August 2, 2025 • 16 mins
Shannon takes us behind the scenes of her sideline gig with the Chargers: how it started, how it’s going, and how many football players she’s accidentally walked in on. From her humble beginnings as “Mike at the end of the bar” to chatting with Hall of Famers, Shannon shares her favorite moments, sideline superstitions, and the powerful stories that make football more than just yards and touchdowns.
Spoiler: Canton, Ohio was freezing... in July.
Love the show? Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review! Stay dry everyone, blessings!
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Spoiler: Canton, Ohio was freezing... in July.
Love the show? Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review! Stay dry everyone, blessings!
Follow us on Instagram and X
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here we go, you got another edition of the Gas
Weekend Fix. This is the episode of the podcast that
is too Hot for TV.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
My mother misses our show pretty regularly misses your show,
our show.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What do you mean she misses it?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First of all, she calls it Gary Show. Second of all,
she misses it Monday through Friday. Oh, she missed a
lot of the time. Okay, but she never misses the
weekend podcast for whatever reason, because.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
She likes to hear you say things like ship balls.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I have never said that on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You want to go ahead and give a show.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I haven't done a good ship balls in a while.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
There you go, there's one.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, but it's got to be natural. It's got to
be a ship balls in the wild. It can't be
a planned shipballs. It's not as much fun when you
plan your ship balls. When you just let your ship
balls fly.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's much more entertaining.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
A surprise shipball. Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
This week we saw you traveling for football. This is
a I.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Wouldn't I don't even know if I'd say it was
a side hustle.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's a different aspect of your career that you've been
doing now for eight.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Is Eighty's my ninth season?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Somebody said yesterday, and I wanted to fact check that
with you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I feel like it's the eighth season, but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
We'd have to go back and chew.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't even remember what my anniversary is, but we
actually I don't know what yesterday was.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We had somebody call yesterday or leave a talkback this week,
I should say, and they asked, specifically, what is.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It that Shannon?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Could you tell me what Shannon does with the charge
We know she travels with the team.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, but they didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I guess it was never or it hasn't been articulated
that you are the sideline reporter for the radio broadcast
for the Chargers, right, And unlike the TV side, the
radio broadcast side never changes.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So it's funny because I wanted to explain. It is
difficult because I watched football my whole life. As you know,
very rarely did I listen to the radio broadcasts of games.
So when I got this job as radio sideline reporter,
which is a job I always wanted in my youth.
I always wanted to work on the radio, and sideline
reporting was cool. I saw the pretty girls on TV
(02:15):
do it, but I didn't want to do that. I
know I couldn't do it. I had an internship early on,
and I was awful at it. You've seen me do television.
It's cripplingly awful. But anyway, but there were no jobs
coming out of college. There was nothing like that was available.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
That was a thing. Women weren't a thing on the
radio sideline.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And especially not on the sideline right.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And so when our boss Robin came to me, what
eight nine years ago, now whatever, it's so weird and said,
you know, the Chargers are coming to LA and they're
going to be on KFI and we need a sideline reporter.
And I was like what, And I knew I was
instantly in over my head. Being a football fan does
not mean you know what the hell you're doing. It's
(02:58):
very different being Mike at the end of the bar,
which I spent my life being, as opposed to being
a journalist covering a sport. It's very different. The passion
and the excitement and that I'm not really working. All
of that really helps, but in terms of what am
I actually doing, you're screwed initially. I was screwed initially,
(03:19):
but trial and error and I sucked at this job
for a very long time. But what I do is, yes,
I travel with the team and I just observe things.
I check out practices. I read everything that's written about
the Chargers. I talk to the guys when we're traveling.
It just you know, small talk, just to get to
know them a little bit better. It's funny over the
(03:41):
eight or nine years, you know, when I started, our
ages were kind of comparable. Now I'm like their mom.
So it's very funny. It's a cool role.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I like it.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
It's very cool. It's fun to see people grow up.
And you know, like Derwin James, I was here when
he was drafted, you know, and now he's a veteran
on the team.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It's very cool to see how people develop.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
But it's just about monitoring what's going on the sidelines,
paying attention to what the story, the story are, the
story is, or the stories are that week. In terms
of like what's going on with the injured star wide
receiver all hypotheticals. Who's going to step up in his
place this week? What's going on with the run game?
Why is it stumbling? Why is the run game not
(04:24):
getting started? What are they going to do differently this week?
The offensive line, there's been a shuffling of players there
this season, not hypothetical.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
What does that mean for Justin Herbert?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What are the changes they have to make things that
are more like technical xi's and o's.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Really is part of it, but also part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
The part that I really enjoy is the getting to
know people and the telling of their stories. And a
lot of the times when you hear these broadcasts and
you hear Matt and DJ in the booth, they're great
at the x's and o's. They can tell you where
these guys went to college, how they did in college,
what they ran the forty, and what play is developing
as you're seeing it or hearing about. I like to
dig into the stuff that you know is where they
(05:04):
went to high school and what drove them. For instance,
last night, Aloie Gilman, one of the safeties. He spent
all last season being injured, but he's a guy everyone loves.
He's a Hawaiian kid, out of Oahu, and he recently
they did a walkthrough on the USS Abraham Lincoln in
San Diego, and I knew he played for the Naval
Academy for a year before going to Notre Dame in college.
(05:27):
And so I got to talk to him last night,
What did that mean for you? And He's like, I
saw a pilot that I haven't seen since I was
at the Naval Academy and I was there, was doing
the walkthrough with the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Achieved my dream.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He had achieved his dream as being a pilot in
the Navy, and they hadn't seen each other for seven eight.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Years, you know, and here they are.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And I just love hearing those stories because that's the
thing that you don't realize when your mic at the
end of the bar, that these guys are not just players.
They're not just fantasy stats for you. There are people
just like you and me, with their own backstories and
their own whys and why they're and why they're there,
and a lot of time, yeah, it's about the paycheck,
it's about changing the story of your family generationally.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
But a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
There's some good whis and there's a lot of love
of football that they love the game more than you
could ever imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, And in the times that I've heard you not
only I mean you do the background stories of these guys,
and like you said, a lot of them now young
guys live in their dream you know, a lot of them.
This is what they've wanted to do since they were six,
and now they're twenty four and they are just on
top of the world. Yeah, but there are also moments
there on the sideline where it is you have to
(06:38):
talk about the potential that that guy's career just ended
because they're in they're in the injury tent, and that's
a I mean, first of all, that has got to
be just as difficult and hard to relate as it
is fun to relate the good stories.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
There have been a couple times, and Joey Bosa comes
to mind every time when he's had injuries and you
know he was out for the season. You knew it
by the way he hobbled to the sideline, the way
he would collapse when he got to the sideline, the
look on his face that just told you season ending injury.
There's certain guys that are injury but they just know it,
(07:14):
you know, and you can tell I've never seen a
career ending injury, thankfully, but a lot of the times
when that happens, you just hope for the best. When
they go in the injury tent, you just hope, you know,
it's just a cramp or they've got a pee.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Sometimes they got a pee.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I learned that the hard way when I walked in
and I saw Melvin Ingram's backside one of my first seasons,
and that is a site I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Don't think about it again.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
I'm a big man.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Who works with you on the sideline.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Are there are there Team Chargers employees that are also
there that are helping direct information or you know, point
you in the right space.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
No, I mean there are people that facilitate for the preseason.
There is somebody on the sideline from the PR department.
Brock is his name, great guy. I've known him all
nine years. I've watched him come up through his department
as well. He used to not be on the sideline
and he's there and he coordinates interviews for the national broadcast.
So for the game this week, Melissa Stark was a
(08:14):
sideline reporter. They had an NFL Radio network person there.
They had me and maybe somebody else, I'm not sure.
Sometimes there's two or three or four of us sideline
reporters and they'll coordinate postgame interviews with each one to
make sure everyone has a different player. And then during preseason,
like for instance, this week, Brock said, I'm going to
(08:35):
get you because you can interview players during the game.
That's not something that happens in regular season. It's why
I love preseason because I get to get None of
the veterans play, so I get to grab them and
interview them on the side. And so Rock last night
or this week or what have you arranged for me
to talk to Quentin Johnston Johnson a Looie gilman like
(08:56):
I mentioned, and Dante Jackson who's a new acquisition from Whitsburgh.
And he's great at identifying which players are in the
mood to do interviews that day, and Brock's the best
at his job about that. Sometimes they'll just give you
veterans even though they're not in the mood, and you know,
the interview will go something like this, Hey, Gary, how's
your day to day? How's this game play out for you?
(09:18):
It's fine, So must be exciting to have such a
deep wide receiver room.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And so their job is to figure out who's in
the mood to talk right, because sometimes, like you said,
they're twenty four boys, twenty four year old boys, like,
they're not always in the mood to talk well.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So that also brings up. I had an experience one time.
I did pregame shows for the University of Washington football
team way back in twenty five years ago, and we
had one event where we're flying back from a game
at Stanford and Curtis Williams, a linebacker for the University Washington,
(10:00):
suffered a paralyzing injury in the game, like middle of
the third quarter, and that plane ride back dead silence,
I mean, because nobody knew what his condition was. The
coach stayed, Rick new Heiseel stayed in the Bay area,
stayed by his hospital bed because they didn't know what
was going on. And that was the craziest, most emotional
(10:25):
I don't even remember if they won or lost that game,
but it just an emotional time. And I wanted to
know is does that whatever happens on the field translate
to what's going to happen on that airplane on that
charter flight home.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The feeling you were feeling was the energy of everybody
on that plane, knowing that that could be them, that
they're one play away from not only a season ending,
like a career ending injury, but like a life altering
to the nth degree injury. And that is a heavy,
heavy plane. When I think it was Hunter Henry broke
(10:59):
his leg or something one of their early seasons and
we had to wait, he had to go to the hospital,
come back, and and the same same vibe. The the
vibe of the plane has evolved in my eight or
nine seasons. In the early years, there was guys playing
dice for paychecks like it was a loud people were imbibing.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
It was a thing now the past several years.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
It is why and the coach dictates that head coach.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I think he sets the tone. I think the head
coach sets the tone.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I don't I don't know, but or maybe it's the veterans,
or I think it was an old school vibe you had.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
You know, you had.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Philip Rivers, who you know, did not do any of that.
But he was a huge personality. I mean he was
yap in the whole flight. I mean he'd get on
the he'd get on the.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
You know, the A P A or whatever, and he'd
be like, you said, we can't have cookies. Where are
our cookies?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
He was just a yapper.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So there was definitely like a more lively vibe on
those years. But in the past five years or so,
it's just been chill. These guys are young, they're quiet,
they want to they're on their screens, they want to
play their video games. Like that's a that's a big
difference too. So it's a very quiet it's always quiet.
I can't tell you the last time there was a
(12:11):
very lively flight. Maybe towards the end of the season
when they know they're going to playoffs, but it's never
It has not been that scene for quite a something.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The other thing that I've I've loved to hear when
you come back from these games, whether it's a home
game or away game, doesn't matter, but the the nationally
known personalities that you get to talk to and hang
out with. And I mentioned last night, I was I
was watching the game, listening to the radio broadcast, but
I realized that Mike Tarico was calling the game for NBC,
and I know that he has come up to you
(12:40):
before and said hello and knows your name and everything.
So I was telling easy, a national person that you've
watched for years.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Right, knows you.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
No. Last night, I'm on the sideline and nothing, and
I'm like, oh, it's just the Hall of Fame game.
It's not a big deal. Looking to get excited. Everyone's like,
aren't you so excited? You're getting back to your passion.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
And again, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
It's not that I'm too cool.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's just like, you know, every season, I'm like, I
don't know if I'm gonna do this next year. I
don't know, you know, and I'm like, what do you
I get into the first game first prezon, I'm like,
what are you talking about? Like you love every minute
of this? And last night I'm on the sideline. Dan
Fouts comes over in his gold jacket.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hey, Shannon, how are you?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I'm like, what, Antonio Gates is there. He's gonna be
inducted today if you're listening on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
He comes over, Hey, how are you? Gives me a
big hug.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Everyone's around Antonio Gates and he I mean, I didn't
know him in the beginning of his career when we
first started carrying the games on KFI and he was
still playing. But like in these are both gregarious, wonderful
people who would recognize the janitor. Like but the fact
that like and I'm nobody is what I'm saying, Like
I am nobody to them, but that it makes me
(13:45):
feel like a seven year old boy like that brings
the fan, Like Antonio Gates just gave me a hug,
like said hello, spend time on his Hall of Fame
weekend to say hello, that's so cool. I just got
to talk to Dan Fouts who remembers my name.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Like it's just it's very cool.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And and you know what the thing with those guys,
the Hall of Fame guys, and you saw it a
lot this week, they don't take any of it for granted.
You know, it's talking about living the moment, soak it in.
The last thing Dan Fout said, you know the other night,
is he goes have fun, Like this is so cool.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
You're still doing this job, Go have fun. And that's
what it is. That's what that's what the whole game is.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I noticed last night when they're introducing the guys, the
four inductees before the game. I think it was Jared
Allen walks across the field and he's just I mean
like he's there for.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The first time totally.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He's looking at the crowd, he's looking around like I
can't believe I still that I'm doing this, and they're
looking at me like it was fun to watch.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
The watch because their seven year old boys in that moment.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, like you go back to when they decided they
love that game, right, and that's the way they wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
The dream, the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
All right, So how are they going to do this year?
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Ten wins? Okay, wins, so.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
A little fall off from last year, but not right,
but they'll still make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
They're going to make the playoffs, and I think they
go a game deeper at least.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Okay, let's get him into that.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Got to work on those championships. Some hammies that are causing.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Well, it didn't help, I'm sure. The humidity and the.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
One it's nothing, Yeah, I mean it, there was no humid.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
It was cold.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I was freezing on the sideline. It was hilarious because
I'm like, July, it's gonna be hot. It's until yesterday.
The forecast for Canton Ohio was seventy five eighty degrees humid.
You're gonna be sweating balls you get there. It's windy,
it's raining, no humidity. It's football weather, like the gods.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Were like, it's July, but it's also football. Be cold,
cold all night.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
If you follow us wherever you find your podcast, just
type in Gary and Shannon. Obviously you're listening to the podcast,
go back and subscribe to the podcast that way, it
comes to your to your inbox regularly every day of
course during the week and then the Gas Weekend Fix.
Also subscribe to it. Eric comment on it, rate it.
All of that helps us out.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
It just pops up there and you go, shit ball.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Shit balls. You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here we go, you got another edition of the Gas
Weekend Fix. This is the episode of the podcast that
is too Hot for TV.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
My mother misses our show pretty regularly misses your show,
our show.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What do you mean she misses it?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
First of all, she calls it Gary Show. Second of all,
she misses it Monday through Friday. Oh, she missed a
lot of the time. Okay, but she never misses the
weekend podcast for whatever reason, because.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
She likes to hear you say things like ship balls.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
I have never said that on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You want to go ahead and give a show.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I haven't done a good ship balls in a while.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
There you go, there's one.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, but it's got to be natural. It's got to
be a ship balls in the wild. It can't be
a planned shipballs. It's not as much fun when you
plan your ship balls. When you just let your ship
balls fly.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's much more entertaining.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
A surprise shipball. Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
This week we saw you traveling for football. This is
a I.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Wouldn't I don't even know if I'd say it was
a side hustle.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's a different aspect of your career that you've been
doing now for eight.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Is Eighty's my ninth season?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Somebody said yesterday, and I wanted to fact check that
with you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I feel like it's the eighth season, but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
We'd have to go back and chew.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I don't even remember what my anniversary is, but we
actually I don't know what yesterday was.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We had somebody call yesterday or leave a talkback this week,
I should say, and they asked, specifically, what is.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It that Shannon?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Could you tell me what Shannon does with the charge
We know she travels with the team.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, but they didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I guess it was never or it hasn't been articulated
that you are the sideline reporter for the radio broadcast
for the Chargers, right, And unlike the TV side, the
radio broadcast side never changes.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So it's funny because I wanted to explain. It is
difficult because I watched football my whole life. As you know,
very rarely did I listen to the radio broadcasts of games.
So when I got this job as radio sideline reporter,
which is a job I always wanted in my youth.
I always wanted to work on the radio, and sideline
reporting was cool. I saw the pretty girls on TV
(02:15):
do it, but I didn't want to do that. I
know I couldn't do it. I had an internship early on,
and I was awful at it. You've seen me do television.
It's cripplingly awful. But anyway, but there were no jobs
coming out of college. There was nothing like that was available.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
That was a thing. Women weren't a thing on the
radio sideline.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And especially not on the sideline right.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And so when our boss Robin came to me, what
eight nine years ago, now whatever, it's so weird and said,
you know, the Chargers are coming to LA and they're
going to be on KFI and we need a sideline reporter.
And I was like what, And I knew I was
instantly in over my head. Being a football fan does
not mean you know what the hell you're doing. It's
(02:58):
very different being Mike at the end of the bar,
which I spent my life being, as opposed to being
a journalist covering a sport. It's very different. The passion
and the excitement and that I'm not really working. All
of that really helps, but in terms of what am
I actually doing, you're screwed initially. I was screwed initially,
(03:19):
but trial and error and I sucked at this job
for a very long time. But what I do is, yes,
I travel with the team and I just observe things.
I check out practices. I read everything that's written about
the Chargers. I talk to the guys when we're traveling.
It just you know, small talk, just to get to
know them a little bit better. It's funny over the
(03:41):
eight or nine years, you know, when I started, our
ages were kind of comparable. Now I'm like their mom.
So it's very funny. It's a cool role.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I like it.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
It's very cool. It's fun to see people grow up.
And you know, like Derwin James, I was here when
he was drafted, you know, and now he's a veteran
on the team.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It's very cool to see how people develop.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
But it's just about monitoring what's going on the sidelines,
paying attention to what the story, the story are, the
story is, or the stories are that week. In terms
of like what's going on with the injured star wide
receiver all hypotheticals. Who's going to step up in his
place this week? What's going on with the run game?
Why is it stumbling? Why is the run game not
(04:24):
getting started? What are they going to do differently this week?
The offensive line, there's been a shuffling of players there
this season, not hypothetical.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
What does that mean for Justin Herbert?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What are the changes they have to make things that
are more like technical xi's and o's.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Really is part of it, but also part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
The part that I really enjoy is the getting to
know people and the telling of their stories. And a
lot of the times when you hear these broadcasts and
you hear Matt and DJ in the booth, they're great
at the x's and o's. They can tell you where
these guys went to college, how they did in college,
what they ran the forty, and what play is developing
as you're seeing it or hearing about. I like to
dig into the stuff that you know is where they
(05:04):
went to high school and what drove them. For instance,
last night, Aloie Gilman, one of the safeties. He spent
all last season being injured, but he's a guy everyone loves.
He's a Hawaiian kid, out of Oahu, and he recently
they did a walkthrough on the USS Abraham Lincoln in
San Diego, and I knew he played for the Naval
Academy for a year before going to Notre Dame in college.
(05:27):
And so I got to talk to him last night,
What did that mean for you? And He's like, I
saw a pilot that I haven't seen since I was
at the Naval Academy and I was there, was doing
the walkthrough with the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Achieved my dream.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He had achieved his dream as being a pilot in
the Navy, and they hadn't seen each other for seven eight.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Years, you know, and here they are.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And I just love hearing those stories because that's the
thing that you don't realize when your mic at the
end of the bar, that these guys are not just players.
They're not just fantasy stats for you. There are people
just like you and me, with their own backstories and
their own whys and why they're and why they're there,
and a lot of time, yeah, it's about the paycheck,
it's about changing the story of your family generationally.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
But a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
There's some good whis and there's a lot of love
of football that they love the game more than you
could ever imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, And in the times that I've heard you not
only I mean you do the background stories of these guys,
and like you said, a lot of them now young
guys live in their dream you know, a lot of them.
This is what they've wanted to do since they were six,
and now they're twenty four and they are just on
top of the world. Yeah, but there are also moments
there on the sideline where it is you have to
(06:38):
talk about the potential that that guy's career just ended
because they're in they're in the injury tent, and that's
a I mean, first of all, that has got to
be just as difficult and hard to relate as it
is fun to relate the good stories.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
There have been a couple times, and Joey Bosa comes
to mind every time when he's had injuries and you
know he was out for the season. You knew it
by the way he hobbled to the sideline, the way
he would collapse when he got to the sideline, the
look on his face that just told you season ending injury.
There's certain guys that are injury but they just know it,
(07:14):
you know, and you can tell I've never seen a
career ending injury, thankfully, but a lot of the times
when that happens, you just hope for the best. When
they go in the injury tent, you just hope, you know,
it's just a cramp or they've got a pee.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Sometimes they got a pee.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I learned that the hard way when I walked in
and I saw Melvin Ingram's backside one of my first seasons,
and that is a site I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Don't think about it again.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
I'm a big man.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Who works with you on the sideline.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Are there are there Team Chargers employees that are also
there that are helping direct information or you know, point
you in the right space.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
No, I mean there are people that facilitate for the preseason.
There is somebody on the sideline from the PR department.
Brock is his name, great guy. I've known him all
nine years. I've watched him come up through his department
as well. He used to not be on the sideline
and he's there and he coordinates interviews for the national broadcast.
So for the game this week, Melissa Stark was a
(08:14):
sideline reporter. They had an NFL Radio network person there.
They had me and maybe somebody else, I'm not sure.
Sometimes there's two or three or four of us sideline
reporters and they'll coordinate postgame interviews with each one to
make sure everyone has a different player. And then during preseason,
like for instance, this week, Brock said, I'm going to
(08:35):
get you because you can interview players during the game.
That's not something that happens in regular season. It's why
I love preseason because I get to get None of
the veterans play, so I get to grab them and
interview them on the side. And so Rock last night
or this week or what have you arranged for me
to talk to Quentin Johnston Johnson a Looie gilman like
(08:56):
I mentioned, and Dante Jackson who's a new acquisition from Whitsburgh.
And he's great at identifying which players are in the
mood to do interviews that day, and Brock's the best
at his job about that. Sometimes they'll just give you
veterans even though they're not in the mood, and you know,
the interview will go something like this, Hey, Gary, how's
your day to day? How's this game play out for you?
(09:18):
It's fine, So must be exciting to have such a
deep wide receiver room.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And so their job is to figure out who's in
the mood to talk right, because sometimes, like you said,
they're twenty four boys, twenty four year old boys, like,
they're not always in the mood to talk well.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So that also brings up. I had an experience one time.
I did pregame shows for the University of Washington football
team way back in twenty five years ago, and we
had one event where we're flying back from a game
at Stanford and Curtis Williams, a linebacker for the University Washington,
(10:00):
suffered a paralyzing injury in the game, like middle of
the third quarter, and that plane ride back dead silence,
I mean, because nobody knew what his condition was. The
coach stayed, Rick new Heiseel stayed in the Bay area,
stayed by his hospital bed because they didn't know what
was going on. And that was the craziest, most emotional
(10:25):
I don't even remember if they won or lost that game,
but it just an emotional time. And I wanted to
know is does that whatever happens on the field translate
to what's going to happen on that airplane on that
charter flight home.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The feeling you were feeling was the energy of everybody
on that plane, knowing that that could be them, that
they're one play away from not only a season ending,
like a career ending injury, but like a life altering
to the nth degree injury. And that is a heavy,
heavy plane. When I think it was Hunter Henry broke
(10:59):
his leg or something one of their early seasons and
we had to wait, he had to go to the hospital,
come back, and and the same same vibe. The the
vibe of the plane has evolved in my eight or
nine seasons. In the early years, there was guys playing
dice for paychecks like it was a loud people were imbibing.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
It was a thing now the past several years.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
It is why and the coach dictates that head coach.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I think he sets the tone. I think the head
coach sets the tone.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I don't I don't know, but or maybe it's the veterans,
or I think it was an old school vibe you had.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
You know, you had.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Philip Rivers, who you know, did not do any of that.
But he was a huge personality. I mean he was
yap in the whole flight. I mean he'd get on
the he'd get on the.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
You know, the A P A or whatever, and he'd
be like, you said, we can't have cookies. Where are
our cookies?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
He was just a yapper.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So there was definitely like a more lively vibe on
those years. But in the past five years or so,
it's just been chill. These guys are young, they're quiet,
they want to they're on their screens, they want to
play their video games. Like that's a that's a big
difference too. So it's a very quiet it's always quiet.
I can't tell you the last time there was a
(12:11):
very lively flight. Maybe towards the end of the season
when they know they're going to playoffs, but it's never
It has not been that scene for quite a something.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The other thing that I've I've loved to hear when
you come back from these games, whether it's a home
game or away game, doesn't matter, but the the nationally
known personalities that you get to talk to and hang
out with. And I mentioned last night, I was I
was watching the game, listening to the radio broadcast, but
I realized that Mike Tarico was calling the game for NBC,
and I know that he has come up to you
(12:40):
before and said hello and knows your name and everything.
So I was telling easy, a national person that you've
watched for years.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Right, knows you.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
No. Last night, I'm on the sideline and nothing, and
I'm like, oh, it's just the Hall of Fame game.
It's not a big deal. Looking to get excited. Everyone's like,
aren't you so excited? You're getting back to your passion.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
And again, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
It's not that I'm too cool.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's just like, you know, every season, I'm like, I
don't know if I'm gonna do this next year. I
don't know, you know, and I'm like, what do you
I get into the first game first prezon, I'm like,
what are you talking about? Like you love every minute
of this? And last night I'm on the sideline. Dan
Fouts comes over in his gold jacket.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hey, Shannon, how are you?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I'm like, what, Antonio Gates is there. He's gonna be
inducted today if you're listening on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
He comes over, Hey, how are you? Gives me a
big hug.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Everyone's around Antonio Gates and he I mean, I didn't
know him in the beginning of his career when we
first started carrying the games on KFI and he was
still playing. But like in these are both gregarious, wonderful
people who would recognize the janitor. Like but the fact
that like and I'm nobody is what I'm saying, Like
I am nobody to them, but that it makes me
(13:45):
feel like a seven year old boy like that brings
the fan, Like Antonio Gates just gave me a hug,
like said hello, spend time on his Hall of Fame
weekend to say hello, that's so cool. I just got
to talk to Dan Fouts who remembers my name.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Like it's just it's very cool.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And and you know what the thing with those guys,
the Hall of Fame guys, and you saw it a
lot this week, they don't take any of it for granted.
You know, it's talking about living the moment, soak it in.
The last thing Dan Fout said, you know the other night,
is he goes have fun, Like this is so cool.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
You're still doing this job, Go have fun. And that's
what it is. That's what that's what the whole game is.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I noticed last night when they're introducing the guys, the
four inductees before the game. I think it was Jared
Allen walks across the field and he's just I mean
like he's there for.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The first time totally.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He's looking at the crowd, he's looking around like I
can't believe I still that I'm doing this, and they're
looking at me like it was fun to watch.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
The watch because their seven year old boys in that moment.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, like you go back to when they decided they
love that game, right, and that's the way they wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
The dream, the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
All right, So how are they going to do this year?
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Ten wins? Okay, wins, so.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
A little fall off from last year, but not right,
but they'll still make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
They're going to make the playoffs, and I think they
go a game deeper at least.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Okay, let's get him into that.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Got to work on those championships. Some hammies that are causing.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Well, it didn't help, I'm sure. The humidity and the.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
One it's nothing, Yeah, I mean it, there was no humid.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
It was cold.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I was freezing on the sideline. It was hilarious because
I'm like, July, it's gonna be hot. It's until yesterday.
The forecast for Canton Ohio was seventy five eighty degrees humid.
You're gonna be sweating balls you get there. It's windy,
it's raining, no humidity. It's football weather, like the gods.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Were like, it's July, but it's also football. Be cold,
cold all night.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
If you follow us wherever you find your podcast, just
type in Gary and Shannon. Obviously you're listening to the podcast,
go back and subscribe to the podcast that way, it
comes to your to your inbox regularly every day of
course during the week and then the Gas Weekend Fix.
Also subscribe to it. Eric comment on it, rate it.
All of that helps us out.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
It just pops up there and you go, shit ball.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Shit balls. You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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