Barbell Shrugged - 118- NPFL General Managers Ian Berger of the New York Rhinos and Jon Callahan of the Phoenix Rise

Episode Date: May 15, 2014

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Ian Berger from the New York Rhinos and John Callahan from the Phoenix Rise, both NPFL teams, and these guys are the general managers. Hey, this is Rich Froning, you're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson. We've got CTP behind the camera. We have traveled to Atlanta for the NPFL Combine. We're standing here with two of the coaches. Is that right? Coaches?

I'm kind of a GM, owner, manager. We've got all these new jobs being created. That's right. We're still trying to figure that out. I'm a general manager as well, kind of helping out on the coaching side too. Gotcha. So we have Ian Berger, New York Rhinos, and John Callahan. But I've been told this weekend you go by Cal.

Yeah, preferred. Rising Phoenix. Phoenix Rising. The Phoenix Rise. Phoenix Rise. Yeah, we to get that down i'll figure it out sometime in the next couple years i talked to uh jim and tony both and they they said that you two would be the ones to get on

the podcast together because you have like this feud going on you hate each other but then i talked to you guys about it yeah he's pretty intoler pretty intolerable. He's just too damn nice. I mean, Kyle doesn't share too much. But I will get along with him just for the sake of a podcast. I do still owe you money for breakfast this morning. Yeah, so

this is, I mean, everyone's very amicable at this point. No one hates anybody yet because no one's competed against anyone yet. So it's a super friendly environment. You guys are probably sharing some information. I look over. Everyone's kind of sitting

at the same bench running some stats. And then once everyone makes a split, I mean, y'all are like best friends now, but you'll hate each other soon. Yeah, I mean, you know,

today and through the combine process, we're trying to move the best athletes through because we've either had all our athletes signed or we're pretty close. And so once you get to the level two combine, there will be a lot less sharing of information. I mean, now we're trying to select athletes for the draft to come to Phoenix or New York. And so at that point, it'll be a little bit gray about how friendly we're going to be. For sure.

It sounds like to me this is more about trying to make sure the best athletes get into the NPFL. It's not really about your team. Correct. We just want to make sure the best athletes continue on through the process and have the opportunity to become professional athletes in the NPFL. Do you guys have anything specifically that you're looking for this weekend, if you're still sharing information at this point? You know, I think actually Ian said it best yesterday,

and it's maybe not a great answer, but it's like we're looking for someone who can do everything. You know, and really first and foremost, because there are so many great athletes out there, I think the teamwork and being exposed to being on a team and how you interact with other athletes, especially when things don't go well. We noticed that, particularly in Dallas,

there were a few really good athletes that just didn't handle it very well. And you're like, man, we're going to be a tight team. They performed well, but just maybe didn't handle failure very well. Exactly, and that's what it was. Those are the things that will come out tomorrow, we're hoping. Today is challenging because there's a lot of athletes. There's a lot of different data, and we don't have a lot of time. The top 10, 15 will be easy, right, Ian?

They have been easy for us? Correct. I mean, the top 10, 15 have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Also, one of the biggest things that I've noticed is some of the athletes come up to you and talk to you and are really nice people. And it's a separator. You know, when you're looking at that list, who moves on? Yeah. When you kind of have a personal relationship with somebody as opposed to just a number on a sheet and some statistics, it makes a big difference. So you're a big fan of steak dinners, uh, golf. Is that right? Golf,

long walks on the beach. So if you were to be schmoozed, that would be the way to do it. Yeah. Um, I like, I'm a romantic at heart for sure. And just, just so we're not setting a mixed message here, um, in Boston, don't come up and like be creepy stalker about it. Like come up, introduce yourself and you know, just be a good cat. And, and it doesn't take that long.

Cause we do have to talk to a lot of people. We need to watch the athletes. So for sure. And for all you people listening that are attending the Boston combine, Cal is a big hugger. So don't even get him a warning. Just give him a big hug. True story.

Yeah. Not afraid of the hug. Trying to teach Ian a little bit about that. So it's not all about the numbers at this point. You're still trying to find out who's a pain in the ass, who's a basket case when things don't go their way, who's going to be accepting of substitutions and not throw a fit when they're not the all-star like they always are on an individual sport or in an individual sport because this is all team. Yeah, most definitely. That's that's it right and so what we can see in the individual lifts right

you see a little bit like someone hits a pr like we're all freaking excited right yeah but if it's the look at this guy it's like okay well that's not really what we're looking for because we're gonna have a bunch of other athletes that can do that too. And we need to be comfortable doing that and handling success, right? Yeah, I've been talking to a few athletes and I'm hearing, oh yeah, I snatched 275, but there's like a dozen other dudes that snatched 275 too. Now I've got to figure out where else can I separate myself. That is impressive, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of guys that can do that now. It's been constant evolving for us because the standard just keeps on getting set higher and higher and higher.

And every time— So you think maybe in L.A. you were like, you know, it got set here, but by the time you got to Dallas and now Atlanta, you're like, oh, shit, there's more than I thought possible. I mean, we watched Jerome Perryman in Los Angeles hit a 600-pound deadlift, and we were all in amaze. Next weekend, we're in Dallas, and all of a sudden, Paul Smith's pulling 640-plus. And all of a sudden, here, you're seeing a few dudes pull 6-plus. And you're like, wow. Just keeps on getting set higher and higher.

Now it's just the standard. Yeah, they get the – I mean, the athletes later on in the combines can go, okay, well, that guy pulled 6, so now I've got to pull 610. And so you've got a little bit of that going on, I'm sure. Yeah, and really, I think the experienced athletes, right, you all have worked with them. They know that they've just got to go in and play their game and not get caught up in the fact that 15 guys can do 275 snaps, right? Right, right. And so if they can play that game and not let them rattle them when they get over and do the power clean shoulder overhead, they're

going to be fine, you know, and we'll see their numbers be consistent across the grid. Yeah. But when they start trying to do what other people are doing, you know, that's when it just goes, the shit goes out the window. You know, the most experienced athletes I've watched do this, a guy like Brandon Phillips. Perfect example. You know, no one's probably more experienced in this type of arena than that guy. You know, he did his snatch.

He snatched 275, which was a really good lift. And he walked away and goes, okay, I'm going to go knock out the muscle-ups now. You know, he wasn't like, hell yeah, and freaking out. He kind of understands how the game is played. You know, you've got to go to Sunday and do that deal there. Perfect example of literally the model athlete that we would want to bring into the Phoenix Rise. Brandon is a great example of that.

Just talking to him, he just represents himself so well. He's very humble, but he's so accomplished, right? And that maturity, you need that on your team, right, Ian? I mean, it's hard to find cats like that. Yeah, I mean, just being humble and knowing that you're a great athlete and what you're capable of, but also and knowing that you're a great athlete and what you're capable of but also making sure that you have that ego in check because this is a team

sport now no longer an individual sport yeah and how did you get involved in the npfl i work with the guys at rebot crossfit fifth ave and um rhino co um and a team was bought, and I had a degree in sports management and always been a fan of fitness, and the opportunity came up like, hey, do you want to get involved in this? And I was like, I don't really know too much about it. I've heard some about it, but seems cool, sure. Why not, you know?

And probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's just constantly ever growing it's it's pretty amazing that i was when they were briefing me on the description of the job there wasn't too much information they're like yeah we're gonna we're gonna be a pro sports team i was and i'm what's the sport yeah shrug i don't know I don't know. Fitness. I'm like, oh, okay. I just graduated from college and just been a fitness trainer. You've been to CrossFit games? I have not. Or regionals?

Yes, regionals. I've been a regionals athlete for the past three years. Okay. And my father has been to the games. Gotcha. So you've got all that experience right there. Yeah. My family owns and operates a box, which I haven't been working at much because I've been at Reebok CrossFit Fifth Ave.

Yeah. But having a whole family that does fitness is pretty cool, you know, and everybody understands what I'm doing. And it's a really cool support system. Very cool. But you, Cal, how'd you get into this? Um, well, how do I begin? Uh, well, I guess, uh, James came to the meeting in Dallas and, uh, had asked me to come up and I couldn't make it. I was in Austin at the time. I'm still in currently in Austin, but, uh, I happened to be out in Phoenix with him for one of his CCP programs, life coaching. And we're having dinner at his place and grilling burgers. And he's like, hey, man, like, you got to look at this.

I think we should do it. And knowing James, right, like, if he's ready to jump on something that he's just heard about. Yeah. Like, you need to listen because he doesn't just throw his hat into the ring. Right. Seems pretty like somebody who kind of really analyzes things first. Almost definitely. He wants to sit back and take it all in and just make sure because when he puts his name behind it, it needs to be to the level of what he's been doing, right? Right, right.

And so James and I have been together four plus years. He's been my coach. And after that conversation, we chatted more about it throughout the weekend. I went back to Austin, looked at some of the documents and what was required. And kind of like, you know, I'm like, okay, I've never done this. But I had the benefit of having free time. I was, you know, kind of a semi-retired trader from Chicago. Was doing some, uh, remote coaching on the side, um, and just hadn't found what I wanted to do yet. And this was like,

okay, this has about everything that I love about life, you know, like being part of a team, creating something, creating a community of vision and then following through on it. And so it really just, I mean, things just fell into place so quickly. And it got to the point, I think, Ian, it just resonates with you. It's like, I'll just figure it out because this sounds awesome. And if I don't know it, I know somebody who can help me. And I'm willing to throw my hat in the ring for that. Nobody here has any experience at this, I don't think. Making it up as you go.

Right, and it's a little uncomfortable at first, but then you know when you're doing something that's uncomfortable, that you love, you're putting a lot of effort into it, and you're making sure you're doing it right. I think the biggest challenge is being okay with making some mistakes, right? That's when the coolest things happen, or at least the coolest stories. Yeah, I mean, I know for myself, when I first got presented this opportunity

and I started looking over all the stuff that we were getting into, I was like, oh my God, what did I get myself? I'm so in over my head. And I was like, all this is supposed to happen in this short period of time. This was moved really fast, by the way. And it's happened faster than what we thought two months ago.

And I think what I found is that Tony's vision, which is crystal clear, and you ask him any question about it, he's got an answer. And there's no waffling. The team he has around him is super smart and sophisticated and puts things into action immediately like we get constant upgrades across the board and it's really made our job a lot easier whether it's at the combines or branding or selecting teams like it's just been it's been a great process and haven't had too many stumbles so far. Yeah, and on that note, all the other team owners and operators are in the same boat.

You know, they're just great people and just really helpful in every aspect of continuing and making this league prosper. Yeah, you know, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We want to share information that's pertinent to all of us, and then we'll have our own spin on it, right? Because geographically or the makeup of our athletes is going to be different. Yeah. But really we want to try to put the best product out there. You know, really the way we perform reflects on the RINOs and the founders and everybody else.

And so, you know, that's something that we take very seriously, and we want to hold everybody else up to the same standard. Yeah, this is interesting because you guys aren't just focused on your team and yourselves. You have to be focused on the NPFL at this time because what you do here at the Combine, at the Draft, all that stuff, that's going to affect how the NPFL as a whole is seen, and this is really important that you guys are working together.

And I'm seeing a lot of that. I can go in the office and, owners potential owners everyone's kind of like getting together and it's you guys are staying after hours coming in early leaving late and you know kind of working out those details together well that that dynamic really changed I mean when we first all met in Los Angeles for the first combine like any other team sport you want to win and you're caring about your team and yeah the whole aspect of working together with other teams is a little bit foreign at first but then like you i mean tony puts everything into perspective and then you just

meet all these other guys and you're just like we're all in it for the common goal of having a successful league yeah what do you guys think? When I heard about this, how many people have to dress out? Is it eight total? Eight possible. We're nailing that down. We may bump to ten. So the rules aren't even like... There are a fair amount of them established,

but we're still trying to figure some of that out because we want the best product out there, right? So we're thinking about some other things that maybe weren't considered two months ago. Yeah. This is like a fan-oriented sport. 100%. Trying to do the market research for the fan,

make sure that it's friendly to them. And so that's why you're going to get a different product and try to remove the bias of what they want to be and let the fans decide what it should be. It 100 about the fans and really that's the beauty of it it's so easy to follow like whether it's my mom right or it's or it's or it's you mike you know who's very sophisticated around this stuff like people thank you people will people will have an ability to follow and have fan you know have their favorite athletes and favorite teams. The storytelling component is really going to draw the fan into the teams and the athletes.

The stuff that we're privy to for what they're going to roll out is just amazing. I was talking to some guys over here earlier, and they were like, what do you like about this? I'm like, man, you know what? I like the idea of having a hometown team and going and rooting for that group of people and having the same athletes that i'm going to go root for every time and you know there's going to be like community built within your your you know city or town or whatever and the opportunity for

you know uh maybe colleges to adopt something like this. That's cool. But what do you guys think? You've got four men, four women that dress out for the competition. As far as, like, the percentage or ratio of, like, specialists to generalists, I mean, I know there's going to be a benefit to having specialists in this type of environment where you don't really see that with CrossFit so much. You kind of want a group of generalists. How do you view that? Ian, let's go with you first.

Well, if you look at our athlete selection so far, we have a group of generalists. Nobody that's really a specialist just yet. We think that having a group of people that is overall well-rounded, that they're going to be able to perform whatever is handed to them. The biggest thing was at first we didn't really, the races were kind of only imaginary, you know? So now seeing them, it may be a little bit more advantageous to have a specialist, but I think the biggest piece of this is going to be strategy and having a team that works as a unit you know so you might not see the best individual athletes do well but a team that could come together and really throw down and put it all together and kind of make quick quick decisions on the go yeah are going

to be very successful i mean how how soon before each competition do you figure out what the actual events are going to be? Do you find out that day, or how do you know who to dress? No, I think it's the beginning of the season. So let's call it August 1st, 2nd, 3rd. We will be given all the races for all the matches, including up through the finals. So we'll know what is going to be required for each race. So every week you're kind of prepping for the next race, but you already know what it is. Yeah, we know what it is. And so is

week one for each team across the board the exact same? Yes. Okay. Okay. And you might see something interesting because I know Phoenix has a bunch of their athletes living out there and training together full time. And this first year we're taking a little bit different of approach. We have a bunch of our athletes coming in from all different parts of the U.S., and it's going to be hard to work together as a team, and they're going to kind of have to put together a little bit quicker than maybe potentially your team will. Yeah, and just one point.

I would ask you for our males, right? Like Danny Nichols, Nate Schrader, Marcus Philly, James Fitzgerald. There was no specialist there, right? You could argue that some are... Danny's strong as shit. How do you categorize him, right? I think after year one, we'll have an idea of what a specialist looks like, but we don't even know.

That's true. To what degree? On a spectrum. You're going to get specialists, but they're going to be generalists with maybe a slight touch of more strength or more gymnastics. You can't even define it, right? It depends on how extreme the events turn out to be, whether you really even need them or not. Exactly.

Like, it depends on what you actually find yourself competing in, whether you need to get someone who is a true gymnast or a true strongman or whatever you need. Now, if we add the fifth male and female to the races, then it allows for that fifth person, right? Maybe we do bring in a gymnast, right? Okay, so that expands that, and that becomes maybe a little bit more fun for the fans because there's a specialist that comes in, right? Yeah. Kind of like the paint trainer or whatever.

Yeah, the more people that dress out, there's more opportunities for that. I love that about it, right? Yeah. But, yeah, to Ian's point earlier, I think one of the advantages for our team is we're going to require all our athletes to be on site. And so they'll train together. We'll train the races. And we'll train together as a team.

And we're like super excited about that. This is really the first conversation James and I had. We're like, okay, what does this look like? Well, obviously, I'll have to live here, right? Like we're a pro team and like that's what it should look like? Well, obviously, I'll have to live here, right? Like, we're a pro team, and, like, that's what it should look like. And so I think over the course of the next couple years, all teams will adopt that. I think logistically it's a little bit tougher for some teams. And for us, we already have four athletes on site.

Right. And, you know, it's something that we're, you know, really fired up about. For sure. So some of the talk leading up to the kind of the NPFL coming to be, all these athletes that compete all the time but don't get paid to do so are thinking man maybe i could actually make a living doing this where i can where i can train and and not have to like have a side job or like you know borrow money from my family just to get by or whatever so uh at least this first year like

what does that look like for the athletes are they able to all kind of quit their jobs especially if they have to move into a new town like how do they handle travel expenses to go to all these games and like how does that work yeah great question and so um all nobody has a signed contract yet we're still working on the finalization of the player agreement and even when we do all that stuff will be confidential but to answer your question about travel teams provide all travel for the athletes to the matches. That's for y'all's team or everybody's team? Everybody's team. Okay.

For our team, we'll provide living quarters. So whatever that looks like in moving arrangements, we'll take care of all that for our athletes. And so being the first year, like no one's going to get rich off this, right? And the teams, we're trying to have a little bit of a startup mentality where we're going to pay the athletes, but we can't break the bank or we're not in business next year. So we have to be smart about it. But we're a few things away from this thing being able to blow up. How far off do you think profits might be? Where you can dig out of that financial hole? I think year two. We're actually pretty bullish on that right now. And if you'd have asked me three, four weeks ago, I would have said year three.

Yep. Okay. But, you know, there's some- More optimistic, huh? Yeah, there's some good stuff happening right now that, you know, if there's great follow through on it, then it just looks a lot better. The more I've learned, the more optimistic I've become. Yeah.

And I got to say, you guys, when you had your podcast on, it was like, man, you guys, like, who was in there with you guys that knew all this? Because you guys nailed it with the exception of, you know, how the combine. I thought you were like, dude, you've got to back off. The combine, but you guys were like, an hour plus, like you got it. And then you started talking about the iterations of through college and it was like, Oh man, you guys like, you guys get it. You see the value in it that we all saw when it got approached, you know,

we got approached for this. And to kind of speak on that note too. I mean, a lot of the athletes that we have taken are, I mean, the compensation is not their first goal. You know, this year they realized the potential of the league and they're like, we want is not their first goal you know this year they realized the potential of the league and they're like we want in on ground level you know yeah we want to win a championship and we want to be the best you know so they're coming i mean i could speak for annie thorstotter she is the champ for a reason she she likes to win and she's very adamant about

it so she's like i want a team that's gonna be so far superior to the rest and i want to win and she's very adamant about it so she's like i want a team that's gonna be so far superior to the rest and i want to win the league for not this year not next year just become a dynasty you know it's and now the rivalry's happening i just heard that by the way it's gonna happen on this show everyone's gonna see it I mean, I could see the incentive for any high school or college. This is the perfect off-season sport for every other sport. It's going to raise the level of all the soccer players and all the football players and all the wrestlers. Anyone that doesn't have whatever season this is,

a sport they're already competing in, can just do this, whatever we call this in high school or college, and that's going to make them such better athletes for whatever their main sport is. I mean, they certainly could transfer on to this and not play any other sports and just be a full-time MPFL or whatever you want to call it, but as an off-season sport,

it is perfect. Totally agree. Actually, someone just sent me an article last night about high school. I forget what part of the country it was in, but there were four or five that got together and had their own fitness combine. I'm like, dude. Already?

Already. And it wasn't based upon anything we're doing, but they just thought about this thing, like let's get these kids active. And one kid went from 205 to 145 through the training process. That's really changing lives, right? And so if in the event that we're able to kind of

influence on that level and we can see it pick up in the high schools and the colleges i mean that's amazing because i i totally agree like this is like some the training for this is different than what maybe we're used to and it's yeah you know it's a lot uh the cultural culture longevity piece is huge right you can do this for a lot of years. I mean, and then you even think about grassroots. You think about junior soccer or junior football. All of a sudden it becomes junior MPFL. Think about all the issues that press the U.S. right now in terms of health care and obesity and stuff.

We're already starting to look into something that could change that for the future, which would be huge. Yeah. I're already starting to look into something that could change that for the future, which would be huge. Yeah. I've had that conversation a couple of times too, is like people, you know, like they started thinking deeper into like what this could really mean,

you know, changing the culture, us culture. And then maybe the culture of some of these other countries, when it, you know, spreads internationally. Don't misunderstand us.

Like we're like, our first goal is to make sure this is a success and it's fan-friendly, right? But we see those other things that are like that. This could proliferate in a way that is really meaningful. So both your teams have signed athletes already, even prior to the combine. Correct, yes.

Do any of you regret an athlete yet? Call him out. You're like, I hate that guy already. do any of you regret an athlete yet? Call him out. They're like, oh, yeah, I hate that guy already. It's like, who's the most annoying athlete in the league? Tell us all your secrets. We're joking. Mine is starting to sweat.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, mine's James Fitzgerald. He's the guy who's a tough negotiator. Yeah, I mean, you guys did sign people ahead of time. You know, do you think, I mean, I'm assuming you don't really regret any of the athletes you've signed, but do you think maybe you should have waited a little bit longer? You're seeing stuff at the Combine that you kind of wish you would have waited for?

Yeah, great question. I mean, there are amazing athletes that could potentially be on both of our teams that we're seeing here, but for us, you know, our philosophy was we wanted to keep it within the OPT community and the athletes that – You guys already had like a little community, though. We did. So ours was a little bit different than everybody else's. And, you know, we have people that are just bought into what, you know, what our philosophy is already, and they're committed.

And so we're like, you know what, these are our people. Like as soon as we were awarded the team, it's like these are the eight athletes that we're going to sign and it was like that day we called them up or brought them into the office and said we want you to be a part of this very cool it's hard to know with some athletes if they're an athlete that just happens to be really good or if they're an athlete that is good but they're always striving to get better they're always trying to learn and they're always like seeking to to find better training partners and always they're willing to do the grind for the long learn and they're always seeking to find better training partners. They're willing to do the grind for the long term and they don't

just happen to be strong in the moment like you see them at a combine and you go, well, they got snatched a lot. I'll swoop them up and then you find out his work ethic isn't really where it should be. I think a lot of that and a lot of our research into our athletes is just competition history.

If people are proven, a lot of your athletes as our athletes is just competition history you know oh yeah if people are proven you know a lot of your athletes as well as our athletes have been successful on in the highest level and you know i know most of these people on an individual basis and you know the characteristics that you're looking for for a team so yeah totally and you know what even like so we'll have a much greater due diligence process, like through the level two and before the draft, we'll really be able to meet these people. Right. And see what they're made of.

And so they may, you know, there was some cats are going to sneak through into the level two. It's going to happen. Right. It's not, it's an imperfect process. But hopefully by then, you know, like Ian said, we'll, we'll have a lot of experience, whether it's what their previous competition experience is or just from being within the community, we'll know them.

So we'll be able to make a very informed decision. I think that's why it's nice to have our eight right now because we know their history. Right. All right, let's take a break real quick, and then we come back. I'd like to talk about where you guys see this in 2015, 2016. Cool. And we're back with Ian Berger and John Callahan, a.k.a. Cal.

And we want to dig into where you guys see this next year because we got officially five teams, hopefully eight, going into this season. Looks like maybe seven. And then going into 2015, I heard, you know, hopefully like 16 teams. Yeah, so I think by, you know, there have been two other teams, right, that have been kind of informally announced, and we're going to have an eighth team. We'll have eight teams in this first season. And then for 2015, we'll have 12 to 16, just depending on the quality of the applicants and

how this first season kind of bears out for us. What do you guys see 2015 though? Besides just how many teams there will be, how do you think the sport's going to evolve? Because there's going to be combines again next year. That's loaded. I don't even know how much we can share

with you about that. Just spill all the beans, bro. Okay, so this year is going to be – Tony said it. You can say whatever you want. Okay. This is going to be a little appetizer for what we're going to have in 2015. So this is going to be a 12-match season.

Each team will play 30 matches. Then there will be an eight an eight team kind of tournament in 2015 we're going to be four months 12 matches a team and a few other things that are going to raise the profile of the sport to new levels so super vague thanks yeah yeah and why don't you get the details brother thanks thanks for passing that over to me john um yeah there's just a bunch of things pending that are going to be total game changers i i don't know how much i can talk about or not talk about right now so i'm just gonna say that i think one once one thing happens there will be various dominoes that happen beyond that. And at the break,

we were talking about sponsors, right? For the teams. And we're definitely, you know, we want to hear what people want to join with us, right? But until we get a few of these things in place, like we don't really know what we have to offer them. I do have a question. What is the sponsor potential as a team? You know, because you probably have to offer them. I do have a question. What is the sponsor potential as a team? You know, cause you, you probably have to have uniforms. Is there a limit on how big a sponsor logo can be? Can you have a sponsor logo on the uniform? Does that, can it be on your grid? Like, how does that work? So all of that's kind of up for question right now, you know know so as we're saying a lot of this is kind of brand new to all of us and right now until what until the league proves itself to be what we anticipate paid it to be and

we know it will be then then we can answer those questions and put a value on what we think a sponsor or huge sponsors will be you know yeah So let's say the next big thing happens, right? And from there, all of a sudden we get, we're going to get a national apparel sponsor, right? That's the next step. Once we have something that's really tangible, once that company steps up, they'll dictate kind of what's going to be on the uniform based upon if they want to just be the sole logo. They'll pay for that. And if they don't want to, then we'll possibly have an opportunity or the league will do a league sponsor that will have a spot on the jersey.

Right. There's not going to be a ton of stuff on there. But we're all going to have a national apparel sponsor that will dictate a lot of that. And then also on the courts as well, there's going to be sponsors. So logos on the court for sponsors. Also, probably matches. Each match will be brought to you by a sponsor. There's a lot of opportunity for sponsorship here.

I'm sure in the future that combines will be brought to you by a certain company. Oh, sure. Yeah, just like Under Armour does the NFL, right? They have, like, it's, and a lot of this stuff is being done at the league level, so we're privy to some of it, but those are high-level negotiations, and so what the ads look like on the Dasher, right,

for the hockey game, like, stuff like that will happen. They have some really innovative stuff they're going to do with the grid, right, with the sponsorship, and then once the the race starts it's gone so it's not interfering with anything right and so um stuff like that which again like the team that tony has assembled i mean that it's it's an amazing team and they're they're like so many steps ahead of where like we can imagine this thing to be that um i think they take it easy on us and just give us a little bit at a time so we can digest

it because otherwise like they got a team of guys from like silicon valley like we're out of technology and that's gonna be pretty phenomenal yeah i mean when tony tells us some of the possible technologies that we will see and it's just like it seems like almost out of a video game it's just so surreal it's like yeah that even exists right now it's it's it's crazy we're it's it seems impossible until until our next meeting yeah imagine right imagine you're watching at home you're watching these athletes compete and on the screen or maybe on your computer you can pull up what there was going on physiologically with each of them because they have some sort of thing. Oh, that'd be cool.

It's kind of mind-blowing, right? Like, dude, he's about to redline. Like, coach, you need to sub him, right? Or, oh, my God, he's only going at, you know, 85%. Like, that dude is a beast. Yeah, yeah. And so just all these things that they can do with it, right? Like, who's not going to want to sit at home and play coach? You have a video game where you put together your team and you go against the computer, right? Through 11

races or a season. Like we talked about you like viewer friendly. One of the coolest things that I thought of was when you watch other style competitions, it's hard to keep track of where people are. You'll see tomorrow with the grid that you'll be able to see where each person is during the workout. But what Tony's talking about is possibly having a rep counter on the floor. So, for instance, let's say someone's doing double unders. The floor will be lit up like 90 and be counting down. So the fans could see exactly where that athlete's at. And something like that just makes the viewing experience so much better.

And you guys as coaches, or whatever role you're playing, the coaches are going to be able to be on the grid, or at least on the edge of the grid, and communicating with the athletes. I was told today, and if Ian's down, we're going to mic you up tomorrow. Oh, boy. Okay.

How about you, Cal? Can we mic you up as well? Yeah, man. We'll mic you guys up. Okay. We'll be able to hear you guys communicating with the athletes, maybe see what that sounds like. And I'd be willing to bet, I mean, just so everyone knows at home, the communication that's happening tomorrow, it's probably going to be a lot different in two years from now.

There's going to be a lot of terminology that's going to be developed and stuff like that. And things will probably happen really slow tomorrow compared to what it will be a year from now. Well, even in the past three weeks, the terminology has changed. I mean, if you would have seen the first race that we ran through, I mean, the humbling beginnings. Over there, over there. Tony comes up to me, he's like,

Ian, I think you broke every single rule possible. He's like, I'm going to ask you from now on because I know what the rhinos are going to try to pull stuff over. I was like, gosh, already starting that reputation. Yeah, I think, I mean, we have seen these kind of upgrades from combine to combine. But once you get the teams together and they've practiced these things, it's going to go off. It'll be flawless.

But, yeah. Is this going to turn into baseball where, like, the umpire comes over and, like, yells at you face-to-face and tosses you out. Dude. Is there technical fouls or anything like you've seen in basketball? I mean, we definitely, I mean, personally, I definitely get a little bit worked up when I see no reps or faults. Dude, Ian's going to be the first guy thrown out at an MPFL match.

I look forward to it. I look forward to it. I look forward to it. Setting history. Hall of Famer. All right, so where did the name Rhinos come from? The name Rhinos came from a book called The Rhinoceros Way. Our owners really took the values of that book, of everything that a rhino is kind of insignifiedify kind of charging forward as an application for business fitness and

everything in daily life so it's kind of stuck in everything they've been doing and one of our mottos is just keep charging excellent that's solid i didn't know that that's the good stuff do you have one that's good uh ours is a little bit different ours you know we went through we tried to get something that was almost indigenous to, like, Phoenix-Scottsdale. We had a lot of different, we had some really cool ones

that just, you know, like, might not have worked, but, you know, some of the imagery was really cool, and we settled on the Rise just because it was, we felt like there was this kind of higher order group of people working together, whether it's the athletes, the coaches, the staff, and fans, right?

And just kind of rising up together and kind of managing whatever's in our way. Very cool. A group of people always trying to hit that next level, like in a very transcendent kind of way. Yeah. And so if you see the logo, it kind of starts out tight, and then it rises into a greater scope. And so there's a little bit of play on that as well. Very cool.

So earlier we were talking about sponsors, and we see Aliko's sponsoring, or I don't know if sponsor's the right word, but they certainly provide all the equipment. What's their role in all this? They are the official equipment supplier of the MPFL. That's right. For this year, for the combines. For this year, for the Combines. For this year, for sure. And I don't know how long the contract goes for, but yeah, I think for

years to come, they're going to build our rig that we're doing and it'll... Yeah, because the rig is going to be not anything people have seen before because they're having to build the rig for the sport specifically for the fans. Yep. And rigs previously developed have been developed for gyms

or for things that weren't for fans. Exactly. We're going to have, I mean, Tony's mentioned having a ribbon board on this, on this pull-up rig, and even having things such as like a winch to adjust the height of muscle-up rings, which you've never seen before. Pretty cool, huh? That'd be nice. Yeah, and a ribbon board with the score on it.

It's almost like a power-up power. To kind of see, for instance, let's say John makes a sub. His bar, if they're beating us further ahead in the race, he makes that sub and they slow down. All of a sudden, my bar goes a little bit further. So it's kind of creating that viewer experience and also utilizing all the technology that we're talking about using into something that's functional.

Yeah, the ribbon board. I mean, the ribbon board is almost like small potatoes compared to how the whole thing is going to work. It's really just the integration of the scoring. That's something a person might see and go, oh, that's different. Yeah, they're going to see the rig. And like you said, it's going to be very different than anything they've seen in the functionality. And one of the races is a ladder, right?

So 16 barbells. And there will be two teams going and if one team gets ahead, there will be a graphic in the middle that will start to shift towards them, like they're in the lead. So if my mom's watching, she knows that the RYZE are winning, right? So obviously it's not going to come back to the other side because we're going to win

the race. So say the sub comes in and then all of a sudden the other team starts to chew away at it and then it flips to their side. So it's like just, I mean, really for if you're not good with numbers and you don't want to look on the outside of what the actual numbers are, you're going to be able to visually just see who's winning. Yeah. And so it's going to be very simple to follow.

Is there anything you guys need? Maybe sponsors for individual teams? Are there positions, jobs that you're looking for? Right now, not really in terms of job positions, but in the future I'm sure we'll need as much help as we could get with all the things that are continuing to evolve. We're constantly looking for bright and helpful people in the community, so definitely always in that pursuit.

Yeah, and I think what we found, just to echo Ian's comments, like today we're good, but in two to three weeks we may need someone. Right, exactly. Things are moving fast. It's really fast. And if folks want to reach out to us, that's great, but you've got to understand we're in startup mentality, so there's no big signing bonus there's no big salary like in year two and year three like those things

will will definitely be if you if you buy in now you may not make anything now but you could be making you know you get rewarded in the end listen a lot a lot of us are in there um digging away with some sweat equity right and so if if you're willing to throw your hat in the ring, that goes a long way, you know, because we're there doing it as well. But if you're coming and expecting to get paid, you need to go somewhere else. Go somewhere else.

This is not the team for you. Yeah. All right. Do you guys have websites for your teams? We are about three weeks away from launching ours. Okay. Yeah, it's probably going to be a month or so before we launch ours as well.

Phoenix is winning. Everything is a competition. Competition's starting already. Do you know what the website's going to be when it is up? Because this probably won't post for a couple weeks anyway. Not 100% on this, but I believe it will be thephoenixrise.com Okay.

Know what y'all's is? Probably thenewyorkrhinos.com. Okay. Very cool. Follow you guys on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, any of that before we get off of here. Yeah, I'm not in charge of the social media, but offhand, I believe... Man, why do we give him a microphone? He doesn't even know he's social media.

Yeah, man. I don't have everything under wraps here. Man, I'm going to have to get back to you on that. That's cool. We are for Instagram at the New York Rhinos and for Facebook, New York Rhinos. Cool. Check us out on there. Excellent.

Check those guys out. Give them a follow. Visit the websites. I'm sure the NPFL website is going to probably have links to all of that stuff. Thanks for joining us. Everyone, make sure to go to barbellstroke.com, sign up for the newsletter, and we will send you updates. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.