Reign Weekly World Cup Edition Episode 1 - Steve Schlanger

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Well, everybody, welcome to rain Weekly, our special World Cup
edition and podcast edition here with Steve Schlanger and Laura Shatt,
who you all know from Box thirteen plus rain FC
broadcasting as well as a million other things. Steve, Actually,
now that I said a million other things, you do
a million other things.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's right, Maybe not quite a million, but you know,
on any given week sometimes you know, it can approach
a big number like that. But yeah, I did US
Women's Open Golf last week. I'm going to actually La
this week for the US versus Paraguay opening game of

(00:47):
the World Cup at Sofi Stadium, and then back to
Long Island next week for the US Men's Open Golf event.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
So let's actually rewind way way way back.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Steve, how did you get into this business as a
broadcaster and how did you get your start?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, I pretty much knew from I guess maybe
my junior or senior year of high school that this
is a path I wanted to go down. I didn't
exactly know how it was going to unfold, but I
went to college for it, and then you know, once
I got some experience in college working for like you know,
small radio stations and actually the first radio station I
worked for.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
I mean it was legitimately, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
We used the euphemism a mom and pop station, but
this was literally a mom in pop station. This old man,
old woman, this couple, husband and wife owned this station,
and it was this little, tiny radio station in rural Missouri,
nothing around it basically, and you know, they hired me,

(01:48):
give me a chance to get on the air and
call the local high school football and basketball games. I
was making ten dollars a game at the time, and
it was, you know, just my very first introduction to
being on the air in any way. And then you
just start building from there, you know, get other jobs,
and that was something I did all through college. Added

(02:08):
other radio jobs, you know, calling other games and stuff
as I went through college, and then you know, I
started hitting the trail looking for you know, real broadcasting
assignments once I got out of college, and one thing
leads to another, and you know, you start to stack
the chips and put put a career together.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
I think mentioning your time with a mom and pop
station in the middle of nowhere is really important for
listeners to hear, because we all been working in this
crazy world of sports broadcasting for a couple of decades. Now, yes,
I am now old enough to say a couple of decades.
That's a little crazy, but you really, and I think

(02:45):
from the outside looking in, it can kind of look like, oh,
this man or woman has a great sounding voice, and
so of course they're doing this and it's luck and
it's fun, and I could do that and all the things.
But there's so much grind that goes into what we
do and to get to where we are. I think
every single person has worked in the middle of nowhere

(03:05):
and has made absolutely no money doing something in the
middle of nowhere.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It's crazy. Like I just I think that that's important
for people to realize, like this is.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
A really you make your own luck in this industry
in so many ways, and you have to work so
hard to get all these insane opportunities. And see I mean, Steve,
you do the Olympics, now, like that's crazy, but to
get to the Olympics. But to get to the Olympics
you had to do so many other things.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
You know, just get to the Olympics, right, And it's
something where in order to do that, you obviously just
need reps and you need to work on your craft
and just getting better.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
And you know, it's in a lot of ways, it's
like an athlete.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I mean, just the training and all of the grind
that happens away from the games is where you get
better and where you build your status. And you know,
that's where you start to you know, formulate the type
of uh, you know, athlete you're going to be or
the broadcaster you're going to be, and you you you
create this identity and you just keep working on it,

(04:06):
you know, day after day, year after year, and you
accumulate a lot of stories along the way of some
of the craziness that happens. I mean, I remember the
mom and pop station that I was working at and
it was, you know, the local high school. In a
lot of ways, it was a lot of fun because
it was my first experience in the business. I didn't
know anything, so it was all brand new, and you know,
it was it was.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
A small town.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
It was high school football, Friday nights. You know, all
of the you know, friday night lights vibes that you
could want. So it had a certain charm to it.
But it was interesting because I had to take all
the equipment, set it up, take it down. You know,
handle the pregame show, postgame show, book guests for that
while handling the play by play without a color commentator.

(04:47):
You know, I was a one man band in every respect.
And you know, there was always a guy back at
the station who ran the board, which is basically for
people that don't know, somebody who just runs the controls
back at the station while you're out on the remote
call in the games. And I remember, you know, the
end of the first season, I did all this work
to create this elaborate postgame show for the end of

(05:07):
the year, and I had all these guests lined up
and the coach and the star quarterback, and we were
going to make this great, big postgame show to wrap
up the season. And I was feeling so good about it.
And we probably got about fifteen minutes into the postgame show.
We go to commercial and I say, we'll be right back,
and all of a sudden, I hear like the closing
anthem for the show, and I'm like, I'm starting to panic.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
I'm like, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (05:29):
And so you know, I had to get on talkback
to communicate to the guy back in the station, and
I'm like, hey man, what's going on? And He's like,
I just really want to go home. He was tired
and bored, and he basically just made a unilateral decision
that was going to be it for the show and
we were done. So I mean, that's one of a

(05:50):
million stories like that that happened, you know, along the
way as you're trying to climb the ladder. But you know,
they're just they're so funny, so memorable, and it's part
of what makes the journey enjoy.

Speaker 6 (06:00):
You can certainly pull bloopers and like some of the funniest,
most odd things. I mean, Keeley would definitely pull your
header that you briefly. I mean, you moved on from
that so quickly and so well. I was very impressed
with your professionalism. But Steve, you're talking about, you know,
like where you started, and you know, obviously you've done

(06:21):
so many events, you even have so many events this week,
But where did you what was kind of your first break?
What was the first thing where you're like, oh, okay,
this now we got my foot in the door, and
then from there, what was your first big event?

Speaker 5 (06:35):
I would say the first real break I got was.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Back in Saint Louis, you know, which is where I'm
from I had moved back after college, and then I
was working for radio station that got the rights to
Rams football when the Rams first moved from LA to
Saint Louis. They obviously have since moved back, but when
they first moved to Saint Louis, the radio station I

(07:01):
was working for got the rights to it. So I
ended up getting the job as sort of like the
sideline reporter pregame, halftime, postgame. And you know, I was
still really young, so to get that kind of a
job was really, I think a big break at the time.
And it's funny because I had taken the job at
the radio station with the very intention of using it
kind of like a trojan horse to get a job

(07:22):
in sports. I took a sales job, knowing full well
I didn't want to do sales, no intention of really
selling anything, but I needed to get in the door,
and I felt like once you're in, it's easier to
sort of move around, you make relationships, and if something
does open up, like the Rams, for instance, you're already there,
and it's a lot easier to that kind of a

(07:43):
job when you're already in the building. And so I
just had to kind of tread water and keep my
head down long enough so that they didn't realize that,
you know, six months had gone by and I hadn't
sold a thing, and that I was still there, it
hadn't been fired from the sales job, so that when
the sports oup tuties came along, I could then position myself,
which is what I did, and then, you know, I

(08:05):
think about a year after that, I got the job
as a fill in radio play by player for Sat
Lois Cardinals baseball, and those were kind of like the
two first big things I would say that, you know,
I would consider breaks that you know, happened at a
bigger level in the business.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
I think that's a great example of making your own luck.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
You know, like you were in the building, you were relentless,
and you were kind of a barnacle, and you stuck
around and you waited for your opportunity, and then when
it came. It can look lucky from the outside, but
there were six months of I guess, not doing any sales,
but being a salesperson.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right, yeah, I mean a lot of times, you know,
and I think this happens in a lot of different
industries too, and even you know, as athletes in sports
as well. It's like, sometimes it looks like that big
break falls in your lap, like it's just luck out
of nowhere, But it's the fact that you know, maybe
you position yourself to be there at that time. I mean,
you were just weren't sitting on your couch and something came.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Out of nowhere.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
You know, there were a lot.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Of moments where you're trying to figure out, all right,
if I can't get the thing I want at this moment,
how can I put myself in a spot so that
when it does come along, or when you know, something
does come up, I'm the one whose best position to
you know, be there to take advantage of that. Sometimes
you have to be patient. Sometimes you got to play
the long game. But that's just you know, it requires

(09:19):
you to think ahead a little bit. But in the end, yeah,
there's a little bit of luck to it, because you know,
I had no control over us getting the rights to
the rams at that point, but you know I had
a lot of control over putting myself in a spot
to where I could be the guy once we did
get them that I could take advantage.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
What has been the importance of mentors in your career?

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Because I feel like in broadcasting, it can be seen
in such a competitive industry and I've personally dealt with
that where people who I thought were mentors ended up
actually being competitors in the end, and it was just
a very weird situation. What has been your experience with
mentors and have you had the opportunity now that you
know you've sort of reached the peak and the achalon

(09:59):
of success, have you been able to be a mentor for,
you know, the next generation of broadcasters And how important
is it that we all support each other rather than
compete with each other.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, it's it is a tricky dynamic because it's not
like you're a mentor as a doctor teaching a med
student or an accountants where there's a million of them
and you're just you know, you're all kind of in
the corporate world and the medical world and you're not
direct competitors. But yeah, in this business, you know, it

(10:28):
can be a little awkward. So I guess my first
big mentor, and the reason that it worked out so
well was it was Bob Costas. Oh my god, at
the time, he was he was well, he was he
was living here in Saint Louis, and I was in
high school. One thing led to another, and he had
just moved to a new house and I had found
out what the address was. So I just wrote him

(10:49):
a letter, like a cold letter, and sent it to
his house, figuring, you know, if you send this directly
to NBC, you know, what are the chances he's going
to get it? And then it's probably one of like
one hundred other letters on his desk, so it to
his house is a good chance he's probably gonna read it.
And obviously at the time, you know, he's he wasn't
you know, I'm sure threatened by a high school sophomore,

(11:10):
you know, uh coming to take his job, so it
was probably a little easier for him, uh to be
a mentor. But you know, to my surprise, he wrote back,
He wrote a handwritten letter back and actually invited me
to his house. And that's where we first met, you know,
when I was I think a high school sophomore, And
that's kind of started that process. And the funny thing is,
you know, he wrote, he wrote me the letter and

(11:32):
he said, hey, just you know, so you know, I'm
sure you probably recognize this. Please don't share this address
with anybody else, and you know, keep it, you know, discreet,
and I think I'm like, oh, of course, of course.
And I think the next weekend, I drove me and
my friends right by the house and they could see it. So,
you know, we were in high school, we were out.
It was a Friday night, you know, we needed something
to do. But but anyway, so so he became a

(11:54):
really good resource and you know we've been friends, you
know now, uh, you know, so that that was a
good start for me.

Speaker 6 (12:03):
It's amazing that we get to you know, work with
you and enjoy you and the person that you are.
And then I just love that we get to hear
these stories right now because otherwise we wouldn't necessarily know them,
and it's great to share them. So after you you
got your start and maybe you know some breaks with
you know, the rams and all that beyond that, Like,

(12:25):
what are some moments that stand out to you, like
moments at events, like either a big interview or a
funny interview, or a hilarious moment that you were like, well,
that was the most perfect timing that couldn't have happened
any anymore serendipitously.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
I would say that there's a couple of things and
a couple of different answers. One my first Olympics back
in twenty twelve in London was probably the first big
wow moment, because you know, you're at the Olympics and
just the whole enormity of the scale of that event
sort of like hit you when you're there and you're
about to go on the air. And for that particular one,

(13:06):
it just so happened, you know, even though it was
my first as it so happened, it was also the
first event of that Olympics. So when NBC came on
that day, it was like basically I think Bob Costas
came on and Al Michaels and they were sort of hosting,
and they threw to me and I was like, first up,

(13:29):
So first show, first Olympics. So it was, you know,
quite an enormous sort of introduction to such a big
sporting event. And I think that was like the first
really significant moment in that regard in terms of an interview,
and maybe like a funny incident something happened when I

(13:49):
was working with the Rams in that.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
I think it was the first year.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
That they were here, and they decided to switch quarterbacks
at some point through the year and there was a
quarterback by the name of Tony Banks who was a rookie,
and you know, I the best way to say it
is he probably wasn't all that savvy and how to
deal with the media and just how the whole thing worked.

(14:18):
And the process for the end of the game is
we would do the postgame show and I would do
interviews with athletes in the locker room. We had a
microphone down there, and I would try to get him
one by one, and you know, I just do interviews
with him. And what happened with Tony was we hadn't
interviewed him before, you know, in any regard. So we

(14:39):
had this opportunity to do this interview because he you know,
had made his first start, and you know, we just
couldn't get him right. He was doing other things and
so like it was getting towards the end of the show,
we hadn't had him, wanted to interview him, and so
we had like one last chance, all right. So we

(15:00):
he didn't have an opportunity like during a commercial break
to go up and set it up. I basically had
to go while we were on the air and try
to just say, hey, you know, do you mind talking
to us, and so we The funny thing about it though,
was the fact that for all the guests that we
had on there was like a gift certificate to like
a jewelry store or something like, you know, for like postgame,
like hey, for being our guest, do you get you know,

(15:20):
ten percent off at wherever?

Speaker 5 (15:21):
Just some kind of gift certificate. So anyway, our.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Producer had told him about this, and you know, so
he agreed to do it, and so I go up
to him and we do the interview, and you know,
YadA YadA. The interview goes well, and at the end
of the interview, I say, hey, Tony, you know, thanks
very much for the time. We appreciate it. And his response,
the only thing he said was where's my gifts of
giving it? Instead of like hey, no problem, thank you,

(15:47):
you know, or like waiting till we were off the
air to discuss it. He's like he expected it right
then and there, and he's like, what's interesting. It's like,
you know, I was a young kid, and that kind
of surprised me. I'm like, well, I don't really have
it in hand, and so he thought that it was
We were kind of like, you know, uh, pulling one

(16:08):
over on him, and I was like, I had to
get off the air and explain to him how it
all work because he didn't understand. You know, you'll get
it sent to you here in another few days or whatever.
But he was like, where that gives adigment?

Speaker 4 (16:19):
That actually is a great See that's a great segue
in my next question, which is what advice would you
give to athletes who what media training advice would you
give to an athlete as a broadcaster.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
Two things.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
One is, you know, the media is really not out
to get you, you know. I think a lot of
them just have this reflexive reaction that everything is trying
to shape a negative narrative around them or their team
or their situation, and so they come into it a
little gun shy, just thinking instinctually that hey, you know,
they're coming for me, when it's actually the opposite. I mean,

(16:52):
if you if you look at things and the way
the media operates, I mean they like.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
To tell optimistic.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Stories and they like feel good stories, right, and so
you know, for an athlete or even a coach or whatever,
even if you're angry or in the heat of the
moment or you're pissed, off about whatever to try and
put on. I would say, you know, just to a

(17:17):
calm demeanor where you do things thoughtfully, honestly, you know, intelligently,
and just come off well you know, that'll go a
long way. And also, you know a sense of like,
you know, like being genuine, because we hear a lot
of like you know, athletes speak or coach speak, and
it's the same cliches over and over again, and people,

(17:37):
you know, the media understands that the fans get it.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
It's like, oh okay, you know who wants to listen to this?

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Right, So there's a way to thread that needle where
you can be organic and honest about stuff. And I
think that's what people really appreciate post And you know,
if you're even a little vulnerable too, like hey man,
that wasn't my night, you know, I let the team down,
whatever the case might be.

Speaker 5 (17:59):
But you know, if you're honest about it.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
People are more receptive to it than if you're sort
of like, uh, you know, if you have an edge
to you or you're kind of irascible and difficult.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
To deal with, Hey, you don't.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
The media is your conduit to the fans, so why
not make them your friends. It's it's not that hard.

Speaker 6 (18:17):
Yeah, Steve, I know you've I actually don't know the number.
I'm gonna go with thirty. Maybe you've called thirty sports,
thirty different sports.

Speaker 7 (18:27):
How how do you prepare for springs? But I mean
if it was me, which it's clearly not I'm very.

Speaker 6 (18:35):
Very soccer, but it was me and I, you know,
got assigned to like I watched you calling in the
Olympics cross country skiing, I wouldn't know where to start
and it would be hard to It's hard I think
maybe for the general person to put your kind of
wrap your mind around the fact that, like you can,
there must be certain things that you really focus on
when you call these different sports. But how do you

(18:58):
how do you prepare to do maybe a sport that
you know you're not as familiar with. It just seems like,
you know, especially at the level you're doing it, it
would be very difficult, but you make it look so easy.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
You just make it up as you go along. Laura,
I mean I thought that hair when you can just
spitball throughout the.

Speaker 7 (19:18):
Show, Yeah, that seems like what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
No, No, I mean, really, what I've learned over the
years is when you do different sports or different disciplines
in different sports, you just figure out what that show needs. Right, So,
whether it's a two hour soccer game, whether it's a
one hour skiing show, whether it's a five hour tennis match,

(19:44):
four hours of golf, whatever the case might be, you
look at all, right, who's the audience, who are the analysts?
You know, what's ah, what's the what are the sort
of the circumstances. Because once you figure out out what
your role is and what the show requires, that informs
what you need to know and what you need to do.

(20:05):
So for instance, in our shows, right have you me
and Kellen typically in the booth together, so I know
that I have both of you. So my job for
the most part is to sort of like you know,
dot the i's, cross the t's, call the you know,
the x's and o's of the game. But give you
guys room, you know, to have conversations, to talk about
the analysis, things like that, you know, and I put

(20:26):
a bow on it, and you know we go from there.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
But I've called a.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Lot of soccer games by myself where I have to
do the play by play, where I have to do
the analysis and cover everything, So that requires a different
level of preparation in terms of, you know, understanding all
of the nuances and things like that. Whereas you know,
when you have two analysts, you know, it's it's a
lighter lift because they're handling a lot of that. And

(20:50):
then for the Olympics, you know, which I think are
the most complicated shows because you're on different platforms at
different times. Going back to this last lits this past winter,
you're doing the cross country skiing. You mentioned there were
times where we would simultaneously be on NBC, USA Network
and Peacock streaming, but those three platforms would be dipping

(21:11):
in and out. So my job a lot of times
would be to all right, sort of like let's say
NBC was joining, but we're already in progress on USA
and Peacock. Sort of welcome the NBC audience without sounding
like I'm welcoming the NBC audience, if that, if that
makes sense, because people watching on USA is like, what's
he doing? Like, you know, cause they don't they don't

(21:31):
understand that they're joining, you know, they think they're just
watching the only feet of it. So you try to
sound like, Okay, you're bringing them in without sounding like
you're starting from scratch and then going to break where
let's say NBC leaves, but you're staying on USA. You
don't say, hey, we'll be back right after this. You
sort of kind of put a button on your thought
and then you know, give it a beat and then

(21:53):
move on. So it works for both audiences. Right, it
doesn't feel like you're going to break, but it also
feels like you've wrapped up segment. So just it's understanding
what the different shows require.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
And you know, the.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Other thing is like how much talking do you have
to do?

Speaker 5 (22:10):
Right?

Speaker 2 (22:10):
If I'm doing tennis, there's not a lot of talking
at all because the audience doesn't want to hear people
talking during points, you know, even between points. Sometimes you
just sort of like, you know, Pepper a comment here
or there because they just want to see the match.
So you're just kind of this narrator who comes in
every now and then. If I'm doing hockey or basketball,
it's NonStop play by play for the most part, and

(22:33):
that's what the sports and the shows require. So again,
to answer your question, it's going into each different thing
figuring out what does the show need from me to
be at its best? Not what I want to do.
It's what does the show need? And that's kind of
how I approach it.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
See what is that you call that we don't would
I don't know, but maybe we'd never guess what like curling,
maybe you done. I mean, it's what what have you
done that maybe we would never think.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
To go than that.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know, a lot of them are like one offs,
like Olympic events or something where you know, I remember
again going back to London, which was my first Olympics
and that first show right the very first day, and
this is part of the Olympics. Because there's so many
different sports it gets kind of crazy. But I did
that first show first day it was a cycling event,
and got a call later that day from the person

(23:25):
who you know, ran the talent department of NBC and
they said, hey, great job today. Quick question, Uh, can
you do water polo tomorrow? Wasn't on my schedule, wasn't
part of the plan. And I said, you know, of
course you're gonna not gonna say no. I said, sure,
but just so you know, just so you know, not

(23:46):
only have I not called water polo before, I don't
think I've ever actually watched a water polo match, and
so the first time I'm going to see a water
polo match, I'm actually going to call it, and it's
going to be at the Olympics. So if you're com
with that, I'm game. So I mean there's things like that.
I did a similar thing happened with synchronized swimming, and

(24:10):
you know, it's just like again, I didn't know anything
about synchronized swimming.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
But it goes back to, all right, what does the
show need?

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Right, And because there's music, and because there's really no
sort of like uh, you know, nuts and bolts, tic
tac toe aspect of it, like you know, hey, so
and so passes, so and so, who shoots and scores,
it's kind of more like a performance. You kind of
start it up, you lay out, the analyst describes what
you're seeing, and then you kind of come in at
the end. Figure skating is the same way I've been

(24:38):
figure skating, where you basically say who the person is.
You know this is you know, Sasha Smith, the eighteen
year old from you know, Vancouver, Canada, you know, skating
here at the World Championships for the first time. Boom,
you lay out, the music comes in. You don't say anything,
you know during the two or three minutes that they're skating.
At the end, oh lovely Pence or whatever it is.

(25:01):
You know, you let the crowd sort of play, don't
talk over the crowd. Then the analyst comes in, gives
their thoughts, and you go to break. So that's again,
that's part of the differences that happen along the way.
But it shows you how you know you each show
needs something different, and it also shows just some of
the weird stuff I've called over the years.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Two, I think let's talk about the art of the open,
because as your producer for the past you know, season
and a half, we would say, I am so impressed
with your ability to just whip out an open. We
tell you, oh, yeah, you get twenty three seconds, and
it's twenty three seconds on the lot. I mean, it's crazy.
I mean, and I'm sure a lot of that is
repetition and just you know, your ample experience, but there's

(25:45):
also just a natural gift involved in you know, creating
a great show open.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
What in your mind makes a good show open.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Steve, It's just I think the ability to come on
with some energy, with something that serves us like a
tease to get people fired up about that particular event
that's going to happen and something noteworthy. I mean, you
don't want to get too detailed too in the weeds,
because it's just it's the beginning, right, So you want

(26:14):
to give kind of like the broad strokes of what's
about to happen, but you want people to be excited.
And there's also I think a thing where you don't
want to cram too much in right. You want to
kind of to be sort of like dramatic exciting, but
feel just just this natural energy that sort of builds

(26:35):
into the show. So you just in my mind, you
don't have to get too creative with it.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
You just have to hit.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Certain notes and then let that carry into the show.
So I think I just have this internal clock to
where all I know what thirty seconds is, I know
what fifteen seconds is, I know it ten seconds, and
how to get there without needing to count in my
head or without needing to hear somebody say it. So
like if you said, all right, give me thirty seconds

(27:03):
right now, and you didn't count me, I could probably
come pretty close to just giving you thirty seconds because
I sort of feel it now and you just kind
of that's something that you just sort of, like you said,
it comes with reps and sometimes I don't know, you
just had that clock buried in your head where you
know where the beats are and what the marks you
have to hit are.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Okay, one more question about badcasting and then I want
to get into a World Cup. But this is I
think really important because what we do is we cover
a local team as the local call. And the way
in which broadcasting has shifted you talked about earlier. You know,
eight different streams for one sport, and you as a broadcaster,
you know, trying to manage that and make it one
cohesive show, but it's for five different audiences.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Streaming is awesome, it's great.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
It's connected, you know, us on a global scale and
reaching audiences farther and wider than you know we've ever
been able to do.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
But I want to emphasize the importance of the local BROADCA.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Has done that, you know, the availability and the amount
of research that goes and the amount of affinity that
broadcasters have for their local teams. Talk about the importance
of a local broadcast in a world in which that
feels like it's kind of deviating away from it a bit.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
I mean that's where people really feel connected to their team.
I mean, no matter what sport, whether it's soccer or
anything else, you know, it's the local broadcasters because people
feel like they're their guys or girls. You know, it's
it's their conduit to the team. They feel like they're
fans alongside them. That's where they get their information. It's
comfortable and you know, fans you know, want that comfort,

(28:45):
you know, from game to game because they feel like
they get to know somebody and you know, in some
ways they feel like they're kind of part of the
family if they watch them enough. And so I think
that that is an important part of the experience for
people because let's face it, if you're a fan of
a team, chances are you're watching or listening to them

(29:05):
more than you were at those games with all the
road games they play, and you know, you probably don't
go to every single home game, so you experience the
broadcast more than anything else. Uh So to have that
connection just enhances it.

Speaker 6 (29:19):
Oh yeah, calls back to calls, tie that up with
a little bow.

Speaker 7 (29:24):
What are some of the you know, like, what are
some of the calls you've.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
Made that our audience would would go, oh my gosh,
he was at that game or made that call, or
not even games, even particular moments that stand.

Speaker 7 (29:37):
Out to you.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, I'd like to think the biggest are still ahead
at the end of this rain season. So maybe this
year we're going to we're going to have the biggest ones.
But up until now, I mean to stand out one
going back to the twenty eighteen Winter Olympics, when Jesse
Diggins won a gold medal for the US. It was
the first ever US cross tree gold medal, came in

(30:01):
the last event. It was a huge moment for the
US team, and a lot of circumstances just came together
to make that a significant event. So that was one
that was not only I think a big moment, but
then had a lot of you know, got a lot
of traction in terms of like going viral and things

(30:22):
like that. There's another one that's actually kind of funny
because it's an alpine skiing one where there's a skier
who comes over a ridge and he goes instead of
a round the gate, he goes right through it and
it hits him right between the legs and he lets
out this like this screen that is so audible and
so crazy, and I sort of like I had kind

(30:43):
of had fun with it and sort of like made
light of the moment a little bit, and it went
viral before viral videos were a thing. It was before Instagram,
it was before TikTok. This was I think back in
like two thousand and eight or two thousand and nine.
Has happened, but it's still somehow, you know, got up
in the millions of views. And the funny thing now

(31:06):
is every time there's a Winter Olympics, this video gets recirculated,
it's resurfaced, and people start sending around, Hey, listen to
this call from the Olympics. Here people think it's the
current Olympics that this call is from. Meantime, you know,
the guy the skier is, you know, is like in
his fifties, he's retired, he's a coach. You know, it's

(31:28):
it's from like a decade and a half ago. But
people start to think it just is happening at these Olympics.
But that just goes through, you know, it shows you
the nature of how things move through social media things,
and it's it's just kind of funny now at this.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
Point world Cup. Let's start with a hard hitting question,
and that is who do you think is gonna win?

Speaker 2 (31:46):
The easy answer is Spain, just because I think they
come in as the favorites, you know, maybe slightly ahead
of France. And the thing about the World Cup is,
you know, it's it's hard to predict, right because it's
once every four years, and teams come in, you know,
with different circumstances and injuries and things like that. But

(32:10):
typically the favorites, you know, tend to advance. I mean,
you'll get a surprise maybe in the semifinals, like a
Morocco or something like that, but typically at the end
it you know, it's Argentina, Brazil, it's it's France, it's Spain.
You know, teams like that. And I think, you know,
Spain to me is the most complete team and the
team that has a way too to navigate the other

(32:31):
favorites the best you know they can. They can navigate France,
you know, Argentina, Brazil. I think you know, all of
those teams have some liabilities that Spain does not. But
for some reason, for some reason, it feels like this
World Cup could have more surprises. You know, they've expanded

(32:52):
the field and more teams can make it out of
the group stage, and you know, there's just something about
it just feels like, you know.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
There could be a surprise or two along the way.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
But I mean, if I really had to put money
on it, I would say Spain just for the because
of the complete net, the completeness of their team. But
I wouldn't be surprised if they did get tripped up,
you know, in something like the semi final round.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
What about of the host nations, who do you think
is going to go the FURTHEST US, Mexico or Canada.
And then we'll get into more stuff on tim ream,
But who of the host countries do you think is
the best shot of really actually advancing?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
The US makes me nervous, but I think they might
go the FURTHEST just because things are kind of lining
up for them in a way. Just not a lot
of serious long term injuries. The Chris Richards ankle is
probably the most serious, but it seems like he might
be okay, you know, at least, you know, once you

(33:50):
get into the group stage. Maybe not one hundred percent
for the first game, but it looks like he'll be
able to contribute in a meaningful way and things just
I kind of see trending in the right direction now,
given that it's it's still the US, and your mistakes
are gonna happen, and the back line makes me nervous.
The keeper situation makes me nervous. We've conceded a lot

(34:11):
of goals, you know, in in games leading up to it,
and so you know it would be Mexico if not
the US. I'm not that high on Canada as I
was going back to Copa America two years ago. I
think Mexico has has a real chance to go fairly deep.
But you know something about the US and hosting and

(34:32):
the fact that you know things are getting better for
them now than they were even six months ago. It's
just it's it's more of a feeling than a belief,
because I can't look at them and say, all, right, man, boy,
this team is they're firing all cylinders. You know, the
defense is locked down, the offense is lightened it up.
They're not doing that, so based on the metrics, I
can't say that. It's more just a vibe that I

(34:54):
have about the team right now that maybe things are
going to break right for them and they're going to
get those the bounces that they need to make a run.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Let's talk about the back line and captain Tim Reim,
who is the captaining the US men's national team. Some
people have concerns. He obviously has a ton of experience
playing you know, in the US and abroad and with
the US men's national team for years, and there's a
reason why he's a captain. You obviously go way back
with him. Let's talk more of your takes on Tim

(35:23):
Reim as captain and the back line.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Well, I mean, I think he's a good captain just
because he has the experience, the demeanor, the personality and
all that. But I think, hey, there's a legitimate concern
about his age and his form. You know, it has dipped,
you know over the course of this season in MLS
and you know, just with ages slow down, and I
think that slow down has been noticeable.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
But you know, part.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Of the way you counter that is you go to
a back three, which it seems like they're going to play,
so you'll have the wing backs and maybe his lack
of mobility and reaction time is muted more because of that.
The concern is, you know, you're still going to get
in situations where you know that pace is going to
make a difference, and you're going to have to you know,
face guys one on one or just a quick burst

(36:12):
in and around the box where somebody like you know,
an mbape or you know, one of the other you know,
top forwards is going to make a move and how
are you going to react to that? So I think
it's it's definitely a genuine concern because it also has
been in games leading up to the World Cup, and

(36:32):
how they manage that is going to be very interesting.
I think a healthy Chris Richards is also going to
make a big difference too, because, uh, you know, outside
of Polisic and maybe Balligan and Tyler Adams, I think
he's definitely among the most valuable players, uh for the
US coming into this World Cup.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
This is the question for both of you.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
US taking very few midfielders on their final roster, are
we concerned about this our Does it show that we're
just going to play a lot of direct a lot
of direct I would love to hear your takes on
why you think Pochattino only took I think four five
for midfielders and you know what we can expect from that.

Speaker 7 (37:16):
Gosh, I'm not really sure. I mean, what I can
tell you from I know, there's so much mystery.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
It's we're there has.

Speaker 6 (37:22):
Been, right, I mean, I think that's one of the
things with this roster, at least for me leading into
the Senegal friendly, was.

Speaker 7 (37:28):
That that are there have been.

Speaker 6 (37:30):
I mean even you know, people like listening to Landon
or listening to Tomb or even listening to Alexi, Like
you listen to these people that have been there and
been pundits, coaches, been in this forever, and you'd think
that they would have the insight. But you know, you're
a week out from a roster and you're listening to
you know, these former players and people that you think
have some some info on the inside, and they're like,
we don't know who the.

Speaker 7 (37:51):
Last six players are. We just don't know.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
Yeah, And that's just I think been the Arab It
is a little bit of mystery. I can tell you.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
For for me.

Speaker 6 (38:01):
That that friendly was very promising. The goal in the
Germany game was not a goal we score very often.
We don't usually have these zingers where you're like, oh,
that's oh okay, like that was some skill that was
some like not you know, oh something weird happened. We
fumbled into a play, we're skilled enough and fast enough
to get in and then we did a thing. So
I really love that. To speak to Steve's point of

(38:23):
there's something about it that feels like momentum. I'm really
optimistic about that. I'm really excited about that. We don't
always get that from our US men's national team. So,
you know, watching these players be dynamic in the final
third and get to goal, hopefully we'll compensate a little
bit for you know, not taking a lot of midfielders,
got players on the outside that cut in a lot.

Speaker 7 (38:44):
That was a very obvious theme.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
Maybe that's part of it, is that you want to
be able to run those players and utilize that, which
minimizes your need for more players centrally. So, you know,
I'm not exactly sure if those players don't have the
site or former players and experts that have been there
and played for the team, then you know, I'm saying,
you know, maybe I maybe I don't know, but those

(39:09):
are some things that I observe that I'm really optimistic about,
and I'm I'm really excited to watch the team.

Speaker 7 (39:13):
I'm really excited to cheer for them.

Speaker 6 (39:14):
If you would have asked me a month ago, and
I know offline we talked about it, Kiley, if if
I was going to be excited to watch them and
they would give me a feeling of, you know, motivation
and just wanting to like looking forward to every game.

Speaker 7 (39:26):
I was like, I don't. I just don't know again
that era of uncertainty.

Speaker 6 (39:30):
But at this point watching those games, I I'm optimistic
and I'm really looking forward to watching them play.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
I totally agree with that, Laura.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
I'm actually I there's so much air mystery, like you
keep saying, but now all of a sudden, the vibe
feels really good, and you know, I don't want to
speak out of turn, but I have good feelings about
the US right now.

Speaker 6 (39:49):
Yeah, And I mean whether they you know, make it
to you know, the round of eight, or whether they
you know, end up you know, not making it quite
so far. I certainly think they'll make it out of
the group. That would be extremely disappointing if they didn't.
I don't see any reason why they wouldn't do that.
With the men's national team, it's not all about whether
they made it, you know, so far. For me, it's

(40:13):
about how are they performing, Do they look like they're
firing on all cylinders. Do they look motivated? Do they
look like this this World Cup means a lot to them.
Wearing the crest doesn't mean a lot to them. And
I really felt that when I watched them play recently.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
That kind of makes me think of Canada back in
twenty eighteen. They didn't get a single point, but they
looked ready for it.

Speaker 7 (40:33):
Some teams are just fun to watch, you know.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Like it was fun to watch them for a team
that got no points in group stage, they were, you know,
one of the better ones.

Speaker 7 (40:40):
So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. But what do
you got, Steve?

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, I think, you know, with regard to the US,
first of all, on the midfielder question, again, it's just
more evidence that they're probably going to play the back five,
that they don't need as much cover maybe in midfield.
The injury possibilities, you know, make you nervous though. I mean,

(41:04):
Tyler Adams, you know, is a guy who is injury prone.
He's been held out of certain training sessions because of
load management. So you're crossing your fingers to an extent there.
But besides that, I think that they can be a
very interesting team. Where you mentioned the Jedi Robinson goal,

(41:27):
which to me it was obviously a tremendous goal, right,
it was a great goal. It was kind of frustrating because, man,
it would be great to have that in the actual
World Cup, and it's one of those goals where you
know you're not going to probably see too many of those.
What I'd like to see from the US, and probably
what I maybe would have more preferred to see is

(41:48):
a goal from build up play, a goal where you
got in the box and you had somebody making the
proper run, you give them the service, they're in the
right spot at the right time, and you score that way.
Because that's one of the things we've been missing a
lot of, is just those linkups and those connections, and
to know that we can do that is something that

(42:08):
I think would put people.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
A lot more at ease.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
My biggest concern I think is just is the unknown
quantity of the fact that given that the US didn't
have to qualify, it was kind of a blessing and
a curse. Right, you knew you were going to be
in the Low Cup, but they had really not played
a game of this consequence in two years since Copa
America back in twenty twenty four, everything's been a friendly

(42:32):
or it was Gold Cup, Nations League, and let's face it,
I mean those are lower tier competitions. So you're going
two years without that major sort of atmosphere, competition intensity level. Now,
not only is it the World Cup, but it's a
once in a lifetime opportunity to have a World Cup
at home. And if you talk to some of the

(42:53):
players who were part of the ninety four team the
last time it was here, you know, when they stepped
out on the field for that first game, it really
I'm like, wow, I mean it's different. You can't plan
for this. You don't know what you're walking into until
you do. So you know, once that ball is kicked,
you know, at Sofi Stadium this coming Friday, it's hard
to know exactly what they're going to feel, you know,

(43:15):
the emotions, the adrenaline. How do you manage all of
those feelings and what does it lead to? Uh, there's
just there's so many unknown aspects of that and you
just can't you can't account for all of it right now.
You just kind of have to wait and see it
play out. Even though you'd like to go in and say,
hey man, we're doing this right. We're doing this right,

(43:36):
We're doing this right. These are things I think you
just don't know.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
All right. We talked about a great opener, and that
was a great closer.

Speaker 7 (43:43):
I wish that we could talk for longer.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Actually we can, because you know, we're still a team
and we're not going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
But we'll check in with you next time. Steve thought
was great insight. Appreciate you joining us. Go World Cup,
Go us. This is like go Steve and Kaylee scratch
the surface.

Speaker 7 (44:00):
But this was really fun.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
I'm happy to do it anytime.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
As long as I don't have a synchronized swimming meat
to cover, I'll be here.