The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright Part 1: Ohtani’s Story Is Believable, The Next Gambling Scandal, Stop Complaining! Aging + Early Retirement

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Colin is joined by Nick Wright, host of “First Things First” on FS1! They start by weighing in on America’s nonstop grievance culture and how it’s evolved over the years (5:00). Nick explains why he’ll never be able to retire early (12:00) and they compare and contrast different milestones when it comes to aging (15:00). Then they do a deep dive into the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal (22:30) and Nick explains why it’s entirely plausible that Ohtani had no knowledge of what his interpreter was doing. They explain why it’s likely we’ll see another major referee or student athlete involved gambling scandal in the near future (30:00) (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Don’t forget to check back for Part 2 with Nick Wright! Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume #Herd See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The volume. All right, my buddy, Nick Wright is about to stop on by, so we chop it up for an hour. You know, we're going to talk about a lot.

And that's why I love Nick so much. Before we start with Nick, I want you to grab your smartphone, takes 90 seconds, download the GameTime app. you will not regret it. It's the fast, easy way to buy tickets to comedy, sports, theater, concerts, anything. Takes the guesswork out of buying tickets at the GameTime app. Fast and easy. They have deals right up to the start of events or concerts, and then an hour after the game, comedy, theater concert starts, up to an hour after. It's the best place to find last-minute seats. They have zone deals where you pick the section in GameTime, picks the seats for big time samings. So again, download the game time app. Takes 90 seconds. You know how that works. Put in the code, Colin C-O-L-I-N. You'll get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, C-O-L-I-N. That's the redeem code. 20 bucks off your first purchase.

Download the game time app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. All right, we like to bring on Nick Wright. as often as we can. And after some speculation, if I had given up the sauce, I'm here to announce that I... Oh, there we go. Thank goodness. I was out here drinking alone. Your excuse last time was, essentially, I'll paraphrase, you got so hammered the previous

two days with your lovely wife that you needed to detox for a minute. Well, you and I have discussed this. we are with beautiful creatives. Every pod this comes up. Every pod. The listeners of your pod know more about your wife and my wife than close family friends do. But yeah, sometimes I, let me finish your sentence. Sometimes in order to get on their intellectual or creative level or really to remove some social awkwardness, we need to have a couple cocktails in order for them to not be embarrassed when they're out in public with us.

That obviously happens. So yeah, I'm with that. But I interrupted you. So cheers. Good to see you. And I know there's a rant. There's something you want to start with. You wouldn't even tell me.

You were like, I have a rant. So go ahead. Let me hear it. So, you know, if you, I think we both think of ourselves as people that are, you know, more progressive than not. But there are two sides to every coin and every argument. But I tend to try to tell my kids be curious, adapt, travel. Don't be rigid. It's just no fun to be around.

But not everything new is right, and not everything right is new. So I have some things, as an older guy with gray hair, that I'm a little old school on. And I'm going to throw this out. Everybody's got something where they like romanticize the past, or they just, they can be a little bit outdated. But it's okay. We all like, like I have a friend who just loves like 70s rock and roll. You just can't let it go. I like some of it too.

It's okay, right? Sure. So here's mine. Yeah. My wife likes being a wife. I like being a husband. And I always feel that it's sort of my job to just figure shit out. I don't like guys.

I don't think it's masculine to complain about your kids, about your job, about the economy, about your school, about your boss. I don't think it's masculine. My job, when my wife brings me problems, figure them out for her. You open doors. She likes the masculinity sometimes. And sometimes she'll laugh at it. You're a guy.

I like being a guy. And when I watch sometimes the media, because that's the business I'm in, and politicians, just constant grievance and constant complaining, I can't do it. it. I don't think I don't like it. Figure it out. If you don't like the economy, do a side hustle. Make corners. If you don't like your boss, get another job. If you don't like a cultural change, then ignore it. You don't have to complain about everything. So there has been a rapid, so there have been two very rapid, I think, cultural shifts just in the last 10, years.

And one, I think, you know, cuts against my side of the aisle and one cuts for my side of the aisle. So I will tell them both because one leans into what you're talking about. The one that cuts against my side of the aisle is when I was growing up, if people were talking censorship, it was the conservatives. It was, you know what I mean? It was we have to put, you know, this, parental advisory on this record and the, you video games and this music. And now in the last 10 years, there has been a level of where people that I want to agree with and I tend to agree with, the stifling of certain speech or this makes me

unsafe has become very in vogue in some circles. And by the way, I don't think that's meaningless. I think it can be overused. And now if you were to tell me, someone is trying to stifle speech, I tend to have a different look of who they are politically than once upon a time, right? So that's a shift. Here's another one. Man, oh, man, the folks who love to point out and claim everyone is triggered and they hate victims. God. You seem to be the most easily triggerable victim mentality folks these days.

Like every like, no, no, no. The reason I have a mediocre job is because of DEI, rather than the fact that I barely graduated my associates degree and I've kind of been a mediocre employee everywhere. The fact that, oh, my youth expect me to walk down the street and what am I supposed to tell my children if they see someone dressed in a way that I don't think associates with the gender they were. born. I don't know, be a fucking parent. Have a have a conversation is what you do. I've been saying that for years. Right. Use that as an opportunity to have a conversation with your child. And so there has been a real switch as far as the, there is, it once upon a time, I think we had a certain right or wrong stereotype of what it meant to be liberal and what it meant to be conservative. Yeah. And a lot of those things have been.

turned on their head. Yes. Because right now, if you were to say to me, someone is trying to get a book band, that's almost come full circle. Like, I used to think that would be conservatives. Then there was a period of time where it's like, well, not a book band. But I do think that they want to ban certain words used on, you know what I mean, on certain schools.

And now it's come back to, oh, a book band? Oh, there must be a gay parent in it. And you don't want to have that awkward conversation with your kids at the dinner table. And there is a lot of woe is me from folks that consider themselves alphas, folks that are like, I am the manliest man there is. And yet all of this shit has gone wrong and you expect me to fix it. You think it's my fault. And what you were saying about your relationship with your wife, I think is very interesting.

because this is kind of a cliche, you know, fight between spouses, but where very often, again, to use kind of gender norms, a woman comes to her husband, says, this happened to me or this is a problem. And the husband's immediate reaction is, well, here's how we can fix it, and the wife gets pissed. Like, I don't want you to fix it. I want you to, like, sit with me in this, you know, problem.

But you and I are, and I think a lot of people are in a way, and I think this tends to be more men than women, where it's like, no, let's just rather than like kind of empathize about the issue, try to solve the issue. And I think that can be frustrating for certain people. I do think it is very useful and helpful in relationships. If whatever your guys, whatever you perceived you wanted your role to be as the husband, Yeah. If that's the role your wife before you guys were married perceived she wanted her husband to have. Like it is important to me that I am the provider.

Yeah. You can say that's toxic. It's ego. Yeah. Whatever it is. It is. And my wife's very successful and owns her own business. And you want to know one reason I'm not going to retire anytime soon?

I would be more likely to retire if she did. But the idea that there's going to be a day where I'm like, honey, I need. some money, I can't do it. Yeah. I just couldn't do it. And I, and maybe that's bad. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting that, but that's how I am, but also that's who she wants. She doesn't, you know what I mean? She wants someone motivated in those types of ways, which is why it works. Yeah, no, Anna has said to me before, and she's funny this morning. She's in an area of the country that's very cold, and I said, where are you? She goes, I'm at T.J. Max looking for a winter jacket. And that's why I love her. Like, she would never go to an expensive store. She's like, I'm at T.J.

Max, they didn't have it, so I'm going to, you know, Target or wherever. And I'm like, I love you so much. But she also said a couple of weeks ago, we did something that was reasonably extravagant for us. And she said, you know, you talk about retirement. There are some things. There are advantages to you not retiring. Exactly right. Exactly right.

I said to the, I said, and again, now we're just talking about our wives and our relationships. That's fine. the audience, there's not like going on in sports. We can get to it later. I said to my wife, not that long ago, because I turned 40 this year. And that's a weird thing. 40 is like a weird thing psychologically. Like when I turned 35, my buddy called me and was like, hey, there is one big change at 35.

And I'm like, what's that? He's like, you're not professionally graded on a curve ever again. I'm like, what do you mean? he's like when you're 33 you get to be really good for a young guy you get to be an up-and-comer you get to be graded on potential he's like when you're nobody looks at the 37-year-old and is like well he's gonna turn into it's like you are now you're just an adult like from 35 on you're not graded on a curve anymore and at 40 at least for me psychologically i need to i don't know i need to really have a plan laid out of what but I think I want to do it. So I said to my wife, I was like, I was like, I think I want to do this 10 more years. And she's like, what do you mean?

I was like, 10 more years, our youngest is in college. If I'm not just a total schmuck, I'll have the money set aside. And then I was like, then I don't know. Like maybe I travel and play poker. Maybe I go to law school. And she was like, you're not quitting. And I'm like, but you hate how much I work.

she was like, yeah, I think you work too much, but you need to keep working. She's like, you could work a little less. I'm like, we'll be, I was like, I've done the math. Like I think, you know, we can have X amount of dollars, whatever it is. And what she was saying is, A, she doesn't think I would actually quit. What she's also saying is, yeah, but to live our lifestyle, if there's no more money coming in, Like, there is a level of, like, how long are we going to live? Like, maybe push 50 to 55 or 60.

Yeah, so because I thought I was like 10 more years. I'll do it 10 more years. But she says no. How about this one? So this, when I was in high school, I can remember my mom saying, oh, you are, she was British. Oh, you're such a scatabrain. I can remember having girlfriends in my 20s and 30s.

you are such a scattered brain. I really like you, but you forget your keys. You lose your wallet. You can't keep a pair of sunglasses. So I remember telling Anne when I met her, I said, here's what's going to happen in my career. Because the way my mind works and I'm thinking about rants all day, and I lose myself sometime, I talk to myself, I lose train of thought. I said, I've been doing it since I started at 23 years old. but once your hair is gray and the first number of your age is six,

then it's viewed as, oh, he's lost as fastball. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I lost this fastball at 14. This is my brain. I lose my train of thought regularly. That's not my age. I'll know when I've gone, you know, I've lost some marbles. So I said, so whereas 35 maybe some line of demarcation,

six is when your bosses start going, you know, that wasn't just a mistake. He is getting up. So that's a different thing. So that's a different thing, which is now you. So the, this is again that I'm not quite 40 and you're not, you're not 60. I'm 60. Oh, you're 60. Oh, you just turned 60.

Yeah, just turned. Oh, I missed. Oh, okay, I'm bad at birthdays. Well, happy birthday. That's a big one. I thought, I thought you were just about turned 60. But the other things is, is, you know, I show up at work with a broken arm and people are good with what I told him. But in the back of their head, they're like, I wonder if Nick was doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

You're 60, you show up at work with a broken arm. They're like, oh, no, he fell in the house. They're like, oh, no. Like, is he okay? Like that you're right, that there are right now, Colin Cowher, or like, I'll use a good example, a guy who I know. know we both have massive like either personal or professional affection or love for that it's so baked into how people think of him. No one thinks it's because he's old. Mad Dog can do every any can make any mistake because he's made him forever. Yeah. Mad Dog has gotten names wrong and

these things forever. Yeah. So because of that, if he does it, no one's like, oh, he's getting a little older. It's like, this is who he's always been. Right. So you almost need built in that people know who you are. In order, you can't be the guy who was super sharp on everything. And then, you know, as you get older, start forgetting things, start whatever it is. That's a, that's a different story. Yeah. No, it's, but I've always known it's coming. I've always known it's, I just can't come to work with a cast on my arm or all better off. Yeah, no, it's a problem. This is the oldest problem for me. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind

the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two.

Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. There have been a handful of friends I've had in this business. You're certainly at the top of the list. People who are mathy compartmentalize well. And they all have the ability to gamble well or be lawyers. They'd be good lawyers and good gamblers. You're one of those people. That's so funny. What did I say I was going to do if I quit this? I said maybe go play poker and maybe go be a lawyer. Exactly right. Yeah. And so that's how your brain works. One of the things, I think one of my bigger criticism, of the media, sometimes the sports media, I'll stand the sports media, is just the naivete of the sports media. The escort business in America is largely run by professional athletes.

I mean, it's just, you go to a hotel on the road. It's escorts, it doesn't matter if it's L.A., Houston, Atlanta, it's baseball, hockey, bet. Like every, like it's, you could not surprise. Wall Street pro athletes are probably the two biggest at these centers. And it's say what you want. It's legal in every city in the country.

Maybe not Salt Lake, but everywhere else it's happening, right? And it's consenting adults. I'm not going to judge that this is not, I don't feel like anyone's being, everyone knows what they're signing up for. Sure. Second thing is everybody is gambling everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere.

Everybody's got bookies. Everybody's gambling. And finally, actually, when a draft king comes in, there's clarity. You can bet on everything except the NFL and don't be in our facility. You can bet on anything else. That's actually helping the business. Now it's like, just don't be here and don't bet football. Go bet anything.

So that creates clarity. Baseball, no illegal bookies, and don't bet baseball. So I don't look at it as a negative. I look at complete clarity on what you can bet on everything and what you can't our sport. So this is a roundabout way of getting into Otani. is I think when celebrities, Billy Joel lost 90 million, Robert De Niro 88, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan, John Elway, smart people, great degrees, great schools, have lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

There is more now than ever, it's an industry to target rich young celebrities who are clueless about business. So I look at Otani and I think, yeah, I'm not shocked as interpreter with no. Nothing but downtime and money use an illegal bookmaker in Southern California. But I also think it's possible that Otani is not looking at his bank account. Billy Joel was. De Niro. Banks, charity, schools get duped.

So I talked about this because I am mathy and lawyerly. I'm not good organizationally. And I have weird, I have weird like anxiety triggers. like I don't like I don't I have right now if I looked at my phone and I'll tell you the exact number I have 254 unopened text messages so like that's not unresponded to that is I haven't even opened them and read them and it's not because I'm in group chats I've got so I so I say that because so I have weird things about like even if I know I have money I have I I I I I struggle like opening the bank at. Like I don't like to look at it. I don't know. Weird thing in my brain.

Okay. Say that. If someone was stealing from me, I could go months and not know it. There's three people who basically have access. You know what I mean? And there are people I trust. There are people that I, you know, either handle my investments, my taxes, or make sure my agents paid all of that.

Those three people, if they, and by the. way, even when I do check, like, what do they do? They send me a bank statement. Those are easily forged. Like, if I did, to do a, people do not every month do a real self-audit if they are paying people to handle their money. Having money stolen from you is just truly, in my opinion, mostly bad luck. It means the person you trusted was dishonest or had a problem, whatever it is. and I'll take it a step further. This is what I discussed. So I do, who would be the single easiest person in the world for me to steal from?

The answer is my son. Because he trusts me implicitly. He relies on me for things that he doesn't know about. Like, hey, how do I file my taxes? What do I do? I have all of his information. And he would never, ever think that I would be taking advantage of him. because I have always worked for him,

helping him out, all of it. Well, who in the world do you trust more than the person who speaks for you and translates for you in a foreign country? You come to America, don't even speak the language, right? Every interaction you have this guy is attached to. Of course you're going, you have to trust him implicitly with everything.

So if he's going to steal from you, you're not going to see it coming. Because then all of it's like, if you have to worry, would this guy steal from me, then you also have to worry, is he lying to my employer? Is he lying to my agent?

Like every single interaction you have that he's involved in. So I think it is totally plausible that Otani could have a few million missing and not know it. I think it's totally plausible that this guy, I would have full access to it. The part of the Otani story that I want more investigation on is multi-layered. One is this bookie that gave a guy a multi-million dollar credit limit, I want to know more about that. Because I've gambled and I know how credit works.

And I don't have Otani money, but I do have Otani's translator money. Yeah. And I, you know what I mean? And it's hard to get a credit. It's hard to get a credit line with any bookie in America higher than $50,000. We're talking about a million plus. So I'm interested in that.

Was that guy trading? Did the book he think Otani was making the bets even if he wasn't? The other thing that I want to know about is this. Because the part of the story that I don't understand is there seems to be a 36-hour period between when the angels and authorities believed, oh, the interpreter has been doing something wrong. And when they, and from that, there was a 36-hour period where from that moment, nobody was like, hey, we need someone else that speaks Japanese to update Otani. Right. There seems to be a day and a half where they were like, interpreter, you're in trouble.

Now go tell Otani, you're in trouble. And it's like, wait a minute. Yeah. That doesn't, to me, that, does that mean baseball or the angels or somebody was like just hoping, please let this go away? fleet you know i don't know so there are part of it part of the story that doesn't i'm like hmm i need more information there but i do not i don't think it is i think it is more likely than not that otani didn't do anything right right now was a victim i think the most likely outcome is that otani had money stolen from him by someone he trusts yeah and i or go ahead sorry and i and i do think the dodgers and major league baseball are praying he didn't know anything thing. And if it comes in gray, that will be he didn't know anything. And by the way, I also, I don't know if this would be against baseball's rules or not, but if the answer is that Otani knew his best friend was gambling and he covered it for him because the money is all fake to him anyway. I wouldn't judge him for that at all. Maybe that's against the rules. Now, now I would judge him if it's like, but now I'm going to tell everyone you stole for me and you got to.

to go to prison. Then I'd be like, okay, that's a problem. But so we'll see what it comes out. I don't think, but my gut reaction is not Otani was better. It just wasn't. It doesn't make sense. Yeah. It doesn't logically, I don't think that's how that works. And I, and here's the other thing. If he was betting, he's not wiring the money from his account. Right. Like there's a, he would have been more subtle about it if he were betting. Yeah. And I, and I think, like, whenever I, whenever I, whenever I hear the kind of the do-gooders in the media lament gambling, I'm always like, I said this to John Midlakov. If you want to be a journalist, then be a journalist, and journalists have to report both sides. The average bet by Draft Kings and Fandul is $4.

Hard to break your family on that. And the disturbance distortion rate is 1%, meaning 1% of gamblers get in trouble. I have to read a 1-800 number after every spot. The distortion disturbance rate with alcohol is 6%. And they tell you know when to say when. So are we closing all the bars? Stadiums ply you with alcohol. It hurts your brain, your liver, your family, your bank account. So I think a lot of people are using this Otani moment to wave caution flags of this

gambling thing is terrible. No, like anything else, anything that is fun, it can be abused, used. I think we are going through a period in sports. Rick New Heisel got in trouble years ago at the University of Washington for betting a March madness pool. It got him fired. Gambling has always been something that is mistakes are made. There's a lot of money. It's fun. It's young people. They have cash. I don't think Otani is a signal that gambling is, I never thought it was a virtue, but that it is this problem in America. We've been doing it forever. So a couple things. So I, I agree and disagree with you on this. So I think that we can have an honest conversation about, listen, there are a lot of things that are going to cause some very significant harm to a percentage of people that do it that we just say we don't, I don't say we don't care, but it's, that's the cost of living in a free society, essentially. You know what I mean? We're just now I do think that the that there's two things that I think should be at least looked at. One is the ease with which because you mention alcohol that I think a fair distinction is I can't hear an alcohol ad and grab my phone and a shot comes up.

Right. Like the fact that the ease with the, the, the frictionless part of it, yes. I think has, it has some unintended consequences that when it's like, hey, gambling's legal. It's Supreme Court change the law is gambling's legal. But in order to do it, you got to get in your car, go to a casino, stand in front of, like, you know what I mean? So there are. So I do think that there could be some. Yes. Push and pull there. The, to me, the bigger gambling story this week was not Otani. It was the kid in the NBA quarter. Michael Porter Jr.'s brother, who the circumstantial evidence makes it seem like he was banging on his own personal points and rebounds unders to the tune of 10, 20, 30 grand. So that now, people have asked me, people ask me all the time, do you think games are fixed? Like, absolutely not.

I'm like, now, a college game, some definitely. and do I think that we will have a referee-based officiating or a betting scandal in one of the major sports in the next few years? Yeah, I do just because college kids don't have any money, refs don't make a ton of money, and you can make 50 grand, 100 grand. So I think that could happen. But that, by the way, happened forever. Okay, there have been got, that, that's legal, illegal gambling that can happen. The thing that, so, but for a pro athlete, anyone that has the ability to, to throw an NBA game,

make so much money, being able to win 40 grand, which is about the most you can bet on an NBA game doesn't make sense. The only people could really throw a football game are quarterbacks. Yeah. You know,

so it doesn't make sense. But now all of a sudden it's like, oh, I can bet real money on individual player props. Props, yeah. Now, we are talking about an area where there is this,

Jonte Porter, I don't know that he, did it or he didn't. But the Jontay Porter story will not be the first one or it would not be the only one. And you see it in other sports you've seen it for you. Like you see it in tennis. Tennis, it's a big problem. You know what I mean? Certain guys who don't make a ton of money and can make 10, 15% of their annual salary by doing something that really does feel victimless. Because if you are the eighth man on an NBA team and you're like, man, I just got to check in and then say my hamstring hurts.

I don't even know that it's going to hurt the team and I can make 20 grand. People are going to do that. Flatly people are going to do that. And the only now the reason I bring it up in this context is those player props, when I had to bet with a bookie, nope, you couldn't say to a bookie, hey man, I'd like to take Dante DiVincenzo

under nine and a half points. And I'd be like, oh, fuck yourself, pal. You know something. I'm not taking the bet. And so those, those, Those markets didn't exist. But now the player props are a big market. So I do think we'll see more of it.

It doesn't mean you have to have a prohibition on it, but we have to be honest about the likelihood of it and the incentive structure is changing versus fixing games, which pro athletes are not going to do because there's not real money in it. Right. No, I do think, I've said this before. Henry Hill, Boston College or Boston University. I think college athletics, especially pre-NIL, I think a lot of players felt like they were being used. They hate a coach. They want 12,000 bucks. They got a girlfriend.

They want a new car. There is not, just like college basketball cheating was way worse in John Wooden's era than it is 10 years ago. There's a magnifying glass. I think college basketball, there's 360 teams. It used to be in the 60s, 80s, 80s, and 90s. 12 games a week were televised. It was so much easier than you didn't have the computer. I mean, good God.

Think about something that's not analogous, but, you know, it was at the beginning of Ted Bundy's killing spree where states could link up and go, I mean, it used to be neighboring states had no idea. They had no idea. They had no idea who he was. And now, literally, you can find DNA and go find a guy that did something 48 years ago. The advancements on finding bad guys. guys, well, there were no advancements in the 40s, 50, 60s, 70s, 80s, 80s,

$5,000 to a kid in college was generational, it felt like. And so that's the part of it for the college athletes that I think people just don't remember how broke they were in college. Colin, I don't know if I've told you this story on the air or not. I mean, it's 20 years ago now, but it's not something I'm proud of. I lost a $1,000 in a poker game in college, not a college poker game. A in this, in this city of South Syracuse, some Armenian fellas and some, a real, a real guy's game. And I owed a thousand dollars.

And I'd been playing in the game for like a year. And I had till Friday to pay their. guy money and I had like $200 to my name and I owed him a thousand bucks. So I went to a different game with the 200 bucks and I'm like the only way I'm going to get this is to try to spend it up. I did not. I lost it. And I went to the guy who runs that game and I'm like, hey, can I borrow a thousand dollars? And he's like, why are you asking for this?

I'm like, because I owe it to that guy. you know, he knew who it was. And he's like, so let me just make sure I have it right. You're more afraid of him than you are of me. And I'm like, well, I think he would maybe hurt me. I don't, I know, I don't think you would. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stiff you. I just need more time.

And he's like, you're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. It's a terrible idea. I will loan it to you and you will pay me back and don't think that our friendship will prevent me from making sure I get it back. In that moment, Colin, if I were a college athlete

and someone was like, hey, I can fix this for you, 10x, I was so scared and so like out of moves, didn't want to call my, couldn't call my parents, didn't what, you know what I mean? Like those moments, and so now you can say, but then that gambling caused it. I understand that, whatever it is. It's just, it is what it is.

And so the, and that was a thousand dollars, a thousand dollars. But in that moment, a thousand dollars, but I remember the day after that happened. I was walking by a Jimmy Johns and there was like a little like Discover card kiosk out in front. and it said, sign up for the, if you sign up for the credit card, you get a free sandwich. And I was like, you're goddamn right. I'm getting that free sandwich. And then, and that's actually what saved me was I had never had a credit card. And then I realized, oh, you can get a cash advance on a credit card.

So I signed up for a Discover card with a $1,000 limit, like a $300 cash advance limit, signed up for a couple more, paid that guy back. and then, you know, paid 62% APR on those past advances, you know what I mean, until probably I was 23 years old. But I really felt out of moves. Sure. And so there is a level of like what does someone at 19, 20 years old who feels like they're in a rough spot, what would they do to fix it?

Yeah. And if the answer is, you can win. Just don't win by 20. 12, that feels like the, you know what I mean? The easiest fix there ever was. I'm not encouraging it, but I also am saying right now as someone who's been in those spots, I don't think I would be like, oh, that person is a bad person. I'd be like, no, they got put, they were in a rough spot and they felt squeezed in defense,

if you will, of legal gambling. On things like that, it is way more likely to be discovered and found out, now that gambling's legal versus when it was all through bookies. And you know what I mean? There wasn't a real regulated market on it. That part's true. Well, I mean, if you can hide to our previous discussion on serial killers being discovered, if you could hide something like that for 40 years, you could hide a turnover and a missed jumper

in a 1977 basketball game that wasn't televised. Of course. Yeah. Easiest thing in the world. Well, and there was, I think it was City College, New York. I think it was CCNY through, I don't know it was the national championship game, but I know there was a movie about it from the 50s. They didn't have 50s called City Dumps.

It was the best team in the country. And, you know, I mean, they were accused of game fixed. The volume. Thanks for listening to Part 1 of the conversation with Nick. Don't forget to check back for part two. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman,

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing huge. human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and

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