough. We also want to make
(37:41):
sure if any player got hurt during the fresh quarter,
we take the player out of the player prop bet,
And so we had hundreds of thousands of bets that
would have lost that would have won. The reason I'm
telling you this it was like the mindset of saying,
we don't want to be just another sports book. We
want to make it better for the fan. In the
collectibles business, we said, what are the problems we got
to sell?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
We have people talking.
Speaker 7 (38:01):
About, you know, huge redemptions that's like an io you
on a card, like if you to sign your card,
then you owe to the customer, and there are hundreds
and of thousands of redemptions. They're outstanding. There hadn't been
a lot of marketing, a lot of product innovation, so
everything we're doing is around how do we make better
for the fan. But today we have three primary businesses.
We have our fan gear business, our collectible and trading
cards business, and our sports betting and eye game of business.
(38:23):
And look, we've grown a lot. We were two hundred
and fifty million dollars in two thousand and we know
when I bought the company back in twenty eleven, it
will be close to twelve billion dollars next year. But
we still feel like a startup. We still feel like
we're just getting started. That's what's so exciting for me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Michael Rubin, Fanatic CEO, with us here on Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, Jonas NOx with you here on FSR. What's
been the most difficult part of your growth that you
look at and go this has been the hardest part.
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Yeah. First of all, I think a lot of things
are like we grind every day, like people always think.
You see things like our Super Bowl party of the
White Party, and I was like, oh man, Mike Wolban's
got the most fun life. And by the way, I
do have the most fun life. But where I spend
my time, it's working seventeen hours a day at the business.
It's not like you know, it's not like what someone
(39:12):
may see on Instagram or imagine. I mean, this is
really about grind now, it's no different than like, you know,
Tom Brady wants seven super Bowls, but that guy grinded
harder than anybody in the planet to get those seven
super Bowls. So you know, we're grinding every day. I say,
probably the most difficult thing is when you go from
one business to three businesses to make sure that you've
got so many competitors that are trying to, you know,
(39:33):
kill you, make it make it hard for you. But
I like that. I'd say if I did the one
most difficult difficult thing, it's Fanatics Fest. I mean, that's
what we're in the middle of right now. We're going
to launch fanatics Fest. It starts this Friday, goes for
three days. We're going to have more than one hundred
thousand fans come to the Javit Center that we took
over in the middle of New York City. And this
is a first of a kind sports festival. But what's
(39:55):
hard is getting every sport in the world to show
up at Fanatic Fest. To get I think we have
more than three hundred athletes, celebrities, artists, the biggest people
in the world coming to this. So you've got like
people like Jay Z and Travis Scott. You've got in basketball,
Wemby lebron kd Kat James Harden All coming in football.
(40:18):
We moved this from August last year to June so
we could have all the activant of all players, Guys
like Michael Parsons, your boy, who, by the way, he's
been talking a lot of smack about how he's winning
the financial games and taking the million dollars. We got
to see what he's made up. But you've got half
the NFL starting quarterbacks there this year. You've got Russell Wilson,
Jaden Daniels, Taylor Williams, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, you got
(40:42):
Brady Back. You've got so many, you know, the top
receivers here. So you know, I think just polling together
three hundred athletes, artists, celebrities all one place, all the
sports together, that is without question the hardest thing that
we do. But so we woudy when you see fans
that if they leave in tears, they're so happy they that,
(41:02):
you know, generations of a family coming together and having
such a great time. So for me, that's probably the
number one hardest thing I do. But we're grinders to start.
Speaker 5 (41:10):
With, How are you able to do it, Mike, Like,
I'm just listening to you know what the fest is
going to represent. There's a ton of money involved that
the fans can win. They get that opportunity to do
things that only you could dream of, which is have
the you know, chance to compete against guys like for me.
You know, I think the next thing you gotta do,
(41:31):
you gotta get uh, you gotta get magnus. You know,
you gotta do like a chess tournament. I won't play
madness and chess, you know what I mean. But that's
that's a whole nother story you are able to want.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
Right now, I don't want to get any details, but
there might be a chess surprise.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Of course we're going to tell you that.
Speaker 7 (41:49):
I'm not going to give you any more details, but
expect the internet to break Internet to buy fight Friday
or Saturday when you see a little chess stunk going on.
We got one up our already.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
You've got that sarcasm. I know that that it has
to be sarcasm.
Speaker 7 (42:07):
And by the way, Michael Parsons is actually part of it.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Okay, Okay, well then now I do know it's true
because I definitely we definitely play each other.
Speaker 7 (42:17):
Uh, I'm going against them, by the way, just because
I love against Mike in general. It's generally a fun
thing for me to do.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
So it is going to be a test master that
he's going to play a Graham. That's pretty dope. Uh.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
How do you do it?
Speaker 5 (42:32):
How?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
How do you pull all of it?
Speaker 5 (42:34):
You talk about how hard it is, it's so many
moving pieces just to deal with a handful of celebrities,
a handful of athletes.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
How are you able to pull all of these people
together the way that you do?
Speaker 5 (42:50):
How are you able to pull together the plan where
you can monetize it in a way where the fans
not only get an experience, but actually really have an
opportunity to cash in on it.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
How how do you do it? Like? Is it your team?
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Is it conceptually from you? Are you more of a
process guy? Is it more visionary? How do you pull
together a fest like this where it offers all of
the elements and celebrities that it does.
Speaker 7 (43:18):
Look, it's a great question. I think the first thing
you need to do is dream You got a dream bag? Okay?
And for me, we were The idea for finac Fest
came from is I had gone to so many music festivals.
I had been to south By Southwest, I had been
to Comic Con. And then in the trading card business,
(43:41):
you have these trading card shows which I'd growing up
as a kid going to, and they got a really
big one called the National, which is incredible from the
quantity of people they get, but hasn't really evolved a
lot in the last thirty or forty years. And so
from my perspective, I said, why don't sports fans have
a sports festival? Like I don't get it doesn't make sense.
So many other industries have this, and so I'm just based, like,
(44:02):
we're doing this, and I had no fear whether it
would work or not. So you know, I went out.
I got the guy who kind of ran comic on
New York and he joined the acts and we were like, hey,
we're gonna do the same thing that they do in
Comic Con in sports. And you know, the reality is
if I keep this real. Three weeks before the first
one last year, I'm like, how do I get myself
into this? This is a disaster. It's so hard, like
(44:24):
do we really want to do this? Because you're pulling
out every you know, favor. You have to just bring
everyone together. But then you're like sports fans deserve it,
Like we got to do this, like push through. It's
no different than I'm sure you in the peak of
some of your you know, craziest moments. You know, you
don't know it's going to be, just you find a
way to win. And that's what we did. We have
seventy thousand people come to first year, and people absolutely
(44:46):
loved it, Like I can't tell you that the great
feelings that everyone had seen, all these happy fans, and
you know, for me, that was the motivation we needed.
So this year we came back. We said, you know,
we got to make it better. We got to fix
all the things it working. By the way, first year,
lots of stuff weren't wrong, like our autograph and photo
lines were a disaster the way we set up the
(45:08):
first year. We went back and we re envisioned the
entire thing, and you know, like this year it's going
to be so much bigger, so much better. We're taking
over the entire ability and a million squaret feet again.
You've got when you think about bringing like you know,
Jay Z and Trapp, Kevin Hard, you know, all the
starting quarterbacks. I rattled off you know lebron kd James Harden, Wemby,
(45:34):
all these guys in the same place, a Rod, Derek Cheeter,
you know, top top wrestlers, Cody Rhodes, John Cena, all
these guys together. It does take a ton, but look,
we've got a great team and we've just got a
commitment to making sure we make this as good as
we can. But we're never satisfied. Like I'm walking through
this thing from before it opens every day after closes.
(45:56):
I'm getting feedback from fans figuring out what we can
do better. And we love it. It's like a total
gid byck fivate. We lost lots of money on it
the first time we did it. We still losing money
this year on it. But it's a great marketing moment
for Finax. We show up in a great way. And
when you own the Internet for the weekend, and we're
going to own social media, not I think just on
brire Sight on Sunday, but I think we're going to
(46:17):
own it for the week because we have so many
incredible moments coming. That's also a fun thing for us
to do.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You can find more information at Fanaticsfest dot com. It's
coming up this weekend June twentieth to the twenty second
at the Javit Center in New York City. As mentioned,
I mean, I'm looking through the roster.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
There's not a.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
League that doesn't have a representative. There's i mean the
number of Hall of Famers, world champions, etc. That are
going to be there this weekend. Awesome event. Again, Michael
Rubin Fanatics CEO. You can get him on x at
Michael Rubin and go to fanaticsfest dot com for more
information on the event. Cannot thank you enough man, Congratulations
(46:55):
on all your success and looking forward to this week
and that'll be fun.
Speaker 7 (46:59):
I appreciate you. Thanks so much for having me. I
look forward to.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
There he is, Michael Rubin with us here on Fox
Sports Radio. You just look at the number of like
we will go to Super Bowl events and you'll see
a ton of celebrities and you'll see a ton of
people at these certain events. If you just go through
the roster of superstars that are going to be there,
they did seventy thousand people as you mentioned last year.
(47:26):
They've got all that. But like you asked him of Ar,
like how do you pull it off? It just it
goes to show you like when people tell you, man
father times undefeated. No, no, no, hard work's undefeated. If
you work your ass off, you can accomplish a lot.
And he's worked his ass off and he's grown a
business exponentially over the past number of years.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
Phenomenal. That's a great point.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
And he's yeah he does, and people rock with him, man,
and listen that that that whole that's interesting because me
and Micah play chess like that's that's our thing, is
playing chess. I used to really like bowling until I
broke my wrist. That would have been interesting. Yeah, right,
but yeah, I did used to bowl bowl quite a bit,
(48:10):
but I always have loved chess.
Speaker 4 (48:13):
So I think he's going to play.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
I think he's going to play somebody like that would
be crazy if he played like Caspar Roth or or Magnuson.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Didn't know, Magnets just lose.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
They just lost.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah, he got upset. I think it was like, was
it like a big upset or something like that.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
It was a big one. Yeah, it was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Yeah, Like I was good. I'm not really much of
a chess guy. It's too easy. I prefer checkers, big
checkers guy. Connect four. You want to get you want
to get that work, you can come find me and
connect for something along those lines. But when it comes
to chess, chess, yeah, it's just too weak.
Speaker 5 (48:44):
Thing.
Speaker 4 (48:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (48:45):
I was on my way into to uh Pittsburgh. I
was playing playing his game on on h on my
flight and it only goes up to fifteen you know.
So I'm playing and a fifteen year old Magnus and
I was close. I was coming close, and I just
(49:07):
couldn't beat them. Oh you fifteen year old fifteen year
old level.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
So you can play different levels of him in the game.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
I'll whoop his ass at what is it, five years old?
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Oh yeah, whoop his ass, damn.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
But I go up to the hardest level I go
up to.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
He was actually qualifying to go to the World's and
compete and for a world championship, a world title at fifteen.
Speaker 4 (49:38):
So dude is a He's a phenom.
Speaker 5 (49:41):
Like I mean when you say phenom, like literally like
people like him, the things that they're able to do,
the way they're able to see the board, the way
they're able to understand what moves are because and chess,
a lot of it is memorization. People don't realize that.
But it's memorization, like if somebody moves here, here are
here are the right moves to make. If somebody moves there,
(50:03):
here's the right move, and so on and so forth.
You can almost like kind of depending on somebody's approach
their style to playing, you can memorize a lot of
the game and so based off of the move pattern.
And so it takes somebody that's really good to be
able to get somebody to have to make their own
(50:24):
moves based off of thinking versus off of memorization of
if this, if the board looks like this, if the
person moves here, if they do this, this is what
you do. Like it's kind of it's just a crazy game. Man,
it's a crazy game because you got to be almost
like a computer, you know, like Magnus was playing a game.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
I watched this ares a documentary on him. He did.
Speaker 5 (50:50):
He played like sixteen professors or ten professors at Harvard
back like facing the opposite direction of them, blindfolded. He
wasn't even looking at the boards.
Speaker 4 (51:04):
He had to.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
He had it memorized so well. He could give you
the court and it's make the moves, and he made
it all of them Harvard Harvard professors, like legal guys,
just just very very intelligent people. He made it, all
of them blindfolded, not even looking at the board, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
So he asked him to throw football and he would
go into convulsions.
Speaker 4 (51:27):
Oh well yeah, yeah, you know, you smack him up. Now,
she smack.
Speaker 5 (51:33):
Him body slamming, you know what I mean? You No, No,
he's a type of he's smart. He might fly away
or something.
Speaker 4 (51:41):
No, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Man, he's got he's got propellers. He's got a propeller.
Speaker 4 (51:45):
He might fly away. Bro.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
He's like, he's like the kid from Goonies who's always
got like a weapon on he's got he's got a
boxing glove.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
On the.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
Gi What was his name? Gizmo was a guy from Kremlin. Yeah, yeah,
but his his name was something like that. Yeah. Data data, data,
data data, that's it. Wow, I want a nerd.
Is the best of two pros and a couple Joe
with LaVar Aarings and rating Win and Jonas Knox on radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's good to be back with my guy, LeVar Arrington,
one half of the hottest tag team in.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
All the land, Black and Drag again. Yeah, baby, last
Lad's back.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Dang, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So I have a question for you about the program? Okay,
do you think that AI was used to do the
scene where they spit in each other's mouth in the
locker room? Do you think that was that was available
back then?
Speaker 5 (00:51):
You can think that was a real scene. Bro, Damn,
I think it was a real scene.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I swear to got him. I was reading for that.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm like, I'm out see you guys. Find somebody else
on the gas.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Hey man, you know that it was the love of
the game. And I had never heard or seen of
anything so stupid, just so stupid. I had never heard
or seen anything like that. I was in the ninth grade.
I was going into my ninth grade freshman year of
high school when that, uh, when that came came out,
(01:27):
and I was just like, you know, I thought the
whole movie was super cool, and so that was one
of those signature moments. I don't know why. And the
craziest thing is is when you're younger, you're so influenced
by things like we really was like trying to do everything.
Now we never spit in each other's mouths. But I
(01:49):
did paint. I did paint a skull on my face,
and I did paint. We weren't you know, they were
the North Hills Indian. So I did paint an Indian
Indian face was pretty good too.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Only problem is the thing that they don't, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Make very clear to you, Jonas, is that that paint
runs when you're in a real game and it's not
a movie like when it's the real thing, that paint runs.
So by the third play, I was like, you know,
rubbing my eyes like profusely to get the like my
(02:27):
eyes was just getting irritated, is all get out from
the paint, you know. So that was short lived. Had
to wash the paint off of my face and then
we were good to go.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So yeah, I remember a junior year going into the
senior We were doing Hell Week back then, and I
remember one of the seniors as we were breaking because
back then it was the first three days we're just
conditioning shorts and T shirts. And then the third day
or the fourth day on Thursday is when you put
(02:58):
all the pads on you at hitting. And I remember,
we're doing we're getting ready to break on Wednesday, knowing
that Thursday is going to be the hitting day for
the first time. And I remember one of the seniors,
guy was such a douche. He just says, hey man,
little peace of advice for all you juniors. Better go home,
watch the program later tonight, and you show up tomorrow, you're.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Gonna get fed up. Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So I didn't watch the program the night before, so
I didn't watch that. I still remember to this day.
So I remember I was like, what's he talking about?
So I didn't watch the program the night before, and
guess what showed up Thursday?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And I got fed up.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I got I got destroyed, absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So maybe what did they do?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
They just like they were seniors, they were we were juniors,
and it was they were just teeing off. Man. They
were not they were not kind. So you know, it
wasn't like I was gonna do anything. I was tiny
back then. So what you know is what is what
it is. By the way, happy Father's Day.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
How was the happy Father's Day to all the fathers
out there?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
How was it? Had a really good time.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Man was was in Pittsburgh, Uh, doing the Carly Short Foundation.
Carly Short Foundation fun a guy left to raise money.
It raises awareness for gun violence and raises scholarships for
kids to go to school and and get educated. It
(04:32):
was really good. I was the MC of it. Jonas, Oh, yeah,
you know, it's it's crazy. I get horrible anxiety. I
have horrible social anxiety. And I was scared to death
standing up there. But I thought I did pretty good.
I pulled it off pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Damn, who are you? And how did you get over it?
How did you get over Uh?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You know, it's interesting my mom.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I didn't speak very well growing up, as some people
may allude to when they comment on how the show goes.
But if you could hear how I sounded when I
first started speaking to the media, I always tell the
story my mother. My mother took a interview that I did,
(05:17):
and we watched it and she said, do you like
the way you sound? And I said no, I don't.
I say, you know, And I had so many crutch words.
That was most of my language was crutch words, and
clearly I had a way heavier Pittsburgh accent back then.
(05:38):
I know people hear it now and say he says
words funny and different. Well, it's just a dialect. I
worked to get through it. But what happened was is
my mom said, every morning before I go to school,
come meet me, and while you're brushing your teeth and
stuff like that, instead of going to the other, you know,
the restroom that me and my brothers use, come to
(05:59):
my room, and when you're brushing your teeth, I'm gonna
I'm gonna ask you questions, you know. So my mom
used to make me look in the mirror. She would
ask me questions, and she would always say, if you
say or well you know, or any crutch words, practice stopping.
(06:20):
Like every time she'd ask me, she said, how'd you
feel about the game today? Or how do you feel
about going into the game this week? And anytime I
would say a crutch word, I'd have to stop. And
that process went on for like years. My mom would
ask me questions, I would look in the mirror to
see how I looked, and that was how I learned
(06:41):
to speak better. And so as I learned to speak better.
It made me more confident to be able to you know,
I grew up in the church, so you understand that
in the church. You know, my father was a deacon,
ended up becoming an ordained minister, so he's a social
anxiety dude too, but he would be able to get
up in front of the congregation and deliver good sermons.
(07:03):
And I asked him what worked for him, and he
basically just said, be yourself, you know, find a way
to be so authentically yourself that you don't feel as though,
you know, the things that you're doing or the things
that you are saying aren't hitting home with the people.
He's like, it's not about if it's hitting home with
the people, it's about how you feel about the things
(07:25):
that you're saying and not really resonated with me. And
that was how I started to be, you know, beginning
to have the confidence to be able to do radio
or do television or mc an event, even though it
scares the death out of me. It scares me to death,
but it's still it's still fun to take on the
challenge of being able to do it, even just talking
to people on the street, you know, going back home
(07:47):
going back to Pittsburgh. I didn't think so many people
would remember, you know, who I am. I guess I
got a distinct look to me, you know, I got
that big windshield wipe or forehead. So I think people
actually recognize, you know, maybe they don't remember the name
so to speak. At least this is in my mind,
But a lot of people recognize me, and I always
(08:09):
make it a point to have a conversation with anyone
who recognizes me. Like, if you recognize me and you
want to have a conversation, I don't do the whole
you know, hey, good to meet you and keep moving,
or you know, okay, thanks, all right, goodbye. You know,
I want to have an experience, just like they want
to have an experience, because it's always a kick in
(08:31):
the head when somebody recognizes you. It's like I was
so good at something that people chose to acknowledge me
or commit me to memory. Where if they actually see
me out, it's like, oh that's LeVar Arrington, which is
pretty cool to me. So I be wanting to hear
what they have to say as well, more so than
what they want to hear me say to them. I
(08:51):
be wanting to hear it, because I feel like it's
pretty cool when people become a fan of you or
actually thought so much of you that they remember who
you are for good things, not bad things. So that
was how I learned how to talk and speak much
better than what I did, and it gave me the
confidence my mommy. My mom gave me the confidence to
(09:13):
be able to stand up in front of people and talk,
and so I do pretty well.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's awesome. That's actually a good, good method method.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
When you get broken in the.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Year and every time you go and do a crutch
for it.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Just stop.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
It's crazy because what you don't realize is using crutch
words takes the same amount of time that it does
to just stop and think about what you want to
say next. It feels like an eternity right you say
you know or like or these certain things, because you
feel as though the amount of time from your last
(09:48):
word to the next word you're going to say is
so long, But it's really not. Once you realize that,
it's not a whole lot of time that lapses. Which,
by the way, if you're speaking and you're being interviewed,
they want to hear what you have to say, so
they'll wait, you know, if you take a little bit
of time, they'll wait. I'd rather you say I answered,
(10:09):
I speak slowly versus say I speak fast and say
like you know, in so many different crutch words during
the time that I'm speaking.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
So it was it was super effective. It did, it did.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
My mom did an excellent job, and she was an educator.
Three degree educator, you know, degrees from Central State, degrees
from Duquesne University, very well educated and very very very
skilled at teaching. And she did a great job with
teaching me how to speak. Because if you would have
hurt me in the eighth from from third grade to
(10:43):
eighth grade, ninth grade, if you'd have hurt me speak,
you'd have been like, dude, I had as much Pittsburgh
slang as you could possibly have in terms of speaking.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So also, something your dad mentioned about the be yourself.
If you're yourself, you got nothing to worry about as
far as having stage fright or public speaking or anything
like that. It's the same thing as tying your shoes.
If it's natural, you don't remember doing it. If you've
done it so much that just becomes part of the
(11:17):
day and it becomes natural. You don't remember. Oh you
tire your shoes yesterday. Yeah, but I don't remember. I
just did it. Like, once you learn it, it becomes a
natural action.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
And so when you're.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Talking about such an exhilarating experience when you first learned, to.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Tell you, I got arrogant about it too. I went
double knots. I still go double knots just to show people. Okay,
it's the bunny ere wrap it around. Just my ass.
I'm doing it twice. I just learned this. Yeah, it's
like learning how to cook. What are you gonna make
grilled cheese? Grilled cheese? My ass?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Watch this, I'm doing double please.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Man.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Once you learn how to do it, you just let
it fly.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
But yeah, to his point, if it's natural, you don't
think about it and you're not worried about what the
reaction is going to be, you just do it because
that's just your natural action at that best.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
So that's right, big mic, big mic, big mic shots out,
the big mic.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
It is two pros and a cup of Joey or
Fox Sports Radio. By the way, if you're wondering, hey,
guys gonna talk about the NBA Finals, No, there was none. Yeah,
they wanted to wait an extra day. Yeah, we got
to wait another day. Yeah, and to get a to
get a game five in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So that was a tremendous miss.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
By the way, I can't like in my mind, I'm
looking at all the people that are out looking at
televisions and sitting around and celebrating dance like that is
the perfect time. That's the perfect holiday to have a
sports event. You're celebrating men, They're going to want to
do what they want to do. Most men want to
(12:54):
watch sports even if they're out to eat.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So which about a way.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
I had a burger from UH the Fieldhouse yesterday here
at Top Trees and State College, PA. They say it's
like the most legendary signature type of burger you could
get in and around these parts. At least it did
not disappoint.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
It did.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
And I mean, when I tell you, it blows away
that sandwich we had in UH in Arizona.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Is it a smash burger?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
It was not a smash burger.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
But they take they take like they take chuck, they
take surline, they take uh what.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Else is it?
Speaker 5 (13:31):
There's there's like three different types of meat that they
take and they they press them, they escape, process them,
they press them and put them together in the morning
hand prepare bro bro. And then they had these these
sweet potato fries. I don't know, it's the devil whatever
it is they put on.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
You, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Man?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Look here, I felt myself go up five pounds yesterday.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, and I knew. I knew it was going to
be a long week. It's going to be a long
week for me.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well listen, it's going to be a fun show here
as we guide you all the way up until nine
am Eastern time, six o'clock Pacific, we are going to
have the usual.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yes here, the NBA missed Jonas. Yeah, they should have
been a game yesterday.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Like you had an opportunity. Man, to your point, everybody's
watching or everybody's hanging out. They're looking for something to
sink their teeth into, and instead they decide, now we.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Need watch powerlifting. Yeah, we were sitting there watching powerlifting
take place.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
They got into it too, like.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Dangcause you're looking for anything to watch.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So yeah, we was married to her. How many kilograms?
Four hundred and fifty kilograms.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yes, be sure to catch live editions of two pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Lee've got issues?
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Oh geez, I don't even ask about that. I don't
even play around with that that stuff no more. I'm
not playing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Save that one for today. I didn't want to send
that on a Father's day. Check what Lee found him?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I don't know if this I don't know if this
woman was on the the S S two C with
Stefan Diggs. But uh, Lee found found a woman dancing
on a boat somewhere on the water. And I just
felt like there was a couple of things missing from
the from the video that we saw. Come on, what
(15:51):
do you not?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Hear me out? I don't see this. I don't see
that after Jonas's now hear me out. I don't see
what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Here. I'll help you out, yeah, Lee, So so what
what do you what do you want to hear out?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Lee?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
How do you want to explain this whole new uh
meaning to the word spinner? Yep, good call, that's a
good call. I will figure out a way to get
a get LeVar up on game. When it comes to Uh,
comes to the lease. Uh, Lee's late is fine, But
(16:31):
we'll just put it this way. Social media is a
wild place at times. The things that you see with
the invention of the camera phone and the camera video.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Completely over. It's a scary place, bro, it is.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
It's a scary place because people are really people are
really out here.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
To get you.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
You know, I'll talking to my son like these younger dudes,
dudes and younger people out here, they're understanding it. They're
starting to understand it more now as well. It's like
you can't. It's so interesting. It's like, Wow, technology opens
you up to this brave, new, interesting world of entertainment
(17:18):
and education. You have so many things right at your fingertips,
like immediately, like things that that you would have never
dreamed of or imagined of when we were growing up.
And for all of the positives that are connected to
all of this this technology, I mean, the the scary
things of it, the scary parts of it are crazy
(17:42):
because you know, I did this thing on on and
just to test my theory, I did this. I did
these social media posts same days they were, they were
weeks apart, same exact content, same exact pictures, same exact
It's the same exact thing with the same message on
(18:02):
both of them, except one.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Starts with.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
It starts with a very very dark type of narrative.
The other one goes straight into positivity right from the
jump it's positive. From the other jump it's negative. I
got almost seven hundred thousand views. I got crazy, crazy
(18:29):
amounts of comments on the one that starts off dark
and not positive before it gets to the positive, and
people are like, not even putting in context, you know.
So both had the same message, but the context was
maybe it was taken out of context because of the
(18:53):
way one of them started. It's the same thing with
everything that's going on with all of this technology, right,
context can be lost so quickly, and to think if
that context catches on, you could get canceled, like and
I don't know then you don't know if there's any
(19:15):
coming back from that, because companies aren't going to invest
in somebody that's uninvestable, and so you put yourself in
so many like there's there's so many things that you
have to be aware of in today's technology, in this culture,
because people be really out here to get you, Like
(19:35):
they'll see something and they'll take that and they'll use
that and they'll try to use it against you, which
is pretty evil. Like, I feel like social media has
truly exposed how evil people truly are. Like you don't
have to be a flat out like criminal to be
an evil person, like some of you people out there,
(19:56):
y'all are some evil hearted people.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Men or it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's the old adage. Yeah, there's a hammer. It can
be used as a tool or a weapon. How do
you choose you go? How do you choose? Like, which
which end do you want to go with? I mean,
that's that's just that's that's the way it's turned into.
So yeah, it's uh, it is a wild place, especially
right now in today's climate with all the other stuff
(20:20):
going on, So tread carefully.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Hey, but with that being said, But with that being said,
lead the Lap definitely needs to stay the hell away
from from anything that could be taken out of context,
because it really is within context. No, I haven't, I don't.
I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Just click the link.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I don't see it. Just nothing came through.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
You're talking about what you sent with the line on
the top of the cocktail.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
No, not that, dear old, and I want to make
sure this.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, that's all I see. We just will take care
of time, make sure I see it. Yeah, I did
get it. I can't see it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Well, I do know this. It is two pros and
a cup of Joe. Here on Fox Sports Radio. It
is black and Drag. Here Jonas Knox Arrington taking you
all the way up until nine am Eastern time, six
o'clock Pacific. Now, somebody who's always in the news because
he's a member of the Dallas Cowboys. He's a quarterback
for the Dallas Cowboys is one Dak Prescott. And Dak
(21:30):
Prescott was asked over the weekend. Hey, listen, what about
winning a Super Bowl? What about winning a Super Bowl?
How would you feel about that? Let's take a listen.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I want to win a championship.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
The legacy, the things, whatever comes after I've finished plan,
we'll take care of itself.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Be damned.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
If it's just for my legacy or for it's for
this teams, for my personal being, for my sanity. Yeah,
the legacy will take care of itself. I have to
stay with my feet.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
On, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I'd like to defend Dak Prescott here just for well,
and I want to just be clear about something. He's
never gonna win a Super Bowl, Like that's that's not happening. Okay,
So look, but well I'm just I just want to.
(22:15):
I just I just want to. I just want to
make this point. Like listen, He's like, so those dreams
are done. It's like I really wanted to play in
the NBA when I was a kid, and then I realized.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I was white.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, you know what I mean. Like then all of
a sudden, I cleaned my mirror with some windex and
I was like, oh damn, I got no shot.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
It's like, although you got a white boys ball, like
you guys a white boys.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, so I can assure you there was no white
boy ball in my backyard.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
That happened at your house.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So I just sort of realized, Okay, well is what
it is. So let's try and find the positives. So
Dad Prescott's never going to win a Super Bowl with
the Cowboys. It's never going to happen. And I say,
this is somebody who is actually in recent memory picked
the Cowboys to win a Super Bowl. It's over. That
ship has sailed. You can't even that ship is so
far gone. You can't even see it if you look
(23:12):
out far enough, binoculars, whatever you want to use, it's over.
But there is a positive to all this, all right,
because I feel like their best chance to win a
super Bowl is twenty sixteen. That was his rookie year.
That was Zeke's rookie year. Everything was set up for him.
They had a home game in the playoffs, they had
the Packers, and Mason Crosby and Aaron Rodgers and Mike
(23:34):
McCarthy ruined all that, and that was really their best
chance to win a super Bowl. And we've seen what's
happened since. But here's the good thing, legacy or not.
If Dak Prescott plays out the remainder of his deal
with the Dallas Cowboys by thirty five years old, he
will have earned around four hundred and thirty six million
(23:58):
dollars in his career. The Super Bowl can kiss my ass, goog.
Look the Lombardi Trophy. Hey, you guys have fun with that.
I'll take my near half billion dollars in earnings as
a Dallas Cowboys quarterback, and I'm good with my legacy. Like,
forget about super Bowls. The guy's already won. He is
already one. He is good to go. Deal with the criticism.
(24:20):
He's just gonna keep cashing checks for the rest of
his life.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
You know, I think once people comprehend and realize and
I listen, I understand this.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Whole fear market value deal.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
We had the conversation about Hendrickson and him getting compensated
more but based upon his ability to get to the
quarterback and lead in the league in sacks. But just
like in this scenario here what you're talking about, you
start to realize when you're not playing the game of football,
there's very few of us that transition into another gig
(24:56):
that pays the amount of money you make playing the game.
And I mean, like you could be you could be
making really really good money in your post career life
and it doesn't compare to what you were making when
you were playing playing the game of football. And so
(25:17):
to me, it's like when all else fails, I'm not
wasting a year. It's just me just just on the
other side of knowing that. And listen, I like to work,
So it's not that I need to. It's like I
just like to work and I like doing media. But
still the idea of being able to generate, make a
(25:39):
lot of money, do well for yourself, and and a
profession that you're in.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Man, the lowest.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Paid cats in the league are highest paid cats in
regular society. The lowest paids, you know, the minimum wage guys,
they are They are pretty well compensated. It's not crazy money.
But when you hear money like this, what Dak Prescott
has made and has been able to be able.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
To earn, you know, it's just.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You're proud of the fact that athletic ability can actually
lead to you generating that type of income. And I
take that at face value. I say, when somebody's able
to get to a contract like that, it would be
nice to have a legacy where you're remembered as a
Hall of Famer or one of the greatest ever. But
(26:34):
make no mistake about it, Like you said, Jonas, I'll
be just fine hanging out poolside beachside with my toes
in the sand, doing what I want to do, if
that's what I so choose want to do, you know,
in my post career or even during my career. So
you know, it's a lot of money, and there's a
(26:56):
lot of reasons to be happy even if you don't
get to the pinnacle of the sport.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Like, think about it this way. So he's thirty five,
We'll just fast forward. He's thirty five years old and
some Jay Off and a Cowboys jersey starts, you know,
giving him the business talking about, oh, you never won
a Super Bowl. You were disappointment, We should have done more, this, this, this,
(27:22):
and this. Like if you're Dak Prescott, you just look
at this guy and go, dude, I'm not even forty
yet and I've literally got four hundred plus million dollars
in the bank. By the way, that's just careering, salary wise, endorsements, marketing.
And he's a Cowboys quarterback. You know what that means
on the back end of his career. We've seen what's
(27:44):
happened with Cowboys quarterbacks going into broadcasting, former Cowboys players
going into broadcasting. So this idea of well, you know,
his legacy and what does this mean for Dak moving forward?
The reality is they're not winning a Super Bowl while
he's there, And I don't put that necessarily all on him.
(28:05):
There's a lot going on. There's always chaos. It seems
like there's always dysfunction. The way they handle the McCarthy
stuff the way they handle some of their other contracts.
If you're Dak Prescott, okay, sweet, I didn't want a
super Bowl. Okay, you know what A so so Nick
Foles has won a super Bowl. All these other guys
that want a super Bowl. I've never been to a
super Bowl. Okay, cool, I'm fine. If I want to,
(28:28):
I'll just go buy a super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Look, maybe I'll never go to the Hall of Fame.
I could probably buy the Hall of Fame if I
wanted to, I could probably buy.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I can't your point, to your point, there's probably more
than enough dude you could shake a stick at and
they would trade the Hall of Fame for Dak Prescott's
earning one hundred Hey, do you still want to be
in the Hall of Fame or would you trade it
(28:59):
for four hundred mili? I mean, how many of them
dudes you think are in the Hall of Fame. That'd
be like, uh, take that bus, melt it down, shove
it up your you know what, I'm taking the money,
you know. And there's some guys, now, listen, there are
some guys that are truly prideful. And there's not a
(29:20):
price tag. You can't put a price tag on accomplishment.
You you really can't, especially when it's it's something that
you've done in your past. So there's something to be
said about living in a place. And I know this
because I'm in the College Football Hall of Fame. There's
something to be said about creating a legacy, creating memories
(29:44):
that your family that you will never meet in the future.
You'll never meet them. You will be long gone, you'll
be far gone from here, but somebody will be saying,
that's your great great great great granddad. You know that
that was he did. He did that, So to me,
there's value there. But damn four hundred million.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Listen, I got news for you.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I'm gonna have to think about it. I'm gonna have
to think about it.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
Like, hey, great great great great great great unborn grandchild.
Just know, great great great great great great granddad was
really good at football. And if you don't, don't worry
about it. But you know that that car that you're driving,
that Tonka truck that you have, that came from the
trust fund from your great great great great great great
(30:31):
great granddad that set it up for somebody that was
along the way along the line to getting to you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Listen. I don't look. I don't know my great great
great granddad. I never met him. He might have been
an alcoholic. I have no idea, but I know this,
but if he was a Hall of Famer, I'd be like, man,
that's awesome. Can I get a hundred bucks? I mean,
can I get some cash please? You know, I'd like
to pay my bills, Like, can I get some money?
(30:57):
So yeah, I just I think sometimes sometimes and to
your point on this, I think sometimes we get lost
in this. Well, he's got to he's got to win this.
He's got to do that first. It's like, no man
like the idea that you can play a kid's game
and walk away from it, hopefully with all your faculties
(31:18):
and with the amount of comfort that you're able to
live with not only for you, but all the people
everybody in your orbit, all the family members, the people
that struggled with you coming up. That's a win, man, Like,
that's your super Bowl in reality. As much as people
don't like it, that's what it is. In my mind.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
You start to realize that when you're not making it anymore.
Every once in a while, I'll be looking at my
my like my check stubs and stuff like that. I'd
be like, WTF. I remember a time I looked at
that stub and I just kept going zero zero zero
(31:57):
zero zero. Now it's like there, Damn, that's it.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
That was it. That was it.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Hey, this printer run at ink O.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Heay be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We are going to catch up with Michael Rubin, the
Fanatics CEO, who's going to be joining us here in
just a couple of moments from now. Lots to talk
to him about, including Fanatics Fest, which is a giant
event that is taking place. We'll give you all the
details and all the information on that. But anybody who's
shopped for sports apparel online over the last X amount
(32:52):
of years, you've probably done it on Fanatics. I mean,
like their growth and their reach is incredible, what they've
done and what they've been able to do. And right
now joining us here is Michael Rubin, the Fanatic CEO. Michael,
thanks so much for the time. Good morning to you.
Speaker 7 (33:07):
Absolutely, what's happening, guys?
Speaker 4 (33:08):
How you doing good? We are good.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I wanted to ask you this because I was just
mentioning anybody who's bought you know, sports apparel or anything
over the last X amount of years has probably done
it through fanatics. The reach, the growth that you guys
have seen is amazing. But going back to the early days,
because you've been successful with a lot of things that
you've done throughout the course of your career, and we're
going to touch on fanatics vests as well too, but
(33:32):
what did the early struggles look like for you when
you were trying to build something and get to this point?
What was what were those days like for you?
Speaker 7 (33:42):
Well, first, I want to say, I feel like I'm
still building a startup even though today we're twenty two
thousand people in a pretty global business. We kind of
act on the start. We stay paranoid, we stay hungry,
we stay humble. But for me, like I'm fifty two now,
I've been at this since I've been eight years old,
so forty four years. I mean, I've had a thousand
epic failures. You know, That's part of life, man, that's
(34:02):
part of going different When you play sports, you know, Yeah,
you run into a wall. Things don't go the way
you want to. And that's been my journey. Man. I
almost went bankrupted sixteen hundreds of thousands of dollars, had
creditors shown up at my house every day, and you know,
to me, each one of those, you know, kind of
near death experiences that you know, I think I've had
(34:24):
up until maybe fifteen years ago, all night to the
next the next success.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Hey, what's up, Mike gets LeVar here man first and foremost,
crazy crazy man happy, Uh, excited to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I'm doing real well. Uh.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
First and foremost, I'm hurt that I haven't received the
invite to one of them white parties. By the way,
I have such a white suit that is very nice.
Uh shameless plug on on getting an invite.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Uh. Second of all, I had a few of those
during this process. But you know, you got to really
be in training for that, Like you've got to be
strong and high, great endurance, the thirteen hour party with realcy.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
What you're made of.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
I mean, I don't know you well enough to know
whether you're built for that party.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yes, dang well, I'll say this.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
You do know Michael Parsons and and well, I played up,
played a pretty good played a pretty good role and
making sure that he was in good enough condition when
when y'all ended up finally uh meeting and making acquaintance,
you know, you know, the whole Stick City family. You know,
I'll come bring the Stick City to the Sticks party,
(35:32):
you know, with the Ruben deal.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
But anyways, that was a personal moment.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
I just wanted to talk to Mike Rubin and say that,
you know, it felt kind of good actually, but uh,
talk to me about what what you got going on.
I mean, you have been able to really kind of
diversify and what it is that you're doing from content.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Offerings to the apparel.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
It's like you have figured out how to to really
be able to capture different categories and different silos of
you know, revenue streams. Just talk a little bit about
what went into the thought process and the evolution of
what Fanatics has represented.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
Sure, well, I think really what we desire to do
is take care of the sports fan with everything they
need digitally. And that's you know, we've really spent the
first decade focused on our fanguar business. We call it
finax commerce. It's what a lot of people know it's
the you know, we own fourteen hundred lid stores with
the flagship Fanatics website, we operate you know, many of
(36:38):
the leagues and teams, individual e commerce businesses and when
we've still got a lot to go there, I think
four or five years ago we realized that we could
really really re imagine the company's and digital sports platform.
And since then we've launched our entire collectibles and trading
card business, and we've launched our betting and gaming business.
And I think in everything we do, we start with
(36:58):
the fan and say how do we make to better
for the fan. Now, that doesn't mean we've always got
it right. Sometimes we've now that we've knocked out of
the park. At other times, you know that we've got
to keep working to be better and better, you know,
in the bet in the gaming business. As an example,
when we launched we launched a better value proposition, we said,
how do we make this better for a fan? And
you know example that was like we went out and said, look,
(37:20):
we're going to give fan cash, which is basically free
money back and every time you bet. So next year
we're going to grant about more than a billion dollars
of fan cash, and you can use that to make
other bets, to buy merchandise, to buy cards, to buy tickets,
to go to lids, to go to tops, and so
that was really popular, and we said that wasn't enough.
Just that alone wasn't enough. We also want to make
(37:41):
sure if any player got hurt during the fresh quarter,
we take the player out of the player prop bet,
And so we had hundreds of thousands of bets that
would have lost that would have won. The reason I'm
telling you this it was like the mindset of saying,
we don't want to be just another sports book. We
want to make it better for the fan. In the
collectibles business, we said, what are the problems we got
to sell?
Speaker 4 (38:00):
We have people talking.
Speaker 7 (38:01):
About, you know, huge redemptions that's like an io you
on a card, like if you to sign your card,
then you owe to the customer, and there are hundreds
and of thousands of redemptions. They're outstanding. There hadn't been
a lot of marketing, a lot of product innovation, so
everything we're doing is around how do we make better
for the fan. But today we have three primary businesses.
We have our fan gear business, our collectible and trading
cards business, and our sports betting and eye game of business.
(38:23):
And look, we've grown a lot. We were two hundred
and fifty million dollars in two thousand and we know
when I bought the company back in twenty eleven, it
will be close to twelve billion dollars next year. But
we still feel like a startup. We still feel like
we're just getting started. That's what's so exciting for me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Michael Rubin, Fanatic CEO, with us here on Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, Jonas NOx with you here on FSR. What's
been the most difficult part of your growth that you
look at and go this has been the hardest part.
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Yeah. First of all, I think a lot of things
are like we grind every day, like people always think.
You see things like our Super Bowl party of the
White Party, and I was like, oh man, Mike Wolban's
got the most fun life. And by the way, I
do have the most fun life. But where I spend
my time, it's working seventeen hours a day at the business.
It's not like you know, it's not like what someone
(39:12):
may see on Instagram or imagine. I mean, this is
really about grind now, it's no different than like, you know,
Tom Brady wants seven super Bowls, but that guy grinded
harder than anybody in the planet to get those seven
super Bowls. So you know, we're grinding every day. I say,
probably the most difficult thing is when you go from
one business to three businesses to make sure that you've
got so many competitors that are trying to, you know,
(39:33):
kill you, make it make it hard for you. But
I like that. I'd say if I did the one
most difficult difficult thing, it's Fanatics Fest. I mean, that's
what we're in the middle of right now. We're going
to launch fanatics Fest. It starts this Friday, goes for
three days. We're going to have more than one hundred
thousand fans come to the Javit Center that we took
over in the middle of New York City. And this
is a first of a kind sports festival. But what's
(39:55):
hard is getting every sport in the world to show
up at Fanatic Fest. To get I think we have
more than three hundred athletes, celebrities, artists, the biggest people
in the world coming to this. So you've got like
people like Jay Z and Travis Scott. You've got in basketball,
Wemby lebron kd Kat James Harden All coming in football.
(40:18):
We moved this from August last year to June so
we could have all the activant of all players, Guys
like Michael Parsons, your boy, who, by the way, he's
been talking a lot of smack about how he's winning
the financial games and taking the million dollars. We got
to see what he's made up. But you've got half
the NFL starting quarterbacks there this year. You've got Russell Wilson,
Jaden Daniels, Taylor Williams, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, you got
(40:42):
Brady Back. You've got so many, you know, the top
receivers here. So you know, I think just polling together
three hundred athletes, artists, celebrities all one place, all the
sports together, that is without question the hardest thing that
we do. But so we woudy when you see fans
that if they leave in tears, they're so happy they that,
(41:02):
you know, generations of a family coming together and having
such a great time. So for me, that's probably the
number one hardest thing I do. But we're grinders to start.
Speaker 5 (41:10):
With, How are you able to do it, Mike, Like,
I'm just listening to you know what the fest is
going to represent. There's a ton of money involved that
the fans can win. They get that opportunity to do
things that only you could dream of, which is have
the you know, chance to compete against guys like for me.
You know, I think the next thing you gotta do,
(41:31):
you gotta get uh, you gotta get magnus. You know,
you gotta do like a chess tournament. I won't play
madness and chess, you know what I mean. But that's
that's a whole nother story you are able to want.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
Right now, I don't want to get any details, but
there might be a chess surprise.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Of course we're going to tell you that.
Speaker 7 (41:49):
I'm not going to give you any more details, but
expect the internet to break Internet to buy fight Friday
or Saturday when you see a little chess stunk going on.
We got one up our already.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
You've got that sarcasm. I know that that it has
to be sarcasm.
Speaker 7 (42:07):
And by the way, Michael Parsons is actually part of it.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
Okay, Okay, well then now I do know it's true
because I definitely we definitely play each other.
Speaker 7 (42:17):
Uh, I'm going against them, by the way, just because
I love against Mike in general. It's generally a fun
thing for me to do.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
So it is going to be a test master that
he's going to play a Graham. That's pretty dope. Uh.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
How do you do it?
Speaker 5 (42:32):
How?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
How do you pull all of it?
Speaker 5 (42:34):
You talk about how hard it is, it's so many
moving pieces just to deal with a handful of celebrities,
a handful of athletes.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
How are you able to pull all of these people
together the way that you do?
Speaker 5 (42:50):
How are you able to pull together the plan where
you can monetize it in a way where the fans
not only get an experience, but actually really have an
opportunity to cash in on it.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
How how do you do it? Like? Is it your team?
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Is it conceptually from you? Are you more of a
process guy? Is it more visionary? How do you pull
together a fest like this where it offers all of
the elements and celebrities that it does.
Speaker 7 (43:18):
Look, it's a great question. I think the first thing
you need to do is dream You got a dream bag? Okay?
And for me, we were The idea for finac Fest
came from is I had gone to so many music festivals.
I had been to south By Southwest, I had been
to Comic Con. And then in the trading card business,
(43:41):
you have these trading card shows which I'd growing up
as a kid going to, and they got a really
big one called the National, which is incredible from the
quantity of people they get, but hasn't really evolved a
lot in the last thirty or forty years. And so
from my perspective, I said, why don't sports fans have
a sports festival? Like I don't get it doesn't make sense.
So many other industries have this, and so I'm just based, like,
(44:02):
we're doing this, and I had no fear whether it
would work or not. So you know, I went out.
I got the guy who kind of ran comic on
New York and he joined the acts and we were like, hey,
we're gonna do the same thing that they do in
Comic Con in sports. And you know, the reality is
if I keep this real. Three weeks before the first
one last year, I'm like, how do I get myself
into this? This is a disaster. It's so hard, like
(44:24):
do we really want to do this? Because you're pulling
out every you know, favor. You have to just bring
everyone together. But then you're like sports fans deserve it,
Like we got to do this, like push through. It's
no different than I'm sure you in the peak of
some of your you know, craziest moments. You know, you
don't know it's going to be, just you find a
way to win. And that's what we did. We have
seventy thousand people come to first year, and people absolutely
(44:46):
loved it, Like I can't tell you that the great
feelings that everyone had seen, all these happy fans, and
you know, for me, that was the motivation we needed.
So this year we came back. We said, you know,
we got to make it better. We got to fix
all the things it working. By the way, first year,
lots of stuff weren't wrong, like our autograph and photo
lines were a disaster the way we set up the
(45:08):
first year. We went back and we re envisioned the
entire thing, and you know, like this year it's going
to be so much bigger, so much better. We're taking
over the entire ability and a million squaret feet again.
You've got when you think about bringing like you know,
Jay Z and Trapp, Kevin Hard, you know, all the
starting quarterbacks. I rattled off you know lebron kd James Harden, Wemby,
(45:34):
all these guys in the same place, a Rod, Derek Cheeter,
you know, top top wrestlers, Cody Rhodes, John Cena, all
these guys together. It does take a ton, but look,
we've got a great team and we've just got a
commitment to making sure we make this as good as
we can. But we're never satisfied. Like I'm walking through
this thing from before it opens every day after closes.
(45:56):
I'm getting feedback from fans figuring out what we can
do better. And we love it. It's like a total
gid byck fivate. We lost lots of money on it
the first time we did it. We still losing money
this year on it. But it's a great marketing moment
for Finax. We show up in a great way. And
when you own the Internet for the weekend, and we're
going to own social media, not I think just on
brire Sight on Sunday, but I think we're going to
(46:17):
own it for the week because we have so many
incredible moments coming. That's also a fun thing for us
to do.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
You can find more information at Fanaticsfest dot com. It's
coming up this weekend June twentieth to the twenty second
at the Javit Center in New York City. As mentioned,
I mean, I'm looking through the roster.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
There's not a.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
League that doesn't have a representative. There's i mean the
number of Hall of Famers, world champions, etc. That are
going to be there this weekend. Awesome event. Again, Michael
Rubin Fanatics CEO. You can get him on x at
Michael Rubin and go to fanaticsfest dot com for more
information on the event. Cannot thank you enough man, Congratulations
(46:55):
on all your success and looking forward to this week
and that'll be fun.
Speaker 7 (46:59):
I appreciate you. Thanks so much for having me. I
look forward to.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
There he is, Michael Rubin with us here on Fox
Sports Radio. You just look at the number of like
we will go to Super Bowl events and you'll see
a ton of celebrities and you'll see a ton of
people at these certain events. If you just go through
the roster of superstars that are going to be there,
they did seventy thousand people as you mentioned last year.
(47:26):
They've got all that. But like you asked him of Ar,
like how do you pull it off? It just it
goes to show you like when people tell you, man
father times undefeated. No, no, no, hard work's undefeated. If
you work your ass off, you can accomplish a lot.
And he's worked his ass off and he's grown a
business exponentially over the past number of years.
Speaker 4 (47:47):
Phenomenal. That's a great point.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
And he's yeah he does, and people rock with him, man,
and listen that that that whole that's interesting because me
and Micah play chess like that's that's our thing, is
playing chess. I used to really like bowling until I
broke my wrist. That would have been interesting. Yeah, right,
but yeah, I did used to bowl bowl quite a bit,
(48:10):
but I always have loved chess.
Speaker 4 (48:13):
So I think he's going to play.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
I think he's going to play somebody like that would
be crazy if he played like Caspar Roth or or Magnuson.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Didn't know, Magnets just lose.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
They just lost.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah, he got upset. I think it was like, was
it like a big upset or something like that.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
It was a big one. Yeah, it was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Yeah, Like I was good. I'm not really much of
a chess guy. It's too easy. I prefer checkers, big
checkers guy. Connect four. You want to get you want
to get that work, you can come find me and
connect for something along those lines. But when it comes
to chess, chess, yeah, it's just too weak.
Speaker 5 (48:44):
Thing.
Speaker 4 (48:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (48:45):
I was on my way into to uh Pittsburgh. I
was playing playing his game on on h on my
flight and it only goes up to fifteen you know.
So I'm playing and a fifteen year old Magnus and
I was close. I was coming close, and I just
(49:07):
couldn't beat them. Oh you fifteen year old fifteen year
old level.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
So you can play different levels of him in the game.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
I'll whoop his ass at what is it, five years old?
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Oh yeah, whoop his ass, damn.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
But I go up to the hardest level I go
up to.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
He was actually qualifying to go to the World's and
compete and for a world championship, a world title at fifteen.
Speaker 4 (49:38):
So dude is a He's a phenom.
Speaker 5 (49:41):
Like I mean when you say phenom, like literally like
people like him, the things that they're able to do,
the way they're able to see the board, the way
they're able to understand what moves are because and chess,
a lot of it is memorization. People don't realize that.
But it's memorization, like if somebody moves here, here are
here are the right moves to make. If somebody moves there,
(50:03):
here's the right move, and so on and so forth.
You can almost like kind of depending on somebody's approach
their style to playing, you can memorize a lot of
the game and so based off of the move pattern.
And so it takes somebody that's really good to be
able to get somebody to have to make their own
(50:24):
moves based off of thinking versus off of memorization of
if this, if the board looks like this, if the
person moves here, if they do this, this is what
you do. Like it's kind of it's just a crazy game. Man,
it's a crazy game because you got to be almost
like a computer, you know, like Magnus was playing a game.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
I watched this ares a documentary on him. He did.
Speaker 5 (50:50):
He played like sixteen professors or ten professors at Harvard
back like facing the opposite direction of them, blindfolded. He
wasn't even looking at the boards.
Speaker 4 (51:04):
He had to.
Speaker 5 (51:05):
He had it memorized so well. He could give you
the court and it's make the moves, and he made
it all of them Harvard Harvard professors, like legal guys,
just just very very intelligent people. He made it, all
of them blindfolded, not even looking at the board, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
So he asked him to throw football and he would
go into convulsions.
Speaker 4 (51:27):
Oh well yeah, yeah, you know, you smack him up. Now,
she smack.
Speaker 5 (51:33):
Him body slamming, you know what I mean? You No, No,
he's a type of he's smart. He might fly away
or something.
Speaker 4 (51:41):
No, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Man, he's got he's got propellers. He's got a propeller.
Speaker 4 (51:45):
He might fly away. Bro.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
He's like, he's like the kid from Goonies who's always
got like a weapon on he's got he's got a
boxing glove.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
On the.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
Gi What was his name? Gizmo was a guy from Kremlin. Yeah, yeah,
but his his name was something like that. Yeah. Data data, data,
data data, that's it. Wow, I want a nerd.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!