The Press Box - A Report From the Democratic National Convention, Nic Cage as John Madden, and Remembering Phil Donahue

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and David kick off the show with a fun spoiler from the Democratic National Convention (0:30). Bryan is in Chicago right now and he has a few notes, including on the DNC version of radio row (8:00). Then they discuss the following: The return of The Onion (14:28) Press Box party at the DNC recap (15:44) Remembering Phil Donahue (23:18) ESPN makes a couple of cuts (31:01) Nicolas Cage to play John Madden in a biopic (36:00) Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 2014, a group of hackers pulled off the biggest Hollywood heist of all time. They broke into computer servers belonging to Sony Pictures and released hundreds of thousands of top secret documents. The attack would cause an international incident, upend thousands of lives, and change the movie industry forever. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Brian Raftery, and this is the Hollywood hack. Listen on the big picture feed. David? Yeah. I am coming to you from Chicago.

Yeah, so I hear. With the Democrats, political party you might have heard of. I'm sure it's pretty controversial. Died in the Will Republican like you is there amongst them. I just got back from the United Center where the Democratic Convention will be happening. And I would love to tell you about my morning. Please do. So the fun part about covering a point.

political convention is you've got to go through all these security loops, including like a 30-minute window on Sunday morning in which I could pick up my credentials to get into the convention. Because of course, Secret Service and other entities are involved here. But you only had 30 minutes, and if you didn't get it, you're just out of luck. Well, they said 30 minutes, and I didn't want to push it. Right. It's hard to believe you wouldn't be able to get it, but it was a 30-minute window. But once you get all that and once you get through the various security parameters,

You're just kind of wandering around in a really happy way. So I went into the United Center where the Democrats are trying to recapture the magic of the 90s Chicago Bulls, not any other version of the Chicago Bulls. And I was able to walk into the arena, walk down to the floor where the delegates are going to sit because nobody's there, and take a seat in the spot reserved for the California delegate. right in front of the stage. Wow. So I'm sitting there, I'm taking nose, I'm drinking in the scenery, as you might imagine, looking at all the blue, looking at this giant video board, David, that makes the Titan-Tron of the WWE look puny by comparison.

Oh, yeah. Truly amazing. Was it a special one, or was it just the United Center Jumbo Trow? Oh, it's a special one, because they built the whole stage and it goes up all the way behind the stage, right? They're just not on the court. by the way for any wrestling fans out there these were just the normal foldable chairs that you sit in if you're a delegate to the democratic convention this isn't like you know a logoed one that has a picture of Kamala Harris and Tim Walls like get at a wrestling event you don't get to sit on Tim Wells's face and then take it home at the end of the convention that's right or give it to somebody in the parking lot perhaps yeah so I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I hear music come on I'm like what's going on and it's the song you get what you give. It's playing throughout the arena.

And here comes Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman walking out onto the stage. I was going to say in the arena, like he's just on the stage. He's on the stage. But it's not time for the convention yet. And what Doug Emhoff is doing is rehearsing his entrance at the convention. Do we need to put a no spoilers label on the rest of this monologue? Just like Andy and Chris do on the watch, if you are watching the Democratic Convention

tonight, feel free to fast forward to our segments about Phil Donagher, you know, this is like when you have, where you're doing, they were Michael Colepiece and you had that he sat there watching them rehearse the pro wrestling moves, but you were sworn to secrecy. I don't know if you can tell us what Doug Emoff is doing in his walkthrough. Well, let me tell you, spoiler alert, that he will be waving at the crowd with a flat hand like politicians do we don't really ever fold your hand in on itself

he will be smiling a lot and and he rehearsed this particular move a couple of times he will be walking off the stage at stage left he will look back at the crowd and touch his heart and point like all of this

was rehearsed and it was rehearsed multiple times, which was kind of funny to watch, because look, the convention is a television show. You don't want to send somebody out there and be like, where's the prompter again? Yeah, exactly. And what, no, where do I exit so that, you know, somebody has to be seen showing you offstage like they did Joe Biden that time and everybody got concerned? Yeah.

You want to know which American flags you're supposed to exit next to. Mm-hmm. So that was funny. I also saw Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, come out and do a sound check. Where did she, how did she do her farewell? Did she touch her art or was there just a, just a special wave? I don't think she got the full walkthrough. Oh, okay.

I think it's just like, here's the podium, here's the mic. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Pointing out people in the crowd. But it was very funny to just see a little glimpse of what the DNC is going to look like tonight. Do you check out the schedule of the DNC? I saw some tweets about it, but I've not, not on the whole schedule.

So obviously Kamala Harris. nominee will speak on Thursday. Tim Walls, vice presidential nominee, her running mate will speak on Wednesday. Bill Clinton is also speaking on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Chicago's

very own Barack Obama will be speaking. That just leaves tonight. And for tonight, the Democrats are giving us Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Kind of a Monday news dump

at the convention. It's like, okay, we've got some other politicians that may not be the main eventors that Barack Obama and Kamala Harris are. Who's speaking Monday at the Republican National Convention? I'm feeling it wasn't people of that wattage. Democrats have a lot of wattage. This isn't even getting into the Gavin Newsom

beat Buttigieg tier. right there's there are a lot of big name politicians i don't if you saw this the other day but the most amazing and simple simplest most amazing historical fact tweet i've ever seen which is the last democratic president to die is linden baines johnson to die to die full stop yes that's real it seems Yeah, it's true. Yeah, I mean, I guess Jimmy Carter's been hanging on for a while, huh?

Bill Clinton is younger than Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Yeah. He was elected president in 1992. Yeah. It's very, very interesting. I guess, heaven forbid, if Al Gore were to pass away before the rest of them, we'd have to just warm up those jokes,

you know, now, then he would be. We won't think such grim thoughts. Here on the press box, from Chicago. Coming up on the pod, more notes from the DNC, including Radio Row, type A reporters, and our own fantastic press box meet and greet Sunday afternoon. Plus, RIP Phil Donninghew, two firings at ESPN, and who's playing John Madden in a movie? All that, and much more on the press box. A part of the Ringer, podcast network. Hello, media consumers, Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker, and producer Brian Waters here with you.

I went out seeking the DNC version of Radio Row this morning, David. Gosh. I don't know if you know this. What more perfect plays for you? Did you know I have an interest in Radio Row's as a genre? I remember doing this in 2016 when the Republicans were in Cleveland and Radio Row was just the heart of political media sadness. I remember seeing David Gregory there. I'm pretty sure I saw Alan Colms.

just people who you remember having different jobs than the ones they were currently occupying. Yeah. Well, I went down to find Radio Row at the United Center, and I kid you not when I went and asked the helpful person, hey, which way is this? He goes, do you know where the Michael Jordan statue is? I said, I'm familiar with that idea,

but I don't know where that is. So he pointed me in the right direction. The people occupying Radio Row, David, might not have quite the name recognition, excuse me, of MJ himself. Tell me if you have heard of any of these radio programs that had permanent stalls there. Oh, no. The Rick Smith Show, Armstrong and Getty. We're not talking about the old Indiana Pacers Center, right?

That was Rick Smith. Not the Rick Smith show, the Rick Smith show. That would have been funny, though. Armstrong and Getty, the Rich Zeoli show. no and dan the ox ox oxner dang this all sound vaguely familiar i've dabbled in in talk radio uh in my my new home and my relatively new home prince of new jersey we get some new york radio a slight bit more philly radio and sometimes i'll stumble on a talk station just be like oh i'm just gonna just get a little flavor and honestly like i don't remember any of the names nor do i nor do i nor

can I ever quite tell where the political leanings are in the Philly market? It's all just sort of like Philly Sports Radio, but we're talking about housing prices. I don't know. It's very strange. I want to know more about Dan the Ox Ox, Oxner, if you encounter him on a Philly radio, because his sign said, hot talk with the ox, Monday through Friday, 8 to a.m. to 11 a.m. So we may need to have the ox on the press box. I would love to. just to hear his searing hot takes about our political scene.

A lot of efficiency at the Democratic Convention. Not always what Democrats are known for. Well, are they? There was clearly some bragging efficiency because when I went in that 30-minute window to pick up my credentials, first of all, everybody, and this presumably includes the assistant to the assistant to the assistant of the state party chair.

Everybody was wearing a suit. an incredibly crisp suit. So you felt you were just entering this multinational corporation where everything was running just so. And when I hit my 30 minute window, I was placed at a table one-on-one with a Democratic representative who was giving me my credentials.

And then it was mentioned to me that unlike the Republican convention where you apparently needed different credentials for every day, I was just given one credential that would last the entire. week. Oh, well, that's helpful. Steve, this is

the Democrat saying, look at this. We're going to run the country with more efficiency than those Republicans because they were passing out press passes every day

in Milwaukee for their convention. Well, you know, it's going to be some press that are just there to see Hulk Hogan. You don't want, you know, to confuse the process

by doubling up on the press passes. They just needed the day pass. Yeah. So they could see the hulkster endorsed Trump. Mm-hmm. Question I had for several of the reporters around here. I've been to Super Bowls.

I've been now to a couple of conventions. Which of those do you think there are more questing type A reporters at? Wait, Super Bowl or R&C? I mean, or DNC? Yeah. Political convention or Super Bowl. Where are we getting that particular type of ambitious journalist? I mean, I think the Super Bowl is where you would rather be,

but also I think the DNC feels a little bit more attainable. So maybe that? I was playing with the idea that some of the people we see at the Super Bowl are there because they really love football. Yeah. In fact, I think a fairly large slice of the sports commentariat at that particular event. Yeah.

I think there are some political reporters that really love politics. Sure. But I think there's probably a larger slice that were the editor of the school paper type. I'm going to go be a big success type and this is the biggest game in town. This is the job I want, right?

This is the kind of biggest job at the newspaper. Yeah. So I think I'd give the edge to the political convention. Yeah, that makes sense. I haven't run it. And also if you're looking to get out of the journalism racket and get into PR, I don't know if that fits

the description of the people you're talking about, but there's probably more schmoozing, career schmoozing going on at the D&C than at the Super Bowl. Well, this is one thing they both have in common. There's the career schmoozing, but also the kind of, hey, I'm here. I'm at the Democratic Convention. I'm at the Super Bowl.

Yes. a career achievement has been unlocked. I am one of those people that my publication sent me to this enormously important event to supply enormously important journalism. Not just screw around. Side subject here from the DNC,

David, the Onion is back. Oh, yeah. And not only is it back, it's back in print. Thank God. Our fellow Mavericks fan and former Press box guest, Ben Collins, is now the CEO of the Onion. I went to the Onion's launch party yesterday where I picked up my print copy of the Onion. It features Tim Walls on the front in a futuristic looking suit. And it says,

Tim Walls unveils new retro futurist persona after feeling boxed in by Folksey image. I am Artemis announces governor. I ran into Ben at the party, and he was, you know, looking great. He was in the suit. He looked like a CEO. And I went up to him and our friend, mutual friend Eric from Fort Worth was with me. So I introduced him to Eric.

And I said, you know, Ben is a Mavericks fan. And immediately Ben just cuts from the onion right into what are the Mavericks going to do at the backup for? That's our guy. Incredible pivot. Like you're here celebrating. This rebooted funny newspaper. And we are cutting right to what are the Mavericks? going to do and how are they going to hold off the thunder next year? That is media professionalism

right there. We also had a little party yesterday, David. A little press box meet and greet party. So I heard I saw pictures. It looked incredible. It was incredible. It was fun. I brought the aforementioned Eric with me because I said, Eric, I'm going to be honest. I don't know how this is going to go. Yeah, dude. I mean, I always resist them throwing parties. for, you know, stuff that I've been involved with in the past because I've just like, I don't want to be there if nobody shows up. But then it usually goes okay. And there's a whole Reddit thread about how there were four people at the ringer podcast

party. What a sad little podcast you are. So we're sitting there and people started arriving 15 minutes to a half hour before it began. Oh, wow. So that was a good sign. And then people keep coming in and coming in. And I did not set this up.

So we're sitting in this room in the bar that crushed by Giants Brewery in downtown Chicago. And, you know, people start sitting at tables around us and we're talking. And then eventually more and more people come in. So I stand up because I want to, you know, say hi to people as they come in, introduce myself and give them one of these limited edition David Shoemaker press box buttons. Oh, nice. Brilliantly designed by David Shoemaker, which by the way, everybody loved. I think some people came just for the button.

it's kind of like the toy in the box of cereal. You might not even want that cereal, but you want that toy. Yeah. If it's at the bottom. And they were all impressed not only by the design of the button, which looks absolutely fantastic, but by the hidden message on the side of the button. If you look closely, David, in your Zoom,

you can see that the button says, I think that's right on the side. I was not aware of that edition. A little Easter egg for all of our press box loyalists. So anyway, I'm standing up to greet people coming in and you know, hi, how are you? Thank you so much for listening. Where do you live?

Are you from Chicago, et cetera, et cetera? And then I look up and it turns out that I am at the head of a giant receiving line that is coming into the bar. That's not something I had ever intended to happen or ever imagined would happen. Yeah. At a press box event. But there's this receiving line and it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to get through the line. so that I can say hi to you and give you your press box button.

Oh my God. And we had a couple of journalists come in and I could see it in their faces. They're like, what is happening here? Do I have to get in the line? So I can have a moment with Brian Curtis, the host of the Press Box podcast. We said, no, no, please cut to the front of the line. These are people that get senators on the phone. They're not going to wait to talk to a media podcaster.

Dude, this is like when we were in our 20s. living together in New York and we'd throw a party. And there was like, we had, you know, good parties and so-so parties or whatever. But like the definition of it, I remember, like, what, like the craziest party we ever threw. I remember we were like doing the readout at the end of the night. And I was just like, dude, we were hanging out. It was just you and me.

And then somebody showed up. And I started going to say hi to somebody. And I made the rounds like one and a half times and it was over. Like all of a sudden, like four and a half hours it passed. Yeah. I couldn't get. Like, wow, we have friends. Yeah.

This is unbelievable. We do, David, within the press box listener universe, have something of a type. No, no. I don't know that this is different than the type of every ringer podcast. Go on. But I was looking around the room. You know, I was seeing a male between the ages of, let us say,

25 and 40, dressed about the same way. One of a lovely listener, Marla Clark, was there. And she was like, am I really going to be the only woman who came to the press box? And she was not. But she was there early. She was the only woman who was there on purpose.

She was there early and she stayed the whole time and she asked me to mention her name on the show. So thank you, Marla, for coming there to the party. We also had a lot of journalists show up, David. A lot of non-journalist humans, but we had a lot of journalist humans as well at the party. We had a little political, reporter corner with Kara Vote from Washington Post.

She's been on the show before. Adam Wren and Michael Cruz from Politico. You remember Cruz having bylines in Grantland with us in the early years? Ben Pershing from the Wall Street Journal. Kirk A. Beto from National Journal was there. We had a little sports media corner going on. John Greenberg from the Athletic. Chuck Garfine from NBC Sport Chicago.

Jeff Agrest and Kyle Williams from the Chicago Sun Times. Yeah. That was awesome to see all of them. and then we had a ringer corner. Oh. Kind of a surprise ringer corner because we had Katie Baker, who was in town working on a story. We had Bobby Wagner who was in town watching baseball.

We had Chris Almeida, whose face we used to get to see in the Zoom window. Hell yeah. He was there. Charlotte Godoo was there. We had an amazing little just ringer conclave that was right there inside the, and they were,

and they were sort of entertaining the guests. And our friend Eric, by the way, did a fantastic job. He was, he was entertaining the guests when they were in line, right? All these people are in line going, I can't believe I'm actually waiting here. And I would, of course, apologize to them when they got to the front. I was like, that's the worst line you're going to be standing in in Chicago all week. But Eric was entertaining them with stories of Pascal High School. And I told Eric, I said, you know, if you want to, you can just pretend to be David.

Because there are certain people that have never seen us. They've just heard the voice. and you can probably pull it off for at least for five or ten minutes. Oh, yeah. Until they start asking you details about the podcast. What about that straight putt headline? I don't know what you're talking about.

Would sort of be a giveaway. All right, David, coming up in 30 seconds, Elegie for a daytime talk show host. But first, let's do the overworked Twitter joke of the week where we celebrated gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. senior nominees to at the press box pod

where they are always, always gratefully received. Kind of a funny winner this week. It involves a computer scientist named Larry Tesler. The tweet goes like this, David. Larry Tesler, inventor of

the cut, copy, and paste commands dies at 74. It was an overworked Twitter joke to write. Larry Tesla, inventor of the cut, copy, and paste commands dies at 74. and then to repeat that in a thread ad nauseum. That was all over Twitter last week.

Oh, that's brilliant. Here's a strange thing. I looked it up because that just felt a little weird. Larry Tesler died in 2020. There's been a lot of posthumous cut, copy, and pasting on Larry Tesler's behalf. Oh, my God. And people last week were like, this is brilliant. What a great line.

You had a funny person on Twitter. I love it. It's been going on for a while. If you cannot stop remembering Larry Tesler, inventor of the cut, copy and paste commands, congrats. You made the overworked Twitter joke of the week. All right, David, a major death in the world of television today

before we came on the air, Phil Donahue. Talk show host Extraordinaire is dead at 88. Wow. You and I grew up in an era in the 80s. 80s and 90s when everybody knew who Phil Donahue was. Oh, absolutely. One of those people of television that attained 100% name recognition. Oh, for sure.

And 100% visual recognition. Yeah. Because you remember that white hair, those big glasses, the way he was always somehow not on stage where most talk show hosts did their work, but in the audience walking up. and down the stairs. Yeah. I mean,

and prior to the sort of like, you know, just permeation of daytime talk, he sort of reached like Xerox status or Kleenex status where it was just like you would just, Donahue was just a shorthand for a talk show in that era.

It's just like you be in a conversation. You'd be like, dude, just like take it to Donahue, I don't you. Or like, you know, like, you know, like. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he, it was, it was really that big.

It came out of Needs. York in its final iteration. I've been in Chicago before that. But I remember as a kid just thinking, and maybe it was because they showed the skyline and the opening credits that like Donahue was the height of cultural sophistication. Yeah. It was on television and syndication from 1970 to 1996. Wow. Donahue did 7,000 syndicated talk show episodes. He did a lot of the trash talk format that would come to dominate the 80s and 90s. He once told... What year did it in?

96? 96. Yeah, so he probably ended during the real trashy parts, right? He definitely got out-trashed. Yeah. He had a line calling all those other people that came of age in the 80s and 90s by illegitimate children. New York Times Obud said that today.

And he was not ashamed of it. He said, this is a medium that rewards popularity. I don't want to be a dead hero. So he was not worried about going there. He told the Times that in 1984. But he also would do kind of brainy programs. Yeah. His first guest was Madeline Murray O'Hare, the famous atheist.

New York Times says he was the first Western journalist to go to Chernobyl in Ukraine after the 1986 nuclear accident there. Wow. I'd given you a hundred guesses. Would you have come up with Phil Donahue is the answer to that question? I don't think so. Famous episode where he wore a dress, which was also something that was very much in the cultural shorthand

of the 80s and 90s. Then he has his second act, which I know you remember, where he went to a still young MSNBC in 2002. Yeah, I remember that well, yeah. Didn't Charles Groden have a CNBC show around that period? Yeah. Yeah, that feels right.

Cable news that wasn't CNN was really trying to work itself out in real time. Mm-hmm. Like, what do we do over the course of the evening? And there was like, we're already kind of getting into the idea that we should have opinion or at least something that wasn't just a newscast. Yeah. But they were really feeling their way with these veterans of film and television. Mm-hmm.

So Donahue goes to MSNBC in 2002. his shows canceled less than a year later. Yeah. Because he was, he insisted, a liberal in the time of the war on terror. Mm-hmm. Which at that very precarious moment in American history, his bosses did not feel was a great fit. To quote the euphemism.

And not only was he a liberal, he was anti-war. Yeah. Which, as we know in American media, as even a harder tight rope to walk, at least in mainstream institutions. Sure. Maybe not the case now, but it certainly was in that period of time.

So it's really funny. He became this kind of, so it goes from this guy who hosts a talk show, who does what we would call upscale episodes of that talk show, interesting episodes of that talk show. Yeah. To somebody who then becomes kind of a sacrificial lamb of cable news. during the Bush administration.

Yeah. What a fascinating arc that is. Yeah. I mean, and just, I mean, listen, the number of people who have ever had 100% name recognition, especially from the seat of a journalist, you know, broadly defined.

It's like, how many are there in American history? And I mean, there's people that, like, people of our generation or younger certainly don't know like not everybody's like kind of you know not not every gin's ear can like pick dick cavit out of a line up or something but he with like a hundred percent name you know name recognition and face recognition during his prime sure um but there's just really not that many i mean just just just even that had that had that had that recognition during their peak i mean and that's it's it's it's it's really it's really an incredible thing no you're totally right and your your point about him being like clean ex talk show

Kleenex. Absolutely the case. But Oprah then became the Kleenex. Yeah, it's true. She became the big talk show, also from Chicago out of Chicago. RIP Phil Donahue, 80 dead at 88 years old. A lot of people don't know this, but he was the first daytime talk show host that died since LBJ. An amazing fact you read on Twitter. When I did that, didn't that sound like I was just the kind of thing? you do to impress your parents Yeah Who aren't online

By the way I told a total lot I know we've talked about this Before on the show But I was hanging out with some Of my wife's extended family And I recited a fact Recounted a fact

That the time I was like I know this sounds too good to be true But it's true And it turned out We fact checked it It was not true You've ever found It was just one of those things

I was very convinced with a very i got a couple of things a couple of facts like smushed together that were not together and i ended a couple of things more wrong about it but i was very convinced that peter binchley author of jaws wrote a novel about tropical thunderstorms that caused the world to start naming tropical thunderstorms whoa what a niche fact that was yeah because it was her Hurricane Debbie was going around and that came up and I was just like, we can all thank Jaws for this. And then they all looked at you and went and said, go on. You can do your own Googling to see the degree to which I was incorrect, but it was just an unbelievable moment of media thing.

I know this sounds too good. I know this sounds like one of those facts that someone just says and it's not true, but. And then it turned out to be one of those facts. And it's, and it was, yes. Case in point. Got some sports media news for you, David. Okay. This is reported by Andrew Marchand and the athletic last Thursday. ESPN due to cost cutting, and ESPN has kind of had a lot of due to cost cutting over the last several years, is saying goodbye to a couple of prominent TV personalities.

One is Baylor's very own Robert Griffin III. RG3, as he's known to the world. Man, if you and I had been making bets three years ago when RG3 joined ESPN, wouldn't we have been betting that he would be calling a national championship game or part of the cast of college game day in three years rather than being let go by ESPN? I mean, one would think especially, I mean, I don't know the day he was signed,

but especially after a couple of just months of track record when he realized how talented he is. Yeah, calling games because he called a ton of football games and then just, you know, being plugged into a studio show. He was on their Monday night studio show. Up until last year, it was replaced by Jason Kelsey, which I guess was the sign at the beginning of the end.

Other person leaving ESPN is Sam Ponder, who was the host of NFL Countdown. According to Marshand's story, she made a little over a million dollars a year or something over a million dollars a year to just host that show. Kind of a job that doesn't really exist at ESPN anymore, given that it's a smaller,

group of people that do lots of things across the broadcast day. Marshan says NFL live host Laura Rutledge and get up host Mike Greenberg are potential replacements for Ponder. Greenberg is considered the favorite according to sources. Or I guess if he wants to do it, you can do it. I don't know. First of all, the salary thing seems like a little bit of a, a little bit of a, you know, factoid that was just meant to stir up trouble, you know, like somebody who was over

ESPN was like, well, let me, between you and me, she was making a lot of money. I mean, I think, I find it pretty hard to imagine. You could pick a guy off the street or a woman off the street and put them in that chair. And if they had capable representation, that person would get them a million dollars a year to host like ESPN's biggest property, right? But yeah, I mean, I, you know, I never had a problem with Sam Ponder, although, you know, it is not supposed to be. It is not surprising that they would think about rolling Mike Greenberg rolling his desk chair over a couple of desks to do that job too. I mean, that just feels like that feels like modern ESPN. Do we need to codify Greenberg's law that if there is a studio show at ESPN, Mike Greenberg

will eventually be tapped to host it? Yeah. Because we've had NBA countdown. We've had the NFL draft. We've had get up. Am I forgetting? something that Mike Greenberg hosted now we could have NFL countdown added to the list. The draft is almost defensible to me as much as it kind of like stirred people's emotions at the time because this isn't a recurring show. You don't have time to build audience familiarity, you know, with the cast. It would be, it would seem just a little bit unnecessary for him to host the NFL program. But, you know, again, not too shocking. It's a good. It's a good time, and this doesn't have anything to do with Sam Ponder or the worst she did, but it feels like a really good time to just completely reboot NFL countdown.

You and I did a whole segment where we watched that show a couple of years ago. Yeah. Which I have never, ever forgotten because I watched the entirety of NFL countdown for one of the first times in a long time. All those shows are not good. Yeah. But NFL countdown was not good and didn't at least even have the like nostalgic, hey, it's Terry and Howie and Jimmy. Yeah. That like Fox did.

When you say all those shows, you mean all those football shows or just like every Pre-game Network football shows. Yeah. They're all bad. I mean, I agree. They're not for us. You're talking about like every sport. Okay.

Every pregame show in America. I'm just getting there. But well, pretty close though, right? I mean, those shows just aren't for us. And the NFL ones especially aren't for us because it feels like you could just listen to any NFL podcast. And not only would you, would it be deeper when that's not surprising, given that TV is going for a huge audience, but it just would be better. Yeah. In terms of quality. Mm-hmm. Than that. And just like one of those things were like, let's, let's just figure out

what we want to do here. Yep. And instead of having like, okay, here's a couple of people that are giving opinions. Let's just pick people we really want to be on the show. Yeah. Good chance for that. All right, final story for you, David. This got a big run last week, and I just could not wait to talk to you about it. There is going to be a movie directed by David O. Russell about John Madden. And we got this wonderful variety headline, Nicholas Cage, to play NFL icon John Madden in David O. Russell's biopic. Which... Thank you for pronouncing that the right way, by the way.

Biopic, rather than biopic. Yeah. Doesn't rhyme with myopic? I think I said biopic for 10 years of my life. Maybe I've been hanging around the ringer movie people. What do you think about Nick Cage playing John Madden? I think it's an inspired choice. Okay.

By the way, I heard about this news because I saw Frank Calyendo trending on Twitter and was trying to figure out why. You imagine they've given it to the parodist of John Men? This happens every single time there is a biopic being cast. Every single time they announce the like presumably established trained actor who has been named for the role. And somebody pulls up like somebody who did like a TikTok impression one time and they're just like this is such injustice. Someone has been doing this. This has been the life's work of. Fred Philby over on

John Madden Impressions.com or whatever. Like, why would he not get the role? It's not an injustice. There's a difference in a parody and it being an actor. But yeah, I mean, I think it could really work. I mean, I love Nick Cage. He is a fine actor,

but also just like, he seems to be self-aware, or at least is really good enough at playing self-aware. and kind of has a John Maddeny something about him. I don't know what it is. I would like you to explain that, that I'm not,

we can't go farther until you tell me what about Nick Cage reminds you of John Madden. First of all, Nick Cage has played a lot of different iterations of himself, right? I mean, all the way back to adaptation and, and, you know, I mean, he's physically can change. His hair changes. I don't know.

There's just something sort of like, like sharply jovial about him, you know, like he can like, he's, he's sort of, I don't know, he's just sort of like cute. He's like cuddly and pointy at the same time. That's good. I don't know. And I can't,

cuddly and pointy. I don't, I don't know what it is. I just, and, I mean, I think more than anything, it's like, I'm interested to see this. Now, will I be more interested to see, like to see beyond what the trailer tells us or whatever? I'm not exactly sure.

but I don't know it just it feels like the right match to me I don't know I take it you disagree well

John Madden is just I don't know if it's that I don't like the Nick Cage casting so much it's just John Madden

is just very hard person to think about somebody else playing it's hard to imagine it not being a parody to some extent and don't all these

biopics see I pronounce that right kind of feel like a parody Yeah. Because weren't we worried about the Bob Dylan biopic and the S&L biopic before we were worried about the John Madden biopic? Yeah, people always are. And it always feels like a little bit like that TV show that recreated the OJ trial with David Schwimmer. Where it's like, okay, here are some familiar people from the recent pop culture past and here's some familiar actors that are playing them. Yeah.

but they may not be the actors. It may not be the right actor, but everyone is familiar enough that somehow that balances out. Yeah. I mean, it is a little bit suspicious that Frank Caliando got none of these roles, I guess. Speaking of which,

variety tells us, David O. Russell, was reportedly considering Will Ferrell. That would have been an interesting choice. Will Ferrell and Hugh Jackman to star in the film before Cage was cast. Hugh Jackman feels like such a generic biopic choice to me. Like Gary Hart and John Madden.

Okay. Yeah. Hugh Jackman's like chief attribute, I mean, not to, no commentary on his acting, but his chief attribute seems to be that he's game. You know,

like he'd be willing to give it a shot. And yeah, I mean, Will Farrell seems like, like, sort of weirdly unsurprising. But I think, That feels fun, but that feels like a parody.

Yeah. I mean, that feels like an S&L sketch where he's sitting next to somebody dressed up as Pat Summerall going, boom! What? Here we go. Yeah. Well, he did Harry Carey for all those years, too. So it's maybe a little bit too close to actual parody.

That may be what I'm thinking of. By the way, the other thing I was interested in this Madden biopic, now I'm thinking about this every time I say it, the thing I was interested in is what part of Madden's life is this? So the variety story and the statement from David O. Russell made it sound like it's about him coaching the Raiders in the 70s. There's, of course, also the broadcaster, greatest sports broadcaster ever part of John Madden's life. And then I heard somebody suggest this, that there would be an interesting movie to be made about the creation of the Madden video game that was kind of like the Nike movie that Matt David had. I was just thinking, this is exactly what was in my head, is your time.

talking about it. I'm like, wait, are they not going to have the scene where some 25-year-old explains to John Madden that he just has to say, boom into a microphone for half an hour and he will live forever? Like that, like, that's, that feels integral to whatever is going on here. Do you think they would use Bill's old joke that real pet Summerall was replaced on television by video game pet Summerall at some point late in his career? Absolutely. All right. It's time for a feature that's not replaceable. Irreplaceable. It's time for David Shueman. Your guest is the strained pun headline.

Yeah. Thursday's headline about Dungeons and Dragons, and the people like David who played it, was of dice and men. Dice and men. Today's headline, David, comes to us from Tim Adler. It's from the Columbus Dispatch, a story about Abercrombie and Fitch,

a mall destination of our childhood, much like Phil Donahy, was a TV destination. Turns out things are looking up for Abercrombie and Fitch. The subhead to this piece reads how Abercrombie bred a renaissance by appealing to millennials. So there we go. Abercrombie newly ascendant, what was the Columbus Dispatches strained pun headline. First of all, I think I didn't read this, but I think I saw this article, which makes it frustrating.

that I don't immediately know so I could cheat. Abercrombie? What is the pun besides Abercrombie and Fitch? Okay, so maybe we'll think of Fitch. Fitching its wagon. What if you think of Elton John?

Fitch it? Elton John. Just to find an hour's five. Raising cane, I'll spit in your eye. Times are changing. No, the...

Dude, I haven't... Elton John. The Fitch is... The Fitch is in? The Fitch is... The Fitch is back. Oh. I wouldn't even get that pun.

The Fitch is back. It's a pun? Yeah, that's good. It's a strain pun. He is David Shrewmaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Brankton Magic. By Brian Waters.

We got tons of stuff coming up from Chicago this week, David. We're going to have a special bonus pot on Wednesday with some reporters who are working hard at this convention, including CBS News's Robert Costa. He will be coming on the podcast. We'll have some other people who are covering the convention. And then late night, Thursday, semaphors Benji Sarlin and I are going to convene in the media tent to talk about Kamala Harris' speech and go over all the highs and lows of the Democratic convention. That would be so much fun. So we got reporters Wednesday.

We got Benji late night, Thursday night. So much fun from Chicago. And then on Monday, David and I return with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.