The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - DLS Classic: The Oldest Content in the History of Podcasting

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Join us as we relive some of our best hours from 2023 -- Welcome to the oldest hour in the history of the show! George Toma a.k.a. "The Sodfather" a.k.a. "The God of Sod" joins the show to debrief us on the drama between him, Roger Goodell, Ed Mangan, and the NFL after he was thrown under the bus for the sloppy field at the Super Bowl. Then, Sister Jean is here to prove Stugotz's skepticism wrong through her earnest, joyful spirit as she shares her life story and the details of her new book with Seth Davis. Originally published Feb 23, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your Listening to Giraffe King's Network The Dan Levitard show with Stoogat presents the oldest content in the history of podcasting. Two guests who are combined 196 years old, enjoy. He is a legend. I want this heard throughout the land and hopefully George, you can hear me on this because this is the God of Sade. Can you this because this is the God of sod. And you here. This is the Sultan of sod.

This is the sod father. Hello, sod father. The sod, hold on, we gotta make sure you hear his introduction. Did you hear us? He can hear us. You're smiling. I can hear.

Yeah. God of sod. God of sod. God of sod. God of sod. God of sod. He is the God of sod. God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, get of all gets. I don't know where Stugots went. He was supposed to be here for this interview. Thank you, George Toma for being for being you for being the sodfather. Well, what I'd like to do. I would like you to take you on a long, long road trip for why

first started and where I ended up today. I started out in a little town of Veterans, El Pensabinia, the heart of the Antarcyte Corrigian, right near Wuxberre, Pennsylvania. And I started there and everybody was poor, the coal miners. And when I was 10 years old, my dad died from anticylocosis, black lung disease, and had to get a job. In those days, when you were eight years old, you already worked in the mines.

And many of those youngsters were killed either by rock slides or by being kicked by the mules, or they led the cocares out of the mule. No way was I going to do that. I got a job on the vegetable farm, 10 cents an hour, 10 hours a day, six days a week. And then when I was 11, I got a job on a chicken farm, and vegetable farm, that was 50 cents a day. He gave me lunch lunch but the farmer taught me so much. I used it today at the Super Bowl and he was so kind. Every Saturday he would say,

George Hill, kill two chickens and take all the eggs and vegetables or you can carry. So when I was 12 I got a job with my neighbor who was the head ground keeper for the Wooksboro Barron, a class Aeisterin league team, the tough Eastern League back in our area. And it was a farm club for the Cleveland Indians. So I worked with him in 52, 53 and on. And in 1946 Bill Beck made Stan Schecher, the head trainer and bus driver. And me being a senior in high school, he made me the head ground keeper at 16 years old.

And I became the head ground keeper there for 1946 and going on. And the war was over in nineteen forty eight so i went with a mobiles and all to the south building fields for minorly clubs in those days leaving Yankees they probably had twenty so far George can i uh... George can i stop you for just a second the only reason i need to stop you is because my producer came in and out of the room while you were talking and he was making oatmeal And he says to me holy shit. He's only in the 40s

We will get to your story in a second I want to hear the rest of your story because you're retiring or you have retired at the age of 94 and people need to know what a legend You are and that how this ended is not representative of who George Thomas is at the Super Bowl. It's the reason we were calling you, so forgive me for interrupting you while you were talking about serious things like Black lung. We will get back to that portion of your story. Is that okay? Anything you want to say, but what I like to do is just lead you where I started and got me to the first Super Bowl.

Okay, we will put a bookmark in that. We are going to get back to where it is and how it is you got to the first Super Bowl because you've done every Super Bowl, correct? Right. And you've never had any issues, correct? Like, of course, things pop up, but you have never, in all of your years doing this, you have never had any issues with the field being a problem right and so you arrive at this super bowl and I will ask you this question does Roger Gidele care more about how a field looks or how safe it

is well I got to go back from super bowl one to super bowl thirty nine that was under uh... Superboat 39. That was under Pete Rosal and Paul Tagadlu and the great Jim Steed and we only had one problem on the field and that was a game between The 49ers and the bangles where we covered the field that night and Some returned a pumps on and sucked the sass moisture out of the sand. So it was a queasy feel. That's the only problem we have. Now from Super Bowl of 40 to this Super Bowl here, the 17 years, we had almost maybe a dozen or more problems with an unsafe feel that I had a correct. And nothing was being done for them. Like the first problem was where our director feels

got caught, steedling sod and selling the sod to the NFL. And hey, Katie Corrick and NBC got hold of this and investigated it. So the NFL had it going to hurry and get the Warner to person that the sod was stolen from and Jennings turf bar amount of Georgia get them gathered to get them and paid off so they can say this is they paid for their saw. But the Kati Kaurik and NBC had it. So that was it. Then the next big problem came in was it was Super Bowl 43. Here Dan Rooney and Coach Tonlin come in from Pittsburgh three days before they're to practice and they met with the NFL officials and here they said hey no way we're gonna go on that field it's unsafe get us another practice

field we're not gonna be on that field then Tom and says to the NFL official is George Tomin town they said yes. They Tomin said we like to talk to him because he worked with us in 206 and 207 with the Vikings and he turned our place around and it was a great and outstanding and broken a new ground crew. So we got a crew, I call them the F-trop because I had all rookies, so in any man in kept a good people or everybody's good at the stadium and we got that feel ready. So Dan Rooney says, I want to talk to George every day and I want to have him on the practice field every day. And I'll talk to him every day.

So I took a few of the people out that day to for the first practice. So here I go on the field and I get feel one. Oh, what a beautiful logo painted on the 50th yard line. A big 30 footfoot logo or 10-yard logo of a big large penis and two testicles on the center of the field. A big one, the artist from the students at South Florida University did a hell of a good job.

Why? I got told Roger that your people are still wet behind the ears. You have to have security in a college town at least two weeks before the game, before the practice. And here they didn't have anybody. So we got that out of the way. George, what a shocking plot plot twist, a shocking plot twist in the middle of your story I have so many more questions about how you arrived at that field and found that there. I don't want to ask any of them I can't hear that's okay. I'm sorry to interrupt you Okay, and then that was that field there and then we went on to other fields that were bad and

We had feels like They weren't ready Practice feels don't work ready and maybe I'd say maybe six times I'd say maybe six times a practice field wasn't ready and the teams come in and they said we're not going to practice on this field or two dangers and two days to three days before their first practice. to make him ready. Under the old regime, that would have been done in December or as soon as the last college or high school people did, but here they waited too long. And this happened all along. And we had one game in Arizona here that they should have bought the sod in Arizona, that they brought it up from Alabama. The price was $100,000 for transportation and it was bad sod.

We had to go in and I had to go in there and go to Arizona state to get their overseeing the equipment and overseed it any mangan went out there and bought the best fertilizer again the best micro nutrients plus twenty thousand dollars of green dye to get that feel ready and that's how it goes. I knew you guys were pinning those fields. They looked to green. That's performance enhancing. Isn't that a great disrespect to the the

the honor of landscaping is super well you accusing him i mean painting the turf is cheating no that's what they do at a gusse no no sometimes you gotta do it then the next uh... couple years later we go up to sand francisco and here it's west coast her and any man in hate west coast her up to San Francisco. And here it's West Coast turf. And Eddie Mangan hates West Coast turf. He'll do any. If I know one thing about Eddie Mangan, it's sad. He's the NFL's field director. I will tell the people before the guests tell people more, excuse me. I didn't

mean to interrupt you. Okay. So we're have West Coast turf now and with all that green dye and all the nutrients in the furlough He didn't put one drop of fertilizer on that field He didn't put a one drop of micro note in it, but what he did he had us Put ryegrass seven days to twelve days on the field without working it into the soil so that ryegrass germinated between the blades of grass and the roots grew together and that sabotage because everybody knows in the turf business doing that that would make that feel slippery and slimy. And that's what happened.

After the game, the press and the TV came to me and asked me what, and I should kick myself in the fan because I lied. I protected Eddie Mangan and said, well, the weather was this. I protected the NFL and said the weather was this and this and that. But I should have told the truth. But one man that was pissed off and really pissed off was Ned York,

the owner of the San Francisco, I mean, yeah, of 49ers. Yeah. That game was played on his field and so sloppy and slimy and everything he contacted doctor uh... mcknit the professor of turf at Penn State University and had docked investigated for sabotage

so you were you were that did what that did he put that that's that's it there, you know, one of it ruined a field. So this is actually a huge revelation right now because you were the fall guy. The sod father was the fall guy for everyone slipping and the Eagles historic pass rush, slipping inside and all over the place. You were playing ball and now you're singing like a canary, sod father. Well, they hit me pretty hard, but that's it. But being 94 years old and 81 years in this game and having so many grounds, these NFL groundskeepers at this game got thrown under the bus.

And let me say one thing here Travis Hogan the grounds keeper for the Kansas City Chiefs in my 81 years I never seen a better grounds keeper in my life than any then Travis I never seen I never stood on better grass than I stood on arrowhead stadium and Monday before the game, January of February 6th, he told me that there's a bad smell on this field it's thinking he told me that this grass is decaying, it's bad and then and the Levy, the groundskeeper for the car nose told me, Hey, this grass is rotting, it stinks. What happened? I'll have to take a step backwards.

The year before that, the bangles that California UCLA couldn't, we told Eddie Mangan, everybody that that field not ready. It's in bad shape. He won't listen after the first practice They could the bangles couldn't practice. They were in the huddle and I went out to Cocktons coach there. I said coach, you have a problem and I'm very close with the bangles because Paul Brown loves me in my brown You can ask my brown how Paul Brown loved me. And I says, Coach, what's your problem? He says, we can't practice on this field tomorrow. We can't.

It's wet and slippery. My men are falling. I'm afraid somebody's going to get hurt. I have to go to the artificial turf field that you see a lay. I don't want to go. I hate it. Wait, you see a lay. You see a to the artificial turf field that UCLA. I don't want to go. I hate that. Wait, UCLA UCLA UCLA use artificial turf. Coach, don't move.

Wait, the Rose Bowl uses artificial turf. I ran and got Travis Holm and he's being all the Rose Bowl. The way the Rose Bowl. Run him to the coach. Does a road coach tell these gentlemen Roseball The gentleman I can practice on this field did you say feel is slippery what we're far I can't we can't stop him Did you say the Roseball we can't stop our artificial turf feel but I don't want to go on that artificial turf feel I

Roseball is artificial George hold on a second. I need to stop you. Say something. George. I'm 93 years old. We established that in this game 80 years. And I've been had experience going all the way around the world, even building in a little field for the Kabuts in Israel and having little children helping. And a lot of experience. And here is Travis Hogan, the greatest ground keeper that ever lived. Nobody I've seen in my 81 years can, 80 years can, even better than Trevor Vance.

Nobody. And here's Andy Levy, the great ground keeper, the father of the house at the stadium in Phoenix. Top five groundskeeper. I see. But their experience and my experience, we will have that feel ready for you tomorrow. And we did. And we had it in good shape for them Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. After Saturday's practice, the coaches came up and hugged me and thanked me.

I said, I don't deserve this. This goes back to the ground crew, Travis and his crew. But where was the people from the NFL to thank our ground crew to save their family? Nobody, nobody at all. And sometimes I would tell when Troy Vincent had his first problem out at the Pro Bowl, they canceled it. He says, I'm new at this, but this will never happen again. If Jim Steeg was there, it wouldn't happen. If I was there, I could take Eddie

Manganem, uh, Javier Exzerre, uh, these are shocking allegations. He's throwing everyone under the bus. They canceled that game in Mexico. We have shocking Roger Roger Gidell. Maybe you should send your men to Washington. Here. Please fell out. I know he can't hear me. I'm your Diane finestein. She can maybe help you. Kiss in her Diane fine. So me we turned I'm hearing a like a your piece. Play up games in San Francisco. And that's hitting below the belt.

But we had maybe 12 out of 17 games. The fields were in one safe. This is a piece of art. This was one of them. I have no way to tell. Can you put your what Eddie Mangan did to that Bangal feel? He did the same thing to the game feel here and and we're getting the blame. So it's Eddie Mangins fault. You before we took the field into the

stadium for good. That was Wednesday before the game. He watered the field heavy before when in. And if he topped Andy Levy, you watered that feel eight nine and more and then take it in then he watered and put it right in, soaked and wet. And then at 4 o'clock that afternoon we had a put a field cover down, these are rehearsals. So we use an ink mat that is a material that they use to cover grass for concerts and geol textile which is like heavy wool and blankets plus a large field cover of rain talk with the football field painted on them for so they can wear and those football lines on

that tarp have to be exactly on those football lines on the field because setting up for Sunday game. So after practice, we take the field cover off and take everything up. And when they came up the ramp on the field, area 30 feet wide by 100 feet long, the grass was mashed. If somebody took a tamp and hit it

and there was mud all over the grass. Wet. It was saturated. And they had a couple more practices. But what happened there? How Eddie screwed up that field for the bangles by overwadding it. And he did the same thing here. Oh, it's any mangan's one. It's any mangan's one. All right, masking is Eddie and the NFL to come out. And Eddie to say, yes, I overwatered. I'm responsible for not putting the blame on me

and putting the blame on Travis Hogan. and he leaves the leaders of the NFL ground crew They're all grouties ground keepers third-monger going back to their hometown. They're getting ridiculed There's a head there's a bony the head ground keeper for the Detroit Tigers and their assistant This was their 18 Super Bowl. And she's going back there in those baseball ground keepers are on her fanning. And all these grounds keepers don't out there on your family. And yes, Mr. Megan, don't lie in your interviews with Phil Bogol. bogal you lied you blame the ryegrass for the cause of that disaster bullshit I have used ryegrass for 27 years and it wasn't

any problem and those twerk 27 years of using ryegrass I only spend a thousand dollars on the field now we're spending eight hundred seven to eight hundred thousand dollars and give the players the horseshit field that's bullshit wow and i'm just i'm mad about it yeah yeah i can

tell what he did out at the bangles he overwatered it. And now he's blaming the ryegrass. Well, Eddie, you overwatered the bermuda. He did? So are you blaming the bermuda grass for the bathfield out there? No, overwatered.

All I'm asking is me. I hate Eddie Mangan. And all the NFL officials Roger and people down there. Is the please. Sir, not to apologize to me. Sir, I'm over to Hill. Like I tell my ground crew. Sir, next year, I'll probably the Lord may put me in heaven. And I'll be looking down at your beautiful field. Oh, he'll put me in hell. And I'll be looking down at your beautiful feel. Oh, he'll put me in hell and

I'll be looking up at your root system. What kind of what? You know, it's on father as bars. Is it better? Yes, bars. But apologize to the people that put you there and helped you and kick yourself in the ass for not listening to somebody like we've graduated from any and the leavey. Sir, can you hear us?

And Troy Vincent. Troy would all these problems that we had for 17 years. We get his head on set. And it feels two days, three days about it. It's a half a dozen times. You never came to me and asked me what the problem was. If you were any type of good guy worrying about the NFL players, you should have came to talk to me. I'll take a step back.

Last January, we had a convention to sports field managers convention in Salt Lake. Sounds like a party. Travis Smith, Maurice Smith, the head of the players unit with the keynote speaker. After he spoke, I spoke and it's a gentleman I apologize to everyone here because I failed to give the NFL players a safe playing field. I said, for 71 years I've been preaching the safest insurance for an athlete from preschool to the professional level, the cheat is the safe playing field and I fail. And I gave him an example of a few years back at the dolphins. The ground keeper there, I got him a hug there with cookie raw husk. He went astray. He went to get this reference. He made it into small. Three times in one month and four weeks. I

said tomorrow, resmit. Where was your union to go and there and see what the problem is? Giving the players the bad field for three weeks? Where was the NFL? Where was Troy Vincent? Where were the owners? Where was the coaches and Eddie Mangon? Where were they? Nobody, but I said that your headphones back in sir. I'm ready for heaven or hell But before I go there, I would like to meet with the players and I I put my life for the players I like to meet with the players' union, the NFL, the owners, the owners you're getting screwed, you're not getting a safe bank, the owners, the coaches,

and yes, maybe you're represented from the NCAA because some of these stay in their thing. And me to talk to them and tell them about all these problems that Roger Gidello and Troy Vincent are overlooking and that's the only way that we're going to give the players a safe playing field. That's the only way. I mean Troy Vincent never came to me or anybody on the ground crew we get tried to see like the rebels that I work with down south on fields they would say to travel a Troy Vincent you're as lucius as a paratids on the bore hogs oh man oh no okay I mean the rebels like I didn't know where that was going. Hold on a second. Back in Roger Goodell. I have done everything for you. You treated me well. When I was with the Vikings, every time you came to the Vikings, you came down to the practice

fire field to hug me. When I was you come down, if I was in the end or you found me at the Super Bowl you found me. And then when I was 90 years old you gave me a game ball for my 90th birthday. Then you gave me a game ball when it's when Brady won that was when Brady won and then you gave me a game ball when the chiefs won then you gave me a game ball last year and you did good things and you're gonna be a hero with me and the Toro Grascarpren Corporation we have the sports field manager, social and convention every year. And the tour on my wife are gonna set up three boots and we're gonna put each one of these footballs in each boot. And a member can come up and hold that football

with these passing, catching, and have a picture taken for maybe $5 or $10. Okay. And that's three football. I think seven. And that money will go to our four sports point. Like the seven's the right price point. Anner's associations, SAFE, that we have seven.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Oh, sir, we got the other. We got the other. We got the other. Can you hear us? Thank you. Can you hear us?

Hold on. It is safe to raise money for safe playing fields. OK, go ahead. You can hear us though. George, thank you. Oh, OK, George. Was that your wife that helped you with that headphone that popped out there?

I've said no. OK. George, you didn't finish your thought on Roger Gidele. We've been trying to talk to you because you were saying he's been very kind to you. Yes, but last year he threw me over the cliff. I wrote a letter to him because I was pissed off because of that incident for the bangals not having a practice field. Where was the NFL to give them a safe practice field? We had to go in there.

So I wrote them a letter that I was pissed. This is my last year. It was Super Bowl last year. And I gave them some thoughts. I said, you have to get Troy Vincent and get Troy to do a better job. What he preached when he messed up in Canton and in Mechland. What he preached, he has to practice and he's not doing that. He has to do a better job. Phil Boggo, the man under him, has to get out of the stadiums and go to the practice fields and check the practice. And God

bless you because Phil Boggo visited practice fields this year. So you had all that and with any mangan not listen we sabotaged the field and we had a side fields two to three times before the first day George George you're you're accusing the NFL field director of sabotaging the field why and how I, you've told us how, why did he sabotage the field? Well, that one there we, I think, is only a West Coast turf of sod. And when I say sabotaging, that's a term that ground keepers use when they do something wrong, like putting that seed in without working. It goes beyond just skating. And then Ned York having an investigated. He's a hell of a good ground keeper when he was under me.

But I'll go back a step. When he took over, he went astray. Six years ago, the NFL ground keepers came to me and pleaded with me to go to the league. And last to the league, why? That these ground keepers have to have a good playing feel for 16 games. And the NFL can have a good playing feel for one Super Bowl game. They wanted Eddie Fire. And then that same year, I'm sorry Eddie, but you deserve it. You got to be a better man but that same year around that year, Atlanta Braze players took him to the players union. The groundskeeper was taken to the union for bad grass and bad dirt.

And I talked to Eddie about this this year that you got to do a better job. I said Eddie, those NFL groundkeepers over there are laughing at you. They're on their videos and watching you bus in your family. Top it's fixing the pitch amount. When they stop the game this year and the second playoff game for you to fix the pitch amount and you're bus in your family and they're laughing at you. I said, you got to cut it up to those guys and listen to those guys. I mean, not ignore them. Sounds like an actual turf war. George, George, you sound embarrassed and you sound angry. This is not the way for your

career to end. Well, it sounds like all fingers are being pointed at any mangan here. And you were the fall guy and you one saved his job ones. And he's not reciprocating the great. I still say, this year, we knew there were problems like at the convention magnet and i knew there was gonna be problems and we knew there were problems we already would fill ball goal and and uh Travis Hogan it has plans for next year already is to have Matt Griner grow the sod. He's the ground keeper for the 49ers half was co-first but have Griner go in there once or twice a week to look at it and then bring up maybe Nick under Balgo to look out the field.

And whoever, when I always recommended, when Eddie went to look at a West Coast field, this should take Mike Galbino, heck of a good turf man from Beacon Construction Company in Syracuse, or Will Schnell, the retired ground keeper from the Rose Bowl along, because this year Eddie never would now feel a bowl go had a young

feels a shirt. A tie a shirt tie guy. He should have taken on one trip. Mike Albino and on the second trip we'll now to look at this. You're dropping some pretty big games. Don't apologize to me. I. I'll say this. Eddie, you're making over $100,000 a year. Your wife is an attractive salary. And I'm doing this for the last 17 years. Roger Gideau is paying me $15 a hour for seven hours for seven-inch doll. And thanks for giving me Roger our ground crew a raise Arlene. Travis Hogan is making now $18 an hour and I get on Travis Hogan's

fanning. Here I have 57 super bows and they're paying me $15 an hour. You only have six super bows and you're getting 18. But let me tell you all something. I'm for safety to feel. My grandmother taught me to help. I would do this job for nothing because I love what I'm doing. And I'll fight anybody and all the way up to you, Mr. Gidell, to give the players the safe playing field that you're not doing and trivialize and preserve that you got to do. I'm over there. I have big daddy and please Roger and Vincent apologize to all our ground crews and to the nation because we, our hands were tied

and for 39th, no problem. Last 17, over 12th problem and Troy, you better start working or if next year if you don't do anything right there's the door and don't let the door hitch in the ass on the way yeah I like the door hitch in the lady yeah Tomah Tomah Tomah Tomah Tomah If we would say this, okay, go ahead The last 17 years I've been screwed Like I told wrong I've been shit on by Bill McConnell and Eddie your first step I've been shit on by Mike Kenzo and Eddie Manier's second step That's good for guys

Dave Gardy on your step now It is the only sensible person I could talk to. Phil Boggo, just step it up. Unless I told you Phil, these NFL groundkeepers love you. They cherish you, but you've got to stand behind them. And what they told you this year for next year's Super Bowl, that's in mind that Eddie will run the paint crew or things like that, but we need, or Betty's going to run a grass crew, we need somebody with him to watch it going on. But all right, well, Eddie, it sounds like all fingers are pointing to Eddie Mangan George. I don't want to put all this fingers to

I mean you put all your fingers to I'm the blame because I brought him along for fully. Oh, oh, don't I'm the blame. I'm the bad father. I brought him along, but he no Turned around. He got tied in the like with sting like the actual godfather got out with the wrong people he's a good man I said don't fire don't fire him now for the next year but give him somebody to help George George I'm on the be real with you fuck Eddie Mangan I've worked up a healthy dislike for this man he he has done you wrong well he didn't mean but i'm dead i'm like this i'm in heaven or hell

but eddie please roger and trend tell the world that it's not our ground keepers fall don't have to apologize i'm dead i'm over to hill but i gave you every ounce I had Roger and Roger Please tell me why you won't talk to me You have put me in deep depression. I'm walking with a cane now All you had if you murder somebody that you tell the murder or what he did wrong you murder somebody, you tell them murder what he did wrong. What did I do wrong? The only word you said to me in a year was this year at the Super Bowl and I had some 30 feet away from

me walking. You said, George, how are you? And that was a blessing. At least you said something, but tell me who I killed. Did I get on Troy Vincent's ass so much? He should have been on his ass or there's the door and get your ass out of here and don't let it hitchh in. You're a good man, you got to do it. And Phil Boggo, the ground crew loves you, but you backed Eddie so far and he pushed you to do so much that you were sucked in and I'm sorry. George, thank you so much.

Eddie, but Eddie, apologize to the crew and tell them. And I said, I got $15 an hour, Roger, I would do this for nothing, because I love what I do, and for 71 years, I thought the cheapest insurance for Natalie from preschool to the professional level is a safe playing field, and we have to do that. And I would love to speak to the NFL, the players, the coaches. The owners. And see, and tell them all this, because I told them,

this is never gonna change. Until you get the roof, like Mari Smith says, you know, it's all politics. The hell with the politics, Stick a bone up the politics, spanning let the dogs run away with them. We have to get to this dead bottom and the only way. God bless me, give me a few extra days, so I can meet with these people.

And for you owners, I'm for the players. And if you don't believe that I'm for you owners, I'm for the players. And if you don't believe that I'm for the owners, just ask Dan Roney what we treated to save the practice field at Tampa. Please talk to Mike Brown, who Paul Brown loved me. And you have me talked to his grandkeeper for his one and his field to look like our heads feel and it popped my brown wants that if you don't think it asked the owner of the Patriots you know or Bill Parcells will tell you when we we had a game at the Rolls-Bull. We only spent maybe a thousand dollars on the field. In his book he says how good to feel. How he praised the field and loved it. Gustas should sit in the Ole Municipal Stadium when he's with the Ankeys.

Says he never seen so looking at what their fields so beautiful and green and players or players know I was good now he Fox going outside the steam and getting a rock a big as a softball and during batting practice and holding it up to the fans that he's playing on a rock file and he's good to me all these people No, George Alex Rodrigas coming to me and talking to me for a half-hour and four-mires With the twins one me to go to Texas and take care of the infield from second base to third base For any amount of money I wanted and he can A little selfish from Alex. It's got to be the whole field. George, I'm going first based.

George, you dominated our greatest hour ever. It is a pleasure to have been able to talk to you. Thank you for all of your expertise over the years, sir. What an amazing segment. What a great story, sir. Thank you so much. Seriously, you really enjoyed that. And you really spilled the beans. And legitimately, I am sorry that they have made you sad. This

has to be a turbulent time. You've had such a great career. Having the Super Bowl feel like that at the end, we are legitimately sorry that this has felt this way. I've been thrown underneath the bus. I'm ready for the great, but don't throw my ground crew under the bus. No. George kept the grave, but don't throw my ground crew under the bus. No George kept the receipt your Roger. I feel really bad because this is your legacy and it's been boiled down to Eddie Mangan Overwatering this goddamn field and he has protected the field for many many years. Yeah, I held the code Thank you. Yes, and he protected everybody for many many years. Thank you George for being on with us Thank you and honor pleasure. with us. Thank you.

And honor, pleasure, may God bless all of you, and in some. Hey, keep kicking grass. I will. Ha. The Dan Levitard show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by Better Help. The holiday season can store a wide range of emotions, and the specific emotions experience can vary from person to person.

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Visit BetterHelp.com-slash-dlb today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp-h-e-l-p.com-slash-dlb. Don't let me talk. Look at him now! Just Jack White doing Elvis and Dewey Cox. Still gots. She hits that little of the park. Harry Carey is.

It's Wolf Harrel doing Harry and Elvis occasionally. Look out now. This is the Don Lebertar show with this two gots. The Zenabyte Drown King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner, the NBA. And Seth Wersack. official sports Benton Pottinou, the NBA. And Seth, where is Seth? Oh, Seth is in New York City, Sister Jean. It is 12 o'clock. Oh.

And my two boys who are here visiting are still not out of bed. Well, that's all right. You must have worked them hard yesterday. I did. I did. And we're all going to see Hamilton tonight. So I'm very excited about that. Oh, that's wonderful.

That's what was fun. Yeah, let me just get my green juice. You're holding on a second. Much better. Life in a cup. What's in that cup? My go to mix is there's no parsley actually. I don't think but spinach kale cucumbers,

your watery base, and then lemon and ginger for flavor and insights. You want to keep it clean. And then later on, I'm going to balance it out with. Sounds terrible. Yeah, it sounds awful. Oh, you guys got to try it, man. No, got to try it. I'm getting older so my drinks are getting closer. Sister Jean, tell Seth, I'm 103. I never drank any of that crap, but I'm trying. I'm trying to make it to 103. That's exactly right. You can let me know if you do that. Yeah, I will. I will. Their new book, Wake Up with Purpose, what I've learned in my first 100 years is going to be released next week. Very soon, February 28th, Seth Davis is with us here. Sister Jean is here.

She, she's an inspiration. I don't know. We'll get to Seth in a second, but please tell us, sister, before we go any further. I'm sure people ask We'll get to Seth in a second, but please tell us, sister, before we go any further. I'm sure people ask you a version of this question all the time. What is the secret to getting to a happy and healthy 103 years old? Well, when people ask me that question, I say, I eat well, I sleep well, and hopefully I pray well. I eat well, I sleep well, and hopefully I pray well. But the DNA has to come in there too, because my dad lived to be 95. He had sisters and brothers who also went, all left us between 90 and 95. So when I became 95, I thought to myself, well, God will be calling me any day now, but

here I am at 103 and still going. Part of it is because I'm had a very happy childhood. I love having a lot of fun and life. I enjoy talking to people, enjoy listening to people, and I just have a good time when I try to do at night is go to bed happy. So I wake up happy in the morning. Seth, why did you decide you could have done any number of college football book or college basketball books? What drew you to this subject matter and what did you learn in doing that and doing this that you didn't know before you started. Well, I met Sister Jean in Obviously Chronicle,

her participation in Loyal is trip to the final four. And as someone who was very close, I was very fortunate and blessed to have all four grandparents well into my 20s. And I was very close with all of them, played golf with all of them and was close to my, my grandmother's. And I just remember during that run of the final four,

thinking about how lucky those players were, all those students at Loyola were, that they had this incredible person, this beautiful older woman who was mentally sharp and very active and very much in their lives, just to be around and to be around her spirit, her knowledge, her wisdom. And it certainly occurred to me that,

wow, but she's got a great book in her. That's just how I'm trained to think. I have a hundred ideas for books that I don't have the time. And then I just want to keep tabs on her through Porter Moser, who is the former coach of Loyola, and now moved on to Oklahoma. And I like everybody else's sees Porter. Yeah, how are you doing? But how's Sister Jean, you know?

And so Porter told me, I remember vividly standing with him at a U term at the Peach Jam in Georgia, I asked him about sister Jean. He had just taken the job at Oklahoma and he told me that sister Jean as a going away president printed up all or most of the emails she had ever sent to him and to the team actually had them printed up, bowed into a book and gave it to him as a going away president. And it just was just one more data point for me that said, boy, this woman is an amazing. And I've just had this bug in my head that it just won't leave me.

Can you put me in touch with her? And he did. And like a lot of beautiful women that I've talked to over my life, she rejected me initially. I guess I either wore her down or wild her with my charm. And we kind of got off and running. I will say that I didn't know what the book was going to be about. I didn't know what the title of the book was going to be, but I always had in mind the subtitle, which is what I've learned during my first 100 years. I just knew that was a subtitle. And then I believe I mentioned that to her in our first conversation and and from there we were often running. Sister, why did you reject his initial offers?

Well, during the final four or an after there were about six write a book with you. And I said, I don't have time to write a book. I have too much to do. You know, please, no, I can't do that. So I rejected six people. And then Seth got in touch with me. And I don't know. It's just like when you meet somebody, you know, and you say, you know, I'll do that.

But I didn't say yes right away. I told them I wanted to check with my congregation and with my employer, Loyola. And so I did that and they said, go for it, Sister Jean. So, call them, yep, we run for it. And here we are, now ready to, I'm ready to autograph the books. They'll be written, They are ready to go.

Opportunists and snakes surrounding her. She finally, she thought that Seth was the least opportunist and the least snake from among those people. You should know, those sister Jean, that I believe what we have in our company is the single greatest adversary that you have anywhere in the united states uh... stu got uh... loves you your decent woman everyone loves you uh... but he also has something that he's been espousing around here for a couple of years that he thinks that you will agree with

i want to do this the right way and i want to do this and ask this respectfully okay but sister gene so don't you think don't you feel like the media and people like Seth Davis gave you a little too much credit for Loyola making it to the final four? The kids are out there playing. You know that, sister Jean, right? Yeah. Oh, I don't think they made too much of it because everybody made a lot of it. And so they would have been out of sync if they didn't make a lot. And because even when we came back to Chicago,

we were met by a police escort at the airport and they gave that escort to us all the way back to Loyola. We had so many reporters at Loyola that they were waiting in the atrium for us. And that really startled me. And they took, well, somebody took the very, the two best players and took them to the press room and interrogated them. But then the other reporters just kept taking the other young men.

And so every, every young man had his own reporter. And they told me they said, you know, your kids really know how to talk sister gene. They could answer the questions and everything. So I showed that with some of the faculty because their faculty had see them more sometimes than their families do. And so I said, you know, they said to me, well, you know, they really know how to talk. And I said, that's really what you help them do when they go in class. And you have to get, have them give reports or whatever. And so I said, we're really proud of them the way they can do that and do it very

Maturely, I think she just dumped on you. No, no, no, she didn't You do great work and that's a great story, but I'm asking do you actually feel like anything you do? You're gonna double down. You're gonna double down on it. It's a fair I respect this. I know No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,. I know. No, no, no. It's a great question. Thank you. This is a great question. I appreciate it. You cannot have an argumentative interview with sister gene. I'm certain sister gene would want all the credit to go to the kids and not to sister gene. That's all I'm asking sister gene. Don't you think more of the credit should have went to the kids? No, sister gene is responsible for these miracle runs. What has happened with Jessica and Billy Billy? What's going on there back there with you guys? What's happening? Nothing. This is going great. Yes. Yeah. Sister Jean, I love you just so you know, okay? And Seth, thank you. Also, I need your credibility.

Sister Jean, you should understand that he's, I love you. His words mean nothing. He's right about that. You know, got know, got there's a famous quote I believe from Albert Einstein that says coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous. One of my favorites. Just putting this playing it out there. And then I would encourage you to go and rewatch the win over Tennessee Clayton Custard's game winning shot and explain to me how that ball defied all laws of physics, Albert Einstein's area of expertise to go in.

So I'm just saying who's to say, right? Sister, have you read the book? Have you yet read the book? Oh, a couple times. She read it. And what did you like about your own book? Again, the name is Wake Up with Purpose, what I've learned in my first hundred years. But as you read Seth putting together your life in a form that can be remembered and learned from what did you like about the book? Well, I think that Seth actually captured who I am and what I did and how much I loved what I did. And as I read it, I could just see myself the way I was from the time I was two and a half until I was 103 and so half until I was 103.

And so I think he captured everything. I also say he worked me hard, but gently. He got that goes together. You know, that can go together in the question. And when somebody keeps pushing and gets the answer, he or she really thinks it's the right answer. And so I think he got the right answers from me every time he asked me a question.

Seth, when you're asking through the reporting because you do have to be diligent about covering all of the terrain in someone's life, what were the areas that were most inspirational to you where you did the most learning or you thought you had the richest material for your book. Well, you've got to appreciate what it's like to work with someone who is, you know,

100, I guess I may, Sister Jean, maybe 102 when we started, who has, I don't know if it's a, I call it a photographic memory, but a very specific memory. Like when she talks about from two and a half, she's not exaggerating. The book opens with a story about her being at her grandmother's funeral and about how her infant brother was sick and they were concerned about the health of her infant brother. And then they bury her grandma and the infant brother gets better. And her mom says to her, you see grandma made a better, you know. And so telling stories about how she and her mom walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on the day that it opened because she grew up in the Bay Area. So just the, the specificity of her recollections, I couldn't, I couldn't

probe her enough and, and come up with something she didn't recall with great specificity names, dates. And so that just gave me as a writer, incredibly rich material. But this question kind of goes back to your original one as well, because I get asked the same thing like, I mean, how is this possible? DNA, the blessings from above, all of it go into it. But I'll tell you what my, one of my main takeaways is, and that's the energizing, life-giving power of work.

Look at her right now. You know what she is, guys? She's in her office at Loyola. It's in the ground floor of the student section, the student center of the university. I've sat with her in that room. Kids are coming in and out. There's a cafeteria right down the hallway. Tom Hitcho or caretaker or wherever's with her. Wheels her down. She is constantly writing, talking to people, meeting with people. She's involved in meetings. She still emails me a couple of days a week, which is just a matter from heaven. She works and she works all day and then she's praying for the team.

She's doing scouting. It's not enough for her to just pray for the team. She researches their opponents so she can email this information and bring some help there. So just her work ethic and how competitive she is and her drive, I mean, she comes across as a sweet little lady and she certainly is, but believe me, she worked hard. She works with intentionality, she works with purpose.

And I think it's done a lot. It goes a lot towards explaining why she's in such amazing shape, you know, physically and mentally at the age of 103. Sister Jean, how come you've never sent these prayers the way of my alma mater Notre Dame? We are also a Catholic school in the Chicago land area. We could use some of our team hasn't made a final four in a while in men's basketball. Oh, I wasn't invited yet. I'm inviting you to pray for the Notre Dame men's basketball. Oh, I wasn't invited yet. I'm inviting you to pray for the Notre Dame men's basketball.

And the jets and the jets while you're at it. Well, you know, there's only so much miracles that can happen when we're talking about the jets. Oh, yes, it well, we played Notre Dame maybe a couple of years ago in Porter was, and we all, we started out by doing very well in that game. And later on, one of your players told one of our players, we were really scared that you were gonna be this. Because of you, Sister Jean, probably. I know, I know when we played Harvard, the Harvard coach played that I wouldn't come to the game.

Oh, and so good. He said, I don't think I want Mr. Jean here. I mean, he said that. He's just like, I hope. Jean to prayer stop working at the final four. Oh, no, watch. No, what happened there? No, I'm just saying Michigan. Michigan. Michigan. Michigan.

That is terrible. As much as she laughed, she smiling. It's something. Jean loves me. Come on. There's no God in Michigan, Sturghant. Well, you know what? Michigan had a grandmother who was boosting theirs.

I don't recall her name. It was Jalen Rose's grandma. I'll just see you. Jalen Rose's mother. Oh, okay. And so she sent me an email saying, you're at the end of the line, Sister Gene. Oh, no. Wow. What is that? Something to that effect. Fucking smash. Terrible trash talk. Put it on the pole. Please, that levitators show.

That's okay. She said Michigan's going to win the game. Are the prayers of Jalen Rose's mother more powerful than the prayers of sister Jean at levitators show over the last hundred years sister jane when you look i i i imagine there are all sorts of things about advancements in the country in the world uh... that are confounding to you i'm fifty four and i'm getting confounded all the time these days what is that what has changed most since you were uh... young woman or in your teens about the country and uh... what are the changes that you like or don't like

over the last hundred years if you have memories dating back to when you're two and a half years old. Well, first of all, digital media and all the things that we have going on in newspapers and have going on, and newspapers, and Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all those things. Those words were even in our conversation. And all of a sudden, everything kind of pops out and moves quickly. And everything is moving, perhaps, maybe 50% faster than it did before. We know news almost before it happens now whereas before we used to have to wait till the news boy came down the street and said extra extra all about it, read all about it and my dad gave us two pennies to go out to the street to pick up the paper in San Francisco to tell us the news that already happened maybe a day ago. They didn't

give us some, but they weren't updated. That whole, the whole news area is different. And the people's attitude toward it is different. And everybody wants to do have news before it happened. Everybody, and I noticed that these young people want everything to happen the day before it does, or they want everything instantly. They come in and say, Sister Jean, I have an assignment in class. I'm supposed to interview somebody older and find out, and I said, well, what do you have to find out? Well, the changes you've seen in communication,

I said, how long do you think this will take? All about 15 minutes. I said, how could I possibly tell all the things that I've seen in 15 minutes, even if I talked for one minute for each year I lived, we'd be late for dinner. I said, we're going to have to set aside at least one hour. And then I can go back and talk about newspapers and type writers and all kinds of telephones and so forth. So it does take us an hour. The name of the book, Wake Up With Purpose, what I've learned in my first hundred

years, it's going to be released here February 28th. She wrote it with Seth Davis. What do you have here? Jessica, to close this out with Sister Jean. Sister Jean, did you give up anything for Lent this year? I say that again. Did you give up anything for Lent this year? Well, no, somebody asked me that, or we need this morning. And I said, well, so far I haven't done that.

I haven't thought about that because the church keeps this pretty much in line on what we're doing. But rather than giving up, I decided to increase what I were reading. So I've been set at time each day to do more reading about my faith. And I have some book that one of my students wrote, a student I wrote taught in eighth grade,

so he sent me another graph book. And so I'll read that. I'll begin to read that. The other thing I want to do is to be very positive about life. I am positive, but I need maybe to show that even a little bit more. I want to teach more people to be happy. And I think when they read my book, they'll find out there are a couple of ways you can be happy. So it's more positive things that I want to do.

And I just want to tell you a little secret when I taught eighth grade for years, we never made resolutions for the whole of a lent because 40 days is a long time. It is a long time. A long time to step. It is a long time. She is not positive enough and she makes no sacrifices for lent. I think we've concluded sister gene overrated as a spiritual and decent figure hasn't won enough and also her prayers don't work as well as Jalen Rose's mom's prayers. Wake up with your face. What I've learned in my first hundred years, Seth, some final thoughts here on behalf of how much you admire this woman and why you admire

this woman. A book is a painstaking effort. And for you to pour your life into this for many months because you wanted to tell her story, I think people need to hear why it is that you believe in her this way. Well, I think you all are as I'm sitting here. I'm just, first of all, thank you for having us. And you're sitting here listening to her. I'm sure you're as amazed as I was listening to her. And so, yeah, books take a lot of time, but this one was pure joy. And I mean, the purest joy. And so as much as I admire her life and all that she's done and all that she says and all that she represents, you know what I'm most grateful for, I made a really good friend and I consider her a friend and I'm just lucky to have her in my life. And so I thank you guys for giving her this platform so that her words can reach a greater

audience than just inconsequential me. Congratulations guys, happy for you. I need it. Yes. I need it. I'm so sorry. I love you so much. I really do. I really do. I really do.

I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do.

I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do. I really do my very best to pray for all you guys to. Thank you. I need it. Yes. I need it. I'm so sorry. I love you so much. I really do. The words mean nothing. Thank you, Sister Jean. We appreciate it. Jesus. Thank you, Seth. You've done enough blaspheming against Jesus. This segment, please stop doing that.

You're right. Thank you. Sister Jean, I'm sorry. No, that was wonderful. It's good stuff. This has been fun. Yeah, but I feel I feel terrible I mean, I'm glad that you have a smile on your face. You'll go about the rest of your day with that smile I'm gonna spend the rest of the rest of the day hating myself Don't do that don't hate yourself. You're great at what you do and we really appreciate you guys can't tell you how much we appreciate you Well, thank you very much. Thank you. I don't like me. It's a little disassisting. Yeah. Salute. She kicked my ass. You too. I bet you love combo. My ass with kindness. How do we feel about synthetic turf?

Car. On me. Synthetic turf. Synthetic turf. How do we feel about it? Well, yeah, if you have to use it you have to use it Let me say this we had synthetic turf put in our new stadiums in Kansas City in 1973 they had airplanes with banners flying for later let George do it. They had bumpster stickers advertising let George do They put it in and a front office in the car and said, George, you got to make a punch list. I said, I'm not going

to make no punch list. I said, then people said, I'm a grass man. I said, the only one that should make that punch list is Mrs. Kaufman the owner, Shedrick Towns is what all the girls in their office. I said there's not enough coffee tables in Kansas City to hide the bad spots and I was right. They made fun of me and my crew, but six months later, 3M had it come out and take everything out and give the Kansas City Royals a new field again.

But you have to maintain it. George, say this. Hey, George. That field is so fiest stated in the LA. Is the best ground crew I ever seen, the best painting ground for that artificial turf when we didn't have a lot of outstanding. We're running out of time. So I've only got a couple more questions, but if you could do it in rapid fire, I'm a big fan of the

blue grass for a turf field. So do we go with blue grass or Bermuda grass? Which one's better? Actually, I think you're best off to go to Bermuda grass. For example, I did a lot of consoling for the bears, and the bears always had bluegrass. They always have bad, but what's going on in soldier field? Because soldier field and hinds field always have bad turf. Right. This year they had good turf. They went to to home of blue grass. That's your grass. That's your grass. To home of Bermuda grass by. But that's your grass. That's your grass to home a permute or grass by but that's your grass That's your grass game it rained and they were sliding in It looked bad there wasn't one divot but the grass was controversial there

But you're you're promoting your own grass. I know what you're doing. No, no, that's not my own grass But there's a demand. I don't have any grass on the mark. Yeah, I know I could see behind that smile I've really enjoyed my time with you But they're stadiums man, I don't have any grass all the more. Yeah, I know, I could see behind that smile. I've really enjoyed my time with you.