New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Jon Hamm on Meme Life, Busted Brackets, Masters Dinner Debate & A New Bearcat in Town | Ep 183

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

92%ers, welcome to another episode of New Heights brought to you by AT&T!  Today, Jason celebrates his second Sports Emmy nomination, Travis gives us the details on becoming a Tommy Boy, we dive into a Masters preview, dream champions dinner menus, and there are cheating accusations within the New Heights Bracket Pool  Also, Jon Hamm previews the new season of Your Friends and Neighbors, lets us know where he ranks as a Chiefs fan, the Mad Men moment that changed his career, and more! And finally, we’ve also got the new Cincinnati Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun, who lets us know why he’s pumped to be back home, playing against LeBron in high school, and how close Travis was to playing college basketball. Watch Jon Hamm in season 2 of “Your Friends and Neighbors.” https://tv.apple.com/us/show/your-friends--neighbors/umc.cmc.74o37kzay0yuuub8iumddjsgCheck out Coach Calhoun and the Cincinnati Men’s Bearcats Basketball teamhttps://gobearcats.com/tickets/mens-basketballYou can still pre-order “No Dumb Questions” now at http://kelceclubhouse.com or wherever you buy your books. To claim your stickers. After you pre-order, head to this link:  http://hc.com/nodumbquestions and submit your proof of purchase. Watch and listen to new episodes of New Heights every Wednesday during the NFL season and follow us on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowYou can also listen to new episodes on Wondery, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. ...Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwSend something to the New Heights Mailbox. Don’t be weird though. C/O New Heights Productions135 E OLIVE AVE, BURBANK, CA 91502Support the show: AT&T: When the Connection Matters, it has to be AT&T. Visit http://att.com/connecttochange to learn more. AMERICAN EXPRESS: With premium benefits and award-winning service, there’s nothing like Platinum. Dedicated Card Member entrances are available at select stadiums and arenas. Terms apply. Learn more at https://go.amex/withplatinumAPPLE: The all-new MacBook Neo. An amazing Mac at a surprising price. Learn more at http://apple.com/MacALLSTATE: Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://allstate.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chief's Kingdom member. Certainly so, yes. Perhaps the sexiest member of Chief's Kingdom. Maybe. I mean, you know, Rudd's in there. Seds is in there. I mean, come on, there's a lot. It's tough sledded.

It's a hot kingdom. That's right. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a wondry show. Brought you by AT&T. Oh, wow, we get these big time cellular providers, Wi-Fi. You name it, man. Everything you need right there at AT&T. We're your host.

I'm Travis Kelly's my big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Shout out to the Tigers, but also shout out to the cats. And their new hire coach Calhoun coming over from Utah State. Yeah, baby. That he's finally back to UC. And I'm sure we'll talk about that in a little bit. But subscribe on YouTube, wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S. For fun clips throughout the week, we're going to have a bunch this week.

as Jason tells you what we have coming up this week. 92% is we got another amazing episode coming up. We're going to talk a little golf. Ha ha, the best major of the years coming up with the Masters. We got John Hamm. Little friends and neighbors, season two sneak peek. We're going to talk a little March Madness. And for all of our Bearcast listeners,

the new men's basketball coach, Jared Calh. Who is here? Big episode. Big, big, big episode. Let's get into a little bit of that new. New news. Coming in high. This week's new news is brought to you by American Express,

and we're going to have some new news of their own. Oh, okay. American Express is now the official partner of the NFL. Big, huge news. Damn. Oh, man, American Express. Yeah, nothing says America, like the NFL. Jason Kelsey is now a two-time.

Sports Emmy nominee. That's right. Nominated a second time. or outstanding sports personality emerging on Airtown. You are emerging as the greatest sports personality in sports. I've seen it. It's the first day that you showed your tits on ESPN that you were going to be great. And now you're getting nominated for an award that shows just how great your personality is, Jason.

How many years until you're not no longer emerging? No longer emerging. How long is that? Um, I don't know. I don't know. How does it feel to be nominated again, Jason? Do you want me to be honest? No.

Be kind. Okay. Feels great. Nice. Love every second of it. Your family's proud of you. I'm honored by the men and women who make these decisions. The reason I think it's cool is because there's a lot of people that put a lot of hard time and work into making, uh, all the things that I fucking do.

This podcast, uh, the Monday Night Countdown crew, the desk that I'm on with, I'm on with some incredible experts. and people that are actually the best of what they do in the sports analysis realm. You know, I think it's, it's fun to do all this stuff. I love sports. I love to still be involved despite being a retired player and given this platform to communicate with fans. So, yeah, it's an honor, but it's more importantly great to share the fact that I really don't do a lot. And a lot of other people work their ass off. I'll do that.

Team player. Yeah, yeah. You've always been one of the best teammates. And you got a shout out. Anytime you get an award, you got a shout out everybody that, well, or a nominee. Every time you get a nominee, kind of shout out to people that help you get to where you are in life.

Well, yeah, congratulations, Jason. Thanks, Trev. And also, congratulations to you. Travis Kelsey is officially a Tommy boy. Tommy. Tommy. No, dude, it's so fun, man. I've signed on to be the global ambassador and creative collaborator with Tommy.

he'll figure. I am so pumped, man. I've been such a huge Tommy fan since I was a kid. The 90s color blocking and just how, you know, iconic the logo is with the flag. I've just been, I've been trying to figure out where to go in the fashion world because I do love, you know, obviously having fun things to wear and creating fun things to wear and expressing that. And I think that, you know, my last one with American Eagle was so, much fun and they were so unbelievable that I wanted to continue doing that. And I think this opportunity is like the next level for me. It's going to be an amazing, amazing capsule when it comes out. And excited for this year's fall, 2026 line as well, which is what I'll be pushing out first.

Well, hell yeah. I can't wait to check it out. I love the last collaboration you did. I got it all right now. There's a little Tommy right here for you as well, man. Hello, America. Here we go. For you. No, it's comfy, man. It's the best. You would love this one specific. It's a nice light knit. Light knit. Nice, light, breathable knit.

You love those. I'm a big heavy knit guy now, though. But you like the drapingness of the heaviness, right? Like, you like how it kind of like, yeah, it's got that. I do. If it gets too light, it shows off my tits too much. I need it to kind of drape over the tits. You know what I mean?

This will take care of your tits. We also got a new nickname for the Big Yeti. What? New nickname for the Big Yeti Hoopsie, which we learned from the Chiefs. who revealed this during your contract signing. Is this an actual nickname? Yeah. So my OG in the room, Anthony Fasano, shout out to Paison.

Fasano is one of my favorites of all time. Him and Mike McGlynn, Big Greasy, man. Called me. Big Greasy. They saw me struggling coming out of the huddle every day with hoop earrings in and would screw up to play. And so they would call me, instead of oopsie, they would call me hoopsie. It's a banger.

It's a banger. So that was a young 2013. 14, Travis running around the Kansas City facility, screwing shit up being called Hoopsie. Do we need Hoopsie merch? Get Tommy, he'll figure on it.

Get old Tommy boy on it. The Hoopsie line back the hoops. We're bringing back the earrings. You heard it here, Tommy. Hey, bigger the hoop. So that's it for new news. That's it for new news. Brought to you by American Express.

Yeah, damn you're good, man. That was fucking great timing. It was sitting there. We was sitting there for the taking, for sure. Let's get into a little master's preview, Jason. 92% is we got something special for you. Golf majors season is kicking off this month. So for the next couple of episodes, we're going to, you know, talk some golf.

Why not? Everybody loves golf. This master's preview is brought to you by AT&T. That's right, your favorite. cell phone provider. We got to start with the new edition to the Masters. Jason Kelsey. Jason Kelsey,

come on down. Oh, thank you. Thank you. After making his golf broadcasting debut on TGL. ESPN is sending Jason to Augusta next week. I don't think they're going to let me in with the cut off Hawaiian shirt at Augusta. Which is.

No, listen. Go ahead. Good. Yeah. No, yeah, I'm going down there for the part three.

ESPN broadcast the par three day. I think Scott Van Pelt. my man down there, hosts it. You know, we love golf and we've been down to the Masters before. And I think anybody that's been to the Masters just realizes how special and unique of a place it is. And, you know, Augusta National is just everything's done to just a ridiculous degree between maintaining the course, the beauty of it, the hospitality of it. Like, I just everybody, the way they treat you, the way it's done is just done at a level. that's second and none.

And then the history of the course, the tournament, there's just something so special about being down there. So I always want to go just as a spectator. So to be able to go down there, to be able to be there for the part three day one, which I've never been to, and to interact with some of the golfers and to see that course firsthand, and then maybe shed some light on some of the people that make Augustine National so special, right? Like, everybody gets to watch a tournament.

they get to see the best golfers in the world compete for probably the most prestigious thing in golf, the green jacket. Ooh, green jacket. But there's a lot of other people that do a lot of work around that course that make that thing special. Do you think it's frowned upon to go out and I'm sorry, I don't mean interrupt. I'm being silly. Go ahead, finish. No, you're good.

Should we get matching green jackets? I thought, I think that's foul play. What do you mean? That's what I'm saying. You can't get a green jacket. You can't like imitate a green jacket. jacket? Like, we're going to go get gold medals and go to the Olympics? What are we talking about here? All right. Can we do gold jackets? Green jacket, gold jacket, who gives you? No, I'm not doing

any new jackets. Whenever they ask. So it's with the gold jackets. Green jacket, gold jacket, who gives this shit? Matching jackets doesn't sound bad. Yeah, we're outside of working there with ESPN, we're both actually going to be down at Augusta. It'll be fun to just enjoy it, man. It's so special with you you put your phone down and you're in just this ridiculously beautiful course that feels like that ground was made for one thing and it was made to be a golf course and it's just I don't know man there's not really anything quite like it I had the fortune of going down to the masters uh during the COVID year and there were no grandstands there were like limited amount of people I got to see that course and how they care about every single blade of grass

and every single, you know, garden that they have on the walkways. And it was just such a unique experience. And obviously, you know, it won't be that this time, but I'm equally as excited to get to experience what it's like when the full madness is there and the hype is there. And there's that many people breathing down these guys necks on the green. And I'm just excited to get down there and experience it a different way than I did last time. Well, I'm excited to be down there with you because it's,

You got your, you got your chair? I got my chair. I'm bringing my chair. We're posting up. I didn't, I didn't go chair. I just went grass. I just laid in the grass. I got a second chair.

I got a second chair. My guy, Tom Nerny, shout out to Tom Nerney. Hooked me up with the chair. I got an extra chair. What color chair is it? We'll set it down. It's one of the official Augusta National Masters chair. Okay.

Yeah. You set it down in your spot, post up. What hole should we post up on? What's your favorite hole? I kind of like walking around. Obviously, Amen's Corner. Yeah, that's, it's lovely. I kind of like to, when we went, we posted up at the, the second or third day we went,

we posted up right around 15, where the par five where it kind of bends around the trees there. It's like a dog leg left. And it's such a cool shot to me because it's kind of like an island green in a sense. It's like you just got that water in front of it. You got to go over the water. It's a shot now. Like you've got to kind of place that drive. You get to see how everyone tries to cut the corner or tries to, you know, play

whatever their strategy is. And then that's a, it's a hell of a shot for them to get there and two if they go for it. It's just fun to kind of see, you know, which guys go for it, where they end up. And yeah, I think that's, that's probably my favorite place. Obviously, the par three's, there's not a bad part three on the course. I mean, it's always fun to post it. up in a part three. Yeah, you just see everybody's

watching through some darts. I like, I can't remember it's the par five that's two coming down the hill or three. Two coming down the hill is you've got to hit it kind of perfectly or else. That thing is falling. I think it's two coming down that hill. It ends in like, so in the middle of the course,

there's a green right there. And I think it's the par five. If two is a par five, it's two. I believe you're correct. I believe that is it. I think it's two. Everyone tries to like hit it on that left side of that part of five. It kind of goes left as well.

So you come to. down that hill, but you're, you're kind of centrally located. So you can put your chair down there. You're on the green, but then you can also get up and walk to like multiple different holes in the area. It's just a good, like, central location. That's one of my favorite spots. Anyways. I'm not going to lie. I like to kind of walk the course a little bit. Be boozy, go to Berkman's place. Go back out and walk the course a little bit more at the end. Fair enough. Yeah, I'm a boozy. I'll be there wearing Tommy. Alrighty, we have a voicemail from last year from a 92%er. Let's take a look at this.

regarding the Masters. Really, Youngstown, Ohio. First of all, King, I'm baby number four. Okay, Youngstown.

My no dumb question falls around the Masters that happened on Sunday. And if one of you guys won the Masters, what would your guys' ideal champion's

dinner be like? Ooh. Love this question. Thank you for that question. I think Roy McElroy's championship dinner just got announced if I'm not mistaken. It came out, yeah. So the first one is Rory's here. We got some

peach ricotta flatbread with a little hot honey basil and basalic. Hmm. Rock shrimp, got to love rock shrimp. He's two for two on me right now. Bacon wrap dates and now I'm out. Grilled elk sliders.

Why would you have elk when you just have beef? Carmelized onion jam. I almost threw up. Oh, I made not caramelize on you, Jim. All right, elephant, tuna, got a pachio. What da, foie gras? Man, there's one thing, there's two things I'm allergic to, octopus and fogasua. Flay mignon, seared salmon.

Sticky toffee pudding, great dessert, great dessert. All righty, not bad, Mr. McQuarrower. Let's see what Bub was working with. Much more dated. This is not as pristine of a menu, it looks like. 2013. Grilled chicken breast. Jesus Christ, Bubba

What's wrong with the grilled chicken breast? I mean, nothing, but it's not. I mean, a special occasion, we can do better than a grilled chicken breast. Green beans, mashed potatoes, corn, macaroni, and cheese. This is a fucking hilarious. What do you spend? Bubba's these are southern guys?

Caesar salad chicken breast and confetti cake. This is fucking hilarious. You can have anything in the world, Bubba. I'll do. I'll do a Caesar salad. I bet you this had something to do with the gust of like. He went to the chefs. It was like, hey, what do you guys known for?

And they were probably just like, we make a mean grilled chicken, mac and cheese. I'm a fan of actually subverting. Subverting. S-U-B. Traditional, like, American dishes, but, like, making them at, like, a high-end meal. Like, I think you go beans and weanies, but you have them do it in the augusta way. Beans and weenies. No chance.

Have, like, the fanciest peanut butter and jelly imaginable. I'm calling for it. situation like this, but keep going. What's another hamburger helper? What are we doing? What are we doing? What's the last time you had hamburger helper? But that's my point.

I used to love hamburger helper. I would go complete nostalgia. P.B. and J. Beans and weanies. Hamburger helper. What else can we throw on this that we used to eat growing up? Get some dunkerooze in there. I don't even know if they make dunkeros anymore.

Put those things in there. What is what was another thing in the Kelsey family household that would be hilarious to put it a freaking master's championship dinner. What were those little nutter butters? What else, man?

Fucking. Gotta have some key lime pie in honor of Ed Kelsey. I'm in on key lime pie being the dessert. That's nice. All right. All right.

Key lime pie. Trying to think, oh, casserolele got to have a nice casserole in honor of Ed Kelsey. Stocked with cottage cheese to the brim. It wasn't,

it was ricotta. It was ricotta. It was thick and it was it was good. that but I can't do ricotta very much very often very cheesy very cheesy just some georgio's pizza man mama kelsey's dinner rolls got to have some mama kelsey dinner rolls that's got to be the first thing that comes out yes yes all right so mama kelsey mama kelsey's dinner rolls to start us off with a little beans and weanies i'm not doing beans and weanies in mine there's no chance i would ever force anybody

to do beans and weenies talking about mine it's the best if you don't like beans and weanies you're on you No, I don't love absolutely shitting my brains out five minutes after I eat. No, I don't. Just fucking leaving a trail of fucking ass juice everywhere I go. Just like, it's the worst. I would also, well, that's another thing. You use it to sabotage my stomach is made to handle beans and weanies. If I'm playing again, I'm going to sabotage the group.

I'm going to force all of you into this realm that this stomach has been in. You all are coming in to eat of my beanies and weenies, and you're not going to be able to survive it. You grew up over in Ireland, Rory. You don't know what the fuck you're dealing with beans and weenies from bushes and fucking Oscar Meyer. You ain't got a clue what you're ready for. This guy's going to be on that first tee wondering what the fuck hit him. There's no way, Roy is eating beans and weens, man.

There's no way any of these fucking golfers. Your system's never seen this amount of nitrates. You don't know what's happening to you. Don't wear white pants tomorrow, boys. You better wear dark shades. You better wear some dark shades. Preferably black or brown. This gut bacteria has been hardened through years of Ed Kelsey making him the cheapest

meals possible in a microwave. That shit's fucking hilarious. All right. We gave it our best round, dude. Can't wait to. see if Rory will eat beans and weans. I'm going to scream it at them on the T-box. What would you honestly do, though, for your menu?

What would you put in there? I mean, honestly, I feel like I'd go universal. I wouldn't make everybody fucking pay. I would make everybody enjoy it. Mama Kelsey's dinner rolls to start it off. I feel like you go smash roll. That's the thing. You go smash burger?

I'm going like a little smash burger, maybe some like, some super salty fried chicken. I fucking, I love, do you know what I mean? You're in the south. So I feel like there should be some version of like Southern hospitality southern meal in there. I like what you're selling here. Yeah, I'm a big mac and cheese guy too.

I'd probably go similar to Bubba, but a more updated version for sure. Maybe not just as simple as that, but the key lime pie is a nice finish. I've always liked the Dairy Queen ice cream cake too. So maybe throw that fucker in there.

I haven't been to there. I haven't been to that. I haven't had one in a long time. I talk about this all the time. I don't know why people get regular cakes. You know they make ice cream cake, right? Why would you get a regular cake when you get a fucking ice cream cake? What are we even talking about? What are we talking about? I feel like half of the world's lactose and Tyler in anyways. All righty. Yeah, that does it for the master's preview brought to you by AT&T. I can't wait to step foot down there in Augusta man and have some fun with the guys.

High 902% is this time for maybe the most handsome guests we've ever had on the show. Please welcome our next guest, Mr. John. And ham! Also, this conversation is brought to you by Apple. All right. Thank you to our sponsor, AT&T. You know what makes the Masters so special? What's that, Trev?

It's not just the legendary shots or the roar of the patrons. It's being connected to every single moment as it happens. Whether you're tracking your favorite golfer's round or sharing that unbelievable eagle with your buddies, when the connection matters, it has to be AT&T. Oh, yeah. My favorite shot ever at the, Esther's wasn't even during the actual like Masters play.

It was like during one of the practice rounds. John Rom hit a skipper on one of the par threes. I think it was 12 hit the skipper onto the green. It comes down, trickles in, hole in one off the water. Stop. You haven't seen this? I'm going to go shoot it to you right now in my AT&T phone. As a champion partner of the master's AT&T keeps you connected to the game you love.

Because when connection matters, it has to be AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Visit ATT.com slash connect to change to learn more. Thank you to our partner American Express. Ooh, when you're at a live event, some of the best words you can hear are come this way. Oh yeah. Yeah, at a game concert,

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Concerned about your gambling. Visit connectsontera.com. All right, our guest today is a 6'1 actor, director and producer from St. Louis, Missouri. He's got a Critics Choice Award, two golden glows and an Emmy. You know it from his role on the town, 30 Rock Landman, Madman. And now coming soon, the second season of the Apple Plus original, your friends and neighbors. Yes, sir. 92%ers, please welcome Mr. John Haydown.

Thank you. Thank you. That is a W.W.E-style intro. I like that. Thanks. Chief's Kingdom member. Certainly so. Oh, yes.

Perhaps the sexiest member of Chief's Kingdom. Maybe. I mean, you know, it's... Rudd's in there. Susses in there. I mean, come on. There's a lot. Tough sledded.

It's a hot kingdom. That's right. We got big Rob Rigg. Rob Rugg. He had his nice seasoned beard. Oh, yeah. He's got a little salt in that pepper. He's all right.

How does it feel to become a meme, by the way? That was the weirdest thing in the world. I am so not on social media. Like, I have zero footprint. Literally. Yeah. I think I have a Facebook page from whatever, 2002. Those things are dangerous now, man.

That's like a loaded gun. For sure. Yeah, but I mean, I never engaged with it. I just don't. So even when people send me, like, links to Instagram and stuff, I have to open them on the web. I don't have the app. I don't, I don't play the reindeer games are not for me. Yeah.

So I came home, I've been shooting up in Canada and Winnipeg, Manitoba, this next series that I'm doing called American Hostage. And I come home and I get a text from Brian Williams. Like, what is Brian Williams? want you know it's like okay I open it up and he goes I hope you understand that this is has been going around and he was the first guy that sent me the link I was like first of dude briwai what's on your algorithm he's doom scrolling dude he's doom scrolling but no then it blew up like crazy it was it was bizarre it's just one of those things you know I I've you got no

control over it you can't you can't do that stuff on purpose it just happens yeah has happened and you know I guess it was the best way for it to happen is it It was positive. It was pleasant. It was funny. It was all the other stuff. So, hell yeah. It was iconic, man. Tell me what's this, what's this new series? You said you're up in wait a bank? Yeah, it's called American hostage. It's about a real thing that happened in the 70s in the states in Indianapolis. It was a hostage situation where a guy took a bank manager hostage, tied a gun around his neck and walked him around for 63 hours straight.

And I, yeah, it's real. I was 1977. I was six years old. You guys weren't born yet. But I was like, I vaguely have a recollection of this incident when it happened. But it was kind of the first thing that happened where local story kind of blew up into national news. And I play the radio reporter that the hostage taker, he was his favorite radio guy, newsman. So he said, you got to get my story out. You got to tell the people my story. And so he's kind of conflicted. He's going live on the air with this guy who's a loose cannon who also has a dude at the end of a shotgun.

It could go sideways in any moment. So it's very tense. It's very exciting. Fuck yeah. It's going to be a good one. It'll come out in the fall at some point. Up in Winnipeg? Yeah, we're shooting Winnipeg, which is around.

Which is my choice. I don't know how cold you guys have been recently, but minus 30 is real, man. Yeah. We got one of our college teammates, Zach Clare, shout out to Zach. He's the quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Yeah, I went to the Grey Cup this year, which was super cool. Saskatchewan Rough Ruff Riders versus the Montreal Alouettes. Have you guys watched the NFL?

It is fun. Three downs. Yep. Receivers can move forward before. Fields bigger. Way bigger. Like way bigger. It's crazy.

Dude, I love it, dude. We went up there a few times. Unfortunately, our guy got banged up the one game we went up there to go see him. So you're bad luck. Well, they won the Great Cup that year, I believe. All right. They love it up there, man. They go crazy for it.

And it's fun to watch. It is fun to watch. You're a football fan. I'm a football fan. You played football? I played in high school. I got recruited to play like D3, Ivy League. and it was like there was a deceit.

I played middle linebacker. You know, in my high school, we played both ways. So I played offensive line and middle linebacker. Offensive line, middle line, yeah. Chuck Bednerick. Exactly. You guys? I mean, I was a running back, though.

We all wanted to be running backs, especially in high school football. That's all you did. But no, there was a choice, and I was like, I don't think I can, I wanted to go to college and I wanted to not be in the weight room and not be in practice all the time. I hear you? Like, for sure. Can we just touch on this? Did you see this?

Yeah, kid, there he is. The necro. A necrol guy. The necrol. This guy was fucking putting his forehead right on your chin. Let's fucking go. Absolutely. And arm sleeves, the old forearm shivers.

Yeah. There was not a pad I did not want to wear. I was like, I don't even make hip pads anymore. How crazy is that? I don't know. Watch you guys like, I'm like, how do you not do that? You had the hip pads and the butt pad. The little tailbone pad.

For six years, I didn't wear any pads on my legs. Until they changed the rules. back to be like, hey, you have to wear any pads and thigh pads. So what do they give you now, like a credit card and you put it in the thing? It's like, it's the thinnest pad and then you even once they give it to you, you cut it. You can't give me enough pads. That's what I said, man. Pats me up, dude.

Guys are fucking putting their helmet right on my knee. Oh, dude, yeah, you got to run across the middle. Yeah, no, I'm, no, give me as big. I just want all my whole leg being a pad. Give me a force field. I look at all these receivers. I'm like, dude, you guys are getting your shit fucked up. Put some goddamn pads.

For sure. For sure. What is harder playing football or being an actor? That's a good question. Playing football. I mean, no way. Seriously. No way.

Nobody's coming at you to try to take your head off in a middle of a scene. You don't have to keep your head on a swivel when you're in the middle of a scene. It's just not that hard. It takes mental energy. It takes preparedness. Obviously, both of the disciplines do. But the funniest thing about, and you've probably had it, both of you probably had, you know, my buddy Glazer worked on your show with you guys.

Absolutely. You know how it is. to be on camera. It's, it, it, it, everything gets a little hyped up, a little, little, little, you get a little nervous and all that stuff. And it takes experience and, and reps to, to get it down to where you feel comfortable doing it, like anything else. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure if you put anybody on an NFL field in a moment, even if they were fit enough to play, the, the, the grandeur and the largeness of the moment would freak them the fuck out. No doubt, right? And so that's what happened sometimes when you get on stage, when you get on set,

and the lights are on and things ready and the whatever's going. I remember one of the first movies I ever did was called We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson and Great Caneer, Sam Elliott, a bunch of cast of thousands. It was great. Vietnam War movie. Really, really cool. And we had this one setup that was the whole day. It was just one thing for the whole day. And at the end of the day, the guy hits the button and the whole place blows the fuck up. And it was crazy. We had all these lines and all these things. We had all these cameras everywhere. We run on 11 cameras and Mel's in the middle of it. He's calling in the airstrike. And the director is basically like, if you forget your line, if you fuck up, just.

keep going because we got one shot at this. And so it goes around and around and around at the end of the thing. They hit the buttons and the whole fucking forest explodes and they call it and they're like, that's a rap. Like, we're done. Like, okay, we're like, okay, we did it. And we were all talking to Mel, we're like, don't you get like nervous? Like, what would he go? And he goes, no? That's crazy. No, we just, that's what just what I do. Yeah. And you think about that, of course, in your line of work too. Like Patrick Mahomes is like, this is what I do. Yeah. It's, well, the old Texas gunslinger. He's a little different. He's built a little different.

I was just at waste management. I was on, I was playing in the pro-am, right? That's a real thing, man. So I, that's what I'm saying. You're talking about like being in a moment where you're like, oh, shit, you walk into that thing and it's like the. Thunderome, dude.

Yeah, it's like the Coliseum. Yeah. Yeah. Did I get here? Yeah. You have to stand over a ball this size and fucking hit it. That you've hit a million times

that you know you can do. I had that experience. I played Augusta after the master's. The year, the last year that Tiger won, or whatever that was, 2018. Uh-huh. You can do a thing where they keep the pins in the same place and you play that, you don't play from the tips,

but man. So cool still though. And I was standing on the first tee and I literally, I lined up and I'm a decent golfer, I was like ready to play. And I looked down and my knees are doing this. And I was like, wait a minute, no. Yeah. And I stepped back.

I was like, come on now. And then I've stepped up and I striped it. But I mean, I was like, whoa, dude, that was real. I was like having a moment. You kidding me? You already know. Yeah. Jason, you got a little experience of that.

That whole one, it's like sitting right there. Yeah, man, not good. Not a good start to the day. Not a good start. Was it good? Numbers are falling down. So your friends and neighbors, the second season is coming out? What do we expect?

There's a little twist at the end of the first season. Like I expected, I thought you had gone good again. Right, right, right. So, you know, most of the second season is kind of dealing with the fallout of the first season. You say about, you know, he kind of dips back into that. that world decides not to kind of go on straight and narrow. Yeah. And then there's a massive kind of chaos agent that is introduced in the season, which is James

Morrison's character who comes in, who's a new guy in the neighborhood. And it's like, who's this dude? And he's not as he appears to be. There's some shadiness and there's some stuff. And it, the whole season kind of leads up to how do we manage that? And it's, it's great. It's, it's super compelling television. It's fun.

It's funny. It's sexy. You know, it's really, I love the show. It's fantastic. I was going to say, this is, it feels like it's, obviously, your, like, your range is crazy. But in terms of this character, it feels a little different. Is this like a new experience for you? I mean, look, having the majority of my kind of notoriety in fame be invested in Madman,

period piece is a very specific thing, kind of this very brooding, dark character. To be able to play something contemporary that's funny and real and kind of, you know, someone that you could walk down the street and legitimately recognized. If I walked down the street in Don Draper gear, people are like, what the fuck? What's going on here? It's not Halloween, dude. Like, what are you doing? But if I, if I, you know, walked in Andrew Cooper gear, it's, this is a normal person.

And it's, uh, so there's a lot of like that familiarity with that kind of character, but also that kind of deal of like the 1%, you know, people that really live that crazy life. For sure. How is that, you know, how does that work out? And is that, is that all there is? Is that the kind of thing that people really? want you know it's it's fun it's a little bit wishful fulfillment and kind of fuck you to those people too so it's for sure no it's fun fuck yeah i'm always here for a good fuck you it helps man dude so you mentioned

uh going to uti kind of being football isn't it i want to go a different route did you know that acting and i had done a lot of acting in high school i had done it basically since i was a little kid um i was never like a child actor or anything like that but it was just always something i had i had a was raised by single mom. My mom passed away when I was 10, so then I'm living my dad. And then, you know, I was always in whatever extracurricular after school activities I could get,

you know, whether it was bowling team or Cub Scouts or... This is so cool, man. It was literally like just do that. And so sports was obviously a big part of that. And growing up in Midwest, all you have are empty fields and whatever season it is, that's the sport you play, you know. It's like baseball in the springtime, football in the fall. You know, the wintertime was hockey,

but I couldn't afford all that gear. Oh, gear, right. More it was just like whatever we could do. Oh, yeah. And it was fun, you know, that was the big part of it. It was growing up as a boy, especially all you have is energy. You just want to like run through a wall. And so when I got into football in seventh and eighth grade,

when I went to the school I ended going to, that was the saving grace, dude. Hell yeah. All this energy, you're like, let's go hit something, man. Like, it was fun. And I was decent at it. But I knew that, you know, that's, you know, that's, That's the choice. You guys well know.

That's a commitment, man. You've got to be in the weight room. You've got to be training. You got to be fit. You got to be ready to go. And I was like, I think I just want to be, I want to do this other thing, which I know I can do at a high level. I'd always gotten good feedback from people that.

Oh, yeah. We're like, man, you're kind of good at this. And then it becomes, it's not, I mean, it is, I guess, a lot like football. Like, you got to get picked. You know what I mean? You can't just go in like, I'm going to be an actor in my room by myself. That's not being a crazy person. Yeah.

But you've got to be a little crazy to be good at everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So then, you know, it was like you go to either L.A. or New York, basically. Right. It wasn't happening in St. Louis. So I was like, all right, I packed up my shit. I had $150 in my name. My grandfather gave me a check for $100 and that triple my money.

Yeah. And I bailed out. I went west, man. And that was it in 1995. So, you know, I've, I felt like I had to give it a try. Or it would have been the two. saddest word in the English language, like, what if? Yeah, dude.

You know, so off I went. And it only took three or four years to get it gone. I live with that so much because I always say, what if I could have played quarterback in the National Football League? See? I just couldn't put the reefer down, man. You wanted to be a basketball player. You wanted to be a basketball player is what you wanted to be.

I did. I did. I really just wanted to play basketball in the Big East. I knew I didn't have a chance at the NBA. I couldn't fucking dribble, but I knew I could play college basketball for sure. I knew I couldn't guard anybody, but you could put you in his own. I mean, Shack catch. And I can get ridd.

Yeah, exactly. Dude, throwing bows, I'm going to use all five. That was the one thing playing basketball growing up. My dad came up to his says, you get five of them. If you don't use three, you're not playing the game right. I was just like, got it. Files out before the fight. Like every game just getting filed out.

So St. Louis. It is crazy. We're obviously really connected with Kansas City, right? Riggle, Brud, Jason Sadekis, and I think they used to do like this improv thing as kids or something like that. I think we're talking to them. Was there something?

It's just, I've never heard of these paths out of these like small Midwestern like markets. Are there like a bunch of like St. Louis people? Yeah, you know, because I was a teacher. I went back to my old high school. I taught school for one year. This is so cool, man. I graduated Mizzou.

Mazzu. Z. OU. All right, man. I graduated at Missouri. And then I went back and taught at my old high school because I needed a job. Like I was waiting to, tables and bartending, all the other stuff, but I was like, I need a fucking job.

Like, I need a real job with a real paycheck and a real schedule. I can't do this anymore because I was so old at 24. And I pitched myself because the guy that was teaching theater at my high school who had taught me, I said, you have too many students. Like, you need a junior teacher. You need a helper. Yeah. And he goes, sounds great.

Let's pitch it to the headmaster, the big man. I go, great. And I knew him. He knew me from being a student. I was a really good student. I was a three-sport varsity athlete. I was in the theater department. I had good credit.

Your quality, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had a theater scholarship from a zoo and I'd done a bunch of plays and I was like, just let me come in for a year, try it out. What's the worst thing it could happen? So I did, it was great. They asked me to come back for another year and I was like, I'd love to, but I gotta try this out.

I gotta go, I'm not getting any. Hell yeah. But one of my students was Ellie Kemper. Yeah. Who was in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with me and bridesmaids with me and other things. So I was like, I got a chance to walk the red carpet twice with one of my students. That's awesome, man.

And yeah, we had a bunch of kids that were really, really good at it. Sometimes these clusters just kind of happen, you know, that talented kids find their way. And I was one of them in my class from my graduate class from Burroughs in St. Louis, Sarah Clark was in 24. Like, we had a bunch of kids that made it out. So, you know, it happens. Yeah, very cool. St.

St. Louis representing. Yes, indeed. I love it, man. I always feel like any time I'm like giving back in that regard, like, I always find a way to like say something and then it gets reiterated in my brain like, man, I kind of got away from that. Like whatever it is I'm teaching or like whatever like the fundamental is or the mindset is.

Yeah, yeah, it reminds you what you're supposed to be doing. And it kind of makes you stay more sharp on your own fundamentals. For sure. Yeah, I would imagine, I mean, I'm sure you guys do youth clinics and whatnot stuff. Of course. Because little kids look up to you guys like you're hung the room. Dude, you already know. But even not just that.

Like every single year, you reinstall the playbook. Yeah. Right? So, like, you'd be sitting in this meeting. It's like, how many more times can I listen to like inside zone be installed? Yeah. Like, it is mind-numbing to a point where I say, yeah, I'm going to step with my right foot, check my agap and yada, yeah, yeah, right?

And then you go, oh, right, I forgot. Every once in a while, yeah, right? Every once in a while, like, Stout would have, like, the guys teach it or something like that, right? And it does feel like when you're teaching it or a rookie would ask you a question. And in your own way of like, rediscribes, like, I forgot that I think about it that way. You know what I mean? Well, the whole point I would imagine,

because it's the same with us, is that you do it and you do it and do it until you essentially forget it. And it becomes second nature, right? You know how to do it so well. Tramp calls are blacking out. Yeah. Yeah, right. For me, it's like, it's nonstop football,

is nonstop evolving. Like the plays are nonstop evolving. Like the more you, the more coverages you see, because that play works, you're gonna see different coverage to try and stop. So the play is nonstop. It's evolving. on how I need to run this route, how I need to do this.

And then it's like, it gets to the point where it's like, I'm thinking about this coverage, this coverage, this coverage, this covers, how I'm going to run it here. And Coach Reader just come up and he's like, just run the fucking route. Get it back down to simple. Yeah, for sure. I will just run it how you teach it. I'll run it how you teach it.

But that happens every year too, right? Yeah. Whoever wins the Super Bowl, everybody imitates them for the next season, right? That's what basically what happens. Okay, now we're going to run that and that. that defense is going to work against this or not. And they, like you said, it's constantly evolving. And that's what's really fun to watch it if you love the game and you know the game

and you really watch the game kind of that granular level. For sure. That's what becomes really cool. And I think that's like when Romo first came into the booth and was starting to call all that stuff, you're like, holy shit, right. You still know this. Hell yeah. It's like amazing.

Absolutely. Obviously, we keep mentioning St. Louis, the Rams. We got to talk about the Rams because. How are you Chief's Kingdom? Here's what happened. Let me give you the history of my football route. All right now. Please.

And I bring this up to Roger Goodell every time I see him and I did it again. 1989, the Cardinals moved from St. Louis to Arizona. So we're fucked. And I go, God damn it. But then they're like,

no, you're going to get an expansion franchise. And we had the name picked out. We had the logo picked out. It was the Stalia. It was terrible. Fucking. But then they go, no, just kidding. It's going to Carolina and Jacksonville.

And we were like, really? God damn it. Then it becomes like, well, maybe we, maybe we can get the Rams to move to St. Louis. And everyone's like, they're not going to move to St. there's no way. Of course, they build this half a billion dollar stadium. They've been,

oh, hey, all of a sudden the Rams are in St. Louis, 94. The year, next year, I moved to L.A. So the Rams are now in St. Louis, but I'm in L.A. That's funny. Swap places. And they're terrible. The first couple years, they're terrible. Rich Brooks, I can't remember who the coach was. He came from Oregon.

He was not ready for the pro game at all. Like, it was just, Tony, Who was our quarterback? Oh my God. Anyway, it was bad until Dick Vermeal shows up. Oh, yeah. And then all of a sudden, Kurt Warner shows up,

and then Marshall Falls shows up, and then Isaac Bruce shows up, and then Torrey Holt shows up. And it was like, all of a sudden, this nucleus coalesced, and it was the greatest show on turf. And Mike Martz, O.C., and it was like, oh, my God.

Like, then it was, football became a thing in St. Louis. People were crazy. I went to one game at the stadium. And I'll never forget it. It was like, the place was, electric and I used to go to see football when the Cardinals with my dad in minus 10 degree weather aluminum benches we're gonna be seats like aluminum bench is so cold

so deeply cold and this was like indoors in the dome there was a play I'll never forget it I got there like five minutes late luxury football right here this was St. Louis versus Atlanta I can't remember what year it was but I got to the game five minutes late. There were five minutes off or there was a minute off the clock because what had happened was the first kickoff was run back for a touchdown and then the ensuing kickoff was run back for touchdown. It was seven seven before I even got to sit down. That's some action right. What is happening? So right before the half it was a fourth and 30 and they were like well they might and they didn't even punt. It was like Warner just

lines up under center and throws a dart to Tori holder who like a cross a deep post tutorial and they score fourth and 30 right before the half. You're like okay this is this is a team worth watching. So that was super fun to watch. Then they win the Super Bowl in 2000, and they should have beat the Patriots in 2001. I have a theory about that. And then they move back to L.A.

And then they moved back to L.A. They'd win the Super Bowl in L.A. With Stafford. Oh, yeah. So that's when, like, I got nothing left in St. Louis. Then it's like, well, at least I got the team in Missouri on the other side. And that's the ascendancy of you guys and everybody there.

Now they're moving that to Kansas. So I'm like, come on, man. Where do I go from here? The Battlehawks? Go on, I mean, I don't know. But it's, no, it's still, it's great watching the chiefs come together in the way that they have. Paul and I, Paul Rudd and I have been buddies since high school, since I was 15. He was 17, man.

We were at the game when the first Super Bowl, you guys won. He was there with his son. Oh, Jack, man. He was about 15 or 16 years old. He was so emotional. He got a bloody nose. He was just like, oh, I remember that. Hell yeah.

It was awesome. He got to go down. That was in Miami, I think, right? Yeah, that was really, really fun. But it's been great. You know, it's been great to watch. Your success as well, I mean, couldn't happen to two nicer guys. That's all I'll say.

There's a man, dude. We too got our team shipped as kids, so we know that. For sure, right? Yeah, now I look at the Baltimore Ravens as basically the evil empire. Yes. And what could have been in Cleveland because they ended up going on to, like, win a Super Bowl. Traffted Ray Lewis and just nonstop success. Yeah.

Yeah. So is it favorite football player growing up? either Cardinals or Rams or... I mean, O.J. Anderson, I loved. Mel Gray, I loved. We're going back to the old Cardinals. Hell yeah. Dan Deirdorf, who's a lineman, who I really loved.

And I got to know him a little bit afterwards. Rest in peace, he's a great guy. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man. And a huge, like, supporter of the city. You know, one of those guys was just like... Fuck, yeah, man. Everybody knew Dan... It was like Stan Musil in the Cardinals.

It's like, everybody knew him. He was around town all the time. He'd see him. He'd say, hey, how you do it? He'd a steakhouse. You just show up. best, dude. That kind of Midwestern thing like it is in KC. I know you guys have the restaurant in KC. We got a crazy ambassador program around there. When I first got there, the first, the first, like,

meeting you have is literally with the ambassadors of the chiefs. Like, the owner, Clark Hong comes in with, it's called the little rookie meeting, and you're sitting there with the guys that have played and stayed around in the city. It's nice. He just hear all the stories. R. I P. Lind, Austin, he was, like, one of the first conversations I had in KC. And I'm just like, man, I'm speaking to the... You meet those. All of Famers and you're like, wow, you know, that's, it's real. It's real. And it really enforces the idea that the community is, is huge.

It's a huge part of the success of the franchise. And why it's so devastating when the teams, when the teams leave, you're like, come on, man. It's crazy. Did you watch any college football this year? Kurt Signetti, the national championship coach. I didn't see the whole national, I saw the highlights of the game, but I was very much paying attention to Indiana the whole season. Have you heard of these calls for you to play Kurt Signetti in the movie?

No. Oh, I. Apparently there's a picture running around. I had a lot of friends that went to IU because that was a big destination. If you're in St. Louis, it was just about a three-hour drive. We had some fun, we had some fun weekends up at I do. He's a character now. He's got that old ball coach feel to it.

For sure. High energy. But even like the new high energy, like the McVeves of the world, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like it's a different world. He's just got this like old wisdom. Well, and he's got the confidence of just like, you're not going to stop what I'm going to you. Sorry. You're about to get a taste of this.

Which is quote, I win. Google me. Damn, okay. I mean, it's pretty baller. Like, the guy is just straight up, and he does. I mean, how about that? Indiana running the table. Yeah. I mean, I know they got a lot of money behind them, too, but that's still crazy. That's just the new reality. Like, Alabama doesn't? Like, you don't know what I mean? Seriously. My guy Pat Mahomes over there at Texas Tech. Right. You have oil money down there. Yep. They're ready. Like, how did you guys get all these? transfers in every sport. TCU, all those, all those kind of places that were

historically were kind of second tiered things. Now, I you, like now all of a sudden, which I don't know, I think it's kind of great. Yeah, no, I think it's a nice refresh. I mean, Alabama was on a run there for a while. It was a, yeah, you think, and it's like, all right, it feels like now the tables are at least a little more even. Yeah. Right? Like, I'm with you. It's not just the haves and have-nots. The haves and the haves mores, but whatever. No, I'm with you. I love it.

We're big fans of comedies. What's your favorite comedy movie? Comedy movie? Yes. Well, that's a good question. I mean, look, I had the good fortune to be able to remake Fletch, which is one of my absolute favorites. And I had the good fortune to meet Chevy. I met him.

He kind of ambushed me in the LAX airport lounge. It was like 7 o'clock in the morning And I was actually getting ready to fly to Fort Worth To do Landman Okay And I'm scooping out my shitty microwaveed eggs Or whatever in the air lounge You know exactly what I'm getting ready to eat

You're like oh boy it's too early for anything But I gotta get something I gotta get something to the gut I hear this guy go hey I heard you played Fletch And I turn around Chevy Chase And I was like oh my God That's insane I go yes I did Mr. Chase

Oh my God it's so nice to meet you I love all your work All I do was watch your movies growing up. I love doing SNL. Like, I just love bomb the guy. I, like, floored him with the avalanche of like, and I was getting ready to go work with Demi Moore. And my wife's favorite movie, one of my wife's favorite movies is, is this movie that you probably, if you've seen it, good luck. It's called Nothing But Trouble. It's directed by Dan Aykroyd. Dan Aykroyd plays like this weird crazy character. It's nuts. Look it up. I got to watch that one. But it's, it's, it's,

Chevy and Demi Moore. So I said, I'm actually starring with one of your co-stars. I'll give her my best, this, that, and the other, anyways. So cool. It starts with Fletch, but then. I thought he was going to come in hot with something. Well, I did too. Yeah, right? I did too.

That's why I was waiting for the, I was waiting for the dude. You know, he had a lot of hard. You already know, that's hilarious. That's good. Because I felt like there might have been a little shot underneath. Yeah, yeah. But no, all of his movies, and he went on a run.

You look at Caddyshack, you look at Fletch. That whole. That's what we grew up on. My, yeah, the 80s of my, my, That was what you did. You rented movies. That was all you did throughout high school. It was just you rent five movies and watch them five times over the weekend.

And that was it. But, man, Big Lobowski. That's another one that I absolutely love. You know, I got a chance to work with Jeff Bridges in my career. So, you know, it's I'm bad times. Bad times, the O'Reale. Yes, indeed. I love that fucking movie.

I mean, it's a great film. I make great movies that nobody sees. Stop. That's kind of it. I actually got, I made a movie called Million Dollar Arm. It was based on the career of this guy, J.B. Bernstein, who represents Barry Sanders. And he was at the honors last night. So I was able to say hi to him.

And he, he was funny. He's, you know, he's this tall and he's just hard worker. You guys, I can't believe you got to play me. I go, I got to play you. You got me to play you. But, you know, having a career, doing it as long as I've been able to do it, it's really nice to be able to look back and be proud of what you've done and to work with the people that you've gotten a chance to work with.

Hell yeah. All of that stuff is amazing. You know, it's, it's a, being something like Top Gun. Wow. That, I remember walking on that set, and there's a six-story high American flag, and Tom Cruise is walking toward me. All I could see is a smile walking toward me.

And I was like, how you doing? Are you? Oh, man, you ready to go? I'm like, I have, right now I am. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the cup and Joe right there. But I was like, this must be weird for you. This is the same set that you shot on 25 years.

This is weird? He goes, it's crazy. It's crazy. We're doing it again. I'm like, all right. Let's go. That's amazing. It was fun, man.

Well, I share an honor with you of standing on that SNL stage, man. When I tell you still to this day, one of the coolest fucking things I've ever done, your time on SNL, do you have a favorite skit? Do you have a... A couple. I have a couple, man. I've hosted four times, and I was... I've been on the show like probably 15 more times.

15 more times. And it's such a unique experience, as you know. There's not a whole lot out there like live television. I also did 2 30 Rock Lives on that same stage. So it's super fun. But when I first started hosting, I had the home run hitters, man. I had the all stars. It was Wig, Forte, Armisen, Cedacus. Legends. Everybody on that show were just, we're just home run hitters. So the ones I did with Wig, we had so much fun. The Wormer, she said, don't make me sing. So fun. I did a sketch with Will Forte that would never get on the air now. That was a Halloween sketch where Will comes to the door, rings the bell, I answer the door and he says, happy Halloween.

I said, what are you dressed at? He said, I'm a child molester. Can you sign and date these papers? I'm like, wait, what? What's up? What actually is happening? Look it up. It would never get on the ear again.

But boy, boy, it was funny. So, no, I have tons of great memories like that. And as you well know, man, when you're getting ready to go on that stage and that band is playing and thumping and ready to go. Behind that door, man, that is a... And no one realizes it, but there's about a foot behind that door. You were up against the wall of that thing. My shoulders are touching the door and the wall behind. Yeah, it's the same thing.

And then she's screaming out, five, four, three. There you go. You shot out of a cannon and you hold on for dear life. But it's fun, man. It's so much fucking fun. You looked like you were having a good time on it. I noticed that. We grew up on the Farrells and the Farleys and Sandler.

So it's like, that was inch heavy. Like my mom and dad were huge, like, SNL before we were born. It was a cultural moment. And it's so funny thinking back because I watched it. When I was a little kid, I mentioned my parents split up when I was young. If I was at my dad's house for the weekend, I got to watch. That's a lot. Yeah, baby.

So, you know. A bushy little acroite. For sure. And like, super inappropriate. I was five, six years old, like, you know, whatever. But I was into the land shark and, you know, all the, you know. Oh, yeah. So, fine.

All the stuff, man. It was so good. It was so, because it was so transgressive. There wasn't anything like it. And if you didn't see it, you didn't see it. There was no DVR, there was no clips on the next day. Crazy to even imagine. Now is.

You had to go to school the next day or Monday and not have seen S&L. It would be a part of those combos. You were on your back foot, man. It was not great. Absolutely. That's funny as fuck. All right. Last one.

Welcome to Hollywood Moment. Do you have one? I remember, I mean, like I said, I had no money when I, when I, when I rolled into Hollywood. And then I remember I'd gone, I had to go back to St. Louis to do a play that got me my equity card that got me into the union, that got me into this and that. Then I got my car towed because I had like $2,000 worth of parking tickets that I wasn't sniffing being able to pay. Yeah.

So then one day I just looked at that. I was like, well, I guess that's gone. So now I'm on the bus. Okay. And I was working a restaurant job and trying to audition and, you know, it's, L.A. is not a easy place to use public transportation. I was just not. Yeah. So I remember I had, I had rollerblades.

And I would throw them the rollerblades over my shoulder, get on the bus. Stop it. As close as I could get to wherever my audition was. And then. Bladed it out. You were blading it around L.A.? In L.A. I mean, not safe. So I'd show up sweaty as a motherfuckerucker to whatever.

commercial audition, the ivory soap or whatever, you know, I'm just being like, I don't think I'm going to get this. I look like 100 pounds of dirty laundry right now. But, yeah, I mean, it's, you just do what you can. You ain't nothing to it but to do it. That was the first lesson I learned. It was like, listen, no one's going to give you any excuse. You just got to figure it out. You got to send it, man, can't live with those what ifs. Yeah. And you just, and you got to figure it out. You know, it's like, it's hard. Life is hard. I remember my best friend, He was the best man in my wedding. His dad played professional baseball.

Ted Simmons. Maybe you know, maybe you don't. Oh yeah. He's a hall fame. Great guy, wonderful man, kind of a surrogate dad to me after my dad passed away, especially. And when I was going through, you know, all my transitional difficulties and whatever, trying to figure out, where am I going to go? How am I going to make it? My dad just died.

What am I going to do? He goes, look, a lot of sad stories in the world. A lot of sad stories. I played with guys that grew up, not only did they not at parents, they didn't have a glove. You know, but they were gifted, you know, they grew up in the Dominican, they grew up wherever, and they just made it happen. No one's gonna make it happen for you.

You gotta make it happen for yourself. And I really took that lesson to heart. I still do every day. It's like it's on you to figure it out. And I, listen, we're all very, very fortunate in our lives, right? You already know. Not just health, but career opportunities, all the other things. Getting picked, like you said, man.

Getting picked. But it's what you do after you get picked. Do you come correct? Do you show up? We can all get in the batters box. And no one bats a thousand. Right. No one.

But if you show up and you prepared and you're ready to go, that's what it's all about. And I've been really fortunate in my career that I've had those moments. I'll never forget the first day shooting Madman. I remember looking myself in the mirror and going, okay, you got the job. What are you going to do with it? Hell yeah, man. And it was that moment. It's crazy.

It was that moment where I was like, I'm going to fucking kill this. I'm going to kill it. That's what I'm going to do with it. It's so bad. It's a lot. It's challenging. It ain't easy. If everybody could do it, everybody would.

Yeah, but that's the beauty of it being that challenging those. Because when you fight through and you get to, you know, where you are now. You look at Bobby last night, Bobby Wright, man. Yeah. What a story. Yeah. It's those kinds of stories that you go, all right, you know. I had no idea about Bobby and his story like that.

So that was another, like I've always appreciated his game. For sure. And then obviously you just. When you get underneath that face mask, all of a sudden, you get to hear, you know, how amazing the guy really is. Yeah, crazy. We'll let you get out of your brother. Thank you for all the fucking time. Thank you for the wisdom, man.

Gentlemen, gentlemen. My pleasure. Go, dog. Can't wait to see everything that you got coming out. Season two, coming out. April 3rd? The third, baby. Thank you, to your partner, Apple.

There's nothing like your first Mac. I first got mine when my dad brought home a Mac. And I felt like I was the coolest kid in the world because I could. finally get on a messenger. It was like the coolest thing ever as a kid because you got to text your friends and all be on the same chat. Oh, yeah. They definitely felt like a level up.

I think everybody felt that way when they got that first Mac in town. Oh, man. I still feel that way. Every time I get an iPhone or a new Mac, it's just like the new technology just makes me already feel smarter. It already makes me feel better. And now the old new MacBook Neo is here and it comes at a surprising price. That's right.

So whether you're in school starting something new or just want to fly through everyday tasks and apps, this is your moment. Check out the all-new MacBook Neo. Learn more at apple.com slash mac. Thank you to our sponsor, Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. That's smart.

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Thank you to John Hamm. Once again, that conversation was brought to you by Apple. Last thing before we wrap up, let's take a look at the old New Heights, Greases, March Madness Bracket Challenge. Yeah, baby. having some upset, some incredible games. How about that Yukon Duke ending? That was insane. Yeah, that was absolutely insane.

I was watching that on my iPad, because we were on vacation this week, and audibly screamed in a... I hadn't jumped out of my seat from a sporting event in a long time, and it was fucking magical when he fucking hit that three. I was like, in my mind, I'm like, too much time when he threw it up, and I was just like, I was just fucking, he drained it. The moment the ball got tipped, you're like, oh, no. They're going to have a chance to chuck a three.

And then they passed it. He caught it. Didn't like anything. So he just fucking threw it to the first open guy. Oh, man. Yeah. It was so fucking epic. He also said shit on live television, I believe, when he was in his postgame talk with the reporter on the court.

Yeah, freshman, freshman, getting used to the whole situation, a lot of emotions. I get it, man. And also, who didn't say shit at some point? Even the head coach's, like, mom is in the stand saying, holy fucking shit. Yeah, right. It was epic, dude. Yeah, Dan Hurley, obviously headbutting officials.

Always love to see that. Well, let's get into our bracket. Shout out to the 9-2-centers and the leaders of the women's bracket. Emily and Tarante is in the lead. In second place, we got Amanda Trujillo, who both have Yukon winning. and then we have somebody rolling with the Gamecox, Vanessa Bletcha. I don't know if any of these names are pronounced correctly. Sorry if they're not.

But congratulations. You're doing some pretty good job. It does seem like if the Gamecox win, Vanessa might have a chance. Ooh. All right. Men's leaders, we have Connor, who has got Michigan. Second place, we have Abby Pierce rolling with the Illini. The Illini, I did not know that the Alliance.

I have not watched college basketball. That was one of the highlights I remember seeing it, and these boys know how to move, man. I'm enjoying watching them. I mean, they knocked out my team. Fucking Houston, God damn it. They forgot how to play offense. But anyways, great job. Do the Serbs.

The Balkans. Dude, the Balkans are killing it, man. They're freaking lighting it up a lot of itches and witches. Abby Pierce, new. Abby Pierce, new. Yakoviches. Yeah, no, they're killing it. James Lewison, Yukon.

They got winning, James has Yukon. And then Austin. Stilger has Arizona. All right. So the top four all have different teams. I do think Arizona's going to win, although I did think Houston is going to win. So what the fuck do I know?

I also have watched no basketball. I'm not going to lie. I'm fucking jacked up. I'm pumped up right now because this is going to be a hell of a final four, man. These teams, I think all match up pretty goddamn well. And Michigan's been playing their tail off. I didn't know how big Michigan was, man. Michigan's got like an NBA fucking front court, man.

But it's going to be fun to watch these. guys going. It looks like Yukon's got the juice right now after that last win against Duke. Yeah, New Heights staff updates currently time for first in the men's bracket, our intern Brandon and researcher Diana, who both have Arizona winning it all. Jason is in second, but had Houston winning it. Travis is in third. That's me. Also have Arizona winning it. So I can't pass Brandon or Diana, but I can take over Jason. You will pass me. Probably. All right. Jack, Jake, Jake is in sixth, but will win it all if Michigan makes the finals. Oh, wow.

Wow. That's crazy. This is a tight race. Yeah. In the women's bracket, Brandon and Diana also tied for first. Okay, they watch basketball. And Brandon has Texas winning, and Diana has Yukon winning it. Jason is in second with South Carolina winning it.

And no one from the New Heights production team picked UCLA to win at all. I don't know why that's a thing. All right. New Hyde Staffer, that is in trouble. Men's loser with a whopping zero points gained after a round of 32. Our official loser, the men's bracket is our producer, Aaron Lurick. Sorry, Aaron. I apologize for throwing you under the bus there. We got to do better, though.

It's honestly insane. I had done if I ever had seen anybody with zero points gained after the round of 32. He missed. Like, even if you're flipping a quarter. point in picking. He missed all 16 games. That's crazy. That's wild. It was upset Central over there in Aaron's bracket. He definitely just, he definitely just clicked. There's a click that says you can have it automatically filled out. He hit that for sure. Guaranteed. I say that because the women's loser and finally with 68 points, but no more points remaining our official loser of the

women's bracket is me. Yes, it is. How are we feeling, Trave? I feel pretty upset that I let it get to this point. But, you know, just got to do better in life. And you got to understand the circumstances better. And you got to understand that your brother is going to go out and cheat. And there's nothing you can do about it.

What are you so upset about it? What are you so upset about? What am I so upset about is that this was just a friendly competition? and then after I submitted my fucking bracket and you hadn't submitted a bracket yet, we decide as a group. This is a false time. Let him talk.

Let him talk. During the show, you started to fill out a bracket. Did you not? No, I did not fill out a bracket. I was talking about on the final four. In the show,

I literally told you guys, I have not even looked at the brackets yet. This is true. How am I supposed to do a bracket recap? Yes. And I just started bullshitting in the final four. And then we talked about there being, and then we talked about there being some type of punishment for the loser on the show. But the, on the show.

Because I didn't know that we were doing a play of recuse. No, you can make bracket adjustments up until it's due. You can make adjustments. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. Thank you. Just closed it. There's like injuries that come up there.

I didn't submit it. I didn't submit it. I already had submitted it. I did not. You had no idea. You didn't have already looked at the bracket. Neither of you looked at the bracket. We recorded the show under false pretenses.

Neither are you didn't look at the bracket. Erroneous. Erroneous, the timeline, you are misleading. You are misleading with the timeline. A fucking bull ring nose piercing. Well, that's a new. That's, have Howard beating fucking Michigan. No, I would it.

You thought they were due. I'm just going to throw it out there. Your bracket was not submitted until after. we talked about there being a punishment on the show episode. Punishments were talked about. False. That is a true statement. We hadn't decided on one, but the idea of your punishments was going to come up.

Yes. Nobody's going to have to get pierced. We're not piercing you. We're not going to pierce you. The woman's bracket, you're right. I took a chance on Iowa. That's fair. Dude, women's bracket.

Just slide that everyone's forward. Just slide that everyone's forward. What is the, is there a punishment for both brackets or only for the men's bracket? The punishments are for New Heights team members only. Yes. And I believe we already have our loser. of the men's. I trusted the power of Caitlin Clark,

Claire Kittle, and George Kittle. Oh, a little name drop. I like you work the name drop in there. That's good. Oh, that's good. No. You know what I'm saying about my friend George and Caitlin. I don't know. I don't know if you've heard of them. I don't have you guys heard. My friend, I just call her Kate. I may be a loser in the bracket, but I'm a winner

in life. You just feel the energy from you. Like, those are good people. I'm going to pick Iowa. In the women's bracket. Would it be good. You did pick them in the men's as well. That was a better. Yeah, I didn't have them go into this lead eight, though. So the bet is only for the men's bracket. We're not incorporating the loser. It's kind of sexist.

Oh, no, I know. That is kind of sexist. Yeah. Yeah. So what is the ratio? How do we figure this out? How is it determined who lost, who is the loser of both brackets? Yeah, I'm glad we're figuring this out at the end of it.

This is awesome. Give it to me, Brandon. I know you got something. No, Travis, you've already lost the women's. Tell me what I've lost. Tell me what I've lost. You lost the women's bracket. You lost the win.

So who has to eat the waffles at the Woffa House? Well, if that's the punishment we'd like, Travis might be joining a... Wait, what? How the fucking might have? Oh, so two people. So the loser... You lost the women's. So there's going to be two people that have to do this.

I feel like we should do two punishments. Yeah, that's only fair. We should do two punishments. Do you guys understand how betting works? We talked about there being a punishment, as we all agreed to a punishment. We all agreed to us. There was a blood oath.

Nobody agreed to the degree to punishment. We said it on Mike. We said it on Mike. We said on Mike, Jason's final four in the men's bracket. Well, if he didn't submit, he didn't submit. You can put anything you in there before you hit submit. It doesn't count. You can do whatever you want until the ball is snapped?

Do you think I'm going to trust Wyatt? Travis? I did. I did. I trusted your daughter and your daughter has no integrity. She knows fucking nothing. Let me tell you, she does know nothing. She is six.

What are you teaching her over there? Huh? She doesn't even know who. win in a fight between Michigan and Howard. She's starting to figure out how to use her numbers to do math above the number 10, Travis. Hell yeah. That's who you trusted to even get 16. We got to get her in the advanced classes, Jason.

She can barely count to the number of teams in the NCAA tournament. There's no way. She's six years old and can't count. She can't. She can definitely count. I said barely. Takes a second. Once she gets to 100, it starts to get a little dicey.

But she's... Does she, does she just do that thing? Where she just starts counting and just wants you to know how high she can count. Yes, we're in that stage. I was, I was hanging out with some, some children there. Like, you want to see something cool? And I was like, sure. And they're like, you want to a high account?

I was like, oh, fuck, no, I don't. And then they just went. We got to 45. And I was like, do you want to go outside? Welcome to 98 and 99 bottles of beer on the wall. But we're not going to stop early. We're going to keep it going to go. Do you want to high and count?

I'm like, oh, no, that sucks. That's a terrible trick. I don't know. I think you can. You can kind of shut your brain off once they start counting, right? You don't have to, like, keep them honest. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised.

You could just let them go. No, they demand attention. Heard it a bunch. All right. Do you want to, right. Let's do, let's maybe podcast. So the men's bracket is still up. Jesus,

oh, there is a loser in the men's back. Who's the loser in the men's break? Aaron, we could do one overall loser of combined worst score. Would you guys rather do that? Would you guys rather do that? Yeah. Are we not that interest? No.

Well, then what do you want to do? You're being fussy. Can we stop acting like eating waffles at a Waffle House? Is that big of a punishment? As long as you do it before training camp, you're fine. But how do I, in every waffle is an hour? Here's Aaron. Here's Aaron.

Aaron, explain your fucking awful bracket. You got 24 hours and every waffles an hour. Can specialty waffles? Like, if I eat a blueberry waffle, can I add like an extra 30 minutes taking off? Or like, no, here's straight. No. No, I will not allow it. Aaron, I know your work hours.

You have nothing but time. Hey, Travis is the one who's got stuff going on. I'd rather do a drinking. situation than do a fucking waffle situation like this. I'd rather have to sit at a bar from start to finish. We got to chilis. The punishment isn't about what you would rather do, loser. The punishment is a punishment.

Yeah. We didn't agree. We agreed to a punishment. We agreed to a punishment. We agreed to a punishment. That is on record, but he did agree to a punishment. Not a drinking festivities with your buddy, Aaron. What if we ask one of our guests today, Coach Calhoun, what the punishment should be?

No. We're going to do Coach Cahun. I'm going to ask him. That's my one question to Coach Cullen. Eric, how did you not get a single Sweet 16 team? Fuck if I know, guy. I don't watch college basketball.

Neither do I. None of us did. That's not an excuse. And fucking asked his fucking ESPN colleague that is a professional in sports gambling. I did not. Who's going to fucking win? What fucking job? It is so resistant.

Jason fucking cheated so bad. And you guys are just going to. Oh, here we go. Now, here's the real accusation. First of all, I did not ask an ESPN colleague. I asked my best friend Corey Sims, who used to be an equipment manager for the Cincinnati Baircats, who was now my financial advisor, and he gave me the lowdown. We went astray with Houston.

You're right. You gave it to you, you had somebody else fell out your bracket, which is my entire point. I wanted to win. I would have had somebody else. We filled it out together. We filled it out together. I would have had Jay Billis. I would have fucking call Jay fucking Billis and told Jay, hey,

What's your bracket? Let me copy every fucking answer you had. You cheated, Jason. A little name drop there. A little name drop from Travis. It would have been smart. I know Jay Millis. It's called teamwork, guys.

That's called collusion. That is called collusion. It's called collusion. It's called teamwork. I'm giving quite credit. I'm not telling you that I picked the names. I'm saying I went to my buddy who's an expert because I don't know shit about fucking basketball. And I asked the guy that I used to go.

What's the fun of it, Jason? I do. First place in both men's and women's ball. No, you did not. No, you did not. You don't even pick Texas. Stop it. I can't believe you guys don't want to go hang out in a Walth House. We don't have Woff houses in California.

You got to find something else. Yeah. I mean, if it was a Woff House, at least it's like, you know, a waffle on a shell. It might be a fight. So that's a positive. If you get in a fight at the Waffle House, you can leave immediately. Let's do it. Wait, hold on.

Hold on. If I get a fight at the Waffle House, are you guys, is the company covering my legal fees? I will, no. I'm sorry. What was that? No. We do have no lawyers or HR on this stuff. Next week, we're also going to announce the winners of our Reeseysies and New Heights

bracket challenge, so tune into that. And the last thing, there was another huge basketball story this week, and we had to get this guy on to talk about it. That's right. Let's go ahead and toss it to the old University of Cincinnati ball coach. What's up, boys? Welcome back, coach. How are we feeling?

Oh, man. It's Austin. It's never-ended. Like a never-ending cycle. You wake up, you go to sleep for four hours, and just deal with chaos from start to finished but it's good to be back man oh man i had those are my favorite question because everybody loves to talk about the old chili out down there in cincinnati and i'm very curious what's your what was your first culinary stop what was their first like go to i got to get some food i've missed

it so much as i since i've left well it hasn't been skyline yet uh honestly it's been the football cafeteria man it's the closest thing there you go man tell you what you guys build a a heck of a facility, guys. Wow, that thing is a beast. I'm assuming it's been pretty crazy for you because you've been kind of separated from the university longer than we have. How crazy is it seeing how much the campus has grown since you, since you're being back? Yeah, man, I told hugs. I told all those former players that were there. It's, can't even recognize it, honestly. You know, when I was here, man, this, this was kind of a school in the, in the inner city and, you know, like a commuter type school, to be honest with you. And it's just changed so much.

much, man. It's a phenomenal institution. We have a ton to sell, man. I think this thing's going to be great. Yeah, it's remarkable. Every time I go back, like, you know, obviously the facilities for the football team and basketball team are all pretty brand new.

But it's not even just that. Like, around campus, the whole area has been built up so much. There's so many restaurants and bars and things that weren't there when we were there. UC used to stand for under construction. That was the whole joke when I was there. We were just constantly trying to build. It's held it up.

No doubt. But it's remarkable what it's turned into it. What was your favorite spots? I know you guys had some spots when you were down here. Skyline was one of them, especially at two in the morning. That Skyline over on Ludlow. Now, first of all, Jason's speaking for himself right here. Jason's speaking for himself there.

Skyline would be the last place I go. Shout out to Skyline, though, and Gold Star. Much love to you guys. I know you guys have built the hell with the establishment, but I'm an Adriatico's pizza guy. Yes, yes, yes. I want to go there. I haven't been there yet, Trev.

I got to hit it. Adriaticos is fantastic. And then I got a shot out of spot. Martinez over on Shortvine. Okay. Good people that run it. And they had these Pittsburgh-style wings and this. Sparky.

Pittsburgh steak salad that we used to get there. And we just got to know the people that own that place. And it's an awesome spot. So you get a chance. Martinez is great over there on Shortvine. I'm going to hit it. Yep. I'll hit it next week.

And then, of course, you know, Montgomery Inn. Come on now. Get some of them barbecue ribs. That's where a high. His radio show used to be, so I'm looking forward to our radio show will be out there. Yeah. I didn't know this. You actually were a student at Cincinnati as well.

So you started at Cleveland State as a player. Yep. And then you transferred to UC, finished your degree and went into coaching right away. What does Cincinnati mean to you? How do you feel being back? To be honest with you, it's kind of crazy. It's surreal, right? You go through life, you know, there's certain things that happen in your life that you're like a wow moment,

probably for you guys, whether it was your first start, first Super Bowl, whatever it was, there's just certain things that happen. And this is kind of one of those. It's been a crazy journey. I took an unconventional path, took a D2 job from West Virginia. You know, after I didn't get Travis, you know, I had to go a different route. He turned us down, man. He turned us down.

I'll tell you who turned you down. Ed Kelsey turned you down. That's the real story of it. We can get into that. Yeah, we got to get into some of that if we got to. time. Are you kidding? We would love to. You know, just been a wild journey, man. I've coached at every level. Obviously, Utah State is one of the best schools in the country. Best student section I've ever seen. We've got to get that back here at UC. But this is a place where you can win a national

championship. And I think it's the best job in the state of Ohio for basketball. I really do. I've always thought that. Our alumni here is real. We've got a real fan base. And this campus we can sell so I'm excited. That's awesome to hear, man. Everybody, I think, was rooting for Utah State and the tourney just because we were like, hey, we're all hoping that Coach Calhoun comes back home. And, you know, it was fun watching you guys this season and in the tourney. Yeah, it was so cool to see what you guys built over there in Utah, too, man.

You could tell, you could tell, so dating back to old 2007, back when Ewan Hugs actually and the entire, like, staff went, to West Virginia, I believe Kansas State maybe before that. Yeah, yeah. Going into West Virginia, I was, I had already kind of committed and I, I was, I was looking around at some basketball schools and all the Barry Egan, Coach Egan, Ohio basketball coach, coach me, my junior senior years. And Egan had a really good connection with you guys down at Cincinnati.

So I go down to West Virginia, you're my point of contact. You guys treat me like fan. Like I had never been treated before. I was Jason's little brother in Cincinnati didn't even give me this much attention. Trav, I'll be honest, man. You could hoop, man. That's what people, you know,

obviously you're going to go down as the greatest tight end in my book. But you were a hooper, man. I mean, you know all those heights guys. You were a beast. I appreciate that. I was a hooper at heart for sure. You went to Villa Angeles, St. Joe. You went to Joe's, right?

Yeah, Joe's guy, man. Yeah. And I wish you would have told my dad that. So I came back from the West Virginia trip, and I told my dad, man, I was like, Dad, I think I want to really, like, give myself a chance at playing Division I college basketball and play for, you know, Coach Huggins. He looked at me and said, you are a man of your word. You want to be like these kids that commit to us, that commit to a university,

and then decommit, and now the integrity of your word doesn't mean anything. You have to be a man of your word. And I look around at everybody nowadays in college. I'm just like, what was I doing? Yeah, yeah. Nowadays, you guys would have made a lot of money. I could tell you that. A lot of money.

No, man, but you could tell the way you guys ran or the way you guys ran that the ship in West Virginia and just the camaraderie that you saw on the floor and how everybody on the bench was involved in the game. You could tell you that's something you kind of took from the Hugs regime, correct? Yeah, I mean, honestly, guys, Hugs is one of the greatest coaches of all. time. But what people don't talk about is he's got three former coaches, assistants that are now in the final four. Brad Underwood at Illinois, obviously Frank and Mick Cronin. And Coach Cronin's been unbelievable to me throughout my coaching career. So when this opportunity came, he was one of the first guys I called. But yeah, I mean, I've taken some stuff from everybody. Joe Missoula is one of my

best friends. I was the best man in his wedding. Coached him at West Virginia. So he's going to be involved in the program. Nice. You know, we want to get you guys back. We're talking about doing a fantasy camp. We used to run one at West Virginia, so we might have you guys get back as well if we can get your

schedules cleared us. I know you guys are, you know, doing a lot. You know, we would love to. That would be a blast. Travis knows this, but I've been trying to dunk for the first time my life. I think I'm going to get there. I think it's going to have it. You look good. 38 years old. I'm dunking, baby. We're this going to happen.

I know what I think. My wife loves your wife. Jason, she thinks she's awesome. So you guys have your personalities and your brand, man. You guys are connecting so many people. And you guys don't know this, but I was very close with Donald Deliccio, Trav. So we will come to Chief. How about that? Yeah, we became diehard chiefs fans, man.

We flew out every year with a group of Youngstown guys. And, you know, the Phantom Fireworks guys and all those guys. Oh, yeah. Bruce Olden. Yeah. That's our creepy. Yeah. That's our crew.

Those Youngstown guys, they stay together. Wait, so are you from Youngstown? East Liverpool basically is Youngstown. I was born in East Liverpool, but I grew up in Cleveland, man. I'm a Cleveland guy. But yeah, I spent seven years at Youngstown. Jim Tressel was a huge mentor of mine. And, you know, so I've had a lot of good guys help me along the way.

There's some good people in that Youngstown era, man, or that area. And they really do lend a helping hand. And Trest's, I mean, I could throw out countless names that have said the exact same thing about Tressel being able to be such a helping hand in their journey, man. So that's awesome, big guy. And it's cool to hear that Missoula is even coming back to or coming around. You see, that's pretty cool stuff right there. Who do you guys like?

Who's your NBA teams, man? Do you watch any of it? I live in Philadelphia. I'm connected to the Philly teams. Yeah, you got to watch what you say, Jason. Well, I like the 60s, but I'm a Cleveland fans. Yeah, me too. I mean, I love the calf.

Sam Merrill, Utah State guy, so we become close. I'm a Mark Price guy. The price is always right. We can go down. We can go down the list. Bobby Surrow was one of my childhood favorites. Yeah, me too. Oh, my God.

I had the jersey. Oh, the three. Yeah, the three. You had the throwback. Yeah. I'm a big Anderson Verjeal guy. I like hustle defense, man. I want those hustle plays, coach.

You got to have them. You got to say this, too. While we're on Cleveland, guys, there was a quote of, referencing you to another Cleveland guy. Maverick Carter, I've known Jared, since we were 11 years old, and the only person that I've met that loves the game is as committed to the game as LeBron. And it's a tie.

That's an incredible quote, because I think LeBron is renowned for his love of basketball. But I do got to know, do you love the game enough to headbutton official if you potentially aren't getting yours back? Yeah, that was, hey, Danny. Danny's on a whole other level. But, hey, he's got two natties, so he can get away with that. Maverick and I grew up together. You know, we were both AAU guys, so we would spend the weekend at each other's house.

You know, I eat, sleep, drink basketball. I don't golf. You know, I'm constantly trying to evolve, learn. I think one of the things we'll be able to track to Cincinnati is our style, man. We really teach guys to play green, to find, create, keep advantages. We teach spacing. You know, it's all about reads, right? You've got to be able to read the game, and you guys are elite guys that have read the game for a long time.

And that's what we do. We try to train their eyes, man. It's a whole progression, right, from the offseason to the preseason. And a lot of this I got from Joe, I'll be honest, man. When I went up to Boston five, six years ago, it changed my trajectory as a coach. And kids don't want to play in our system because we score the ball. And at the end of the day, man, it's entertainment. People want to pay money to see touchdowns and they want to see the ball go through the basketball.

so we're going to sell it. Man, you're getting me fired up right now, Coach! I love talking about this stuff too because football is... I think I got like one semester left to eligibility, coach. Hey, we'll get you a good NIL deal, man. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure, yeah. You got to ask your way. You're a good six-man off the bench, yeah.

Sweetie, I'm going back to school. You aren't bringing up something though that I've thought I've always been fascinated with and I've never understood because I never played organized basketball. I played pickup basketball. And something I've always found fascinating is like, it's a free-flowing game. game, football is much more rigid in your rules and assignments. Each play, you have a very specific responsibility. And one of the things that I think is allowed Travis the ability to excel in football

is because he played basketball, because he has the ability to understand what you're talking about with spacing and like to go off schedule and do something because you just know that it's the right move to make. How much has basketball continued to evolve in that regard? Like you think about like the triangle offense and how innovative that was. And I don't even know what I'm asking yet because I don't know a fucking thing about basketball. I know where you're going with it. I mean, at the end of the day, you have to evolve.

You have to change with the times, right? And I think there's not a better guy that's done it than Joe Missoula. I mean, look what he's done since he's gotten to Boston, you know. But it's beyond that. It's relationships. You got to have, you got to have the chemistry, right? What Travis has done. And, you know, my family teases me, you know,

I changed from the Browns. There's only so much I could take from the Cleveland Browns. So I got on the Chiefs wagon with the Youngstown crew and Redis and Rocky Norfolk. And we made a lot of trips out there. Trave don't even realize. I've been in Arrowhead a lot. That's awesome, man. It's a good place to watch a game.

Oh, it's unbelievable. I mean, if people haven't seen a game in there, it's, forget the game. The pregame tailgates are, it's like a college atmosphere. It's crazy. I had no idea you were already on the, uh, the, She's wagging, man. That's awesome. I'm going to send you a picture of me at the game with my boys. I'll send it to you. You'll love it.

You got to come back out for another one, man, if you get a chance. Coach, I saw you on Dan Hort earlier this week talking about the cross-down shootout and the, how important is it to dominate Ohio? That was a big thing I took away from it. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, man, you know, rivalries are everything, right? We all got them. We all have that team. But this one is really special.

You know, I think it's one of the most unique. You know, you got Duke Carolina, you got Cincinnati Xavier, right? There's two monster basketball programs within four or five miles. So those are games you've got to win, right? You've got to defend home turf. You've got to rep your city. We're going to take a lot of pride in that, you know. And President Tressel talked about Ohio State, Michigan with me for years.

It's got to be, you know, talked about it's got to be trained in our guys' minds that we got to win this game. You know, and it starts in the recruiting process. It doesn't matter where you are. If you have the chance to watch UC basketball, you're always going to check that cross-town shootout, you know, game. And, I mean, it's just, it's something that I already know you're going to take the heart, man. But I got to get back to some of the high school days. And it's a little bit more of this Northeast Ohio love, man.

Okay. One thing I have to ask you about is the final game of your high school career was against one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Yeah. I had the pleasure of seeing LeBron in high school, and he looked like a man amongst boys. How did it feel playing against him in high school? Well, I'll be honest. That's one that haunts you, right?

Like, you got games that haunts you. That one still haunts me because we would be, yeah, we would have been state champs. I'll never forget, my high school coach, Ted Kwasniak, just a tremendous person. He went and saw LeBron. He came back. He saw Clark Kellogg back in the day at Joe. This is the greatest high school player I've ever seen. And I'm like, I'm a senior.

I'm like, you know, who's this freshman he's talking about? So boom, fast forward two months later. And then this dude is just killing. It was crazy. I mean, we were up the whole game back and forth. Maverick was on that team. So we talk about it a lot. But, you know, what made LeBron so good is guys like you, Mahomes.

I mean, you look at every sport. They just know the game. They see the plays before. he had a cross-court pass. I still think about to this day in transition as a freshman. That was one of the things. Obviously, his athleticism.

I didn't get to see him until he was a senior, so his athleticism was like he was in the NBA already. But his ability to pass the ball anywhere on the dime at any moment was so unique. And he made it look so effortless. I mean, at that point he was like 6-6. And he grew like from freshman to sophomore. He got like three more inches, you know. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

I got one last thing. If you happen to see a Super Bowl ring lying around some chili in fifth third arena, you make sure to let me know. Did you lose it in Cincinnati? Was it a good night? It was a great night. It was a great night. It was an unbelievable night. Yeah. Well, we got to get you guys back. Absolutely love to come back. Definitely coming back for a game to see you rock it out. And hopefully we can even get back for a little crosstown shootout. That'd be great.

Yeah, I'm glad Reggie connected us, man. Reggie King, great guy, man. Shout out to Reggie. Hey, shout out to Reggie. Reds run, baby. Yes. Great dude. You're the man.

Coach, we appreciate your big guy. We're rooting for you. And if you ever need a thing, man, please just reach out. Thanks, guys. Appreciate this. Thank you to Coach Calhoo. Coach Calhoo, baby. Yeah, baby.

That's the one and only. Happy to have them back in Cincinnati. That wraps up another episode of New Hy! Thank you to John Hamm and Coach K. out John Hamm on the new season of your friends and neighbors on Apple TV starting April 3rd. And get your ass to Fifth Third Arena for some basketball, baby! Yeah! Season tickets are on sale now the Bearcats are fucking back.

Oh, make sure you subscribe to the new edge channel on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Once again, New Heights of Wonder Show, brought to you by AT&T, the number one cellular service and Wi-Fi service and cable service. And every, do you know AT&T? Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with What-Ass. We got a bunch of fun clips throughout the week. And thanks to the New Heights production team for always making us look better, but making other jobs so much easier.

And really doing all the work, we appreciate you for that. And to the 92% as we love you guys too, for tuning in to what the New Heights production team does. Love you guys. See you guys next week. You want to do Top Show? Yeah, let me get one more caffeinated beverage, but yes. You'll take one second,

right? What's fine? I just feel like there's always something. His eyes roll. Oh, you guys aren't reading it? That actually did sound like Brandon.

I got a great, I don't sound. Do it, do it. How do I sound, Jason? Do my, an impression to me. How do I sound? Oh, how do I sound?

Jason is an impression. God damn you. Damn you, Jason, Kelsey.