Chris Wingert remembers his RSL squad + analyzes team USA in Copa America

Chris Wingert remembers his RSL squad + analyzes team USA in Copa America

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Good you were listening to about threetimes Utah Sports broadcast Grow of the Year
DC is the Bill Reiley Show.Were saved by less schwabtires like Utah's number
one sports talk ESPN seven hundred.Back in Beer Bar here in downtown Salt
Lake City, we've got Cope Americastuff coming up at about four today,

(00:24):
and this is your great destination indowntown to watch. Whether it's RSL,
whether it's the mL the MLS packageon Apple, Copa America Euros, They've
got it all on down here atbeer Bar. So come on buy a
little bit later on the safteroon.A good lunch crowd in here right now,
final hour today, final four hoursof my of my run here at

(00:44):
ESPN seven hundred. That's weird tosay, but that's the honest, goodness
truth. And I wanted to talksome soccer anyway. But I've also taken
this opportunity for people that have comeon to thank them for, you know,
all they've done for me through theyears. And our next guest one
of those guys too, whether itwas coming on as a player for Real
Salt Lake on a postgame show orcoming on during the week during this show,
or kind enough to do a pregameinterview with me, or even doing

(01:07):
what he's doing now a little analysisin his days now as an agent,
it's always good to have Chris Wingerdon. And whenever I got Chris wingerd
I got not only a good audiencewith Chris, but I always got an
extra listener in Long Island too,when his dad would hop online and listen
to the show as well. What'sup Wing, Well, it's having and
Bell first off used congratulations and orderreally excited to hear about that. And

(01:34):
secondly, I'm a little bit jealous. I got a little foam on which
I was on site right now withyou having a beer with Romondo and hanging
out to you in the show.Yeah, I'm surprised Romondo's not in here
half the time I'm doing my show. He's like Norman cher Is, sitting
in the corner booth over there havinga beer being Nick Romondo. But yeah,
Romondo's not here today. He's probablygonna be in here later when the

(01:55):
US national team's on. All right, Well, next time I need the
uh yeah, the in person inviteand all three of us will will hang
and here's what we can do aproper brewt of beer for me called Riled
Up Red, so we can allhave one of my own, one of
my beers that they have on taphere at beer Bar. Okay, count
me in for that. Excellent.How's wife? Catch everybody up on what

(02:16):
you're doing. Everything is good.Everything is good. I am in uh
in New York City, currently tryingto escape the heat a little bit and
hopefully gonna head out to Long Islandand see the fam and jump in the
pool this weekend. But yeah,everything's great. Still representing the guys,

(02:37):
got Jay, Glad and Brody onRSL and a bunch of other guys around
the league that I'm working with.Really enjoying that and ready for summer.
So yeah, everything's going great.That's fantastic. Just a quick thought.
I mean, you played on Cup, Champions runners up, Champions League teams.
How does this team talent wise theyhave done anything yet? But from

(03:00):
a talent standpoint, match up withsome of those really good teams you were
on. Chris Man, I'm gonnasound a little bit biased or as a
complete has been, but but Kyleand I and a few of the guys
we've been talking about the team,and what an incredible run they've been on.

(03:20):
It's been an absolute pleasure to watch, and not surprising knowing some of
the guys they have the team andand Pablo running the show over there.
With that said, I was tryingto look at the lineup and say,
who would be you know, whowould be starting on our team? And
of course you got the MVP frontrunner right now up top. Who would

(03:45):
play on any team that's for sure? Uh, And then was looking at,
you know, the rest of thesquad. I think Jay Glad would
give Borchers and Olave and Shuler runfor their money, and maybe maybe Brodie
would take my spot. But outsideof that, man, I think I
think the guys would on this currentteam would have a hard time starting for

(04:08):
us because we had certainly some ofthe best guys in the league. I
don't disagree either. And not onlydid you have good a good starting eleven,
but you had guys that could eitherstart or come off the bench that
knew what their roles were, thatwere kind of I like to call them,
you know, dirty work guys,guys that would put in the work
that needed to be done that maybesome others wouldn't do. For sure,

(04:31):
excuse me, for sure, Iwould say we even had guys that were
national team caliber players that on occasionwe're coming off the bench, guys like
Ned Graboloi and you know, certainlywe had a rotation up top of of
top top players in the league betweenRobbie Finley and and Fabiana Spindla Sabo and

(04:56):
Eura and all those guys. Soyeah, I mean there there was there
was a lot of good players.But of course I'm biased, right,
so anyway, Yeah, it wouldbe fun. It'll be fun. I
wish it. You know, inanother universe we could we could have that
match up and see who would win. We need to get the EA Sports
FIFA guys to be able to createthat, you know, be able to

(05:18):
match you guys up in some sortof video game simulation, you know what
I mean. I'm sure somebody thatknows the AI stuff now could be able
to do it, right. We'dhave to look into that. Hey,
Chris Wingert with us here the BillRiley Show today. Agent, Now,
what what what's You've had an agent, so you knew what the job was,
but what was when you got intothis and now that you're getting established

(05:41):
in this business, what's been thething that caught you off guard of the
eye opener for you? Oh man, that's a great question. What caught
me off guard? I don't thinktoo much stuff caught me off guard.
With that being said, still,you know, learning more learn more about
the job in this side of thingsevery day, that's for sure. I

(06:05):
guess how much goes into managing theclients that you have. Certainly it's pretty
obvious as to the recruiting role,if you will, and scouting part of
it in terms of trying to bringon new clients, but in terms of

(06:25):
the everyday management of the guys,everybody is different, right, So some
guys want to be talking once everycouple of days. Some guys would probably
not rather hear my voice. Soyou know, it's just to check in
once in a while. And Ithink that's just up to the player.
And I've tried to find a balancebetween, you know, being in close

(06:48):
contact but also only being in touchas much as they want or they need.
And that's just again that's the psychologicalpart of doing the job, is
just figuring out what each guy needsand how you can try to help Chris
Winger with us for a couple moreminutes here on the Bill Riley Show.
Today. US men's national team playingPanama tonight. So we've got Conca caff

(07:14):
and the Copa America. But Iwant your thoughts on this team, how
Burholtzer put it together, and whatexpectations should be in COPA for this team
and then maybe two years because thecore of this team is going to be
back in two years they are,there's not going to be that many changes.
It could be a few players hereand there. So where do you
view this team now as it's beenput together, and what should expectations be

(07:38):
for COPA and then of course twoyears from now when they're all back here
in the States again for the WorldCup. Yeah, the time is now,
so to speak. You know,the core of this team is really
just starting to scratch the surface onhitting their prime. I would say,
of course, you still have someguys who are, you know, relatively
young, Joe Scally and Jill Reinaand Musa. I'm sure I'm missing a

(08:03):
few others who could all peppy.A bunch of these guys could all play
in the Olympics this summer, whichI don't think will happen because obviously they're
playing in Copa America now. Butthose guys are still young enough to be
on the U twenty three squad forUS, which is fantastic, But most

(08:24):
of the other guys are really justcoming into their own prolific and Tim Waya
and Weston and Tyler and these guys, and so, you know, I
think the time is now. Ithink the expectations are hired than what they've
been and rightfully so, and goinginto next World Cup when really they should
be hitting their stride, I thinkthe expectations should be high, and that's

(08:46):
okay, that's part of it,right. I think the guys will will
enjoy that pressure, and as wesays, pressure is a privilege, right,
so they've earned that and I thinkthey're they're ready to take that on.
In terms of results, yeah,I mean it's tough. Are we
going to have to play Brazil inthe first knockout rounds here? I think

(09:07):
that's who we would match up against, depending on where we finished in the
group and when where they finish inthe group. So no matter what,
you're going to have, you know, a tough matchup. But I think
it's time where you know, wecan we can pull off an upset against
the likes of a team like that. Right, it's probably been a while
since we since we kind of shockedthe world with a win over a team

(09:31):
like Spain. What was that twentyten? A win like that that would
really really be a signature win.But that's what you're hoping for, is
to get to that stage and thenpull off a bit of an upset.
And in terms of the twenty twentysixth World Cup, I mean, I
think anything less than the quarterfinals wouldbe a disappointment. But again, so

(09:54):
many things happen, right, andit's it's difficult for a lot of teams
to even make it, as wesee in the europe qualifying and throughout the
rest of the world, and soit's hard to say an exact result,
but I think anything anything less thanthe quarterfinals would be a disappointment. What's
missing from this team? I'm nottalking about necessarily an individual who could be

(10:16):
on the team, but positionally,what's the weakness of this American side.
I've heard a lot of people talkabout a lack of a number nine,
but it feels like we've been talkingabout that for about three cycles now.
You know, center backs, lackof a number nine. Is there something
missing, something that could be developedbetween now in twenty six in the World

(10:37):
Cup. Yeah, it's a goalscoring number nine, which I think we
have but just hasn't come to fruitionyet on this team. I mean,
I'm a huge fan of Flow,but he hasn't quite done it yet for
the US. But he's still prettynew. I think he's only been there
for a year, right, hisfirst couple of games. I think we're

(10:58):
a year ago, and so sometimesit takes a little bit to get comfortable
and hit your stride. But Imean we were talking about it for ten
years with RSL, and look whathappened when they got a true number nine
goalscorer who you know, has justcompletely changed the course of the season.
So I think that that remains tobe the case with the US. Our

(11:20):
wingers are some of our best playerson the team. And if we can
get one of these guys to reallystart heating up, whether it's Flow or
Peppy or Sergeant or somebody else,I think, you know, puts US
in a different place as a country. So sure, last thing is a
former player now agent slash businessman gonnaask you a big question about the league.

(11:43):
Has the Apple deal been good forthe league, because I feel like
the league isn't as visible anymore tothe average fan. So you tell me,
as a former player and somebody that'snow in the player business, has
this Apple deal been good for theleague? I agree? I think it's
just not quite visible for the averagefan. You're gonna get the die hard

(12:05):
fans, guys like myself who aregoing to watch them and pay for the
subscription no matter what. And ofcourse, the subscription shot through the roof
with MESSI coming into town last year. But at the same time, yeah,
I would argue that it's it hasn'tbeen the best simply for that reason

(12:26):
that if it's on a major network, whether it's you know, Fox or
ESPN or NBC or something like that, I think the average fan, when
it's in your face, is goingto watch more. And unfortunately, we
still have to win over a lotof those fans, and those fans are
not going to seek it out likethe rest of us will. And so

(12:50):
in that sense, I don't knowif it was the best move. I
guess the answer is yet to bedetermined, right, But signing it in
your deal, it worries me alittle bit because front it sounded good.
But at the same time, ifMLS continues to grow, and hopefully the
twenty twenty six World Cup kind ofcatapults that into a whole other level,

(13:11):
then we might be stuck in adeal that isn't isn't as advantageous as we
once thought. Chris Wingert, Thankyou man. I wanted to get you
on before I signed off here.I really appreciate not just this today,
but all down through the years,all the radio we've done together. Thank
you man. Of course, it'sgreat talking with you. Bill. Hopefully
see you soon and tell Philadelphia Adamslegend Norm Winger that I said hello.

(13:35):
He already told me to say hi, so I will do. Thanks.
Chris, all right, take care. There you go. Chris Wingert with
US form RSL man now an agentto those soccer players with us here at
the Bill Riley Show today. Well, look who just dropped in. He
must want a free sandwich from JerseyMikes. He only shows up when I
promise him sandwiches from Jersey Mikes.Well, or are you expecting me to

(13:58):
buy you a beer? Oh?Actually, fun trivia, I'm actually one
of the partners here at Bearvars.Are you really Yeah? So this was
Mike lud I did the real estatehere, and I love coming here and
I love when you broadcast here.So it's great. Richard Duncan are in
the back there. Heather's running thebar this afternoon. We can. We
had a really good lunch crowd inhere too. Well, I am such
a small partner here. I probablymade maybe fifteen or twenty cents with this

(14:20):
lunch crowd, so uh, itall adds up. Hey, always get
a table. It's my friend JohnWright, our tour insider. He said.
His office is just around the corner. He goes, I want to
come say goodbye to you before youget off the air. Well, I
really do. How long John,By the way, I've worked at this
station twenty straight years. John wason the ground floor. He was there

(14:41):
for a year and a half andthen got with it a year and a
half. Yeah. Well, letme tell the story. Okay. I
was a coming off a failed professionalgolf career. I was working in real
estate and I got an offer todo a radio show on seven hundred and
I was replacing a legend. Everybodyhad heard of Tom Barberry, and I
knew nothing about radio. I hadno clue. I didn't know how to
turn on a microphone. I didn'tknow anything. And I went to the

(15:05):
first production meeting and everybody was beingintroduced. You were new, and I
believe it was Matt, Matt Thomasand you and I. We were the
three anchors to the new shows.And they were asking all these technical radio
questions to the hosts, and Ididn't even know what they were talking about.
But luckily I had sat down nextto you, and I would lean
over and say, well, whatdoes that mean? And you were so

(15:26):
nice and so helpful and such ahuge support for me. I had no
idea what I was doing or whatwas happening, and you were right there
with me. You were a veteranin the business. You had just come
over from KSL, I believe,and I just wanted to thank you personally
on the air for how much you'vemeant to me and my radio career.
Mine was short lived as full time, but it's always been fun to come

(15:48):
back and do some golf shows anddo some golf appearances. And you were
going to be missed. I tunein every day at my office and listen
in and text you privately and justcalm on the show. And I'm going
to miss that. So I'm gladyou're still around. Glad you're still be
outtock casting games. But it's gonnabe it's gonna be tough there from eleven
to two. It's one of thosethings where I've been doing this. I've

(16:11):
done a radio show just about everyday for thirty years. I've been in
the business, thirty two years i'vebeen on this The fact that I've been
at this station, everybody that's comeand gone over there is twenty straight years
on this station's been pretty amazing.And because you know, this business is
weird and crazy and many things happen. I'm lucky my boss is sitting right
there by one of my former bosssitting next to him, two of the

(16:34):
best people I've ever worked for.And I wouldn't still be in this business
as it is today without these twoguys here. Mike lund Is a great
sales manager, and a friend JackieLouis are current when she's sitting there right
now. These are the people thathave made along with me, this station
what it is today. And Ifeel really good, John, because remember
when it started, it was inthe toilet. Oh, it made a
change for a reason. It hadbeen legendary for a long long time.

(16:57):
And I feel really good of whatwe've built here at this station. There's
been a lot of changes, butwhere it is now and handing the baton
off to the guys that are goingto be I. You know, you
always want to leave something better thanyou found, and I think I've done
that. You absolutely have. Andand I remember that first meeting. I
was I wasn't doing sports, wedidn't go all sports. I was doing

(17:18):
politics and current events, and thena Jim Rome show would come on after
me, and then you and Idon't even remember. It was such a
scattered piece of it just didn't work. And once they once they let me
go and move to all sports,it made a lot more sense. And
then once they started to centered aroundthe utes and you and Spence and things
just took off from there. Andyou've become you become a legend in this

(17:41):
market and certainly on this station,and for twenty straight years at one place.
I remember I got a LinkedIn notificationI've been at my commercial real estate
firm now for twenty years, andI was like, wait, what happened?
It's been a long time. Ithought I was, you know,
it's only been ten, but twentyyears here thirty in the business, and
and you talk about someone who's paidtheir dues, worked their way up and

(18:02):
achieved all sorts of success. I'mjust really I had to walk over,
had to get on the air andjust say thank you and on behalf of
everyone, myself included. I lovecoming on, but I also love just
enjoying your shows and listening to yourcalls on seven hundred to all the utes.
Well, I love having you on. John's great. Everybody that knows
John's kind of a golf legend inthese parts. Everybody that's grown up in

(18:23):
this area probably has a John Wrightstory that's played with him or against him.
And I just love John because there'sno bs. I'm one of these
rare people that I'm very direct,you know where I stand. It's not
mean or I just I'm direct.And John's the same way. And I
always, I always enjoy talking topeople and having people on that are guests

(18:44):
that are very direct and you knowwhere they stand, and they've got an
opinion and they're not saying bad things, but they're just telling it like it
is, and you've always done thatexcept with Tiger Woods, so you've got
to still even with Tiger's struggles.But that's okay because most of the time
we've talked to him as a guest, he was great well, and I
appreciate that. I really enjoy it. I hope I can continue it in
some way, shape or form.I have no idea who the replacement's gonna

(19:08):
be. I'm gonna I'm listen.I'm gonna try to get it out of
you when we're off the air.But uh no, like I said,
I I enjoy coming on and you'reall you're going to be missed, and
I can see your your tech screenis blowing up and your your personal phone
with all these people are realizing.I thought it was melst it's coming,
it's coming to an end. Iremember my last show was on a Tuesday.

(19:29):
I had like ten seconds. Iremember my producer said in my ear,
Hey, the general manager just walkedin. I think this was your
last show, and that was it. It's generally hell it happened, but
it's usually on a Friday, noton a Tuesday. Well, and I
begged him, Hey, just giveme one more day to say good bye
to my all fifteen of my listeners, and they're like, no, we
couldn't trust you to come on theair because who knows what you would say.

(19:52):
I was actually a little relieved.Waking up at three o'clock in the
morning to be ready for a sixam show is not my favorite thing to
do, so but yeah, allthe way up. You don't even wake
up at three in the morning togolf with an early tea time. I
might wake up that early to gohunting, but that's about it. But
again, Bill, thank you forthe opportunities, and thank you for on
behalf of everyone, for all thelisteners, because uh, it's uh,
the mid afternoon eleven to two isnot going to be the same without you.

(20:15):
So thank you from all of usand especially for me. From the
day one in that production meeting,all the way up through twenty years of
French, I had forgotten the beat, had I hadn't forgotten, but I
had hadn't thought about that production meetingover there over a clear channel at Decker
Lake. Well, I think thesalespeople said, hey, are you available
for and they said some industry termand I didn't know what it meant.
And I look over at you andyou're yes, you're available. I can't

(20:37):
remember what it was for it was. I think it was lunch with advertising.
You had Raymond, you had Maggie, you had Steve, John Chambers,
John Chambers, Mitt Smith was there, Mitch for a minute, was
over there too. Jim vanderber whoI just saw at Steve Cloukey's memorial.
He was on that said I rememberthat that sales deb Yeah, yeah,

(20:59):
they had. They were great.They were. And you know what's funny
is those lunches that they did setup with Advertiser. I've met some of
my very close friends even to thisday, and some clients as well.
So the radio business is very interestingand super fun and you made it.
You made it not just enjoyable forme, but you made it so I
even knew what I was doing.I lasted more than a week thanks to
you. Well, here's the deal. Now, I don't have a three
hour rap. I'm gonna be busyat my new job, but I think

(21:22):
i'm gonna be able to take alunch, So you and I could go
hit Jersey Mikes and get if youtried the twelve yet. No, but
I need to go in there.I need. I need to go Jersey
Mikes. And then now now you'reactually free for afternoon golf, well we'll
see about that. I got that. Yeah, that's gonna be. The
next few months are gonna be alot of heavy lifting. But at some
point, yes, well we'll getout. We'll look forward to that.

(21:44):
I know Spence wants to get outand play as well. In fact,
I just saw the pairings for theUtah State Amateur. The media day is
coming up next week and I'm pairedwith Spence. So yeah, because they
wanted to me to play with you, and I said, Bill doesn't like
to miss his show because we playat eight o'clock in the morning, there's
no way you could get to yourshow. Be tough. Where's it,
by the way, it's at OgdenCountry Club. Nice, nice track,
very nice. From what I understand, they've redone the whole thing. And

(22:06):
I actually need to get out there. I've played well there. I actually
won the stadium out there many yearsago, and I need to go and
take a look at the new design. But I'll be out there with Spence
and Paul Puckmyer and Jan Brownstein.And I just saw my pairing this morning.
So it's an all call seven hundredsports foursome joy, Thanks, thank

(22:26):
you, Bill. Great to seehim. That's John Wright, my friend
and tour inside. A former radiohost. He held down the morning slot
for a good eighteen months or so, following the footsteps of Tom Barberry back
in the day. And I thinkJohn will still be around from time to
time. You'll hear him promoting majors, and he and I will certainly remain
good friends off year as well.Gonna grab a break, We're gonna come

(22:48):
back on the other side and renewone more time. Bill and Spence won't
be a hot or not Wednesday,but it'll still be fun next year.