The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 152: Dave Dameshek: NFL Network Star, Comedy Writer, Working With Jimmy Kimmel

Episode Date: August 21, 2016

Episode 152: Dave Dameshek: NFL Network Star, Comedy Writer, Working With Jimmy Kimmel Dave Dameshek is a TV writer and TV/Podcast personality. Dameshek is currently a football analyst and writer for NFL.com, appearing on NFL Fantasy Live and hosting the Dave Dameshek Football Program. He also regularly appears on the NFL Network. His past: The Adam Carolla Show debuted in January 2006, recorded in Los Angeles and airing in syndication on stations across the western United States. Dameshek was a regular cast member on the show from the beginning, serving as the show's official sports reporter. He received his first big break in 2001 when he was hired as a writer on Comedy Central'sThe Man Show, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla. In 2002, he began writing for Kimmel's new late-night talk show on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he made several appearances in addition to his main responsibility of working on the show's nightly monologue. Episode 152: Dave Dameshek: NFL Network Star, Comedy Writer, Working With Jimmy Kimmel Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show "If you outwork everybody, nobody can accuse you of being given anything." In This Episode, You Will Learn: The specific advice Jimmy Kimmel gave to him on how to have a successful career (work ethic) Super resilient and self confident leaders sustain excellence Best piece of advice for future broadcasters: "BE EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE" When it comes to Dameshek's feelings towards obnoxious TV personalities - Be yourself and always tell the truth Going from bartender to corporate sales to a career in entertainment Dameshek responds to the Reddit thread, "Does anyone actually like Dave Dameshek?" How he was able to earn Adam Corolla's respect (hard to do) A great story about one of his first "LA" experiences with Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla What "No Jive" means and why he believes in it How has Roger Goddell been as a leader? Why Dave gets nervous to speak with comedians but not anyone else Why people will tell you terrible things about themselves but no one will admit they aren't funny How to impress CEO's? "Don't kiss their butts" -- They are used to everyone doing that "If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember anything." Continue Learning: Read Dameshek's blog for NFL.com: davedameshek.nfl.com Follow Tanto on Twitter:  @Dameshek To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 145: AJ Hawk - Life In The NFL, Awareness, Consistency Episode 047: David Marquet - "Turn The Ship Around" Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Dave Dameshek on the show, please don't hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell Bio Dave Dameshek Dr. Funny Dave Dameshek is a TV writer and TV/Podcast personality. Dameshek is currently a football analyst and writer for NFL.com, appearing on NFL Fantasy Live and hosting the Dave Dameshek Football Program. The Adam Carolla Show debuted in January 2006, recorded in Los Angeles and airing in syndication on stations across the western United States. Dameshek was a regular cast member on the show from the beginning, serving as the show's official sports reporter. He received his first big break in 2001 when he was hired as a writer on Comedy Central'sThe Man Show, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla. In 2002, he began writing for Kimmel's new late-night talk show on ABC,Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he made several appearances in addition to his main responsibility of working on the show's nightly monologue.

How dare you disrespect Peyton Manning like that? I think Peyton Manning will be all right with whatever I say. You know, I'm not insulting him on a personal level. I'm just questioning what he's going to do in this game on Sunday, kind of a thing. But the bottom line is I'm amused by it. I think it's funny. You know, periodically it can be instructive. Sometimes the critiques are pretty good.

But for the most part, it's just people react. You don't know anything about stuff, man. You don't know about football, dude. You should quit. I don't know why you have a job. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders.

Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey and welcome to The Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk, and thank you so much for being here. What an interesting featured leader tonight. It's Dave Damasek. He is a writer and a TV-slash-radio host and analyst who has covered the sports world for the NFL network, ESPN, Fox Sports, and CBS Radio for the last 15 years.

He has also worked as a comedy writer and performer on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Love this conversation. A few of the topics we got into. and there was a lot. The advice that Jimmy Kimmel gave to him on how to have a successful career, and how that applies to all of us. And then why he decided to leave his corporate sales job at the age of 29 and moved to L.A. with no connections, no help,

to try his hand at being a TV comedy writer, such a competitive field. And then his really interesting approach to having great dinner party conversations. I think you'll love that part of our talk. Ladies and gentlemen, further do, it's Dave Damasek. Dave Damasek, man. And I've been so pumped to have you on the Learning Leader Show for quite some time.

Big fan of you and your work and your personality and the flair that you bring to analyzing the NFL and beyond. So first, welcome to the show. Thanks, man. Well, mutual admiration society. I'm a big fan of all things Hawk, too. So the holy grail for me, with all due respect,

for you is when I get to meet your old man finally. Oh, your brother sings songs about how cool the old man is. At some point, I got to meet him. He is the man. I don't want to give him too big of a head because we talk highly of him a lot on here, but it's because it's deserved. You know what? In fact, it just a little, it was just a 60th birthday, Damasek. And the interesting gift that I put together for him, I reached out to a ton of people that he's influenced and worked with over the last 35 years and asked them to write him a nice letter. And you should see some of these letters I got back from these people. These are guys that he's known since he was 20 all the way up until today, and they are insane, so good. It was a pretty cool little book we were able to put together after corraling a bunch of fans and friends and colleagues of his over the years. It's pretty neat. That is a cool idea. You know, people, you know, I should do that myself with my parents too. But yeah, that's one of those things.

You always hear about when somebody passes away, the outpouring, you always say, oh, you wish they could hear it. Everybody wants to be at their own funeral, as they say. These are the, this is the time to be doing that stuff, not when it's too late. I love that idea. That's cool. I agree, man. It was cool.

It took a little bit of effort, but it was way worth it. But I got a question for you because we'll dig into your background and all the great things that you've accomplished up to this point, to things you're going to accomplish, but you've spent a lot of time around as you've navigated through this really competitive landscape of broadcasting, writing, whether it's working with Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, I know there's been Bill Simmons and the names go on and on and on. I'm curious from your perspective, if you had to pull out some of the themes or characteristics of the really highly successful people who have sustained excellence, what are some of the common characteristics you think those people all share?

It's funny. That trio of names and, you know, I've fallen into the orbit of some of those guys and, you know, others, you know, hired me to work with them. So the thing I've observed in the entertainment industry, since I moved out to L.A. now 15, 16 years ago, just to take a shot, you know, like so many other people. But. The irony of that is, if you've ever seen the movie Office Space, they, you know, one of the best things that's absolutely true is somebody who worked in corporate America and a sales job sitting in a cubicle, you can really get by doing about 12 minutes of work a week. You know, nobody really going to, nobody really notices. If you, if you can seize on the right turns of phrase when the boss comes by, like when he says, hey, how's everything going, Dave? If you just, if you can master like a convincing, like, hey, I'm busy, but what else is new?

like, man, that Dave, man, he works hard. You can convince the right people that you're working hard and no one will ever know. The irony is that in entertainment, you actually have to work. You know, that's the thing that jumps out of you. It's like, oh, go out there and I'll crack wise and it'll be great. The most successful people that I've met, as important as anything that I've observed is those guys are the hardest workers. has a, it almost has a weird, the bad news is I don't know that you can teach yourself to do what, you know, Kimmel told me long ago when I was moving on to the NFL full time and leaving the

Kimmel show, he said to me, remember, you know, if you outwork everybody, none of your employees can ever accuse you of being carried or, you know, be, you know, if you're the hardest worker there, then it sets the tone for everybody else. And that's not funny or anything. There's no whimsy in that. Yeah, you got to produce every day. And, you know, I recall him also once saying, you know, it's writing jokes is like lifting a weight, you know, you want to get bigger biceps.

You have to lift the weights every day and you have to work at it like that. It is a more ethereal pursuit to, you know, to crack wise and all that kind of stuff. but for the most part it really behind it is you know is are those people that can work really hard and that motor you know it's these guys who have a motor who can just keep working and you know you go right on one show for 10 hours and then you go home and you work on your screenplay at night that's not easy to do to keep your brain spinning like that where do you think can you develop that you said you don't you're not sure if you can but i'm i'm curious part of i think this show is the fact that I'm hopeful that people can take away some things that they could

then implement and they could potentially change their behavior. So is there something you learned along the way, whether it's from Kimmel or Corolla or even Simmons because he's built something from just the sports guy to what he is now, to your own work, to the Dave Damashak show and everything else, the DDFP and everything you've done, like if you were speaking to, let's say, a 22-year-old and you said the first thing you told him was the work ethic he would need or he or she would need in order to be successful in the entertainment world or really any any world. What are some of the other pieces of advice that you could tell them that they could implement to potentially help them, so to speak, make it? Yeah, you know, I'm I guess straddling the line there of work ethic is important and you have to have a high motor and keep on working. and whether or not that's intrinsic to who you are,

that you can just burn the midnight oil like that. I don't know if you can convince yourself of that, but the process of trying every day is something that seems universal for successful people who are comedy writers or writers that I know are friends with a lot of successful sitcom writers and everything else. And that's one aspect that they have, one thing that they have going for them. They also have this super resilient self-confidence, which I don't necessarily have. But a lot of people are successful in entertainment that just do not see the flaws in their own ideas.

And that really suits people well of you. Really, I mean, there's something to glean from that. And I say it as a joke, but there is something to glean from that sort of. if you believe it, you know, I guess that's sort of the Costanza thing in, in Seinfeld. It's not a lie if you believe it. If you can go in there and sell yourself, sell your idea, it tends to sell the room. And that's always been striking to me as somebody who's sort of like, well, I think this is funny, but I can also see why it might not be funny, but I think it's really good. And that sort of self-confidence is, uh, important and, you know, specifically to what I've now transitioned into doing, which is more talking, you know, in my own voice instead of writing for, you know, for somebody else. You know, I get a lot of questions about that is, you know, what, what's the process or what, you know, how do you go about broadcasting? And, you know, the tip that both Kimmel and Carolla

gave me the day before, or the day I was going on the radio, maybe whatever that was, 12 years or so 10 or 12 years ago, for the first time, they individually told me what you need to do is be exactly who you are. If you try to change that, it is weird. And you can see it if you watch enough, you know, ex-players or whomever, go on TV or somebody who you know personally, actually even better. And then they go on the radio or they go on TV and suddenly they don't sound like themselves. And you say, who is that you're doing? Who are you doing? Who are you doing impression of there. Why are you turning phrases that way? That's not the way you talk in real life. And that, I guess, is the lesson for people specifically who want to, you know, be opinionators

or broadcasters on any level, I guess, is the baseline is you, you know, maybe a slightly amped up version of you, but the, it seems like the real key is if you try, if you start getting away from yourself or you start trying to do what you think other people want to hear, you're getting off the rails. Stay, you know, you'll get the opportunity. As they said, you didn't get these, you don't get the opportunity if people don't see something in you. Now validate that by giving them exactly what they saw that's allowing you to have this

opportunity, which is you. Right. When you're meeting somebody new for the first time and maybe it's at a dinner party or something like that, and they say, oh, hey, nice to meet you. What do you do? How do you respond? I always stumble on that one. It seems that it's funny you say that.

I always wonder how am I supposed to introduce myself. I still weirdly go with writer, I think more often than not because I'm a broadcaster. Like I'm a because I guess they call it nominally. I guess I'm talent is what they call you. Like when you're on TV, like what do you do? I'm talent, you know. It sounds like a jerk, you know. I'm talent. I'm just the talent. Yeah. I'm on camera talent, man. Yeah, so I don't know. I always

seem to go with writer or, you know, comedy writer or whatever. All right. I do radio and TV stuff and crack wise. There are some variation on that. Maybe we could figure that out, Hawk. Well, you know, I had it. I'm not, like, I'm not pumping myself or the, or the, but I actually had a full episode as number 99. I remember Clay Aver, one of my good friends, where it, the I don't know, 30 minutes of the conversation was how to answer that question. And so I'm not sure, like, we can get back to that because there's so much here of things that you do. But it's interesting that you want to write or first because I feel like maybe that's because what you, for me, for example, playing quarterback in college, when I played with your boy at Miami, you're probably your favorite quarterback. The Steelers quarterback from people who don't know, you come from Pittsburgh.

I know you're very proud of that, and that's where Ben Rothesberger plays. I was with him for two years at Miami University, and they were going to move me to receiver. And I was thinking, like, I don't think I could ever utter the phrase, I'm a receiver because I'm a quarterback. You know what I mean? So I wondered if, like, and that's part of the reason why I transferred, ultimately, because he obviously won that job. And so I wonder if that's part of you, that initially you've, even though you're a TV star, podcasting, TV, whatever it may be, you still view your in the lens of being a writer? Well, I mean, I really, maybe that goes back to self-esteem issues, but I wince when you

refer to me as a TV star performer, or anything else. That doesn't hit my ear like the truth, but very nice. But yeah, it's funny because I guess I, you know, I spent my 20s, I didn't start doing any of this stuff until I was 30. I was a bartender. I was bartending in my early 20s outside of Chicago. And then I, like I say, I was doing corporate sales and then moved out to L.A. when I was when I was 29. So all of it still seems sort of funny to me. It almost seems I still feel a little bit like I hope I can keep the ball in the air, keep pulling the wool over people's eyes, and they keep giving me opportunities.

That's kind of... It's really interesting because you're definitely not the first person who has really made a name for themselves that has told me that Sal Volcano, he's an impractical jokers. Really, they have like a massive following, a really popular episode I did,

and he's on True TV. They show those episodes like non-stop. He sells out two shows a night when they go a place with thousands of people there. And I remember we played around to golf with them, and he mentioned that more than a few times, he was waiting almost and just so grateful that it hasn't ended yet. He was just thinking like, well, at some point people are going to catch on and realize

like we're not that talented, we're not that good. But that mindset has helped him be so grateful towards his work that I think it's helped drive him to have this, the work ethic needed that you talked about at the beginning of this conversation. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the, yeah, I mean, that's absolutely right. Yeah, it is a motivating, not intentional. It's not something I'm trying to convince myself of.

It's my default setting is self-doubt. And I guess that maybe spurs me to not just roll it out there and say, oh, I could just ride on natural ability. I don't have to try at this because I'm so good at that. I guess that maybe spurs me to actually try to do, to try and keep on this. improving people. There, you know, there are a number of people listening to this right now who actually have one of the first jobs that you had. They're in corporate sales.

And you mentioned how you can get by working about 12 minutes a day as long as you fool the people, which is that advice is like the opposite of what I normally give, which is funny that you'd say it. And so I'm curious, but so the reason I know this, and this is probably how you get some of your feedback too is you get some sort of you probably get it on Twitter but I get it via email most of the time people go through my website learning leader.com and they'll send me emails about the fact that maybe they have a job like yours some of them like it and they're looking to progress and get promoted and play that game and others say I have other aspirations outside of this but

I have to pay the bills so I'm guessing there are people that come to you because you moved to LA when you're 29 right you didn't like the corporate life and that's why you moved out there Do you get asked questions from those types of people? And if so, what type of advice do you give them who had a job like you did? But now they don't really like it, but they have bills and responsibilities. Man, you know, it's so, it really boils. I'm not sure how you can work your way around the reality. I mean, I hope I'm not too big a bummer with this.

But I think there are people out there who are working on their spec script. you know, spec scripts being that's sort of the industry standard for people who want to write sitcoms. As a, for instance, you write a script of an existing sitcom. So, you know, whatever. I know, what's a good sitcom? Any, you know, always sunny in Philadelphia. You know, so you write a script of that show and it's basically your, now it's a demonstration of your writing ability.

And then you send that to people who run sitcoms. and then they read that and say, oh, see, he knows how to write in characters' voices and be funny and tell the story and all that sort of stuff. So anyway, there are a lot of people all over America who write these spec scripts and submit them blindly. But the reality is that it's very, very unlikely from what I have been able to gather from talking to people that a showrunner is going to pluck this or an agent in one of these big agency is going to pluck this script and find it in the needle and the haystack and say, this is unbelievable, you kind of do, again, from what I've experienced, you kind of do need to be in L.A. or New York for those opportunities, which then requires you to actually uproot your life. And I don't know the easy way around that, that, you know, that all in kind of approach where you, where you actually do say goodbye to your friends and move out of your life and get out of the comfort

of the weekly paycheck and everything else. I'm not sure how to get around that, except that the one thing that is striking to me in the last, say, 10 years or so, what you can do is, is you can make movies, you can make little comedy shorts, you can do animations.

There are all sorts of things you can do now with your cell phone literally, you know, and that is enough that, you know, if you create something funny, and I've seen that happen specifically with shows I've worked on where the showrunner or the host or whatever will likes. He'll find something randomly funny and contact that person. Oh, that guy lives in Jacksonville, Florida? Great.

Let's bring him out here. He seems funny. I think that's maybe the shortcut maybe is a way to say or whatever. But I think that's an interesting path to try that was not available 15 or 20 years. years ago is the ability to create stuff. It also separates the wheat from the chaff. There are a lot of people in, since I got out here at least, you meet a million people. You know, that's the old cliche about every waiter has a script and every bartender has a script. It kind of is true. Everybody, I mean, people will tell, you know, you're talking to the bartender and he'll tell you like,

well, I'm an actor. Like, well, no, it doesn't look like you're an actor based on what you're doing here. And that's true. And I guess what, you know, all these, the 21st century technologies allow, now the ease with which you can make, like I say, some sort of a visual short or you can animate stuff. There are, you know, there are plenty of actors around who you can throw in the, into little things that you can put together that then become your calling card. It kind of exposes the fraudulent who like to say that they're out here to be a director or a right. writer or an actor or so on. If you aren't doing that, then what's your excuse? You have every ability to do that now. So it kind of, it kind of validates or it kind of gives you the opportunity

to prove that you're serious about doing this because now you can do that from your own home. In fact, people are, look at the two of us, having a conversation on Skype like this. You know, people, how many, they're millionaires now who go on YouTube. They point a camera at themselves and do it. So if you're interested in talking for a living and opining for a living, the opportunity exists there. Exactly right. Another interesting aspect. So I'm obviously preparing for our time together. I've watched a ton of the, and listened to a ton of your work over the last few years. But the other part of it that I think people, some people might struggle with is if you're willing to put your voice out there, if you're going to say anything at all,

you're probably at times going to have people who hate on you, hate on your work. And I don't know if you know this. And I'm not saying this to be mean. There's a Reddit thread. And I don't know how often you're on Reddit. Do you go on Reddit much? Not very much. I'm excited to hear what you're about to say, though.

Okay, good. I was just trying to build up a little cliffhanger for people to keep listening. This is the thread title. Does anyone actually like Dave Damasek? I find him the most annoying person on NFL.com. When you hear that, so by the way, there's 75 responses and some of them are great. I can go through some of them. When you see those types of things out there, how do you handle it?

You know, at this point, I find them really, I find it delightful. Now, if there was no pushback from the other side, then I would probably get sad, or in fact I probably would get pushed out the door. I remember the old in the Howard Stern movie, the old line about, or it's in this book as well, about the people who love them listen for an hour and how much,

what about the people who hate them? They listen for two hours. You know, so I think a lot of programming people, you know, a lot of executives sort of latched on to that and they like that heat that this guy, oh, people don't like him.

Too often, though, sometimes you find It was like, yeah, people just don't like him. It's not that he's compelling. You know, people, the assumption that, well, because of somebody's hated means he's compelling. No, sometimes people are just so hated that nobody checks them out and that's the end of their career. But that being said, that is what you want, I think. I think you want a sort of 50-50 kind of reaction to what to, if you're, you know, most debates, sports or otherwise, who's the better quarterback and which team's going to win the Super. and is this right or wrong, whatever the conversation. It's a binary conversation. So by definition,

I guess it stands to reason that 50% would agree with you and 50% wouldn't. And if you really go hard against why the other side is wrong on something, those people get offended and they don't like it. And sports specifically are weirdly, you know, we all delude ourselves as sports fans. we latch on to guys who wear the uniform of our local football team. And people take that very seriously, the loyalty to that, the defense of multimillionaires. People love to jump to the defense of how dare you disrespect Peyton Manning like that. I think Peyton Manning will be all right with whatever I say. You know, I'm not insulting him on a personal level.

I'm just questioning what he's going to do in this game on Sunday, kind of a thing. But the bottom line is I'm amused. buy it. I think it's funny. You know, periodically it can be instructive. Sometimes the, the critiques are, are, are, uh, pretty good. But for the most part, it's just people react. Oh, you don't know anything about stuff, man. You don't know about football, dude. You should quit. I don't know why you have a job there, man. I like, I, in fact, I like it so much that in those comments sections on NFL.com, if I post something, like I just recently did the, um, I mean, there couldn't be anything more subjective and sort of not terribly important to the final result of the overall football team.

But I ranked the best triplets, you know how Eggman. I just read it. Yeah. Eggman, Emmett, Irvin were the original triplets. So then I ranked the 2016 triplets 1 through 32 in the NFL. And, man, the feedback in that comment section about how I'm a Dallas Cowboys Homer and how I'm doing. disrespectful to Team Blank and everything else. I love to go in there and respond.

I love to answer those people. They're very funny. For the most part, if you hold the racket out, let their own foolishness do all the work for them and put the ball right back on their side of the court always seems to work. I like it. But I'll tell you this, when I first started, my first radio thing was being Corolla sidekick on his morning radio show. And when that first started, I had no idea that that was part of the deal.

I mean, I'd seen, you know, people make fun of movies and whatever before. But when those things first started happening, well, I was like, this, who's this Damashek? You know, this guy sucks and his voice is terrible and all that kind of stuff. It was a shock to the system. But then you realize, oh, yeah, if you are out there, people are going to respond. And the worst thing that can happen is that people have no opinion of your view of whatsoever. Then that means you're not saying anything. of note. Yeah. Yeah. Just to let you know, on that thread, 75 people, it's interesting. A lot of people

come to your defense. So like you're saying, the 50-year-the-split, some of the interesting ones. At least it's not Warren Sapp, was he's a Steelers, Homer, so I think there are some interesting ones that people came to your defense. But I completely agree with you. I think the only way to assure, ensure the fact that, that nobody says anything negative about you is just to simply not do anything. Like you said, if you're not getting any type of feedback, then you're probably not going to last very long because that means you're not really saying anything of any substance at all. So I thought, though, in doing the research, that that was interesting that you came up with.

Well, I'll say this, though. The one thing I'll, the caveat is that I do really try at every turn to, at minimum, be, oh, in fact, what, you know, be yourself. And part of being yourself on the air is, in my book, at least, is telling the truth. And I try to actually give what my actual opinion is. And sometimes as somebody who's born and raised in Pittsburgh and watched all the, I have watched all the Steelers games for 40 years now, that, that is my currency.

That is my, that's why my opinion has any value whatsoever is because I've been watching, not just Steelers games, but I've been watching pro football for 40 years and been watching it as a fan. It's always weird to me when people expect me to be objective. Well, I'm not reporting, and this isn't macroeconomics on a global scale. We're talking about football, everybody. I'm not investigating the personal lives and late-night habits of players either. I'm just talking about football and what I like and what I don't from a fan's perspective. So, of course, that would be a weird disconnect if I had no favorite team.

Yeah, I just like football. I just watch football. I don't know. I mean, of course, I am coming at it from the fans' point of view. I just may not happen to root for the same team that you do. And I find it weird when guys like, you know, they're the most highly paid opinionators out there these days, you know, Bayliss and Stephen A and Cowherd. I've heard from people at ESPN. I mean, they willfully take the minority opinion and support it because they know that it'll get heat.

And that's a weird place to start for me. Like, well, but I don't believe that. Why would I argue that side if I don't believe it? That fraudulence seems weird to try and sustain that over the long term. But obviously good for those guys. They're multi-millionaires and they've been able to do it. What do you think of those guys? You named guys actually had written down specifically.

Bayless and I don't know you probably know Richard Deich I love reading what he says about Skip Bayliss because it's just I don't know I've heard he's actually a good guy but then the camera turns on and it's like let me let me just kill LeBron or hype Tebow or whatever it may be and you have a habit I've seen of

when you're speaking with people especially if you're closer with them I guess of saying no jive meaning like you don't want to hear them the be can't computer-generated answers that athletes often give. And I don't know if that's jive what Bayliss and those guys do, but there's no way that it's their honest, true feelings every single time. I'm sure it is occasionally, but every time it just blows my mind. Yeah, it's weird because, you know,

and I always say that pro sports can always stand to have a little more WWE to them. You know, I like heat. I like players. I like teams not liking each other. You know, your brother last January playing against the Steelers. And in fact, he came on the show before the Bengals and Steelers played that January playoff game. And I told him, obviously, I root for your success hawk, but I'm rooting for the Steelers. But yeah, do we think that Skip Bayless real? But I like the WWE, but the point is the Bengals and Steelers clearly action.

dislike each other. Definitely, yeah. And actually have a blood feud now. And, you know, but, you know, I don't like cheap shots and stuff that might get guys actually injured or, you know, assaults in the crowd and guys throwing glass bottles at players on the field is, is, goes without saying, is crossing a line. But I like rivalry. I like team. I like Rex Ryan announcing, yeah, I want to beat the Jets more than I want to beat any other team in the NFL. That makes sports fun. That's WWE. But then again, when you're giving your opinion on it, it seems weird. Like, is Skip Bayliss really?

He hates LeBron James? Like, does he really? I find it hard to imagine that he's actually, that he's sitting at home just stewing. Like, LeBron, how dare he think that he can win another title when he's not nearly as good as might? Does he really think that? No, I find that hard to imagine. Yeah, I forget who said it recently. It might have been, I don't know, somebody on CNN, they said it's so much easier just to tell the

truth because you don't have to remember anything. That's a great way of looking at it. You know, if you're always telling a truth, you don't have anything to remember. You just talk, you know? That's so true, man. Yeah, that's just a good way to look at it. Yeah, it keeps dummies like me. It keeps things nice and clean in my brain.

Yeah, if I started to try and pile up the lies, I wouldn't be able to keep them all. Do you ever get pressure, though? You're not going to talk nately about your bosses, but do you have conversations maybe in production meetings where they say, hey, Damacheck, you're going to have to take this side. I know you guys seem to agree, like, if you're talking with somebody else and you're going to go on TV or you're doing a fantasy draft on NFL network, which I've seen you do, and all these things, if everyone just completely agrees on every single topic, it's not as compelling, typically on TV.

So do you sometimes have to go into it saying, hey, we got to take sides here on whatever, I don't know, you could come up with Tim Tebow. We have to take sides on this guy, or how does it work if you guys are just in too much agreement? Or maybe even if you swap people out if that happens, I'm curious of those types of conversations before you shoot. Yeah, specific. I'm trying to think of a specific example. Yeah, I know that over the years that there have been exactly like you say where you swap a guy out. Like, well, we both think Eddie Lacey's going to have a big game this week.

So, you know, I guess we really can't go. All right, then, you know, so-and-so thinks he's going to get shut down. Let's have those two debate it then. I've had those kind of conversations. But really, in however long I've been doing it at the NFL, I guess we're about to start my sixth season over there. I've never, no one's ever gotten in my ear about don't say that or take this side instead. And are you willing to do this?

And don't bring that up because the NFL doesn't want you to talk about that. I've never had a. You hear that sort of buzz about the, you know, I guess. that it stands to reason that if you're a cynic, you might look at something that is branded, NFL.com, as being something that is basically an extension of and, in fact, owned and paid for by the owners. Well, that's propaganda. That's all they're there to do is just prop up all things positive NFL. But the reality is, it's funny. It's interesting how much leeway I've observed, at least, that the opinion guys, the people that are there to give their opinions,

me and, you know, Mike Silvert, if you ever read his stuff, and Dan Hansus, and they're, you know, a bunch of guys over there, Greg Rosenthal, who don't shy from, you know, from giving their sincere opinion, even if it's negative about, you know, preseason football, ridiculous, get rid of the, get rid of the Pro Bowl. These are things that clearly the league office is interested in propping up. In fact, I went on the air the week after the deflategate stuff and was one of several, people that I can think of who said, ah, the league got it wrong on this one. They made too big a deal

out of that, and there was no pushback on that. Nobody ever said, hey, hey, hey, you know who's paying your bills, right? Nobody ever, none of that kind of stuff has ever happened to me. How do you feel is, from a leadership perspective that Roger Goodell has been, I mean, obviously, revenue-wise, he's been

the best one they've ever had. So let's take that part out of it, even though that's a big part. But taking out the revenue growth of the NFL, how has Roger Goodell handled being the commissioner as a leader? I think that I've always said this even before I started at the NFL. I thought that, you know, the player conduct policy was was taking on something that was going to be hard to manage.

And that was a big thing from, I mean, I don't know if it was day one stuff, but it feels like first hundred days kind of stuff for the commissioner. You know, that I, you know, I want to worry. And that was all at a time, if you remember, roundabout David Stern issuing a dress code at the NBA. And, you know, that was, there was sort of maybe I was a little bit of an overreach. And that was the temperature, I guess, in sports at the time or with professional, excuse me, with professional leagues. But then once you enter into that, then I feel like there was a lot of public pushback on some of the suspensions. Mike Vic gets shut down and then Rathusberger gets shut down.

And I think that was a big moment in the sense that or a big decision that when he got shelved, but there weren't, I know we're getting into the nitty gritty now and I'm not a certainly a legal expert. But, you know, he was never charged with anything. And so I think there was a segment of the population saying, wait, now why is he shut down for six games and then reduced to four games? And people didn't like that. And there was a fair amount of pushback. But he wasn't, he hasn't done anything, you know, tax. technically or legally felonious. So why would he get suspended then? And I think there was some pushback on that. And then I think that sort of informs the Ray Rice thing. Like, well, if he's not been charged in a court of law, then how much am I supposed to then penalize him based on what we know, you know? So then that suspension people were underwhelmed by. And then they push back hard on that. And so it's been this, I feel like this roller

of up and down in to some degree in response to the public pushback of like, well, that was too severe. Well, now, now that was too light. And now it, and you, and it all started off with a place of trying to manage too many people in their off work hours. You're basically, you're basically looking at these guys and assuming a certain standard. And obviously, as your brother can say, you know, is aware of it. And, you know, I think you could say that the football playing community, the NFL players reflect American society.

If you even accept that as the premise and forget the fact that maybe that if you're willing to play pro football, if you're willing to run, you know, Ike Taylor, who I do a ton of stuff with one of my favorite lines. is if you're willing to run full speed 40 yards just so you can run into another large human being, then you have something wrong with you. And that's kind of true. That mentality, you know, it's going to yield a certain percentage of people that are, you know, predisposed to that sort of physicality and stuff. But even if you leave that aside, I buy the premise that the NFL players community is a reflection of the, of our society. And so obviously, no matter what you do, obviously there are laws in place in the U.S.

And that doesn't keep people some small percentage from committing crimes and committing felonies. And so it goes in the NFL. It's just hard to, I think that that is a tough thing to try and manage and, you know, police what, you know, in addition, if our nation's laws can't keep people from committing crimes. It's hard for me to imagine that then a corporation's self-imposed

law and order is going to have any effect. It's also going to have any more of an effect. What should he do to change that then? Should you just give that to make the responsibility of somebody else? I know some players seem to want that or and he seems to want to keep control of that. I mean, how do you deal with that?

Boy, man. You're asking questions that are out of my depth and I'm not afraid to answer them. I don't know that I have a good answer with that except to go back to where I started by saying that, man, I wonder if, I mean, I can say this. If I were a commissioner of a professional sports league, one thing I wouldn't do is say that I am going to try and manage the activities of all these people 24 hours a day, which is basically what you're signing,

what you're basically embracing. You know, it's a lot to, you know, you see, I mean, it happens, I mean,

it's, you could play the game of, it's still a crime, you know, a lot of people speed. Why are you pulling me over officer kind of mentality? And I get that when you hear colleges, when you see,

you hear universities getting busted for not monitoring. Oh, there's that sophomore kid. Did you hear what happened? at that frat party and how a head coach or an AED is supposed to monitor what all those kids are doing at any given time. And I think it's fair to say that you're probably naive if you assume that in those high-powered college programs, that stuff isn't happening, whether it's, you know, paying players or,

you know, more nefarious stuff, that those things aren't happening all over the country. And so it goes in pro sports too. assume that that stuff's happening everywhere. I don't know, man, what the answer is to it. Because I guess on some level we could debate the Charles Barkley thing, you know, I'm not a role model. Well, yeah, you are, whether you want to be. It's not as though it's you, you chose to be that, but it is part of the gig that for better or worse, people do sort of look up to professional athletes, whether you think that's, whether you see the wisdom in that or not, that is the reality of the 21st century.

So act accordingly, yes, but, you know, and if you don't, I don't know that, you know, that the boss is going to be able to convince you to do that if you don't, if you're not able to understand that on your own. I agree. By the way, have you looked at your Wikipedia page recently? Yeah, people like to go in there and do stuff with it. Yeah, people like to add stuff about that I have web feet. I've seen that, that I want some swimming contests with, because,

because of my web feed. So it's kind of hard because, obviously, for anyone who does any type of research, Wikipedia can be one tiny source. It's one place to go. But in 2010, the National Mustard Museum awarded Damashek an honorary doctoral degree in the field of mustard as a result.

Hold on. That's true. Wait, what? As a result, he prefers the style of doctor. This is true? That's true. Now, listen, Hawk, there's some. Explain this. Yeah, explain this to me.

There's some lies and there's some truths on my Wikipedia page. And, yeah, they're hard to know which ones are the reality. Yeah, I have done a lot of good work in the field of condiments. You know, I'm one of the foremost voices out there on the virtues of dark mustard over yellow. I am willing to, I speak out in support. of any grown-up or otherwise who wants to put ketchup on their hot dog. I don't think we live in a free country. And if that's your pleasure, so be it.

Wait, you don't put ketchup on a hot dog? I will put ketchup on a hot dog. But there are many out there, many snobs out there who will berate you for doing so. And I say, mind your own business snob. Is there seriously a national mustard museum? That's right. In Wisconsin, in fact, I just received... So everything you're saying is actually true?

I received a doctorate from the National Mustard Institute, and by definition, then I'm a doctor. That's it. So I'm doctor. And I also find, you know, like they will, you know, like the fridge, you know, we know that he's big. And like, you know, big Tony or whatever, like you know before you meet him, he's big. I thought it would only help my career if I decided to put funny in front of my name. because then it tells you in advance. And I find that, I find it seductive to people, that they'll believe it or not.

Like if you're, you know, even if you just say if your name is funny, Dave, if you're funny Dave. Dr. Funny Dave. Dr. Funny Dave Damashick, you know, I think that has some cachet to it. And so, yeah, so I roll with that. Now, there's also mentioned on the Wikipedia page of the fact that I've won, I think, state swimming titles, or I did back in high school because of my web feet. I've neither won swimming contests nor do I have web feet.

You have an extreme case of dyslexia, which made it difficult to gain rudimentary knowledge. Yeah, no, that one's not true either. That was a weird one. That was not funny. What is that? What's the goal of that one? Yeah, because you decided to forego your swimming career to pursue broadcasting and robotics full-time. I mean, you have the most interesting fake slash semi-real Wikipedia page I've ever.

I look at everyone's Wikipedia page, and I have to always be careful. And I think the best way is to go through the actual sources, right? That can help aggregate some of the sources, and then you can dive in deeper and learn about people that way. But I saw this. I remember texting AJ earlier, I said, hey, have you looked at Damashak's Wikipedia page? There's no way some of this stuff is true. And he was informing me that, yeah, some of it was obviously wrong. I know. People go in there. I don't even know. I thought Wikipedia, I thought somebody monitored it.

I monitored it. And if you did something, if there was nonsense in there, they took it out. I delight in it, though. I want it to live there forever. And I hope people will continue to add to it and build on the ridiculousness of it. Also, there's in there. I think it's in there that I announced to, I used to do a show that people, it's a little bit of a cult, has a cult following, Dave's of Thunder. Yeah, I read about that. Yeah. Yeah, that was a funny show. But the other guy, because of the other guy, he was really funny on it, David Feeney, he announced once on that show, completely made up, of course,

but said that when he and I first met, I had a girl on either arm, and I introduced myself to him as having moved to Hollywood because I'm here to cut out the noise. I'm like, what does that even mean? And people all season are like, how obnoxious.

You came out here and you said, What does that even mean? Let's say I did say that. What does it mean? But anyway, yeah, there's a lot of nonsense on the Wikipedia page. Oh, I got you. It talked about, though, and again, I don't know if some of these things are true or not. The fact that you got your first break as a writer for the man show, and part of it had something to do with a bit developed from a best man speech.

Is that accurate? No. No, not exactly. Okay. I, I, the actual story of The Man Show is that, or how I wound up doing that was I went over to, my first job in L.A. was, or my first writing job I got five months in was on an old Fox Sports Trivia show. And one of the guys who worked there was Sal Ayacano, or you might know him as cousin, Sal, Sal, South from Jimmy Kimmel Live, but I did, obviously that was, that predates his rise to stardom.

And so I went over to watch football one Sunday at his place. And I went over and I'm sitting in this room and it felt like I was in a basement kind of thing and where, you know, this is where you live. And then Jimmy Kimmel came down up. Wait, Jimmy Kimmel. Oh, you live in Jimmy Kimmel's house in the basement. Oh, you're, and then, so it was, it was me. And Sal and Kimmel, and then Carolla showed up, and Corolla did not say hello to me. That literally would not make eye contact with me and would not speak to me for the entire seven hours of watching football. Because he has since explained that he keeps new people on probation. He doesn't know if they're worth the energy and he keeps them on probation for an indeterminate period.

And once he decides he likes them, then he gets to know them. It cuts out a lot of wasted effort on his part, he'll explain. And you should be flattered if he does decide at some point to start talking to you. What did you do to get him to eventually talk to you? Well, I remember that I went to, so we're watching football and whatever. We were yapping about this and that. And at some point towards the end of the day, Kimmel said, hey, we're staffing for the man show you should submit. and in my submission he liked one bit.

I mean, it was like a 12-page submission, but I wrote one little thing that he liked, and it got me an interview, and I went in there and talked to, I mean, it was probably about as intimidating a situation. I don't get nervous to talk to athletes, but I get nervous to talk to funny people. When I know that people are professionally funny,

that that is intimidating to me, because you want them to think you're funny, but they also can sniff out that you're trying too hard and all that kind of stuff. Obviously, they're judging you at all times. So I walk in this one. Jimmy, it's Adam Carolla. It's the other executive producer of the show. And then another guy who they introduces Bob.

And like, and you know Bob, right? And I'm like, yeah, I know Bob. And I didn't know Bob, but I vaguely recognized him. But I couldn't place him. He was a little guy in a ball cap, and about five minutes in, I realized, oh, that's Bobcat Goldsweight. Why is he sitting in here? Is he like a prop that they brought in here to see how you react to the guy from

Police Academy? And then it turned out, I didn't know he was directing segments for them. So he was in the room as well. And you just sit in the room and the four of them have a conversation. And like 10 minutes in, I'm completely silent. And I realize, oh, they want you to inject yourself into their conversation. to see how you bounce off each other. And it was just a misery because Carolla doesn't really, you know, he wasn't receptive to

anything I was saying in the room there. And then a couple days later, after that interview, and it was one of the five worst moments of my life. It was just a misery, just like sitting there, say something, Dave, you know, fly on the wall, watching yourself with these professionally funny people. I'm trying to jump into their conversation. It was horrible. But then a few days later, as it happened, it was the Super Bowl with the Ravens and the Giants.

We're about to play each other. And Sal said, hey, come over. We're having a party to watch the Super Bowl. And I thought, like, I don't. I said, Sally, you know, I just bombed that interview. It's too embarrassing for me to show up there. And he said, ah, just come. You know, it can't hurt you to be in front of them one more time.

And, you know, who knows what happens? And I said, I really don't. So I showed up against my better. judgment and I'm talking to Sal at the party and Corolla walks by and Sal who if you've ever seen him likes to mix things up and create create heat and he said hey Carolla Damashek here says that the interview went terribly it wasn't that bad was it couldn't have gotten that badly could it and Carola said yeah he's like Stephen Wright without the material and and then I was fully devastated but then I wound up getting the job and uh well and the

How did you get it? I mean, it obviously couldn't have been as bad as you thought. Well, like I said, I mean, legitimately. I think Carolla liked, I mean, Kimmel liked one bit that I wrote and that got me. I snuck through the door on that one. And then, you know, I talk about the foolishness. I talk about the quality and shameful alphabet letters. And these are the sorts of conversations.

Corolla really enjoys people who rank fruit. and, you know, best residual cereal milk and stuff like that. And so in debating that kind of stuff, we fell in love. So interesting interview technique where so I'm trying to put myself in the room and see this as it's happening. You mixed in with these famous guys who are just having a conversation amongst themselves. And then there's a moment where you realize, wait, second, I have to be a part of this without them asking me any questions. And so is that accurate? Is that what was happening? That's, yeah, that's, as I recall that was that was pretty much there and me

just sitting in a pool of my own sweat. Like what, what am, why are they not talking to me? Is what is, why am I sitting in this room right now? And, and, and by the way, not a small, uh, element is Bobcat Goldthwaite sitting there because then now I'm worried that I didn't respond the way I should have when they said when you know Bob right and I'm like yeah I know Bob but I was very I was cavalier about it you know I was like oh yeah I know Bob but but he might have been well and then once I placed him then I really was upset like wait a second I was that insulting to him does he think I'm a bad guy because I didn't go like a course I know him and I didn't swoon when I met him oh big fan I didn't do any of that so is he put off by that and they're talking and I just

remember it at one point just saying like yeah somehow I got into the conversation. I started talking about my name when I was in third grade got me made fun of a lot because it has a bad word in it, damn a shack and the kids, and that's true that they would always make fun of me. Dave Damashik, the damn people who live in the shack. I'm not going to say your last name, Dave Shaq, Dave, Sheck, and that's how I actually became Sheck to a lot of people. But somehow, and I'm telling this story, like you say, to these professionally funny human beings. I'm a fly on the wall just looking at myself. What are you doing?

What are you talking about right now to these guys? This is not going well. It was horrific. It really was horrific. So what did you learn from that moment that has potentially helped you now? Let's say you're in the presence of Amy Schumer and a bunch of other funny people. And I'm picturing you guys in L.A. at this fancy party that I'm sure you go to those types of things.

and you're, you know, you're, maybe you're with, with Corolla or one of those guys, and there's a circle forming, everyone's got a beer or whatever they drink, and they're sitting there, like, how do you handle those? I think a lot of people can actually relate to this, but maybe not in L.A. with famous people, but, you know, and what's your approach? Do you sit back and wait? I mean, you're a pretty outgoing guy. Are you in there, like, with a great joke?

Do you have one at the ready, or what is your approach now to moments like that with famous people or really funny people, more importantly for you, that you're thinking like, I want these people to kind of like me or think I'm at least good. How do you approach that? I think, and then to connect it with, you know, with talking to, you know, multi-millionaire football players who, you know, who are, you know, 23 years old or 27 years old and, you know, have the world at their fingertips and everything else, I think the thing that seems to, to, to, sort of work is is being nice without being you know you know being a kiss ass you know that i i i think those guys you don't want to be either extreme now i'm thinking about this this is uh this is an

interesting thought experiment i i agree so i think it's part of like so how do you flatter somebody without completely looking like that fan who was just like oh i loved you in that movie dude or her. Arod, great game, man. Because I've been in those situations, and I think about this, too, like, where, you know, in Lake Tahoe, we're with Aaron Rogers

for quite some time, and I'm like, do I, like, tell him that I think he's the best quarterback in the world? Nah, probably not. I don't think that's a good move. But I do appreciate, you know,

put on the bell, or, you know, and you're sitting there, like, conflicted until you're just like, you know what? And this is my approach. Let me just act like he's one of AJ's buddies and just go that route, right?

He's just one of his friend, because that's the truth. he just happens to do something that a lot of people, including myself, think is incredible and out of this world, but I can't really approach the conversations in that manner because then I don't know what I'm going to do. Yeah. And yeah, so you don't, you can't be obsequious like that. You can't just, you know, you can't lose your dignity.

And I also feel like certainly with talking to players, they deal with that and not just fans, but if you really look at it, everybody. gushes, you know, and I, that's one thing I always think, and it serves me, I don't necessarily say comedically, but from an entertainment standpoint, I think it plays as kind of quirky and fun. I always say to myself when I am talking to players, if I can create the vibe that they're lucky to be talking to me instead of the other way around. It creates a funny energy because it throws all players for a loop that you mentioned no jive. Yeah.

I like to say that jokingly, don't jive me. And your brother is one of the biggest violators of my cardinal rule. Well, like we're just taking it once. We're going to take it one game at a time. We're going to work really hard. And it's a one game season here, Damashek. We've got to work hard. I don't know, Damashik.

I don't know. Peyton's pretty good. Peyton's one of the best ever. Oh, come on, Hawk. You know that he doesn't play well out in the cold. And you know in January, like, I don't know, Damashek, you want to get me into one of your, you want to get me in trouble, but I'm not going to take the bait here. That's the sort of stuff I part ways with AJ on.

But yeah, I think if you, I think that that's what I try to do, basically, is create that sense that I'm not there to kiss their ass. But also, it gives me too much gravity to suggest that somehow they respect. That makes it sound like they respect me because I'm not kissing their ass. They also sense in me that I'm not there to embarrass it. I'm not trying to catch them on anything. Now, tell in your own words, Greg Hardy, walk me through that night. You know, I'm not doing those kind of interviews.

I'm not doing those. I'm not playing that angle, really. You know, I talk to them about football and I talk to them about. what it's like i mean i what i think a lot of people care about what fans with fans care about is i'm fascinated like a jay told me when after a cold um packers playoff game that you know that he came up with and so a lot of the guys on the team started doing it that they all start putting their helmets into the sauna at halftime to warm themselves up on a cold game and that they serve soup on the sidelines at lambo i think that's fascinating i like the what do you do on game day when you

wake up. I think all that kind of stuff is fun. And do you, are you aware of what's happening in other games around the league? I think that's all fun because that's our experience. And so what's it like for the guys that are that are living it? So anyway, so I, you know, talking to guys about TV shows and, you know, what's their favorite breakfast meet is at least stuff that they aren't asked otherwise. And so they can't just go into that cruise control setting of like, yeah, well, you know, we've, you know, we got to play every game. You know, we've got to give 60 minutes and, you know, like, only score that matters is the final score and, you know, all that. Like, I don't, I don't care about that and nobody else does either, you know, so if you're, there's, there is a sentiment out there, players have nothing to say, or they're not going to say anything insightful, but I think if you give them the opportunity, there, there, there, a lot of, that's my goal is to, you know, really, not just because I'm talking to Ryan Hawk, but I think that guys like AJ Hawker,

you know, I, I, I, uh, I love exposing the personalities of, of good guys in the league like that, you know, to land on who those guys are and be able to, to tell the society out there, hey, AJ Hawk, funny guy, you should check this guy out. He's a, he's a cool guy. I love the opportunity to do that. But then the other side of it is, you know, so I don't want to be obsequious with these guys and, and kiss their butt. I like to create a vibe of like, hey, I'm your equal.

even though clearly I'm a pot-belly Jew. Like, you know, I have no business. What business do I have debating who the better team is with a guy who's actually on that team? But that makes for, I think, for fun times. But then the other side of it is, especially with comedians, those guys get performed at so much. You know, everybody, like, looks at it as their opportunity, I feel like to convince funny people that they're funny.

and the fact of the matter. It's a funny thing. I've said many times. People will tell you terrible things about themselves. People will admit that they're not good looking. People always will say, like, I know I'm not the prettiest guy around, but I make up for it with what I, or like, you know, I'm not the smartest guy there is,

but I'm a nice, you know, all that kind of stuff. But the one thing nobody seems to be self-aware about is whether or not they're funny. And everybody thinks they're funny. Everybody thinks they get the joke. Nobody thinks like, yeah, I have a terrible sense of humor. Nobody will ever say that to you. And it's funny, so they want to impress upon whoever the celebrity is, how funny they can be. And I don't think very many people are interested in being performed at like that.

You know, that's the sort of, I think being nice is the short answer to the question you asked long ago. I think treating people as, like, I think your strategy basically threads the needle there. Yeah, are they, treat them like you would treat most anybody else. It seems to work. Yeah, and I'm thinking of, like, and I've been in these moments probably earlier in my career and thinking to some of the people listening now who might be a little bit earlier in their career, whatever their career may be, and let's say the CEO of their company or the high-ups walk into the room and they're at this big meeting, they're at a hotel, and it's a break,

and they happen to be in the same, you know, like circle as the CEO. and you have this natural ability, I think, and I've seen it so many times, not just for my brother, but with others, to get people to maybe share information that they normally wouldn't share, and also to level that playing field. Like, you can see how athletes and others react to people interviewing them. And it's so quick to see when you're the guy doing the interviewing, it's like you and that person, you do, in fact, do a good job of making them feel like they are in a way lucky to be there, or at minimum, you guys are the same.

Like you and AJ just get about the notebook and you walk with the stuff behind you, and I know you go with other guys. How can somebody, let's say they're 27 years old, they get in the circle with the drink and the CEO and the senior VP walk up? How can they think of Dave Damashik? I'm being serious here, actually, and say, and put them on the same level, because those guys and girls are used to being kissed up to constantly.

I mean, they never know who's telling them the truth because people always just want to, I don't know, make themselves look good. Is there anything that you could potentially help others with when you think about your approach and really deconstruct how you're able to do it for that type of a person? Well, you know, I wish I knew how to play. If I could play human beings as well as it seems like you think I'm good at doing, I wish I – I really think you can, though. Maybe it's just a natural innate thing. I don't know. I think that I think it goes back to really.

I put it back to what you just said there. I think really bosses in whatever industry, and like I say, I've had bosses in sales and I've had bosses in sports media and I've had bosses in, you know, at comedy shows. It does, I guess the thing is that as I think about it, I've never really contemplated it. But all those people, the thing they really don't like is having their butt kissed because you can tell when you're having your butt kissed, you know. Corolla always jokes like, ah, you don't like having your butt kiss. You've never had your butt kissed.

I love it. You know, I like people. But, you know, really, if you're interacting with people and these are, those people know when you're, you know, kissing up to them. They don't want to feel different or they don't want to feel like you're modifying your personality. or your behavior because they're in the room, they want to feel like they're, that they can do that. They don't want to feel objectified in that way. That's my hunch. I remember once when I was in sales, we were out at a fancy big lunch with a with a potential client and the boss of the company was, uh, with my company was there and there were bosses from the other company there and everything.

And I was, you know, I don't know, 24, 25 years old. And I remember we were at this super fancy place on Wacker Drive in Chicago. And the boss mentioned that her fish was really good. So I reached over and I took some off her plate and ate it. I don't know. I thought that was fun. What she meant? She was talking food, you know, and so I reached over.

After the fact, she mentioned that maybe that might not play very well. But I think I thought it was fine. I mean, I don't know. It was charming. Yeah, I don't know. I don't mean going out of your way to berate somebody and give people crap. You don't have to roast the boss when they walk in the room. But on the other hand, yeah, treating people, treating them the same as you treat everybody else.

They see that. They see that you laugh with them. And I guess if that's not your way, my way is, you know, I'm a wise acre. So if I'm not a wise acre to the boss, then they can sniff that out. And they probably would on some level resent you for not treating them the same way you're treating everybody else. Yeah, we're like, you see the people who go up and tell the boss person, I've actually have this happen. And they're like, man, it looks like you really lost weight.

And I'm like, what? It's when it's obvious that the person hasn't lost any weight, if anything may be the opposite. And it's like, why say that? I mean, that's just, that's jive. That's just not true. And the bottom line is it like, how smart do you think you are? You think they can't pick that up?

Yeah, completely agree. It's really interesting topics now, but I, man, I really appreciate you investing your time here. This has been good. All I ask is that hopefully we can continue the dialogue and continue talking and do it again at some point in the future, maybe midseason or at the end of the season. Because this has been just so much fun for me to kind of look at it from a different angle. I didn't really know what to expect when we talk because you got such a, like I said, a vibrant and lively, funny personality. but to get like career advice is interesting and I really appreciate it. Well, first of all, no, we can never do this again.

I'm sorry, but I appreciate the kind words. No, yeah, of course, anytime. You know, I'm like I said, a fan of all things Hawk and now that extends to Ryan Hawk. Yeah, happy to do it whatever you want to, man. Yeah, but the main thing is that like I say, the Holy Grail, I want the old man. Let's bring the old man on and figure out his life. Well, we got to make a trip out to you. And I actually think I'm going out there in October sometime.

I got to bring him with me or something. We got to make that happen. Well, I like that. Who knows? Who knows what your brother will be up to in October, too? I don't know. If somebody gives him a call or maybe your network, who knows? I don't know.

We don't know. Don't tease me. What a dream that would be for Hawks? Well, you got some pull. What's going on? I think he's got a few different things he's thinking about outside of the field. What's going on at the NFL network and the boss? I'm sure if they said, I don't know who the boss is,

but if they said, hey, Dave Damashek wants a word, he's got a guy that you need to hire immediately. How does that conversation? What's that sound like? Oh, yeah. Hawk would definitely be in my top, like, 150 or 200 players to get hired over it. No, of course, that would be some dream. to have that. Are you asking, are they receptive to any of my ideas? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think they

get. Do you have enough poll now to where you can be like, hey, listen, I want to make something happen here. I'm going to be a little recruiter here for the NFL network. I think they'd certainly listen to what I have to say. I think they know, well, based on everything, you and I've just been talking about, yeah, they know my background. I didn't come up as a reporter or as a performer. I came up as a writer so they know that I am, you know, that I have experience at least in putting shows together or putting segments together and everything else. So I think maybe my word has some value there. Yeah, I believe. Do you think 50?

You think I don't want 50 in the fold? I'd love it. Nice. To have a hawk out there. He's got it. The only thing is that maybe you could help out with it to it. I've pushed him for years now. I want his wife to start calling him Hawk.

I think that's way cooler. Just lose the AJ. He should just need to be like sting. You mean like, oh, do you guys talk about this from like Homeland because she called him by his last name? That's right.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. He just should be Hawk. Yeah. That might take some time. I don't know. I'll obviously I'll talk to Laura.

It's hard. I don't know if I could do it because it's this. Well, she has the same name too. And it's been 10 years now. So I don't know. That's kind of weird. Well,

she can be Laura. But the point is that he, like if he's going to be out there, like he's going to be, you know, like, hey, and joining me on the broadcast, you know, Super Bowl champ and All-American from Ohio State Hawk, you know, like I did that. There's some power in having a one word name. Well, especially Hawk. Yeah. I just imagine like on the on the name plate underneath him, you know, like it says like Brent Musburger and then next door it just says hawk. I love that. That would be pretty cool.

Yeah. Let's make that set. We'll try to make it happen. We've got a lot of things to work on. Okay. All right. We can, hopefully by the next time we were closer to that goal. No, this is great.

Hey, where would you send people, maybe for the people if they're still listening who have not heard of you, where would you send them to learn more about you online? Wikipedia. No. Twitters. I generally tweet out all things, whether it's podcast. And I'm going to be doing. a new show for NFL network this year that's fantasy based with Maurice Jones-Drew and I

tweet all that stuff out. So yeah, at Amishak is how you track me down that way. Man, I've actually gotten big into fantasy over the last three to five years, man. I was kind of adamantly against it maybe and then I got more away from playing and for some reason I really enjoy it now. It's fun. Yeah, it is fun and I want to bounce off some play. You know, that's what's kind of interesting too is that guys, in the league actually play fantasy football and guys in different sports play fantasy football and fantasy baseball and all that stuff it's interesting all right man i really appreciate it at damasheck

on twitter people hit you up but uh this has been great man look forward to talking to you again soon sure thing man anytime all right man see you well this episode of the learning leader show is over but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time head over to learningleadershow for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again and we'll see you next time on the Learning Leader Show.