The Josh Innes Show - Mark Andrews and The Drop

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

I start with a little radio rant. I've been really pissed off about this whole industry of late. I'm truly considering moving back to Houston to give the podcast a true shot. But, I'd need to have an actual job as well. Anyone hiring? The Buffalo Bills fans have raised money for Mark Andrews charity. Now, that's nice of them. But, it's also a subtle troll job. With that said, no one is going to remember the Mark Andrews drop a year from how. It's not that big of a deal. I look back on some other memorable blunders and revisit what I believe to be the most beautiful and sincere call of a mistake in sports history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Josh just laying around here doing a little pod for you today. Hey, I want you guys, feel free to shoot me some messages, some texts, some tweets, some DMs, some emails at joshinashow.com. Let me know how you feel about the pod. I know it's different than what I've done historically because I don't have anybody doing it with me. There's no video. And I know there's some things I want to eventually do. A lot of it comes down to when I eventually move. And look, I'll be honest with you. There's a large part of me right now that is strongly considering just moving back to Houston, finding a real job. I say a non-radio job and then really using my downtime to try to push the podcast into something bigger there. Like, you know, you think about where you want to go and how you want to live and what you want to do.

And I'm 38 years old. Look, if there's a good job that pops up somewhere, then I'll go. But there's just this feeling that I have right now that I'm sick of moving from place to place. I'm sick of the fight to get these jobs. I'm sick of being ignored by people. And look, I'm not telling you, like, I'm not doing this. I don't need pity for this. I'm just telling you how this industry works now, because this industry is not the

industry that I got into 20 years ago. It's not the same industry my dad got into 45 years ago. It's just a different universe than it than it used to be. It's just it's not a glamorous industry. It's an industry where a lot of people are doing, or very few people are doing a lot of jobs. It's a place where program directors don't really take challenges on anybody anymore. Like, like I send out my audio to people and the number of times I don't even get an email back. And I just want to be, I want to send another email back and be like, look, dude, fuck you. Like, who are you? Who the fuck are you to just not even send an email back to someone? It's absolute bullshit.

And I'm sure that many of you have dealt with this in other lines of work as well. Like, you look at stuff and you say, you know, like, I'm just, I see a job opening. The job opening says send a fucking email. And then you send an email and they don't even bother saying, hey, go fuck yourself. At least the guy in Chicago that I emailed about a job essentially told me to go fuck myself. At least that was nice. Like, I would take that.

I mean, it was snarky and dickish, but at least it was like, you know, hey, we're good. Thanks. Well, fuck you. But at least you emailed me back. The number of these cocksuckers that don't email people back. I worked for one of the great program directors in the history of the industry named Andy Bloom. And one thing he's always told me is it doesn't matter who emails, he's going to email that person back. And he always emailed them back.

The fact that there are so many people who haven't accomplished anything that he's accomplished, or a guy like Gavin, who always responds to people people's emails a guy who's a great boss in Dallas a guy like Jonathan in Nashville that's a great boss the number of these these people who don't even bother to respond and look I don't think I should be any more important than anybody else you know I'm not like I look I've done things there's a lot of people would dream of doing I've had jobs and blown jobs that people would love to fucking have totally. Right. Like I've done that. People would kill to have worked at WIP or sports radio, six 10 or seven 90 in Houston or all the, I've, I've done some cool shit. I've had some great moments. I've been fucked in some of them. I fucked up some of my own, but like the fact that I'm not getting responses from these people, the fact that when I had an agent and she was like,

yeah, this company's probably never going to hire you again. I'm like, like the fact that this is what this industry is, the fact that I send this audio and I got this nice package of audio that I sent and I can't get a fucking response that says, no, we're good. Like, or, or, you know, I appreciate it, but we don't need, especially when the job posting says, hey, please email your audio to blank, blank at blank company.com. And then you do, and you don't even hear anything back. It's not a humbling experience. Like I've been humbled. I'm not really an arrogant person. I know that you might listen to this and go, Josh, what are you talking about? Look, when I'm on the radio and I'm playing like a ratcheted up version of myself, sometimes I might sound like an arrogant

asshole on the radio, but I am a pretty level-headed person I wish I were more arrogant when I see the arrogance that pours out of some of these radio dopes who are making 25 grand a year and think they're changing the fucking world talking up Sabrina Carpenter records I want to tell myself shit I wish I could like myself as much as these nobodies like themselves but then you send these emails out you're like hey I'm just like there's a job opening here um just here tell me what you think here's some audio what do you think of this and then it's like nothing crickets and you just like like this industry is not what it used to be and that's what drives me to like there's this thing I have deep down where I'm just like fuck them I want to shove it up their fucking asses and start a goddamn podcast, which I already have the basis for it here.

I mean, look, I'm laying in my bed. I got my damn foot up on a pillow elevated because I've been having fucking foot problems. I'm goddamn 80. I'm the people that listen to classic rock radio. I'm the people I despise at this point now. I basically need a walker around the house. It's two degrees outside, so I don't know if it's arthritis or what. My foot's fucked up, so I'm icing my foot right now. So look, got issues. We all got issues. It is what it is. But when you email people,

and the posting specifically says, there's a job opening, email this person with this audio, and you don't even get a, hey man, that's pretty good. We're going to go in a different direction or whatever that it's just bad form. And maybe that's why your fucking industry fucking sucks now. Cause you've got a bunch of fucking nobodies out there doing nobody bullshit. Just trying to hang on to their fucking jobs. The people who are good at it that I still talk to, I go like, what's the deal? Like, do I suck? Is there like, like, like, just be honest with me. Do I fucking suck? Like you can tell me if I'm not, if I'm not a fit for radio anymore, if I'm not doing good shit, even though two fucking years ago, I'm number one in the mornings in Nashville. But tell me this. Do I fucking suck? Just tell me that if I suck, then I'll go find something else to do or I'll drink Drano and it'll be fine. They go, you really don't suck. You're really fucking good. It's just, it's a shitty industry. And most people who are in it

are literally just trying to suckle the last fucking drop out of it so they don't have to be like you and find something else to do. That's where we are. Like I saw a post on one of these dinky Barrett Media websites, these posts about radio.

And it was like, is moving from market to market a dead thing in sports radio? Are we done hiring out-of-market talent? Of course you are, because you're going to go the cheap, lazy route and hire some schmuck in a town instead of going out. I'm lucky that I came in when I came in, so at least my old boss has hired somebody from out of town that had never been to the towns and said, let's go fucking win, because we like you because you're talented. Instead, now they just hire schmucks. Not

everybody. That's not fair. There are still talented people in the game. Not everybody sucks. That's not fair. But what they do is they go out and hire the cheapest path of least resistance because they're just trying to hang on to their fucking jobs. And so many people are gutless, gutless, gutless, gutless. But but even without that have the decency to email somebody back I know I talked about this yesterday but it just like it just pisses me off because I got all these emails out to people and it's just like just give me something throw me a freaking bone here just tell me I suck and to go away it's just it's ridiculous and that goes back to the Houston thing I'd have to find an actual job to make enough money to, you know, pay the rent and shit. But like I so badly would like to go create something there that just fucking rocks, man, because I love the place. I love the people like I would fucking love to do it. But I need to find an actual job. So if you're someone in Houston, that's like, Hey, move here right now. And I'll give you a job doing blank. Maybe I would. Cause at some point you get fucking tired of getting

kicked in the balls by people that you don't even actually respect, but you have to be like, please give me a job person. I have no respect for it's bullshit. And at some point it's just like, fuck that. I want to go somewhere where I'm happy, be where my friends are, be in a place that I want to be instead of having to sit here and be like, Hey, I'd sure like this job in nowhere, Florida or nowhere, Arkansas or nowhere, wherever, instead of getting turned down for fucking jobs in goddamn Baton Rouge. Here's an idea. Go somewhere you actually want to fucking be and go build something that people actually then will want to take from you and be like, hey, let's do something with this. And maybe I will.

I got a couple of months here to figure that out. But I think I might. I might get my lazy fat fucking ass into Houston and see what I can fucking do. Because why the hell not at this point? Because sitting here having to hope that people that I don't even have respect for think I'm good at something that I know I'm good at. Otherwise I wouldn't have been doing it for 20 fucking years since I'm 15 goddamn years old. So maybe I will. Maybe I'll reach out to people in Houston

and be like, what kind of regular job can I have? Everybody tells me to drive UPS. I don't want to fucking drive UPS. I don't want to carry fucking boxes and shit. My feetsies hurt. But I can figure something out. But I'm just, like, it's a, it just is a pride swallowing

soul sucking endeavor. Now, who knows? Maybe tomorrow a call will come in from someone and the ship will come in for the radio gig part of it. But it's like, I listen to some of it and I see the way they run these things now. And the big part of me doesn't even give a fuck anymore. Like, why am I trying? one of my uh buddies asked me this all the time like why are you trying to like like get in and like fight for a job in this dying industry and I'm like I don't fucking know maybe because it's all I fucking know how to do I don't know but I don't know it's just it's maddening at times and then it's you know exacerbated by the fact that I'm sitting here with my foot elevated in bed because I have some sort of either tendinitis or some such shit in my foot.

My wife's getting pissed off because I putter around the house like a goddamn octogenarian. Like I should be at the old folks home. Like, Jesus. But anyway, how are you guys doing? Let's play a couple commercials, get into some other stuff. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition,

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pick six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. All right. Anyway, now that I'm done ranting about that. So I keep seeing stories about Mark Andrews and like the Buffalo Bills people, their fan base has rallied together to raise money for his charity because he dropped the pass in the end zone that would have tied the game, two point conversion, all that. It's kind of like a nice troll move, you know, like it makes you look good. It's kind of like when we when we raised the money for the Women's Center in Dallas when I was on the air in Philly, and they had hired or signed Greg Hardy, who alleged woman beater. And I'm like, well, these people are scumbags. Let's show how good the Philly people are. And let's raise some money and give it to a Dallas area Women's Center. And we raised like 35 grand over a weekend. That was a pretty cool little bit that we did there. And it got positive

press. Now, if you ever looked me up on the goddamn internet, you don't see the positive press. Everything's negative. But we did do some decent shit that was nice for people and did nice things for people on occasion. But and of course, ultimate like solid, like it's the worst kind of troll move because you're trolling because you want it's easy to do because you want. But they're allegedly, you know, doing this because Mark Andrews received death threats and they're like, well, here we're going to raise money. We're going to show you.

If Buffalo would have lost a game, I don't think they'd all be willing to go to Venmo or to a GoFundMe and raise money. But hey, that's the way this works. You get to kind of say, hey, we're better than you. And fan bases love to do that. Fan bases love to dick swing and show other fan bases that they are absolutely better than everybody else. And that's a solid move on their part give

them credit for that but to the point about Mark Andrews and yes he dropped the game time two point conversion but people talk about this like it's some all-time blunder and they're still talking about this and it just to me it doesn't feel like one of those all timers like it sucks but ultimately I don't know fumbled by Lamar picked by Lamar other mistakes Andrews had other drops in that game so when I go back and watch this people talk about it like oh my god it was like this all that would have done was tied the game anyway so who knows what would have happened like yes you would have preferred he caught it yes you would have preferred they went to overtime or you know who knows maybe would have happened? Like, yes, you would have preferred he caught it. Yes, you would have preferred they went to overtime. Or, you know, who knows?

Maybe Buffalo goes and wins it anyway. But I don't view this as one of those all-time blunders. I don't view this as like Bill Buckner letting the ball go through his legs. Like in 20 years, I don't think people are going to be looking at that moment and they're going to go, whoa, guys, whoa, all-time disappointing moment, sports history, Mark Andrews drops the two-point conversion. If that were a pass that would have won the game, I think it's different.

Now, there are examples of plays that would have tied games that are still looked at in such a dramatic fashion, like Jackie Smith in the Super Bowl. I think it was Super Bowl XIII. Jackie Smith spent 15 years as a tight end for the St. Louis football Cardinals right and he was a pro bowler he had one year had 1,200 receiving yards now granted this is in the 60s so 1,200 receiving yards for anybody is stupid a tight end with 1,200 receiving yards is might as well be 4,000 receiving yards in today's yards but Jackie Smith pro football hall of

famer, pro bowler, played for a bunch of shitty St. Louis football Cardinals teams that didn't win shit. Last season of his career, he's playing for the Dallas Cowboys and he's in the Super Bowl. They're driving on the verge of tying the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They need to get the catch, extra point, tie the game. Jackie Smith, wide open in the end zone on a third down play, and he drops it. Now, it was a difficult play because the throw wasn't very good, but he still should have caught it. He had to go down to a slide to try to catch it. He dropped it.

And it actually resulted in one of the all-time, to me, greatest calls of anything, any sport ever, the most human call ever from Vern Lundquist. Let me see if you guys can hear this. This is Vern Lundqu end zone. Jackie Smith all by himself. Oh, bless his heart. He's got to be the sickest man in America. That is one of the greatest calls I've ever heard. It's the most human. Vern was so good. He's not dead, but he didn't do anything anymore.

But Vern was so good. Now, that was from the Cowboys Radio Network. When you see it and you hear it and you see you see the video with it my god it's one of the most beautiful calls you're ever gonna hear because it's not angry it's not mad it's not him trying to be the star of the moment with the call it's just like responding to the human element and to me that's beautiful like he knows that Jackie Smith is a 15-year veteran in the NFL he knows that this is his one and only shot to win a Super Bowl he's a

pro football hall of famer he's an all-time great to that point at that position and he knows it's the Super Bowl and every eye in America is on that and you drop the ball and by the way you're the tight end for America's team and to say bless your heart like it just it fits it's very southern it fits verne bless his heart he's got to be the sickest man in america that's a gorgeous call like there is not a more beautiful call that i've ever heard a more eloquent call there have been great calls of things right like? Like beautiful calls, you know, amazing. Like, you know, Jack Buck calling the, the, uh, go crazy folks go crazy. Um, I don't count the, the call that Milo had for, for Hank Aaron, because I believe they went back in and rerecorded that. So I think that was kind

of bullshit. So I don't care about that. Um, but you got Jack Buck calling the Kirk Gibson home run. The I don't believe what I just saw. Great calls. Jack Buck, I know I keep going back to Jack Buck because I'm a Jack Buck guy, but when McGuire hit number 61, Jack wasn't on the call for 62, but he was on the call for number 61. And Jack was really had bad health at the time. This is 1998. He's got Parkinson's. He's got all sorts of shit. He's not doing well. He doesn't sound as good as he used to sound. But when McGuire hit number 61, which I believe was on a Saturday afternoon, might've been against Cincinnati. I don't remember um but he hits number 61 and um Jack says looky there looky there Maguire's flight 61 headed for planet Maris history Bedlam pardon me while I stand up and

applaud like that's a great call like it's a a moment, like you're being human. It's okay to be human, but very rarely in a call. Do you hear people being like treating the person who made the mistake? Like a human, you'll get a human reaction from people. Like the announcer will tell you his visceral human reaction of all that sucked. And oh, it's heartbreaking. Very rarely when something heartbreaking happens for a player does the announcer immediately go to, oh my God, I feel terrible for that guy. Usually it's, I feel terrible for the team or I feel terrible for the fans or I feel terrible for myself. But to be selfless in the call like that and know the story, and I think the world was a different place back then too. I think the world is a mean meaner place now I think the world is more of a viral place now it's different but you're the voice of the Dallas Cowboys like Vern Lundquist was and that play happens and you

drop that pass and you know that a 16-year NFL career is now going to be remembered for nothing but that not the Pro Bowls not the of Fame, not the countless catches you had playing for shitty St. Louis Cardinals teams getting your brains beaten in. It's always going to be known for that one moment of you sliding in the end zone trying to make that catch. And to have that call in that instant for Vern Lundquist to go, bless his heart, he's got to be the sickest man in America. It explains that you as an announcer know that it's a bad moment and it's probably going to cost the team the Super Bowl and ultimately it did they lost by four they had to kick a field goal after that instead of tying the game they lost by the

margin that you would have had had you had that now who knows maybe you'll lose the game anyway but like that like that is a moving call like Like you don't get that, especially with the social media, Twitter world that we're in now, where instantly all of us are ready to rush and say, oh my God, what a fucking idiot. How do you drop that? You cost the team, the game, fuck you. You're terrible. And like, that's what we do now as people. That's our instant instinct. All of us to go to social media and either say, that's the greatest thing I've ever seen, or that's the worst thing I've ever seen or that's the worst thing I've ever seen or go fuck yourself or your family sucks or you're ugly like that's what we do that's our instinct but for Vern on that call I don't know that you're ever going to hear

a more beautiful call than that I just I thought it was a I thought it was beautiful like and I'm not going to say that about a lot of things when it comes to a call. There are great calls. There's a great one for the Saints after the Saints scored a touchdown against Jacksonville back in 2002 or 2003. Might have been 2004, actually, on a play that eventually was called the River City Relay. It was the last play of the game on a kickoff. Saints make a bunch of throwback passes and score a touchdown. I think Jerome Pathon scored the touchdown eventually.

Saints line up to kick the extra point to send it to overtime. Back when extra points were a chip shot, a gimme, like you don't miss them. And John Carney, one of the great kickers of all time, misses the extra point. And Jim Henderson, the voice of the Saints, just in his voice, his is a different kind, because he goes, no! How could he do that? And that call made more sense there, because if you're the Saints,

and you know the pain of being a Saints fan, and you've won one playoff game in your entire existence, and then something good happens for you, and that happens, that's a different vibe. And it made sense for that vibe, but it wasn't a beautiful call. It was just a call that you're like okay that makes like that fits that moment Saints like something good happens and then something far worse happens right after

like that's the Saints up until like they finally won the Super Bowl you know but that's one of those moments then you've got examples like when Brett Favre was with the Vikings and the Vikings played the Saints in the NFC championship game. And he decides inexplicably decides to throw the ball late instead of, you know, he just made a bad decision. And Paul Allen, who's a great play by play guy from Minnesota, goes, how do you even ponder passing? And it's like, it's a great call. It fit the moment, but nothing will be as beautiful as that call. Just like it just, it was poetic. It was a broadcaster knowing the moment, you know, that he knows Jackie Smith, you know, that he's got a relationship with these guys. So he doesn't want to make them look bad, but he also understands the magnitude of the moment, but he also understands that at the end of it if they lose he knows that Smith's life has changed forever

like it sucks for Mark Andrews today and Mark Andrews is still probably dealing with it it sucks he's probably kicking himself and he's probably still getting tweets from people and he has the horrible fortune of having to get on the internet every day and know that there are still people shitting on him on the internet nonstop. But in five years, I don't know if anybody gives a shit about that. In a year, I don't know if anybody gives a shit about that. Like, I don't know. Like right now in the moment, it's the worst thing ever, but ultimately it was a drop of a pass in a second round playoff game that just would have tied the game on a two point conversion. Could have been a better ball anyway.

Like, right now, it seems like the worst thing. It's kind of like when you're a kid and everything seems like it's the worst moment of your life. When you commit an error when you're nine years old and you think it's never going to get any better. I don't know that Mark Andrews' life, like, is going to be defined by that drop. Like, I don't think in 20 years he's going to be signing pictures of that and like, oh my god this was the play that defined Mark Andrews it may not define it probably defines his season and it kind of defines the Ravens season but does it really define Mark Andrews you know Bill Buckner's life was defined by the ball going through his legs that's like when you think of

Bill Buckner you think of the ball going through his legs when you say but when you think of Bill Buckner, you think of the ball going through his legs. When you say, but it's a verb, he Buckner did. I don't think that people are going to look back at Mark Andrews and view it that way. And I'm trying to think of other examples like that, where someone may just, you know, a terrible blunder in their entire, you know, Chris Weber calling the timeout. Like the thing is though, like Chris Weber calls the timeout and like, people don't forget that, but Chris Weber's life wasn't defined by that like Buckner truly Buckner's whole vibe and his aura and who he is was defined by the air Chris Webber calling the timeout in the national championship game like it sucks and people don't forget it but Chris Webber's got a lot going for

him that isn't that if that makes sense you. There are guys who do dumb fucking things and make mistakes and it sucks, but their lives are not defined. I don't believe that Mark Andrews is going to be defined by that drop because of when it came and it went in the Super Bowl. It wouldn't have won the game. So it sucked and you got to deal with it now, but you're not going to be like Jackie Smith. Anybody who knows Jackie Smith, no one cares about the 15 years with St. Louis and he's a Hall of Famer. All they care about is the drop for the Cowboys in the Super Bowl. So it could be a lot worse for Mark Andrews. Anyway, all right, more to come.