Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Jonathan Coachman on The Rock, the prank Vince McMahon pulled on him, going from WWE to ESPN

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

Jonathan Coachman aka "The Coach" talks to Chris Van Vliet from his home studio in California. He talks about his current job with The Golf Channel, how being in the crowd at Over the Edge in 1999 when Owen Hart died lead to his job with WWE, his introduction on TV with The Rock, his relationship with Vince McMahon, and the best advice he ever gave him, going to jail after a prank that was pulled on him, why he decided to leave WWE for ESPN and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Let's do this thing. Welcome to Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet. If it's your first time here, I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, and I'm obsessed with finding out what makes successful people so successful. And on each episode, we have in-depth conversations and reverse and, engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, broadcasters, you name it. If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight

so we can apply it to our own lives. And there are so many great takeaways from this conversation with Jonathan Coachman. Although I feel like he'd be mad if he just heard me call him Jonathan Coachman because everybody just calls him coach. You'll know him from his time with WWE as a backstage interviewer and commentator. But how he got the job with WWE is so crazy. It's hard to even believe it's real. It actually started with coach being in the audience for the over-the-edge pay-per-view in 1999 when Owen Hart died. But I'll let him tell you the full story. He got very close to Vince McMahon while working with WWE, so close, in fact that he would often fly on Vince's private jet. And Vince pulled a

an epic and hilarious prank on him that ended up with coach going to jail. Yeah, he talks about why he left WWE for ESPN, what he's doing now with the Golf Channel, and his charisma is just so incredibly infectious. I love it. You're going to love it too. Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. Let's get that new name and new logo for the podcast out there. Tag me, I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

Tag coach. He is at the coach rule. and yeah, I'm sure you notice there's a new name. But everything else about this will remain the same. And if you've been following the podcast for a while, you know that this is something I've been talking about for a few months. I just wanted a name that did a better job of reflecting what the show was all about. And that's what we have now.

Insight. That's what these conversations are all about. Insight. It's the insights that we get from our guests who are at the absolute top of their game. So if you haven't subscribed to the show yet, make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss out on any episodes. So you don't miss out on any insight. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review on there. This one is from Devin, the podcast Dad, who says, he inspired us to grow our podcast.

Oh, wow. Chris has amazing interviews in the wrestling industry that you won't be disappointed by. My personal favorites are with Chris Jericho. Well, thank you, Devin. Those are some of my favorites, too. Jericho, what a guy. You want to talk about somebody who's at the top of their game. Jericho always talks about how he had two dreams as a kid.

One was to be a wrestler and the other was to be a rock star. And look at that. He's living both his dreams. It's incredible. And Devin, I hope that your podcast keeps growing in 2021. I'm glad that this podcast could inspire you in some sort of small way to help you grow yours. That's so cool. So cool hearing that.

And I'm going to keep reading one review on every single episode until the show gets to that specific goal of 2,000 reviews by May 19th, which is my birthday. We're getting close. Right now we're at 1634. So please keep them coming. You're going to love this. So please welcome the coach, Jonathan Coachman.

The Coach! Oh man, what a pleasure to be chatting with you. I tell you what, I've been watching your. stuff and watching you from afar and you've got a great following. You're a good dude. I did some research and I said, I can't go on a show without finding out he's truly a good dude because that's all I do these days is good people shows. So I'm excited to be with you, Chris. Well, thank you. You're a good dude. And I've been looking up to you my entire career. And I've been watching you since you started in WWE. And I said, man, that guy is just doing

such incredible stuff. Well, thank you. And we really have had to pivot several different times in our careers. And I'm really proud of what we've done. I say we, because it's a team. It's not just myself. And from our days in WWE and almost 10 years there and then 10 years at ESPN, but now probably having more fun than I've ever had. And we've got a great team around me and pushing our stuff out. So I love being in the world of golf, being in the world of sports betting and doing everything from the friendly confines of my house, which is the best part. It can be tough. But if you really start going, it can be very rewarding too. I mean, yeah, there's been a lot. lot of, a lot of bad stuff that's happened because of COVID. But this is silver lining,

I think. This is one of the silver linings. We get to work from home. It was the, it was the longest eight months, Chris, probably in my life. And I've never worked harder making no money than I did from June to probably September or October. And I was, I went through, I'm a normal person like everybody else. I was depressed in April. I was depressed in May because I was one of those broadcasters that had four or five gigs. I was scheduled to have my biggest year financially I've ever had. And then it just ended. It was over and all those jobs were gone. And then you feel like, am I really as good as I thought I was or I think I am because I can't find anybody to hire me. And it just wasn't my fault. It was the pandemic's fault and the fact that people are changing how

they do business. So I think lesson number one for me was learning how are people going to do business and how can I be a part of that business the new way. Yeah, you mentioned golfing. You look like you just played around like you're dressed like you're golfing. Well, I do two golf shows. And so, I like to dress the part. I like to look the part. This is my Tiger Woods hat because I'm a big Tiger Woods fan. And the day we're taping this, the PGA tour starts back up their season this week. So I'm excited about golf. I love golf. It's my passion. It's one of the biggest reasons I left ESPN. And I love being a part of what the PGA tour is doing. I love being an announcer for the PGA tour. So I'm just really happy. I want to take it way back here because I think that every broadcaster has such an interesting story of how they got into it. And broadcasting is one of those jobs where you don't just fill out an application, submit it, and get the jobs. So what did your path look like? Because you started off in local news. Yeah, yeah. And I was there for a very, very short period of time. I tell people all the time, I was one of the really lucky ones. But I also understood the reason that I got lucky is I put myself

in a situation to be that. And I was born in race in Kansas. Well, I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and I was there for about a week. I was adopted. And then I lived my whole childhood in Kansas. I get out and I'm out for like six months doing nothing. You know, I moved to Lawrence where KU is. Roy Williams was a coach back then at Kansas. And I played college basketball. So I'm having a ball, whatever I made during the day. I would spend at night on pizza and beer and hot wings.

And so finally after like six months, I called a producer in Wichita, who I had interned for when I was in college. He thought I was working in Topeka. So I let him believe that. I don't know why he didn't do his homework, but he's like, hey, you work in Topeka? Yes, I am. So I went down. I did an audition.

They were hiring a weekend guy. And Wichita is like a market 60, which is a big market to start in in TV. So I didn't think I had a shot. So the week goes by and on that Friday, get a call from the news director. And he says, I got good news coach and I got bad news for you. The bad news is I just got fired today. The good news is I think you have potential. You're green as grass.

But I want to give you an opportunity. And I was three hours away from Wichita. He says, if you can get here before 5 o'clock, I'm going to make you the weekend anchor. I'm going to pay you $12. and $50 an hour and make you the weekend anchor and then you can grow into whatever it is you're going to be. And so I had a car that it was like hit or miss if it was going to make it three hours at that point. So I literally had a conversation with my car and I said, if you can give me to Wichita, I don't care what else you do. And I made it. And we started that three months later after

taking a job at a halfway house with criminals that were transitioning from prison to real life during the day. I was hired full time. I was only there less than a year. And Kansas in Wichita, share talent. And so I'd done a lot of stuff for Kansas City. The ABC station there, one of their guys was leaving, who was a good friend of mine to this day.

And they wanted somebody that was familiar with Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri. And so they hired me. And I was only 22, 23 years of age. And that was where my whole story really began. And that's where after I was only there a month in 1999, that's when Owen Hart fell from the rafters. and I was in the building.

And the next 24 hours really shaped what my future was going to be. After being on Good Morning America, Larry King Live, all these national shows, then fast forward three months. And the first Smackdown was already booked in Kansas City. They couldn't sell any tickets. So they called me and they said, Coach, you were very kind to us. You're very fair to us. We'd like to bring Sean Michaels in for you to interview to promote the first Smackdown.

And that's how I met the senior VP. That turned into an audition. And then six months later, three months later, I was hired in 1999 by the WWE. It happened that fast. Wait, so you were at over the edge when Owen Hard died? I was in the seventh row. I had just done a three-part series that my station sent me to Florida.

I did because wrestling was, I mean, it was booming. And it was really going like this. At that time, the company went from being worth about $80 to $100 million. to being worth like $800 million. This was when the rock was starting to become huge, Stone Cold, Triple H, The Undertaker, Sean Michaels, all those guys. So they gave me tickets to Over the Edge.

And I was in the seventh row. I was behind a doctor and his family. And when the tragedy happened, and they were doing CPR and JR and the King get up from their spots and they run around. It felt like something was wrong. But you got to remember, in wrestling, you always feel like it's part of the show.

Yeah. So as they pushed Owen Hart out of the building, I'm talking to the doctor. I said, do you think that's real? And he said, and I'll never forget his quote, he goes, if that's real, that's the worst CPR I've ever seen. They were literally straddling him and giving him CPR as they were pushing him back down the aisle, back through the curtain to the back. And so the show ended about 20 minutes early because that match never happened. And the saving grace to this day, I believe this, Chris, is the fact that the Godfather was doing an interview up on the screen. So everything was black.

It was dark. And then you just heard this boom. And everything was shaking. And then the lights came up and unfortunately Owen was laying there. And I believe if the lights would have been up and we all would have saw it. How much PTSD, whatever you want to call it, I would still be dealing with today. other people would still be dealing with today. It was tragic, doesn't even begin to describe it.

But because it ended early, I went back to the station. And I left my briefcase. And I had a buddy with me. And can you imagine all these little nuggets that I'm telling you right now? If one of these things didn't happen, would I be sitting here today? I don't know that. Wow. But because I forgot my briefcase, we went back to the station.

The place is buzzing. And you got to remember, sports guys back then didn't even have cell. phones. We had pages. Yeah. They didn't even give us pagers then because they're like, oh, your sports, everything is scheduled. You don't need a pager. There's nothing that happens that isn't supposed to happen in sports. So you guys don't need one. And so basically, I went on our 10 o'clock news. I almost got fired that night because my news director said, I pay you to be a reporter. And you were the only one there. And Vince was holding a press conference at 10 o'clock that night.

I remember these details like it was yesterday. And I came from the arena and I could have stayed at the arena and done the press conference. And it was just a crazy night and it was an unfortunate night. But it's really the night that kind of shaped my career. So when you say you were going to Florida to cover this, what was that? What were you doing before then? No, we were doing what they call a series. Oh, okay.

So they sent me to do stories on the WWF at the time before they came to Kansas City. So I got you. You know what I'm saying? So we did like Sundays of shows and then we did a live shot the day of the show because it was a Sunday pay-per-view and at the arena in Kansas City. So that's why they sent me to Florida.

So were you a wrestling fan before this? I was big time. When I started in Wichita, I'll never forget, I got so angry with my boss at the time because the Monday night wards were going on. And I remember WCW came to Wichita and the Kansas Coliseum and I wanted to go.

and he was like, I worked on Mondays. He's like, I'm not working on this Monday. And I'll never forget, we sent our camera guys out to the hotel. And this is, I did nothing about wrestling other than the fact that I loved it. And I think back now, after everything I've done and been in it, and I remember the, the photographer's coming back saying, yeah, I saw Hulk Hogan and I saw Kevin Nash and I saw Scott, you know, all these guys that were huge stars in WCW and they were at the same hotel. And I'm like, oh my God, they stay at a hotel too. I mean, it was everything you think about as a fan just gets you excited. And I remember how excited I was that they were even in town to do Monday Nitro.

Sure. And I couldn't go. So yeah. So you get offered this job from WWE. I'm guessing you have to end up, you know, getting out of your contract that you had in Wichita. Oh, this story is even crazier than the one I just told you. It really really is. So I had, in TV for people who don't know, you have what they call outs.

And if you're in Kansas City, you get like a top 10 out. What that means is if you get a job offer in a top 10 market, you can go whenever you want. Otherwise, you're tied to your job. So I had no outs because remember I'm 23 maybe. That's it. That's it. So I couldn't demand anything. And I'm making $70,000 a year up from the $12.50 an hour, up from the 24 grand. So I feel like I'm making a million dollars. So I was, but in my head, I was like, well, maybe I could do this on the side. And so I flew to Connecticut. it and Kevin Dunn offered me the job on the spot. And I had maybe two or three hours to kill.

So they took me over to the gym and I walk into the gym and there's only two people working out in the gym. Stone Cold Steve Austin. And there were rumors running rampant back then that he had a thing very down low with Deborah. Okay? The other person in the gym was Deborah. So imagine you've just been off for this job, you're 23, you're so excited, and all of a sudden you walk in and you're seeing the rumor that's been circulating everywhere and you're seeing it with your own two eyes.

Right. Right? And then at the same time, Deborah is one of the most incredibly beautiful women that you'll ever see in your life. And you're trying not to look because there's only three of you in there because Stokeold, who you know can kill you, is working out right over there. So I'm on the treadmill. I'm going. He comes over and he's like, hey, pal, can I get a spot? So then I thought, I'm spotting Stone Cold Steve Austin.

If I dropped this bar, I'm going to be responsible for killing Stone Cold Steve Austin. It was the most nervous spot that I've ever had. My hands are shaking, you know, and everything. So anyway, so I go back to Kansas City and I'm excited because my off days were Mondays and Tuesdays. So WWE said, listen, for the next two and a half years, you work with us on Monday, and Tuesdays, fly back to Kansas City, and you work Wednesday through Sunday, and then when two and a half years is up,

we'll talk. We'll see if you want to come full time. Sure. Sounds great, right? Perfect. So I go into my news director's office. He is livid. He hears me out, and he looks at me, and he says, I should fire you right now. First thing's out of his mouth. I said, why? And he said, because this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

And he goes, I would fire you, but I know you have a job waiting if I did fire you. So I'm not going to do that, and I'm going to save your career, because nobody with your future should be doing professional wrestling. It's stupid. Direct quote. And I was like, okay. So he kind of, you know, slapped me around a little bit.

I went back and he says, I never want to hear about it again. I called Kevin Dunn. His exact quote was, who do you think you're talking to? He goes, standby. So a week goes by. And he calls me back. He says, grab a pen, grab a paper. Here's what we're willing to do.

He said, we're going to buy you out of your contract. will let you stay until they replace you and we'll hire a headhunter to replace you to speed up the process, right? So I'm thinking, wow, right? And so I walk into my news director. I said, I know you didn't want to hear about this, but here's what they're willing to do.

He looked at the piece of paper, and he looks right at me and he goes, this is bullshit. I said, they literally just told me that. He goes, this isn't true. He goes, you're too young, you're not good enough. No big company like this would ever do this. I said, this is what they said.

And he goes, okay, I said, could you at least just take it to somebody? He said, okay, we'll take it to somebody. So I walked out of there knowing nothing, right? So I get a call three or four days later. He goes, I need you to come in and talk to me. I go to the station. And he looks at me, he goes, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but you're going to the WWE or F at the time.

And I said, how did this happen? He said, well, something you didn't know was that we're trying to figure out how to come up with the funds to buy a helicopter for the station. So the money they're going to pay us will be our down payment on our helicopter that we desperately need for traffic and for weather and all that kind of stuff, right? So he said, but the caveat is you have to stay here until the end of the football season because I was the chief's guy. I traveled with the team.

Nice. There's always that one guy. And also Lynn Dawson, the Hall of Fame quarterback, who won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs, he was the main guy and he was the voice of the chiefs. I had to babysit him. So we became very close, almost like grandfather and grandson. So for five months, and I don't know why Chris, I thought I could do this for two and a half years. For five months, I worked on Mondays and Tuesdays.

And then I'd work in Kansas City Wednesday through Sunday, which included eight away games for the chiefs as well. I was going absolutely bananas. Bananas. If I finally get to the end of December, I'm exhausted. I'm tired. And the last game of the year, tied at 38, Raiders lining up for a field goal. If they make it, season's over. If they miss it and the Chiefs win, we go to the playoffs.

It's another week I have to stay in Kansas City. And so everybody knew by then, it was a big story locally that I was going. So everybody's looking to me in the press box. Coach, what do you want to happen? I said, I don't know. Because I'm a Chief fan in my heart. But I also, you know, I didn't want to work seven days. a week anymore.

So they made the kick the next morning I got on a plane and I flew to Miami and then I flew to Connecticut and that was that was the last time I lived in Kansas City. And then I started my full-time career in January of 2000. That is the most local news story ever that you're going to take that money and apply it to a helicopter down payment. Every time that I'm home, my parents still live in Salina, Kansas. And we turn on Channel 9 and they go, let's go up to Channel 9. Johnny Smith, what's going on up there over I-35 this morning?

And I say, Kansas City, you're welcome. You're welcome for Chopper 9. I do it every time. When you started in WWE, what was the very first assignment that you had? It was great. So since I've been traveling for four months, I felt like it already kind of been there. But the first time I was on the air,

first time I was on the air, and somebody just posted it this week, January 8, 2000, me and the rock. And I'll never forget, and I'm indebted to him to this day. And people say, oh, he's the greatest guy, he's the nicest guy. Yeah, personally, he is. But professionally, he's a savage. He's an absolute, I'm going to protect my character.

I'm going to do what's best for business. I'm going to make the most money. That's who the Rock is. And I respect it. And so they came in and said, coach, we want to do something different. Because at the time, he was the, it doesn't matter who you are. And he would get everybody, right? So they said, we want to reverse it.

And so you're just going to start asking your question, and nobody's ever seen you before. The Rock's going to stop you and say, who are you? I'm going to be a little bit reserved because we don't want you to be stupid. Because only an idiot would come in and go, oh, right, it doesn't matter who you, right? You know what I mean? They're like, we don't want you to look stupid. So you're going to be trepidacious. Rock's just to say, it's okay.

My name's Jonathan Coachman, but Rock, everybody calls me the coach. And he goes, the coach, the coach of what? the coach of a little girl's softball team, the coach of this, the coach of that. And then he goes into his promo. And then at the end, he says, so why do they call you the coach? And now I'm comfortable, right?

And I go, well, that's the funny. It doesn't matter why they call you, right? You know, so he didn't have to do that. Yeah. He didn't have to do that. And he wanted to put me over. And after one night when we walked out behind the building, and you know how great that is when the fans are out there

and they're screaming for whoever or they're booing for whoever. And all of a sudden, I'm hearing my name. For the first time in my life, I'm hearing somebody scream my name, coach, coach, coach. And so that was awesome. And then a couple of weeks later,

these are the two things I remember from that month, was the opening of, do you remember WWF, New York? Of course. Yeah, Times Square. Time Square, the restaurant. And God rest of his soul, one of my favorite human beings on planet Earth,

Howard Finkel. He was scheduled to do all the announcing. So they had built like this little stays. They closed down time square. There had to be 20 or 30,000 people. It was packed. So imagine January. You can see your breath.

There's nothing like it. And all the people from Access Hollywood and entertainment tonight, they put them all in this little box. And they have to stay there. And then you do the interviews. The wrestlers just walk down, right? Yeah. So they come up to me and they said,

Coach, we need you to introduce the guys because Fink is stuck in traffic. And I said, you're kidding me. And I said, who is the first one? They go, oh, the rock's the first one. And so I get up on the stage. And of course, most people still didn't know who I was. Like, you suck. Get out of here.

We want to see somebody we know. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'll never forget, man. And it's even now in 2021 with the way New York City is to think back to how it was this night. That's the memory I like. And I'll never forget, I'll say, ladies and gentlemen, and my voice is booming because they had mic they had speakers set up everywhere and i said ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most electrifying man in all of sports and entertainment the brahma bull

the rock and they hit his music time square lights up people are going bananas he gets out of his limousine and i remember it like it was yesterday i'm getting goosebumps telling you about it he has this red jacket on a black turtleneck sunglasses, and I swear to God, I said to myself, this is the coolest human being I've ever seen in my life. And I'm telling you, men, women, I'll never forget from ABC News, not Diane Sawyer, but Jane, she was one of the really respected news anchors. I can't remember her name. But anyway, she lost her mind.

She was there that night. There was so many people from so many different, walks of life. And when the rock would go up and talk to them, people would lose their minds. And I really believe if you ask somebody, would you rather meet the rock or Jesus Christ? Back in 2000, they would tell you the rock instead of Jesus Christ. And I just, I learned so much from him. And I love him so much and I respect him so much. And nobody could be happier for what he's accomplished. Because I do believe he is single-handedly the most talented. human being I've ever been around.

The interesting thing about The Rock, and I've had the good fortune of interviewing him nine times, you know, not that I'm counting, running like that. But the interesting thing about the Rock is he was a megastar, especially in the story that you're telling from 2000. He was a megastar.

But he's so many levels above that now because he's gone on to do his own thing outside of wrestling. It is to, to, I was anybody that, that, that has dreams of being a star. And I don't know anybody that can really dream to be that level of a star. I don't even know if he could dream that.

That's true. That's a great point. But when you look at the things he does and how he uses his fame and all the good things he does for other people and the fact that he works, you know, his moniker, the thing he says more than anybody is I want to be the hardest worker in the room. When you look at what I do, and it's not on his level. but I'm working every minute of every day somehow in my mind.

And it's based off of what he does and what he taught me and being around him and watching him. And he's the only superstar I've ever seen that could come and go as he pleased because Vince knew that whatever the Rock was doing at that moment, if he wasn't in the building, he was at the gym working out. He was signing autographs for the company. He was doing a deal with somebody.

He was always doing something. And now to see as the biggest movie star in the world, he doesn't have to do that stuff. He doesn't have to give away trucks. He doesn't have to start all these different companies. And you hear people criticize sometimes, oh, Rock's always promoting this, always promoting that. Guess what those promotions do? Guess what these companies do?

They supply jobs and livelihoods and they take care of people. And so when you want to criticize him for promoting all this stuff he's doing, oh, he makes so much money, why does he need it all? He has 50, 60, 70, hundreds of people that is now responsible for. And I've got so much specs for that. And so you can't stop. When you're responsible for putting food on the table for hundreds of people, you've got to diversify. You've got to start different businesses.

Because just as a movie star, he can't do that. And I'm not saying financially. I'm just saying there's not enough jobs for people to do for him. But when you start to create, now you're creating jobs. And that's something that I always think about as we're creating the content that I do in my world. Yeah. I remember that first interview that you did with the wrong. Rock. And I remember this swagger that you had. Was that something that was just innate to who you were?

I've always been a little bit arrogant, a little bit cocky, but it's just because I love doing this. And I'm confident in who I am. And I also knew that I know how to brand. And learning from Vince was always really cool for me and The Rock. But I've always been confident that this is exactly what I was supposed to be doing. And when you have that belief, your entire life, I've been wanting to do this. wrestling, but in broadcasting since I was seven years old. I've never had a plan B. I've never had what am I going to do in case of? And that's why this year was so difficult. Because at times, I was like, am I done? And so I've always been that. But at the same time, anybody that's ever met me understands that I'm probably as nice a guy as you're ever going to meet. If I could do something

for you, I will. And because of how I grew up and the size of towns that I grew up in, I don't care what your background is. I don't care who you are. I don't care where you come from. You're important to me. And I want to make sure that when I'm dealing with you, you understand that and you know that. And so it's important. I tell my kids all the time, look people in the eye. Tell them thank you. Tell them you're welcome. Be courteous. Those things matter to me. And they should matter to everybody else. But I can't control what everybody else does. I can only control what I do. and that's what I have chosen to do. And if I can leave a reputation,

one of my favorite broadcasters of all time, Ken Venturi in golf, when he was signing off for the very last time, God rest of soul, he said one of the greatest things in life is to be remembered. And I want to thank all of you for remembering me today.

And that goes with me. And at the end of the day, when it's all said for all of us, and I think we've all been faced with our mortality this year because for the first time in our lifetime, we're faced with something that can kill anybody. And I think now, I think all the time, how am I going to be remembered when it's all said and done?

And that's important to me. And so doing good things, doing good work, including people is really, really important for me. How do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered as, and this is one of the things I said when I left ESPN, because my time there, a lot of people don't know this. don't talk about it a lot. But it was difficult. And even though I made it 10 years and I did all the big shows and I had my own radio show for a short period of time, it was always a fight. It was always a

fight because I was the only one in the history of mankind to do Monday Night Raw and then go and do Sports Center for ESPN. And there were a lot of executives that are still there, by the way, that for no other reason than I was in wrestling, they didn't want me there. They think I didn't deserve to be there. They're like, who's this wrestling guy that thinks he can come over and do our beloved show Sports Center? It wasn't about, is he good enough? Is he talented enough? It was just about he was there so we don't want him here. And because of that, when I left, I said, I feel like my calling is this, that whatever young kid is coming up, whether straight out of college or somebody Chris in their late 20s, early 30s, that wants to pivot and make a change, I never want them to have to sit in a

room with a potential employer or boss and hear these words. Nope, that can't happen. It's never been done before. Right? Give me another reason. And so part of my calling now is to knock down all the doors so that other people can walk through them and say, if I want to do golf and wrestling, guess what? It's now been done.

If I want to do NBA and wrestling, guess what? It's now been done. If I want to do video games and wrestling, guess what? It's now been done. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking.

I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really stake their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

And when you look at it, whether it is Charlie Caruso, she does ESPN and wrestling, whether it's Vic Joseph. He's done a lot of local stuff in Cleveland. There's a lot of guys now that get these opportunities because there are a lot of good executives out there who say people don't care if this person did fake wrestling. They just care if you're good enough. Are you entertaining?

And can you talk in sound bites? And can you talk with the red lights on? Can you not worry about when the red lights on? And that to me, Chris, is how I want to be remembered as somebody who opened doors and did things for others in a business that a lot of times people just want to do things for themselves. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something interfering with your happiness

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is 10% off your first month. Just go to BetterHelp.com slash Insight. That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash insight. When you were making that transition coach from WWE into your job at ESPN, how did that happen? Because oftentimes when you're working in wrestling for a long period of time, you're just pigeonholed. You're the wrestling guy. That's all you're going to be. You're the wrestling girl, whatever it is.

How were you able to open their eyes and go, no, no, no, I'm a broadcaster? I do a lot of speaking to colleges and high schools now. And this is one story that I incorporate all. the time in almost every single speech that I do because I believe that if you stay in your house and you don't put yourself in front of people, you're never going to get anything. You really, really aren't. So what happened was I started applying because I knew after probably 2006, because when you're on the road 52 weeks a year, literally, and I was traveling so much, I was starting to get burnout already. And you talked to any, like Renee just went through it. She just left and

she was there like eight years. And she was like, I'm just, tired. I'm over it. And I was getting over it. And in addition to the wrestling, I was also doing work at the studio. So I was working six or seven days a week for six or seven full years. And I was a big time part of your on top of all that. So I was really, really tired. But I said, my dream was not to do pro wrestling. My dream was to be a national sportscaster. And the longer I go here, the less chance I have of that happening. And I knew that. So I, I started applying and I would get back, man, we really like you. We think you're talented.

But call us when you leave WWE. Well, I was at a point now, I couldn't go back to making $30,000 a year. Okay? That just wasn't feasible for me. So I had one person and she was at a place called CSTV, which is now CBSHQ. And so it's kind of a full circle thing that now I'm at CBS now. But she called me up and she said, I want to give you a chance. but here's the thing, we're not going to put you on our website.

We're not going to promote that you're here. We're just going to let you call football games and then we'll see about basketball games. And I said, I'll take it. I don't even care how much you pay me. I didn't even know how much I was going to make. I said, I'll take it because I knew I needed that tape. And I tell kids all the time, it's about the tape. I've never made a resume in my life, not one, but damn sure I have a tape.

And so I started doing football games. And you know what, Chris, I would show up at these games. and I would do HBCU games like Jackson State, where Dion Sanders is now the new head coach. I did them twice that first season. And so I would do a lot of these small schools when I would show up, they would go bananas. They're like, oh, my God, the coach is here to do our little game

with 100 people in the stands, and I really, really loved it. And so then I did basketball, and then I did it for the next year as well. So we get to the, my last year of my contract was 2008. And I'll never forget, I get a call, and it's the same lady. and she says, I'm leaving CSTV and I'm going to MSG Network. She was, I want you to come over and do next games, pre-games, half-times, different shows, that kind of stuff. I loved it.

I was in the building when Kobe scored 61. I was in the building when LeBron scored 50. And I'm right there next to Mike Breen, who in my opinion, in my opinion, Mike Breen's the greatest play-by-play guy in the history of the NBA, even better than Marvell. and I love Mar-Balbert. So I'm sitting there learning from the best. And I was like, this is what my career is going to look like moving forward. I'm going to come here full time. Eventually, maybe I could call Nick's Games on the radio.

Who knows? I get a call in January of 2008. And it was this lady. And she says, don't panic. I'm leaving MSG network. What? My wife at the time was pregnant with our first child. You're like, and all I thought was, I've got to sign another deal with the

WWE. And I don't want to do that. I was already starting to mail it in a little bit. I was already starting not to enjoy it. And anytime anybody's in a job and you start to not to enjoy it, start looking right now. Because the last thing you want to do is keep going and mailing it in. Because that's bad on your reputation. It's bad on your heart.

And three months goes by and I don't hear from her. Not one phone call. And so now I'm getting to a point. I got four months left on my WWE deal. I'm like, what am I going to do? Where am I going to go? okay and I get a call from her in April of 2008 and she said thank you for being patient have you signed with anybody yet I said no she said I want to bring you into ESPN because I'm the new senior VP of

talent at ESPN and that's how it happened and it got out over the weekend that I'd been there and you know how reports are with dirt sheets and reports of coaches here so I got a call from Kevin Dunn he said is this true and I said yes it is he says okay immediately he goes This is not a bad thing. He says, Vince loves you. He said, your wife is pregnant. She was due in June, my beautiful daughter. And he said, we're going to take you off the air because they were trying to find something for Mick Foley to do at the time.

So they took me off, put Mick Foley in. And they said, we need you. We'll call you. So, of course, I don't hear from because, you know, that world, they move a million miles an hour. When you're in it, you're in it. When you're out of it, you're out of it. Right. So I get a call in July and they're like, hey, coach, they, they,

needs you to do some VO stuff. I'm like, this is so strange. I'm done in three weeks. I haven't heard from them in three months. So I go up to the studio and there's this big tent set up in the parking lot. And they're like, you're going to be doing your shoot in that tent. I'm like, this is very strange. And I walk into the tent. Every employee is in this tent. They had a DJ. They had a bar. They had food. And Vince and the company threw me a going away party. And I hadn't even been working there in three months. And at the time, it's not how I feel today, but at the time, I was like, I will do anything for this company, for this man, for these people, for the rest of my life. Because they were my 20s and they were what allowed me to meet my wife at the time and allowed me have kids and all those things.

I'm still very thankful for that. But I've also grown up and understand that you need to have stuff in return, too. But at the time, it was incredibly nice. And that's how they sent me off was with a going away party. And then I started at ESPN in August of 2008. You were really close with Vince. I mean, still are really close with Vince. But what is it that you did to endear yourself to him?

Because not everybody gets that treatment. Yeah, I was for several years, I was very close, even physically with him. They had me doing everything. Back then, we did press conferences for every single pay-per-view. So we would fly to the city before the pay-per-view. to promote it. And so I was on his jet probably as much as anybody that wasn't a full-time jet rider is what he still. And so I would fly on his private jet all the time. And people used to think it was great. It sucked because you could not sleep unless Vince slept. And Vince,

that was the only time during the week he would drink. He loves red wine. And so you're over Nebraska somewhere flying back to New York and you're dead tired. They're up there pounding. You're like, got to be kidding me. I can't sleep right now, and you couldn't. Not allowed. So I think what endeared myself to him is that I proved that I could do anything they need me to do, starting off as an announcer. And then he actually approached me and talked to me about becoming a character in 2003. And I've, to this day, only one time, have I ever said no to events? I've said yes to everything. So when he said, hey, you're big enough. People don't realize in interviews, I would stand with my feet spread apart.

Yeah, yeah. The split leg. Yeah. And so I was this big. I'm six, three and a half, 240 to 260 pounds, depending on the month. And so I think for Vince, he knew I was a good guy. He knew I came from a good family. He knew I was one of the normal people that got into wrestling and not one of these crazy

guys who, that's all they've ever wanted to do. And also my dad is a retired United Methodist minister. I used to bring him out on the road with me all the time. and he began to kind of become a sounding board for guys like Sean Michaels, Kurt Engle, even Vince. I would see my dad sitting in there at lunchtime talk with Vince for a long period of time. So I think all of that allowed me to really endear myself to him, but also he trusted me.

And trust is a big, big thing in that world because there's so many people that are untrustworthy. And he knew no matter what he asked me to do, I would do it. I would do it to the best of my abilities. and I wouldn't tell anybody. And I think that's why. What do you think is the biggest piece of advice that Vince gave you that you still apply to your life every single day?

Man, that's a question I've never been asked before. I think, and this is going to sound, I'm not going to use the word, but this is going to sound very crass. But he always used to tell me, don't be a, it starts with a P. And I believe that people need to be

for at certain times. And that life and that world, it requires you to be tough all the time. And don't take things personally, which is almost impossible to do. But also, you've got to believe in yourself and your talents more than anybody because it's such a subjective business. It's not objective. It's not cut and dry. And if one person likes you, then your career could be amazing. If the wrong person doesn't like you, you can be the most talented person in the world and not get to where you believe your talents should get you to. So I think being tough was the one thing he taught me and the fact that I've said this many times. Vince only has to answer to two people. God and the taxman. And we're not really sure

about the taxman, to be honest. So when you live that way, you can live fearlessly. And, you know, guys like Kim and these billionaires that build these big companies, they live different lives than us. And they're responsible for a lot of things. And I try to take that into. account when people ask me about Vince today because I never want to talk bad about him. I never want to think less of him. But it's hard sometimes when certain things have happened. When you know I've done everything I possibly could do to help him, help the company, and help them push forward even after I left the WWE.

And when it's not reciprocated, that can hurt a little bit. And it's not financially. It's just as a person, when you give somebody 20 years of yourself and then you don't get it back, that hurts. So I think you get hurt more than anything. But again, it goes back to what I just told you. You got to be tough. And so I'm not going to let some hurt feelings, you know, keep me down.

You wanted to leave WWE so you could do other stuff in broadcasting. Then what made you come back to WWE? I knew that if I wanted to be at the level of golf that I wanted to be, golf is probably a harder world to get into at the highest level than pro wrestling. It's very clicky. It's only a certain kind of people until I came along were doing it at that highest level. And I knew that it needed to change. I knew the sport needed to diversify.

And I also knew that when your number one player is a black golfer since 1996, but yet there's no black announcers other than maybe one or two across all the major networks, that's a problem. But it's also an opportunity. okay so I looked at as an opportunity but for me it was going to take three to five years to get to the point where I can make enough money just doing golf if that's what it took to be at the level financial level I wanted to be at so in order to bridge that gap to bridge that gap I knew that I needed something else and it just so happened they called me

they knew I was leaving they wanted to bring me in the mistake that I made to be brutally honest with you I never wanted to do commentary I'd already signed my deal with with golf to be the voice of the world long drive tour, to do PGA tour events. I knew I was going to have to miss five raws that first year. Do you know in my 10 years when I was there full time, I missed one? And so then in eight months,

I was going to miss five. That felt like 50. And I knew Vince wasn't going to be happy with it. And to be honest, I like Cory Graves as a person, but I just don't think he wanted a partner. I think now he's better than he's ever been because he doesn't have to do a three-man booth.

nobody likes doing a three-man booth. There's too many people, it's too many guys trying to talk. I just don't think he wanted me there. And that's okay. That's okay. Because now I think he's able to shine with just him and Michael Cole. So that was the mistake I made was accepting the role they wanted me to play. Because Vince, because of my days at ESPN, he didn't want me to go back to heel coach. That's the coach that I love.

I love heel coach. Heal coach is fun. But he didn't want me to lose the credibility that I had gained in 10 years as a sports center. which at the time I agreed with, if I ever went back again now, which I highly, I would give it a 2% chance of me ever doing wrestling again.

But if I did, it would have to be on my terms and doing it my way because when I was most popular there was when I was a heel and I was a character. And now I feel so good about the other things

that I'm doing and they know who I am that I could do heel coach and it would be okay. But just such a different era from when you broke in because backstage announcers, ring announcers, commentators, that's the role.

That's it. They're not characters. And I recently talked to Lillian Garcia, who, just like you, in that same era, got turned into a character and put into the storylines. That just doesn't happen anymore. No, it doesn't. And I think it's a combination of things. I think that people are scared to death to speak up and say, I want to try that.

I think they're a little bit more careful about who they do physicality to, right? but also I feel like I was special in that I was into Royal Rumbles. I wrestled Rick Flair in Afghanistan. I could do all those things. Was I a great wrestler? No. But damn, but I could look the part.

I could get in there and bump. I went through more tables than probably anybody from John Cena and the Dudley boys. So I'm proud of the fact that I said, yes. I'm proud of the fact that arguably I had the greatest heel turn in the history of the business as far as. as a surprise is concerned because nobody saw it coming when I attacked Shane McMahon with a steel chair as SummerSlam 2003.

Nobody. I got back to the hotel and people were going, but coach, we never saw that coming because it was good storytelling leading up to that, that you set people up. And that's the beauty of pro wrestling is setting them up to knock them down. And boy, do we knock him down that night. So I wish more guys would do it. But let's be honest, when you come out of college now, now that we've opened the door, and that is now a viable option.

When I came out of college, nobody says, you know what, I think I'd like to be in the WWF. Or, you know, nobody did that. You kind of either stumbled into it or it was a buddy that got you into it. Now, kids can really come out of college and say, that's what I want to do. And if that's the case, then you're not going to have guys that can really become the character because they have no acting experience either. I did a lot of acting in college. I love acting.

And you've got to be able to do that if you want to be a character in any organization. You had the chance to be a character because now it's just, you're just kind of like a glorified mic stand. You're just like a, you know, that's it. There's a two shot,

and then they just go into the superstar. You actually got to like have all these incredible memorable promos with people like The Rock. Well, because they wanted me to. Yeah. They wanted that. And I tweeted this the other day.

and, of course, somebody who I didn't even know was a writer for the WWE gets on social media, comes back at me and says, coach, this, this and this. I'm saying, listen, I don't care who you are. You're not going to tell me what I already know because I was there longer than 95% of people ever. So don't tell me. But superstars have to step up and be confident enough to say, I want to do this story with this person. Some of what made all these guys great back in the day. was they came with storylines to the building.

Now, from what I saw when I was there a year ago, they show up and they wait for stuff to be handed to them. And then you've got this writer who's wet behind the ears, who just got out of college, is scared of their own shadow, literally handed me a promo and says, coach, we needed to say this. And so I went over and I started marking up.

They go, whoa, what are you doing? I said, I'm coachifying it. They're like, no, no, no, we don't change words here. you're going to say that word for word. And I looked at him, I said, listen, man, I don't even know who you are. And you're probably on your three-month. Every writer does a three-month trial period.

And 90% of them, we never see him again. It was so funny, a lot of the guys like Stone Cold would be like, come talk to me in three, they would introduce themselves. Come talk to me in three months. And then I'll know your name. And then he would never hear from him again. So that is running rampant right now. And some of the greatest promos and the greatest characters

were organically done by the guys. And now they're waiting for a writing staff to tell them who they need to be. And that's a problem. And that needs to change. But how does it change? I don't know. And to be quite honest with you,

I don't care. Well, I think a lot of guys are scared because the gimmicks they've had in the Indies, you know, just don't happen. You know, they're not approved to be able to do that in WWE or they'll come with ideas and they'll go, that's not going to work or they get repackaged. I can understand why people,

don't want to come up with ideas anymore because everything they've had has been shot down. It's a great point. And until the last 12 to 18 months, there was for what? We're talking 19 years. There was really no viable competition. And that's no disrespect to impact or TNA or any of these other companies. But I'm talking about where you can make a six figure living for an extended period of time. That's what I consider a top level company. And there was nowhere from to go. So that's going to scare you even more. because everybody knows, and this is not a secret, if you go on the bad side of events or the bad side of anybody making these decisions, they're going to put you on the bench.

Now, they might pay you to sit on the bench, but that's only going to last you for a certain period of time. And then they're going to release you from your contract. And then where do you go? What do you do? Now you're humping it every weekend on the Indies, maybe making $200, $300,000, maybe $500, maybe $5 if you're a top-level star.

And then you're hawking your merchandise. That becomes a very, very hard way to make a little. And so the alternative is I'll take this guaranteed paycheck. And I'll wait until hopefully something pops off. And look at the new day, for instance. They're a perfect example. Kofi, I used to run the room, Chris. It's called the pre-tapes room.

And we'd bring guys in and we'd work on their character. And it was me and the Brooklyn Brawler. And we'd do it all day. And then if any interviews needed to be done for home video or entertainment tonight or Access Hollywood, they would send them to me. And I would do the interviews with whoever they need. usually it was the rock, but whoever it was. I remember Kofi came in and tried a character with a Jamaican accent and all these different things.

And I remember going, this guy's got a lot of talent and nothing hit. And if you look at all their interviews now, what's the one story that they tell? Man, 10 years ago, all three of us were on the way out of the business. And then they found the new day. And then why do you think that they're such a... success right now and have been because all their ideas they came up with. And they took it to the riders and said, let's do it. I mean, who would have ever thought about throwing pancakes? What? Pancakes to the audience coming out at WrestleMania out of a big cereal box. That sounds so

stupid. But it works for them. And they came up with it. And that's, that's my example. When I tell people, it can still happen today. You got to be a little bit lucky and you've got to be, you've got to have some cajonas to walk in and say, I believe that this can work. There's a story about you that you've told that I want to get some clarity on. And it was a rib where you got arrested and sent to jail. What exactly happened here? What clarity do you want? I mean, were you legit arrested?

Legitimately, no. But in reality of the situation, yes. And what's funny is when WWE started their, and they bring guys in and then they make it into a cartoon. I remember I was at ESPN and they said, hey, coach, they made a story out of your getting arrested. And Devon Dudley for some reason was the person they brought in to tell the story. And I said, they're going, why in the world is Devon Dudley?

I said, Devon might have been there. I don't remember him being there. But why is he? So I watched it. I'm like, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. Oh, no. That didn't happen.

So the thing that people saw. not even true. I'm going to tell you exactly what happened. Okay. And Vince to this day, in the book, Vince calls it the greatest rib in the history of the company. Because originally, I think it was just to play a joke on me. It was the beginning of football season, 2000, 2001, something like that.

Had to be 2001. And we were in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And Gerald Briscoe came up and said, hey, coach, you've got to run a football pool for all the guys. You know, pay $10, pick all the games. Yeah. So I made photocopies, and I'm just passing. them out all day to everybody. And we had people bringing me money all day. Everybody was in.

And all of a sudden, about three o'clock in the afternoon, my pre-tapes room that I just told you about was all the way at the end of the hall. And anybody that's ever been backstage at an event knows that every room has a, you know, it's Vince's office, it's catering, whatever. Yep. So, but in order for me to get out of the building, I had to walk by every single one of these rooms that had somebody in it. So all of a sudden, I see two police officers, state troopers. and they're like, are you, Mr. Coachman? I said, yes. They said, are you selling, and I should have known it then, when they said, are you selling illegal football tickets?

I said, no. They said, and they pulled it out and they unfold. They said, is this one of yours? And they showed me one of my photocopies. And I said, yes. They said, just so you know, it's a felony in the state of North Carolina to run an illegal football pool. And unfortunately, we're going to take you downtown.

And now my heart's just going. My heart's just going. I said, guys, come on. I mean, this seems kind of silly. It's a $10 football pool. They're like, listen, the law was passed a few years ago. It doesn't matter if it's a dollar or a million dollars. It's the same felony. And I said, are you kidding me? They said, no. And we're really sorry. And so we're walking down and the cops are on either side of me. And all these people are looking at me. We get to Vince's office. And they're like, does Vince run the whole show here? And I said, yes. They said, we really need to tell him. And I go, no, we don't. No, we do not. And they're like, yeah, so they knock on the door. And I'm like, are you kidding? Now, this is 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The show starts in three hours.

And so I opened the door. And again, there was a lot of little things that should have tipped me off, but I was terrified. So I walk into Vince's office, right? And he looks up and they said, excuse me, Mr. McMahon, but Mr. Coachman is running a legal football pool in the state of North Carolina. We just wanted to let you know that, unfortunately, we have to arrest him. Vince walks over. And his face is right here.

So I got his breath on my face. And he goes, a football pool, an effing football pool? Do you not have anything else to do with your time all day than run a football pool? I don't say anything, right? I'm staring right at Gerald Briscoe, who's the one that asked me to run it. And he's saying nothing. And I'm like sitting there going, are you going to step up at some point and help me out? He says nothing.

So the cops say, well, Mr. Ringman, it's going to be like $1,500. to bail Mr. Coachman out of jail, will you be helping him with that? He looks at me and he goes, F, no. He's on his own. And they said, well, we're going to have to take him all the way down to the station. Will you be sending somebody to pick him up?

He goes, F, no. He's on his own. And they said, well, unfortunately, when somebody's been arrested for a felony, they have to be handcuffed. So we're going to have to put handcuffs on him. And do you have like a towel or something so at least we can put it over his hands

so people don't see that he's, he's handcuffed. Vince walks over to his gym bag. And back then he used to work out all the time. And he picks up his boxer shorts that he wore to work out in that day. Oh my God. And whips them at me and they stick to my face. So I got Vince's ball sweat on my face. And I don't even move it. I'm in handcuffs and I've got his boxer stuck to my face. So the cop like with two fingers takes it off my face and puts it over my hands. So I'm like this with Vince's boxers on my hands. Oh, my God.

And so now everybody in there is like dead silent. Like it was like so awkward. So it's like, thank you, Mr. McMahon. We walk out the first person we see when we walk out of his office, the undertaker. I've never felt more shame in my life. I just looked down. I couldn't look at. So we walked to the back.

You know every arena has a big door to let trucks in. And so the cop car is like 20 feet out. And I said, guys, can you at least pull it up here? there had to be 300 fans right above right and they said no man we got to walk you out there again should have known and so i walk out they do that whole thing you saw on cops where they put me in the back of the car they put the the seat belt on me because i'm in handcuffs and i'm sitting here thinking to myself how do i tell my father that my career job and my career could be over yeah because i have a felony for for running a 10 dollar football pool so then our head of security at the time

his name is jimmy tell us he comes over he goes coach say nothing don't say anything. I'll come down and bail you out. They take me around. I drive like two or three miles. And all of a sudden on the radio, they say, hey, Mr. Tellis can't get his car out. Can you come back and pick him up?

And again, I'm like, we're going back there? We're going back to pick somebody up. And the cops trying to talk to me. And I'm like saying, Tillis just told me, don't say anything. So he's like, hey, man, this is a little unorthodox. But if you want somebody to give you a right home, we got to go pick him up. And again, I should have thought, how's he going to give me a ride home if he doesn't have a car?

So we drive back and all they were doing was killing time to get everybody to come out of the back of the arena. And they were standing almost like in a pyramid with vents right at the front and then everybody else behind. So we come down the big hill. And if anybody's ever been to the arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina, they know exactly what I'm talking about. And we pull down and I see everybody standing out there and I still don't know. still don't know what's happening. And they opened the door. And this whole process that I told you in about five minutes,

it took 45 minutes to pull this off from start to finish. 45 minutes, which is why he calls it the greatest rib in the history of the company. Because it went way better than they ever could have imagined. We get out. He told the cops, don't take the handcuffs off because they thought I was going to start throwing. They thought I was going to be so upset. So we get out and everybody's like, oh, man, you're the man. That was amazing.

And I'm still in handcuffs. I'm still in handcuffs. And I was like, somebody get these handcuffs off me. So the cops are doing this. Everybody's pat me on the back. I literally went to a part of the arena where nobody could find me. And I just started sobbing. I was crying so hard.

And because, you know, sometimes when you're so angry or you're so relieved, whatever, the tears just come and you don't know why. And I was just so relieved that I wasn't going to jail, that I wasn't arrested and that I still had a job. But it took 45 minutes and to this day, he still calls it the greatest rip. That is an incredible story. My God.

That also shows how much Vince loved you. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people have told me that over the years too, because Vince wouldn't even bother. He wouldn't even bother to be, to, A, endorse it, allow it, and then participate in it. Yeah.

So that still means a lot to me. Coach, you've had an. incredible career in broadcasting, in wrestling, everything. What is there left for you to do? What are the goals that you still want to attain? I have a lot. I'm only in my 40s now. You know, I started at such a young age. But now my goals have changed. I still want to do a lot of work in front of the camera. But I now know what my strengths are. And I'm a really good producer. I'm a really good leader. I understand probably better than anybody what it takes to make it in the real broadcasting world and also in the sports entertainment broadcasting world at the highest

levels. I was just talking about this yesterday, that sometimes I feel like I've hurt myself because I was on national TV at such a young age. And so when I watch stuff and I watch people, I automatically think they should be at this level. And there are levels to this. And you have to work at it just like anything else. So I want to be a leader to allow young minds and young people who are talented to have the avenues to show their work, show their talents, and not have a bunch of executives tell them you're too young. You don't have a voice. Just do your work.

And that's what I want my future to be. And I want to be a top level executive one day at wherever it is that I'm at, whether it's CBS or whether it's PGA tour, whatever. I want to do both in front of the camera now, kind of what Triple H is done with the WWE. Yeah. It's a great wrestler, great talent, and now he helps run the company. And that's what I want to do.

It drives me. And also, I love to lift people up. I get more enjoyment out of helping somebody else do something and see them do it than I do myself. Because I've already done it. I've already been there. I know that satisfaction. And so now that is satisfying to me. So my future is very, very clear for me.

And hopefully a lot of people want to come along for the right. With all the golfing that you're covering, how much golfing are you doing? I played last year three times. What's your handicap? Right now it's like 15 to 20. It's not very good. That's okay. Way better than mine.

What was the pandemic? And during the pandemic, nobody was out playing golf. At least I wasn't out. But that's on my to-do list that I've got to play more golf. When you have the perks that I have in the world of golf, the fact that I don't use them is criminal. It's absolutely criminal.

So that is going to change this year. promise you that. Where have you not played that is on your bucket list to play? Wow, there's so many. Now, I've played a lot of great courses. I've played Pebble Beach. I've played Whistling Straits. I've played Piner's number two. But there's a lot. My dream, obviously, is Augustine National. I got to cover the Masters for three years at ESPN. Still my career highlight there to get to call digital highlights for them. There's a lot of great courses all over the country. I would love to play the other courses of Pebble Beach. that I've never done.

So believe me, the list is long and extensive. So I have some work to do. For people that want to find you and, you know, are wrestling fans and haven't seen some of your other work, where can they find you in a normal week? The easiest way to find all the stuff we're doing is I post everything on my social media at the coach rules on Twitter and on Instagram. We're also starting a platform next week called Coach Picks. And we're going to create a community of anybody that wants to have VIP,

golf picks. We're going to be doing a lot there. So we're doing four different shows. I do a daily social media show called Coach I'm Up Live, which is what this background is for. Great background. Thank you. Thank you. I'm at CBS and we do two shows with CBS, the early edge, which is a, it's all of this goes back to sports betting and golf betting. And then I do a show called The First Cut, also at CBS. And then I work with the PGA tour and do PGA Tour live, which is so much fun to do being a

part of them as well. But I post everything I do on my social handle. So if anybody wants to follow us, they can. And if they want to be a part of the community that we're going to start to create, because I also, Chris, feel like there's way too much negativity surrounding the love of sports. And we want to create a group of people that can come, discuss sports, bet a little bit, and also know that it's a safe space not to be made fun of, to be included, whether you're a man, woman, whatever you are. It doesn't matter to us. We, want you and we want you to be a part of it if you're a sports fan and a sports betting fan too. Coach, I just want to acknowledge you. You're one of those people who doesn't take no for an answer.

And if the door is not open, you just find a way to beat that door in. And I think it's such an incredible quality that not a lot of people have. Well, thank you. That's very, very kind of you to say. And sometimes it's been out of necessity, just circumstances. But it's, I, I, I, I, tell people all the time, if you stop, nobody's going to care. Nobody's going to care. And I think sometimes we feel like we stop people are going to come running and say, no, you need to do this, do this, do this. There's so many different shows and entertainment places now that didn't even exist when I was coming out. And that's why I never stopped. Because if I stop, ain't nobody's going to care, but guess who is going to care? My kids are going to care when they can't eat. My parents are going

to care when I'm not happy and I got to call them for money. So those things drive me. Money doesn't drive me anymore, but taking care of people does. So thank you for saying that. But if anybody can take anything away from this interview is put yourself in a situation because a million dollars is not going to show up on your doorstep. But you might be able to have a million dollars run into you on the highway, but you got to be on the highway to have that happen. Get out and do something you love to do. The other thing this pandemic taught me, Chris, is I want to do things that I enjoy and I'm happy doing. Because damn it, a lot of us do things that we haven't.

And this year showed me, if I'm going to make a living doing this, I want to do it. And maybe it won't happen. But damn it if I'm not going to try my best to make it happen. Amen. This has been a fantastic conversation. And coach, I end every conversation by asking you what are three things that you're grateful for in your life right now. Because I say that if you can be grateful, you can be great. Three things. Well, my two kids are my number one, and they're one thing. I have the greatest kids in the world. They support me with everything. My kids tell me all the time, Dad, you're the best. That sounded amazing. And that means the world to me. My second thing is amazing parents, because I was adopted. And I've had the most amazing life, and I have the most amazing parents. My dad had a heart transplant two years ago, and he's doing better than ever. And so we saw firsthand how just precious life.

can be. And so I'm grateful my parents who've been married for 54 years still are. And probably the third thing is just that I've been given the God-given ability to do what I love to do, but also have the skills to help others because this is a talent. And I know I have this talent. And I never understand when people have a talent and they don't use it for good. And so I'm grateful for the talent I've been given. But I also want to pay it back. by utilizing it to the best of my ability. I love this. Thank you so much, man.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me, man. I really enjoyed this. Well, there we go. Man, we knew Coach was a great broadcaster, but he might be the best storyteller that we've ever had on the show. And you know what?

That's why he's such a great broadcaster, because broadcasting is all about telling stories. And he's so good at it. And it's just so great to see him just absolutely crushing it with everything that he has going on right now. Because a lot of times, you know, we're wrestling fans. A lot of times when someone leaves wrestling or leaves WWE, you know, you don't really keep up with what they're doing.

But the fact that he's doing so, so well with everything, oh, it's just so great to see. You know, if you enjoyed this, share with a friend, take a screenshot and share this on social media. Tag us. I'm at Chris Van Vleet and coach is at the coach rules. And I'll leave you with this quote from Sydney. Jay Harris, who once said, happiness is a direction, not a place. Be great, be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job

to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.