The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Unbreakable Episode 71 - John Lynch Part 1

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Welcome to Unbreakable! A Mental Wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay welcomes Pro Football Hall of Famer and San Francisco 49ers General Manager John Lynch for a two-part conversation following the team’s conference championship win against the Detroit Lions. In part one of their wide-ranging conversation, Lynch discusses the hardest part of his job; how his experience in the NFL influences his communication with player; and the importance of “huddling up” and bringing a team together.  Lynch also discussed his time playing for the Patriots and the Broncos; throwing the first ever pitch in Florida Marlins history; how Coach Bill Walsh convinced him to return to football; and living with World Series Champion Édgar Rentería early in his career. Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://link.chtbl.com/unbreakablewithjayglazer#fsr #2pros #herdSee 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. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Unbreakable with Jay Glaser, a mental wealth podcast. Build you from the inside out. Now, here's Jay Glaser. Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth podcast with Jay Glazer.

I'm Jay Glazer. And before I get to my guest today, my guest, boy, do you know him as a Hall of Famer, the NFL. He should be up for the Hall of Fame for GMs. Ex-baseball player, my drinking buddy, and you'll get in that a little bit. But before we get to that, if you're like many people, you may be surprised to learn that one in five adults in this country experienced mental illness last year. They have far too many fellow received the support they need. Carolyn, behavioral health is doing something about it. They understand that behavioral health is a key part of whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs in tandem.

Carolyn Babe, behavioral health, raising the quality of life through empathy and action. All right, welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth podcast with Jay Glazer. And I'm not going to wait. My guest here, he's done an unbelievable job with his Hall of Fame football career, Super Bowl winner. Unbelievable job as a general manager making that jump. Unbelievable teammate of mine when he was at Fox Sports as well, and that is the one and only 47 Red John Lynch. How are you, brother? I'm doing great, Glazy.

This is kind of awkward because you and I usually just shooting the, you know, what. To be on this kind of formal setting, it's just awkward. But I do have to say up front, I heard you're reading, you know, that read about mental health. I just can't tell you. I don't know if I tell you this enough, how proud I am of you for the contribution. You're making there so many who suffer with, you know, something that afflicts so many people in our country and something that so often wasn't something that was talked about that was just kind of pushed to the back door. And I think people like yourself who are bringing it to the forefront, you know, still living a fun life, a life that people want to live and showing people that,

you know, you can't struggle and still have a real fulfilling life. And the amount of people you've helped, I hear it from people. I know you hear it from people. I know how homeland it is to you, but kudos to you, man. I love you for it. I love you for a lot of things, but I do love you for that. Man, you can make my ass cry, man. I appreciate it, dude.

And it's funny because, you know, John and I've known each other for 20-something years, and he's seen me do a lot of crazy shit. But back then, Lynchie, we'd. just said like, oh, Glazer's crazy, right? We never knew. Depression, anxiety, gray, I never called it that. I don't know. Did you know how much pain I was in? You know I was crazy, but did you know how much pain I was in? I never did. And, you know, it's something I think about a lot in my current role as a GM, a lot of stuff. And I remember Tony Dungey used to tell me this. You'd be shocked the amount of stuff that comes over our desk, what we know about players,

the players would never know. And I always prided myself, Glaze, you know this. I care about people. It's a quality that I think by parents instilled by their actions. They were people who gave a lot to their community, to their family. We always had people randoms living in our house. I mean, it was just, that's how our family was. And I always pride myself on being a great teammate. It was probably as important to me as anything. But now that I know all the people that struggle on a day-to-day basis with issues, everybody has issues. And as a teammate, man, I look back and I try not to have regrets, but I do have regrets that I didn't know more about my teammates and how many of them might have been struggling.

I hear about it now as they've left football and some of these things come to the forefront or maybe it's more comfortable. But I hear it about our own players on a day-to-day basis. Not necessarily mental health, but just the day-to-day struggles that people have. Problems, yeah. And a lot of problems get a lump. But here's the thing, let you, like, that's our thing, because it wasn't out there. And that's why I do try and talk about it.

So it gets out there. It's our, not our job, but like, we hit it. Like, I didn't tell straight for 33 years, you know. I guess, and that's the thing. So you can't have guilt because it's not like I ever said to you. And all those times that, you know, man, and I've melted down you, I didn't know, come to you want to beat someone's ass. You know, you've talked me off the ledge of doing a lot of bad shit over the years.

And it's not like I can't you like, hey, man, I'm really struck in my depression or my anxiety. My anxiety has me thinking all these crazy thoughts. So I want to lash out, you know, you just, by the way, being crazy in football and fighting is a badge of honor. So, you know, you can't blame yourself. And it was also my job to, not my job, but yeah, you want. to hide it because you don't want to be, let's say, a burden on people. And now, now I know, having done all this work in mental health, we're so not a burden on people because every time

I've called you and be like, fuck, I, or you can be in the biggest meeting your life. And I'll text you and go, fuck, I need you to call me, right? And you can tell what it's one of those calls. I need you to call me. And sometimes you realize, too, I just need to talk, but I'm kind of going off the reservation a little bit. And I don't even say it to you. But I think now because we talk about it so much, you could recognize a lot more. But because I've been so open about it. You can't put on yourself like 20 years ago, I wasn't open on this. So you didn't, you didn't know, so you couldn't, you couldn't know with your teammates too. Yeah. And I think it, you know, I think of one of those teammates who's the guy, you know, that I was drafted with Demetrius DeBose

from Notre Dame. He was a tremendous linebacker. I think back to that draft, it was Eric Curry was our first round pick. 1993 Tampa, Demetrius DeBose was the number two pick. Lamar Thomas, the receiver was 3A. To this day, he calls me 3B when he sees me because I was the second, third round pick. So I was 3B. And Demetrius was my best friend. You know, Linda and I and Demetrius, we were like always together. You know, when we got married, Demetrius was in our wedding. And Demetrius, looking back, he had mental health issues. He had, I think he probably was bipolar, but people didn't know what that was then. But I knew that Demetrius 90% of the time was the greatest dude in the world and the most fun loving and 10% of the time he'd come back.

and just this was a different person. Who is this guy, you know, that is my buddy? I don't know this guy. And he went down a path and then ultimately, you know, tragically got shot in San Diego and shot by the police, actually, you know, in a deal where, you know, he had gone down a bad path with substance. And, you know, but I think, man, if I had known that there was a sickness, I didn't know. I just thought he had moments. Nobody knew what that was then.

They just knew that, man, there's 10% of the time he's a completely different person. And you try not to live with regrets, but believe me, I think about that on a daily basis. But you can't. Because ultimately, Lindsay, it's on me, right? I could come to you, I could talk to you, and you could help me and you could talk to me. You can even say, Glaze, go ahead and help. But if I don't, it's on me. It's not on you.

And that's where I try and tell people, you know, I'm working a lot of people, too, who are suicidal. I'm like, hey, you know, somebody takes their own life. We are the ones who are left to deal with the pain. Your pain is gone, but we deal with it. And I always get after a lot of my vets and they're friends with and a lot of our, ex-player is like, fucking don't leave that shit on us. It's not fair to us, you know? And it's not your fault or my fault that somebody else decides to do that, decide to

pull that trigger. And we have to realize that. But it doesn't have to be that level of mental health where Demetriots gets shot or someone who takes her own life. It's anything like you could be there for me as much as you want. If I don't try and, and there's a lot of things I could do for myself now, learn certain breathwork and meditation and talk to a therapist. That's on me.

It's not on you. You can't have, nobody can have any guilt on that. The one thing, the only thing you can have guilt at is if you decide not to listen. Yeah. But I haven't had anybody that's done that. Everybody said, hey, I'm there. I'll be in here for you. Yeah.

You know, and learning from you, learning from other situations, you know, be it Demetri's depose, Junior, say, oh, you know, the one thing I know is, you know, and believe me that the hardest part of this job is delivering bad news to people. You know, when you have to tell a young man that, man, I know, you've been going for this and you've, you know, sometimes you have to say you didn't put enough out there. And that's why you're being let go. Sometimes the hardest part is when the kids that have done everything right or the circumstances isn't right. And I give Tony Dungey a lot of credit because he's the one who taught me that the people making the decisions, you should be the one to talk to them every time. And so

just like I take a phone call, I stop everything for you or for one of my kids or for my wife. You're putting it in it with your kids. I know. You're the one person other than that. My parents. and my family, you know, to stop everything and to deliver that message to them, I think it means a lot to them. But then to know that, like, it's not only that you deliver the message, it's how you. And yet there's no other way to do it, but then to be direct. But to also know that, hey, you know, and we've got people that can help you because, you know, it's not going to be easy going forward. And we have a tremendous organization that understands that. And I can tell you that there's countless stories of people who later to men, that meant so much to me that you

took the time that you talked to me, that your organization helped us. That's really a gratifying part of this. As hard as that experience is, when you hear those stories, it makes you realize how important it is to be heard out by somebody. And, you know, it makes a tough situation a good one. You've also been through it. Like you were with it, right, in Tampa and going from Tampa the Bucks, so you know it. And that's where a lot of other GMs obviously don't have what you have, that kind of experience where you could say, okay, well, this is what I, this is what made me feel shitty about leaving the bucks and they go to Broncos and this would what me feel good has there been stuff that you've experienced a player that you're like you know I would have liked this done differently to me

when I played so I'm going to do this as a GM every day every day and you know it's something that I think Kyle you know told me when we got together Kyle Shanahan when we when we got together and said let's do this he's like dude that what an asset for me to have to be able to talk to a guy who knows what these guys are thinking not only did you play you played at a high level you played for a couple different organizations. You played for 15 years. You know, we'd be foolish not to tap into that. So absolutely it helps.

And I do think, and that's not to say, I mean, some of the people I respect most in this business never played at our level. You know, the John Schneider's of the world, he probably played at that small college he went to or whatever. And I think they play football. No, just joking. I love you. Yeah, I love you. But, you know, I do think it helps. And, you know, it helps a lot because they know you've sat in their seat and they know that they may not agree with what you're saying, but they know that you've been there.

And it helps to be able to say, look, I've been on the receiving end of this message. And so I know what happened on the receiving that you didn't like that you've been able to change? Just being forthright, you know, don't beat around the bush. You know, don't tell me you love me and you love me. But like, tell me, hey, the organization's made a decision. It's a real tough one because of all you've done for this organization. And sometimes I also understand now that that's a hard thing to do because you don't always know the answer right away. It's not always absolutes.

But I think when you just communicate, that's the one thing I've learned. Communicate, over communicate. Here's where we're at right now. I think that goes such a long way when you're the player because people feel like if someone's just shooting me straight, I can live with anything. I may not agree with it, but I can live with anything. It starts feeling awful shady when they tell you one thing and then the other thing happens or they don't tell you anything. and you're completely surprised.

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 you're 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 taun tons 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 podcasts. Yeah, I do want to go back one thing. Again, John Lynch, General Manager, the San Francisco 49ers, Hall of Famer on the box.

Roncos and the Patriots for like a week or so. Three weeks, three weeks. Three weeks. Three weeks. That was an experience being in New England. I actually got real close with Bill during that time because we talked a lot. And I think being the outsider, Bill felt like he could talk to someone. and we talked a lot and man I respect the heck out of him.

We have so many funny stories together. And again, we have good friends on. I'm like, man, where do we go? And it is hard to interview your friends. Like I had Kurt Menofi on a couple weeks ago. You know, Kurt and I started our careers together. I'm like, I don't have a fucking interview because there's so much. I think, look, we call this a mental will podcast right now.

And look, you could tell right now from Lynch and our relationship, he's kind of my emotional support dog. And I have pretty good, right? But I have been his emotional sport dog. Like, you know, because I want to get through another funny story here. We'll be all over the map here that I've been able to help John also with players of, hey, man, how do I handle guys now having, you know, mental health issues? Like, where we can attack and things like that, right? So we've been great.

So I want to get, I want to hit that in a little bit. But I got to tell people here, one of our all-time crazy stories. So I go out to Denver for training camp. And Lynchie here has never been out in Denver. he's never been out. His wife, Linda's like, for some reason, Linda's like, you know, Glaze is a great influence. Go, whatever he said, yeah, you go out with him.

What's happened? I have my role in the Lynch household, but she's always like, go make sure you go out. He's never been out. And she's like, go out, go out with Glaze, go out with Glaze. He's here in town, go out with him. Right, you haven't been out in Denver yet. So who did you go?

You went to a couple of your team as and asked where we should go. Al Wilson was one of them. Was 12 around him? Smith, El Wilson, Jake Plummer. They were all in on it. They were all in. He goes, where she glazed and I go? And we won't say them in the place, but it was, you know, it was some place in Denver.

And we do go out. And on first glance, it seemed like a phenomenal place. It seemed great. And Lynch, she's a family man. I was single at the time. So there was a lot of ladies there. So I'm like, oh, it's great. Lynch goes to the bathroom.

And I kind of look around and my investigative journalism hat comes on. And I'm like, we got to go. and she comes back for the bathroom and you're like, hey, hey, all right, the guys set us up like, we gotta go. And you're like, why, what are you talking about? I said, we got to go. And these fucking fools set us up

and sent us to a male burlesque club. And I'll never forget, it was men in uniform night and we turned around, they must have been on a break, and this big guy in a cop out, comes out, bolts his pants off, and there's fucking Jay Glazer and John Lynch right there. Well, I was looking at you, and I'm going, wait, this is exactly what you wanted.

You're single. I'm married guy, but oh, hey, and you go turn around, and I turn around, and right in my faces, boom, bum, bum. I got to the team meeting the next day, and I was new to that team, and this kind of was like the moment that ingratiated my teammates. I said, hey, Mike, I got something to say in front of the team, and I said, Al, Rod, Jake, you know what? I think you said I want two words.

Fuck you. You guys set me up and they laughed so hard. Oh my God. That is what is great about a locker room. Listen, if the rest of the world took on the attitude of a locker room, we wouldn't have so many problems. Like, locker room is the only place you can have a big fat, white, racist lineman, being the best man to a young fuck black guy's wedding.

And there's only one color people care about a locker room, and that's silver, which is the color of that trophy. And you could laugh it out and fight it out. And nobody's sensitive in a locker room. They are outside and the rest of the world. And I wish we could share it with the rest of the world. And we can't. And now it's getting even worse and worse.

And we're not going to go on a whole fucking thing here. But, I mean, that night, you couldn't have more backgrounds all in a plot to mess with the pasty white safety and the Jewish guy who's coming in to a male burles show. And it's like we're all coming together to love and laugh together. and man, I wish we could bottle it up the Magic Row locker room and give it to the world. I think it's what's always appealed to me about this sport is whether I was a six-year-old fan, my dad was in the radio business, and they were the flagship station of the San Diego Chargers. And so my dad and mom would be up in a suite.

Back then, they were boxes and suites. They weren't real plush, but they were up there entertaining clients. And my sister, my brother and I would be down with these Charger fans that became family to us. And what I learned there, aside from loving sports and everything was sports in our family, my dad had played in the NFL a little bit. My mom was real athletic. We just love sports. My parents had a philosophy.

You send your kids outside. You have them play every sport, so they're so tired. They couldn't think about getting into trouble. But what I learned about sports being a six-year-old Charger fan when it was just my sister, my brother and I, you had all these people that, for the love of one organization, come together. You know me. I love bringing people together. and the same thing happened, you know, when I went to Stanford and played football,

people from different races. You all come together for a common goal. And then the thing about football, nothing about it, it's easy. It's really difficult. It hurts, you know, so you become even a stronger bond because you go shared sacrifice, right? The pain brings you. And if this guy's with me in the beginning and he's still with me at the end, man, you learn out, you know, I said in my Hall of Fame speech, you learn how much you are like, number one. And then you learn to celebrate your differences.

And, man, if the rest of the world could take that on, not be so sensitive and learn to bust each other's chops, but do it in good fun. But really have that fun, we could all learn. And I talked about huddling up. Let's all huddle up together as a people because that's what I believe. And like, we make it too difficult sometime. And yeah, we're different. But celebrate that. Learn, you know what, through going through experiences together, you learn, I'm the same guy as that guy.

We grew up in different, and we have different experiences, but we believe in the same things. You got the same work ethic. Yeah, right? 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 Podcasts, 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 podcasts. A lot of people don't know you play baseball also.

What was the level we got to in baseball? So I was the first pick of the Florida Marlins. I played at Stanford. I was an outfielder. I was a closer. You were the first pick of the Marlins? I didn't fucking know that. No, I threw the first pitch.

I was the second pick. Charles Johnson, you know, so their first year... Wait, wait, wait. Back it up. Yeah. You threw the first, the second pitch? I threw the first pitch in Florida Marlins' organization history. It was in Erie, Pennsylvania. No shit.

Yeah, yeah. I was the second. I was their first pick. I was their second pick. And, you know, we went to what they call short season A ball on Erie, Pennsylvania. And this became a huge deal because Wayne Hizingo owned the team. And this was, you know, they weren't. mansion team and here was the first pitch in organization history my hat all all that's still in the

baseball hall of fame the other part of the story i came to stanford as a quarterback you know i was the number two quarterback the day i stepped on campus you know i thought it going into my sophomore year i won the quarterback job only to get beat out i'm playing baseball baseball is going better so in baseball at the time you could sign after your junior year and i signed with the marlins after my junior year and then denny green leaves for the vikings and bill walsh comes in and I get a call from Bill Walsh saying, hey, now I had switched to safety. And I got benched in game four. After leading the team in tackles, I get benched.

I thought I was playing pretty well, but apparently the coaches didn't. So I just said, football is my love, but baseball is where I got to go. Bill Walsh watches the tape, and he comes in. And I'm in Florida, actually, at spring training. I get a call from Bill Walsh. And Bill says, hey, you know, I've been watching our film. And you're our best defensive player. I understand you have a great opportunity with the Florida Marlins.

and that, you know, baseball's going well, but I'm telling you can be a pro bowl safety in the NFL. I said, what? I played four games, and I got pinched. And with all due respect, Coach Walsh, and he said, hey, next time you're in town, come see me in my office. So I did. And he made a tape, and it was a tape of Ronnie Lott making a play, then me making a similar play. Ronnie Lott making a play. And he says, you believe me now?

And I was ready to run through a wall. Did you only see play that one year in baseball? I played two parts of two minor league seasons. So a summer. and then I went to King County, Illinois. Give me some of those fun stories from those times, but also what's a difference in the baseball and a football locker room in the culture? First of all, being in the minor leagues, man,

the minor leagues is a trip now. I mean, you go to spring training and they're basically babysit because, you know, only so much you can do. Like in training camp, the day's full, you know? NFL training camp, right. Yeah, NFL training camp. We used to have two practices. We don't anymore.

Right, right. But you still have a full day of meetings. Baseball, like they're babies. at minor league kids because they don't want you going back to the hotel and they're high school kids you're out right you're just out of high school and there's kids from third world countries you know oh yeah and i think that's the thing you know football players get a bummer out but most football players have their college degrees these guys most of them they were lucky if they had high school degrees and so you're out i remember this kid who i was on the uh you know we'd be on

these buses and i remember my dad before i went played myr league baseball said everybody's got to have a briefcase you know and i was like why do i have to have a briefcase you know and i was like why do i have to have a case that. And so I got on my first trip on this kid, Ryan Whitman had a briefcase. And Ryan hadn't graduated high school. He got seen like he worked at a bar. They had a softball team. He had a cannon and turned on a staff. And so Ryan was this great kid, but he knew I like to read. So he'd come to me and he goes, hey, I want you to help me, you know, like in case I make it in baseball, I want you to help me learn how to interview. And so I said, all right, right, we'll come with a word, it will be a word from something I'm reading. And we're going to learn that. We're going to expand your vocabulary. Because

most people are playing cards. I was into reading back then, and I felt some time. So Ryan and I, and then one day I said, hey, if I'm going to be doing this, you've got to tell me, I've been watching it carry that briefcase forever. Like, what's in that briefcase? He goes, oh, he pops it open. His baseball card taped up and a pack of cigarettes,

it's the only thing in there. But the stories of minor league baseball, I mean, everything from being on the freeways, you see, like, the amount of time I played, you're seeing beautiful parts of the, like I was in New York Pinleague and you're going places like Erie, but you're going up at the Niagara and Canada, Oneata, New York, upstate New York. It's real pretty, Jamestown. And then you go up into Canada, real pretty places.

But my brother did it for six years. He goes, yeah, it gets old really quick. And you're on a janky bus. But it's fun. Janky bus. One time we broke down and I remember I think the bus driver was in tears because he put diesel fuel onto a regular and it burned the engine. But while we're waiting for another bus in the middle of the night, we had the radar gun

and we got up on top of the freeways of New York. We're up shooting the radar gun, timing the trucks coming. You know, Edgar Renneria had come from Columbia when I was in my second year. Rumed with the guy Pat Leahy, his grandfather was the great Frank Leahy, the coach at Notre Dame. Pat had played at Notre Dame, and so they thought we were the responsible one college kids. The Marlins came to us. They have no idea. Hey, no offense to you, John, but our real number one prospect, this kid, Edgar Renneria,

is 16 years old from Columbia, needs a place to live. And we think you guys are the most responsible. And I told them, I was like, hey, we're college kids. We're going out after games. Like, I know, but you just, you guys have a good, and so sure enough, Edgar gets there. And for a month, we'd leave. And he was like the puppy at the window. No shit.

He lived with you? No way. Yeah, and so he's having, you know, he'd come from Columbia. His food, his stomach was torn up because the food was different. And he begged us, let us go out with you one night. So we take them to a bar one night and 10 minutes in, I lose Edgar. And I'm, Pat, where's Edgar? And 15 minutes later, we find him outside throwing up.

He had had his first drink. And the Marlins, the Marlins front office was so mad at me. And I said, I told you guys. Like, I wasn't there to babysit. We were college kids. Oh, my God. stay we still have a great relationship baseball was fun baseball there's

so much more downtime like if you're even if you're hitting in the lineup then you go hang at the fence and you're hanging with your guys so you talk a lot football you're working you know like it's a lot more work godlish man I appreciate you so much brother man thank you so much another podcast from some SNL

late night comedy guy not quite unhumored me with Robert Smygel and friends me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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 I-Heart 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 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. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me.

84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year. It was a wild year.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.