TIM BRANDO PGA TOURNAMENT

Tim Brando talks the 2025 PGA Tournament

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the best in our business. Over the last
forty plus years play by play voice. You've heard him
do everything from the Olympics to golf, to basketball, the football.
His name is Tim Brando and he works for Fox
Sports right now, and he was golfing this morning. Had
the PGA Championship over the weekend. I'm sure you had
your eyeballs on as well. You know, how big is

(00:22):
it though? I mean, you know, Scheffler's playing great. These
guys are all trying to win these majors. But when
you see them react the way one of the best
golfers react to winning these things, how much pressure do
you think that they're putting on themselves for those four
days on the course, like Scottie Scheffler.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I think it's the most pressure in sport. Rob And
if you've ever, i mean anybody that's ever picked up
a golf club and attempted to play it, and you
came from a sport that was mostly mental a lot
a lot physical, yes, but mostly mental. And I think
it's one of the reasons why guys that used to

(01:03):
play baseball that maybe can'ty anymore, loved to play golf.
It's because it's the closest thing in terms of torment
that possibly. I mean it is, and baseball in and
of itself can be tormenting, yes, but you've got the
team aspect that can you know, blow you up. Like

(01:23):
for instance, let's say you went out during your nasty
boys' days and you know, maybe you gave up a
three run dinger, but your guys picked you up, and
maybe there was a comebacker that they could have gotten
another run, and you fielded it and made a good play.
You could still say, hey, something good happened, even though

(01:46):
you know I was on the cusp of a blown save, right,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So, and and in baseball, hell, I had a lot
of for four days, a lot of oh for five days.
But if I made a play when the short stuff
went in the hole and I scooped it up with
a lifelong stretch, you know, I'll out West Parker way
back in the day. You know, I go back to
the dugout and guys are thinking me. You know, like, hey, man,
you just save this a run. You know, something good

(02:12):
can happen that you can feel positive about. And golf, man,
if you suck, you suck, and there's no there's no
getting around it. And and it's you. You sucked all
day and nobody can try to pick you up in
any way, shape, fashion or form. Okay, so uh it's exhilarating. Yeah,
but it's frustrating as hell. And you take that into

(02:35):
a take that into account, and then you watch you
guy as successful as Scotti Scheffler has been. And I
think I said this when you guys last had me
on and Rory uh won the Masters, and which I
thought was great for golf. I think it's equally great
that Scheffler is now, you know, among the elite and
doing things that only Jack and Tiger have done. And

(02:56):
that is when a third major before he turns thirty,
you know, by the time he's twenty nine, that's you know,
that's strong stuff. I mean, that's that's the stuff of legend.
The sport desperately needs it because I think on hole,
the sport of golf is really suffering right now. There's
a lot of negative energy out there the live thing.

(03:20):
While it's making the players a lot of money, it's
it's been divisive for the sport. And I think that
the PGA, while you've seen a lot of young guys
emerge and get their first wins. The PGA is suffering
for the because they lost so many big names. Fewer
people are watching televised golf now than before, and that's

(03:42):
not good. So I think more people would watch a
lot of the regular tournaments, a lot of the tour
events if all those guys were playing or at least
had the option to play every week. And they don't. So,
you know, when you only have four chances to see
you know, the Shambeau or Kopka or you know named

(04:04):
the guy on the live that you love watching, to
go along with the guys on the you know, on
the PGA tour, and most of those guys are only
playing a handful of tour events, not not as many
as some of the guys just tried to get in
the top one twenty five and hold onto their cards.
Golf has suffered as a sports. So what's going on
with with Rory having won the Grand Slam and now

(04:27):
a guy like Scheffler who's loved by everybody. If you've
ever met him, you've ever been in his midst, you
know he really is. As his dad said to him
when he was hugging him, you know I could not
be more proud of how tough you are and the
sweetest boy you could possibly be. That was a very
fatherly thing to say to his kid as he was
coming to him in the aftermath of winning and his

(04:50):
his emotional response to that victory. You know told you
you know that winning another major one like the PGA,
just as will the US Open when that happens, And
I don't doubt that it will at some point to
go along with the two Masters jackets, the two Green jackets.
That was huge for him. Huge. So I think Scheffler

(05:14):
is the best competitor in golf. I think Rory has
the best shot making ability in golf. He hits the
best ball, no doubt about it, But he cannot equal
Scheffler in terms of consistency and domination and consistency. We
haven't seen this since Tiger Woods. I mean we haven't,

(05:37):
so will he be able to keep it going as
long as Tiger Woods? Maybe we'll see. You know, longevity
is a lot of it too. But it was great
to watch, it really was. I didn't get to see
as much of it as I like, you know, you
were giving me that lovely intro, and I have done
a lot of different sports. But you know, I had
to work the UFL for the first time on Saturday,

(05:59):
so I debuted at sixty nine. There was a support
I hadn't done, so I got to do it. On Saturday.
I did the UFL game between the Stallions of the
Battle Hawks, so I was popping my cherry of spring
football first time since the original USFL back in nineteen
eighty five. So I missed the third round, but I

(06:20):
had it on tape. I was catching up once I
got back home on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
All right, tell us what you observed, Like, what do
you think about this league? Is there actual talent there?
And does it have legs to stay on for another
few years to have a future.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, it's going to stay on for a few years
because they've got a CBA that runs for another two years.
And look right now, to be honest with you, Ben,
it is a made for TV event that both ESPN
and Fox have invested in. And the blueprint, the business
blueprint was put together by the man that I worked

(06:55):
for at Fox. He put together the USFL while the
Rock and his financial backers were doing the XFL thing,
and then they merged the two leagues together for the
first time last year. The quality of play is really good.
The coaching, I think is legit. A lot of younger
coaches are beginning to emerge. A guy like Anthony beck To,

(07:17):
I think really wants to be a head coach in
the NFL is coming along. Skip Holtz has reinvented himself.
He's the King of Spring. He's got a Birmingham team
that is working on a sixth quarterback, and yet he's
got him on the cusp of a four peat with
the Stallions. The BattleHawks have drawn well. They had almost
thirty thousand fans in there for the game on Saturday

(07:41):
after they had five tragic deaths in that city because
of a tornado that they were right in the middle
of the night before the day and the night before
the game was played. I do think there's some issues
that they need to iron out. First and foremost, I
think they need to find local ownership to take some
of the financial heat off of, you know, the league

(08:05):
being owned basically by the networks. They need to do that.
That's that's number one. Number two. They need to, in
my opinion, go with a draft that will allow more
players from their regions. You know that a lot of
the teams. This league started out as one that was
based in San Antonio and they called it the AAF.
Then then Fox came in put everybody in Birmingham. It's

(08:27):
a developmental league. Then, I mean, that's what it is.
This is not this is not anything remotely close to
what the first iteration of the USFL was. Eric Shanks
just took the USFL because he had the opportunity with
the naming rights to do so. It was interesting because
they initially had to face a lawsuit for that, and

(08:47):
then ultimately the ESPN had the XFL and the two
entities decided to merge in the lawsuit on a way
I think honestly, with college football in the position that
it is today, with the NIL and the portal, we're
not seeing players come into the National Football League now
as developed as we once did. I think one of

(09:10):
the reasons for that is these players are not part
of a program for three or four years of development.
You know, they're getting their money and then they're leaving
because someplace those to get more money. So football needs
a developmental league, and so it serves a strong purpose
I think for the NFL for the UFL to be
in existence what they should do. I don't think they're

(09:32):
ever gonna let's face it, they're not going to rival
the NFL in terms of players. But what they can
do is provide those those players to come into their
league that are more developed than they will would otherwise
be and give these guys and they're making a good income. Listen,
if you have a chance to play play ball, make
somewhere between fifty to one hundred thousand dollars for you know,

(09:56):
eight to ten weeks of work in the spring and summer.
You do it if your legs were good enough, and
if you have an opportunity to see a chance to
make an NFL roster. And many of these these guys
have a lot of stories of these players that have
then that's a good thing. But they have to generate
more local interest and regional interests. And the way to

(10:16):
do that is to make these teams draft players from
their region of the country. You know, have a set
geography that they can choose from. Like for instance, last
year AJ mccerrn was quarterbacking. The former Alabama quarterback was
quarterbacking in Saint Louis. He should have been in Birmingham
at McCarron won a national championship at Alabama. In the
old days forty years ago, when the Birmingham Stallions were playing,

(10:40):
I was calling some of their games and Joe Cribbs,
the former Auburn running back Joey Jones, a former Alabama
wide receiver Cliff Stout, was quarterbacking in Birmingham. Yeah, they
had a bunch of players from that part of the
country and it stimulated growth. I think of interest in
the locales. To get some cooler talk would be or

(11:02):
more of that they get more water cooler talk would
be good. And listen Max Duggan, who was quarterbacking Saint
Louis the other day. This guy's two years removed from
playing for the national title and finishing the runner up
to Kata Williams for the Heisman Trophy, and last year,
after he got cut by the Chargers, he had nowhere
to play. He wasn't playing anywhere in twenty twenty four.

(11:25):
So you know, that's kind of a shame. I think
these guys deserve an opportunity to play. Baseball's got the
developmental program has for years. Basketball certainly has always had
a developmental program with some type. Now it's the G League.
You know before that it was something else, but football
really needs it now more than ever, and I think

(11:45):
the UFL is providing that. And the ratings for the
most part, even though they've slipped a little bit this year,
I think they would improve mightily if some of those
little nuance changes could take place, and I think they're
looking towards that.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Watch a lot of it. We have BattleHawks, Anthony beck
down all the time, Jets.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
He's gonna be an NFL coach in my opinion. I mean,
it's only a matter of time. He's He and Skip
are they've separated themselves. And Holtz, by the way, he
really doesn't want to coach in college again. He's loving
what he's doing and what he's done. I mean he's
making seven figures now with what he's done. Okay, uh.
And so there's there's some money to be made in

(12:30):
the UFL, and I think there's some development that can
happen that can can bring people to it again. They
just have to find a way to get more marquee
names from a certain region of the country where these
these franchises are located. And once they do that, you know,
then then maybe a little better, a little bit more
having the two companies that carry more football than anybody else,

(12:52):
and that would be Fox and ESPN's also a good thing. Uh,
they just need to build on it.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Talking to Tim Brando from Fox Words, let's talk about
the NBA playoffs. I know they're hard to watch. The
Knicks just took out the Celtics though, four to two,
which I think is good for the sport. We cover
these teams all the time. But there were eighty five
threes shot in this game, six between the Knicks and
the Celtics. That's very hard to watch. I know that

(13:19):
that you can't watch it, and a lot of other
people can't watch it right now. What can we do?
What's a way moving forward, though, Tim, to maybe get
people to want to watch the NBA again?

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I really don't know. I wish I had an answer
for you. I and you know me, I love basketball
and I'll watch and I did watch some of the
Knicks and the Celtics because of the players involved. I mean,
I know, I know Tatum, and the loss of Tatum
hurts the season, no doubt about it. And those Villanova kids,
I have the utmost respect for all of them, you know,

(13:55):
Heart Brunson, all those guys that they really were special
and I got to know them really well in the
Big East, and uh, I know Jay Wright's got to
be beaming with pride, and a lot of people are.
But you know the reality is fellas Uh the game itself,
just structurally, uh is is hard to watch. I mean, basically,

(14:20):
it's ISO only and four guys lined up at the
three point line waiting to see if the driving guard
is either going to take it all the way to
the rack or if he's gonna drive draw and kick
it out for three. That's really what the game has become.

(14:42):
There's no low post play whatsoever. None, and and and
the the only big guys that that people. I was like,
really hopeful that Edie would have a good year and
he Zach has had a decent year. But even you've
seen with him, how many many times he's shown you
that he's been able to learn how to play face up.

(15:03):
He's not really posting up, but he's learned how to
face up. Guys that are that big and that strong
and are such difference makers not being allowed to turn
their their their dairy air in towards the basket and
use their size to be a factor. I mean, think
about what a waste it would have been in the
NBA had Shaquille O'Neill come into a league that's playing

(15:26):
the way it is now versus the way it was
then in the mid nineties. Okay, I mean, and I
go back the golden era of the NBA in my view,
the seventies and eighties, But in the nineties it was
still being played at a very hard level. Now, when
Riley went to New York, he clearly decided, you know what,
we're going to defend our asses off, and you know what,

(15:49):
it'll turn into some mugging, and that's what happened. We
had a lot of Yeah, I mean, it was like
Requiem of the Big East every night of the NBA,
only they were bigger and stronger. And we saw some
you know, some ugly things happened in the days of
the Nasty Boys in Detroit. But bottom line is it
was still a much more entertaining game to watch now,

(16:10):
so much of it. And this really started happening when
the commissioner lost control of the league. And I think
that's what's happened here, when the players begin to run
the league, and that's what's happened that's what Adam Silver,
in my mind, has allowed to take place. Then you've
got real problems. Ownership can't do much about it. The

(16:33):
Lakers Man's thing and what happened with that trade at
the end of the year. You lose credibility when these
things happen. Similar thing takes place, right remember the Chris
Paul story, and then David Stern stepped in and said, no,
this is not going to happen. That didn't happen this time,
did it. So when leadership becomes Lebron and Lebron's guys,

(16:54):
then you got a credibility issue. So now these are things.
These are items that guys in my profession that do
what I do elsewhere can't say because you know that
they're calling the games and they don't want the batphone
to ring. I'm not calling the NBA and I'm damn
sure never going to call it again. I've made certain

(17:15):
of that by saying I can't watch it. So but
you know, I love all of basketball, but I do
not love the way the NBA is package, nor do
I like the way it's played, and that makes it hard.
I'll watch some of it. I'm not saying I won't
but at the end we get to the you know,
the finals and to the semi finals, the championships of

(17:37):
the conferences. I'll watch some of it, and I'm going
to be rooting for those Nicked kids because I like them.
So I like them a lot, and you're rights, it's
good for the league that that team is doing what
it's doing. I just wish it was more of an
enjoyable watch and it's not.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Is it tougher for you to watch a guy like
Brunson's game maybe change a little bit it from what
you know him in the Big East and Villanova days?
Or is it tougher for you to see a guy
like a Sonogo And you were talking about back to
the basket, I can't thinking our easy bucket last year
was Tis Reid just giving the ball in the block.

(18:14):
Is it tough for you to not see those guys
even get a chance at the NBA? Or is it
tough for you to see those guards change their game.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Into the NBA? And it is, but I understand why
they have to change their games, you know, I do.
What's really horrible to watch for me is when any player,
I don't care who it is, has the ball on
the three point line and a simple ball fake one
ball fak, and the defender is just he's in the air.

(18:45):
Yeah he has because that's what that's what you're supposed
to do. In other words, you can be so late
to close out on a player that you have to
jump on a simple ball fake. There is not enough
discipline to not take the ball fenk and force the
guy to do something else. How pathetic is that? Okay?
And when I see that, I'm like, my god, these

(19:09):
are the playoffs. Can't we at least I have a
little defensive discipline, okay to the game once we get
to the playoffs, and and for the most part, I
don't see much of that. I mean, I really don't
the the the league. Just I root. I've always been
this way, Ben. I don't root for teams, but I

(19:29):
do root for people I know and like, and that's
sometimes coaches and players, and so I like all those guys.
Josh Hart might be the guy that for me at
Villanova was the lightning rod of what Jay Wright's program
an organization was founded upon. And then you saw all
these other guys that that many said we're never gonna

(19:52):
be first round picks. Remember you remember what was said
by our friend over at the Worldwide Leader that you
know there's no draft picks on that team. Remember that?
Uh yeah, I say there were a few draft picks
on that team.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Why because there's three there.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
But yeah, but everybody, everybody, even now. I was listening
to Coward earlier today, and I have respect for Colin
I do. I don't consider his show, uh you know,
uh uh an embraced debate show at all. I think
he's a I think he's got some really quality acumen.
I love some of the the takes that he has
when he when he applies what's going on in the

(20:30):
real world to what's going on in the sports world.
I do. But he spent he spent about a half
hour today trying to convince me that the NBA is
doing everything in its power now to level things out
and get more parody. The hell it is. The hell
it is. I'm not going to buy into that at all.
I mean, how else do the Lakers still get that

(20:50):
much conversation about them? How else do the Lakers get
a trade the way they got a trade at the end,
it still doesn't help them. And and you've got these
buffoons that are on daytime cable that ought to be
replaced by women and men and leotards. I don't care
who they are, just put exercise shows on and they're
trying to tell me that, Oh, by the way, the

(21:13):
Lakers are still a contender. Okay, you know. I mean
anytime you've got a league where the best thing about
it is watching the pregame show where the best players
of the best era that that maybe we had for
most people that are watching between twenty five and fifty
four are basically telling you how bad the league is.

(21:37):
When that's the show that everybody needs to see, then
you know the situation the league finds itself then, and that,
by the way, and it is there will be more
drama on just how long Charles and Shaq and Kenny
can actually stay on the Worldwide Leader. Once they get
that show from DNT on the Worldwide Leader, you are,

(21:59):
that'll be the greatest drama the NBA has going for it.
It won't be anything taking place on the floor, or,
as our friend H. B. Brown used to say, on
the floor the floor.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
You're a gem, my friend. Thank you so much, Tim
for coming on today and we'll talk to you soon.
Thanks him.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Time man I have a great Memorial Day you too,
God bless you, and we'll talk in June. Okay.