New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Scott Van Pelt on Favorite ESPN Stories, Calling the Masters, Torpedo Bats and New Nieces | EP 132

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

92%ers welcome back to another episode of New Heights! Today we are joined by Maryland’s finest, an ESPN legend, and Jason’s friend from work, Scott Van Pelt! Before we get to the conversation with SVP, Jason and Travis weigh in on the MLB phenomenon that is the ‘Torpedo Bat, ’ debate the NFL’s ongoing drama around banning the ‘Tush Push,’ look at some insane Travis look-a-likes spotted in the wild, and introduce the newest Kelce to podcasting. Later, Scott Van Pelt joins the show to discuss Maryland’s coaching search, what it was really like working with Jason on Monday Night Countdown, what he felt on his first day at ESPN, the secret the calling The Masters, the incredible definition of the phrase “leaves in the gutter,” and so much more! Finally, the guys lose it trying to answer a not dumb question about detachable body parts and we check in on the New Heights bracket challenge. For even more New Heights, check out our New Heights YouTube Membership! As a member, you'll get access to full episodes, bonus videos, badges, and other stuff that will make you stand out. You can also listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. ...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=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowCheck out all of our new merch’ at https://homage.com/newheightsSupport the Show:  THE LAST OF US: The Emmy-winning HBO Original series The Last of Us premieres Sunday, April 13th on Max, and listen to the official The Last of Us podcast wherever you get your podcasts.AMERICAN EXPRESS:For full terms and to learn more about the powerful backing of American Express, visit https://americanexpress.com/withAmexACCELERATOR: Click the link below to get a case of the Kelce Brothers’ favorite energy drink! https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/FB06B38E-F0C2-479F-9DA5-FD4A1C852B07?channel=NewHeights2025M THE FARMER’S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping! ALL STATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds.TURBO TAX: Now This is Taxes. Brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. https://turbotax.intuit.com/ PERPLEXITY: Discover fast and reliable search with Perplexity today. https://www.perplexity.ai/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery plus subscribers can listen to new heights early and ad free plus unlock access to exclusive episodes of the show Join Wondery plus in the wonder yet Apple podcast or Spotify today Let me call a golf shot real quick. All right, here we go. Oh, this is awesome to 14 Well, that was good That's it Travis give us your best to 14 right now. All right. Now here we go. Now over to 14.

I'm changing the channel if somebody gives me a 14 call like that immediately. That was poor. That was poor to bad is what that was. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls to New Heights, a Wondry show produced by Wavesports and Entertainment and brought to you by HBO's The Last of Us. Season two premieres April 13th on Max. Looking forward to that. We're your hosts.

I'm Travis Kelsey, my big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland, Ohio, Cincinnati Bearcat alums and yeah, subscribe on YouTube, Wondryubelus wherever you get your podcast, follow the show on all social media at New Heights show with one S Jason tell the people what we got coming up. We got another great episode for you guys. We're going to break down everything that's happening in the NFL owners meetings. We've also got some huge baseball news, huge barrels. Some we call torpedoes coming up. We also have a, have an incredible

conversation with my co, well with my coworker and host of Monday Night Countdown, Scott Van Pelt. SVP. Maryland's finest SVP coming on the show. You're not going to want to miss that. He brings it as always. As always. He just has so many good stories and he's such a storyteller. The best. pros pro. All right. Well, let's start with uh, With the baseball news list or with a little oh, yeah, of course new news

new news Coming in brought to you by american express. Yeah, here you go. Shout out to american express and uh, yeah the yankees The yankees have been doing a little research and development into what can make a baseball bat better. And they have introduced the torpedo bat to the world. That's right. First of all, love the name. I mean, that's a great name for anything torpedo bat thing sounds lethal. It sounds like it sounds like a nerf bat that we had when we were

kids. It does sound like a toy. It. It sounds like a Nerf bat that we had when we were kids. It does sound like a toy. It definitely sounds like something that would be really marketable to children. It sounds like something you tell your kids and they're like, I want it. I would buy it immediately. Well, Kevin Smith at KJS underscore four. Yes, the Yankees have a literal genius MIT physicist, Lenny. I mean, I don't know any physicist that goes by Lenny.

The one person. Sure. Lenny, on payroll, he invented the torpedo barrel. It brings more wood and mass to where you most often make contact as a hitter. The idea is to increase the number of barrels and decrease misses. Yeah, we have a nice little picture of this to demonstrate how much bigger that sweet spot and how much further down the bat it has moved. I'm really intrigued about it. I mean, obviously they jumped out to some pretty crazy success. It's are all of them.

I don't think all of them are using this bat. I don't think although I don't think the main one judge he's not using it. But the guys that did use it I think had a number of home runs this last week, if I'm not mistaken. 15 home runs to be exact. Well, I guess it's just Yankee. So which one of the Yankees are using them? That's what I'm saying. I don't know if we don't have that information. Yeah, we don't. I don't think we have that. I'm not sure. They were playing the Brewers and they were smoking the Brewers. I think that's what happened. Yeah, we don't. I don't think we have that. I'm not sure. I think they were playing the Brewers and they were smoking the Brewers. I think that's what happened. Yeah, which apparently, according to baseball experts, not that hard to smoke the Brewers.

A lot of Brewer hate going on these days, but there is a lot of Brewer hate. It's unfortunate. I'm intrigued by it though. I mean, the science adds up. I mean, Lenny, Dr. Lenny might be onto something. We'll see what's in the future for the torpedo bat. Ongoing investigation. It is a legal bat that does adhere to the parameters of Major League Baseball and what is he determined to be a legal bat. I'm really interested in seeing how this plays out. Yeah.

I would love to see a list of the guys using it versus the guys that aren't and maybe like a spreadsheet of how they did last year versus this year. Jake, we're going to put task that with you. Because I feel like you'd be able to figure that information out. Could you imagine Barry bonds with a torpedo bat? I mean, we don't even know if it's good yet or not. But yeah, I mean, I think the bat Barry uses was fine. What's better? Regular bat with copious amounts of steroids or no steroids in a torpedo bat?

I'm taking steroids. See, these are the answers. Lenny, you're an MIT guy. Dr. Lenny, we want the... Can you figure this one out for us? What's a bigger advantage? Anaball, I don't even know what a real steroids name is like the Tor P E D. Oh, I just missed opening day at the park. I might have to catch

I mean, listen, we just had a baby. Yeah. Are you trying to show the niece? Do you want to show? You want to see your new niece? Yes, I want to see my new niece. Jason, you only sent one picture. Come on, Kai. You didn't even tell me your name you picked yet. Look at that. Hey, little muffin. Look at you. Is it hanging out with mom? So Kai said hello. I'm glad everything went great. Trav says hi. Hi Trav.

Do you want some? I gotta go next to him. Hey Trav. Hey Kai. Jason hasn't told me if you guys picked a name yet. Is this still a nameless baby? No, she has a name. We had to fill out a birth certificate paperwork. I think that, I thought that's how that worked. Well, you can technically leave without it, but we wouldn't remember to fill out the fucking paperwork after that.

So we have to do it when we know. Is that a beer bat? That's what I'm saying. That's all we're focused on too. That's impressive. Isn't it cool? They might sell them to the bank. And you're impressive, Kai.

Thanks, Trev. You're impressive. It really wouldn't have been possible without your brother, you know? Is this Finney? Yeah, Finn. Finn. Finley and Kelsey. We're calling her Finn.

Finn and Kelsey. That's adorable. Jason refused to let me just go Finn. So I'm dead ass. I love it. Congrats guys. Should we ask Finn a question? Finn, Finn, come here.

She said sneeze. Alright, go ahead. What do you want to ask? Hey Finn. That's so mean. Finn, you just look adorable. I don't even have anything to say to you. You happy to be out?

Huh? How was, how was Kylie's uterus? Too comfy. That's why we had a Victor. Get this guy out of here. Oh, man. I'm sorry. Your father's a weirdo. All right, we're going next door to record. All right. Enjoy. Love you. That was lovely. Thank you for that. Oh, she said she wanted to stay and see Uncle Trev. Not a lot. Listen, babies are awesome.

But they don't do a whole lot for like the first six months. You would know you have four of them. It really doesn't get that exciting until they start smiling and like giving you something. I mean, it's amazing. Watching a birth is still one of like the most crazy things that you can ever witness. And there's a moment right when you see any baby, I feel like that's just like overwhelming. I love it, man. There's not there's a, she can't really do much. Right around the six month mark. That's when it's like, Benny right now, Benny's right a little bit over two. She is a lot of fun. I mean, she is a spitfire, doesn't even know when she's being offensive. It's the best. I love it. I'll get up there. So all right,

I'll see you in like six months. Six months. That'll be good. That'll be good timing for you. Let's move on to some football news. Football news. The annual NFL owners meeting are happening in Florida right now. Flowrida and of course, as we always talk about, the coaches photo got revamped a little bit. They did this on like a stage. Yeah, they got some lighting. Was it too hot to go outside? Everybody taking the photo like this? Because the light is just the sun is just burning their face off. I don't like this. They're taking this way too serious now. That's a lot of coaches.

It's like professional grade. All right. Oh, there was a storm. There we go. I got to keep reading. So it's raining. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Good choice, guys.

Good choice. Good choice. Nice. All right. So instead of naming all the coaches this year, we are going to be tasked with naming the one coach missing. The one coach missing. All right. Who is missing from this photo? I feel like we're playing like Where's Waldo? All right. So I guess I'll start. How do you want to do this? You want to do conferences? I think whoever gets the first wins. That's all I know.

Oh, okay. Name people as you're first wins. That's all I heard. That's all I know. Okay Name people as you're seeing them. It's just dead silence We got the NFC East we got day ball siriani Dan Quinn AFC West is there Schottenheimer's there. Guys, this is the hardest thing. Dude, who is this guy? I have no idea who that guy is, sorry. You're the freak.

Duvall's there. Is he? Taylor's there. Miko's there. Gosh dang it. Todd. I have Rabe's. I don't know who's in Seattle now.

Who the fuck is this guy? Shanahan's there. Man, every year I feel like there's another guy added that I'm just like, I don't remember. Who's this Seattle coach now? McDonald, he's upper left. It's next to the table. I think I might know who it is.

Nope, there he is. Fuck. And we're positive there's somebody missing. There's one coach not there, could not make it due to the storm. Storm? Due to the storm? Was that a hint?

No, that was just the weather. That was just the weather. So this was in Florida. Somewhere. No, I'm not that clever. Are all the Florida coaches here? Yes. Atlanta.

Who's, god damn it, Who's Aaron Glenn coaching for now? Aaron Glenn is coaching the Jets. Who's Atlanta's head coach? You should know this, Jason. You're so cool. Jason, come on. To be fair, I don't know anybody in that division. Oh my gosh. Raheem Morris. There it is!

Jason, you won. You won. Oh my gosh. that was tough. Maybe the most pointless game we've ever played. Congrats, Jason. What a big what a big weekend for you. New baby. Oh, yeah. When I guess the coach game,

the NFL Competition Committee met to vote on banning the touch push, but discussions were tabled. That's right. it may be, yeah, it may be discussed again in the May meeting that they have as a committee and could be pushed forward once more to support the more that is gathered. So what are your thoughts, Jason?

I get it, I get why certain teams wanna ban it for competitive reasons. I get why some people think that it's potentially unsafe. I think optically it looks unsafe. It's football, man. For me personally, I never felt like there's that much of more of a risk of injuring somebody on the play. And I don't think there's any statistics to back that up. So anybody saying that it's going to lead to more injuries is pure conjecture, not rooted in

fact. I think the only argument I see for potentially banning it is, is there a competitive advantage? Is it unfair that players can push and should we allow players to push rather than ball carriers or anybody to have to do things on their own? But, you know, I think that that's going to be a hard rule to enforce. Like, when is that enforced? Like our gang tackles outlawed are, you know, open field. Like when Big Creed Humphrey gets behind a running back and he's pushing the pile forward, do we not want that? Because I like that.

No, because that's football. Yeah, I think it's it's hard to know. Like, where do you where do you stop this from occurring? You can't just say like, hey, you can't do the tush push. That feels like a hard rule. Like it needs to be a rule that's enforceable throughout football. Although they do let defensive players push D lineman on the tush push, but they don't let that happen on field goal.

They did outlaw that because that was leading to an increase of injury. So man, listen, there are four downs that a team gets to get a first down or get in the end zone. If the tush push is just one play that you run when you have a short guarded situation, those may come up a handful of times throughout a game. Yep. And it's like, you can't get upset at that one play. You know what I mean? I understand the whole, if you want to say it's not safe, football isn't a safe game to play. So I know we're trying to make it safer or whatever. It is what it is. I think it's a football type of play. It's a toughness play that you need to be in sync with the guys next to you and the guys around you.

And that's on both sides of the ball. I don't think we need to be banning this or like you said, how far down the line does it go? Are players on the defense not allowed to hold guys up now to try and have somebody come in and get a strip like that? At what point are we just going to let football be football? Just from like the health aspect, because I see people misusing my quotes, like the play sucks to run, but it sucks because of an exertion, like an energy level.

It takes so much to try and get a yard. It's not a high impact collision. For the most part, people don't even get rolled up on because you're keeping your feet moving. It's not going to be a play, in my opinion, where you're going to see this huge increase in chance of risk of injury. It's not going to be a play, in my opinion, where you're going to see this huge increase in chance of risk of injury. It's just not. So I don't think it's really that dangerous from a health perspective. And I don't listen, I've done no studies other than anecdotally what I've been through.

But typically injuries happen when guys get rolled up on because they're locked out in blocks or there's a high impact collision that occurs. And neither of those happens on a play like this. It's so tight quarters. It just ends up being like you're just pushing against each other. I get it. I mean, it's a play that some people don't think represents football. I disagree. I think it represents football really well. Some people think it's more of a rugby play. But when we have a guy who played rugby, like Jordan Malata, he's like, it doesn't have anything to do with rugby. It's physicality, it's intensity.

I think it perfectly represents football that I like. But at this point, I mean, I'm tired of the back and forth with it. If you're going to ban it, just ban it. It ends up being a topic every single year. Before the tush push was allowed, and we started doing it, we just used to do regular quarterback sneaks and was still a high rate. So I don't think it's going to really change the Eagles approach that much. They are going to keep doing this because it is a higher percentage with the push, but it isn't that much more. Like the Eagles just generally are good at

quarterback sneak. That's why they execute this play at a high level, it's because they're good at that first. If they take this play out, I still think the Eagles would be really good at quarterback sneaks because I think Jeff Stoutland coaches it well and I think they have good players to execute it. So I'm kind of over the back and forth of it. Do whatever you're going to do with it. I think the health thing is kind of a bogus claim that people are using that just want to get it banned. I can see that for sure. The fairness and competitive fairness to the defense aside, I get the argument. I just don't know where you draw that line at. One of the quotes I saw was like,

I'm most concerned for the center. I was like, yeah, I get it. I mean, it sucks. It is a grueling play because of the amount of exertion. It's less of like a grueling play of being blindsided, like cold cocked. And it's more of a grueling play of like being blindsided like cold cocked and it's more of a grueling play of like you got to take a shit and it just won't come out and you're just squeezing forever until that thing comes. That's what it's like. That's what's grueling about it's like I mean I think everybody's been there. That's more of the grueling nature behind it. The exertion that I'm talking about. I don't think I've ever done that taking a shit. But I know I get what you're saying though. Jeff Stalaget at one time and it was the funniest fucking

thing I've ever seen a coach do. It was so funny. All right. One of my former teammates, good friends and the last of the core four remaining with the Philadelphia Eagles Lane Johnson Had this to say on Twitter hate us because they ain't us There we go, talk your shit player are not player. All right that does it for a Little tush pushing new news new news is brought to you by American Express Yes, yes it is and let's move on into some fan mentions of the week. Some Trap fan mentions. Yeah, this is pretty crazy. There are a few people that when I look at them, it's like,

damn, that's my cousin. This is one of them right here from Skydog at New High Show at me. Travis, when did you start playing baseball? Well, I've been playing for a long, long time, but the Brewers, Bryce to Rang, hopefully I'm saying that correctly, Bryce. Yes, there's got to be some lineage down the line. He's got a little bit of the Jonas Valanchunas look to him too Yeah, I think might some lift. There might be some Lithuanian in there. I mean, I see it. I see it a little bit. But I don't think it's like that. It's I think it's more so just the red beard that he's got that that as it grows out, mine gets like

more red. Okay, I'll let you know what it is. Here's what happened. I've never done a 23 and me but I can virtually guarantee there is somebody in a lot of people's, like, you know, Genghis Khan, have you ever heard of this? Like Genghis Khan, there's like a 10% chance or something ridiculous that anybody is related to Genghis Khan. It's something absurd. Like this dude just like was banging women nonstop. Just being honest. I forget what the, Brandon, can we find that stat about people being related to Genghis Khan or having like Genghis Khan's genes? It's absurd when you look into it. Can we get the Genghis Khan stat? Can we get the Genghis Khan stat?

I have the Genghis Khan stat. Quit yelling at me. I'm not yelling at you, you're yelling. Genghis Khan is estimated to have over 16 million male descendants alive today. That's crazy. How crazy is that? Approximately one in 200 men globally sharing his Y chromosome. Fuck, that's insane.

0.5% of the global population has Genghis Khan's Y chromosome. I want to see if I'm related to Genghis Khan. And I believe that goes up if you're of Mongolian descent. Historical accounts suggest he fathered many children, both through his marriages and concubines. Sons-grandsons continued the trend, further spreading his genetic lineage. The claim that so many people are related to Genghis Khan is supported by a 2003 genetic study which identified a unique Y chromosome haplogroup, haplogroup, yeah, whatever that means, okay, shared about 8% of men in regions once part of the Mongol Empire.

These cons are getting after it, man. Yeah. So I think that there's somebody, there's somebody with one of these Y chromosomes in all the, all the basic white bearded guys that we kind of embody. I think that that is there's some guy that just had a half red, half brown beard and was just running around with an ax up there going through Europe. Well, shout out to Bryce. Um, and, uh. And finally, he had to show some, had to show some brewer love today.

So, shout out to Bryce. We also got this from the New Heights page of Reddit from Adambomb661. Interesting name, bud. Dude, this church mural in my neighborhood looks oddly familiar. Why? Travis? I've never seen Jesus look like this. What? Like you? I've never seen this.

How did they do this? Somebody painted this in your image. This looks like Travis Kelsey. No, it is not. If you had long wavy hair, this would be exactly what this picture would look like. You're hilarious. I love, so you're Jesus Christ? There's no way. This is, I've never seen Jesus painted like this though. Travis, would you ever do your hair like this? This is a good look. This is like an 80s Travis Kelsey right here. That is, that is like, that's like me if I was in the Bee Gees. Well, I can tell you almost assuredly someone who has he, dude, you do.

I don't want to gloss over that. The Bee Gees is such a good fucking reference. You look just like that one motherfucker. It's so good. That's great. All right. That does it for fan mentions. Yeah, it does. Let's see what SVP is talking about, huh? Maybe get this episode back on the rails. Oh man, you guys are in for a treat. Let's send it to them.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor, HBO's The Last of Us. HBO's biggest series, The Last of Us, returns with a new season on Max. Heck yeah! Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other in a world even more dangerous than the one they left behind. Ooh, CNN calls The Last of Us exquisite, fully realized, and worthy of the hype. I do enjoy it. Based on the groundbreaking video game, the Emmy award winning HBO original series, The Last of Us premieres April 13th on Max. You can listen to the official The Last of Us podcast

wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you to our partner, Accelerator. Oh yeah. That time of the episode where we get to tell you how to get on the same energy level that we're on. You know exactly what we're talking about though and that's accelerator active energy. That's right. Trav ain't wrong. I will need a can of accelerator even more because the baby's here. Trav, we're not gonna be sleeping too much and this is gonna get me through.

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They portion everything perfectly for your dog. They do all the math based on your dog's age, weight, breed, all of it. Each pack comes with their names right on the bag which is extremely convenient if you have multiple dogs. Get 50% off your first box of fresh healthy food at thefarmersdog.com slash new heights plus you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com slash new heights to get 50% off. That's thefarmersdog.com slash new heights. Our guest today is from the University of Maryland. He is also the host of Monday night countdown sports center and the SVP or SV pod. He's an eight time sports Emmy nominee and the voice of the first two days

of the Masters. Please welcome Mr. Scott van Pelt. Yeah, baby. Thank you. Welcome on big guy. Thanks for doing this, man. Nice to be here. It also says a member of the 2023 class of Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame. What's that? What's Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame? You know, we're an area where not a ton of people have made it to the big time as evidenced by the fact that they were like, who can we put in? Like Van Pelt? Yeah.

He threw like 75 when he was in high school. We don't have a ton of people from around here that have made it, but what makes it cool is the people that have, that have made it to the league, wherever, those folks are a big deal. It was an honor that they thought. This is all just a broadcasting piece of it and it's flattering. It was not for my sports... Proudness?

Yeah. I was like the classic high school guy. I was a good basketball player. I was a good pitcher, but that was the extent of it. Were you better basketball or better pitcher? I'd say hoops. Before the age when people started redshirting their children in elementary school. I would have really benefited from one more year.

I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Like in the area where I'm at, like there's like 20 year old high school seniors that have been like held back for years. And then they end up getting for scholarships to go play lacrosse at an Ivy League. And you're like, you know, there was a there was a a method to the madness, but I was, I was like a 17 year old high school senior. My nickname was fungo. I was six, four, 170. My freshman year in Maryland, I'm six, six, two Oh five. Like I'd have been, I'd probably had a chance somewhere just cause my, I was just physically completely different. You know what I mean? Whatever. I was a decent

hoop player. So I mean, at Maryland, there were a bunch of people in the intramural system that could have played college somewhere, but just whatever. But that's it. I was frustrated. When I was little, I thought I would be the guy people were talking about, but as it works out, I get to be the person talking about the people. And that career lasts a hell of a lot longer, thankfully, as, as we sit here now, much longer, you're one of the best, man. You're one of the best. One of the icons. I appreciate that. Speaking of hoops, before we get into your heralded career as an analyst,

we do got to ask a couple of days removed from the Terrapins exit in March madness. How we feeling? It was a big bummer. They look good. They were looking at a chance but Florida is really good. And then the end coincided with the coach leaving and we talked about that on the pod just because Kevin Willard went to go to Villanova, which is a great job. And I think totally get why that job would be appealing. It's just the way it ended, like there's a way to go and it got really sticky and so the Maryland folks were really bummed about that. But the good news, the really good news in our household

is my wife is a Gator. And this was the coolest thing on SportsCenter. We had Coach Golden on in advance of it and I'm like, look, I got a problem in my house. If Maryland plays Florida, my kids are just, they're really stuck because they love the Gators and they love the Terps. What do I do?

And he had this great answer about being a supportive husband and tell them that it's, you know, you support mom and you're just going to be happy for the Gators. And if Maryland loses, it's fine, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, that's a bullshit. That's wrong. That's not true. What you just said.

You're telling me to lie to my kids. Right, it was a great answer. It was a great answer,. That's wrong. That's not true. What you just said is a lie to my kids. Right. It was a great answer. It was a great answer, but it was wrong. And then we had just gone on a trip. We come home and the Gators, they sent a box fellas. And I believe that my name, image and like this of my children belongs to the Gators because they got more swag from Gainesville than they knew what to do with.

And so I believe that the combination of Florida winning that game and the swag that was sent from, uh, from down in Gainesville to my kiddos, I believe they belong to the Gators. So that's, we're all good, man. It was, it was a fun run. The end got real bumpy and, uh, that's how the sec gets you. That's how they get boxes. So you're telling me Charlie can be bought. Charlie can be bought. Oh, hell yeah. Bro, he had on a Gator headband. He's like, Dad, look at this, man. I'm like, you want to go to the closet. We got plenty of Terps gear, but the Gators represented in a SEC level, Trav. You called it, man. They do it different down there. They do it different, man. It just is what it is. That's why they thrive. Yeah. Shout out to the Terps. Hopefully you guys can get it back to the old, uh, the Juan Dixon days, man. Back when, back in 02 when, uh, the Terps were on top, baby.

My man. Let's, uh, let's move this topic to what really a lot of the fans want to know about on the show and I, and I desperately want to know more about it. How was it working with Jason on live television? Oh, well, we started off with a bang. I believe the first on camera, he said his tits were out. Something like that. It was either first or second. Yeah, it was that first show. It was early. Just forgot to pack his clothes, talked about his tits within the first five minutes. It was immediately. Just set the set the expectation. I think in life, most of life is managing expectations. No, listen, I'm interested in his perspective

because it was right around now, last spring when you had made the official decision that you were gonna head into our world on the TV side and you were coveted by everybody. And I mean, I've sort of shared this backstory. I reached out and I was like, world on the TV side and you were coveted by everybody. I've shared this backstory. I reached out and I was like, look, man, I appreciate your space. I'm not trying to get in it and try to bother you, but I also wanted to represent that I

knew ESPN was interested in having your brother in whatever capacity it was going to be. I tried to be as honest as I could about what I thought our place was. And now he comes in. And the thing about the business is there's a million things about, this is where I'm going to talk about you Jay, like you're not there. Okay. Okay, cool. There's a million things about your brother that make him perfect for TV. No, you can keep the cans on. Perfect for TV. But you still, there's a process of learning the mechanics of TV that it's not innate. He's innately entertaining and engaging and people love him,

but learning how to, okay, when's it my turn? And what I would try to tell him is, look, man, your mic's always on. You don't need me to ask you to go. When you're ready to go, go. But there's a couple of guys in swag and RC that we have a built-in kind of chemistry. We know how it goes and swag can get going on a tangent and like you just got to let them go. And so it's a challenge when it's four people that are talking

to figure out how to get in where you fit in. And it was a blast because the things about the stories and what's genuine about him, what's authentic about him is all right in front of you. And then seeing it get better and better where you're like, okay, you can tell that he's more comfortable. And by the way, you're more comfortable by the end of the year than you are at the beginning,

obviously, and he'll get only more and more comfortable as time goes on. So I had a blast, we blew out a poor, my guy Dumpf blew his ACL out week two in Philadelphia. MCL, ACL's intact. ACL was intact, just MCL. We were sure that his knee, ACL, PCL, MCL, all blown out. Somehow they were intact.

No, we had fun. But the TV piece, it's a different kind of grind, man. You don't get to get a tour at all to be on, but you're on planes and you're trying to figure out how to to bring entertainment to the masses. But again, what he's innately great at, you can't learn how to do. And so we were thrilled with it all. I just I'm curious what your assessment of it was. Man, it was a lot to learn and take in. I think it's so much different. Obviously, we have this podcast, Trav, but live TV is so much different.

We cut so much of this stuff out and have so much, Trav, but live TV is so much different. We cut so much of this stuff out and have so much leeway to just say whatever we want. When you're on live TV, you got to be concise to the point. You got to make space for people to talk and have a conversation. And part of it is getting to know everybody. Like that's a huge part of it. I really feel like after the first year is just like having a knack for, you know, what the other person likes to hear, what gets them revved up, how to like throw things back and forth. And for me, I just was trying to learn as much. I mean, I reached out to Scott early on, we went golfing, you're trying to get a lay of the land. Like, you know, what do I expect? How do I prepare? And I'm still learning all that. I watched more football this year than I watched legitimately in my 13 years playing.

In terms of league wide. You know what I mean? You're watching this. You're focused on your own team when you're in the building, but you've got to know everything. It's like your team and the team you're playing. And you're getting really hyper focused on those. And I still like watching the game and that hyper focus game plan oriented focus. It's not feasible to do that Really in the same way in the same depth when you're trying to watch all

17 games that happen with the can't watch the all 22 of every game by the time you get to the Monday because we're because We're not gonna break although like we not going to break down all of it, but if there's something, because what we try to do is talk ball. And Trav, you've been kind about that, that what's the role of a show? And I think if you can educate and entertain, I mean, everyone's going to say some version of that. But I think that's really the core of what we're trying to do. And I think what we had Jason do is break stuff down.

You don't want to limit it to just tackle the tackle, but I think you can help people understand why something works, why a team's really good at it. And I thought that was, I thought that you brought a lot of that to the table and the personality as well. But it's interesting to hear you talk about it because it's probably not unlike learning a teammate, right?

For sure. If you've got, you know, a guard to your left that you know is really good at this, but maybe not as good at that, you got to figure out how you know is really good at this but maybe not as good at that, you've got to figure out how to help him be good at the thing he's not as good at. That's really what the TV piece is about, just figuring out how to make it. Put everybody, my job, try to put everybody in the best lane to do what they're great

at even better. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. I don't know. We had a blast doing it for sure. Cause it's, it's big, man. Monday night football. I mean, it's a, it feels like a thing. Yeah. And you hear that thing in your, in your ear. And like, I mean, you guys lived it where you were the guys in the arena. I wasn't, but for me, Monday night football, as you're watching back in the day, Howard Cosell, whatever, there was nothing bigger than that. And like you hear that music and you're

the one sitting there and you're going to talk and you're like, you know, this is an event, man. It's, it's, it's a blast. I love it, man. We grew up, it was, it was the pinnacle of football growing up. It's still right there. We're in the league guys are looking forward to like, man, we're playing on Monday night this week. You better get ready boys. Prime time, everybody's watching, right? Not everybody gets to play on Monday night. That's true.

One of the things I really just consider myself really lucky is not only was I with you, Scott, prime time, everybody's watching, right? Not everybody gets to play on Monday night. That's true. One of the things I really just consider myself really lucky is not only was I with you, Scott, I was with Swag, I was with Ryan, R.C., everybody was more than willing to help. And just like a teammate, they were the veterans. And I could tell like, you know, we're on the middle of the desk, we're in the middle of the show. And Ryan's like, Yeah, what do you think about that? Like, he's like, all right, it's your turn to talk idiot, like get going.

I'm like, all right, I got you. So it's, I don't know. It's really fun looking back and seeing how everything evolved over the course of the year, how much closer everything got and looking forward to this next year for sure. I think it's gonna be awesome. Oh, for sure. SVP, how did you get into the Monday night countdown stuff?

Was it always, cause you were originally just like, I think it was 2001. You started with ESPN doing Sports Center. Yeah. And how did you gravitate? Like you said, you're a hoops guy. How did they get to the NFL? Biggest stage on the NFL. I think the one thing that has happened for me,

Tri, throughout my career, and I'm grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, is I've never been a guy that was playing chess. I was never planning three or four moves ahead. I didn't have my eye on anything as much as my eye on right now. I think I've been really good at that. Being present in my present, appreciative of this moment, try to be as good as I can be at what I do and trust that if you do that, then you'll get another shot at it tomorrow in some other role. I've told this story before, but it's true. I have a Post-It note that's in a little window box frame that sits on my desk and it says, I will never work at ESPN.

When I was at the Golf Channel, which is where I started way back in the day, I had a producer that's like, no, I mean, you're going to go to ESPN someday. I said, man, I'll never work at ESPN. He said, oh, really? He wrote it down. I signed it and he said, I'll bet you a hundred bucks. I said, fine. I saved it because it was a great reminder,

even to this day to me, don't say the thing you won't do. Because look at me, it's damn near 30 years, well no, it's 25 years of me being at ESPN. And I came there to be one thing, and then I moved up there, and then I started doing Sports Center, and then I worked with some of the all-time great, you know, the late great Stuart Scott who, you know, we do the show and he'd say Stuart Scott van Pelt which was this really cool thing he did

where he made us a team and he made me his equal and he was a star who was willing to share his shine with me because he wanted us, like you were just talking about Jay, to be great together, right? So cool. And I did that and then I started to do radio and I was like, holy shit, this is so difficult to do radio. I thought it would be easy and I learned how hard that was. And then I took a little bite of the apple with game day.

I spent a year doing college game day. And I guess what I'm saying is that I just kept trying things that were put in front of me. And then around 10 years ago, they said, we want you to do your own version of Sports Center which no one had ever done before and that was obviously a lot of fun it was a huge challenge but it was fun but there's nothing at our place that's bigger than the NFL and so when when they asked me hey is this something you would consider doing I'm like

absolutely it's the NFL there's nothing. We want you to go to the games. I'm in. And so it wasn't anything that I... I guess this is a long-winded answer saying I didn't pursue it, but the way the path goes, there's things that are sometimes pop up or the opportunity arises. And when it did, I was up for it. And I did it for one year. And then last year was when your brother joined and so it's only been a couple of years but I looked at it like there is nothing bigger than that night and if there's something that has to do with college football down the road, I don't know what it would be but I mean,

I went to the national championship game this year and we did our show from there. I just think being at the biggest events, covering the biggest events, being in the arena, nothing substitutes the juice you feel when you're there. You feel a connectedness to the fans and the moment. That's my favorite. Being face to face, like you and I, this year, Trav, what game was it?

Maybe it was the Saints, I can't recall. You came out and you... It might have been a playoff game. You came out and you were with me afterwards. It might have been Houston. It all kind of becomes a blur. But when you're face to face with Ryan Day and Will Howard after they win the national championship, the conversations you have, the intimacy of that moment, man,

Coach Tomlin said it the other day at the coaches meeting, there's no substitute for intimacy. That man has a great way of saying just one sentence better than I'm saying all of this. I love that, being face to face with the people that have just been in those moments. So cool, man. Well, I met you on the biggest stage back in, I think,

2016, maybe? It was 14, 15, 16 at the national championship. I see the man himself, SVP, the guy that drove our, we talk about this all the time on here, those ESPN Sports Center days growing up with You know Stuart Scott yourself rich eyes and Steve Lee the whole gang It was just so much you guys drove our love for sports and gold a you know, dude I'm telling you I loved every single sport because and it was the only channel that I went to

Jason he would go to what he would watch Dragon Ball Z. I would go straight to the network sometimes. Cartoon Network. That's why dad would have Law and Order on every once in a while. We'd have to get him to turn it off. But no, I saw you at the the National Championship, Ohio State versus Oregon. And I was in Dallas. I was I was kind of in that underground bar area and it was when you had just started doing bad beats

And you came up and you and you Said you were the nicest guy in the world I'm shaking because I'm actually meeting the man himself and you were just so cool so calm and and we're talking about how you I Opened the the bad beats. That's a legendary moment, by the way. Belk Bowl is all time. All time. That montage is some of the legendary moments in the gambling history where something went completely sideways. The Belk Bowl against Duke, and you're right there in the middle of it because you take it to the house and then it went sideways. But you're in there. That'll never change. We may change certain things in that montage. Belk Bowl will never not be in the Bad Beats montage. I'm honored. I'm honored forever, man. You've done okay since then.

You're going to have a gold jacket like your brother someday. It's going to be all right. You've elevated beyond being in the Bad Beats montage. If only I wouldn't have lost the helmet right after he scored that touchdown. Oh yeah, that helmet that I scored with. Immediately after he scores that touchdown, Scott, I'm in the student's, I'm in the end zone stance. He runs over and gives me his helmet and tells me, don't give this to anybody. We're partying afterwards at the bar. I'm letting everybody wear it.

I look back, it's gone. So, wait, wait. Yeah. Wait, you go out and get wrecked after the belt bowl lost your brother's helmet? Yeah, it's a bad story. It's not a great story. We can laugh about it now, but yeah, it was not.

No, it's an incredible story. It's made its way back. OK. The university wasn't allowing me to, they told me if I didn't pay all my parking tickets on the campus that I couldn't have the helmet because it was like the bowl game helmet. It was like the special helmet the seniors got to keep their bowl game helmets.

But it made its way back to you. It made its way. Did it? We found it. We do know where it's at. Somebody came up and said. We mentioned it on the pod like a year ago or two years ago. Yeah, they had like a sticker, like a circle sticker of 18 on it. Like this has got to be his.

That's incredible. I was just picturing like some guy in like Lima, Ohio and his living room and that helmet just watching games in the dark, wearing a belt full helmet that was Travis Kelsey's. He was doing it for a good decade. We just got it back last year. Oh, that's beautiful. The universe, the universe bends to the Kelsey brothers. All we needed was the show to tell the story. No, but it back last year. Oh, that's beautiful. The universe, the universe bends to

the Kelsey brothers. All we needed was this show to tell the story. No, but I remember that day, like it was yesterday, meeting your big guy. It was, it made me feel like, oh man, I want to be that cool of a dude doing that to somebody that may have looked up to me at some point in football, man. You were just so, so down to earth and and so welcoming and stuff, man. It was just awesome, man. I appreciate that. I appreciate that, dude. Well, likewise, I've said this quite a bit about, like, my dad had this line that I recite often. Treat normal people like superstars, treat superstars like normal people.

That's the best, man. Just a quick story about a guy that was a legend in broadcasting named Dick Enberg who called everything back in the day. He called anything that's big in sports, Dick Enberg called national title hoops, Super bowls, the whole bit. When I was a little kid, I went to a Maryland basketball game, shocker, and I met Dick Enberg and he could not have been kinder and more present and just made me feel like, holy smokes, like this is a guy,

but he was asking me questions and he was interested and he was present. Fast forward a zillion years and now we're working together, I believe it was the US Open in Philly in Marion, and we're out and we're at dinner and it's a small group, and I tell him the story about the way, the reason I act to people the way I act is because of how I'll never forget how kind

and how present and just, you made me feel like a big deal even though you were the big deal. So cool. Like I'm telling Dick this story and he gets like, he's teary-eyed and he's like, thank you so much for letting me know that something I did, you know, mattered to you. I was like, you kidding me? Like, this is a legendary guy. So, I don't know. I think what all I'm trying to say is it's real easy to be decent to people,

you know what I mean? And look, you guys operate in a different place. I mean, I've done this a long time. I'm sick, sick, bald-headed. People recognize me where I go. But like, you guys have to deal with a whole different level of what that is and I just try to be a mirror you know reflect what you get and and so that to what I'd say to the people is Give give something good and you probably get it back. You know I'm saying I don't that makes sense I don't know I remember that moment we had a blast and we keep on trucking in the lanes We're in and and I'm sure we'll keep trying best to stay happy and present in them as long as we can

I'm sure Sally. I'm I did want to ask you one question before we get out of this Monday night gig. Have you ever considered actually calling games? I mean, we do the Pro Bowl. We do the Pro Bowl, which in the flag space is among the most really prominent flag games, Trav. I don't know of a bigger one. There's foam pits, people do flips in them. It's quite a lot. No, I never have. And I watch people like the Bucks and the Taricos

and the Nances and the Michaels and the whatever. And it's a skill set I don't have. I don't know, I don't wanna do it. I've never wanted to do it. I get to do golf, which is. Yeah, I was going to say, you do that live, but. Yeah, but that's like, here, let me call a golf shot real quick. All right, here we go.

Oh, this is awesome. To 14. Oh, that was good. That's it. Like, to 14. It's there's there's very little to say or do. I don't need to set up the down in distance. I don't need to know. Did he catch it?

Is he inbounds? Is he out of bounds? I look like a face mask. Calling golf is stealing money. OK, stealing money. But I think you're you're you're really underestimate. You're underrating that to 14 call Travis. Give us your best to 14 right now. What is it? Let me get your to 14. All right now here we go now over to 14.

I'm changing the channel if somebody gives me a 14 call like that immediately. That was poor. Poor to poor to bad is what that was. No, it's very, very, very understand. Think, think, you know, think Jim Nance. Hello friends. Think. Ooh, nice guy. To 14. See that? Yeah.

See that? God, that's electric. Well, let's go, let's keep going over to golf. We got the Masters coming up. Yeah, baby. Yeah. We got the Masters coming up. You and you're supposed to be doing the first two days of it right?

Yep Thursday, Friday. It's by far and away my favorite week of the year professionally. It's just so cool. Have you been? Yes, I got lucky. I went during the COVID year where there was no stands. Wow. There were no grandstands so I just got to see how beautiful that course was. Oh my gosh, it was so cool. It's impossible to try to convey to people. And it's an impossible place to exist. Every single blade of grass is thought about there. There you go. Every plant, every tree.

It's perfection. It's insane. It's amazing. It's all these things. And the week is, as I say, it's my favorite week. I've done it for a long time, which is hard to process. First year I went was 1997 when Tiger Woods was, you know, a kid and he laid waste to every record there was lowest score, youngest winner,

biggest margin of victory, the whole bit. And that was when I started. And now it's all these years later. And and I'm the guy in the Butler cabin, um, on Thursday and Friday that brings this on the air. And so, you know, believe me, um, I, I, I'm talking earlier about being present, being grateful, like all the stuff I get to do is, is a blast. I mean, I'm, I'll go in tonight and we'll, you know, have, we'll do a show.

You know, we followed the women's tournament and you talk to Gino R. It's a blast. I mean, I'll go in tonight and we'll do a show. We followed the women's tournament. You talk to Gino Ariema after he goes to his 24th Final Four. He's got confetti in his hair. That's an amazing thing to get to share with somebody. I love what I get to do. It's all of it's insane. The Masters is a completely different level of lunacy.

When you know that it comes on the air and it's a picture and it's whatever it is, it's the Hogan bridge or it's it's the 13th and it's that that like the iconic shot you go into that corner, right, you can close your eyes and see him in corner and you hear that that that sort of melodic piano, and you're the voice that says whatever it is that you have to say, and the masters begins and you're the voice that says whatever it is that you have to say, and the master's begins and you're the one doing it. There's no way I can explain the depth of appreciation

for the fact that I'm the person sitting in that chair. It's something I shared with my pop. My pop died when I was in college. And I'm gonna tell you a quick one about like, so it'll be Thursday at three Eastern, we'll come on the air. Yeah. You know, you start, you rehearse a little bit. All right, we're going to show these highlights,

Sheffler on six and Rory on 10. Okay. We just make, all right, I know how we're going to come on the air here. And at some point in the last minute, all right, I'm sitting there and I'm getting ready. And then there'll be about a 30 second bit where I just sort of get into this Zen sort of place where I'm just, my mind is still, my heart is grateful and I think of my father. And I think, Pop, it's like I don't say it out loud. I just think, let me be calm. Let me do my job well. Let me speak slowly and clearly and let me do my job well. And I think of him. And I think, man, if my father were here, they say a young man that loses his dad early in life spends the rest of his life trying to make him proud. And I know damn sure sitting in that chair that my pop is

proud of his boy. And then we come on the air. And that last little five seconds, it's like, I swear to God, it's like time stops for just a second and I'm like, we good? Here we go. Here we go. And then off you go and you do your job. But I give myself like that very focused attention to that feeling, like what you feel in that moment

and it's just gratitude just exploding in your soul. Uh, I don't mean for this to sound over what I don't mean for it to sound too goofy or heavy, but it's sincere. It's sincere. And so I'm here and you know, Jim Nance is there and you know, Jim, it's his show. I'm just there to sort of welcome people on. I don't do a hell of a lot of heavy lifting, but that's the gig for the week. That's the main focus of it. Wednesday's my favorite day. I'm doing the par three contest this year, which is a blast. It's like, the kids are caddying for their

dad and it's just this beautiful day. And this par three course is sort of a miniature version of the big course. It's incredible. The whole thing's incredible, but there's a lot wrapped up into that week, as you can tell from what I'm sort of saying here. Heck yeah, man. That's awesome. Getting a lot of knowledge dropped on us right now. I love it. Yeah. And the Masters, all these majors are so, they're so much more, I feel like, ramped up because of the split. You get to see these guys coming from all over the world, different leagues. If you're the top of the top, you're in these

majors. So we get to see the guys that were, you know, how we, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's always been like that, but I feel like there's a little bit more excitement when you don't, because you don't get to see, you know, Bryson every single week on the PGA. Right. Kepka's over. Yeah. There's a lot of big time guys. I think, I think, um, Travis, that that, I don't know, I don't know what the timeframe

is. I think that they'll sort that out. I think we'll get back to a little bit. They've been trying to figure it out for what, two years now, basically. Well, I mean, the whole thing got real sideways where dudes took money and the PGA tour was like, that's don't do that. Then the PGA tour was like, well, maybe we'll do that too. That's a funny game.

We got to compete. Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting trick. We're, I mean, if you imagine being like Rory and you passed on, God only knows how many hundred millions of dollars and then tiger too, right? Didn't tiger pass on. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. I heard numbers. I don't know what the truth is, but I, I'm certain that there were nine figures involved that much I know but the point you make about just not seeing them compete that often that does make the majors feel a little bit different but honestly like we'll we do the PGA championship on ESPN we'll be down at Quail Hollow in Charlotte in May We'll be down at Quail Hollow in Charlotte in May. And that's a great field too. But to me, the star of the Masters week is not even the players, it's the stage.

It's the venue and the feelings associated with the venue. It's going back there every spring. It's the friendships that get rekindled among patrons and people that work there. It's just the whole week is so, so special. So you're right that those events have added significance, but the Masters is just feels like what it feels like because of the place more than who's competing in it. 1000%.

I think golf in general, it's such a sport that's rooted in history. And when you go to a lot of these older venues that have so much history to them, that was there in the back of your mind in itself. It almost takes you back in time. What the Masters has at the same time is not only does it have that history, but it's every little meticulous thing is just done in a way that, I don't know, makes it feel just ridiculously special to every single person.

Even like the person serving you beer to the person you walk by in the clubhouse or whatever, they all just make every single person feel so special that they're at an unbelievable place and we're all taking this in together. It's just such an awesome place because of that feeling, I feel like. Agreed, and I've been so lucky going there through the years that the people that you walk past, well, you know, I talk about my friend, Miss Nadine, she's a security and years ago, I walked past her in her station by the par three course

and I hear this voice say, you look nice. And I stop and I look, and that's Miss Nadine. And so I this voice say, you look nice. And I'm stopping. I look and that's what it's maybe. And so I walk over to miss. They didn't say, she said, let me see that tie. And I looked at it. I'm like, okay. And she said, I'm Nadine.

I'm Scott. I walked by the next day. She said, come over here. Okay. She's like, I don't like that tie. Like, who has you? And she's like, okay. So like it became that week, every day I go by.

And by the end of that week, me and Miss Nadine were like this. I get Christmas cards from her, she gets Christmas cards from me. We see each other and we hug. Like every single day I give her a hug. That's my girl, Miss Nadine. Like we've been friends for 20 years. And this is a place where there's this grill where we're allowed to eat. This room that, you know, it's the greatest sandwich and fries on a china plate you've ever

had in your life. Okay. And years ago- Is it pimento cheese or what? Well, yes, that is part of the lore of the place for sure. But one year I ordered a grilled cheese and bacon with tomato. They just made it. And if I walk in there now, my guy Tony will just give me a nod and they'll just bring it to me. They know I'm not a member at Augusta National. I'm just some bozo that's been coming for a few years, but these are my friends. And so-

That's so awesome, man. They know what to bring me. And you know what I'm saying? Like, yes, that's the level of attention to detail and, and, uh, the, the friendships that you, that you, uh, revisit every year. Um, and my wife may come down this year where I said, I don't care if you see the golf course, I just want you to get to hug miss Nadine. I just, you know, cause she knows my family, like, like Christmas cards with, with each other every year. So like those are the

people that are part of it. And then as you say that the history of it, the actual golf, every hole, right? Like 13, you remember when Phil hit it off the pine straw past a tree and, you know, 16, you remember tiger hits it up and it rolls down the hill and Vern, have you ever in your life and 17 again, Vern, Jack Nicklaus, maybe. Yes, sir. I mean, every hole has a picture in a moment in time. I mean, I could keep going the 10th hole, Bubba and a playoff. Bubba Watson, dude, that is still the most iconic shot I've ever seen in my life. There you go.

I have no idea how that lefty hooked that thing that much. Well, Bubba can't see a straight shot in his mind. That's right. He prefers to have an angle on it. Exactly. It's actually better for him to be in there in a tree and go, all right, if I hook this some bitch 90 yards around a tree, I can, you know what I mean?

And so everybody has their shots and their moments. And that, to me, is what makes it what it is. That's awesome. So you've been working the event for a long time. The first time you were at the Masters, were you a patron or were you working it? Oh no, I went 97. I was covering it for, I worked for the Golf Channel at the time and you'd never see, and it's amazing.

It's amazing to have how much it's changed. And yet, it has this incredible ability to evolve and yet stay timeless. It's impossible. It's a trick you can't pull off and yet they do where everything about it every year feels like it's been this way forever and yet so much of it has changed in terms of the golf course, how they stretched it out, made holes longer, tougher, changed this undulation, that undulation, whatever. So I mean, like the snapshot of 97 in my mind, it feels like the same place and yet it's so very different. But they get everything exactly right. Every detail is just perfect. And I haven't been to every one since 97, but I mean, there's similarities for you guys maybe with seasons, with football, right? When you're in a sport and you do something

every year and then there's a pace to the season and then there's your off season and then the next thing you know, it's like, all right, we're back in OTAs and then we're in camp. And then the season starts again and it's like, it feels like time's not passing in some ways. And so like, I was just at Augusta in my mind, only I wasn't. I mean, it was a year ago and I'll be back there and it'll be master's week. And you think to yourself, oh, it's probably been three or four years since that. And then you go, oh, shit, that was 15 years ago. You know what I'm saying? Like it can't possibly be almost 30 years since I was there with Tiger in 97. Holy cow.

But we're damn near there. And that's where I just look at myself and go, good Lord, how lucky are you to be able to keep doing this? So it's crazy how, again, how time passes and yet when you're there, it feels like time hasn't moved. We're all freaking excited for this year's. And I know you'll kick it off right big guy. Jason, man, I know you got a newborn, but I might slide down there for a Sunday finish.

Don't do it without me. I don't know. I might just say screw you and just wander around to Georgia. Come on now. Come on now. I know some people that know some people. There we go. If you left your boy at home, he would not be pleased with that, would

he? Jason, just bring the baby. Come on. Travis, that baby is surviving off of mom. I cannot offer anything to that baby. How's that? Let's just workshop this. Let's workshop this conversation, boys. We're three semi-smart people. How do we play that? How do we say, hey, listen, we're just going to leave you alone with- With Moezy down there. I've tried and I've, and I've failed. I think Mosie is the key. I think it's not, I'm not going, I'm just going to Mosie on there.

And then I'll zip right back. Mosie and zip. It's a Mosie and zip scenario. Just go down right back. You know, right back. Yeah. I mean, right back. Just a few pimentos, a few eagle nests. The beers are the eagle nests. Let's get a little azalea. People enjoy an azalea. There you go. I already tried floating. I was like, a lot of dads, they got jobs, they got to work and they can't. I just feel like I'm just going to be one day and then I'm right back. And then I don't have anything else. Scott needs help for the par three. Scott's doing the par work and they can't, you know, I just feel like I'm just gonna be one day and then I'm right back. Yeah. And then I don't have anything else, you know? Scott needs help for the par three. Scott's doing the par three. He can't do it by himself. That's right. That's right.

You've seen him on TV. He can barely form a sentence. He can barely speak coherently. We need him. Come on. It has not gone well. It has not gone well so far. I'm sweating just thinking about this conversation again. Yeah. Sometimes you got to just know what you can and can't pull off. Hey, by the way, he mentioned just this in passing, we play golf. Your brother, his practice swing, like the divot pattern, are you familiar with the flank steak size divots this man takes out of the earth. Ridiculous. Why are you doing that on the tee box on a par five, Jason? We played on a day where it rained really heavily and so the ground was super sort of, it was not firm. And so those practice swings, you'd look up and be like, there's like a

full yard of sod in the air. And that's just a practice swing. I'm like, well, you'd look up and be like, this is like a full yard of sod in the air. And that's just the practice swing. I'm like, well, you're going to have to hit the ball here. We're going to have a trench here. We can bury a squirrel, man. He's got a nice, nice swing though. Obviously a lot of power involved. Big dude, big dude. He has a better swing for a lot of the old linemen that I've come across. The shoulders and the neck and the torso area, they're just, they're meant to be right here. They're not meant to turn as much. Well that's getting that left shoulder behind the ball. That's important and it's hard when you have like that sort of, it's all fused together. Your tempo though, I mean you can really mean, you can really swing at it, Trav.

You can swing at it. Oh no, Trav's talented. He's got a great swing. I can get it going a little bit. I'm trying to get a little bit more, because I get out of whack. So I'm trying to talk about eliminating variables. Agreed. And the key for the big guys to recognize that if, like, if you draw, if you draw a line from the ball back to the top, back to the bottom, for a tall guy, it's a mile long. So, I think that I always think John Rahm, it doesn't need to be as abbreviated as John Rahm, but you also don't need to wrap that son of a gun around your neck because like

chance daily square. We all got to do the John Daly. Really difficult. But if you just turn to the point, if your shoulders behind it, all you got to do is get back to the bottom and you're going to be, you're going to knock it a long way. Your swings really good though. I appreciate that. What's your handicap? Come on, Trev.

I shoot in the probably low to mid eighties. But you could, if you got a cook and you're like, you're thinking I might, maybe I might could shoot something that started with a seven, right? Yeah. All right. That's, that's what I thought. You're good. If you're, if you're shooting something that starts with a seven, you're a good golfer. No, you're beyond, you're 99th percentile. Right?

Seriously. Yeah. I always get a kick out of people that like, like reverse sandbaggers. Like people that sandbag that say, I'm probably like a 12 and then they shoot 75. You're like, that's bullshit. But people that say, oh no, I'm like a nine.

And then they go shoot a hundred. You're like a nine what? What would you rather have? Would you rather have the guy sandbagging it or the undershooting it? That's a good question. That's actually a really good question. But the guy that says he's at 14

that goes to some member guest and shoots 75, that's very, very poorly looked upon. So I'd say, so I think the person that says that there are a 12 that shoots 108, you could live with that. Like, I just had a bad day. Well, no, you actually, you have a bullshit 12 is what you're having. And there are a lot of those, but don't be the sandbagger.

Don't be a sandbagger. That's bad luck. Bad luck, man. Let's go back to when you started ESPN. How about that? I'm happy to do it. Joined in 2001. How old were you when you first joined at ESPN? Well, let's do the math. I'm, I'm, I'm 58. So what did that put me at 2001?

I was, uh, I'm not good at math. I was 20, 35 ish. Yeah. 35 ish. Yeah. Nice. And you were with Golf Channel up until that? Uh-huh. I was, I was. I mean, I told you the story about like having the note, I wouldn't work at ESPN, but it was kind of, a lot of life is this, right? Sort of serendipitous, like a guy named Jimmy Roberts,

who actually is a Maryland guy, and was at ESPN covering golf, left to go to NBC. And that was in the middle of Tiger Woods, just laying waste to all humanity in the game. I mean, he was breaking records, you know, winning every major and ESPN really kind of needed a guy that had an in with Tiger. Sure. I was that guy. There we go. Yeah. I mean, literally, my entire career exists because of Tiger Woods. That is a fact. And maybe I could have found some of this without him,

but almost certainly not. And so I went in 2001 because ESPN really kind of needed a golf guy. And I lived out in Orlando at the time and I stayed in Orlando and I was covering golf and a little bit of this, that and the other thing. So that was when it started. That's so cool.

What was your first day at ESPN like? Do you remember? Oh yeah. Oh, I remember it vividly because I was, we were in Australia to cover a golf tournament. It was the match world match play and we're in Australia. This is actually cool. I can picture it as clear as day. We were going to follow a Syracuse basketball game and we're just waiting for it to end. And I'm sitting in like this, it's like a tent. When you're doing a golf event, you know, they build these little, you've seen them if you go to like a major or whatever, like it's a TV compound with, you know, you're outdoors but there's a tent over the top of it.

And I'm sitting there with my guy Andy North and when the game ends, there used to be this like, and you guys are ESPN heads, like there was this animation that like, it was like sort of a circle and it says ESPN. And there's this voice that says, this is a presentation of ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. And that's like, I told you about the master's moment where I'm waiting to talk. Well, this is 2001 and I've never done it. And I'm like, oh shit, I have to talk and it's me and I'm on ESPN. You know what I'm saying? It got as real as it could get.

And I'm just like, don't talk fast. Don't freak out. This is what you do. You can do it. Only I got news for you boys. I kind of couldn't do it like that at that point. And yeah, so I'm, I'm in a tent in Australia with Andy North at the, at the world match play and that's the first event I did. And then the next, it was a two week thing.

Cause we went from there to Kapalua to do what used to be the Mercedes. And I'm doing a two week junket in Australia and Hawaii and I'm like, bro, your boy's on ESPN and I am living right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, this is a good introduction. It's Australia, it's Maui and it's like life is good. I am wavy, bro, and this is real, real good. Look at your boy. Then that's how it started. And then it was actually a really, unfortunately sobering moment because I come home and I'm sitting at my house one day, it's February,

and it was the Daytona 500, and I get a phone call from ESPN that says, hey Scott, we're getting word that Dale Earnhardt might have died in this crash. And I'm like, oh, that's awful. And then they said, I'm not processing this, right? And there's, we need you to go there. And I'm thinking, wow, I mean, I had only done golf, right? And so I had just done these golf events, which was a very familiar space for me. And now all of a sudden, I'm hopping in the car driving up to Daytona to cover as big a story as there could be in the sports world. And that's where it was a real reality check of the, like you're in the deep end of the pool, man. And I remember vividly, Sports Center started that night with a report from me at Daytona,

giving the news that Dale Arnhart had died. And it went from like everything's whatever to the reality of what the stage you were on and the fact that you were covering everything. And then, you know, obviously from there, there's far less serious stories, but you added more to the plate as time went on. Yeah, holy cow. I mean, that's a heck of a switch up. Yeah.

Australia, Maui, and now- Dale Earnhardt is gone. But from my perspective as, all right, can I do this? You're not gonna be asked to cover something more significant than that. And I was able to do it. And it was just the recognition of, all right, you're in a different place now

than at the golf channel, where you just go on to the next tour stop. And that was all that we were gonna do. And then, as I say, it was more, you used to do some NBA things like Tracy McGrady and Shaq and people like that were the magic at the time. You'd do some of that. And it was just around that summer was when they said, hey, we want you to come up and maybe do some sports center. And I'm like, all right,

I can do that. And then I went, then the next thing you know, it's like, Hey, we want you to move up here and do it. And I'm, I mean, leaving Orlando where it was 75 and sunny every day for Bristol was, that was, that was a different kind of reality check. Like, what am I doing? Sure, sure. That was a was a different kind of reality check like who what am I doing? Sure sure that was a rough adjustment initially Speaking of an adjustment like Going from the golf channel where you're obviously just doing golf then all of a sudden you're doing all this stuff Was there anybody at ESPN that kind of showed you the ropes and taught you I don't know how to now cover everything I mean, I don't think I had

as much of a sort of a guide as much as I just there's there's a person and you would know this name because you know him and he's the guy that's now in charge of all things that he has piano guy named Mike McQuade. He's a behind the scenes guy who's has been as instrumental in helping me get where I am as anyone just what he did, what he did, Jason, was he basically just said, you know what to do, just go do it, and was great with feedback. You told me something when we played golf that day.

You said, I like being coached, and I thought that's great news, because not everybody does. Everyone says they want feedback. You know what feedback they want? They want grab-ass, you're awesome, attaboy. They don't want, hey, that's bullshit, that you can't do this, that was bad, here's why this sucked. But that's what you need. And having a guy like that, that was really helpful and just trusting, trusted that I would do the work and put in the work and

wherever the bumpy spots were, I'd figure them out. He was great from a behind the scenes standpoint, but then, as I mentioned, Stuart Scott was awesome. We had this admiration from afar because he and Tiger were boys and I was as well. We had seen each other from across the aisle. Then when I came, I had the endorsement from Tiger with Stuart. Then I was an ACC guy from Maryland. He was a Carolina guy. We had that kind of common thing. And then he and I just found this rhythm with one another that was really helpful from a sports center standpoint. But I mean, I've been so lucky with people that I worked with from like, and if I start naming people, I'll leave them

off. But like Stewart was big. Neil Everett was a partner of mine that I worked with a ton and he's just like, that's my brother forever. So I've just been so lucky that the people that I've sort of shared the set with and, you know, traveled with and worked with, were all great teammates that helped, helped elevate me that hopefully I helped make them the best version of them and you kind of ham and egg it. But, you know, one like we had a, you know, sit down and here's this and here's that and here's the other. They just kind of trust you to figure stuff out and what you don't, you know, they're gonna help nudge you back towards the center. Well, I'll tell you what man, the ESPN commercials alone, come on now, made that

place seem like the coolest workplace of all time. Outside of the cameos of the superstars that were in the NFL, the NBA and all that. The cast of Sports Center, men and women, I mean, we talked about them already, Rich Eyes and Dan Patrick, The Swamy, Chris Berman, Linda Cohn, Steve Levy, Stuart Scott. Like you said, we're leaving off way too many. But how fun was that to go into work? Like, did you guys actually have cubicles? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So this was actually like, you guys were just hanging out with each other and just talking sports, I would assume. Yeah. And creating the show before.

Right. And I mean, I, you know, Dan and Keith made Sports Center something different. They took it to a different place, I think. Berman's the godfather, Bob Lee as well, obviously. But then Dan and Keith took it to a thing where it was different. And then Stuart and Rich were a big time team. And, you know, they had a lot of us that kind of worked together. And you team up with different people at different times. But then the idea was if you could create people that work together quite a bit, then you create chemistry, which makes a ton of sense. You become like an O line. There's this energy. And hey, I could slide out the tackle if I need to. But if we can get some reps together, we can make this a thing. And so honestly, I mean, and it's still like that and it's different.

I'm down in DC and I'm not in a cubicle and sitting next to Rich or Stuart or whomever back in the day, but it's the same idea. Like, I'm going to go in and watch games and then I do a show. It's a joke. My dad worked for a plumbing company. I always say this, he wore boots to work. I wear Ferragamos and a little light dusting of powder on the head. That's what I wear to work. I just watch games all night. It's absurd. I think what the genius of those ads captured was that. People are like, this is what it's like? Well, yeah, I'm not actually

sitting in LeBron's chair in a throne, but it's like that. And the cool thing about that spot is and he was on me recently, it's still a joke that we go back to. I saw when he was on with you about this fuckery won't continue and then now he's 40 and he's like, when I'm 50, I mean, I saw him reference that, like the idea that, holy smokes, like he's still doing this at that age. He was a baby when he did that ad with me. And so now we can kind of still reference it.

And I got a note from his folks, like, clutch, I was texting back and forth with Rich Paul about, I said, you know what's cool is like, we've both been doing this for 20 some odd years and can still kind of do it. I'm not comparing myself as an anchor to LeBron James, but we're still in that respective place and we can still, you know, play at a certain level. You're still in the biggest spots of TV. That's kind of cool. Going back to who he was as a 21 two-year-old maybe at the time when we did it might have been he might have just been 20 when we did that spot because I joked to him.

I said, you know, I think when you and I did that ad I might have been around 40 and that was right around the age when I realized there was stuff physically. I kind of couldn't do and you're 40 and there's nothing like what is it you're doing? You know, I mean like how are you still this guy? He's not human. It's a freaking nature. My favorite one other than the LeBron one was me and Stewart were with Arnold Palmer

and all the ad is 15 seconds and it's Arnold in the cafeteria and Arnold Palmer makes an Arnold Palmer. A little iced tea, little splash of lemonade, no words are said. Then he walks off and it's me and Stuart Scott and all we say is, that was awesome. And Stuart's like, I know. And it's a 15 second spot and that's it. And so it's like, is this what ESPN is like? And like, yeah, kind of. We just kind of sit in our cubes, go to the cafeteria. Again, Arnold's not there making an Arnold Palmer, but that ad was just, uh, well, I thought was just genius. So good. Yeah, that was, that's probably my favorite one.

So simple. Yep. So you just talked about LeBron has obviously changed or still in the same space with you. You've been in the sports world for a long time. How have you seen athletes change? Has interviewing athletes gotten better or worse? That's interesting. You guys doing this and, you know, you were straddling the back end of your career, Jason Trav, thankfully, run it back.

I like that. That's great news. Still in it. Let's do it. There's a clear understanding among athletes that you own your voice and you are in charge of your voice and you have agency over yourselves to share that voice the way you want to. And I think it's been great for people to learn about athletes in a different way,

share your lives as much as you're willing to share, share your lives with the public. And that's tricky, right? You gotta pick how much of it, how much of them do you want to know about your new baby? By the way, I had to say congrats and I didn't. Thank you, thank you. God bless you, that's awesome. But that's a tricky thing and it's up to you to decide

how much you wanna share it with people. Because athletes have a space that they control, not the narrative, but what, it is the narrative, it's their narrative, it's their narrative. It's very different. And you guys joked about it a couple of years ago, Jason, you were still playing for Philly and I thought we were gonna talk to you.

And then you had cramps and they sent somebody else out. And I think I said on Sports Center, I thought we were talking to Kelsey, but I guess he wants to save the content for the podcast. And I was just joking, but then you guys covered it. I have my backs. How are you going to pull off SVP like that? No, you don't ever do that. Which you didn't. But I think what I'm saying is I think that it is interesting that if you have

something impactful and important that you want to say, you want to say it on your platform the way you want to say it. But I do think what I have with athletes is a trust. I think people respect that I respect them and know that I'm not trying to, you're not going to get got. It's not what that's about. I'm trying to have a genuine conversation and I'm interested in the things that are related to the competition. And I think I'm good at having conversations that can pull out the emotions and the answers that are related to that that are interesting to me and the audience.

I still think we can have those conversations even if you have a lane that you want to be the driver of that content, I get it. So it's different. But I also think it's made guys and men and women more comfortable in talking about themselves in a way that it's maybe less guarded when you do have the conversations. That makes sense? For sure. There's just, there's a tonnage of voices and content out there these days

And so I've done it long enough that I don't I don't meet strangers if that makes sense Even if we haven't talked I've done it long enough that I'm not saying this to be an ass But I mean you probably have some idea who I am and I know who you are So we're not even if we've never talked we're familiar with each other and hopefully you're familiar with the way I approach things. Absolutely. Always a pros-pro. How many, I gotta ask you though, of the four major sports that you typically cover, even though it goes far beyond that, which athletes give you the best post-game answers? I think hockey guys. There's a sincerity to hockey guys. And they fascinate me because I can't skate.

These guys will play through like a severed limb. What they're willing to go through is beyond my comprehension. Like I get, dude's got to take a shot to be available and your availability is your best ability. I appreciate what you guys put through, yourselves through rather. But hockey guys just

Totally fascinate me like there's guys whose mouths their teeth It looks look like they ate a fucking grenade and they're still playing like Passage they brag about it, right? How do what are you doing? If that happened to me? I'd be incapacitated for a week and they're like out there for the next shift. So there's a curiosity I have about them. And I'm not talking about them like they're zoo animals, like what are you? But it's a little- No, they are.

They are. They're zoo animals for sure. They're zoo animals. They just, I played golf once with Oshie and Carlson, a couple of capitals here in Texas. Oh, he had literally just had surgery on a sports hernia a week before. Him and Carlson are talking about that moment when you're passing out from the anesthesia about that last couple of seconds. They were talking about it with joy in their eyes before they go under for surgery. And I couldn't get over just how those dudes are wired, man. So, hockey guys fascinate me. Those are the guys I enjoy the most

because I have the least understanding of them. There's a whole way they talk too that's like mesmerizing. The verbiage they use and there's like half of them aren't even Americans, right? They're Canadians or they're from overseas and Russia or whatnot and right there's like there's slang to it and Everybody's got a Nick. You know everybody's it's no one's just Jason or Travis It's you know, it's J bow and Jen, you know Everyone's you gotta I'm doing a shitty job of what? Like what they call Wayne Gray Oh, Wayne Oh, that's what me and Steve, every time we bring up Wayno, like this is the greatest player that's ever played.

And the Canadian guys talk about skating down the ice side by each, like side by each. Okay, I get it. You're next to each other. It is, there's a different language in the boys and the room. The way they talk about the room, that's my favorite thing. It's the locker room, but the room, the way they talk about the room, that's my favorite thing. It's the locker

room, but the room, the way they talk about it, it's like a sacred place. Oh yeah. And you guys know it because you live it, but the hockey guy's room is a whole other level. There's nothing like it. Last year, I talked to Paul Maurice after they won, the Florida Panthers won, and he gave the greatest answer. I asked, you know, you've spent your life in pursuit of this thing and now you've done it. And in what way does that change your life? He took this

really deep pause and then he gave this sincere thing. He said, I hope it doesn't. I hope I've lived my life in a way where it won't change me. And then he says, but next year when we go to camp, I'm going to skate the hell out of the boys because I got carte blanche. You know, it was like, it was this surreal, sincere moment, but then right back to the way that he's going to give the boys a hard time. I don't know, hockey guys, again, I'm being redundant, but they're mind boggling. Different grade, man. No, I'm right with you.

I think anybody who's been in an ice rink or a hockey locker room, The culture of hockey, especially in the good spots, nobody's put on a pedestal. The moment you think you're going to be a pretentious or prima donna, you can't survive in that sport. It's all about doing stuff for your team. We had the Kachuk brothers on. Their dad obviously played in the league for a number of years. And his one rule, his two rules were, be a good teammate and work hard, right? And that like sums up who these guys are. Yeah, right.

But that's life. Whoever's listening, the 92 percenters, that's it. Be a good teammate and work hard. But then I'm just trying to imagine what it is to be a guy and to understand that there's going to come a time when you got to go out there in the ice and you skate up to that dude next to you and you just look at the guy and you go, you want to go? And you got to say, yeah.

And then down go the gloves and like you want to go. I mean, it's like an invitation. It's like, Hey, you want to go get some lunch? They're like, no, do you want me to punch you in the head? But there's an invite. And if you don't accept that invite, and then even if you can't fight, even if you get mopped, the boys are going to give you a stick tap because it was your turn to go. Again, that's not a space I'm familiar with. It's so epic. Steve Levy never once came up to me and asked me to fight.

That never happened. There's a weird thing in a lot of hockey players' eyes where I feel like if you punch most people in the face, they get pissed. They're going to look at you and they're going to... There's going to be a look of anger. I feel like if you punch a hockey guy in the face, they would smile. It's almost like this weird mentality with some of these sports like hockey. I think rugby players are similar there. And there's certainly some football players like this, where it's almost like you want to get punched in the face. It's weird.

But I've seen when DBs and wide receivers get at it and you grab the face mask and dudes are swinging and then it's more like lunchroom, like let's separate me and then let's get mad. Where like, but like you punched John Carlson in the head and he would be like, come on. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like all you did was light that fuse buddy

and you're not ready. This is what I wanted. You're not ready for what's coming. You're not ready. Nobody's pulling us back. Yeah. Fuck, you guys are getting me fired up for some playoff hockey here. Hell yeah. I love it.

That time of year is great. Post-masters, and then it gets back into a great flow of you got one night you follow the Stanley Cup, the next night you follow NBA playoffs, and it's just there's a great cadence to this time of the year as we get to the spring. You ain't lying. Now, a moment brought to you by American Express. What's your favorite type of cuisine, Travis? Cuisine? I'm like an American cuisine kind of guy.

Yep, yep, yep. Okay, are there certain cities that you think the food is better in? New York. Way to be super creative with your answer. I mean, Jason, you can get anything you want in the world in New York. I mean it's good. I'm not gonna lie New York's very good. I think Philly's got good food too. Philly's got great food. You know it's a really good food town especially for anybody born in the Midwest. Chicago! It does. Here's some good news for the foodies out there with Amax Platinum.

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That's right. Like you know to check expiration dates before cooking. Uh huh. Uh huh. Like you know to check if you have your keys before closing the door. Like you know to check the weather before heading to the beach. That'd be a good idea. Good idea.

Like how you have to check if you have your wallet before heading out to dinner. Sometimes you check to make sure you didn't bring it. It's a vet move. Ah, this one's on you. I'll get you back next time. Well, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote

that could save you hundreds of dollars. That's right. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company company and affiliates Northbrook, Illinois. Thank you, Intuit Turbo Tax for sponsoring today's episode. Hey, Trav, do you remember when you told people to do their taxes? Mm, no, but I can see myself saying that. Well, here's a clip.

Why don't we play this for everyone to see? Make sure you do your taxes. Yeah. And we still mean it because April 15th is coming up fast. You need to get your taxes done by then. So listen, we all know taxes can be complicated, especially when you're trying to handle them yourself. But with TurboTax full service, you get an actual expert who gives your taxes their undivided attention while you focus on what matters to you. So while your tax expert crunches numbers, you can be living your best life on a beach somewhere, sipping a drink with one of those tiny umbrellas, all while getting a real time update on their progress. And these experts are on it.

They'll find every possible deduction and handle every form every investment Literally everything get a TurboTax live expert who can file your taxes for you as soon as today and Get you the biggest possible refund because that's the reward of doing this the right way now This is taxes brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. Now do your taxes Well, let's keep this cadence in the show going. We got one last segment for you big guy. We call this one we gotta ask. We close every convo I was a little we gotta ask and you don't have to answer and you can basically either answer the question or tell me and

Jason to go fuck off. First one off the board what is your greatest personal athletic achievement? I play a par three tournament every summer at the beach. It's a little course called Bethany. Well, this, this yes, we're I that's where our family's been for. Sorry, I don't know if we want to disclose this. Everybody in town knows where we live. Come by and say hi. Look forward to seeing you.

It's north of there. There's Dewey Beach and then there's a little town called Lewis Delaware. And Lewis Delaware has a par three course called the Midway Par 3. Me and my boys have been playing a tournament there every year forever. I'm proud to tell you, last year, your boy won it in a playoff over a guy that actually ... Thank you. Thank you. Over a guy who actually played golf at the University of Maryland, beat him in a playoff over a guy that actually. Thank you. Thank you. Over a guy who actually played golf

at the University of Maryland, beat him in a playoff with a birdie. And then I sent a, I'm not trying to name drop or whatever. This is just actually me making fun of what an idiot I am. I sent a picture to Scotty Scheffler who has won some tournaments and like, you know what, buddy, you never won this. And it's a picture of me holding up the trophy. Oh my gosh. Our buddy runs a bar down there called the Starbird. It's our guy, Monty. And like every year the winner of this tournament

gets put up on the video board outside the Starbird. And so seeing my smiling face holding that trophy, that's as good as it's gonna get boys. It's pretty much downhill from there. But I did win in Midway last summer defending champ. know what not defending because no one can take it away from me I'm the reigning champ reigning champ. Yeah, baby. Come get See you in July raining Midway Dingle champion You tweeted this at the New Heights account, please elaborate how close did you you or Mark Schlereth come to shitting your pants on air?

OK, so. All right. Let's just say Mark Schlereth shout to stink. My guy, I think I taught him how to tie his tie and like it should have been a sports commercial. I taught him how to get that great dimple in the middle of his tie and he, to this day, we love laughing about that. But this was a story. Show me a man who says he has to shit his pants, I'll show you a liar. Has it happened on air? I explained Mark Shlarath is familiar with it. So there was a day where I was having a rough day, had a little bubble, little gurgle in the belly, a little bad tummy. And I'm said to Stink, buddy, there's a decent chance that while we're sitting out here,

I might shit my pants. And Stink says to me, it's fine, it's fine. You just need to put some leaves in the gutter. I'm like, excuse me? You don't know leaves in the gutter? I'm like, what's leaves in the gutter? He's like, you just take a big giant ball of toilet paper and you ball it up and you put it in your ass crack. And then while you're sitting there, you know, in your boxers, you just, you got, it's basically like a, like a diaper of sorts. Because I wasn't going to full on shit my pants. It was going to be just a short kind of a moment. Just at that. Is this a fart? Oh, it's hot. No, I wasn't going to full on shit my pants. It was going to be just a short kind of a moment. Just at that, is this a fart?

Oh, it's hot. No, that wasn't a fart. And so I had leaves in the gutter. And then that night, this gets better. It's a promo. We were doing, he's there to do analysis on, say, the Thursday night game. For argument's sake, it's the Steelers and the Bengals. I don't remember.

But I say it because a lot of what we do are inside jokes. I said, you know, Stank tonight's the Steelers and the Bengals. I don't remember. But I said, because a lot of what we do are inside jokes, I said, you know, Stink tonight, the Steelers defense, man, they bottled up that run for the Bengals like leaves in the gutter. And Stink barely can get through the segment because I'm talking about the balled up toilet paper in my butt crack that he shared me and I'm happy to say I did not need the leaves in the gutter but fellas maybe ladies when in doubt if you need to go leaves in the gutter there's a pro tip from Mark Shlarif to me to you. That's the story of how Scott Van Pelt almost shit his pants on TV. That's cool. Wow. I didn't know we were going to get into that, but that's a true story.

There you go. I'm stealing that too. Leaves in the gutter is gold, man. I'm telling everybody that. Leaves in the gutter. Shout out to Stink. It happens. And if you got a little gurgly belly, you want to make sure that would be a real bad

problem if it happened without the leaves in the gutter. Yeah, for sure. What do you watch outside of sports, Scott? This is a bone of contention with Stanford Steve. Nothing. I have so many shows I know I'm supposed to watch. He's like, you got to watch. And Steve is a consumer of content. He's up on all the great shows. And then he says, he's like, bro, White Lotus. And then he shows me the White Lotus scene where Goggins characters talking to the dude about Lady Boys. And I'm like, it's so crazy. I'm like, this is the show I'm supposed to watch. Like, my man's going through it.

Oh, yeah. And that that's a, that's a tough on ramp for a show if like, what this is? What's this? He's like, oh, it's And that's a tough on-ramp for a show. What's this? He's like, oh, it's a resort. What kind of resort is it? So I have three young kids. Maybe this is sad, but it's true. I just really love sports.

And if I have free time and there's a game on, I find myself watching it, A, because I like it, and B, because it's my job to kind of be aware of what's going on. And so I largely, I don't think I've watched anything like immersed in it since Breaking Bad and that hasn't been on the air in years. Yeah, it's been a while. I'm really, really bad at this because I know what I'm supposed to know and I can kind of

passively bullshit my way through a white lotus or a severance conversation. Like I saw you talking to Ben about waffles and all this stuff and I know what it's about, but only vaguely. And that's always bad. It's like if you only speak like a little bit of Spanish and people are talking Spanish and you're just nodding and you're like, Biblioteca. Yeah.

Sabatos, thatlioteca. Yeah. That shoes. Right. I'm that guy that knows like eight words in Spanish. That's what I, that's what I'm able to do when it comes to TV shows. And I always say I'm going to do it, but I'm not going to lie to anybody anymore. I'm probably not going to watch any of this. And that's, that's my own fault, but that's where I'm at. What about TV shows about sports? What about like Ted Lasso? I was in that. No big deal.

Yeah, yeah. There we go. Now that was actually really cool. This is this and you had Jason on and he broke the news about that, which was cool. Yeah, I was told, hey, Jason Sudeikis wants to talk to you. I said, what about like, well, he wants they want they're going to do the show and that he wants to talk to you about it. I said, well, just tell him I'll just I'll just do it.

Whatever it is. It's fine. It's a cameo. No big deal. No, he really wants to talk to you about it. I said, well, just tell him I'll just do it. Whatever it is, it's fine. It's a cameo. No big deal. No, he really wants to talk to you. Okay. So I end up on the phone with Sudeikis and we end up talking for like an hour about life and how we had, we held a lot of similar views about the gratitude and all the stuff I was kind of talking about. And what a cool man, what a great dude, what a fun guy to talk to. And he just wanted me, it was really important to him that I understood what this guy was about and then how much they wanted me to be sort of the guy that set the tone in that very first episode with the Sports Center thing about this coach that's going to go

over. And I'm like, sure, of course. But what I got out of it was this really, really meaningful conversation with this guy right before this thing became this phenomenon. And so it was really neat because Jason, you mentioned when you brought me on, it was nice. Like I've been nominated a lot.

I've been nominated like eight times for an Emmy. I have never won one. Well, when they won everything, I'm like, hey man, I was in an episode. Do I get a trophy? How's this work? You told me how important it was for me to be part of it. I was in one.

How far down the line of credits do we go? I was kidding. I didn't really want one. I'm not that thirsty. But anyway, it was cool that he asked me to be part of that and that he had this sincere want for me to understand what it was about. So anyway, no, like I watched, I did watch Ted Lasso, the wife and I watched that. I think that's the sweet spot for me. I need something that's about that long that you can kind of watch on demand when you're not refereeing WWE between the boys in the basement.

Do you have a favorite sport to watch? Whatever is on? Well, I wouldn't say that. Like I love college basketball. I love the tournament. When the Stanley Cup is on, I'm mesmerized by that. Like playoff hockey overtime is the most tense thing there is because at any moment the game just ends. And then when I'm watching that, I'm like, there's nothing that's cooler than this.

But then like, look, college football, you turn it on if it's a big, big 10 game, a big SEC game, whatever, whatever league, I don't care. But then like when we're at Monday Night Football and it's, a couple of years ago when Philly came to Arrowhead, you knew what what that, the stakes were high for a regular season night. There was juice that was real, that's hard to manufacture. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm real whichever way the wind blows. The place that I'm at right now, I'm just, I love that. And I love baseball. It's just that it gets, you know, by August and we're dragging, you know? You're just waiting for football to kick at that point But then when we get to the playoffs man, playoff baseball is incredibly intense, too. So

I I'm like you all man. I grew up with it. I love it and whatever we got tonight I'm excited because something will happen that I don't know is gonna happen. Yes. Well one last question for you big guy What are your Mount Rushmore of SportsCenter top 10 plays? The all time greatest plays ever. Of you, of yours. Not to put you on the spot. Of yours that you just saw. Yeah. What? Yeah.

For me? Yeah. Yes. Things that happened to me, though, or things I did on SportsCenter. Um, or things I saw, things I called. There you go. Bro. Your boys done. That's what happens. I read. Just tell us to fuck off. Just tell us to fuck up. This's what I just tell us to fuck off. Just tell us to fuck up. This is where you just tell us to fuck off.

Fuck off. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm old and feeble. This brain is mush and I've done a lot of shows, man. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know. Already so many fucking golden stories. Thank you for your time, man. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know. Already so many fucking golden stories, man. Thank you for your time, brother. We appreciate

you. Hey, listen, continued success in all things, boys. You guys, you know, yeah, be grateful for what we get to do. I know you guys are and do, but I think it's important that people hear that, you know, that Enver story I told her. I just, I'm, I'm sincere about it. Going to the Masters, being present, being grateful, I just think that's a great sort of place to stay. I try my best. That's, I love what you guys have. I love the bond.

I love you guys sharing your lives with people because they're interested in, you know, it's fun to stop in and say hello. So keep doing what you guys are doing. You're the best, brother. Complete honor to have you on, Scott. Thank you so much. Thank you, dude. You're the best. Fuck fuck off.

Scott Van Pelt everyone. Gold man. How awesome was that? Told you man. Guy's the best. It just felt like we were in the living room and he was just speaking the gospel to us. Like telling us like the stuff that his father said, how he still, dude, just an all time great dude. Just an all-timer man.

Can tell a story like nobody else, man. And yeah, I mean, leaves in the gutter forever. Leaves in the gutter. Ha ha ha ha ha. Let's keep it moving. Let's get to some No Dumb Questions brought to you by Perplexity. That's right. We've spent so much time on this show looking up answers. We are now sponsored by a search engine.

How about that? Shout out to Perplexity. Discover fast and reliable search with Perplexity today from M. No Dumb Questions. If you could make one of your body parts detachable, which would it be and why? Detachable? It's a very weird question, M. I'll wait for you to answer first. What would I want to be detachable? I don't know. Maybe my ears so I wouldn't have to hear people. That's what I was thinking too. You can right away just like... Nose, nose cuz I think I think smell it says you're going senses

Yeah, I think smells can be a little more in the area. You don't want to have to smell that I'm not trying to smell that shit I'm going senses though. I'm going ears or nose ears or nose ears would be nice You're trying to get some shut eye, trying to go to sleep, just take your ears off. Yeah. Ooh. Sleep tight. That's real nice. Then you're never waking up. You have to get something that shakes the room or

something. All right. I'm just going to throw it out there. I mean, if we're being honest, it usually just gets in the way. Jason. I mean, it's an inconvenient appendage at times. I mean, listen,'re being honest, it's usually just gets in the way. It's Jason. I mean, it's an inconvenient appendage at times. I mean, listen, I'm very happy I have one. The ball's in-chain? I feel like it's a one-stop shop.

I think it's all the same appendage. I don't think that's how it works. If you could just take it all off, I mean, it would eradicate. I mean, it just gets in the way sometimes. You know what I mean? Like if you're running, you got to think there would be less friction without that in between your legs trying to play sports, right? I don't think about it. It doesn't bother me at all. And then if like you could take let me let's just be honest, if

you can detach it. That means you could probably attach an upgraded one. You know what I mean? You could go bigger. Assuming it's like a universal connection point, I could attach another one. You're a fucking psychopath, man. I was waiting for you to make it make sense and you never disappoint. There you go. Like, is it like the iPhone charger where they went to all just USB-C, like we're going to one standard connection, whatever thing those are called. They're hilarious. I thought one of the things is we're asking perplexity these questions.

What question would you like me to ask the machine real quick? I'll do it. I'll do it for you, Jason. What is? What is? What is? What is the best body part to make detachable? OK.

We'll see where this goes. What is the best body part to make appendix boring, tonsils boring, gallbladder. Ooh, arm, hand, legs, head. Head, you can make, I mean, head detachable. That's like, what is that, Futurama, where the heads are detachable. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, get a new body.

Just get a whole new body. Not a bad idea. I wouldn't mind that. Okay. It's a great answer, perplexity. You already mentioned you wanted it. Why would I wouldn't mind that. OK, yeah. Answer perplexity. You're already you're already mentioned. You don't want it. Why would I make my dick detachable?

I can just make my head detachable and put it on somebody with a bigger dick. Brand new. Why did you even? Why did you even go to perplexity? Because he asked me to. My job is to do what you guys asked me to, my job is to do what you guys asked me to do. I don't. This is hilarious.

All right. All right, perplexity wins. Every time. Can you imagine coat checking your dick? Hilarious. Coat checking your dick is fucking funny. I'm not going to need this tonight. Can you hold on to this? What did dad used to say? Fanny pack. You'd lose your dick if it wasn't attached. I think it's what dad used to tell us. He used to tell me that all

the fucking time. Maybe that's why I thought of this immediately. You're right, dad. I don't want it to be detachable because I would definitely I would lose that motherfucker Jason you of all knowing Your dick would be like in the car in a sock My fucking dog would eat it you had find it a balloon's got it in his mouth again Jason Kelsey Dick is lost in a bad chili Yeah, you're right. We don't want that Yeah, I'm not responsible We don't want that to be detachable. You need to keep that attached. Yeah, I'm not responsible enough to have a detachable dick.

Jake, Jake, you're always like, what do I make quote cards? What do I make quote cards? There's your quote card for the week, Jake. Make that a graphic. Put it out immediately. Jesus Christ. Let's hit the brackets. Let's get out of here. God damn it. Alright, that does it for No Dumb Questions brought to you by Perplexity. Discover fast and rely on the search with Perplexity today. Let's move on to some March Madness challenge updates. That's right, we're all the way to the Final Four. Oh, where we sitting? Where we sitting? First time in a long time. The men's final four is all one seed. It's only happened one time before from our data analysis. Thanks a lot, NIL. Thanks a lot. You got it. Love it. Nice. Auburn, Houston, Duke, and Florida for the men's bracket. And let's take a quick look at the leaderboard for the New Heights March Madness Challenge and a quest for the Golden Cup. Demetrius Asrat is on top of the

leaderboard with Jeremy Wendt. It's going to come down to the Houston and Duke matchup. Yeah, that's a good point. I guess that is it. They play this round, right? I think there's a few other things that could go into it too, but yes. Oh, like who else? If it's 181, play this round, right? I think there's a few other things that could go into it too. But yes, like who else? 181. Whoever wins that game is probably gonna I guess depends on who their other Final Four team is and then who yeah. I don't know how these these points work. I think it matters also who wins the other game too, and who those two picked. But Demetrius Jeremy, congratulations on getting it to this point. That's pretty damn good. Yeah, somebody's going to win it. Amy Waldrip is up there.

So is Amanda Fryas, Casey Qualls, Nicole Winkle. There's no L in there. This is still anybody's game. I mean, these points are close. Yeah, no, everybody's kind of right there. Everybody's kind of right there. So shout out to all of them for making it this far. Yeah, the tie for first and a little five-way tie for second.

The women's Final Four is UConn, UCLA, South Carolina, and the University of Texas. That's Brandon writing that and me just reading it. 92 percenters, the standings are just two points separate first place and a three-way tie for second shout out to Nick Sterling, Adam Aoun and Cody. I'm just gonna say Cody because that's a crazy last name and Katie Plummer. Shout out to Katie. Going into the final weekend here are our New Heights team standings.

The men's bracket Brandon is winning by one point. Surprise surprise. Jason is dead last. I'm out. I'm out. And in the women's bracket though, Jason, you got me by a point right now. My average height of roster is paying off. You got me by one point. Although I yep, I had Yukon in South Carolina. Well, we'll see. I'll tell you what is a it's gonna be a fun Final Four. I'm pumped. You got a obviously

all the one seeds in the men's bracket. The women's bracket is getting real tough, the real real exciting here going into the Final Four. I'm just I'm pumped man. There's there's just something about March Madness that just it keeps me glued to the TV. It's the best. It really is. It's great. It's, it's, you know, great TV happening, live sports happening all day. We're in the tail end of it where it's only at night now, which kind of sucks. But these are the best games too. So, you know, it's going to be a great week of basketball, baby. That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel,

follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by HBO's The Last of Us,

premiering soon here in April. Follow the show on all social media, at new heights show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week. Thanks to the production and crew for always editing out what we shouldn't say, Jason. There's things we're not supposed to say. Into the 90 percenters.

Love you guys, we'll see you next week. Follow New Heights on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to New Heights early and ad free. Plus, enjoy exclusive episodes of the show by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop. From Wondery and Atwill Media, I'm Misha Brown and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of

all time like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, you try to get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie.

Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy the big flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the big flop early and ad free on Wondery Plus. Get started with your free trial at Wondery.com slash plus.