SmartLess - "Mike Tirico"

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

It’s a miraco: we’ve got Mike Tirico, who opens up his gym bag and trains us on the sport of life. Pills of choice, flopping, godsons, and golf indexes. “It was the duck…” on an all-new SmartLess.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So guys, welcome. It's time for another session of Smartless Cold Open. Yeah. And who would like to begin? Anybody want to begin? Willie's in hysterics over a joke that Sean just told that America, you cannot hear because if you did, you'd never like Sean Hayes again. Welcome to SmarterList.

Ha ha ha! Smart. Lies. Smart. Lies. Smart. Lies. JB., you look... J.B. looks like a guy with the glasses and the hat and the beard and the hair. He looks like he's just... He's spending the weekend. He's parked the van up in Bend, Oregon, right? He's up in Bend. He's going to do some windsurfing on the river

at the gorge. It's disgusting. He's up at the gorge. These are frames. They look good, I like those frames. These are frames that you would see on Plastic Man if you're as old as I am. They're kind of tragically hip now

that my wife made me get. I just keep them at the house, but I wore them today, and they're transition lenses, so they get that little smoky kinda half tint. And so, and so the problem is like, I'm keeping them at home so no one sees them, but I've been on Zooms all day, and so Will's just reminding me

that I've looked like a frickin' douchebag all day. No, you don't. I said you look kinda crunchy. I didn't say you look like a douchebag. I said you look like you're up in Oregon. I got this hipster little trucker hat on and everything. The glasses look like you could have a neck tattoo. Yeah, bro.

Right? You could be, that you live in Highland Park. Wait, let me ask you this. What's a part that you would never, never get asked to play or would want to have to play? Oh. Probably this guy. For real?

Well yeah, I mean the part I'm playing, I mean that's why I grew out this dumb ass beard and long hair is because I'm playing a guy that is, you know, he's got a drug history and he makes a lot of bad decisions. They usually get cast as like some smart, middle-aged white dick, you know? Anyway.

Well we'll let the audience do the math on that one. You know what I mean? I was gonna do the math for you, but. Oh, you guys. Wait, so what's going on? Have you guys had the dumb, dumb, busy day like me? I mean, today is just like a cute comment. No, I had a super slow day today.

I did, I had a bunch of. I went to the eye doctor. Oh, check this out. Look at this, I went to the eye doctor. Oh, check this out. Look at this, I went to the eye doctor today. Just my left. Which one was sick? Can you see? Oh yeah, it's still a little...

One's dilated? Yeah. Two are dilated. So did Scotty have to drive you today? Or did you take risks by yourself? I was like, I'm fine, I'm fine. And I pulled out into traffic. I was like, oh, I don't think I'm fine.

Jamie, I thought about you when I got dressed for this because I've been doing a bunch of stuff and I worked out, I did two different kinds of workouts today, but I'm in, it's been a transition, I'm transitioning between different parts of my day and I thought, you know, who's gonna love my look and I'm gonna have to give you the full... Uh-oh, here we go.

Because you're gonna hate it so much. You've already got it on the baggy, the neck, which is nice. He's got the crocs on. He's got white crocs on, guys, with the heel strap. Wow. And then camo shorts. And camo shorts.

And then golf socks. So you've got an indoor outfit on today, like me. Or have you been outside? I remember one time. Did anybody see that today? I went outside. I went, nobody saw this, nobody saw this. But I remember one of my favorites was seeing you,

you and I were hanging with Krasinski, this is minimum 15 years ago, and he was wearing some stupid little socks with his Vans, and he just had, and you just look over and you go, laundry day. No, I don't think I said that, because that's the line we've always heard. I think I just said, confident?

Or is it? Oh, that's true. Oh, that was the other one that you said. No, sorry. Confident, huh? You went confident. No, you didn't say confident, you just went confident. Which is just so shitty.

It's so good. It's so good. It's dumb. But wait, how did, sorry, sorry, guest, we're gonna get right to you, because you're even busier than all three of us combined. How did the white crocs find their way into your closet anyway?

Well, you know what, thanks for the plug. My friends at Dix.com sent me a bunch of stuff. We've seen it, Will. Yeah, they sent me a bunch of stuff. That's nice, didn't they? Bless their hearts, yeah. Instead of money? They sent crocs for me, yeah, that seems fair.

Did you not get compensated for the commercial? I did, you're looking at them, they're called Crocs. God, those are expensive Crocs. They sent me Crocs for the kids and me, so we all got them, and I've never really worn Crocs, and I'm gonna be honest. They're pretty great. They're really comfortable.

They are super comfortable. Really quick, I have a Croc story. Okay. So I was doing promises, promises, and afterwards I met, I have a croc story. So I was doing Promises Promises, and afterwards I met, thank you, thank you, thank you, and afterwards I went out and did the meet and greet that you have to do sometimes when people want to say hi, and there's a very buttoned up family,

and the little boy, he was like nine years old, he had like a suit on with the crocs, and the girl had a little dress on, and after the show you're like fired up, you're doing bits, you're doing bits, you're trying to be funny, you're trying to still entertain them, and so the little girl, she's like, can you sign my show, you're like fired up, you're doing bits, you're doing bits, you're trying to be funny, you're trying to still entertain them. And so the little girl, she's like,

can you sign my program? I'm like, sure, what's your name? She's like, Sue. I go, what a tsunami of a performance or some stupid joke. And then I looked at him and he took off his crock and he said, wait, he took off his crock and he said, can you sign this? I go, yeah, wait, shit.

Yeah, he said, how about you sign this for your crock of shit performance? Is that what he said? No. Didn't you tell me one time in a really low moment of your life you wore crocks to a meet and beat? Wait, what's a meet and beat? Oh, sure. Oh, boy. Listeners, can you just call Sean real quick for us?

Oh, a meet and beat. Okay, I did the math. Okay, guys, do you like football? Hey, Willie, Sean, do you like football? Yeah, I actually really do. Do you like golf? Do you like horse racing? Do you like car racing? Do you like basketball?

Do you like the Olympics? Yeah. Our guest today is the guy that's been holding your hand for about 35 years through some of the most exciting live television and personal excellence ever. He is as casual and comforting as he is knowledgeable and anxiety inducing. He's your favorite house guest,

but he's got no idea where you live, guys. He knows all the things about sports, but is not an athlete. He is as familiar as a family member, but you don't know a thing about him until now. Will, Sean, listeners, please welcome the star of the highest rated television show, 13 years running and the host of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, the one and only Mr. Mike Turrico. Mike Turrico.

Oh wow. Big reveal. There I am. I mean, is that an intro? God, I was trying to write that down. I want to repeat that Jason's busy day he wrote that intro yeah Welcome Mike. It is very good to have you here I am a listener, and it's it's an honor to be on although. I'm nervous as hell Please you don't have time to listen to dumbass podcasters. Maybe you forget you didn't catch the part where I'm wearing crotch Mike

dumbass podcast. We're losers. Maybe you didn't catch the part where I'm wearing crotch, Mike. I did. I did. So. Now, when do you squeak in the time to listen to anything? Like on planes, I'll bet. Yeah, on planes, on a walk.

I'm like a 1.75 podcast listener. I need to get them over quick, you know? So I try to squeeze them in. So you might go like a horse racing or auto racing around the events. And then, like, I need a little bit of a change. So actually one day one of our PR guys said,

you know, look at the top 10 podcasts in America. And I saw this one, I said, this is the only one that really appeals to me. So I'm not an every week guy, but I'm here every once in a while. Well, listen, there's a little something for everybody on this dumb show. Yes, it is.

You, however, are right up my alley, mister. So let's just get into it, Mike. Let's start from the beginning. Let's start from the very beginning. So your dad's driving your mom to the hospital, right? She's in, she's in. All right, so let's, well where did it, were you an athlete, are you an athlete?

I worked that into the intro there because it kind of rolled nice, but I'll bet you're a bit of an athlete, right? No, no. No? You were right. So in my family, we have two kids. My wife played basketball at Syracuse.

So we have a dog. And you went to Syracuse, that's where you guys met? Yeah, that's where we met. So we have a dogs. There are five of us in the house. I'm the fifth athlete in the house. You know, I play golf, it's not pretty. I love it. I feel like I'm this close. I'm the king of the range. I've won more titles on the range than maybe any golfer alive. And I feel really good in the short game area.

And then for some stupid reason it doesn't translate So I got how bad a golfer are you let me guess I'm a 15. I was gonna put you at a 10 Yeah, I was a coven. I was 10.2. Yeah, I was feeling pretty good about life, and I said here we go We're going we're gonna get to single digits life's gonna be good and that hasn't happened you so wait You got your index down to a 10 too? I did during COVID. I was playing every day and I kinda knew what I was doing. It was socially distant, yeah.

That's what got me back into golf. That's when we started playing again was during COVID. We hadn't played for years, JB and I. Yeah, we started playing and then it just, and then JB went absolutely mental. Because I have addiction issues. Well, he does and it was crazy and then his wife is really mad at golf and blah, blah, blah and. Well, he does, and it was crazy. And then his wife is really mad at golf and blah, blah, blah,

and I said, you know, the fix to it is don't go mental, right? Just do it like, don't do it every day. But he couldn't hear me because he was watching swing videos. I'm obsessive. But now that I'm working, I put them down for nine months. I won't even touch my clubs. So when you go back, will you be good? I will be terrible and I will stay out of the money games because I'll still be stuck with my old index But here's what's so weird. So so this is it's funny that JB so I said to JB

Sunday we all saw each other for dinner He'd been in New York for a couple months and I said why don't you know? Yes, then I said why don't you come to the range? With me just cuz you're here this week. don't you come to the range with me? Just because you're here this week, just come to the range over at where we play. Can't even be around it. He's like, no, I can't do it until October. It's a trigger, trigger situation.

Well, it's just about moderation, my friend. Yeah, I'm not good at five. I need every, a 10 or a zero. That's my problem. Wouldn't you find it as a release? Just get away for a little bit, stop your mind. That's what I find. There you go.

Yeah, it's true, but then that means I've gotta be kind of indifferent as to how I'm playing and I gotta care, you know? I mean, you know what I'm talking about. You don't call me to see the way I'm gonna bring it right back to you. You don't phone in your work there. You make it seem very casual,

but it takes a tremendous amount of preparation, I would imagine, especially just in switching sports, but then having to know all the specific players and the relevance of that game per the rivalries between those teams and where it sits in the season and all of that stuff is just like, talk to us about your preparation, about your team. I'm sure you've got people that you're reliant on

that are incredible. You're right, you nailed it. I'm paranoid that one day I'm gonna wake up and we'll have Katie Ledecky riding one of the horses in the Kentucky Derby. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. Circuits of cross, no, no, no, stop, right?

We have unbelievable research teams. The story of the Olympics on TV in America. Yeah. It has, the research department for the Olympics has been kind of the training ground for a lot of executives in TV. Wow. Over like 30, 40 years.

So a bunch of the people who were Olympic researchers in the 70s and 80s and 90s now run sports divisions at CBS and at NBC. Really? They're super smart people and they give you more than you can read and you just got to figure out how to shorten the stack and how to keep it organized. I'm not going to learn the rules for the 30 sports and all the names of the 10,000 athletes

for the Summer Olympics. but that's my job Who deserves the the the accolades for that was it was it rune Arledge? Yeah in the day yeah, yeah, do it going back to when ABC had the Olympics and Remember the wide world of sports when it started it was okay. Yes It was the ski jumper falling off the side the best. Yeah I mean, not for him, but the best for us. The guy's name is Venko Bogatai. That was his name. I sat at the top of that speed at that ski jump in Austria once. You know, there's a big graveyard at the bottom of it.

It's like that's all you can see from the top of that ski jump is just this massive graveyard. It explains why he took the exit ramp to the left. Yeah, exactly. He got subtracted. Yeah, but it was the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, but it was up close and personal. That was their tagline for the profiles. And one of the great executives in the history of television, not just sports television, Dick Embersol, because he was involved with Lorne Michaels

with Saturday Night Live and all that stuff. Dick really brought, he was working with Rune at ABC as a researcher in the 70s and he brought that sensibility and that storytelling to NBC way before I got there when NBC got the Olympics. And that has kind of defined our division since Dick was there and all the people who learned from him who are now in charge. Tell a story. Make me care about the people.

It's my favorite part of the Olympics because these are people that are not making money in sports yet, they have to be an amateur to be. Well, that's kind of changed a little bit. Yeah, it's some sports, but for the most part, it is, you are tuning in to see these very, sort of the people that you live next door to that are having these two minutes, this opportunity for personal excellence

that they have been training for for 10, 15 years. And are they gonna be overwhelmed by the moment, by the media, by the stress, or are they gonna soar to new heights because they're charged up? And I just met them with this five minute piece that started way back then and I think was Rune Oroge's idea, right?

Like get to know the athlete and then as soon as you're done with that story, you cut right to them on the starting line. And it's just like, oh my God. Well, cause now you're invested. Yeah, and you guys are storytellers in your own way. So you get it. Here's the difference now.

You don't have five minutes. People aren't going to sit around for your story in five minutes. So our adjustment has become make it bite-size, make you care about somebody, and then show me their event, or even the night before, hey, here's this athlete's story, and tomorrow night they go for gold. Right, yeah, you started a little bit early. Well, you had Sean at bite-size, by the way. I'm in, I just showed up.

You started, even at the opening ceremonies, you guys started by sort of just dropping little breadcrumbs on Uncertain. No, it's really cool. So, Mike, let's go back a little bit, because obviously you're at the top of the game. As Jason pointed out, Sunday Night Football is the number one show on TV, right? Yes.

Oh, yeah. And you've been doing this at the top. What is that moment? You're Mike Tirico at Syracuse. How do you become sports commentator, play-by-play, sports host of the biggest? What is that thing? Are you calling games when you're in your bedroom when you're 11 little bit just drove down

this really Bristol and just like circled the building a couple of times right throw a headshot window no no seriously when I was a little kid you asked my mom this is what I wanted to do I wanted to be a sportscaster being so cool a little kid I'm really I am 55 years later living my dream still every day. I do love work. Where was that? Queens. Queens, New York. So when I grew up, I was listening to Marv Albert broadcast. And the Rangers and work at NBC. Garbage time. Extensive garbage time. Marv did everything, right? He did boxing, football, the local news, the Rangers, the Knicks. And so I always thought, you know what? Do everything. Just figure out a way

to become proficient at every sport that you can be invited to do. And Jim McKay, who somebody mentioned before, Jim McKay was the same thing. And those two guys were the models for me to, hey, go figure it out. Went to college at Syracuse, interned at a TV station. They went through three weekend sportscasters in seven weeks. The GM said I'm gonna hire somebody young and cheap. I was interning there.

I was young and I was cheap. And I got a tryout. I got a tryout on the air for six weeks. Got hired after four weeks. Spent four years there and then got to ESPN in 91, was there for 25 years and now eight years at NBC. So hang on, sorry, I just could you gloss over ESPN. So you go to ESPN and that's where a lot of us

got to know you first on a national level obviously. And as a- And they saw you on the local station there in Syracuse, I'm assuming? There was somebody who actually is still a friend, and we work in a different capacity now, who saw me doing local TV and was an executive at ESPN. And they told me, send a tape in a year. I sent the tape in 10 months, got hired a few months later, and did Sports Center.

I was there in the salad days. Yes. Sports Center. I was with in the salad days. The Sports Center, I was with Chris Myers, who works at Fox now. The weekends were Carl Ravitch and Linda Cohn, who are still there at ESPN all these years later. And the main group was Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann and Bob Lee and Charlie Steiner, Robin Roberts, Gary Miller, we just had this group that is still,

for the most part, all on TV doing national sports almost 25, 30 years later. I love that. That was like, you guys were like the Beatles of sportscasters. That was like the first, like that generation, you guys were, you set, because nobody was doing it, nobody had done it the way you guys were doing it before,

and you set that tone, and everybody after that was trying to replicate that, really. Yeah. And we will be right back. Hey smart list listener, we get support from Mint Mobile. You know when you discover a new binge-worthy show or a song that you play on repeat and you have to share with your friends so they can experience just how awesome it is? That's kind of what it feels like when you discover that Mint Mobile offers premium wireless for $15 a month. When you purchase a three-month plan, it's

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And now back to the show. I love the station, but I never knew what ESPN stood for and I've figured it out a few times and I've still forgotten it. What does ESPN stand for? It did stand for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Because you know the story at the start, in September of 1979, a little bit before that, they went up on a satellite and had a satellite.

And the original idea was they're gonna broadcast Connecticut sports around the state. And they're like, wait a minute, this can be seen everywhere. So let's expand out the idea. And they're like, wait a minute, this can be seen everywhere. So let's expand out the idea. And when I was mentioning all the names, I didn't mention the godfather of it all. Chris.

Chris Berman, who, you know, Chris, Chris with the nicknames and the shtick and the whole deal, the back, back, back, Chris made it cool. And a lot of people tried to emulate Chris or be like Chris, but I think the ones who succeeded like Rich Eisen, Craig Kilborn, Stuart Scott, guys who came on after the main group I talked about,

they found their own schtick, right? And there was room for somebody like me who's a serious, call the sports, have a little fun with it, but it's not about me cracking one-liners, all the way to the guys who truly came out of comedy like Rich Eisen and Kilbourne. Rich was a stand-up comedian before he came to sports. Dan Patrick too. Dan Patrick, right? What was your favorite Chris Berman nickname?

Because I know mine that I have. Burt B. Home Blylevin. Mine was Eric sleeping with Bayanami. That's exactly. So here's a stupid story. So Syracuse is big for sportscasters and a lot of kids who want to be sportscasters go there and 30 something years later, it's almost 40 years later now. God, it's still the case. So we had just a bunch of nerds and that was our fraternity.

We all want to be sportscasters and a bunch of us turned out to be so we would keep a legal pad by RTV and write down every Chris Berman nickname when it was no way like a community list and we sent it to ESPN We were pissed because ESPN never sent a thank-you note back whatever, you know months later ESPN put out a list of all the Chris Berman nicknames. So we take credit for that, at least in our own hearts. Oh my god, that's good. They're listening right now and they are filled with shame.

They should be. They hired you and they still didn't give you credit. A meeting was just convened in one of the conference rooms, everybody in. Mike, I have a question. Have you ever, when you, when you are calling a game and you do it all the time week after week after week after week What do you do when you're just like really not in the fucking mood to do this?

Like how do you you must have like days and you're like how am I gonna get it up for this your pill of choice Mike? Shawn wants you to take this he wants to make some news here. You know what? One, well it's a couple of things. Fortunately you're at games almost all the time. Yeah. And it's 50, 60 thousand people so you guys have performed in front of audiences. There are nights everybody doesn't have it. Something's going on, family, you're sick, you've traveled for 15 weeks, nobody cares, right? You're always trying to make sure that you reach a standard

that you've established over the year. So you just tap into that and like. A little bit of that, but also the crowd. I'm like, look, those people are spending money. And the millions of people watching too, yeah. Exactly, but even like, where do you look for just the raw energy for you if your energy's a little bit low?

Look at these people. Jason? Oh. Guys. They tailgated, they parked, they've been there for eight hours and now they're screaming at the top of their lungs, they painted their faces, they're wearing their jersey.

Like, that gets you going, how does it not? So when it's a bad day or it's not the best day, that usually picks me up. You know, Mike, you're saying they painted their faces, it always seemed to me like a really funny tableau would be like one of those guys, one of those like crazy Raiders fans, you know? He's got the silver and he's got the horns

and he's wearing the shoulder pads with the spikes and stuff and just like half a mile from the stadium exchanging insurance information And with bifocals on bifocals on going honey, it's not the can you pass me the other one? Yeah, it's not the right I mean, you know, I can't read this. I was I was also thinking about Mike You know, like when you were saying that, you know, you we've all performed and stuff I I want I used to watch from my three older brothers. They all played football Everybody I was surrounded by sports, you know growing up and I played sports too. Then I kind of you know my story. So then

Then I didn't like sports but But now I'm really into football and these guys know and I do watch it every year and I really, really am into the stories like you guys are talking about and outlining all the people, the players, and then you get to know them and then you get to root for them or whatever your team is, whatever.

So I get it, but what I really honed in on in the last couple years was the performance of the players and I never really noticed it before. So being an actor, I noticed that like, wait a minute, these guys are really kind of playing it up for the cameras because there's this, like you said, a stadium of tens of thousands of people, there's millions of people watching. If nobody was there and nobody's watching,

they probably wouldn't get as angry or push as hard or kind of yell back as hard. You know what I mean? They kind of heighten their performance a little bit. Don't you agree? I do, and I'm gonna say that, you know, this Amdur psychological analysis of this, I think it's the generation that's grown up

in front of cameras. Yeah, I agree. Like they know where the camera is, how to play to it. They know, I score a touchdown, this is my marketing moment. You know, you got guys who have their TD celebrations all rehearsed, they know it's on me right now,

and point to the name on the back of their jersey. So they get it. Yeah, Terrell Owens started it with the Sharpie in his shoes. Yes, right. Exactly. But even the broadcasts have specific cameras set up and screens set up in the end zone for them all to gather and do basically their selfie.

Yeah. So that was a COVID thing. It was a COVID thing because there were no fans. So there was like a fan cam so you could watch the game like on a zoom and you sit there and you're watching the game and hey in the third quarter your face will be in the end zone and then they're going yay into their computers. And the guys were seeing them because they were just trying to find a way

to create some atmosphere. Right, but the drama seems to always just be a little bit more than you. Well, you talk about performance, you talk about soccer, right? Well, I mean, the flopping is just like, it keeps me away from watching it a lot. No, yeah, but it does, look, it is bad.

And certainly, it's worse than others. La Liga is the worst and I would also say League one in France, but La Liga is full of floppers and it's not just the Spanish guys So you guys don't get will start it. No, it's true. Some of these guys I watched I watched that Champions League final. Yeah, you know the other day the barista Dortmund rail and there was there was a Vinny jr Who's a tremendous football player. He didn't even get touched, and he looked like he was shot that a sniper had taken him.

My two favorites are the triple barrel roll. When the guy goes down, he rolls, and he rolls, and he rolls again. Actually gains speed. Yes, and then when they bring out these million, million pound players in terms of their financial remuneration and they're kind of carrying them on this rickety little thing with two wood sticks and a piece of canvas, they carry them over to the sideline and all of a sudden

they realize their team has the ball, they're right back in the game. Well the other one Mike I like is the guy, he gets sort of tapped in his thigh and he grabs his face. And you're like, wait a second, why are you grabbing your face? But I will say, you know, so thank you for bringing up football, soccer, if you will, because that is one of those sports that for me, I was able to get into it. I'm really a new super fan to it in the last 10 years. But because of the stories, because I was, I watched it with people who knew

and they'd film me and they'd say, this guy came from here, this manager came from here, here's what the backstory is. Yeah, I mean, Will always used to say that to me. Like, I was like, how can you watch it? He's like, Sean, watch the story. And that's like the Formula One show on Netflix. That got a bunch of folks into Formula One. So I started watching like Sunderland Till I Die. I was already into that one. Sunderland Till I Die was already in that that point but Sunderland till I die all those It's like reality shows. It's like any time of reality competition show you get to know the people and then you write

It's the human story you can relate to it at that point. You can relate to it on a human level So the thing with soccer football soccer whatever sure we're in America soccer The thing with that is it starts. It's rooted in tribalism It's those small towns like a Sunderland, which you mentioned in England, the city, like you end up going to the grounds and a lot of kids walk there and it becomes part of you. Now it's kind of grown from a very tribal and local thing

to regional, national, and global, which has just allowed the expansion of all this to happen. But at its roots, especially if you go over to soccer in England It's it's our neighborhood. It's our team There are guys and we can be mad at them, but you can't yeah love that about this Yeah, Mike, you know so a couple weeks ago I went I went over I went over to go to see your in Klopp's second last home game You're getting trouble and and I'm a huge fan of his. Is that a Chris Berman nickname?

Yeah, you're in trouble. Sean just does it on the first name stuff. I had the great fortune of being able to spend a little bit of time with him the past year. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. And so I got to go over to Anfield and you walk into that stadium and you listen. First of all, and I went to Chelsea as well. My friend joked that I went to watch Tottenham lose twice in a week. So I went to Stanford Bridge, but I went to Anfield, and I was sitting up there, and I

was sitting in front of Sir Kenny Doglish. And the stand opposite us is the Sir Kenneth Doglish stand. And he was a former player, manager, legend, and a Liverpool legend, and a really tremendous guy. He's sitting right behind me with his wife. And they start playing at Anfield, You Never Walk Alone, which is their anthem. And the whole stadium is singing. You know, 60,000 people singing You Never Walk Alone.

And I turn around and his wife, who must have heard it 50,000 times in her life, because her husband was a player manager, and I look back and she's dabbing her eyes. It's so cool. And I thought like, and it was so incredible. It was so moving. So, so moving.

There's something about the way that you're right, that they celebrate that. Well, there's something about sports. Like, most of us never meet the athletes who we wear their jerseys. You know, the old hockey line, you know, you go to a hockey game, especially where I live in Michigan,

and you got a bunch of people walking around with other guys' last names on their back, right? Really, but it's the one place, not only is it acceptable, it's encouraged. And it shows that you're a real fan, right? So- And it brings people together that don't know each other. Well, that's it.

That's the last thing we have, right? I think so too. My stump speech about sports, and the value of sports is, let's go to New Orleans for a Saints game. And let me take one section of the Superdome, and I'm going to get black and white, I'm going to get male and female, I'm going to get straight and gay, I'm going to get different religions,

I'm going to get everybody in that section. And they're all wearing some black and gold for the Saints. And that doesn't happen at the opera, it doesn't happen at the movies. That's why I still think sports has this place, whereas everything's become so fractured, people still love their sports like nothing else. Mike, has anybody ever said this to you? Because this is my own personal experience,

is that no matter what's going on in my life, we all have ups and downs, as you said, we have moments in the family, whatever. And the one thing that I can do to kind we all have ups and downs as you said we have moments and the family whatever and the one thing that I can do to kind of self-regulate is I come home and if I can turn on sports I kind of go everything's okay. Yeah, yeah, right. Do you do that? Oh, it settles me. Yeah, you both both of you check out when sports are on Yeah, and I'd love nothing more than primetime sports when you put on a game that's on at night Yeah, it's like it's like watching this old When you put on a game that's on at night,

it's like watching This Old House on PBS on a Sunday afternoon. Oh, Sean. That, but good. We're having a good conversation here. Yeah. I'm an HGTV guy, Sean, if you wanna know the truth. I like it too, I like it too.

No, Sean, you turn me under the show. I'm not going to. No, I like This Old House, to be honest. Wait, Mike, where are you from? I'm from Queens, from New York. Oh, okay. Grew up as a New Yorker, lived in the Northeast most of my life. Does that make you a Mets fan?

I wasn't, a Mets and a Jets fan, yeah. Yeah, of course. What did we say was? You had to be agnostic as you went into your profession? Well, the Mets thing was I just wanted to see them win the World Series once in my life, and they did, and I kinda outgrew it. It's like an allergy, you know?

They say, hopefully you kinda outgrew it. It's like an allergy, you know? They say, hopefully I outgrew it. So I've saved myself generations of pain after that. And then the rest of it, really, you do become agnostic. People say, well, how can you watch a game and not root? There's one team in sports that I root for, and that's Syracuse, that's my alma mater. Right, gotcha. My God kid goes there.

Oh, really? No. Yeah, no way. Sammy is dead. The Orange Men, right? Awesome. What? With the Orange, we used to be the Orange Men and Women. That's my alma mater right sure my god kid goes there. Oh really yeah Right what's your orange? We used to be the orange men and women now. We're just the orange now. Just the orange All right, I get it a color a fruit or a spirit you take your pick my godson lives in America You strike me as a fella that would have great chemistry with anyone because you're such a kind guy. But I'll bet Chris Collinsworth doesn't make it difficult. He seems like just about the best guy in the world. I've talked to him a couple of times, but not longer than what I'm talking with you. But still he seems just incredible. Is he as nice a guy as he seems to work with?

1000%, I'll give you just a quick anecdote. Like, you do this so you kind of know people, but you're not around them. Then I start working at NBC, and I get to be around Chris a little bit more, and I get to know him. And Chris and Al Michaels were a terrific team doing Sunday Night Football for a long time.

Al is a buddy of Will and I's. We love Al DeDeath. Yeah, it's great. On the Mount Rushmore. One of the best, if not the best, in every sport to ever do it, right? So I get to start working with Chris, and you know, Chris made it so easy for me. He's like, hey, do the game you do. We can do things a little bit different. It's fine. And he's that way professionally, but he's also that way personally. Chris, his wife Holly, they're kids. They've become friends of me and my wife, our kids.

And that helps, because when you're on the air on Sunday night, you're just sitting with a friend watching a game. And I think that makes it easy on Sunday night at nine o'clock. You're not listening to two people trying to compete. We're trying to be our parts in the symphony. Yeah, no, you guys nailed it.

Because that's exactly the feeling that I get when I sit down to watch the game with you guys, is that it just feels like you're right there in the cozy, you know, on the couch right there with us. But you know, the reason it happens like that is... Is because Jason's on a gummy? Yeah. Oh, no sorry. Everything is just part of it. Everything is so smooth. It feels like I'm right there. I can hear you in my head. Wait, Mike, where do you mostly work out? Where do you live now and then where do you work out of? Where does he work out? Come on. Where do you work from mostly? I work most of the week in my house, I live in Michigan,

and then we travel to the games, usually for Sunday night football, we travel on Friday. For the Olympics, we'll get there a week before the opening ceremony. And you're not sick of traveling back and forth? Like, you like where you live? It's a lot, it's a lot, but I've come to love America. I love the fact that I can be dropped

in like 40 cities in America, and I don't need a map. I know where the restaurants are. I know where you can go for a walk. That is cool. That is cool. It is really cool. I really do feel like I've seen and know our country because you spend three days in Minneapolis.

You spend three days in Chicago. Three days in New England. That's cool. I love it. I really do. Now, was there an obstacle, everybody's got a nice obstacle at the very start that they kinda decide they're either gonna push through

or they're gonna hit fuck it and try something else. Was there something that almost derailed the great Mike Tirico? I always wanted to call games, what I'm doing now, right? And my bosses told me, no, you're a studio guy, we need you in the studio. So I volunteered to do games on my day off on Saturday, and work a six day during the basketball season to get a chance in 94 to start, start doing games. And

that's what I always wanted to do. And I'm like, I'm going to prove to you guys that I'm good enough. And it took a couple years. And then, in the end of 96, one of our bosses went to ABC and then he said, hey, you told me that you wanted to start doing some other stuff. Would you like to do some golf? Two events in 96. And then in 97, I got to do golf at ABC.

And the best thing about starting golf in 1997, that was Tiger's first full year of playing golf. So I got right in when the Tiger era started and golf just pre-took off. Oh my God. We'll be right back. SmartList is brought to you in part by Audible. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.

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All right, back to the show. Can I just say something about the Tiger Eric so that we can, because there's been, you know, there's a lot of stuff. That time, we had the privilege, and people say, oh, you like Tiger Eric, and I'm like, we had the privilege of watching one of the all-time great athletic careers

that's ever graced this planet. And we got to watch it in, as you say, JB, in prime time, it was all recorded, we got to see every in, as you say, JB, in prime time. It was all recorded. We got to see every shot. And I thought, what a privilege we had to watch this guy play at the top of his game. It was incredible. And Mike calling the British Open?

And Mike, you called it. Yeah. I had a bunch of them. I think I've done like 65 or 66 majors and Tigers played in most of them. Wow. And it's just so, it cover to call, I should say. And like the energy around Tiger is different

from any other athlete, even Jordan. Now Jordan was, Michael was in a team sport, right? Yeah. And there was still this incredible energy and juice around Michael when he was there. Sure. But when Tiger was 100 yards away, you could just feel it,

you could just see the pack of people following him. Watching people try to go hole by hole, shot by shot, to see Tiger was hysterical. People tripping over each other and trying to run ahead. It was a phenomenon that lasted for a full couple of decades. It was one of the most fascinating things we've ever seen. Sean, it's hard to appreciate it

if you're not a fan of, like, you don't follow golf or whatever, but to understand, to appreciate his winning percentage on that sport compared to other people when he was at his prime, it was like nothing anybody had ever seen. It blew everything else right. I don't understand the eye, brain, body coordination to get it right so many times.

Yeah, I mean, you're just incredibly gifted. But what has been almost totally forgotten is how rare it was for a black athlete to be doing this in what was traditionally a white world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just, it was, I mean, there was Calvin Pete, for sure, there was- Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder.

Yeah, exactly. Those are the couple of black golfers that were on the stage. In hundreds of years, like one of the oldest sports ever, games ever, there were just a handful that you could look to. But then to come and dominate the way he did. And just dominate.

Exactly, it was like, he was like Michael Jordan. And the thing about his dominance that was so cool to me was when he got the lead, he always closed. He always, all but twice, he always closed the deal going into the final round. And guys spit up the lead every other week, usually, on tour. If not more than that, every week. So he had the impact that Jack Nicklaus had, because if his name was on the leaderboard,

people would watch. I was just at an event with Tom Watson a couple of weeks ago and he said, you know, when you saw Nicklaus's name on the board, you're like, oh, uh-uh. And when you're thinking about somebody else, you're defeated. You're half defeated. And the ratings too.

If those guys make the cut, I'm sure your weekend ratings, it's a huge difference. So a lot of people talk about Caitlin Clark and what she's done with women's basketball, and the ratings are the likes of which we've never seen before, right? She's had an impact on that sport, like Michael did in the NBA and Tiger did,

just in terms of this. They blew the roof and the ceiling off of where the ratings were. And that'll be the mark that's going to be so hard to get for years to come. Because it was just the first time people have seen it. They wanted to be there and watch it and there was something captivating about them. And they took it to a height that I don't think you'll see in those sports again.

Yeah, but meanwhile, which I'm sure that they'd all be very proud of, they have exposed a ton of people that wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to The game and once they're gone those people are now already into the game and they're gonna watch the next athletes that come through So they're broadening the appeal of the of the of the sport I mean what Jordan did for basketball globally, right him and David Stern working hand-in-hand You know is just is astounding legacy doesn't happen when you try to make it happen. Legacy happens when what you do naturally

just brings people from all corners because there's something unique and captivating about you. And that's what happened with Jordan, and that's what happened with Tiger. You mentioned just Tiger being black and in a sport that had been so dominated by white players and country clubs and membership and all that stuff, which I think Tiger's presence helped change over time.

Sure, to the point where we don't even think about that anymore. It's like a forgotten fact. Well, I don't think it still exists. No, but I mean, it's become, I don't know how to put this, but it was such an anomaly back then. And now there are so many incredible, it's such an expansion to the sport now. Yeah, I thought Tiger was going to change the sport that way, and you'd see a lot more minorities playing

and becoming the best players. What he did instead, his athletic legacy in the sport beyond his records, he made golf cool and now guys who were 6'1", 6'2", 6'3", started playing golf. And you look at the major change, guys like Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, etc. You get like some big guys who are now playing golf who would not have played the sport back before Tiger. It wasn't cool to be one of these big athletes who could be a tight end or a shooting forward in basketball.

And that I think is Tiger's long-term impact on the sport itself. Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point. Well, it definitely attracted a big guy like me, you know? Yeah, look at you, otherwise Will would have never have gone there. Wait, well, my nickname is Big Boy.

Yeah, go ahead, Sean. This is a standard Sean question from Mike Trico. What's like the worst or most memorable or most embarrassing moment happened to you live that you called or you said something that you regret, not regret, but like that, or that just cracked everybody up and you were like, why did I just say that?

Sean, you got some wood there? I'm gonna knock on it, man. I have gotten through 36 years of doing this without really having a major all-time YouTube screw-up. I'll find one. I'll find one. Here come the Olympics. I'm gonna Google it.

There you go, thanks so much. You've got yourself all teed up. And I'm gonna blame Sean. It's all on Sean. There was one time I was doing a TV show, a sportscast in Syracuse. I have a nut allergy and I was about to get sick and I got away from the camera before that happened. So nothing's happened in front of a camera. You just blew it out? You blew it out?

If you want the details, Sean, thank you. Now, are you as excited for the Olympics as I am? I'll bet you are much more, because you know much more about it than I do. But just the little that I've read about it, it sounds like Paris is going to do something with this that we've never seen before, like I think the whole, what, the opening ceremony takes place on the Seine, right, on the river.

The events are taking place at all of the incredible monuments there. I think the whole, what, the opening ceremony takes place on the Seine, right, on the river. The events are taking place at all of the incredible monuments there, like volleyballs underneath the Eiffel Tower and like, and surfing is in Tahiti, you know, because it's a French, you know. On the French Polynesia, man. Yeah, so how? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

They're gonna do the surfing in Tahiti. In Tahiti? Yes, sir. Because it's a French. I get that, but I understand that I have a full, but I'm surprised, why wouldn't they just do it like down in Bearetts? Well, because it's not as sexy, man.

That's right, that's exactly right. This is why you're not running things, Will. Well, no, but I might go to Paris. We begged, oh man but we begged our bosses Can we just host the whole Olympics from Tahiti? Something going on there, right? Who cares what the background is right? I mean, it's gotta be you guys are just probably trying to figure out what? How do we cover all the things we want to cover? Yeah, it's gonna be look

Paris is one of two things either you've been there and you can't wait to go back Well, you've never been there and you want to go. Right? Yeah. And the Olympics needs this in the biggest way. If you think back, the last three Olympics have been in Asia. We had the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Then COVID denied Tokyo 2020. So that was held in 2021, COVID, no fans. And then Beijing held the winter games in the winter of 2022, February. Again, no fans. So we've had two Olympic games with no fans. What do you mean, what do you mean no fans? COVID.

Oh, cause people didn't, I see, got it, got it. Because of COVID, there were no fans. And like you guys were mentioning this, somebody mentioned it before. Like you work your whole life to make the Olympics It's four years of training for a minute two minutes, you know, whatever it ends up being for some of the athletes You want your family there and none of the families could go right to Tokyo or to Beijing last summer winter games So that is one of the things that I am more excited about. So is this yeah

Is this the first time it's gonna be back in full force with just everything and to tell, you know, the way it's televised and the fans and everything? Correct. This will be the first time that fans are in the stands at the Olympics since February of 2018. So six years and about five months or six months. Wow, that's pretty cool. I like the way you put that, Mike.

I think you're right. The Olympics need this. Yes. They need Paris to work. They need it to be good. I think you're right the Olympics need this. Yeah, they need Paris to work They need it to be good. They need to be successful. It will be I think it will be I probably will Where are the next Winter Olympics? Well, the next Winter Olympics are Milan and Cortina Italy, right? It's 2026 and then LA is then summer and that's why To what will was just saying that's why I think this is a big games for the Olympic movement and it's in a great place in Paris because as you mentioned the backgrounds That's why, to what Will was just saying, that's why I think this is a big games for

the Olympic movement and it's in a great place in Paris because as you mentioned, the backgrounds, Paris is just such an aspirational city. But LA 2028, we haven't had a summer Olympics here since Atlanta back in the late 90s. And we haven't had the Olympics in the US since Salt Lake in 2002. So if you're 30, right? So 26 years between Olympics in the US. If you're 30, you don't ever remember the Olympics being contested in America.

Right. So now you're 30-year-under-alpha. Well, you're speaking my language. Yeah, I don't remember that. You look terrible, though, Sean, for 25. Sean told me once he went to Paris, he went to L'Homme-y-Louis for dinner, and he had an Olympic movement after that he said.

Because he had the steak and the chicken. It was the duck. It was the fries they do they cook in goose fat which by the way Lummy Louis nobody does it better it's a very American but it's still great it's so great well all right you convinced me Mike I'm gonna come to Paris this summer. Don't give me your number, Mike. Don't give me your number. Let's read tickets. No, I'm gonna come. Let's go.

And I'll share duties with you at the desk. Here we go. You can? You want to host? Go ahead. Do you? You know who's with me? Who's that?

Snoop. No way. No way, really? Really? Oh, no, no. Snoop is, it's not just like Snoop's gonna show up for once. Snoop is part of our

coverage and he is, he is all in on this man. I love Snoop. He is such a great dude. Where did that come from? He just performed at Jimmy Buffett's memorial, you know that concert we did. He was unbelievable, he's such an unbelievably great guy. But where did that come from Mike? Was that your idea?

No, no, I wish it was. So we'll go back a few years ago to the last Summer Games. And we're trying to, you know, we have Peacock as part of the NBC family. It's our streaming service. So we're trying to figure out what shows can we do Olympic related on Peacock. So Kevin Hart and Snoop did Olympic highlights, their version of Olympic highlights. They did like a couple of nights during the games. And Snoop, it's a great YouTube clip of Snoop and the Equestrian as like,

it's like a Crip Walk, right? So, you know, that's where the relationship started, then the conversations continued, and he's going to be a part of it. So here's the deal, like, the Olympics are going to happen live. We used to hold events and just say, hey, we'll show T at night, right? That doesn't happen anymore. Everybody's got a phone. They can find out what happens.

So everything's going to be live during the day. It's a six hour time difference. Yes, thank God. It's going to be great. So at night, you're going to be showing everything that happened. So we're going to try to do a little bit of the storytelling, a little bit of the behind the scenes,

give you a little bit of flavor of Paris. And who better to snoop around Paris than Snoop. So we're in, let's go. Very, very good. That's really cool. Is the family gonna go with you? My family's gonna come. They've been denied the last two Olympics,

which is kind of a bummer. It's the fourth time that I'm the prime time host, and they haven't been able to come to any of them, so they're gonna come over for a week or so and get to it. I won't see them, but they'll have a great time. And they'll have a great time because they won't see me, actually.

Are your kids loving what you do? Like, are they interested? Or what's your favorite thing to do as a family? It's a great question. Be together at our lake house in Michigan now, because we're away so much with my travel. We have kids who've graduated college, just finished wrapping up their college careers.

That's nice. You're not old enough for college grads. Yeah, we're old people now. So just to know when, and a lot of people who are listening who have older kids, like when your kids become your friends too, it's so cool. So that is like, I can't wait to do that

I'm excited they're gonna get a chance to do some of this they come to some of the football games from time to time and You know you get a chance to be around it and they they love sports They both played sports in in high school and we're big sports fans that we're in a sports house It's always the topic of conversation a games on, so they're all in on it and they love it. How did you get to Michigan? It's where my wife is from. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, she was an all-state softball and basketball player in Michigan, and we moved back near her family back in the late 90s, and been here for a long time. It's funny, because she asked me a few years ago, do you consider yourself a Northeasterner, being born in the Northeastern school? I'm like, nah, I'm a long time. It's funny, because she asked me a few years ago, do you consider yourself a Northeasterner, being born in the Northeastern school? I'm like, nah, I'm a Midwest guy.

I love living, especially doing what I do. I love not living on either coast. It's good to be part of the flyover world and just represent us every once in a while. Yeah, I get that. I get that, that makes sense. I bet it's a nice way of living. It is.

Now, when you do the Olympics, you end up doing a lot of interviews too, as well as calling events. Do you have a preference or do you like them both equally? So in the Olympics, I don't call events, I'm hosting, so I just do the daytime and then the prime time hosting. And I love when athletes win medals and they come to sit on the couch with their medals on.

Right, yeah. Because you just get, like that's the moment they dream of, right? And not necessarily sitting with me, I love when athletes win medals and they come to sit on the couch with their medals on. That's the moment they dream of, right? Not necessarily sitting with me, but just being there and being interviewed. You've got the little fireplace going. Yeah, the winter fireplace. The summer this year would be the Eiffel Tower in the background. They just got this heavy medal around their neck and they're just sitting there. I've loved that.

Every time I see an Olympic athlete and get a chance to talk to them or interview them, I always end it with like, hey, I hope I get to interview you with a medal around your neck, right? No matter what color medal it is. And it's just so, that's like one of the terms that translates everywhere.

You can be in a village in Africa, you can be in Australia, you can be anywhere Olympian Translates yeah, and the other coolest part of that opening ceremony Which you mentioned before is gonna go down the river send with boat parade of the athletes can be very different Hopefully it'll be so cool spectacular like for most gonna be in Sen No, we'll come on. We got this isn't Sen. It's gonna be a little teaser bite For most of the athletes, that's their Olympic moment, right?

Because they don't get on the podium and sing their anthem. They're only about 350 or a little bit less than that, win gold medals. So their moment is being in the opening ceremony with all the best athletes in the world who made it there. I just, I get a little melancholy and a little sappy about it, but it's so dang cool If you if you could if you could have anybody on that couch, it doesn't need to be an Olympic couch But but talking to any athlete Alive or dead that you haven't interviewed Do you ever think about one that you'd love to sit across from and ask some questions to that? I haven't interviewed. Yeah

That's maybe or maybe one you'd like to interview again that you forgot to ask certain questions to know that that's a really good question I I'd like to talk to Babe Ruth yeah yeah I'd like to talk to babe because like you know here a hundred years ago you had no idea people still be talking about you be a candy bar name that man yeah that no one else would be a pitcher and a hitter until Shohei Otani. Otani, right?

Exactly, right? What do you think of Otani, babe? And with AI, we could probably do that. I think he's a hell of a kid. Hey Mike, I'm here for you. Ask me another one. I've had 12 bottles of beer and I'm ready to play. Put me in.

Did Ty Cobb actually spike you, babe, when he slid into, yes he did. Well, I ate two steaks and took a nap and let's go. I had 16 bottles of beer, let's hit a ball. But think about it, it's 100 years later, you say Babe Ruth, everybody knows. Right? And that's the era before any of sports in its popularity level existed.

So, yeah, talk about a community game. That's the era before any of sports in its popularity level existed. Yeah, talk about a community game. In those days, it really was. It was a team for your little area around there. Can I ask you guys a France question? Has anybody been to Normandy? I have not, I would like to. And Will, I know Will would love to.

He's a real student of history. I am, massive. I would say, and we's a real student of history. I am. Massive. I would say, and we've gone a couple of times, I would say if you had to ask me what's the place you've been as an American that has impacted you, it's going to Normandy. And here we are, 80 years of D-Day, that anniversary in June. And man, when you sit there and see and read and hear the stories, and when you sit there

and look at that cemetery with the white churches and the hill, it's one of the most powerful things that I've ever done. And every time I think of France, and we went to do a little pre-Olympic story a few months ago, we went down to Normandy, just to go back. It was the third time I had a chance to be there,

and it is the most powerful thing, anybody who's listening, if you ever are blessed enough to be in France, you have the chance to go, as an American, you need to go. But just the geography, that bluff, what they were up against, just the physicality of that. They all had all those, some of those beaches were, and some of those stories that were never,

that haven't been told widely, too, there are some of those stories that haven't been, but it's an incredible, I agree with you. I've never been to Normandy, I can't believe it, it's strange. Yeah, I love it, I'm gonna go. Because I do, I have read so much about it. Work that into your trip on your way to go see Mike

in the booth in Paris. On your way coming up to see us. I'm coming to see Mike, well I gotta go to Portugal, so I'm gonna, Mike will compare it. Okay, let's see if you can work it in. Thank you for an hour of your professional time. Yeah, this is a new personal time. Mike Turrico. Very, very nice to meet you. work it in thank you for an hour of your professional Very nice to meet you

Rico this was an honor guys. Thank you. Keep keep making this laugh. Will you please? Thanks? Oh, well you keep delivering these stories. All right. Thank you, buddy. We'll see on the TV soon for sure Thanks, guys. Thank you. See you Mike. Bye Well, I mean that that guy, you know. Nice, he's a good conversationalist. Well, he's a professional on-air fella. Yeah, he's on-air on television. I tell you what, people say, what kind of superhero power would you like?

Well, I'd like to fly. What kind of job would you like? If I could pick one job, I think I'd take his job. You love that. Well, it's just he touches... I thought you said that about late night TV. Well, but I don't get to go to... I thought you said that about doing a multi-cam...

Sick of it. I guess I want a bunch of jobs. But this one... Why don't you just enjoy what you got? You're right, that's a good note. Sorry. No, sorry, tell me about it. You get to go to like every single great event

in the best seat possible, and then he'd get to talk to the people who won right afterwards. Yeah, that is pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I like my job in that I get to sit and listen to have him describe it to me. Right.

It feels like so, such a luxury. Yeah, you know, get him to like walk me through it and... There is something like cozy about what you're saying, Jason, I think, or Will, I can't remember. And he does, for any of you out there that are still listening to this episode that are not sports fans, which I hope there's still many, hopefully you agree that this guy,

the reason you kinda like him is because you might watch a sporting event that you don't really like or know how the sports play but he's kind of explaining it to you and he kind of, he's got, it's a familiar cozy kind of voice and presence that I guess is a talent. That's kind of where I was going with that. That's what you were about to say. But I said it longer and more boringly. And interrupted him.

But you know, he covers all the sports, right? Like he covers... Here it comes. Oh know, he covers all the sports, right? Like he covers... Here it comes. Oh no, he's the NFL... You can always sniff it out because whoever's going to do it tees themself up. They just nudge their way in and go, oh yeah, but... Well, he calls all the sports during the year, but he's going to be the host of the Olympics, but he's not going to be doing any play by play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play

play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play

play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play SmartList is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armgerve, Bennett Barbico and Michael Granteri. SmartList. If you like SmartList, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus

in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched, he claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people, with

a touch of humor, I just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called malevolent deity that is pretty great, a dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother f***er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid.

Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.