August 29, 2025 • 9 mins
Two-time Emmy award-winning actor Eric Stonestret, a passionate fan of both the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs, reveals how a single phone call turned him into part owner of the Royals and how he will never miss a home game at Arrowhead Stadium. He fondly remembers getting season tickets with his dad and the enjoyment he found playing the “Randy Reed” character. The Modern Family star also talks about his friendship with NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, and, of course, Graham makes sure to get his thoughts on the relationship between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey everybody, it's Graham and it's Friday, which means today
we get to bring you another trending clip this week, Eric
Stonestreet. The clip you're about to hear is
trending on our Instagram right now.
Hope you enjoy. How do you become part owner of
the Royals? That happened because the Royals
sold and I thought, well, I'll just make a phone call and see.
(00:24):
In literally it was like you pursued it.
Right. Yeah.
I just had a friend get me Mr. Sherman's number and I just
said, you know, any interest? And he said sure, So jumped in
and it's just, you know, just for legacy.
I mean, it's generational. It's like, when am I, when are
you ever going to get to have say you have any ownership or
(00:47):
participation in any kind of professional sports team?
So I just thought it was an opportunity to take advantage of
when it happened. What do you think of the stadium
stuff that's going on? You know, it's, it's, it's rough
because I get both sides. I, I being from Kansas City, I
know how much people love going to the K out in the middle of
(01:09):
nowhere in the Sports Complex. I get it.
I also get that Mister Sherman and the ownership group thinks
that downtown baseball is, is the is the right answer.
You know, people complained about when we got a new airport
in Kansas City because everyone loved the old airport.
And now it's like, oh man, we have bathrooms at our airport.
We have restaurants at our airport.
(01:30):
My point is, is they have to find a way to do it and I'm no
part of that. Like it's, you know, I'm a dumb
actor. I'm going to support the Royals
and Chiefs no matter where they are in the metro.
First time in this interview yousound like a politician.
Right, because there is there. There is no answer I can have
(01:52):
that's going to satisfy anyone. And here's the good news is I'm
a fan. My opinion doesn't necessarily
hold any more weight than anyoneelse that goes to the games.
I love the Kansas City Chiefs, Ilove the Kansas City Royals, and
I will support them with whatever the people that are
getting paid and elected figure out where they exist.
(02:16):
You said there aren't many places that make you happier
than Arrowhead Stadium. You have a suite, I think right
above where you used to have season tickets and you're at
pretty much every. Every home game.
I don't miss every home game or I don't.
We don't miss a home game. Yeah, those season tickets stem
from me being homesick from school one day when I was in
(02:36):
school or in high school and calling my dad or junior high, I
think, and saying can we get season tickets to the Chiefs?
They just advertised there's a no alcohol section and I knew
that would interest him because his problem was with his sort of
temper. He didn't want to go and put
himself in situations where he was dealing with some kind of a
drunk because it he might throw fists.
(02:58):
That's just how it was. And so I was like, well, there's
just no alcohol section. And he got us two season tickets
and we sat right down on the 2ndrow section, 1:30 or 1:31, I
can't remember what it is right on the aisle and our suite is
right above it. Most fun you've ever had with
the Randy Reed character? Randy Reed, younger brother of
head coach Andy Reed, reporting for camp.
(03:20):
The Patrick Mahomes prank thing.That's again where I walk up to
Patrick and say, hey, just pretend like I, you know, there
was a bug in your room. And I set that all up.
Did you hear what I did to Patrick?
No. What did you do to him?
I put a little cricket thing in his room last night, goes off
every 10 minutes. Like a bug or something in my
(03:40):
room making noise the entire night.
Cicada, leave the window open. I, I don't, I don't know, like I
think, I think it's an event, no.
It's like a little like, almost like a cricket.
He just came up to me and said no, I think there's still like
some type of insect in my room. And Coach Reed given me the
access he gives me, which the only rule is don't get ahead of
(04:01):
us on the field, meaning when they're running plays, I can't
be here. I can be back here, but I can't
be here. Only rule.
Thank you, Coach Reed. And you guys have kind of become
buddies. He's the best.
If you told 16 year old Eric that I was friends with the
general manager of the Chiefs and the head coach of the
Chiefs, he just wouldn't believeit.
And can't, I can't say enough good things about Brett Beach,
the general manager of the Chiefs.
(04:22):
He's a great human being, a great guy and he's the one that
said we got to we'll get coach on board and you do that.
But Randy Reed's retired now. How often do you text with Roger
Goodell? More than people would imagine.
I give him. I like to give him.
OK, give me give me examples well.
You know, I'm not a fan of some of the rules in the NFL.
He to his credit, he always supports his officials.
(04:45):
He always supports the the rule of the game.
He's very knowledgeable on the rule of the game.
Shocking Lee so. Like how so?
If I if I make a comment about aa flag, he'll he'll he'll within
a minute. Tell me what the the rule?
Is. Oh, no way.
Oh 100% and if he doesn't he'll forward me on an e-mail to the
(05:11):
head official like that happened.
That happened not that long ago.Not a complaint but a general a
genuine question. Is it called a broken tackle?
If the running back burst into the end zone through a tackle,
is that a missed tackle? Just something that popped into
my head. I wanted to know the answer to
that. And he's like, great question.
I don't know the answer to that.And then he CC Ed me to the head
(05:35):
official and the head official gave me the whole dissertation
on what the rule was. I can't spout it off to you
right now, but I got the answer.What do you like about
Commissioner Goodell? You know, he doesn't care what
necessarily people think of him.I can't imagine being him and I
when I met him and got to know him as a person personally and
(05:59):
see how he treats people around him behind the scenes.
No cameras like Roger. Why do you let people think
you're such a like you're a niceperson, Like you're, you love
your wife, your wife and kids love you.
I love you. You're funny.
He busted my balls the first time, so he called me and
invited me to the Super Bowl because the girls were a fan of
(06:20):
Modern Family and and. You turned them down.
I turned them down. I said I'm not going to the
Super Bowl until the Chiefs are in it.
And he said OK, if you want to wait that long.
And I'm like, motherfucker, all right, I see how it is,
Commissioner. I called him commissioner and he
said if you call me commissioner, I'm going to call
you Coach Cam. And so I call him Roger and
listen, people have their opinion of him again, I'm I'm
(06:42):
going to I'm going to judge it how I see it.
And I feel like I'm a pretty decent judge of character.
You don't get to be as successful as he is and as good
at his job without making a whole lot of people mad and
doing a lot of things that people don't like without
question. But man to man, person to
person, how I see him interact with people around him, quality
individual, cares about his family, loves his family, nice
(07:06):
to me, wonderful to Lindsay. And that's how I'm going to
judge him. And you know, that's how I hope
somebody judges me. I can't let you out of here
without a Taylor and Travis perspective.
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for both of them because doesn't it
just seem like they're perfect for, I mean, honestly perfect
(07:28):
for each other? I've known Travis.
I'm not going to say we're best friends, but again, talking
about like my interactions with someone, I see him as such a
good quality human being based on how he treats my sister, how
he treats my mom, how he treats the boys, how I watch him
interact with people. I know what he is on a football
(07:49):
field. I know how much his teammates
love him. I know how much Brett Beach and
and Coach Reed love him and Taylor.
It's not easy to be with the most popular person in the
world, but if there is anyone who can do it and do it with
cool, it's Travis Kelsey becausehe is who he is all the time and
(08:12):
he's so confident in himself. He's such a quality, funny guy,
Funny guy. I had a very, I reminded him of
this when I saw him at in Vegas a couple weeks ago when I went
to training camp and I was doingthe Andy Randy Reed thing where
I was playing Coach Reed's brother.
I said, hey, Travis, you want improviser, I'm going to come up
to you and talk about Himalayan sea salt and you just roll with
(08:33):
me. But it's like, I'm just going to
say they've got Himalayan sea salt up in the cafeteria.
You put it on your vanilla ice cream.
He's like, all right, bro, yeah,let's roll.
And you watch that. And that's him just rolling with
the punches. I'm a pretty good improviser,
pretty good actor. And Travis is hanging right
there with me. And after that I told him, I
said, look, man, you're a small market team, I guess whatever
(08:55):
you want to say, because we weren't winning Super Bowls at
that point. It was the year we were going to
win our first Super Bowl. I said, but you got it.
You've got the you've got the gift.
You can do whatever you want to do when you're done with
football or during football, you're, you're talented.
Like for sure. I mean, I it not that it matters
that I think it, but I blessed him at that moment and said,
(09:16):
you're, you're awesome. You, you're natural.
And I, he's like, I totally remember that.
I, I totally remember you telling me that.
He's great. And why wouldn't you love Travis
Kelce if you're Taylor Swift? One quick thing before you
leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review.
Those go a really long way in helping us reach new listeners.
Hey everybody, it's Graham and it's Friday, which means today
we get to bring you another trending clip this week, Eric
Stonestreet. The clip you're about to hear is
trending on our Instagram right now.
Hope you enjoy. How do you become part owner of
the Royals? That happened because the Royals
sold and I thought, well, I'll just make a phone call and see.
(00:24):
In literally it was like you pursued it.
Right. Yeah.
I just had a friend get me Mr. Sherman's number and I just
said, you know, any interest? And he said sure, So jumped in
and it's just, you know, just for legacy.
I mean, it's generational. It's like, when am I, when are
you ever going to get to have say you have any ownership or
(00:47):
participation in any kind of professional sports team?
So I just thought it was an opportunity to take advantage of
when it happened. What do you think of the stadium
stuff that's going on? You know, it's, it's, it's rough
because I get both sides. I, I being from Kansas City, I
know how much people love going to the K out in the middle of
(01:09):
nowhere in the Sports Complex. I get it.
I also get that Mister Sherman and the ownership group thinks
that downtown baseball is, is the is the right answer.
You know, people complained about when we got a new airport
in Kansas City because everyone loved the old airport.
And now it's like, oh man, we have bathrooms at our airport.
We have restaurants at our airport.
(01:30):
My point is, is they have to find a way to do it and I'm no
part of that. Like it's, you know, I'm a dumb
actor. I'm going to support the Royals
and Chiefs no matter where they are in the metro.
First time in this interview yousound like a politician.
Right, because there is there. There is no answer I can have
(01:52):
that's going to satisfy anyone. And here's the good news is I'm
a fan. My opinion doesn't necessarily
hold any more weight than anyoneelse that goes to the games.
I love the Kansas City Chiefs, Ilove the Kansas City Royals, and
I will support them with whatever the people that are
getting paid and elected figure out where they exist.
(02:16):
You said there aren't many places that make you happier
than Arrowhead Stadium. You have a suite, I think right
above where you used to have season tickets and you're at
pretty much every. Every home game.
I don't miss every home game or I don't.
We don't miss a home game. Yeah, those season tickets stem
from me being homesick from school one day when I was in
(02:36):
school or in high school and calling my dad or junior high, I
think, and saying can we get season tickets to the Chiefs?
They just advertised there's a no alcohol section and I knew
that would interest him because his problem was with his sort of
temper. He didn't want to go and put
himself in situations where he was dealing with some kind of a
drunk because it he might throw fists.
(02:58):
That's just how it was. And so I was like, well, there's
just no alcohol section. And he got us two season tickets
and we sat right down on the 2ndrow section, 1:30 or 1:31, I
can't remember what it is right on the aisle and our suite is
right above it. Most fun you've ever had with
the Randy Reed character? Randy Reed, younger brother of
head coach Andy Reed, reporting for camp.
(03:20):
The Patrick Mahomes prank thing.That's again where I walk up to
Patrick and say, hey, just pretend like I, you know, there
was a bug in your room. And I set that all up.
Did you hear what I did to Patrick?
No. What did you do to him?
I put a little cricket thing in his room last night, goes off
every 10 minutes. Like a bug or something in my
(03:40):
room making noise the entire night.
Cicada, leave the window open. I, I don't, I don't know, like I
think, I think it's an event, no.
It's like a little like, almost like a cricket.
He just came up to me and said no, I think there's still like
some type of insect in my room. And Coach Reed given me the
access he gives me, which the only rule is don't get ahead of
(04:01):
us on the field, meaning when they're running plays, I can't
be here. I can be back here, but I can't
be here. Only rule.
Thank you, Coach Reed. And you guys have kind of become
buddies. He's the best.
If you told 16 year old Eric that I was friends with the
general manager of the Chiefs and the head coach of the
Chiefs, he just wouldn't believeit.
And can't, I can't say enough good things about Brett Beach,
the general manager of the Chiefs.
(04:22):
He's a great human being, a great guy and he's the one that
said we got to we'll get coach on board and you do that.
But Randy Reed's retired now. How often do you text with Roger
Goodell? More than people would imagine.
I give him. I like to give him.
OK, give me give me examples well.
You know, I'm not a fan of some of the rules in the NFL.
He to his credit, he always supports his officials.
(04:45):
He always supports the the rule of the game.
He's very knowledgeable on the rule of the game.
Shocking Lee so. Like how so?
If I if I make a comment about aa flag, he'll he'll he'll within
a minute. Tell me what the the rule?
Is. Oh, no way.
Oh 100% and if he doesn't he'll forward me on an e-mail to the
(05:11):
head official like that happened.
That happened not that long ago.Not a complaint but a general a
genuine question. Is it called a broken tackle?
If the running back burst into the end zone through a tackle,
is that a missed tackle? Just something that popped into
my head. I wanted to know the answer to
that. And he's like, great question.
I don't know the answer to that.And then he CC Ed me to the head
(05:35):
official and the head official gave me the whole dissertation
on what the rule was. I can't spout it off to you
right now, but I got the answer.What do you like about
Commissioner Goodell? You know, he doesn't care what
necessarily people think of him.I can't imagine being him and I
when I met him and got to know him as a person personally and
(05:59):
see how he treats people around him behind the scenes.
No cameras like Roger. Why do you let people think
you're such a like you're a niceperson, Like you're, you love
your wife, your wife and kids love you.
I love you. You're funny.
He busted my balls the first time, so he called me and
invited me to the Super Bowl because the girls were a fan of
(06:20):
Modern Family and and. You turned them down.
I turned them down. I said I'm not going to the
Super Bowl until the Chiefs are in it.
And he said OK, if you want to wait that long.
And I'm like, motherfucker, all right, I see how it is,
Commissioner. I called him commissioner and he
said if you call me commissioner, I'm going to call
you Coach Cam. And so I call him Roger and
listen, people have their opinion of him again, I'm I'm
(06:42):
going to I'm going to judge it how I see it.
And I feel like I'm a pretty decent judge of character.
You don't get to be as successful as he is and as good
at his job without making a whole lot of people mad and
doing a lot of things that people don't like without
question. But man to man, person to
person, how I see him interact with people around him, quality
individual, cares about his family, loves his family, nice
(07:06):
to me, wonderful to Lindsay. And that's how I'm going to
judge him. And you know, that's how I hope
somebody judges me. I can't let you out of here
without a Taylor and Travis perspective.
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for both of them because doesn't it
just seem like they're perfect for, I mean, honestly perfect
(07:28):
for each other? I've known Travis.
I'm not going to say we're best friends, but again, talking
about like my interactions with someone, I see him as such a
good quality human being based on how he treats my sister, how
he treats my mom, how he treats the boys, how I watch him
interact with people. I know what he is on a football
(07:49):
field. I know how much his teammates
love him. I know how much Brett Beach and
and Coach Reed love him and Taylor.
It's not easy to be with the most popular person in the
world, but if there is anyone who can do it and do it with
cool, it's Travis Kelsey becausehe is who he is all the time and
(08:12):
he's so confident in himself. He's such a quality, funny guy,
Funny guy. I had a very, I reminded him of
this when I saw him at in Vegas a couple weeks ago when I went
to training camp and I was doingthe Andy Randy Reed thing where
I was playing Coach Reed's brother.
I said, hey, Travis, you want improviser, I'm going to come up
to you and talk about Himalayan sea salt and you just roll with
(08:33):
me. But it's like, I'm just going to
say they've got Himalayan sea salt up in the cafeteria.
You put it on your vanilla ice cream.
He's like, all right, bro, yeah,let's roll.
And you watch that. And that's him just rolling with
the punches. I'm a pretty good improviser,
pretty good actor. And Travis is hanging right
there with me. And after that I told him, I
said, look, man, you're a small market team, I guess whatever
(08:55):
you want to say, because we weren't winning Super Bowls at
that point. It was the year we were going to
win our first Super Bowl. I said, but you got it.
You've got the you've got the gift.
You can do whatever you want to do when you're done with
football or during football, you're, you're talented.
Like for sure. I mean, I it not that it matters
that I think it, but I blessed him at that moment and said,
(09:16):
you're, you're awesome. You, you're natural.
And I, he's like, I totally remember that.
I, I totally remember you telling me that.
He's great. And why wouldn't you love Travis
Kelce if you're Taylor Swift? One quick thing before you
leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review.
Those go a really long way in helping us reach new listeners.
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